worse of all, she was only really able to talk to harry about it, who's horrible at feelings. telling hermione or ron meant telling them what her parents were imprisoned for. her mood change didn't go unnoticed. hermione constantly casted worried looks at elara in classes and during mealtimes. ron had started cracking jokes more often.

the mood in the castle as they entered june became excited and tense again. everyone was looking forward to the third task, which would take place a week before the end of term. elara was distracting herself by helping harry practice hexes at every available moment. elara felt more confident about harry completing this task than either of the others. difficult and dangerous though it would undoubtedly be, harry had managed to find his way past monstrous creatures and enchanted barriers before now, and this time he had some notice, some chance to prepare himself for what lay ahead.

tired of walking in on harry, hermione, elara, and ron all over the school, professor mcgonagall had given them permission to use the empty transfiguration classroom at lunchtimes. harry had soon mastered the impediment curse, a spell to slow down and obstruct attackers; the reductor curse, which would enable him to blast solid objects out of his way; and the four-point spell, a useful discovery of hermione's that would make his wand point due north, therefore enabling him to check whether he was going in the right direction within the maze. he was still having trouble with the shield charm, though. this was supposed to cast a temporary, invisible wall around himself that deflected minor curses; elara managed to shatter it with a well-placed jelly-legs jinx, and harry wobbled around the room for ten minutes afterward before she had looked up the counter-jinx.

"you're still doing really well," elara said encouragingly, looking down her list and crossing off those spells they had already learned. "these are bound to come in handy."

"come and look at this," said ron, who was standing by the window. he was staring down onto the grounds. "what's malfoy doing?"

harry, elara, and hermione went to see. malfoy, crabbe, and goyle were standing in the shadow of a tree below. crabbe and goyle seemed to be keeping a lookout; both were smirking. malfoy was holding his hand up to his mouth and speaking into it.

"he looks like he's using a walkie-talkie," said harry curiously.

"what's a walkie-talkie?" said elara, looking between hermione and harry.

"he can't be," said hermione, "i've told you, those sorts of things don't work around hogwarts. come on, harry," she added briskly, turning away from the window and moving back into the middle of the room, "let's try that shield charm again."

the morning of june twentieth, aspen and hermione dragged elara out of bed. she'd officially turned fifteen. the way down to the great hall for breakfast, she recieved many 'happy birthday's from housemates and classmates. apparently, dobby had taken it upon himself to cook elara an extra special breakfast, as there was a large stack of fluffy pancakes on a plate. elara was more than happy to share.

the festivities were enough to distract elara from the looming third task. she'd soon forgotten about her parents, and began to feel like herself again. hermione bought elara another new journal, as hers had filled up again. ron gifted elara a mug that would fill up with coffee whenever you'd pour water into it. harry gave elara a lamp that would light up the ceiling of a room to look like the night sky. ginny bought elara a pair of 'vans', the muggle shoes elara gave ginny for christmas, so they could match. even fleur dropped by and gifted a tin full of french chocolate.

turns out, rita had written a story about how harry was deranged and dangerous featuring his episode in trelawney's classroom. what confused harry, ron, elara, and hermione was how she'd known about it. hermione had gotten and idea, and dashed off to the library. harry was called to do champion stuff by mcgonagall the morning of the third task.

and so, ron and elara set off for their history of magic exam. they moved as slowly as possible as they headed towards their inevitable doom. ron had fallen asleep halfway through the exam. elara tore a sheet of paper off from her test, balled it up, and chucked it at ron's head. he startled awake, and glared at elara, who was trying to repress laughter.

they went back for lunch. harry and hermione still weren't there. elara and ron helped themselves to food until someone had clapped ron's shoulder, causing him to lose the pile of mashed potatoes that sat on his fork.

"mum — bill!" said ron, looking stunned, as harry rejoined the gryffindor table. "what're you doing here?"

"come to watch harry in the last task!" said mrs. weasley brightly. "i must say, it makes a lovely change, not having to cook. how was your exam?"

"oh . . . okay," said ron. "couldn't remember all the goblin rebels' names, so i invented a few. it's all right," he said, helping himself to a cornish pasty, while mrs. weasley looked stern, "they're all called stuff like bodrod the bearded and urg the unclean; it wasn't hard. fell asleep though. lara had to throw stuff at me."

at the mention of elara, mrs. weasley went slightly rigid.

