Ella sat across from Katie at the Gryffindor table as the new students were being sorted and she was nestled in between Fred and George. "Hey, where are Ron and Harry?" Ella whispered to George, who was sitting so close to her that their thighs were brushing together.
George shrugged. "I dunno, I figured they would be here by now." He nudged Fred with his elbow. "D'you know where Ron's gone off to?"
"No idea," Fred said and shook his head.
"Hm," Ella said and raised her eyebrows, "weird." The rest of the feast continued on and neither Ron nor Harry showed up. Hermione was getting rather worried.
"Do you think they're alright?" She asked Ella after dinner, nervously wringing her hands together.
"Yes," Katie said, "for the thousandth time. And I thought you were mad at them for being late?"
"I am! I can only imagine that they're late because they did something completely irresponsible."
"Rumor has it that they've been expelled for crashing a flying car."
"I know! I wouldn't put it past them. Honestly! The nerve of those two —"
"Oi, calm down," Ella said, pointing out Harry and Ron, "they're right there, 'Mione. Go on, berate them to your little heart's content." And Ella gave Hermione a little push towards the boys. She watched her go fondly. "I like her. She reminds me of me when I was like that."
"What do you mean was?" Katie asked her. "You're literally still like that with Fred and George. Just way less because they've managed to pull you into their stupid pranks."
"They aren't stupid!" Ella defended. "If you actually look at how they pull all this stuff off it's quite systematic, really. And they've started talking about developing products of their own creation soon. They want to open a joke shop, did you know that? Isn't that amazing?"
Katie stole Ella's trademark and rolled her eyes. "Oh God, please stop swooning over your boyfriends for five minutes, please."
"They are not my boyfriends!"
"Oh right, I forgot. Only George is your boyfriend." Katie laughed and shoved Ella into the portrait hole. They scrambled past a large sea of kids, neither of them really caring to hear about the rumors about Harry, Ron, and the flying car.
"You know," Ella said as they walked up to the third year girls' dormitory, "one of these days I'm just going to snap and strangle the life out of you."
"Yeah? Bet you won't!" Katie said and laughed, ducking the pillow that Ella threw at her. Katie picked it up and whipped it right back at her.
"Katie, you just picked the wrong fight," Ella said dangerously and tossed her glasses onto her bed, picking up another pillow and rushing at Katie, hitting her with it. Katie hit her right back and soon they had started an all out pillow fight. The few other third year girls hadn't come up to the dorms yet so it was just Ella and Katie, shrieking and smacking each other with pillows.
"Oh my God!" Angelina Johnson yelled as she sauntered into the third year girls' dormitory and sees what Katie and Ella had done. There were feathers floating loftily through the air and both girls were red faced and breathless with childish smiles on their faces. "What are you two doing?"
"We're — having a pillow fight!" Ella said, her mouth dry from the heavy breathing.
"Yeah, we can see that," Alicia Spinnet said and blew a stray a feather out of her face. "Why exactly?"
"She started it!" Katie said and pointed a finger at Ella.
"You provoked me!" Ella fired back. She looked around the dorm and sighed. "Although we did just destroy both of my pillows." She pulled her wand out of her robe, waved it, and said, "Reparo." Feathers began to dart back into the pillows, restoring them to their proper state, and they floated back onto Ella's bed. "Magic, what would I do without you?" Ella sighed and fell back against their mattress.
"What are you guys doing up here?" Katie asked Angelina and Alicia as she changed out of her robes and into her pajamas. It was nowhere near curfew yet, but Ella and Katie had decided that they wanted to stay in and have a nice night.
"Fred and George were being annoying," Angelina said with a shrug, "and Lee wouldn't quit asking me out. So, we came up here to see if you guys wanted to hang out."
"Yeah!" Ella said, also changing into her pajamas now. "We were just gonna stay in and listen to music and stuff, though, I hope that's alright."
