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With a quick flick of his wand, Igor Karkaroff conjured a spell, and figures appeared in the hallways, some walking among the tables, others stood tall next to the selected champions. They looked like ghosts - see-through and harmless. Some were very large, other men were skinny and short, some had black hair, other a fading color on their heads, ash-blonde, long or short, it didn’t matter. They all shared one thing in common – blood-red eyes that shined like gemstones on their faces. |
A sign of dark magic, Astoria thought as she remembered Voldemort’s description. She met Harry’s gaze. He looked horrified. Then she realized other students were also staring at her. She couldn’t understand why, neither did she see the point of this demonstration as she had little in common with all these men. |
A figure walked towards her. Dumbledore’s eyes following the man with every step as he got close to her. A wizard in his 50’s, he had short white hair, a large scar on his face and he looked terrifying. The red eyes starring at her as he stopped. He looked unnatural, in a way more predator than human. |
"It’s a pity that the great line of wizards has expired", Igor Karkaroff’s voice echoed in the hall, "To this". |
"That’s enough, Igor", Dumbledore’s voice echoed in the hall. |
It was a rare thing to hear him raise his voice like this. Astoria looked at him with horror with any clue why this man was standing next to her and staring her down as if he would tear her apart with his teeth any second now. |
"Maybe you don’t recognize him, as you are all too young to remember Nicola Elroy, the last accomplished wizard of his name. He was killed with much effort before your time", he announced as then suddenly his tone dropped low and dangerous, "But maybe you will see what I see". |
And the figure transformed into a young boy. A student. A Slytherin. His sharp face filled with youth. His ashy-blonde hair falling messy on his head. The red eyes were gone and, in their place, a dark brown looked back at Astoria. It was as if she looked in a mirror. The boy was identical to her, as if she had a twin. Only she didn’t. She was an only child. Abandoned and unwanted. |
But there he was. Nicola Elroy, they called him. A boy with her face. The resemblance was undeniable. She heard people gasp. The realization hit her like lighting in her mind and she almost lost balance. Her eyes stuck to his blank stare. |
"Oh my god", she heard gasps behind her. |
And suddenly a loud roar shook the room. Mad-Eye Moody lifted his wand and attacked Igor. He shouted back on the ground "It wasn’t me!" and they all saw the flames of the Goblet of Fire glow red. |
Astoria’s body was shaking. She quickly rose to her feet and almost leapt forward in a run to tell them to stop, to let them know this was a mistake, an error. And nothing. Her limbs stood frozen as all she managed to do was stay still and look with horror. |
The flame spat out a list of paper. Dumbledore grabbed it and tried to compose himself as he read it. |
"Not me", she whimpered in fear but then her heart sank in her stomach as she heard another’s name. |
"Harry Potter". |
The room went silent. All eyes turned to Harry. He looked white as a ghost. Ron pushed him to get up and walk towards the rest of the champions. He met Astoria between the tables. They were the only one standing on their feet. Their eyes met, it was her who turned away and walked faster with every step to leave the room. |
Harry continued as he stood beside the champions for the Triwizarding Cup. They all looked at him confused. He looked noticeably younger than them. It was impossible for a wizard this age to outsmart ancient magic in the goblet, and yet – |
Astoria couldn’t even see where she was going. She was crying, a scream stuck in her throat. She stopped and pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes to stop the tears, then she harshly rubbed the skin on her face to remove them completely. |
Suddenly a hand grabbed her and pushed her to a body. They apparated. She was in a hallway next to Dumbledore’s office and Snape held her with a tight grip. |
Screams came out behind the closed door. It was hard to move with Snape’s tight grip who looked at her with so much rage maybe it would even get her into detention. The door finally opened when the voices calmed down to silence. |
Dumbledore glared at her as his hand rested on Harry’s shoulders when they came in. "I will talk to her in a second. Come in, Severus". |
Snape pushed her in the room. Minerva McGonagall was also there and she looked worried. There were others, teachers and people Astoria could not recognize. |
"Did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire, Harry?", Dumbledore asked calmly. |
"No", Harry said, looking confused as everyone else. |
"I believe you", Dumbledore replied. Screams erupted again as it appears only he found truth in the boy’s statement. |
"It is done", Minerva interrupted, "The Goblet chose him. We have to proceed." |
Harry looked at them with confusion, his face still white. |
"He is a champion of the Triwizarding Tournament, there are rules and we have to oblige", Alastor Moody added and dead silence filled the room. |
"What about the beast you keep, Albus?", Igor Karkaroff barked as he finally noticed Astoria hanging in Snape’s hands, "How could we proceed with this Tournament if our lives and the lives of our students are in danger?" |
