* * *

            ELARA HAD HERBOLOGY FIRST THING THE FOLLOWING MORNING. she and harry had been unable to tell ron and hermione about their lesson with dumbledore over breakfast for fear of being overheard, but they filled them in as they walked across the vegetable patch toward the greenhouses. the weekend's brutal wind had died out at last; the weird mist had returned and it took them a little longer than usual to find the correct greenhouse.

            "wow, scary thought, the boy you-know-who," said ron quietly, as they took their places around one of the gnarled snargaluff stumps that formed this term's project, and began pulling on their protective gloves. "but i still don't get why dumbledore's showing you all this. i mean, it's really interesting and everything, but what's the point?"

            "no idea," said harry, inserting a gum shield. "but he says it's all important and it'll help us defeat him."

            "i think it's fascinating," said hermione earnestly. "it makes absolute sense to know as much about voldemort as possible. how else will you find out his weaknesses?"

            "so how was slughorn's latest party?" elara asked her thickly through the gum shield.

            "oh, it was quite fun, really," said hermione, now putting on protective goggles. "i mean, he drones on about famous ex-pupils a bit, and he absolutely fawns on mclaggen because he's so well-connected, but he gave us some really nice food and he introduced us to gwenog jones."

            "gwenog jones?" said ron, his eyes widening under his own goggles. "the gwenog jones? captain of the holyhead harpies?"

            "that's right," said hermione. "personally, i thought she was a bit full of herself, but —"

            "quite enough chat over here!" said professor sprout briskly, bustling over and looking stern. "you're lagging behind, everybody else has started, and neville's already got his first pod!"

            they looked around; sure enough, there sat neville with a bloody lip and several nasty scratches along the side of his face, but clutching an unpleasantly pulsating green object about the size of a grapefruit.

            "okay, professor, we're starting now!" said ron, adding quietly, when she had turned away again, "should've used muffliato." 

            "no, we shouldn't!" said hermione at once, looking, as she always did, intensely cross at the thought of the half-blood prince and his spells. "well, come on . . . we'd better get going. . . ."

            she gave the other two an apprehensive look; they all took deep breaths and then dived at the gnarled stump between them.

            it sprang to life at once; long, prickly, bramblelike vines flew out of the top and whipped through the air. one tangled itself in hermione's hair, and elara beat it back with a pair of secateurs; harry succeeded in trapping a couple of vines and knotting them together; a hole opened in the middle of all the tentaclelike branches; elara plunged her arm bravely into this hole, which closed like a trap around her elbow; harry, ron, and hermione tugged and wrenched at the vines, forcing the hole to open again, and elara snatched her arm free, clutching in her fingers a pod just like neville's. at once, the prickly vines shot back inside, and the gnarled stump sat there looking like an innocently dead lump of wood.

            "you know, i don't think i'll be having any of these in my garden when i've got my own place," said ron, pushing his goggles up onto his forehead and wiping sweat from his face.

            "like you'd a garden," said elara amusedly and ron shot her a look.

            "pass me a bowl," said hermione, holding the pulsating pod at arm's length; harry handed one over and she dropped the pod into it with a look of disgust on her face.

            "don't be squeamish, squeeze it out, they're best when they're fresh!" called professor sprout.

            "anyway," said hermione, continuing their interrupted conversation as though a lump of wood had not just attacked them, "slughorn's going to have a christmas party, you two, and there's no way you'll be able to wriggle out of this one because he actually asked me to check your free evenings, so he could be sure to have it on a night you can come."

            elara and harry groaned. meanwhile, ron, who was attempting to burst the pod in the bowl by putting both hands on it, standing up, and squashing it as hard as he could, said angrily, "and this is another party just for slughorn's favorites, is it?"

            "just for the slug club, yes," said hermione.

            the pod flew out from under ron's fingers and hit the greenhouse glass, rebounding onto the back of professor sprout's head and knocking off her old, patched hat. elara and harry went to retrieve the pod; when they got back, hermione was saying, "look, i didn't make up the name 'slug club' —"

            " 'slug club,' " repeated ron with a sneer worthy of draco. "it's pathetic. well, i hope you enjoy your party. why don't you try hooking up with mclaggen, then slughorn can make you king and queen slug —"

            "we're allowed to bring guests," said hermione, who for some reason had turned a bright, boiling scarlet, "and i was going to ask you to come, but if you think it's that stupid then i won't bother!"

            elara suddenly sat up straight, gaining immense interest in their conversation. harry seemed to wish he was across the castle grounds, far away from the conversation.

