October 2034
ELLA
Ella was extra quiet in choir on Saturday afternoon. She couldn't get her mind off what might be coming that evening. She didn't know what Henry was expecting. Did he really just want her to show him the way back to that corridor? It hadn't seemed like it.
He'd looked at her like he was thinking about something else.
It had been nearly two months since he'd kissed her and they'd not come anywhere close since, but the way he'd spoken had just seemed like it wasn't only friendly.
Professor Whitby was talking about their big winter concert coming up. It always took place the last weekend at school before the Christmas holidays. They performed once at the school for the rest of the students and the teachers and then they went to Hogsmeade to perform for the villagers and parents.
Logan passed the paper they'd been writing on back to her. She'd been so distracted, she hadn't been as into their conversation as usual, but she looked down to read what he'd written this time.
You should audition.
She looked up at Professor Whitby. She'd zoned out again, but he had moved on to talking about the solos that were available to audition for. Ella had never auditioned for a solo and she had never planned to either.
Absolutely not, she wrote back.
Why not? You'd get it.
I want to throw up just thinking about it.
I'll audition for the tenor one if you do it.
You're more than welcome to, but there's no way I'm doing that.
Well now you've made it my personal mission to talk you into it. This time, Logan passed the paper back to her with a smug smile like he'd already won.
She just mouthed "good luck" at him. She'd never do it.
—-
Ella couldn't eat. Her mouth felt dry and her stomach was in knots and the noise in the Great Hall was way too loud.
She kept looking up at the staff table like her dad would be there, but it was a Saturday. He was home. It was always a little sparse up there on the weekends. This was a good thing, because if he had been there, Ella felt certain he would have zeroed in on how pale her cheeks looked and told her to go see Aunt Raigan.
She'd sat with her back to the Ravenclaw table on purpose so she wouldn't accidentally look up and see Henry, wherever he was sitting, but now she regretted it, because she had no idea if he even remembered suggesting that they meet tonight. They hadn't talked since that afternoon in the corridor a few days ago. They weren't partners in charms anymore, so there hadn't really been an opportunity.
Maybe if she'd been able to see him, make accidental eye contact with him, she'd have been able to tell whether or not he remembered.
She'd finally told Iris and Kyrie earlier that day. She hadn't been able to think of a way to avoid them noticing her walk away with Henry Parker. Not when everyone was leaving the Great Hall in a big swarm.
She'd asked them to please keep their comments to themselves until after so she could decide how she felt about it on her own, but she hadn't been able to stop them from looking at each other with these big stupid smiles or from peering over at the Ravenclaw table every few minutes.
When dinner was over, Iris just waggled her fingers at Ella and said, "Have fun!" in a low sing song voice, then she and Kyrie hurried off, giggling, back to the common room without her.
Ella walked very slowly towards the entrance hall, letting everyone else go ahead of her. She wanted it to be as cleared out as possible before she met up with Henry, or until she realized Henry wasn't even there waiting for her.
But he was.
And he was leaning against the wall at the corner of the staircase like he knew just exactly how good-looking he was and wasn't afraid to flaunt it.
Ella glanced around before she approached him, just in case he was actually waiting there for someone else, some other purpose, but he said, "There she is," with a smile that made her stomach feel queasy.
"Hi," she managed to get out.
Henry just said, "Well, lead the way captain," and stepped back so he could follow her.
They didn't talk at first. Ella was too nervous to think of anything to say. But Henry started talking eventually, once they'd left the crowd behind and made their way into deserted corridors.
"You ever walked through a ghost before?" he asked after one passed through a wall up ahead of them.
"No," said Ella. "But I've heard it's horrible."
"Turns your insides to ice," said Henry. "I couldn't breathe."
"Did you not see them coming or something?"
He shook his head. "Someone dared me to do it."
Ella was pretty sure that walking through a ghost on purpose was considered extremely disrespectful, but she wasn't about to say that right now and risk sounding like a prefect. He teased her about her badge sometimes. She knew boys did that when they liked you, so it didn't bother her too much, but she wasn't going to give him a free opportunity.
"And before you say it," Henry said. "I know you're not supposed to do that. I was eleven."
