"But you weren't on the Black family tree," Harry commented.
"Because no one in the Black family knew about me. My mother was a muggle, so my father kept it secret," James explained.
"And who, exactly, is your father?" Ron inquired curiously.
"One of the Marauders of Hogwarts, the one they called Padfoot, the escaped convict who was innocent, the one they named Sirius Black," James explained dramatically.
"Sirius was your father?" Harry asked in disbelief.
"Yes, and he was a good one, up until that Halloween in Godric's Hollow," James remarked sadly.
"What happened to you? Sirius escaped from Azkaban seven years ago," Harry questioned.
"As soon as the ministry of magic learned my father killed those people, they shipped me off to Spain. They sent me to a bloody British orphanage in Spain," James replied angrily.
"When did you get out? Surely they couldn't keep you there past the age of seventeen," Harry commented.
"Obviously you don't know the people who ran Merlin's Orphanage for the Underprivileged British child," James said coolly. "Do you know what it's like? Lying there, trying to get a glimpse of the news from your world, while you're stuck somewhere else? Not knowing what could be happening? Not knowing if your father is dead or alive or completely insane? I lived through hell in that orphanage. Then I came back, looking for my father when I read in the Daily Prophet about his name being cleared. That last sentence sent my head spinning," James ranted.
"I see. Well, I'm very sorry about your father. But why didn't he look for you once he escaped?" Harry asked. Surely, Sirius would have retrieved the boy. In the back of Harry's mind, a few of the statements James had made sounded a bit familiar.
"He had no clue where I was. He didn't know my mother died, and so he thought I was still living with her. He went to check out the house, but turned out, it looked old and decrepit. He couldn't very well go up to the neighbors and ask, 'Have you seen a boy with black hair and gray eyes around here, lately?' He figured I was dead, so he gave up. I imagine that since he had you, Harry, that stopped him from going into the stupor of depression," James explained.
James, Harry, and Ron went to get a drink at the Leaky Cauldron, when Harry thought he saw another dead person. He couldn't be sure because she had sunglasses and her hair was lighter, with five gray sections in her hair, with the sort of light brown separating the gray.
"Harry, have you seen someone else?" Ron asked accusingly. He saw Harry wouldn't take his eyes away from a certain spot by the Magical Menagerie.
"I…" Harry trailed off. He knew, it had to be her, it just had to be…In her letter, she suggested she'd come back…it's just got to be her…
"Harry!" Ron shouted as he grabbed him. He was starting to walk away.
"Let go of me…" Harry said. When he realized it was futile to fight, he stopped struggling.
"You think you saw Elizabeth, didn't you?" Ron questioned. The hope and disappointment in Harry's eyes was almost too much to watch, even if it was the only emotion his eyes had portrayed since that one day after a run-in with the Falling Stars magic…
Harry just nodded, slightly embarrassed about his reaction. His face had become devoid of feeling once more. "Ron, I've been seeing her everywhere. I can't seem to stop thinking about her, and Sirius, and Remus, and even Snape."
"Next, you'll be telling me you see Remus. It's all right to think about the dead, Harry. It's not all right to see them, and believe they are alive, when they're not," Ron explained gently.
Harry looked at Ron. 'He'll never understand,' he thought, 'No one ever will, again.'
The foreigner swallowed a lump in their throat as they walked near the Magical Menagerie. The man the stranger was following had noticed them. He wouldn't stop staring at them. They didn't know why, but knew that he recognized them. The stranger heard him refer to them as a woman, with the name, Elizabeth. So, the stranger realized that she was a woman. Her name might be Elizabeth, she couldn't be sure. She followed the man until they went back outside the brick wall into the building in front of it.
Harry, Ron, and James sat down at a table in the Leaky Cauldron and talked to James about his life. Harry wasn't exactly paying attention until James mentioned Harry's parents.
"You knew my parents?" Harry asked incredulous.
"Of course. Father took me to your house in Godric's Hollow about three times a week," James explained.
