Ella was walking through the halls of the Hogwarts Express with Juni, on her way back to their train compartment that they were going to share with the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, with the exception of Harry and Oliver. She was sporting her new Quidditch jersey that had her last name displayed proudly over her shoulder blades, one of the many gifts her grandmother had showered her with after her petrification. On her way to the compartment, she bumped into an unknown man with tattered robes and knocked his suitcase out of his hands.

"Shit, I'm sorry!" Ella said, scrambling to help him pick up his things.

"No no, it's alright," the man said calmly and continued to put his belongings back into his case. "Thank you."

Ella stood up and nervously tucked her curly red hair behind her ears, straightening her new glasses. "Again, I'm sorry," she said. When the stranger straightened up he stared at Ella with an odd look in his eyes, as if he had seen her before. She turned on her heel to walk away with Juni, who was trying to stop himself from laughing at his friend. When she turned, the man caught a glimpse of the name "Stirling" on her shirt.

"Wait, hang on!" He said to her and Ella turned around skeptically.

"Yes?"

"Your father wouldn't by any chance happen to be Derrick Stirling would he?"

Ella's heart froze and her palms started to sweat. She tried to force the shock off of her face. She absolutely loathed talking about her father, she hated the very idea of him. "Yes," Ella said in a polite voice that Juni was almost certain was fake. "That is my father, how did you know?"

The man laughed slightly. "Well, you look just like him, those eyes and that red hair. I went to school with him here, but I haven't seen him in years. How is he?"

"No idea," Ella said, smiling a cold smile. "I haven't seen him in years either. He's been gone since I was seven. Chose a drink over his family. Lovely, isn't it?" This was what Ella liked about her father. She enjoyed ruining his reputation for people who didn't know that he had become such a ruinous cretin.

"Oh," the man said, his face dropping. He coughed awkwardly. "Well, I certainly am sorry to hear that. It was nice meeting you," he said and hurried into a train compartment.

Ella and Juni began to walk again and Juni eyed Ella warily. "You alright, mate?" He asked her gently. Juni knew how much Ella hated talking about her father, even though she got a kind of twisted enjoyment out of tarnishing his name, she still hated it.

"Yeah. I'm fine," she said shortly. Ella pulled her wand out of her pocket and pointed it at her hair. "Colovaria," she said sourly.

"Ella! What are you doing?" Juni said.

"I don't like being compared to that man, I don't want to look like him anymore," Ella said coldly. She was clearly in a bad mood now, and Juni decided that he wouldn't argue, and they continued to walk to their train compartment.

"I mean, I dunno, you guys," Lee Jordan said to his best friends, Fred and George Weasley. He was advising the twins on their idea to start developing and selling joke products. "Is it really a good idea to experiment with stuff like that in the dormitories? Personally, I really don't want anything exploding on my stuff and —" Lee stopped talking abruptly, and then swore loudly.

Ella had slid the door to the train compartment open, and she looked very different from when Lee had seen her last, that was what had caused him to swear. Her hair was no longer red and shoulder length, it was now a dirty blonde and went all the way down to her mid back. Her glasses were no longer small and rectangular, but the lenses were large and more rounded, they complimented her face very well, just as they had in her dream about George last year. (Not that she would tell anyone that.) Ella had gotten very into wearing makeup over the summer, and her mother was not very pleased about it. Apparently, Margaret Ross did not think it fitting for a fourteen-year-old to be wearing as much makeup as Ella now did.

But Ella did not care, for she grew more and more rebellious each year. She had been getting deeper and deeper into the grunge scene and often sported smudged eyeliner and lipstick. She wore a pair of ripped jeans with black boots and topped it all off with her favorite long sleeved Vaselines shirt around her waist. She looked completely different from last year, but she was quite pleased with her current appearance. She looked edgy and powerful and beautiful and she felt very comfortable looking in mirrors now. Ella plopped herself down in the seat next to Katie, grinding her teeth.

Fred and George had suspected that Ella was in a bad mood by the way she walked and by the expression on her face. Their suspicions were confirmed when she angrily said, "What are you looking at, Jordan?" when Lee wouldn't stop staring at her.

"So," Fred said awkwardly, breaking the hush that had come over the compartment, "new look, Ellie?"

"Mhm," Ella said as she dug a book and her Walkman out of her bag, opening the book and putting her headphones on. Fred shot Juni a should-i-even-ask look and Juni shook his head. If Ella was forced to discuss her father again she would probably rip someone's head off. A few painfully awkward minutes passed before Angelina Johnson elbowed George in the side, signaling him to say something.

"Hey, Ella," George said, "did Nirvana put out that new album yet? I really wanna hear it if they did."

"Nirvana?" said Lee. "The Muggle band, Nirvana?" George nodded. "Blimey, I didn't know you guys listened to that stuff." George blushed as he remembered listening to Ella's records when no one was around last year.

"We do now," Fred said proudly, hoping to cheer Ella up in the slightest if she saw that they weren't embarrassed about it. "Ella showed us a whole bunch of Muggle bands last year, and they're actually pretty good."

"Yeah, I know, dude," Lee said. "I'm half Muggle, remember?"

"Anyway," Ella said, taking off one of her headphones and trying to steer the conversation back on point, "no, they haven't. It's supposed to come out at the end of the month, though. I'll let you know when I get my hands on it." She was still in an awful mood, but talking seemed to be getting her mind off of things.

"How's Jackson?" Angelina Johnson said eagerly. She had started dating Ella's older brother, Jackson, at the very tail end of the last term.

"He wanted me to tell you that he's sorry he couldn't see you off on the platform but he's still on house arrest," Ella said, a smile even cracking onto her face.

"What's he on house arrest for?" Alicia Spinnet asked.

Ella chuckled slightly. "My mum caught him smoking weed in his room last week. Ooh, did he get it for that."

"Wait," Lee said, "isn't that a Muggle thing? We have like, illegal potions for stuff like that right?"

Ella actually closed her book and took off both of her headphones now. "I mean yeah, but they're super hard to make and the ingredients are crazy expensive. Plus, they're even more expensive to get premade." Everyone was giving her an odd look. "I've never tried to get one! I just read a lot of Potions books!" She turned back to Angelina. "Don't worry, though, Ang. I'm sure Ma will let your boyfriend off the hook eventually. He's eighteen, she can't keep him in the house forever. Especially now that he can Appartate really well."

"You're dating Ella's brother?" Fred said. "How did we not know this?"

"Mhm," said Angelina. "He asked me out right before he graduated."

"And why didn't you tell us?"

Angelina shrugged. "I dunno, it just never came up."

"I knew," Alicia said smugly.

"So does this mean that you're officially off the market? I can't ask you out anymore?" Lee asked.

"Unless you want my brother to kick your teeth in then I would suggest you don't," Ella said and opened her book up again.

"Fine," Lee sighed, "But Angelina, just so you know, you're missing out."

"Yeah, I'm sure I am," Angelina said, laughing and rolling her eyes. "So, Fred and George, how was Egypt?" she asked, eager for a change in subject.

Lee's disappointment was forgotten as Fred and George regaled the compartment with tales of their family's trip to Egypt. They made sure to include the story about when they tried to push Percy into a pyramid. Ella's bad mood seemed to be fading even fasting now, and by the time they had arrived at Hogwarts, it seemed to be gone completely.