Elena's first Potions lesson isn't until Tuesday afternoon. After class that day, she waits for Professor Snape at his desk to give him a bag of cookies.
"Ah, Miss Davies, I thought you were not a suck-up?" Snape says as he grabs the bag from her hand.
She smiles sardonically. "Still not, Professor. Just carrying on the tradition. And same as last year: eat the cookies or not, it doesn't affect me one way or the other."
~3~
Ravenclaw holds their Quidditch team tryouts Saturday morning. Tonks, Fifi, and Elena make sure to head down early to the pitch. Tonks heads to the stands to watch, and Elena and Fifi make their way to the Ravenclaw locker room to get dressed in their quidditch robes.
Almost as soon as Elena and Phoenix step onto the pitch, Ariya Jones, the team captain, calls for all of the potential Chasers to join her in the middle of the pitch.
Phoenix gives Elena a quick side hug, whispers, "Good luck," and rushes off to where Ariya is standing.
Elena mounts her broom and starts flying laps to warm up. After Elena's third lap around the pitch, she notices a familiar head of greasy, black hair, and she starts to wonder why he would come to the Ravenclaw team tryouts. However, before she has much time to ponder the thought, Ariya blows her whistle and calls everyone down to the middle of the pitch.
"The new Chasers are Jenny, Ken, and Phoenix. Now, I want all of you who are trying out to be a Keeper to line up at the base of the posts. You will each be given six shots to block, and whoever blocks the most will be the new Keeper."
The girl before Elena lets all six of the quaffles into the hoops, and the scrawny student who went first didn't do much better.
As Elena mounts her broom and flies up to the posts for her turn, she feels a sense of nervousness creep over her. She takes a deep, calming breath and focuses herself on the task at hand.
Elena easily blocks the first three quaffles, and as each Chaser lines up once more, she knows that this round will be much more difficult.
The fourth quaffle, which is thrown by Jenny, is aimed at the right hoop, and Elena just barely manages to stop it. She stops the next one, thrown by Ken, about a foot in front of the center hoop. Then she sees Fifi, riding full speed down the center of the pitch, aiming right at the left hoop, but Elena sees the look in her friend's eye and knows that Fifi is trying to fool her.
Fifi throws the quaffle at the right hoop. Elena flies full speed at the ball, and using her quick reflexes, she bodily blocks the quaffle. The quaffle hits her right in the abdomen at full force. The force of it hitting her stomach makes her feel nauseous, but she feels elated at being able to block all of the shots the Chasers made and knows that she will be at the top of the list for the Keeper position.
Still feeling quite nauseous, Elena flies her broom to the ground, gagging the whole way. She vomits just as her feet hit the ground, and she falls to her knees as she continues to retch. The rest of the students on the pitch land behind her.
Fifi rushes up to Elena and holds her ponytail back to ensure that none of the vomit gets into her hair. "I'm so sorry, El! I didn't think it would hit you in the stomach, but that was an amazing block! Tonks, get her some water!"
"No need," a deep, hoarse voice drawls from behind them.
All of the students- except for Elena, who is still retching- turn to face Professor Snape in surprise.
Snape conjures a glass of water with his wand and hands it to Fifi, who holds it to Elena's lips for her to take a sip of it. Elena drinks it greedily.
"I shall escort Miss Davies up to the Hospital Ward so that you may continue your tryouts," Snape states.
As all of the other students mount their brooms and resume tryouts, Fifi and Tonks stay rooted to the ground, eyeing Snape wearily.
Snape shoos Fifi away, but Tonks refuses to leave her friend's side, so he reluctantly allows her to join them on their way to the Hospital Ward.
"This is worse than when you kept Apparating us everywhere," Elena groans as she swallows back the bile rising in her throat.
Tonks chuckles. "You vomited when you Apparated?"
If Elena had the strength, she would hit Tonks.
Snape glares daggers at Tonks. "From what Andromeda told me, Miss Tonks, you did not fare much better the first time you experienced a Side-Along Apparition."
Elena stifles the laugh that bubbles up in her throat.
Tonks's cheeks redden, and she mercifully keeps her mouth shut the rest of the way up to the Infirmary.
