Wander || The Order of the Phoenix || DISCONTINUED

Chapter 23 - Memories

"Help you?" Elizabeth smirked, letting a chuckle burst through her lips. "I'll be doing that anyway. So the question is; can you help me?"

Daphne narrowed her eyes and wore half a curious look, and half a look of hate. “What do you need?"

"This might sound a little crazy," The girl began as she walked over her broomstick- the same place she had left her hat, gloves, coat and scarf- and picked up her coat, pulling it over her shoulders before continuing. "I need Parkinson's tears. Or, at least, one tear. I just need her to cry."

"Well that's pretty easy." The girl scoffed. "Just mention her father, he died a few years ago because Parkinson was testing out some spells, and, well, you can tell what happened."

"Parkinson killed her own father?" Elizabeth was taken back with shock. How else was she supposed to respond? In a way, she wasn't surprised. Parkinson seemed like that type of person, but to kill her own father...

"Yeah. So are we doing this? Can I get my revenge?" The girl asked, an excited gleam in her eyes joined with a faint giggle.

"We'll talk later." Elizabeth brushed her off as she pulled her hat over her head, then without another word she walked out, leaving the girl behind her.

-

She took a deep breath, and somehow found herself opening her eyes. Why had she been asleep? Elizabeth didn't remember going to sleep, or going anywhere. With panic, the girl sat up. She was in the Slytherin dorm room, in her bed. How did she get there?

Elizabeth ripped the covers of her bed away from her body, jumping to her feet and springing towards the bathroom through the extremely dimmed lighting. She gripped the handle to the door and pulled it open then strutted over to the sink as it slammed shut behind her. Without a care for the others sleeping, she noisily clambered for the tap, twisting it and showering her face with cold water.

Everything felt disconnected around her, as if she was out of place. Maybe it was just partial, just a bad dream, but it didn't feel like it. Why couldn't she remember what she had done? The last thing she remembered was talking to Daphne, but what happened after that?

As quickly as possible, Elizabeth dashed back into the dorm room and ran over to a curtain shielded window, pulling the silk aside. It was dark outside, but it had been around 6 o'clock when Quidditch had finished, the sky had only just started to fall into a red setting. By the position of the moon- which was half dark and half-light- it was close to midnight. If that was right, 6 hours of her day were missing, gone from her memory. 6 hours of her time couldn't just evaporate into thin air, something must've happened. But why were they gone? Why had she forgotten?

Maybe she could remember. There had to be something she could do, a spell or a potion. Elizabeth's mind had gone blank, she couldn't remember anything. As quickly as the thought appeared, she raced to the side of her bed and pulled out a book of potions. Clinging it to her chest, Elizabeth stood and made her way to the door, towards the Slytherin Common Room.

Still with haste Elizabeth planted herself on the sofa in front of the fireplace and pulled the book onto her lap, flicking through page after page. Bulgeye Potion, Magi-Me-More, Skel-Gro. There was nothing for remembering.

"Elizabeth?" A boy's voice whispered, one Elizabeth knew. "What are you doing out here at this time?"

"Am I not allowed to sit in here when I want to?" She snapped back. Elizabeth really didn't want to talk to Draco, she wanted to figure out what was going on and she definitely didn't need anyone to distract her.

"Actually," Draco chuckled, sitting closer to Elizabeth than he had before. "You're not supposed to be here."

"Oh well, I'm here and I certainly don't care if I'm not supposed to be. Could you leave me in piece please? That's the nicest I'm going to be."

"What's going on?" The boy asked despite Elizabeth's attempt to be polite. She rolled her eyes and finally tore her eyes from the book she held to look at him. "Woah, someone's not in a very good mood. Seriously, Liz, what's going on with you?"

"You wanna know? I can't remember a quarter of this day, something or someone- which is probably more likely- wiped my memory of the last 6 hours and I wanna find a potion to bring it back. Happy Mr 'I have to know everything'?" Elizabeth sighed and rolled her eyes once more, then she looked back down at her book and once again flicked through its pages.

"That's no use." The boy muttered, peeling the book from Elizabeth's hands. "Even if there is a potion it would take weeks to collect ingredients, and even longer to put the thing together."

"So what do I do?"

"Who were you with last?" Draco asked, closing the book which now sat on his own lap with its brown leather front facing upwards. He seemed almost... nervous.

"Uh, I was with Greengrass in the broomshed. Don't remember anything after that." Elizabeth shrugged, unsure what she was supposed to do. If she couldn't get her memory back via potion, what was she supposed to do? Just ignore her abrupt forgetfulness? She couldn't do that, she couldn't, she had to know what happened in those 6 hours missing from her life.

"Nothing after that?" Draco asked, a glimpse of sadness laced in his voice.

"No," She shook her head, but then an idea formed in her head. The realisation set in. "Do you know something about where I was Draco? Was I with you?"

"Yeah, you were. It was after Quidditch, when you left the broomshed I passed you and you told me to meet you up by the Castle, the bit facing the Quidditch pitch. When we were up there you told me about Parkinson and Graham, about their relationship. I didn't believe you and we argued about it but... then we saw them. They came out of the shed together, smiling and laughing and... that's when I saw it; their connection. So I broke up with her-"

"How did you break up with her from where we were? It's a bit far to have a break up, ain't it?" She shook her head again, trying to make complete sense of everything. Elizabeth looked back up to the boy, who swallowed in nervousness. Why was he nervous?

"I kissed you. That's how I broke up with her. I kissed you and she saw, they both did." The boy told her. "And then you... you said you needed to think. Then you left, said it wasn't right, not yet."

They kissed. Draco kissed her. How was she supposed to respond? Her body felt paralyzed, she couldn't move a muscle. All Elizabeth could do was sit with her eyes wide and mouth hung agape. They kissed. But Elizabeth didn't have much time to sit in confusion and shock before she was interrupted.

A jolting scream ripped through the air, coming from the girls' dorm room. Both Elizabeth and Draco jumped to their feet and bolted towards the door, where the scream was coming from.

Elizabeth reached the room first, opening the door to reach the screaming girl who stood at the end of one bed. What was she doing? She just seemed to be standing there in complete and utter terror.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Elizabeth asked in a rush, scrambling for her wand, but it wasn't on her. Where was her wand? But Elizabeth didn't realise that was the least of her worries, there was something worse.

The girl turned to face her, it was Tracy Davis, Parkinson's best friend. "It’s Pansy." She said with a faint voice. "The way she's lying there... I think she's... dead."