ALOHOMORA | CEDRIC DIGGORY

34〝thirty-four〞

THE WORDS RANG IN HIS ears, almost burning them. It was as though bombs had been raining down on him all hour, exploding new information in his face. In hindsight, however, they could not have all been that outrageous, Cedric reckoned. It did kind of make sense: the way she sometimes shot him glares that were searching, and how on occasion his brain fell into shambles for no rhyme or reason in her presence—so it wasn't always nerves.

"So you can...?"

Ellis nodded.

"Have you ever...?"

"Not recently," she answered, averting his gaze as if to show him that she wasn't "reading" his mind there and then, "but several times, yes. ... I'm sorry."

But Cedric was hardly offended. If he had known, he would have just offered to let her "read" his mind. Then perhaps she wouldn't have jumped to unfounded conclusions her negativity was so set on. He could have been saved all the trouble he had gone through to establish himself as a non-hostile entity. His curiosity, however, got the better of him (and his manners).

"You don't have to use the incantation or your wand, then?"

She shook her head.

"My g—It's very strong," said Ellis gravely. "When I was younger, I would just hear them as if someone was talking. Sometimes I couldn't even tell the difference. That's how I know my mother thinks of me as a jinx." She gave a curt snort. "She didn't use to have a problem with my...ability, but after I called her out, she forced me to learn how to control it; how to stop intruding on people's thoughts—her thoughts. I don't hear any of them anymore now, though it's harder to control when I'm...not calm."

For every revelation, Cedric seemed only to have gained more questions.

It was a long and complicated story indeed.

"Your mother taught you?" asked Cedric, somewhat disoriented. "Does that mean she's a witch?"

"No, she hired someone to teach me after we moved here. But yes, she used to be a witch."

"Hang on just a second—"

Straightening up, and his hands held up to stall her, Cedric frowned, struggling to process this.

"I warned you," said Ellis, looking at him dolefully.

"That you did." He chuckled, absentmindedly smoothing his hair. Then Cedric leaned forward, arms resting on his thighs, fingers intertwined. "Okay, how does someone use to be a witch?"

"She has magic, but she stopped using it when... It's her way of honoring him: Since her magic couldn't protect him, there's no use for it at all."

"What does she do, then?"

"She's an air stewardess," replied Ellis, only for Cedric's brows to knit together more tightly. "It's like a waitress but in an aeroplane—you know, those big metal...bird things Muggles use to travel by air?"

Although Cedric only had the vaguest idea of what aeroplanes were, he nodded.

"And you...'moved here'?" he said uncertainly.

"The garden...that was in our villa in the south of France. But ever since..."

The Slytherin attempted to dab her eye surreptitiously, but Cedric had already witnessed a tear dribbling down her face before she turned away. Agonized and guilty, he meant to interrupt her—to say that he didn't need to know anymore, and that she needn't tell him anything else if it was hurting her to.

Before he could, however, she plowed on:

"Mother didn't want to stay there anymore. She dropped everything and moved us here. She hired a nanny for me, so she didn't have to take care of me herself. Alfred also taught me English so that I could go to school here. Then she shipped me off to a Muggle boarding school so that she didn't have to see me around the house. Alfred became her butler after that, though when I'm home, his main job is still to watch over me."