~3~
Fifi meets her two friends in the Infirmary half an hour later. By the time she arrives, Snape has already left.
"I feel really bad, El," Fifi mumbles as she sits down next to Tonks.
Elena shrugs. "It's okay. Madam Pomfrey put something on my stomach to heal the bruises and gave me something else to stop the dry heaving. She said I'll be allowed to go to dinner in the Great Hall if I'm feeling better by then."
"Still…." Then, seemingly remembering something rather important, Fifi smiles widely. "By the way, El, you made the team! No one else came anywhere close to how well you did."
Elena grins and sits up to hug her two friends. "Yay! I'm so excited!"
Fifi starts telling Elena the story of what happened during the rest of the tryouts, the other students who made the team, and how impressed Ariya was with Elena's Keeper skills despite being muggle-born.
After a few minutes of talking, Fifi and Elena notice Tonks is a lot quieter than usual and is not being her usual effervescent self.
"What's wrong, Tonks?" Fifi asks.
Tonks sighs and looks down at her chucks. "What if I don't make the Hufflepuff team?"
Elena places a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You will, Tonks. I know you will. You're one hell of a Seeker, and they would be idiots to pass up the opportunity to put you on their team."
Tonks sighs again. "I guess we'll find out tomorrow morning."
~3~
The next evening, Tonks, Charlie, Fifi, and Elena meet in their window seat to celebrate all of their additions to their House teams with a round of butterbeer that Tonks somehow managed to get a hold of.
"I can't believe we actually did it!" Tonks squeals happily.
"I knew we would the entire time," Fifi states proudly.
Charlie snorts. "I was certain I had blown my chance to make the team when I saw Jan Headley dive, but it was just a psych-out."
"You were perfect out on the field today, Charlie," Fifi compliments. Elena imagines her with comical heart eyes.
~3~
On the first Saturday of December, the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff teams are to play against each other. The Hufflepuffs have already played against Slytherin and lost, but this is to be Ravenclaw's first game of the season.
The three girls are sitting in their window seat spot. Elena is in the middle, flanked by Tonks and Phoenix. They're discussing the game that they are to play tomorrow. They agree, unanimously, to play their best and not to hold any grudges for how the game turns out.
"Do we know who's refereeing?" Fifi asks.
Tonks sighs. "I heard a rumor that it's Snape."
Fifi groans.
Elena hits both of them lightly on their legs. "Oh, he's not so bad."
"That's because you're his favorite!" The other two exclaim.
"That's not true! He still prefers his Slytherins to me. And he takes more house points from me than from anyone else."
Tonks shakes her head. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, girly. However, you're definitely his favorite- even over the stupid Slytherins."
"Hear, hear," Fifi mumbles.
"Anyway," Elena says, clearly wanting to steer the conversation away from Snape, "have you guys finished your essay for Flitwick yet? It almost killed me!"
Elena flops down onto her back on the soft, downy cushion covering the seat. The other two do the same on either side of her.
"Hun, the only way you're going to die is if You-know-who gets to you," Tonks states.
Suddenly, the curtains concealing them from the corridor rip open to reveal Snape glaring down at them all, his face completely contorted with rage. The girls all quickly sit up to face him. "Do not ever- EVER- talk about the Dark Lord in a joking manner again. Do I make myself clear?" His voice is lower and more menacing than they have ever heard it.
The girls all nod vehemently.
"Go to your common rooms."
Tonks and Fifi both scramble away, but Elena stays rooted to the spot where she's standing.
"I thought I told you to leave, Miss Davies, or did I not make myself clear enough?" Snape says through clenched teeth.
She returns his glare. "No, sir, you made yourself perfectly clear."
"Then why are you not leaving?" He asks slowly.
Elena defiantly crosses her arms over her chest. "Because I want to know everything about Vol-"
"Do not say his name!" Snape shouts.
"Fine. Will you tell me about You-know-who?"
"Go read about him in one of your books. You are a Ravenclaw, after all."
He turns to leave, but her voice stops him. "I can't. People are too afraid to talk about him. I thought since you don't seem to be afraid of anything, that you would tell me, but clearly, I was wrong. You're nothing more than a scaredy-cat who is afraid of You-know-who."
