they poured over book after book to no avail. hermione forced them to leave the library (crazy, right?) when viktor krum showed up so they could work without hearing his fan club giggling over him.

elara barely slept that night. she dreamed of a dragon that strongly resembled her patronus and a robe ripping as a spike came in contact with someone on a broom, and worse of all, lots of blood.

she and hermione were in herbology, wondering where harry had gone. hermione was afraid he was in trouble, and elara was afraid harry had gotten a detention or something. he burst in thirty minutes later. for the first time since he found out about the dragons, harry had a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

"lara, hermione," harry whispered, when he had sped into greenhouse three minutes later, uttering a hurried apology to professor sprout as he passed her. "help — i need you to help me."

"what d'you think we've been trying to do, harry?" hermione whispered back, her eyes round with anxiety over the top of the quivering flutterby bush she was pruning with the help of elara.

"i need to learn how to do a summoning charm properly by tomorrow afternoon."

and so they practiced. they didn't have lunch, but headed for a free classroom, where harry tried with all his might to make various objects fly across the room toward him. he was still having problems. the books and quills kept losing heart halfway across the room and dropping like stones to the floor.

"harry, you have to concentrate," said elara, trying to keep her voice steady.

"what d'you think i'm trying to do?" said harry angrily. "a great big dragon keeps popping up in my head for some reason. . . . okay, try again. . . ."

harry and elara skipped divination to keep practicing, but hermione refused point-blank to skive off arithmancy. harry kept practicing and practicing to the point where he started getting the wand movements wrong. elara had to correct him by placing her hand on his and moving the wand, but that seemed to throw harry more.

"why don't we get something to eat?" elara suggested when she heard harry's stomach growl.

instead of going to the feast, they ventured to the kitchens to gather as much food as they can. arms full of snacks and drinks, they returned to the empty classroom and began practicing again. hermione joined them not long after, and helped herself to a bag of pretzels. they kept practicing until past midnight. they would have stayed longer, but peeves turned up and, pre- tending to think that harry wanted things thrown at him, started chucking chairs across the room. harry, elara, and hermione left in a hurry before the noise attracted filch, and went back to the gryffindor common room, which was now mercifully empty.

at two o'clock in the morning, harry stood near the fireplace, surrounded by heaps of objects: books, quills, several upturned chairs, an old set of gobstones, and neville's toad, trevor. only in the last hour had harry really got the hang of the summoning charm.

"that's better, harry, that's loads better," hermione said, looking exhausted but very pleased.

"yeah, now i'm eighty-nine percent sure you won't die," said elara, feigning cheerfulness.

"well, now we know what to do next time i can't manage a spell," harry said, throwing a rune dictionary back to elara, so he could try again, "threaten me with a dragon. right . . ." he raised his wand once more. "accio dictionary!"

the heavy book soared out of elara's hand, flew across the room, and harry caught it.

"harry, i really think you've got it!" said hermione delightedly.

"just as long as it works tomorrow," jarry said. "the firebolt's going to be much farther away than the stuff in here, it's going to be in the castle, and i'm going to be out there on the grounds. . . ."

"you'll be fine," said elara firmly "as long as you concentrate and don't make stupid decisions, it'll come. you two better get some sleep . . . especially you, harry, you're going to need it."

"you're not going to bed?" harry asked mid-yawn.

"nope," said elara with a smile. "i'm going stargazing."

"okay, crazy."

the atmosphere in the school was one of great tension and excitement. lessons were to stop at midday, giving all the students time to get down to the dragons' enclosure — though of course, they didn't yet know what they would find there.

harry, elara, and hermione were at lunch when mcgonagall rushed over to them.

"potter, the champions have to come down onto the grounds now. . . . you have to get ready for your first task."

"okay," said harry, standing up, his fork falling onto his plate with a clatter.

"good luck, harry," hermione whispered. "you'll be fine!"

"yeah," said harry in a voice that was most unlike his own.

"hey, look at me," elara said softly. "you got this, okay?"

harry gave a small nod and went off with professor mcgonagall. hermione pushed her plate of food away, insisting she had lost her appetite. elara didn't feel much like eating, either. nevertheless, she finished her sandwich. down the table, ron was looking at them in an odd sort of fashion. elara scowled at him and he turned away.

it seemed like no time passed at all, and hermione left to get seats. elara went to try and get into the champion's tent to talk to harry. if he was feeling even half as nervous elara was, he'd be throwing up.

she was able to dodge around crouch without much suspicion. elara neared the tent, and was able to slip through a flap. harry, credric, fleur, and krum didn't seem to notice her. cedric looked impossibly green, fleur didn't look like her usually composed self, krum looked surlier than ever, and harry looked like he might pass out.

"harry," elara whispered, and he whirled around so fast tat elara thought he might've just given himself whiplash.

"you scared me!" harry whisper-yelled, eyes wide from anxiety.

