"What is it?" Elizabeth inquired.

"Our next mission," Ron lied quickly, "It's a ruddy suicide attempt, it is."

"What've you got to do? Is Harry involved?" Elizabeth asked without thinking. 'STOP!' she ordered herself, 'You must not get attached to Harry. What happens if you do, then you find the one you betrayed? Then all hell's gonna break loose. You don't want that. Mental note to self: Stay away from Harry Potter.'

"Can't tell you that. Top secret, you know. Of course, Harry's involved. He and I are partners for awhile," Ron replied.

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking," Elizabeth said. She had been telling the truth anyway, just not how Ron thought it. He probably thought it slipped her mind that he was working with Harry.

Ron left Elizabeth by herself, thinking about everything. She was consumed with questions and answers to only about two of her inquiries. She fell asleep, still contemplating.

When she woke up the next morning, still on the common room couch, it seemed her brain never slept. The questions were still zooming around her mind as if they would never gave it a rest.

Elizabeth withdrew from anyone who tried to talk to her within the next few days. Harry was starting to get really worried.

"Professor, she's avoiding me," Harry told Dumbledore, one day, in his office.

"Preposterous. She took to you immediately, even if she didn't remember you," Dumbledore reassured.

"But, sir, I gave her the note she wrote me…before she died. I was about to tell her that she had written it to me, but then your owl showed up telling me not to tell her about our feelings from before. Now, she thinks she's betrayed the man she loves and she thinks she can't get involved with me. She doesn't know I'm the man she left in the first place," Harry explained.

"What she needs is a good female friend. Can you contact Miss Ginny Weasley and see if she can visit us for the next month that Hogwarts has to be student-free?" Dumbledore requested. Harry nodded and exited the room.

He hadn't thoroughly shown it, but Professor Dumbledore was worried at Elizabeth's behavior. Her frequent degradation of self was obvious to everyone but her, and he had thought it would not come into play until later. Now, he would have to get to his trick earlier and he did not like that at all…

Elizabeth had retreated away from everyone and was now sitting in the astronomy tower, alone. Alone was how she preferred it, now. Nobody there to confuse her or make her uncomfortable.

She stared up at the stars, thinking. They were once so important to her, just like someone she knew, but now they meant nothing. They were now just balls of plasma, like the someone she knew was just a shadow, in the back of her mind, teasing her with one glimpse, then making her forget again.

She wished she could remember everything. Elizabeth dreamt of her funeral, but she didn't know any of the people who were there. A bit of recognition did nothing to jog her memory. A sea of endless, blank faces had haunted that dream. Tears of frustration wanted to fall, as Elizabeth felt hopeless, the very emotion she hated. She could do nothing, and it was hell.

"Is someone up here?" an unknown voice asked.

Elizabeth tensed and slid against the wall, hidden in shadows. She had been wrapped up in her own thoughts she couldn't tell if the voice belonged to woman or man.

"Hello," the voice repeated as the owner of the voice entered the tower. "Elizabeth, I know you're in here. It's me, Ginny."

Elizabeth couldn't recall who Ginny was, but she knew it was a feminine name, therefore, Elizabeth concluded Ginny was female, and she wouldn't confuse her.

"Yeah, I know I'm in here, too," Elizabeth replied as she stepped into the light of the moon. She saw a stunning redhead with brown eyes, looking at her compassionately.

"Are you okay?" she asked as she approached Elizabeth.

"I guess. I mean, I've been confused as hell for the last four days…"

"Why?" Ginny asked.

"Well, I don't remember a damn thing, I found a note telling me about the man I betrayed, and I think I might be falling in love with another guy, even though the one I used to love is probably still out there, waiting for me," Elizabeth explained. "Do I know you?" she asked suddenly.

"Yes, you do. I'm Ginny. I heard of your memory loss. I'm pretty sure I can help. In the ways I can, of course. Did you know there are rules on what people around here can and can not tell you," Ginny commented. They both sat down on the stone benches.

