How can this happen... Again?!?! *Open*

[Jade "Lizzy" Silvernacle]

It was very early in the morning. Just before sunrise. Smiling she pulled on her black zip jacket over a black AC/DC t-shirt with blue metallic lettering and a pair of dark denim blue jeans. Deciding it'd be best to put in her contacts she put them in quickly. Grabbing a sketchbook, pencils, eraser, and a few other drawing supplies she owned Lizzy headed out of the dormitory and out into the corridor.

She wanted to sketch the sunrise before deciding what she was going to do on this beautiful saturday.

Within minutes she was out on the grounds. Stretching Lizzy looked around for a place to sit and draw the sunrise. Blinking a few times she saw a giant old tree with swing upon a hill in the area of the Hangout Park. Smiling she went and sat on the swing as the grass was still damp with dew from the night.

Since it was so early she expected no one would be out for a while. Though no sooner had she had everything set up a tawny owl came and delivered the Daily Propet.

Sighing Lizzy set down her things and took it. Digging in her pocket she gave the owl a knut as it set off again into the cool morning air. She unrolled the paper slowly, and almost dropped it from what she saw across the front.

Eyes widening she read through the article that was on the front page:

A string of recent attacks has the Ministry on alert. It's now been two months since a group of former death eaters escaped from Azkaban by unknown methods and killed a Ministry Auror. After a quiet couple months, it seems as if these fiends are no longer content to stay hidden.

Recently, several known former dark supporters have been attacked in the middle of the nights. The homes were broken into, though nothing was taken from any of the homes. The victims have all been among those that plead for lesser offenses during the last dark war and have served short sentences in Azkaban due to their cooperation with the Ministry.

So far, no one has been killed but each one has been found missing large chunks of skin from their forearms, purportedly where their dark marks were or would have been. Progress on the investigation is unknown due to silence from the auror department and the minister's office.

An unnamed source from within the Ministry warns that these attacks could soon escalate to the general public and recommends taking necessary precautions to ward off intruders. The Ministry will soon be offering a self defense lesson in response to these attacks and warns everyone to be vigilent until this dangerous criminals can be apprehended.

-Ki Stanton [/size]

Her disbelief grew as she read every word. Not again. Not so soon. Pulling Brad's letter from her pocket she placed it with the newspaper, "Well now at least the gossip I heard is true." she sighed to herself. First Brad going home, now this.

Lizzy didn't think she could take much more. She needed a vacation and soon. Though term change was soon so she could wait for that she guessed. Too much in such little time. Oh wow. She could scream. She could yell. Lizzy just needed some way to let it all out.

Taking a few deep breaths she went back to the paper and put Brad's letter away. Lizzy would just have to pretend she hadn't read the article. Though the longer she sat there the more she realized she couldn't.

[Ashley Lovegood]

Her mind was troubled once again. And what did this fifth year do when she was troubled? Yup, go off on her own and hide somewhere.

It had been a long night, full of shadowy dreams that kept her on edge and tossing and turning throughout the long hours of the night. She had finally given up the task of sleeping and had dressed quickly and quietly, not caring what she was dressed in when she was finished. She ended up in a pair old, faded jeans and a navy shirt. Plain but so was her hair. She had thrown it up, not even bothering to brush her long curls out.

The girl had made her way out of the dorm and into the deserted common room. The fire burned low in the early hours of the morning as she paused to stare at it. It was tempting to send Snowy to wake Morgan, but that would have been a very shellfish act on her part. With a sigh, she turned toward the door, but something else caused to stop in her tracks. Her eyes were transfixed on the Daily Prophet which was lying about the common room. She made her way slowly to the paper and extended her hand to take it within her grasp. She read the headline quickly, as she did so her eyes became wide with shock. She read the rest of the article before throwing it down in disgust. People really did worry her sometimes.

With a new mass of clouds covering up her previous bad mood she set off down at the abandoned halls at a quick pace, her hands clenched at her sides. By the time she made it out to the park, her anger had subsided a bit and her mind was as jumbled as ever. She sighed once more and looked around to find, to her surprise, that she was not alone in the misty hours of dawn.

Ash saw the girl sitting alone on the swings, oblivious to Ashley's arrival. She looked busy, with a sketch pad in her lap, but her expression did not match the picture. She looked troubled, as troubled as the Hufflepuff felt. She made her way over to the girl slowly, unsure if her company would be welcome or hated. She stopped a few yards away and decided to say hello. "Hey, need some company?" She asked, no smile lit her face as she asked this, which was rare for Lovegood, she was just not in the mood for smiling much today.

[Jade "Lizzy" Silvernacle]

Lizzy couldn't focus on what she was trying to draw. Her mind kept going back to the letter and the daily prophet. Shaking her head she was just about to give up and go in for some early breakfast when she heard a voice she hadn't heard in ages.

