Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They all belong to J.K Rowling.

.IV.

With a sigh of relief, Eliza knew that the stranger was out of danger. His heavy breathing had calmed down to a slow and rhythmic pace, so without any eminent danger looming ahead, Eliza allowed herself to relax a little. She went to her kitchen, and finally poured herself the cup of tea she was about to have before she was rudely interrupted by her unwanted visitor.

She brought her warm cup of tea to her small living room and slumped down onto her couch. She then began to observe the stranger that lay in front of her fireplace. Now that she was not worried about saving the man's life, she began to take notice of his handsome facial features. She acknowledged how he had a sharp and well-defined nose and a strong protruding chin. She also noticed his long but muscular arms, and under his old torn shirt, she could spot his burly toned chest. Eliza was then shocked to discover, that for the first time she noticed his most prominent feature: his hair. Although it was in disarray and covered in mud, sweat and dried up blood, his hair looked luxurious and soft. Eliza had never seen hair like his before (especially on a man). Of course, she had seen blonde hair, but never hair that almost looked silver in the firelight. 'This man is very beautiful indeed' Eliza thought somberly as she took a sip of tea.

She also noted that her unwelcomed guest looked to be quite rich. She could tell by the designer label on his cloak and his expensive looking boots that were not often seen in her small village. Eliza began to wonder who this man really was and why he showed up on her doorstep.

'It's just my luck, out of all the places he could have gone for help, he had to end up in my cottage' Eliza thought amusedly to herself.

She often wondered why bad luck always seemed to favor her. She did not mind so much the little things, like when one of the village kids threw a ball into her window shattering her favorite decorative vase, or when they stole her purse (twice) at two different restaurants. No, these little things were not her problem. But, the big things that never seemed to go her way, those were the ones that she had a problem with.

10 Years Earlier….

Eliza awoke with a start. She was enthralled and excited for the day ahead. The night before, was long and treacherous, no matter how hard she tried, Eliza was unable to fall asleep with all her thoughts buzzing around in her head. She had knocked out around three in the morning when exhaustion finally kicked in.

She threw off her covers and jumped out of bed. She ran to the bathroom took a shower and dressed in record time. She was so excited that she had no time to waste on mundane things like dressing and showering. Eliza then practically jumped down the stairs and made her way to the dining room where she found her parents already eating breakfast.

"Good Morning!" she yelled as she made her way to the breakfast table

"Good morning" came the synchronized response from both of her parents.

Eliza went to sit next to her father who was reading the latest issue of The Daily Prophet. She beamed up at him expectantly, waiting for him to tell her something. However, he did not take any notice of Eliza, and just picked up his coffee cup, took a sip of coffee and turned to read the next page of his newspaper.

Eliza sighed she was not surprised that her father had taken no notice of her. The only way she could get his attention in the morning was if she had her picture in The Daily Prophet. Although, she was hoping that today of all days he would at least acknowledge her presence. But like always, she was wrong, again.

She then turned to her mother, knowing that for sure she could get some excitement from her. Again, Eliza was disappointed to see that her mother was also ignoring her. She was busy swishing her wand about and turning different cloths into various color combinations. She had her face twisted up in deep concentration obviously having a hard time deciding which colors suited her upstairs study best.

Eliza sighed loudly, hoping this would snap her mother from her project and finally acknowledge her presence.

"Oh! Eliza, honey, which one do you think would look better? The soft beige for the walls and August morning as the trim?" Eliza's mother stated as she dangled two pieces of cloth in front of Eliza's face.

Eliza blinked twice and was about to open her mouth to respond when her mother interrupted her by saying, "Or should we do a blue color? Like a nice cool blue for the walls and white for the trim? You know they say that blue is a very relaxing and soothing color, that would certainly be nice for the study. Don't you think?" Her mother turned the pieces of cloth she had been holding into a nice blue color, and white. She then looked expectantly at Eliza, waiting for her to solve the mystery she had been working on all morning.

Eliza was utterly perplexed. Had her parents really forgotten what today was? It was only the most important day of her life. And here her father completely ignored her and her mother sat asking her stupid question about what colors would suit her study the best. She could feel the heat rise up to her face, so she got up from her chair looked at her mother and without a word walked out of the dining room.

As she walked out she could hear her mother calling after her, but she was too mad to turn back. She was worried she might say something she would later regret. So she walked along the long corridor that led to the back garden. The garden where she had played with Rebecca when they where little, but now that Rebecca was away at school, it had become her sanctuary where she could come hide away from her troubles.

Eliza sat down on a bench next to a row of beautiful red roses. She could hear the chirping of the birds in the distance and soft buzzing noises the bees made around the flowers. She closed her eyes and tilted her head up towards the sun allowing the warm heat to cover her face. Eliza missed her sister terribly. She knew that if her sister were home from school she would have made a big deal about today. Rebecca would have probably woken Eliza up really early to sing her own out of tune version of Happy Birthday and even baked a chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting just for her.

Eliza felt her eyes water, so she inhaled deeply and thought to herself 'its going to be okay, because after today I will get to join Rebecca at Hogwarts, and I shall spend every birthday with her from now on.' This realization caused her to have a sudden surge of exhilaration because she remembered that today was the day she was going to finally receive her letter.

She got up from the bench and ran back towards the dining room, completely forgetting the anger she felt for her parents. How could she have let her parents make her forget about her letter, which was the reason she could not sleep the night before. She kept picturing different scenarios of how she was to receive the fateful letter. She wondered if she would feel a surge of magic run through her body or would there be some sort of fireworks when she opened her letter. It seemed possible since this was the letter everyone waited for since they were old enough to understand the importance of such an acceptance. She began to run faster through the hallway, passing the kitchen where she caught a glimpse of the house elves cleaning and putting away food and kitchenware. When she finally arrived at the entrance of the dining room, she stood in the doorway panting and searching for a sign that the owls had delivered the post. Sure enough, she saw a stack of letters sitting at the edge of the table next to her father.

A bead of sweat trickled down Eliza's forehead, and she was quite certain that she was not sweating because of her run from the garden. She had been waiting for this moment for the past six years, and finally only a few feet away from her, stood a stack of letters that contained her acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She slowly made her way to where the stack was located, shaking with anticipation. She inhaled deeply and picked up the stack of letters in search for the one with the elegant, green letters that spelled out her name.

A quiet moan that came from the stranger interrupted Eliza's memory. She quickly focused her eyes on him, looking to see if he was finally waking up from his unconsciousness. He moaned again but this time louder and with more conviction. She stood up quickly to see if she could help him, but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw for the first time, a pair of piercing gray eyes look up at her.

A/N: Thanks for reading.