While many praised Professor Moody's teaching methods, Eleanor found herself uncomfortable whenever she was in the man's presence, mainly because he insisted on calling her "Ms Lupin" even though she had already corrected him several times. She wasn't sure if he was doing it to get a reaction out of her, but if that was the case, why?
Perhaps he had been annoyed that she had managed to escape his counterjinx lesson during their first class, but wasn't that the whole point of the lesson, to begin with? She decided that when Dermot arrived at the castle to send her first letter home, first telling her parents about the Triwizard Tournament, and then questioning if her father knew anything pertaining to Professor Moody.
In the meantime, as she waited on a response, Eleanor had made her way to the library after classes. Professor Sprout was correct when she stated there was little to be covered when it came to wizarding law within her classes, but she hoped there would be a few books she could find to read over in her free time. She had collected a couple in her arms when the one she had been reaching for was snatched before she could grab it. Of course, it came as no surprise as Fred stood beside her, holding the book out of her reach with a cheeky grin.
"Fred, I know I'm great company, but don't you ever get tired of being around me?" she asked him as she pretended to be interested in another title.
"What's there to get tired of, love?" Fred questioned in return, handing over the book.
She went to grab it, but he pulled it away at the last second with a laugh. Eleanor tried to conceal her own laughter as she bit the inside of her cheek, but it was no use. However, he did add it to her pile of books before taking the stack from her arms, insisting silently to hold them for her.
"Thank you," she said, "now what are you doing here? And where's George?"
"George is with Lee and I'm here talking to you," he said. "Although it doesn't look like you're going to be doing much talking in the near future if you plan on reading all of these books. You do know that you don't have to assign yourself homework, right? The professors will be assigning plenty."
"I'm not giving myself homework," she chuckled, "I was talking to Professor Sprout the other day about what I planned on doing after Hogwarts and I told her I was interested in Wizarding Law. She told me that it's not really covered in the classes here, but that doesn't stop me from doing my own research. I probably won't end reading all these books from cover to cover, just the parts that pique my interest."
"I'm sure Professor Moody knows quite a bit about the law- "
"Trust me, Fred, he's the last person I want to talk to," Eleanor told him as she left the book aisle to where she had set down her belongings on a table, "I know the lot of you think he's great and everything, but he gets on my nerves."
"Because he keeps calling you Ms Lupin?"
"It's rude!" she huffed. "I've corrected him multiple times. I know it's my father's surname, but even if we did become really close over the summer, I didn't take his name. It's no disrespect to him at all, I just want to keep my name as Eleanor Ross for now. He's just being disrespectful at this point; I don't think he likes me very much. I'm just hoping that it's not because of what my dad told me before we started up school again."
"What do you mean?"
"My dad said that it was possible that since people learned about his condition and then learned that I was his daughter, they would use that against me."
"I'd like to see someone dare to do something stupid like that- "
Before Fred could continue with his threat to beat the hell out of anyone who held Remus' condition over Remus' or Eleanor's head, the two came to an abrupt stop, or more so, Eleanor came to a halt and Fred had just barely managed to stop himself before he crashed into her. Just a few lengths away, the two could see where Eleanor's belongings, including her bag and her knitting supplies, had been pushed to the floor and the table where she had left them, was currently occupied.
It seemed from their first encounter in Diagon Alley, Artemis was holding a grudge against Eleanor. The two hadn't said another word to each other, despite sharing classes, and yet, every time Eleanor saw the girl, Artemis was either glaring at her or offering up some form of attitude. Of all the tables within the library to choose from, Artemis just had to sit at the one where Eleanor's belongings had been.
Wasting no time, Eleanor made her way over to where Artemis was sitting, placing her hands on her hips.
"Did you push my things onto the floor?"
Glancing down at the floor beside her, Artemis shook her head before returning her gaze back to her book.
"They were there when I got here."
Eleanor didn't believe that for a second, but she decided to humour the possibility. "But you didn't think to pick them up before you sat down?"
