Just beneath the surface

Chapter 6

The following few days passed relatively normally. Whatever odd mood Ella had been in after the weekend seemed to have faded away and she had been talkative and alert in her lessons—something that appeased the worry Snape had for her.
By the time Friday morning arrived, Snape was relatively confident that Ella's behaviour may have been a strange phase, and he was beyond glad to see her chatting about almost anything during her classes.
Professor Snape had handed a note to the Ravenclaw student on her way out of her potions lesson, indicating that he would be late to their after hours session but detailing a list of potions required for an order requested by Madam Pomfrey.

When it came time for Snape to return to his quarters after a long and rather dull meeting, he was almost glad that Ella had retreated into the warmth of his quarters to brew the potions rather than survive the ever cooling classroom.
But as Snape opened the door and called a greeting to Ella along with a hashed apology of just how late he really was to their session, he was surprised to see the girl slumped in the armchair by the fire; eyes closed and an empty vial in her hand.
For a long few seconds Snape thought the worse—that Ella had been stupid enough to make an attempt on her life. But he watched her shoulders rise and fall in a rhythm that was peaceful enough for only sleep, and he visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
Ella was exhausted—she had never once fallen asleep in the extra hours she worked, and Snape was conflicted when he saw her.

Summoning a piece of old parchment with his wand, he scrawled a quick note to the Headmaster asking whether he should wake her and send her to her own dormitory, or whether she should be allowed to sleep—god knew the girl clearly needed it.

It didn't take long for a reply.

Let the girl sleep, Severus. She spends a great deal of time in your company so I shouldn't think she would be uncomfortable with the arrangement. It is not far different from having a student under safeguarding after all.

A. Dumbledore.

With a sigh, Snape picked up a blanket and draped it over Ella, the hard planes of his face softening slightly as she buried herself beneath the wool.
And then, so gently as not to wake her, Snape prised the empty vial from the girls hand.
Snape was shocked at how cool her hands were considering the fire roaring beside the armchair, and the bluish tinge to her fingernails twisted his mouth into a tight line.
Ella White wasn't well. But to speak with her about it and get an answer without breaking the delicate trust between them was something he would have to tread lightly around.
Snape would speak with her in the morning and get to the bottom of all of this he thought, and it worried him greatly that a student who had once been so vivacious and bright had fallen into a girl that could not keep her eyes open...

***
Professor Snape had not slept well at all, he had spent a large portion of the night wondering how to go about speaking with Ella. He hadn't come to any sort of conclusion, but he was committed to confronting the problem head on, and would speak with her as soon as she woke.
Except, Ella was no longer in the armchair he had left her in last night—the blanket he had placed over her was neatly folded, and there was a piece of parchment laid on top of if—Ella's characteristic font leaving a short message for him.

Professor Snape,

I am so sorry to intrude last night, I didn't sleep very well the previous evening so it must have caught up with me—it won't happen again.

I finished the rest of the healing solutions this morning and will deliver them to the hospital wing shortly.
I will be along this afternoon for my apprenticeship.

Again—so sorry about last night!

E.W

Snape folded the parchment between his fingers before placing it in the pocket of his robes. No wonder the girl was exhausted.
It was barely past six in the morning and for her to have woken and finished the potion and allowed it sufficient time to brew and cool before transferring it into vials for Madam Pomfrey... good god she'd have been awake around four o clock.

This had to stop now, Snape thought to himself, and he had a good mind to prevent her from continuing on with this apprenticeship with the way it was clearly not doing her any good.
But something in Snape's mind told him that would be the worst thing he could do. Ella had trusted him with what had been going on—had allowed him to bandage her arm—if he didn't keep such a close eye on her, then who would? And Merlin only knew what Ella would do if he took the apprenticeship away after she had insistently bugged him over it for years in the first place.

With a sigh, Snape pulled a stack of first year essays to grade toward him and tried for a few hours at least to keep his mind off a chestnut haired Ravenclaw.

***

Ella White was sat at her desk—which was odd for a Saturday, they never usually did any work within the potions classroom on weekends, it was spent outside collecting ingredients or within Snape's personal quarters where the chatter was usually less formal. Professor Snape swallowed a smile that rose to his face at a memory of Ella on one of those weekends, and how she had been so full of joy at life that she had not stopped speaking for a solid thirty four minutes.
It only worried Snape more.

"Not attending lunch today, Miss White." Snape said, striding across the room to observe whatever it was Ella was brewing today—he hadn't left any specific instructions for her.
He was mildly surprised to smell sleeping draught almost finished, but not as curious as he was to know why she had been absent from lunch.

"No sir, I wasn't hungry, I had a large breakfast."

For the first time in almost six years at Hogwarts, Ella White had lied to him. He could see it plainly. Her eyes had not moved from the potion in front of her—for a student so fond of helping her teachers and always wanting to impress, it was odd—Snape didn't know what to think of it. So he proceeded to open the door to his own quarters at the back of the classroom and begin making soup for her.
Ella didn't seem to notice, her attention still fixed on a potion he still wondered why she was making.

"Miss White, I don't mean to pry but have you not been sleeping?"
Ella started at her name, finally raising her head to look at him through the open door.

"Not as well as I'd like sir, if I'm being honest. Perhaps it's the stress from my OWLs this year."
Of course, Snape had forgotten all about her exams this year and how was inevitably placing more stress on her than usual.
But he had not remembered the exams because he didn't have any concern about Ella passing them. She would fly through every single one. He believed she knew that just as well as he did.

"Well if the potion has finished I'd like you to come through, I have an interesting little potion I'd like to speak with you about."

Ella's eyes lit up at the statement and the prospect of another academic pursuit. She was through the door quickly and back cross-legged in her usual armchair just in time to see Snape place the soup and bread on the table and for a flash of panic to spread over her eyes.
Snape closed his eyes in understanding before turning back to face her.

I hope you're all enjoying the story so far, let me know your thoughts 😊