After the song, Professor McGonagall unrolled a large sheaf of parchment and picked the hat up. "The foreign exchange students shall be sorted first. Coultier, Ashley!"

Ashley shuffled to the stool and sat down. McGonagall put the hat on her head and the entire room waited for the hat's decision.

"Ravenclaw!" shouted the hat. Ashley took off the hat and went to sit with the Ravenclaws who were clapping for her.

"Martinez, Julio," was next. He was sweating. The hat took two seconds before it announced, "Hufflepuff!"

Cheers erupted from the Hufflepuff end as Julio went to sit down.

McGonagall looked down the list. "Pentillo, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth gulped as she walked to the stool.

"She's going to Slytherin," Ron muttered.

"What makes you say that?" Harry asked, stunned.

"She's very determined to not look afraid."

"That doesn't necessarily mean she's going to Slytherin," Harry doubted.

The hat was quiet, as though considering. Harry knew from experience what Elizabeth must be going through, sitting there, while the hat talked to itself about your characteristics and evaluated where you'd be best. The whole room held their breath before, "Gryffindor!" was heard. The Gryffindor end broke out in much louder cheers than Hufflepuff, making Julio look sullen.

"Good job," Harry murmured to Elizabeth as she sat down next to him. "Almost thought you were going to Slytherin."

"I don't deserve the 'good job.' I just put the rag on. There was no way I was going to Slytherin. The hat said I was too soft for Slytherin," Elizabeth commented. They waited until "Ramirez, Antonio," was sorted into Slytherin to whisper about how hungry they were; (Ron) how excited they were to be there; (Elizabeth) and what to do about the mean-looking DADA teacher (Harry).

After the feast had started, a seventh year, Katie Bell, came up to Harry. "I'm terribly sorry, Harry, but I've a feeling I'm going to need more time for my studies, this year."

"Sorry for what?" Harry asked, confused.

"I'm resigning from my chaser position."

He accepted that, and then realized he was four players short, instead of three. He sighed and turned back to his friends. The three of them talked, laughed, and had fun until it was over.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" started Professor Dumbledore. He stood up, ready to tell the students a couple things for the year. "This year, the quidditch try-outs will be decided on by the captains of any houses that need try-outs. The Forbidden Forest is out of bounds for everyone. In the event the school should be in lock-down, Hogsmeade will still be permissible. For those who have the signed slips, of course," he added as an afterthought. He mentioned Filch's elongated list and the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Blade. Then he bid everyone good night.

"Think Elizabeth should follow the prefects?" Ron asked Harry.

"No, I think she can come with us," he replied.

They took Elizabeth to the Common Room. As soon as she'd entered the room, her eyes went as big as saucers.

"What's wrong?" Harry inquired.

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong! This place is amazing! Magic and mystery around every corner!" she exclaimed. She spun in a circle, taking in everything in the room.

"It's only the Common Room," Ron commented.

"Exactly! Imagine everything else if this is 'common!'"

Harry thought this was very weird. Elizabeth was supposed to have come to Hogwarts from a different magic school. Surely her school must have had everything Hogwarts had. Why was she so delightedly surprised by it?

Parvati and Lavender led Elizabeth up to the sixth year girls' dormitory. Ron and Harry retreated to theirs, and Harry tried to sleep.

About an hour later, he started to dream. He was in the ministry of magic, again. He ran down to the Department of Mysteries and relived everything that had happened. He never left the black veil. He woke up, bathed in sweat, right before he knew he was going to see Sirius, again. He shook his head and went down to the Common Room to think. He was startled to see a fire lit. "What are you doing down here?" he asked, not knowing who it was.

"I was trying to fall asleep," a groggy voice moaned as Harry saw a figure stand up and stretch. He heard a cat meow in protest. He walked closer and saw it was Elizabeth.

"Sorry, but I woke up and saw the fire down here. House elves put it out when everyone goes to sleep." She didn't seem to care about that. "What's kept you awake?" he asked.

They both sat down on the couch in front of the blaze. Immediately, Elizabeth's cat jumped back onto her lap. She started petting him as though it were second nature to her.

