O, CURSED CHILD. ﹙ harry potter ﹚

𝐈𝐈𝐈 ━━ Dementors

But it was visible only for a split second. as though the creature beneath the cloak sensed Elara's gaze, the hand was suddenly withdrawn into the folds of its black cloak. And then the thing beneath the hood, whatever it was, drew a long, slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings.

Dementor.

An intense cold swept over Elara. She felt her own breath catch in her chest. The cold went deeper than her skin. It was inside her chest, it was inside her very heart. . . .

Elara stumbled back and hit the wall of the train behind her. The Dementor seemed to drift toward her as if it was angry. She couldn't see. She was drowning in cold. There was a rushing in her ears as though of water. She was being dragged downward, the roaring growing louder. . . .

And then, from far away, she heard screaming, terrible, terrified, pleading screams. They were begging for mercy. . . . Elara wanted to help whoever it was, she tried to move her arms, but couldn't. . . . A thick white fog was swirling around her, inside her — The darkness overwhelmed Elara when she heard a ruthless laugh of glee and her knees buckled.

"Elara? Are you okay?"

Someone was poking her arm. Elara groaned and opened her eyes, almost automatically closing them when met with a blinding flash of light.

"Have ― Have I died?"

She was met with a burst of wary laughter. Elara opened her eyes fully; there were lanterns above her, and the floor was shaking — The Hogwarts Express was moving again and the lights had come back on. Hermione kneeled next to her, and above them, she could see Neville Longbottom and Professor Lupin watching. Elara felt very sick; when she put up her up hand to push back her hair, she felt cold sweat on her face.

"Your hair. . . ." Hermione's eyes rose to the top of elara's head.

Elara eyes moved to the compartment floor beside her and to her exasperation saw that her mess of hair had turned a pure shade of white. Rubbing her temple, she pushed herself back up despite the fact her knees were still weak from when she had fallen.

"Are you two okay?" asked Ron nervously. 

All previous signs of bitterness seemed to have gone.

"Yeah," said Harry, looking quickly toward the door. Elara glanced over too; the hooded creature had vanished. "What happened? Where's that — that thing? Who screamed?"

"I heard screaming too... but who was laughing?" said Elara, and all eyes turned to her.

"No one laughed or screamed," said Ron, more nervously still.

Elara looked around the bright compartment. Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom looked back at her, both very pale.

"But I heard screaming —" Harry trailed off, looking distressed.

"Someone had to have laughed, I heard it ― "

A loud snap made them all jump. Professor Lupin was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces.

"Here," he said to Elara and Harry, handing them particularly large pieces. "Eat it. It'll help."

Elara gratefully took the piece of chocolate and bit into it. The familiar sweetness spread over her tongue, and some of her warmth was regained.

Harry took the chocolate but didn't eat it. 

"What was that thing?" He asked Lupin.

"A Dementor," answered Elara before Lupin, who was now giving chocolate to everyone else. "One of the Dementors of Azkaban."

Everyone stared at her, especially Neville, who looked like he was struggling with himself. Professor Lupin crumpled up the empty chocolate wrapper and put it in his pocket.

"Eat," Lupin repeated. "It'll help. I need to speak to the driver, excuse me. . . ." 

He strolled past Elara and Harry and disappeared into the corridor. 

"You two are sure you're okay?" said Hermione, watching them anxiously. 

"I don't get it. . . . What happened?" said Harry, wiping more sweat off his face. 

"Well — that thing — the Dementor — stood there and looked around (I mean, I think it did, I couldn't see its face) — it zeroed in on Elara ― and you — harry ― you —"

"I thought you both were having a fit or something," said Ron, who still looked scared. "Harry, you went sort of rigid and fell out of your seat and started twitching. . . . and Lestrange, your knees buckled and you hit the ground really hard —"

"And Professor Lupin stepped over you, Harry, and walked toward the dementor, and pulled out his wand," said Hermione, "and he said, 'None of us are hiding Sirius Black under our cloaks. Go.' but the Dementor didn't move, so Lupin muttered something, and a silvery thing shot out of his wand at it, and it turned around and sort of glided away..."

"It was horrible," said Neville, in a higher voice than usual. "Did you feel how cold it got when it came in?"

"I felt weird," said Ron, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably. "as if I'd never be cheerful again. . . ."

Ginny, who was huddled in her corner looking nearly as bad as Elara felt, gave a small sob; Hermione went over and put a comforting arm around her. Elara's heart panged for the youngest Weasley. Dementors are supposed to make you relieve your darkest moments. Elara had no doubt in her mind that Ginny had been pulled back into the Chamber of Secrets.

"But didn't any of you — fall off your seats?" said Harry awkwardly.

"No," said Ron, looking anxiously at Harry again. "Well, Lestrange fell, but she was already standing. . . . and Ginny was shaking like mad, though. . . ."

"Please," implored Elara, still shivering, "call me Elara. I'm uh — I'm not fond of my last name."

She noticed Neville's expression soften slightly, but the anger was still present. She didn't blame him after what her mother had done. However, she still didn't fully understand. She felt weak and shivery, as though she were recovering from a bad bout of flu. Why had no one else collapsed as she and Harry had? 

Professor Lupin had come back. 

He paused as he entered, looked around, and said, with a small smile, "I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know..."

Elara ate the rest of her chocolate, sighing quietly as she felt the warmth fill her body again; from her head to her toes. She also assumed her hair had drifted back to normal as everyone in the compartment was peering at her once again.

"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes," said Professor Lupin. "Are you all right, you two?"

"Fine," Elara muttered, embarrassed. 

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

AUTHOR'S NOTE

— so from now on I'll be editing the
chapters of o cursed child to my liking!!

Edited: December 26, 2020