Better - The Marauders

THIRTY-FOUR

- Chapter Thirty-Four -
"Please wake up."

Rumours travelled fast throughout Hogwarts.

People were talking and whispering about Elladora everywhere they looked. In class, at dinner, even in the bathrooms they can hear the gossip, just endless talking about things that they should keep their big noses out of. Slytherins were taking it the most amusing and it made them sick, the house of the snake was constantly giggling and laughing about something and Avery kept getting pats on the backs, but all the other houses were angry.

Really angry.

Now not many of them knew Elladora, at all, but they knew how confident she had become in these past months. Her confidence had inspired others, you might say, there were get well soon presents and cards practically piling into a mountain at the end of her bed in the hospital wing.

Others had taken the situation very heavily, others being the marauders and Regulus Black. Regulus felt like he couldn't stand up for himself anymore, with Elladora practically paralysed, he was drained of confidence, he had become corrupted by the whispers and the endless provoking of Snape. Everyone had seen his change in behaviour, he was quiet and reserved and now he's mean and horrible, he couldn't possibly have been friends with Elladora Hargreeves, the supposedly lovely girl that everyone was feeling sorry for.

The Marauders were by far the worst, though, their grades were slipping, they hadn't pulled a prank in forever and James hadn't talked to Lily Evans since Elladora fell asleep in the Hospital Wing. Two weeks. He hadn't talked to Lily in two weeks and Elladora still hadn't woken up.

Breakfast, dinner and lunch were all quiet, none of them really felt like talking without Elladora, there would be a little mumble or sentence here and there, but when she originally fell asleep in the Hospital Wing, they thought she might wake up the next day, maybe the day after, but here they are, going into the week of Remus' full moon without her.

They took shifts, sitting next to her hospital bed, skipping lessons and having Madam Pomfrey bring them food when they needed it. There would often be people coming in to add to the mountainous pile of cards, but they would simply smile sympathetically at whichever boy say there and move on, going about their every day lives, with no one missing.

What made it worse, was that the very person that had done this to her, got off with practically only a slap on the wrist.

At first, the teachers were furious, speaking hurriedly to Professor Penhurst and then everybody else who had been in the class, even the Marauders, but they couldn't really get through the whole thing without starting to cry or getting really angry at Avery.

Eventually, with all the witnesses pointing to one particular student, the staff had no choice but to question Avery. But he lied, he lied his ass of. Apparently, he had been skimming through books in the library, a shelf just outside the restricted section and found a book that had loads of hexes and jinxes inside it, he found one but didn't know what it did. But he wanted to test it.