｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

𝐑𝐔𝐍𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘

｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

she has little

innocent demons

insider her eyes,

and they recklessly

play with matches

i've never seen

sparks so pretty

·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .

, slow. Elara wasted no time in lighting her hands, and Harry already had his wand out. Many people were only just realising that something strange had happened; heads were still turning towards the silver cat as it vanished. Silence spread outwards in cold ripples from the place where the Patronus had landed.

Then somebody screamed.

"Find Ron and Hermione, I'll handle the Death Eaters!" shouted Elara, pressing a quick kiss onto Harry's lips before she parted in case this was her time.

Elara vaulted over a table in the midst of collapsing to find herself beside Nymphie and Remus. They all had their backs to each other, covering any vantage points the Death Eaters would be able to attack them from.

Each Death Eater Elara attacked fell to the ground, screaming, desperately trying to put the fires on their robes out.

"Lara!" shouted Nymphie over the noise, "This isn't how I wanted to tell you, but I'm pregnant!"

"WHAT?!" shrieked Elara, not daring to glance backwards at her sister. "I'm going to be an Aunt?!"

"And the baby's legal guardian in case anything happens!" yelled Remus.

"Don't say that!" shouted Nymphie and Lara together.

"Lara!" came another voice, and Elara swivelled her head to find Harry, Ron, and Hermione holding off the Death Eaters.

Guests were sprinting in all directions; many were Disapparating; the protective enchantments around The Burrow had broken.

"I'll see you two soon!" shouted Elara, before breaking off and weaving through the surging crowd and towards Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

In an instant, Elara had been tripped, and desperately tried to grab a hold of one of them as she fell. At the very last second, Ron shot an arm out and grabbed Elara's wrist. Sight and sound were extinguished as darkness pressed in upon her, and the last thing she'd seen of The Burrow was Fleur breaking the jaw of a Death Eater with a powerful right hook.

'Where are we?' said Ron's voice.

Elara opened her eyes. For a moment she thought they had not left the wedding after all: they still seemed to be surrounded by people.

'Tottenham Court Road,' panted Hermione. 'Walk, just walk, we need to find somewhere for you to change.'

Elara did as she asked. They half walked, half ran up the wide, dark street thronged with late-night revellers and lined with closed shops, stars twinkling above them. A double-decker bus rumbled by and a group of merry pub-goers ogled them as they passed; Elara, Harry, and Ron were still wearing dress robes.

They slowed their pace as Elara began to complain about her heels.

"Hey!" shouted a slurred voice from across the street, "Smile!"

"Fuck off!" Elara yelled back, before turning to Hermione. "I want out of this dress before I have to start a bar fight."

Hermione laughed quietly.

"Here's an alleyway."

'Hermione, we haven't got anything to change into,' Ron told her, as a young woman burst into raucous giggles at the sight of him.

'Why didn't I make sure I had the Invisibility Cloak with me?' said Harry, 'All last year I kept it on me and –'

'It's OK, I've got the Cloak, I've got clothes for the three of you,' said Hermione.

She led them down a side street, then into the shelter of a shadowy alleyway.

'When you say you've got the Cloak, and clothes ...' said Harry, frowning at Hermione, who was carrying nothing except her small beaded handbag, in which she was now rummaging.

'Yes, they're here,' said Hermione, and to Harry and Ron's utter astonishment, she pulled out jeans, two sweatshirts, a flannel, a tank top, tennis shoes, boots that could only be Elara's, a mess of socks and, finally, the silvery Invisibility Cloak.

'How the ruddy hell –?'

'Undetectable Extension Charm,' said Hermione. 'Tricky, but I think Lara and I've done it OK; anyway, I managed to fit everything we need in here.'

She gave the fragile-looking bag a little shake and it echoed like a cargo hold as a number of heavy objects rolled around inside it.

'Oh, damn, that'll be the books,' shesaid, peering into it, 'and I had them all stacked by subject ... oh well ... Elara, you'd better change under the Invisibility Cloak. Ron, hurry up ...'

'When did you do all this?' Harry asked, as he handed Elara the Cloak and Ron stripped off his robes.

