Ella Ainsworth

*"Wild though it may be, a fire's a lot of other things also. It dispels the darkness, creates shadows - " she smiled here as though she knew of an inside joke " - burns anyone who dares to touch it. That would be a fair description of me as well. Lacarnum Inflamarae!"*

***- Ella’s words to her fellow fourth year and cousin, Darina Orlova, during a friendly duel.***

## **Appearance**

Extraordinarily beautiful even at the age of 11, Ella has sharp facial features and bright green eyes. Long, caramel, wavy tresses flow down the length of her back. She's very small, and currently stands at only 4'6".

## **Personality**

There are several aspects that make up a person: they're morals, their principles and their experiences. Now, imagine someone born with cold objectivity, and whose world view is entirely defined by experiences and you get Ella.

The teen is an extrovert, a social butterfly flitting about and building a large network of people she calls “friends”, with the help of her sweet, child-like demeanor and a judgement that rarely ever fails her. She has no loyalty to anyone, however, save a few. As someone who prefers to live from one moment to the next, with no regard for consequence and lacking self-preservation, she also likes to experiment with people, more often than not, by provoking them; this *is* less out of curiosity and more for her personal amusement. Ella is not someone who can be described as easily emotional or attached. Material and people mean little to her and life has little value when it ultimately ends in death -  a greatly cynical view for someone who otherwise describes herself as an optimist.

As a whimsical person with no care for consequences, no long term goal to achieve and with a great deal of creativity and intelligence, Ella is one of those rare few people whose plans get riskier by the minute but also, almost always, can pull it off successfully; though, when the plans fail, they backfire spectacularly and are often a result of her over-confidence.

## **Background**

Ella is the youngest child born to Murray, a muggle farmer, and Orla, a witch from an affluent pureblood family. Murray and Orla eloped, against the wishes of the former's family, only 6 months after they met. Soon after, they became parents to twins, Ian and Camilla. However, not long after the initial rush of infatuation faded, and Murray and Orla were stuck in a loveless marriage for the next 16 years, until their third child Ella was born. Shortly before Ella's first birthday, Murray ran away with an old muggle friend.

Orla was indifferent to her children, only remaining with them for the sake of maintaining a pretense for the society; this was at the behest of her pureblood family, who had more than enough money to keep Orla in check as well as to make sure the three children had everything they needed. As a result, Ella mostly grew up under the guidance of her brother, Ian - the one person she cared about, apart from herself. Her fondest childhood memories include Ian teaching her Quidditch, caring for animals and plants, and making and fixing things.

## **Time at Hogwarts**

### ***First Year***

For the first ten years of her life, Ella's social interactions were limited mostly to her family - most of whom neglected her - and the pureblood elite, who looked down upon her for her parentage. As such her world view was significantly guided by these limited interactions and her behaviour limited to the strict guidelines set by a brother who sacrificed a large part of his life to raise her to the best of his ability. Therefore, for the first two years of Hogwarts, Ella - whose only loyalty was to her brother at the time - remained mostly faithful to Ian Ainsworth's expectations of her conduct.

She began to spend time socialising with her peers but eventually grew fond of only one person and who Ella considers as her first friend: Ilene Green, a fellow Hufflepuff and a year above Ella's. Ella was largely taken in by Ilene's simple act of kindness of wishing the former on her birthday. It was, perhaps, the first time in her life that Ella experienced someone who, other than her brother, showed her genuine goodness  and who wanted nothing from her. It went greatly against Ella's perspective where every human being was inherently selfish. Ella soon became very fond of Ilene and any harm done against her friend would earn the wrath of the tiny, innocent looking adolescent.

The restraints Ella maintained over the first two years, however, were placed mainly on the exploits that actively harmed anyone. That did not include asking the then fourth year Alberto Bonventre (now Octavia Bonventre) to take her into the forbidden forest where for the first time her fear of darkness and shadows was portrayed onscreen for the first time. Her odd behaviour was noted by the older Gryffindor student but he would not know the reason behind it for another two years.

