hagrid had already single-handedly delivered the usual twelve christmas trees for the great hall; garlands of holly and tinsel had been twisted around the banisters of the stairs; everlasting candles glowed from inside the helmets of suits of armor and great bunches of mistletoe had been hung at intervals along the corridors. large groups of girls and boys tended to converge underneath the mistletoe bunches every time elara and harry went past,which caused blockages in the corridors; fortunately, however, elara's frequent nighttime wanderings had given her an unusually good knowledge of the castle's secret passageways, so that she and harry were able, without too much difficulty, to navigate mistletoe-free routes between classes.

ron, who might once have found the necessity of these detours a cause for jealousy rather than hilarity, simply roared with laughter about it all. although elara much preferred this new laughing, joking ron to the moody, aggressive model she had been enduring for the last few weeks, the improved ron came at a heavy price. firstly, elara and harry had to put up with the frequent presence of lavender brown, who seemed to regard any moment that she was not kissing ron as a moment wasted; and secondly, elara found herself once more the best friend of two people who seemed unlikely ever to speak to each other again. ron, whose hands and forearms still bore scratches and cuts from hermione's bird attack, was taking a defensive and resentful tone.

"she can't complain," he told harry. "she snogged krum. so she's found out someone wants to snog me too. well, it's a free country. i haven't done anything wrong."

elara nor harry answered, but pretended to be absorbed in the book they were supposed to have read before charms next morning (quintessence: a quest).

"i never promised hermione anything," ron mumbled. "i mean, all right, i was going to go to slughorn's christmas party with her, but she never said . . . just as friends . . . i'm a freeagent. . . ."

elara turned a page of quintessence, aware that ron was watching him. ron's voice tailed away in mutters, barely audible over the loud crackling of the fire, though elara thought he caught the words "krum" and "can't complain" again.

elara stuck with hermione most of the time, seeing as the two girls had a newfound understanding. she loved hermione, but missed being able to make really inappropriate jokes with ron and just being around harry in general. she used to be able to split her time pretty well, but lavender would send shooting glares at elara whenever she joked at ron, and refused to kiss him, which made ron moody. so for the sake of everyone's happiness, she begun hanging out more with hermione.

for what is was worth, hermione had begun to laugh at some more dirty jokes, so their time wasn't always stoic or serious.

harry could only talk to hermione properly in the evenings, when ron was, in any case, so tightly wrapped around lavender that he did not notice what harry was doing. hermione always refused to sit in the common room while ron was there, so harry and elara generally joined her in the library, which meant that their conversations were held in whispers.

"he's at perfect liberty to kiss whomever he likes," said hermione, while the librarian, madam pince, prowled the shelves behind them. "i really couldn't care less."

she raised her quill and dotted an i so ferociously that she punctured a hole in her parchment. elara nor harry said anything. harry bent a little lower over advanced potion-making and continued to make notes on everlasting elixirs. elara, under the table, practiced making a flame where madam pince wouldn't see.

"and incidentally," said hermione, after a few moments, "you need to be careful, you two."

"what did i do?" said elara suddenly, the flame extinguishing.

"for the last time," said harry, speaking in a slightly hoarse whisper after three-quarters of an hour of silence, "i am not giving back this book, i've learned more from the half-blood prince than snape or slughorn have taught me in —"

"i'm not talking about your stupid so-called prince," said hermione, giving his book a nasty look as though it had been rude to her. "I'm talking about earlier. i went into the girls' bathroom just before i came in here and there were about a dozen girls in there, including that romilda vane, trying to decide how to slip you a love potion. they're all hoping they're going to get you to take them to slughorn's party, and they all seem to have bought fred and george's love potions, which i'm afraid to say probably work. and lara, i passed some boys in the corridor earlier. . . they weren't saying very, um, pg rated things."

"why didn't you confiscate them then?" demanded harry.

it seemed extraordinary that hermione's mania for upholding rules could have abandoned her at this crucial juncture.

"they didn't have the potions with them in the bathroom," said hermione scornfully. "they were just discussing tactics. as i doubt whether even the half-blood prince" — she gave the book another nasty look — "could dream up an antidote for a dozen different love potions at once, i'd make a show of inviting lara, that'll stop all the others thinking they've still got a chance. Ii's tomorrow night, they're getting desperate."

"we literally snogged in front of the entire school," said harry grumpily.

"there's a rumor flying around that you two are just 'playing around'. anyways, just be careful what you drink, harry, because romilda vane looked like she meant business," said hermione grimly. "when either of you asks the other, you need to at least proclaim your love, kiss, and then do whatever couples do."

she hitched up the long roll of parchment on which she was writing her arithmancy essay and continued to scratch away with her quill. elara watched her with her mind a long way away.

"hang on a moment," said elara slowly. "i thought filch had banned anything bought at weasleys' wizard wheezes?"