"hello, mrs. weasley," said elara, her smile faltering.

"hello," she said stiffly back.

harry looked between them, then said, "mrs. weasley, you didn't believe that rubbish rita skeeter wrote in witch weekly, did you? because lara's not my girlfriend."

"and she didn't snog me," said ron through a mouth full of pudding.

"or me," said fred as he sat down with ginny.

"or me," george came up with aurora just seconds after.

"or me!" hermione came running up, red in the face as if she'd ran two hundred yards.

"oh!" said mrs. weasley. "no — of course i didn't!"

but she became considerably warmer toward elara after that.

the afternoon went by considerably quick. at the evening feast, ludo bagman and cornelius fudge had joined the staff table. bagman looked quite cheerful, but cornelius fudge, who was sitting next to madame maxime, looked stern and was not talking. madame maxime was concentrating on her plate, and elara thought her eyes looked red. hagrid kept glancing along the table at her.

there were more courses than usual, but harry didn't eat much, no matter how hard anyone tried to persuade him to. as the enchanted ceiling overhead began to fade from blue to a dusky purple, dumbledore rose to his feet at the staff table, and silence fell.

"ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes' time, i will be asking you to make your way down to the quidditch field for the third and final task of the triwizard tournament. will the champions please follow mr. bagman down to the stadium now."

harry stood up and elara caught his hand. "good luck, harry," she whispered. he nodded and continued out the hall with cedric, krum, and fleur. the gryffindors all along the table were applauding him.

ten minutes later, they had arrived to the quidditch pitch and the stands had begun to fill; the air was full of excited voices and the rumbling of feet as the hundreds of students filed into their seats. the sky was a deep, clear blue now, and the first stars were starting to appear. elara had managed to save everyone seats half-way up the stands.

the four champions walked away in different directions, to station themselves around the maze. bagman now pointed his wand at his throat, muttered something, and his magically magnified voice echoed into the stands.

"ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the triwizard tournament is about to begin! let me remind you how the points currently stand! tied in first place, with eighty-five points each — mr. cedric diggory and mr. harry potter, both of hogwarts school!" the cheers and applause sent birds from the forbidden forest fluttering into the darkening sky. "in second place, with eighty points — mr. viktor krum, of durmstrang institute!" more applause. "and in third place — miss fleur delacour, of beauxbatons academy!"

harry waved up at mrs. weasley, bill, ron, hermione, and elara, and they waved back, beaming at him.

"so . . . on my whistle, harry and cedric!" said bagman. "three — two — one —"

he gave a short blast on his whistle, and harry and cedric hurried forward into the maze. a bit of time later, he gave another short blast, and krum hurried off into the maze. another short amount of time later, fleur was permitted to enter.

everyone wondered what to do now. they couldn't exactly watch, so idle conversation was made as they surveyed the sky for any trace of red sparks. they were only able to see flashes of spells being casted in the depths of the maze's shadows. conversation was sprung back to life when they heard a piercing scream that sounded like fleur. there were no red sparks. was she hurt?

there was a short span of time, before another person started screaming. it wasn't feminine like the last one. it was either harry or cedric -- krum's voice was too deep. elara chewed on her nails as the screams kept coming. they stopped, and a moment later, red sparks were shot into the sky.

hermione, elara, and ron began whispering hurriedly to each other. there'd been two screams, and one shower of red sparks. what was happening?

there was another long stretch of time, but some shouting had alerted everyone to a string of spells being casted towards the end of the maze. there was another long stretch of time.

"i hope they're alright!" said hermione worriedly.

"oh, they'll be alright. they've gotten through dragons and the black lake so...." elara felt a sharp pain in her head. she winced and clapped a hand up to her forehead.

elara heard the siren call she'd been hearing frequently in her dreams again. it was loud, as if it was screaming in her ear.

"are you alright?"

"yeah, i'm just -- " elara dropped off her sentence when she began disassociating from herself. she blinked her eyes a few times, wondering if she was dehydrated. the call was getting louder and louder and louder. the sound caused elara to wince in pain as it grew so loud she could hardly bare it.

the seventh time she opened her eyes, however, she was no longer in the stands. she was in an unfamiliar graveyard with harry, cedric, and the triwizard cup.

AUTHORS NOTE

-- this be short yo

JANUARY 22, 2020