Ella also watched from the sidelines as the Fire Beasts raged throughout Hogwarts and as her peers and teachers battled them and got injured. Though she never said it aloud, it was a great source of consternation to Ella that she never got the chance to battle the flaming beasts herself. The first time she saw them with her own eyes, she was led to safety by then head boy Ricky Brown while Shane Mason battled the beasts all by herself. This incident would also be the first time that Ella displayed both a lack of self-preservation and a lack of compassion as she tried to get out of safety to fight the beasts while also laughing out loud at Alex Brown who had attempted to punch the beast with her bare fist. The incident would also be a lesson for Ella was not unaware that her laughter at Alex Brown’s action had not gone unnoticed and that those who had seen it were disgusted. Limited though she was in her knowledge of how the rest of the world lived, she was a quick learner and great at adapting to her environment - this would be a faux pas she would never repeat.

Her first year thereafter went by rather uneventfully while she got acquainted with some of her classmates Blair Thorn, Hazel Marsh and Karim Sitdikov.

### ***Second Year***

The same, mostly uneventful life continued through most of her second year as well. Ella's time was mostly centered around her developing a much stronger bond with Alberto Bonventre, who would soon become a mentor figure to her, while also spending more time with Blair Thorn. This would also be the year she sees Richard Hart (a Gryffindor who was a year older) jump into the lake while on fire after drinking a flame proof potion and following him was Ilene - though she was not on fire. Highly impressed by this feat, Ella became acquainted with him and gave him the name Flame Boy while thinking of Ilene as the chaos child.

It was half way through this year that Octavia Bonventre (who had transitioned from Al Bonventre) was poisoned in the middle of the great hall. Ella, who by this point, had started to slowly develop a sense of loyalty to her mentor, watched as Octavia was taken to the Hospital Wing and given the antidote that was expertly brewed by the potions professor Pyrrhos Icchor right in front of her. This incident planted the first seeds of curiosity of what magic could do and the power it granted over being able to have someone's life entirely in the hands of a single person (in this case the potions professor) or the fact that someone's life could be so easily influenced by the acts of others fascinated Ella.  The Hufflepuff decided on the spot that she would grow up to be a healer, thus beginning the series of experiments she would carry from then on.

As the year came to a close, the Hufflepuff continued to maintain her acquaintanceship with Blair Thorn. The pair went on to learn the insect conjuration spell and use it on an NPC student to see what kind of damage the spell would do and the kind of reaction it would bring out.

Ella also became familiar with her mentee, Tadhg Callahan who shared her interest in potions and in conducting experiments.

### ***Third Year***

The previous seeds of curiosity taking root, the possibility of living a life without boundaries and a guarantee of protection from consequences would wrought a large change in Ella's actions. The temptation of it all was enough to override the limitations she placed on herself previously for the sake of her brother. Besides, why would breaking the rules matter if he never found out?

The summer before the school year, Ella visited Blair Thorn at St. Mungo's where the latter was residing in the psychiatric ward. Gauging Blair's unhappiness at having their problems dismissed then and even later on, after school was well in session, Ella eventually offered to see if she could brew a potion or find some sort of remedy. The offer would come from neither a good place nor a bad one - Ella had set her mind on becoming a Healer and here was her chance to be one and understand what she must do to help her patient. Overtime, after a lot of research and from her own high level knowledge about creatures, Ella accurately guessed that Blair was in fact a vampire or at least had vampire heritage. Rather than tell Blair about her theory, she decided to test it by giving her slytherin year mate a blood lollipop to see how they would react to it.

When the Hufflepuff realised that she was right, she still did not tell Blair what she suspected for two reasons:

1. She was still unsure about the voices Blair often heard. She did not know enough about vampires to know if that was possible for them or not. She wanted to understand the phenomenon. Eventually, she would grow to believe that this was some kind of mind magic. Which would lead to the second reason.
2. She wanted to experiment more on Blair. She wanted to know what kind of magic had taken root in Blair? Was it some sort of spirit? A potion? A curse? Even if she couldn't get to the bottom of it, she wanted to see how this magic reacted to whatever else she might try. She soon began to lie to Blair and give them certain mind related potions such as confusion concoction, forgetfulness and other low level potions she was confident she could brew.

Eventually, though, she would be forced to give up largely due to a number of other events that played out.