Snape slowly turns back around to face Elena with a look that could kill. He stalks toward her, and she steps backward in fright. The backs of her knees hit the seat, and she stumbles backward onto it.
"You are damn right I am afraid of him," he hisses, "and you should be too. He murdered hundreds of your kind." Snape's eyes widen in shock at his own words, and he instantly wishes he could take them back.
Elena inhales sharply and places her hands on her hips. "My kind? You mean mudbloods, right?"
He gives a tentative nod. She lets loose a mirthless laugh.
"Miss Davies, I-"
"I know what I am, Professor," she spits, "and I'm not ashamed. I have two different parts to me. Like I said on my first day at Hogwarts: there's more to me than meets the eye. Goodnight, sir." She rams into him with her shoulder as she walks away.
Snape, knowing he has just deeply offended the first person he's cared for in a long while, walks slowly back to his room and goes straight to bed. His sleep is restless due to the fact that his dreams are filled with an all-too-familiar face succumbing to Voldemort's wrath.
~3~
In the hustle and bustle of things the next morning, Elena completely forgets to take her anxiety medicine. She and Fifi leave the dormitory at the crack of dawn to meet up with Tonks and Charlie for an early breakfast. By the time Madam Pomfrey has sent Polka to her room, they've all walked down to the quidditch field together.
When they reach the quidditch pitch, Charlie wishes them all luck (Phoenix blushes when he smiles at her) before heading up to the stands. Then Tonks, Phoenix, and Elena all hug and head off to their separate locker rooms.
Fifi and Tonks see Snape in his ref robes on their way into their locker room. They both sigh.
"I guess that means he's actually reffing for us. Wonderful," Fifi says, a sarcastic edge to her voice.
"I'm just as unhappy as you are about this, Fifi."
Fifi stops and looks at her incredulously. "You were thrilled last night when it was only a hypothetical. What's changed?"
"After you left last night, I stayed and may have… gone off on Snape."
Fifi shakes her head and covers her eyes with her hand. "You are, for lack of a better word, gutsy, El. I don't understand why the Sorting Hat didn't put you in Gryffindor. Anyway, what all was said in this hostile conversation?"
"Well, I asked him about You-know-who."
This time, Fifi groans. "You didn't. Why are you so stupid?"
"Aaaand I might have called him a scaredy-cat."
Fifi blinks at her disbelievingly before turning around, her hands held up in surrender and starting towards the locker room again. "I'm just not going to touch that one. Let's get going. Oh, and for the record, you're a total idiot."
"Don't I know it," Elena mumbles as she casts a glare at the back of Snape's head.
~3~
The Ravenclaw team emerges from their locker room, fully dressed in their quidditch robes, and walks out onto the field ten minutes later. The Hufflepuff team is already standing and waiting in a row beside Snape.
The crowd roars in excitement behind them, and Elena can hear different chants being echoed by the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs.
Tonks, a bright smile on her face, waves emphatically at Phoenix and Elena. Elena notices that she's changed her hair color since they've parted ways; it's now a vibrant mix of yellow and black, just like it was the day they got onto the Hogwarts Express.
"Captains, shake hands," Snape calls over the roaring crowd.
Ariya and John step up and pleasantly shake hands before stepping away from each other.
"Mount your brooms!" Snape bellows.
When the whistle blows, Elena rushes up to the posts, placing herself a meter in front of the center hoop.
Fifi catches the quaffle once Snape throws it and starts down the middle of the pitch towards the Hufflepuff Keeper, the other Chasers flanking her as they pass the quaffle amongst themselves.
Tonks circles around the field as she keeps a sharp eye out for the golden snitch.
"Wotcher, Elena!" Tonks hollers as she passes by the Ravenclaw goal posts.
"Hey! No distracting the competition!" Elena genially yells back.
Tonks laughs and races off.
Elena suddenly sees everyone racing towards her end, with John in possession of the quaffle, and gets ready to block the shot. He's coming closer… closer… and then he's throwing it. Elena races toward the left hoop and catches the quaffle with ease. The Ravenclaws erupt into cheers in the stands.
