The Amazing thing about: Friendship. Chapter nineteen.

Eliza was horrified. She shoved the necklace into her pocket and burned the note. She didn't know how Connor had figured out where she was and she knew there was no way he could get to her. That didn't stop her mind from reeling out of control imagining him out there somewhere plotting. It was obviously a way for him to try to mess with her head. Her temper boiled and she dressed warmly, left the tower, and headed for the viaduct bridge.

The cold air stung her face but she was on a mission and paid no attention to the other students as she rushed by them. By the time she made it halfway across the bridge she was out of breath and her lungs burned. Eliza rested and looked out over the scenery before pulling out the necklace and dangling it in front of her. At one time it would have been a wonderful gift. Now all it felt like was a threat to everything she'd built at Hogwarts. Her friendships, her progress, her joy. Her sanity. She wouldn't tell her parents about this. She wouldn't tell her friends. Eliza wasn't about to allow Connor to interrupt her life or give him the satisfaction of keeping it as evidence of his continuing obsession.

She clenched the necklace in her fist and chucked it as hard as she could. It glinted in the light as it fell and she felt immense satisfaction knowing that Connor had wasted money, time, and effort on getting it to her only for her to throw it off a bridge. "Stay the hell out of my life." Eliza said but it was whipped away on the wind. She stayed there for a while, a smile on her face, until she retreated back inside to escape the cold. She returned to the common room to thaw out next to the fire trying to figure out how Connor had found her. What would he do with that information other than send her trinkets? It made her skin crawl.

When Hannah joined her they shared a hug thanking each other for the gifts. She was a welcome distraction from the dark path her thoughts had begun to trail down. "How was your break?" Eliza asked her. "Mum's in France with her new boyfriend but dad and I went skiing at a muggle lodge. It was so fun!" She didn't look bothered at all that she hadn't seen her mother but she remembered Hannah mentioned her parents had divorced when she was very young. Maybe she was used to it. Eliza couldn't imagine how hard it had to be for her to go through that. "Kelly is going to freak out when she sees you. She wanted to get matching bracelets but I talked her out of it. When she saw you gave one to all of us she screamed."

Eliza cringed. "Good scream or bad scream?" She asked.

"Good scream." She replied.

Kelly did indeed freak out when she entered the common room and saw them sitting there. "You little-" She started as she rushed across the room and Eliza didn't know what to expect but when she threw her arms around her she relaxed and hugged her back. "I'm gonna have to get one for you." Kelly said as she pointed at Eliza's naked wrist while she showed off that she was wearing her bracelet.

"I'm glad you like it." Eliza said. Kelly then plopped down in front of the fire, removed her mittens, and rubbed her hands together. "The only one who didn't want to wear his was Ron and you should have seen it." Kelly beamed. "Fred and George had to hold him down to put it on him."

Hannah cleared her throat at the mention of the twins and Eliza shook her head. "It's okay. We're cool. I am sorry I missed that." She smiled. The tension cleared from the air and Kelly told her what she'd missed while she was on vacation. She filled them in on her time with her parents and they hung out until dinner.

As soon as she stepped foot in the great hall she was nearly knocked off her feet as Tasha and Cas ran up and hugged her. "Easy!" She laughed and wrapped an arm around each of them. "Did you like the mug?" Cas asked as they released her. "Yes. I love it." She said and motioned towards the Gryffindor table. "Come tell me about what you did over break."

Cas and Cedric had gone home for the holiday and Cas complained about how her brother pestered her the whole time. She swore up and down that he was smothering her despite Eliza saying he probably just missed spending time with her. Tasha had stayed at the school and spent a lot of her time with Ginny and Hermione. She then provided a reenactment of how the twins had to hold their brother down to make him wear his bracelet much to Ron's displeasure. He looked sour but on his wrist was a chorded band. "You know you love it." Eliza said and he rolled his eyes. "Only reason I'm wearing it is that those two made it so it won't come off." He glared at his brothers.

