they were to return to hogwarts on the knight bus, escorted once again by nymphie and lupin, both of whom were eating breakfast in the kitchen when elara, harry, ron, and hermione arrived there next morning. yhe adults seemed to have been midway through a whispered conversation when the door opened; all of them looked around hastily and fell silent.

after a hurried breakfast they pulled on jackets and scarves against the chilly gray January morning.

"good-bye, take care," said mrs. weasley, hugging them.

"see you harry, elara, and keep an eye out for snakes for me!" said mr. weasley genially, shaking their hands.

"will do, mr. weasley," said elara brightly. she's been in good spirits lately.

"five feet apart at all times," said ted gruffly, giving elara a hug.

"dad," groaned elara.

"yeah, dad," said nymphie, "you're being a drag. they're just gonna start snogging when they get to hogwarts anyways."

"no they won't," said ted, grinning, "because i've paid ron and hermione to keep them apart."

elara's head snapped over to her two friends, who were grinning ruefully.

"i'm going to make this so awkward," said ron brightly, with an evil glint in his eye.

"no dating, no snogging, no hand-holding, and no boys," said ted while andromeda gave elara a drawn-out hug.

"so girls then? because ginny — "

"elara!" cried ted.

"i'm kidding, i'm kidding!"

the door of number twelve slammed shut behind them. they followed lupin down the front steps. as she reached the pavement, elara looked around. number twelve was shrinking rapidly as those on either side of it stretched sideways, squeezing it out of sight; one blink later, it had gone.

"come on, the quicker we get on the bus the better," said elara, and elara thought there was nervousness in the glance she threw around the square. lupin flung out his right arm.

BANG.

a violently purple, triple-decker bus had appeared out of thin air in front of them, narrowly avoiding the nearest lamppost, which jumped backward out of its way.

a thin, pimply, jug-eared youth in a purple uniform leapt down onto the pavement and said, "welcome to the —"

"yes, yes, we know, thank you," said nymphie swiftly. "on, on, get on —

and she shoved elara forward toward the steps, past the conductor, who goggled at her and harry as they passed.

" 'ere — it's 'arry — !"

"if you shout his name i will curse you into oblivion," muttered nymphie menacingly, now shunting ginny and hermione forward.

"i've always wanted to go on this thing," said ron happily, placing himself in between elara and harry.

the knight bus in the early morning was crammed with an assortment of mismatched chairs grouped haphazardly around windows. some of these appeared to have fallen over when the bus stopped abruptly in grimmauld place; a few witches and wizards were still getting to their feet, grumbling, and somebody's shopping bag had slid the length of the bus; an unpleasant mixture of frog spawn, cockroaches, and custard creams was scattered all over the floor.

"looks like we'll have to split up," said nymphie briskly, looking around for empty chairs. "fred, george, and ginny, if you just take those seats at the back . . . remus can stay with you. . . ."

she, elara, harry, ron, and hermione proceeded up to the very top deck, where there were three chairs at the very front of the bus and two at the back. stan shunpike, the conductor, followed harry and ron eagerly to the back.

the bus set off again, swaying ominously. it rumbled around grimmauld square, weaving on and off the pavement, then, with another tremendous BANG, they were all flung backward; ron's chair toppled right over and pigwidgeon, who had been on his lap, burst out of his cage and flew twittering wildly up to the front of the bus where he fluttered down upon hermione's shoulder instead. elara, who had narrowly avoided falling by seizing a candle bracket, looked out of the window: they were now speeding down what appeared to be a motorway.

"just outside birmingham," said stan happily. "you keepin' well, then, 'arry? i seen your name in the paper loads over the summer, but it weren't never nuffink very nice. . . . i said to ern, i said, ' 'e didn't seem like a nutter when we met 'im, just goes to show, dunnit?' "

the knight Bus swayed alarmingly, overtaking a line of cars on the inside. hermione covered her eyes with her hands, pigwidgeon still swaying happily on her shoulder.

BANG.

chairs slid backward again as the knight bus jumped from the birmingham motorway to a quiet country lane full of hairpin bends. hedgerows on either side of the road were leaping out of their way as they mounted the verges. from here they moved to a main street in the middle of a busy town, then to a viaduct surrounded by tall hills, then to a windswept road between high-rise flats, each time with a loud BANG.

a few minutes later the knight bus screeched to a halt outside a small pub, which squeezed itself out of the way to avoid a collision. they could hear stan ushering the unfortunate madam marsh out of the bus and the relieved murmurings of her fellow passengers on the second deck. the bus moved on again, gathering speed, until —

BANG.

they were rolling through a snowy hogsmeade. harry caught a glimpse of the hog's head down its side street, the severed boar's head sign creaking in the wintry wind. flecks of snow hit the large window at the front of the bus. at last they rolled to a halt outside the gates to hogwarts.

lupin and tonks helped them off the bus with their luggage and then got off to say good-bye. elara glanced up at the three decks of the knight bus and saw all the passengers staring down at them, noses flat against the windows.

