Make Me.

Book 1 - Chapter 18

Ellie finished the last few class days of her first year in a way she had never expected; she was tired, restless really, in pain, and in a dazed silence. She walked from class to class just merely listening to her friends, hardly keeping up with their conversations as her mind drifted to other places: to Firenze, to her father, to her throbbing arm, to Voldemort. And, Harry looked just as tired and on edge as she did. Ellie presumed his mind was being occupied by the same thoughts. Ron and Hermione seemed more concerned with exams than anything else, probably because they weren't afraid that Voldemort was going to return for their head at any moment. 

The only time Ellie was not being kept awake by nightmares of the cloaked figure was during her study sessions (naps) in the library. At night, she tossed and turned, tugged on her blankets this way and that, until usually resorted to climbing out of bed and making her way to the common room by wand-light. She found herself returning over and over to one of the leather couches that was situated by a large window, looking out under the Black Lake. She didn't sleep, she didn't study, she didn't read, she didn't even write to her father, telling him what had happened or how she was feeling, the pain, the nightmares. The term would end soon enough and then he would find out; she was too tired and too scared to recount the events of her detention to him now.

Remus had sent a note, asking the girl how her detention went, to which he received a blunt answer.

"It was fine," was all Ellie had wrote. 

Remus knew his daughter better than that and wrote again, asking if she was alright, if anything bad had happened, if she had anything more on her mind. Ellie ignored the second note.

~~~

During the week of final exams, it was sweltering hot inside the castle and the classrooms were even hotter. Most of the classroom shutters were closed in effort to keep the large capacity rooms cooler and Ellie was quite thankful for this. As she entered the room for one of her scheduled exams, Ellie noticed that everyone looked to be much more uncomfortable in the heat than she was. At least for the duration of her written exams, she would only have to deal with the stabbing pain radiating from her left arm and quills bewitched with Anti-Cheating spells, and not the burning sensation that came from the summer sunlight hitting her skin. 

For each written exam, Ellie found herself effortlessly filling her scroll of parchment with facts, examples, and explanations of the subject at hand. Each time she turned in a written paper, Ellie's seemed to be double the length of everyone else's and despite writing more than all the other first years, she always seemed to be the first finished, catching a quick nap in her seat before the professor collected the papers, scrolls of parchment zooming to the desk at the front of the classroom. 

And, Ellie's practical exams went just as well as the written ones had. Each first year had a scheduled time for each practical demonstration of knowledge, resulting in long lines and large groups of first years gathering outside the classrooms, waiting for their turn. Nervous whispering filled the air and every time one of them finished their exam, the others, still waiting, would bombard them with questions about what they were tested on. 

For Professor Snape, Ellie made a flawless Forgetfulness potion and received a nod of praise from the man; from the chatter Ellie overheard as she exited the dungeon classroom, a nod was the highest form of praise any first year could receive from the brooding potions master. For Professor McGonagall, the task was to turn a mouse into a snuffbox, points were given for how pretty the box was and points taken away for how many whiskers the box retained. Ellie's surely had no whiskers and as told by Hermione, was used as an example for the first year's that were tested after her. 

On the day of Professor Flitwick's practical, the first years were called into the charms classroom, one by one, and were asked to make a pineapple tap dance across a desk. Not only did Ellie's pineapple tap dance, it also did a few cartwheels and back flips during its routine. Chuffed with her own performance on the exam, Ellie was pleased to answer the questions of the other first years who were waiting for their turn.