Fred and George sat a ways down with Lee. She'd greeted them but there was an underlying tension there. She would have been worried if it wasn't for the matching chorded bands they'd held up and thanked her for. They would have a talk soon but there was no need to rush. She was at ease and happy sitting back at the Gryffindor table and despite Connor's efforts to ruin her holiday everything felt right. Towards the end of the meal Eliza was already yawning. She'd had to be up entirely too early to catch the train back to school and Rikki had been way too rambunctious for her to nap on the way.

On her way out Fred mimed writing on his hand and she gave him a thumbs up. The girls hung back and she retired to the dorm. After a hot shower and changing into a warm cozy set of pajamas she settled into bed with Rikki stretched out along her side. She'd grabbed one of her new books from her luggage along with the journal and checked inside to see a message already written below hers.

Glad you like it. The new gloves are great. Perfect timing. -G

These weren't cheap. Good thing we spent your cut of the sales on them. -F

Eliza smiled to herself and picked up the quill she'd set aside on the nightstand. While she loved the gift it was liable to take some getting used to. It wasn't like anything she'd ever had but it would no doubt be very handy to communicate with them.

How were sales?

She wrote back. She didn't know if Fred was joking or not but she didn't really care either way. It was just a relief to be back on speaking terms with them. Eliza set the journal aside and cracked open the book she'd picked. It was a work of fiction written by a wizard about a muggle man, a magician, who fell in love with a real witch. It was a comedy and it had her in stitches by the second chapter as the author described a scene where the muggle was following the woman and he saw her disappear through a wall. He tried to follow her only to slam into it and fall onto the street in a puddle.

Eliza glanced at the journal. She'd expected it to take them a while to respond but when she looked she was pleasantly surprised.

Excellent. We also picked a name for your potions. Izzy's Gas Guzzlerz. Sold out. -F

The fact that they'd put her nickname on the product gave her mixed feelings. On one hand, she was happy they'd given her credit for it. On the other hand, she was concerned that if the product ended up in the wrong hands it would be traced back to her. She decided it didn't matter. It wasn't such a big deal if word got out that she was the creator. They were pretty harmless.

Sounds like I have to get back to work soon.

She'd barely sat the journal back down when writing began to appear again. 'Geeze. That was fast' She thought.

Meet at headquarters? -G

Eliza frowned at the page. Did they want to meet up now?

No way. I can work on it tomorrow. She jotted back. Nothing was getting her out of bed. She was warm and cozy and even though it was still quite early, she wanted some time to herself. Eliza was happy to write to them but anything that required her to get up was out of the question.

Not to work, Iz. To talk. -G

Or both. -F

'Oh.' Eliza set the journal in her lap. Should she bite the bullet and just get it out of the way? Nah. It could wait. Then again why did they have to meet up to have that talk anyway? They had a simple way of communicating right in front of them without all the awkward eye contact.

I forgive you. I know you only did it because you care. I still think you're idiots but I forgive you. Good talk.

There. That was all that needed to be said. She'd come to terms with the fact that she didn't want to lose them as friends but she didn't want to dig into it too deep. Not with the new information that Connor had a lock on her location. That was bigger than the squabble she'd had with her friends.

Izzy...-G

I'm going to sleep. Love ya guys. See you tomorrow.

G'night, Iz. -F

She shut the journal and slipped it under her pillow.

Classes started back up the next day and Eliza was getting through the Monday hassle easier and easier. While she was nervous to see the guys she was happy when everything was as normal during meals and class. It really was like nothing happened and she got her hopes up. If they continued in that manner, she felt they could fully move on.

During meals, she did notice there was a distance between Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The girl sat away from her friends and when she asked the twins about it they filled her in on how Harry had received a new broom, a Firebolt, for Christmas and Hermione had it confiscated out of worry that it was sent to Harry by Sirius Black. That seemed unlikely to her. From what the twins said it was an expensive broom. How would an escaped maniac have the kind of money to spend on something like that?

