elara was somewhat interested for a day or two, but then she pieced it all together quite easily. to harry's slight annoyance, however, no one seemed quite as curious about draco's activities as he was; or at least, they were to get bored of discussing it after a few days.

"yes, i've already agreed it was fishy, harry," said hermione a little impatiently. she was sitting on the windowsill in fred and george's room with her feet up on one of the cardboard boxes and had only grudgingly looked up from her new copy of advanced rune translation. "but haven't we agreed there could be a lot of explanations?"

"maybe he's broken his hand of glory," said ron vaguely, as he attempted to straighten his broomstick's bent tail twigs. "remember that shriveled-up arm malfoy had?"

"that thing can't be broken," said elara reproachfully, "i've tried."

"but what about when he said, 'don't forget to keep that one safe'?" asked harry for the umpteenth time. "that sounded to me like borgin's got another one of the broken objects, and malfoy wants both."

"you reckon?" said ron, now trying to scrape some dirt off his broom handle.

"yeah, i do," said harry. when no one answered, he said, "malfoy's father's in azkaban. don't you think malfoy'd like revenge?"

ron looked up, blinking.

"malfoy, revenge? what can he do about it?"

"that's my point, i don't know!" said harry, frustrated. "but he's up to something and i think we should take it seriously. his father's a death eater and —"

harry broke off, his eyes fixed on the window behind hermione, his mouth open. it seemed a startling thought had just occurred to him.

"harry?" said hermione in an anxious voice. "what's wrong?"

"your scar's not hurting again, is it?" asked elara, a tad nervously.

"he's a death eater," said harry slowly. "he's replaced his father as a death eater!"

he hit the nail on the head perfectly. elara had seen visions of draco begging his mother to help him get out of something, and along with what happened in knock turn alley, it just made sense.

there was a silence; then ron erupted in laughter. "malfoy? he's sixteen, harry! you think you-know-who would let malfoy join?"

"we shouldn't spend all our time worrying about my cousin," said elara, trying to redirect the conversation, "summer is supposed to be fun."

"it seems very unlikely, harry," said hermione in a repressive sort of voice. "what makes you think — ?"

"in madam malkin's. she didn't touch him, but he yelled and jerked his arm away from her when she went to roll up his sleeve. it was his left arm. he's been branded with the dark mark."

elara, ron, and hermione looked at each other.

"well . . ." said ron, sounding thoroughly unconvinced.

"i think he just wanted to get out of there, harry," said hermione.

"my cousin is not bright enough to be a death eater — no, wait, they're rather stupid, so, i mean, i can see it," said elara.

"he showed borgin something we couldn't see," harry pressed on stubbornly. "something that seriously scared borgin. it was the mark, i know it — he was showing borgin who he was dealing with, you saw how seriously borgin took him!"

elara, ron, and hermione exchanged another look.

"i'm not sure, harry. . . ."

"yeah, i still don't reckon you-know-who would let malfoy join. . . ."

"my cousin would not risk his albino neck like that," said elara, trying to convince harry draco wasn't a death eater. she didn't want him to do anything rash, and if he knew draco malfoy was working for voldemort, things would get way out of hand.

annoyed, harry snatched up a pile of filthy quidditch robes and left the room; mrs. weasley had been urging them for days not to leave their washing and packing until the last moment. ron and hermione immediately looked at elara.

"fine, i'll go talk to him," said elara rather grudgingly and pushed herself up off the bed.

"you're the best," said ron, as elara exited the room.

harry hadn't made it very far before she caught up with him.

"we only have a few days before we go back to reality, harry," said elara as they head down the stairs, "until then, lets just enjoy our time here."

when they entered the kitchen it was to find fleur sitting at the kitchen table, in full flow about plans for her wedding to bill, while mrs. weasley kept watch over a pile of self-peeling sprouts, looking bad-tempered.

". . . bill and i 'ave almost decided on only two bridesmaids, ginny and gabrielle will look very sweet togezzer. i am theenking of dressing zem in pale gold — pink would of course be 'orrible with ginny's 'air —"

"ah, harry, elara!" said mrs. weasley loudly, cutting across fleur's monologue. "good, i wanted to explain about the security arrangements for the journey to hogwarts tomorrow. we've got ministry cars again, and there will be aurors waiting at the station —"

"is nymphie going to be there?" asked elara as harry handed over his quidditch things.

"no, i don't think so, she's been stationed somewhere else from what Arthur said."

"she has let 'erself go, zat tonks," fleur mused, examining her own stunning reflection in the back of a teaspoon. "a big mistake if you ask —"

as much as elara liked fleur, it took a great deal to not lunge across the table and tackle her to the ground. harry apparently sensed rising anger in elara and slipped his hand in hers.

