They were all overjoyed to see Malfoy shocked when Harry and Ron were still at Hogwarts the next day. The meeting with the three-headed dog was considered quite the adventure by them, but Hermione simply didn't agree with that line of thinking and was consequently not speaking to Harry, Ron, and Elizabeth at all, which actually was a pleasant change of pace. Hermione was such a bossy know-it-all that she was starting to get on their nerves with each nagging complaint she had about their behaviour. Elizabeth thought if all Hermione wanted to do was continuously lecture them about the consequences of their actions, she should have befriended Percy Weasley rather than hang around Harry, Ron, and her. The two of them appeared to have a lot more in common than any of them did with Hermione Granger.

After reveling in the surprise on Malfoy's face when he realised his plan had failed, Harry had filled Ron and Elizabeth in about a package that Hagrid had removed from Gringotts' vault seven hundred and thirteen on his birthday. The three of them discussed the possibility of the three-headed dog guarding it in hushed voices so that nobody knew they had broken the rules by entering the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side, especially Draco Malfoy, in case he was looking for any reason to get them all expelled still. Of course, none of them knew what was inside that package, but Elizabeth didn't care. She just liked having another person around besides Ron and the twins. There was nothing wrong with putting up with Ron. In fact, Elizabeth was used to him, but she enjoyed having other people to talk with as well. Ones who preferably had working brain cells and weren't going to throw her shoes up a tree.

With school life improving without Hermione around, the three of them sought to get back at Malfoy for his devious plan gone awry and their opportunity came about a week later in with the usual post. Six large screech owls flew in carrying a long, thin package. Elizabeth was distracted from watching the owls when a letter dropped into her lap. She looked up to see her grandfather's owl, Odysseus, flying away. She noticed her full name in the same writing as Richard's letter.

The large package dropped right in front of Harry and Elizabeth jumped in her seat at the noise. Another owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel, which Harry opened first. He was grinning as he handed the note to Ron.

"Well?" asked Elizabeth. "What's it say? Come on, I wanna know too."

"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron groaned enviously.

"No way!" Elizabeth said. "That's a great broom. Best model on the market."

They wanted to unwrap the broomstick in private before their first class, so they rushed from the Gryffindor table without finishing their breakfast, but only made it halfway across the entrance hall when Malfoy seised the package from Harry.

A broomstick," said Malfoy. "You'll be in for it now, Potter, first years aren't allowed them."

"Give it back, Draco." Elizabeth grabbed the broom Malfoy and handed it back to Harry.

"It's not any old broomstick," said Ron. "It's Nimbus Two Thousand. What did you say you've got at home, Malfoy, a Comet Two Sixty?" Ron grinned at Harry.

Elizabeth knew that he was taunting Malfoy, but let it go. He deserved it, after all.

"Comets look flashy, but they're not in the same league as the Nimbus," said Ron.

Elizabeth knew from having to listen to Ron ramble on about the different brooms he would buy if he had the money that the Nimbus Two Thousand was the best broom on the market. It was fast, it could turn on a dime, and it handled beautifully, which explained why Ron went on and on about it like it was made of solid gold and made the rider invincible. All the professional Quidditch players rode them and Elizabeth knew Malfoy was jealous that Harry had one when he didn't.

"What would you know about it, Weasley, you couldn't afford half the handle," Malfoy snapped.

Elizabeth had just pulled out her wand when Professor Flitwick appeared at Malfoy's elbow.

"Not arguing again, I hope, Miss Wellington," he squeaked.

Elizabeth hid her wand behind her back. "No, Professor. I was just showing Draco here my wand."

"Potter's been sent a broomstick, Professor," said Malfoy.

She couldn't wait for Professor Flitwick to be out of sight so she could hex Malfoy for being such a tattler that even her grandmother would disapprove of how often he ran crying to authority figures rather than simply minding his own business.

"Yes, yes, that's right," said Professor Flitwick, beaming at Harry. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?"

Malfoy looked positively horrified. Elizabeth would have liked to have a camera on her at that moment to capture his expression and taunt him with it later.

"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir," said Harry. "And it's really thanks to Malfoy here that I've got it."

Harry, Ron, and Elizabeth headed upstairs as Malfoy stood stunned in the entrance hall. Before she reached the top of the staircase, Elizabeth spotted Richard heading out of the Great Hall.

