EPHEMERAL [2]

13; GOD REST YE, MERRY HIPPOGRIFFS

When they got back home, Elara watched Harry run up to his and Ron's room and shut the door behind him. She was very worried about him. When he didn't show up for dinner, her worry reached a different level.

She wanted to go and see if he was alright, but she was also aware that he might not want to see anyone, and that maybe she should wait until he came to talk to her. That would be more comfortable for him. He wouldn't have to be forced that way.

The next day, she helped her father put up decorations, happy to see him singing and dancing around the house. Hermione managed to come over, having ditched her skiing trip with her parents. She went straight to Harry's room.

Later that evening, Harry came to her just as she expected he would. She knew he had to calm down. She knew that he would get angry and lash out if he was forced to talk before he was ready, and from what Hermione told her after their conversation, she only managed to talk to him once he'd let all his anger out on them.

She was sat in her bedroom, laying spread-eagled on the rug in the middle of the room with a dagger floating above her. It was one Theodore got her for her last birthday. It was silver and the handle was black with emerald on the hilt.

She was practicing her telekinesis, considering there was only so much she could read about it, and she was getting better, which was why she was on the floor throwing the dagger above her and catching it with her telekinesis before tossing it back up and catching it once more.

*imagine that's what el's doing, just without the colour*

Someone knocked on the door and she almost didn't catch the dagger. "Come in." She said as she tossed it back into the air. The door opened and Harry walked in just in time to see her catch the knife with her powers seconds before it slammed into her chest.

Elara flipped the knife in her hand expertly before throwing it onto the bed and patting the space beside her. "What were you doing?" Harry asked, sitting down beside her, and leaning against the bed.

"Practicing my telekinesis." She replied, leaning against the bed as well. "How have you been?"

"Fine." But after she glared at him, he sighed. "Better than I was yesterday. I was going to leave."

"Leave as in, back to Hogwarts?"

"No, back to Privet Drive."

"Harry." Elara snapped her head in his direction with a disbelieving look on her face.

"I know, I know. I wasn't thinking. It was just- it was the one place where I wouldn't be able to hurt the people I love." Harry rubbed his hands over his eyes, and then ran a hand through his messy black hair. "But your great something grandfather sent a message from Dumbledore. Says to stay where I am."

"I don't agree with Dumbledore normally, and you know this. But he's right. You need to stay here, where we are. Where I am. I can protect you. With Voldemort out, who knows what could happen. You're still underage, and you can't use magic to protect yourself should anything happen."