After missing the previous year's quidditch tryout after earning herself a detention, Ella was determined to make it on to the Hufflepuff team that year. During a very eventful tryout, where for the first time, Ella has her skills challenged (though she does make it onto the team as a seeker), she hears the word f\*\*ker for the first time. She began to question Octavia (who had the misfortune of introducing the word to her), which in turn led to the lower years who were close by to ask what the word meant. The end result was a chaotic scene leaving the older students in a very unfortunate position.

Playing quidditch at Hogwarts seemed to have brought out a drive in and discipline in Ella like nothing else had. Perhaps, for the first time, she considered certain things like playing with a team and following sportsmen spirit rather than being a loose bludger.

Hufflepuff's first match against Gryffindor saw the badgers marching to victory by a wide margin, the game ending with Ella catching the snitch; while the second match, which was also the finals, played against the Ravenclaw would see Hufflepuff failing after the lost of one player after the other due to injury. Still, through it all, Ella was focused and any attempts made by the Ravenclaw chaser, Easton Reinhardt to distract her failed. Or at least, all but one failed: when Reinhardt did manage to distract Ella it was by accidentally crashing into Ilene Green (captain and beater) which resulted in the latter falling to the ground. An enraged Ella, seeing her friend lying on the ground motionless, picked up her captain's bat and chased after Reinhardt for the remaining duration of the match while the referee called foul. As a result of this distraction, the Ravenclaws caught the snitch and won the tournament.

Post the match, Ilene addressed the team about not losing sight of the match even if she was injured. At no point she called Ella out on it directly, making the latter appreciate Ilene even more.

With passing time, Ella started to trust Octavia in a way that she hadn't before. Here was someone who understood her, thought like her and promised to support and protect her when Ella decided to push past boundaries. Here was someone who encouraged her instead of restraining her. The temptation of being able to do whatever she wanted was too strong, especially combined with her growing curiosity about the strings that seemed to pull most humans.

With her mentor's support, Ella began to wholeheartedly pour her energy into potions to set up her own "business" at Hogwarts where she could sell them with the intention to expand her products over time. She also began to distance herself from humanity, preferring nature and wildlife - a much less complex, less insipid structure and a truer reflection of the universe. What was the value in the face of human life in the face of that?

As a result, Octavia became Ella's first true confidant and the only person other than her siblings to know that the only thing Ella truly feared was the dark and shadows - both were entities that Ella, ironically, felt like she couldn't control. The darkness at least could be dispelled by light, but what about shadows? On Octavia's suggestion and under her initial tutelage, Ella began to look into and learn the art of Shadow weaving. The idea of being able to have control over her fear and a perception that saw Shadowweaving being something that was similar to manipulation of a human mind and perhaps could be used for manipulating the human mind greatly appealed to her.

The now third year Hufflepuff's friendship with and admiration for her mentor came to an abrupt end in the latter half of the school year in a way that Ella never anticipated.

In the most human thing that ever happened to her, Ella grew infatuated with Octavia - a feeling that was never reciprocated.

Octavia, at the time, was in a polyamorous relationship with Nick Galanis and Niilo Athanasiou. This was a fact that Ella knew but barely registered for she was not entirely aware of her own feelings.

Ella grew concerned over Niilo's loyalty to Octavia, however. As someone who was well connected with the school's gossip vine she had heard rumours about Niilo's wandering eye and it was something that she herself saw later on. That concern, along with her own jealousy (though she did not recognise it as such until much later on) made Ella take a deep dislike to Octavia's boyfriend and she attempted to destroy the relationship by letting Octavia know that Niilo was not faithful to her. Though initially upset, Octavia would eventually forgive Niilo much to Ella's bafflement. She had warned her mentor that Niilo wasn't to be trusted and that Octavia deserved someone far better. It was the first time she would question Octavia's judgement and, perhaps, note the tinge of humanity.

Despite Octavia's dismissal of her concerns, Ella still continued to remain close to her mentor.

Their relationship would take a drastic turn in a few weeks time, however, when Ella pulled off a large prank that involved a large part of the student population and even a teacher consuming the infatuation potion.

Ella brewed the potions in large batches with only the help of her mentee, Tadhg Callahan and added them to a cake that was to be left at the Bullet-in board for the consumption of the school. A key part of this process, however, required the wands of the person to be imprinted on. Ella stood at the door of each batch, told the person passing by that her wand had been broken in an accident and if they could please lend their wand for a potion for a moment. One of the wands she received as a result of this was Alex Brown's wand. Alex Brown, a close friend of Octavia, had only recently caught Niilo Athanasiou cheating with Taigo Lios, a sixth year and a classmate to Niilo and Octavia.

