* * *
PATCHES OF BRIGHT blue sky were beginning to appear over the castle turrets, but these signs of approaching summer did not lift Harry's seemingly never-ending bad mood. He had been thwarted, both in his attempts to find out what Draco was doing, and in his efforts to start a conversation with Slughorn that might lead, somehow, to Slughorn handing over the memory he had apparently suppressed for decades.
"For the last time, just forget about Draco," Elara told Harry firmly.
They were sitting with Ron and Hermione in a sunny corner of the courtyard after lunch. Hermione and Ron were both clutching a Ministry of Magic leaflet — Common Apparition Mistakes and How to Avoid Them — for they were taking their tests that very afternoon, but by and large the leaflets had not proved soothing to the nerves. Ron gave a start and tried to hide behind Hermione as a girl came around the corner.
"It isn't Lavender," said Hermione wearily.
"Oh, good," said Ron, relaxing.
"Harry Potter?" said the girl. "I was asked to give you this."
"Thanks . . ." Once the girl was out of earshot Harry said, "Dumbledore said we wouldn't be having any more lessons until I got the memory!"
"Maybe he wants to check on how you're doing?" suggested Hermione, as Harry unrolled the parchment; Elara peering over his shoulder. Rather than finding Dumbledore's long, narrow, slanted writing she saw an untidy sprawl, very difficult to read due to the presence of large blotches on the parchment where the ink had run.
Dear Harry, Elara, Ron, and Hermione,
Aragog died last night. Harry and Ron, you met him,and you know how special he was. Hermione and Elara, I know you'd have liked him. It would mean a lot to me if you'd nip down for the burial later this evening. I'm planning on doing it round dusk, that was his favorite time of day. I know you're not supposed to be out that late, but you can use the cloak. Wouldn't ask, but I can't face it alone.
Hagrid
"Look at this," said Elara, handing the note to Hermione.
"Oh, for heaven's sake," she said, scanning it quickly and passing it to Ron, who read it through looking increasingly incredulous.
"He's mental !" he said furiously. "That thing told its mates to eat Harry and me! Told them to help themselves! And now Hagrid expects us to go down there and cry over its horrible hairy body!"
"It's not just that," said Hermione. "He's asking us to leave the castle at night and he knows security's a million times tighter and how much trouble we'd be in if we were caught."
"We've been down to see him by night before," said Harry.
"Yes, but for something like this?" said Hermione. "We've risked a lot to help Hagrid out, but after all — Aragog's dead. If it were a question of saving him —"
"— I'd want to go even less," said Ron firmly. "You didn't meet him, you two. Believe me, being dead will have improved him alot."
Harry took the note back and stared down at all the inky blotches all over it, Elara with him. Tears had clearly fallen thick and fast upon the parchment. . . .
"You two can't be thinking of going," said Hermione. "It's such a pointless thing to get detention for."
Harry sighed.
"Fine," said Elara, leaning back on the grass.
"Yeah, I know," he said. "I s'pose Hagrid'll have to bury Aragog without us."
"Yes, he will," said Hermione, looking relieved. "Look, Potions will be almost empty this afternoon, with us all off doing our tests.. . . Try and soften Slughorn up a bit then!"
"Fifty-seventh time lucky, you think?" said Harry bitterly.
"Lucky," said Ron suddenly. "Harry, that's it — get lucky!"
"What d'you mean?"
"Use your lucky potion!"
"Ron, that's — that's it!" said Hermione, sounding stunned. "Of course! Why didn't I think of it?"
"Ron, you bloody fucking genius!" said Elara happily, punching him on the shoulder.
Harry stared at them.
"Felix Felicis?" he said. "I dunno . . .I was sort of saving it. . . ."
"What for?" demanded Elara incredulously. '
"What on earth is more important than this memory, Harry?"asked Hermione.
Harry did not answer, and instead stared intently at Elara, who smiled rather awkwardly. Hermione cleared her throat.
"Harry? Are you still with us?" asked Hermione.
"Wha — ? Yeah, of course," he said, pulling himself together. "Well . . . okay. If I can't get Slughorn to talk this afternoon, I'll take some Felix and have another go this evening."
"That's decided, then," said Hermione briskly, getting to her feet and performing a graceful pirouette. "Destination . . . determination . . . deliberation . . ." she murmured.
"Oh, stop that," Ron begged her, "I feel sick enough as it is —quick, hide me!"
"It isn't Lavender!" said Hermione impatiently, as another couple of girls appeared in the courtyard and Ron dived behind her.
