Dark child

21

Elara was standing in the staffroom, terrified as professor Lupin was packing his stuff, hoping desperately that her teacher would forget about her existence. But eventually, he turned to her with his bag on his shoulder and said smiling "You know I haven't poisoned that chocolate."
Elara looked blankly at the chocolate, and then bit.
"I believe it would be more appropriate if we talk in my office." Said Lupin. Elara nodded and followed him through the corridors until they reached his office.
"Cup of tea?" Lupin said, looking around for his kettle as they entered the room. "I was just thinking of making one."
"All right," said Elara awkwardly.
Lupin tapped the kettle with his wand and a blast of steam issued suddenly from the spout.
"Sit down," said Lupin, taking the lid off a dusty tin. "I've only got teabags, I'm afraid — is it all right or should I—"
"It's brilliant." Answered Elara, who was now much more anxious.

"Listen Elara, I am truly sorry that I forced you to face the Boggart. I should have guessed there must be a reason you didn't want to have a go with it. I can apologize you in front of the class next time if you want..."
"There's no need for such thing, professor. Thank you." Elara said, cutting Lupin's sentence.
Lupin sighed and said "Can I ask the reason of your annoyance? Your greatest fear is to become evil-ish. Thats a good thing I guess, isn't it?"
"To be honest, I'm sick of it. Everyone thinks I'm as bad as my father and because of that I can't make any friends; just the ones whose parents used to be a death eater accompany me. I do my best to be nice to people, but no one believes my intentions to be pure; no one is willing to spend time with me, except Slytherins again. Everyone is pushing me into that evil-ish direction by treating me like a bad person and sooner or later, I will surrender. No one cares that I need friends, not bunch of rumors about me being the greatest dark witch of the history. Everybody hates me and run away from me, professor. I hate myself with passion." Elara finished, and found out that she was holding a cup of tea in her hand, though she didn't remember when did Lupin pass the cup to her.
"Well, Elara, I'm sure you will solve this problem, soon. You're an intelligent girl and I believe you will find a way to make proper friends." Lupin said, almost lazily.

Elara was feeling angry now. She thought that Lupin would suggest to become her friend, but her hopes were obviously in vain. She found out that for some reason, he was showing so much interest in the papers on his desk now.
"Will you, for example, be a friend of mine?" Elara pushed the subject further.
Lupin was taken aback. He suddenly gazed at Elara with a suspicious look on his face, then said "Have you ever considered what Severus thinks of you if I become your friend?"
"Why? Because you're a werewolf? Or because you and your friends used to bully him at the school?" Elara said, enjoying the shocked expression on Lupin's face.
"How do you... did he tell you...?"
"About you being a werewolf? No he didn't. But as you said earlier, I'm smart enough to find out what's the usage of the potion he is brewing for you. In addition, your Boggart is a full moon. It isn't hard to find out, is it? And as for you lot being enemies, well I didn't hear those stories from Severus. Lucius Malfoy told some of them to me, whenever my dad wasn't around." Elara said, again interrupting his sentence.
Lupin said nothing. He sat down at his chair, and looked blankly at the space. Then, in much lower voice, said "Why do you want to hang out with me, if you know we have nothing in common?"
Silent tears ran across her face before she could do anything to stop them. Elara couldn't decide whether she was crying out of anger or heartbreak, maybe both. She put the tea cup on the table, got up and left the room as fast as possible. Lupin didn't try to stop her.

For a couple of days, the story of Elara and Neville's Boggart was the most popular topics of chatting students. Life was getting harder and harder for Elara with the students now looking at her eyes every few seconds to see if they turn red. Some of the Ravenclaws attempt to make her angry at Charms class to see if her eyes turns red and snake-like or not. The rest of the school, however, seemed to be frightened of her to the point of screaming faintly as she passed them. She didn't know how much longer she could stand this madness. In no time at all, Defense Against the Dark Arts had become most people's favorite class. Only Draco and his gang of Slytherins had anything bad to say about Professor Lupin, which Elara didn't try to stop them, but didn't join them either. After all, she had a plan...
"Look at the state of his robes," Malfoy would say in a loud whisper as Professor Lupin passed. "He dresses like our old houseelf."
But no one else cared that Professor Lupin's robes were patched and frayed. His next few lessons were just as interesting as the first. After boggarts, they studied Red Caps, nasty little goblinlike creatures that lurked wherever there had been bloodshed: in the dungeons of castles and the potholes of deserted battlefields, waiting to bludgeon those who had gotten lost. From Red Caps they moved on to kappas, creepy water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys, with webbed hands itching to strangle unwitting waders in their ponds.
Snape, like Elara, was in a particularly vindictive mood these days, and no one was in any doubt why. The story of the boggart assuming Snape's shape, and the way that Neville had dressed it in his grandmother's clothes, had traveled through the school like wildfire. Snape didn't seem to find it funny. His eyes flashed menacingly at the very mention of Professor Lupin's name, and he was bullying Neville worse than ever. He was so angry that didn't even bother to ask Elara about the form of her Boggart, and gladly, Elara didn't try to mention the Boggart story. It was bad enough that the whole school was talking about it.