"and when has anyone ever paid attention to what filch has banned?" asked hermione, still concentrating on her essay.

"but i thought all the owls were being searched. so how come these girls are able to bring love potions into school?"

"fred and george send them disguised as perfumes and coughpotions," said hermione. "it's part of their owl order service."

"you know a lot about it," said harry slowly.

hermione gave him the kind of nasty look she had just given his copy of advanced potion-making.

"it was all on the back of the bottles they showed ginny, lara, and me in the summer," she said coldly. "i don't go around putting potions in people's drinks . . . or pretending to, either, which is just as bad. . . ."

"yeah, well, never mind that," said harry quickly. "the point is, filch is being fooled, isn't he? these girls are getting stuff into the school disguised as something else! so why couldn't malfoy have brought the necklace into the school — ?"

"not again," groaned elara, resting her forehead on the table.

"come on, why not?" demanded harry.

"look," sighed hermione, "secrecy sensors detect jinxes, curses,and concealment charms, don't they? they're used to find dark magic and dark objects. they'd have picked up a powerful curse, like the one on that necklace, within seconds. but something that's just been put in the wrong bottle wouldn't register — and anyway, love potions aren't dark or dangerous —"

"easy for you to say," muttered elara, thinking of romilda vane and the boys hermione heard in the corridor. "— so it would be down to filch to realize it wasn't a cough potion, and he's not a very good wizard, i doubt he can tell one potion from —"

hermione stopped dead; elara and harry had heard it too. somebody had moved close behind them among the dark bookshelves. they waited, and a moment later the vulture like countenance of madam pince appeared around the corner, her sunken cheeks, her skin like parchment, and her long hooked nose illuminated unflatteringly by the lamp she was carrying.

"the library is now closed," she said. "mind you return anything you have borrowed to the correct — what have you been doing to that book, you depraved boy?"

"it isn't the library's, it's mine!" said harry hastily, snatching his copy of advanced potion-making off the table as she lunged at it with a claw like hand.

"despoiled!" she hissed. "desecrated! befouled!"

"It's just a book that's been written on!" said harry, tugging it out of her grip.

she looked as though she might have a seizure; hermione, who had hastily packed her things, grabbed elara and harry by the arm and frog marched them away.

"she'll ban you from the library if you're not careful, harry. why did you have to bring that stupid book?"

"it's not my fault she's barking mad, hermione. or d'you think she overheard you being rude about filch, lara? i've always thought there might be something going on between them. . . ."

"oh, ha ha . . ."

"he's too attached to mrs. norris," said elara amusedly.

enjoying the fact that they could speak normally again, they made their way along the deserted, lamp-lit corridors back to the common room, arguing about whether or not filch and madam pince were secretly in love with each other.

"baubles," said elara to the fat lady, this being the new, festive password.

"same to you," said the fat lady with a roguish grin, and she swung forward to admit them.

"hi, harry!" said romilda vane, the moment they had climbed through the portrait hole. "fancy a gillywater?"

hermione gave him a "what-did-i-tell-you?" look over her shoulder.

"no thanks," said harry quickly. "i don't like it much."

elara snatched the drink from romilda, and poured it into a plant, looking at her dead in the eye. steam rose from the plant, and it turned slightly pink.

"well, take these anyway," said romilda, thrusting a box into his hands, not daring to look at elara. "chocolate cauldrons, they've got firewhisky in them. my gran sent them to me, but o don't like them."

"oh — right — thanks a lot," said harry, who could not think what else to say. "er — i'm just going over here with my girlfriend. . ."

he hurried off with elara and hermione, his voice tailing away feebly.

"told you," said hermione succinctly. "sooner you ask lara, sooner they'll all leave you alone and you can —"

but her face suddenly turned blank; she had just spotted ron and lavender, who were entwined in the same armchair.

"well, good night, you two," said hermione, though it was only seven o'clock in the evening, and she left for the girls' dormitory without another word.

elara went to bed comforting herself that there was only one more day of lessons to struggle through, plus slughorn's party, after which she, harry, and ron would depart together for the burrow. it now seemed impossible that ron and hermione would make up with each other before the holidays began, but perhaps, somehow, the break would give them time to calm down, think better of their behavior. . . .but her hopes were not high, and they sank still lower after enduring a transfiguration lesson with them both next day.

they had just embarked upon the immensely difficult topic of human transfiguration; working in front of mirrors, they were supposed to be changing the color of their own eyebrows. hermione laughed unkindly at ron's disastrous first attempt, during which he somehow managed to give himself a spectacular handlebar mustache; ron retaliated by doing a cruel but accurate impression of hermione jumping up and down in her seat every time professor mcgonagall asked a question, which lavender and parvati found deeply amusing and which reduced hermione to the verge of tears again.

