(PoA) CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: The Two Firebolts
Ellie and Harry,
I'm terribly sorry to have gone silent on you for so long. I'm alright. One of the Dementors spotted me as I was leaving Hogwarts, and it tracked me for weeks—had to go all the way to Romania to lose it. Woodstock found me somewhere in Germany, but they were still on my tail at that point, so I kept him with me. I think it's been long enough now to send him back to you—and thanks to Harry, he has Hedwig to keep him company.
I'm on my way back. I can't give you an arrival date, in case this letter gets intercepted. Thank you for keeping me updated on your lives, Ellie—though I'm getting the sense that you left quite a bit out. I can only hope that the use of Hedwig means the two of you have found a way back to each other—whether as friends or as something more.
I've been thinking a lot about that last day I spent at Hogwarts, and I decided there is one small thing I can do to attempt to make up for leading those Dementors to the Quidditch field that day. Ellie, to my understanding, you have full access to my vault at Gringotts. Can you put in a request by mail for whatever the total cost of two Firebolts is, and purchase them for yourself and Harry? I've crunched the numbers while on the run, and I'm confident there will still be plenty left for the future.
Stay safe, vigilant, and happy. I'll be back as soon as I can.
Love,
Padfoot
"Padfoot," Ellie read, staring down at the letter from her father. "Why does that nickname sound so familiar?"
She was in the Charms courtyard with Harry. Hedwig and Woodstock had arrived together in the Great Hall with the morning post, but Ellie had quickly stuffed the letter into her cloak, not wanting anyone around them to see it. She had felt Fred's eyes on her, and knew that he must be curious to know what it said, but, of course, she had ignored him. He didn't get to know these things anymore.
"Dunno," said Harry, who was far more interested in the bit about the Firebolts. "D'you reckon he's serious, though? Two Firebolts?"
"Oh, right—that. Yeah, he's serious. I'll put the order in today."
Seeming to sense that her focus wasn't where his was, he changed his tune. "Kind of crazy, isn't it—that the last time he was here, we were still together?"
She gave a dry laugh at that. "You're right—it is crazy."
"At least we're friends again, right? The way he wrote that letter—it's almost like he knew we wouldn't get back together."
There was a reason for that, she mused grimly: Sirius had been under the deluded impression that she was supposed to be with Fred.
Yeah, well, me, too, she thought darkly. Until he proved otherwise.
Ellie stopped partying on the nights before Quidditch practice, but she didn't stop partying.
"You've got to cool it," Hermione told her one Friday night in late February as she, Lavender, and Parvati all got ready for the party. Ellie had invited Hermione and their other roommate, Kellah, out of politeness, but neither was interested in attending. "You're going to get in serious trouble if the teachers find out about all this partying."
"Doubt it," said Ellie with a dismissive shrug. "It's not like we're smuggling alcohol in. The castle is literally providing it for us."
"A lucky side-effect of a spell that was never actually intended for that purpose," Hermione pointed out. "If they knew—"
"Well, they don't know," Lavender interrupted, "do they? So can you just stop being an obnoxious goody-two-shoes and let us have fun in peace?"
Ellie froze, eyeliner pencil still pressed against her upper lid. Had Lavender really just said that?
She felt Hermione's teary gaze turn toward her, waiting for her to snap back at Lavender on her behalf. Ellie had always been something of a defender to Hermione; where others judged her precociousness and obsession with school as lame or annoying, Ellie had always admired those qualities, and hadn't been afraid to voice those feelings.
But Ellie wasn't the same girl she had been back then. She had a new role to fill—one that was a whole lot more Lavender than it was Hermione. If she allowed herself to slip and fall back toward old her role, she risked getting hurt again.
And she was tired of being hurt.
So, instead of defending Hermione, she finished ringing her eyes with black, cleared her throat, and said to Lavender and Parvati, "Let's go."
Ellie only got worse as the weeks went on and the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw game drew nearer. She was back to her usual self at Quidditch—at least, as close to it as she could get while not speaking to either of the Beaters—but completely unlike her old self in just about every other way.
