MC:
Ellie returns my journal to me the next morning. She looks tired, but happy, and I take the bloodshot of her eyes and the mess of her hair and the slouch of her shoulders as indications that she had stayed up very late. She's called back to the Ravenclaw table where her stormy, magnificent friends were recounting a story that required a lot of grand gesturing and inside jokes.
The thing about Ravenclaws were that they weren't what they were made out to be. They weren't the bookish, law abiding students. The Ravenclaws were bored. All the time. They always wanted to know more, to get more, to experience every single thing in the world. School was unimportant- if they didn't like the curriculum they wouldn't go to class. They were smart enough not to get caught, and Ravenclaws doing their worst could devastate anyone.
I never understood why Ellie went to Ravenclaw, because she never seemed to want to know anything. She was willing to walk away from something, and she wouldn't care that she had missed it. The only thing remotely Ravenclaw about Ellie was that she was good at making people feel bad- she had done it to Lysander for years. But I don't know. I can't read her mind.
I tuck my notebook away and continue on with eating breakfast, feeling reasonably satisfied to see Ellie happy. I do my routine check, eyes sweeping around the room from Ellie to Joel, to Lysander, but Lysander isn't there. I frown at his empty seat, and then look up slightly, to the table behind, and see Joel watching me, a smile on his face. He looks the same. I think. I look over his sweater and rumpled collar and tie, at his chapped lips and tumbleweed hair, and I can't find anything different. But he's still smiling at me, eerily content, and I stare, unnerved back at him, until I can't look at him any longer and turn. His grin widens, like he had won some something. I don't feel hungry anymore.
I go to Potions- the one class I'm actually good at- but it's a class that we have with the Hufflepuffs, and I can practically feel Joel watching me form the back, the hairs on the back of my neck standing. By the end, I'm eager to escape and scramble for the doors, freaked out.
"Where are you rushing off to?" he purrs, catching my hand before I can leave the room, and my blood goes cold. I push him away and stumble back, running into someone who shoots something nasty at me, disgruntled, before Joel laughs and strolls out of the room.
Ellie:
I breeze through classes with confractus and after dinner I walk outside, cooling down to a contented calm as I walk.
"Now now," I hear someone say, breaking the quiet, and I instantly recognise the voice as Joel's. "I thought you would've picked yourself up by now, brother dear."
There's an unintelligible groan, and then swearing. My other brother. His voice is strained and raspy, like he's in pain. Knowing Joel, he probably is.
"Is that right? Well, I've got news for you. I don't care."
I move towards the voices and stand at the entrance of the Quidditch pitch and see Joel hauling Lysander across the grass. Lysander's legs keep cutting out from under him, and he staggers drunkenly, crashing into Joel repeatedly, grappling for a better hold on his shirt and sliding down towards the ground. Joel doesn't care, and keeps dragging him forwards. When he sees me, he smiles.
"Hey, look, it's a family reunion," he says, smile widening.
"Oh, Jesus Christ," I say, looking at the grin on his face and freaking the fuck out. This was it. Joel has gone over the edge. We are all going to die.
"What, not happy to see us?" he asks, plastering a pout on his face and dumping Lysander on the ground. "Come here and help me carry this fuckass back to the castle."
"Oh hell no," I say, backing away. "I'm not getting near you or Lysander. Whatever freaky shit is happening, you can keep it to yourself."
He sneers. "Ah, you've changed, Ellie. At least you have a fucking backbone now."
"Nope," I say, turning. "Not engaging. I'm out."
"Ellie," Lysander gasps out, pushing himself up onto his elbows painfully, and then falling on his face. He reaches out an arm, and lifts his head, reaching towards me. "Ellie, please. Don't leave me with him."
I just shake my head and get the fuck out of there.
Joel:
"Let go of me," Lysander rasps out, as he hobbles towards the castle.
"Did you really lie there the whole night?" I ask, curious.
"Bitch."
I elbow him hard in the stomach, delighted at the opportunity, and he doubles over, coughing and gagging. "What was that again?" I ask. "I didn't hear you."
He scowls, wiping the blood from his lips, and pushes me away, staggering forwards. He turns to look at me, and I can see the darkening of his eyes, I can see this malleable hate in him, and suddenly I know what it feels like- when Lysander plays hell with my head and leaves me in a heated, angry mess. This was power. These were the strings on the puppet, and I was holding them now. I was in control. This was something I could get used to.
I walk beside him back up to the castle, and I can tell that he wants to run, but he can't find the energy to. He keeps trying to walk faster, but he can't keep his balance going that fast, so he drags himself alongside me, and I watch hum struggle with satisfaction.
He tumbles forwards onto the steps of the school and I leave him there, walking into the building. He mumbles something darkly and a spell zips past and ricochets off the walls. I whirl around, hand flying to my wand in my pocket, but then I stop myself. Not now. I'll have time for plenty of spells later. I had a plan. I was just going to have to stick to it. I already had first blood.
I relax, looking at his flushed face, his teeth pulled back in a snarl, and then turn and walk away.
