A/N: The first half of this is more emotional and it'll be told in Ella's POV but the second part requires analytical inquiry and, as such, it'll be in Nessie's POV.


Ella's POV

I wake up to my Nessie's voice.

"Thank you, Professor, but she's waking up, if she sees you carrying her…"

That's when I notice my sister's arms aren't what I feel around me.

I open my eyes and look up.

It's Professor Snape.

Fear flashes through me like a bright light, blinding me.

I whimper.

He puts me down and I turn away and my sister wraps her arms around my shoulders. She's there for me. Of course. She always is.

"It's okay, Ella, he won't hurt you. I promise. I won't let him."

I pull back to look at her and see steely determination. I feel myself stop shaking and my face moves to copy hers, even my eyes harden until we're identical in every physical way. She smiles at me and takes my hand, leading me forward.

"Come on Evie. We're gonna go meet Dumbledore."

"Why?"

"I don't know… Professor Snape won't tell me."

I look at the Professor but once I catch his eye, I drop mine to the floor and stutter the question, just like yesterday in class.

"W-why?"

"You'll find out soon enough, Miss Elliot."

At his voice, a shudder rolls through me and Nessie squeezes my hand.

We get to the Great Hall and Snape pushes open the door to let us in.

Ice freezes my veins when I look in the room, half-hidden behind Nessie, and see all the people. Six men I've never seen as well as my professors; Snape for DADA, Slughorn for Potions, McGonagall for Transfiguration, Flitwick for Charms, etc.; and the Headmaster, Dumbledore. My hands take Nessie's upper-arm in a comforting (for me) vice-like grip.

She doesn't even flinch, though it would have had me in tears.

"Why are we here?" She asks them, voice hard, leaving no choice but to answer.

A tall, black man steps forward from the group, I whimper and bury my head in my sister's shoulder, and she takes a step back, taking me with her.

"For official purposes," I hear him say, "please state your full names, age, and state of blood."

State of blood? What the fuck?

My sister, of course, knows the answer.

"Emmalina Evanessa Elliot; 15; Muggle-raised half-blood."

"And you, child?"

I raise my head a little to see him gazing at me, waiting for an answer.

"E-E-E-El-Elea-" I stutter, unable to steady my voice as Nessie can, even though I can sense that she's just as terrified as me.

"Eleanora Evangelina Elliot; Muggle-raised half-blood and my twin sister." She answers for me.


Nessie's POV

"Eleanora Evangelina Elliot; Muggle-raised half-blood and my twin sister." I answer for my stuttering sister, taking pity on the poor child. My eyes sweep the room as I appraise the situation to the best of my abilities. Around the great hall, there are tables, spaced evenly throughout, with a different set of items starting every other one. The closest four are the only ones I can see clearly and, on the first two, there are several random items; such as a teapot, a matchstick, a small child's broom, etc.; and the next two have a cauldron with at least 50 different ingredients beside each one.

Fifteen people, only one of them female, are grouped in front of myself and my Ella. Eight of them are mine and my sister's teachers, one is Dumbledore, and the remaining six are obviously Ministry of Magic officials. The tall, colored man that had stepped forward to speak with us is none other than Kingsley Shacklebolt, whom, as Mrs. Weasley secretly told me, has been charged with making sure no harm comes to us. The other five, I know not of their identities.

From the evidence gathered, we're to be tested on our magical abilities in each subject while the data is given directly to the Ministry in order to avoid mishap.

"Ness…" I hear Ella whisper to me. I look forward again and see that Shacklebolt is in the middle of a sentence. I tune in without exposing my analytic inquiry.

"…series of tasks designed to test skills in all of the subjects. Some of the tests are things first years learn and some are things that the average Ministry worker would be clueless of. If you find you don't know something or can't do something, simply try your best."

"When will we get the results?" I ask him, feeling that Ella's growing curiosity is almost outshining her fear. Almost.

"Could be minutes, could be days. It depends on how you do." Another official answers. My eyes sweep the room once more before focusing, again, on Shacklebolt.

"Our teachers," I inquire, "will they be the ones testing us?"

"Mostly." He answers vaguely. I decide to leave it at that and nod.

McGonagall is the one to test my sister, as we find out a few minutes later. I look at Professor Snape and tilt my head slightly to the side in question. He keeps his eyes straight ahead but nods nonetheless and I allow a small smirk before focusing on the matter at hand. I, having shown no aversion to men, had all males testing me; however, they soon noticed the way I would tense every time one came close and learned to give me at least five feet of space.

Over the next several hours, my sister an I are subjected to a number of tests from levitating 3000 lbs statues (which my sister was unable to do yet I mastered immediately) to transfiguring a matchstick into a purely black rat (again, Ella couldn't but I did with ease).

Now, we're on the last round of tasks: potions. I was right; there are 50 different ingredients laid out in bountiful quantities

With a cauldron and five crystal vials. Our task is to brew five potions in five hours; two easy ones, a Forgetfulness Potion and a Sleeping Draught, and three extremely advanced ones, Amortentia (a love potion), Felix Felicis (a luck potion), and a Hate Potion (which shows the taker's worst traits and habits.) Ella and I are told that this is our last text and that we are to go directly to bed afterward. As it will be Sunday tomorrow, we won't have to get up for classes.

I save the most difficult, in my opinion, for last; Amortentia.

5 vanilla beans, 7 frozen ashwinder eggs, 1 oz. rose oil, 3 belladonna seeds…

The ingredients run through my mind and I make short work of it. When Snape informs us that we have 10 minutes left, I add the finishing touches; adding the pearl, watching it dissolve then stirring once clockwise then once more counter-clockwise; and watch as it turns the desired color. I pour some into a crystal vial. I use my wand to clear my station and step back to wait for my sister, quiet due to the fatigue steadily adding weights to my eyes lids. We've been here for roughly eight hours. I close my eyes for a minute, listening intently to my sister huff in annoyance as she messes something up; she's never been good with potions and I'M the one that used all of summer memorizing Hermione's old school books and my current ones. Ella's just said she's done, finally, when I feel my head spin. I open my eyes and try to call my sister's name but all that comes out is a gasp. She whirls around just as I fall to my knees, the world going black.


A/N: Hahahahahahahaha, yeahhh I'm mean. No, actually, it's 11:02 right now and I REALLY don't want to write anymore so I just decided to stop here and post it now...

Thank you to sweetboi1016 for Amortentia recipe.