Chapter 1: The Tryst
Chapter 2: Return to Ravenclaw
Chapter 1
The Tryst
Eliza E. Smythe initiated on the 10th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-six as Izza the Bold. Ravenclaw House.
Abigail A. Aldwinckle initiated on the 13th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-five as Abby the Able. Hufflepuff House.
Pansy P. Parkinson initiated on the 13th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-five as Pansy the Shrewd. Slytherin House.
Lesley E. Chissick initiated on the 13th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-five as Lesley Quick-Witted. Ravenclaw House.
Beatrice B. Bartlett initiated on the 13th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-five as Bea with Pure Heart. Hufflepuff House.
Charlotte T. Gedgrave initiated on the 13th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-five as Charlotte the Quiet Poison. Slytherin House.
Daphne O. Hallows initiated on the 13th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-five as Daphne the Spirited. Gryffindor House.
Olivia M. Knight initiated on the 11th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-four as Olivia who is Unfailing. Gryffindor House.
Parvati P. Patil initiated on the 11th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-four as Parvati who Shines. Gryffindor House.
Ginerva M. Weasley initiated on the 11th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-four as Ginny the Dark Flame. Gryffindor House.
Luna L. Lovegood initiated on the 11th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-four as Saint Luna. Ravenclaw House.
Emma M. McNiece initiated on the 11th day September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-four as Emma the Lynx. Gryffindor House.
Francesca F. Fogg initiated on the 14th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-three as Frannie the Dauntlessness. Gryffindor House.
Ann E. Worthy initiated on the 14th day September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-three as Ann the Steadfast. Hufflepuff House.
Helena P. Pipping initiated on the 14th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-three as Helena with Valor. Gryffindor House.
Padma P. Patil initiated on the 14th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-three as Padma the Clever. Gryffindor House.
Shimiko S. Nott initiated on the 14th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-three as Miko the True. Hufflepuff House.
Lisa T. Turpin initiated on the 14th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-three as Lisa the Sentinel. Ravenclaw House.
Vicky V. Forbisher initiated on the 10th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-two as Vicky the Vixen. Gryffindor House.
Serena C. Roth initiated on the 10th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-two as Serena the Sly. Slytherin House.
Joan K. Sedgwick initiated on the 10th day of September Anno Dominias nineteen hundred and ninety-two as Joan the Crafty. Ravenclaw House.
Eliza Smythe, the only daughter of the famous pyrate, Captain Nathaniel Smythe, The Soothsaying Hooligan, and Lady Ezmerelda, of the renown wizarding family Ethereal, of the Ethereal Islands, may she rest in peace, flipped through the pages of the great tome in the too bright summer sun. The gold ink shimmered on the pages, flashing strings of jeweled text. The years of Hogwarts' prominent witches floated by, all of which Eliza could name for several centuries back. A more interesting side effect of the blood bond within the Athene Coven. These were the Sisters of Athene. The oldest pages were completely illegible but still gave Eliza images of personalities as she swiped her hand down the brittle pieces of parchment. Eliza was the elected Mater of Hogwarts for the upcoming school year. These feelings were something she would have to get used to. A Hogsmater knew her coven to the bone. She closed the tome and ran a finger over the Athenian shield embossed on the front.
She sighed lightly and stood, stretching out her long limbs. Eliza raised her arms over her head and swept gracefully down, picking up the thick text. The wooden planks of the deck had baked steadily with the midday sunshine and burned her naked toes as she took steps out of her own shadow. Eliza began the short hike back to Hagrid's hut.
At the beginning of summer, Eliza had moved her things from the private quarters within the hospital wing of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to the small home Hargid kept on the grounds. The half-giant professor was her appointed guardian for the summer months. Guardian and parole officer, in a sense. Eliza was staying at Hogwarts as punishment for the events of her previous year at school. But that is another story entirely.
Every day, Hagrid enforced a percent of time she was to devote to her studies to make up for the classes she missed recovering from injury. At the end of the holidays, Eliza could look forward to being retested before entering her seventh and final year at Hogwarts. He also issued a list of tasks to be completed before sundown. These little odd jobs were actually a lot of fun and Eliza generally enjoyed them. She helped Hagrid with various creatures that he kept as well as tended to repair on much of the school's structures. The menial labor was good for her muscles as well as her practical magic skills. Eliza also welcomed learning and studying out in the open air once more. She did her reading and practice usually on the dock or on a sun light hill. Since she approached these duties with zeal, the hours went by quickly and she usually could squirrel away time for herself to swim or read for pleasure. She used much of the extra time to focus on her upcoming duties as Hogsmater. She had latched on to the job as something to help fully prepare her for rejoining her father on his ship, The Defiant.
