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Chapter Text

Ellie Barrett had been wanting to go to Hogwarts for her entire life. Granted, at the age of eleven that hadn’t exactly been that long, but to this young girl, it felt like forever. The morning that she was leaving for Hogwarts, she got up at the crack of dawn. She rushed into her parents’ room and practically jumped on their bed.

“Today’s the day!” She half-yelled. “Today’s the day!”

She didn’t wait for her parents to wake up, and rather just pressed a kiss to each other their cheeks and then jumped up once again. After she’d ‘woken up’ her parents, she dashed towards her sister’s room. “Lucy, Lucy, Lucy!” She chanted as she ran through the other side of the house. The excitement radiated off of her.

She banged on the door of her sister’s room, hoping that she was already awake. The groan coming from the other side of the room told her that yes, Lucy was awake and not happy. Whoops. She stopped banging and slunk away for a moment. She left her sister to wake up in relative peace and instead decided to go back to her own room.

As Ellie overlooked her bedroom, she wiggled briefly in excitement. In the middle of the room stood her own trunk: it was filled with her clothes, her school books and a bunch of books of her own, as well as a few stuffed animals. There were a few still left on the bed, who she’d still slept with. On her nightstand, there was a small note with things she still needed to pack, so she rushed over and grabbed it.

To take with me to HOGWARTS!

Cheerfulness

Fluffy

Hermes the owl

Food for Hermes!

Check your books again

Make sure to get changed before the train!

Watch!

Since most of her items had already been packed (she had started packing three weeks ago), most of the things on the note were either last-minute elements, or things she really shouldn’t be forgetting. She first grabbed Fluffy, her little rabbit stuffed animal, pressed a kiss to the top of its little head, and then carefully tucked it away in the corner of her trunk. She once again went over the books, and the list that she’d gotten ages ago, then crossed off everything she had. After putting on her watch, she got changed into her Hogwarts uniform already.

It was after that point that she heard some shuffling coming from the hallway, so she rushed towards it. “Tadaa!” She grinned brightly as she got a rather dynamic pose in her new uniform.

David, her father, stood there for a moment and blinked. He then forced a little smile. “You look … amazin’, darling.”

If she heard the pause, the moment where he was trying to think of the right word to say, then she didn’t care. She just rushed forwards, dashed down the stairs and then into the kitchen. She was used to making her own breakfast at this point, so she crawled onto a chair, grabbed her box of cereal and a bowl.

By the time that her father actually made it downstairs, she was happily munching on it.

“Have you gotten Luce out of bed yet?” She hummed with her mouth full, which earned her a disapproving smile.

“Mouth empty before we talk, darling.” David grumbled, but he didn’t seem to answer her question next.

But Ellie seemed undeterred and instead just sort of smiled at him. She was too excited to have her father grumbles get to her. She was going to Hogwarts today! She was going to get sorted!

The rest of the morning really passed in a blur to her, because she spent most of it running around, dragging her trunk to the front door, then grabbing her sister’s stuff. By the time it was time to make their way to London, Ellie had been ready for hours. In the car ride there, she could only chatter about Hogwarts, about the castle, about what house she would end up in. Most people in said car just ignored her, decided that she’d tire herself out eventually.

She didn’t, but she was too excited to really pay attention to the people around her. As soon as the car was parked, she rushed out and inside the building of King’s Cross. Ellie barely heard the grumbles from her father, who was now stuck dragging her trunk inside.

“What did she put in here?” David asked Lucy. “Rocks?”

Ellie vaguely heard the giggle from her sister, and at that point she turned around. “C’mon! We’re almost there!”

She could already see a few other people walking around with trunks similar to hers, and they all seemed to be walking in the same direction. She got her ticket out of her pocket and clutched it to her chest. Followed by Lucy and her father, she dashed through the wall between platform Nine and Ten, right to platform Nine and Three Quarters. The change in scenery was immediate. Not only was the train much older than the trains the muggles used, there was magic in the air. People were carrying owls, were dragging along large trunks (with or without magic), and were just in general being wizards and witches and warlocks and even sorcerers!

Another wiggle of excitement later, and Ellie grabbed her trunk from her father and dragged it towards the train. Lucy pressed a kiss to her dad’s cheek, wished him goodbye and then went to look for her friends.

