...Run...
I skip lunch opting to just study in the library instead. Blaise sits next to me and begins tapping on the table with his fingers. "This is a library sir. I as would everyone else would greatly appreciate it if you could silence yourself Mr. Zabini." I mutter out of the side of my mouth. Blaise closes my book and walk away searching for a new book.
He follows me which I don't find amusing on the slightest. "Please stop following me." I mumble. "Why are you acting out?" he whispers. I freeze when I feel his breath on my cheek. "I'm not acting out. Why are you trying to assume that 'sweet Ellie' is my only personality when I've proven time and time again that is false?" I huff turning to him.
I am not prepared for just how dangerously close he is to me. I fight tooth and nail against the part of me that wants to melt under his gaze. "You were fine on the platform, so, what happened?" he demands. I huff and look away. "Are you not going to tell me?" he frowns. I fold my arms. "Ok then. That settles that." he stands up straight. He starts to walk away and I breathe a sigh of relief.
The sound of his returning footsteps startles me and he grabs my hand leading me out of the library. I whine in complaint and eventually sit on the floor refusing to budge. "Ellie you're being childish now get up!" Blaise sighs. When I don't get up, he picks me up and carries me to the common room. I pout on his lap. "Now tell me what brought about this new train of thought." he smiles and rubs my back.
"The first night back some seventh-year girls were passing by my dorm and I overheard them talking about how reliant on you guys. I just wanted to learn to rely on myself too without causing anyone worry." I huff. Blaise bites his lip trying to refrain from laughing. "I don't like the idea that everyone thinks I'm using you guys." I sigh running my fingers through my hair.
"Fuck what they think. Worrying about you is just one of the many things I love to do. Do you understand? Don't take it away from me just because of some gossiping bitches, ok?" he smiles. I nod and he kisses me softly. "Now, about this shifting into an Occamy." he smirks and then lectures me for the better part of an hour. Draco and Theo return and find me pouting on Blaise's lap.
Blaise fills them in and they burst out laughing. "Who are these girls?" Theo wonders. "Don't worry about it. I'm punishing them right now." I smirk. They look at me confusion clear as day on their 'top five of their class' faces but Blaise frowns. "What did you do?" he sighs. Before I can answer loud screams can be heard from the hall outside the common room. People jump up to check it out but I don't. I know what it is. I get up from Blaise's lap whistling happily and skipping as I go up to my dorm.
Blaise 'forces' me to go to dinner pushing me out of the library where I was hiding. I pout and whine but continue walking. I see the seventh-year girls who were bad mouthing me are still stained with the multicolored ink I had rigged to go off when they finally made it back to the common room. I put a sympathetic smile on my face and pat one of the girl's shoulders. "I know a few remedies that might help you if want." I say in my most innocent and helpful voice.
She smiles and nods taking the bait hook line and sinker. Blaise guides me to where Draco is and sits me down. I sip my juice and they tut. "What are you planning now?" Draco mumbles out of the side of his mouth. "You'll see." I giggle quietly and nibble on a roll. Blaise slides me some food. "Just because your Animagus is an Occamy doesn't mean you have to eat like a bird." he rolls his eyes.
One look at the plate and I know he's been talking to Susan behind my back. I pout at the plate and he chuckles. Draco nudges me and whine quietly. "Geez, are you two picking on Ellie again?" Theo smiles. "Theo, you're my friend, right?" I ask sweetly. He nods. I dump half the food Blaise piled on my plate onto his. "I can't finish all of it but you can!" I cheer. Blaise pinches my cheek and tuts.
I rub my cheek as we walk down to the common room. "Did I pinch too hard or are upset because I made you eat a lot?" Blaise wonders pulling me close. "Both!" I huff. He smiles and ruffles my hair. "Hunh, that didn't work. Let me try again." he continues to ruffle my hair. I knock his hands away after a few minutes. "What are you doing?!" I frown. "Trying to make you look weird but no matter what I do you look pretty." he smirks and kisses my cheek.
"Oh, you did not!" Theo groans. He and Draco stumble away pretending to be sick. I grab Blaise by his tie and pull him into a kiss causing several passing girls to squeal and shriek in shock at my brazenness. Blaise doesn't mind at all and smiles into the kiss. His hands rest on my hips keeping me as close as we can get.
