****
"Oh, Severus, he can't remember any of it," ordered Dumbledore, as he sank his head inside the Pensieve.
As he began to descend deep into Draco's extracted memories, he heard some fuss in the background. Assuming it was the two students complaining over his orders, he trusted Professor Severus Snape with taking away Draco Malfoy's memories of Elara.
He carefully studied every moment of his memory, from the first time Draco came across Elara inside the Great Hall, as she sat across him, to the very last moment before she disappeared, as he recognized Nymphadora Tonks escorting her out of the Slytherin common room. He became so invested in his memories that after his seventh time inspecting them, he almost began to believe they were his own.
But every time he sank his head, re-entering his memories, he believed he would find something new, something that his eyes hadn't seen before. Knowing full and well that his memory had to have been re-adjusted, it surprised him how he had been present for Elara's last night at Hogwarts as well. Even though Draco didn't see too much of it, Professor Dumbledore saw himself, as well as Professor McGonagall, exiting the common room before the girl.
Aside from his other problems, the mysterious three-year gap in Elara Dotson's story worried him more than he thought it would. Experimenting on numerous potions and charms on himself, he hoped to cancel out a potential nasty dark charm on him, preventing him from remembering. He was hoping to find a formula that would erase the power of the Forgetfulness Charm. But alas, every attempt ended in failure.
As the weeks passed by, he found himself beginning to forget about the problematic girl, and by the looks of it, he wasn't the only one. Assured that someone else was intentionally making everyone forget about Elara, he protected himself with preventive charms. He invited two of his most trusted colleagues to advise him on the topic, and his concerns proved to be legitimate.
"Sorry, who is Elara Dotson?" Professor Slughorn asked, struggling to recall the missing child.
He allowed both Professor Slughorn and Professor McGonagall to study Draco's extracted memories, in case they would notice something he had not. After some consideration, he also called for Professor Snape, who was known for slightly stern techniques when it came to dealing with similar topics.
"I feel something dark stands behind all of it," Professor Snape lifted his head from the Pensieve, having seen Draco's memories for the first time.
"Indeed," Headmaster Dumbledore agreed, "I would like for the young Potter to train with her."
"Excuse me, Albus, but I do not think we can trust Miss Dotson," Professor Snape fought back.
"You have been training him for a while now, what is your opinion on his abilities?" Headmaster Dumbledore inquired.
There have been many troubling heads at Hogwarts, both in the past and present. Tormented by intimidating nightmares, one had to find a way to deal with them. Some were lucky enough to be supported by their professors, while others, those who remained silent, not only suffered in silence but had long-term issues years later.
Once Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, woke up drenched in sweat, positive that the Dark Lord was invading and reading his mind. Professor Snape began teaching him how to put up mental barriers to protect himself.
Similarly, Elara Dotson was struggling to free herself from the Unbreakable Vow, as something evil prevented her from doing so, endangering her life every-time she tried. Protected by none other than Professor McGonagall who saw something in the girl, she gifted her with a magical book, as well with an amateur on the topic, Luna Lovegood.
Both Potter and Dotson's mental training were similar, as their goal was to stop anyone from messing them with their mind. But what no one knew, aside from Elara, was that she craved to go deep within, to an alternative reality of her's, to gather strength and break the Unbreakable Vow without killing herself in the process.
"What is your mission? To train Dotson on how to set up mental barriers as well?" Professor Snape lifted his brows, having known Albus Dumbledore never jumped into something new head-first.
"Would Potter be able to find his way into her mind, only to observe it?" Dumbledore lifted the Remembrall, which once again turned red, showing that he had forgotten something.
"I suppose," Professor Snape remarked, "but how would that help her?"
"We would tell her that Potter will be her new tutor, but instead of teaching her, he will only be there, making sure she isn't influenced by...someone else," Headmaster Dumbledore concluded.
Once Dumbledore assured Snape that no harm would come to Harry Potter, he agreed on ordering and trusting the sensitive information to the young wizard. Instructing him to vaguely guide Elara in the process of putting up mental barriers, Snape revealed to Harry that Dumbledore suspected her of being a Death Eater.
And as Harry's trust in Dumbledore was indisputable, he agreed to their plan.
***
For the first time in weeks, Elara did not wake up before sunrise. Instead, her heart nearly stopped once Millicent's alarm clock began to scream and run around the room until Daphne angrily kicked at it.
Tracey was the only one who'd heard both Elara and Pansy enter the room very late, in the middle of the night. Noticing there was a too big of a time gap for them to have been somewhere together, she suspected Pansy had been spying on Elara. Tracey also noticed both of the girls woke up late, with dark circles under their eyes. She decided not to risk irritating either by asking any questions or giving any comments about their clearly sleep-deprived state.
It was snowing in The Great Hall, and students could feel the cold enchanted snowflakes melting as soon as they reached their skin. The atmosphere was pleasant and festive, as everyone was looking forward to their annual Winter Break.
