struggling to keep the candy from falling, she slowly made her way up to the gryffindor tower. one of her roommates, aspen lovelace, was sick and decided it would be best she shouldn't venture into the cold.

seamus finnegan and elara were chatting about which sweets they were going to give aspen when they reached the corridor that ended with the portrait of the fat lady, and they found it jammed with students.

"what's going on?" asked seamus curiously.

elara stood on her toes to peer over the heads in front of her. the portrait seemed to be closed.

"let me through, please," came percy weasley's voice, and he came bustling importantly through the crowd. "what's the holdup here? you can't all have forgotten the password — excuse me, i'm head boy —"

and then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a chill seemed to spread down the corridor. they heard percy say, in a suddenly sharp voice, "somebody get professor dumbledore. quick."

people's heads turned; those at the back were standing on tiptoe. "what's going on?" said ginny, who had just arrived.

a moment later, professor dumbledore was there, sweeping toward the portrait; the gryffindors squeezed together to let him through, and elara moved closer to see what the trouble was.

"bloody hell —" elara stared at the sight before her.

the fat lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor; great chunks of it had been torn away completely. dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, to see professors mcGonagall, lupin, and snape hurrying toward him.

"we need to find her," said dumbledore. "professor mcgonagall, please go to mr. filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the fat lady."

"you'll be lucky!" said a cackling voice.

it was peeves the poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry.

"what do you mean, peeves?" said dumbledore calmly, and peeves's grin faded a little. he didn't dare taunt dumbledore. instead he adopted an oily voice that was no better than his cackle.

"ashamed, your headship, sir. doesn't want to be seen. she's a horrible mess. saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. crying something dreadful," he said happily. "poor thing." he added unconvincingly.

"did she say who did it?" said dumbledore quietly.

"oh yes, professorhead," said peeves, with the air of one cradling a large bombshell in his arms."he got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." peeves flipped over and grinned at dumbledore from between his own legs. "nasty temper he's got, that sirius Black."

there was an uproar. a few first years fainted, lavender brown broke out in tears, ron weasley looked like he was going to vomit. professor dumbledore sent all the gryffindors to the great hall, where they were joined ten minutes later by the students from hufflepuff, ravenclaw, and slytherin, who all looked extremely confused.

"the teachers and i need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," professor dumbledore told them as professors mcgonagall and flitwick closed all doors into the hall. "i'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. i want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and i am leaving the head boy and girl in charge. any disturbance should be reported to me immediately," he added to percy, who was looking immensely proud and important. "send word with one of the ghosts."

professor dumbledore paused, about to leave the hall, and said, "oh, yes, you'll be needing..."

one casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.

"sleep well," said professor dumbledore, closing the door behind him.

the hall immediately began to buzz excitedly; the gryffindors were telling the rest of the school what had just happened.

"everyone into their sleeping bags!" shouted percy. "come on, now, no more talking! lights out in ten minutes!"

elara took a sleeping bag and set her pile of candy next to it. seconds later, corrine sharpe appeared next to elara. she took a cauldron cake of the top of the pile and opened the bag.

"what happened?" corrine asked with a slight edge to her voice.

"i don't know, but the fat lady's portrait was ripped to shreds. dumbledore asked peeves what happened, and he started going on about sirius black and his nasty temper."

"sounds like someone i know." oliver wood came up beside corrine and shot her a look when he saw her half-eaten cauldron cake.

corrine rolled her eyes and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"i bet i've got a worse temper than sirius black." she shot at oliver.

"really? i mean, i can shut you up pretty easily."

"oliver!" corrine hissed at him.

by now, elara assumed this was a regular occurance. everyone knew oliver and corrine had a fiery relationship. it was huge news they started dating last year, especially because they had been rivals since corrine decked him during a quidditch game in their third year.

"the lights are going out now!" percy shouted. "i want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!"

the candles all went out at once. the only light now came from the silvery ghosts, who were drifting about talking seriously to the prefects, and the enchanted ceiling, which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars. with with that, and the whispering that still filled the hall,elara felt as though she were sleeping outdoors in a light wind.

with the ceiling as beautiful as it is, elara couldn't help but stare at it. once every hour, a teacher would reappear in the hall to check that everything was quiet. around three in the morning, when many students had finally fallen asleep, professor dumbledore came in. elara watched him looking around for percy, who had been prowling between the sleeping bags, telling people off for talking. percy was only a short way away from her, but she didn't bother to pretend to be asleep as dumbledore's footsteps drew nearer.

