Sly Fox

Owls & dragons

Sitting by the lake, Elle listened as Neville ranted about herbology and the weeds he had picked up from the lake. She was not bothered by Neville's ranting but saw the look on Harry's face, and her soft look fell. As Neville went on talking, she turned to her friend.

"Do you know what the first task is yet?" She said. But before he could answer, Hermione came towards them.

"Hello, mi lady," Elle exclaimed.

"Er, hi. Harry, Ronald would like me to tell you that Seamus told him that Dean was told by Parvati that Hagrid's looking for you," she said with uncertainty.

"Well," Harry began. "What?"

Hermione went back and whispered to Ron, standing next to her sister. After a while, she returned to Harry and told him that Hagrid was looking for him.

"Yeah, we'll tell Ron-"

"I am not an owl!" Hermione shouted in response.

"Atta girl," Elle said. "Honestly, you both are acting like children. You should-" she tried but got interrupted by Ron.

"Elle, you don't always have to be the hero of the story. Stop putting your nose where it doesn't belong," he spat.

"Wow, what has got your wand in a twist" she scoffed and turned back to her book. She did not want to be mad at Ron since she knew how he could be; this was nothing personal. She understood that Ron acting up must be a result of his fear for his friend. But right then, she had nothing to say to defend him. She reminded herself that she would find some way for them to make up if they could not solve it for themselves soon.

The following day Elle wandered through the castle in her quidditch sweatshirt on her way to breakfast. She was pretty mad that quidditch had been cancelled this year for the Triwizards tournament, but maybe that was good; at least she could focus more on her studies now.

"Hey, Fox!" She heard a voice call for her.

To her surprise, she was met with the faces of Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini. Malfoy was now where to be seen, which was unusual since it was not typical for Parkinson and Zabini to act independently. Elle had dropped her bad mood long ago and was ready to take on the insults they would throw her way.

"Your little show in the library-" Zabini said.

"Oh, go cry about it to someone who cares," she said, walking towards the breakfast tables waiting for her.

"We thought it was bloody cool," she heard Parkinson say, making Elle stop in her tracks.

"Are you under imperious or something?" She asked, a bit stunned.

But the Slytherins remained silent, which she took as a no to her question. She had never actually had anything against these particular Slytherins; they had never done anything more than send out glares and small comments here and there. In fact, Elle has always felt bad for the prejudice against their house.

"Why, thank you. If you ever need help handling those two buffoons Malfoy has following him around; you know where to find me," she said with a wink and turned to leave.

She sat at her usual place, ate her bowl of yogurt, and drank from her cup of coffee when Harry approached her. He sat down besides her and looked a bit stressed. She took another sip of coffee when-

"It's dragons; the first task is dragons."

Her coffee was no longer in her mouth but all over Seamus, who sat in front of her. She had spewed it all out in a fit of chock. Everybody burst out laughing, including Elle and Harry. She even caught a glance of Pansy giggling from the Slytherin table.