she'd been in a right state, worrying over them, not knowing who was dead or alive. thankfully, they all were alive and well. when she was informed of what happened between mr. crouch and elara, she went off on a tangent.

"... i will not hesitate to march on over to the ministry and grab that crouch by the ear!"

harry, ron, elara, and hermione managed to escape upstairs where harry had informed them that his scar hurt again while he was at privet drive. hermione gasped and started making suggestions at once. elara placed her hands on her hips and stared at harry. there was more to the story than he was letting on. ron looked dumbfounded.

"but — he wasn't there, was he? you-know-who? i mean —last time your scar kept hurting, he was at hogwarts, wasn't he?"

"i'm sure he wasn't on privet drive," said harry. "but i was dreaming about him . . . him and peter — you know, wormtail. i can't remember all of it now, but they were plotting to kill . . .someone."

elara blanched ever so slightly. she'd had that dream around two weeks ago. she very well knew harry was lying. she narrowed her eyes slightly.

"it was only a dream," said ron bracingly. "just a nightmare."

"yeah, but was it, though?" said harry, turning to look out of the window at the brightening sky. "it's weird, isn't it? . . . my scar hurts, and three days later the death eaters are on the march, and voldemort's sign's up in the sky again."

"don't — say — his — name!" ron hissed through gritted teeth.

"and remember what professor trelawney said?" harry went on, ignoring ron. "at the end of last year?"

professor trelawney was their divination teacher at hogwarts. hermione's terrified look vanished as she let out a derisive snort.

"oh harry, you aren't going to pay attention to anything that old fraud says?"

"you weren't there," said harry. "you didn't hear her. this time was different. i told you, she went into a trance — a real one. and she said the dark lord would rise again . . . greater and more terrible than ever before . . . and he'd manage it because his servant was going to go back to him . . . and that night wormtail escaped."

so that's what harry was freaking out about last year. there was a silence in which ron fidgeted absentmindedly with a hole in his chudley cannons bedspread.

"why were you asking if hedwig had come, harry?" elara asked. "are you expecting a letter?"

"i told sirius about my scar," said harry, shrugging. "i'm waiting for his answer."

"good thinking!" said ron, his expression clearing. "i bet sirius'll know what to do!"

"i hoped he'd get back to me quickly," said harry.

"but we don't know where sirius is . . . he could be in africa or somewhere, couldn't he?" said hermione reasonably. "hedwig's not going to manage that journey in a few days."

"yeah, i know," said harry as he continued to stare out at the hedwig-free sky.

"come and have a game of quidditch in the orchard, harry,"said ron. "come on — three on four, bill and charlie and fred and george and rori will play. . . . you can try out the wronski feint. . . ."

"ron," said hermione, in an i-don't-think-you're-being-very-sensitive sort of voice, "harry doesn't want to play quidditch right now. . . . he's worried, and he's tired. . . . we all need to go to bed. . . ."

"yeah, i want to play quidditch," said harry suddenly. "hangon, i'll get my firebolt."

hermione left the room, muttering something that sounded very much like "boys."

ron followed not long after. harry had gotten his firebolt and began to exit the the bedroom before elara stopped him.

"you and i both know that you-know-who wasn't plotting to just kill anyone, harry." elara said in a low voice.

"how'd you -- ?"

"you're a terrible liar... and i may have had the same dream like two weeks ago..." it felt good to finally tell someone of her terrifying dreams, and it felt better to know that someone was sharing the same experience.

"you should've said something," harry said, slightly worried and slightly hurt.

"i know, but how was i supposed to know that i wasn't going crazy? harry, i'm so scared... i mean, the dream and then the death eaters... oh -- "

and elara did what she probably would have never done if she wasn't terrified for the boy in front of her. she wrapped her arms around harry and pulled him to her. she was so scared. something was very, very off with the world.

after getting over his initial shock, harry wrapped his arms around elara's back and hugged her. the hug was comforting for both. there was this mutual thought they both had. it felt as if they were in this together.

neither mr. weasley nor percy was at home much over the following week. both left the house each morning before the rest of the family got up, and returned well after dinner every night. the ministry was in an uproar. people had been sending owl left and right and asking for compensation for what they've lost.

mrs. weasley glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner. elara liked this clock. it was completely useless if you wanted to know the time, but otherwise very informative. it had nine golden hands, and each of them was engraved with one of the weasley family's names. there were no numerals around the face, but descriptions of where each family member might be. "home,""school," and "work" were there, but there was also "traveling,""lost," "hospital," "prison," and, in the position where the number twelve would be on a normal clock, "mortal peril."

eight of the hands were currently pointing to the "home" position, but mr. weasley's, which was the longest, was still pointing to "work." mrs. weasley sighed.

"your father hasn't had to go into the office on weekends since the days of you-know-who," she said. "they're working him far too hard. his dinner's going to be ruined if he doesn't come home soon."

