After the library's plaster incident, Elizabeth had rushed upstairs to the girls' dorm, pulling the curtains shut around her bed. What he'd said had startled her. She pulled out some parchment and her quill and began to write to her mother; she needed the pictures from her childhood.

The curtains were ripped open by Marlene, who gazed down at her with a concerned expression, "Liz, are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost?" She watched as the girl quickly turned the parchment over. She looked up at Marlene and smiled, "Never better." Merlene gave her a pointed look. Elizabeth knew that she could tell something was up. "Seriously, Mars, I just realised that I need something essential from my mum. Seriously, I'm fine.". Marlene was going to press further but dropped it when she saw the honesty on Elizabeth's face.

Early the following day, Elizabeth made her way to the owlery before breakfast. She wanted to get the letter to her mother as fast as possible. It was lashing rain, and she was thoroughly soaked by the time she made it to the great hall. "Bloody hell! You look like a drowned rat!" Sirius exclaimed as she walked past them. She flopped down next to him. "I had to send my mum an owl this morning, but I left my wand and cloak upstairs." She shivered as she spoke. Marlene came running through the hall with Lily on her heels, "Look at you, you're bloody freezing." Marlene handed her her wand and cloak. Lily cast a hot air charm over her and her clothes and hair instantly dried, and with that, she felt warmer.

The girls joined the boys, with Lily sitting as far away as James as possible. They began to talk about quidditch and Remus and Lily's prefect duties. It was easy to tell that Lily loved being a prefect while Remus wasn't as enthusiastic. Elizabeth piled up her plate with sausages and rashers. She was starving. She glanced around at the others at the table. She looked over at Remus, who was quietly eating, a mountain of food on his plate. He looked pale and exhausted compared to yesterday. She noticed him looking around at the now-empty sausage plate, "Here, you can have mine. I'm not too hungry." She passed him her plate, "Thank you, Lizzie.". She looked at him, a look of bewilderment on her face before smiling gently, "Anytime.".

The two didn't notice the looks that they were getting from those around them. The boys and the girls were looking on, surprised. Nobody ever called Elizabeth Lizzie; it was always Liz or Beth. James looked at the two with a warm smile. He thought that perhaps Moony might've found the right girl for him. James made eye contact with Marlene, who had the same look on her face as he did. It seemed that they agreed.

After breakfast, Elizabeth and Lily took off towards their next lesson while Marlene stayed behind. She needed to talk to James about the exchange they had witnessed in the Great Hall. The three other boys began to walk towards their Defense Against the Dark Arts class when they realized that James wasn't with them. Sirius whipped around, "Oi, Padfoot! You coming." James waved his hand at them, "You go ahead; I want to talk to Marlene about something." Sirius shrugged before throwing his arms over Peters's shoulders.

"What was that at breakfast?" Marlene leaned against the wall. "I have no idea. I mean, I thought that they were beginning to form a friendship but a nickname that quick, it seems weird." James replied, dropping his bags on the ground. "The nickname rolled off Remus tongue as if he'd said it a thousand times."

"Yesterday, Liz was acting kinda weird; she came crashing through our dorm and shut the curtains around her bed. When I talked to her, she said she needed something from her mum. She looked genuine when she said it, but there was something more." James looked at her intensely, "Maybe something happened between them yesterday. Maybe we should investigate." Marlene gave James a wicked grin, "I like where your heads at Potter." The two grabbed their bags off the floor and made their way to class.

The next day saw a very impatient Elizabeth waiting for her reply from her mother. She sat with Marlene and Alice. They were entirely focused on eating that they didn't pay much attention to her. Elizabeth kept fidgeting in her seat, bouncing her legs. She felt a hand clamp down on her thigh and looked at Marlene, "Liz, you ok?" Marlene seemed genuinely concerned for her best friend. Elizabeth looked at her and smiled, "I'm ok, I'm just waiting for the post, is all. Dad is sending me a new broom kit, my brooms a bit knackered from the matches so far.". Marlene wasn't entirely convinced, but she chose to ignore it. If Elizabeth wanted to tell her, she would.

Fifteen minutes later, the post arrived. A wave of relief washed over Elizabeth as the broom kit from her dad and a thick letter from her mum fell into her hands. Trying not to draw too much attention to the letter, she lifted the gift from her dad and kissed it. "Get a room, you two!" James shouted as he walked up to the table. He took the kit out of Elizabeth's hands. "I'm so jealous that your dad is a professional Quidditch player. The two hastily opened it up, admiring all the products; they were the market's latest products. Not even 2 minutes later, another round of post arrived. All the owls were coming her way, boxes secured at their feet. They looked up just as the owls dropped the parcels. James and Elizabeth were surprised as they started falling with themselves, Marlene and Alice trying to catch them. Another letter arrived with them, "Can't leave the rest of your teammates out now, can I?" She read out loud. She was swiftly swept into a bone-crushing hug from James, "I love your dad so much." She burst out laughing, trying to pry herself from James' hug. Sirius joined the two looked at them both in confusion. James chucked him one of the parcels, which he opened. "Liz's dad sent the whole team there!". Sirius looked over at her, "I love your dad.". The three quidditch players gather up the parcels, handing them out to the rest of the team. The team as a whole decided to send a letter back thanking Elizabeth's dad, Padraig O'Leary.

After the unexpected delivery, things calmed down in the Great Hall, and the students all returned to their breakfasts. Elizabeth put the letter into her bag, along with the broom kit. She would open up the letter from her mum later.

