Make Me.

Book 4 - Chapter 16

Ellie did exactly what she said she was going to do. She "went to bed."

Of course, it was the least restful nap she had had in months.

Her naps had been declining in quality since the beginning of the summer, but they really took a turn for the worst after the Quidditch World Cup. Now, add in the rats, plus the fact her father was nowhere to be seen and Fred Weasley was usually on the other side of the castle, and Ellie was in for even worse.

She wasn't even sure it could be called a nap. It took her forty minutes to calm down enough to even feel tired, then Marshall started rousing around, which woke her back up, and by the time she fell asleep, the sun was already set. Ellie's eyes did close momentarily, and they stayed closed for about ten minutes before she woke from a dream in which she drowned in a swimming pool full of writhing rodents. Fred kept trying to grab her hand and pull her out, but the rodents were stronger than he was. She died, and then woke up, and decided sleep was not in the cards for her anytime soon.

Daphne and Pansy weren't in the dormitory, signalling to Ellie that it wasn't as late as she had hoped it to be when she rolled out of bed. She took the opportunity to shower, washing the day away as best she could, and she was re-dressed, laced up, and carrying Marshall out the dormitory door, him sat happily in the hood of her sweatshirt, some thirty minutes later.

"Where's Malfoy?" she asked once she spotted her friends lounging on their favourite leather furniture, right in front of the fireplace, which was un-lit at the moment.

"He's pouting in bed," Blaise said, looking up from the wizard's chess game that was sat on the coffee table in front of him. His white pieces severely outnumbered the amount of black ones Theodore had on the board.

Ellie nodded at him and turned right around, heading back for the dormitory stairs. She felt horrible for what happened to Malfoy. He didn't deserve to be changed into a ferret against his will, then tossed around and smacked against the flagstone. She turned up the stairs towards the boys dormitories, walked down the hall looking for the one that had a number four plaque outside it, and stopped in front of it once she found it.

Ellie knocked a few times on the door. Nobody answered and Ellie knocked again. Again, there was no answer. She sighed.

"I don't think I can come in unless you say so," she said through the thick wooden door. A second or two passed before it creaked open.

Ellie pushed it open all the way and stood on the other side of the threshold, looking inside. Malfoy had very obviously stirred on top of his bed and flung down the book he was reading, his face turned up in disgust.

"I come in peace," Ellie said quietly, holding up her hands in surrender.

"Ugh. Fine. Come in," Malfoy grumbled.

She took a few steps into the room, closed the door behind herself with a gentle click, and then took the place in. The dormitory looked exactly like hers, except all the places where there should have been windows that looked out into the Black Lake, there was just large stretches of stone covered in intricate sewn tapestries. Also, the floor was much cleaner than it usually was in the girl's room.

"What are you doing here?" Malfoy grunted as he pulled himself up into a sitting position on his bedspread. His bed was situated on the far end of the room, almost directly opposite the door, but just a little to the right. It looked like they had both read the same page from the same book - showered and changed, painfully and fruitlessly trying to sleep the events of the day away.

"I came to check on you."

"I do not need to be checked on. Not by you."

Ellie stood and soaked up his words. She knew he wasn't going to be happy seeing her in his room, but she didn't care. She was the only person in the castle, perhaps besides Professor McGonagall, that truly understood what had happened to him that evening.