A/N hi all! Sorry about the spelling errors in the last chapter. :S I only just noticed them.
Chapter 9 Reflection
When the first task arrived Ellen found herself unimpressed. She didn't think it was right that children were to compete in such death sports. Ellen took a seat on the lower level of the grandstand and closest to the exit; because she didn't plan to watch for long, but as it turned out she was late and had missed the first the first to competitors. While watching the children dodging the Dragons all she could thing was that if the Department of Education was anything like it was in her world the castle would be shut down and a lot of people would be in deep trouble.
At the end Dumbledore came over and asked what she thought of what she just saw.
'I think' She said 'that this is a lawsuit waiting to happen.'
With the close of the first task came another thing for people to get excited about. It was announced that there was to be a ball on Christmas night. And with Christmas just around the corner came the arrival of Christmas cards, and that was all good. But Ellen was the one who had to send them all. She was bombarded with hundreds of Christmas cards she had to send from busy teachers. She didn't think that teachers with no lives (she guessed they had no lives since they lived at the school) had so many friends. Sending cards meant spending a lot of time in the owlery. Ellen hated it there, no only was it filled with dirty owls but it stank in there and spending more than an hour in there made you feel very dirty. Dumbledore found her after finishing that horrible task. She felt a little embarrassed as she was covered in feathers.
'Ah, Miss. Ellen.' He exclaimed. He had stopped calling her Miss. Grey after she asked him repeatedly to call her Ellen (she didn't mind miss normally but everyone else was well much older than her so it made her feel small.)
'I wanted to talk to you about your time here.' He continued. 'I thought that since you were going to be with us for the rest of the year I thought it would be unfair to keep you here over the holidays so you are free to go.'
' Thank you, err, sir. I will take up that offer.' Ellen rushed off wanting to get the smell of owl off her.
'I thought we got rid of you.' Snape said surprised and annoyed to find Ellen sitting looking forlorn behind his desk with a book he swore he had seen her reading ages ago.
'You did, but nobody is around for Christmas so I'm stuck in this freak show... sorry.'
'I can't blame you, I've been stuck in this freak show for...' he sighed ' thirteen years...'
'Ha! Sucked in.'
Severus rolled his eyes he was wondering if she would move so he could sit down, but it didn't seem likely and he, for once, didn't feel like arguing so he sat in the chair opposite her. He had never sat in front of his desk before and it made him feel less dominate, he didn't like it. There was silence. Ellen looked as if she was calculating something. Then suddenly she asked:
'How old are you?'
This question took him by surprise he just assumed that she knew. He then realised he didn't know how old she was. She looked quite young she couldn't be more than thirty, probably around twenty-five or six.
'Does it matter?'
'Well I guess not but I'd like to know. It is a bit hard to tell peoples ages in this place.'
Severus didn't know whether to tell her or not but he saw no harm
'Ok if you must know I'm thirty-six.'
Ellen looked at him hard. He was younger then she expected, she was thinking he would be around the mid forties.
'Your younger than I expected. Your probably wondering how old I am, or not, but I'm twenty-eight. Getting old.' She smiled showing her white teeth, and then she frowned seeing the expression on his face. 'What?'
'Nothing I just thought you would be younger seeing how childish you are.' He could never help adding in a sarcastic remark.
'That's sweet you thought I was younger? Thanks Snape you really lifted my spirits.'
Severus was confused, the attempt to shut her down failing.
It was Christmas morning Ellen woke early like she always did on Christmas, she had no presents, thought there were some lovely cards from her work mates. She couldn't sit in her room and wait until people got up they would take ages. She took the chance to walk around the castle alone. She felt very lonely this was the first Christmas where she wasn't with any of her friends or family. She thought maybe sabotaging some of those annoying singing suits would cheer her up. Turning around corners where she knew there were a few she was disappointed that someone had gotten there before her. Every turn she took she found that every suit had been tampered with. She followed the trail of destruction to the teachers' staff room. Pushing open the door she found that she would not be alone. Snape was sitting in an armchair expressionless.
'Those singing suits piss you off as well' she said to him sitting down.
'With a passion.'
They didn't say much, but it was a comfortable silence. Ellen wondered what Snape was thinking.
