Elora stood silent looking around her. Where she stood... she did not know. Everything around her was black, the walls (if you can call them that), the floor (even though it looked like she were floating)... everything!
Then suddenly just in front of her a small flame appeared. Elora looked at it, tilting her head ever so slightly, and reached out to touch it. As she did, the flame grew and in a cyclone shape shot straight up. The cyclone started to widen, creating the figure... of a dragon!
Elora tried to move backwards, but felt as if she were standing against a wall. She could not move. She gasped as the fire dragon (a dragon made of pure flame) opened its mouth and roared. Then suddenly Elora didn't feel that she was in any harm. She extended her arm out again, relaxed and calm.
The fire dragon knelt down, and bowed its head to Elora. Before Elora could touch the fire dragon she appeared back in the Upper Years common room, right in front of the fire.
Elora looked around in bewilderment, "What-What happened?" Fragments of things ran through her head... fire... dragon... worlds. But she didn't know what it all meant. What had happened just then Elora felt was way beyond what she had expected in her first year at Hogwarts.
Just then Victoria came rushing in shouting "Harry? Where's -" She stopped suddenly when she saw Harry and Elora, both looking dazed as the whole room stared at Elora. Victoria ran over to Harry and Elora asking, "What happened here?" as she looked around at everyone.
Elora glanced at Victoria bringing out a silent, slurred "Nothing." feeling quite woosy. She started to lose her balance, and Harry came to catch her before she hit the floor from a faint spell. Elora heard Harry shout "Someone help me get her to the Hospital Wing!" then she blacked out.
Waking up, Elora found herself lying on a bed in the hospital wing. She sat up suddenly. A sharp pain rang through her head, and she fell back, "Wh-where?" "You're in the Hospital Wing, Elora." Harry said, sitting beside her with Victoria standing holding a bunch of books.
Victoria shook her head slightly; "You scared the heeby-jeebies outta me! What happened there?"
Elora moaned and rolled over, brushing back her hair, "I don't know!" answering not only Victoria, but also herself. "First thing I know I'm in the U.Y room, staring at the fire, talking with Harry. And then... then, it's sort of blank from there. I can only remember fragments of it." She sat up and turned to look at Harry, "Harry. You were there. What did you see?"
Harry lowered his head, pulled together his thoughts, then looked back up at Elora, "Well what I saw, no one else saw I suppose. But, I was surrounded by dark. Suddenly, a light from within you shot out. It turned into fire and began to form into the shape of a... of a Dragon. You reached out to it, but before you touched it, we were back in the common room... I don't understand it. It was a power I had never felt before. I almost cried. It was such a dark feeling before the dragon came. It swallowed up the darkness. It was a..."
Suddenly, Harry and the rest heard the voice of Professor Dumbledore behind them, "It was a Shadow." looking at Harry, Victoria and Elora.
Victoria thought for a moment, "But aren't Shadows supposed to be BAD?" "Not necessarily, Victoria."
Professor Dumbledore said with a smile and a twinkle in his eye, "This type isn't. You see, inside every one of us lives a creature, a 'spirit' you would call it. It gives us the strength we need and with it our magic grows stronger." His eyes turn to Elora, "I overheard what Harry said. A dragon you say, Elora?"
Elora nodded and added, "I guess. I can't quite remember it all."
Professor Dumbledore laughed softly, "Your mind is blank, Elora? That's not necessarily a bad thing. You just have to learn to open up your heart and mind to things... well, things that you don't expect. Like what just happened to you." He turned to Harry, "Now Harry. You said you experienced the same thing as Elora? That's quite irregular, but now... everything is irregular with you. Now isn't it Harry?"
Harry nodded a little, "Professor Dumbledore. Please tell me, why did I experience it?"
