The next morning Severus was in the common room patiently waiting for Ely to come down from the dorms. At 5:30 on the dot he heard footsteps coming down from the boys' dorm and Lucius appeared looking sharp as usual. He looked around the common room cautiously before quickly walking out of the room into the hallway. Slightly confused, seeing as he hadn't seen any of the other prefects leave yet, he waited patiently for another few minutes when Ely finally appeared. Looking at a paper she had in her hand, she quietly put the paper in the satchel she had on her side and walked out of the common room without a sound.

Severus quickly stood up and followed her out the door. She was walking towards the Great Hall when Lucius appeared out of nowhere, quickly sending Ely a smile that would make most girls in this school swoon. However, Ely only smiled politely in return, the corner of her lips tight. Severus, disillusioned, noticed this and noticed that either Lucius didn't mind or didn't notice. He could tell that Lucius was not in her favor, but she could hide very well that he wasn't.

"So Elanora, where do you go while everyone else has breakfast?" Lucius asked her as she put her arm in his as they continued to walk.

"Most of the time I go to the library. On some days I'll go to the Owlery." Ely was lying through her teeth, but gave away nothing as Lucius studied her to see if she was lying. Satisfied that she seemed to be telling the truth, he continued on rambling about his wealth and possessions with a smug look on his face.

Severus wasn't surprised Ely wasn't holding a torch for Lucius. He was bragging about anything he could think of, not to mention openly stating his prejudices. Severus could believe Lucius was this shallow, but he couldn't believe that Ely hadn't hex him into next week yet. They paused momentarily as they stood in front of the Great Hall. Lucius, ever the gentleman, opened the door for Ely and bowed as she walked past him through the door. Almost as if routine, she turned and smiled again.

"Thank you again for your protection Lucius." Lucius' smugness grew as he took her hand kissed the top of it. He watched until she sat down at the end of the Slytherin table, bowing to her again, and walked off.

Severus narrowly missed Lucius as he passed him into the Great Hall. Once Lucius left he walked towards Ely, who before he could even take a step mumbled "Finite incantatem."

Severus at least had the decency to have a sour look on his face at being discovered, to which Ely had a sly smile on her face. They both knew that there was no way Severus could have talked himself out of this one, so he just resigned into sitting in front of her.

"Since when did you know?" Severus asked her as their favorite dishes appeared in front of them.

"The moment I walked into the common room. When I put the pass in my bag was when I checked through the whole room. I felt you when I was walking with Lucius." Severus was a bit embarrassed by this. Normally he could sneak by without being noticed, but Ely just seemed too good at being able to sense people.

He was quickly bewildered when Ely took the napkin she had and dumped all her food in front of her into it. Sealing it up into a parcel, she stood up and started to walk out. Severus looked at her as she continued to walk and quickly followed what she did and ran after her.

Severus caught up to her as she walked out of the building towards the Lake. Belle soared above them as either of them said nothing. Ely took off her robe and her sweater and set them down on the grass before sitting down on it and unwrapping the parcel.

Severus followed her motions and sat down as well, keeping his sweater on, just as Belle swooped down and landed gracefully on Ely's sweater. Ely rolled up her sleeves before taking a piece of bread of giving it to Belle. Severus watched as she ate and gave Belle a piece of whatever she ate. Bella hopped over to him and watched him curiously for a moment, before putting her head under his hand. He scratched her head and Ely chuckled.

"She likes you." Ely stated as she genuinely smiled for the first time today. Severus smirked as Belle hooted in pleasure under Severus' ministrations, staying in between him and Ely as they continued to eat their breakfast. Ely grabbed another parcel from her bag when she finished, walked up to the lake and sat it down on the water's edge. She mumbled "engorgio" and the objects inside tripled in size. Carefully levitating the objects towards the lake, once they were about 20 yards away she dropped them, just as an octopus arm reached out and grabbed a piece of fish.

Severus was remotely stunned to say the least as he watched her. The older kids always scared the younger ones by talking about the octopus grabbing students and dragging them into the lake, but he had never seen it yet, and for Ely to just walk up to the edge and do that, he was horror stricken for a few seconds.

He was going to tell her to get away but she had already started to walk back, rolling down her sleeves as she walked. She picked up her sweater and put it on, as well as fastening her robe. She picked up her satchel and slung it on her shoulder before looking at Severus expectantly.

"Come on, we have to grab our books." She held her hand out to it and he took it. She helped him up, picked up his robe, and handed it to him. They walked in silence all the way to the common room, Severus letting her walk ahead of him into the common room. They agreed to meet back downstairs to go to Herbology together, and went upstairs to their perspective dorms to grab their books.

Ely was greeted by a very awake Bella, her books set aside next to Bella's. She looked at Bella confused, but Bella only greeted her.

"I figured you'd be back in a bit so I picked your books and homework." Bella pointed to the stack to which Ely smiled in gratitude. "I finished breakfast ahead of time so I came back here to finish my Herbology homework."

Both of the girls collected their things and walked back downstairs into the common room. Severus as promised was sitting on one of the chairs waiting for Ely. He nodded in greeting to Bella which she smiled in return, and the three of them started walking to Herbology.

Ely started comparing with Severus and Bella about the different properties they had found for the plant they had to write an essay on. By the time they walked into class, Severus and Ely were in a very heated debate about one property's effect on certain types of potions.

"How else can it be used as a salve if it would just turn into liquid? I'm telling you it works." Severus hissed, his brows arched in determination.

"Then how can you just apply it directly? It would be a more liquid like substance than pus!" Ely defended, Bella trying hard to not laugh at their bickering. Even Professor Sprout looked amused as they continued to argue even as they took their seats.

Lily gently nudged Severus in his side to catch his attention. He narrowed his eyes at her before smiling slightly, to which Ely rolled her eyes and huffed in frustration before looking at the board in front of her. Professor Sprout slightly chuckled before she started her lesson.