On a Sunday morning in early March, Elena watches as Feather flies into the Great Hall at breakfast with a letter that is no doubt from Jojo and Riley. Elena wrote to them over a week ago, and she has started to wonder why it has taken so long for them to write back. Feather stops right in front of Elena's plate of bacon and eggs and holds her leg out for her to take the letter off.
"Thank you, Feather. Go on up to the Owlery, and I'll be by later to give you another letter to deliver." She hoots in response before heading back out the way she came in.
Fifi leans over Elena's shoulder. "What's in the letter?"
"Dunno, but it's definitely Jojo's handwriting."
Tonks appears behind the two. "Go on, El. Open it!"
El,
A lot has happened since we last wrote to you, even though it was only a couple of weeks ago. Becky found out she's pregnant, and now she and Father are planning on getting married this summer. Becky wants you to come to the wedding, much to Father's annoyance. Write back soon to tell us if you plan on coming.
How's school going? Are you getting good grades? Mum is already packing another care package for you for when you send Feather back to us.
Love,
Riles and Jojo
P.S. Send some Wizarding treats! -Riley
P.P.S. Sorry about the bluntness of the news. -Joanna
Elena stuffs the letter into a pocket of her robes. She forces a smile as she turns to face Phoenix and Tonks.
Phoenix looks at her with pity, and Elena wishes she hadn't read the letter aloud. "Are you alright, El?"
"Just fine. I think it's good that my father is finally making a commitment. Hopefully, he will treat this child better than he treated me and my sisters," Elena says, bitterness evident in her voice. "Now, let's finish eating so that we can get down to the pitch in time for practice."
Tonks and Phoenix share a look. They both want to question Elena more, but they don't want to upset their friend. So, they start eating again, occasionally looking over at Elena, who still has a forced smile on her face.
~3~
After quidditch practice, Elena breaks away from her friends and hides in the Owlery to write a letter to her sisters.
She sits down on one of the open windows, and almost immediately after, Snow perches on her shoulder and nuzzles against her neck. Elena strokes the owl's feathers, savoring the comfort the small creature is giving her.
"Thank you, Snow. I love you," Elena whispers.
Snow hoots and snuggles closer in response.
Jojo and Riles,
I'm for sure coming to the wedding. When is the date? Ask Becky if I'm allowed to bring a friend. If I am, I'm going to bring Tonks. Also, please tell Becky congratulations for me.
Speaking of Tonks, her parents have offered to let me stay at their place for part of the summer to see what growing up in the Wizarding World is like. Mum and I have already discussed it, and she's completely okay with it.
School is going really well! My grades are really good (I have the wizarding equivalent of an A in every class).
I love you both so much! Send my love to Mum.
Love,
Elena
P.S. I will send some Wizarding treats after our next Hogsmeade weekend.
Elena ties the letter to Feather's leg and sends the owl on her way. She sends Snow as well because she figures Feather will need help carrying her mother's care package to the castle.
Then, unable to hold her emotions back any longer, she brings her knees to her chest, burying her head in them. Sobs wrack her body, but she doesn't care. Not anymore. Despite the fact that Elena has so many people here for her, she has never felt lonelier in her entire life.
~3~
Early the next morning, Elena is in Potions, and Snape is being harsher than usual- so harsh that Elena is struggling to keep her mouth closed.
"For an insufferable know-it-all, you make far too many idiotic mistakes. Ten points from Ravenclaw." Snape starts to walk away.
Elena's face turns bright red. Phoenix tries to hold her back, but Elena breaks away from her grip and stands up- she's had enough of Snape's torments for one day. "And for an insufferable person, it's no wonder that the only woman you ever loved chose someone else over you."
The entire classroom goes deadly silent. Snape slowly turns around to face Elena, whose face is still quite flushed with anger.
Elena can't help herself as she says, "After all, who would want to be with someone like you? Someone who cares more about himself than others, someone who is unfairly harsh to everyone, someone-"
"ENOUGH!" Snape roars, advancing on Elena.
Elena steps backward in fright, and Snape sees a flicker of fear cross her face, but it's gone as quickly as it came.
"What? The big, tough professor can't take a dose of his own medicine?" Elena taunts.
Through gritted teeth, Snape grinds out, "Wait for me in my office, Miss Davies. I will deal with you after class."
Elena grabs her things with a huff and exits the classroom, slamming the door behind her. The door's resounding thunk makes her realize what she's done. She suddenly feels nauseous. She doesn't know what came over her, and now she feels horrible. In a trance-like state, she makes her way to Snape's office and sits down. She bursts into tears almost as soon as the door closes behind her.