Captain Nathanial Smythe was somewhere with his crew now, baiting the hell-spawned pyrate Mefesto Munroe. A foul and loathsome man who had taken the life of Eliza's mother, Ezmerelda, one year, 2 months, and 14 days ago. May she rest in peace. Eliza believed with all of her heart that her father was simply waiting to kill the man for a time when Eliza could be at his side. He had sent her to Hogwarts the previous year for her own safety, as he said. He told her that he had not wanted his daughter to be used as a tool against him, nor did he want to see her blood spilled on his decks. For so long she could only think he had wanted her out of the way, and had felt cheated of her revenge. Now, she finally thought she understood Captain Smythe's reasoning. He had wanted her to become a fully-fledged witch, just as her mother had been. May she rest in peace. Only then would he accept her back into battle with him. This thought gave Eliza hope as well as motivation to try harder at her studies. Not that she generally needed to try harder, she was, after all, a Ravenclaw.
She entered Hagrid's hut to find him snoozing in one of the large chairs near the hearth. He snored peacefully, shivering the awesome amount of beard surrounding his mouth. Fang, the great boarhound, slept at his feet. Eliza slipped the tome into a small silver trunk and charmed its lock. Hagrid stirred at the noise and smiled down at Eliza.
She jumped to her feet.
"Ahoy Hagrid."
"'Ello Eliza. What are yeh up to?"
"Goin' to Hogsmeade. I need to get my school books."
He gave her a critical look. "Did yeh finish…"
"Aye, Hagrid. I disposed of the Bugboars, fed the Jarveys and fixed the broken bleachers over by the Quidditch pitch."
"Dressed like that?"
"What's wrong with how I'm dressed?"
"Well, erm… Well…it's a bit…revealing." Hargid blushed.
"Haaagrid," Eliza whined. To Hagrid's credit she was wearing only a stringy cut up striped shirt that ended at the top of her stomach and a tied sarong that hung low on her left hip and covered the nasty scars on her right. "It be summer out… oh, alright. I'll put on a belt."
His eyes soften and a smile spread across his face. "Alright then. Be back here before sundown."
"Aye Hagrid," Eliza replied and raced out of the door with her belt in hand.
***
The sting of tiny bells rattled musically as Eliza opened the door to The Tattered Cover. There were a few other customers within, mostly older witches and wizards perusing the household spell books. Eliza made her way over to the small schoolbook section. It wasn't as large or as varied as Flourish and Blott's, but then, most students bought their supplies in Diagon Alley anyhow. Eliza made her selections.
"Standard Book of Spells: Grade Seven, Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions, and Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charms…that comes to sixteen sickles and four knuts."
Eliza fished out the coins from a small leather pouch secured to her belt. The elder witch accepted the money with a smile and wrapped Eliza's books in brown parchment and secured it with a charm. Eliza hitched the pack up onto her shoulder and left the establishment with a jingle of bells.
She walked down the quiet Hogsmeade road. It was a peaceful afternoon in the village. Most of the inhabitants were enjoying the pleasant weather on porches and balconies with tall glasses of chilled pumpkin juice. Three dark headed children ran in front of Eliza, chasing a black cat down the road. The pyrate made her way to the Hog's Head Pub. For a Sunday afternoon, it was quite crowded.
There were two people sitting as far away from one another as possible in the small tavern, drinking dark liquids.
Eliza glanced around before taking a seat at a table in the back. She set her schoolbooks and other supplies on the floor next to her and kicked her legs up on the opposite chair. Just as she was lighting a cigarette a serving boy approached. He pushed back a lock of stringy brown hair that had come undone from his ponytail and set down a dusty bottle of rum and a somewhat clean shot glass.
Eliza glanced up at him with a coy smile.
"I didn't come here fer rum."
The boy crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.
"Alright, not just the rum."
"How long 'ave you got?"
"Sun down."
"Right." The boy tossed his cleaning rag onto the table. "I'm taking a break, Abe," he yelled to the old man behind the counter. He nodded toward a set of narrow stairs in the corner adjacent to Eliza.
Eliza stood, grabbed the bottle of rum and followed as the boy led her upstairs.
Above the Hog's Head were a few crummy rooms for rent. The serving boy, who's name was Basil, had one of the more shabby of the lot as partial payment for his work at the bar below. He was tall and good-looking in that dirty hard labor sort of way. He wasn't particularly smart or talented but he had a genuine smile and knew how to have fun. Eliza had met him early on in the summer, as she quickly became adept at convincing Hagrid to let her go into the village. She always managed to return on time so he had no real reason to keep her from going. She even was able to met Padma and Lisa when hey made a trip by Floo to the Three Broomsticks. But the more enjoyable visits to Hogsmeade all involved furthering the tryst between herself and Basil.