The day, for the most part, had been very uninteresting, she had successfully stayed awake for the whole of History of Magic, and her potion had been perfect. After class, the girls headed up to the common room; they would study up there. Marlene had been ejected from the library the day before, and she did not want to get a detention. The girls were huddled around a table in the common room, potion books out. "Lils, any chance you could ask Snape if I could borrow his Potions notes?" Marlene asked; while both Elizabeth and Lily excelled at potions, it wasn't Marlene's forte. Lily let out a snort, "That's not going to happen." Elizabeth placed her hand on Marlene's shoulder, "At least you tried, but to be fair, that git isn't exactly friendly." Lily glared at the two girls.

"You guys are awful. Severus is sweet. I've known him since we were kids." Elizabeth shook her head, "He may be sweet to you, but he's made some rude comments, and his friends are…dangerous." Elizabeth watched as the redhead's expression grew dark. "Taking about friendship, what's up between you and Remus?" Marlene deflected the conversation away from Lily; it was well known that Lily was very defensive of Severus.

Elizabeth stared in confusion, "What do you mean?" Lily, having calmed down, closed her book and leaned over, "Don't play stupid O'Leary." Elizabeth, in turn, closed her book and looked at her two friends, "We're friends, that's all. He was helping me with History, and we became friends." Marlene raised an eyebrow, "Seriously, we're just friends."

"Liz, he called you Lizzie. Nobody ever calls you Lizzie." Elizabeth felt her face growing red, "I guess it just slipped out of his mouth." She did not like being interrogated. "You're blushing! You fancy him, don't you? I mean, I wouldn't blame you if you did, he's handsome.". Elizabeth wanted to smack Marlene; she was dying of embarrassment.

When she was young, she'd had a crush on him. She would never have admitted it, though. She thought she was too cool for crushes. She couldn't deny that he'd grown up to be handsome. He wasn't classically attractive like Sirius or a nerdy handsome like James. He was very much just Remus. He was tall, broad, not muscular like Sirius or James. He had an aura of mystery about him. It was what drew her to him in the first place. "Look, Remus is handsome and funny, but I'm not interested in a relationship right now. I'd prefer to be his friend."

The girls continued to gossip and pry into the ins and outs of Elizabeth and Remus's budding friendship until it was time for dinner. Elizabeth told the two girls to go on without her. She climbed up to the dorm and pulled the letter from her mum out of her bag before pushing it under her pillow before heading down to dinner.

Dinner had been uneventful. The boys were missing during dinner, so the Gryffindor table was quieter than usual but other than that, nothing much happened. After dinner, Lily, Marlene, Alice, and Elizabeth headed back to their dorms. Elizabeth was perched on the windowsill while the other three had commandeered Marlene and Alice's bed, a collection of Honeydukes finest sweets in a pile between them. They chatted away for hours, laughing uncontrollably as they joked around. However, upon Mary's arrival back to the dorm, the girls quickly got ready for bed. Lily and Mary were friends; Alice was indifferent to her, while Elizabeth and Marlene disliked her with a passion after she made some awful comments about Marlene's sexuality.

Elizabeth climbed into her bed. She shut the curtains around the bed and pulled the letters out from under her pillow. It was only 11, her friend's soft snores filling the room. She cast a quick Muffliato before opening up the letter from her mother; the pictures fell into her lap.

My darling Liz,

I was surprised by your letter the other morning. I hadn't been expecting any post from you. I wasn't sure exactly which photos you wanted in particular, so I sent you a bunch. I hope you're ok and haven't been up to too much mischief with Marlene. Don't forget to send any photos you don't want back to me. I love you so much.

Lots and Lots of love,

Mum

Elizabeth put the letter down before picking up the photos and going through them. There were pictures of her and her parents, grandparents, her first broom ride. Then she found the photos she had been looking for. They were the only muggle photos in the set. Elizabeth felt her heart drop as she looked at them. There were photos of her and Remus, of their mums. But there was one photo in particular that stood out to her. It was a picture of Remus and her during one of the picnics they would take together. She had her arms thrown over his shoulders with a big ridiculous sun hat on her head. Beside her, Remus had a big goofy smile, his eyes barely open and a plaster on his cheek. It had been from one of their last picnics together.

Elizabeth couldn't stop the tears that had begun to fall. How had she forgotten so much of her childhood? Of how much Remus had mean to her. When his name had been called during the sorting ceremony, she had recognised him instantly. When she went to talk to him, he didn't interact with her or say much. From that day she realised that he'd forgotten about her. She had missed him. She had started sobbing, holding onto the picture tightly. If she hadn't moved to Ireland, they would've remained friends. She pushed the photos into her bedside drawer and lifted the Muffliato she had in place. She cried until she fell asleep.

The following day she felt awful; her eyes were red and puffy. She had a headache because she hadn't slept well. She was still curled up in bed as the others were getting ready for breakfast. She didn't have the energy or desire to get out of bed. Marlene pulled back the curtains from around her bed, sitting down beside her, "What's wrong?" Marlene stroked her hair, and Elizabeth moved closer to her. "I feel awful, I've got a pounding headache." Marlene knew why she had the headache. She had heard Elizabeth crying but didn't want to approach her.

Marlene helped her sit up in the bed, "Take a shower, and then we can head down to Madam Pomfrey to get you something." Elizabeth smiled weakly. She got out of the ned and dragged herself to the bathroom. After Elizabeth finished, she and Marlene made their way down to the hospital wing, where Madam Pomfrey had suggested that Elizabeth take the morning classes off to recover and get some rest before she went to her afternoon classes.

Elizabeth was so out of it that she didn't realise that James, Sirius, and Peter were in the hospital wing too, getting patched up.