I help the seventh-year girl with her skin problem and the other four come over sheepishly and ask for assistance. "Whoever did this must be very skilled. Madam Pomfrey and Snape weren't even able to help. How were you able to help?" one of the girls' asks. "My mum went to school at the same time as Sirius Black and his friends. She told me that they pulled pranks like this all the time. I wonder if it's possible that you guys triggered one of their old pranks." I sigh.
"An old prank?" they scoff. "My mum said they never took their pranks down but instead left them for the next generation of pranksters." I tsk. They leave thinking long and hard about what I've told them. The next morning at least 40 girls and 65 guys are multi-colored. I suck my teeth. The guys drag me to an empty and dimly lit section of the library where they frown.
"As soon as those girls got rid of their ink stains it would appear on whoever else was bad mouthing me or gossiping about me behind my back. Everyone should know who their enemies are." I smirk unapologetically. Draco starts to wave a finger at me and I hide behind Blaise. "They were bad mouthing me! What was I supposed to do?" I whine. "Ignore them." Draco sighs. "You've never just ignored people. In fact, on numerous occasions, you were the first to act start multiple duels all of which you lost." I state.
Draco goes red, Theo snickers, and Blaise claps a hand over my mouth. "I think you didn't enough sleep." Blaise mutters. "Nuuuuu, Ieeeyeei goff enuff sleeee!" I mumble through his hand. He smiles at me and I pat his hand until he removes it. "I said, no I got enough sleep." I repeat myself feeling slightly irritated. "And the bit about the ink trap?" Blaise wonders. "Oh, that, that's true. There are dozens of prank traps. I found them all in my first year." I smile.
I motion leaving with my fingers as they stare at me in shock. I start to walk away and Blaise pulls me back to his side. I get grounded for two weeks and pout. "Don't pout Ellie." Draco sighs. "I feel like the only reason you're grounding me is because Astoria rejected you for the eighth time." I stick my tongue out and hurry off to class.
Draco spends the rest of the day pouting. I nudge Astoria as we walk in to the common room and she follows me with a sigh. We sit on Draco's lap and whine. "Please forgive us!" we plead. He bites back a smile and I put my head on his shoulder. "Don't be a petty bitch Dray and forgive us!" Astoria sighs following my lead. He groans and leans his back. "You two are killing me." he groans trying to push us off. "Blaise could you grab Ellie while I deal with Astoria?" he chuckles as we begin finger walking up his neck.
Blaise's arms wrap around my middle and I'm lifted into the air. He carries me to another couch. I sigh and play with his tie. Draco takes Astoria out of the common room and I turn to Blaise. "Are you mad I pulled you off Draco?" he smirks. I nod smacking his chest. "You are too damned cute Ellie." he laughs.
"It felt just like when I called you a jackass and you wouldn't talk to me and you had Draco pull me off of you." I pout. "You were staring me down. I couldn't speak much less pry your hands off my face." he tuts. "You're really mean. Remind me why I like you again. Maybe I should have chosen Theo instead." I huff. Theo who's just walked in turns back around and leaves. He returns ten seconds later so Draco and Astoria must still be outside. He runs to the boys' dorms a terrified look on his face.
Blaise turns me back to him a very upset look on his face. "I can tolerate the random fits and the shut downs but I don't want to hear you say that ever again nor do I want to see you on Theo's lap because you're mad at me or jealous about me going to Italy." he states with such a note of finality that I nod without thinking. "I'm sorry." I mumble.
"Now, give me a kiss to make us feel better." he whispers. I kiss his cheek. "One more and I know you can do better." he smiles. I give his lips a quick peck. He frowns and pulls me closer. "One more." he smirks. I roll my eyes and give his lips another quick peck. He sighs and opens his mouth to speak but I beat him to it. "I swear if you ask for another..." he cuts me with a kiss. I gasp and he deepens the kiss.
My music professor holds me back after class and looks at me a quizzical expression on her face. "Are you going to continue being like this for the entire year?" she asks sitting on my desk. "Being like what?" I wonder. "I know you have a lovely voice but you haven't sung not once since last term. You have rejected every single time there was an assignment opting to play an instrument instead. Are you singing elsewhere? Are my assignments not fun? Eleanor, you are such a talented young woman. I'd hate to see your talents go to waste." she frowns.