            "you were going to ask me?" asked ron, in a completely different voice.

            "yes," said hermione angrily. "but obviously if you'd rather i hooked up with mclaggen . . ."

            there was a pause while harry continued to pound the resilient pod with a trowel.

            "no, i wouldn't," said ron, in a very quiet voice.

            kiss, kiss, kiss, elara chanted in her head over and over as harry missed the pod, hit the bowl, and shattered it.

            "reparo," he said hastily, poking the pieces with his wand, and the bowl sprang back together again. 

            the crash, however, appeared to have awoken ron and hermione to elara's and harry's presence. hermione looked flustered and immediately started fussing about for her copy of flesh-eating trees of the world to find out the correct way to juice snargaluff pods; ron, on the other hand, looked sheepish but also rather pleased with himself.

            "hand that over, ron," said hermione hurriedly. "it says we're supposed to puncture them with something sharp. . . ."

            ron passed her the pod in the bowl; harry and elara both snapped their goggles back over their eyes and dived, once more, for the stump.

            "dammit, harry," muttered elara.

            "what?"

            "they were so close to admitting, then we wouldn't have to deal with their sexual tension anymore."

            "was it this bad when we were like this?"

            "ginny did complain to me constantly. so did nymphie."

            "gotcha!" yelled harry, pulling a second pod from the stump just as hermione and ron managed to burst the first one open, so that the bowl was full of tubers wriggling like pale green worms.

            the rest of the lesson passed without further mention of slughorn's party. although elara and harry watched their two friends more closely over the next few days, ron and hermione did not seem any different except that they were a little politer to each other than usual. elara supposed she would just have to wait to see what happened under the influence of butterbeer in slughorn's dimly lit room on the night of the party. in the meantime, however, she had more pressing worries.

            katie bell was still in st. mungo's hospital with no prospect of leaving, which meant that the promising gryffindor team harry had been training so carefully since september was one chaser short. harry kept putting off replacing katie in the hope that she would return, but their opening match against slytherin was looming, and elara had to nag him to finally accept that katie would not be back in time to play.

            harry had cornered dean thomas after transfiguration one day. most of the class had already left, although several twittering yellow birds were still zooming around the room, almost all of hermione's creation; nobody else had succeeded in conjuring so much as a feather from thin air except for elara, who conjured one or two.

            the only problem was ron.

            it was well known that ron was an inconsistent player who suffered from nerves and a lack of confidence, and unfortunately, the looming prospect of the opening game of the season seemed to have brought out all his old insecurities. after letting in half a dozen goals, most of them scored by ginny, his technique became wilder and wilder, until he finally punched an oncoming demelza robins in the mouth.

            "it was an accident, i'm sorry, demelza, really sorry!" ron shouted after her as she zigzagged back to the ground, dripping blood everywhere. "i just —"

            "panicked," ginny said angrily, landing next to demelza and examining her fat lip. "you prat, ron, look at the state of her!"

            "i can fix that," said elara, sliding beside the two girls, pointing her wand at demelza's mouth, and saying "episkey." 

            "and ginny, don't call ron a prat, you're not the captain of this team —" said harry, who had landed.

            "well, you seemed too busy to call him a prat and i thought someone should —"

            elara forced herself not to laugh.

            "in the air, everyone, let's go. . . ."

            elara understood little about quidditch, but she was aware this was a terrible practice.

            "good work, everyone, i think we'll flatten slytherin," he said bracingly and the chasers and beaters left the changing room looking reasonably happy with themselves.

            "i played like a sack of dragon dung," said ron in a hollow voice when the door had swung shut behind ginny.

