Elsie Crouch

While that was true, Ophelia couldn’t help but feel like Elsie, if put into the right situation, might just do the deed herself. “You said they should be murdered,” she muttered, fighting back even though it was pointless to do so. She couldn’t help but instigate; it was almost an impulse at this point. “We have to be outraged. And we have to share that outrage. Write letters. Protest. Riot. Scream. If we act like this is just another sad thing that happened in the world, that’s what it’ll become.”

“Well it seems fair. Treat others as you want to be treated, right?” Elsie had never really considered herself as morally questionable, and the realisation that she might be surprisingly didn’t bother her. Much. “We are outraged. And we will make noise. But what if the adults don’t care?” She could already hear the hushed, murmured platitudes muttered by her mother’s friends when they were discussing a tragic piece of news. “They don’t want to - to change,” she added, struggling to articulate her insights into the rigidness of pureblood society. 

It was almost alarming, watching as Elsie turned from devoid of emotion to angry, from passive to passionate. Ophelia knew that she, too, often felt that way, that she let things sit and be processed for a moment longer than intended, only to snap out of it with fury. “We don’t have to just carry on. We don’t have to act like this is the new normal. Because it’s not – not unless we make it the new normal.” Her own frustration was clear, both on her face and in her tone. “I – no. That’s not right. We can’t just wish the death penalty on people because they’ve done something that horrendous. We can hold them accountable, but… murder them? Then what does that make us?”

“I didn’t say we had to kill them,” Elsie said, shrugging it off. “We don’t need to stoop to their level. But considering it’s what they dished out so. . . casually, I really wouldn’t mind if the people responsible for this turned up dead.” She realised her hands were clenched in tight fists and forced herself to relax. “There’s no way I want this to be the new normal but - how do we stop it from being?”

Ophelia felt her entire body tensing up. She was furious – irate. She kept thinking about the people who’d been killed over a month ago. They were all ages, people from all walks of life. They were young, they were old… but above all, they were innocent, normal, every day people. “If we keep asking ourselves why, we’ll only be disappointed. The real question is… what do we do now? How do we move forward?”

“How do we?” Elsie echoed absently, still staring at paper. “We have to just carry on with our lives, and that’s the worst part isn’t it? That we can just go on and it’ll hurt less, but they can’t go on anymore.” Her initial shock was wearing off to give way to anger and she looked up, her eyes blazing. “This isn’t fair. The monsters who did this are the ones that deserve to be murdered. We can’t let them get away with this!”

ALICE 

                   ❝ sylvia is as sylvia does ❞ she sighed with a slow shake of her head. she was just glad her mother hadn’t another dear old friend tucked away somewhere just for elsie. ❝ you’re looking at the future mrs franklin longbottom, did you know that elsie? ❞ trying to stay bright. elsie didn’t need to know how much worry she’d felt when she first heard the news. how much she’d hated it, ( and how much she didn’t now )

ELSIE

“this hypothetical first year is about to be the richest eleven year old in the whole wizarding world. lucky them.” andromeda plopped her head onto the table, her cheek pressing into the wood (her mother would certainly chastise her if she were here right now) as she looked up at elsie, “and what are you working on?”

“they get rich, we get good grades, everybody wins!” elsie cheered weakly, raising her fist in mock triumph. she rested her chin on the other hand as she looked down at andromeda’s hair pooling on the table. it looked so soft. “vanishing charms - the theory makes no fucking sense. and i suck at casting them too.”

BEATRICE

                   ❝ you want war? i’ll give you war! ❞ bee quipped charging head first and leaving her laughter behind her as she threw caution to the wind. ❝ cheating doesn’t suit you elsie! ❞

ELSIE

ALICE

                   ❝ unfortunately i don’t think that’ll pass muster with mcgonagall ❞ she smiled before vanishing the offending pot with a quick incantation and a graceful sweep of her wand ❝ the day i stop worrying about you is the day i die ❞ alice’s seriousness shocking even herself then, with the war ( and her recent letter from home ) there was a lot to worry about ❝ you don’t ever

ELSIE

“you don’t know my parents – they’re not going to come around. it’s what they grew up with and how would they know any better? i’m not going to be your martyr – i’m not going to be the one that tries to get out of this. if you’re so bloody passionate about this – talk to alice, you’rehere because you know that none of this shit is going to work on her, so you thought hey, lets try him out – he will probably break. i won’t – i hope that the sacrifice that she’s making spares you from this kind of arrangement, because merlin knows that you won’t fucking make it at this rate –”

elsie couldn’t help but roll her eyes - “one would think that there are a thousand things other than me in this situation that would warrant being called suffocating-” she scowled and put her hand on her hip, all righteous rage and irritation.