Entanglement

Paranoia

Dumbledore convinced Elena not to go looking for the Mirror of Erised again and for the rest of the holidays, the Invisibility Cloak stayed at the bottom of her trunk. Elena wished she could forget what she'd seen in the Mirror, but she couldn't. She told Harry the words Dumbledore shared, and talked him out of looking either.
Harry started having nightmares. He confided this to Elena and Ron only.
"You see, Dumbledore was right, that mirror could drive you mad," said Ron, when Harry told him and Elena about these dreams.
Hermione, who came back the day before term started, took a different view of things. Not only was she surprised they had taken Harry into the group- but accepting, only for the fact he was THE Harry Potter. She was torn between horror at the idea of Elena being out of bed, roaming the school three nights in a row- "If Filch had caught you!"- and disappointed that she hadn't at least found out who Nicolas Flamel was.
They almost gave up hope of finding Flamel in a library book, even though Elena was sure she'd read the name somewhere. Once term started, they were back to skimming through books for ten minutes during breaks. Elena had less time than the other two, because Quidditch practice started again. Harry had less time because he would always run to Malfoy.

Wood was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that replaced the snow couldn't dampen his spirits. The Weasleys complained that Wood was becoming a fanatic, but Elena was on Wood's side. If they won their next match, against Hufflepuff, they would overtake Slytherin in the House Championship for the first time in seven years.
Then Wood gave the team a bit of bad news. He'd gotten angry with the Weasleys, who kept dive bombing each other and pretending to fall off their brooms.
"Will you stop messing around!" he yelled. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!"
George Weasley really did fall off his broom at these words.
"Snape's refereeing?" he spluttered through a mouthful of mud. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin."
The rest of the team landed next to George to complain, too.
"It's not my fault," said Wood. "We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us."

Which was all very well, thought Elena, but she had another reason for not wanting Snape near her while she was playing Quidditch...

The rest of the team hung back to talk to each other as usual at the end of practice, but Elena headed straight to the Gryffindor common room, where she found Ron and Hermione playing chess. Chess was the only thing Hermione ever lost at, something Elena, Harry, and Ron thought was very good for her.

"Don't talk to me for a moment," said Ron when Elena sat down next to him. "I need to concen–" He caught sight of Elena's face. "Are you okay? You look terrible."

Speaking quietly, Elena told the other two about Snape's sudden, sinister desire to be a Quidditch referee.
"Don't play," said Hermione at once.
"Say you're ill," said Ron.
"Pretend to break your leg," Hermione suggested.
"Really break your leg," said Ron.
"I can't," said Elena. "There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out, Gryffindor can't play at all. Fred could take my place as Beater.. but who would take his?"

At that moment Neville toppled into the common room. How he managed to climb through the portrait hole was anyone's guess, because his legs were stuck together with what they recognized at once as the Leg-Locker Curse. He must have bunny hopped all the way to Gryffindor Tower.
Everyone began laughing except Hermione, who leapt up and performed the counter-curse. Neville's legs sprang apart and he got to his feet, trembling.

"What happened?" Elena asked him, leading him over to sit with Hermione and Ron.
"Malfoy," said Neville shakily. "I met him outside the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice that on."
"Go to Professor McGonagall!" Hermione urged Neville. "Report him!"
Neville shook his head.
"I don't want more trouble," he mumbled.
"You've got to stand up to him, Neville!" said Ron. "He's used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down in front of him and make it easier."
"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Malfoy's already done that," Neville choked.
"Neville, no!" Elena spoke, "I'm not brave either, at all," she gulped, "don't worry."