* * *

            HARRY DIDN'T COME BACK FROM HIS ENDEAVOR. as the train came to a screeching stop, she wondered if she had been a bad influence and if that harry had done something reckless. only elara could pull off reckless. hermione seemed more worried than anyone in the compartment, but inside elara was freaking out. it wasn't like him to leave the train without coming back to the compartment. and if he had gone to spy on draco like she suspected, harry would've come bounding back by now unless something had happened to him.

            "you go on ahead," said elara as she, ron, hermione, luna, and neville disembarked off the train.

            "are you sure?" said hermione, looking like she'd like to stay behind too.

            "yeah, i'll go tell someone," said elara confidently.

            hermione gave a weird sort of wave, ron nodded, neville did a weird sort of movement with his neck, and luna just smiled dreamily. elara turned and began to push her way through the crowd for someone who looked like they were somewhat important.

            she collided with the back of a rather short woman. the woman turned around, but had barely any time to react as elara wrapped her in a hug.

            "nymphie! i didn't know you were stationed here!"

            to elara's joy, she laughed.

            "it happened all last minute."

            when they let go of each other, elara remembered why she was looking for an aurora in the first place.

            "oh, by the way, have you seen harry?"

            "no," said nymphie, "i was actually about to go look for him. i didn't see him come off the train."

            elara nodded.

            "i think he went to go spy on draco. something might have happened to him."

            "that's something harry would do," said nymphie, gesturing for elara to follow her.

            the pair jumped onto the train. they were relatively towards the back, and decided to make their way towards the front. somewhere near the middle of the train one of the compartments had the blinds closed.

            "he's definitely in here," said elara.

            the floor began to vibrate as the engine roared into life. the express was leaving and they still hadn't found harry yet. as soon as they stepped into the compartment, tonks flicked her wand and a silvery substance came flying at her. she waved her wand again, and harry's stiff body became limp.

            "wotcher, harry," said nymphie.

            he was able to push himself into a more dignified sitting position, hastily wipe the blood off his bruised face with the back of his hand, and raise his head to look up at elara and nymphie. elara immediately came to his side, placing her hands on his face and checking for any other injuries besides his obviously broken nose,

             "save the snogging for later, we'd better get out of here, quickly," said nymphie, as the train windows became obscured with steam and they began to move out of the station. "come on, we'll jump."

            elara rolled her eyes but still hurried after her into the corridor. nymphie pulled open the train door and leapt onto the platform, which seemed to be sliding underneath them as the train gathered momentum. elara followed after, and then harry, who taggered a little on landing, then straightened up.

            the cold night air felt good on elara's skin. nymphie silently she handed harry back the invisibility cloak.

            "who did it?" said elara, automatically imagining the sweet revenge.

            "malfoy," said harry bitterly. "thanks for . . . well . . ." 

            "no problem," said nymphie, without smiling. from what elara could see in the darkness, she was as mousy-haired and miserable-looking as she had been when she had last seen her at the burrow. "lara and mine's cousin has always been the biggest pain in the ass. but, i can fix your nose if you stand still."

            he stilled as nymphie raised her wand.

            "episkey."

            there was a soft crack that made elara the slightest bit queasy. harry raised a hand and felt it gingerly. it seemed to be mended as he didn't recoil in pain.

            "thanks a lot!"

            "you two'd better put that cloak on, and we can walk up to the school," said nymphie, still unsmiling. as harry swung the cloak back over him and elara, nymphie waved her wand; an immense silvery four-legged creature erupted from it and streaked off into the darkness.

            "was that a patronus?" asked harry.

            "yes, i'm sending word to the castle that i've got you or they'll worry. come on, we'd better not dawdle."

            they set off toward the lane that led to the school. as soon as the first step was took, harry's hand slipped into elara's. she smiled.

            "how did you find me?"

            "elara and i noticed you hadn't left the train and i knew you had that cloak. elara had a suspicion you were doing something reckless. when we saw the blinds were drawn down on that compartment thought we'd check."

            "but what are you doing here, anyway?" harry asked.

            "i'm stationed in hogsmeade now, to give the school extra protection," said nymphie.

            "is it just you who's stationed up here, or — ?"

            "no, proudfoot, savage, and dawlish are here too."

            "wait, dawlish, that auror dumbledore attacked last year?" asked elara.