I look at my hands in my lap. "I just don't feel all that confident singing in front of people anymore. I don't know when I'll feel like I could sing like I used to." I whisper. She sighs and looks up. "For now, there's someone here to see you." she pats my shoulder and gets up. I turn and see Blaise leaning on the wall watching me with a sad smile. He nods to the door and holds out a hand. I wave to my professor then hurry over.
He takes my hand and leads me out of the room and down the corridor. He stops in front of a window and I sit down on the windowsill. He crouches down until he's in my line of sight. "Are you not feeling well? Are you upset? Your professor seems awfully worried. My mum and your grandparents said your mum has received at least five letters a week about your behavior in class. It's a complete 180 to how you've been acting around everyone else. Please tell me." he whispers placing a hand on my cheek.
"It's too personal, too private to share with you at school." I whisper covering his hand with mine. He sighs and caresses my cheek. "We'll talk about it over the break, ok? For now, can you wait right here while I let Draco and Theo know you're ok?" he murmurs. I nod and he kisses me softly before getting up and hurrying down the corridor. I pull my knees to my chest and look outside. I've gotten into the habit of going up to the Astronomy Tower on the weekends in the middle of the night and singing.
It's been a few minutes and I hear footsteps. I turn hoping to see either Theo, Pansy, Astoria, Draco, or Blaise. I'm highly disappointed to see that it's Colin. I frown and sigh as I turn back around. I hear him scoff and he stomps over until he's right in front of me. "Did I do something wrong?" he demands.
"Nope, I was just waiting for my friend. I temporarily thought you were her." I sigh. He frowns and leans against the wall. "What's wrong? You've been looking pretty down lately. Did you and Zabini break up?" he wonders a note of hope in his voice. The fact that the idea of us breaking up appeals so much to him makes me feel sick and I recoil as he leans closer.
There's a dangerous look that flickers behind his 'friendly' eyes that makes me slowly get to my feet and start in the direction that Blaise went. "When someone is being nice you should at least make an effort." I hear Colin growl. I turn for a second and a voice in the back of my head tells me I should run and I do.
I take with Colin hot on my heels. He manages to catch me a time or two and I wriggle free from his grasp. He pins me down but I've almost reached my destination. "You know, I tried the nice and friendly route and I even wrote you love letters. So, what I don't understand is why you chose Zabini over me. It makes no sense. I'm so much better for you but you didn't even try to date or talk to anybody else, did you? Don't you get it? I love you more than he will ever love you." Collin has a sinister smile on his face that chills me to the bone. I squirm trying to unseat him and he slaps me. I can taste the metallic taste of my own blood.
I try to unseat him but he cackles and looms over me. "I can show you with just one kiss Eleanor. Let me show you." he smirks and tries to kiss me. I slap him, hard, leaving a very detailed handprint. My hand hurts like heel but he's off of me rolling around in pain next to me. I hop to my feet and kick him for good measure before racing around the corner and down the stairs. The sound of people eating reaches me and I pick up the pace as I the sound of angry mutters and footsteps reach me from behind.
I gasp as I get thrown back onto the floor. "Are you seriously running to him now?! I just confessed to you and you're going to him!" Collin grumbles standing over me. I scurry back on my hands and he follows me a crazed look in his eyes. Then I catch the scent of firewhiskey on his breath. I wait until he's in range then kick him in his nethers. He collapses to the ground and I take off again. I make it to the hall and see Blaise talking to Draco and Theo.
They look to be talking about something serious so I run over to Lavender. She's taken aback by my sudden appearance as I may or may not have slid down the bench and hid in her arms as I hugged her. "Ellie?! What's wrong? What happened?" she asks. I start to cry and look up. "I hit somebody again." I sniffle holding up the tattered remains of Collins tie from our earlier scuffle. She groans and letting her head fall back.
"What do you mean you hit someone again?" Hermione wonders. "It was a guy I'd turned down before. He was upset that I'm with Blaise and he tried to kiss me and he smelled like firewhiskey. He hit me and I just wanted to get him off of me." I wince as Lav turns my head revealing the red slap mark on my cheek. Hermione gasps her hands flying to her mouth. "Draco and Blaise are going to freak..." Mione gasps.
"Fuck their reactions. Where is the brat that dared to put his hands on my cousin?" Lav growls getting to her feet. She grabs my hand leading me back out. Collin is just crawling to the top of the stairs. Lav takes one look at Collin, his current condition, and the state of his tie and puts two and two together since I've started to back up. Collin's eyes fix on me as if I'm some sort of prize he wants. Lav walks calmly up the stairs and whatever Collin says she completely loses it and punches him so hard in the face he goes flying down the stairs.
