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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"Sprained," Madam Pomfrey had said. And Ellie was instructed to drink what tasted like the smell of cat urine and to have a good night's sleep.
A good nights sleep.
"I'll sleep here then!" Ellie said a little too loudly. She cleared her throat and slouched when Madam Pomfrey gave her a quizzical look. "I mean . . . may I sleep here tonight then?"
"Very well. Just for tonight," the nurse eyed her before disappearing.
Ellie shuffled back onto the bed and laid down. It was certainly not as comfortable as it looked but she wasn't complaining, although it did make her wonder why the beds in the hospital wing weren't as comfortable as the one in her dormitory, considering people with serious injuries lay in these beds.
The thought disappeared as a new one took it's place. She wouldn't pass by the same staircase Nikolai, or a friend he sends, always meets her at. She had no say in the matter of course; Nikolai always beat her there every morning so that there was no escape for her. And if nobody was there, he was usually waiting outside the Great Hall. At least now she wouldn't pass by the staircase he was at and she wouldn't have to go to the Great Hall tomorrow for breakfast. Ellie could eat here in the hospital wing instead, as long as she complained about her wrist.
There weren't a lot of nights Ellie went to sleep with a smile on her face. Most nights all she thought of was what Nikolai would say or do the next day, how miserable she would be without her friends. She couldn't argue about being with her friends like she used to. They were simply no longer an option as Nikolai had put it.
That night, Ellie dreamt of waking up to find unicorns in the paddock by her backyard. At home, she had an enormous backyard that her parents never even looked at, but as a small girl she always raced to the end of it to the look at the empty paddock next to it, hoping someday that she'd find a unicorn to be friends with. She scoffed at the thought of it now, but growing up she was always so very lonely.
And if she went through with her marriage to Nikolai, she would be lonely as well as tormented. She would never sleep this well. She would never have these sweet dreams. She would constantly fear what mood he might be in and simply have to hope for the best. In her mind she always promises herself, I won't put up with this. I won't go through with this. I won't marry him. But there's another voice that overlaps it. It scares her. What if, for some reason, Ellie changes her mind? What if something scares her so bad that she goes through with it anyway? What if she's somehow forced to be his wife even without saying the words 'I do'?
Her biggest fear is that she'll never be happy again.
Her eyes shot open only to be blinded by the sudden brightness of the hospital. She squeezed them shut tight and threw her arm over them.