"No."
As she looked over her shoulder at Fred, Eleanor could see the bewildered expression on his face, however, he quickly became visibly annoyed with Artemis' attitude as his eyes narrowed. But neither one of them had an opportunity to call Artemis' out on her overly twattish behaviour when George and Lee came nearly bolting into the library. They spotted Eleanor and Fred, making their way over, seemingly out of breath, but still laughing.
"What's going on?" she asked. "What did you two do?"
Apparently, Fred had been in on the matter as well, although he had been interested in finding what Eleanor had been up to, it was also to pose as a lookout while George and Lee had released a series of prototype Whizzing Mice, that scurried about in the library. They appeared to be similar to windup toys but were faster and far more realistic in appearance. In a matter of a few minutes, the library had been turned into chaos as the mice startled students that were attempting to study or find a book.
Initially, Eleanor found herself in a state of shock, before she rounded on Fred, slapping him on the arm, accusing him and the others of being behind it all. But it was only then as one of the toy mice, made its way over to where Artemis was sitting and crawled up her leg, causing her to screech out. She stood up rapidly, knocking her chair back with a loud thud and smacked at her leg until the mouse fell to the ground. Snatching it up, she held it up to Eleanor's face, as if she was accusing her of being responsible for it all.
Yet, it only put her in the position of looking like she was in on it as Madam Pince found all five of them standing together.
"DETENTION!" Madam Pince yelled at them, pointing her finger in their direction, as she used her free hand to clutch a book to her chest. "ALL FIVE OF YOU!"
"But Madam Pince," Artemis cried out, "I wasn't in on this!"
"A likely story coming from the one with the evidence in her hand!"
Artemis peered down at her hand, where she was still holding the toy mouse, before she quickly dropped it, only to have the mouse race over to Madam Pince and attempt to crawl up her leg. The librarian screamed before running off, still yelling that they were going to serve detention, one way or another.
And as per usual, Father Cedric and Mother Marnie were the first to offer their scolding when Eleanor announced that she had, yet another detention to serve that very evening. And while Eleanor insisted that she actually didn't have any involvement in said prank, they didn't believe her. Marnie continued to wonder out loud, where she and Cedric had gone wrong while raising her, and Cedric, once again, threatened to take away Eleanor's dessert.
Even though she knew her night was going to be filled with a punishment of sorts, Eleanor decided to leave the Common Room early to escape her best friends. Who also decided that in between their reprimanding, to tell Eleanor that she had another perfect opportunity to ask Fred on a date? She reminded them that it wasn't just going to be her and Fred serving the detention, but George and Lee would be there as well, along with Artemis. And even though there was only an itsy bits chance of rejection, Eleanor didn't want Artemis to be a witness of it.
Arriving outside of the Great Hall, Professor McGonagall seemed to be the one left in charge when it came to delivering that night's punishment. As Eleanor approached, she could see the Transfiguration professor shake her head slightly as soon as they made eye contact. The look of disappointment made Eleanor immediately look away, pretending to be interested in the wall closest to her until the others arrived. Thankfully, they didn't keep her waiting for long as Fred, George, and Lee arrived together a minute or so later.
"And where is our fifth member for the evening?" Professor McGonagall questioned, leaving the group to shrug their shoulders.
"I'm right here, Professor," Artemis' voice growled from the darkness of the dimly lit corridor to the right.
If truth be told, Artemis wasn't very scary looking within her physical appearance, if she happened to smile, she would have been considered to be very pretty. But perhaps it was the way she kept her face scrunched up as if she were disgusted by everything, or the way her dark hair was pulled back so tightly that made her look meaner, Eleanor wasn't sure. Either way, Artemis didn't look at all pleased to be there.
"Good, now that you all are here," Professor McGonagall continued, "are you ready to learn what your punishment is?"
"Not particularly," George replied, until the professor stared him down, "I mean, lead the way, Professor."
