Ella was busy observing the portrait with Forrest when Minnie arrived and the blonde turned and managed a small smile. Truthfully, she was kind of freaked by the state of things right now. She was doing her best to put on a brave face, though. Things would be fine, yeah? They had to be. "Oh hey, Min. I'm good. Just...checking out everything, y'know?" Making sure nothing was out of place or gone completely. As for cleaning, the sixteen year old nodded. "I was thinking of doing the same." BEAM. "We'll work together, then?"

It was then that Wade joined the party and the fifth year smiled at him, waving a little. "Hey Wade!" And he was going to help too? Brilliant. "I'll just...start over here." And Ella headed over to the round windows, pointing her wand at them. "Scourgify!" A noticeable amount of light poured into the space as the dust cleared and Ella let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. That was better.

She didn't miss little Romulus coming through the common room and she frowned a bit at his reaction. "It isn't normally like this!" She called after him, feeling the need to defend their common room and really just the school in general.

The house elf talk made Ella frown slightly and she ran a hand through her hair, a worried expression shadowing her features. "I guess, maybe they knew something we didn't, yeah?" Maybe they sensed trouble? Was that possible? "And yeah, I really hope they're alright."