"You guys go on," she said to Ron and Harry. "I'll only be a minute."

"Fine," Ron said, " but we're not waiting for you."

She brushed Ron off and rushed down the stairs to catch up with Richard. He spun around quickly with his wand pointed at her after she grabbed his robes. He lowered his wand with a sigh when he saw her.

"Good Merlin, Elizabeth Ann, what has Gran told you about sneaking up on people?"

"But I wasn't sneaking up on you."

"What do you want?"

"Guess what I have?"

"Detention? If it's detention, you better not let Gran find out."

Richard was always going on about what their grandmother said when talking to Elizabeth. Everything was a reminder of rules Margaret had set and what she would do if she found Elizabeth blatantly disobeying her. She found it rather obnoxious of him and would constantly remind him that as much as he likes to bring up what their grandmother had told them, he is not their grandmother and therefore she doesn't have to listen to him. This never seemed to deter him.

"No," she said as she reached into her bag to retrieve the letter. "I got a letter."

"Don't say got, Elizabeth Ann. Gran would have a right fit. You received a letter." He took it from her as she held it out for him. "Not that I care who's writing you."

"You might care about this." She grabbed the envelope back and opened the letter to show Richard the signature. "Right there," she pointed out. "He wrote me too."

Richard seemed unaffected and shoved the letter back at Elizabeth. "So what? He only sent you that because I told him you were upset he didn't write you when he wrote me."

"Nuh uh, you're lying."

He bumped her with his arm as he walked away. "Believe what you want, Elizabeth Ann." Elizabeth stood in the middle of the entrance hall reading over the letter in her hands. "Make sure you're not late for your lessons," he called back to her. "You'll lose House points if you're tardy."

She couldn't move until she had finished rereading it. She was so upset at Richard diminishing the importance of her letter that she didn't even care about seeing Harry's new broom anymore. She rushed back upstairs and ran passed Harry and Ron, whom were talking to a very angry-looking Hermione. She just felt like getting back to her dormitory to be alone for a while.

She nearly burst through the door to the first year girls' room and threw her bag on the ground. She opened up the letter again as she sat down on the edge of her bed. Her eyes lingered on the signature and she hoped Richard was just being a git again. The door flew open again and Hermione came rushing in, still looking angry. Elizabeth quickly shoved the letter under her pillow.

"Yelling at Ron and Harry again?" she asked.

"I'm still not talking to any of you," Hermione said.

Elizabeth was confused. "But you just talked to all three of us."

Hermione looked even angrier as she gathered her books and stormed out of the room similar to the way she stormed in. Elizabeth didn't understand how a person could be so uptight and miserable all the time, and she lived with Margaret Wellington. As if having to share a room with Hermione wasn't bad enough while she was still mad at her, Elizabeth found it hard to focus all day with Richard and the letter on her mind. She had to hand it to him, he had a knack for getting under her skin.

Harry and Ron had not forgotten about the broom, though, and they inhaled their dinners that evening in order to return to their dormitory and check it out. They practically bolted from the table once they had finished their meals, leaving Elizabeth to stumble out of her seat and spill her drink on her robes trying to catch up with them.

"Wait for me!" Elizabeth ran after Ron and Harry. "I want to see the broom too."

"You can't come with us," said Ron.

"Why not?"

"Because we're going to the boys dormitory. You're a girl. You're not allowed up there."

"They allow you up there, don't they?"

"You can't come, Liz, and that's final. Why don't you go make friends with Hermione?"

Elizabeth was crushed. Never before had Ron ever excluded her from something for any reason. He usually included her in things she had no desire to be included in, such as Quidditch discussions and wizard chess. She was always allowed to do whatever it was he was doing before they came to school. Ever since he met Harry, however, he wanted little to do with her and although she always claimed she never liked Ron Weasley, that didn't mean she wanted him to stop being friends with her.

"Come on, Ron," said Harry. "Just let her see it."

"No, Harry, it's okay." Elizabeth tried to hide the fact she was upset. "If you two want to exclude me just because you're mad at Hermione, Ron, then fine. I hope you two will have plenty of fun with your broomsticks and 'boys only' activities."

She stormed out of the Great Hall without another word to either of them. She felt like going to bed and not getting up for a week. She was used to rude comments from Richard, because she knew he really didn't mean anything by it other than to be an annoying older brother, but Ron was different.

