I don't own Harry Potter.

Snape's Grudge

Ella waited with the other Gryffindors in the Common Room for the rest of the night. Not a single person got an ounce more of sleep. Ella was aware that the entire castle was being searched once more, and she couldn't help but be nervous. Her friends were muttering around her about how frightening it was to know Black had been in their House. Ella didn't join in the conversation.

How could he be so stupid? This was the second time he'd done something that could potentially get him caught and/or killed. The first time was bad enough, but doing it a second time –Ella couldn't even fathom the lack of common sense. Sirius had once again attempted to break into the Gryffindor Common Room and kill Peter Pettigrew, and Pettigrew wasn't even there anymore. Where had Crookshanks been that he hadn't informed Sirius of that? Ella hadn't seen the cat in a while, but she assumed it would've at least seen that the rat was no longer in the castle. Even she thought he'd been eaten.

All the joy she'd felt before melted away. Sure, they won the game, but Quidditch was a school thing. Pettigrew escaping and living would have a bigger impact than losing the Cup. Of course she wanted to win, but the premonition of a horrible future seemed like it would be the result of Wormtail eluding capture. The whole image of a destroyed castle weighed heavily on her mind.

"How do you think he got in, Ella?" Katie squeaked. She looked as terrified as anyone else.

"Isn't it obvious?" Ella asked her friends who stared back blankly. "He must have had the passwords Neville wrote down and used them to get. He probably picked them up from the grounds or something. I don't understand it, but that's how it looks to me."

Her friends nodded solemnly, and Ella felt bad for being so terse towards them. She just felt stressed from Sirius's lack of brain function. It didn't take a super genius to know that breaking into the castle and tearing into someone's curtains with a knife would get you caught in a heartbeat. Ella felt exhausted by morning, but it was good to know that Sirius Black had once more eluded capture.

The whole day, Ella was focused on getting outside to talk to Sirius and ask him what was going through his stupid mind. There were many little things that had changed to provide more security after the break in. Professor Flitwick was making sure that all the front doors new the picture of Sirius Black. Ella didn't realize that doors could be taught facial recognition, but she figured magic had done stranger things than that. Filch bustled through the halls boarding up every nook and cranny the school had to offer. It was an odd sight, but Ella thought it was actually rather smart to board up the smallest holes possible seeing as if it was big enough for a dog, he could get through. Finally, to everyone's happiness, Sir Cadogan had been fired.

Ella could've cheered when the teachers took away his portrait and reinstated the Fat Lady. She was extremely jittery but two guard trolls were stationed on either side of her picture to provide extra protection. It was unbelievable since only two years before there'd been total panic at a troll being released into the school –and that troll nearly killed three students! The sight of the great brutes frightened Ella more than she'd care to admit, and she couldn't help but think that their presence was more of a hazard than a help.

When night finally fell, Ella took no time in transforming and racing towards the Shrieking Shack. Getting smacked around by the Whomping Willow only fueled her frustration at the man. As she entered into his room, she burst out of her transformation. Sirius looked at her in shock, but then calmed down with the realization of why she was there. This time his decision had been even worse than before. He should've known that at the soonest possible moment, Ella would be breathing down his neck like a nagging sibling.

"What on Earth were you thinking?" Ella snapped at him.

Sirius sighed not bothering to stand from his chair, "It was a desperate attempt, I'll admit –"

"Desperate? No, desperate can still work. This was just absolutely idiotic. I can't believe that a person could do something so stupid twice. What do you think was going to happen? Pettigrew hasn't even been in the castle for weeks! I assumed the cat took him to you," Ella ranted.

"Well, he didn't. Pettigrew must have faked his own death once again."

"That much is obvious. What I can't comprehend is why you keep acting like an idiot," Ella retorted with her hands on her hips.

The man looked at her with faint annoyance, "If you think I'm going to apologize for my actions, you're going to be extremely disappointed."

Ella huffed, "I don't need an apology. It's not my life at stake at the moment. You're the one facing a kiss from those dementors. If you want that to happen then keep acting like you are now. First Halloween, now this!"

Sirius gave a bitter laugh, "For such a bright girl, I would've thought you'd figured it out by now."

"Figured what out?" Ella bit back harsher than she intended.

The man looked away from her, "Halloween. Twelve years ago on that day was when… Well, I just figured it would be fitting if he met his end on that day."

"You acted as though you didn't care that you didn't catch him," Ella countered but the puzzle pieces had already fallen in her head. Of course he tried on Halloween, and of course he was becoming more desperate.

"Of course I acted that way, why should I let it show how frustrated I am that I can't catch this stupid rat?" Sirius said returning his gaze to her once more. His anger was beginning to show, but Ella was too frustrated to notice.

