Dear dementors and crazy people

Guess what? My first week at Hogwarts is over, and it's been so much fun. I was sorted into Slytherin, no surprise there. Well, maybe a bit. Honestly, I was also considering Ravenclaw. Or Hufflepuff. Or Gryffindor. I honestly didn't care. But Slytherin has some really awesome dungeons, and the house ghost is very nice, so score.

I've made several friends, such as Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, Luna Lovegood, Ginny Weasley, and Peter Pettigrew.

Just kidding, Sirius! I haven't forgotten my promise to kill that traitorous rat if I saw him, so I wouldn't become his friend! I just can't remember Peter's last name. They're all such good friends! For instance, I got in trouble with one professor, Minerva Mcgonagall, when she accused me of cheating! Can you imagine? Anyhow, Ginny and Peter stood right up for me! We had house points taken, but it was still so nice of them.

My other classes have all been quite fine. Flying is okay, I got the broom up on the third try and I think I'm pretty good at it. It's really fun.

I had some trouble in charms, but I got the school nurse to sign a note. Potions has been lovely, I don't know why you never liked Snivellus, Seri, he's quite darling I think. And by the way, it turns out his name is actually Severus, not Snivellus, did you know that? And I had the most fun at Defense Against the Dark Arts! The teacher they had for it was totally useless, so I got him fired, and for now Professor Snape is teaching it too. The first thing he did was give me back the points Mcgonagall took, and then I got ten more when I beat five opponents in a row! Bella, your tips helped me so much! (Although certain things they don't allow, like crucioing them, or throwing knives at their faces. I don't know why they don't. They're teaching how to defend ourselves, aren't they?)

Of course, it's not all good. As mentioned, Professor Mcgonagall doesn't like me, but now she's trying to apologize all the time, and I don't like it because I don't think she means it. But the chicken on her head helps me cope. Some of the older students are bullies, and some of the other Slytherins don't like me because I keep bringing Ginny, a Gryffindor, and Luna, Ravenclaw, into the common rooms with me. But that's what jinxes are for, so.

Plus history as absolutely boring. I've been using the time to sleep, and I'm still getting good grades in it.

There's a pair of earrings in here for Nettle, give them to her and tell her she's free to break out of prison and come visit me as long as she at least brings someone along. I'm missing you all so much!

I can't wait until I can see you all again.

Love, Elizabetha

PS. Have a nice nightmare, Mora!

With one final hum of satisfaction, Elizabetha set down her quill, folded and slid the letter, along with a pair of silvery dangling earrings into an envelope. Then she headed to the owlries.

The owlries were nice, Harry had always thought. Kind of peaceful, but busy at the same time, with owls and other birds flying in and out and usually a few students hanging around. But he especially like it in the mornings, like this, when it was still wet with dew and slightly chilly from the night, and the only occupants were the owls themselves, casting their wise eyes about at they spoke to one another. This was his favorite time to visit Hedwig.

This time, though, it wasn't empty. Except for him, there was one other person. A girl with blond curls, in a dark red dress that looked rather like a vampire queens probably would, with huge loose sleeves and a low neckline, and black lace sewed on randomly. It looked cold, but she wasn't even shivering.

Is that...? He wondered.

"Um...Elizabetha?" He began slowly, staring. He hadn't expected to see her here. She hummed at him, but didn't move her eyes from a black owl, who she was apparently holding a staring contest with. He didn't know her that well, having only met her twice, sort of, but even that was enough to make him think of her as a sort of friend, and wonder if she was okay. "Are you... alright? Is something the matter?"

"I feel funny." She rasped, and he stiffened. He'd never get used to that voice no matter how many times he heard it, he was sure.

"Are you sick? Do you need to talk to-"

"No." She interrupted him, shaking her head. "Not that kind of funny. Like... I don't know. Hot inside. I don't like it." She muttered, and the owl made a funny sound, like it was scoffing. "Shut up, Tobias. Nobody asked you." She scolded it, and she looked so serious as she did it, that Harry laughed. She gave him a questioning look, and he shrugged. She hissed at him, and then turned back to the owl, resuming her staring.

About four minutes later, Harry decided to ask what she was doing.

"Hm? Oh, sending a letter." It was only then that Harry noticed the envelope in her hands.

"But why are you glaring at the owl?"

"Tobias doesn't want to go."

