A/N: I do not own the Harry Potter series, all things belong to J.K. Rowling. Also this is the 5th installment in Ella's series, if you haven't read the others, I suggest reading them first -it may help with any confusion you may have. :)


The Riddle House

Ella Worthington casually walked down a street in London without causing any trouble while the rest of the world passed by. The fifteen year old didn't have a particular reason for walking down a busy street in a busy city alone, but she enjoyed the freedom nonetheless. Ella had been out of school for a week, but to her it felt like she had been trapped there for months.

The young witch spent her days milling about wherever she felt she could. She hadn't had much time to change from the previous school year. The most notable difference was that she was finally wearing short sleeve shirts now that her arms had healed. The scars from the werewolf attack she had been a part of were only noticeable if someone knew where to look and looked closely. Currently, Ella's long brown hair was pulled back and her eyes were glazed over as her thoughts drifted. No Muggle paid Ella close attention, but none of them knew that the young girl in front of them was special and not just because she was a witch. Ella was a powerful witch, but she was also an Animagus and had the ability to see the future. While her past may have been exciting and the future may seem frightening, Ella's present was not faring much better either.

Ella's school year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry may have ended a week ago, but Ella's parents still hadn't said a word to her. She was worried originally that something had happened to them when they didn't pick her up at the train station, but they had been perfectly fine as it turns out. The only thing out of the ordinary was that Ella had officially turned completely invisible to them. She remembered very clearly how they refused to even acknowledge her speaking. She didn't pay any mind though –she'd be with the Weasleys in just two short weeks.

Her parents may have been neglecting her existence, but the Weasley family was doing everything in their power to make sure she knew she had a home to turn to. No less than five letters were sitting in her bedroom currently, each from a different family member. Mr. Weasley's reminder to her that he would come and get her sooner if she needed him to while Mrs. Weasley sent a box of sweets along with a kind letter about how much she missed having her in the house. Ginny had also sent her a letter that Ella deciphered as her attempt to make sure she was okay, but instead of asking directly, Ginny just discussed Quidditch and her favorite team –the Holyhead Harpies. What truly surprised Ella were her two separate letters from Fred and George. While they typically wanted to send her letters together both of the boys must have decided voicing their thoughts would be easier if they were separated, which rarely ever happened.

She had to admit that the letter from Fred had somehow made its way under her pillow while George's sat on her desk. Nothing in it stood out much, but she had to admit that her stomach did flips when she thought of him taking the time to write the letter by himself. Ella had been hoping for almost two years that Fred would feel the same way about her, but he seemed to be completely oblivious no matter what. Maybe this year would be different –Ella hoped it would.

So Ella had responded to her friends and kept them up to date with the fact her parents may have been mute, but things were manageable. This wasn't something Ella had never dealt with before in any case. She was just a little appalled with the lengths they were going this time to keep quiet and pretend she wasn't there. Ella was honestly surprised that they were two adults. They acted like they were her age with giving silent treatments like this. She supposed it wasn't unwarranted considering she probably ruined their chances at a promotion for their work. Still it was a little disconcerting how easy it was for the three of them to be silent towards one another.

This wasn't what Ella contemplated on her walk around London though. Her head was filled with the latest information her dreams had given her the night before.

"My Lord, Bertha Jorkins's disappearance will not go unnoticed for long, and if we proceed, if I murder–" Ella recognized the unmistakable quiver of Peter Pettigrew's voice, but the discussion he'd been having frightened her the most. She had no idea who had disappeared, but if Pettigrew was talking to who she assumed he was she knew that the poor woman must be in a terrible position.

Her worst thoughts were confirmed when a high voice rasped, "I killed Bertha because I had to. She was fit for nothing after my questioning, quite useless." Voldemort spoke with no remorse in his voice. Part of Ella knew he was too inhumane to have anything even close to empathy in his veins, but the mere thought of a human committing murder and not caring even a bit was shocking.

Ella could tell that they were planning something big, but she had no idea whether she was seeing the near future or something that wouldn't happen for a year or more. Ella also didn't enjoy the idea of Voldemort's questioning tactics. The screams of Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom still echoed in her mind on occasion. While she wouldn't wish that on anyone, it did seem like a plausible way to make some give you the information they wanted. It was also frustrating that she couldn't actually see this vision. All she could do was listen while darkness closed around her. Despite her attempts to push herself into the place Voldemort and Pettigrew were staying, her powers refused to comply. Sometimes she felt like she was grasping for something solid in these dreams only to realize this power was air.

The dream shifted after that sending Ella into a new realm, one that was becoming increasingly familiar to her. Most of the dreams she'd been having were beginning to come together now and all of them were pointing to the same thing. She could easily see now that Hogwarts was due to host the Tri-Wizard Tournament. By the looks of it, the event would be this coming year. Ella didn't know how she felt about the whole deal, but if Dumbledore agreed to it she assumed he knew what he was doing. So far she'd seen two of the three events that would take place during the tournament, but this was different. She somehow knew that this was a part of the tournament, but it wasn't like the others. The whole school was gathered in the Great Hall.

It had to be around Christmas time because that's what the decorations were indicating in the Great Hall. Ella stood in the center of all the madness as more students than she thought attended Hogwarts danced around her. She couldn't see their faces in the blur that surrounded her, but she could tell they were dressed up as though they were going to a ball.

From the dream, Ella could only assume she'd need to bring a dress to school. She found the idea of a ball almost absurd. The girls in her dream were all dolled up with special hair-dos and whatnot, but Ella had never seen even makeup on the Hogwarts grounds much less anything remotely possible for a ball. One of the main reasons Ella had chosen to walk around London was to see if she could find any makeup to buy her friends and herself. They'd want something to make them dressed up –she assumed anyway. Television was the only thing making her believe that. The other reason she was actually in London was a certain boy with a lightening scar.