While conversing with Ella, Alex accidentally let slip what Niilo had done. Once again, Octavia had forgiven him. A furious Ella hatched a plan where she would feed Niilo the Herbicide potion and immediately give him the herbicide potion. The question was when and how. A perfect opportunity presented itself to her when her prank on the school came into effect and the 6th and 7th year students got into a mass brawl in the middle of the courtyard. Each student had accidentally imprinted on their friend's partner. Ruslan Volkov and Nick Galanis, who were not affected by the potion were the first to realise what happened. Nick immediately brewed the anti-dote for Octavia and took her away to help her recover. In the meantime, Jay Le Lacheur, the Head Boy had been attacked by Ella who had set a swarm of conjured bees on him for previously attacking Octavia. Jay went into an anaphylactic shock as a result while Alex Brown transfigured Taigo Lios into a duck. Niilo, who had quite ironically imprinted on Taigo, held the ducklifors'd sixth year. Seeing her opportunity, Ella attempted to send Niilo a message to meet her at an abandoned classroom via Natty Corbell. However, the panicking second year slytherin began yelling the message across the courtyard instead of doing it in secret as instructed.

Exasperated, Ella walked up to Niilo herself and convinced him to come with her. She pretended that she had a potion that would help Niilo come across as charming to Taigo. Believing her, Niilo followed Ella to the abandoned classroom where she had hid her potions. She gave the herbicide potion and the forgetfulness potion to the sixth year, who immediately took both and then fell to the floor as the effects of the poison took hold.

Pleased with a job well done, Ella ducked taped the bill of duck Taigo and threatened to set Octavia's werewolf offspring, Tundra, on him and told him to keep his mouth shut. Aware that people might have seen her lure Niilo away from the courtyard, Ella, to ensure that she would not be implicated, ran out of the room screaming that she had found Niilo poisoned. Much to her irritation, the first person to reach the scene was Octavia who was immediately told by her horribly weakened boyfriend that it was Ella who poisoned him. Octavia, shocked and betrayed, demanded an explanation and Ella told her the truth: she had done it as payback for Niilo cheating on Octavia. She had warned Octavia but had been dismissed and so had taken matters into her own hands.

Then, in a move that Ella did not expect, Octavia turned her in to professor Valeran Levi who, by the time, had looked into the infatuation potion that was sweeping across the castle and had already identified Ella as the culprit. What made Ella feel betrayed the most was not that Octavia had turned her in her anger but rather had chosen to do so to "protect" her image. This, to Ella, seemed to go against Octavia's original promise to protect her from getting into trouble. To the third year, this felt entirely selfish, unnecessary and seemingly in line with Octavia's recent string of bad judgements. With that, Ella lost her faith in the person she had previously considered a mentor though she continued to care for her. The two would not face one another for at least another year.

For the chaos that she had unleashed in the castle, Professor Levi banned Ella from brewing potions outside of class for two weeks, gave her first strike and had her scrub cauldrons for detention. Ella had hidden her mentee's involvement to avoid making Octavia's mistake and retain his loyalty for future endeavors. She was also made to write apology letters to every single person who had been affected by her actions.

Post the incident, Ella began to mostly work solo. She held off conducting experiments on Blair Thorn, continued to learn Shadowweaving on her own and had begun putting full effort into her schoolwork. Ian Ainsworth had been lenient with Ella with regards to her academics for the most part of the three years, preferring that she settle at Hogwarts, away from the toxic environment of their home. As such, he rarely pursued the fact that Ella simply put enough effort (which was not all that much) to just pass in her school work. When he found out about the infatuation potion and the poisoning of Niilo Athanasiou, Ian threatened to forbade Ella from playing quidditch - the one thing she truly most about her time at Hogwarts - if she didn't give her best at school, behave herself and stay away from Octavia Bonventre. As a result, within weeks, Ella went from one of the less than average students to one of the top students of her class.