"yes, thank you," said mrs. weasley tartly, cutting across fleur again. "you'd better get on, you two, i want the trunks ready tonight, if possible, so we don't have the usual last-minute scramble."

and in fact, their departure the following morning was smoother than usual. the ministry cars glided up to the front of the burrow to find them waiting, trunks packed; hermione's cat, crookshanks, safely enclosed in his traveling basket; and hedwig; jupiter; ron's owl, pigwidgeon; and ginny's new purple pygmy puff, arnold, in cages.

"au revoir, 'arry," said fleur throatily, kissing him good-bye. ron hurried forward, looking hopeful, but ginny stuck out her foot and ron fell, sprawling in the dust at fleur's feet. elara had to hold on to ginny's shoulder to prevent herself from falling over in laughter. furious, red-faced, and dirt-spattered, he hurried into the car without saying good-bye.

there was no cheerful hagrid waiting for them at king's cross Station. instead, two grim-faced, bearded aurors in dark muggle suits moved forward the moment the cars stopped and, flanking the party, marched them into the station without speaking.

"quick, quick, through the barrier," said mrs. weasley, who seemed a little flustered by this austere efficiency. "elara or harry had better go first, with —"

she looked inquiringly at one of the aurors, who nodded briefly, seized elara's upper arm, and attempted to steer her toward the barrier between platforms nine and ten.

"i can walk, thanks," said elara irritably, jerking her arm out of the auror's grip. she pushed her trolley directly at the solid barrier, ignoring her silent companion, and found herself, a second later, standing on platform nine and three-quarters, where the scarlet hogwarts express stood belching steam over the crowd.

harry came alongside her, and within seconds, hermione and the weasleys joined him within seconds. without waiting to consult her grim-faced auror, elara motioned to harry, ron, and hermione to follow her up the platform, looking for an empty compartment.

"we can't, lara," said hermione, looking apologetic. "ron and i've got to go to the prefects' carriage first and then patrol the corridors for a bit."

"oh yeah, i forgot," said elara.

"you'd better get straight on the train, all of you, you've only got a few minutes to go," said mrs. weasley, consulting her watch. "well, have a lovely term, ron. . . ."

"mr. weasley, can i have a quick word?" said harry.

"of course," said mr. weasley, who looked slightly surprised, but followed harry out of earshot of the others nevertheless.

deciding she'd rather be on the train, elara yanked her trunk into a random hallway. ginny was talking with some friends. even though elara loved ginny's friends, she assumed she would be meeting dean. elara'd have better luck trying to find a compartment, but she wasn't in the mood to be stared at right now.

the train whistle sounded and harry jumped onto the train. elara came to his side and began to wave out the window at mr. and mrs. weasley.

"now, dear, you're coming to us for christmas, it's all fixed with dumbledore, so we'll see you quite soon," said mrs. weasley through the window, "you make sure you look after yourselves and —"

the train was gathering speed. "— be good and —"

she was jogging to keep up now. "— stay safe!"

they waved until the train had turned a corner and mr. and mrs. weasley were lost to view, then turned to finally find a compartment.

people stared shamelessly as they pulled their trunks down the aisle. they even pressed their faces against the windows of their compartments to get a look at them. she had expected an upswing in the amount of gaping and gawping he would have to endure this term after all the "savior" rumors in the daily prophet, but she did not enjoy the sensation of standing in a very bright spotlight.

"hi, harry! hi, lara!" said a familiar voice from behind him.

"neville!" said elara in relief, turning to see a round-faced boy struggling toward her and harry.

"hello, you two," said a girl with long hair and large misty eyes, who was just behind neville.

"luna, hi, how are you?" said harry.

"very well, thank you," said luna. she was clutching a magazine to her chest; large letters on the front announced that there was a pair of free spectrespecs inside.

"quibbler still going strong, then?" asked elara.

"oh yes, circulation's well up," said luna happily.

"let's find seats," said harry, and the four of them set off along the train through hordes of silently staring students. at last they found an empty compartment, and both elara and harry hurried inside gratefully.

"they're even staring at us!" said neville, indicating himself and luna. "because we're with you two!"

"they're staring at you because you were at the ministry too," said elara, as she hoisted his trunk into the luggage rack. "our adventure was all over the daily prophet, you must've seen it."

"yes, i thought gran would be angry about all the publicity," said neville, "but she was really pleased. says i'm starting to live up to my dad at long last. she bought me a new wand, look!"

he pulled it out and showed it to elara and harry.

"cherry and unicorn hair," he said proudly. "we think it was one of the last ollivander ever sold, he vanished next day — oi, come back here, trevor!"

and he dived under the seat to retrieve his toad as it made one of its frequent bids for freedom.

"are we still doing d.a. meetings this year?" asked Luna, who was detaching a pair of psychedelic spectacles from the middle of the quibbler.

"no point now we've got rid of umbridge, is there?" said harry, sitting down and slipping his hand into elara's. neville bumped his head against the seat as he emerged from under it. he looked most disappointed.