As she made her way up the stairs and down the corridor she felt like she was being followed.

She clenched her fists as she quickened her pace to lose him. "I want nothing to do with you, Ron Weasley."

"Don't talk to me," Ron spat. "I want nothing to do with you."

She gripped her wand in her hand and stopped abruptly stopped to face him. She was a good head shorter than him at least, but size never stopped Elizabeth from standing up to anybody. "If you want to be mad at Hermione, that's fine, but don't take it out on me because you're a git."

"You're just like her now. You and her were trying to get us in trouble. You're always nagging me. You keep telling me to do my coursework."

"We tried to stop you two from getting in trouble, but you wouldn't listen!"

"You're acting just like her now!"

"And you're acting like an idiot." She turned to look at Harry. "Both of you."

"Liz, if you want to see the broomstick you can," said Harry.

"No, I don't need you to be nice to me," said Elizabeth, silently seething. "And I don't care about your stupid broom, so you can just shove off!"

She raced off towards the common room with them not far behind. None of them spoke until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Pig snout," Elizabeth said. The portrait swung open and Ron pushed past her to rush inside. "Bleeder!"

She was in no mood for decency. She was furious at Ron for thinking that befriending the famous Harry Potter gave him any right to treat her like that when she was truly his first friend in life. All she wanted to do was knock some sense into Ron, literally.

She turned her rage on Harry, who was standing behind her staring. "What are you looking at, Potter?"

"Nothing," Harry said softly.

She rushed up to her dormitory and was pleased to find that she was the only one there. Everyone else was still at dinner and wouldn't be back for a bit so she decided it was better to lay down while she could before Hermione Granger came back. She may have been giving Elizabeth the silent treatment, but she certainly wasn't silent about how she did it.

As she laid down on her bed, her hand came into contact with parchment as she slid it under the pillow she rested her head on. She pulled the letter out from underneath it. On the bottom, there was a small poorly scribbled name she read aloud.

"Yours truly, Claudius." She put the letter down.

Claudius Billows wasn't even ten years older than Richard from what Margaret said. William had met him from he had just graduated from Hogwarts and he had to be in his early, maybe mid twenties by now, she thought. All she was sure of was he was nearly a decade younger than William and her grandmother highly disapproved of him. Richard and Elizabeth were quite fond of him though and William used to bring him home all the time. They were fairly inseparable until about five months ago, right before Richard came home for the summer, when Margaret got in a fueled argument with Claudius over William and banished him from the house. When William refused to go with Claudius, Claudius stormed out and the two of them hadn't spoke since.

He was from a pure-blood family, but not even that could make Margaret like him more. Elizabeth described him as being a bit of a stumpy young man with handwriting like owl scratch and habit of putting his feet on the coffee table. Margaret never stood for that either. She also never understood what appeared to be his desperate aversion to any clothing with a neckline. She had bought him a jumper for his birthday one year and he managed to wear it for all of an hour before he ripped the neckline at the sides so the jumper rested on his shoulders. Margaret was more so concerned at his behaviour than she was furious, but that faded the next time he showed up wearing it and she flew off the handle.

Elizabeth reread the one line of the letter that been stuck in her mind since her encounter with Richard earlier that day.

"Richard had told me you were sorted into Gryffindor like your uncle."

She reluctantly got up from her bed and grabbed a book and quill from her bag to pen her response.

Claudius had been a Hufflepuff, which only gave Margaret another reason not to like him. He was a quiet person, but when he did speak he had a raspy voice and always finished his sentences with a smile. He was a terribly picky eater and he lived off a steady diet of various cheeses and toast. Margaret was simply annoyed that no matter what she cooked, he simply didn't eat it. She found this rude, but Elizabeth clearly remembered he would try everything she gave him, he would just vomit it up later. William said he had a sensitive stomach, but Margaret called this rubbish. Elizabeth thought he was a kind soul, who was concerned with always pleasing those around him, and he really cared about her uncle, which she found a shame, since William didn't seem to care whether Claudius was in his life or not.

