Jenna felt her whole body freeze as she read the sign over and over again. She could hear Remus's voice in her head in repeat, when he was explaining to her about what had happened to the Longbottoms.

Could she really be in here...? Jenna thought to herself, unable to take her eyes off the glass door.

Jenna raised her hand to open the door, but hesitated. She could feel her heart pulsing through her whole body as every single nerve was holding her back. She was afraid of facing the reality she had been trying to forget for years.

She had been in denial for ages, making herself believe that none of it had happened. That none of it was real. She couldn't bring herself to believe that one of her best friends in the whole world had been faced with such fate.

But mustering all that she had left in her, Jenna pushed the door open quietly and walked inside. The ward was dark except for the moonlight which was beaming through the window, lightening up the large room slightly.

A sallow-skinned, mournful-looking wizard lay in the bed opposite, staring at the ceiling; he was mumbling to himself and seemed quite unaware of anything around him. Two beds along was a woman whose entire head was covered in fur.

At the far end of the ward flowery curtains had been drawn around two beds. But Jenna's eyes were fixed on the bed closest to the window, on which a woman in a long nightgown was sitting motionlessly, staring up at the moon and the starry sky blankly.

Her face was thin and worn now, her eyes seemed overlarge, and her hair, which had turned white, was wispy and dead-looking.

"Oh, my..." Jenna muttered under her breath, realizing who she was.

Jenna didn't dare to take another step forward. She suddenly found it hard to breathe, as if all the air in the world had run out. She couldn't move, or even blink.

It was Alice.

Jenna felt her vision go blurry as the tears resurfaced. the woman before her looked nothing like how Jenna remembered.

Closing her eyes for a split second, Jenna could see that young eleven-year-old girl with short hair, sitting at the Gryffindor table on their first day at Hogwarts. The girl kept staring at Jenna over dinner, annoying her to the point that Jenna asked the girl if she needed anything. But the girl only smiled, saying how much she loved Jenna's blue hair.

Jenna could remember all the times Alice was there to comfort them whenever they were feeling down. She recalled how she loved dazing off and staring outside the windows during class. Jenna missed all those times when Alice would hum her favorite tune under her breath, or how she loved to braid Jenna's blue hair and conjure little white daisies to put in her hair.

Jenna felt a sharp pain overtaking her whole body. That sweet, dreamy, and innocent girl was gone. Her friend was gone. And Jenna couldn't even remember the last words they had spoken to each other.

The last time she had seen Alice was at her twenty-first birthday, when they had all gathered at the Potter manor to celebrate. They had sat around a bonfire, drinking butterbeer and laughing, pretending for a few minutes that there was no war. That everything was beautiful in the world. But that was the last time they had all been together.

Now that she thought about it, Jenna realized that it was also the last time she had seen Marlene.

At the mere thought, Jenna broke down into tears, still standing there in the middle of the ward with her eyes fixed on Alice, her hair turning silver from sadness.

At last, she took a step forward, her whole body shaking and trembling until she reached the last bed on which Alice was sitting.

"Al..." Jenna called out softly, hoping to get her attention. But the woman made no sign as to hearing her.

Jenna wanted to move forward and to face her fully, but she didn't want to be in the form of somebody else. She wanted to see Alice as her true self, in hopes that maybe she would recognize her.

So looking around the ward and seeing that no Healer was around, Jenna gulped before closing her eyes and focusing, transforming back to herself.

Holding her tears back from falling, Jenna hesitantly sat beside Alice on the bed, looking at her. But the woman's eyes were still fixed blankly at the sky outside the ward's window.

"Come on, Al," Jenna whispered weakly, reaching out to hold her hand. "It's me."

At last, the woman turned her gaze on her, but Jenna suddenly wished that she hadn't. Because there was no feelings in her once-warm brown eyes. They were empty.

She did not seem to want to speak, or perhaps she was not able to. She stared back at Jenna blankly. She hadn't even recognized her.

"I missed you so much, Al," said Jenna, holding her hand even tighter as Alice only gazed at her.

Having no idea what else she was supposed to say, Jenna took out her wand silently. She then focused and turned her hair blue, before pointing the wand at her own bare palm, conjuring a few white daisies.

Jenna held out her hand to Alice, showing her the white daises, looking for any sort of emotion in her brown eyes. But there was nothing.

Jenna closed her eyes as she felt the pain of her emotions burning through her soul. But her eyes shot open when she suddenly felt Alice reach out for one of the daisies.

She glanced up at Alice. She wasn't looking at Jenna straight in the eyes, and her gaze was fixed on the many daisies on Jenna's palm. Although she seemed to be in some sort of a trance, as if she were disconnected from the world around her.

But then, after picking up one of the daisies, Alice raised her shaky hand up toward Jenna, and slowly, she placed the white flower behind Jenna's ear.

Jenna felt her face burn as the tears rolled down her cheeks. And so she closed her eyes, crying silently as Alice picked up another daisy, placing it among Jenna's blue hair while humming a tune under her breath.