Ella also had become aware that the forgetfulness potion she used was not very strong and as such she began to look into other advanced mind magic potions and spells that guaranteed success. A few weeks later, just before the end of the term feast, Ella found out that Octavia broke up with Niilo Athanasiou and that she was leaving Hogwarts. She wrote to her former mentor stating that she was glad to hear that Niilo would no longer be a part of her life and wished her well. Surprising her, Ella would also receive a letter for Niilo who apologised to her for the way he treated Octavia and acknowledged that he would’ve done what Ella did had he been in her place. Ella threw the letter into the fireplace and walked away to attend the feast. She reached home for summer holidays where she was grounded for two months.

### ***Fourth Year(Current)***

Being confined to her home for two months with limited contact with the outside world gave Ella plenty of time to reflect on her previous years, and not just in terms of her social experiments but also in terms of magic and what she would like to do from here on.

The Hufflepuff was relieved to come back to Hogwarts, for the freedom she would get back as well as escaping the tension between Ella and her brother. She spent the school years mostly quiet, keeping up with quidditch practice, school work and self-study while continuing her contemplation that she began in the summer. This time, she included her relationship with her brother, for as much as she loved him, she was no longer sure she could abide by his desires for her.

She was also well aware that her reputation at school had likely taken a blow due to the infatuation potion as well as her rampage on the quidditch pitch. Her relationship with Octavia had been damaged as well, and she felt it a lot more than she would admit to anyone else. Ella now needed to figure out how she wanted her social network and image to look like and if she wanted to continue on last year’s path. But it seemed that there was only so long that the fourteen year old could remain subdued. One morning, as her self-scrutiny(an entirely  foreign process to her) got much too heavy for her, Ella, as impulsive, dramatic and restless as ever, sought to have some fun by picking a fight with a first year.

The first year in question, Audrey Selwyn, came from an old, pureblood family who were once a part of Ella’s maternal family’s pureblood circle.

The Selwyns, who tended to never voice out their supremacist views, look down on Ella for having a squib father who had masqueraded as a muggle and never revealing the same to his family till the day he abandoned them. The double shame brought to the Aisnworth-Urquhart family became something of a joke in the pureblood circles, and Audrey’s parents often commented on Ella’s blood status in the privacy of their home. Audrey, as a very young child, once accidentally repeated her parents statements about Ella when the Selwyn’s had dinner with Ella’s family. Ella remembered the subsequent humiliation and argument that followed though she did not understand it herself quite well back then. When she grew up and reflected on the incident, she found that she did not care at all what anyone made of her blood status - and if it embarrassed her family, then even better.

So when she saw Audrey for the first time in years, Ella decided that she wanted to have some fun while also warning the girl off from trying to create any more trouble for Ella at school. Ella may not have cared for her blood status, but her social network at school was very important to her. She did not want to be seen as someone who could be messed with, and she had no intention of giving Audrey a chance to voice her opinions like she had years back. It had not occurred to Ella at any point that Audrey was perhaps far too young to even remember the incident or that she might be a lot wiser now.

As such, one morning, at breakfast, a very confused Audrey became a victim of a very bored Ella’s antics when the latter chose to openly let everyone know the opinions of Audrey’s family and made it seem that Audrey, too, subscribed to her family’s views and death eater connections. Before the matter could escalate further, the Head Girl, Octavia Bonventre, stepped in and broke up the scene. Octavia, who knew her former protege well enough to see through her act, marched Ella out of the Great Hall and confronted the Hufflepuff about the scene. Ella admitted that while she had done it both out of boredom and to protect her own image (which seemed to have worked considering the number of students who consoled the fourth year) she had also miscalculated and had not thought of the possibility of Audrey not remembering what she had done as a child at all.

Inevitably, Ella and Octavia then argued about Ella’s actions against Octavia’s ex-boyfriend. Ella remained adamant about her actions then and now, eliciting Octavia’s worry for the Hufflepuff. Ella, however, who was well aware of the consequences of her behaviour decided not to respond to her former mentor’s concerns and instead persuaded Octavia to go to the Hospital Wing to rest, for it would be a full moon in a few days’ time.

Octavia later wrote to the Deputy Headmistress, Genet Ali, to let her know of Ella’s actions in the Great Hall, which in turn had the Deputy Head call both Audrey and Ella to her office(separately) and have a talk with them. Ella was also confronted about her treatment of Audrey by the former’s distant cousin, Darina Orlova, during a mock duel.

