Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter series in the slightest, all rights go to J.K. Rowling.

(Also, I'm really sorry it took so long to update!)

Talons and Tea Leaves

Ella's scream ripped out of her throat and into the dormitory. Katie scrambled over to her from where she was getting ready to go down to breakfast. It took Katie five minutes to calm Ella down and convince her that she was safe.

"I'm sorry for frightening you. I'm alright, really," Ella assured her with a shaking voice. Katie didn't seem to believe her, but left for breakfast nonetheless. She knew better than to ask Ella what was going to happen. Despite Ella's words, Katie made sure to tell the twins to wait for her before going down to get something to eat.

The trio moved down to the Great Hall together. Neither boy asked their friend what was going to happen in the future. The twins had been able to guess whatever Ella saw that night had been horrific, and neither of them knew if they could handle what was going to happen well enough to actually make Ella talk about it. The three found an open seat along the table and the twins made sure Ella actually ate. They knew that Ella could lose her appetite easily after having nightmares, which is why they took it upon themselves to make sure she got some food in her anyway. Neither George nor Fred even thought about it anymore, it was reflex to look after Ella.

Glancing over to the Slytherin table, Malfoy seemed to be telling an animated story to a group of students. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked by, he mimicked an extremely ludicrous swooning fit prompting a roar of obnoxious laughter.

"Hey, Potter! Potter! The dementors are coming, Potter! Wooooo!" A Slytherin girl with a pug face sneered.

"Why I ought to…" Ella thought to herself, but she dropped the thought when Harry sat down next to George across from Fred and Ella.

George grabbed the new schedules and passed one to Harry, "New third-year course schedules. What's up with you, Harry?"

"Malfoy," Ron replied for his friend taking a seat on the other side of George. Her friend looked up at the Slytherin table just as Malfoy "fainted" another time.

As calmly as he could, George stated, "That little git. He wasn't too cocky last night when the dementors were down at our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?"

"Nearly wet himself," Fred affirmed with a contemptuous glance towards the Slytherins.

"I wasn't too happy myself," George confided in them. "They're horrible things, those dementors…"

"Sort of freeze your insides, don't they?" Fred noted. Ella nodded solemnly.

"You didn't pass out, though, did you?" Harry's voice was glum and Ella felt George's eyes dart over to her. She had the worst reaction of their group of friends, but it seemed like the twins didn't want to throw her under a bus by telling Harry that. He opted for a different tale.

George told him, "Forget it, Harry. Dad had to go out to Azkaban one time, remember Fred? And he said it was the worst place he'd ever been, he came back all weak and shaking… They suck the happiness out of a place, dementors. Most of the prisoners go mad in there."

"Anyway, we'll see how happy Malfoy looks after our first Quidditch match," Fred said changing the subject slightly. "Gryffindor versus Slytherin, first game of the season, remember?" He'd said the magic words, for Harry brightened almost immediately after and helped himself to some sausages.

"Ooh, good, we're starting some new subjects today," Hermione piped up happily after a few minutes of eating. She was examining her schedule with avid interest. Ella had pushed hers aside without even glancing at it. She wasn't ready for the hustle and bustle of her school work just yet; she wanted to maintain her break a little longer.

Ron peered over her shoulder and a confused look spread across his face, "Hermione, they've messed up your schedule. Look –they've got you down for about ten subjects a day. There isn't enough time."

"I'll manage. I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall," she responded vaguely. The twins and Ella shared a skeptical look. The two continued to argue over the schedule and Ella decided to finally pick hers up. She had a pretty light load that day. Her first class would be Transfigurations, then she'd go to Defense Against the Dark Arts, afterwards would be lunch, and she'd end the day with Divinations. Ella sort of dreaded the idea of having Divinations on the first day back, but figured there'd be someone new for Trelawney to target as dead-meat for the year instead of her.

Ron's voice broke Ella out of her thoughts, "We'd better go, look, Divination's at the top of North Tower. It'll take ten minutes to get there…" The three said goodbye to Ella, Fred, and George after hastily finishing their breakfast.