Eliza barely made it to the top of the staircase before Basil swooped her up in his arms and carried her off to his room. Eliza laughed and he kicked the solid wood door shut behind him.
***
Eliza scooted over to the edge of the wooden bench that held the thin musty mattress off of the old floorboards. She was staring out of the window on the opposite wall. It was a Spartan arrangement at best. Basil kept all of his personal things in a small foot trunk shoved under the bench and a little pitcher full of water on a rickety table to the right of the window. There was also a shaving mirror that wanted scrubbing stuck to the wall.
"Sun's setting. You better get going."
"Aye."
"Probably won't see you again, will I?"
"What?"
"School's starting next week. I can't imagine you'll be back down for a good chuck of time…'sides I 'spect you'll have a flock of those good looking Quidditch boys after you when the term starts."
Eliza snorted.
"More like yeh'll have a crop of new young girls to prey on." Eliza smiled, "Won't have to settle fer an ol' scarred wench like me anymore."
He laughed and crept up behind her, his shoulder grazing her arm. They both knew this was the end of the affair, why bother to say it.
"One for the road?"
Eliza narrowed her eyes with a wicked grin.
"Aye, boy."
***
Eliza thundered through Hogsmeade, kicking dirt and gravel up with her bare feet behind her. She nearly took a tumble as she rounded the corner off of the main street on to the path leading to the castle. The sun was setting rapidly in the west and Eliza was rushing to beat the increasing darkness.
She took a short cut through some of the thin forest surrounding the lake and ran down the shoreline. The window in Hagrid's hut was burning with firelight like a beacon in the dusk. Eliza took a deep breath and paused for a moment before bolting up the hill to the waiting hulking figure of a man outside of the structure.
Eliza skidded to a halt and dropped her set of books. She leaned over and put a hand on her knee, catching her breath. She wheezed and pointed toward the village.
"I were… I were… the…had to…ye know… say good-bye to someone," she gasped out.
Hagrid looked down at her sternly, wearing an expression she had seen her father put on many times. "Hog's Head boy again?"
"What? How…did ye know…it were him?" Eliza stood up again and wiped her brow.
"Said I'd keep an eye on yeh, didn't I? Told yer father I would, didn't I?"
"Aye Hagrid."
"Well, over and done with then?"
"Aye Hagrid. Over and done with."
"Good, didn't like the look of 'im either. Too old fer yeh." He shook a large finger at Eliza and ushered her into the hut. "C'mon now, 'ave some tea."
***
The last week before classes went by far to quickly for Eliza. Most of the professors arrived back at Hogwarts for staff meetings the day after Eliza had made her final trip down to Hogsmeade. She was slated to take her make-up exams that Tuesday. She trudged her way back up to the castle and attended hour-long sessions with each of her professors. The tests did not last as long as the ones she had previously taken, due to the condensed amount of material. She was only being tested on the things she had missed the last month of school since she was unconscious for most of it. Muggle studies, Astronomy, Transfiguration and Herbology were quite easy. Eliza had to demonstrate her ability to transfigure small inanimate objects into various animals and back again. The last thing was turning a large desk into a cozy armchair. Professor Sprout had her identify several plants that they had been studying as well as their uses. Eliza thought she messed up on the charms exam slightly, but Professor Flitwick allowed her to go back redo a few things. She tried to remember everything Padma had shown her before she left for the summer.
The most difficult was the Potions exam. Eliza thought that it might have been due to the fact Professor Snape may have gotten in trouble for giving her some illegal ingredients last year. She imagined it all came to Dumbledore's attention at some point. She rushed through the hours, making several advanced potions used in battle and dueling on several cauldrons. Snape watched like a hawk over everything, making notes to himself every time she did anything. When all was said and done, a very sweaty and agitated Eliza Smythe turned in 5 vials of multi-colored potions to the sallow and hook nosed man.
The heavy use of magic had taxed the poor girl and she dropped off to sleep on her little pallet on Hagrid's floor early in the evening. Her sleep was deep and dreamless.
The next few days Hagrid had her working on a few tasks, simply to keep her busy before the return of the rest of the Hogwarts students. She had of course, another meeting with Professor Dumbledore. The aging wizard seemed fairly distracted and merely discussed what Hagrid had reported to him. Again, he had her promise her behavior this school year would reflect honorably upon her and her father.