'I told you at The Burrow, I've had the essentials packed for days, you know, in case we needed to make a quick getaway. I packed your rucksack this morning, Harry, after you changed, and put it in here... I just had a feeling ...'

Elara was struggling to get her combat boots on, and stumbled into Harry.

'You're amazing, you are,' said Ron, handing her his bundled-up robes.

'Thank you,' said Hermione, managing a small smile as she pushed the robes into the bag. 'Please, Harry, get that Cloak on!'

Elara pulled off the Cloak and threw it over Harry, who vanished from sight.

"What about Lara?"

"I'll Metamorphose," answered Elara, already squeezing her eyes shut and re-imagining her most recent disguise.

'Come on, I think we ought to keep moving,' said Hermione.

They moved back up the side street and on to the main road again, where a group of men on the opposite side was singing and weaving across the pavement.

'Just as a matter of interest, why Tottenham Court Road?' Ron asked Hermione.

'I've no idea, it just popped into my head, but I'm sure we're safer out in the Muggle world, it's not where they'll expect us to be.'

'True,' said Ron, looking around, 'but don't you feel a bit – exposed?'

'Where else is there?' asked Hermione, cringing as the men on the other side of the road started wolf whistling at her and Elara. 'We can hardly book rooms at the Leaky Cauldron, can we? And Grimmauld Place is out if Snape can get in there ... I suppose we could try my parents' house, though I think there's a chance they might check there ... oh, I wish they'd shut up!'

'All right, darlings?' the drunkest of the men on the other pavement was yelling. 'Fancy a drink? Ditch ginger and come and have a pint!'

"One more word from your disgusting mouth," snarled Elara, "and I'll sever your tongue from your mouth and force feed it to you!"

'Let's sit down somewhere,' Hermione said hastily, as Elara and Ron moved to go beat the hell out of the drunken men. 'Look, this will do, in here!'

It was a small and shabby all-night café. A light layer of grease lay on all the formica-topped tables, but it was at least empty. Ron slid in beside Harry, leaving Elara and Hermioneto have their backs to the door. They took turns glancing over their shoulders.

Elara did not like being stationary; walking had given the illusion that they hada goal.

After a minute or two, Ron said, 'You know, we're not far from the Leaky Cauldron here, it's only in Charing Cross –'

'Ron, we can't!' said Hermione at once.

'Not to stay there, but to find out what's going on!'

'We know what's going on! Voldemort's taken over the Ministry, what else do we need to know?'

'OK, OK, it was just an idea!'

They relapsed into a prickly silence. The gum-chewing waitress shuffled over and Elara ordered three cappuccinos: as Harry was invisible, it would have looked odd to order him one. A pair of burly workmen entered the café and squeezed into the next booth.

Elara dropped her voice to a whisper.

'I say we find a quiet place to Disapparate and head for the countryside. Once we're there, we could send a message to the Order.'

'Can you do that talking Patronus thing, then?' asked Ron.

'I definitely can,' said Elara.

'Well, as long as it doesn't get them into trouble, though they might've been arrested already. God, that's revolting,' Ron added, after one sip of the foamy, greyish coffee.

The waitress had heard; she shotRon a nasty look as she shuffled off to take the new customers' orders. Sadly, Elara pushed her coffee backwards. The larger of the two workmen, who was blond and quite huge, now that Elara came to look at him, waved her away. She stared, affronted.

'Let's get going, then, I don't want to drink this muck,' said Ron. 'Hermione, have you got Muggle money to pay for this?'

'Yes, I took out all my building society savings before I came to The Burrow. I'll bet all the change is at the bottom,' sighed Hermione, reaching for her beaded bag.

The two workmen made identical movements and Elara mirrored them without conscious thought: all three of them drew their wands. Ron, a few seconds late in realising what was going on, lunged across the table, pushing Hermione sideways on to her bench.

Elara rolled off the bench, shooting random spells that came to her mind.

The force of the Death Eaters' spells shattered the tiled wall where Ron's head had just been, as Harry, still invisible, yelled, 'Stupefy!'