"I wonder which of them will get 'the grim' this year," Ella mused to the twins.

Fred betted, "My money's on Harry. It'd be too good of an opportunity for Trelawney to pass up. She'd be thrilled to put a death omen on The Boy Who Lived. What do you say George, our usual?"

George scoffed, "I'm not betting you about that. It's a sucker's bet; of course she'll pick Harry."

"Well, I'd better be getting to Transfiguration, you two should probably head off as well," Ella stated with a pointed look. The boys shrugged and put more food on their plates. She rolled her eyes knowing it was a lost cause. They'd go when they wanted to.

Within the first few minutes of the Transfigurations class, Ella realized that this year was once again going to be a lot more difficult than the year before. They were starting to get into some of the course work that would be on their O.W.L. exams. Ella had forgotten about the giant test that was given at the end of fifth year. Angelina, Lee, Alicia, and the twins were definitely going to be under a lot of strain during the year since they had to deal with those on top of Quidditch matches.

The bell sounded and everyone moved to go to their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Most of the chatter coming from the Gryffindors was their prayers that this teacher was better than Lockhart. Most hoped for just a trifle better, but Ella had to admit, a trifle wouldn't do much if they were going off Lockhart's abilities. The class took their seats in the classroom where they'd already had three other teachers before Professor Lupin.

"Welcome, fourth years, to your first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson," Lupin began once the period had commenced. There were a few scattered bits of reply, but nothing overtly enthusiastic –like the night before in the Great Hall. Ella was just waiting to see what he had in store for the class.

"In my experience, the best way to learn is to get your hands dirty, so to speak. Most of my classes we will be working with your wands and against a Dark spell or creature. If the creature's not too dangerous, I'll bring it in so you all can get hands on experience. Now, what have you all dealt with in Defense Against the Dark Arts before?" Lupin glanced around the room and the students all shifted uncomfortable.

A burly Slytherin boy stated, "Professor Quirrell told us about Vampires when we were in our second year!"

"And Professor Lockhart told us about all his encounters with banshee, werewolves, and vampires! Granted, he was a fraud so I'm not sure how much of it actually was true…" A Gryffindor girl tried to add before realizing that there probably wasn't much merit in it.

Professor Lupin frowned, "It seems that you all need to learn quite a bit before you're ready for next year's exams. I'm going to do my best to get each and every one of you caught up, but not simply because you have the O.W.L. exams next year. There are dark creatures lurking everywhere, some people may think you're too young to hear that, but it's the unfortunate truth. No matter who you are or where you want to go in life, you always should know how to deal with the dark arts or dark creatures at the very least. Even on your train ride to the school you all dealt with an extremely dark creature. Dementors are hardly an O.W.L creature, if you continue on to N.E.W.T. classes, you may learn how to deal with them –"

"Ella knows how!" Katie blurted out. Ella's eyes widened and she turned sharply to her friend with a reddening face. The eyes of her peers were focused on her.

Lupin looked extremely surprised, "Who did you say knows how to repel a dementor?"

Katie looked at Ella apologetically, as though it had really just slipped out of her mouth, "Ella Worthington, sir. Um…her." She pointed shyly too Ella who sank down in her chair.

"Do you mind if I have a word with you after class Miss. Worthington?" Lupin asked her kindly.

She nodded slightly and mumbled, "It's no problem." He smiled then began speaking again. Ella looked over at Katie in annoyance.

Katie mouthed, "I'm sorry."

Ella shrugged in reply, "It's alright." The class was generally outburst free for the rest of their time. The professor went through their criteria for the school year and what he hoped to go through before they'd start the next year. Ella's mind kept wandering to why he wanted to speak with her after class. She couldn't be in trouble for knowing an advanced spell, could she? It hardly seemed fair to punish someone for doing some extra learning.

While everyone else left the classroom to go to lunch, Ella remained in her seat and waited until everyone had left. Katie moved to leave the room, but apologized nonverbally once more before she did. Ella did her best to not look too frightened of staying behind as the classroom became deserted.

"So, Ella Worthington, was it?"