The weekend came, and Eliza found herself on her last Saturday of the summer holidays feeding the herd of Thestrals. She had dragged the bloody carcasses of beef into the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest and hung them from some low branches in the trees. Hagrid had taught her how to call them. She raised her voice in an odd shrieking cry twice and waved the scent of the meat toward the heart of the forest.
Slowly they emerged one set of blinking eyes after another. They glared at Eliza with their huge white eyeballs before they went to the hanging meat. She studied their grotesquely beautiful forms. Thestrals were interesting creatures. They appeared to look like skeletal horses with large bat like wings. That is, if you could see them. Eliza could. Eliza had been able to see Thestrals for a long time. She laid a hand on the black dragonish head of the nearest beast.
Her childhood had been riddled with seeing men and women sent to their deaths. She had watched them thrown from shipsides, dealt fatal jabs and dance the hemp jig from the yardarm, but never had she seen the moment the life left their bodies. Never had she watched so long that she fully comprehended what their deaths had meant to her. Until him.
Eliza had told Anthony Goldstein once that she had been in love and he had unfortunately been lost at sea. What she didn't tell him that she was the reason he had been lost. Jonas Savage, the son of Dark Derek had revealed himself one night as he truly was: a madman like his father, not the childhood lover she believed him to be.
"Betrayer!"
She ran her hand down the spine of the Thestral.
"Mutineer!"
She had caught him in the act, creeping to murder her father, to claim the ship as his own. So she had killed him. She had killed the boy that, as a fourteen year old, she thought she would marry.
That's when the Thestrals became solid to her.
And with each passing death after that the details of their boney hides and cadaver wings were clearer. After Jonas there had been a string of nameless pyrates. Eliza had joined in on the defense of her ship many times, but she had not been allowed into a raiding crew as per her father's orders. He always cited that men attacking a ship were less dangerous than ones defending their own. This was something she understood when the ferocious protective feeling washed into her bloodstream every time a grappling hook set it's claws into the Defiant's rail. Men of the raid fought for plunder, men of defense fought for everything.
Their deaths had meant saving her ship.
Then there had been One-Handed Alice, but that was purely an accident, caused more so by Alice that Eliza. She was such a klutz. Eliza would have had it been a fair fight, but there's nothing you can really do when an air headed woman who had no right to the name of pyrate simply trips and fails on your blade in mid charge. Her death had meant an elevation of Eliza's status within a certain circle of pyrates.
Then there was the Guardian. Killing it had been in a blur of gold fever. Killing it had nearly killed her, and for what? Now she bore the brand of Baneheart the Warlock instead of the disgusting half-breed triton. Though its death had meant a chance to save Meg.
Then there was Mad. Mad who she had always thought of as another father. Mad who was beheaded by the traitor Sloe-Gin Flynn. His death had meant too much. His death made her own father's all the more possible.
Then there was the guard. She had no regrets of taking his life. His life had meant Meg's.
One of the Thestrals ate a chunk of beef from Eliza's outstretched hand. She could feel its nibbling bone teeth against the skin of fingers.
"Oh, Jonas. How I wish I could forget ye." But how can one forget the death that changes everything, even your sight?
The Thestral licked the blood that dripped over her thumb.
"Ye are lucky dark one, ye don't have to worry about such things as love."
It looked up white and glowing and stared into Eliza's eyes.
"Love be just murder in the end."
Eliza walked away from the herd as they finished eating the dead cattle. Their deaths meant full stomach for another week.
***
"I suppose I ought to be movin' my things back ta th' castle tonight."
"Oh, I don't see why yeh can't stay one more night. The Express don't come in 'til tomorrow."
"Aye, but don't ye need ta get ready for classes Hagrid? Ye've got ta get prepared don't ye? I'm jus' in th' way down here."
Hagrid laughed deeply. "Eliza, we've done all my preparin' the last few weeks. All th' creatures are fed and taken care of. All of 'em are ready to be shown off to the students. You've done a right good job of it too. I might consider keepin' yeh on as an assistant." Hagrid smiled down to Eliza who was sitting on the floor near the fire.
"Really, Hagrid? I might like that."
"Jus' between me and you, business with the Order's gotten a lot heavier lately and I might be getting a lot more busy if yeh know what I mean. Got to worry about the war, but I hate to leave the beasts without anyone who really knows 'em around. Professor Grubbly-Plank is a right friendly woman, and knows quite a lot about animals and how to treat 'em. But she don't feel a real kinship with 'em…" Hagrid trailed off, looking into the fire.
"Th' Order?"
"Oh, never yeh mind. We Professors all work for Dumbledore in many ways besides teachin'. Sometimes it can get a wee bit dangerous. But I don't want ye worryin' yer lil head about it. Just promise me you'll look after the animals from time to time if I'm not here. We'll talk about the class assistant a bit later."
