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𝐁𝐔𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐋𝐘'𝐒 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐄

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For a star to be born,

there is one thing that

must happen: a gaseous

nebula must collapse.

So collapse.

Crumble.

This is not your destruction.

This is your birth.

—n.t.

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

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐀 billion scrambling thoughts and Harry could not pin one down. He forced himself to ignore the unimaginable pain plaguing in his abdomen as he stumbled towards Elara floating in the exceptionally shallow water of the beach they had landed. The Stars seemed to die as the sea water splashed crimson red.

He reached her in a matter of seconds, coming to her side and lifting her out of the water despite the exhaustion in his body roaring at him. Elara coughed slightly as her dull eyes reflected the beautiful sky above. Harry had no time to think of the horrors she had endured at Malfoy Manor when he felt how light she was as he set her down in the soft and untouched sand.

Ron and Hermione were sprinting faster than Harry had ever seen them.

"Lara — no, no you can't — please — I just got you back — "

Weakly, she laughed.

"You'll be okay. . . . in the end. . . ."

"Don't say that — You'll be fine, let me just — Fuck — "

For in Harry's frenzied movements, he barely missed an unholy and blasphemous red bloom slowly from the roots of her soaked and sandy hair down to the ends. Ron and Hermione seemed worlds away as all sense evaded him. All he saw was a repeat of Sirius and Dumbledore, but instead of family, it was the one person that made any of this worth it fading away before his very eyes.

"Please — You can't go, Lara — I — "

"Hey. . . ." soothed Elara, a trembling hand covering his, "This — " she coughed " — This isn't. . . the end. . . ."

"Save your energy," begged Harry, unable to tear his eyes away from hers, "Please, just hang on a little longer. . . . "

"I love you. More than anything."

"Stop — Don't — You're gonna be okay — "

Ron and Hermione reached the pair as Elara's eyes began closing.

"Mate, what the fuck are you doing? She needs medical attention, not theatrics!" panicked Ron, waving his hands around wildly.

"Would you two calm down?!" hissed Hermione, drawing her wand.

"Do you — DITTANY," shouted Harry, as his senses came flooding back to him.

"I'm very much aware of that! Ron, get Bill and Fleur, see — "

Hermione did not have to finish her sentence as Ron turned and sped down the beach towards Shell Cottage. Dean, Jane, Luna, Ollivander, and Griphook were making their way to the homely cottage as well, but not without throwing frequent looks over their shoulders, perhaps hoping to see Elara stand up and wave at them.

Dobby approached Harry and Hermione nervously.

"Will Elara Tonks be okay?"

"I hope so," murmured Harry, as he watched Hermione pull Elara's shirt up and over the knife so she could get a better look at the wound.

Tearing a piece of her own shirt so as to begin cleaning the wound, It was the most composed he'd ever seen Hermione.

"If — If Dobby could, Harry Potter. . . ." squeaked Dobby, hiding his eyes from Elara's grotesque wound as he spoke to Harry. "Dobby thinks he can help Elara Tonks!"

"Anything, Dobby — Please, just bring her back to me."

"She's not gone yet, Harry," grumbled Hermione, glancing at Ron speeding back towards them behind Bill and Fleur.

Dobby swallowed and knelt at Elara's side, still pointedly looking away from her wound. A hope that Harry had never experienced before shocked his very core as he remembered Hermione's words from long ago.

'Elf Magic is different and more powerful than our own.'

Dobby waved a small hand, and blood cleared up from Elara's stomach, leaving only the silver knife nauseatingly sticking straight out of her skin. The unspoken spell seemed to exhaust Dobby, as he fell onto his back and exhaled strongly.

Neither Harry nor Hermione had time to ask Dobby what exactly he'd done, as Ron, Bill, and Fleur reached where Elara lay. Without wasting even a millisecond, Fleur pulled the knife directly from the wound and poured Dittany before the bleeding could start again. Bill wordlessly handed the bandages over to her and she quickly began wrapping the gash, her hand disappearing and reappearing from under Elara's back as she worked.

As soon as she finished, Fleur wiped her forehead and sat back.

"Vat took you so long?" she scolded, staring down at Elara's pale face. "You ver vasting precious seconds!"

