The next couple of days past, and Ellie, hadn't grinned once. Entering the Great Hall in the morning, she could see the four house tables lined with massive mountains of bacon, eggs, toast, milk cartons, orange juice cartons, and so on.
Ellie pushed her breakfast away, her insides still burning over what Mr.Malfoy had said to her at Flourish and Blotts.
Professor McGonagall was moving along the Gryffindor table, handing out course schedules. Ellie snatched hers and saw her and Seamus had double Herbology with Hufflepuffs first.
Seamus, Dean, and Seamus all left the castle together, crossed the vegetable patch, and set off for the greenhouses, where magical plants were kept.
As they neared the greenhouses they saw the rest of the class standing outside, waiting for Professor Sprout. Dean Ellie and Seamus had only just joined them when she came striding into view across the lawn.
"Greenhouse three today chaps!" Said Professor Sprout. Professor Sprout was standing behind a trestle bench in the center of the greenhouse. About twenty pairs of different colored ear muffs were lying on the bench. Ellie took her place between Dean and Seamus when she noted, "We'll be pulling and reporting Mandrakes today. Now who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?"
Ellie sat looking blankly forward at her bench top, as if she hadn't heard what she said at all. After a moment of complete silence, Professor Sprout answered.
"Mandrakes are a powerful restorative," Professor Sprout looked back and forth between sides of the benches. "It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state."
Another moment of silence passed.
She pointed at a row of deep trays as she spoke, and everyone shuffled forward to get a better look. A hundred or so tufty little plants, purplish green color, were growing there in rows.
"Everyone take a pair of earmuffs ," Professor Sprout.
There was a scramble to everyone's feet as everyone tried to seize a pair that wasn't pink.
"Put them on, and when it is completely safe to remove them, I will give you a thumbs up. Earmuffs - on."
Ellie snapped the ear muffs over her head, and to her surprise, they shut out the sound completely. Professor Sprout grasped one of the plants firmly, and pulled up hard.
Ellie's mouth dropped when she saw, instead of roots, a small, muddy, extremely ugly creature pop out of the earth.
Professor Sprout took a large plant pot from under the table and dropped the Mandrake in it, burying him in damp soil.
Dean and Seamus didn't have time to mingle with Ellie that class. By the end of the class, Ellie, like everyone else, was covered in earth. She scampered back to the dorm for a quick shower before heading to transfiguration.
McGonagalls classes were always hard work, but today drove Ellie crazy. Everything Ellie learned escaped her brain over the summer.
Ellie was relieved to hear the lunch bell sound. Her stomach could practically eat itself, for she missed breakfast that morning.
Dean and Seamus caught up and went down to lunch with Ellie. Ellie's mood seemed to pass.
"What do we have next?" Ellie complained, tired and worn out.
Dean sighed. "Defense against the dark arts."
YOU ARE READING
Ellie Collins and the True Heir of Slytherin
FanfictionAfter her first year at Hogwarts, The well known Ellie Collins found that Hogwarts was more than just a school. In the second book, Ellie finds out a secret that could change her life forever.