Eliza looked back into the fire and took a drink from her rum filled teacup. There was actually tea in it as well, just a much smaller part. Hagrid took a long drink from his own and looked down to the pyrate.
"Aye, Hagrid. As long as I'm here I'll make sure they aren't neglected."
"Well. Good then," Hagrid said sadly and then sighed deeply.
They sat in silence for several minutes. Both staring at the fire and not talking. The quiet crackling of the flames filled the air and the unsaid things between them. Full-blown war was inevitable, what with all the events that occurred over the summer. It was escalating. But why worry about things that would be. Tomorrow would come soon enough.
"Hagrid, tell me about my granddad again. Did ye… did ye go to his funeral?"
Hagrid sat up stiffer in the chair and rubbed his beard. "Ol' Iron didn't want no fuse about his passing. Sea burial if I remember correctly. But no, no I didn't go. Yer aunt Nara, she's the one that told me."
"My aunt Nara?"
"Yeah. Youngest of Iron's children, she was. Have yeh never met her?"
"No. I didn't even know her name. Daa never talks about his family. 'Cept for stories about granddad. I knew he had a brother and a sister, but I've ne'er met them."
"Ah well, this was the first time I'd ever met Nara myself. She turned up in Hogsmeade one day lookin' fer me. Madam Rosemerta down at the Three Broomsticks, she's the one that told me there was a pyrate in town askin' about me. So I went down there, I did, and found her staying above the Hog's Head. We sat and had a drink. I asked her why she wanted ta see me and that's when she told me Iron had passed away. Said she was to sort out his affairs. Well, looking at her, it was pretty obvious she was a Smythe. Looked a lot like yer pa she did. 'Cept thinner… and no beard or nothing. But near as tall as 'em she was. Could drink just as much too." Hagrid laughed and smiled. "Quite a woman she is. Well, she gave me a little box of things. Mostly stuff I had given Iron over the years. Well, hey, I might still have it here. Hang on."
Hagrid stood and set down his teacup. He walked into the back bedroom and began moving things around up in the rafters. Eliza watched him reach up and pull down a dusty old box. He pulled off the lid and glanced inside. He covered it again and walked back into the room. Eliza stared up at him from the floor expectantly.
"Well, yeh understand most of this is just junk. Things that won't mean much to yeh. But there are some photos in there that… well, you'll want to see those. I had forgotten about them. Well, look for yerself."
Hagrid handed her the box and returned to his over-sized chair. At first, Eliza just held the flimsy little thing. Her fingerprints made holes in its thick layer of age. She slid the cover off slowly and stared into its contents. The dim firelight flicked across little useless trinkets. A carved pipe. A set of playing cards. Dragonhide gloves. She pushed her hand through the box, rustling old letters and notes, feathers from something she didn't recognize, and shells that probably once had animals in them, until she found a set of pictures at the bottom. She drew them out of the clutter and shook the dust from their surface. Hagrid watched her as she placed the box beside her knee and carefully pulled the photos apart.
With Hagrid in Madagascar 1964
The picture showed a much younger Hagrid with his arm around another hulk of a man, though still half of Hagrid's size. He had light hair, pulled back tight into a half pony-tail. Hagrid in the photo shook him and pointed out toward Eliza. They were both laughing.
Cards with the lads at The Jibb, 1957
There was a table at the center of this one, with several men around the back of it. A figure that was clearly Hagrid stood behind all of the chairs. Eliza's grandfather was sitting in the middle, smiling and smoking a large cigar. On his sides were four other rough looking characters, one was dealing from a deck of cards. There was a pile of gold in the middle.
With Nathaniel, Ezzie, Eliza, and Hagrid, London, 1983
This was a much more recent photograph. Her father looked like he always had, light tangled hair pulled back for the most part, scruffy beard and huge grin. He had his arm around Eliza's mother. Ezzie, her grandfather called. Ezzie. Eliza let out a little laugh of amusement. Ezmerelda smiled, closed her eyes and slowly opened them before looking down to the little toddler in her arms. Three-year-old Eliza looked near tears. Her hair was a tangle around her face and she clung to her mother's chest. Behind her was Hagrid, looking much like he did today. Unmanageable amounts of thick dark hair but with the simple smile of a happy man. Beside Hagrid was her grandfather. He looked much older, but still had many of the features that marked him a Smythe. The jaw line, the hair and an infectious grin.
Eliza replaced the photos into the box and pushed it aside her into the shadows of the room.
She stared back into the fireplace and drank her tea. Hagrid did the same
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