            "that's right."

            they trudged up the dark, deserted lane, following the freshly made carriage tracks. elara looked sideways at nymphie under the cloak. elara felt terrible that she hasn't been able to do anything to cheer her sister up. she assumed nymphie would only listen to lupin after awhile, and began to hope he was doing all he could.

            having always traveled there by carriage, elara had never before appreciated just how far hogwarts was from hogsmeade station. with great relief she finally saw the tall pillars on either side of the gates, each topped with a winged boar. she was cold, she was hungry, but she wasn't keen to leave nymphie behind. but when she put out a hand to push open the gates, she found them chained shut.

            "alohomora!" said harry confidently, pointing his wand at the padlock, but nothing happened.

            "that won't work on these," said nymphie. "dumbledore bewitched them himself."

            elara looked around.

            "i could climb a wall," she suggested.

            "no, you couldn't," said nymphie flatly. "anti-intruder jinxes on all of them. security's been tightened a hundredfold this summer." 

            "well then," said harry, sounding slightly annoyed, "i suppose we'll just have to sleep out here and wait for morning."

            "someone's coming down for you," said nymphie. "look."

            a lantern was bobbing at the distant foot of the castle. elara was so pleased to see it she felt she could even endure filch's wheezy criticisms of their tardiness and rants about how his timekeeping would improve with the regular application of thumbscrews. it was not until the glowing yellow light was ten feet away from them, and harry had pulled off the invisibility cloak so that they could be seen, that she recognized, with a rush of dislike, the uplit hooked nose and long, black, greasy hair of severus snape.

            "well, well, well," sneered snape, taking out his wand and tap- ping the padlock once, so that the chains snaked backward and the gates creaked open. "Nice of you to turn up, Potter, although you have evidently decided that the wearing of school robes would de- tract from your appearance. take a few notes from tonks, would you?"

            "i couldn't change, i didn't have my —" harry began, but snape cut across him.

            "there is no need to wait, nymphadora, potter and tonks are quite — ah — safe in my hands."

            "i meant hagrid to get the message," said nymphie, frowning.

            "hagrid was late for the start-of-term feast, just like potter and tonks here, so i took it instead. and incidentally," said snape, standing back to allow harry and elara to pass him, "i was interested to see your new patronus."

            he shut the gates in her face with a loud clang and tapped the chains with his wand again, so that they slithered, clinking, back into place.

            "i think you were better off with the old one," said snape, the malice in his voice unmistakable. "the new one looks weak."

            elara tried to keep herself from scoffing. as snape swung the lantern about, elara saw, fleetingly, a look of shock and anger on nymphie's face. then she was covered in darkness once more. elara felt around in the night to find her sister and squeeze her hand through the fence.

            "good night," harry called to nymphie over his shoulder, as they began the walk up to the school with snape. "thanks for . . . everything."

            "i'll let you know if i see anything," said elara.

            "see you two. be safe."

            snape did not speak for a minute or so. elara could just feel that was seething by just being around snape. although her first reaction would normally be to comfort harry and calm him down, but this was snape, not umbridge. plus, she didn't think it wise to try and comfort harry when she could feel the burning waves of hatred towards snape.

            "fifty points from gryffindor for lateness, i think," said snape. "and, let me see, another twenty for your muggle attire, potter. you know, i don't believe any house has ever been in negative figures this early in the term: we haven't even started pudding. you two might have set a record."

            elara could still feel the fury and hatred bubbling inside harry. she was kind of feeling it to, but snape had showed kindness in the past by brewing her special sleep potions.

            "i suppose you wanted to make an entrance, did you, potter?" snape continued. "and with no flying car available you decided that bursting into the great hall halfway through the feast ought to create a dramatic effect."

            elara was gazing around at the surrounding scenery in an attempt to keep herself from taking back to snape and potentially losing more house points. her eyes fell on the quidditch stadium, which was somewhat difficult to see in the darkness. she scanned the ground. she blinked, and when she opened her eyes back up, the quidditch pitch was covered in great pillars of fire.

            she stopped in her tracks, staring crazily at the stadium. a loud cracking noise signified one of the towers was about to fall. she couldn't pull herself away. the gargantuan flames were eating the wood. the noise of the tower falling was almost too much to bear.

            seconds before the tower hit the ground, the horrifying scene returned to normal.

            when elara tore herself away from the confusing sight, she found both harry and snape were staring at her.

            "are you okay?" said harry, with a rather shifty glance towards snape.