"Follow me," she instructed before leading the way down the corridor, "With the castle preparations beginning in anticipation of our guests, your task tonight is to polish the candelabras, without the use of magic."
There was a slight whimpering sound that escaped Eleanor as she remembered the task of scrubbing the floors that one evening. Normally, she never found household chores to be that terrible, even though she hadn't used magic then either. But the candelabras were massive and there were plenty for each of them to work on. And if McGonagall was overseeing their detention, there was no chance of them performing a half-ass job and being able to walk away.
Provided with polish and rags, Professor McGonagall advised them to get started, claiming that they didn't want to be out too late. And as soon as she walked away, Eleanor grabbed one of the rags before tossing it in Fred's face before grabbing her own. The others followed, even Artemis did so begrudgingly to get started.
Fred decided to pair up with Eleanor so that whichever candelabra she worked on, would be finished twice as fast. She didn't oppose his help, knowing from the pouty expression that he gave her, that he was attempting to apologise for getting her roped into another detention, even when she hadn't even been involved in the prank itself. To show that she didn't share any harsh feelings towards him, she stuck her tongue out at him playfully.
After a while, it seemed no matter how strong the draft in the castle had been during the nights, Eleanor found herself boiling. She removed her knitted jumper, feeling the relief of cold air through the thin layer of her shirt.
"Why are you pouting over there, beautiful?" Lee's voice rang out, causing Eleanor to turn her head to where Lee was smiling in Artemis' direction. If looks could kill, Lee would have been dead and buried.
"Why do you think?" Artemis grumbled. "I shouldn't even be here, stuck with a whole bunch of idiots."
"Hey, there's no need for name-calling!" George replied, only to have Eleanor chime in to lighten the mood.
"Yeah, there's no need for name-calling because they already know they're idiots."
Artemis' eyes darted over in her direction. "Speaking of which, you're the biggest one of them all, every time you come around, something bad seems to happen."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Eleanor dropped her rag and stood up, "every time I come around? First off, you're the one who bumped into me at Flourish and Blotts. And at the library, you moved my stuff to the floor! You could have sat anywhere else! You're the one with the problem, not me! But rather than keeping up this odd grudge, you have against me, can we just apologise and let it go- "
"I'm not going to apologise to a filthy mutt."
The corridor fell silent and Fred swore the temperature dropped as well; Eleanor's jaw dropped, looking completely taken back.
"What did you call me?"
"I thought wolves had a good sense of hearing," Artemis laughed harshly, "I called you a filthy mutt, just like your father."
Eleanor said nothing, but as she launched herself to attack Artemis head-on, it was Fred and George that hurried to grab her before she could do anything. She put up one hell of a fight to be released as she thrashed about demanding to be let go so she could kick Artemis' arse.
"Please, let her go," Artemis told them, "I'd love to see what the little Hufflepuff is capable of. What are you going to do, knit me a scarf?"
"Just ignore her, Ellie," Fred whispered to her, "don't bother- "
"Yeah, Ellie," Artemis interrupted, "just ignore me."
After a minute or so, Eleanor's body loosened from its tense state and she took a deep breath before exhaling slowly. She felt the twins' grip loosen and pulled her arms from their hold. She took a step towards Artemis, leaving Fred and George ready to grab her again, but she didn't try to start swinging again.
"I couldn't care less what you think of me, I don't know you enough to even value your opinion," she said, "but I'm not going to stand here and let you insult my father. He's a better person than you'll ever be. He's a great man and an even better father."
"Except when the full moon is out."
"And even then, I'm willing to bet everything that he's still a better father than yours, considering you turned out to be one nasty bitch."
Fred tried to make a grab for Eleanor as she turned and walked away, apparently planning on abandoning her detention. He couldn't blame her, but he didn't want her to get in trouble either, that would only add to Artemis' triumph as she was already smiling, watching as Eleanor hurried off. He ran off after her before McGonagall came to check on them.
"Oh, Eleanor," Artemis called after them, "come back you forgot your hideous jumper!"
