#bc she's iconic and i love an evil person/free angst combo

[astrainuniverse]

Some of my favorite last/second-to-last lines from my unpublished Ethel-centric wip with absolutely zero context because i love these too much to never post them.

"It didn’t matter. Whatever Ethel did, she did the right way, and that was more than anyone in her pathetic cohort could say. "

"Yet, as she made her way to breakfast on the other side of the Hall from Mildred and her friends, a familiar awful feeling crawled under her skin, the gut-churning discomfort of walking out of an exam hall knowing she had answered wrong."

"The poor girl’s face is furrowed with reluctance, tinged with maybe a fatal hint of desperation—and either way, it’s enough. 

Mildred Hubble was always easy."

"Esmerelda just wants Ethel to stop provoking people that can hurt her."

"But of course, that’s all perfectly well. No one ever cared past the first, anyway."

"When they wrapped up a little over half an hour later, Ethel’s relief at having survived Mildred’s scrutiny was quieter than she’d imagined."

"Ethel looks down at her aged, powerless hands. Her eyes are too weary for tears."

"And then relief came: being splintered into a million little particles. 

It wasn’t clear whose transportation spell swirled Ethel into the void—but if its pinched, painful nature had anything to say, Miss Hardbroom’s magic wasn’t nearly as restrained as Ethel remembered."