Theo spots me and nudges Blaise and Draco. They wave me over before Collin has already started to get to his feet. Draco gets up making his way over. Collin snarls and starts to lumber towards me. Lav drags Collin back by his shirt and slams him onto the ground. I hide behind Draco who looks on dumbfounded as Lav beats the hell out of Collin. Draco turns to me and freezes when he sees the mark on my cheek.
He turns to Theo and Blaise and waves them out. People in the hall are beginning to get curious and come out one by one. "Take Ellie to the Hospital Wing, and you keep an eye on Blaise so he doesn't do anything stupid and reckless like Lavender." Draco orders. Blaise examines me carefully not paying attention to the scene on the floor. "I tried to down here as fast as I could but he slammed me to the floor and I couldn't breathe." I whisper. Blaise tilts his head then follows my eyes.
Colin is somewhat lifeless on the floor and Lavender is still whaling on him like he's getting back up. Blaise turns back to me but I'm trying to dust Collin's tie from my fingers. He picks me up and carries me away without a word Theo following dazedly behind. I wince and Blaise puts me on his back. Theo shoots me a look and I put a finger to my lips trying and failing to smile. "Explain." Blaise mumbles as he climbs the steps. I explain and by the time we reach the Hospital Wing both boys are livid.
Madam Pomfrey gasps and rushes over. She has me undress to examine my torso so I wait on a bed until she pulls a screen around. I wince as I shrug my shirt off. She does a double take and has me lie on my uninjured side. I whimper when she touches it. "Just as I thought. Three broken ribs and you haven't passed out yet. Let me go fetch the medicine." she smiles sympathetically.
I shrug my shirt back on and lie down. Madam Pomfrey moves the screen once I've had my medicine and Blaise comes over. "Check it out. We're back but I didn't take an exam." I try to joke around. He frowns and nods for me to lie down. "Aww, my baby is so worried about me. I did well to try and get around people, didn't I?" I wince with the effort of speaking. "You did great love. Now get some rest." he whispers tucking me in and kissing my forehead.
I manage a two-hour nap before I'm awoken by yelling. Mum is in the midst of a heated argument with Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey. Lavender is nearby looking as if she's been scolded and Collin who keeps groaning in pain lies black, blue, green, and purple on a bed next to her. I note the bandages on her hands and piece together she must have been beating him for a while before the teachers were able to peel her off of him.
I pull the sheets up to my nose and watch the scene through barely open eyes. "Alexandra! This is a hospital and you're going to wake Ellie. I understand you're upset but this is the first we're hearing about this so give us some time to find the entire story." McGonagall huffs. Mum sighs and runs her fingers through her hair. "You, little missy! Why didn't you say anything?" mum turns to Lav a tired look on her face.
"Ellie said she wouldn't put herself in a situation where he could try and take advantage of her again. She's always with somebody. He hadn't done anything for a year and we all thought maybe he'd dropped it. Blaise came down to get a sandwich for Ellie and then she burst in a few minutes later looking terrified. If we'd known we would've said something but we didn't have enough proof." Lav sniffles.
"Again?" mum's eyes flicker to Collin then back to Lav. "Apparently, Blaise went to pick Ellie up from the music classroom and found Collin trying to kiss Ellie while she was knocked out sleep. It wasn't the first time he was acting suspicious around her while she was asleep but Draco and Theo wanted solid proof." Lav wrings her hands as she talks.
Mum's hands that were on Lav's drop to her sides. Snape moves quickly wrapping his arms around mum as she lunges for Collin. He nods to Dumbledore before dragging my mum out of the wing. McGonagall walks around to Lavender but they're whispering and I'm too far away to hear. Blaise comes in looking confused. Madam Pomfrey nods at him and waves him in my direction.
I sit up and as he sits down. He frowns every time I wince while trying to get comfortable. He examines my face which has healed quite nicely. I place my hands on his as he examines me carefully. "Did I scare you?" I whisper. "You already know the answer to that. The only reason I'm not attacking that bastard too is because you were able to make it to the hall without too many injuries. If something... if he'd done... if..." I pull him into a hug.
He lets out a relieved sigh. "I'm sorry." I whisper. "Sorry? Whatever for?" he mumbles. "For not getting to safety quicker." I let my tears fall silently.