"i liked the d.a.! i learned loads with you!"

"i enjoyed the meetings too," said luna serenely. "it was like having friends."

"luna," said elara, scandalized, "i'm your friend!"

they erupted into laughter. however, there was a disturbance outside their compartment door; a group of fourth-year girls was whispering and giggling together on the other side of the glass.

"you ask him!"

"no, you!"

"i'll do it!"

and one of them, a bold-looking girl with large dark eyes, a prominent chin, and long black hair pushed her way through the door.

"hi, harry, i'm romilda, romilda vane," she said loudly and confidently. "why don't you join us in our compartment? you don't have to sit with them," she added in a stage whisper, indicating elara, who's hair was changing from black to raspberry, neville's bottom, which was sticking out from under the seat again as he groped around for trevor, and luna, who was now wearing her free spectrespecs, which gave her the look of a demented, multicolored owl.

"they're friends of mine," said Harry coldly. "and this — " harry held up the hand that was in elara's, " — is my girlfriend."

"oh," said the girl, looking very surprised. "oh. okay." and she withdrew, sliding the door closed behind her.

"d'you think i could go to azkaban for punching a child?" said elara, rather annoyed at the girls trying for a go at harry. elara was not a jealous person, but when other girls were trying something with harry, she was a tad angry.

"people expect you to have cooler friends than us," said luna, once again displaying her knack for embarrassing honesty.

"you guys are cool," said elara shortly. "you two fought off death eaters. that's pretty badass."

"that's a very nice thing to say," beamed luna. then she pushed her spectrespecs farther up her nose and settled down to read the quibbler.

"we didn't face him, though," said neville, emerging from under the seat with fluff and dust in his hair and a resigned-looking trevor in his hand. "you two did. you should hear my gran talk about you. 'that elara tonks and that harry potter's got more backbone than the whole ministry of magic put together!' she'd give anything to have you as grandchildren. . . ."

elara laughed uncomfortably and changed the subject to o.w.l. results as soon as she could. while neville recited his grades and wondered aloud whether he would be allowed to take a transfiguration n.e.w.t. with only an "acceptable," elara watched him without really listening.

some while later, neville changed the subject.

"you all right, harry? you look funny," said neville.

harry started. "sorry — i —"

from the distant look in his eyes, elara could tell he was thinking about his prophecy.

"wrackspurt got you?" asked luna sympathetically, peering at harry through her enormous colored spectacles.

"i — what?"

"a wrackspurt . . . they're invisible. they float in through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy," she said. "i thought i felt one zooming around in here."

she flapped her hands at thin air, as though beating off large invisible moths. elara, harry, and neville caught each other's eyes and hastily began to talk of quidditch.

the weather beyond the train windows was as patchy as it had been all summer; they passed through stretches of the chilling mist, then out into weak, clear sunlight. it was during one of the clear spells, when the sun was visible almost directly overhead, that ron and hermione entered the compartment at last.

"wish the lunch trolley would hurry up, i'm starving," said ron longingly, slumping into the seat beside Harry and rubbing his stomach. "hi, neville. hi, luna. guess what?" he added, turning to elara and harry. "malfoy's not doing prefect duty. he's just sitting in his compartment with the other slytherins, we saw him when we passed."

harry sat up straight. elara inwardly rolled her eyes. while it did make sense for draco to be a death eater, he wasn't stupid enough to try and harm anyone out in the open.

"what did he do when he saw you?" said harry.

"the usual," said ron indifferently, demonstrating a rude hand gesture. "not like him, though, is it? well — that is" — he did the hand gesture again — "but why isn't he out there bullying first years?

"dunno," said harry, but elara could tell he was rapidly thinking.

"maybe he preferred the inquisitorial squad," said hermione. "maybe being a prefect seems a bit tame after that."

"i don't think so," said harry. "i think he's —"

but before he could expound on his theory, the compartment door slid open again and a breathless third-year girl stepped inside. "i'm supposed to deliver these to neville longbottom, elara t-tonks, and harry p-potter," she faltered, as her eyes met elara's and then harry's and she turned scarlet. she was holding out three scrolls of parchment tied with violet ribbon. perplexed, elara, harry, and neville took the scroll addressed to each of them and the girl stumbled back out of the compartment.

"what is it?" ron demanded, as harry unrolled his.

"an invitation," said elara.

elara,

i would be delighted if you would join me for a bite of lunch in compartment c.

sincerely,

professor h. e. f. slughorn

"who's professor slughorn?" asked neville, looking perplexedly at his own invitation.

"new teacher," said elara. "well, i suppose we'll have to go, won't we?"

"but what does he want me for?" asked neville nervously, as though he was expecting detention.

"no idea," said harry, "listen, let's go under the invisibility cloak, then we might get a good look at malfoy on the way, see what he's up to."