The time goes by quickly, and without Elena noticing it, the bell rings.
Snape walks into the room, completely ready to go off on Elena, but what he isn't prepared for is to see her crying. Elena looks up at him just then, and Snape can see her shattered heart written all over her face- now her rant makes so much more sense to him.
He sits down across from her.
"I'm so sorry, sir," Elena says. She's trying to get herself to stop crying, to no avail. Tears continue to stream down her pale cheeks. "I don't know what came over me."
Snape pulls out his hanky and hands it to Elena. "Something tells me that there is something nagging at you."
Elena looks down at her hands to ignore his intense gaze. "I don't understand why you would think that, sir."
"Miss Davies, we both know that you are hiding something. It does no one any good if you keep it bottled up; you need to let people in."
"You mean like how you let people in?"
Snape glares at her. "I know you may not believe this, Miss Davies, but I do actually care about you, and I want to help you. What has you acting like this?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Miss Davies," Snape says, his voice holding an edge.
"Yes, Professor?"
"Tell me what is causing you to act like this, or I will give you detention for your insubordinate behavior in class today."
"Then you'd better give me detention because nothing's wrong."
Snape so badly wants to use his Legilimency on her, but he quickly thinks better of it. She's upset as is, and he doesn't want to make a bad situation worse.
"You would rather get detention than tell me what is nagging at you?"
"Nothing is nagging at me, sir." Her nose scrunches slightly, which Snape has learned is a tell of hers.
"You will serve detention with me every weekend for the next month. However, if you choose to confide in me what is going on, you will not have to serve the remainder of your detentions."
"So be it, sir. I will see you bright and early Saturday morning." Elena grabs her things and leaves.
Snape stares at the door long after she's closed it, thinking about his enigmatic student.
~3~
The second Saturday Elena has detention with Snape is the final quidditch game of the season- Ravenclaw against Slytherin. So, partly because she's playing and partly because he's the Slytherin Head of House and has to be at the game, he gives her the morning off.
Elena loves quidditch, and she loves being on the team, but she really doesn't have it in her today to be excited about the game. Her mind keeps racing with thoughts of her father with his new family, making her nauseous. She doesn't eat any breakfast, mostly because she doesn't think she can hold anything down at the moment.
Once Charlie, Phoenix, and Tonks have finished eating breakfast, they head down to the quidditch pitch with Elena. Tonks and Charlie wish the two Ravenclaws luck before heading to their usual spots in the stands.
Elena and Phoenix are quiet as they walk to the locker room. Elena doesn't have any energy left in her to pretend to be happy. Her mood dampens even more when she realizes that it's raining.
~3~
Elena is still feeling nauseous and grumpy when the Ravenclaw team walks onto the pitch ten minutes later. She immediately sees Snape in the stands, and her stomach clenches even tighter than before, while it simultaneously fills with hyperactive butterflies.
"Captains," Madam Hooch announces once the Slytherins have joined them on the pitch, "shake hands."
Ariya and Jonathan, the Slytherin captain, step closer to each other and tersely shake each other's hands.
"Players, mount your brooms," Madam Hooch demands. Each student does as she's asked.
Madam Hooch blows her whistle and throws the quaffle in the air, beginning the game. Elena races to her spot in front of the hoops, and she watches as the quaffle is caught by one of the Ravenclaw Chasers, who races across the pitch towards the Slytherin goal posts.
It isn't until Ravenclaw is way ahead of Slytherin that Rita Skeeter flies up behind Elena. "I heard you're getting a new family member, Elena," Rita taunts.
Elena's head snaps up. "How did you-"
Rita smirks. "Nothing stays a secret for long at this school, Davies."
The way she says it makes Elena think she knows more than she's letting on, but Elena doesn't have much time to ponder this because the Slytherin Chasers are racing up the pitch, the quaffle being passed amongst them.
After the quaffle has sailed through the goal and Elena has thrown it to Phoenix, who looks at her quizzically, Rita magically appears behind Elena again.
"Wow. You're definitely not going to impress your wizard-hating father by missing easy shots like that."
Elena is gripping her broomstick so hard that her knuckles are turning white. "Leave me alone, Rita."
"Or what? You'll go running to Professor Snape? We both know you're too big of a coward to tell him what's really bothering you."
~3~
Snape finds it odd that Rita Skeeter is hovering just behind Elena, who looks like she's simultaneously about to cry and lob a quaffle at Rita's head. So, naturally, he keeps an eye on Elena for the rest of the game, even after Rita has gone on her merry way.