"any sign of him, professor?" asked percy in a whisper.

"no. all well here?"

"everything under control, sir."

"good. there's no point moving them all now. i've found a temporary guardian for the gryffindor portrait hole. you'll be able to move them back in tomorrow."

"and the fat lady, sir?"

"hiding in a map of argyllshire on the second floor. apparently she refused to let black in without the password, so he attacked. she's still very distressed, but once she's calmed down, i'll have mr. filch restore her."

elara heard the door of the hall creak open again, and more footsteps.

"headmaster?" it was snape. harry kept quite still, listening hard. "the whole of the third floor has been searched. he's not there. and filch has done the dungeons; nothing there either."

"what about the astronomy tower? professor trelawney's room? the owlery?"

"all searched..."

"very well, severus. i didn't really expect black to linger."

"have you any theories as to how he got in, professor?" asked snape.

elara felt guilty. she had a feeling black was here for harry. her family was bad enough, but now her cousin was trying to murder someone she was kind of friends with.

"many, severus, each of them as unlikely as the next."

elara shifted her head to the side a fraction and squinted up to where they stood; dumbledore's back was toher, but he could see percy's face, rapt with attention, and snape's profile, which looked angry.

"you remember the conversation we had, headmaster, just before — ah — the start of term?"said snape, who was barely opening his lips, as though trying to block percy out of theconversation.

"i do, severus," said dumbledore, and there was something like warning in his voice.

"it seems — almost impossible — that black could have entered the school without inside help. i did express my concerns when you appointed —"

"i do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped black enter it," said dumbledore, and his tone made it so clear that the subject was closed that snape didn't reply. "i must go down to the dementors," said dumbledore. "i said i would inform them when oursearch was complete."

"didn't they want to help, sir?" said percy.

"oh yes," said dumbledore coldly. "but i'm afraid no dementor will cross the threshold of this castle while i am headmaster."

elara breathed a quiet sigh of relief. she turned her eyes back to the ceiling, staring at the stars. remembering the star charts aunt meda gifted her, elara was able to find different constellations with ease.

she fell asleep to shooting stars.

the school talked of nothing but sirius black for the next few days. the theories about how he had entered the castle became wilder and wilder; hannah abbott, from hufflepuff, spent much of their next herbology class telling anyone who'd listen that black could turn into a flowering shrub. elara, however, was afraid draco would begin telling everyone she was related to sirius black.

the fat lady's ripped canvas had been taken off the wall and replaced with the portrait of sir cadogan and his fat gray pony. nobody was very happy about this. sir cadogan spent half his time challenging people to duels, and the rest thinking up ridiculously complicated passwords,which he changed at least twice a day.

sir cadogan, however, was the least of elara's worries. every time she saw draco talking to anyone, her heart would start racing. people had just started to warm up to her. it was finally her year and now draco had the power to ruin it.

corrine had convinced elara to come to the hufflepuff-gryffindor quidditch game. even though elara hated going to games because she always found herself looking down and getting nauseous.

nevertheless, she felt she owed it to corrine to go. corrine was the first to extend friendship to her.

although it was cold and wet and miserable, such was the popularity of quidditch that the whole school turned out to watch the match as usual, but they ran down the lawns toward the quidditch field, heads bowed against the ferocious wind, umbrellas being whipped out of their hands as they went.

the hufflepuffs were approaching from the opposite side of the field, wearing canary-yellow robes. the captains walked up to each other and shook hands; elara could've sworn she saw corrine wink at oliver. madam hooch put her whistle to her lips and gave it a blast that sounded shrill and distant — they were off.

elara was hardly able to see the game but she was somewhat grateful. it also meant she wasn't able to see the ground far below her. the commentary was barely audible over the wind and pounding rain.

with the first flash of lightning came the sound of madam hooch's whistle; elara could just see the outline of wood through the thick rain, gesturing the team to the ground. both teams splashed down into the mud.

the figure of corrine flew over to the gryffindors and pointed her wand at who elara assumed was harry potter. murmurs of confusement arose from the crowd, wondering if a fight was about to break out.

another flash of lightning illuminated oliver wood very intensely kissing corrine who sat on her broom seemingly in shock. people wolf-whistled and cheered although there was a very little possibility the quidditch teams could hear them.

full of fresh determination, the teams urged their brooms through the turbulent air. there was another clap of thunder, followed immediately by forked lightning. this was getting more and more dangerous.

but something odd was happening. an eerie silence was falling across the stadium. the wind, though as strong as ever, was forgetting to roar. it was as though someone had turned off the sound, as though elara had gone suddenly deaf — what was going on?

and then a horribly familiar wave of cold swept over her, inside her, just as she became aware of something moving on the field below...

the feeling of staring at the ground mixed with at least a hundred dementors was sickening. it was as though freezing water were rising in her chest, cutting at her insides. and then she heard it again... someone was screaming, screaming inside her head... a woman and a man...