Ellie came to a halt right in front of the door, then turned around to look at her dad. She seemed to realise that this was it: she wouldn’t see him for at least a few months, till Christmas. She dashed forward and wrapped her arms around him. “I’m gonna miss you, daddy,” she mumbled, though the noise was muffled by the fact that she spoke with her face hidden in his shoulder.

“No you won’t, Ells.” He said. “You will make new friends and will be too busy with friends to actually miss me.”

“I am going to miss you,” She protested, as she pulled back and stared at her father. “I will write you daily!”

“Okay, darling.” David said, rather amused at that promise. He knew she wouldn’t.

“I have to go now!” She pressed a soft kiss to his cheek, then dragged her trunk onto the train. She went to look for a carriage room that wasn’t filled with people yet (or at least not with people who seemed a lot older than her). She knew that she could probably sit with her sister if she really couldn’t find anyone, but that was her plan B.

She managed to find herself an empty space, and sat down right next to the window. She glanced outside, at the many other students who all seemed to be preparing for a new school year at Hogwarts.

Ellie was interrupted at that point by someone’s voice drifting into her carriage. “Sorry, but do you mind if we join?”

Ellie immediately turned around, a smile around her lips. In front of her stood two people who seemed to be the same age as her. One was a girl with auburn hair, and striking light eyes, the other a guy, slightly taller, with dark hair that stood up in spikes. Ellie grinned, her brown curls bouncing around her as she gestured at the rest of the carriage. “There’s plenty of space! I’m Ellie Barrett.”

“I’m Beth Roper,” the girl said.

“And I’m Mark Latimer,” the guy added.

“Are you also going to Hogwarts for the first time?” Ellie asked, her eyes shining brightly. She gestured at her uniform, which didn’t have any colour yet and indicated that she was a first year. She assumed that that was why the others had walked into the room with her.

“Yeah!” Beth agreed, as she sat down opposite her. It seemed like Ellie wasn’t the only one who had been nervous about making friends. “I wish I could’ve gone to school sooner, but you have to be eleven. Which sucks!”

Mark sat down besides Beth, and seemed to remain a bit quieter. “But we’re on the way now.”

Ellie and Beth nodded, then grinned towards each other. It seemed like they would become the best of friends.

They continued to chatter, and before the train left from the station, a few more people had joined them in the carriage. Nigel Carter seemed to be getting along with Mark rather well, while Joe Miller seemed rather distant from the gang. There was Tess Henchard, who only really had only really smiled and given her name, before sitting the furthest away from the window.

By the time that they arrived in Hogwarts, Ellie could already tell that she would get along with all of these people, whether they would end up in the same house or not. The little gaggle of people walked out of the carriage, and were met by two other students. Ellie stared up at their blue and red ties, both with hints of either silver or gold.

“First years? Gather here!” One of them called out.

Beth and Ellie exchanged a look of excitement. They were really here. They could barely even believe it. They followed the students, who guided them towards the lake where boats were waiting for them. Ellie got into one with Beth, Mark and Nige, while she watched Joe and Tess get into a boat with two others she didn’t know just yet.

As the boat sailed on its own, Beth and Ellie gasped at the same time, especially as the castle seemed to be appearing out of nowhere, it seemed. It was impressive, the way the school loomed over the lake. They sat there in stunned silence, letting the boat bring them to the castle.

By the time they got there, all the others had reached the Great Hall already, and Ellie could hear the chatting and grumbling from the other students coming from inside. She rushed to the front of the group, dragging Beth along with her, to just get in already. She was stopped, however, by a tall and stern-looking professor. She looked up at her, received a glare from her and shrunk away a bit. It was quiet for a moment, before the professor’s face broke out into what was supposed to be a smile.

“Welcome to Hogwarts! I’m professor McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor house. In a moment, you will go through these doors and you will be sorted in your houses. Your house will be like your family, and you will make sure to take care of them like they will take care of you.” Another smile, just a bit more tense. “There are four houses: Gryffindor, where the brave go, Ravenclaw, the house of the smart, Hufflepuff, for those who are loyal above all, and Slytherin, the house for the ambitious. Are you ready?”