            "no, you didn't," said harry firmly. "you're the best keeper i tried out, ron. your only problem is nerves."

            elara and harry kept up a relentless flow of encouragement all the way back to the castle, and by the time they reached the second floor, ron was looking marginally more cheerful. when elara pushed open the tapestry to take their usual shortcut up to gryffindor tower, however, they found themselves looking at dean and ginny, who were locked in a close embrace and kissing fiercely as though glued together.

            "get a room, idiots!" yelled elara loudly, and they sprung apart.

            "oi!" said ron angrily.

            "what?" said ginny.

            "i don't want to find my own sister snogging people in public!" 

            "this was a deserted corridor till you came butting in!" said ginny.

            dean was looking embarrassed. 

            "er . . . c'mon, ginny," said dean, "let's go back to the common room. . . ."

            "you go!" said ginny. "i want a word with my dear brother!"

            dean left, looking as though he was not sorry to depart the scene.

            "right," said ginny, tossing her long red hair out of her face and glaring at ron, "let's get this straight once and for all. it is none of your business who I go out with or what i do with them, ron —"

            "yeah, it is!" said ron, just as angrily. "d'you think i want people saying my sister's a —"

            "don't finish that sentence ron," warned elara, knowing full well both she and ginny would hex ron if that last word came flying out his mouth.

            "a what?" shouted ginny, drawing her wand. "a what, exactly?"

            "he doesn't mean anything, ginny —" said harry automatically.

            "oh yes he does!" she said, flaring up at harry. "just because he's never snogged anyone in his life, just because the best kiss he's ever had is from our auntie muriel —"

            "shut your mouth!" bellowed ron, bypassing red and turning maroon.

            "no, i will not!" yelled ginny, beside herself. "i've seen you with phlegm, hoping she'll kiss you on the cheek every time you see her, it's pathetic! if you went out and got a bit of snogging done yourself, you wouldn't mind so much that everyone else does it!"

            ron had pulled out his wand too; elara and harry stepped swiftly between them.

            "you don't know what you're talking about!" ron roared, trying to get a clear shot at ginny around elara, who was now standing in front of ginny with her arms outstretched. "just because i don't do it in public — !"

            ginny screamed with derisive laughter, trying to push elara out of the way.

            "been kissing pigwidgeon, have you? or have you got a picture of auntie muriel stashed under your pillow?"

            "you—"

            a streak of orange light flew under elara's left arm and missed ginny by inches; harry pushed ron up against the wall.

            "don't be stupid —"

            "harry's snogged elara! elara's snogged harry!" shouted ginny, who sounded close to tears now. "and hermione snogged viktor krum, it's only you who acts like it's something disgusting, ron, and that's because you've got about as much experience as a twelve-year-old!"

            and with that, she stormed away. harry quickly let go of ron; the look on his face was murderous. all three stood there, breathing heavily, until mrs. norris, filch's cat, appeared around the corner, which broke the tension.

            "c'mon," said elara, as the sound of filch's shuffling feet reached their ears.

            they hurried up the stairs and along a seventh-floor corridor. "oi, out of the way!" ron barked at a small girl who jumped in fright and dropped a bottle of toadspawn.

            "d'you think hermione did snog krum?" ron asked abruptly, as they approached the fat lady.

            "what?" said harry confusedly. "oh . . . er . . ."

            "well — " said elara.

            the honest answer was "yes," but neither wanted to give it. however, ron seemed to gather the worst from the looks upon their faces.

            "dilligrout," he said darkly to the fat lady, and they climbed through the portrait hole into the common room.

            none of them mentioned ginny or hermione again; indeed, they barely spoke that evening. elara and harry did, however, share their usual kiss before going to sleep in their respective beds (sometimes she'll stay in harry's dorm for the night but after what happened, they didn't dare anger ron further).

            elara awoke next morning feeling temperamental, especially towards ron, but by midday she would have happily sat ron on fire as he was not only cold-shouldering ginny and dean, but also treating a hurt and bewildered hermione with an icy, sneering indifference. what was more, ron seemed to have become, overnight, as touchy and ready to lash out as the average blast-ended skrewt. elara and harry spent the day attempting to keep the peace between ron and hermione with no success; finally, hermione departed for bed in high dudgeon, and ron stalked off to the boys' dormitory after swearing angrily at several frightened first years for looking at him.

            in a fit of built-up anger, she threw a quill up in the air and set it on fire as it fell down. it was burnt to ashes within seconds.