"sorry. listen, i know hermione and i've told you this, but you really have to concentrate. d'you know what kind of dragon you're facing yet?"

"hungarian horntail," harry said, growing paler.

"ah, well," elara said sheepishly. horntails were infamous for their bloodlust and aggression. "if accio doesn't work, just use your stag patronus to distract it."

"that's... actually not a bad idea."

"no, harry. that was supposed to make you feel better. if you use your patronus i will enter that ring and drag you out by your ear -- "

her sentence was cut off by harry, surprisingly, attacking her in a hug. elara stumbled backwards a few steps, smiling as she remembered how she hugged harry just like this only a few months before. however, they sprung apart quickly as the loud clicking of a camera and a bright flash interrupted them.

"oh, young love!" a woman that elara assumed to be rita skeeter had entered the tent, and was now staring at the two.

elara had waited for this moment ever since rita published the first article about her.

"you two will make the front page!" rita said excitedly, gesturing to her quick-notes quill and cameraman.

"it's a pleasure to finally meet you, rita," said elara, her voice was pleasant, yet full of ice as she extended her hand out.

rita stared at it in disgust for a few moments before disdainfully shaking it flimsily.

"you 'ave no business here," said krum, looking a tad angry.

"thees tent eez for champions and friends," spoke up fleur, regaining some of her posture as she glared at rita.

rita whirled around, and elara mouth 'thank you!' to her saviors. krum nodded slightly. fleur winked.

"no matter," said rita after a moment's silence.

she stalked out of the tent. fleur sighed heavily and ran a hand over her ponytail.

"horrible woman," said fleur. "she said i vas 'vapid'."

elara laughed, "i owe you guys one."

with one final hug to harry, elara snuck out the tent to find hermione. much to elara's disdain, she had found seats next to ron. elara groaned loudly as she went to stand next to hermione, but not before throwing the dirtiest look she could muster at ron.

cedric transfigured a rock into a labrador retriever, which made elara hide her face for the first half of his go, as she didn't want to see the dog get hurt. but the dragon thought cedric looked much tastier, so it went after him. he was able to retrieve the egg, however, he was burned pretty badly.

fleur used a spell to put the dragon into a trance, which was a really cool bit of magic. she was doing exceptionally well until a great jet of flame shot out and caught her skirt on fire. she used aguamenti to put it out, but other than that, she was fine.

krum used a spell that attacked the dragon's eyes, as that was the weakest part. elara was surprised he wasn't flying, like harry would be doing when it was his go. the dragon stumbled around and took out half the real eggs out, which was't supposed to happen.

bagman blew the whistle, which signified it was harry's turn to go. the crowd watched with bated breath as harry emerged through a gap in the enclosure fence. there were hundreds and hundreds of faces staring down at him from stands that had been magicked there. and there was the horntail, at the other end of the enclosure, crouched low over her clutch of eggs, her wings half-furled, her evil, yellow eyes upon harry, a monstrous, scaly, black lizard, thrashing her spiked tail, leaving yard-long gouge marks in the hard ground. the crowd was making a great deal of noise, both friendly and not.

harry raised his wand.

elara clutched onto hermione's arm as he shouted, "accio firebolt!"

the crowd waited with bated breath as they scanned the skies and forest below, searching for harry's broom to appear. suddenly someone shouted and pointed towards the forest. every person in the crowd turned their head and watched closely. the firebolt was hurtling toward harry around the edge of the woods, soaring into the enclosure, and stopping dead in midair beside him, waiting for him to mount.

bagman said something, but elara was too focused on the scene unfolding in front of her. harry had swung his leg over the broom and kicked off from the ground. he soared upward, and he became a speck in the harry. people were whispering, wondering if he was just flying away to escape, but he had dived sharply.

the horntail's head followed harry; he pulled out of the dive just in time; a jet of fire had been released exactly where harry would have been had he not swerved away. elara had a death grip on hermione, and hermione had a death grip on elara. ron looked like he was going to faint.

"great scott, he can fly!" yelled bagman as the crowd shrieked and gasped. "are you watching this, mr. krum?"

harry soared higher in a circle; the horntail was still following his progress; its head revolving on its long neck — if harry kept this up, the dragon would be nicely dizzy, but elara was afraid it would be breathing fire again.

harry plummeted just as the horntail opened its mouth, but this time he was less lucky — he missed the flames, but the tail came whipping up to meet him instead, and as he swerved to the left, one of the long spikes grazed his shoulder, ripping his robes.

elara uttered a small scream. hermione hid her face in elara's shoulder before peering up at harry again. ron was muttering something that sounded like, "yeah, harry. you get him... you got it..."

harry zoomed around the back of the horntail.

"he's trying to get it to follow him!" hermione said breathlessly, eyes wide with anxiety.