Almost everyone.
Distressed Elara quickly emerged from the Slytherin common rooms, hoping to find the two people she had hurt. She pushed past everyone who walked in her way, hissing and swearing towards her way through the hallways. One of the castle ghosts even joked about preparing water buckets as a precaution, as the fiery witch had woken up on the wrong side of her bed. Luckily for the residents, especially the people in the portraits, Elara had forgotten her wand in her chambers.
Instead of turning left, towards the Slytherin table, she walked straight ahead, gliding past the Ravenclaw table. Hopelessly searching for their blonde hair, Elara finally recognized their faces.
"Luna, I am so sorry-," Elara began, as she stood behind her back. Luna briefly turned around for a moment, shaking her head with a disappointed expression on her face.
A couple of heads turned around, observing how a Slytherin girl walked up to the Ravenclaws, expressing how sorry she was. It was an unusual sight, as the two houses were known for being stubborn and overly ambitious.
But Elara did not care. The stares and the whispers didn't bother her, as she pushed away a Ravenclaw boy, who had been sitting next to Luna.
"You have to understand, I didn't have a choice," Elara lowered her voice, knowing their conversation was observed by many.
"You know, it didn't bother me when you attacked me. I understood. You followed your instinct, wanting to protect someone. What bothered me is that you didn't trust us. We could've helped you," Luna turned around, facing Elara.
"I wanted to tell you, believe me, I want you to know that-," Elara objected as she chocked on her words. She grabbed her throat, trying to force a cough to clear her airways.
"You can't tell us, can you?" Anthony sat down across them, observing Elara's reaction. Luna immediately felt bad for making her confess something that Elara physically couldn't do.
"We'll just have to practice more," Anthony smiled at her. As Elara agreed and stood up, ready to walk over to the Slytherin table, Luna pulled her sleeve.
"We have cupcakes here, and your table doesn't."
It was an indirect invitation to stay with them, which she gladly accepted. Even though Elara couldn't tell them what she saw in her vision, she was able to describe the process and the hideous creature talking with her in the so-called 'waiting room'. She left out the part where a younger version of herself warned her about Draco's safety, and how she ran to find him completely harmless.
It puzzled her mind, if she interpreted her vision wrong - second-guessing if the younger Elara had been talking about another person. But alas, she did end up helping Draco. Had it not been for her, Professor Slughorn would have noticed them at the top of the Astronomy tower after curfew hours, arguing about the cursed necklace. But had she not erased Slughorn's memory and bickering with Draco, the professor wouldn't need to investigate the tower in the first place. Lost in her daydreams, Elara zoned out of their conversation.
"Shifted to another reality again?" Anthony called for her.
"Hm?" Elara snapped back to their reality. She had unintentionally been staring at Draco's empty seat the whole time, wondering if their night adventures had exhausted him too.
"I was trying to explain the process of moving past a waiting room," Anthony smiled, showing her some scribbles he had made the day before.
Elara found it odd, how neither Luna nor Anthony shooed her away. She was taught that everyone has an alternative motive, and are just using you to get there. It was incredibly hard for her to trust people. It's been years, three to be exact, since Elara had someone who worried about her and did things for her without expecting anything back. And those three years she'd been absent from Hogwarts had been most crucial to her perception of how the world works, giving her both courage to push past anyone standing in her way, as well as extreme anxiety once she realized she was on the path all by herself.
"You need to state affirmations out loud as if they have already happened. So, instead of saying 'I will find out how to break the vow', say 'I found out how to break the vow'," Anthony continued, noticing Elara had a hard time concentrating.
"But where do I go? I didn't see any doors or windows, it was just a room," Elara reminisced about the so-called waiting room.
"Did you look up?" Luna blurted out, staring somewhere in the distance. Both Anthony and Elara exchanged confused looks, before asking Luna what she meant.
"Sometimes the most obvious things are in front of us. Or above us," Luna continued, her spoon circling her oatmeal which she barely touched.
"And if there is an exit above me, what can I do - spread my imaginary wings and fly?" Elara giggled.
"You could always use your broom. Since you're a witch, and all," Anthony smirked as Luna chuckled.
"Ha-ha, how clever. Any advice you're willing to share, Goldstein?" Elara crossed arms on her chest, jokingly showing Anthony the middle finger.
"It's your reality, Dotson. You can say you have wings and you will," Anthony lifted his hands in surrender.
Deciding to discuss the training matters in the afternoon, they went on with their day - which had significantly improved for Elara. It was in her potions class, which was her first class of the day, she had realized she had forgotten her wand. Tossing around everything in her bag, she groaned as she realized she will have to go back to her chambers, which were across the school.
As she asked Luna to tell the professor about it in her name, Tracey ran up to her, handing her the wand. Explaining she noticed her leave the chambers in a hurry, she didn't want to bother before. Stunned, Elara thanked her but also noticed Pansy's vein almost popping on her forehead as she observed Tracey's kindness towards Elara.