"I don't know where to begin," she replied. In the hand that wasn't stroking the feline, she was twirling a type of gray-green rose.

Harry thought it looked oddly familiar.

"Are you okay?" Elizabeth noticed Harry was still sweating.

"Yes, I'm fine," Harry answered a little too quickly. He wiped his face off on his pajamas.

"You know, you can tell me if something's bothering you."

"I know."

"Then why do you keep it bottled up? It's doing no good staying down, building up until you explode at some unsuspecting shmuck."

"What's a shmuck?" Harry asked, trying to change the subject.

"Innocent bystander." Elizabeth rubbed her burning eyes. "But back to what we were talking about before. Are you sure there's nothing you want to talk about…get off your chest…whatever?"

"Maybe…I just don't know who I can trust, anymore…"

"Well, if it'll help; you can always curse me if I tell anyone," Elizabeth suggested light-heartedly.

"You wouldn't, would you?" Harry looked worried.

"No. I'd probably forget everything tomorrow morning." She was being dead serious. She stopped giving attention to her cat and watched Harry intensely.

"I had a dream about my godfather," Harry relented.

"He fell through some sort of veil, right?"

"Yeah. He was dueling his cousin and she cursed him, making him fall down into the veil."

"Poor dude," said Elizabeth, not talking about Sirius. She rubbed Harry's back and looked him straight in the eye. "Have you ever considered the fact that he might not be totally gone?"

"No. Remus told me that he was gone and there was nothing I could do about it."

"He might not be dead." Elizabeth prayed she was giving him hope.

"That's what I'd like to believe. But I don't know what curse Bellatrix threw at him. He might be stunned in some weird world without any thoughts on how to get out," Harry explained.

Harry would've continued, but Elizabeth's cat gave an indignant howl at being forgotten while Elizabeth listened. "Forgive Lester. My parents didn't want him staying home. He bothers them too much. Now they've sent him with me, so that he can bother me," she informed with an affectionate grin to the black and white feline that was stretching itself across the couch, and the people sitting on it.

They talked about Sirius for awhile longer before Harry's curiosity about Elizabeth's rose was becoming unbearable. "What's the flower for?" he asked, indicating it.

"My mom told me that my grandmother gave it to me," Elizabeth replied.

"May I see it a moment?" he requested.

"Sure." Elizabeth extended the hand that held the flower.

Harry tried to take the gray-green rose, but the moment he touched it, something similar to an electric current started in the middle of Harry's chest, coursed through his shoulder, down his arm, into his hand, and through his fingertips. The current was then visible by a silver light searing throughout the stem, into the leaves, around the thorns, and into the petals.

The silver light then exploded through the middle of the rose. Both Elizabeth's and Harry's eyes widened. The light flooded everywhere, as it seemed to pour into Harry and Elizabeth. Harry felt his face go red. Then suddenly…it stopped. The light was pulled back into the rose and then faded out. Harry couldn't bring himself to do anything but stay still. After two minutes, he found he could speak. "What just happened?" he asked.

"I have no freaking clue," Elizabeth replied in a daze.

Harry's and Elizabeth's gazes locked and they couldn't take their eyes off each other. They didn't even notice what they were doing.

Harry saw Elizabeth react first. She shook her head, while her cheeks were flushed. Harry himself found his head and blinked. He felt the blood rush to his head as he got up, muttered, "Sorry," and walked back to his dormitory. Now he knew he wasn't going to get back to sleep, so he decided to write a letter to the Order. He sent the quite a few galleons, and two pieces of parchment; one was to be attached to something special, and the other was for them. When he sent Hedwig off with them, he lay back in bed, and closed his eyes, trying to think of anything else other than the rose, the girl who owned it.

Harry awoke in the morning, not even noticing he fell asleep in the first place.

(A/N: Okay, so…two chappies…one day…don't expect this every time, people…;-)…Especially since school is starting back up Monday…. muttering Dirty rotten slimy stupid son-of-a-ends muttering Oh…you're still there…heh…XD)