The Girl Who Survived - Start And Stone

Detention with a Ferret

"Oi, Ellie! Over here!"

"Yea Ellie, come sit with us!"

"We don't bite!"

Multiple giggles escaped Ellie's mouth while strutting to the Gryffindor table. Harry Potter and his newfound friends wanted her to sit with them, and she loved it.

"Hey Harry, how are you?" She asked as she placed herself down across from him.

"Great," he replied.

She flashed him a smile, dropped some scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast on her plate, and dug in.

"I'm Ron by the way, Ronald Weasley." She turned in her seat to greet the boy with a smile, remembering him from the previous night, shaking his hand before slowly looking at each boy who introduced themselves. "Seamus Finnigan." "Dean Thomas." "Neville Longbottom." One after the other, all receiving an appreciative smile from Ellie in return.

"I'm Ell - "

"We know," Ron explained. "Harry couldn't stop talking about how cool you were; bit annoying really." 

"Oh don't worry Ronald, I know how cool I am," she spoke confidently, flipping her hair over her shoulder for dramatic effect. The boys laughed. Ellie nodded at Harry as if to say 'thank you' to which he simply smiled.

By the time breakfast had finished, she was sitting in her Defense against the Dark Arts classroom, and she was not looking forward to it. There was something she didn't like about Professor Quirrell; His turban perhaps? Or possibly the way both his office and classroom reeked of garlic. Supposedly, he had met a vampire on an adventure in Romania and was still scared that the thing could jump out any moment. Yes, that had to be it.

"Well, would you look who it is boys, the mummy. Where's your coffin Lupin?" Oh, Godric. She forgot she had D.A.D.A with the Slytherins.

"Give it a rest Malfoy."

As she moved to write in her book, she felt his stare shooting daggers into her while he sat down beside her. Oh god, she thought. This was going to be a long day.

/•/•/•/•/

Ellie was eyeing the Professor profusely as he wrote about werewolf bites on the blackboard, obvious stutters mixed in with his words when he spoke.

She looked out the window, watching every red leaf fall slowly from the branches of a willow. Suddenly, she felt something hit the back of her head. Turning around, she blew her red hair out of her face just in time to see Malfoy let go of a paper plane. It poked her in the face as she spoke a very agitated "what the hell Malfoy!"

A snigger escaped the blonde boy's lips as he turned to high-five his goons. But no, Crabbe and Goyle did not high five back. Instead, they had fixed their scared gazes behind Malfoy, onto a fuming, irritated Ellie. Draco swiveled around to see what all the staring was about, placing an amused smirk on his pale face when he caught sight of the girl.

"What are you going to do Lupin, hex me?" He questioned.

"Y'know, I might just do that," she replied through gritted teeth.

"M - M - Miss Lupin, M - Mis - Mister Malfoy, w - what i - is g - g - going on h - here?"

Draco and Ellie turned their heads in unison, narrowing their eyes at the Professor.

"Nothing Professor. Nothing at all," Ellie said while lowering herself down onto her seat, glaring at Draco like there was no tomorrow. But she couldn't just leave it. She couldn't let Draco win, it just wasn't who she was. She knew she would surely get detention, but it was definitely worth the victory, right?