"Yes, Professor Lupin," Ella responded obediently. He was smiling, so she couldn't be in trouble. That defied normal-teacher logic. Only Snape smiled when bad things were to come.

"And, am I to understand that you can produce a Patronus?" He inquired. Ella could hear the interest peaking in his voice. Ella nodded to him. "May I see it?"

Ella's face paled, but she took a deep breath and called her happy memory to the surface, "Expecto Patronum!" Her voice was steadier than her heartbeat, but the feeling of being in Mrs. Weasley's embrace strengthened her as it always did. A silver mist swirled out of her wand for a few moments before the mass began to form into something. Ella gasped as a sleek silver fox trotted out of the spiraling cloud. She kept it moving for a moment before letting the spell go out.

Lupin's face was alight in a wide smile, "That is extremely impressive –one of the most impressive things I've encountered. That is a ridiculously advanced charm for a wizard of my age much less one of yours."

She blushed at the praise, "Thank you, I've been working very hard at it since last year when I…came across it. Though, I must admit, it wasn't nearly that strong against the dementor on the train."

"Dementors tend to make a corporeal Patronus exceedingly difficult to cast. If you were able to make an indistinct one at all on your first encounter with a dementor, well, that is well beyond N.E.W.T level. Just making a corporeal one now is impressive," the professor beamed at her.

"Well, thank you."

A curious look fell over her professor's face, "You wouldn't happen to be the Ella that Professor Dumbledore told me about, would you?"

She bit her lip, "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I probably am. What did he say about me?"

"Don't worry, it wasn't anything rude or degrading. I wasn't told you were a trouble-making hoodlum. He mentioned an Ella with a rather extraordinary ability and she was the reason I got this job," Lupin explained to her.

Ella smiled, "Well that was me. I can see the future, but I assume Dumbledore told you I wasn't supposed to tell anyone anything."

Professor Lupin nodded, "He mentioned that, but I wouldn't ask you about it anyway. I should ask, though, do you know about my condition?"

"I do, but I'm not going to tell a soul. The only reason I know it is because I've seen it in my dreams and what I see there is off limits to anyone else. I know you wouldn't harm anyone, Professor," Ella reassured.

He visibly relaxed, "Thank you, well, you may go Miss. Worthington."

Ella moved towards the door then stopped and turned around, "Could you not mention my Patronus to anyone? I don't mean the form, but the ability in general. I don't want to have people asking me about it all the time."

The request took Lupin by surprise but he vowed, "I won't tell a soul." Ella quickly darted from the room and grabbed something from the Great Hall for lunch before rushing towards the North Tower. She felt slightly exhausted from casting the Patronus, but she figured she could rest a bit during her double Divinations class. The room was usually so warm and filled with sleep inducing perfume that Ella would probably pass out within a few minutes.

"Well look who it is! Worthington decided to show up after all," Cormac McLaggen teased. He was sitting in their usual spot next to Cho Chang who smiled kindly to Ella. Cho looked relatively the same as she did before break while Cormac usually pale skin was much more tanned.

"I wasn't late McLaggen," she shot back.

Cho laughed, "Very nearly, we were beginning to think that you'd dropped this class. Can't blame you though, last year was pretty much enough for a life time, and you only went through half of the year!"

"So, what did Professor Lupin want?" McLaggen asked her.

Ella lied smoothly, "Just to ask if Katie was telling the truth. I mean, I told the thing to go away on the train, but I didn't use any sort of spell so Lupin wasn't very impressed."

McLaggen sighed, "Well, that's disappointing, but I'm sure he'll realize that you're decent enough at spells soon enough. Definitely not as good as I am, but it's expected since you don't come from a magic background." Ella rolled her eyes annoyed by his behavior. Some things would never change and one of those things was Cormac's ego.

The three listened and scoffed as Trelawney made various predictions about what would happen that year. She announced that they'd be working on planetary charts and such for the first part of term. Planets apparently influenced how a person would look or behave as they grew up. Ella could hardly understand that, but figured it'd be interesting to see how it worked anyways. Maybe it'd be like those silly Muggle Horoscopes –just vague enough to be accurate.