Ellie was one of the few kids who called ‘yeah of course!’ the loudest. The rest of them seemed terribly quiet. She once again shrunk away, though this time for different reasons. She could feel the eyes of someone upon her, and as she turned around, she could see a pink-haired kid standing there. As they made eye contact, they raised a hand at each other in greeting. (She would have to pay attention to their name once it was called, then.)

The door behind the professor swung open, revealing the Great Hall. All students turned their attention towards the group of fifty or so kids, who suddenly seemed very aware of the fact that they were in the middle of it all. Even Ellie, who was way more eager to just get sorted and get it all going, tried to hide in the middle of the group.

McGonagall came to a halt in front of the table with all the teachers, then turned around towards the first years again. “I will now call your names from the list. You will come up here, put the hat on your head and then you’ll be sorted into your houses.”

“Is there a particular order to it all?” One of the other kids asked. His dark curls hung loosely around his face, while his startling blue eyes were turned towards the professor. “Alphabetic? Time of arrival?”

“The order that I pick, Mr Silverling,” the professor’s voice sounded cold, and Ellie sighed softly. That’d been the wrong question to ask.

McGonagall got a list out of one of her pockets, then started to read off of it. She started by naming a few kids that Ellie hadn’t had the pleasure of getting to know yet: Aedan Silverling, the kid who’d spoken up first, had been sorted into Ravenclaw, just as Elias Jackson, a boy with ginger curls. The next one on the list was Beth, and Ellie couldn’t help but cheer quietly from the side-lines. She was sorted into Gryffindor, just like Mark and Nige, who followed soon after. Joe was sorted into Ravenclaw, just like Jamie Williams, a rather timid-looking girl with pitch black hair. The pink-haired kid from before turned out to be Sable Harpis and they ended up in Gryffindor.

There were only a few people left and Ellie seemed to be getting more and more nervous about that little fact. But she watched on as Dahlia Foxglove was sorted into Slytherin and Marigold Ashe into Gryffindor. Once she was the last one standing, her name was finally called to the front.

“Ellie Barrett!”

Hesitantly, she took the last few steps. She glanced around and noticed that most of the people had turned towards each other and were chattering quietly. At least she wouldn’t have the entire room’s attention on her. She sat down on the little stool, then put the hat on top of her head.

Ah, miss Ellie Barrett. A sharp mind, plenty of bravery, and the need to prove yourself. But above all, a sense of loyalty. I think I will put you into—

“Hufflepuff!”

After her grey tie had suddenly transformed into a yellow and black one, she jumped up, took off the hat and rushed towards the table. She plopped down at the table right next to a scruffy looking guy. His hair stood up in many different directions and Ellie was pretty sure that there was something about his posture that suggested that he was in pain. But she wasn’t going to ruin a good first impression by worrying!

Instead, she held a hand out towards him and beamed in his direction. “Hi! I’m Ellie Barrett!”

The only reaction she got was a glare in her direction, before he scooted away and turned his back to her. A frown immediately settled between her brows, and she decided that whoever that was, she didn’t like him. She didn’t care enough to find out his name, but she couldn’t help but overhear some other kid calling him ‘Hardy’. Taking note, she swore to herself she’d never get along with this Hardy figure.

Never ever.

Chapter Text

Ellie got through her first year without much trouble: she was more than eager to learn magic, and she had a tendency to work hard to get where she needed to be. She had plenty of friends: Beth, Mark, Nige, Joe, even Tess, occasionally. The latter brought Hardy along to their outings from time to time, which immediately set Ellie on edge. She hadn’t forgotten their first meeting, and she really didn’t understand why Tess saw something in that guy.

After all, Ellie had learned over the course of her first year that Alec Hardy was an antisocial Hufflepuff. He didn’t seem to care about his fellow classmates, he didn’t seem to possess even a single ounce of the loyalty that Hufflepuff was known for. He usually found a corner of a room, and stared at everything around him with distrust and annoyance.

Ellie had decided that she shouldn’t take it personally. He was like that at any and all times, to anyone who would bother to try and talk to him. It was nothing to do with her, but everything with him.

She was grateful that he wasn’t in her year, and then forced him from her mind as the summer rolled around. Instead, she decided to focus on her friends: they promised to write to each other, at least once a week, and share the adventures that they’d have during the summer. Ellie’s parents would be taking her to France, to Britany right across the channel. They were going to have a beach holiday, and she couldn’t wait.

