Ellie will maybe pick her topic when the headache goes away.

It recedes pretty quickly after they leave the classroom, at least.

"Are you okay?" Anathema asks, before it finishes fading.

"Yeah, it's just- that incense gives me a headache."

"Huh." She frowns, a bit. "It distracts me lots, but I don't like any scents, really, and Lisa said she finds it homey... Maybe Madam Pomfrey has stuff for headaches or smell problems, though, that sounds like something you can fix with a potion."

"Yeah. I'll ask after breakfast tomorrow, I guess."

She nods, scrunching up her forehead a bit. "Yeah, we don't have a morning class, so that's probably a good time..."

"What do you think you're going to write about?"

She glances at their list. "Hm... This week, the question about human sacrifice looks fun... Dunno yet for the big paper. I'll have to skim through the book."

"I might do the one about wards."

She nods.

"...Do you mind helping me a bit? I've never written an essay before, and all those tests and practice writings in Composition last week were hard..."

(Which seems to be common among the pure bloods - the tests were boringly easy for Ellie and apparently for the other muggle-raised students in her House, but two of the Slytherins apparently can't read at all, and most of the rest were struggling.)

"Of course."

"Thanks," she says, grinning.

"What else are school friends for?"

Giggle. "I'll have to figure out a way to help you back, though. Can't have you doing all the work."

"You can help me with Charms, once we get to stuff I haven't seen already. You pick that up quicker than I do."

"Sounds like a deal."

She offers a hand. "Shake on it."

She takes Ellie's hand and shakes it, grinning.

"The bargain is struck. So let it be."

She giggles.

Hee.

"We don't have Art until four, and it's nice out... Wanna go get a picnic lunch?"

"Good idea."

And off, to charm food out of house elves!

The rest of the week goes pretty well - it rains a few days, keeping them from exploring the grounds properly, but the dragon room is really cozy in the rain apparently. Defense sees them learning a 'tag' spell that turns their opponent a random color, a general purpose counter-spell for mild but lasting effects (Finite Incantatum), with the practical section splitting them into two teams with the goal of tagging everyone on the opposing team (the room's somehow acquired some playsets they can hide behind and inside of, tagged people have to lie down and can't cast spells, but their teammates can un-tag them if they can dismiss the color change).

The formal complaint against Snape gets sent off on Thursday, after everyone's checked it over and signed.

Friday morning, Potions is being taught by the Potions Assistant, a harried-looking woman of maybe twenty. She's a lot more pleasant than Snape, though, for all she has the air of somebody whose workload just unexpectedly tripled, and she's very helpful with explaining Potions safety and running them through making a simple potion that'll change the color of anything that touches it for seventy two hours, with an explanation of optional ingredients to alter the color and a short explanation of what each ingredient is doing and why the steps are the way they are. ("He'd wanted you guys making a boil cure, but I haven't the faintest why, since that's dangerous if you mess up... Most of the mistakes you can make with this will, like, give items polka dots or make them sticky.") She checks their potions for toxicity after, asks anyone who messed up to explain why they messed up, lets them keep samples of their potions, and gives everyone top marks for the day. ("Like, you guys know the material now. Even if you made a mistake, well, that's how we learn.") (Anathema promptly starts dipping her hair in her bloody red potion then sprinkling drops above the dip-line, giggling.) Their homework assignment is "I really hate this textbook, maybe you guys could go ask Madam Pince to make you copies of the mechanics theory and basic ingredient qualities chapters in Potions for Dummies? And answer the practice questions in those. I know the name's not, like, flattering, but the library's got I think three copies, and it's really good."

Friday early afternoon is Flying, with the Slytherins, who've been increasingly grouchy over the course of the week - though most of that energy's gone into internal fractures so far.

Slytherins can keep their grouch to themselves. Flying class was fun last week and Ellie is going to have fun this week.