"Yeah, that's fine," Alicia said, "We can start showing Angelina more Muggle music tonight." Alicia and Katie were both Half-blood, while Ella and Angelina were both Pure-blooded. Although, Ella had a bigger insight into the Muggle world than Angelina, and they had all taken to showing her the "Muggle culture." It was a way easier and way more fun way for Angelina to learn without having to take Muggle Studies.
Angelina and Alicia left and then returned shortly, also in pajamas and fluffy robes. Alicia had brought some of her CDs and Butterbeer and Angelina had brought some of her new Quidditch catalogs. Ella popped in one of Alicia's CDs and smiled when she heard the sound of The Red Hot Chili Peppers. "Nice choice, Alicia."
They actually had quite the nice night up in the dorm. Angelina had actually taken a huge liking to one of Ella's new favorite bands, Pearl Jam. They had also offered Ella her first Butterbeer, and it was significantly less alcoholic than Ella had suspected. Her brother, Jackson, had started drinking when he was around her age, but only because their mother had specifically told him not to. Margaret had never really given any thought about Ella ever drinking before she was legally allowed to do so, she had always been the angel child. But recently, that had been changing, and Ella's mother still had no idea.
Ella was lying on her bed on her stomach, flipping through a Quidditch catalog and sipping her third Butterbeer. "Hey, do you guys wanna hear something awesome?" They all said yes, so she continued. "Juni said that's he's going to ask Snape if he can transfer over to the boys' dormitories tonight."
"Oh, that's so great!" Katie gushed, she had been very supportive of Juni. "I hope he says yes."
"He probably won't," Alicia said resentfully. "You know how Snape is. He hates anything that allows anyone any happiness at all."
"Don't you think that's for the best, though?" Angelina said quietly. "I mean, wouldn't it be safer for her — him, sorry — to stay in the girls' dorms. There's less of a chance of bullying that way isn't there?" Angelina had a harder time accepting Juni than the rest. It wasn't anything personal, it was just how she was raised, but she was working past it. That was more than others could say.
"It doesn't matter either way," Ella said, draining the rest of her Butterbeer. "He's going to get shit in either dorm he goes to. But he wants to be in the boys' dorm because he's a boy, so I support him."
"I hope that didn't make me sound prejudice!" Angelina moaned. "I'm sorry, I'm still getting used to it."
Ella waved it off. "It's fine, I know what you meant. And hey, it means a lot that you're trying. That's more than some others can say." Just then, there was a small sizzling sound coming from Ella's bedside stand. It was her journal, it had gotten so hot with a new message that it had begun to singe the wood. Ella scrambled over to it and opened it, eager to see the message from Juni. Her heart dropped down to her stomach.
She looked up at all the others with grim eyes and her lips pressed into a hard line. "He said no." Alicia's hands came up to cover her mouth and Katie and Angelina began protesting immediately.
"How could he do that to him?"
"I can't believe him! What an awful man!"
"I really do hope he gets sacked!"
Ella paid little to no attention to the rest of them, she had gotten up off her bed and began to change into a pair of black pants and a black Nirvana hoodie she had gotten from Juni for Christmas. She had learned from Fred and George that it was easier to sneak around the school when you were wearing dark colors. Katie eyed her warily, Ella had started doing that thing that she did when she let her emotions get the best of her. She wasn't really listening to anyone, she had made up her mind, so there was basically no chance of changing it now.
"Where are you going?" Katie groaned and slammed a pillow over her face. The term hadn't officially started yet and Ella was already was already off to wreak some havoc on the school. "Why can't you go back to worshipping the rules and staying out of trouble?" Katie said, her voice muffled by the pillow.
"Because," Ella grunted, "there are some things that are more important than following the rules." That was something she had learned over the past year, and it had changed her entire perspective on how she behaved.
"Just don't do anything you'll regret, okay?"
"No promises," Ella said and stalked out of the dormitory.