            "i'm. . . fine."

            elara turned and remained trekking up to the castle. all the while, she was thinking about what she had just saw. that was the shortest vision she'd ever had. was it a vision of the terrible battle she'd had before? or was it something else? something that was going to happen this year?

            they reached the castle steps at last and as the great oaken front doors swung open into the vast flagged entrance hall, a burst of talk and laughter and of tinkling plates and glasses greeted them through the doors standing open into the great hall. 

            "no cloak. you can walk in so that everyone sees you, which is what you wanted, i'm sure," said snape.

            harry turned on the spot and marched straight through the open doors. elara dawdled before she was sure harry was out of earshot.

            "i suggest following after your boyfriend before you lose anymore house points, tonks," sneered snape.

            "no. . . professor," said elara rather quietly, which seemed to have spiked snape's interest, as elara was never quiet, "the quidditch pitch. . . it was on fire."

            "was this why you stopped?"

            elara nodded, then said, "i don't like to keep bothering you, professor, but would it be okay if i asked for more of the sleep potion?"

            snape gave a strange twitch of the head which elara took as a yes. perhaps he was not used to elara being somewhat kind. she turned on her heel and followed after harry, who was waiting for her by the entrance hall.

            the great hall, with its four long house tables and its staff table set at the top of the room, was decorated as usual with floating candles that made the plates below glitter and glow. elara set a normal pace, but harry, however, who walked so fast that he was passing the hufflepuff table before people really started to stare. elara had no choice but to follow him. by the time they were standing up to get a good look at the pair, they had spotted ron and hermione, and sat down in front of them.

            "where've you — blimey, what've you done to your face?" said ron, goggling at him along with everyone else in the vicinity.

            "why, what's wrong with it?" said harry, grabbing a spoon and squinting at his distorted reflection.

            "you're covered in blood!" said hermione. "come here —"

            she raised her wand, said "tergeo!" and siphoned off the dried blood.

            "thanks," said harry, feeling his now clean face. "how's my nose looking?"

            "normal," said hermione anxiously. "why shouldn't it? harry, what happened? we've been terrified!"

            "i'll tell you later," said harry curtly. 

            elara was very conscious that ginny, neville, dean, aspen, and seamus were listening in; even nearly headless nick, the gryffindor ghost, had come floating along the bench to eavesdrop.

            "but —" said hermione.

            "not now, hermione," said elara, in a darkly significant voice.

            she reached across the table for a couple of chicken legs and a handful of chips, but before she could take them they vanished, to be replaced with puddings.

            "damn," said elara, somewhat disappointed.

            "you missed the sorting, anyway," said hermione, as ron dived for a large chocolate gateau.

            "hat say anything interesting?" asked elara, taking a piece of treacle tart.

            "more of the same, really . . . advising us all to unite in the face of our enemies, you know."

            "dumbledore mentioned voldemort at all?" asked harry.

            "not yet, but he always saves his proper speech for after the feast, doesn't he? it can't be long now."

            "snape said hagrid was late for the feast —"

            "you've seen snape? how come?" said ron between frenzied mouthfuls of gateau.

            "bumped into him," said elara evasively.

            "hagrid was only a few minutes late," said hermione. "look, he's waving at you two."

            elara and harry looked up at the staff table and grinned at hagrid, who was indeed waving at them. hagrid had never quite managed to comport himself with the dignity of professor mcgonagall, head of gryffindor house, the top of whose head came up to somewhere between hagrid's elbow and shoulder as they were sitting side by side, and who was looking disapprovingly at this enthusiastic greeting. elara was surprised to see the divination teacher, professor trelawney, sitting on hagrid's other side; she rarely left her tower room, and elara had never seen her at the start-of-term feast before. trelawney looked as odd as ever, glittering with beads and trailing shawls, her eyes magnified to enormous size by her spectacles. having always considered her a bit of a fraud, elara had been shocked to discover at the end of the previous term that it had been trelawney who had made the prediction that caused elara to be condemned to death. the knowledge had made elara even less eager to find herself in her company, but thankfully, this year she would be dropping divination. threlawney's great beacon-like eyes swiveled in her direction; she hastily looked away toward the slytherin table. draco malfoy was miming the shattering of a nose to raucous laughter and applause. elara dropped her gaze to her treacle tart, feeling some rising anger.

            "so what did professor slughorn want?" hermione asked.

            "to know what really happened at the ministry," said elara.