The first few days of that holiday were brilliant, were grand, but then a new family had arrived in their hotel. Her mother told her the boy was about the same age as she was, so she’d encouraged Ellie to go and say hi to him, at least. She happily skipped over towards the room the family shared in the hotel, knocked on the door, and was met by a massive man. His dark brown hair was starting to grey at the temples, and his beard had patches of the same colour here and there. But what mostly struck her were his eyes. They were cold, and yet they were the same brown as Hardy’s eyes.

“What d’ye want?” He asked.

“I wanted to meet your son?” She asked. She wasn’t the tallest of people around, but in front of this guy? She felt tiny.  “Please, sir?”

She tried to look past him, tried to catch a glimpse into the room, but he stood firmly in the way. But she spotted a glimpse of grown hair, sticking up in all directions, and those sad brown eyes that she’d come to associate with the youngest Hardy. Only this time, she only spotted one. The other one was swollen shut.

“Alec has tripped over his feet,” Mr Hardy said, as soon as he realised that she’d seen his eye. “He is a clumsy boy, aren’t ye, Alec?”

“Yes, sir,” Alec replied quietly.

Ellie never remembered Alec to have stumbled once during her time at Hogwarts, but smiled nonetheless. “I’ll … let him recover, then,” she muttered a little awkwardly. “Sorry for disturbin’ you, sir.”

Mr. Hardy nodded, then slammed the door shut in her face.

Ellie made her way back to her hotel room, and explained to her parents what had happened. She also mentioned that Alec had a black eye, and that she’d never seen him tumble at all. She noticed the looks that her parents exchanged, but didn’t exactly know what that meant. But she put it to the side, and decided that it didn’t matter all that much. In fact, she didn’t think about it all summer. She spent most of her summer in France, writing with her friends, spending time on the beach. It almost reminded her of Broadchurch.

The only moment she was reminded of what she’d said was in September, when she realised that Hardy hadn’t returned to Hogwarts. The first few weeks of the school year, rumours spiralled. People tried to come up with reasons why Hardy hadn’t come back, but they all came down to one thing: they were relieved that he was gone.

Ellie wasn’t sure what to think about the entire situation, but she too forgot everything about it soon enough. After all, her parents had never said a word about it at all, and she found himself not really caring about the fate of the slightly older Hufflepuff.

Once the newness of the entire situation wore off, the entire school seemed to forget about Hardy once again. Ellie found herself wondering occasionally whether she would ever figure out just where he’d gone, what had happened to him, but those thoughts grew more and more infrequent as the year went on.

Instead, she got to know Joe Miller, a Ravenclaw boy with soft eyes and brown curls. He was gentle, he was kind, and he was very, very funny. Ellie rather fancied him, but she didn’t know what that meant, exactly. She sometimes just wanted to hug him in a way that she didn’t want to hug Beth, for instance. Maybe they could hold hands sometimes. Or kiss each other’s cheek.

But she didn’t take the first step. She never took the first step. And Joe didn’t seem to want to do that either, so they just sort of stayed that way: awkward friends, but closer than she was with anyone but Beth.

Joe made the Ravenclaw quidditch team, just like Beth had made the Gryffindor one. Ellie, ever the loyal friend, went to cheer for both of them whenever there was a match, even if that meant she was cheering against her own house. (That was not something the other Hufflepuffs seemed to allow her to forget.)

Ellie had her friends, however, and soon found herself not caring. If every year would be like this, then her years at Hogwarts would be perfect, Ellie decided at the end of the year. She was looking forward to it all, to the entire third year that would come soon. That summer was spent at home, for some reason she didn’t quite understand. She didn’t mind too much, however, and took that opportunity to spend some time at Beth’s place, along with the rest of her friends. There were plenty of adventures to have over the summer.

However, everything came to an end at some point. Including the summer.

Ellie didn’t mind too much, though. Yes, she would have to go back to school, but she could also spend every weekend with her friends, every moment of free time with Joe, who she seemed to be getting closer and closer to. However, that year added a source of frustration for Ellie.

Alec Hardy had returned, and they shared a desk in Divination.

