It’s the summer after sixth year. Eska (I pinched the name from The Whitby Witches, which is a great book by Robin Jarvis) is best friends with Harry, Ron and Hermione and has been with them for all the stuff they did in earlier books (I’m going to attempt to write any flashbacks in canon but really sorry if I get it wrong as this is my first attempt!). I’m also in later chapters going to borrow The Woman in Black from the book of that name by Susan Hill so thank you to her. Thanks JK for all your characters!
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I should probably start by introducing myself, I’ve just finished my sixth year at Hogwarts and I’m a Gryffindor. My name is Eska Kristaler and I’m 17, olive-skinned, dark hair and eyes and I’m a half-blood (my mother was a muggle but she died when I was little). My dad lectures at the Berlin University of Magic (the only magical university in Europe) and holds a chair in transfiguration. I planned to go to University after Hogwarts if I got the N.E.W.T’s but after Dumbledore’s funeral I decided, with Ron and Hermione that helping Harry track down Voldemort’s horcruxes was more important than finishing school. Since then I’ve been staying at the Burrow with Ron. It’s the day after Fleur and Bill’s wedding and me, Harry, Hermione and Ron are sat in the garden, planning where we’re going to go first.
“I think we should split up initially to try and locate some of the horcruxes. I want to go to the Riddle’s house to see what I can find there and I think it’d be useful to have a look through the school records, see if we can find the things that belonged to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.” Harry said, keeping his voice down and glancing around. “Ron can you come with me to Riddle’s? I think we’ll need to be very careful as the Death Eaters may be watching that place”.
Ron nodded, scared but determined not to show it.
“Hermione, can you go to the school? I’m sure McGonagall will let you if you ask to use the library. Eska, can you go to your Dad’s university and research the founders of Hogwarts? They’re bound to have a more extensive archive than anywhere here”.
I nodded, “sure, I’ll go to the Dark Arts department as well and find out all I can about horcruxes in general.”
Harry smiled, “I’m so glad you guys are in on this with me.”
Hermione reached for her bag, “I thought we should probably have a safe way of communicating with each other, since Malfoy will have told Voldemort we’re Harry’s best friends they’ll be watching our letters and stuff. So I’ve enchanted these bits of parchment, you write on it and it’ll send it to whoever it’s addressed to. You can only send it to one of us though and afterwards it’ll wipe blank. Hopefully we won’t need them but…” She left the sentence hanging, she didn’t need to finish it really, we all knew that what we were doing was dangerous.
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It’s two days later, I’m in Berlin in the archives of the History of Magic department of the University, searching for anything I can find on the founders of Hogwarts. And it’s not going well.
“Who keeps 500 year old shopping lists for goodness sake?!” I muttered to myself as I found yet another drawer full of order lists from Hogwarts in the middle ages. At first they’d been fascinating. One year the school had bought over 2000 chairs- the mind boggles as to why. Now they were just getting on my nerves. I decided to have a break, it was early evening and I stepped outside to find it was twilight and having been a nice day it was that beautiful half-light, cool and crisp air that you sometimes get. I decided I’d apparate out to the countryside and have a walk before going back in for a couple more hours.
I went to a favourite place of mine outside Berlin, a very old wood surrounding a lake with a stone beach. It was usually deserted as muggles had to hike a fair way to get here so it hadn’t become a tourist spot. I wandered around the lake for a bit. It was really breezy and my hair blowing around my face began to annoy me so I stopped under a large oak tree and reached into my pocket for a band to tie it back with.
Suddenly I heard a twig snap behind me and spun round. There was nothing there.
“Stop being an idiot Eska” I muttered to myself but by then my heart was racing and I was feeling really edgy. I decided I’d best go a bit of a way into the woods and apparate back into the University, it was dark by now. I didn’t want to do it here just in case any muggles were watching. As I walked into the wood a figure stepped out from behind the tree. It had long, pale hair which was gleaming in the moonlight
“Malfoy!” I stared at him, Lucius Malfoy took a step nearer to me and smirked.
“Hello Kristaler, Draco did tell me he thought you were one of the brightest witches at Hogwarts but then if you were you wouldn’t be wandering around alone at night when the entire wizarding world knows we want to get at Harry”.
I decided to play dumb, generally the best plan as I didn’t know how much he knew. “Well that would be a good reason for him not to here but I don’t see why I shouldn’t take a walk”.
“We know Harry likes to play the hero so what better way than to kidnap one of his best friends?” said a sneering, cold voice from behind me. I spun around to see Snape standing behind me.
I gulped, please don’t let them know we’re hunting for horcruxes I thought. “Well this seems a little bit like overkill sending two of you to catch one teenage witch” I said, reaching in my pocket for my wand.
“If you try and hex us Miss Kristaler you will regret it I promise you. While you’re useful alive, there’s no reason not to hurt you” Snape said softly.
What am I going to do? My fingers closed on a little ball I’d got at Fred and George’s shop… a firework. I need to be quick about this.
“So give me your wand and make this easy. You won’t be hurt if you just come with us… Draco is so looking forward to seeing you.” Lucius said, holding out his hand.
I drew my hand from my pocket slowly then quickly threw the ball to the ground. It flared up, with a blinding light. I ran for it, I could hear Snape and Malfoy swearing and beginning to run after me.
I need to apparate .I hope I’m far enough ahead.
I stopped and began to concentrate.
“STUPEFY!!!!”
And my world went black.
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I woke up and lay still where I was. I was on a wooden floor and all I could hear was the ticking of a clock. I moved my hand very slowly to my pocket, hoping to get my wand…
“Stop pretending to be still asleep Eska. Father has your wand so don’t bother looking for it”. Drawled a voice.
“Malfoy. Joy” I sat up and brushed self-consciously at my hair. He was sat on a window seat watching me. I looked around. I was in an attic, it looked like it had used to be a nursery.
“Be nice to me or I’ll make you be” he said softly.
“What are you going to do with me?” I asked. “I won’t help you get Harry”.
He smirked and walked up to me, I scrambled to my feet. “You’re a valuable hostage Eska, not only for helping us to get Harry- which incidentally we don’t need you to co-operate in to achieve- but also as your Dad has skills we need and access to information we can use. You’ll be useful just by your very presence”.
I stared at him. “That doesn’t answer my question… what are you going to do with me?”.
He smiled and drew one finger down the side of my face, making me shiver. “Don’t worry, you’ll be well looked after. I’ve got charge of you, I’m kind of looking forward to getting to know you better.”
“I’ll be back to see you later, clean up- you look like you’ve been mud-wrestling” he sneered and I realised my robes were filthy from where I’d fallen to the ground.
He turned on his heel and left the room. I sat down on the bed. This is not good…
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