Dear Eli | INVITE

Lainey stared down at the address written on the slip of paper, then back up. It didn't exist. She gave a heavy sigh, shifting the box she had tucked under one arm. Huffing, she turned to leave, when a person appeared amid the crowd on the busy sidewalk out of nowhere. She was certain of it.

Walking hurriedly in their direction, she oh-so-casually ran into them - accidentally, of course, her hand brushing against their. "So sorry!" Lainey told him, eyes wide with apology. She turned back towards the store fronts, blinking in moderate surprise to find that there was a shop that hadn't been there seconds before.

"Bloody magic," she breathed inaudibly. It was the right place, though: the Leaky Cauldron. Drawing in a deep breath, the redhead hurried into the pub. It was mostly empty, from what she could tell. There was no sign of Eli.

Lainey wasn't sure she could face him again just then, anyway.

Striding quickly to the counter, she set the box down, turned around, and left, once more. She stood outside the pub, simply staring at it until the magic she had leached ebbed away and the Leaky Cauldron disappeared, once more.

Inside the unseen establishment, a box with a simply note ('For Eli') written upon it sat on the counter. Within it, dozens of letters were lined up in the order in which they'd been written. The oldest was was dated ten years ago.

Eli lay asleep in his bed, his sheets bunched up in a big mess on top of him. They always ended up like that, no matter how neat he made sure they were before he fell asleep. He usually attributed it to being a restless sleeper. He never did get over being prodded in the middle of the night by his mother. Just to make sure he wasn't being possessed, or some other crazy crap like that.

Through the thin walls of the inn, Eli could hear the door open and close. A couple of weeks ago, Eli would have immediately jumped out of bed, hoping to catch at least a glance of his sister. But after several sleepless nights and more than a few false-alarms where he grouchily turned away even grouchier customers, the man came to the inevitable conclusion that she was never coming back.

So instead, Eli curled himself further under the covers, hoping to get a little more sleep before the long day began. It wasn't until maybe an hour or two later that Eli woke up and got dressed. He mentally listed the chores he would have to do today. Since he didn't expect many people to show up for a drink, he thought he might as well get some cleaning done. But there was something in the back of his mind. Something that was tugging at his subconscious.

Eventually, he made his way downstairs, hoping to fix some of the tables that were falling apart, only to see a box sitting on the counter. He looked around. The place was completely deserted. He walked behind the bar, seeing a note reading, "For Eli". His heart rate spiked. This could only be from one person. It had to be from her.

He opened it carefully, somehow suspecting the presence of a bomb, which, based on his sister's temper, wasn't all that outlandish a theory. Instead, Eli found a stack of worn, yellowed papers. He carefully lifted the top one out of the box and unfolded it....

Eli smiled at the messy scrawl of his eleven-year-old sister. Occasionally laughing at her little errors. It wasn't until he read the letter over a couple of times that he really absorbed it's meaning. They burned our house down, now Eli was sure that his parents were dead.

It filled him with so much pain to imagine how scared Elaine must have been. For twelve years, she had no one. At least he was taken care of by the school... but Lainey. "Oh god." She was so right to have reacted to him the way she did. Everything she had said was true, and he was such an idiot for trying to barge in on her life now. I've made everything so much worse.

He didn't want to pick up the next letter. Eli just wanted to go back to bed, yet he still reached out a weary hand and picked up the next one in the box.

---

Dear Eli

I dont know where to send your letters! Ill just writ them and send them later.

I didnt tell you what happened befor they burned our house. Sum of the people who took you took me too! They would not tell me where you were. I was in a room and I didn't know how much time passed because there was no window. I had to look at a news paper for the date.

They made me (several lines are scribbled out, nearly tearing through the page)

Where are you? I need you.
Elaine.

Why was this so much harder to read than to hear? Eli could barely make it through the first sentence. He desperately tried to make out the scratched out section. She really didn't want him to know what happened. Though he wasn't sure he would even be able to stand reading it.

All he knew was that these people needed to pay. Eli resolved to visit the ministry later. Doing this sort of thing to a child couldn't possibly be legal.