Artemis went to laugh, only to suddenly feel the harsh sensation of being slapped across the face. Immediately, she held the side of her face that stung terribly. Looking across the way, Fred and Eleanor had not returned, only leaving George and Lee in her presence.
"Which one of you smacked me?!"
The two held their hands up, shaking their heads in denial. "Wasn't us!"
"Then who- "
Suddenly, she was smacked again across the face in the same place as before. She dropped the jumper allowing it to fall to the floor.
And while Artemis tried to come to terms with the idea of being bitchslapped by a knitted jumper, Fred had finally caught up to Eleanor, reaching out to grab her hand to make her finally stop.
"Ellie, come on, love, you're going to earn yourself another detention if McGonagall catches you trying to leave."
"I don't care!"
"You know that's not true; you do care. You don't want to serve another detention," he said, "come on, let's just go back."
"I'm not going back there!" Eleanor protested. "Not with that miserable monster being there! She's horrid! Saying all those things about my father, she doesn't even know him! He may have been her professor, but I bet she couldn't find fault with his teaching! She's only being like that because of his lycanthropy and he can't control that! He didn't bring it upon himself!"
As she started to tear up, Fred frowned, never liking to see Eleanor in such a state, he took a step closer and pulled her into a hug.
"I know, Ellie, she's a git. But don't let her win."
She didn't make any attempt to return right away but while she was still upset, she knew that Fred was right in many ways. She shouldn't have given Artemis the satisfaction of becoming upset and if McGonagall did return, she didn't want Fred to get in trouble too if they were both missing. With a self-reassuring nod of her head, telling herself that everything was going to be alright, she grabbed Fred by the hand and led him back to where the others were. Only to stumble upon the commotion of where Artemis seemed to be yelling at Lee and George.
"We didn't smack you!" Lee called out from where he hid behind George. "The jumper did!"
"Clothes don't smack people!"
"That particular piece does!"
Eyeing her jumper on the floor, Eleanor walked over and picked it up into her hands. She brushed it off before slipping it on, leaving Artemis to turn and face her.
"Your jumper smacked me!"
Gently dusting off the sleeve, there was such a calmness that washed over Eleanor as turned her gaze to Artemis.
"Do you hear how ridiculous you sound right now?" she asked. "Accusing a jumper of attack, you? Why don't flatter yourself, my jumper wouldn't want to get its sleeves dirty."
Once Artemis felt the sting of embarrassment as the others took to laughing at her, thinking she had been slapped by a jumper, she became quiet and returned to her polishing. Of course, George and Lee hadn't actually seen anything, but they knew very well that they hadn't been the ones to hit Artemis. But as Eleanor finished up her work, her mind was racing as she was putting together everything that pertained to what she knew of her knitted garments.
So far, she knew of the memories that seemed to be "trapped" within some garments, and she had been theorising that somehow, knitting with her wand had placed some form of special properties into her pieces, but she wasn't sure how. It wasn't like she was casting any incantation while she was working, so it didn't make sense just yet. But she hadn't bewitched her jumper to attack people either, so she didn't understand how that worked.
Eventually, McGonagall returned later in the evening to release them from their detention, by then, they were all sore and smelled of polish.
"Do not let me hear that any of you are in detention again," she said, " need I remind you that just in a few short weeks, we will have guests at the castle. I expect all of you to be on your best behaviour!"
Professor McGonagall's eyes scanned over all of them until they came to settle on Eleanor, who in returned flashed her an innocent smile.
"It seems you take after your father in more ways than one, Ms Ross."
Whether or not it was meant to be taken in such a way, Eleanor felt a huge surge of pride in her chest as Professor McGonagall left them, ordering all of them to return to their respective dorms. Quickly, she turned to the twins with a delighted grin.
"Did you hear that?! Did you hear what she said?!"
In the back, Artemis rolled her eyes before she made her way to leave, but not before getting in the last word.
"She was probably referring to the fact that you're abnormally hairy this evening!"