Just Ellie ⌁ Draco Malfoy (ON HOLD)

10

"This way - whoops, careful you don't drop that again."

Ellie struggled keeping everything in her hands and had dropped her small case of pencils; Nikolai was kind enough to pick them all up for her while she held everything, but he wasn't kind enough to offer a hand in taking some weight off her arms. He simply kept a hand at the small of her back and guided her around the dungeons toward the Slytherin common room.

They reached a part of the dungeons Ellie had never seen before and Nikolai kept pushing her along the way. Ellie kept telling him it wasn't right for her to enter the Slytherin common room, that she had not even entered the Ravenclaw common room, but Nikolai was persistent and said that Silas was a bad friend for not opening her eyes further to secret parts of the castle, like he had opened her eyes to the bad part of the world instead; Muggles and their ways of living.

"You know, Muggle-borns aren't bad," Ellie told him after he expressed his hatred and disgust, after he told her that Muggles should just stick to their own, even if they have a little magic in them. "Salazar Slytherin despised them, of course, but that was back when Muggles hunted us down and burnt us at the stake. They couldn't be trusted. Things are different now. Muggles would die to come to Hogwarts, I'm sure of it. Who wouldn't?"

"Me. I wouldn't. And certain people should stick to themselves, should just steer clear and leave the . . . higher ones alone. Low should stay with low, high should stay with high. Muggles aren't meant to know about us, even if you're Muggle-born AKA scum," he shuddered and curled his lip. "We're strong and Muggles are weak. We're smart and Muggles are dumb. They're all going to die out with the way they're going. Starting war on each other like it's a game, countries took over countries, they murder each other, they do unspeakable things. They just need to hurry up and weed themselves out."

Ellie raised her eyebrow at his, amused. It was the same things her parents had told her, that when she went off to Hogwarts and was sorted into Slytherin, she would make a whole bunch of friends and keep away from the scum of the school, would boast about Dumbledore being a silly old fool for allowing Muggles in his school.

"You know . . . I used to think like you," she told him softly. "I used to hate them so much and at the time I didn't even know why I hated them. They look like us, they talk like us, they do similar things as us, the only thing different about us is that we have magic and they don't. So I asked myself, why, why do I hate them so much? Mum and Dad would tell me stories. They brainwashed me. I hated hating Muggles and Muggle-borns so much that I kind of just gave up on hating them. I grew exhausted of the hate. I don't care that I share a dorm with a Muggle-born and I don't care that Muggles have children like us."

Nikolai was silent for a moment and Ellie hadn't noticed that he had removed his hand from her back and moved away from her slightly.

"You know, you should really address your parents as mother and father," was all he said. "Mum and dad is just pure laziness. Come along. We're almost there."

"OK," the redhead sighed, hoisting her bag of art utensils and her sketchbook further up her arms.

Nikolai leaned over toward a stone wall and whispered the password so that Ellie couldn't hear and they were granted access to the Slytherin common room. The Gryffindor was reluctant to enter, and with the help of Nikolai grabbing her by the shoulder and pulling her, she was inside the common room. She could feel the cold, creepy atmosphere before she was inside. The room had a green tinge from the lake, several shades of green casting its tinge over the lamps, chairs, tables, and sofas.

Ellie couldn't help but gape at the dungeon, medieval look of the room, and even more so as her eyes scanned the cupboards, it's shelves holding skulls. She shuddered and couldn't help but retreat slightly, wondering whether or not those were real human skulls.