Harry nodded, and scanned the pub.
His breath caught in his throat as he seen the girl who looked like Elizabeth with lighter hair and the weird gray streaks enter the Leaky Cauldron.
"Hey, yeah. A butterbeer, please," she ordered with an American accent he knew so well. "Thanks a lot," she said as she tossed the bartender a couple of sickles.
She didn't remove her sunglasses, though she was inside. She sipped her butterbeer thoughtfully, as though trying to remember another time where she drank butterbeer.
Harry's heart painfully rapped against his chest. 'If it is Elizabeth,' Harry mused, 'she'll remember one of our trips to Hogsmeade.'
"Harry, mate, are you okay? You keep turning around," Ron said.
Harry was startled and looked at Ron. "I'm fine," he answered a little too quickly.
"Might as well tell me what's wrong," Ron coaxed.
"Alright… I swear, that woman by the bar looks an awful lot like Elizabeth." His face became determined.
Ron glanced over by the woman who swallowed butterbeer broodingly. "I'll admit, she sort of looks like her. But Elizabeth doesn't have that color hair. She's not dumb enough to wear sunglasses inside, either," Ron commented.
"Whatever," Harry said as he went back to his drink. He'd know Elizabeth from anywhere, and, as far as he was concerned, that woman at the bar was she.
They got up to leave, when Harry pulled away and went to go talk to the lady who was still sitting at the bar.
"Hello," Harry said casually.
"Hey," the woman responded with a half smile. Her stomach tumbled again. Why did this man want to talk to her? She would've went up to his group once they left the pub, but this was unexpected.
"I'm Harry Potter. I haven't seen you around here, before. Where're you from?" Harry asked congenially. He already knew the answer, but she didn't seem to recognize him.
"The US, I think. I talk like I'm from there, don't I?" she responded questioningly.
"You mean, you don't know?" Harry inquired.
"Not really. I think I've been in some sort of an accident. You know, the ones where you lose your memory or something. I can still write; I'm pretty sure I know how to use this wooden stick-thing at my side; I can still talk; I remember this place, but not the faces of the people; I know how to use the currency in my pocket, but I've no clue of my name or my past," she explained.
"You don't know your own name?" Harry questioned her. She shook her head.
"Harry!" Ron called. He'd figured out Harry was gone when they were about to go back to muggle London.
"Ron, I think it's Elizabeth," Harry responded, glancing at him.
"Harry, look, you can't go talking to women who looks a little bit like your old girlfriend…"
"You think I'm whom?" the woman asked Harry. 'I might be his old girlfriend,' she thought.
"This person I used to know. She's been gone for the last three years…"
"Ruddy straight she's been gone. She's been dead for the last three years," Ron interrupted angrily as he grabbed Harry to pull him out of the seat. "Very sorry about this, ma'am, but he's still a little lovesick over this one person's death," Ron apologized.
"Ron, listen, even if she isn't Elizabeth, she's lost her memory. She doesn't even know who she is. We should try to help her," Harry suggested.
Ron sighed at his best friend. He shook his head in thought. He weighed the options. It had been a long time since Harry cared about something enough to actually try to persuade him, Ron, into something he didn't want to do. "Fine. She can come with us, back to Hogwarts," he said finally. "Until she knows who she is, don't you go planting thoughts in her head that she really is Elizabeth," Ron added.
Harry nodded and turned toward the woman. "Would you like to come with us?" he asked her.
She thought about it. "Sure," she answered finally.
They took her with them to King's Cross station to platform 9 3/4 because they didn't know if she could apparate, and they couldn't apparate to Hogwarts, anyway.
(A/N: Well, I'm not even looking this over anymore, I'm just posting it. Hope you like it, and thanks to all who reviewed. In my haste to update, I will not be thanking you all individually, but you're mentioned briefly here. Thanks again to Tekvah Ariel, Harryandginnyforever, and the Elusive Critic.)