"Really?" Elizabeth responded, incredulous. "That would explain nobody telling me anything."

"Yeah, but they could tell you some things. But, sadly, anything they tell you might remind you of what you had before you died," Ginny said.

"And they don't want that?" Elizabeth questioned.

"Well…yes. They do. But you have to figure it out for yourself. So, who's the lucky bloke you think you're falling in love with?" Ginny inquired with a total change of subject.

"Oh, I'm not really sure about this…I mean, I get the strangest feeling you'll be upset…" Elizabeth muttered.

"Why would I be upset?" Ginny asked.

"Because. I got a flash of a memory. A redhead, who looked like you, was yelling at me for something I was about to say but the redhead took it the wrong way and when she found out the right way, she was even madder," Elizabeth informed. "I don't know the details of that dialogue. I only know the redhead was angry."

"Oh…Er…" Ginny sighed meaningfully. She understood, now. Ginny had yelled at Elizabeth was she was in her fifth year, and she thought Elizabeth was one of those yank women with no self-respect. Boy, was she wrong, but she'd been just as mad once she found out Elizabeth's real intentions, no matter how sweet they were or how clear they'd make everything.

"You remember, don't you?" Elizabeth asked accusingly.

"Of course, I do. It was the year right before you found true love," Ginny replied. 'Careful…' a little voice in the back of her head warned, 'You don't want her guessing, then being taken away from their second chance just because you let something slip.'

"Who was he?" Elizabeth questioned.

"Can't tell you that," Ginny refused.

"I see. So, am I just supposed to be in this limbo/hell until I can remember the answers? Or am I doomed to never know?" Elizabeth asked.

"No. This is your test. I'm not sure what it is. But back to who you think you love. I know…it's Harry, isn't it?" Ginny changed the subject, again. She giggled like she was a teenager.

"Maybe," Elizabeth responded with a small smile.

"Well, you're both over the wizarding-age law. You could do what you want," Ginny prompted. Ginny mentally chided herself for playing cupid for the man she herself loved and the woman who was destined to be with him.

"Not really," Elizabeth contradicted. "What about the dude I left here once I died?"

"Elizabeth, I should have told you before we got into who you thought you were falling in love with. The man you left before you died, he was killed two years ago." 'It was lame, it was a lie, and it was totally necessary,' Ginny kept telling herself. She knew she'd lie about this before she went to find Elizabeth. She was instructed to lie, but that didn't quite clear her conscience.

"Oh, no…" Elizabeth gasped. She shook her head, racking her brains to try to remember the handsome face she thought she would never see again.

"I'm sorry," Ginny said as she went by Elizabeth and hugged her. Elizabeth cried on her shoulder and told Ginny everything. Ginny stayed and comforted her.

"Do you think you could manage to move on before Halloween?" Ginny requested.

"Maybe…What's Halloween?" Elizabeth asked. At Ginny's horrified expression, Elizabeth amended the statement to"What's going on on Halloween?"

"One of my brothers is throwing the family party of the century, that's what," Ginny announced. "They got this huge mansion, and the whole family is going to be there, plus a whole bunch of friends, including you. It's going to have music you used to like, all the food you could think of, and a whole bunch of pranks because we even invited some old enemies! They think we're extending the olive branch. Ha!" Ginny explained. Elizabeth couldn't help but feed of her excitement. It was contagious. She grinned her widest when she heard another voice enter the tower.

Elizabeth was not wrapped in her thoughts this time, and she identified this voice as Harry's.

"Who's in here?" he asked.

Elizabeth drew her legs up on the bench, and wrapped her arms around her knees as she felt them weaken. "Me and Ginny," she answered shortly. "Why?"

"Can't I wander the castle, hoping to glimpse a couple of nymphs talking in a high tower?" Harry asked innocently as he sat down.

"Oh, Harry, hi. I was just telling Elizabeth about how the man she left when she died had been killed a year ago," Ginny explained. She winced inwardly as she garbled her lie. She hoped to the gods Elizabeth hadn't noticed.