Looking up she smiled a bit, "Not at all." she said not at all surprised to see that Ashley hadn't recognized her. She had recently dyed her hair brown. Most people she knew knew her hair to be silver-blonde. Carefully she closed her horrible drawing inside the sketch book and set it down on top of the letter and the daily prophet she had laid in the grass.

"Anything to take my mind off the morning prophet. Have you seen it yet?" she asked disgusted with the fact that security wasn't tighter at Azkaban or that no one was doing anything to get rid of the new rising dark lord.

[ack that was short and sucked sorry.]

[Ashley Lovegood]

Where had she seen this girl before? Ashley pondered over her familiar face. She knew that she had met her before, but where and when escaped her. The name was at the tip of her tongue, but she failed to recall it. Hm, well that was annoying. She thought about it for a few more moments, trying to match the face to a name. She had met so many people lately that she was unsurprised that the name was no where in her data banks.

It hit her like a rock. Lizzy. The last time they had met came back to her in a swift flood. The QQ, late at night. This was Brad's girlfriend. All her problems seemed to be temporarily gone as a smile crossed her face. "Lizzy right?" She asked, hoping that she had got the name right. Yes, she had met her. It had been a long while ago, but she had. She suddenly felt guilty for not remembering sooner, but then again her mind was full at the moment.

It didn't help that her hair color had changed as well. Instead of her neat blonde hair it was now brown. Ashley liked it. "Like the hair," She complimented, strolling over and taking a swing next to her. Her blue eyes followed Lizzy as she placed three items on the ground; her picture, the prophet, and a letter from someone. Her gaze shifted back to her as she answered her question, her mood falling once more. "Yeah, pretty sad." She said, bitterness creeping into her voice. They really did need to tighten security or something. The stupidity of people was not improving her mood.

Ashley shook her head back and forth in disgust before looking off in the distance. "So, why might you be out here?" She asked, repressing any previous anger, looking back at her with a small smile.

[Jade "Lizzy" Silvernacle]

Lizzy smiled seeing the dawning recognition come over Ashley. "Ya it is." she said smiling. It was nice to see that not all of her old accuaintences and friends weren't dissappearing. So many people she had met in first and second term were gone. Though the few she missed the most were gone with no trace, like Elli, and Ella. Sighing to herself she looked up and over at Ashley again.

Giving a small smiled Lizzy nodded, "Thanks, I needed a bit of a change." she said shrugging. "Though this won't cause the whole magical population to go into panic mode major." she added rolling her eyes, but she couldn't stop a small smile to wash over her face. She wished that she could stop it all, or at least put it off for a few more years, but she couldn't control people even if she wanted to. The memory of how her family was killed was to overpowering to let her do something that rash.

"Well originally(SP) I was going to sketch the sun rising, but then I got the prophet and my heart just wasn't in it anymore." she said shrugging. "Not to mention the fact that I was restless and couldn't sleep." she added shrugging and looking out over the lake to the horizon where the sun glowed from red to orange to yellow. The whole of the landscape reflected in her eyes.

[Ashley Lovegood]

Yay!She hod gotten Lizzy's name correct! Ashley smile in return, glad that she had gotten the name right. That wold have been a bit odd if she had called her old friend... acquaintances I guess, since they had only held a conversation once before, by the wrong name. Very bad. Many of her old friends had been disappearing and had now gone and it was very sad. She could only name a handful of people from her first through third year. Wow, it had already been that long huh? Time flies when you having fun, I guess.

Ash's smile reflected Jade's own. "Change is good." She agreed, nodding her head. A lot of change had been sweeping the castle it seemed. New looks, friends, everything had changed since her earlier years at the castle. It was good and yet also a bad thing. A small smile tugged at the corners of the fifth years lips. "Oh, yes. Not at all." Controlling people would come at handy at times, but Ashley would not like the idea of controlling others. Even if it was possible to stop this horrid thing by controlling others, she would prefer another way. A better solution to the problem at hand.

"Ah," Ashley said, her eyes flashing down to the sketch pad and up at the warm colored sky. It would have been a good morning to do such a task, but the moment was gone for that now. Ashley knew how Lizzy felt about the restless nights. She had them often and later in the night found herself wandering the castle, trying to relieve the feeling. Not that she always succeeded. She sighed as she look out onto the horizon, the warm colors of red and orange were beginning to peek over the far off horizon. The sight brought a smile to her face. At least there was one thing that had not changed.

[Jade "Lizzy" Silvernacle]

Ashley seemed relieved that she had gotten her name right. She let another smile flit across her face at that. Though she gave Ashley credit because they had only met once before and now her hair was a totally different color.

Lizzy laughed a bit at her own little joke. It cheered her up to see old faces around still. It reassured her that there were still enough qualified witches and wizards around that would be able to fight against the new dark lord, but at the same time it scared her because of all the loss that it would cause as well.

"The only thing I'm glad that doesn't change hardly at all is the sun and the moon. Or the fact that all things day and night are still here, and the only thing that changes is the star patterns according to the seasons." she said with a smile.