her aunt had to inform the weasley's of their use of the muffliato charm so elara wouldn't wake anyone up with her screaming. still, it was rare for elara to actually sleep as she was afraid of what she saw in her dreams.

elara lay flat on her back, breathing hard as though she had been running. she had awoken from a vivid dream with her wild dark hair sticking to her face. it had fallen out of its topknot.

she sat up and began fumbling with her hair. ginny and hermione were still asleep. when elara successfully tied it up out of her face, she quietly exited the bedroom and padded down the stairs to try and find her stash of chocolate.

when she arrived at the hiding spot, however, she realized she'd sent it all to harry because his aunt was forcing him to follow a diet because his cousin, in a word, had gotten fat. she even used her favorite chocolate, the good stuff uncle ted bought from france, to bake harry's birthday cake.

she grumbled to herself about how coming to care for harry (perhaps too much, but elara would never allow herself to admit it out loud) cost her her entire stock of sweets. so instead elara picked up the new dream journal hermione bought elara for her birthday as the one she had gotten for christmas was full, and began to write about her dream.

elara wrote for an incredibly long time. the sun had come up over the horizon and light began to pour into the weasley household. fred and george stumbled down the stairs looking quite disheveled.

elara assumed they'd been up almost all night working on products for their company because fred's hair looked a bit singed.

the rest of the weasley clan, along with hermione and aurora brightwind -- the twins' partner in crime and george's girlfriend -- came down the stairs looking as tired as ever. when elara caught sight of aurora's neck, she realized working on joke products wasn't the only thing george had been doing last night.

elara took her place at the table between aurora and hermione.

"you might want to put something on your neck, rory," elara whispered to aurora.

aurora reddened and moved some of her hair over her neck. she made a jerking movement which elara assumed was to hit george, who presumably choked on his drink. elara snickered and began eating her hashbrowns.

ron, of course, was ecstatic that he was able to see harry again today. as much as ron liked elara and hermione, harry was his best friend. it's all he'd been talking about since mr. weasley was able to land tickets to the quidditch world cup.

lunch also passed by with the same amount of energy. the twins, by now, had insisted elara come along to pick harry up. aurora had elbowed the two of them in their sides when they had first suggested it. elara was confused, but agreed nonetheless.

five o' clock came around, and they were running late. mr. weasley had decided to temporarily connect the dursley's fireplace to the floo network. it took a bit and after some mishaps, they finally got the connection to work.

mr. weasley went first, and then the twins and ron demanded elara go next. still confused, elara stepped into the fireplace after taking a handful of floo powder.

"you three are being weird. anyways, four privet drive!" elara threw down the powder and a mess of green flames engulfed her.

she landed, pressed shoulder to shoulder with mr. weasley, who was kicking at where the opening should be.

"ouch! elara, no — go back, go back, there's been some kind of mistake — tell the twins not to — OUCH! george, no, there's no room, go back quickly and tell fred and ron —"

"maybe harry can hear us, dad, just hang on..."

george hammered on the boards loudly, "harry? harry, is this your house?"

there was angry murmuring and soft snickering. a short pause, then --

"george? can you hear me?"

elara stopped hammering on the boards and had to snatch george's wrist from continuing to do so. she shushed him loudly before turning her attention to the boards.

"mr. weasley, it's harry . . . the fireplace has been blocked up. you won't be able to get through there."

"damn!" said mr. weasley. "what on earth did they want to block up the fireplace for?"

"they've got an electric fire," harry's voice explained.

"really?" said mr. weasley excitedly. "eklectic, you say? with a plug? gracious, i must see that. . . . let's think . . . ouch, ron!"

ron's had joined them in the fireplace. it was very cramped.

"what are we doing here? has something gone wrong?"

"oh no, ron," said fred, very sarcastically. "no, this is exactly where we wanted to end up."

"yeah, we're having the time of our lives here," said george, whose voice was muffled, as he was squashed against the wall.

elara laughed, and the sound reverberated off the brick walls.