"you'll be safe once you're in the grounds," said nymphie, casting a careful eye around at the deserted road. "have a good term, okay?"

"look after yourselves," said lupin, shaking hands all round and reaching harry last.

"listen," said nymphie to elara quietly. "remember your number one job — keep harry's temper down. dad obviously doesn't want you to snog harry to do so, but me personally, i say go for it."

"if you don't shut it about harry," said elara teasingly, "i'm just going to start interrogated you about professor lupin."

"i've raised you well," said nymphie with a bright smile.

the seven of them struggled up the slippery drive toward the castle dragging their trunks. hermione was already talking about knitting a few elf hats before bedtime. elara glanced back when they reached the oak front doors; the knight bus had already gone.

the next day, the D.A. were continually approaching elara and harry in the corridors between classes, asking hopefully whether there would be a meeting that night.

"we'll let you know when the next one is," elara said over and over again.

"but i can't do it tonight, i've got to go to — er — remedial potions. . . ." said harry over and over again.

"you take remedial potions?" asked zacharias smith superciliously, having cornered harry in the entrance hall after lunch. "good lord, you must be terrible, snape doesn't usually give extra lessons, does he?"

as smith strode away in an annoyingly buoyant fashion, elara glared after him.

"shall i jinx him? i can easily get him from here," she said, raising her wand and taking aim between smith's shoulder blades.

"forget it," said harry dismally. "it's what everyone's going to think, isn't it? that i'm really stup —"

"hi, harry," said a voice behind them. elara turned around and found cho standing there.

"oh," said harry uncomfortably. "hi."

elara tried her very best not to glare at cho. hermione nudged elara in the side and gave her a look. ron shook his head, but looked hopeful to see a fight.

"had a good christmas?" asked cho.

"yeah, not bad," said harry.

"mine was pretty quiet," said cho. for some reason, she was looking rather embarrassed. "erm . . . there's another hogsmeade trip next month, did you see the notice?"

"what? oh no, i haven't checked the notice board since i got back. . . ."

"yes, it's on valentine's day. . . ."

"oh," said hermione suddenly. "i'm tutoring harry then, for potions. professor snape asked me to help him."

"but ron — "

"i'm taking lara!" said ron, grabbing elara's hand and holding it up. "yeah, because — because we're — we're in love — "

harry looked like he would love nothing more than to tackle ron. hermione and ron dragged harry and elara away and to the gryffindor tower before either of them hurt someone.

after harry went to his occlumency lessons, hermione dragged elara and ron to the library to work on umbridge's most recent ream of homework. other students, nearly all of them fifth years, sat at lamp-lit tables nearby, noses close to books, quills scratching feverishly, while the sky outside the mullioned windows grew steadily blacker. the only other sound was the slight squeaking of one of madam pince's shoes as the librarian prowled the aisles menacingly, breathing down the necks of those touching her precious books.

when harry sat down in the empty chair next to elara, she caught sight of him. he was very white, and his scar seemed to be showing up more clearly than usual.

"how did it go?" hermione whispered.

"are you feeling all right, harry?" whispered elara concernedly.

"yeah . . . fine . . . i dunno," said harry impatiently, wincing. "listen . . . i've just realized something. . . ."

and he told them what he had just seen and deduced.

"so . . . so, are you saying . . ." whispered ron, as madam pince swept past, squeaking slightly, "that the weapon — the thing you-know-who's after — is in the ministry of magic?"

"in the Department of mysteries, it's got to be," harry whispered. "i saw that door when your dad took me down to the courtrooms for my hearing and it's definitely the same one he was guarding when the snake bit him."

"the weapon is a person, you two," said elara exasperatedly. "there must be something in the department that could help voldemort get her."

"her?" said harry, ron, and hermione together.

"or...anyone, really."

hermione let out a long, slow sigh.

"lara, was turgid pod more trying to get through that door when he was arrested?" she breathed.

elara nodded

"how come sturgis was trying to break in when he's on our side?" said ron.

"well, i don't know," hermione admitted. "that is a bit odd. . . ."

they look around at elara.

"you three are the bane of my existence," grumbled elara. "but, there's reliable information that says sturgis may or may not have been totally himself when breaking in."

"so what's in the department of mysteries?" harry asked elara.

she chewed her lip. "i — i can't give you that information. i can't."

"has your dad ever mentioned anything about it, ron?"

"i know they call the people who work in there 'unspeakables,'" said ron, frowning. "because no one really seems to know what they do in there. . . . weird place to have a weapon . . ."

