The Night Before
By: DragonFrosttipLady
It had been a long, hard year for all of them. One of the closer hits to home was the death of Jazz, Lucy and Neville who had been recently married. After they died, Ella left her apartment one day in summer with the intention of finding Ron, Hermione, and Harry. After a few days of searching, she found them, of all places, in a small, remote lake cabin in upper state New York. This had been her last resort; she knew that she had told Harry in sixth year about her family's estate in the Adirondack Mts., in the U.S., but she didn't think he would remember it as it had been a very offhand remark. So she was surprised when she came up to the boathouse to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione inside with their wands pointing at her. They soon recognized her and they all walked her to the lodge that was also on the land next to the little lake to put her belongings away. As they started talking, they began hounding her for news from home, but she told them everything could wait until after dinner.
After they had finished eating, they went out on the deck of the cookhouse and talked about home. The three of them laughed at the thought of Lucy marrying Neville, but quickly sobered as she told them of who had died. Harry sat there in a kind of dull shock while Hermione buried her head in Ron's shoulder and sobbed quietly. After a minute, Ella quietly sprang on them the reason that she was there; to join them and defeat Voldemort. She was prepared to give a defense, but was just as surprised as Ron and Hermione when Harry muttered in a small voice, "Yes."
From that yes spewed many great adventures that are all written in the next book. Together they destroyed the rest of the Horuxes, some with near-fatal accidents accompanying them. Through all of that, they grew close enough to think that they could read each others thoughts and eventually Ron and Hermione did get themselves together. But now they were at the night before the Final Battle. Harry, Ella, Hermione, and Ron were all in Gryffindor Tower; each preparing in their own way. Hermione and Ron were in their own rooms, pouring over all of her spell books and sleeping respectively. Harry and Ella were in the common room, both trying not to think about the next day and failing horribly. Eventually Ella was able to doze off, but Harry just sat there staring into the fire. Soon though, her paranoid self caught the sound of quiet sobbing and woke up. She looked over at Harry and found that his shoulders were shaking with his head in his hands. Sighing, she went over and knelt before him and rubbed his back gently, making soft hooting sounds to comfort him. (Hedwig had been killed only a couple months before and she knew that Hedwig had been the best comfort Harry had.) Once Harry started bringing his sobs under control, she began to talk to him.
"Harry, what is wrong and don't you dare tell me nothing is wrong because you lost control and you don't lose control unless it is something important, so speak Harry!", exclaimed Ella, trying to get at least some response from him.
Harry replied in a scared child-like voice, "What if I'm not good enough to beat him? What if I get in front of him and freeze up? What if I go and just before I kill him, I find that I don't have enough courage to do it? What if…?"
Ella stepped back from him, aghast, "Harry! Stop it! Why do you doubt yourself? Why are you doubting us? You know that the three of us have your back! Hermione is up there working her butt off reviewing all of her spells FOR YOU! Why do you think that we have followed you so blindly all this time? We did this so that you could reach this point alive and relatively healthy."
Harry stared at Ella like he had never seen her before and suddenly it all made sense to him just exactly why they had all come, but Ella had a little bit more to say to shame him.
"So Harry James Potter, it all comes down to this: are you going to stay and fight like the brave person I know you are or are you going to run and hide like the coward I see you acting like right now? It is your choice so make it wisely, because no matter what you choose, I am going to be going to battle tomorrow. What say you?" Ella stopped because she ran out of breath on the longest speech she had ever made, but hopefully it got her point across.
Harry looked down at his hand, took a deep breath, and snapped his head up with the light of battle blazing in his eyes. "Ella, I hope you get some sleep tonight, because tomorrow we will walk into battle together to kick some Dark Lord butt!"
Ella laughed as she wiped the tears that suddenly came to her eyes away, "Thank you, Harry for making the right choice in yourself and us. Now let's get some sleep and face this dark day together!"
She leapt up and gave Harry a hug, then raced up the stairs to her room to prepare for the next day.
A/N Thank you for reading my third fanfic! Please REVIEW! You just have to click on that little blue button on the left hand bottom corner! Thanks! Much Love to all,
DragonFrosttipLady