"well, father feels he's got to make up for his mistake at the match, doesn't he?" said percy. "if truth be told, he was a tad unwise to make a public statement without clearing it with his head of department first —"

"don't you dare blame your father for what that wretched skeeter woman wrote!" said mrs. weasley, flaring up at once.

"if dad hadn't said anything, old rita would just have said it was disgraceful that nobody from the ministry had commented," said bill, who was playing chess with ron. "rita skeeter never makes anyone look good. remember, she interviewed all the gringotts' charm breakers once, and called me 'a long-haired pillock'?"

"well, it is a bit long, dear," said mrs. weasley gently. "if you'd just let me —"

"no, mum."

rain lashed against the living room window. hermione was immersed in the standard book of spells, grade 4, copies of which mrs. weasley had bought for her, harry, ron, and elara in diagon alley. charlie was darning a fireproof balaclava. harry was polishing his firebolt, the broomstick servicing kit hermione had given him for his thirteenth birthday open at his feet. fred, george, and aurora were sitting in a far corner, quills out, talking in whispers, their heads bent over a piece of parchment. elara was entertaining ginny with her metamorphosing.

mr. weasley arrived home and informed them the mess the ministry was in. rita skeeter was ferreting around, digging up dirt. the subject of mr. crouch and winky was still very touchy with hermione, so she and percy spun into another argument. it'd gone extremely south when hermione brought up how vile mr. crouch was towards elara.

mrs. weasley demanded everyone go upstairs and pack.

hermione, elara, ginny, and aurora retreated to their shared room and began going through all their things. apart from the standard book of spells, grade 4, by miranda goshawk, elara had a handful of new quills, a dozen rolls of parchment, and refills for her potion-making kit — she had been running low on spine of lionfish and essence of belladonna. she was just packing up normal clothes when she heard ginny squeal loudly from behind her.

she was holding a beautiful dress. it was a strapless dress with a beige top and all kinds of flowers embroidered that continued down in lines to the baby blue skirt that skirted out a tad. ginny's dress reminded elara heavily of cinderella's.

this prompted hermione, elara, and aurora to show their own dresses. aurora's was a stunning champagne pink tight v-neck dress with shiny rose-gold shapes around the top and bottom, as well as occasionally throughout the rest of the dress. hermione's dress was a beautiful periwinkle blue. it was long and flowly, and dropped off her shoulders elegantly. the different shades of blue were stunning. elara's was a beautiful long v-neck lavender color. it sparkled with every movement, and it had pockets. the girls debated for the longest time was the dresses were for, and they came to the conclusion there was going to be some sort of dance.

the journey to kings cross the next day was uncomfortable, owing to the fact that they were jammed in the back of the taxis with their trunks. crookshanks took quite a while to recover from the fireworks, and by the time they entered london, harry, ron, elara, and hermione were all severely scratched. they were very relieved to get out at king's cross, even though the rain was coming down harder than ever,and they got soaked carrying their trunks across the busy road and into the station.

elara was used to getting onto platform nine and three-quarters by now. it was a simple matter of walking straight through the apparently solid barrier dividing platforms nine and ten. the only tricky part was doing this in an unobtrusive way, so as to avoid attracting Muggle attention. they did it in groups today; harry, ron, elara, and hermione (the most conspicuous, since they were accompanied by pigwidgeon, jupiter, and crookshanks) went first; they leaned casually against the barrier, chatting unconcernedly, and slid sideways through it . . . and as they did so, platform nine and three-quarters materialized in front of them.

the hogwarts express, a gleaming scarlet steam engine, was already there, clouds of steam billowing from it, through which the many hogwarts students and parents on the platform appeared like dark ghosts. pigwidgeon became noisier than ever in response to the hooting of many owls through the mist. harry, ron, elara, and hermione set off to find seats, and were soon stowing their luggage in a compartment halfway along the train. they then hopped back down onto the platform to say good-bye to mrs. weasley, bill, and charlie.

"i might be seeing you all sooner than you think," said charlie,grinning, as he hugged ginny good-bye.

"why?" said fred keenly.

"you'll see," said charlie. "just don't tell percy i mentioned it . . . it's 'classified information, until such time as the ministry sees fit to release it,' after all."

"yeah, i sort of wish i were back at hogwarts this year," said bill,hands in his pockets, looking almost wistfully at the train.

"why?" said george impatiently.

"you're going to have an interesting year," said bill, his eyes twinkling. "i might even get time off to come and watch a bit of it. . . ."

"a bit of what?" said aurora.

"thanks for having us to stay, mrs. weasley," said hermione as they climbed on board, closed the door, and leaned out of the window to talk to her.

harry, elara, and aurora thanked mrs. weasley as well.

