* * *

            ELARA HAD NEVER BEEN APART OF SUCH A STRANGE GROUP. crookshanks led the way down the stairs; lupin, pettigrew, and ron went next, looking like entrants in a six-legged race. next came professor snape, drifting creepily along, his toes hitting each stair as they descended, held up by his own wand, which was being pointed at him by sirius. harry and hermione brought up the rear. 

            getting back into the tunnel was difficult. lupin, pettigrew, and ron had to turn sideways to manage it; lupin still had pettigrew covered with his wand. harry could see them edging awkwardly along the tunnel in single file. crookshanks was still in the lead. harry and elara went right after black, who was still making snape drift along ahead of them; he kept bumping his lolling head on the low ceiling. elara had the impression black was making no effort to prevent this.

            "you know what this means?" black said abruptly to harry as they made their slow progress along the tunnel. "turning pettigrew in?"

            "you're free," said harry.

            "yes..." said black. "but i'm also — i don't know if anyone ever told you — i'm your godfather."

            "yeah, i knew that," said harry.

            "well... your parents appointed me your guardian," said black stiffly. "if anything happened to them..."

            harry waited. black grew a worried look on his face at his silence. elara smiled at his inability to talk to his godson now that everything's been sorted --  it was a tad heartwarming. black really wanted to make a good impression (even though he and harry engaged in some sort of fist fight just an hour before) on his godson.

            "i'll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle," said black. "but...well... think about it. once my name's cleared... if you wanted a... a different home..."

            "what — live with you?" harry said, accidentally cracking his head on a bit of rock protruding from the ceiling. "leave the dursleys?"

            elara had to stifle a laugh at harry's clumsiness.

            "of course, i thought you wouldn't want to," said black quickly. "i understand, i just thought i'd—"

            "are you insane?" said harry, his voice easily as croaky as black's. "of course i want to leave the dursleys! have you got a house? when can i move in?"

            black turned right around to look at him; snape's head was scraping the ceiling but black didn't seem to care.

            "you want to?" he said. "you mean it?"

            "yeah, i mean it!" said harry.

            and though elara would never admit this to anyone, she was close to crying happy tears. she'd never been told about the dursley's behavior, and she could only assume they were terrible to harry, but the happiness and hope filling harry's voice made elara herself happy.

            black's gaunt face broke into the first true smile elara had seen upon it. the difference it made was startling, as though a person ten years younger were shining through the starved mask. 

            black saw snape up through the hole, then stood back for harry, elara and hermione to pass. at last, all of them were out. the grounds were very dark now; the only light came from the distant windows of the castle. without a word, they set off. pettigrew was still wheezing and occasionally whimpering.

            "one wrong move, peter," said lupin threateningly ahead. his wand was still pointed sideways at pettigrew's chest.

             silently they tramped through the grounds, the castle lights growing slowly larger. snape was still drifting weirdly ahead of black, his chin bumping on his chest. and then --

            a cloud shifted. there were suddenly dim shadows on the ground. their party was bathed in moonlight.

            snape collided with lupin, pettigrew, and ron, who had stopped abruptly. black froze. he flung out one arm to make harry, elara and hermione stop.

            elara could see lupin's silhouette. he had gone rigid. then his limbs began to shake.

            "oh, my —" hermione gasped. "he didn't take his potion tonight! he's not safe!"

            "run," black whispered. "run. now."

            but elara couldn't run. ron was chained to pettigrew and lupin. she and harry leapt forward but black caught them and threw him back.

            "leave it to me — RUN!"

            there was a terrible snarling noise. lupin's head was lengthening. so was his body. his shoulders were hunching. hair was sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling into clawed paws. crookshanks's hair was on end again; he was backing away —

            as the werewolf reared, snapping its long jaws, sirius disappeared from elara's side. he had transformed. the enormous, bearlike dog bounded forward. as the werewolf wrenched itself free of the manacle binding it, the dog seized it about the neck and pulled it backward, away from ron and pettigrew. they were locked, jaw to jaw, claws ripping at each other.

            elara stood, transfixed by the sight, too intent upon the battle to notice anything else. it was hermione's scream that alerted her —

            pettigrew had dived for lupin's dropped wand. ron, unsteady on his bandaged leg, fell. there was a bang, a burst of light — and ron lay motionless on the ground. another bang — crookshanks flew into the air and back to the earth in a heap.

            "expelliarmus!" harry yelled, pointing his own wand at pettigrew; lupin's wand flew high into the air and out of sight. "stay where you are!" harry shouted, running forward.

           elara ran after him as well. she pointed her wand at the scrambling man and screamed, "petrificus totalus!"

            too late. pettigrew had transformed. elara saw his bald tail whip through the manacle on ron's outstretched arm and heard a scurrying through the grass.

            there was a howl and a rumbling growl; elara turned to see the werewolf taking flight; it was galloping into the forest —

            "sirius, he's gone, pettigrew transformed!" Harry yelled.

            black was bleeding; there were gashes across his muzzle and back, but at harry's words he scrambled up again, and in an instant, the sound of his paws faded to silence as he pounded away across the grounds.

            harry, elara and hermione dashed over to ron.

