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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Draco Malfoy's bedroom was exactly how Ellie imagined it to be. It was larger than hers in size with a king-sized bed on one end of the room and a fireplace on the other. The room was dark, the only source of light coming from the window, and it was not that light outside.
Draco walked over to turn one of this lamps on, brightening only one half of the room. Ellie, standing awkwardly by the window holding onto her broom with one hand, raised an eyebrow at the pale boy.
"Something wrong with your lights?"
"I prefer it dim," he smirked, clearly trying to seek a reaction out of the girl. Or perhaps revelling in her uncomfortableness.
Ellie squinted at him before he scooted back onto his bed and turned to lay on his side.
"What are you doing?"
"What's it look like I'm doing -- I'm taking a nap."
Scoffing, Ellie moved to lean her broomstick against the wall. "Well, what am I supposed to do then?"
"You can continue to stand there like a stiff. If not, then I'm sure you'll find a way to entertain yourself."
"Are we not even going to talk about what happened last week in my room?" Ellie narrowed her eyes, pulling an armchair from the corner of the room directly next to Draco's bed where she could see him attempting to fall asleep. She refused to sit on his bed.
"My, you make it sound so romantic when you say it like that, Greer," Draco said, his voice muffled into his pillow. Ellie could just make out a lazy smirk. "If you really wanted to talk about it you would've responded to my letters."
Ellie bit her lip. Draco had written three letters to her over the last seven days and she meant to write a reply but whenever she held her quill to her parchment her mind just blanked. It would then flash back to Draco's mouth on hers and she'd get nervous, feeling as though it was the wrong thing to let happen.
His letters weren't long. He simply asked her what she was up to and...if she regretted their kiss.
"I...wanted to talk about it here."
"So talk," Draco said, rolling onto his back and throwing his arms behind his head. His grey eyes opened and connected with hers. She felt her heartbeat quicken. "Once you're done admiring me of course."
"Oh, shut up I wasn't doing that," the redhead rolled her eyes. Her mouth couldn't help but turn upwards at his doing the same thing. "And...I don't think I regret it."
"What, admiring me? You just said that's not what you were doing," he teased.
"Come on, I'm being serious. And you know what I meant."
"And you don't think you regret it?" Draco arched a perfect platinum blond eyebrow.
For some reason this panicked Ellie, Draco's choice to repeat what she said with such emphasis. Perhaps it was because deep down Nikolai had buried the perfect anxiety in the pit of her stomach, had buried it so deep that it could not be dug up.
Draco didn't say anything the entire time Ellie was quiet, only stared at her with curious, clueless grey eyes. Then it suddenly clicked.
"No big deal. You are engaged," he said, as if that made it any better.
Ellie clicked her tongue and said, "yes, thank you for that painful reminder."
Draco only smirked.
* * *
Home was noisy. All the lights were still on and the sound of Lauren Greer's shrill voice was quaking the earth beneath Ellie's feet. Inhaling sharply, the redhead pushed open the back door and stepped into the house, all eyes landing on her instantly.
"Hi..." she said in a quiet, nervous voice.
The servants were dismissed with a hard wave of Lauren's hand, right before it reached back and connected with her daughter's cheek. Jackin stood immediately, trying to pull back his wife but she pushed him off, glaring daggers at her daughter.
"How dare you embarrass me like that?!" she shrieked, her voice so angry it hurt Ellie's ears.
Ellie held the side of her face, her mind a mess. It took her a minute to realise what had just happened. "Where--where's Nikolai?"
"Gone, as are his parents. Are you happy now, Elyssa?"
Ellie glared at her mother. "Yes. I am. Now I'm going to bed, don't bother waking me up for breakfast."
As Ellie brushed past her mother, the older woman said something that made her stop in her tracks.
"I'm pregnant...and you could not even be here when I announced it."
Lauren's voice was quiet but deadly and the hurt was evident in her tone. Ellie, mind racing, guilt flowing through her veins, slowly turned around. Jackin was still standing between his wife and daughter, probably to prevent a cat fight.
"How...how far along?" Ellie asked.
"Sixteen weeks," Lauren replied in a sharp voice. "I hoped I wouldn't have to announce it to you like this but yet again you disappoint me. Do you know how humiliating it was when the Orlov's showed up and asked where you were and I had no choice but to make excuses for you? You were meant to be here -- they came for you -- your wedding."
Ellie's blood began to boil with anger and it surely showed on her face.
"I don't want him!" Ellie yelled, turning on her heel and making sure to slam the door hard behind her.
It saddened Ellie to realise that no matter how she showed how unhappy and angry and hurt she was about having no say in marrying Nikolai, how much she didn't want it, her parents just did not care.
So, she was left with one option. Once she was in her room she packed a bag and her trunk and, after scribbling a note to Silas to let him know that she was on her way, she left her home without a word to anyone.
