O, CURSED CHILD. ﹙ harry potter ﹚

𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 ━━ II

            "Here, let me try," Elara offered softly.

            The boy looked at her, startled. He nodded slowly and Elara reached her hands up and tried to somewhat flatten his unkempt hair. Elara gave up after his hair kept sticking up in random places. She pulled her hands back and shrugged.

            "It's no use," the boy grumbled.

            "My hair's normally like that too, but I changed it for today," Elara reassured.

            His eyebrows laced together at her choice of words, but decided not to ask.

            "I'm Harry Potter, by the way."

            Elara felt like the air was knocked out of her lungs. She was no stranger to her mother's loyalty to You-Know-Who. She was no stranger to her mother's cruel actions. She had just kind of made a friend her age, but now it was Harry Potter. If he found out who she was, he'd definitely hate her.

            "I'm uh... I'm Elara — "

            The universe was on Elara's side, as some students had begun screaming. She gasped. So did the people around her. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first-years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying, "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance –- "

            "Peeves is a poltergeist," Elara whispered to Harry, "he loves to mess with people, my cousin told me."

            Before Harry could answer, Professor McGonagall returned, "Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."

            One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.

            "Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first-years, "and follow me."

            Feeling like she was floating on air, Elara was shoved in line besides Harry, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

            Elara had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. Nymphie had told her in a very long letter that Andromeda had to read aloud to Elara what the Great Hall was like, but seeing it in front of her was miles better than reading about it. The hall was lit by thousands and thousands of candles which were floating in mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first-years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Elara looked upwards and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars.

            She tore her eyes away from the ceiling to find Nymphie. It didn't take very long, as her cousin was the only bubblegum-haired girl sitting at the Hufflepuff table. They both waved enthusiastically at each other before Elara turned as to not hold up the line.