They were learning about the most powerful potions, how its use was controlled by the Ministry of Magic. The one that stood out the most was certainly Veritaserum, a truth-telling potion. Only three drops were needed for its drinker to spill all of their darkest secrets, no matter how hard they try to resist them. It of course had its weaknesses, other contradicting charms or potions. It reminded Elara of the serum she was administered at the headmaster Dumbledore's office shortly after her arrival.
Noticing Draco showed up for the lesson late, she observed his behavior. But as he didn't blink twice at the truth-telling potion, she lost all doubts of him ever remembering her, which made her feel happy and safe. Although she did feel a sharp pain in her chest every time she thought about last night's events. Not many people knew Elara was capable of transforming into other animals, and the last person she wanted to know about her ability was Draco Malfoy. Tonks once told her that she was a 'metamorphmagus', a witch or wizard with the rare ability to change their physical appearance through sheer will alone, without the need of Polyjuice Potion or a spell like most of the wizarding population.
Even though she didn't have much respect for Draco, she knew he kept his word and rarely participated in gossiping as of late. But he also had the tendency to be fooled easily, as he was 'naive like his father,' in Bellatrix's opinion.
Elara had completely forgotten about her bruised arm, up until a girl from a year below her intentionally crashed against her in the hallway, murmuring "Nasty scum."
"What was that?" Elara turned around and yelled after her, patting her aching shoulder.
"They are getting bolder and bolder," Anthony observed, slightly pulling Elara's robe to walk away from a potential fight.
As they continued making their way through one of the biggest hallways, they began to notice how everyone was not only looking at them but whispering too. Some of them went out of their way to change their direction, to avoid walking by them. Others laughed too loud as if they wanted them to notice their mockery. Even Luna felt anxious by it, as she hoped Elara wouldn't react badly.
Entering the back courtyard, a larger group of Slytherins gathered around Pansy. Thinking it was one of Pansy's gossiping stunts, Elara brushed it off and joked about it with Anthony.
"What absurd rumour will she make up today?" Luna lifted her brow, as the other two placed their bets. They walked by the group, which became quiet, as they all stared at them.
Then, all of a sudden, one of them grabbed Luna, another one Anthony, dragging them away from her. Gregory Goyle pinched Elara, making her drop her wand, which he swiftly took into his hand. A Ravenclaw boy threw a burning torch on top of a woodpile, pushing Elara next to it.
"C'mon, call her again," a Gryffindor girl shouted at her.
"What?" Elara gasped in shock, her eyes desperately looking for Luna and Anthony, who were nowhere to be seen.
"Go, ahead, Death Eater, show us how it's done," Gregory paraded around with her wand.
Elara's face lost all of its colour, moments before her eyes darkened, and she calmly straightened her back, staring right into Pansy's eyes.
"A point for creativity, Parkinson," she sighed.
"I saw you use your magic to call Bellatrix Lestrange last night, when you came back from your...late night walk," Pansy boomed, leaving out the part where she noticed Draco enter at the same time.
"And no one here finds it odd how you were also supposedly awake and lurking about?" Elara sarcastically questioned, looking at everyone standing in the circle.
"Just admit it, you're one of them," Pansy neared her, "a Death Eater."
"Get out of my face," Elara also made a step closer, standing mere inches away from Pansy's face.
"Or what? You're gonna set me on fire?" Pansy studied her eyes before stepping away, enjoying she had caused a burst of erupting laughter. Elara slowly inhaled and exhaled, clenching her fists, allowing Pansy to walk away.
Anthony managed to fight his way out, as well as punching a student who was holding onto Luna. He shoved away everyone in his path, with Luna right behind him, until he reached Elara, gently placing his palm on her shoulder, whispering: "Let's go."
The leaves began to lift from the ground, swirl in a circle, catching up to Pansy and her friends. At first, none of them noticed, but as the leaves crashed against their faces, Gregory turned around, noticing Elara had been furiously staring at them, her wand lying in front of her.
"Pansy, she's doing it again," he tapped her shoulder, as she turned around, her mouth opening in fear.
But instead of whispering her infamous fire incantations, Elara confidently walked over to her, the leaves making a path for her, then enclosing them in a circle again.
"Was it because Tracey would rather sit alone than in your company?" She guessed, making sure everyone heard her, "or is it because you're in love with Draco?" she whispered into her ear.
"You don't wanna play games with me," Pansy angrily shoved her away, flinching once she noticed more and more leaves began to swirl in the air, but this time enclosing only her and Elara in a small circle.
"And you don't wanna provoke me," Elara snapped, lifting her palms, which attracted not only every fallen leaf on the courtyard, but branches as well, covering them completely, so no one from outside could see what was happening in their tiny bubble.
"Since, you know, I am one of them," Elara crazily smiled at her, before lowering her hands. As swirling leaves and branches dropped to the floor in an instant, Pansy stormed away, cursing underneath her breath.
***