"what an idiot," said elara and ron at the same time.

they peered at each other. elara cracked a small smile, and ron looked slightly relieved.

the horntail didn't seem to want to take off, she was too protective of her eggs. though she writhed and twisted, furling and unfurling her wings and keeping those fearsome yellow eyes on harry, she was afraid to move too far from them.

harry began to fly, first this way, then the other, not near enough to make her breathe fire to stave him off, but still posing a sufficient threat to ensure she kept her eyes on him. her head swayed this way and that, watching him out of those vertical pupils, her fangs bared.

"i'm sorry, lara!" shouted ron suddenly, taking in the scene in front of him. "you were right! someone's trying to do him in!"

"FINALLY!" elara and hermione shrieked.

" -- and i'm sorry i implied you were a death eater!"

elara just smiled, reached behind hermione, and punched ron hard on the shoulder. she would have been overjoyed to have her friend back if harry wasn't fighting a nursing dragon that had already done him harm.

harry flew higher. the horntail's head rose with him, her neck now stretched to its fullest extent, still swaying, like a snake before its charmer.

harry rose a few more feet, and she let out a roar of exasperation. he was like a fly to her, a fly she was longing to swat; her tail thrashed again, but he was too high to reach now. she shot fire into the air, which he dodged. her jaws opened wide.

and then she reared, spreading her great, black, leathery wings at last, as wide as those of a small airplane — and harry dived. before the dragon knew what he had done, or where he had disappeared to, he was speeding toward the ground as fast as he could go, toward the eggs now unprotected by her clawed front legs — he had taken his hands off his firebolt — he had seized the golden egg —

and with a huge spurt of speed, harry was off, he was soaring out over the stands, the heavy egg safely under his uninjured arm. hermione and elara joined hands and began jumping up and down in glee. harry wasn't dead, harry wasn't dead, harry wasn't dead.

"look at that!" bagman yelled. "will you look at that! our youngest champion is quickest to get his egg! well, this is going to shorten the odds on mr. potter!"

harry was ushered back to the tent by mcgonagall. hermione had seized ron and elara and began dragging them through the celebrating crowd. elara's heart was lighter than it had been in weeks. in a moment of curiosity, elara cast a look at her wrist. the wish bracelet was still there.

they darted inside the tent, where they were immediately met by harry. elara sprung onto him and wrapped him in a hug all while muttering, "you're so stupid," over and over again, although her voice was filled with pride and excitement

"harry, you were brilliant!" hermione said squeakily. "you were amazing! you really were!"

elara pulled away with a wide smile on her face. she looked to ron, who was very white and staring at harry as though he were a ghost.

"harry," he said, very seriously, "whoever put your name in that goblet — i — i reckon they're trying to do you in!"

harry stared at ron in shock before recovering.

"caught on, have you?" said harry coldly. "took you long enough."

elara wanted to give a stern look at harry, but in turn, she snorted quite loudly. hermione looked nervously between the two. ron opened his mouth uncertainly.

"it's okay," harry said, before ron could get the words out. "forget it."

"no," said ron, "i shouldn't've —"

"forget it," harry said.

ron grinned nervously at him, and harry grinned back. hermione burst into tears. elara started laughing.

"there's nothing to cry or laugh about!" harry told two girls, bewildered.

"you two are so stupid!" they shouted, hermione stamping her foot on the floor and elara wrapping harry and ron into a hug. hermione joined in, and then dashed away, now positively howling.

"barking mad, you and her," ron told elara, shaking his head. "c'mon, they'll be putting up your scores, harry. . . ."

harry picked up the golden egg and his firebolt. they ducked out of the tent, ron and elara on either side of harry. ron was talking impossibly fast, giving a play by play of what the other champions had done. elara smiled.

"it's marks out of ten from each one," ron said, and elara, along with harry, squinted to see the first judge, madame maxime, raise her wand in the air. what looked like a long silver ribbon shot out of it, which twisted itself into a large figure eight.

"not bad!" said ron.

"she probably took marks off for your shoulder," said elara. "which, by the way, i have not forgiven you for yet."

harry cast a look that was a mix between bewilderment and frustrated, before turning his attention to mr. crouch, who had put up a nine.

"looking good!" ron yelled, thumping harry on the back.

elara snorted and nudged harry's uninjured arm. next, dumbledore. he too put up a nine. the crowd was cheering harder than ever. ludo bagman — ten.

"ten?" said harry in disbelief. "but . . . i got hurt. . . . what's he playing at?"

"oh, come on, harry!" elara yelled excitedly.

and now karkaroff raised his wand. he paused for a moment, and then a number shot out of his wand too — four.

"what?" elara and ron yelled furiously.

"four? you lousy, biased scumbag, you gave krum ten!" continued ron, angrily shaking his fist in karkaroff's direction. elara couldn't find it in her to be mad, as ron's indignation was slightly hilarious.