"Cool," said Ron, peering over Hermione's shoulder to check. "Blimey, they don't look happy, do they?"
"They're the Montgomery sisters and of course they don't look happy, didn't you hear what happened to their little brother?" said Hermione.
"I'm losing track of what's happening to everyone's relatives, tobe honest," said Ron.
"Well, their brother was attacked by a werewolf. The rumor is that their mother refused to help the Death Eaters. Anyway, the boy was only five and he died in St. Mungo's, they couldn't save him."
"He died?" repeated Harry, shocked. "But surely werewolves don't kill, they just turn you into one of them?"
"Fenrir fucking Greyback kills," said Elara rather angrily. "I swear to the stars if I ever see that mother — "
"Harry, you've got to get that memory," said Hermione, cutting Elara off before more colorful language flew out of her mouth. "It's all about stopping Voldemort, isn't it? These dreadful things that are happening are all down to him. . . ."
The bell rang overhead in the castle and both Hermione and Ron jumped to their feet, looking terrified.
"You'll do fine," Elara told them both, as they headed toward the entrance hall to meet the rest of the people taking their Apparition Test.
"Good luck," said Harry.
"And you too, Harry!" said Hermione with a significant look, as he and Elara headed off to the dungeons.
There were only four of them in Potions that afternoon: Elara, Harry, Ernie, and Draco Malfoy.
"All too young to Apparate just yet?" said Slughorn genially. "Not turned seventeen yet?"
They shook their heads.
"Ah well," said Slughorn cheerily, "as we're so few, we'll do something fun. I want you all to brew me up something amusing, and we'll do it in pairs, since we have the right number!"
Elara and Harry immediately moved towards each other, but Slughorn interrupted.
"Now that wouldn't be fair, the two best potioneers in the class pairing up? Elara, you work with Mr. Malfoy, and Harry, you work with Mr. McMillan."
Elara was actually quite happy she got to work with Draco. She hadn't seen him much since she comforted him in the bathroom. She dragged her cauldron over to Draco, who looked somewhat relieved.
"You look terrible," said Elara, surveying his appearance.
"Thanks," said Draco grudgingly.
". . . Are you okay?"
Draco was quiet for a moment as he flipped through his copy of Advanced Potion Making.
"I'm so tired," he whispered, not daring to look at Elara.
Her heart panged. She was going to make Voldemort suffer in ways his evil mind has not come up with yet. Under the table, she lightly nudged Draco. She was going to get him out. The pair decided on a potion that would make anything that happened incredibly funny to the drinker.
They worked together silently, only interacting when Draco would almost put in the wrong ingredient due to the fact he was getting absolutely no sleep. They did well, brewing an excellent potion with only one or two mistakes.
"Well, now, this looks absolutely wonderful," said Slughorn an hour and a half later, clapping his hands together as he stared down into the sunshine yellow contents of Harry's cauldron. "Euphoria, I take it? And what's that I smell? Mmmm . . . you've added just a sprig of peppermint, haven't you? Unorthodox, but what a stroke of inspiration, Harry, of course, that would tend to counterbalance the occasional side effects of excessive singing and nose-tweaking. . . . I really don't know where you get these brain waves, my boy . . . unless it's just your mother's genes coming out in you!"
"Oh . . . yeah, maybe," said Harry, looking relieved.
Ernie was looking rather grumpy; determined to outshine Harry for once, he had most rashly invented his own potion, which had curdled and formed a kind of purple dumpling at the bottom of his cauldron.
Draco was already packing up; Slughorn had pronounced their Laughing Potion merely "excellent." The bell rang and both Ernie and Draco left at once.
"Sir," Harry began, but Slughorn immediately glanced over his shoulder; when he saw that the room was empty but for himself, Elara, and, Harry, he hurried away as fast as he could.
"Professor — Professor, don't you want to taste my po — ?" called Harry desperately.
But Slughorn had gone.
"You have to drink the potion, Harry," said Elara, staring after Slughorn, "You have no choice."
They left the dungeon and walked slowly back upstairs to the common room. Ron and Hermione returned in the late afternoon.
"Elara! Harry!" cried Hermione as she climbed through the portrait hole. "I passed!"
"I knew you would!" exclaimed Elara before wrapping Hermione up in a hug.
"Well done!" said Harry. "And Ron?"
"He — he just failed," whispered Hermione, as Ron came slouching into the room looking most morose. "It was really unlucky, a tiny thing, the examiner just spotted that he'd left half an eyebrow behind. . . . How did it go with Slughorn?"