"is that elara?" said harry's voice excitedly.

the twins and ron exchanged looks. elara glared at them and rolled her eyes. they were being immature for whatever reason. harry was just excited to see elara because she was his friend.

"settle down, settle down . . ." said mr. weasley vaguely. "i'm trying to think what to do. . . . yes . . . only way . . . stand back, harry."

"this is gonna be good," muttered fred. elara, george, and ron all snickered loudly.

"wait a moment!" and angry voice bellowed. "what exactly are you going to —"

the boards burst out from in front of them. screams followed, possibly from harry's extended family. elara fell over fred and landed on a plush carpet with a soft 'oof'. elara looked like the black sheep in the midst of all the red hair and freckles.

"oh, right!" elara screwed up her face a tad and her hair matched the weasley's and her face grew freckles. "much better."

harry's aunt and uncle looked scandalised. mr. weasley went to converse with them while elara, ron, fred, and george greeted harry. elara gave him a quick hug, knowing one of the twins would make a comment.

harry had gotten taller over the summer holiday and his hair was much shaggier and more unruly than elara had ever seen it. his baby fat seemed to have fallen off even though harry had probably eaten around five cakes within the last few weeks. elara couldn't deny it, harry looked quite handsome.

"hello, harry!" said mr. weasley brightly. "got your trunk ready?"

"it's upstairs," said harry, grinning back.

"we'll get it," said fred at once. winking at the pair, he, george, and ron left the room. elara suspected that they were hoping for a glimpse of dudley; they had heard a lot about him from harry.

once they left, elara attacked harry with a tight hug. he stumbled backward slightly before wrapping his arms around her. they pulled apart, grinning.

"how've they been?" asked elara in a hushed tone.

"they're terrified of sirius -- and you."

"rightfully so."

harry snickered.

dudley suddenly appeared in the room. elara could hear the clunk of harry's trunk on the stairs, and knew that the sounds had scared dudley out of the kitchen. dudley edged along the wall, gazing at mr. weasley and elara with terrified eyes, and attempted to conceal himself behind his mother and father. unfortunately, vernon's bulk, while sufficient to hide bony petunia, was nowhere near enough to conceal dudley.

"ah, this is your cousin, is it, harry?" said mr. weasley, taking another brave stab at making conversation.

"yep," said harry, "that's dudley."

harry and elara exchanged glances and then quickly looked away from each other; the temptation to burst out laughing was almost overwhelming. dudley was still clutching his bottom as though afraid it might fall off. mr. weasley, however, seemed genuinely concerned at dudley's peculiar behavior. indeed, from the tone of his voice when he next spoke, elara was quite sure that mr.weasley thought dudley was quite as mad as the dursleys though the was, except that mr. weasley felt sympathy rather than fear.

"having a good holiday, dudley?" he said kindly.

dudley whimpered. elara saw his hands tighten still harder over his massive backside.

fred, george, and ron came back into the room carrying harry's school trunk. they glanced around as they entered and spotted dudley. the twins' faces cracked into identical evil grins. ron tried to hold back a snicker and made an odd sort of snorting noise.

"ah, right," said mr. weasley. "better get cracking then."

he pushed up the sleeves of his robes and took out his wand. elara saw the dursleys draw back against the wall as one.

"incendio!" said mr. weasley, pointing his wand at the hole in the wall behind him.

flames rose at once in the fireplace, crackling merrily as though they had been burning for hours. mr. weasley took a small drawstring bag from his pocket, untied it, took a pinch of the powder inside, and threw it onto the flames, which turned emerald green and roared higher than ever.

"off you go then, fred," said mr. weasley.

"coming," said fred. "oh no — hang on —"

a bag of sweets had spilled out of fred's pocket and the contents were now rolling in every direction — big, fat toffees in brightly colored wrappers.

fred scrambled around, cramming them back into his pocket,then gave the dursleys a cheery wave, stepped forward, and walked right into the fire, saying "the burrow!" petunia gave a little shuddering gasp. there was a whooshing sound, and fredvanished.