This meant that during that one class, the one where she would have to bare her heart, was spent with him. That closed off asshole who refused to talk to her about anything. During one of the classes a little bit before Christmas, they had to read their tealeaves. After some grumbling from him about the choice of beverage (who doesn’t like t       ea? she found herself wondering.) she reached out to grab his cup.

With the help of her book, she identified a few symbols. “I see a flag, which means danger of wounds by an enemy,” she glanced up at him, to see his reaction. If he knew what that was about, then she certainly couldn’t see it. “Uh, and-and a broken chain? That means that you’re going to have trouble with your marriage which is—uh. A bit early to tell, I think.” She chuckled, and once again looked up.

Hardy seemed cold and didn’t react at all to what she was saying, besides a grumbled ‘you done?’ when she didn’t immediately pointed something out.

As she nodded, he reached out and grabbed her cup. “There’s a dog at the top o’ the cup, that means a lotta loyal friends. An’ a hare, here, which talks ‘bout either the sign of a long journey, or the return of an absent friend. Ye’re single, yeh?” He briefly glanced at her, before she nodded as quickly as she could. “Ye’ll have a speedy an’ fortunate marriage. Congrats.”

“Uh. Thank you?” This was such a weird conversation that Ellie didn’t know what to do with it.

“’s mostly bullshit anyway, but make of it what ye want, Barrett,” he shrugged.

“B—Oh. Could we please not do the last name thing? I prefer Ellie.” Her last name always reminded her of her father, and she liked to think she was much kinder than he was.

“Ellie,” the name sounded so weird, yet somehow also so right when it rolled off his tongue. “Ellie. Nah.”

That earned him a bit of a huff, and Ellie refused to talk to him for the rest of the class. She grabbed her bag the moment that class was over, and stormed out before he could say anything else to her. She was pissed at him, and wasn’t going to talk to him anytime soon. Was it so difficult to just respect her wishes and call her ‘Ellie’? They weren’t at work, or anything.

When she told that story to Beth at the end of the day, after she’d snuck into the Gryffindor common room, Beth just laughed. So in revenge, Ellie had asked her about Mark and how her determination to ask him out had gone. Immediately, she stopped laughing and just shoved Ellie to the side.

(She tried not to be too smug when Beth thanked her a few days later, and told her that she and Mark were a couple now. She just hugged her instead.)

After that ‘Barrett’ incident, Hardy rarely seemed to talk to her again. If he had to read the lines of her hand, or her tea-leaves, he communicated in grunts and grumbles. He didn’t bother to say anything personal too her, and she really didn’t seem to show any interest. At all. The year passed on like that: Ellie seemed to be in a permanently annoyed state at him, and there was nothing that was going to change that, it seemed.

At the end of the year, Ellie hoped that he would disappear again, that she wouldn’t have to deal with him for another year. She went into the summer with hope, which was promptly shut down at the beginning of the next year, when she spotted him at Platform 9 ¾ . (How she spotted him from that far off, just based on the way that his hair stood up, she would never know. But it seemed like she’d become an expert at spotting him in a crowd.)

She also immediately spotted Tess right next to him, holding his hand and standing just a bit too close. If she felt anything about that, then she certainly didn’t care. After all, she didn’t like him. So why was her stomach twisting with nerves and … discomfort?

She never seemed to figure that out, never seemed to have to, because while Tess and Hardy seemed very happy together, and could be found kissing left and right, every few minutes it seemed, their fall-out was just as violent as they’d been happy.

Ellie told herself that she didn’t care, but the entire year was talking about it, about how Tess had been found with another boy named Dave, and how Alec had not been happy about it. She just couldn’t miss that little fact about the fellow Hufflepuff. She just couldn’t.

But that too passed, and eventually it seemed like Hardy had once again settled into that grumpy demeanour of his. She’d managed to get away from him in divination, but was stuck with him for Transfiguration. She didn’t seem to be too lucky, huh?

But her fourth year wasn’t completely just Hardy annoying her, no, not at all. After a lot of bugging from both Beth and Mark (who really just wanted a couple to double-date with) she finally asked out Joe. Unlike Hardy and Tess, the two of them were rather happy. Unlike Hardy and Tess, they weren’t going to break up anytime soon. She was sure that they belonged together. They were going to stick together for the rest of the year, at least.