"i'm gonna kill you," mouthed elara to ron, sending him the nastiest look.

he flinched at looked at the ceiling determinedly.

she raced out of the classroom on the bell, leaving half her things behind; elara and harry, simultaneously deciding that her need was greater than ron's just now, scooped up her remaining possessions and followed her. they finally tracked her down as she emerged from a girls' bathroom on the floor below. she was accompanied by luna lovegood, who was patting her vaguely on the back.

"oh, hello, harry," said luna. "did you know one of your eyebrows is bright yellow, elara?"

"is it?" said elara, screwing her eyes tight shut as she focused on turning her eyebrow black again.

"hi, luna. hermione, you left your stuff. . . ." harry held out her books.

"oh yes," said hermione in a choked voice, taking her things and turning away quickly to hide the fact that she was wiping her eyes on her pencil case. "thank you, you two. well, i'd better get going. . . ."

and she hurried off, without giving elara any time to offer words of comfort, though admittedly elara's words of comfort were a string of insults about ron.

"she's a bit upset," said luna. "i thought at first it was moaning myrtle in there, but it turned out to be hermione. she said something about that ron weasley. . . ."

"yeah, they've had a row," said harry.

"he says very funny things sometimes, doesn't he?" said luna, as they set off down the corridor together. "but he can be a bit unkind. i noticed that last year."

"oh luna, you're the best person i've ever met," said elara as luna was demonstrating her usual knack of speaking uncomfortable truths. "so have you had a good term?"

"oh, it's been all right," said luna. "a bit lonely without the d.a. ginny's been nice, though. she stopped two boys in our transfiguration class calling me 'loony' the other day —"

"hey luna, would you like to come to slughorn's party with us?" said elara randomly.

luna turned her protuberant eyes upon her in surprise.

"slughorn's party? with you?"

"yeah," said elara. "we're supposed to bring guests, and you're fun to be around. if you don't want to, that's all right — "

"oh, no, i'd love to go with you two!" said luna, beaming as elara had never seen her beam before. "nobody's ever asked me to a party before! is that why you dyed your eyebrow, for the party? should i do mine too?"

"no," said elara amusedly, "that was a mistake. so, we'll meet you in the entrance hall at eight o'clock then."

dinner was the time elara and harry had agreed to let everyone know they were dating, and not just "messing around". harry was in the middle of eating a dinner roll when elara nudged him so they could begin the performance. he choked slightly before joining elara in standing up on the benches.

"elara lestrange tonks!" yelled harry, very loudly, "would you go to slughorn's party with me because you're my girlfriend!"

everyone, including the teachers, were staring at them, either in shock or amusement.

"i would love to go with you!" said elara, matching his volume.

"i love you!" yelled harry.

"i love you too!" said elara before sitting back down.

the great hall erupted into whispers, clapping, or laughter.

"suck it, romilda vane!" yelled ginny from next to dean.

a plethora of people laughed loudly as they went on eating dinner. a long way along the table, hermione was sitting alone, playing with her stew. elara noticed ron looking at her furtively. she would have said something, but she was devoutly giving ron the silent treatment because he was an asshole.

"you could say sorry," suggested harry bluntly.

"what, and get attacked by another flock of canaries?" muttered ron.

"what did you have to imitate her for?"

"she laughed at my mustache!"

"so did lara and I, it was the stupidest thing we've ever seen."

but ron did not seem to have heard; lavender had just arrived with parvati. squeezing herself in between harry and ron, lavender flung her arms around ron's neck.

"hi, lara. hi, harry," said parvati who, like the two of them, looked faintly embarrassed and bored by the behavior of their two friends.

"hey parvati," said elara. "how're you? you're staying at hogwarts, then? i heard your parents wanted you to leave."

"i managed to talk them out of it for the time being," said parvati. "that katie thing really freaked them out, but as there hasn't been anything since . . . oh, hi, hermione!"

parvati positively beamed. elara could tell that she was feeling guilty for having laughed at hermione in transfiguration. she looked around and saw that hermione was beaming back, if possible even more brightly. elara had no idea what was happening, but she recognized that look hermione had whenever she was planning something.

"hi, parvati!" said hermione, ignoring ron and lavender completely. "are you going to slughorn's party tonight?"

"no invite," said parvati gloomily. "i'd love to go, though, it sounds like it's going to be really good. . . . you're going, aren't you?"

"yes, i'm meeting cormac at eight, and we're —"

there was a noise like a plunger being withdrawn from a blocked sink and ron surfaced. hermione acted as though she had not seen or heard anything.

"— we're going up to the party together."

"cormac?" said parvati. "cormac mclaggen, you mean?"

"that's right," said hermione sweetly. "the one who almost" —she put a great deal of emphasis on the word — "became gryffindor keeper."

"are you going out with him, then?" asked parvati, wide-eyed.