Settled in the Great Hall one morning during the weekend, Eleanor had her head propped up by her hand as her elbow came to rest on the table. She had her Potions' book opened in her lap, going over an ingredient list as Fred had warned her the night before that they would be quizzing her later on, so she had to be prepared. Marnie was piling food onto a plate when the two of them were approached by Cedric, who practically landed in their laps as he squeezed in between them on the bench.

"Cedric, you fat arse!" Marnie grumbled at him. "There's plenty of bench, do you have to sit right here?"

Cedric completely ignored her question, although Marnie and Eleanor witnessed him steal a glance at his arse before he faced forward once more. "Anyways, you two will never guess what I heard today!"

Lifting a brow, Eleanor shot him a knowing look, leaving him to point his finger in her face.

"Don't you dare call me Queenie, Ellie."

While she grinned, Marnie looked back and forth between the two, trying to figure out the meaning behind the latest nickname. Eleanor mouthed that she would tell her later and Marnie nodded her head before giving a thumbs up. However, Cedric was growing impatient with his latest news that he had been unable to share within the first few seconds of his arrival. He looked fit to burst when he realised, he had their full attention again.

"Right, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," he began, "the latest news regarding the Hippogriff that supposedly attacked Malfoy, well, the Ministry has set the date for its execution."

"Oh no!" Eleanor exclaimed, nearly dropping her book to the floor. "But why? It was only one isolated incident. Can't they just send the hippogriff to a reserve or something? Kind of like they do with the dragons. Seems a bit harsh to kill it when it was only acting like it would under the circumstances."

"If it had been any other student, maybe that would have happened, "Marnie interjected, "but we're talking about Malfoy here, Ellie. All that blond prick has to do is cry to his father and the Ministry is ready to bend over backwards for him. His father doesn't even work for the Ministry, but he has enough money to do whatever he wants. If it's not a hippogriff, it's something else. You would expect shit like this in the muggle world, but the wizarding world is just as corrupt. Talk about eat the rich."

"Careful, Marnie," Cedric said with a teasing grin, "your Ravenclaw is coming through."

She flipped him off before turning back to her meal, while Eleanor placed her Potions' book on the table. Thinking about how upset Marnie was over the situation, even though she hadn't been a part of the situation, Eleanor glanced over in the direction of the Gryffindor table. She knew through Fred and George that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been anxiously awaiting word over Buckbeak's verdict. The trio was great friends with Hagrid, who was more than likely, devastated with everything.

Spotting Hermione, Eleanor could see that she appeared to be on speaking terms with Ron and Harry again as she was seated among them. A small smile formed on her lips to see their issues had been resolved. But as she looked further down the table, she made eye contact with Fred as he was taking a seat on the bench with Lee. He quickly shot a wink in her direction as a greeting, leaving Eleanor to wink back at him.

However, the exchange of winks did not go unnoticed as Marnie cleared her throat loudly. Eleanor averted her gaze to the table, while Cedric turned to them in confusion.

"Uh, did I miss something?"

No explanation was offered as the owls came with the daily post and Eleanor found herself with a letter falling into her lap. Thankful for the distraction, she noticed it was from her mother, and tore off the top of the envelope.

"Who is it from?" Cedric asked nosily while Marnie shook her head at him.

"Who do you think it's from, dumbarse?"

"This is the second time you've brought my arse into this," Cedric warned her, "one more time and we're going to have a problem, Marnie."

As her friends argued about Cedric's arse, Eleanor could feel her skin turn cold as she only read over the first few lines of her mother's letter. After reading just enough, Eleanor lowered the letter and stood up from the bench abruptly.

"Ellie, what's wrong?" Marnie asked her. "What is it?"

"It's from my mum," Eleanor told the two of them, "and she's furious with me."

Of course, Cedric and Marnie weren't going to let her get away with such vague details as Cedric tried to read the letter over Eleanor's shoulder. But Eleanor didn't give them a chance to find out much as she left the Great Hall without another word, taking the letter with her. Curious and concerned, they followed her all the way back to the Hufflepuff Common Room.

As they entered the Common Room, Eleanor handed the letter over before she plopped down onto the nearest sofa and buried her face into her hands. Cedric and Marnie began reading it over, all the while, Eleanor continued to panic.

Margaret had made it very clear that she had learned a great deal of what Eleanor had kept from her regarding events that took place in the Wizarding World. The latest bit concerning Sirius Black, a known murderer in both the muggle and wizarding world, was at large and had been spotted numerous times near the school. Thankfully, she didn't know the full details of Sirius Black actually breaking into the castle on more than one occasion. But failing to mention the dementors and the fact that Sirius Black was a wizard, left Margaret with plenty to say.

She started questioning everything Eleanor had been keeping from her and apparently, after talking to Cedric's mother, Eleanor had been exposed. From the Chamber of Secrets to the dementors, the veil had been pulled from her eyes. It was her biggest fear having her mother find out and deeming the wizarding world as too dangerous for Eleanor to be a part of.

"She's not going to let me come back," Eleanor whispered, "I just know it. I shouldn't have lied to her, but this just made it so much worse."

"Don't say that, Ellie," Marnie frowned as she sat beside her, "technically, you didn't lie to her, you just didn't tell her everything."

"I don't think she sees it that way, Marnie. The icing on the cake was not mentioning Sirius Black. You saw the way she underlined the word "murderer" six times. And it didn't help that Mrs Diggory filled her in on the Chamber of Secrets!"