The game goes on smoothly for a while after that.
However, when the score is Hufflepuff thirty to Ravenclaw fifty, Elena notices her breathing becoming more erratic with each shout and cheer from the stands. Chalking it up to first-game jitters, she tries to focus on the task at hand.
It takes little time afterward, though, for Elena to realize she didn't take her medicine that morning and is now going to pay dearly for it. She takes a deep breath in a desperate effort to calm her on-coming anxiety attack. I only need to make it until the snitch is caught, she keeps saying, and it becomes a chant in her head.
Then the tears start coming, causing everything around her to go hazy in her vision. She tries to keep her focus, but the quaffles soaring loudly past her ears make her symptoms even worse. She misses several blocks, allowing the quaffles to soar through the hoops.
Elena faintly hears someone calling to her, but it's drowned out by the ringing in her ears.
Just a little longer. I can make it.
The whistle blows, and Elena looks up just in time to see the Ravenclaw Seeker, Ben, emerge from behind the stands with the golden snitch clutched tightly in his hand.
Tonks slaps her broom, hard, but smiles and genuinely congratulates him.
Yelling and screaming from the crowd sends Elena over the edge. She begins to full-on hyperventilate. Tears begin to stream down her face. Her limbs and head turn fuzzy, and someone is once again calling to her, but she doesn't notice.
~3~
Fifi and Tonks see Elena hovering, frozen in place, in front of the post, and rush over to her side.
It's Fifi who speaks first. "El, what's wrong?"
Tonks tries to grab Elena's arm to steer her to the ground, but Elena blocks her attempt.
"Don't touch me!" Elena shrieks, snapping out of her paralysis and backing up slowly. "Don't touch me!"
Snape, hearing the shrieks, rushes over to Elena. He stops next to Tonks and Fifi. "What-"
"She didn't take her medicine this morning," Fifi answers. "She must've forgotten."
Anger flits through Snape. Not at Elena, but at her father for whatever he did to her. "We need to get her to Madam Pomfrey."
"She won't let us near her," Tonks says.
"Why?"
"I don't know, but we need to do something quickly," Fifi answers, worry evident in her voice.
Snape flies slowly over to Elena. The fear on Elena's face worries him more than he would like to admit. "Can you tell me what is the matter?" He asks gently.
"Make it stop! Make it stop, please!" She begs as her tears start falling faster. She closes her eyes tightly, the skin around her eyes crinkling with the effort.
"Make what stop?" He asks, inching ever so slightly closer to her.
"The yelling! They won't stop! Stop yelling!" Elena sobs. Her knuckles are turning white from how tightly she's clutching her broomstick.
Snape's eyebrows furrow. "Everything is alright, Miss Davies."
"No, it's not! I c-can't b-breathe!" She rasps out, gasping for air.
Elena wobbles slightly, and Snape is worried she might fall off her broom if he doesn't get her down to the ground right this moment. Not caring about the repercussions, Snape grabs her arm and drags her down to the ground. She screams the entire way down, but the only thing running through his mind is that he has to get her help before anything bad happens.
Even louder than before, Elena screams, "Let go of me!"
Snape keeps his hold on her arm as he rushes them through the crowd, past the Great Hall, and up to the Infirmary, with Elena screaming at him the entire way.
"Poppy!" There's no reply. Snape figures that the Healer must still be down on the quidditch pitch, and he silently prays that she will be back up soon.
Completely exhausted and out of breath from hyperventilating, Elena collapses on the floor just inside the doors. Snape crouches down in front of her.
"Miss Davies, tell me what is wrong."
Elena scrunches her eyes closed again. "I c-can't b-breathe. I c-can't feel my legs or arms."
Snape takes Elena's hand and squeezes it tightly. "Focus on me, Miss Davies. Open your eyes."
She shakes her head vehemently. "No."
"No one is going to hurt you, Miss Davies. You are safe."
Elena takes another shuddering breath, her breathing still shallow as she continues to hyperventilate. "It won't stop," she whispers.
"What will not stop?"
"The yelling."