"Will she be okay?" asked Harry, not having heard Fleur's resentment.

"With proper care, I 'ave hope."

Try as he might, Harry could only stare at the bloody outline of Elara's body on the sand as Bill scooped her up and carried her to Shell Cottage. Not daring to waste another second of the precious time he had left with Elara, he hurried after them, pointedly ignoring Fleur's furious glare.

Ron and Hermione stayed downstairs with Dean, Jane, and Luna, as Ollivander and Griphook had been escorted to their own rooms to heal from their injuries.

The night crawled on and there was not a second Harry wasn't by Elara's side. Fleur came in on the dot every hour to make sure Elara was still all right and to change her bandages whenever needed. Ron and Hermione had come in to see if Harry wanted to eat, but he pointedly refused.

A little while later, Luna came in with hot tea.

"Listen," complained Harry, "I've already — "

"Oh no," reassured Luna kindly, "It's for me."

Luna stood by Elara's bedside, resting her drink on the nightstand.

"Has the pain gone away?"

"What do you mean?"

"Elara had to explain to me after she repeatedly pinched herself last year."

Harry laugh was strained. "Yeah. . . . it's still quite painful, but it's a lot better now that I don't feel like I have a knife in me."

The only sound in the room was the quiet ticking of the old clock rested on the wall.

"What. . . ." began Harry, unsure of how to phrase the question to prevent the lump in his throat rising, "what happened back. . . . there?"

Luna's usual dreamy look evaded her as her eyes grew sorrowful.

"The universe has not been kind to Elara," she whispered. "She was tortured. Although, I'm sure you were already aware — "

Harry nodded, remembering the intense, daily pain that he endured during his time apart from Elara.

"And when she wasn't. . . . she seemed to be somewhere else. Missing you, I imagine. Dean, Jane, and I kept insisting that we take some of the weight she bore, but she always pointedly refused."

"Of course she would," he grumbled.

Luna yawned.

"When Elara wakes up, tell her I said that she's possibly the coolest person I've ever met — After Ginny, of course."

Even Harry had to smile at that. He nodded as Luna picked up her tea cup and floated out the room. His fingers laced in hers, he fell asleep with his head resting on the soft mattress. Dreams of what could've been if they both hadn't been damned to fight in a merciless war dotted his sleep. Elara's new flaming red hair made frequent appearances.

The soft morning sun drifted through the curtained windows, lulling Harry from his sleep. He found his hand still in Elara's. A small amount of color had returned to her face. Hair still as red as the streaks of color during a sunset, she looked an ironic peaceful. The way her jaw tensed and her forehead creased — something Harry had acquainted himself with over the past several months — had disappeared.

Her chest rose and fell slowly with each relieving breath.

The door opened and Ron and Hermione entered. Ron was balancing two plates of eggs and toast that he, rather ungracefully, placed on the mattress beside Harry.

"Sill no abafe?" asked Ron, mouth already full of toast.

"All these years, and you still remain the same," observed Hermione, amused.

Harry snorted.

"No, but she looks a lot better, doesn't she?"

"Well, for someone who's just been stabbed, I'd say she looks awful," remarked Ron, dodging Hermione's slap.

"What would Lara say to that?!"

"I reckon she would laugh!"

"She's just had a near-death experience, and you're — "

"You're gonna look at me and tell me I'm wrong?!"

"Shut up, you two!"

Ron and Hermione paused their bickering to find Elara slightly shifting in her slumber. A moment passed, and nothing happened.

"Anyways, I reckon I'm right — "

"You're unbelievable."

"You're really going to sit there and pretend that Lara won't crack at least eighty seven jokes about it when she wakes up?"

Hermione did not answer. Ron seemed to take victory in this as he leaned smugly back against the wall adjacent to the bed. The trio remained silent as they finished their breakfast. Harry did not want to think of the questions he'd have to endure from Bill and Fleur when he inevitably exited the room.

The door opened once again, except the intruder was three and a half feet and bizarrely dressed.

"Is Elara Tonks awake yet?" squeaked the excited voice of Dobby.

"Not yet," responded Harry, a melancholy note of hope in his voice. "Say, Dobby, what did you do on the beach?"