The great, blond Death Eater was hit in the face by a jet of red light: he slumped sideways, unconscious. His companion, unable to see who had cast the spell, fired another at Ron: shining black ropes flew from his wand-tip and bound Ron head to foot – the waitress screamed and ran for the door – Elara sent a Stunning Spell at the Death Eater with the twisted face who had tied up Ron, but the spell missed, rebounded on the window and hit the waitress, who collapsed in front of the door.

'Expulso!' bellowed the Death Eater, and the table behind which Elara was standing blew up: the force of the explosion slammed her into the wall and felt her wand leave her hand.

'Petrificus Totalus!' screamed Hermione from out of sight, and the Death Eater fell forwards like a statue to land with a crunching thud on the mess of broken china, table and coffee.

Elara tried pushing herself up on the booth, but instead stumbled and swore quite loudly. Harry, in an instant, was by her side, helping her up. Hermione was busy severing the ropes that had Ron tied. Ron got to his feet, shaking his arms to regain feeling in them.

Elara picked up her wand and climbed over all the debris to where the large, blond Death Eater was sprawled across the bench.

'I should've recognised him, he was there the night Dumbledore died,' she said.

She turned over the darker Death Eater with her foot; the man's eyes moved rapidly between Elara, Harry, Ron and Hermione.

'That's Dolohov,' said Ron. 'I recognise him from the old wanted posters. I think the big one's Thorfinn Rowle.'

'Never mind what they're called!' said Hermione a little hysterically. 'How did they find us? What are we going to do?'

Somehow her panic seemed to clear Elara's head.

'Lock the door,' she told Hermione, 'and Ron, turn out the lights.'

Elara looked down at the paralysed Dolohov, thinking fast as the lock clicked and Ron used the Deluminator to plunge the café into darkness. Elara could hear the men who had jeered at her and Hermione earlier, yelling at another girl in the distance.

'What are we going to do with them?' Ron whispered through the dark.

'Kill them? They'd kill us," said Elara angrily, kicking the head of Dolohov. "Remember me, you fucker? I almost killed you two years ago."

Hermione shuddered and took a step backwards. Harry shook his head.

'We just need to wipe their memories,' said Harry. 'It's better like that, it'll throw them off the scent. If we killed them, it'd be obvious we were here.'

Elara sighed.

'Damn,' said Elara, slightly disappointed. 'I can do the Memory Charms while you three clear up?'

'Clear up?' said Ron, looking around at the partly destroyed café. 'Why?'

'Don't you think they might wonder what's happened if they wake up and find themselves in a place that looks like it's just been bombed?'

'Oh right, yeah ...'

Elara took a deep, calming breath, and pointed her wand at Dolohov, who's eyes were glaring malevolently at her.

"Obliviate."

His eyes slid out of focus and were replaced with the same dreamy look that was often found in Luna Lovegood. Elara dragged the waitress out of sight of the windows.Once the café was restored to its previous condition, they heaved the Death Eaters back into their booth and propped them up facing each other.

'But how did they find us?' Elara asked, looking from one inert man to the other. 'How did they know where we were?'

She turned to Harry.

'You don't think you've still got your Trace on you, do you, Harry?'

'He can't have,' said Ron. 'The Trace breaks at seventeen, that's wizarding law, you can't put it on an adult.'

'As far as you know,' said Hermione. 'What if the Death Eaters have found a way to put it on a seventeen-year-old?'

'But Harry hasn't been near a Death Eater in the last twenty-four hours. Who's supposed to have puta Trace back on him?'

Hermione did not reply.

'If I can't use magic, and you can't use magic near me, without us giving away our position ...' he began.

'We're not splitting up!' said Elara firmly.

'We need a safe place to hide,' said Ron. 'Give us time to think things through.'

'Grimmauld Place,' said Harry.

The other three gaped.

'Don't be ridiculous, Harry, Snape can get in there!'

'Ron's dad said they've put up jinxes against him – and even if they haven't worked,' he pressed on, as Hermione began to argue, 'so what? I swear, I'd like nothing better than to meet Snape!'

"I'm with Harry," said Elara, "I'd like to see Snape again."

'But –'

'Hermione, where else is there? It's the best chance we've got. Snape's only one Death Eater. If I've still got the Trace on me, we'll have whole crowds of them on us wherever else we go.'

