Lily immediately tackled Ely and started to worry over her. Sure enough, Bella, Ely, and Matt's things had been moved into the Gryffindor common room. Most of the Gryffindors stayed away, but some were interested it what had happened.

Ely told Lily, Bella, and Remus what had happened in the Slytherin common room and then what happened in the library, with Matt giving her hand a squeeze of comfort whenever she started to choke up. By the time she finished, Lily was paler than usual, Bella looked ready to kill, and Remus looked like he wanted to go rip every Slytherin's head off.

"How dare they?! How dare they do that to you just because of Malfoy?!" Bella was seething as she hissed.

"Malfoy is one of the richest families in the wizarding world." Matt added. "I wouldn't be surprised if in one way or another every Slytherin was connected in some form to the Malfoys."

"Well I know two Slytherins that aren't." Lily commented and all of those looked at her confused. "Isn't it obvious? Ely isn't because she is from Australia, and Severus isn't because he lives in the Muggle world."

"Don't even talk about Snape right now! He could get swallowed whole by all the Slytherins for all I care." Ely rubbed her temple as she said this. "You would think he's trying to be a pure blood or something."

"Wait a second…Severus isn't a pure blood?" Bella asked to which Lily and I nodded.

"I'm not a pure blood either if that makes any difference." Everyone turned and looked at Ely confused. "My dad was a muggle and my mom was a witch. So I'm a half blood."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Bella was hurt by this, to which Ely frowned.

"I didn't know how to tell you." Ely tried to explain but she really couldn't.

"Well this is an interesting turn of events." Remus chuckled as everyone turned to look at him, "We have two Gryffindors, two Slytherins, and a Ravenclaw, which happen to be three half-bloods, a pure blood, and a muggle born. All we're missing is a Hufflepuff muggle born and we can make this a Hogwarts party."

Ely was the first to burst out laughing, then Matt joined in. Soon enough it was contagious and everyone started to laugh. Ely eventually toppled over and landed with her head in Matt's lap, Bella and Lily were leaning on Remus for support, and Remus almost fell over.

They had finally calmed down when one of the other kids had come by and looked nervously at Ely.

"There's a Slytherin outside looking for you, and she's threatening the Fat Lady."

Almost instantly Remus and Matt stood up, followed by Bella and Lily. Ely was almost afraid to see who it was, until she heard the voice.

"Andromeda…" Ely quickly walked towards the common room entrance and opened the door, smiling as she walked down to greet Andromeda.

"Oh sweet Circe I'm so glad you're okay!" Andromeda hugged Ely tightly, "I thought Slytherin would have finished with you."

"No I came out alright. Only with a couple of bruises from Lucius." Andromeda almost swelled in anger when Ely said this, but seeing Ely okay made her smile.

"If it makes you feel better, the Slytherins that attacked you in the common room are trying to figure out how to explain how a second year flew all of them across the room at the same time without even mumbling a spell. Better yet, why it was 23 against 1."

"Eh, I could have done better." Bella and Matt's jaw dropped as Ely acted indifferent to it.

Looking back at the four behind Ely, Andromeda pulled her a few feet away from them and huddled next to her.

"I wanted you to be one of the first to know who my date to the winter ball is." Andromeda had the biggest smile on her face as she started, "He's Ted Tonks and he's a seventh year Hufflepuff."

"That's great Andromeda! When did it happen?" Ely tried to keep her excitement down to a minimum but she considered Andromeda an ally in the Slytherin house.

"A few weeks ago actually. I haven't told Narcissa because he's a muggle-born." Andromeda frowned at this, and Ely gave her a side hug.

"Does it matter to you that he's a muggle-born?"

"Not at all! If anything, that's part of what makes him so amazing. He's kind, open minded, gentle, caring, compassionate…" She paused as she slightly turned pink, "He treats me like a princess."

"Then what everyone else thinks doesn't matter! As long as he makes you happy that's what should matter to everyone else."

They talked a bit longer before Andromeda had to go to the Great Hall since it was reaching curfew. They walked away from each other knowing they bonded over something that no one else in Slytherin could understand.

"So, what did she want to talk about?" Bella finally opened the can of worms and Ely smiled.

"She's going with a Hufflepuff muggle-born to the dance." Everyone gasped in surprise. Bella took the hardest time to actually believe that's what Ely and her had been talking about before she huffed.

"Here I thought I was the only weird one who was okay with muggle-borns." Bella snorted which Lily glared.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lily crossed her arms in defense.

"Hey! I'm your friend aren't I?" Bella defended herself which made Ely, Matt, and Remus smirk.

Sirius had come down from the boys' dorm and gotten Remus. He bid us all goodnight before going with Sirius. At this point they decided to get changed and ready for bed. Ely and Lily were explaining to Bella and Matt how some Muggle devices work when McGonagall walked in. She was originally going to send Lily up with everyone else, but since McGonagall had a soft spot for Lily, she allowed her to stay with Ely, Bella, and Matt.

McGonagall let them stay up for another twenty minutes to see if she could find out what actually happened, but all four of them were set on not touching the subject about what happened today. Finally the Gryffindor Head of House sighed and told them all to get into their beds to sleep. After saying their good night's to each other, everyone turned and fell asleep.

For Ely she wasn't that lucky. She kept tossing and turning as she kept feeling like Lucius had her pinned against the bookshelf. She kept fighting in her sleep, and Matt eventually got up from the noise. He sat on Ely's cot and gently shook her awake, causing Ely to shoot up in bed and almost start to fight with him. When she realized who it was that was next to her, she buried her head in his chest and silently sobbed.

McGonagall had eventually woken when she heard Ely crying, neither Matt nor Ely noticing as she quietly sat up. Matt looked down at Ely and whispered something to her that McGonagall hadn't quite heard. However, Ely had temporarily let go and watched as he pulled the mattress, sheet, and pillow off from the cot and placed it on the floor next to Ely's cot. He laid down on it, grabbed her hand, and gave it a comforting squeeze.

Matt said something to Ely once again, and Ely nodded while saying something in return and smiling softly. Both of them laid down to go to sleep, their hands locked. McGonagall smiled softly before going back to sleep herself. She woke up the next morning to find that they hadn't moved an inch since she last fell asleep.