Just Ellie ⌁ Draco Malfoy (ON HOLD)

15

Maybe Nikolai had every right to be mad at Ellie. Maybe he had every right to hurt her as she had probably hurt him. Made him jealous of her relationship with Silas, made him annoyed that she'd made comments about his friends, made him angry about her shoving Malfoy, offended him when she wiped her mouth, offended him for her lack of manners.

A very selfish part of Ellie almost allowed her to let Silas go, almost told herself to take in the comments left by his friends, get along with Malfoy as he helped her - no matter what he said -, kiss him more, over-use her manners. She had already taken the comments left by his friends.

That Saturday, Ellie was alone in her dormitory, staring at the unfinished portrait of Nikolai on her bed. Half of her wanted to cut it into pieces and throw it out the window, but the other half wanted to finish it as perfectly as she could for Nikolai to make him happy. All she needed to do now was the background . . .

The castle. She wanted to paint the castle behind his portrait. But the first time she had attempted to paint the castle it ended up looking worse than the shrieking shack. Now was the perfect time because she had the castle in front of her and there was no improvising, no imagining, and so she grabbed a canvas from her trunk, her pencils and paint, and put them in her bag. She would practice the castle on this canvas and if she liked what she'd drawn, she would transfer it onto the other canvas.

How else would she spend her Saturday? Parvarti and Lavender were barely speaking to her, Silas was nowhere to be found, and she tried keeping her distance from Nikolai, as the mark he had left on her wrist still pained her. The anger in his eyes still frightened her. The anger in his voice still silenced her.

Ellie hoped Malfoy wouldn't have said anything to Nikolai about the mark he'd left on her wrist. She understood that Malfoy had no idea where it'd come from, but if he told Nikolai, then Nikolai would automatically assume that Ellie was going around showing everybody what he'd done. And the anger he'd expressed that day . . . over something so silly. . .

It was a slightly cloudy day, not exactly grey but also not exactly sunny. She wished it was sunny, but it was warm enough out and she was confident to leave her dormitory without wearing her robes to cover her wrist. Nobody would notice unless they were to really stare at her wrist.

Ellie wandered over toward a tree by the lake, where she could still see the castle at a perfect angle. It wasn't close up which meant she wouldn't have to draw it very large. On the other canvas of Nikolai, she could paint him looking as though he was far away from the castle. She tried imagining the look on his face when she handed him the canvas, but all she could see was the anger flashing in his eyes and the pain he inflicted on her.

What if he didn't like it?

She pulled her canvas out of her bag, set up her paint, and decided she'd draw a rough sketch of the castle first. When she moved on to the paint, her mind was elsewhere. She was thinking about a bunch of memories in no particular order. She believed in the dead watching over their loved ones, watching them grow, and wondered what her grandpa must have thought about Nikolai's behaviour.

Maybe it was karma. Maybe Ellie had done something wrong and in return Nikolai had turned on her. What's the worst he could do if she decided to open her mouth and tell someone anyway?

It felt like hours Ellie had been sitting there, painting, trying her best to picture Nikolai smiling warmly at the effort she had put in to pleasing him. Deciding how bright she should paint the weather when she heard obnoxious laughter, snorts, and footsteps coming her way. Ellie turned quickly to look who it was; she had been too lost in her own world to realise how close Pansy, Daphne, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were getting. An odd part of her was wishing that Nikolai was with them, to keep them at bay. Ellie wasn't too worried about Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Pansy and Daphne, however . . .

Ellie quickly scrambled off the ground and clambered on her hands on knees, quickly trying to pack away her pencils and paints. She had only gotten to the pencils when Pansy spoke.

"Where you off to in such a hurry, Ellie?" she said sweetly, not unlike Professor Umbridge. Pansy moved around to the front of Ellie and kicked away the containers of paint. Ellie flinched and cried out.

"Stop it, Pansy," she growled, looking up at her enemy. "Just leave me alone."

Ellie felt as though she didn't have any energy to fight back against Pansy, not like she used to. Her fears at that moment consisted of Pansy going and telling Nikolai everything that happened, only she'd probably change the story around and make Ellie out to be the bad guy. The others laughed, the loudest being Crabbe and Goyle.

Ellie picked up the containers of paint and set them up; some painted had flown out, but a majority of it was still safe inside. She was tempted to reach for her wand and shout whatever came out of her mouth, but she would not risk being expelled. Would not risk seriously injuring Pansy no matter how much the Slytherin deserved it. Ellie was better than that.

"Look at you, crawling around in the dirt like an animal," Pansy scoffed, locking eyes with someone behind her and snorting - Daphne, who snorted back. "You look like a peasant rescuing her precious bread. Where's that other peasant - the Ravenclaw weirdo."

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Ellie sneered, packing her pencils into her bag. Pansy noticed that Ellie was trying to leave, and kicked away Ellie's bag before snatching her painted canvas. "Pansy! Pansy, please!" Ellie jumped up and tried reaching for it but Pansy shoved her arms away.

"Oh - this is pretty," Pansy said, holding out the canvas before her. She turned it around for Daphne, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, who were too transfixed to make any comment, much to Pansy's dissatisfaction. She spun it back around and said, "what should we do with it, guys? Toss it into the lake?"

"No!" Ellie shouted. "Pansy, please, just - go away. I'm sorry, for whatever wrong I've done just please, please, don't ruin it. I'll do anything."

Pansy squinted and Ellie thought she saw a twitch of her mouth move to the side, though Pansy tried playing it off thoughtfully. She held the canvas out for Ellie to take, who visibly relaxed when it was back in her hands. "Very well. We ought to get going, though, don't we? We've got Nikolai to hunt down."

"And by the way, Greer," Daphne Greengrass started; Ellie turned to look at her, "it doesn't even look that great. You really should just stick to disappointing people."

"You ought to keep your fat mouth shut, Greengrass, before I -"

"Before you what?" Daphne said loudly, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows. "Because by the way I hear it, all we've got to do to keep you in order is inform Nikolai of certain . . . things. Know what I mean? That you aren't behaving. He told us. Tell him whenever you step over the line and he'll handle you."

"Greengrass, shut your mouth," Malfoy spat, "he didn't say that."

Ellie thought she saw Malfoy's grey eyes flicker to her wrist, and she self-consciously covered it with her other hand behind the canvas.

"He did too!" Daphne exclaimed. Ellie didn't know who to believe. Daphne turned back to Ellie and said, "you just wait and find out."

Ellie didn't say anything, only frowned and waited for the Slytherin group to leave.

"So that's it then?" Ellie rolled her eyes as they began to leave. "You just roll on over, let Pansy have her way, and then go back the way you came? Not to mention threaten me."

Pansy turned around. "Oh, no. That isn't all." Ellie furrowed her eyebrows and watched as Pansy bent down to pick something up from the ground.

"Look, I . . . I really -" Ellie started, but she was cut off by something plummeting against her canvas, and she gasped and cried out as she watched the mud slide down her painting of the castle. She was at a loss for words, even as laughter broke through her state of shock, and just stared at the mud over her painting. "Pansy, you absolute bitch, how could you!" Ellie cried - literally.

Pansy stopped laughing in a second and pulled out her wand, quickly approaching Ellie. But Ellie was not going to wait for her. She burst into tears, threw her canvas as hard as she could at Pansy's foot, snatched up her bag from the ground and ran back up to the castle.

"Tell me again why you were sorted into Gryffindor!" Daphne hollered.