Just beneath the surface

Chapter 5

Professor Snape had slept fitfully the night after tending to Ella's infected arm, but his mind grew easier as he watched her in her lessons over the course of the next week. The girl was bright eyed and had resumed the continuous babble that was so characteristic of the chestnut haired Ravenclaw. She chatted incessantly in class, often to herself but to her peers too. Professor Snape didn't have the heart to tell her to quieten—that she was setting a poor example for her fellow students. Professor Snape was just glad that she actually was talking again.

Perhaps that was why he wasn't so concerned when his schedule kept him from attending the nightly sessions with Ella—his own work keeping him away from his classroom and off running errands or trips to the ministry or St. Mungo's after teaching hours finished—the girl had been pleasant whenever he had seen her during the day, and he returned each evening long after Ella had gone to bed, to find the potions or ingredients he had requested to be neatly arranged on his desk.
So Professor Snape was glad of Ella's talking and bright spirit returning the week that he did not manage to further question her well being, he thought that she was doing okay.

Snape had meant to keep Ella after class on Friday to ask how she was doing, but the girl had slipped away so suddenly he hadn't the chance. Not that it had bothered him too much, Ella often spent a ridiculously long time on Friday evenings catching up on whatever tasks Snape needed doing, and he could surely check up on the girl then.

Ella White had not been present at dinner. Nor had she turned up insistently early for their evening session. In fact, Professor Snape didn't recall seeing Ella at all in the hours since he had taught her class. Just as he thought something sinister may have happened—that he may find her lying unconscious in a stairwell somewhere—Professor Flitwick shuffled his way into the potions classroom.

"Ah, Professor Snape, so sorry I forgot to pass a message on from Miss White," Professor Snape's ears pricked at the mention of the missing student, "her parents requested her home for the weekend and so she left immediately after classes. She sends her apologies that she could not make her apprenticeship tonight."

As much as Professor Snape was relieved that the girl was well and had simply gone home for the weekend, he could not suppress the knot of worry that formed in his gut as he thought about the state Ella had returned to school in after Christmas. Her parents did not often make time for her, what could have required them to pull her from school over the weekend?
But there was not time to dwell when there were over two hundred vials to fill of dreamless sleep for the shops in Hogsmead, and so without his apprentice, Professor Snape let his mind fall silent and began the task of brewing the potion.

***

Monday brought along with it a feeling of trepidation as each of the teaching staff commented over lunch about the appearance of a certain fifth year Ravenclaw.
Whatever Ella White had been up to over the weekend had dulled that vivacious spirit and dampened the compulsive need to comment on anything and everything that Snape had hoped so hard to coax back out of her after Christmas.

"You must speak with her Severus, she trusts you." Minerva insisted over lunch, and though Professor Snape agreed, he suspected he already knew how that conversation would go, and that Ella would be in no mood to have it.
***

Professor Snape observed the subdued student during his last lesson of the day, and sighed heavily before slipping a note onto her desk requesting her to stay behind after the lesson. Ella didn't so much as blink as she read the note and tucked it into the pocket of her robes.
Professor Snape had thought she was at least present during the lesson, but it seemed as he watched such a normally gifted student make so many unknown mistakes one after the other, that Ella's mind was indeed anywhere other than in the cauldron sat before her.
Snape almost believed she would walk straight out of the classroom whilst she packed her things away, and was slightly surprised that she did indeed honour his note by standing in front of his desk once the rest of the class had filtered out.

"Miss White did you have a good weekend?"
Ella blinked.

"It was fine, Thankyou."

"Did you get up to anything interesting?"

"No, nothing worth mentioning sir."

It was all... wrong. Ella wasn't looking at him in the eye, and it was so unlike Ella to not take him up on his offer of her talking about her activities or interests outside of the classroom.

"Miss White, do not insult me with your attempt at avoiding what it is I'm about to ask you, we both know I have worked alongside you long enough to see when you are not yourself." 

Ella did look at him then, and it was as though Snape was looking back at a ghost he thought, as Ella's eyes seemed dull and far away.

"Have you harmed yourself over the weekend?" Something flickered on Ella's face at the brash question but she shook her head slowly.

"Truthfully?" Snape didn't like to question her—Ella had never once given him a reason to do so. But he was worried about her, and even Ella was capable of lying to protect her secret.

"Truthfully." Ella whispered as she rolled up her sleeve to reveal the wrist that was still healing nicely from the previous week.

"Ok. Miss White please do not think I am being difficult or trying to coddle you, but I can see you are not feeling yourself and I do request you go to bed rather than aid me tonight, in truth I do not have much need for your assistance today."

Something akin to hurt bled across Ella's face for long seconds before that neutral expression she had started to adopt slipped back into place. With a single nod Ella left the room, and Snape hoped above all else that she was sound asleep as he watched her absent seat over dinner.

Ella 🥺