But Elizabeth looked practically consumed with the thought of the long crack along the wall.

Harry looked confused. He almost asked her, 'Do I look like I've been dead a year?' but thought better of it. He figured it was for the best, and decided to play along.

"That's horrible, Gin. Why'd you have to talk about it, again? I'm sure it's painful hearing it once, but twice? Talk about something happier," Harry requested.

"Fine, I will. I was telling Elizabeth, too, about the Halloween party Fred and George are throwing. It's going to be on the seventeenth, you know, to celebrate a certain something besides Halloween," Ginny hinted while winking at Elizabeth.

"What's on the seventeenth?" Elizabeth questioned. She came out of her daze long enough for her to answer.

"You'll see when it get's here," Harry replied before Ginny could tell her.

"Oh, alright," Elizabeth sighed. She was crouched, but now she unfurled, legs on the floor, hands on her lap, back straight as a rail, which was more comfortable for her, anyway.

"Why do you sit like that?" Ginny inquired.

Elizabeth shrugged as Harry remembered the day in the Room of Requirement when she needed to tutor him on the combining curse. He'd remembered staring at her, as though evaluating her…no, more like admiring her.

Her face wasn't as round as it used to be. It was gaunt, now. Shadows played around the bottoms of her eyes like Lupin used to have when the full moon was approaching. Her cheeks were sunken in, and her lips were dried and cracked. It had amused him to watch her bite on her bottom lip when she was nervous, but now it worried him. She was entirely too skinny for her build, as though she'd been without food for the three years she'd been dead.

She had a sad look about her that said quite clearly, 'I've been through hell. But, now that I'm out, I'm lost.'

'Yet,' Harry mused, 'She still sits with her back like a steel rod, stiff and erect.'

She was looking at the stars, again. She couldn't get enough of them. She hated uneasy silences with a passion, but she didn't want to do anything about it, so she looked up at the moonlit sky, once more.

Elizabeth closed her eyes and largely yawned like a little five year old. "I'm going back to my bed," she announced as she got up.

"I'll go with you," Harry offered.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm still used to being cut off from human companionship. I'm not sure if I'm used to it enough to walk to my bed without living through roaring silence," Elizabeth declined gently. "And I don't know about you, but roaring silence gets on my nerves. It's one of those things you can't quite do anything about."

She got up and left, leaving Harry kind of stuck in his own thoughts. After awhile, Ginny and Harry talked about what they were going to do with Harry's second chance, and the girl whose memory liked to play tricks on them all.

Ginny decided that she should move on. She should have moved on when she told everyone she did, back in her fourth year. She'd hid her real feelings by going out with numerous boys. She sighed as she pictured the future for Harry and Elizabeth. A beautiful wedding, wonderful kids, and a large group of extended family that was really a bunch of very close friends, as both Harry and Elizabeth were only children.

As Elizabeth slept that night, she remembered a dream she had about five years ago, but this time, it had a little more detail. She was wearing white robes, and she was flying high above Hogwarts.

Everything was dark. It was like nothing was created, yet. Then Elizabeth used wandless magic as she cast, "Lumos Salem." From her fingers, stars escaped, making little dots in the sky. The moon formed and all was good. Elizabeth could see over everything. She noticed her robes were stained, like she had dirt thrown at her. Just then, a storm came, sucking all happiness from Elizabeth, making her light falter. Right before she thought she was going to perish, a crimson bird flew into view.

A voice followed the bird, whispering in her ears "You belong with us," over and over. A golden glow enveloped her as she gathered her strength for an attack.

'Not your fight…' another voice said. 'Not you…Don't do anything…Not your responsibility…'

"I will destroy all dark magic!" Elizabeth shouted.

And lightening hit the crimson bird Elizabeth identified as a phoenix. The phoenix fell and everything turned quiet. She looked down as the phoenix changed into a dog. Now it faded from memory into dream, which Elizabeth couldn't tell. The dog began changing again. Now it was human. Elizabeth looked upon the person's body and saw a face, cold, still, dead…her own face!