Ely was sitting by the lake throwing leftover seafood from the kitchens to the lake squid as Belle flew above her. She had no idea what she was waiting for, but it felt like she was waiting for something. Deciding that it probably wasn't going to happen with her sitting here, she stood up and walked towards Hagrid's.

She found Hagrid getting the last of the meat he was going to feed the thestrals today. She voiced her approach as she got closer, and Fang hurled himself at her.

"Down Fang, down!" Hagrid called out to Fang as Ely was laughing as Fang slobbered all over her. Fang sat down as Ely stood up, and she quickly cast a cleansing spell on herself and her clothes before Hagrid could notice. He looked suspiciously at her, but none the less offered her a smile. "It seems you showed up at a bad time. I was just going to go feed the thestrals."

"Do you mind if I join you?" Ely asked shyly, and Hagrid's eyebrow rose.

"You know what they are?"

"I've read up on them..."

"I'm not sure you'll be able to see them, but come on…" He motioned her to follow him as they went into the Forbidden Forest.

They eventually reached the pen where the thestrals were being held, and Ely's breath quickened once again.

"Wow…" She whispered and Hagrid looked at her with wide eyes.

"You can see them?!" Ely smiled sadly at Hagrid's question.

"My father died in a car accident when I was three. My mother was killed by a dark wizard when I was five."

The meat in Hagrid's hand dropped as his eyes watered. "I know who your mother was…" He sniffled. "You're Anabella's daughter aren't you?" Ely nodded and Hagrid gave her a weak smile. "She was an amazing witch, and probably the only friend I had after the incident."

"You knew my mother?" Ely didn't mean to sound so shocked, but even through her whole time at Hogwarts she never knew anyone besides the professors that knew her mother.

"Your mother was like a sister to me. She could go to just about anyone and make friends with them with a snap of her fingers. She never fought with anyone; even most of Slytherin house liked her." He threw another piece out to one of the baby thestrals. "She was beautiful inside and out. Everyone took her death hard. A lot of people were upset when you're aunt Minnie took you to Australia instead of staying here."

"Why did they get mad?" Aunt Minnie had never told her any of this, so it was refreshing if not a bit confusing hearing Hagrid talk about her mom.

"There are a lot of people that wanted to see you grow up. They had hoped that you would have been a piece of your mum left behind; she wouldn't have been completely gone." Hagrid gave her a big smile. "It's strange you didn't end up in Hufflepuff like her. I can already tell you're going to be just like her."

Ely blushed. This was the first compliment she had ever heard from someone other than Aunt Minnie that she compared with her mother. She left Hagrid shortly afterwards and headed back towards the castle. She saw Severus studying under a tree, a concentrated look on his face as he absorbed the Potions book, quickly scribbling on his parchment as he read.

Ely made her presence known as she walked towards him. Severus looked up and narrowed his eyes for the upcoming intruder, but then relaxed when he realized it was Ely.

"Hooroo Severus!" Ely greeted as she went to sit down next to him. He nodded to her in greeting before returning to his book. Ely looked around herself, occasionally taking a glance at Severus before looking away before he could catch her looking. A slight smile formed on her face as her hands brushed against the leaves. Leaning against the tree with her eyes closed, she kept brushing her fingertips against the grass she could reach, loving the sensation the breeze had when the leaves moved under her fingers.

Severus was silently observing her as soon she sat down. He noticed when she would look at him, but made no motion to meet her eyes. As soon as she closed her eyes, he looked up from his book and watched her. He looked at her memorized, watching her fingers delicately graze across the grass around them, the leaves barely moving from her touch, instead just moving with the breeze. He decided to copy her to see what it was that made her so happy about it.

He couldn't understand what it was until he closed his eyes and focused on the leaves tickling his fingertips. It was a tingly sensation, very pleasant across the pads of his fingers as he just barely grazed the tips of the grass. He jumped when he felt something under his hand that he knew wasn't grass.

Ely jumped when she felt something on top of her hand. She instantly opened her eyes and pulled her hand away. Severus looked at her cautiously, and Ely visibly relaxed when she realized it was just Severus. That is, before she turned red because Severus' hand was on top of hers.

Severus looked at her confused as he saw her cheeks tint pink. Ely was about to mumble an excuse when she saw what looked like Lucius' owl Salazar passing overhead. She visibly tensed and Severus looked up confused. Ely didn't move until she saw that Salazar was out of sight, and visibly sighed in relief.

"Whose owl is that?" Severus asked as he too watched it disappear. He was curious as to who could make Ely so tense and afraid of being seen. It was the first time he had ever seen her do that.

"That looked like Salazar, Lucius' owl. He likes to send me messages about meeting up, but quite frankly I'm just not interested. The only thing he hasn't been able to do yet is corner me."

"I've never seen you two even interact with each other since the first day you of this school year." Severus looked at her suspiciously.

"He normally walks with me to breakfast, but then he keeps patrolling before everyone else shows up. By the time he comes looking for me again, I'm walking around the lake. I'm surprised he hasn't tried peer pressure yet."

"Would it actually work?" Severus chuckled as she shrugged and responded, "Probably not."

Well, that satisfied his curiosity about why she never ate breakfast. Now he knew what to tell Lily when she went looking for Ely. Lucius was trying to get Ely's attention? He was rather shocked she didn't accept it and throw herself at him like the rest of the girls in their house did. Lucius made it known his family was a powerful and wealthy wizard family, and more than likely he was going to inherit all of it and whoever his wife was going to be would be living a very luxurious life as well. Then again, as Severus was quickly learning, Ely wasn't like the girls in his house, or like most of the girls in Hogwarts.

They sat in silence for a while before they realized it was probably time to head to Potions. Side by side, they walked to Slughorn's, talking animatedly about Potions and the rest of their schoolwork. At that moment, Severus finally considered Ely a friend.