"tell me! TELL ME!"

there was a panting and a groan of pain. "never."

"crucio! crucio! CRUCIO!"

"no! torture me!" a desperate man's voice shouted. "not her! please...."

"rodolphus! him too!"

"crucio!"

numbing, swirling white mist was filling elara's brain... what was she doing? why was she just standing there? she needed to help them... they were going to die... they were going to be murdered...

she felt herself slipping and falling through the icy mist.

elara was cold. there was no sliver of heat in her body, anywhere. she could hear voices whispering, but they made no sense whatsoever. she didn't have a clue where she was, or how she'd got there, or what she'd been doing before he got there. all she knew was that every inch of her was just cold.

"that was the scariest thing i've ever seen in my life."

scariest... the scariest thing... hooded black figures... cold... screaming...

elara's eyes slowly opened. she was lying in the hospital wing. the gryffindor quidditch team, the hufflepuff quidditch team, and a few others were gathered around three beds, elara's included.

she shifted her head to the left and saw harry who also seemed to have just woken up and to her right was corrine propped up against pillows with both of her arms in slings.

"finally!" said fred weasley, who looked extremely white underneath the mud. "how're you two feeling?"

"what happened?" harry said, sitting up so suddenly everyone all gasped.

"you fell off your broom." corrine said. "you fell about fifty feet before i caught you. elara, you passed out over the railing and slipped down until i caught you."

"you caught both of us?" elara asked, her voice weaker than she expected.

"wasn't about to let my two favorite third-years die." corrine laughed but then grimaced when one of her arms shifted.

"we thought you'd both had died," said aurora brightwind, a gryffindor chaser, who was shaking.

"it was the dementors. i -- i just, it was so cold." elara said, shivering for a second.

"but what happened to you?" harry asked.

corrine pursed her lips. "catching two teenagers after they've fallen about fifty feet wasn't so easy on my arms."

elara looked at corrine. quidditch meant so much to corrine, but now she was out for who knows how long. hermione granger made a small, squeaky noise. her eyes were extremely bloodshot.

"but the match," said harry. "what happened? are we doing a replay?"

everyone looked over to corrine. she looked pained and not just from the arms.

"i got the snitch," said cedric diggory. "just after you fell. i didn't realize what had happened. when i looked back and saw you and elara on the ground, i tried to call it off. corrine demanded a rematch along with me... but wood said no. he says we won fair and square."

"where is wood?" said harry, looking around.

a hand raised from next to corrine followed by some grumbling. oliver had his head down on the hospital bed corrine was sitting on.

"he blames himself." corrine said softly. "for the game and for us three."

corrine nudged her leg and it hit oliver's head. he grumbled again. everyone smiled, the atmosphere lightening just a bit. it was no secret corrine really loved oliver no matter how much they seemed to argue.

harry put his face to his knees, his hands gripping his hair. fred grabbed his shoulder and shook it roughly. elara pushed herself up and wrapped the blanket sitting at the end around her shoulders.

"c'mon, harry, you've never missed the snitch before."

"there had to be one time you didn't get it," said george.

"it's not over yet," said fred. "we lost by a hundred points."

"right? so if hufflepuff loses to ravenclaw and we beat ravenclaw and slytherin..."

as they engaged in talk about quidditch -- with corrine interrupting occasionally -- elara began to fiddle with the ends of her blanket. she was so caught up in her own world that she missed harry sneaking glances at her and hermoine smirking.

elara pushed away stray hairs that were stuck on her face. after ten minutes or so, madam pomfrey came over to tell the team to leave the three in peace. everyone but ron, hermoine, and oliver exited the hospital wing. elara caught george's arm around aurora's waist, pulling her into his side.

the team trooped out, trailing mud behind them. madam pomfrey shut the door behind them, disapproving. ron and hermione moved nearer to harry and elara's beds.

"dumbledore was really angry," hermione said in a quaking voice. "i've never seen him like that before. he ran onto the field after corrine had caught you, elara. he whirled his wand at the dementors. shot silver stuff at them -- "