As it could've been expected, my father tried his hardest to ignore that I was even there. It didn't go so well once the twins got me to loosen up. We had jumped right into the curriculum and were instructed to brew a boil cure potion. George and I were partners, and our potion was going well. Of course, unknown to me at the time, the twins had made a bet on whose potion would turn out better. George had sabotaged Fred and Lee's potion and once he found out, Fred decided it was payback time. I sat chatting with George while we were waiting for the potion to be ready to be taken off the fire; Fred added the porcupine quills to ours while it was still on, and the cauldron began to hiss. George and I looked only to see it dripping out the bottom of the cauldron and producing a green smoke. I got as far back from as I could, knowing that it wouldn't be good to be close to it. Unfortunately, George was never a good listener and when I told him to get back, he walked forward to see what it was. A big puff of green smoke hit his face, and when he turned back to me, he was covered in bright red boils. I couldn't help but laugh; it was both revolting and hilarious, so I suppose it should been expected for a few kids to have felt sick while others laughed hysterically.
"You great buffoon! How could you have messed up such a simple potion?" Lee, thinking that he was talking to George, decided to stick up for his friend.
"It's not his fault, he didn't know! We're just first years!" My father turned to him in rage and began yelling again.
"Not Weasley. You, Elladora!" he pointed at me, " You know this potion, and you know it's not very hard. So, how in Merlin's name could you possibly have made a mistake?" Everyone was looking at me now; I couldn't believe that he was blaming me for this.
"I didn't mess it up. It's not my fault!" He seeped anger as he took heavy breaths.
"Look what you did! Your partner needs to be taken to the hospital wing! You had enough sense to get back, but didn't even help-"
"I warned him! I told him to get back, and he didn't. I don't know what happened with it, but I did what I could."
"Talking back to a teacher? Ten points from Gryffindor!"
"You can't do that! You can't just take away points because you're upset about what house I'm in!" all the students gasped. They knew I was his daughter; did they think I didn't know he was disappointed in me?
"Detention, Elladora." I should've known he'd resort to that, "Now take your partner to the hospital wing." I took George by the hand and led him out of class. We walked, practically ran, to Madam Pomfrey. When she saw George, there was no doubt in her mind about what had happened. She began to fuss about how many first years get sent to the hospital wing within the first week. I wasn't listening; instead I just sat in a chair next to the bed George was on, staring at the floor.
"You okay Princess?" I didn't respond, "You're dad's just overreacting. He'll get over it soon enough. Think of it this way: at least he can't be mad at you for getting a detention, when he unreasonably gave it to you." I sighed and looked at him, "Are you going to be like this all day?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if you are going to be in a mood all day, then I need to tell Fred so that we can do something." I raised an eyebrow at that statement; whenever the twins planned to do something to cheer someone up, it usually didn't turn out pleasant.
"I'm fine. Just a little angry at my dad." he nodded his head.
"That's to be expected. Hopefully you'll cheer up once we get to our flying lesson." I smiled at the thought of riding a broom. I faintly remember riding one as a child; I think my mother had taken me for a ride.
Madam Pomfrey soon had George as well as he had been when he woke up that morning. As we walked out of the hospital wing, I noticed that my books were not with me. 'How could I be so stupid?' I wanted to hit my head against the wall; I had left all our stuff at my dad's classroom. I slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand and had stopped walking. George looked back at me to see what was wrong.
"I left all our things at potions class."
"Do we really need them?"
"I'm sure he gave us all some kind of homework after you and I left." I turned to walk in the direction of the dungeons, "Come on, we're going to need our stuff." George followed me down to the potions classroom; though once there, I was hesitant to enter the room again.
"Stay here." George walked into the room and grabbed both of our things. 'He's a good friend.' I smiled to myself and heaved a sigh of relief.
"Thanks George." he grinned.
"Just means you owe me. Now let's get going before we get stuck with nothing but scraps for lunch!" I laughed as we ran down the hall to get to Gryffindor tower. 'Why is it all the Weasley boys only think of food?'
If you have ever been around a Weasley boy for more than an hour, you'll notice a look on their face that they get quite often: the look of hunger. I honestly have no idea how they can always be so famished when their mother stuffs them with food until they're about to explode. This was not just with the ones who are in the midst of a growth spurt, such as the twins. All the Weasley boys did it; whenever I'd be helping their younger brother, Ron, de-gnome the gardens, we'd get about thirty minutes in before he'd start complaining about how hungry he was. Their older brother Percy did it too, but Charlie was the most known for it. Charlie would tell me about the creatures he wanted to study, but unless we had snacks while he was telling me, he'd forget all about the creatures. I learned very quickly in the Weasley house that one should always keep small snacks with them; I usually kept a bag of chocoballs with me for when I was going to be there in between meals.
Once we got the great hall, George stopped running long enough to spot Fred and Lee. I walked with him to sit on the other side of the table from them. It wasn't just the Weasley twins that ate like pigs, apparently every boy did this; I looked around to see that every other boy shoveled in food just as they did. 'Is this some kind of joke? They're all eating like they'll never be fed again.' I picked at some chips on my plate; I wasn't very hungry, I was more focused on how my father could do that. George shoved my arm.
"Hey, Lee is trying to talk to you." I looked over at Lee.
"Yeah?"
"You gonna finish those?" I scooted my plate to him.
"No, I'm not very hungry." He gladly took them. I took a drink of water; Fred looked at me and began with his concerns again.