## **Interests & Abilities**

### ***Animals & Plants***

Ella has always been fascinated by animals, though her exposure at home was very limited. The family owned no pets other than owls that were only meant for delivering letters and where otherwise to be tended only by the house elves. She would only get to see them more closely only when she arrived at Hogwarts.

By contrast, Ella was much more exposed to a variety of plants due to the large number of flowers that bloomed in the mansion gardens as well as the plants that grew in the greenhouses.

### ***Candies & Sweet Treats***

Ella has a sweet tooth and the admirable ability to eat as much candy, chocolate and baked goodies as she wants and still stay slim. Her favourite treats are Bertie Bott’s Every Flavoured Bean (she enjoys not knowing what she is going to taste next) and whizzing fizzbees (because the feeling of floating, even for just a few seconds, is something out of this world). She also has a soft spot for anyone who can get her a Honeydukes Gift Basket.

### ***Divination & Philosophy***

Ella initially chose Divination as an elective for her third year along with CoMC and Muggle Studies. She had no interest back then either in Arithmancy and Runes. She was also taken in by the ability to be able to tell the future and wondered if it was something she could use for her own endeavours. Despite the realisation that it was a subject that couldn’t be learnt at a surface level and as such didn’t have much use for her, she continued to take the course more out of her own curiosity. She also thought it could be a useful tool against those who were more superstitious and gullible.

While she used other tools such as potions and general human psychology against her peers as a part of her experiments, Ella began having a number of questions, especially with regards to human society, emotions and civilisation in general. At the moment, a lot of her thoughts on the subjects are only being recorded in a private diary. She does not believe these are thoughts that she can share with anyone due to the questionable lines of thought.

### ***Duelling, Enchanting & Potions***

Ella has a natural gift for potions, taking to the subject like a house on fire from her very first day at Hogwarts. With passing years and after many experiments, her love for the subject only grew and it was the only subject along with Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology she studied for, beyond school requirement.

She was also introduced to the art of duelling in her first year when she joined the duelling club along with some of the other clubs running at Hogwarts. Despite losing her first ever duel rather badly, Ella greatly enjoyed the thrill that came with it and soon began to work on her duelling skills.

Ella was also introduced to enchanting in her second year, when the then fifth years demonstrated their enchanting projects to the lower years as a part of their charms course work.

### ***Quidditch***

Ella enjoys playing  one-on-one Quidditch with anyone who can keep up with her and listening to quidditch matches on the wizarding wireless. She also dislikes Lisa Edgley’s propaganda to devalue the snitch. As the Hufflepuff team’s seeker, she takes great offense to it.

She has supported the Falmouth Falcons from the age of six. Though she is wise enough to never admit it out loud, she enjoys the team’s fierce and violent style of playing. She is also a huge fan of their motto: *Let us win, but if we cannot win, let us break a few heads.*

### ***Shadowweaving***

Ella was introduced to the art of Shadowweaving by her former mentor, when she found out about the former’s fear of darkness and shadows. Ella loves the idea of shadowweaving and sees it to be an art similar to playing with a person’s mind and pulling their strings based on her own words and actions. As such, she spends a great amount of time studying it from the notes Octavia previously left her. Much to the Hufflepuff teenager’s frustration however, her progress has been rather slow and she can hardly make a difference to her own shadow as of now.

## **Plants, Pets & Prized Possessions**

### ***Pets***

#### ***Greasy the Gnome***

When she first arrived at Hogwarts, Ella had a lot of interest in studying animals but had no interest in having one of her own.

During her first year, she came across and interacted with Ilene Green - then a second year - for the first time. The older girl was de-gnoming the Pumpkin Patch at that time and turned it into a mini game of sorts as Ella volunteered to help her. During the game, Ella came across one particularly slippery gnome who seemed to evade her grasp time and again. Amused by the small, pudgy creature’s antics, Ella decided to pay an older NPC to take care of him for her at first. In her second year, as she got used to Greasy and learned how to take care of him, she adopted him completely and looked after him by herself.