"She is just a girl", Moody snapped at him. |
"And he was just a boy! Five more years and we will have another Dark Wizard to fear!" Igor shouted back. |
There was no air left in her lungs as she heard him. A dark wizard? Who? |
"You have nothing to fear", a strange smile appeared on Dumbledore’s face who remained calm but raised his hand as if to stop the inevitable explosive reaction on Igor Karkaroff’s side that followed like a ticking clock. |
"You do not get to speak to me of fear! Our history remembers very well what monsters those people – if you cane even call them people – have done –" |
"The line cannot be continued by a female hair. Rarely girls even showed sings of magic, as all ancient bloodlines the family was weakened due to genetic problems. She is not to be feared" Dumbledore interrupted him with anticipation and quickly stared at Astoria. |
This was all new to her. She had never heard him mention an importance in her gender, relating her to magic. They never discussed this. And the name they called her – she didn’t even memorize it. |
"She’s identical to him!", Igor shouted, pointing at her with his finger. "You kept her, Albus. You, of all people, who knew him and what he did. I want her gone". |
"She is a student in Hogwarts, we cannot send her away", Dumbledor replied, his tone calm and soft as ever. |
"I agree with Karkaroff. You have put everyone at risk with even allowing this girl to be a student", a unknown to Astoria man jumped in the heated discussion. He was dressed in elegant robes, and he seemed important, which surely wasn’t good. |
"It’s already done", Dumbledore replied calmly. |
"Then I want her caged! I want her on a leash. I want her monitored and controlled!", Igor shouted as his finger pointed at her in a cursing manner. |
"Agreed", Albus quickly responded, and the room suddenly went silent, "She is already controlled". |
Controlled, Astoria repeated the word in her mind, is this what all of my life has been so far? |
What had she done to be controlled? Were they going to torture her? What had she done? Nothing. She was weak. Even if she had some distant relation to those people, to him, did it matter? She was no one. She had always been no one. |
Next Wednesday came. Astoria hesitated to visit Harry. It was a tough week for both of them. It felt like a parallel universe, as if they switched who they were. |
Harry was an outcast. Many though he cheated his way somehow to put his name in the goblet. They blamed him for trying to steal the spotlight, yet again, from another student. Slytherins spread some kind of badges and other stuff to bully Harry. They sold like freshly baked bread. No one supported him and all the other houses were against him. |
And Astoria was looked with curiosity by everyone. Seeing those wizards, the fear they commanded, it made an impression. Her peers distanced themselves from her. No one wanted to sit next to her, curious looks surrounded her and at one point it occurred to her that they feared her. Maybe admired her from afar. It was a complicated feeling, mostly they were all confused about her as some noticed her for the first time. No matter what, she was always looked at. |
It even got Draco’s attention. They’d separate them into small groups when working on complicated potions. He specifically came to her. This was in a way to assert his dominance. In Slytherin everything was about connections and blood. Suddenly there was a rumor she came from a far more powerful family than him. A cruel joke to her but Astoria still hoped it stung him, at least a bit. |
At the beginning there was only a discussion about school projects, gathering ingredients and arguing how to mix them. The worst part was that Pansy Parkinson was with them. |
"I hope now you realize you are a Slytherin", Draco Malfoy suddenly said to her. |
"I know what I am", Astoria lied. |
"Good, because a name doesn’t make you special", Pansy hissed as she looked her from her head to toes, "Surly, the disappointment of the family". |
But there was no family. They were all dead, from what she knew. And she was alone, now with a different name. That was all. |
"It is a powerful name", Draco admitted, "And it explains why Dumbledore himself kept you close for so long". |
It actually made zero sense to Astoria. |
"You think I’m some kind of secret ace, but I’m going to disappoint you. He takes no interest in me. The way I see it, he took me in out of compassion, not for some great plot". |
"And it’s a coincidence you and Potter are friends?" |
"That is no coincidence. He is just kind to me." |
Pansy rolled her eyes. |
"Maybe you should marry him. Since the two of you are so in love" |
"I said we’re friends, not in love", Astoria corrected her. |
Draco grabbed her hand to pull her close. His mouth opened next to her ear and his breath tingled her skin. He wanted to tell her something, but Astoria felt repulsed by the closeness they shared suddenly in this moment, and she flinched instantly. His grip tightened quickly. It all happened so fast and she couldn’t hide it from him as a whimper from the pain left her lips. |
He instantly pulled back and looked somehow confused. |
"I didn’t mean to hurt you. Are you okay?" |
