said hermione.

"i've told you," harry muttered. "snape reckons i can carry on with lara now i've got the basics. . . ."

"snape said that? i thought he saw you two snogging," said ron through a mouthful of buttered toast.

"and you will too, if you don't shut it," said elara threateningly, pointing her knife that was dripping with strawberry jelly at him.

"that's as bad as seeing gin snog michael corner, except worse."

"so you've stopped having funny dreams?" said hermione skeptically.

"pretty much," said harry, looking at his plate.

elara raised an eyebrow at harry. as much as snape hated talking to elara, especially willingly, he would've said something to her if he wanted elara to continue teaching harry occlumency.

"well, i don't think snape should stop until you're absolutely sure you can control them!" said hermione indignantly. "harry, i think you should go back to him and ask —"

"no," said harry forcefully. "just drop it, hermione, okay?"

"'mione, its okay. i can teach him," said elara gently.

"not without supervision, you won't," pushed back hermione.

"i should write nymphie to see if my dad's died, 'cause you seem to be channeling his spirit," said elara angrily, shoving around her scrambled eggs.

it was the first day of the easter holidays and hermione, as was her custom, had spent a large part of the day drawing up study schedules for the four of them. elara, harry and ron had let her do it — it was easier than arguing with her and, in any case, they might come in useful.

just as hermione handed them their study schedules, elara leaned over to whisper to harry, "snape didn't really let you off lessons, did he?"

"well, he did in a way," said harry sheepishly.

"harry james potter, what did you do?"

"i may have seen my dad and his friends bully snape in the penseive..."

"oh, harry."

"it wasn't my fault!" harry whisper-yelled. "he got really mad and kicked me out."

elara took a deep breath.

"i'll help you," she said reluctantly. harry's face lit up. "no, i mean like i'm actually going to teach you."

they fell silent until hermione spoke.

"i saw cho earlier," said hermione tentatively, "and she looked really miserable too. . . . have you two had a row again, harry?"

"wha — oh yeah, we have," said harry absent-mindedly.

"what about?"

"that sneak friend of hers, marietta," said harry, "and maybe about lara."

"i heard that marietta girl gossiping about lara!" said ron angrily, setting down his study schedule. "she was saying all these horrible things, lara, and if you heard, it wouldn't have gone well."

"no! don't make her angry!" cried hermione, standing up from her chair.

"she deserves to know," persisted ron, standing up too. "'mione, if even you heard what she was saying, you'd fight her!"

"then lara definitely doesn't need to know!"

elara watched amusedly, swinging her head back and forth as if she were watching a tennis match.

the weather grew breezier, brighter, and warmer as the holidays passed, but elara was stuck with the rest of the fifth and seventh years, who were all trapped inside, traipsing back and forth to the library. harry said that his bad mood had no other cause but the approaching exams, and as their fellow gryffindors were sick of studying themselves, his excuse went almost unchallenged. harry had never been this moody over exams before.

"hey, boy wonder," said elara, nudging harry on the shoulder. "easter eggs arrived."

she handed him a handsome chocolate egg decorated with small, iced snitches and, according to the packaging, containing a bag of fizzing whizbees. harry looked at it for a moment and his flashed with some sort of sadness..

"all right," said elara, turning to face him. "something's wrong."

"nothing's wrong," said harry gruffly.

"harry james potter, i know you. something's wrong. not talking about it will only make it so, so much worse," said elara gently.

"i — its just, in the pensieve, i saw my dad and his friends be mean to snape. at first, it seemed normal, you know? i hate snape, my dad hated snape, and i assumed it was because snape deserved it — because everyone always made it seem like they were the first 'fred and george' of the school. and they wouldn't be really mean to someone unless they really deserved it, like malfoy.

"but my mum stood up for snape and asked why my dad was flipping him over in the air and he said, 'because he exists.' everyone's told me that my dad was wonderful and funny and friendly, but in the memory, it really doesn't seem that way. so i — i don't know, its just weird."

elara stared at him for awhile. her mind was turning in all different directions, trying to figure out how to react to this mess. elara'd been raised knowing her biological parents were shitty as hell, and had always known how to cope with it. by now it had become second nature, so there was no way to describe it in words.

"well... i, um, i don't — i wouldn't worry too much about it. snape's horrible, you and i both know that. memories are different to each person who experiences them. lets take christmas day, what do you remember?"

harry grinned slightly.

"i remember being so moody the whole day, but every time i saw you, i'd feel better. i remember the happiness high you were on after you signed the adoption papers, um — how your shoulders lifted after you apologized to mrs. longbottom, oh, your face when i told you i fancied you, how red your face was before we kissed, oh — and i remember exactly when your hair turned pink because i had — "

"okay," said elara, clearing her throat. "see, i don't remember any of that. all i remember from the papers was a burst of happiness and a mess of tears, seeing miss longbottom walk back to the curtained off ward, your face when i told you i wasn't mad at your anymore, how nervous you looked before we kissed, and slamming my head against the door when nymphie caught us. see, we all perceive things differently."