Whatever Rita said to Elena had an obvious effect on the latter's playing. She misses shot after shot that's thrown at the goals.
~3~
After the game ends (by some miracle, Ravenclaw whipped Slytherin's behind), Snape watches as Elena flies towards the castle on her broom instead of landing on the pitch to celebrate with her team. His worry grows tenfold, and he hastens after her.
There is a fresh set of muddy footprints leading from the front doors to where the dungeon stairs are, so Snape follows them. He's surprised to see that they end at his classroom door.
When he enters, Elena is looking right at him, with tears streaming down her flushed cheeks, from where she's sitting at her usual desk. "I'm ready to tell you what's wrong," she says, her voice hoarse from crying.
Snape nods and takes his place at his desk, not taking his eyes off the crying girl for a single moment. "I am listening."
"My father is having a kid with Becky, and they're getting married during the summer."
Whatever Snape was expecting her to say, that was not it.
"Why am I not good enough?" Elena asks, but Snape isn't sure if it's rhetorical or not. "Why can't he love me?"
Snape walks over and sits down on top of her desk. "If your father cannot see how amazing of a person you are, he does not deserve to have you in his life."
"You don't get it."
"What do I not get? Are you not the same person who told me several years ago that you do not care if your father disowned you?"
"No matter how terrible our parents are, we always have a tiny piece of us that wants them to love us."
As much as Snape hates to admit it, she's completely, one-hundred percent correct. But he will never admit that to anyone other than himself.
Snape can remember when he was younger- long before he gave up hope of ever having a loving family- doing things in hopes of making his father love him. He didn't learn until he was ten that his father would never have love in his heart for him. The tear in his heart that realization caused has turned Snape bitter and cold to the world, and he deems it too late to change now.
Where Snape's father lacked in love, his mother made up for it. She had enough love in her heart for everyone in the world. Snape figures that's why she ended up with his father. No one loved Tobias Snape, so Eileen Prince, with her big heart, loved him. Part of Snape hates her because she married such a wretched man, but he can't fault her for it. It's just part of who she is, and because of who she is, she still manages to love Severus. He's pretty positive she's the only person still alive who does.
The words come out of his lips without his consent. "You have a family here at Hogwarts who loves you."
Elena's head snaps up, a look of confusion on her face. "Thanks?"
An awkward silence falls over them for several long moments.
"Since you have told me what has been bothering you, I will uphold my end of the deal. Your month's worth of detentions is over. You are free to leave, Miss Davies," Snape says, dismissing her with a clipped nod.
Elena hesitates for a moment, but she picks up her things and leaves the classroom without another word.
~3~
When Elena gets back to Ravenclaw Tower, there's a party going on in full swing to celebrate the team's victory. She doesn't feel like celebrating, so she quietly sneaks up to her dormitory, only to find Tonks and Fifi waiting for her on her bed.
"We need to talk," Fifi states firmly.
Elena passes by them and puts away her things in her trunk. "No, we don't."
"She's right, El," Tonks says softly. "You've had a bee in your bonnet ever since you got that letter from your sisters. Let us in. Please."
Elena sits beside them on her bed. "I'm just upset. That's honestly all that's going on."
"You have every right to be upset about this, Elena, but don't bottle up your emotions. Nothing good ever comes out of that," Fifi pleads.
"I'm not bottling up my emotions."
"Like hell, you're not," Tonks says.
"No cursing, Nymphadora," Fifi admonishes.
"Don't. Call. Me. NYMPHADORA!" Tonks shrieks. The two other girls cover their ears.
"Noted," Fifi mumbles under her breath.
Tonks forces her anger down and smiles sadly at Elena. "Just tell us what's going on in that big head of yours. We want to help you."
"I'm just…." Elena sighs and flops down on her back. "I don't understand why my sisters and I aren't good enough for him. Why does he have to go off and have a kid with a woman who is the reason my parents got their divorce in the first place?"
Fifi and Tonks lie down next to her.
"We get it, chica," Tonks says as she wraps her arms around Elena. "You are an extraordinary person, and if your father can't see that, then that's his problem. But don't let his problems make you think that you aren't good enough."
"Tonks is right. I can't imagine someone more deserving of all the good things in the world than you, but it's the pain that you've gone through that's made you who you are. Just don't let it rip you apart. You're stronger than that, Elena."
~3~
In Potions on Monday, Elena finds herself staring at Snape more than usual. He catches her gaze several times, and each time he does, she averts her eyes to the floor, embarrassed.