"it's not weird at all, it makes perfect sense," said hermione. "it will be something top secret that the ministry has been developing, i expect — "

"harry, are you sure you're all right?" asked elara.

for harry had just run both his hands hard over his forehead as though trying to iron it.

"yeah . . . fine . . ." he said, lowering his hands, which were trembling. "i just feel a bit . . . i don't like occlumency much. . . ."

elara wrapped her hands in his own and squeezed them, hoping to grant him at least temporary peace of mind.

"if you want... i could always teach you," suggested elara gently.

"you know occlumency?" said hermione, surprised.

"i didn't before this year... its like when i spoke french to that one girl during the cup even though i had no idea how... i can just do it — i mean, i could probably teach you, it'd definitely be more enjoyable than lessons with snape."

"i don't expect there'd be a lot of teaching going on," said ron, grinning.

"ron — "

"let's go to the common room," said hermione quickly. "harry needs to rest."

but the common room was packed and full of shrieks of laughter and excitement; fred, george, and aurora were demonstrating their latest bit of joke shop merchandise.

"headless hats!" shouted george, as fred and aurora waved a pointed hat dec- orated with a fluffy pink feather at the watching students. "two galleons each — watch fred, now!"

fred swept the hat onto his head, beaming. for a second he merely looked rather stupid, then both hat and head vanished.

several girls screamed, but everyone else was roaring with laughter.

"and off again!" shouted aurora, and gred's hand groped for a moment in what seemed to be thin air over his shoulder; then his head reappeared as he swept the pink-feathered hat from it again.

"how do those hats work, then?" said hermione, distracted from her homework and watching fred, george, and aurora. "i mean, obviously it's some kind of invisibility spell, but it's rather clever to have extended the field of invisibility beyond the boundaries of the charmed object. . . . i'd imagine the charm wouldn't have a very long life though. . . ."

elara did not answer as she had no idea.

"i'm going to have to do this tomorrow," harry muttered, pushing the books he had just taken out of his bag back inside it.

"well, write it in your homework planner then!" said hermione encouragingly. "so you don't forget!"

elara, harry, and ron exchanged looks as harry reached into his bag, withdrew the planner and opened it tentatively.

"don't leave it till later, you big second-rater!" chided the book as harry scribbled down umbridge's homework.

hermione beamed at it.

"i think i'll go to bed," said harry, stuffing the homework planner back into his bag and making a mental note to drop it in the fire the first opportunity he got.

he walked across the common room, dodging george, who tried to put a headless hat on him, and reached the stone staircase to the boys' dormitories. elara, ron, and hermione watched him go. there was a magnificently unsettling feeling in elara's stomach.

"i'm going to go check on him," said elara, standing up. "his defenses are low."

elara shot a worried look at ron and hermione and set off towards the peace and cool of the dark staircases. everyone was still in the common room, so everything was quiet except for a laughing noise towards harry's dormitory. she quickened her pace, skipping a stair in between her steps as the laughing grew louder.

the laughter was coming from harry. elara felt almost frozen as she saw him laying on the floor laughing maniacally. he looked in immense pain. seeing him like this pulled elara out of her state of stupor and she immediately came to his side.

elara tried shaking him awake. her only option was to hit him across the face. she raised her hand and brought it down. the laughing was punctuated with a cry of pain from harry. the laughter continued, although it sounded less ecstatic and maniacal.

"harry?" elara coaxed. "harry, it's all right."

harry opened his eyes and as he did so, the laughter died away. he lay panting on the floor and staring up at the ceiling. elara grasped his hand and placed her free hand on the his back, helping him sit up.

"can you tell me what's happened?" said elara gently.

"i . . . dunno . . ." harry gasped. "he's really happy . . . really happy . . ."

elara hummed quietly in response and rubbed circles on his back. she didn't want to press him for information.

"something good's happened," mumbled harry. he was shaking badly and looked very sick. "something he's been hoping for."

he took deep breaths, looking like he was going to vomit. elara quickly conjured a bucket and placed it in his lap.

"it's okay," said elara in a soft voice, helping harry to his feet. "you should rest, harry. you've been through a lot today."

she helped him over to his bed. harry nodded without any conviction and slumped back on his pillows. elara took the bucket from his arms and placed it on top the bedside table.

"i'll be back with some water."

elara exited the room and wiped her forehead. seeing harry in the state he's in made her more than worried. instead of fetching a glass of water, she scurried to her room and found her special dreamless sleep potion and her calming draught.

harry, however, refused to take the potions when she came back.

"no, you need them more than me," he tried insisting, but his voice came out as weak.

"harry james potter, if you do not take these potions right now i will force them down your throat."

"you're crazy," said harry, but nevertheless tipping the calming draught to his mouth.

"yeah, crazy with worry, you idiot."

AUTHORS NOTE

-- she do be kinda soft doe

written: february 8, 2020

published: april 16, 2020