The way he said it surprised both girls. Astoria couldn’t believe it but there was softness in his voice. It was almost like he was being nice. Pansy looked unhappy as she put her hand on his shoulder and ran her fingers on his neck. Draco didn’t flinch but he didn’t react in any way either. |
"Thank you, I’m fine", Astoria said politely. She was so used to hating him it felt out of place to be nice back. |
"You don’t like it, do you?", he kept talking to her with curiosity in his voice. |
"What do you mean?" |
"You don’t like being pureblood, being an Elroy" |
It was a true observation. That name meant nothing to her. And it put her in danger, if so many people thought there was some significance to it. |
"I think people are exaggerating." |
"They’re not", he cut her off and then smirked, "I should teach you some things. What being an aristocrat truly means". |
Astoria blinked back as no words came to her. He’d never spoken to her like that. It was almost as if he didn’t hate her. That was in a way worse, she realized. Pansy was already throwing knifes at her with her eyes. |
"She wouldn’t know what that means even if you carve it in her brain", she snorted and rolled her eyes. |
It was mockery, but Astoria had no smart-comments to throw back at her. Her face was blushing and she didn’t even know why. It felt more embarrassing than any humiliation Draco Malfoy had done to her, so she just ignored Pansy and her jokes and tried to hide away in a textbook. |
The conversation stuck to her. Astoria thought about Draco’s words throughout the day. What did it mean to be a Slytherin? She knew from Harry it was a mark to set you off for a dark path. Yet power wasn’t always dark, right? |
Power corrupts, she noted to herself with shame. And it didn’t matter because she had no power. Not really. |
One sleepless night she sneaked out of bed. The empty corridors of the schools betrayed her with an echo attached to every step she took. The library was locked but that made zero sense in a school about magic. Astoria imagined an honorable Gryffindor would turn away, or maybe a naïve Hufflepuff. But she was neither. |
Revelio, she whispered with a quick movement with a wand. |
That night she tried to search for her name. |
Elroy. From king. An ancient family name, mostly associated with two distinguished traits – the red eyes, that marked a wizard’s connection to the dark arts, and pyromancy. She was afraid of fire, ironically. Astoria had never cast a single flame, neither she suspected being able to do so. |
The man she saw, that appeared to be so feared, he died long before she was born. He wasn’t her father, if she did the math correctly, he was old enough to be her grandfather but she doubt that. Instead, she was probably some distant offspring to some bastard of god knows who. It was chance that she looked like him. Maybe it was the hair. She wasn’t even sure she had any relations to him at all. |
Now the notion seemed absurd to her. To be an Elroy. To be connected in any way to those people she saw. She was a girl also, and Dumbledore had said that somehow mattered. Made her weak. |
Everyone else hadn’t reach this realization yet, thankfully for Astoria. The bullying stopped. They all looked at her as if she was about to snap and lose her mind in class. Maybe that was a possibility. |
There was very little information other than that. Some old pictures of people who looked nothing like her and the rest seemed to be hidden away. |
After a few nights she slipped away one more time from Slytherin’s dorm. Harry was already waiting for her. |
"Sorry if I’m late. Pansy stayed up late glaring at me with hate and I couldn’t leave." |
"It’s okay", Harry smiled. |
It all seamed fake to her. His smile, the way he looked at her, all that happened so far. Nothing was real, maybe she had died and was in Hell. |
"I’m sorry also for the hate you get. I believe you didn’t put your name in the goblet." |
"Thank you, I rarely hear it", he confessed and sadness darkened his green eyes. |
"I don’t know", Harry sounded tired, "I suspect someone loyal to Voldemort". |
"Being a champion in games with a high risk on your life sure sounds as something he would wish. But who?" |
"Dumbledore suspects it as well. He told me to watch out, but I think even he hasn’t figured out who did it. I thought about Igor Karakoff, however he seems focused on you." |
It stinged her. Dumbledore often spoke with Harry and at times it seemed to her he knew more about everything then she did. He still hadn’t spoken with her. It hurt. It hurt because she knew he saw her crying and he knew how much it would hurt. The public humiliation. They talked about her issues to fit in once and he did nothing to make it easier for her. |
Caged, she reminded herself and her thoughts went silent. No one had put her in a cage, but she suspected it was a metaphor for something else. Dumbledore told them she was already controlled. She never viewed her life like that before, yet it did make sense. |
"Did you know it was Moody who put him in Azkaban?", Harry seemed to be studying her reactions as his eyes were stuck on her. She shook her head. |
Her face must’ve gave her away because Harry suddenly changed the topic. |
"Tori, I need you to know I don’t think you’re evil." |
"Thank you, but you were right. If I really share blood with those –, with that man, I come from a long line of dark wizards. It would be natural for me to be in Slytherin and it would be expected if one day I–" |
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