"I don't get it," Harry told her a few days before the game as they strolled to the Owlery together to standby for the delivery of their new Firebolts. "You've had this weird, Queen Bee transformation. Lavender and Parvati follow you around like groupies. Hermione says you've been treating her like absolute dirt. Yet, you act the same as ever with me. Why?"
Honestly? Because of all the people who still spoke to her, Harry was the only one she felt like she really even knew. Because he was the closest thing to Fred that she had left.
But she couldn't tell him that.
"Would you prefer I treat you like dirt, too?" she asked him coldly. "Because that could be arranged."
He sighed. "This isn't you, Ellie. I'm not buying it. You're just scared—lashing out the only way you know how. You're afraid of getting hurt again."
He was right, of course. He saw right through her. Just another way he was the closest thing to Fred she had left.
"Yeah," she said grimly, "well, getting hurt sure seems to love me."
Finally, the day of the Ravenclaw match was upon them. The weather was better than the previous game, their last few practices on their new Firebolts had gone extraordinarily well, and everything appeared to be lining up for another Gryffindor victory, save for one thing: Cho Chang.
"Don't you dare go soft on us just because their Seeker is a pretty girl," Oliver said to Harry the moment he saw where his eyes wandered.
"Yeah," said Ellie, nudging Harry playfully. "I nearly assassinated Cedric in the last game, and he's the prettiest boy in school."
"Hey!" objected Oliver as the rest of the team—save for one sullen redhead, of course—burst into laughter.
"We've got two Firebolts on our team now," pointed out Angelina. "If we don't win, we should never be allowed to play again."
"Right," said Harry. "No pressure."
They took their positions on the field at that, awaited Madam Hooch's whistle, and then were off.
It was all too easy for Ellie to claim the Quaffle when it was thrown; her broomstick was easily twice as fast as most everyone else's around her. In fact, it was so fast that she didn't even bother passing; she zoomed straight over to the Ravenclaw goal and scored before their Keeper seemed to know what was happening.
"Amazing!" exclaimed Lee Jordan, who proceeded to spend the next ten minutes commenting on the grace, speed, and beauty of the Firebolt as if being paid to sell them.
Ellie settled into a rhythm with her teammates from there, not wanting to get too cocky on her new broom. She watched Harry out of the corner of her eye as she played, curious whether he'd really let the pretty face of Cho Chang keep him from playing his best.
He wasn't downright folding to her, but he was certainly playing like a "gentleman," as Oliver would say. And Cho Chang was no gentlewoman; she was a tough player.
Before Ellie could think of an acceptable way to shout at him to get it together, something else caught her eye: a set of black, hooded figures below them. Dementors.
Cursing, she zoomed over to Harry, leaving Angelina and Katie with the Quaffle.
"Harry!" she shouted. "The Dementors are back! Don't get close to them!"
She saw him reach for his wand, and her eyes widened. "Don't worry!" he shouted back to her. "Lupin's been helping me!"
And before she could think of a reply, he had pointed his wand at the Dementors and shouted, "Expecto Patronum!"
She gasped with excitement as a long, silvery light shot out from his wand and toward the hooded creatures, knocking them back and off the field. She knew the Patronus Charm to be a highly advanced spell; for Harry to manage it in his third year was astounding.
But there wasn't time to linger on it. Cho Chang had seen the Snitch, which meant Harry needed to get to her and Ellie needed to get to scoring.
Thanks to the Firebolts, within seconds, both had happened. And another few from there, Harry had caught the Snitch.
Oliver grabbed Ellie the second her feet hit the ground, laying a big, theatrical kiss on her that made her blush from cheek to ear. With that out of the way, he released his hold of her and reached emphatically for Harry's hair, mussing it so heavily, it seemed to spurt out in twelve different directions. "You did it!" Oliver shouted happily.
But there was something in Harry's expression that wasn't quite so thrilled.
"What is it?" she whispered to him as Oliver went off to congratulate Katie and Angelina.
"I didn't just see Dementors, Ellie," he whispered back. "I also saw a big, black dog."
Sirius is back?! About time! Maybe he'll be able to talk Ellie off the Mean Girls ledge she's teetering on? I know she's a little insufferable right now, guys, but she DID have her heart broken pretty bad. Drop your thoughts in a review, and stay tuned!