When she spotted Hermione in the library the girl looked miserable and it tore at her to see Hermione in such a state. She'd just gone through a stint of not speaking to her own friends and knew exactly how lonely that could be. So she approached the table and asked if she could sit with her. Hermione looked over her book at Eliza and shrugged. Eliza took that as a 'yes' and set her things down. She'd only come to return a few books but she pulled out a half-finished assignment so it didn't appear she'd only stopped to check on her.

"How are things?" she asked casually, leaving the question vague. If Hermione wanted to talk, she would. If she didn't Eliza would stick around for a while, work a bit, and then shove off to give her some space. It was sort of funny how she wanted to help others talk out their problems when she herself couldn't accomplish the same. But the situations were vastly different she supposed.

The girl glanced her way. "Fine." She huffed but if there was ever a time a girl said she was 'fine' and it was true Eliza imagined hell freezing over. The clipped response had her pause in the middle of a paragraph. "Oh? Is that why I've barely seen you and your friends together when you're usually joined at the hip?" She was less testing the waters and more jumping into the deep end.

Hermione set her book down and sighed. "You'd think they'd be smart enough to know I'm only looking out for Harry." She said and Eliza was glad she wasn't having her head bitten off. So she set down her quill and folded her hands on the table while carefully selecting her words.

"Hermione…." She started trying to dodge possible mine fields. "We all do stupid things sometimes." Okay, that wasn't the most effective way to begin considering the look the girl gave her. "And it can be hard to see when our friends are doing something out of love."

The younger girl rolled her eyes. "Is that why you spent weeks ignoring Fred and George?" She snipped and Eliza contained the bubble of annoyance that popped in her chest. "Yes. It was a little different but yes." She admitted. At her words Hermione's expression softened a bit once she realized that snapping at her wasn't enough to get the reaction she wanted. With the number of times Alicia had done something similar Eliza was a pro at disarming people who were trying to push others away. At least she liked to think she was.

"The point is that you guys may not be talking right now but that's going to change." She patted the girl's arm. "Besides those two are useless without you." She said and Hermione ducked her head to hide behind her hair but Eliza could see the hint of a smile.

It may not have been much but as long as she got her to feel a tiny bit better for even a moment Eliza could consider it a job well done. She stayed in the library to keep her company for a while and they discussed classes. Hermione was taking so many and a few of them were advanced. Eliza tried to keep up with her but Hermione was in a league of her own. "You are something special." Eliza told her as she was packing up her things.

At dinner she had half a mind to have a long conversation with Harry and Ron but interfering in their affairs didn't seem right. Friends fought. That was just the ugly truth of it and it wasn't her place to tell them who to be angry with or how to feel. If they asked her for advice she would freely give it but until then she would stay out of it.

The firebolt situation was brought up by the twins when they met up later that evening. "That girl had to run and tell Mcgonagall about it." Fred was saying as she was starting on a new stock of Gas Guzzlerz. "She knows how important winning this year is to Harry." George said but she gave him a flat look. "You mean how important it is to you and Oliver."

"The whole team!" Fred protested.

"Are you not seeing the irony in all this?" Eliza asked. She'd decided to start on the Guzzlerz before any sort of practice could take place just to get it out of the way. "I'd think you'd have some sympathy for Hermione."

George crossed his arms stubbornly. "That's different."

Eliza arched an eyebrow. "Why? Because it has to do with something you care about?"

Fred opened and closed his mouth a few times.

"The point is they shouldn't be treating her like that. They've been friends since their first year. That's three years of friendship. It doesn't deserve to be thrown away over something so minor." She said dropping ingredients into the cauldrons. "I've been friends with you for four months and I forgave you for what you did." She then motioned between them. "And I don't want to hear another bad word about Hermione from you two. They're going to work it out and then you'd feel bad about it after the fact."