           "what did he do to him?" hermione whispered. ron's eyes were only half-closed, his mouth hung open; he was definitely alive, they could hear him breathing, but he didn't seem to recognize them.

            "i don't know..."

            elara looked desperately around. black and lupin both gone... they had no one but snape forcompany, still hanging, unconscious, in midair.

           "we'd better get them up to the castle and tell someone," said harry, pushing his hair out of his eyes, trying to think straight. "come —"

            but then, from beyond the range of their vision, they heard a yelping, a whining: a dog in pain... "sirius," elara muttered, staring into the darkness.

            she had a moment's indecision, but there was nothing they could do for ron at the moment, and by the sound of it, black was in trouble —

             harry set off at a run, elara and hermione right behind him. the yelping seemed to be coming from the ground near the edge of the lake. they pelted toward it, and elara, running flat out, felt the cold without realizing what it must mean -

            the yelping stopped abruptly. as they reached the lakeshore, they saw why — sirius had turned back into a man. he was crouched on all fours, his hands over his head.

            "nooo," he moaned. "nooo... please..."

            and then elara saw them. dementors, at least a hundred of them, gliding in a black mass around the lake toward them. she spun around, the familiar, icy cold penetrating her insides, fog starting to obscure her vision; more were appearing out of the darkness on every side; they were encircling them...

            "hermione, harry, think of something happy!" elara yelled, raising her wand, blinking furiously to try and clear her vision, shaking her head to rid it of the faint screaming that had started inside it —

            i have three amazing friends who've never left my side.

            "expecto patronum! expecto patronum!" harry and elara began to chant wildly.

            black gave a shudder, rolled over, and lay motionless on the ground, pale as death.

            my cousin will be alright. he's innocent, i have more good family just like me.

            "expecto patronum! hermione, help us! expecto patronum!" harry called. elara's voice began dying in her throat as the coldness grew harder and harder to bare.

            "expecto —" hermione whispered, "expecto — expecto —"

            but she couldn't do it. the dementors were closing in, barely ten feet from them. they formed a solid wall around the trio, and were getting closer...

            "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" harry yelled. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

            "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" elara found her voice again and began to scream the incantation with as must confidence as she could.

             a thin wisp of silver escaped their wands and hovered like mist before them. at the same moment, elara felt hermione collapse next to them. they were alone... completely alone...

           "expecto — expecto patronum —"

            elara and harry sunk into the ground, their knees hitting the cold grass. fog was clouding elara's eyes. she tried desperately to remember the happy memories she had made with harry, ron and hermoine. she tried to remember the blossoming feeling in her stomach when she learned sirius was innocent and that she has more family, good like her.

            "expecto patronum!" harry gasped.

           by the feeble light of harry's formless patronus, elara saw two dementors halt, very close to them. they couldn't walk through the cloud of silver mist harry had conjured. a dead, slimy hand slid out from under the cloak. one of the dementors made a gesture as though to sweep the patronus aside.

            "no — no —" harry gasped. "he's innocent... expecto -- expecto patronum —"

            she could feel the two dementors watching them, hear their rattling breath like an evil wind around her. the nearest dementor seemed to be considering her. then it raised both its rotting hands — and lowered its hood.

           where there should have been eyes, there was only thin, gray scabbed skin, stretched blankly over empty sockets. but there was a mouth... a gaping, shapeless hole, sucking the air with the sound of a death rattle.

            a paralyzing terror filled elara so that she couldn't move or speak. harry's patronus flickered and died. with great effort, elara moved her head to the side and saw another dementor lowering its hood and facing harry.

           white fog was blinding her. she had to fight... expecto patronum... she couldn't see... and in the distance, she heard the familiar screaming... expecto patronum... she groped in the mist for harry, and found his arm... they weren't going to take her or her friends...

            but a pair of strong, clammy hands suddenly attached themselves around elara's neck. with the little fight elara had in her body, she began to weakly thrash around, but they were forcing his face upward... she could feel its breath... it was going to get rid of her first...she could feel its putrid breath... the two nameless people screaming in her ears... they were going to be the last thing she ever heard —

             and then, through the fog that was drowning her, she thought she saw a silvery light growing brighter and brighter... she felt herself fall forward onto the grass... facedown, too weak to move, sick and shaking, elara opened her eyes. the dementor must have released her. she moved her head weakly to the side and saw harry on the ground next to her. the blinding light was illuminating the grass around her... the screaming had stopped, the cold was ebbing away...

           something was driving the dementors back... it was circling around her and harry and black and hermione... they were leaving...

           the air was warm again...

            with every ounce of strength she could muster, elara raised her head a few inches and saw two animals amid the light, one galloping and the other flying galloping away across the lake... eyes blurred with sweat, elara tried to make out what they were... they were as bright as unicorns... fighting to stay conscious, elara watched them come to a halt as it reached the opposite shore. 

           elara praised her saviors silently. she couldn't think anymore. she felt the last of her strength leave her, and her head hit the ground as she fainted.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE

-- ya'll are gonna LOVE elara's patronus
(hint: it's badass as fuck)