Trelawney passed out a bunch of complicated circular charts with the task of figuring out how the planets were aligned on the day they were born. Ella kept looking between the time tables but her solar system certainly didn't look like the ones she had seen on television shows or even at her old school's science fairs.

"This is pointless, I'm my own person! How are a bunch of planets supposed to tell me how I'll behave?" Cho groaned with a glare in the direction of her chart.

"I dunno," Cormac said lightly. "I think I understand this pretty well. I'm nearly finished!"

Glancing over his work, Ella pointed out, "You've got two Saturns, three Mercurys, and I'm not even sure if that's a planet…" McLaggen's eyebrows knitted together as he looked back at his worked and groaned. His head hit the table with a dull thud causing Ella and Cho to laugh. They left the class and went their separate ways with a small bit of enigmatic homework for each of them to complete.

Ella quickly dumped her things off in the Common Room before hurrying down to the Great Hall for dinner. The small bit she had nicked for lunch was long gone and Ella was afraid her stomach would begin eating itself if she didn't give it food soon. Ella was the first of her friends down there, but Katie joined her shortly after. She'd been at her Muggle Studies class and wasn't ashamed to tell Ella that she understood barely anything that was said in the class. She also apologized again for bringing up the dementor to Lupin. The girls ate their meals chatting happily while also waiting for their friends to finally show up.

Their topic of conversation was over the assignment Katie currently had for the Muggle Studies class. Ella was doing her best to explain what the appeal of television was and why Muggles have electricity. Most of the information was soaring over Katie's head, but Ella figured she'd never completely understand the Muggle world. She was solely from the Wizarding World while Ella had her foot in both doors.

The hall was almost completely filled by the time her friends made it. Everyone looked absolutely exhausted, even the twins. The entire group of fifth years collapsed into seats near Katie and Ella. The fourth years shared a look of concern.

"Are you alright?" Ella asked hesitantly.

Fred groaned, "I suppose, we're just not used to this amount of information being shoved down our throats."

George continued, "Fifth year is O.W.L. year, we'd nearly forgotten, but I never expected they'd be so serious about everything." The others nodded sleepily and started piling some food on their plates. The aroma seemed to at least brighten their moods a bit and they started becoming a little more animated as they ate.

Katie tried convincing them, "I'm sure it seems like a lot today because you're just coming back from break. As the year goes on I'm sure it won't seem like this much!" Ella missed their response to Katie's optimism because of something that caught her eye at the Slytherin table. There was a group of students huddled together, two of them being the oafs that follow Malfoy everywhere. The thing that surprised Ella was that Malfoy wasn't in the group or even the Great Hall.

Straining her ears, Ella tried to see if anyone knew why the little prat was missing. Finally, she heard the gossip that was spreading through the Great Hall about Hagrid's first Care of Magical Creatures class. Apparently Malfoy decided not to listen to instructions and ended up getting attacked by a hippogriff named Buckbeak. Ella couldn't feel a bit of remorse for the bratty third year. In her mind he got precisely what he deserved. It was just a shame that it happened during Hagrid's very first lesson. Not to mention that hippogriff would receive the brunt of the punishment.

"Ella?" Lee's voice rang into her thoughts.

"What?" She asked snapping out of her trance.

Lee chuckled, "I asked what you were looking at."

"I wasn't looking at anything, I was listening. Apparently that Malfoy-git ruined the first Care of Magical Creatures class Hagrid ever had. He's up in the hospital wing after getting attacked by a hippogriff," Ella explained to her friends.

"Good!" Fred huffed, "It's about time something went after him. My only regret is it wasn't me or someone from my family. The Weasleys owe the Malfoys a swift kick in the –"

"Poor Hagrid, though," Angelina said cutting Fred off. "He finally gets to teach and then it ends up like that."

Alicia pondered, "I wonder how that will affect Quidditch."

Angelina rolled her eyes, "It shouldn't. Madam Pomfrey is an excellent Healer, yet knowing Slytherins they'll try to pull something, mark my words." The Gryffindors frowned towards the Slytherins not knowing just how true those words were going to be.

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