Make Me.

Book 4 - Chapter 20

Once Snape had led her back to her dormitory and bid her adieu, Ellie peeled off the sweaty clothes from her back and tossed them into the pile of stained robes on her bed. She did too check that Marshall was still there, somewhere in the crusty clothes, and was quite relieved to find him curled up in a ball with her metallic fountain pen sticking out his pocket.

Ellie left with him perched happily on her shoulder as her watch read five thirty and made heading for the Hospital Wing to check up on Daphne and Pansy. Upon her arrival, she learned that Madam Pomfrey had been instructed by Professor Snape to give them both a sleeping potion. They were both knocked out cold and Ellie thought it best to just leave them a little note of apology, then be on her way.

"'Scuse me," a frantic voice said as Ellie turned round the corner coming from the Infirmary and walking toward the Entrance Hall.

"Harry?" Ellie questioned, catching him on the shoulder as he stormed by.

"Oh," said Harry breathlessly. "It's you."

"You alright?" Ellie asked, sizing the boy up. He looked like he had gotten as much sleep as she had last night and he had an internal sort of look in his eyes, like he was stuck in his own head. At once, Ellie regretted asking that question because Harry looked right into her eyes and unloaded all that inner turmoil into her head.

. . .imagined my scar hurting. . .half-asleep when I wrote you last. . .no point in coming back. . .everything's fine. . . don't worry. . .

"Just going to the owlery," Harry said awkwardly with his hands in his pants pockets. He was already dressed for the day, just like she was.

"I see that," said Ellie, trying to shake Harry's gaze off her.

"You do?" Harry asked, unable to tell how Ellie could know he was possibly going to the owlery.

"You're sending something off to Sirius," she said, nodding her head in the direction Harry was originally walking in, indicating that she was to go with him.

"Er - yeah," said Harry, continuing forward and walking with her.

It was a silent walk all the way up to the owlery as Harry's thought's unloaded themselves into Ellie's head. He felt guilty for alerting Sirius to something that was not an immediate concern. He planned to send him a letter, telling him not to come back - that everything was fine.

The owlery, a circular stone room, was cold and drafty, with glassless windows that Ellie was rumoured to have fallen out of at the end of last term. The straw, owl-dropping, and regurgitated skeletons of mice and voles covered floor crunched under both Ellie and Harry's feet. Hundreds and hundreds of owls of every breed imaginable were nestled on perches that rose right up to the top of the tower, nearly all of them asleep, though here and there a round amber eye glared at Ellie. Harry's owl was nestled between a barn owl and a tawny, and he hurried over to her, sliding a little on the dropping-strewn floor.

Ellie stood in the middle of the floor, looking up and admiring the owls as Harry worked at persuading Hedwig to wake up and look at him. She kept shuffling around on her perch, showing him her tail. It took Harry so long to get her just to wake up that an owl with great standing ear tufts swooped down from its perch and landed curiously on the top of Ellie's head. After that, she stood very still, making sure to support the owl there.

Hedwig was very obviously still furious about Harry's lack of gratitude the previous night. It took Harry suggesting that she might be too tired to make the trip to Sirius and that he perhaps would ask Ron to borrow Pigwidgeon, that made her stick out her leg and allow him to tie the letter to it.

"Just find him, all right?" said Harry, stroking Hedwig's back as he carried her on his arm to one of the holes in the wall. "Before the dementors do."