Only then could he let out a breath of relief and let a furtive grin slip onto his face, finally certain he couldn't be detected by the hawk-like, overly strict relative. He almost felt guilty about leaving her to find her own way back to the station, but then shook his head to himself and decided she'd be fine, the old woman just enjoying making others wait on her, demanding the most outrageous things. And of course, Elias' siblings were nowhere to be found, leaving him to 'assist' Great-Aunt Marigold.

Until he'd had the genius idea of making himself crash into a horse and cart and magically cut his lower leg (yes, he cheated with his wand. Luckily, it was painless - until it started bleeding.) In fact, at present Elias had almost forgotten his "blasted injury" until he saw a few drops of blood smattering the floor, and his trouser leg stained dark around the cut. It looked worse than it was. Elias turned towards the welcome desk - the room was empty apart from a witch at the desk.

He stepped closer, peering hastily out of the window on his way to the desk to see the old woman peering back; watching him beadily. He turned a straight face onto the young woman in front of him, trying to get her to understand that he wasn't in desperate need of help, he just wanted to avoid his Aunt. But then he realised something about the welcome witch. She looked familiar.

"Why, hello, Ma'am... Alanna? - forgive me if that's not your name, but I'm sure we're acquainted," He said congenially, in greeting, his expression showing himself not to be in any distress whatsoever. He winked quickly and added in a murmur, "Just a few minutes more, if I stand somewhere she can't see me, then I'll be out of your hair."
He studied the young woman again with slight interest, realising that she was in fact, almost a neighbour of his. He couldn't quite recall her last name. "How do you do, today?" He asked, to pass the time.

But Alanna continued speaking, in a teasing tone. "Ah, you've noticed." He lowered his voice as if he were afraid the woman had supernaturally heightened hearing. Who knew, actually, there may be a spell for that! "No, no, lock the doors! She's a Great-Aunt of mine," He admitted, giving a brief sigh, which only just betrayed the mocking amusement he felt, "She just won't...leave," He grimaced, though his blue eyes were dancing innocently, showing that although the old hawk-eyed woman was a pain in the neck, he didn't downright detest her. Elias wasn't usually a purposely mean person to begin with, and he wouldn't want Alanna to believe he'd changed that much...

"Oh, no, I could just stand here for a minute more..." Elias murmured, but at a quick glance outside he saw the looming hunched over figure and changed his mind immediately. "Actually, if you would allow me there a short time?" He said, a crazed hopeful look dawning on his face.

He made sure to place his lower leg in full view through the doors and window of the front of the building, realising once again that it was still bleeding. Oh, why didn't he know the simple counter spell to heal it?

But his thoughts were again distracted by the Welcome witch, his old acquaintance. "Alanna Derrickson, aren't you?" He exclaimed, memory of the girl suddenly flooding back. And now he didn't just recall her name, he was aware of her past - she was the illegitimate child, she had disappeared from Hogwarts before the official graduation year, she probably hadn't been very happy back then. So he didn't add anything to his exclamation.

Mind you, Elias remembered he hadn't been lucky with his lot in life either - of course, he had the loving family, and his parents had given everything to get their children into Hogwarts, and he'd made himself a better future... but only because what would the alternative have been?

"So, which House were you in, Ma'am? I apologise for my poor memory - my mind only seems to take in the most insignificant of details, and all the facts vanish to who knows where...I can barely remember which day of the week happens to be," He said in a friendly tone, chuckling briefly but still caught up in his memories of Alanna and Hogwarts in those days.