In an attempt to get her mind off of the voices in her head, Snape starts humming a song he learned a long time ago; it was a song Lily showed him one evening after he had escaped from his house to avoid his father's drunken assaults. It had made him feel better then, so he hopes it'll have the same effect on Elena now.
After a little while, Elena's sobs start to dwindle, and she begins to hiccup and sniffle. She leans her head against Snape's shoulder, completely worn out from her anxiety attack. "I didn't think you would know that song."
Snape chuckles, the vibrations reverberating through Elena's back. "It is surprising, even to myself."
"It can be our little secret," Elena whispers.
~3~
At dinner that night, Tonks finds out about Elena's conversation with Snape from the night before, and she is furious, to say the least.
"How dare he call you a mudblood! My father is muggle-born, and he is one of the best wizards I know," Tonks fumes.
"It's alright, Nymph. No need to get so worked up about it," Elena tries to soothe.
Tonks pounds her fist on the table. "No, it's not fine! How dare he call you such a filthy, foul name! That slimy git!"
"Quiet down, Nymphadora," Phoenix admonishes. "Despite his rude behavior, he's still our professor, and we have to respect him."
Tonks glares at her. "First of all, don't call me Nymphadora unless you want to be hexed into next year. Second, don't you care- even the slightest bit- that the bat of the dungeons called our best friend a mudblood?"
"I do care, but you obviously weren't listening too intently to Elena when she was telling us the story."
"Oh?"
"She said that she filled in the blank when he trailed off, and he only nodded when she called herself a mudblood."
Tonks turns to Elena, who flinches under her scrutiny. "Is that true?"
Elena nods hesitantly. "Yes."
Tonks turns back to Phoenix. "He still implied it and agreed with her when she called herself a mudblood. It's practically the same thing."
"No, it's not, Nymphadora."
Before Tonks gets the chance to make good on her threat to Phoenix, Professor Flitwick comes up behind the three of them. "Girls, I know you are close friends, but you know the rule: no sitting at another house table. Back to your own table, Miss Tonks."
~3~
Tonks waits until her roommates are all asleep before rummaging through her messy trunk for the Map she needs in order to sneak into Hogsmeade; she's determined to get Snape back for calling her very best friend a mudblood.
The Map shows all of the passageways that she already knows by heart- after all, Sirius gave her this Map years ago- but she needs to be able to see if anyone is near her as she traipses around the school grounds. She knows that, if she wants to get into Hogsmeade at this time of night, she's going to have to go through the Whomping Willow and the Shrieking Shack. Sirius told her all about both of those places- something her mother knows nothing about, and she plans to keep it that way. He also told her about the time he convinced Snape to try to get past the Whomping Willow, which she still finds hilarious.
After Tonks double checks that there's absolutely no one in the nearby vicinity, she makes her way out of the Hufflepuff dormitory and down to the school grounds- thankfully not getting caught by any of the staff, ghosts, or Mrs. Norris (gosh, she hates that bloody cat).
~3~
The next morning at breakfast, when the letters are being delivered by the owls, everyone looks up at Snape when they see a familiar red envelope land in front of him. The students all force back their laughter as it springs to life.
Elena groans at the familiar voice within. "Severus Snape, how dare you call my best friend a mudblood! If I find out that you call her that again, you will live to regret it! If you thought I was terrible before, you will be stunned by how cruel I am when you mess with those whom I love!" The letter then tears itself apart as every student bursts into laughter. The teachers try their hardest to mask their amusement as they attempt to get the students to quiet down.
Elena looks over to Tonks, who smiles innocently before finishing what's left of the food on her plate.
~3~
The morning after that, another howler arrives- only, this time it's for Tonks.
"Nymphadora Andromeda Tonks, how dare you send a howler to your professor! I thought your father and I taught you to respect your superiors, but apparently, we did not do a good enough job. If you break so much as half a school rule again this term, we will force you to give up your place on the quidditch team!"
A/N Hello! I decided to update a little early because I know that I could use a dose of something to brighten my spirit, so I figured y'all might too. I'm not sure if this chapter was all that good, but I hope y'all liked it well enough! I will hopefully have the next chapter out in a week, but I make no promises!
As always, I would love to hear y'all's comments and theories!