She could not argue, though she looked as if she would have liked to. While she unlocked the café door, Ron clicked the Deluminator to release the café's light. Then, on Elara's count of three, they reversed the spells upon their three victims and before the waitress or either of the Death Eaters could do more than stir sleepily, Elara, Harry, Ron and Hermione had turned on the spot and vanished into the compressing darkness once more.

Seconds later Elara's lungs expanded gratefully and she opened her eyes: they were now standing in the middle of a familiar small and shabby square. Tall, dilapidated houses looked down on them from every side. Number twelve was visible to them, for they had been told of its existence by Dumbledore, its Secret Keeper, and they rushed towards it, checking every few yards that they were not being followed or observed.

They raced up the stone steps and Elara tapped the front door once, with her wand. They heard a series of metallic clicks and the clatter of a chain, then the door swung open with a creak and they hurried over the threshold. As Elara closed the door behind them, the old-fashioned gas lamps sprang into life, casting flickering light along the length of the hallway.

It looked just as Elara remembered it: eerie, cobwebbed, the outlines of the house-elf heads on the wall throwing odd shadows up the staircase. Long, dark curtains concealed the portrait of Sirius's mother. The only thing that was out of place was the troll's leg umbrella stand, which was lying on its side as if Nymphie had just knocked it over again.

'I think somebody's been in here,' Hermione whispered, pointing towards it.

'That could've happened as the Order left,' Ron murmured back.

'So where are these jinxes they put up against Snape?' Harry asked.

'Maybe they're only activated if he shows up?' suggested Elara.

Yet they remained close together on the doormat, backs against the door, scared to move further into the house.

'This is bullshit, we can't stay here forever,' said Elara, and she took a step forwards.

'Severus Snape?' Mad-Eye Moody's voice whispered out of the darkness, making all four of them jump back in fright.

'We're not Snape!' croaked Elara, before something whooshed over her like cold air and her tongue curled backwards on itself, making it impossible to speak.

Before she had time to feel inside his mouth,however, her tongue had unravelled again. The other three seemed to have experienced the same unpleasant sensation. Harry and Ron were making retching noises; Hermione stammered, 'That m – must have b – been the T – Tongue-Tying Curse Mad-Eye setup for Snape!'

Gingerly, Elara took another step forwards. Something shifted in the shadows at the end of the hall, and before any of them could say another word, a figure had risen up out of the carpet, tall, dust-coloured and terrible: Hermione screamed and so did Mrs Black, her curtains flying open; the grey figure was gliding towards them, faster and faster, its waist-length hair and beard streaming behind it, its face sunken, fleshless, with empty eye sockets: horribly familiar, dreadfully altered, it raised a wasted arm, pointing at Elara.

'No!' Elara shouted, and though she had raised her wand no spell occurred to her 'No! It wasn't us! We didn't kill you –'

On the word 'kill' the figure exploded in a great cloud of dust: coughing, her eyes watering, Elara looked round to see Hermione crouched on the floor by the door with her arms over her head and Ron,who was shaking from head to foot, patting her clumsily on the shoulder and saying, 'It's all r – right ...it's g – gone ...'

Harry swept Elara into a hug, clearly shaken. Dust swirled around them like mist, catching the blue gaslight, as Mrs Black continued to scream.

'Mudbloods, filth, stains of dishonour, taint of shame on the house of my fathers –'

'SHUT UP!' Elara shouted, directing her wand at grandmother, and with a bang and a burst of red sparks the curtains swung shut again, silencing her.

'That ... that was ...' Hermione whimpered, as Ron helped her to her feet.

'Yeah,' said Harry, 'but it wasn't really him, was it? Just something to scare Snape.'

However, Harry's grip on Elara was equivalent to metal. He had no intentions of letting her wander through the house on her own. Had it worked, Elara wondered, or had Snape already blasted the horror-figure aside as casually as he had killed the real Dumbledore?

Nerves still tingling, she led the other three up the hall, half expecting some new terror to reveal itself, but nothing moved except for a mouse skittering along the skirting board.

'Before we go any further, I think we'd better check,' whispered Hermione, and she raised her wand and said, 'Homenum revelio.'

Nothing happened.