"right then, george," said mr. weasley, "you and the trunk."

harry helped george carry the trunk forward into the flames and turn it onto its end so that he could hold it better. then, with a second whoosh, george had cried "the burrow!" and vanished too.

"see you," said ron brightly to the dursleys. he grinned broadly at harry and elara, then stepped into the fire, shouted "the burrow!"and disappeared.

"lara, you go with harry. we don't want another mishap like we did two summers ago, do we?"

elara gave an odd look to harry and he reddend slightly. she stepped into the hearth as harry said goodbye to the dursleys. they didn't bid him farewell and mr. weasley bristled. he wasn't used to how the dursleys treat harry, and frankly, elara wasn't either.

"you aren't going to see your nephew till next summer," mr. weasley said to vernon in mild indignation. "surely you're going to say good-bye?"

vernon's face worked furiously. the idea of being taught consideration by a man who had just blasted away half his living room wall seemed to be causing him intense suffering. but mr. weasley's wand was still in his hand, and vernon's tiny eyes darted to it once, before he said, very resentfully, "good-bye, then."

"see you," said harry, putting one foot forward into the green flames.

"what a git," elara muttered to harry and he snickered.

at that moment, however, a horrible gagging sound erupted behind him, and petunia started to scream. elara raised her eyes from harry and saw dudley kneeling beside the coffee table, and he was gagging and sputtering on a foot-long, purple, slimy thing that was protruding from his mouth. one bewildered second later, elara realized that the foot-long thing was dudley's tongue — and that a brightly colored toffee wrapper lay on the floor before him.

petunia hurled herself onto the ground beside dudley, seized the end of his swollen tongue, and attempted to wrench it out of his mouth; unsurprisingly, dudley yelled and sputtered worse than ever, trying to fight her off. vernon was bellowing and waving his arms around, and mr. weasley had to shout to make himself heard.

elara couldn't hold it in. the scene unfolding in front of her was incredible. she burst out in laughter, doubling over in the fireplace. eventually, she had to hold onto harry with one arm in case she lost her balance and fell into the flames.

"not to worry, i can sort him out!" mr. weasley yelled, advancing on dudley with his wand outstretched, but petunia screamed worse than ever and threw herself on top of dudley, shielding him from mr. weasley.

"no, really!" said mr. weasley desperately. "it's a simple process —it was the toffee — my son fred — real practical joker — but it's only an engorgement charm — at least, i think it is — please, i can correct it —"

harry started to snicker at the dursleys too.

but far from being reassured, the dursleys became more panicstricken; petunia was sobbing hysterically, tugging dudley's tongue as though determined to rip it out; dudley appeared to be suffocating under the combined pressure of his mother and his tongue; and vernon, who had lost control completely, seizeda china figure from on top of the sideboard and threw it very hard at mr. weasley, who ducked, causing the ornament to shatter in the blasted fireplace.

"now really!" said mr. weasley angrily, brandishing his wand. "i'm trying to help!"

bellowing like a wounded hippo, vernon snatched up another ornament.

"harry, elara, go! just go!" mr. weasley shouted, his wand on vernon. "i'll sort this out!"

neither harry nor elara wanted to miss the fun, but vernon's second ornament narrowly missed harry's left ear, and on balance they thought it best to leave the situation to mr. weasley. harry stepped into the fire next to elara, looking over his shoulder as he said "the burrow!" elara's last fleeting glimpse of the living room was of mr. weasley blasting a third ornament out of vernon's hand with his wand, petunia screaming and lying on top of dudley, and dudley's tongue lolling around like a great slimy python. but next moment elara had begun to spin very fast, and the dursleys' living room was whipped out of sight in a rush of emerald-green flames.

as elara spun faster and faster, she knew one thing. fred weasley was going to be in so much trouble.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

-- ooooh harry and elara reunitedddddd

JANUARY 6, 2020