Cedric sat on the other side of her and placed his hand on her knee. "I'm sorry, Ellie. I don't know what my mum was thinking, telling her all that. She was probably trying to reassure your mother that everything was alright, and it probably slipped out. But even though your mum is upset right now, she'll get over it. We have some time to come up with a plan before you have to return home."

"Not if she doesn't end up showing up to the castle first and dragging me home."

"Well, magic is on your side there," Marnie said, "muggles can't stumble upon the castle. They'll only find ruins, remember?"

Even though it was true, it didn't make Eleanor feel any better.

Hiding away in the dorms, Eleanor pretended to be asleep for most of the day to avoid Marnie trying to lure her out of bed. But after her dormmates had gone to bed for the night, her stomach made it abundantly clear that it did not agree with her hunger strike. It growled loudly and no matter how much she tried to ignore it, her stomach wasn't taking no for an answer. Suddenly feeling nauseous, Eleanor pushed herself out of her bed quietly, thinking she could sneak into the kitchens to grab something.

Most times, the house elves that worked in the kitchens never had a problem with a student coming in for a late-night snack. Although, it was mostly the Hufflepuffs that made their way into the kitchens past curfew because, with their Common Room location, it was easiest for them to sneak in. A few of the house-elves were well aware of their late-night visitors and left some food out, mostly biscuits and other various sweets, which Eleanor was more than thrilled to see that evening.

But just as she went to reach for a fruit tart of sorts, she stopped when she spotted movement across the way. Looking over she spotted Professor Lupin, who looked just as confused to see her there as she was to see him.

"Professor Lupin," Eleanor said, "why is it always you?"

"I've been asking myself the same question, Ms Ross," he told her. "For now, let's just call it a series of multiple coincidences. Coming in for a late-night snack?"

"I haven't eaten today," she admitted right away. Why she always felt the need to tell him whatever was going on in her life, made no sense to Eleanor, but she always felt comfortable to do so in his presence.

"And why is that?"

"It has to do with my mother."

"Is she alright?"

Both taking a seat at a small table, Eleanor bit into her tart while Professor Lupin helped himself to a handful of biscuits.

"Well, she's not hurt physically, but I know she's rather upset with me right now. All because I was stupid and lied to her."

"I wouldn't take you for the lying type, Ms Ross," Professor Lupin chuckled, "so perhaps you had a good reason to do so."

"My mother is a muggle and ever since I was born, she hasn't really accepted the idea of magic or the fact that I was a witch. No matter how gently I've worded things, she always managed to overreact. Eventually, I thought it would be best not to tell her things that were going on in the wizarding world or in this castle. I didn't want her to suffer from a heart attack."

"And I'm willing to guess she found out about what you were withholding from her?"

"Yeah, she did. Of course, it just had to happen now. We made some breakthrough over Christmas; we were actually talking, and she wasn't treating me like I was this monster."

Eleanor didn't notice how Professor Lupin flinched at the wording of "monster" as she continued on.

"But then she saw the headlines about Sirius Black while she was out with Cedric's mum..."

"You didn't tell your mother about Sirius Black?"

"No, how could I?" Eleanor sighed. "I knew how she would react. If she knew that he posed as a danger to the wizarding world, she would have never let me come back to school. She would have kept me in the house forever. And I couldn't let that happen, Hogwarts is the place where I can escape. I have friends here, people who don't think I'm a monster. And I love my mother, but she tends to get so worked up over things. It's even more stressful to witness in person. She does this weird hyperventilating thing where her eyes twitch."

"Yeah, I know."

Eleanor paused at Professor Lupin's response, waiting for him to explain, but he quickly cleared his throat with a slight shake of his head.

"What I meant to say is, I know that she tends to overreact from what you've told me."

"Oh right, well, she knows everything now. So this is probably going to be my final year here."

"Now, don't you think you're being a bit dramatic yourself, Ms Ross? Why would think it would be your last year?"

"Professor, my mother has grown up thinking that magic is the devil's work, she thought I was the devil for the longest time. Now, we have a magical mass murderer on the loose. How else is she going to react?"

Any time Eleanor mentioned the word "monster" or something along the lines, Remus couldn't help but cringe internally. He knew the feeling of being referred to as a monster all too well, even though, it had never come from his parents.

"You should be able to reassure your mother that she doesn't have to worry too much when it comes to running into Sirius Black. You all live in Cornwall, right?"

Eleanor tilted her head for a second before nodding to confirm. "Yeah, on the outskirts of Fowey, why?"

"No reason other than that area not having a big wizarding community," he said, "it's mostly muggles around there."

"Right, that's because the muggles in that area are extremely attached to the church. They don't like the mention of magic. My grandparents were the same way, they taught my mother to believe those things. And even after I was born, rather than moving, Mum just kept me inside so the neighbours wouldn't grow suspicious about my abilities."

Oh, how Remus could relate.

"I was thinking about moving to Tinworth after Hogwarts," she told him, "I heard there is a large magical population there and in Devon. That way I wouldn't have to feel so isolated. But I suppose before that, I should probably write to my mother and explain myself, right?"

There it was, the kind and warm smile that Remus had welcomed all the time when he was younger, one that he missed greatly.

"I think that would be a good place to start, Ms Ross, honesty is key."

Grabbing another tart and a couple of biscuits, Eleanor pushed herself up from her chair and went to leave.

"Thanks for keeping me company tonight, Professor. Has anyone ever told you that you'd make an excellent therapist?"

He only smiled in return before she gave a small wave in his direction and left the kitchens. Once she was gone, Remus felt the need to kick himself.

"Honesty is key, that's right, Remus. You're one to talk."