"i wish i could talk to sirius," harry muttered. "but i know i can't."

harry unwrapped his easter egg, broke off a large bit, and put it into his mouth.

"well," said elara slowly, helping herself to a bit of egg too, "if you really want to talk to sirius, i expect we could think of a way to do it. . . ."

"come on," said harry hopelessly. "with umbridge policing the fires and reading all our mail?"

"the thing about being me," said elara, "is that you sort of think anything's possible if you've got enough nerve."

harry looked at her and smiled.

"you're amazing, did you know that — "

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

"oh damn," whispered elara, jumping to her feet. "i forgot —"

madam pince was swooping down upon them, her shriveled face contorted with rage.

"chocolate in the library!" she screamed. "out — out — OUT!"

and whipping out her wand, she caused their books, bags, and ink bottles to chase them from the library, whacking them repeatedly over the head as they ran.

as though to underline the importance of their upcoming examinations, a batch of pamphlets, leaflets, and notices concerning various wizarding careers appeared on the tables in gryffindor tower shortly before the end of the holidays, along with yet another notice on the board, which read:

all fifth years will be required to attend a short meeting with their head of house during the first week of the summer term, in which they will be given the opportunity to discuss their future careers. times of individual appointments are listed below.

elara looked down the list and found that she was expected in professor mcgonagall's office at half-past two on monday, which would mean missing most of divination, thank god. she and the other fifth years spent a considerable part of the final weekend of the easter break reading all the career information that had been left there for their perusal.

"well, i don't fancy healing," said ron on the last evening of the holidays. he was immersed in a leaflet that carried the crossed bone-and-wand emblem of st. mungo's on its front. "it says here you need at least an e at n.e.w.t. level in potions, herbology, transfiguration, charms, and defense against the dark arts. i mean . . . blimey. . . . don't want much, do they?"

"i want to be a healer," said elara indignantly, snatching the brochure from him.

"and not an auror?" said ron, scandalized.

"well," elara considered something for a moment. "maybe a healer who comes on missions? like, an auror, but i specialize in healing?"

"when would that be useful?" snorted ron.

"oh, i don't know, ronald, maybe when someone takes your arm off, and you beg me for help, but i won't. why? because you made fun of me for wanting to be a healer," retorted elara.

"merlin, i don't want you on my team."

"me neither."

"you're bickering like an old married couple," observed hermione amusedly from behind her pamphlet on muggle relations.

"oh, you mean like how you and ron bicker? then, yes," said elara.

"hey," said next to harry. elara looked around; fred and george had come to join them. "elara's had a word with us about you," said fred, stretching out his legs on the table in front of them and causing several booklets on careers with the ministry of magic to slide off onto the floor. "she says you need to talk to sirius?"

"what?" said hermione sharply, freezing with her hand halfway toward picking up make a bang at the department of magical accidents and catastrophes.

"yeah . . ." said harry, trying (and failing) to sound casual, "yeah, i thought i'd like —"

"don't be so ridiculous," said hermione, straightening up and looking at him as though she could not believe her eyes. "with umbridge groping around in the fires and frisking all the owls?"

"well, we think we can find a way around that," said george, stretching and smiling. "it's a simple matter of causing a diversion. now, you might have noticed that we have been rather quiet on the mayhem front during the easter holidays?"

"what was the point, we asked ourselves, of disrupting leisure time?" continued fred. "no point at all, we answered ourselves. and of course, we'd have messed up people's studying too, which would be the very last thing we'd want to do."

he gave hermione a sanctimonious little nod. she looked rather taken aback by this thoughtfulness.

"but it's business as usual from tomorrow," fred continued briskly. "and if we're going to be causing a bit of uproar, why not do it so that harry can have his chat with sirius?"

"yes, but still," said hermione with an air of explaining something very simple to somebody very obtuse, "even if you do cause a diversion, how is harry supposed to talk to him?"

"umbridge's office," said harry quietly.

"are — you — insane?" said hermione in a hushed voice.

ron had lowered his leaflet on jobs in the cultivated fungus trade and was watching the conversation warily.

"i don't think so," said harry, shrugging.

elara snorted.

"and how are you going to get in there in the first place?"

harry seemed ready for this question.

"sirius's knife," he said.

"excuse me?"

"christmas before last sirius gave me a knife that'll open any lock," said harry. "so even if she's bewitched the door so alohomora won't work, which i bet she has —"

"what do you think about this?" hermione demanded of ron.

"i dunno," said ron, looking alarmed at being asked to give an opinion. "if harry wants to do it, it's up to him, isn't it?"