Ella sighed, "It doesn't matter how frustrated you are. Things like this are just out of hand. I know you're upset but the rational way to do these things were available for the longest time, but you couldn't live with the possibility of just allowing the cat to do Pettigrew in. No…it has to be you!"

"You don't understand."

"What don't I understand?"

Sirius choked on the words he wanted to say, "This –all of this –it's my fault. Lily and James…they'd be alive if it weren't for my stupid idea. They're dead and this –this is my way to avenge them. If I could just destroy that rat it'd make everything easier. He has to die by my hand because it's my fault. He's alive and they're not because of me. I'm the reason things are like this so it's my job to murder him and be done with this mess."

The look in his eyes was a mixture of rage and despair. He looked like a man who was utterly lost and confused. For once, Ella had no uplifting words or inspirational phrases to throw at him. She couldn't think of a single thing that'd make him feel better. If one of her friends did something this despicable and was the reason one of her friends were dead…well, she'd probably do the same thing. It was very silent and awkward when the two parted. Ella had no words for the rest of the evening. The loneliness that Sirius suffered was so heartbreakingly real that Ella had trouble coming to terms with it. Could that be something she'd feel in her lifetime?

The next few days passed in a manner nearly similar to the previous time Sirius broke in. Most people were gossiping about how he managed it, and Ron was the star of the students' questioning. He was constantly surrounded by people who wanted to know what happened when Sirius broke into his dormitory. The first few tales seemed genuine, and then as time went on, they became more and more ludicrous.

On a different note, Neville was completely blamed for the unfortunate event. It was his list that got lost and that Sirius found so it was Neville who took the fall. If Sirius hadn't been so dejected after their last meeting Ella would've went back for a round two of fighting. Ella felt guiltier than anything about Neville's current state of affairs. He'd received detention, a Howler, wasn't allowed to know the password, and was banned from Hogsmeade for the rest of the year. Ella apologized profusely to him about giving him bad advice, but the sweet boy was determined to take the blame on himself. So Ella took matters to the only person she could think of.

"Professor, you really can't blame all of this on Neville. Black would've found a way into the castle regardless. It's just an unfortunate circumstance that Neville's list ended up actually being the result. Is it really necessary to bestow such heavy punishments on him?" Ella tried reasoning.

McGonagall spoke to her with authority, "I respect what you are trying to do Miss. Worthington, but you cannot sway my decision. Unfortunate, yes, but nearly deadly as well. It is better to instill this punishment."

Ella felt exasperated, "But it wasn't even his idea, Professor. I made the suggestion to him once Sir Cadogan was put in place. That daft knight made it difficult for us all –it was inevitable that this would happen."

The professor gave her a severe look, "Whether or not you suggested this, it was Mr. Longbottom who made and lost that list. He's the one at fault here."

"But preventing him from going to Hogsmeade seems completely out of proportion! What's Neville going to do –confer with Black? It's absurd. The Howler, detention, and refusal of the password is punishment enough, don't you think?" Ella debated skillfully.

McGonagall shook her head, "I wish I could agree with you, but my word is final. Good day, Miss. Worthington."

With that the professor left her in the hallway and continued on to her office. Ella felt as though she had personally failed Neville. Such a kind boy like him didn't deserve all the bad things that fell on his shoulders. If only people knew…they'd be much kinder towards him.

It seemed like Ella's helping hands were going nowhere now. Sirius was in a state of desperate depression that Ella couldn't fix and her advice to Neville managed to do more harm than good in the long run. Even Hermione couldn't be helped by Ella any longer. She was beyond stressed and it was easy to see that she had bitten off more than she could chew. Hagrid was the only person she'd talk to, not even Ella could convince her to relax and take a bit of a break. She'd go down to Hagrid's hut nearly every night and Hagrid informed Ella that more often than not she'd collapse into sobs almost immediately. Ella felt like she was losing grip on reality.

"You can't keep blaming yourself for all this," Ginny said sliding into the seat across from her in the Common Room. She had a burning look in her eyes that Ella had seen in Mrs. Weasley's and others had seen in her own eyes.

"What do you mean?" Ella murmured playing dumb.

Ginny scoffed, "Don't act like I'm too young to understand, I can see it. You feel like something is your fault, probably Hermione. Well, don't. If she wants to only have Harry and Ron as friends –let her figure that all out. You've got enough on your plate as is. You can't feel guilty about the things you can't help, believe me, I know."

Ella looked at one of her closest friends. No one could deny that she knew how it felt to think something was entirely her fault. She attacked half the school's Muggle-borns the year before, but she'd been possessed so it wasn't her fault.

"You're right, I've done my best and I can't really let it get me down."

"Glad that's settled then," Ginny said with a smile.

"Right, well, how are you in any case? How's your friend?" Ella asked casually.

