A memory was racing around in Ella's head. The day before, they'd had duelling club. Ella was prepared for what was bound to happen but it didn't. Ella was furious. She kept racking her brains but she couldn't find any logical explanation.
Why hadn't Harry spoken to the snake?
Was he maybe not a parcelmouth?
And why, how on earth had James been able to speak to it?
She was confused mostly but if she was completely honest with herself, she was a little jealous. She'd half-hoped, when she entered this life, that she'd finally have interesting things happen to her instead of just things that hurt. At least it was her friend it had happened to if it couldn't be her. She wondered down to breakfast accompanied by only her thoughts. When she entered the Great hall, she saw all her friends huddled together, not the characters, just the group.
"Hey guys!" she said. "What are you up to?"
Then she saw a look of horror etched upon Evan's face.
"What's wrong?" she asked, worried.
"We aren't the only ones from Crosselotte anymore," Rhianna explained. Ella's heart dropped like a stone. She had a feeling she knew exactly who they were on about. Who else could cause such annoyance with her friends. The group didn't often hold grudges.
"Who?" Ella asked, already knowing but wanting to check nonetheless. She had to admit she felt slightly sick with the anticipation.
"I think you know," Rhianna said slowly.
All eight of them made eye contact, "Alexis, Seth and Hecate."
Evan smiled a wry smile. Ella had gone through a lot of emotional pain at the hand of these children.

Seth used to be Ella's best friend. Then they neared the end of year 6 where Seth made friends with the popular kids. This friendship came with a cost; for Seth to get in with the popular kids she had to ditch the nerd Ella. Seth didn't think twice about leaving Ella, he didn't look back once. This left Ella almost depressed, if it wasn't for the lucky timing of making friends with the group, who knows how she'd have coped.

"Brilliant," Ella said in a dull tone. "Just what I wanted, my time at Hogwarts to be ruined by these people."
"They won't ruin it," James said. "Although, I heard Seth is making up a rumour that I'm the heir of Slytherin."
Ella laughed humorlessly, but in reality she felt hollow, "I guess they're Slytherins?"
"Bingo," Jocelyn said. Ella sighed. She remembered the years when Seth and her used to play Harry Potter, pretending they were Hufflepuffs. She felt her eyes glazing over which didn't go unnoticed by her friends.
"Anyway, why's no one walking by us?" Ella asked, sounding rather confused. She wasn't really confused, she just wanted to change the subject.
"Really Ella?" Rhianna sighed in exasperation. "We're sat with James. The suspected heir of Slytherin. Remember Harry?"
"Yeah, I remember," Ella said.
"The idiots avoided him and he was a loner!!!" Lucas sang. He didn't quite say idiots but that's a politer way of putting it. The golden trio arrived on cue.
"We were wondering, do you know who those new kids are?" Harry asked. Ella stood up quick as a flash muttering something about a library and darted out of the hall.
"Uh, yeah," Eloise said, feeling slightly uncomfortable. She was debating whether to run after her friend or to just leave her be. "I'm off."
Eloise left the hall and headed to the library.
"What was that about?" Hermione asked.
"They're from our world," Evan explained. "Ella and Seth (the boy) have a bit of beef."
"Beef?" asked Ron, stupidly.
"Muggle word," Hermione explained briskly. "The don't get along."
"You believe us right?" James asked suddenly. The trio looked at him very confused. "That I'm not the heir, I mean."
"Lavender kept going on about that last night. I told her to mind her business and then put her in a full body-bind," Hermione said casually.
"So you do believe us!" Lucas screamed happily. He jumped across the table.
"Mr...?" Snape came over and asked.
"Lucas," Lucas said.
"Mr Lucas, if you would be so kind as to not jump over tables, I would appreciate it," Snape said, he'd clearly expected Lucas to give his surname, proving to the friends that he didn't know anything about Lucas at all. Lucas must have known he should have answered with Jones but he wasn't the type of boy to keep things easy. He turned on his heel and stalked off. All of the friends and the trio, snorted with laughter.
"Mr Lucas, don't jump over tables, I hate Gryffindors," Lucas mocked. The rest of them snorted again.
"You ought to be careful," Hermione said although even she was smirking slightly.