Make Me.

Book 2 - Chapter 17

Knock. Knock. Knock. 

Ellie's left hand tapped the infirmary door lightly. With each knock, a spark of pain shot through her shoulder, across her chest, and down the arm that was dangling from her other side. The door creaked open just enough for Madam Pomfrey's face to shine though the crack, just as Ellie could no longer hear Harry and Ron's receding footsteps. 

The matron's face shone with disappointment for about half a second before her eyes fell onto Ellie's arm. The door swung open with haste and Ellie was tugged inside and hurried to a spare bed. Madam Pomfrey was bustling around, muttering exclamations and tugging the robes off of Ellie's torso. She was making quick work of the buttons on Ellie's shirt when she finally asked the dreaded question. 

"What on Earth happened?!" 

Ellie winced as Madam Pomfrey guided her right arm though the sleeve of her shirt. Every touch of her cold hands on Ellie's skin sent crackling pain though her bones. 

"Fell off my bed?" Ellie said, a sheepish smile on her lips. Madam Pomfrey eyed her with a McGonagall level stern look. They both knew she was lying, and they both knew Ellie would never tell the truth either. 

"You fell off your bed? And now your arm is no longer connected to your body?" Madam Pomfrey was looking sternly over her small spectacles. 

"Mhhhmm," Ellie grunted as her arm was twisted and turned in inspection. 

"And that's how you got covered in all these other bruises and cuts?" Madam Pomfrey was pointing to a few inflections that were clear on Ellie's other arm now that her shirt was off. Her finger shifted down to the girl's legs where her tights were ripped and holey as well. The matron picked a wiry black hair off of Ellie's skirt and held it up for the pair of them to see. 

"It was a long fall," Ellie murmured with the intent to shrug, pretending not to see the spider hair. 

"And those? What, is that from?" Madam Pomfrey was looking at two, very clearly pincer shaped abrasions that swallowed Ellie's ribs, though you wouldn't be able to tell that if you hadn't seen the pincers that did the damage. They were red and angry, sure to bruise. 

"I got tangled in my blankets on the way down," Ellie replied. 

It was a painful night of cracking bones back into place and deadly stares from Madam Pomfrey. 

~~~

Ellie was kept cooped up in the Hospital Wing, against her will, for almost two weeks. Though Madam Pomfrey had re-attached her arm in place and mended the broken bones all within a matter of minutes, she was set on keeping the girl in bed until all the other cuts and bruises were healed and until she could move her arm without a trace of pain. 

Every day that Madam Pomfrey came to check up on Ellie's healing, a surprised look spread across her face. 

"I've never seen anyone of - well, anyone really, recover from a broken arm and a couple bruises this slowly," the matron said offhandedly as Ellie sucked in a breath in reaction to the cold hands that just landed on her bruised torso. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ellie asked quietly, trying not to think about the dull pain pulsating through her stomach from Madam Pomfrey's poking and prodding. 

"Oh, I'm sure it's nothing dear," Madam Pomfrey finally answered after a few minutes of inspection. She placed Ellie's arm back down in the sling that it had been encased in since it's re-attachment. 

Ellie watched as the matron bustled away from her bedside and into her office. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know what Madam Pomfrey was talking about and eventually decided that if it had to do with her being, not human, then she didn't want to know. After a minute, the woman re-appeared with a stack of parchment that she placed on Ellie's bedside table.