"Yeah," agreed Ron, "We reckon you and Fleur saved her."

"Dobby only healed any internal bleeding Elara Tonks might have had!"

"How — "

"Elf Magic is different and more powerful than our own," responded Harry, answering Ron's unfinished question.

"Harry Potter is quite right!"

"Thank you very much, Dobby," said Hermione kindly.

"It was no problem and Dobby would be happy to do it again! Except, Dobby must go back to Hogwarts to make sure Winky hasn't gotten into the Butterbeer again!"

And with that, a loud crack resounded through the room, and an empty spot where Dobby stood.

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

𝐀 𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐃 𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊 and an sinful light stirred Elara in her peaceful slumber. She didn't want to wake up. In fact, she wanted to burrow in the comforting warmth that surrounded her. The two annoying occurrences that pulled Elara further and further away from the solace of the abyss were keen on bringing her closer to where the sound had come from.

Begrudgingly, Elara opened her eyes.

She finally acknowledged the dull and rather irksome pain that so wonderfully graced her abdomen. Pressing her hand to her stomach, Elara groaned when the pain grew tenfold.

"Lara?!" cried a loud voice.

All her senses came flooding at once as she remembered the cold handle of a silver knife, freezing water, and the granules of sand.

"I was fuckin' stabbed?" deadpanned Elara, staring at the ceiling above. "God, that's fucking embarrassing."

"I told you, Hermione!"

"Not now, you idiot! Lara's awake!"

Sensing someone was staring at her, Elara turned her head to find Harry beside her, fingers laced in hers, the smile of a person who's beaten Death a thousand times over dancing upon his tired features.

"Only you'd call your own near-death experience 'embarrassing'," he said.

"It wouldn't have been if I hadn't been so damn dramatic about it."

In the background, Ron and Hermione were still arguing. Harry snorted.

"I think I made it worse."

"Yeah," agreed Elara, "I'll just say that whenever someone asks."

"As long as I get to tell people your first words were 'I was fuckin' stabbed'."

Elara smiled.

"I did mean it when I said I loved you more than anything."

"Would you be quiet, Ronald? They're having a moment!"

"Oh, hello you two."

"I really thought you'd gone and died after calling me a jackass," teased Ron. "What a way to leave things."

"Ronald!" hissed Hermione.

"I told you last year that based on statistical evidence, I am immortal," said Elara, struggling to sit forwards.

Harry placed a hand behind her back and propped up a few pillows.

"For the hundredth time, Lara, that's not how that works — "

"Are you positive, 'Mione?"

Hermione sighed. "With that attitude, I still can't believe you've made it through seventeen years of life without dying."

"I mean, she's come rather close plenty of times," replied Ron, flashing a cheeky grin as Elara laughed briefly before wincing at the stinging in her abdomen.

Hermione huffed before pushing Ron out the room, uttering a rather lame excuse as to why they should leave, and closing the door behind them, leaving Elara and Harry alone. The distant crash of ocean waves on the beach could be heard from the small room they were in.

"I really thought I lost you," whispered Harry, tears freely spilling out his eyes.

Wordlessly, Elara shifted over and tugged at his arm. He climbed onto the mattress beside her and allowed her to wrap her arms around him.

"I told you that until every last star in the galaxy dies, you have me, and I meant it, Harry."

"I just — seeing you just lying there. . . . blood everywhere. . . . after not seeing you for months. . . . I don't think I would've been able to — "

"Don't," reassured Elara. "I'm here now. There's no need to think of what could've been when we have now."

Harry sighed and glanced over at the clock.

"Fleur needs to change your bandages," he murmured, moving to get up.

"No, stay."

I need you more than you know.

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

AUTHORS NOTE

— my school seeing i googled 'when to remove knife

from stab wound' and 'can a stabbed organ make

blood come from someone's mouth' and 'can someone

feel pain when they're unconscious'

it's also been over a year now since i've started writing this

and holy fucking shit i never thought i'd get this far LMAO did

yall know the ORIGINAL ORIGINAL title for this was 'Star Shopping'

yeah LMAOOOOOOOOO i was in a fuckin STATE last year

written: December 11, 2020

published: December 11, 2020