            "i'm surprised you didn't set ron on fire today," said harry, who had watched the quill burnt.

            "i wanted to," said elara roughly, throwing herself on the couch.

            they were silent for a moment. the fire was warm and calmed elara down slightly. maybe it was because she had a newfound connection to fire, or maybe because it was beautiful yet so dangerous, she had come to love the flame. if she got stressed, she'd flick her fingers until a tiny, dancing flame appeared.

            "i know you said you don't think you can do this, and i know all of this is so frustrating, but how are you ultimately feeling about our current situation?"

            elara took a deep breath.

            "that i did not sign up for this shit and if you think i'm going to save everyone, you are absolutely right."

            to elara's dismay, ron's new aggression did not wear off over the next few days. worse still, it coincided with an even deeper dip in his keeping skills, which made him still more aggressive, so that during the final quidditch practice before saturday's match, he failed to save every single goal the chasers aimed at him, but bellowed at everybody so much that he reduced demelza robins to tears.

            harry tried boosting ron's confidence all through dinner, but ron was too busy being grumpy and surly with hermione to notice. harry persisted in the common room that evening, but his assertion that the whole team would be devastated if ron left was somewhat undermined by the fact that the rest of the team was sitting in a huddle in a distant corner, clearly muttering about ron and casting him nasty looks. finally harry tried getting angry again in the hope of provoking ron into a defiant, and hopefully goal-saving, attitude, but this strategy did not appear to work any better than encouragement; Ron went to bed as dejected and hopeless as ever.

            breakfast was the usual excitable affair next morning; the slytherins hissed and booed loudly as every member of the gryffindor team entered the great hall. elara looked around for teachers and threw the slytherin table her signature middle finger on game days.

            the gryffindor table, a solid mass of red and gold, cheered as harry and ron approached. harry grinned and waved; ron grimaced weakly and shook his head; elara gave a rather awkward wave as she was sort of part of the team, but not really.

            "cheer up, ron!" called lavender. "i know you'll be brilliant!" 

            ron ignored her.

            "tea?" harry asked ron as they sat down. "coffee? pumpkin juice?" 

            "anything," said ron glumly, taking a moody bite of toast.

            a few minutes later hermione, who had become so tired of ron's recent unpleasant behavior that she had not come down to breakfast with them, paused on her way up the table.

            "how are you two feeling?" she asked tentatively, her eyes on the back of ron's head.

            "fine," said harry, who was concentrating on handing ron a glass of pumpkin juice. "there you go, ron. drink up."

            ron had just raised the glass to his lips when hermione spoke sharply.

            "don't drink that, ron!"

            elara, harry, and ron looked up at her.

            "why not?" said ron.

            hermione was now staring at harry as though she could not believe her eyes.

            "you just put something in that drink."

            "yeah, it was viagra," said elara with a straight face.

            harry kicked her leg from under the table.

            "excuse me?" said harry.

            "you heard me. i saw you. you just tipped something into ron's drink. you've got the bottle in your hand right now!"

            "i don't know what you're talking about," said harry, stowing a little bottle hastily in his pocket.

            "ron, i warn you, don't drink it!" hermione said again, alarmed, but ron picked up the glass, drained it in one gulp, and said, "stop bossing me around, hermione."

            she looked scandalized. bending low so that only elara and harry could hear her, she hissed, "you should be expelled for that. i'd never have believed it of you, harry!"

            "hark who's talking," he whispered back. "confunded anyone lately?"

            elara snorted loudly.

            she stormed up the table away from them. elara and harry then looked around at ron, who was smacking his lips.

            "nearly time," said harry blithely.

            "shit, that reminds me," said elara, abruptly standing up, "i'm quidditch commentator. i've gotta go."

            she kissed harry swiftly on the cheek and patted ron's shoulder before striding out of the great hall, her wild black hair turning red and gold for today's game.

            the teams walked out onto the pitch to tumultuous roars and boos. one end of the stadium was solid red and gold; the other, a sea of green and silver. many hufflepuffs and ravenclaws had taken sides too: amidst all the yelling and clapping one could distinctly hear the roar of luna lovegood's famous lion-topped hat.

            harry stepped up to madam hooch, the referee, who was standing ready to release the balls from the crate.

