Make Me.

Book 3 - Chapter 12

Ellie was more than pleased to finally be back on a normal school schedule, or at least as normal as it could be for the girl, by the time Monday rolled around. She never wanted to stay in a hospital bed again, and was making it a personal goal to not visit Madam Pomfrey for the entire rest of the year. She knew she was stretching her luck, but a girl could only hope.

While she was away from the castle, Defense Against the Dark Arts with Remus Lupin had become most people's favorite class. Ellie was quite pleased to find upon her return that nobody longer cared that Remus's robes were patched and frayed, except for Malfoy, who made sure to let Ellie know what he thought about their new teacher on her first day back.

"Look at the state of his robes," Malfoy said in a loud whisper as Professor Lupin passed his desk. "He dresses like our old house elf."

Ron and Harry had to press Ellie's shoulders down to get her to stay in her seat.

While she was away, her father had taught the class about Red Caps. They were nasty little goblin-like creatures that lurked wherever there bad been bloodshed, waiting around to bludgeon those who dared enter their new domain. After Red Caps, they moved onto Kappas. Ellie's first day back, she entered the Dark Arts classroom and found a large glass tank sitting on the front desk. Inside, a Kappa, a water-dwelling scaly monkey like creature with webbed hands. As Neville sat down his in seat at the front of the room, the Kappa tried jumping out of the tank to strangle him, but fell flopping to the floor as soon as it was out of water.

Upon returning to Potions, Ellie found out that the story of Neville'sboggart was now know by the entire castle and Professor Snape was bullying Neville worse than ever and, anytime anyone mention Professor Lupin, Snape's eyes began to twitch.

Returning to Ancient Runes, Ellie determined that sitting in the classroom was practically exactly the same as sitting in her hospital bed and completing the assignments there. It was just a lot of reading, translating, and sitting around waiting for everyone else to finish their work. Ellie's head usually was on the table or Theodore's shoulder by the end of the class.

And, contrary to the sentiments of her fellow classmates, Ellie returned to Care of Magical Creatures, more than eager to care for Hagrid'sflobberworms, the same flobberworms that landed that Hufflepuff in the Hospital Wing with her. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence after the Hippogriff accident and Ellie was constantly trying to hype him up about his worms, despite the rest of the class finding them quite dull. She was the only person happily tossing shredded lettuce into the pens, watching the worms wriggle around on top of it, 'eating' it and getting slime everywhere.

~~~

On Wednesday evening, Ellie found herself in a place she missed dearly: the library. Hermione was bent over a Divination assignment, her arms situated around her parchment, blocking Harry and Ron, who were working on the same assignment, from looking at her answers. Ellie's head was drooped down to her chest, chin sagging from the weight of her eye bags. Her feet were up on the edge of the table, and her chair was pushed as far back as it could go to accommodate for the length her legs needed to stretch the distance. It would've taken nothing more than a light breeze to disrupt the intricately balanced position she was in, so naturally -

Ron smacked the bottom of one of Ellie's feet.

Her legs instantly slipped off the table, her knees cracked, and her head whipped up to see what had just happened. No matter if she was sleeping flopped over a on a desktop, with her head on someone's shoulder, or in the comfort and safety of her own bed, every time Ellie woke, she was instantly catapulted into fight or flight mode. Her eyes were wide, her heart was thundering, and her hand was already reaching for her wand.