Fred and George had both mentioned in their letters that this summer was going to top the charts in awful relatives being terrible to the people they are supposed to take care of. It appeared that the Dursleys, the family Harry Potter lived with and Ella had the privilege of spending Christmas Eve with the year before, were going on a diet and Harry was forced to go along with it. Ella could hardly believe that a boy like Harry would ever be allowed on a diet. Maybe Mrs. Weasley was really beginning to rub off on Ella, but she believed he was way too skinny for a boy his age. She'd made up her mind that it was completely necessary for her to send him food as well considering he'd be living the rest of the summer on portions that small house pets couldn't survive on.

As the day passed on, Ella glanced in the different shop windows she was passing by. Nothing really stuck out to her, but the most she typically wore was her school robes. Sure, her parents were still buying her business casual Muggle clothing so she'd fit in at home, but that wasn't something she often wore. It was starting to get later in the afternoon and Ella personally knew she'd need to be home before her parents got there. She decided she'd hail a taxi at the end of the street she was on.

And then she saw it.

The little beauty shop on the very corner of the street seemed to be pretty empty during the afternoon, but the dresses in the window were beautiful. Ella hardly even knew how clothing actually looked but these dresses were surely the height of fashion. One in the window display especially caught her eye. After stopping into the store for a short period of time, Ella left with the makeup she had wanted and the dress from the window. She could hardly believe her luck with it.

When she finally arrived back at her house, she was relieved that no one had arrived just yet. Both of her parents were still at work and when Ella glanced at a clock she realized she would most likely have an hour before they arrived at home. She rushed up to her room and threw the dress into her closet for safe keeping before sitting on the edge of her bed. Rowena sat across from her on the other side of the room and flew over to join her once Ella got comfortable.

"Why hello, any news today?" Ella asked her pet. Rowena cooed and hopped towards her desk. Ella followed the bird only slightly peeved that she had waited until Ella was comfortable to point out the letter. The envelope on the desk was clearly addressed to her in writing that she'd seen before.

Dear Ella,

I hope this letter will reach you before you're my age, but finding birds has been rather difficult especially since this bird I don't wish to buy. You may know that I sent Harry a letter using an owl I bought for Ron. This letter would have gone with him, but the little thing probably wouldn't have gotten off the ground with two letters, which is why I've been waiting until now to send this to you.

Just so you know, I made it out of the country safely and will be watching my actions in order to remain free. You always warned me about being too careless so I assure you I'm being as careful as I possibly can be. I urge you to do the same.

The night when the big event happened I hope you came out of just fine. I barely was able to register at the time that you had followed us out there as a fox. It was only later when I was reflecting on it did I realize that even though you said you were going to go after Pettigrew you still ran away to go to where it seemed Lupin was. I don't know why you did that or everything that conspired that night, but I know you well enough to realize whatever happened was necessary.

Please take care of yourself and be sure to write to me if something horribly wrong happens,

Padfoot

Ella smiled at the letter and decided to respond only if she needed to. If Sirius kept receiving owls it would look suspicious and that was the last thing Ella wanted. She did, however, have a different letter to write. She took a seat at her desk and began to write.

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

I hope I'm not bothering you too much, but I wanted to tell you about the dream I had last night, or at least ask a few questions. Do you know a Bertha Jorkins? If the name does sound familiar I think you should certainly look into where she is and how she is doing. I dreamt last night that Voldemort had killed her after she disappeared. Part of me fears that this has already happened, but if we could in any way prevent it we should. Voldemort mentioned something about questioning her and figuring something out from her. By the sounds of it –it was very bad for the rest of us.

Sincerely,

Ella Worthington

After reading through the note several times, Ella smiled at her bird.

"I'm about to be very jealous of you because you get to go find Dumbledore, and I believe that'll be at Hogwarts," Ella told Rowena. The owl hooted excitedly. "Oh yes, brag it up why don't you? Better wait until tonight though or the first thing my parents will do to acknowledge my existence is kill me for showing my abnormality." Rowena nuzzled Ella's outstretched hand in acknowledgement as the door to the house slammed shut below them.

"Ella, come down here."

She froze.

Her parents hadn't addressed her since Christmas and now her mother was shouting for her to go downstairs and talk with them. Ella had no idea what she wanted but her mind could only imagine the worst. She slowly stood up and made her way to the living room.

Both of her parents stood in the center of the room and watched her enter. Neither of them were smiling, which she kind of expected but it was still making her nervous.

"Hi," she told them, "are we on speaking terms now?"

They ignored the snarky comment and her father said, "As you may remember from before you ran away last Christmas, your mother and I were trying to get a business promotion at work."

Ella nodded, "I remember."

"Well, we got it," her mother said shortly. Ella's eyes widened in shock. She had been thinking the whole time they hadn't gotten it. After all, she was supposed to help them look good and then ended up lashing out to all the rude guests before running away to the Burrow near midnight.

"Congratulations?"

Her mother huffed and looked towards Ella's father. He sighed and took one step forward. Looking Ella dead in the eye he uttered a phrase Ella was not expecting to hear.

"We're moving."


A/N: Thank you so much for all the reviews on the last story, you really pulled through and as I promised, I put this one up! So what do you think is going to happen this year for Ella? We all know it's a pretty big school year in general so any guesses about Mad-eye or the ball or even interactions with the other schools? I don't want to ask for too much, but I'd love to get 15 reviews before the next chapter (but in all honesty, if I got 10 I'd post anyway) :) Thanks for all your support!