Eleanor & Fred

“So is any one else impatient for Quidditch to start?”

Ever since I had made my way back to the common room, Jay and Alice had been trying to distract me. “Definitely,” Alice stated, a little too enthusiastically. “What about you, Ell? Of course…it will be hard to root for Ravenclaw when they play Gryffindor, won’t it?”

“Yeah…I guess so.” Jay and Alice exchanged glances.

“Alright, missy, cheer up. Please?” Alice began pouting, and once Jay mimicked her I couldn’t hold back my smile. “That’s my girl.”

Just then Wes, who was sleeping in an armchair beside the couch we were sitting on, snorted loudly. I burst into a fit of giggles much to Jay’s happiness.

“You think that’s funny, huh?” Without any warning he began poking my sides and stomach, which he knew were places that I was very ticklish.

“Stop,” I gasped, my face beginning to hurt from smiling so widely. “Jay!”

“Never!” With a devious grin, Alice began helping him with her un-injured hand. “Aha! An accomplice!”

* * * * *

“Today, we will be copying chapters four through six. You may begin.”

I unwillingly opened up my textbook and started copying from it directly. Beside me, Alice was hard at work, determined not to get on Umbridge’s bad side again. She had taken off the bandage, though I could still see light markings where the cuts were. Of course, if I hadn’t known they were there before I probably wouldn’t have noticed them.

Behind us, Jay and Wes were silent as well. When Jay noticed me looking back, he smiled at me before getting back to work. The only noises in the room were the scratches of quills against parchment.

About half-way through class, someone knocked on the door. I was surprised when it turned out to be Fred and George. He smiled at me as he made his way to the front of the classroom while his brother waited by the door. Fred sat something on Umbridge’s desk wordlessly, before turning and walking back out of the classroom, winking at me.

Umbridge unrolled the parchment, her eyes widening as she neared the very end. “Someone, block that-“

Before her sentence was finished, the classroom door flew open and in flew a group of Cornish pixies, obnoxiously loud. Umbridge was under her desk faster than you could say her and students began fleeing the classroom. Since Alice and I were seated farthest from the door, we were the last to leave.

Alice was in the hall when I heard Umbridge’s voice directed toward me. “You there, get these things out of here.” A small smile formed on my lips as I stared at her, helpless. I knew that helping her would be the right thing to do, but after what happened to Alice I didn’t care. “If you leave me here, you’ll have a week’s worth of detention.”

Knowing I would regret it later, I walked out, shutting the door behind me.

* * * * *

“Hello students.” I tried not to glare as I looked up at Umbridge, standing in front of my desk. To my left was Harry Potter, someone whom I’d met once or twice but didn’t really know, and to my right was Fred followed by George, having gotten into trouble for the pixie situation themselves. Umbridge gave us each our lines and we began writing.

I glanced over at Harry to find him fully concentrating. I could tell that this wasn’t his first detention with her. When I looked to Fred, my heart sank. He was staring at the back of his hand with slight horror as the blood began to appear. Clenching my teeth, I put my own quill to the parchment and began to write: “I will help when asked.”

Like Harry appeared to be, I was determined not to make a noise as I continued writing. I also couldn’t bring myself to look over at Fred, knowing I wouldn’t like the sight. After several hours, she announced that we could leave. All of us were to come back the next day.

Harry and George nodded to Fred and me before walking toward the Gryffindor common room. Fred had his fists clenched and before I could register what was happening he walked past me and slammed them into the brick wall. It would be a lie to say I wasn’t a little frightened. He stood there with his fists and forehead pressed against the cold stone.

Finally, I walked up beside him and whispered his name. He turned to me and I almost flinched away from the defeated look in his eyes. “Fred….I know it hurt, but…everything will be fine, I promise. You’ll be fine…”

“Fine? I’ll be fine? You really think I’m thinking about myself right now?” All I could do was stare, confused. “Ellie, look at your hand. That’s my fault. My own hand was rightfully earned, but yours…” He reached down and careful grabbed my hand, holding it up between us. “If I wouldn’t have pulled the stupid prank in the first place, this would have never happened to you. I did this to you.”

My mouth fell open in disbelief. “Don’t be ridiculous! I am a big girl and I make my own decisions, thank you very much. If I hadn’t been so stubborn, I wouldn’t be here. It’s not your fault at all!” My tone was slightly angry, but I couldn’t sound any other way at the moment. “How could you be so stupid? You’re beating yourself up because I made an idiotic choice? Really, Fred!”

He stared at me, his eyes distant. “I just…I don’t know what we were thinking, George and I.”

“You were thinking that she wasn’t an insane woman who would torture you if you misbehaved. At least I knew what I was getting myself into.”

I hadn’t noticed my slip-up until Fred asked me what I meant. When I told him that I didn’t know what he was talking about, he stated “You said that you knew what you were getting yourself into. How could you have?”

“I promised I wouldn’t say anything…”

His forehead creased with slight frustration. “I’m your boyfriend, Ellie. You can tell me.” It was the first time that he’d used the official title, but I knew it wasn’t the time to get excited about it.

“Alice…had detention with Umbridge before. The same thing happened to her. But she made me promise I wouldn’t tell anyone. She just wanted to forget about it.”

“I’m glad you told me. And I have an idea. But first, I need to know, how much are you and your friends willing to risk?”