They looked like scolded children and she expected them to say something slick in return, but Fred just looked at her like she'd grown an extra head. "How did you not get sorted into Gryffindor?" He sounded exasperated and it reminded her of one of her sessions with Dumbledore. He'd asked her why she'd chosen Ravenclaw though she hadn't known that she'd made much of a choice. Maybe she had out of sheer panic when she told the sorting hat it was wrong about her. He explained the hat took the student's wishes into consideration when sorting so that made sense to her. She'd been expecting it due to the similarities of her old house.

"I chose Ravenclaw." She shrugged off the question.

They dropped the subject and once the Guzzlerz were settling they got to practice. With all the meetings with Dumbledore it was nice to get back to using her wand. She really was making progress and she was confident that by the end of the year she'd at least have vanishing down pat. It was still very much a long road ahead but any progress was encouraging for her. One thing going without her wand was helping with was building her actual wand work. It felt so much easier than the alternative.

They were taking a risk in toying around with the reductor curse which she was attempting on an old desk when George brought up the subject she'd been hoping they'd avoid. The table burst into pieces and she covered her face with her arm as dust filled the space and they all coughed while waiting for it to settle.

"Someone feeling antsy?" Fred waved his hand in front of his face and coughed into his elbow. "Oops." She hadn't expected the spell to explode the table. "Still working on control." She admitted. But on the other end of it there were attempts when the table had barely been pushed a centimeter by the curse because of how weak it was. Long road, indeed.

The two looked at one another and George nudged his brother but Fred nudged him back while shaking his head 'no.' Eliza watched them go back and forth until finally she got fed up. "What?" She asked.

"About that talk." It took a moment for George to get the words out and when he did she was taken aback. Had she really believed they would let the topic slide? A tiny part of her had. "There's nothing to talk about. I said I forgive you and I do. We're good." She dismissed them and aimed at another desk. Was it wrong to be destroying school property even though it was old and abandoned? Maybe. Did it feel good? Absolutely.

"Don't you think we should actually talk about it?" George asked. She shook her head. Once again her curse did nothing and she glared at her wand. It wasn't the wand's fault but she did it anyway. She was just distracted. He wasn't willing to give it up though. "But wouldn't talking about what happened help with... I don't know..Processing it and getting over it?" He sounded lost. "Get over it? I'm already working on that. I'm making improvements." Eliza said motioning to the desk she'd previously reduced to splinters.

"In the most chaotic way ever, sure." Fred cracked and she admitted he had a point but that didn't mean she was just willing to open up. "Look. You understand the basics. That's more than you should know. If I wanted to talk about it I would and maybe one day I will. Not now." She tried not to sound like a jerk but shutting them down when she knew they were just trying to be there for her gave formed a ball of guilt in her gut.

"Would you have told Victor?" Fred asked. "If we hadn't been there..Would you?"

Eliza wished he hadn't said that. It made her feel worse. Even though it hadn't been on purpose it was messed up that she'd let even the tiniest bit of her secret slip to Victor when she hadn't ever considered telling the two who'd become her first friends at Hogwarts. "No. I don't know. What I said just..Slipped out. He was talking about how his ex started that stupid fan club and stalked him and I could relate to him. It was an accident."

"Do you not want to talk about it because.." George started but appeared to stop and consider his words. "That guy is still out there?"

"Are you afraid of him?" Fred asked directly.

Where he got that idea from she had no clue but it made her think of the necklace and the note he'd managed to get to her. Was she scared of Connor? She didn't like to think she was but then again she had refused to face the boggart in Lupin's class. Wasn't that because she was afraid it would turn into him? In essence, she was more afraid of the impact he could have on her life. He was already messing up her magic from what Dumbledore believed. And wasn't what he did to her the reason why she was at odds with her friends? She'd stopped talking to them when they'd found out. Or was it her that was doing that? With her inability to talk to them about it?

"No. I'm afraid that this will never go away."