"spoken like a true friend and weasley," said fred, clapping ron hard on the back. "right, then. we're thinking of doing it tomorrow, just after lessons, because it should cause maximum impact if everybody's in the corridors — harry, we'll set it off in the east wing somewhere, draw her right away from her own office — i reckon we should be able to guarantee you, what, twenty minutes?" he said, looking at george.

"easy," said george.

"what sort of diversion is it?" asked ron.

"you'll see, little bro," said fred, as he and george got up again. "we'll tell you this — it was rori's idea, rori's enchantments, and you should fancy a stroll in gregory the smarmy's corridor round about five o'clock tomorrow."

elara awoke very early the next day after thirty minutes of sleep, feeling almost as exhiliarated at the prospect of breaking into Umbridge's office and using her fire to help harry speak to sirius.

with the prospect of forcing entry into umbridge's office ahead, elara had never expected the day to be a restful one, but she had not reckoned on hermione's almost continual attempts to dissuade harry from what he was planning to do at five o'clock. for the first time ever, she was at least as inattentive to professor binns in history of magic as elara, harry, and ron were, keeping up a stream of whispered admonitions that they all tried very hard to ignore.

". . . and if she does catch you there, apart from being expelled, she'll be able to guess you've been talking to snuffles and this time i expect she'll force you to drink veritaserum and answer her questions. . . ."

"hermione," said ron in a low and indignant voice, "are you going to stop telling harry off and listen to binns, or is elara going to have to take notes instead?"

"hey!" said elara, slapping ron on the arm.

"you take notes for a change, it won't kill you!"

by the time they reached the dungeons, neither harry nor ron (and surprisingly, elara) were speaking to hermione any longer. undeterred, she took advantage of their silence to maintain an uninterrupted flow of dire warnings, all uttered under her breath in a vehement hiss that caused seamus to waste five whole minutes checking his cauldron for leaks.

elara was kind of excited for her career consultation appointment. however, every happy feeling was decimated in a matter of milliseconds when elara saw umbridge standing in the corner with her clipboard and usual horribly mismatching pink outfit. to make matters worse, she had a fussy little pie-frill around her neck, and a small, horribly smug smile on her face.

"sit down, tonks," said professor mcgonagall tersely. her hands shook slightly as she shuffled the many pamphlets littering her desk. elara sat down with her back to umbridge and did her best to pretend that every bone in her body wanted to lunge at the pink toad right that second.

"well, tonks, this meeting is to talk over any career ideas you might have, and to help you decide which subjects you should continue into sixth and seventh years," said professor mcgonagall. "have you had any thoughts about what you would like to do after you leave hogwarts?"

"i'd like to be a healer," said elara, trying her best to ignore the scribbling noise behind her. "but, being an auror is interesting, too. you know, follow in the footsteps of nymphie. or, maybe a mixture of both."

"you'd need top grades for either option," said professor mcgonagall, extracting a small, dark leaflet from under the mass on her desk and opening it. "they ask for a minimum of five n.e.w.t.s, and nothing under 'exceeds expectations' grade, i see. if you choose the auror path, then you would be required to undergo a stringent series of character and aptitude tests at the auror office. it's a difficult career path, tonks; they only take the best. in fact, the only person to be taken on in the last three years is corrine sharpe."

at this moment professor umbridge gave a very tiny cough, as though she was trying to see how quietly she could do it. professor mcgonagall ignored her.

"you'll want to know which subjects you ought to take, i suppose?" she went on, talking a little more loudly than before.

"yes," said elara. "but, i would still like to take astronomy."

"you'd be busy, but it could work," said professor mcgonagall crisply. "i would also advise —"

professor umbridge gave another cough, a little more audible this time. professor mcgonagall closed her eyes for a moment, opened them again, and continued as though nothing had happened.

"i would also advise transfiguration, because aurors and healers frequently need to transfigure or untransfigure in their work. and i ought to tell you now, tonks, that i do not accept students into my n.e.w.t. classes unless they have achieved 'exceeds expectations' or higher at ordinary wizarding level. however, you're averaging 'outstanding' at the moment, so there's really no need to worry. then you ought to do charms, always useful, and potions. poisons and antidotes are essential study for aurors and healers. i must tell you that professor snape absolutely refuses to take students who get anything other than 'outstanding' in their o.w.l.s — but, it seems you have an 'outstanding' in potions, as well."

professor umbridge gave her most pronounced cough yet.

"may i offer you a cough drop, dolores?" professor mcgonagall asked curtly, without looking at professor umbridge.

"oh no, thank you very much," said umbridge, with that simpering laugh elara hated so much. "i just wondered whether i could make the teensiest interruption, minerva?"

"i daresay you'll find you can," said professor mcgonagall through tightly gritted teeth.