            "ooh, they're shaking hands!" said elara loudly. "i'm so sorry, i have no idea what's important and what's not but this should be fun!"

            the captains shook hands and mounted their brooms. the whistle sounded, the teams kicked off hard from the frozen ground, and they were away.

            "there they go, flying around, not really doing much. . . . when does it get violent — er, i mean fun? oh! and here comes slytherin's first attempt on goal, it's urquhart streaking down the pitch and —"

            elara's stomach turned over.

            "— ron saves it! yes! you're my favorite weasley now, do not screw this up for me! oh, sorry gin!"

            with half an hour of the game gone, gryffindor were leading sixty points to zero, ron having made some truly spectacular saves, some by the very tips of his gloves, and ginny having scored four of gryffindor's six goals.

            "c'mon kid!" yelled elara at coote, "hit a bludger at him! crack some skulls — oh, sorry professor."

            coote, grinning broadly, chose to aim the next bludger at harper, who was just passing harry in the opposite direction. elara was pleased to see the bludger hit the slytherin seeker.

            it seemed as though gryffindor could do no wrong. again and again they scored, and again and again, at the other end of the pitch, ron saved goals with apparent ease. he was actually smiling now, and when the crowd greeted a particularly good save with a rousing chorus of the old favorite "weasley is our king," he pretended to conduct them from on high. elara's terrible singing into the megaphone topped it all off.

            harry was nearly knocked off his broom as harper collided with him hard. 

            "hey harper!" shouted elara, "stop being pathetic and look for the damn snitch!"

            madam hooch's back was turned, and though gryffindors shouted in anger, by the time she looked around, harper had already sped off. harry raced after him.

            "harper's seen the snitch," said elara annoyedly, "fuck — i mean, oh no!"

            harry accelerated, but harper was still ahead of him, and gryffindor was only a hundred points up; if harper got there first Gryffindor had lost . . . and now harper was feet from it, his hand outstretched. . . .

            harry yelled something, making harper do a double take. he fumbled the snitch, which allowed harry to make a swipe for it.

            "he caught it! he caught it! potter, i love you!" yelled elara loudly into the megaphone.

            wheeling around, he hurtled toward the commentator's podium, the snitch held high in his hand. as the crowd realized what had happened, a great shout went up that almost drowned the sound of the whistle that signaled the end of the game.

            he jumped off his firebolt and swept elara up into a kiss, which surprised her (and many others) greatly. however, she wasn't complaining as she kissed harry back with the same intensity. she was slightly embarrassed to be snogging harry in front of the entire school, but in the moment, she didn't care. 

            smiling, harry pulled away from elara, but not before giving her a peck on the cheek. he jumped back on his broom and sped toward the team for a mid-air hug.

            "after that display," said professor mcgonagall, "i'd better be the officiant at your wedding."

            elara sent her professor an exuberant smile back. the gryffindor team left the pitch arm in arm, punching the air and waving to their supporters.

            ron and harry were the last two in the changing room it seemed as elara and hermione entered. hermione was twisting her gryffindor scarf in her hands and looked upset but determined. elara just ran up to harry and hugged him.

            "i want a word with you, harry." hermione took a deep breath. "you shouldn't have done it. you heard slughorn, it's illegal."

            "what are you going to do, turn us in?" demanded ron.

            "what are you talking about?" asked harry, turning away to hang up his robes. 

            "you know perfectly well what we're talking about!" said hermione shrilly. "you spiked ron's juice with lucky potion at breakfast! felix felicis!"

            "no, i didn't," said harry, turning back to face them both.

            "yes you did, harry, and that's why everything went right, there were slytherin players missing and ron saved everything!"

            "i didn't put it in!" said harry, grinning broadly. he slipped his hand inside his jacket pocket and drew out the tiny bottle that was in his hand that morning. it was full of golden potion and the cork was still tightly sealed with wax. "i wanted ron to think i'd done it, so i faked it when i knew you were looking." he looked at ron. "you saved everything because you felt lucky. you did it all yourself."

            he pocketed the potion again.