By two o'clock there were no girls around the castle. Ellen didn't have the need to get ready early she felt confident that she could be ready in half an hour if need be. She spent the rest of the day helping with peoples snowball fights and avoiding Moody who wanted to get her under the mistletoe.
Ellen was looking through her makeup box deciding what combination of colours she would use for the night. She wanted it to be as subtle as possible she was oblivious to what was happing around her lost in her own little world, deciding on make up. Snape came in he didn't realize she was in there as the door adjoining his room was wide open when it was normally closed. She didn't notice him; she was humming some kind of song. He wondered hoe long it would take to notice him or maybe she was just ignoring him. He stood right behind her still she didn't acknowledge him. He really wanted to use the bathroom and by the looks of things she wasn't doing anything important. He wasn't really surprised that she was in there all the other women in the castle were getting ready, the thing that did surprise him was that she wasn't getting ready she still looked the same as she had done that morning.
'Your leaving things a bit late.' He said
Ellen whirled around startled by his deep dark voice. Ellen didn't know that Severus was so close behind her.
'DON'T do that!' she yelled 'Do you have any control on how creepy you allow yourself to ge-' She stopped, Severus had stumbled backwards; hand over his face. Somehow she had managed to hit him in the face. She clapped her hands over her mouth
'Sorry, did I hit you?' She asked worried that she was about to get yelled at. Severus didn't reply but removed his hand reveling blood trickling out his nose and down his chin. He wiped it away with his hand.
'Good shot' he said feeling the bridge of his nose and wincing.
'Oh God, I am so sorry, here' She got a handful of tissues and gave them to him, his nose bleeding more heavily. Next thing he knew he was being dragged up to the hospital wing, he reluctantly let her.
'Poppy, are you here?' Ellen called when she got up to the hospital wing, dragging an unenthusiastic Severus behind her. Poppy came out with her hair in curlers.
'Are you not going to the ball Ellen?' She asked looking her over
'Oh I am, but I have a problem. I accidentally broke Severus's nose.' Ellen dragged Snape around so Poppy could see.
'Accident you say?' Poppy said with a smirk. 'Sit.' She said to Snape sharply. And he obeyed.
'I don't know what happened' Ellen began 'He just startled me and then I turned around and well this happened.'
'Well accident or no accident at least now someone has hit him.' Poppy answered
'What is that supposed to mean?' Snape asked sharply
'Well it had to happen, if Ellen hadn't hit you someone else would.'
'And why would that be?' He asked still holding tissues to his nose
'Because' Ellen said 'You're a total smart ass.'
'There.' Poppy said hitting him on the nose with her wand and muttering a spell. 'All done.'
Snape rubbed his nose and glared that had hurt more than when Ellen had broke it.
'Thank you Poppy.' Ellen said and turning to Snape she said 'Oh don't be such a baby, if you were anywhere but here this would be worse. But then again your nose would still be the same broken or not.' She took him by the arm and led him back down to their rooms. He had a glare fixed on his face, but he wasn't as angry as he would usually under these circumstances.
'Listen,' she said turning to Snape where they would part into their separate rooms 'sorry to poke such fun at you but you deserve it, but I am sorry about what I did I don't know how it happened.'
'Well I think it was surprise and that ring.' He said pointing to a ring with a large amber stone. He departed into his room. Ellen did the same but into her room. She had left things a bit late she had an hour and twenty minutes but she was quite confident she could get ready in less. She was about to go into the bathroom to try and make a start on getting ready but Severus was in there and if she guessed right, and she normally did, he would be in there for a while. Ellen didn't know and didn't want to know what took so long.
Severus was standing in the bathroom in front of the mirror, looking at himself. He didn't know why, he didn't usually; well he tried to avoid it. He found himself looking at an angry middle-aged man who looked older than he should. He had stopped caring about himself, other people and life along time ago and he had only now realised how much he had let himself go. Maybe he should start to care again he thought. Ellen was right his nose would be the same broken or not. He suddenly got angry with himself, he was only thinking about this because of Ellen, why should he care what she thought? He vacated the bathroom slamming the door behind him.&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
A/N Please R&R