"oh it was my pleasure, dears," said mrs. weasley. "i'd invite you for christmas, but . . . well, i expect you're all going to want to stay at hogwarts, what with . . . one thing and another."

"mum!" said ron irritably. "what d'you three know that we don't?"

"you'll find out this evening, i expect," said mrs. weasley, smiling. "it's going to be very exciting — mind you, i'm very glad they've changed the rules —"

"what rules?" said harry, ron, elara, fred, george, and aurora together.

"i'm sure professor dumbledore will tell you. . . . now, behave,won't you? won't you, fred? and you, george? you too, rori. i'm afraid my boys have led you astray..."

"mum," said george, embarrassed. "she's half-fae, it's in her blood to misbehave."

the pistons hissed loudly and the train began to move.

"tell us what's happening at hogwarts!" fred bellowed out of the window as mrs. weasley, bill, and charlie sped away from them. "what rules are they changing?"

but mrs. weasley only smiled and waved. before the train had rounded the corner, she, bill, and charlie had disapparated.

harry, ron, elara, and hermione went back to their compartment. the thick rain splattering the windows made it very difficult to see out of them. ron undid his trunk, pulled out his ugly maroon dress robes, and flung them over pigwidgeon's cage to muffle his hooting.

"bagman wanted to tell us what's happening at hogwarts," he said grumpily, sitting down next to harry. "at the world cup, remember? but my own mother won't say. wonder what —"

"shh!" hermione whispered suddenly, pressing her finger to her lips and pointing toward the compartment next to theirs. harry, elara, and ron listened, and heard a familiar drawling voice drifting in through the open door.

". . . father actually considered sending me to durmstrang rather than hogwarts, you know. he knows the headmaster, yousee. well, you know his opinion of dumbledore — the man's sucha mudblood-lover — and durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riffraff. but mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so faraway. father says durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than hogwarts about the dark arts. durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defense rubbish we do. . . ."

hermione got up, tiptoed to the compartment door, and slid it shut, blocking out draco's voice.

"so he thinks durmstrang would have suited him, does he?" she said angrily. "i wish he had gone, then we wouldn't have to put up with him."

"my lovely cousin couldn't survive a day durmstrang," said elara amusedly. "he'd get his ferrety ass kicked within three seconds."

"durmstrang's another wizarding school?" said harry.

"yes," said hermione sniffily, "and it's got a horrible reputation. according to an appraisal of magical education in europe, it puts a lot of emphasis on the dark arts."

ron and harry had really no idea about different wizarding schools, so hermione explained to them about the rivalries, charms, and how to make something unplottable.

"but i think durmstrang must be somewhere in the far north,"said hermione thoughtfully. "somewhere very cold, because they've got fur capes as part of their uniforms."

"ah, think of the possibilities," said ron dreamily. "it would've been so easy to push malfoy off a glacier and make it look like an accident. . . . shame his mother likes him. . . ."

the rain became heavier and heavier as the train moved farther north. the sky was so dark and the windows so steamy that the lanterns were lit by midday. the lunch trolley came rattling along the corridor, and harry bought a large stack of cauldron cakes for them to share.

several of their friends looked in on them as the afternoon progressed, including seamus finnigan, dean thomas, aspen lovelace, and neville longbottom, a round-faced, extremely forgetful boy who had been brought up by his formidable witch of a grandmother. neville didn't hate elara like he had used too, so her presence wasn't a startling as it used to be.

seamus was still wearing his ireland rosette. some of its magic seemed to be wearing off now; it was still squeaking "troy — mullet — moran!"but in a very feeble and exhausted sort of way. after half an hour orso, hermione, growing tired of the endless quidditch talk, buried herself once more in the standard book of spells, grade 4, and started trying to learn a summoning charm.

draco and his goonies had interrupted at some point and made fun of ron's dress robes. elara had to admit they looked dreadful, but she would never make fun of ron for them. draco had also hinted he knew what was happening at hogwarts this year, which only made ron angrier.

when draco left, ron slammed the compartment door so hard that the glass shattered. hermione scolded him and repaired the glass without difficulty. ron's bad mood continued for the rest of the journey. he didn't talk much as they changed into their school robes, and was still glowering when the hogwarts express slowed down at last and finally stopped in the pitch-darkness of hogsmeade station.

as the train doors opened, there was a rumble of thunder overhead. hermione bundled up crookshanks in her cloak and ron left his dress robes over pigwidgeon as they left the train, headsbent and eyes narrowed against the downpour. the rain was now coming down so thick and fast that it was as though buckets of ice cold water were being emptied repeatedly over their heads.

"hi, hagrid!" harry yelled, seeing a gigantic silhouette at the far end of the platform.

"all righ', harry?" hagrid bellowed back, waving. "see yeh at the feast if we don' drown!"

first years traditionally reached hogwarts castle by sailing across the lake with hagrid.