            "you bloody genius," said elara.

            "there really wasn't anything in my pumpkin juice?" ron said, astounded. "but the weather's good . . . and vaisey couldn't play. . . . i honestly haven't been given lucky potion?"

            harry shook his head. ron gaped at him for a moment, then rounded on hermione, imitating her voice. "you added felix felicis to ron's juice this morning, that's why he saved everything! see! i can save goals without help, hermione!"

            "i never said you couldn't — ron, you thought you'd been given it too!"

            but ron had already strode past her out of the door with his broomstick over his shoulder.

            "er," said harry into the sudden silence; it seemed he was not expecting this, "shall . . . shall we go up to the party, then?"

            "you go!" said hermione, blinking back tears. "i'm sick of ron at the moment, i don't know what i'm supposed to have done. . . ."

            and she stormed out of the changing room too.

            "that didn't go well," said elara, as she turned to face harry.

            he looked slightly upset at the notion ron and hermione were not on good terms.

            "oh, c'mon. they're always fighting. it will get better. but for now, why don't we stay here awhile until we have to face reality and talk to other people?"

            harry smiled and kissed her forehead.

            "you're amazing, lara, you know that?"

            "maybe, but you're bloody brilliant."

            there was a moment of silence.

            "you're okay that i kissed you in front of everyone, right?"

            elara smiled.

            "of course," she said, "and now it's really been confirmed that we're dating, as if your necklace wasn't enough."

            "you wear that?" said harry, sounding surprised.

            "yeah? i always have it on," said elara, reaching for the delicate, almost invisible silver chain around her neck. the gemini twins constellation shimmered ever so slightly in the light.

            harry smiled widely before leaning down to kiss elara. she happily returned the kiss, sliding her arms around the back of harry's neck.

            they walked back up the grounds toward the castle through the crowd, many of whom shouted congratulations at harry as elara hurried to hide her neck.

            neither could see hermione at the gryffindor celebration party, which was in full swing when harry arrived. renewed cheers and clapping greeted his appearance, and harry was soon surrounded by a mob of people congratulating him. he kept a strong grip on elara's hand, desperate not to lose her in the crowd. what with trying to shake off the creevey brothers, who wanted a blow-by-blow match analysis, and the large group of girls that encircled harry before they noticed elara staring at them, it was some time before they could try and find ron or hermione. at last, they ducked toward the drinks table, where elara poured herself a cup of firewhiskey. ginny, clearly looking for a refill, slid up beside elara.

            "looking for Ron?" she asked, smirking. "he's over there, the filthy hypocrite."

            elara looked into the corner she was indicating. there, in full view of the whole room, stood ron wrapped so closely around lavender brown it was hard to tell whose hands were whose.

            "oh god," said elara, her nose crinkled in slight disgust.

            "it looks like he's eating her face, doesn't it?" said ginny dispassionately. "but i suppose he's got to refine his technique somehow. good game, harry. oh, and i absolutely loved your comments today, lara. you should take over full time."

            she patted elara on the arm and sauntered back over to dean.

            elara turned away from ron, who did not look like he would be surfacing soon, just as the portrait hole was closing. with a sinking feeling, she thought she saw a mane of bushy brown hair whipping out of sight. she and harry turned towards each other, both sharing the same expression.

            they darted forward, sidestepping romilda vane, and pushed open the portrait of the fat lady. the corridor outside seemed to be deserted.

            "hermione?" said elara.

            they had found her in the first unlocked classroom they tried. she was sitting on the teacher's desk, alone except for a small ring of twittering yellow birds circling her head, which she had clearly just conjured out of midair. elara could not help admiring her spellwork at a time like this.

            "oh, hello, lara, harry," she said in a brittle voice. "i was just practicing."

            "yeah . . . they're — er — really good. . . ." said harry.

            "they look wonderful, hermione," said elara delicately.

            elara was just wondering whether there was any chance that she had not noticed ron, that she had merely left the room because the party was a little too rowdy, when hermione said, in an unnaturally high-pitched voice, "ron seems to be enjoying the celebrations."