Maybe if he had known sooner, Eli might have been able to see her during vacations. Maybe Hogwarts would even have allowed her to stay there. He forced himself to stop thinking about it, and read the letter several more times before setting it down.

He sat there for a few moments, trying to pull himself together again, then tentatively pulled out the next letter.

Eli ran a hand through his hair, leaning against the counter. He opened a bottle of firewhiskey and took a long drink. Maybe it would make things less painful. Eli was never one to drink much, and the liquid burned on the way down his throat.

He put the letter aside, taking a few moments to look at the pile of... three... that had amassed so far. Had he really only read three letters? He looked back in the box, taking a deep breath.

Everything was starting to fit together, like some sort of sick, twisted puzzle. He laughed sardonically. It appears both of their childhoods were ruined by their own magic, or... whatever Lainey seemed to have.

It was the part about the dreams that hurt him the most. An old recurring nightmare from his years at Hogwarts rushed back to him.

His mother and father would take him from his room, linking their arms in his, both smiling down at him angelically. Then they'd sit him in a chair in the middle of their basement. He wasn't restrained, but he knew he couldn't run away.

His father would take out a knife, saying, "Now, son. This will all be over soon." He'd make light cuts on Eli's arm, his face expressionless, all the while his mother stood next to him, saying things like, "You're being such a good boy" or "It's what God wants."

Sometimes, his mother would be hurting him instead, except she'd be using lit matches, or sandpaper. Practically anything they could find around the house that would scar him, but still only make relatively minor injuries.

He shook his head, hoping to forget everything that had happened. How could Lainey have not known about this? Then again, he may be blowing this out of proportion. He knew that his parents loved him... at least, he was pretty sure. And when they physically tortured him, which was rare, they-

No, he shook his head again. He could never forgive his parents for what they had done. How they had made him feel.

Eli looked back at the letter, his curiosity taking control. If Lainey could absorb someone's powers by touching them, then why had this never happened before? Eli and Lainey were so close when they were young, it was impossible that they couldn't have made skin-to-skin contact. And yet... this was the first he was hearing about it.

He reached out for another letter, this time much less hesitant. He desperately wanted to know more.

I left the church shelter. There was a ma (A line is scratched out)

I didn't feel safe.


Dear Eli,

I'm sorry! Please don't hate me.

I killed a man, today. I didn't mean to!! He just appeared out of nowhere and attacked me. I was scared, Eli. I didn't want him to hurt me. When he touched me and I look his magic, I pushed him away, and then this green light left my hands and hit him.

And he was just dead. I didn't mean to kill him - I didn't. I swear it was an accident.

I'm so sorry, Eli.

Please don't hate me.*
Lainey

Eli sifted through the letters. Each one was harder to read than the last, and he steadily drank from the bottle in his hands in order to drown out the pain. Realizing that he wouldn't be able to read them if he got too drunk, Eli sealed the bottle and placed it under the counter for the time being. He was going to need that again tonight.

Eli looked at the date on that last letter he had read, she would have been thirteen. When he was thirteen Eli had gotten his first kiss. Lainey had committed her first murder... No. It wasn't murder. She was defending herself. She wasn't even in control of what she did. Now he understood. Why she hated herself, her magic, all magic. But... but she didn't hate him... right? At least not yet. He looked back at the pile, not knowing which one would tell him why she wouldn't even talk to him anymore.

There was one thing he did know, however. Eli knew that he could never ever hate her.

Eli laughed. He hadn't forgotten her birthday, either. All those disastrous attempts at making a cake for Lainey.... At least, it would have been for her if she were there. Eli mostly made them for memory's sake.

He read through the second letter.

Eli felt nauseated. "Oh my God. Elaine." He pushed the letter out of the way and put his head in his hands, trying his hardest to think of something else. Eli didn't want to keep reading. It was too horrible.

But he had to know what happened to her. And apparently, she wanted him to know.

A tear fell onto the parchment. She was gone. Gone forever. This girl was just a warped, twisted version of the little girl he knew. This was all his fault. He was the one who had let this happen to her. It was all his fault.

