In charms, Elizabeth sat on her own, trying her hardest not to guess what Harry would think of her treating his best friends like that. She kept wanting to hit herself for her rash conclusion about the two of them hating her.

"Today, we will work on making many things into one thing. Now, the curse is, 'Symphlify'. It sounds easy, but if you mistakenly say, 'simplify,' your wand will just make the things less complex, and you don't want to know what a simple feather looks like," warned Professor Flitwick. "You should move your wand like this," and he flicked his wrist back and forth in a flourishing manor.

He gave them all two feathers to start out with.

Elizabeth picked up her wand, made of cherry wood, and was in a daze for a few minutes before she thought about trying the charm.

She came back to reality and got ready to try the spell. "Symphlify!" Elizabeth cursed. She channeled her frustration to her task. Her two feathers joined together to make one so fast, they practically exploded before they joined.

"There, you see! Miss Pentillo's got it! Ten points to Gryffindor. All though, I'm not certain they are supposed to make that popping noise when they combine," Flitwick announced.

Hermione looked angry that, when she did it correctly, she didn't get any points. She did it a split second after Elizabeth got it.

Elizabeth could do the spell very easily, (she was that frustrated!) until it came to combining six or more. By then, she had finally cooled off.

"Mr. Potter, are you all right? You don't seem to be putting your heart into this at all," Professor Flitwick mentioned.

Harry couldn't get his two feathers to be one. "I'm quite all right, Professor," Harry lied.

"If your sure. Because if you weren't, I'd assign you a tutor, if you like, so that you may practice after dinner, or during lunch," Professor Flitwick offered.

"A tutor would be fine," Harry said sarcastically. Flitwick didn't catch the sarcasm.

"Wonderful. Miss Pentillo, if you would do the honors," Flitwick said.

Elizabeth nodded and looked at Harry.

"Sorry," Elizabeth told him after class.

"No, it's all right. I do need some help with this after all," Harry admitted, smiling at Elizabeth. Elizabeth grinned back, thinking peace was restored.

All day, Hermione and Ron said nothing to Elizabeth. She guessed it was because of what happened after divination, but she didn't know anymore.

"Harry," Elizabeth whispered during dinner, "Would you like to go practice that combining spell, right now?"

"Where?" Harry asked in the same tone.

"The Room of Requirement, of course," Elizabeth replied, recalling the tale of Harry's life.

"Alright. Five minutes, okay?" Harry requested.

Elizabeth nodded and polished off her dinner.

"Let's go," Harry said.

They got up and walked to the Room of Requirement.

Harry walked back and forth by the door three times, repeating, 'We need a place to practice the combining curse. We need a place to practice the combining curse.'

The third time, a door appeared.

Harry and Elizabeth walked in to see a room adorned in red furniture with a big box of feathers on one loveseat, and a bunch of cloaks and blankets on the next. It had very low light, except for the candles.

"What are the cloaks and blankets for?" Elizabeth asked.

"The cloaks are probably the next hardest thing besides feathers to combine, and I have no idea about the blankets. I mean, come on, why would any one want to combine blankets?" Harry resolved.

But when Elizabeth looked at them, she saw there was only one, with a bunch of silk red pillows underneath it.

"I'm not even going to ask," Elizabeth murmured. "Okay. Um…grab two feathers and take a seat," Elizabeth started.

"Symphlify!" Harry shouted. He moved his wrist back.

"Uh…not really," Elizabeth corrected, "You did it right, but there was one more thing to that motion. It's back and forth." She demonstrated.

There was something about the way she corrected him that didn't make him feel like an idiot.

"I can see why Flitwick said you weren't putting your heart into it. But I think it's more your mind, than anything. Maybe, do an Occlumency practice. That might help," Elizabeth suggested.

Harry cleared his mind, and then used the combining curse. He looked up in surprise when the two feathers became one. "I got it," Harry said, relieved.

"You might need to do the practice before you want to use that spell. It takes up your whole attention. You can't have it wandering somewhere else," Elizabeth reminded. She could tell his attention was already wandering. Where to, she would never have guessed.

Harry couldn't stop his thoughts from drifting to Elizabeth. She just sat on the couch; back, straight as a rail, as though she was taught slouching was illegal. Her hair billowed like satin cloth down her shoulders. Her eyes were a soft brown. Her beautifully-shaped pillow-soft lips inadvertently beckoned to him.

Now that he really looked, she did seem much prettier than Cho…