A headstart counts for something after all. Time to end this little game.

She approaches the cup to take it.

Nothing jumps out at her. 

The cup is cold under her hand - and then there's a yank behind her belly button, the world spinning around her -

Her feet are suddenly on uneven ground, the hedge maze replaced by a rocky field at the base of a hill, heavy with mist.

A portkey-?

She shakes off the disorientation and looks around, wand up.

"Hello, Ellie," a smooth voice says from behind her. Light - amused. There's a soft sound like scales on stone.

She whips around, a hex on her lips-

Her body freezes before she can finish.

She growls.

"So unhappy to see me? And here I spent so much effort setting up our little reunion."

"Why."

He shrugs. "Your mother's protection is quite obnoxious, you know." Smirk. "So... Here I was thinking, why not kill three birds with one stone?"

"I'll kill you."

"Then why aren't you?"

She snarls-

And leaps, all teeth and claws.

He laughs and twists to the side, casting a spell at her chest with the goal of knocking her back.

She is knocked flying, limbs tangled.

She shifts back and spits curses.

"Clever girl. But unfortunately winning requires more than cleverness."

She tries to hex him again.

He bats it aside. "If that's the best you can do... I think I'm bored."

He turns a bit, and, dismissively, "Bella, if you would..."

A footfall, quiet - 

And ropes lance up, trying to entangle Ellie's limbs.

Bellatrix?

The ropes bind Ellie tightly, dragging her down to her knees.

It does seem to be Bellatrix - she steps into Ellie's line of sight, walking toward her. But - something's wrong. Her pace is weird, the paranoid and anxious posture she'd held the entire time Ellie new her gone in favor of an odd languidness. Her expression is blank, gaze distant, eyes - focused, but she doesn't seem to actually see Ellie.

She's keeping her wand - the same crooked branch wand she'd had last year - trained on Ellie. She flicks it, and Ellie rises into the air.

"Bellatrix? What are- Why are you helping him?"

She looks at Ellie, brow furrowed, as she slowly floats her over to - what seems to be a large flat circle on the ground, actually.

"What a strange thing to ask," she says.