The eighth time he catches her looking, Tonks hits Elena on the arm. "Stop drooling over Snape. It's disgusting and wrong in so many ways."
"I wasn't dr-"
"Yes, you were," Fifi and Tonks mutter in unison.
"No, I wasn't."
As they're walking through the dungeons after class, Tonks links arms with Elena and pulls her out of earshot of Phoenix. "Look, you need to get over this thing you have for the bat of the dungeons. I don't want your heart to get broken because that relationship will never happen."
"I don't have a thing for him, thank you very much."
Tonks fixes her with a hard look. "Sure. You can keep on lying to yourself, but you're never going to fool me." She walks away without another word, leaving Elena by herself, confused.
Elena doesn't have a crush on Snape, does she? Then she remembers how warm she felt during their conversation on Saturday, and how her stomach fills with butterflies every time she sees him, and how she loves to purposely piss him off so she'll get detention with him.
Shit. She does have a crush on him. A huge crush. She's so screwed, and she knows it.
~3~
The rest of the year passes by quickly, and before Elena realizes it, it's the last day of classes. Potions class has just ended, and she's waiting for Snape in front of his desk, butterflies aflutter in her stomach and her heart trying to pound its way out of her chest.
"Ah, Miss Davies. I do not have to ask why you are loitering after class, do I?" Snape asks as he sits down behind his desk.
Elena swallows the nervous laugh threatening to bubble up her throat. "No, Professor. I hope you have a wonderful summer break." She hands him the bag of cookies and all but sprints out of the classroom.
~3~
Later that night, they're at the end of year banquet. Tonks has managed to seat herself between Elena and Phoenix without any of the other Ravenclaws taking notice. Well, the more probable thing is that they no longer bother trying to shoo her from the table because they know she won't listen to them.
Dumbledore is well into his speech when Elena catches Snape looking at her. He quickly averts his gaze, but there was something intriguing dancing in his eyes. However, before she has any time to ponder this, she hears Dumbledore begin to announce the winner of the House Cup.
"It is with great pride that I announce Ravenclaw has won the House Cup this year. They were leading with a grand total of 687 points; Slytherin came in second with 593 points; Hufflepuff is third with 452 points; and last but not least is my own house of Gryffindor with 324 points. It has been a wonderful year, and I look forward to seeing what new experiences next year will bring for all of us. Now, enough of this old man's rambling. Please, dig in and enjoy this marvelous feast."
The plates in the center of the table instantly fill with food, which still amazes Elena every time she sees it happen. Despite being a part of the Wizarding World for almost four years, the things around her never cease to amaze her.
Tonks doesn't wait to be told twice; she begins shoveling food onto her plate and devouring it as though she's a ravenous wolf.
Fifi rolls her eyes as she daintily begins eating her own meal, not bothering to admonish Tonks because she knows she'll continue doing what she's doing.
Elena looks over at the Slytherin table and sees Rita glaring at her with a sour look on her face. Elena flashes her a quick smile before turning back around in her seat, joining the jovial conversation with her friends and roommates.
~3~
Everyone meets in the Great Hall early the next morning. While most people are excited to be leaving for their summer holidays, Elena is dreading being back home- especially now that she's gotten herself and Tonks stuck with going to her father's wedding.
After eating a quick breakfast and grabbing a sack lunch, Charlie, Phoenix, Tonks, and Elena walk down to Hogsmeade Station together. The three friends are melancholy, sad that they won't be seeing much- if any- of each other over the summer holidays. Only Tonks and Elena have definitive plans to spend time together over the break.
"We'll write to each other, just as always," Fifi says in hopes of lifting her friends' spirits.
"I guess so, but it's not the same as seeing each other in person every day," Charlie replies. The others agree.
Fifi waits until Elena gets a little ahead of the group before she whispers to the others, "Make sure to write uplifting letters to Elena before the wedding. She's putting up a strong facade, but I don't think she's as okay as she's leading us to believe. Tonks, I want you to write to me daily while you're there for the wedding. And it's your job to make sure she's alright."
Tonks gives her a two-fingered salute. "Aye, aye, captain!"
"Hurry up, slowpokes!" Elena hollers. "We have a train to catch!"
Hey, y'all! I wasn't planning on having this chapter out so soon, but then I got a surge of inspiration. I hope y'all liked this chapter!
Anywho, after this week I won't be as busy, so I should hopefully be able to get another chapter out soon, but I make no promises! I've also been dying to start an original story, so chapters might be coming out a little slower than usual. I'll try to post at least once a month, though.
As always, I would love to hear y'all's comments, theories, and questions! Until next time, my loves!