Author's Notes: This one's a short one.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter Thirty-Three: End of the Summer

Ellie was mortified for days after receiving Jamie's letter that she had cried on Snape's shoulder- literally. Talk about embarrassing. Snape appeared to take it in his stride, which just made it all the worse for Ellie. One embarrassed look from him might have made it more bearable, but when he stared her down with the usual frosty expression, she felt like crawling under the sofa. No doubt he had laughed heartily at her when he had managed to escape from her that evening. Stupid, stupid!

The news that Jamie was not coming back to Hogwarts still had not sunk in. Ellie waited impatiently for another owl to arrive, telling her the move was off and he would be back after all. She waited and waited but no such owl came. Jamie's owl did arrive back but it was with another gloomy letter from Jamie who was still upset over his parents' decision. Ellie wrote back of course, documenting her own misery at their separation, and even confessing the embarrassing incident with Snape. Jamie wrote back with the hopeful idea that Amelia might be able to take her to California to visit after all. Ellie replied with her depressing fear that she may be left at Snape's for the remainder of the holidays.

Eager to avoid Snape's glares, Ellie worked as hard as possible at the work he assigned her. That seemed to keep him satisfied. Even the Occlumency lessons started to get better. Ellie had a good incentive – the first two Occlumency lessons after Jamie's letter had led to her inadvertently allowing Snape to see many private moments with Jamie – like the time he had called her pretty and the time he had held her while she cried. Snape's eyes glowered fiercely after these sessions and Ellie was determined not to let Snape's intrusions into her most precious memories continue.

Another two weeks passed, leaving Ellie only two weeks more before the new term started. Ellie prayed daily for a letter from Amelia, but something better than that happened. One morning Snape was quizzing Ellie on vampires (Ellie had a few well thought out questions to pose to Snape when they were done) when there was a knock on the door. Snape grunted impatiently and moved to answer it. As soon as the door opened, Ellie recognised Amelia's voice greeting Snape and she joyfully rushed past Snape and flung herself on Amelia.

"Hey, glad to see me?" Amelia asked, laughing as she returned Ellie's hug.

"Oh yes!" Ellie told her.

"How was she? Did she behave?" Amelia asked Snape as she extracted herself from Ellie's embrace. Snape looked darkly at her for a moment, causing Amelia to take a step back.

"I suppose so," Snape eventually said.

"Well, I can take her off your hands now. I expect you're glad to hear that," she said to Snape.

"Fine," Snape said curtly.

Ellie rushed upstairs to pack her things, leaving Amelia and Snape alone in the sitting room. Snape gestured to Amelia to take a seat. She sat down on the sofa and he took a seat opposite her in an armchair. He didn't speak, but proceeded to glare icily at Amelia. She began to feel very uncomfortable, and hoped Ellie would hurry up.

Ellie packed her trunk as fast as she could and, satisfied she had everything, grabbed Helga's cage and pulled her trunk out of the room. She pushed the trunk down the stairs in front of her (causing quite a racket in the process) and then followed with Helga.

Snape and Amelia heard the trunk as it crashed down the stairs, and Snape winced. Amelia wondered if Ellie had been this noisy throughout her stay. Snape probably could not wait to get rid of her. No wonder he was glaring at her. He must be angry she had been so long away.

Ellie burst through the door with her things.

"I'm ready!" she announced.

Snape and Amelia both stood up. Amelia took charge of Ellie's trunk, and told her she had a taxi waiting outside.

"Thank you for having her Severus," Amelia said, and offered her hand. Snape gave her another cold glare, but shook her hand. Amelia then wheeled Ellie's trunk outside. It was now Ellie's turn to say goodbye.

Ellie suddenly felt bad that she was leaving. Would it bother Snape at all? He was looking frostier than usual – was that because he was annoyed that she was leaving with Amelia when by all rights she should really be staying with him, or was it just that Snape disliked Amelia and seeing her had put him in a bad mood?

"Thanks for having me," Ellie said. Snape nodded. There was a pause.

"Well, I'll see you at school," she told him. He nodded again.

"Right," Ellie muttered to herself and made for the door with Helga. What a heart-warming way to say goodbye.

"Wait!" he said, and she turned around, hopefully. He pulled a book out from one of the many shelves and handed it to her.

"I expect you to have read every page by the time you return to Hogwarts," he told her.

"Er, thanks," Ellie said, looking doubtfully at the book. Trust Snape to set her work even when she was leaving.

Ellie walked out the door, up the path and got into the waiting taxi. Snape stood at the door, watched as they drove off, and then walked back inside, slamming the door behind him.

"Where are we going?" Ellie asked Amelia excitedly.

"Well, I believe you wanted to see a certain house…"

"Really? That's brilliant!"

The last two weeks of Ellie's holidays were fantastic. They went to see the Winterbourne house, and Ellie's eyes nearly fell out of her head when she saw the size of it. The grounds were incredible too. Ellie couldn't believe it really all belonged to her. Amelia had shown her which room had been her mum's, and there were plenty of photo albums filled with pictures of her mum and her grandparents. Ellie and Amelia spent two days there, and then Amelia had another surprise for Ellie.

"Do you know what these are?" Amelia asked, holding an envelope up. Ellie took the envelope curiously and opened it – inside were two plane tickets to California.

Ellie jumped on Amelia immediately.

"Oh thank you thank you thank you!" she squealed.

Ellie had never been on a plane before, and although she was used to flying on her broom, she still found the journey very exciting. It was wonderful to see Jamie again. He and his family came to meet Ellie and Amelia at the airport and Jamie had raced to greet Ellie as soon as he had seen her. Ellie loved California. By the time she and Amelia had to leave, she could understand why Jamie's parents wanted him to stay. She began to half-wish she could stay too, as long as it was near Jamie.

When Ellie and Amelia got back to London Ellie had just two days before she had to go back to school. Most of these days were spent in Diagon Alley getting her things prepared for school. Ellie had been neglecting Snape's book, but realising that he would most likely quiz her on it as soon as he could, she frantically crammed at night when she should have been sleeping. When 1 September came and Amelia had waved her off on the Hogwarts Express Ellie spent most of the journey asleep in a compartment with some of her Gryffindor friends. The news that Jamie was not coming back had spread, and a lot of the talk in the compartment was about Jamie, so perhaps it was best for Ellie that she slept through most of it.

During the feast, Ellie's eyes kept wandering over to Snape. If her classmates only knew how she spent most of her summer! Snape's eyes were invariably on her as well. When Ellie left the Great Hall to return to her dormitory Snape, who had been skulking about the Entrance Hall waiting for her, pulled her aside and told her that he wanted to see her the following evening after dinner to begin their extra lessons. Ellie waited until he was gone and then groaned. She had a feeling that with no Jamie and even more Snape – this year would be her most trying yet.