Nella Dursley and the Wondrous World of Magic

The Cruelty of Wizardkind

Nella wasn't prepared. She heard some students, even some teachers, say the most heartless things.

“Why are Aurors showing up? It's just a house elf. It probably just keeled over and died.”

“Maybe it used to belong to one of those families? Before it became outlawed? Maybe it was a murder as a threat.”

“Maybe someone killed it as a prank?”

“The Minster thought about closing the school momentarily to investigate. Can you believe it? Over a house elf. It's not like a student died… I would like to take a week off though. Maybe it's a good thing the poor thing died.”

What made it worse was that Nella couldn't escape it, since most of the worst comments were made from Slytherins.

“They didn't see how it looked. They don't know how serious this is.” Scorpius grimly stated at breakfast after hearing a particularly nasty comment from Lidia. Nella shook her head, even Scorpius, however much he was trying to make her feel better, didn't seem to think much about the loss of life.

“Scorpius, someone is dead. It's not just about how awful the scene of the crime looked. An elf was murdered in cold blood.” Albus understood and Nella nodded in agreement.

“I- You're right. I-” Scorpius shook whatever thought he had away. He looked rather morosely at breakfast.

The food served had taken a hit, many students were outraged and many older students took to having meals outside the castle. Today they were served cold oatmeal with no sides or toppings. The castle immediately started looking less clean, and in the cold season, many fireplaces remained unlit unless a student or teacher decided to light it with a spell.

The third night following the disaster, Headmistress McGonagall made a speech at dinner,

“I have a grave announcement to you all, as most of you know, one of our staff, an elf by the name of Everett, was found dead by the broom cupboard, outside the castle.” Chatter erupted as if to fill the air with their remaining cruel words about his death. Nella caught several sarcastic so’s and many students rolled their eyes. She gripped her wand tightly, which sent involuntary sparks that nearly singed Lidia's robes. She hadn't noticed, but Albus held Nella's wand for her for the rest of the speech.

“Another body has been found, an elf by the name of Wendy was found on the seventh corridor this morning. This has become a very serious matter, so we must enforce very strict rules of curfew, traveling with professors and Aurors, and prefects. If anyone spots anything suspicious, please report it immediately. The remaining elves in the kitchen will no longer be with us at Hogwarts. We can not rely on our very hardworking caretaker, Mr. Filch, to maintain the castle, you are all expected to mind your messes. Madam Rosmerta has graciously offered to supply some of the meals, but until the elves return we must ask students to participate in the kitchens-”

For the first time since Nella had attended Hogwarts, the Slytherin table got loud, louder even than the full Gryffindor table, who, although many respectfully kept their peace, was not altogether quiet either.

“ENOUGH!” McGonagall glared at the silenced room, wand pointed at herself which seemed to have aided in her voice booming throughout the hall. She included even the professors, some of whom, let out an inappropriate grumble behind her, in her icy glare.

“This is a serious crime. I am astonished and disappointed. You have shamed the school and Helga Hufflepuff's memory. The ministry is taking this very seriously, whoever has done this will be facing severe consequences.” Headmistress McGonagall looked very scary. She stared at the hall and then left the staff table, letting her words soak throughout the hall.

The hall was silent in her wake.

~ ☪ ~

The following week was difficult for everyone. There wasn't enough staff to include the extra chores, or supervising of chores needed to run the school. Some of the hired security, which Nella learned was what had been called Aurors, had to pitch in a hand.

The student prefects had a lot of pressure, not to mention those who already had the added pressure of studying for their examinations that year, commonly known as OWLs, were at their breaking point.

There was one good thing in all of this negativity, Nella hadn't had an accident of any kind for the past week. The only thing that did happen, was magic that shot through her wand if she were holding it during a period of extreme emotion, which all of her friends confirmed was normal.

I wish I could tell Winky. Nella missed her special teacher and although they hadn't spent much time together, she found herself thinking about the emotional elf frequently.

There was another reason she wished to continue her classes with the elf. However much more control she had of her magic, she struggled with casting simple spells more than the rest of her class and that wasn't for a lack of trying. She studied, and she did flawlessly on any written assignments, so she knew she had the theory down, but she could only manage to send so much magic through her wand.

During mid-October Olivia had finally had enough, she startled Nella by yanking her wand away.

“What is your wand made of?” Nella realized just as she spoke, her mother worked at the wand shop.

“I can't remember,” Olivia shot her a glare for forgetting, but then continued to inspect as Nella finished.

“Does it have a unicorn core? Or something-”

“Unicorn hair core. I think this is willow wood.” She cast lumos, alighting the tip of the wand, quite brightly. They were outside at Hagrids, but the cloudy dimness of outside brightened in the light. She handed the wand back to Nella.

“Nox.” The light dimmed very slowly before extinguishing, and Nella felt herself tensing as she focussed on severing the light.

“Where are you going for Christmas?”

“What?” Albus stood up, being in the same home he frowned.

“Probably just back to our house, why?” Scorpius followed Albus with something of a little frown.

“Come visit me and my family, my mum can take a look at your wand. Wandlore is very complicated, but from what I do know, I shouldn't have an easier time casting than you with your wand.”

“I don't know. It could just be me, couldn't it? And shouldn't I visit the shop instead? Does your mom like talking about wands all the time?” Olivia shrugged before shaking her head.

“My mum loves studying creatures more than wands, but she just likes interesting things. I'm sure she'd be happy to at least take a look, she might also want to study you, she'd find you interesting.” Nella tried not to imagine a very uncomfortable experience involving prodding, but the horrifying image slipped into her mind before she could stop it.

“Could I come too?” Albus blushed embarrassed to ask but Olivia shrugged like it was no big deal.

“All three of you are invited, you all go everywhere together don't you?” Scorpius smiled a bit then frowned.

“That's because we're Slytherins. Do you know what happened to the first years last year?-” Scorpius stopped at the very grim look on Olivia's face.

“That's right. You don't know. Well, it's less of something and more of everything. A lot of students participated in all the bullying that happened last year. A lot of prefects turned a blind eye to it. There are a lot more older Slytherins around than younger, but even some of them were involved. So a lot of parents took their kids out of Hogwarts. I didn't think about that… I'd be sorry about leaving you three to the wolves, but you're all I ever spend time with.”

“Ye have each other, an’ that's what matters most.” Hagrid stepped in with a somber smile.

“It be about time I led you lot back to the castle. Don’ wanna be out after curfew.”
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I have plans to make the Slytherin house actually make sense. But its gunna take some time, gotta fight all the flat writing. Yeesh.

Also, it's early but, any suspects? Who you do you think dunnit? Hmmmm?

Word Count: 1386
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