"No joy," said Harry, as Ron joined them. "Bad luck, mate, but you'll pass next time — we can take it together."
"I can't believe they failed you for half an eyebrow!" said Elara, "That's like almost running a stop sign during a driving test and then failing for that!"
"Yeah, I s'pose," said Ron grumpily. "But half an eyebrow! Like that matters!"
"I know," said Hermione soothingly, "it does seem really harsh. . . ."
They spent most of their dinner roundly abusing the Apparition examiner, and Ron looked fractionally more cheerful by the time they set off back to the common room, now discussing the continuing problem of Slughorn and the memory.
"So, Harry — you going to use the Felix Felicis or what?" Ron demanded.
"Yeah, I s'pose I'd better," said Harry. "I don't reckon I'll need all of it, not twelve hours' worth, it can't take all night. . . . I'll just take a mouthful. Two or three hours should do it."
"It's a great feeling when you take it," said Ron reminiscently. "Like you can't do anything wrong."
"What are you talking about?" said Hermione, laughing. "You've never taken any!"
"Yeah, but I thought I had, didn't I?" said Ron, as though explaining the obvious. "Same difference really . . ."
Elara had homework to make up, seeing as she had a vision while she was trying to study, and never quite finished the assignment. She wished Harry good luck and jetted off towards McGonagall's classroom for extra help.
The lesson went quite well, McGonagall being rarely sympathetic to Elara's excuse for missing class. Especially when Elara told McGonagall the vision was of her fighting valiantly against Death Eaters, ending with, "You are the most badass woman I've ever met."
She exited the classroom, wondering if Harry had taken the lucky potion yet. She heard a noise that sounded awfully a lot like someone walking very happily.
Elara watched as a peculiar person skipped down the corridor. It certainly wasn't Luna, like Elara expected. She raised an eyebrow as the person came closer. It was Harry. She opened her mouth to greet him but instead was spun around by her hand, dipped, and wrapped up into a passionate kiss.
"Lara! Hi, Love!" said Harry jovially as he pulled away.
Elara blinked. What the hell just happened?
"Hey, Harry... Did you hit your head?" said Elara, reaching up to examine his scalp.
"I can't believe I get to call you mine," said Harry rather dreamily.
"Uh huh..." Elara smiled, still running her hands through his wild hair in hopes to figure out if Harry has a concussion or not.
"I'm not even surprised you want to be a healer."
Elara hummed in response.
"And god your eyes are so beautiful, I could literally stare into them for hours," said Harry, still letting Elara examine his hair for a bump. She smiled and nodded. "The first time I heard your laugh I knew I was too far gone."
"Yeah. . . . You're concussed. Let's get you to Madam Pomfrey," said Elara, stepping away.
Before Elara could take a step, Harry caught her hands.
"I'm serious," said Harry, his face now stoic. "One day, sooner or later — hopefully sooner — i really want to marry you."
Elara's mouth dropped open. Harry was either very severely concussed or he was on some major drugs. He's never this brave, at least with this kind of stuff, around anyone.
"I — Harry," Elara dropped her voice low. "Are you high?"
"Nope," he said, "I've taken the Felix Felicis to talk to Slughorn, but I figured you should know. I was going to save it for when I planned to propose, but this is for saving the world!"
"Oh," Elara blinked.
Her confused expression morphed into a wide smile. A pink twinge arose on her cheeks.
"Your hair's pink," said Harry blatantly.
He was smiling too.
"Dammit," she grumbled, her already pink face turning red.
Before either of them said anything else, Harry tilted Elara's chin upwards and wrapped her into another heated kiss. The five inch height difference forced Elara on her toes. He pulled away, smiled at her still-pink hair.
"I have something for you," said harry, reaching into his robes and pulling out three pieces of parchment with writing on the front and back. "It's all the reasons I love you."
"Oh?" said Elara.
She was more than certain her face was red and her hair was pink.
"I want you to have it. It's an early birthday present!"
Harry planted one last kiss on her forehead before jetting off down the corridor. Elara stood on the spot, stunned, as she watched Harry continue skipping down the corridor. Before he rounded the corner, he turned around.
"I love you!" He shouted.
The message echoed off the walls. Elara was now certainly very red.
"I love you, too!" She called back and watched as he disappeared from sight.
Beaming, she turned back to the direction she was originally heading in, a newfound spring in her step.
* * *
AUTHOR'S NOTE
— since this chapter is short as hell,
i made some incorrect quotes for the book :)
written: july 22, 2020
published: july 22, 2020