            "him and everyone else here," sniffed hermione. "people were interrogating us about it on the train, weren't they, ron?"

            "yeah," said ron. "all wanting to know if you really are 'the chosen one' and 'the savior' —"

            "there has been much talk on that very subject even amongst the ghosts," interrupted nearly headless nick, inclining his barely connected head toward elara and harry so that it wobbled dangerously on its ruff. "i am considered something of a potter and tonks authority; it is widely known that we are friendly. i have assured the spirit community that i will not pester you for information, however. 'harry potter and elara tonks know that they can confide in me with complete confidence,' i told them. 'u would rather die than betray their trust.' "

            "that's not saying much, seeing as you're already dead," ron observed.

            "once again, you show all the sensitivity of a blunt axe," said nearly headless nick in affronted tones, and he rose into the air and glided back toward the far end of the gryffindor table just as dumbledore got to his feet at the staff table. the talk and laughter echoing around the hall died away almost instantly.

            "the very best of evenings to you!" he said, smiling broadly, his arms opened wide as though to embrace the whole room.

            "what happened to his hand?" gasped hermione.

            she was not the only one who had noticed. dumbledore's right hand was as blackened and dead-looking as it had been on the night he had come to fetch elara from the loco veteres. whispers swept the room; dumbledore, interpreting them correctly, merely smiled and shook his purple-and-gold sleeve over his injury.

            "nothing to worry about," he said airily. "now . . . to our new students, welcome, to our old students, welcome back! another year full of magical education awaits you . . ."

            "his hand was like that when i saw him over the summer," harry whispered to hermione. "i thought he'd have cured it by now, though . . . or madam pomfrey would've done."

            "i'm not sure if madam pomfret could remove such a dark curse from someone," whispered elara, remembering the exact curse anya had told her about.

            "it looks as if it's died," said hermione, with a nauseated expression. "but like elara said, there are some injuries you can't cure . . . old curses . . . and there are poisons without antidotes. . . ."

            ". . . and mr. filch, our caretaker, has asked me to say that there is a blanket ban on any joke items bought at the shop called weasleys' wizard wheezes.

            "those wishing to play for their house quidditch teams should give their names to their heads of house as usual. we are also looking for new quidditch commentators, who should do likewise."

            "quidditch commentator sounds like fun," said elara, "think i could do as well as lee?"

            "i would pay to see you commentate," said ron, his mouth still full of gateau.

            "we are pleased to welcome a new member of staff this year. professor slughorn" — slughorn stood up, his bald head gleaming in the candlelight, his big waistcoated belly casting the table below into shadow — "is a former colleague of mine who has agreed to resume his old post of potions master."

            "potions?"

            "potions?"

            the word echoed all over the hall as people wondered whether they had heard right.

            "potions?" said ron and hermione together, turning to stare at elara and harry. "but you said —"

            "professor snape, meanwhile," said dumbledore, raising his voice so that it carried over all the muttering, "will be taking over the position of defense against the dark arts teacher."

            "no!" said harry, so loudly that many heads turned in his direction.

            "but, you both said that slughorn was going to be teaching defense against the dark arts!" said hermione.

            "i thought he was!" said elara, racking her brains to remember when dumbledore had told her this, but now that she came to think of it, she was unable to recall dumbledore ever telling her what slughorn would be teaching.

            snape, who was sitting on dumbledore's right, did not stand up at the mention of his name; he merely raised a hand in lazy acknowledgment of the applause from the slytherin table, yet elara was sure she could detect a look of triumph on the features of snape.

            "well, there's one good thing," said harry savagely. "snape'll be gone by the end of the year."

            "what do you mean?" asked ron.

            "that job's jinxed. no one's lasted more than a year. . . . quirrell actually died doing it. . . . personally, i'm going to keep my fingers crossed for another death. . . ."

            elara snorted loudly.

            "harry!" said hermione, shocked and reproachful.

            "he might just go back to teaching potions at the end of the year," said ron reasonably. that slughorn bloke might not want to stay long-term. moody didn't."

            dumbledore cleared his throat. elara, harry, ron, and hermione were not the only ones who had been talking; the whole hall had erupted in a buzz of conversation at the news that snape had finally achieved his heart's desire. seemingly oblivious to the sensational nature of the news he had just imparted, dumbledore said nothing more about staff appointments, but waited a few seconds to ensure that the silence was absolute before continuing.