The girl who was like a sister to Ella smiled, "Wonderfully weird as ever, but she's still my friend. She's anxious to meet you. I've told her quite a bit about you."

She shot her a curious look, "All good things, I hope."

"Of course, and even if you were weird she'd still like you," Ginny replied flippantly. Ella had heard a lot about Luna Lovegood from Ravenclaw. Some people called her Looney, but Ginny insisted that Luna was a kind girl but slightly eccentric at times.

"Well I suppose that's good. I'll have to meet her sometime then," Ella shrugged turning back to her work. Ginny wandered off to talk to Colin Creevey who gave a shy wave to Ella.

The next day, Ella travelled to Hogsmeade with her friends. She felt awful about Neville remaining back at the school, but there was no more that she could do. While she wished that the day had gone similarly to the last time she was in Hogsmeade, it was pretty much the opposite. She spent the day wandering around the little shops with Angelina, Alicia, and Katie.

As much fun as her girlfriends were, Ella had hoped that some of that magic that pulled her and Fred so close the last time would happen again. It didn't seem like it was destined to happen this trip. Fred and George were with Lee getting supplies for their business. Ella got to help with it sometimes, but today the girls wanted the four of them to hang out.

"So, are you and George any closer to being together?" Katie teased to Angelina as they ogled at dresses in one of the shop windows.

Her face burned brightly, "No, but he does get somewhat sillier around me. I think that's a positive sign, but who knows?"

"I certainly don't. I think both of the twins look at me as just a sister. It's so frustrating to have Fred be so oblivious. There are times when I think it's going to happen and then nothing actually does," Ella told her friends.

"Now that is frustrating," Angelina complied and Ella groaned. Figures that none of them knew what to do in this case. Boys were impossible.

"Look on the bright side," Katie said suddenly. "Soon enough, the championship will be here and we'll be able to celebrate winning the Quidditch Cup!"

Alicia's eyes lit up, "I can't wait to finally have that in our grasp! We're so close!"

The excited chatter lasted the girls until they reached Gryffindor Tower. The girls moved through the Common Room to make their way to the girls' staircase. Ella spotted Neville sitting alone at a table working on a paper for one of his classes. Ella moved over and tripped over his bag.

"I'm so sorry!" She rushed to apologize helping to pick up some papers and books that fell out.

Neville shook his head, "It's fine, it's fine." Ella helped him finish picking it up then made her way up to her dormitory after apologizing once more.

It wouldn't be until much later, just before Neville crawled into bed, that he noticed something sitting in his bag. A little sack of Honeydukes sweets had been snuck in by Ella as she passed. The young boy smiled at the little note that read: We all make mistakes, this one was mine. Sorry, Neville. Your friend, Ella. He popped a chocolate into his mouth then crawled into bed happy that he had a friend looking after him.

A little silver chain held a tiny hourglass on it. Ella thought it was a pretty fashion statement, but wondered what could be so significant about it that she'd dream about it. As she'd done many times before, she stretched her hand towards the object hoping that it didn't end up having a horrible outcome –which wasn't a rare occurrence in matters like these.

There was no pain, but Ella got what she wanted from the brief contact. A ton of images spread out in front of her. People she did and did not know were all using the little object. A Time-Turner –she believed it was called. The only person Ella had eyes for was Hermione. She was easily found as the thirteen year old in a crowd of adults. Her appearance was as flustered as she had been in the past months. She fumbled with the Time-Turner with glossed over eyes and clumsy fingers.

"That's how you've done it!" Ella said suddenly. No one paid her any mind. In her dreams, she could speak freely and never disrupt the others unless she tried. Unless she was having a frantic dream like the nightmares she'd been subjected to before. Ella studied the image before her with growing curiosity. This tiny little object could send the wearer back in time, and Hermione had one. The possibilities were endless. Only, this particular item was being used to get a girl to multiple classes. Ella couldn't help but think there may have been better uses to an object with that much power, but far be it from her to tell the Ministry that.

Before she could observe more, the dream shifted into a new place. This was an actual place where she could feel the dewy grass under her paws. The inky sky above was brightened by a shrouded full moon. Ella saw a werewolf in front of her. The creature was fully mature and absolutely terrifying as it snarled and bared its teeth. Ella felt herself moving backwards to get away from the beast, only something else caught her eye.

A large hippogriff was standing in front of Harry and Hermione who both seemed scared out of their wits. Who wouldn't be with a fully grown werewolf glaring at them. A piercing shriek exited Hermione's mouth as the wolf made its way towards the three. Ella's eyes widened in fear of this vision of the future. Buckbeak reared on his hind legs as Lupin pounced towards their group paying no mind to Ella at all.

Two human screams of terror projected into the night air.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :) Don't forget to review!