HI!
Sorry about that but I'm really hyper! On a song though, not Lucozade (thank God).
I'm sorry I put this story aside. I'm so sorry! *starts to cry manically*
Thank you to Guest who also reviewed, and I'm sorry if I'm updating strangely but it's only so I don't let any of you who read this down!
Right, now that's over with, I don't and never will own Harry Potter!
Edited on 8th April 2015
"You say that you've never been, all the things that you've seen, slowly fade away." - Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis
Chapter 6: Elfish Welfare
The Great Hall was even more crowded and stuffy then it usually seemed to be. Selene took one look at the gathering around the group of girls that she normally sat with, and shook her head.
Cedric - of course - looked up as she turned to go, and sent her a questioning look.
Cedric was Cho's current crush, and he was such a change from the men she had fallen for before. Selene had known him for years, as the Diggory's were an old Pureblood family and their families operated in the same circles.
They'd fallen out of touch after Selene went to Beauxbatons, but after Dumbledore had reluctantly bowed down to her father's insistence that she move to Hogwarts, her and Cedric had become friends again. Admittedly not as close as they had been, but friends all the same.
"Library," she mouthed at him, shifting her bag a little higher on her shoulder. Cedric nodded sympathetically, and Selene relaxed considerably.
Thank goodness it had been Cedric and not Cho that had noticed her change of plans. Cho would most certainly have forced her to sit with them.
She didn't want to push her luck any more than she had to, so Selene turned around, and thought about how much work she could get done while everyone else was at dinner.
oOo
"Cross reference the… The…"
Selene nibbled slightly at her bottom lip, sweeping her hair off her shoulder and massaging her temples. Transfiguration never came easily to her, however hard she tried. It didn't click with her like Charms, or Ancient Runes, or Arithmancy did. It was a mess of gobbledegook. Unfortunately not the actual language, because at least she understood a few words of that.
Golpalott's Tenth Law was making less and less sense the more times she read it over, to the point where the words were messed up into a page of black streaks. Selene slammed the book shut instead, dampening the sound just in time, and turned to the work she could do – Charms.
"Are you okay?"
Selene started, looking up into the equally startled eyes of Hermione Granger. The girl in question placed a considerable time in front of Selene, and offered her a cautious smile.
"You looked like you were having a bit of trouble," Hermione explained. "This should help- was it Transfiguration?"
Selene nodded, taking a deep breath as she accepted the book, picking it up and turning it over in her hands, resisting the urge to sniff it. Old books smelt musty, and of old libraries - like this one. There was just something exquisite about the smell of old books. Selene couldn't place her finger on the scent exactly, but it was on the tip of her tongue.
"Do you, you know," Hermione continued gingerly. "Want any help?"
"Granger's an insufferable know-it-all," Draco sighed, glaring down at the pile of Divination holiday homework he had been kindly given by Professor Trelawney. "God, and what is up with her hair?"
"Yes please," Selene answered quickly, before she could change her mind.
Hermione grinned in response, taking the empty seat next to Selene and placing the large wooden box that she had been working with. "Right," she began, suddenly serious. "What is it you were having trouble with?"
"Golpalott's Tenth Law," Selene explained, running her finger down the list of contents and turning to the assigned page. "The one about the assigned mass and it's delegations..."
"Oh, that one?" Although it was Sixth Year work, Selene wasn't surprised that Hermione knew of it. "That's simple- you just need to cross-reference the unknown variable, u."
Selene tested this out, her face slowly breaking out into a smile as it worked, and the Tenth Law finally began to make some kind of sense.
"Thanks!" Selene said, her eyes bright and all thoughts of anything negative pushed out of her mind.
"It's really no problem," Hermione insisted, allowing herself a little smile. "Actually- could you do me a favour?"
This wasn't what Selene had been expecting. But she nodded all the same, holding her breath to prevent her face flushing up. "Anything," she said, after a while, when her reflexes kicked in.
"I just founded this society," Hermione began, reaching into the wooden box and fishing out a brightly coloured badge with the initials SPEW inked onto it. "S.P.E.W. It stands for the Society for the Protection of Elfish Welfare."
Selene nodded, shutting the tome and accepting the fluorescent orange badge from Hermione. "So, it's a society for House Elves?" she asked curiously.
Hermione passed her a blue-embossed leaflet in response, and grinned. "Everything you want to know is in here," she stated. "That is, of course, if you'll join."
Not a good idea. Her inner voice warned, as Selene began to remember. Either that memory, or to say yes.
"U-um..." Selene began, swallowing her voice as she remembered Dobby. Her inner voice grew stronger, and louder, until it drowned out everything else. "Yes. Yes I will."
If Hermione noted Selene's abruptness, she didn't comment on it. Instead, she smiled widely, pressing the orange badge into Selene's hand. "Great!" she said cheerily. "I'm planning to ask Harry and Ron to join as well- do you know them? Well, of course you know Harry-"
"Yes, I know them," Selene smiled. She might have been older, and in a different House, but she knew all about Harry Potter and Ron Weasley's escapades, just as much as she knew everything about Hermione Granger's intellect.
"Good!" Hermione grinned again, picking her wooden box up. "I'm off to go and see them... I guess I'll see you soon!"
Selene smiled, somewhat weakly as Hermione departed. She waited until the younger girl's bushy head of hair had disappeared around the corner before Selene began to pack up her books.
The tome Hermione had passed her was still lying on the desk in front of Selene - and, on a whim, she picked it up and carried it over to Madam Pince. "Can I take this out?" she asked, without any of the trepidation you might find in any other Hogwarts student - for Selene was well known to Madam Pince, and the two got along amiably.
"Certainly," Madam Pince said curtly, looking up from her work, flipping open the front cover and stamping the first page with a magical stamp.
The large book barely fit in Selene's bag, so she just carried it, wrapping her arms around it and slipping the S.P.E.W. badge into her pocket for the moment.
Selene checked her watch - she had half an hour until curfew. She relaxed, certain that Mr Filch wouldn't have any reason to catch her out on this night, and set off at a calm pace towards Ravenclaw Tower.
"Ah!"
Selene jumped, almost dropping her book on the floor, turning around and reaching for her wand out of nervous habit. Except her nerviness seemed to be rather misplaced, especially as it turned out to be Neville Longbottom who had startled her.
Something in his expression softened Selene's caution outright, and she lowered her guard faster than she would normally. "Are you okay?" she asked quietly, stepping into the full light, so Neville could see her fully.
The younger boy jumped backwards again, Selene's heart missing a beat from its already fast-paced pattern. "W-who are you?" he asked, half in wonderment, half in terrified fixation.
"Selene," Selene said, biting her bottom lip. "Why are you out here so late?"
Neville gestured down at his legs, which were completely trapped in a trick step. Selene had never seen the comedy value of them, to be honest. She had been on the receiving end of the practical joke many a time, much to Cho's amusement.
Then her Prefect reflexes must have kicked in, because she took hold of Neville's arms and used what little strength she had to haul him out of the trick step, hiding her flushed face behind her hair, which had begun to fall over her face.
"You're not the only one," Selene said awkwardly, offering Neville a little smile, which he returned. "Now, you'd better get back to your Common Room, before curfew begins."
"Thanks," Neville said, almost tripping over the top step of the staircase in his haste to move. Selene giggled, and watched the younger boy move away, a lot of unanswered questions just on the tip of her tongue.
It had started with George, then spread to Hermione, and now Neville. What was happening to her?
With every passing day, her problems were getting bigger and much, much worse. Selene swallowed once more, tucking a loose strand of curly hair behind her ear. Then she turned on her heel, walking towards her Common Room with twice the speed she had possessed before.