Eli crushed up the letters and threw them out of his sight, his tears were flowing freely now, and he had no way to make them stop.

That year he would have just graduated, or was about to graduate. That was the year he finally accepted himself for who he was. He was happy then. If only Eli had known.

Her life had been destroyed and she wasn't even a legal adult. It was all his fault. "Please don't hate me, Lainey."

Lainey had begun to second-guess her decision to leave Eli the letters before she was even halfway across town. She was already late for work, though, and Ben - the bloody prat - was certain to make sure she knew it.

Of course, that day turned out to be extremely busy, preventing her from easily slipping away. It was on the verge of panic that the redhead finally made up some sudden malady and fled the tavern, leaving her coworker to handle the customers by himself.

It seemed that Lainey paced outside the invisible shop for years, waiting for someone, anyone, to step out so she could leach their magic and enter again. She nearly tackled the person who finally did, startling the man quite thoroughly.

"Sorry!" she called back over her shoulder, hurrying through the door. Maybe they hadn't been seen. She'd left them off to the side a bit, hadn't she? Perhaps he hadn't time to -

Lainey drew to a sudden halt, breath catching in her throat. Logically, she knew running into her brother was likely, even probable, and yet, somehow she still hadn't expected it.

"I just..." she began. "It - I was goin..." Her green eyes dropped to the bits of paper and envelopes scattered across the floor. He'd read them. He'd really read them.

Lainey wrapped her arms tightly around herself, eyes downcast and expression a mask of shame. Tears formed in her eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall. She cried too much. She didn't deserve to cry...

Eli looked up when the door opened then immediately looked back down again, hoping whoever it was wouldn't notice the tears in his eyes.

Then he heard Lainey's voice and was overcome with... what exactly? Joy, grief, guilt, relief? Whatever it was, it made him get up out of his chair and trap her in a tight hug, much like the ones he used to give her when she was a very small child.

She used to be so little that he was afraid she'd float away, so when he hugged her Eli always made sure to hold her tightly. And now look what happened to her. In a twisted way, it was sort of ironic.

Eli let go of Elaine. "Lainey. I am so, so sorry," why was he still crying?, "It's all my fault. It is. Please don't hate me. I'm so sorry." He sounded like a child, but he still felt like a child. All those memories, coming back to him.

"I- I don't deserve you for a sister. If you don't ever want to see me again... that's okay."

Lainey had flinched when Eli started towards her, only to feel stunned when he embraced her, tight and warm, like he had done when they were younger. Before everything went wrong. She leaned against him, just soaking in the contact, the tears falling without her say so. She felt a sting of hurt when he suddenly let go.

The redhead gaped at him in confusion and incredulity.

"What?" she murmured, eyes wide. Lainey shook her head frantically. "No! No, no, no - didn't you read them? You didn't read them, right! It's my fault. Because I'm cursed. It was me. I could never hate you - it's you should hate me. If I'd been better, or-or if... if I had..." Her throat constricted, preventing her from continuing, so she just cried instead, uncertain just what it was she was crying about.

Eli hugged Lainey again, waiting for her to stop crying, or at least, for himself to stop crying. He stepped back and put his hands on her shoulders.

"One. Curses like that don't even exist, I would know. And two, every spell can be broken. Don't worry. You're still so young, don't you realize that you're whole life is ahead of you?" He smiled at her, "And we've both done the impossible and found each other again, just by mere circumstance."

"Your past sucks. No one can argue that, but your future can be so, so much brighter. You're still a good person, and I still love you. Nothing's going to change that."

Lainey drew in a hiccuping breath, gazing back at the man. She wasn't entirely certain she believed him. Who she was revolved around the way that she saw the world. If everything was different than how she believed, then where did that leave her? Would she even truly exist anymore?

But he was her brother, her Eli. He said the future was brighter. He said that she was a good person... That he didn't hate her.

Leaning against him once more, Lainey nodded her head. "Okay," she murmured. Things would be better, somehow. Eli had said so.