            "now, as everybody in this hall knows, lord voldemort and his followers are once more at large and gaining in strength."

            the silence seemed to tauten and strain as dumbledore spoke. elara glanced at draco. draco was not looking at dumbledore, but making his fork hover in midair with his wand, as though he found the headmaster's words unworthy of his attention.

            "i cannot emphasize strongly enough how dangerous the present situation is, and how much care each of us at hogwarts must take to ensure that we remain safe. the castle's magical fortifications have been strengthened over the summer, we are protected in new and more powerful ways, but we must still guard scrupulously against carelessness on the part of any student or member of staff. i urge you, therefore, to abide by any security restrictions that your teachers might impose upon you, however irksome you might find them — in particular, the rule that you are not to be out of bed after hours. i implore you, should you notice anything strange or suspicious within or outside the castle, to report it to a member of staff immediately. i trust you to conduct yourselves, always, with the utmost regard for your own and others' safety."

            dumbledore's blue eyes swept over the students before he smiled once more.

            "but now, your beds await, as warm and comfortable as you could possibly wish, and i know that your top priority is to be well rested for your lessons tomorrow. let us therefore say good night. pip pip!"

            with the usual deafening scraping noise, the benches were moved back and the hundreds of students began to file out of the great hall toward their dormitories. elara, who was in no hurry at all to leave with the gawping crowd, lagged behind, waiting for harry to finished pretending to retie the lace on his trainer. hermione had darted ahead to fulfill her prefect's duty of shepherding the first years, but ron remained with elara and harry.

            "what really happened to your nose?" asked ron, once they were at the very back of the throng pressing out of the hall, and out of earshot of anyone else.

            harry told him. it was a mark of the strength of their friendship that ron did not laugh.

            "i saw malfoy miming something to do with a nose," said ron darkly.

            "yeah, well, never mind that," said harry bitterly. "listen to what he was saying before he found out i was there. . . ."

            it seemed harry had expected elara and ron to be stunned by draco's boasts. what draco had said was on par with how he usually acted. 

            "come on, harry, he was just showing off for parkinson. . . . what kind of mission would you-know-who have given him?" said ron.

            "i know draco well enough to say that he definitely was not showing off for parkinson," said elara, remembering how draco confided in her that he couldn't stand the poor girl.

            "how d'you know voldemort doesn't need someone at hogwarts?" said harry, "it wouldn't be the first —"

            "i wish yeh'd stop sayin' tha' name, harry," said a reproachful voice behind them. 

            elara looked over her shoulder to see hagrid shaking his head.

            "dumbledore and lara use that name," said harry stubbornly.

            "yeah, well, tha's dumbledore and 'lara, innit?" said hagrid mysteriously. "so how come yeh were late, you two? i was worried."

            "got held up on the train," said harry. 

            "why were you late?" asked elara.

            "i was with grawp," said hagrid happily. "los' track o' the time. he's got a new home up in the mountains now, dumbledore fixed it — nice big cave. he's much happier than he was in the forest. we were havin' a good chat."

            "really?" said elara, taking care not to catch harry's or ron's eye; the last time she had met hagrid's half-brother, a vicious giant with a talent for ripping up trees by the roots, his vocabulary had comprised five words, two of which he was unable to pronounce properly.

            "oh yeah, he's really come on," said hagrid proudly. "yeh'll be amazed. i'm thinkin' o' trainin' him up as me assistant."

            ron snorted loudly, but managed to pass it off as a violent sneeze. they were now standing beside the oak front doors.

            "anyway, i'll see yeh tomorrow, firs' lesson's straight after lunch. come early an' yeh can say hello ter buck — i mean, witherwings!" 

            raising an arm in cheery farewell, he headed out of the front doors into the darkness. elara, harry, and ron looked at each other. elara could tell that both harry and ron were experiencing the same sinking feelings as herself.

            "you two aren't taking care of magical creatures, are you?"

            harry and ron shook their heads.

            "and you're not either, are you?" said harry.

            elara shook her head too.

            "and hermione," said ron, "she's not, is she?"

            elara shook her head again. exactly what hagrid would say when he realized his four favorite students had given up his subject, she did not like to think.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE

— so the talk went terrible with my best friend. i knew
she wouldn't apologize but i N E V E R expected her
to blame everything on me :/

— basically i couldn't handle it so i literally just walked out

— n e ways i'm going on a beach trip until wednesday
so i won't see y'all until then :(

written: april 19, 2020
published: june 13, 2020