"You should eat something Ella. There's no way you'll be able to wait until dinner." I shrugged.
"I suppose." I grabbed a sandwich that was in front of me and took a bite. I could see the twins all take a sigh a relief, not sure why they were always so concerned with my eating habits. Lunch passed and we went outside for our first flying lesson. Madam Hooch had brooms set out for us when we all went to the area designated for her class.
"Don't just stand there, pick a broom and stand behind it." Lee stood next to George and I stood next the Fred, the twins stayed at each other's side. We all picked brooms next to each other and stood behind them as Madam Hooch instructed. She began immediately with directions: she told us that we would walk up to our brooms and bring them up, and then we would mount them and soon hover. We did as we were told, and when it came time to bring our brooms up, Fred and I excelled while George and Lee had trouble.
"Come on! With feeling!" she shouted. Lee began yelling at his broom out of frustration.
"You stupid thing! Why aren't you listening?" it listened after that; it came up and hit him straight on the nose. We all heard a small crunch when it happened. Fred and I ran over, only to see him bleeding profusely on his robes.
"Madam Hooch?" I yelled for her.
"What is it Ms. Snape?"
"I think Lee's broom broke his nose." Several of the other students began laughing. Madam Hooch walked over to us.
"How could that have hap-" she stopped after seeing that his broom was standing up right. "Very well, I'll take him to the hospital wing, no one is to get on their broom." Of course, to the twins this meant to get on their brooms and fly as high as they could.
"Guys, you shouldn't be doing this. If a teacher catches you, you're dead." a girl named Angelina Johnson pleaded with them. She was one of my roommates, along with another girl named Alicia Spinnet, who also decided she needed to nag.
"You're going to get Gryffindor in trouble! You're little friend already lost us 10 points today, isn't that enough?" Fred and George scoffed at them and got on their brooms anyway. 'This can't end well.' The girls turned to me and my attackers began.
"Why didn't you stop them?"
"They're your friends!" I sighed.
"There's nothing I could've done. When they decide on something, it's done." Angelina shoved me; I stumbled a bit, but regained my balance. Alicia then chose a bad move: she tried to fight me; she threw the first punch. Her punch made contact with my cheek; I turned to her and punched her back, eventually giving her a black eye. The kids around us crowded and began chanting "Fight, fight!" I couldn't help it, I was already angry, and she wasn't helping anything. After a while of us rolling on the ground trying to gain an advantage over the other, I came out victorious. That was, until someone pulled me off of her. I kicked trying to get away only to hear a voice telling me to stop. I had never heard this voice before, but I knew it belonged to a boy.
"Calm down there." His Scottish accent was very thick. I stopped my fighting.
"Let go of me." I pulled away from him, only for him to turn me around to speak to me.
"You really need to calm down. There's no sense in fighting members of your own house." I looked at him; he was older than us. Alicia got up and turned me around to her and took one last cheap blow to my face.
"That's what you get for today. Why did you have to be in our house?" She walked back over to the rest of the group. I could feel the blood gathering in my mouth, I spit it out on the ground. Fred and George ran up to me.
"What happened?"
"Are you okay?"
"Who did this?" they asked together. I didn't say anything; instead I silently brushed off my robes, and walked to Gryffindor tower. The boy who pulled me off Alicia followed me. He was a talker, kept asking questions. I didn't answer him until he asked the only one that mattered.
"What did she mean by 'Why did you have to be in our house?'" we were in the common room now; it was empty on account of everyone being in class.
"I'm Elladora Snape. I should've been in Slytherin of Ravenclaw." I ran up the stairs to the boy's dorms. He followed me.
"You're not supposed to go up here. This is the boy's dormitories." I didn't pay attention to him; I was too focused on finding a new room. I looked for an empty room to move me stuff into, and in an empty, old tower I found one. It looked as though no one had use this room since Dumbledore was a student here.
"Perfect." I whispered. I ran back to the girl's dorms and began to pack my things back into my trunk. The boy couldn't follow on account of the spell on the staircase of the girl's dormitories. When my trunk was packed, I pulled it from one end of Gryffindor tower to the other. The boy had waited in that room for me to return.
"You can't just switch rooms. And you're not supposed to be in the boy's dorms." I pulled my trunk past him to the end of the bed.
"I'm no going to stay with those girls. They don't like me and I won't let them hurt me just because they don't like my situation." The room was a little dusty, so I began to wipe things down.
"Professor McGonagall isn't going to be happy." he sighed and shook his head.
"That's a shame. But, I'm not concerned with what she's happy with, I just want to know I'm safe." I looked at him, "You can't tell anyone I'm staying here."
"What? Do you expect she won't already know?"
"I don't care if Professor McGonagall knows, I can explain to her. Just don't let any of the other students know." he looked conflicted on what to do, "Please."
"Fine, but you have to do something for me in return."
"What?"
"Help me train for quidditch try-outs." That's right: try-outs were coming up soon. I doubt they'd let a first year on the team.
"Sure thing."
"It's a deal then. I'm Oliver by the way, Oliver Wood."
"Nice to meet you, Oliver. I'm going to see to it that you get on the Gryffindor quidditch team, even if it kills me." I smiled at him. I could get used to having a friend who likes quidditch as much as I do. He smiled back and said he'd better get back before he gets in trouble. I sat on my bed, it was pretty old but I'd figure out the details of the room later. There was a window across from my bed; walking up to it, I noticed that I had a perfect view of the black lake and the dark forest. I smiled knowing that I could always come to my room to relax. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I thought.