"Wait, they can refuse?" That... probably sounded wrong. Herry realized after the words left his mouth. Of course they can refuse, they're sentient. Hedwig never has, though.

"Maybe. Phoros?" She stopped staring to call, and a few moments later another owl landed. This one was smaller, with a big round face, golden eyes, and darkly streaked feathers. Harry recognized it, he'd seen in several times before and always wondered whose it was. Now ignoring the previous owl, she handed the new one her letter. "Thanks." She told it, before ruffling it's feathers a bit. It squawked happily at her before flying out one of the windows, her letter in it's claws.

It looked almost as pretty as Hedwig, as it flew away. He envied Elizabetha, a bit, even if he only really needed one owl.

"Phoros is Draco's, actually." Wait, did I just say that out loud?

"Yes." Well *bleep.* Maybe I should have slept longer.

"Oh my. I can't wait to tell Ginny about this. Mata!" It took Harry a few moment to realize what Elizabetha had just said, about Ginny, but when he did she had already started skipping down the steps two at a time. Which was quite the spectacle in her dress. He honestly had no idea how she wasn't cold. Or why she was awake, to be honest. Everyone in his dorm had been asleep when he had left, but she was here even before him.

"Um...Hey!" He called after her. She paused. "Uh...get well?"

"Never." And then, she was gone. Tobias screeched at him.

Elizabetha scowled as she waited for her friends to awake, haven taken up waiting in the common room. Her eyes burned from lack of sleep, a welcome sting that reminded her of home, entirely unlike the one in her chest that shortly followed her memory of the place she was raised. The one in her chest wasn't just physical annoyance, it was... something better. The pang of loneliness deep in her stomach felt welcome, and she thought up more memories to make it grow.

Her mother grating out her name comfortingly, stroking her ratty ringlets with a bony half rotted finger as she stumbled for the first time up the steps from her rooms. They used to both be bedrooms, one with her cot and the other with a massive nest of soft rags that she missed for years after she grew out of it.

Then the first time she had caught a rat for Sirius. She was younger, and the rats had just recently started to infest Azkaban, and she had caught one to show to him. Then the moment he had seen it, he had a rather interesting reaction, and the days following had been filled with rat hunting until their tiny dead bodies were a sizable pile in the corner of his cell. She had already been used to Sirius not making sense, and used to violence form other prisoners, but that had been the first time she realized that her Seri was dangerous too. It had destroyed her childhood, in a way, to watch him black out the little lives. And just made it bigger, in another way.

And when Nettle had first come, and she'd flit about her cell as an anxious mess that Elizabetha was afraid wouldn't survive. She'd always been afraid for Nettle, on some level. She was used to wizards and werewolves, not pale and delicate creatures with spidery fingers and breakable wings. And Nettle, with her childish insanity and sweet fretfulness had been a lovely change of pace for her. And they had started talking, then, and Nettle had become something of a sister who wasn't really a sister in any way, shape, or form of the word. Something of a sister with a feathery crest who chirped her name and saw snips of the future but never described it in a way that made sense.

And when Mao had died. Sweet, mad Mao, with silver hair and purple eyes, who taught her how tolaugh and couldn't stop the voices in his head and longed more then anything else for silence. And, Elizabetha supposed, he got in in the end. Death was probably quite. He'd been the one who almost made her cry back then.

If Elizabetha wasn't too old to cry now, she probably would have been tearing up.

By the time Draco found her, though, she had her nose buried in a book, happily ignoring the sticking burn in her chest. Because even if she hadn't been too old to cry, it was just stupid to cry in front of others, no matter how much she missed her Azkaban.

Tears bring pain to everyone, fake smiles only to oneself.

I decided I wanted one chapter to go back and remember that this actually is Elizabetha's first time away from her home, ever. And that she is, in fact, surrounded by everything new that she doesn't recognize. And that she's scared and confused and missing her home, but can still hide her emotions, and will, until I reach her breaking point and this whole story goes to hell. Which it will, I assure you. I'm writing it, after all. Anyhow, feel free to complain if you don't like this chapter, I know I'm not the best at writing this kind of stuff.

Also, thank you to all the people who have followed this, I just noticed how high the number was getting and was like "Yesssssss, I hold them all in my control... yesssss..."

...Er, I mean, I was really happy? ...Uh, please leave a review, especially about the new DADA teacher, and byeeee!