Dark child

32

If Elara had thought that matters would improve for Harry once everyone got used to the idea of him being champion, the following day showed her how mistaken she was. Harry could no longer avoid the rest of the school once he was back at lessons like he did on Sunday — and it was clear that the whole school, thought Harry had entered himself for the tournament, just like Elara. Unlike for Elara's case, however, they did not seem impressed.

Later that day, Elara, Draco and the rest of the Slytherins arrived at Hagrid's cabin to join the Gryffindors.
"Ah, look, boys, it's the champion," Draco said to Crabbe and Goyle the moment he got within earshot of Harry. "Got your autograph books? Better get a signature now, because I doubt he's going to be around much longer... Half the Triwizard champions have died... how long d'you reckon you're going to last, Potter? Ten minutes into the first task's my bet."

Crabbe and Goyle guffawed sycophantically, but Draco had to stop there, because Hagrid emerged from the back of his cabin balancing a teetering tower of crates, each containing a very large Blast-Ended Skrewt. To the class's horror, Hagrid proceeded to explain that the reason the skrewts had been killing one another was an excess of pent-up energy, and that the solution would be for each student to fix a leash on a skrewt and take it for a short walk.

"Take this thing for a walk?" Draco repeated in disgust, staring into one of the boxes. "And where exactly are we supposed to fix the leash? Around the sting, the blasting end, or the sucker?"

"Roun' the middle," said Hagrid, demonstrating. "Er — yeh might want ter put on yer dragon-hide gloves, jus' as an extra precaution, like. Harry — you come here an' help me with this big one..."

Elara was sure Hagrid's real intention, however, was to talk to Harry away from the rest of the class. She therefore, like everyone else set off with her skrewt. The skrewts were now over three feet long, and extremely powerful. No longer shell-less and colorless, they had developed a kind of thick, grayish, shiny armor. They looked like a cross between giant scorpions and elongated crabs — but still without recognizable heads or eyes. They had become immensely strong and very hard to control.

While Hagrid and Harry stood talking together, the class was in a great difficulty; every now and then, with an alarming bang, one of the skrewts' ends would explode, causing it to shoot forward several yards, and more than one person was being dragged along on their stomach, trying desperately to get back on their feet. Elara only managed to stop Draco's Skrewt from dragging him along on his face, while Neville was screaming beside her as his Skrewt dragged him away.

The next few days passed remarkably quite for Elara as she kept her routine of attending her classes at days and visiting Barty at nights. For Harry however, things were as terrible as possible. Elara had also realized that Harry's best friend, Ron, wasn't talking to him anymore. Elara never liked Ron but she has always assumed him a loyal friend to Harry, and therefore was shocked to hear the news.

For the first time in her life, the number of people who liked her outweighed the haters. It was undeniable that Elara looked the part of a champion so much more than Harry did. Taller than her fellow fourth years with her long black hair and handsome face she had inherited from her father, it was hard to say who was receiving more admiration these days, Elara or Viktor Krum. Students kept popping up on Elara's way all the time asking for her autograph when she was trying to get to her classes. Not even one of them seemed to care she was Voldemort's daughter anymore.

It had became hard for Elara to find a moment alone for herself now. She was constantly surrounded by her huge group of fans and couldn't even get rid of them in the loo, in which the girls accompanied her to the toilet and waited there. On the other hand, Snape's attitude towards Harry had become nastier than ever before. He seemed determined to punish Harry as much as possible for daring to become school champion, although he knew perfectly well Harry hadn't done it himself.