Elyssa Greer came from a Pureblood family, a Pureblood descent of Serbians. She was the outcast of her family; the only Gryffindor after centuries of the Greer and Banović family being sorted into Slytherin. Ellie felt like an outcast before she was...
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Ellie dreaded going to Double Potions when her History of Magic class ended. She would gladly listen to the boring voice of Professor Binns all day long rather than spend a second in the presence of Professor Snape. How he was hired as a Professor at all was a mystery to her.
And Nikolai would be there.
Would he hate her now? After what she had said to him some nights ago? She had seen him in the halls but for some reason he had not shown up in classes, or even asked her how his portrait was coming along. She hoped he would leave it behind, apologise, and they could start over and be on good terms again.
As if he had heard her mental pleading and cries, he jumped out of nowhere and slung an arm around her shoulder, grinning. She almost fell over face first at how good he looked. There was definitely nobody else at Hogwarts that looked as good as Nikolai Orlov. They could get into the biggest argument and all he'd have to do to make it all better is smile at her. All the thoughts and worry about their small dispute near the great hall a few nights ago washed away from his grin.
"Hey," he said. "You look really pretty today."
"Thanks . . ." Ellie said slowly, clutching her bag self-consciously. She looked away from him, frowning, wondering, thinking about everything Silas had said to her in the library. She couldn't stop thinking about it all day. "Were you sick the past few days?"
"Huh? Oh . . . yeah . . . yeah, I was. Think I got the flu or something. Thought a bit of the food I tasted a few days ago was a bit off. Anyway, have I missed much?"
"Not much, no. Just the usual O.W.L preparation. The moonstone essay is due back to us today, you know," Ellie reminded him politely. "From Snape."
"Oh, I knew that already, everyone did," he scoffed, Ellie looked at him for a quick second and saw his nose scrunched up.
She thought more into what Silas had said about Nikolai not caring for her, that he would never care for her. If it was even a possibility, that meant that even after they're wed he would have no feelings for her. And marrying someone who felt nothing for her was not exactly what she imagined her first marriage to be all about.
"Nikolai?" Ellie said sweetly, biting her lip as she stared forward, but seeing him look at her from the corner of her eye.
"Yeah?"
Ellie bit her lip harder, and spoke cautiously. "Do you . . . like me?"
"What do you mean – of course!"
"No, I mean . . . do you like me? You know . . . do you . . . feel . . . any affection for me?"
Nikolai was quiet, and the longer he was quiet, the more anxious and discomforted Ellie began to feel. She did not look at him, and bit her lip to the point she thought it must have split open.
