Chapter 16: Gryffindor Tower

Ron was the first to enter the portrait door, but he abruptly stopped and quickly backed out, causing Ellie to bump into Harry.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.

"Every single Gryffindor is in there waiting for us." Ron said in a panicked tone.

"I don't think we'll be able to keep Ellie a secret much longer." Hermione said doubtfully.

"But what about her safety?" Harry asked.

"It'll be easier if we tell everyone the truth now, instead of everyone constantly questioning us till Monday when she leaves." Hermione replied.

"Hey, and if everyone knows, there will be more people to protect Ellie from any attacks from Slytherin." Ron added.

"What do you think Ellie?" Harry asked her, before making a decision.

Ellie briefly paused in thought.

"I don't want to spend the next couple of days pretending to be something I'm not. I think its best if we tell everyone the truth now."

"Alright." Harry said, and he led the way through the portrait door.

Once again Ellie found herself disclosing every detail of how she got into the magic world and found her way to Hogwarts. The audience in the common room was much bigger than any of the others she had told the story to before, which made her feel three times as nervous.

When the story was over most of the students returned to their homework, while others approached Ellie and began to ask her odd questions like 'what subjects do they teach in muggle schools?' and 'what is the purpose of a television?'.

Once Ellie had finished answering all the questions, which took about forty-five minutes, she found Harry, Ron and Hermione all sitting at a table in the far corner doing their homework. Since they had heard Ellie's story twice already, they were able to get an early start.

Hermione was busy reading a thick text book, Harry was idly writing with a quill on a long sheet of parchment, and Ron was staring off into space.

Ellie quietly sat down in the empty chair next to Hermione, not wanting to disturb anyone.

A few minutes later Hermione pulled her eyes away from the page she was reading and glanced at Ron.

"Shouldn't you be doing your Charms homework?" She snapped, returning to her book.

Ron let out an irritated groan and pulled his wand out of his front pocket, along with a small wooden box.

"What's that for?" Ellie asked, inquiring about the box.

"I need more work on my locking charm, and we were practicing on boxes and jars in class." Ron answered, placing the box in the center of the table.

With a slight waving motion, Ron pointed the tip of his wand at the lid of the box and said "Sigillum!"

He then picked up the box and tried to pry the lid off. With one sharp yank the lid came right off. Looking very defeated, Ron placed the lid back on the box, and prepared to give another attempt at the charm.

"You need to concentrate harder." Hermione commented, without taking her eyes off the page she was reading.

Ron shot her an irate glare, and tried the charm again.

"Sigillum!"

This time the charm worked. Ron tried to pull the lid off the box with all his might, but it wouldn't budge. He even got Ellie to remove the lid, but she couldn't do it either.

"Good Ron, now you just have to successfully perform the charm five more times, and you've mastered it." Hermione said smugly.

"How do you unlock the box?" Ellie asked Ron, who looked like he was getting ready to hex Hermione.

"That's easy." Ron replied, his temper ebbing. "Alohomora!" He exclaimed with another wave of his wand, and Ellie was now able to remove the box lid with ease.

"Wow! What else can you do?" Ellie asked with interest. She was completely captivated by these feats of magic, even if they were simple.

"Oh, we can do all kinds of things." Ron boasted. "Accio!"

Hermione's text book went flying out of her hand and into Ron's.

"Cool!" Ellie exclaimed in awe.

"Ron, don't you think you've done enough showing off for one night?" Hermione testily asked, snatching her book back from Ron.

Ron, as usual, was completely ignoring Hermione

"Do you want to try?" Ron asked Ellie, pointing the wand handle towards her.

"Really?" Ellie smiled.

Harry stopped writing and looked up from his roll of parchment.

"Ron, she's a muggle! Nothing is going to happen if she uses a magic wand." Hermione stated.

"I know that!" Ron indignantly said. "But I've never seen a muggle use a wand before, and besides when will Ellie ever get another once in a life time opportunity like this?"

"Fine, do what ever you want!" Hermione said coldly, returning to her book.

Ron handed his wand to Ellie and she timidly took it.

Ellie held the wand expecting to feel a surge of magic pulse through her, but it just felt like she was holding a plain, ordinary wooden stick.

"Try the charm I was just working on." Ron suggested.

Ellie mimicked the wand movement Ron had performed and said "Sigillum!"

Nothing happened. Ron was able to remove the box lid with ease.

"Try something easier." Harry recommended. "How about Wingardium Leviosa?"

Once Ellie learned how to do the spell properly she gave it a try. Again, nothing happened.

"I told you it wouldn't work." Hermione said from behind her book in her usual know-it-all tone.

"Well it never hurts to try." Ron snapped.

Ellie returned the wand to Ron, and he continued to work on his charms homework.

The strong feeling of disappointment sat in the pit of Ellie's stomach. Even though she knew the spell wasn't going to work, because if it did she wouldn't be a muggle, deep down inside, a part of her really wanted to perform a real magic charm.

"So, what makes a magic wand so magical anyways?" Ellie asked out of curiosity.

"I'm not really sure exactly what the procedure is to make a magic wand, but each one is made with a different combination of wood, length and core." Ron replied, examining his wand.

"For example, my wand is an 11 inch, holly, with a phoenix feather core." Harry said.

"And mine is 14 inches, willow, with a unicorn hair." said Ron.

"U-unicorn? You mean a r-real unicorn?" Ellie stammered with excitement.

"Yeah." Ron nodded.

"You mean to tell me that unicorns really exist?" Ellie asked in disbelief.

"Yep." Harry smiled. "There are a few living in the forbidden forest."

Ellie glanced out the window, almost expecting to see a unicorn standing on the forest edge, but all she could see was darkness.

"I'm guessing you like unicorns?" Harry asked.

"I have a large collection of glass and ceramic figurines, but I never imagined that they actually existed." Ellie replied. She was starting to feel a bit foolish for glancing out the window.

Soon, Harry and Ron lost all interest in their homework, and started a game of wizard chess. Ellie watched quietly, mesmerized by the moving pieces, and wished that her chess board at home could move on its own.

It was after the fifth game of exploding snap when it began to be a struggle for Ellie to keep her eyes open. She felt very thankful when Hermione announced that she was going to bed ten minutes later. As much as Ellie wanted to play exploding snap and learn more about the magic world the entire night, her body wasn't going to let her.

She followed Hermione up the staircase to the girl's dormitory, and fell asleep instantly once her head touched the pillow.

It wasn't long before Ellie found herself awake again, tossing and turning. She was never able to sleep soundly in a strange place, and Hogwarts was no exception. Her body felt completely comfortable lying on the soft mattress, but her mind was too busy racing with thoughts of the new world she stumbled into.

Finally, after feeling too frustrated, Ellie opened her eyes and glanced at the clock on Hermione's bedside table. The time was 1:55am. Ellie had only been in bed for an hour and a half. All of the four-poster beds in the room had their curtains shut tight, making Ellie feel even more isolated and alone.

After several minutes of staring blankly at the dark ceiling, Ellie realized that she wasn't going to fall back to sleep anytime soon, and decided to go down to the common room.