And they did. They made it through the year, spent most of the summer writing each other every single day. Their owls must have gotten terribly tired and in need of a rest. (She almost pitied the bird.) Every special moment, she wrote to him, and he did the same. So when she got her Hogwarts letter and it included a prefects badge, she couldn’t quite believe her luck.

She spent the rest of the summer imagining who else would be prefects, which one of the other Hufflepuffs would join her. She realised that most of her friends belonged to other houses, that she didn’t know anyone that well, at least not besides Hardy. (She really hoped that she wouldn’t have Hardy as her partner. Really, she did.)

But she wasn’t that lucky. She got into the prefect’s carriage where the others had already arrived, and found Hardy curled up around himself in the furthest corner of the carriage. She sighed. She sat own next to him, nudged him, and watched as his eyes widened in surprise, before the expression on his face settled on annoyance. That made two of them, then. Brilliant. Luckily, Beth and Mark seemed to be prefects as well, just like Tess. At least she would know a couple of them still.

Throughout the rest of the year, Ellie tried her best to avoid Hardy. She did her best to mostly work with her friends, her actual friends, not with the grumpiest Hufflepuff to ever live. But sometimes, it could not be avoided. On those days, at the end of those days, she would meet up with Joe and complain to him about how rude he’d been, or how heartless, or however horrible.

Joe would hold her, maybe kiss her occasionally, but mostly he would listen to whatever she was saying. She quite liked that, how they had already become each other’s rock, without even realising that they were doing that. Even the slightest problem, and they were already calling out to each other, reaching out, because they needed the other.

It worked for a while. In fact, it worked very well. Almost too well.

So when Joe came to the Hufflepuff common room one evening, a particularly sad look on his face, she didn’t know what to think. He walked over to her, gently cupped her cheeks. “I’ve got to go,” he whispered. “I don’t know what I did wrong, but they’re accusing me of things and I can either … I either go to a different school, or they make it all public.”

“Joe?” Ellie didn’t seem to understand just what he was talking about, so she ended up just staring at him.

“I gotta go, Els.” He pressed one last kiss to her lips, then got up and left her all alone, still very confused about what the hell was going on. She only knew one thing: it hurt. Whatever was going on, her heart was aching. She pushed everyone away, and most of them listened. Most of them decided to give her some time to come to terms with this. Most of them, except for Alec Hardy.

He stuck around, when everyone else had gone. He stood by her side, not saying anything but trying so hard to be comforting. He was there for her when nobody else was stubborn enough to stick around. And just maybe she could see why Alec Hardy was a Hufflepuff.

Tolerating him became easier after that. They still didn’t get along, they probably never would, but at least she didn’t want to rip his throat out anymore. That was progress, right? Especially since they would have to work together for the foreseeable future. Unless either of them were particularly unlucky, they would probably remain prefects during their sixth year as well as head boy and girl in their seventh year. That meant it’d be better if they could at least get on well enough.

By the end of the year they’d fallen into a certain routine. Something that proved some comfort, really, when she occasionally felt like screaming at how stupid everything at Hogwarts could be. She even ended up inviting him to the study group for their OWLs. And while Hardy didn’t seem to be doing too great with the group, at least he tried. For some reason, that helped Ellie soften up towards him a bit.

She didn’t know why he stuck around, why he still tried to socialise with the other prefects even after their OWLs, but she wasn’t planning on chasing him off. Neither were any of her other friends. They might not like him all that much, but Ellie did, somehow, and that should be enough for them.

It wasn’t that much of a surprise, then, that she got her Hufflepuff ‘head girl’ badge during the summer between her sixth and seventh year, along with a letter from Hardy. He’d be joining her in that function. Halfway through August, they got a note to arrive a few days early to prepare for the semester. She took a deep breath, before sending back an owl she’d be there.

--~--

He’d curled up around himself the moment that the first spell had hit. He knew better than to fight back, he knew better than to cry out. He’d heard stories from the others, and knew that if he reacted to anything that was happening, they’d only make it twice as bad.

He’d squeezed his eyes shut, mostly because he didn’t know what else to do, and because he didn’t want to upset anyone.

“Open your bloody eyes!” A voice yelled, and his eyes flew open, though they immediately filled with tears. He was so scared. He was so terrified. He just hoped someone would come to help.