            "er . . . does he?" said harry.

            elara elbowed him roughly in the side.

            "don't pretend you didn't see him," said hermione. "he wasn't exactly hiding it, was — ?"

            the door behind them burst open. to elara's horror, ron came in, laughing, pulling lavender by the hand.

            "oh," he said, drawing up short at the sight of elara, harry, and hermione.

            "oops!" said lavender, and she backed out of the room, giggling. the door swung shut behind her.

            there was a horrible, swelling, billowing silence. hermione was staring at ron, who refused to look at her, but said with an odd mixture of bravado and awkwardness, "hi, harry, lara! wondered where you'd got to!"

            hermione slid off the desk. the little flock of golden birds continued to twitter in circles around her head so that she looked like a strange, feathery model of the solar system.

            "you shouldn't leave lavender waiting outside," she said quietly. "she'll wonder where you've gone."

            elara glanced at ron, who was looking relieved that nothing worse had happened.

            "oppugno!" shrieked hermione.

            elara's glance shifted back to hermione to find she was pointing her wand at ron, her expression wild: the little flock of birds was speeding like a hail of fat golden bullets toward ron, who yelped and covered his face with his hands, but the birds attacked, pecking and clawing at every bit of flesh they could reach.

            "gerremoffme!" he yelled, reaching blindly for the door handle. he was finally able to whip open the door and duck out.

            hermione crumpled to the floor, sobbing. harry looked overwhelmed.

            "you go," elara whispered to harry, "i'll take care of hermione.

            he nodded and delivered a swift kiss to her cheek before following after ron's shouting. elara moved towards hermione, levelling with her before delicately placing an arm around her crying friend.

            "ron's an ass," said elara resolutely.

            hermione made a weird noise elara took as a laugh.

            "it's all so stupid," she said, wiping her nose, "i don't even know why i care."

            "for someone so smart, you can be somewhat dense. you fancy him, 'mione, maybe even something more."

            she sniffled.

            "was this what it was like when you saw cho and harry?"

            elara hummed in response, rubbing circles on her back in an attempt to comfort her. she slowly quieted down.

            "at least you and harry are together now."

            elara smiled, "we would have been back in fourth year. . . remember after the yule ball, and you and ron were arguing about viktor when harry and i had walked in?"

            "yeah. . . why?"

            "you had dragged me up to the girl's dormitory before harry and i could have talked about the fact we had almost just kissed. . ."

            hermione's head shot up so quickly elara was certain she had just given herself whiplash.

            "oh no. . . i can't believe it," hermione said with a mixture of disappointed and amused in her tone, "ugh, i always believed it was ron who kept getting in the way. at least i get to use that in my toast at your wedding."

            elara froze. hermione didn't know. no one knew. should she tell her? this was her best friend after all. . . . elara took a deep breath.

            "hermione?"

            "mhm?"

            "i haven't been honest with you. or anyone, really."

            hermione lifted her head to stare quizzically at elara.

            "what do you mean? about what?"

            "i haven't told anyone the full contents of my prophecy," said elara quietly, toying with her necklace anxiously.

            "what — "

            "the prophecy," said elara, fighting through the lump in her throat, ". . . it called me a martyr."

            the softest gasp escaped hermione. immediately, her arms were wrapped around elara.

            "you have to die for this war?"

            elara nodded, quickly wiping a stray tear away from her face.

            "i don't know when. anya said i'll know when the time comes, but it's still so terrifying."

            "does harry know?"

            elara shook her head vigorously.

            "i could never tell him. . . and i know i should tell him we should remain friends so it'll lessen the pain in the end but — "

            "no," said hermione resolutely, "i promise you, it would hurt the both of you. neither of you would be able to spend your last days holding each other and loving each other."

            two girls, plagued by heartbreak, sat there on the floor of the classroom, crying in each other's arms. crying for failed relationships. crying for lives that ended too soon. a newfound understanding settled between the girls that night as they held each other in the dark classroom.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE

— i'm going to a birthday party and
my ex best friend AND the girl
i exposed for running the hate account
will be there. . . wish me luck??

written: june 25, 2020
published: june 27, 2020