"Your first year sounds like it was wild," Ella said. "Getting lost, walking through ghosts..."
She turned a corner and headed into a little alcove that most people didn't realize actually led into another hallway. There was an opening, but it was narrow and sort of concealed.
"Not as wild as yours must have been. How'd you know about this?"
"I found it as a kid," she said. "I spent a lot of time here exploring when my dad was working."
"Right," said Henry. "Teacher's kid privileges."
Ella turned around another corner. "This is what you were looking for, right?"
There was the horrible goblin battle painting he'd described and the big, ugly rug. No one except the house elves really came up here or the suits of armor would probably have been very dusty.
"Yeah," said Henry frowning. "How'd the staircase even end up here."
Ella pointed down a different hallway than the one they'd entered from. "There's an empty landing over that way. Usually there's a railing there, but sometimes one of the staircases likes to visit this spot and the railing disappears so you can walk up."
"Damn this school is weird," said Henry. He walked along the ugly rug towards the little space at the end of the hall with the big windows looking out at the grounds. "It is a nice view though, if you can ignore the fact that there are goblins bludgeoning each other to death right behind you."
Ella laughed a little. She stood beside him, not too close, because she didn't know exactly what this was, but close enough that she wouldn't seem uncomfortable.
"Must've been cool to come to Hogwarts as a little kid," Henry said. "All the secret passageways and everything... it's like a hide and seek dream for a kid."
"It was a nightmare for my parents. We'd get lost every time we were here. Usually it was Juni's idea, but I stuck with her."
"Someone's got to keep her in line," said Henry knowingly.
"I try my best."
Then he stopped looking out the window and he looked at Ella instead. Her heart started beating very, very fast and she could not look at him, because she was pretty sure she knew what was going to happen if she did.
"You're pretty," Henry said. How was it so easy for him to say things like that?
She laughed again, that stupid nervous laugh that came out whenever she didn't know what to say.
Before she'd come up with anything, Henry's hand was on her shoulder and she'd turned to him out of reflex and then he was kissing her again and this time, Ella knew for sure that she kissed him back.
—-
"Sooooo," sang Kyrie when Ella reappeared in the common room a little while later. "How'd it go?"
"He kissed you, didn't he?" Iris whispered.
Ella could only nod. Her voice had stopped working. She just wanted to go upstairs and lay on her back in her bed, the hangings closing everyone else out. She wanted to lay there all alone and commit whatever had just happened to memory while she still sort of understood it herself.
But that clearly wasn't going to happen yet. Kyrie and Iris had both just about lost their minds.
"Can we just go upstairs and talk about this?" Ella pleaded. "People are looking."
So they hurried up to the dormitory and all three of them sat cross legend on Ella's bed.
"Oh my god," Iris kept saying. "I can't believe this is happening. I mean, I can because you're gorgeous and the nicest person ever, but like, oh my god. Henry Parker is your boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend," Ella said.
"He's kissed you twice," Kyrie said. "What else would he be? Your next-door neighbor?"
He'd kissed her more than twice. Actually he'd kissed her a lot of times tonight. But Ella wasn't about to say as much. They didn't need all the details.
"Was it better this time?" Iris asked. "It's less awkward the second time, right?"
"I guess it was less awkward, yeah," Ella said. She looked down at her lap. "Honestly it doesn't really feel like anything. It's just kind of weird."
"Well, when you know him better, it'll probably get better," Iris decided.
"Right. Maybe."
"I just can't believe this is happening to you. You're so lucky," Kyrie said, flopping back against Ella's pillows.
"It could be happening to you, too, if you'd just tell Alec you like him," said Ella, hoping to change the subject.
"That's beside the point. We're not talking about me right now."
"Wait till your dad finds out. I'm so mad we don't have class with the Ravenclaws so we can't see how he acts."
"My dad will never find out about this," said Ella seriously.
Iris and Kyrie looked at each other. "We'll see how long that lasts," Iris said with a laugh.
And Ella, unfortunately, knew she was probably right. Gossip traveled around Hogwarts faster than fiendfyre and it was just as difficult to put out.