#### ***Arian the Chameleon***

Ella gained her second pet during the summer before her third year as a birthday gift from her older siblings. She was taken to the magical menagerie shop to get a cat, but she instead saw a silver chameleon hiding behind a silver tinted carrier. Seeing herself to be something of a chameleon like creature, she decided to buy the lizard and named him Arian for the silver colour he had used as a camouflage.

### ***Plants***

***Piper the Pepper Plant***

Ella mostly prefers to tend plants either in the Greenhouse at home or the one at Hogwarts, believing that those are the best places to give plants the care they deserve. However, the one exception she has made is for the pepper plant she helped take care of during a Gardening Club meeting which was headed by Ilene. Ilene had encouraged everyone to paint the pots and name the plants. Ella named the plant as Piper and took care of it night and day in the dorm rooms, harvesting lovely, yellow peppers at her convenience.

#### ***Enchanted Diary***

As her very chaotic and confusing third year came to an end and as she began introspecting, Ella found the need to verbalise her words. For all her thoughts, morals and all the other flaws, the Hufflepuff is by no means an idiot. She's aware of the fact that she's very different from most humans, whether they're good and bad, and it wouldn't do if someone were to get hold of her diary. Aware that she no longer had anyone she could confide in, for there seemed to be no one else like her, Ella bought a diary that was keyed to her wand. It could otherwise not be opened with simple unlocking charms.

Sharp as she maybe, she's also still very young and extraordinarily arrogant: she believes that keying it to her wand is more than enough security, anticipating the fact that no one would be interested enough in the ramblings of a teenager and will simply assume that no one will give it a second look if they can't open it easily. She's both right and wrong here: she's not taking into account the fact the face she puts on for the public might slip and if someone were to suspect her of being someone other than what is seen, they may end up taking a keener interest in her diary, if they come across it or know of its existence.

#### ***Ilene’s friendship bracelet***

One of her most prized possessions, Ella has had the bracelet since her first year. At first, it was no more than a means to connect with her housemate. But the act of kindness, where a stranger celebrated her existence unlike what she was used to, made the bracelet a symbolic gesture of the rare ‘good’ person. Ella had the bracelet enchanted to be durable for long periods of time without wearing and tearing.

#### ***Patchwork Comfort Quilt***

The Quilt is a patchwork of the Hufflepuffs Badger emblem, the flag of the Falmouth Falcon and a broomstick and snitch set. It was given to Ella by her older sister as a late Christmas present during her fourth year. The Quilt has the ability to warm up or cool down based on Ella’s needs in normal circumstances.

#### ***Quidditch - Broomstick and Beater’s Bat***

Ella’s older brother gifted her the Comet 300 and a beater’s bat for her twelfth birthday, for he was aware of her desire to join her house team as a beater.

#### ***Quidditch - Seeker Goggles***

When Ella got onto the Hufflepuff Quidditch team as a seeker, she immediately wrote to Isaac Hiltshire to deliver the news to him. Isaac, whom Ella got acquainted with at the Quidditch Finals Match during her second year, gave the goggles he himself had used during his time on the team.

#### ***Wand***

##### ***Acacia Wand Wood***

*"A very unusual wand wood, which I have found creates tricky wands that often refuse to produce magic for any but their owner, and also withhold their best effects from all but those most gifted. This sensitivity renders them difficult to place, and I keep only a small stock for those witches or wizards of sufficient subtlety, for acacia is not suited to what is commonly known as ‘bangs-and-smells’ magic. When well-matched, an acacia wand matches any for power, though it is often underrated due to the peculiarity of its temperament"*

##### ***Phoenix Feather***

*"This is the rarest core type. Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike.*

*Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world. These wands are the hardest to tame and to personalise, and their allegiance is usually hard won."*

A wand that is well suited for Ella, a very gifted witch, the Acacia and Phoenix feather wand represents the Hufflepuff’s penchant for subtler forms of magic, her temperament, her skill in a wide range of magic, her wild independence and even her detachment from humanity and the world at large.

#### ***Wooden Letter Box***

A second late Christmas present given to Ella by her older sister, the box is a family heirloom that can hold up to 100 letters and automatically gets locked upon being closed. It was originally given to Camilla Ainsworth as a gift from her grandmother, who favoured her over her siblings. Camilla, now married and was aware of how much Ella treasured the letters from their brother, gave the box to her in secret.