Dark child

15

Hermione was sent to the hospital wing for several weeks and no one seemed to be aware of her sickness. There was a flurry of rumor about her disappearance when the rest of the school arrived back from their Christmas holidays, because of course everyone thought that she had been attacked, like they did when Elara was at the hospital. So many students filed past the hospital wing trying to catch a glimpse of her that Madam Pomfrey took out her curtains again and placed them around Hermione's bed, Merlin knows why.

Harry and Ron went to visit her every evening. When the new term started, they brought her each day's homework. "She was doing the best thing." Elara thought, considering the pile of homework they were been given by the teachers, specially Snape. Speaking of the golden trio, Harry and Ron were constantly giving Elara weird looks whenever she was around. Elara could swear they were planning to do something to her. She was always ready to defend herself in case they wanted to attack her in corridors. Finally she got to meet Harry and Hermione, who was recently off the hospital wing, in a corridor near trophy room at their break. She expected them to attack her or prank on her, specially as she was alone, but to her amazement, they only gave her shocked looks.
"Why are you looking at me like you've seen a ghost?" Elara asked, quite annoyed.
"Err... can I ask you something?" Harry muttered.
Elara's eyebrows jumped as up as they were able to go on her forehead.
"Uhm... yeah. Go ahead."
"What exact special service your father gave to the school 50 years ago that has rewarded him a prize? T.M.Riddle is your father, isn't he?" Asked Harry.
Elara's heart was beating madly on her chest. Her mouth went dry instantly and she felt sick again. "Yes, Tom Morvollo Riddle is my father. I lost him when I was one and I didn't get the chance to ask him about his prize, but I've asked my dad about it and the only thing he told me is that was nothing really important, I mean nothing much brilliant." She lied.
"O-okay, thanks anyway." Said Hermione, eying her as they went to the opposite sides. Elara wasn't sure how persuasive her lie was.

Elara didn't think they've gotten bored and have started to search at the trophy room, she knew Harry was a breath away from discovering the fact that Tom Riddle is the real name of famous Lord Voldemort who killed his parents. Her only question was how much he knows? Does he know all about the chamber of secrets? If so, how is he collecting his information? That, she had no clue about it.

Although Harry hadn't found out about Tom Riddle yet, Elara was already dealing with another problem. Right after the Christmas break, there was news of Elara being the true heir of Slytherin everywhere and Elara couldn't find out who had spread this news, even her attempt to scare Slytherins by screaming for a solid 5 minutes on all of them in the common room, didn't get her anywhere. Now people either believed that Elara was behind the attacks, or they were still accusing Harry to be the guilty one. Elara didn't deny the fact that she was the heir of Slytherin, as it was no point in lying. Even when Fred Weasley beamed at her at the Great Hall, and asked her to speak Parseltongue, Elara smiled softly and asked what do you want me to say, which of course, he ended up with the silly idea of a translated version of Hogwarts song in Parseltongue. Elara was enjoying the tension in the Great Hall and she was well aware of Dumbledore's eyes on her. She was so happy that he couldn't stop her from stirring up the rumors. As a reply to Fred's request, she only hissed "You know I'd really liked to be friends with you, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work. But still, I think you're funny." which made everyone gasp as they saw Elara actually speaking the snakes' language. In the middle of the whispers and pointing fingers toward her, Fred dived to the other side of the table, where Harry was sitting, to check if she'd translated correctly. A moment of silence happened in the Gryffindor table and as Harry's low voice died, George Weasley gave Elara thumbs up, while grinning widely. Elara smiled mysteriously as she succeeded to impress someone who wasn't Slytherin, for the first time in the last 2 years. In a couple of days, some of the students went to see Dumbledore, asking him to arrest Elara for being an heir of Slytherin, but he had responded that speaking Parseltongue isn't an enough evidence to arrest someone. That made Elara sure there had been a serious argument between Dumbledore and Severus when she was unconscious; otherwise, he wouldn't have been supportive of her being officially introduced to people as the ascendent of the great Slytherin.