Chapter Eleven

The next day was Sunday. Our Charms written exam was the next day, along with the practical part of the exam. Rose and I had promised each other that we would study all day.

At breakfast, Storm flew into the Great Hall bringing a letter from Grandma.

***

Dear Elle,

I'm so sorry that I have to tell you this.

As you know, your parents were returning home so that they could be here when you returned from Hogwarts for the summer. Unfortunately, they will not be able to make it. The flight that they were on was from California, all the way to London. The airplane has gone down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and no survivors have been found yet.

***

I stopped reading then. Crumpling up the letter without reading the rest of it, I clutched the paper in my tightly balled fist and stood up.

"Elle?" Rose looked at me, concerned. I didn't answer her, just walked away with as much dignity as I could muster. I tried to hold my head high, act as if nothing was wrong, but I couldn't. As soon as I was out of the Great Hall, the tears spilled out. I ran blindly up the spiral staircase.

"Peruvian Vipertooth," I whispered as I approached the door, and it swung open to admit me into the empty common room. I went straight to the girls' dormitory door. "Fanged Geranium." I went down the stairs. "Gulping Plimpies."

I drew the hangings around my bed and took Soleil out of her cage, allowing her to run around on the bed. I watched her absently.

I heard footsteps outside. "Gulping Plimpies." I heard the door open and close, more footsteps, and a sigh.

"Elle," said Rose, "are you okay?"

I didn't answer.

"Elle, answer me. What's wrong?"

I opened the curtains enough for my hand to poke out, and held out the letter. A moment later, the crumpled paper was tugged from my hand. I heard Rose flatten it out, then there was silence as she read it. I waited for her to leave.

The curtains flew open and Rose sat down on the bed. I turned away from her.

"Elle?"

"Go away."

"Elle, I'm really sorry."

"I said go away."

"Sorry," she whispered again, and left.

***

I woke up in the morning to a pillow hitting me repeatedly in the face.

"Elle," called a voice. "Elle! Elle, wake up! The exam starts in half an hour!"

I shot up in bed, then remembered the events of the day before and pulled the blankets back over me.

"Who cares?" I asked in a muffled voice. "I don't mind failing."

"Elle," said Rose impatiently, pulling the blankets back off of me. "Come on! You have to eat."

"No, I don't," I mumbled, reaching for the blankets.

A hand closed around my wrist and dragged me to a standing position. Rose's startling blue eyes stared into my lighter blue ones. I could see each and every one of her freckles.

"You have to eat," Rose announced. "Come on." She dragged me from the room, ignoring my protests. In the nearly-empty Great Hall, she served me some porridge, fruit and pumpkin juice, then looked at me expectantly. I didn't move. She picked up a spoon and plunged it into the porridge. "Open up," she ordered.

"I'm not being fed like a baby!" I said indignantly, snatching the spoon out of her hand.

"Eat it all," she said sternly, turning back to the dishes of cooling food and serving herself.

I managed to get through the Charms exam. Rose dragged me to the dormitory after the practical portion of the exam and grabbed our books, then led me outside to sit by the lake, where she began to quiz me on Defence Against the Dark Arts. I refused to answer her.

"Elle," she said frustratedly, after trying to get me to answer the same question six times. "You can't live like this. It's only been a day since you got the letter, and look at you! You're already an empty shell! And besides, they might not even be... well, you know. Your grandma said that no survivors had been found yet. Your parents might get found! They might be okay!"

I turned my face away from her.

"Listen to me, Elle," commanded Rose. "If I had gotten a letter like yours, I'd be devastated too. And you'd be in my position, trying to get me to be normal again. Imagine that for a second. Do you think it's fun, trying to breathe some life into you? Do you think it's easy?"

I didn't look at her. I shut the book that she had opened and placed in front of me, then turned my entire body so that my back was to her and the lake.

"What's wrong with her?" came a voice that I recognized to belong to James.

"She got a letter from her grandma," Rose said quietly. I heard her whispering the situation to her cousin, then it was completely and totally silent. Finally.

Then a hand was placed on my shoulder and a voice whispered in my ear. "I'm really sorry," said James. "You okay?"

"Leave me alone."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw James' face fall. I tried not to smile the bitter smile that was all I could manage now. Maybe now James would go away.

But he didn't. He sighed, sat down beside me, and slipped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him. He patted me on the back, and I lost control of the tears I had been holding back.

***

Author's Note: Awwwww!!!! Kinda short, but two chapters in one day, and I think the ending of the chapter is really sweet. I was trying to show James' soft side... I have nothing to say this time, not even any 'thanks to my reviewers' because I guess I finished this chapter really really fast! Well, I suppose since I already had the idea formed in my head... Poor Elle! Tell me what you think, and my brother is still a git. He tied all my stuffies from when I was little -- all the special ones, like the ones I've had since I was 2 and under -- to the light fixture and my bed and my desk in a gigantic spider web of string. =(