She finished her response and promptly headed to the Owlery before dinner was over and her roommates came back. The night air was chilling and the smell of owl droppings became more potent as she approached the entrance. Nearly all the owls were still asleep, although quite a few were waking up for the evening, such as Telemachus, who was surprisingly quiet for a change. He was trying to balance on a bone left on the floor, but kept falling backwards. He ruffled his feathers and gripped the bone, managing not to fall off this time. She bent down and pet him on his head as he closed his big yellow eyes.

"Maybe Richard is right, all you need is a little encouragement."

Elizabeth plucked him off the bone to attach the letter to him, a decision she regretted immediately when he started squawking and the noise caused a wave of hoots and screeches throughout the Owlery. Eager to stop the sound, Elizabeth quickly threw Telemachus out one of the windows. She knew if Richard were there, he would have scolded her for being so rough with him, but just like before, he found a low, yet steady height to fly at and she watched him carry her letter out of sight.

Two weeks had gone by and she hadn't spoken a word to Ron since their fight. Hermione was still giving her the cold shoulder and the only interaction she had with Harry was when she dropped her quill last week in Charms and he picked it up for her. She wasn't even mad at Ron anymore, she just refused to speak to him until he apologised to her, but she knew with how hardheaded Ron was, she could forget about that ever happening.

However, since school started she had met friends of her own and people in the similar family situations. She was surprised at the number of students whose parents had been killed during the war like hers, or in Neville's case, turned into permanent residents at St. Mungo's with no chance of ever recovering. She didn't know what was worse, having your parents be killed and never getting to know them, or having them suffer in a hospital never getting to know you. Either way, none of them wanted it to be how it was, but it was comforting to know she wasn't a minority.

Elizabeth had grown most fond of Neville out of all her new friends in Gryffindor. He was bumbling and a bit of a mess, but she liked his sincerity and his kindness. She related to him living with his grandmother, but she seemed to be different from Margaret based on what he said. Margaret and Thomas were more like Elizabeth's surrogate parents and Neville's Gran was still clearly his grandmother and more of a guardian than a replacement parent. Elizabeth seemed to prefer her situation the more they talked about it, as Neville appeared not to have a large family and he certainly didn't have anyone like William around to be involved in his life.

She had been sitting with Fred and George during meals. She found she had little option since Hermione had taken to sitting with Neville at meals and Elizabeth wasn't about to go sit with Lavender and Parvati. The twins were more than happy to have her around, which would have normally made her suspicious, but now she couldn't afford to be. That didn't mean she enjoyed her time with them. Sometimes they would sit with Oliver Wood and discuss Quidditch, which she was used to with Ron, but talking about it bored her more than Professor Binns' class.

"That Quidditch cup'll have our name on it this year," said Oliver.

Elizabeth could predict everything he was going to say at that point, because all he did was say the same things over and over. She didn't know if he simply didn't realise it, or he really thought if he said it enough, it would come true. Either way, she would have preferred to sit with her own friends, but Ron would never let her hear the end of it if she apologised and Hermione didn't even deserve an apology. She could acknowledge that calling Ron names was inappropriate, but Hermione Granger constantly invited herself into conversations she had no business being involved in and Elizabeth was not going let her think for one second they were actually friends.

Feeling the conversation was going nowhere for another night in a row, Elizabeth left dinner early to get back to the common room and finish her coursework. She didn't so much as glance at Ron as she passed him on her way out, but she checked back over her shoulder as she left the Great Hall to see he wasn't far behind her with Harry at his side.

"What're you doing?" she asked. "Since when do you leave a meal early?"

"Don't talk to her, Harry," said Ron. "She's not worth your time."

"If anyone is a waste of time, it's you, Ron Weasley." She stopped to face him. "You're impossible to deal with."

"And you've lost your mind!"

"If only you let me see the stupid broom, I wouldn't have yelled at you."

She could see Ron's face start to turn slightly red. "I don't need you." He walked away. "Come on, Harry."

Elizabeth didn't turn to watch as they passed her. "You just wait and see how much you don't need me when you're stuck on your coursework."

She heard Ron's footsteps stop immediately. "You wouldn't," he said.

Elizabeth snapped around. "I would and I will. I've seen you struggling on your Transfiguration coursework. Who's going to help you? Hermione?"

"Fine, but that doesn't mean I like you, or anything."

Elizabeth didn't do anything, but stand with a smug look on her face.

A/N: Quotes and plot from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling, chapter Ten, Halloween pages 163 to 166.