Ella avoids Draco Malfoy, or so she thinks. In reality, he's avoiding her, but to put her mind at ease, she has decided she is avoiding him. If anything, it gives her time to think about what to do. Draco was about to do something very dangerous and she had to be ready to help him.
"Got your mind in the clouds again, Ella. You all right?" Neville asks, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Ella shakes her head, looking down at her book, flicking a page, "I'm just.. trying to figure this stuff out." She gestures weakly to her book, "I'm just having a hard time focusing."
Neville shuts his book, really quietly, "Is it about your parents?"
Ella feels her blood run cold, looking up at him, "My parents?"
"You haven't heard? Rita Skeeter did an 'in remembrance' of them, nothing awful.. just seemed to stir up a few rumors."
Ella is at a loss, "She wrote about my parents? What did she say?"
"She implied that someone killed them, that it wasn't a freak accident. Can you believe that? That.. wench.. really just stirring the pot, for no good reason, I'd say."
Ella shakes her head, exhaling, "No, my parents got caught in the crossfire during a wizarding duel. It wasn't intentional." She stands up abruptly, "I have to go. I can't be here right now." She says, her eyes starting to fill with tears.
Neville tries to stop her but Ella is going so fast she can feel her robes trying to catch up to her. She runs into one of the abandoned bathrooms in the castle. Gripping the sink with a death grip, her breaths coming out rapidly and quick.
She looks at herself in the mirror, breathing heavy. Tears start falling down her cheeks. She screams into the sink bowl. She hadn't let herself feel this pain for a while now. She wasn't ready to feel it again.
Her parents, her father, the smartest wizard she had ever met, and her mother, the most beautiful, wise, and kind witch she would ever come across. Both snuffed out by a wizarding duel, in which each were struck by a curse meant for the other wizard. That inevitably took both of their lives. Ella, young and hopeful, had just bought her books and chosen her wand for school that year. She had been excitedly waiting for her parents to get home so she could drill them once more about the new school she would be going to. She waited for hours before the lights came.
"Ella? Ella Hawthorne?" The police officer in her doorway asked.
Ella nods, her eyes so big and so confused, "Um, yes?"
"Mind if we come in for a minute?" The officer gestures to the woman detective with him.
Ella's hand whips out so fast it breaks the mirror before she can even blink. Her knuckle begins to bleed. "It's not fair, it shouldn't have been them. It should have never been them." She whispers.
She stares down at her hand, as the blood drips down the sides, she couldn't feel anything. Her parents loss had been the loss of her life, she had been so excited to share her wizarding journey with them. Her father, gifted at potions. Her mother, gifted at charms. Ella was going to be the best witch of her age, she was compromised of the two best wizards she could imagine.
Nothing but love in her heart for the parents she had lost.
After they died, she was shoved from home to home. None of them fitting her, none of them making her happy. Until eventually, she just went to school and never came back home. Ella decided early on there would never be a home for her. The only home to her was now dead in the ground, buried in a cemetery. She had no relatives that wanted to take her in. She had no one.
"Ella?"
Ella whips around, seeing exactly who she had been avoiding all week. Draco Malfoy. She doesn't answer, her eyes so wet she can barely see him. The tears streaming down her cheeks being the only words spoken between them.
He wraps her in his arms, holding her tight. Tucking her head under his chin. His hand holding her head, rubbing her hair gently. "It's ok, I'm here."
His presence was so warm, his usual coldness had all but disappeared in that moment. Replaced by the most warmth she had ever felt since her parents had died. When her parents died, her entire life felt cold. For this one, particular moment, everything felt warm.
He pulls back from her, taking her bleeding hand into his, "Are you ok? This looks like it hurts."
"It hurts a bit, yeah." She admits shyly, "Rita Skeeter wrote about my parents."
"I saw, that's why I came to find you." Draco turns around, pulling away from her, "I have some bandages in my bag." Grabbing his bag quickly and shuffling through it. "Goyle has a pretty bad habit of falling."
Ella bites her lip, "How did you know I would be here?"
"I'll always find you, Ella."
Ella laughs weakly, "I sure hope so." He comes back over, taking her hand into his, he runs it under the warm water. Rubbing her knuckles gently with his fingers.
"Surprised there's no glass in here, gave the mirror quite a fight."
"I think the mirror won."
He dries off her hand with a towel, putting on antibiotic ointment, "This will sting. You ought to still go to the nurse and have her take a look at it. Can probably do some spell to get this to heal properly. Not scar too badly." He begins wrapping her hand, when he reaches the end of the gauze, he bends down and bites at the gauze, ripping it with his teeth.
Ella feels her heartbeat immediately start picking up at the small motion. He looks up at her, slowly retracting from her.
"Ella.." He says, and it's like he's said it as if he'd say a lover's name. So gentle. With a flick of his tongue. His eyes deep into hers. Ella realizes she's holding her breath.
Draco puts his hand on her face, and before she can react, his cold lips are on hers. The coldness of them shocks her. He breaks away from her for a second, as if to give her a moment to process. He kisses her again, lighter this time, as if he's asking permission.
She braces herself against the sink, her hands had been clutching the underneath of the sink this whole time. She wraps her arms around his neck and kisses him back lightly.
His arm snakes around her waist, the kiss becoming more passionate. He hoists up her skirt, pulling her legs around him and picking her up, putting her on the sink. She's shocked the sink doesn't giveaway at her weight.
The kisses feel like fire and ice. The passion melting away at his cold outer core, as if they can't get close enough to each other. As if he is a traveler in the dead of winter and she's the only heat he's seen in months.
He breaks away from her, breathing heavy, "Ella." He says again.
Her face turns bright red, "Draco." Also breathing heavy.
He offers his hand to her, she takes it, hopping off the sink.
"We can't tell anyone about that, ok?" Draco says.
Ella nods, "Um, yeah. Yeah... I, I won't." She stutters, so flustered from the interaction.
Draco walks away from her for a second, pacing, then coming back to her, "Ella. I am in a lot of danger right now. I'm doing things I shouldn't be doing. I will hurt you. I don't want you to think differently of me. I like how you see me now. I don't know what any of this means."
Ella grabs his arm as he's walking away, "Whatever it is, we can get through it together, ok?"
"I don't want you to get hurt." He says weakly. "It's not as simple as that."
"May I ask what you two are doing in here?"
They both turn to see Professor Snape standing at the entryway. His arms folded, looking down at both of them.
"Professor." Draco stumbles, immediately straightening up, "We were just speaking."
"Is that so? Couldn't speak in the library, perhaps? Great hall? Just a.. bathroom." Snape inquires, "Both of you, out."
"Yes, Professor." Ella mutters, grabbing her bag quickly.
"Miss Hawthorne. Please get that looked at." Snape gestures to her hand. Ella nods, Draco following behind her, putting a hand in the middle of her back. Snape puts a hand on his chest as he walks by, "I would like to have a few words with you, Mr. Malfoy."
Draco looks between Ella and Snape.
"I'll catch up with you later, ok?" Ella says with a small smile on her face.
"Later, then." Draco says, his eyes empty.
Ella nods, taking off in the directions of the nurses wing.
Her heart beating like a hummingbird in her chest. She had just shared the most passionate kiss she had ever had with a boy in her entire life. And now, Snape had something to do with Draco? What was going on? Why was Draco going to hurt her? Or someone else? Her fingers grazed over her lips, the fiery sensation lingering. She wanted to do everything she could to help Draco Malfoy.