Professor Dumbledore gave a slight thinking moan, "Well Harry. It might be that, in a way, you and Elora share something in common. Though, I don't quite know what it is. It's a mystery, even to me." Professor Dumbledore's gaze fell to Elora, who had her knees up close to her body, and her head turned away from them, "I know what it is." she said with a slight sigh. Both Harry and Victoria's ears perked as Elora began her story:
"It was only two years ago. I was fourteen. I lived in the Muggle world all my life. Not knowing I was a wizard. My parents kept it a complete secret for all my life, as if they didn't want me to live in this world. This world of complete wonders. Things I only dreamed of since I was five." Elora's head turned to Harry, Victoria and Professor Dumbledore. "I didn't get any note from Hogwarts when I turned eleven like I should of. That's why I'm a sixteen-year-old in the first year at Hogwarts. I got my letter a week after my first encounter with my powers."
"In the back of my farm - where I lived with my parents, their only child - was a dark forest. My parents forbid me to enter it. But one night, the evening I turned fifteen, I had the strangest dream. A figure wrapped in a firey red cloak stood infront of me pointing to a faded image of the forest behind my house in a mirror. I looked at it, the image become clear... then suddenly, within my dream; I stood standing in the forest. "
"It was cold and dark, but I could see a small fire in the distance. It made me warm as it came nearer. The figure it created became clearer. A dragon… a very small dragon. Just like lost child. It's firey wings folded against its sides, it's tail with a flickering flame at the end... like nothing I've ever seen. So beautiful. I knelt down to touch it. It wasn't scared of me, and instead brought its head closer to my hand. When I touched it, it disappeared. My hand glew a brilliant maroon-red. The light extended and traveled through my whole body."
Elora stopped suddenly, breaking out of her self-inflicted trance seeing that Harry and Victoria, even Professor Dumbledore were hanging onto her every word, "But it was just a dream." she said lastly.
Professor Dumbledore smiled, "No. It wasn't. Dreams, in the wizarding word, tell the most interesting stories of your self, Elora. That forest, the one that your parents forbid you to enter, symbolizes the darkness that hid beneath your heart. Even today it is still with you. That dragon, the first time you found it on the evening of your fifteenth birthday, was your spirit… your shadow. It stayed with you from that day foreward. It grew as you grew. Learned as you learned."
Harry coughed slightly, "Sorry to interrupt, Professor Dumbledore. One question: If the fire dragon has been with Elora since then, then why has it appeared to her just now?"
"Quite easy, " Professor Dumbledore started, "It wanted to talk to Elora. To tell her that not all is lost. Her memory loss means that she wasn't ready for it."
His head turned to Elora again, "Elora. Learn to utilize your power for good. The fire dragon within you is a great power, and it is your choice whether to use it for bad or good. It'll follow you, and do whatever you tell it to. You just need to learn to control it. Professor McGonagall knew this from the first day she saw that toothpick light on fire. She has agreed to help you with your control."
"I know that." Elora suddenly blurted out; "She gave me a book to read. I havn't read it yet, so much has been running through my head lately."
Suddenly Madame Pomfrey came in and shouted, "Okay! Everyone OUT! She needs her -" she suddenly stopped short, just noticing Professor Dumbledore. "Oh, I didn't... I mean..."
Professor Dumbledore raised and shook his hand lightly from side to side, "No need to apologize. I quite understand. Miss Danen needs her rest." He looked at Victoria and Harry; "We should leave her alone now."
Victoria said goodbye to Elora for the night, and Dumbledore left behind her. Harry started to walk out, but stopped as Elora summoned him, "Harry?"
"Yes?" Harry replied, and turned around.
Elora looked at him; "You still havn't told me about how you got that scar on your forehead."
Harry smiled. Elora was one of the only people who didn't know about his many encounters with Voldemort, and how he got his scar. But knowing that it's better if he tell her, he replied, "Tomorrow, Elora. Now that you've shared your story with me, I will share mine with you."
With that he pushed the curtain aside, exited, and the curtain fell back into place behind him. "Tomorrow, " Elora said softly, "is just not going to be another day."
Continued: Chapter 5 - Rouge Past