The tingling in her legs would not go away. She flopped onto her stomach, but that only resulted in them burning more. It would go away, it had too. A high pitched whimper escaped her lips as the sensation of blood flowing back into her limbs caused her great discomfort. Finally, after what felt like Eons had gone by, the pain suddenly stopped. Finally she was able to move. It was only then that she realized the bedcovers that lay on top of her body and pulled tightly up to her neck were not the soft and cozy ones that usually adorned her four poster bed.
She rolled back over to her side as she found lying on her stomach to be one of the most uncomfortable positions one could find themselves in. Propping herself up on one elbow she tried to look around. What appeared to be an elaborate display of fireworks suddenly appeared in her line of vision. Reflexively her eyelids slammed themselves closed. What was going on? She felt dizzy and nausea as the sensation of unease swept through her.
Ever so slowly she cracked her eyelids again, and this time the flashes of light didn't await her. Instead she saw a white wall mere inches from the side of her bed. Where was she? What had happened?
Ever so slowly things began to come back to her. The only problem was nothing made sense. Her thoughts were scrambled and came rushing back to her in a horrendous jumble. It didn't matter how much she strained her brain, she couldn't pull the rush of images together.
Sounds drifted into the room from a far. Voices. Quickly followed by footsteps that got closer to her door, but then proceeded on down the corridor without stopping.
Gently she pulled herself up into a sitting position. Only then was she able to see the entire room and all of its contents. The room consisted of the bed that she was lying in, a lone chair and a plain wooden table that sat within arms reach of the bed. On top of the table was the remnants of candle, but it was not lit. The only light that entered the room came from a small window to the right of her bed. Beyond the glass she could see that it was either dawn or dusk. Anything more than that was a mystery to her.
If she squinted hard enough though she could make out rooftops she realized. They were off in the distance though. Wherever she was, she wasn't at Hogwarts that was for sure. Her heart rate began to accelerate at that realization and her stomach felt like it had dropped away. The panic didn't subside until unexpectedly the door creaked open.
"Good morning Ms Evans," the person said.
So it was morning after all. That new information allowed her to calm down slightly, that was until she remembered that she didn't know where she was nor why she was there. Suddenly an array of images flashed before her. It was meal time, there was a lot of food. Was it a holiday feasts? The more she strained her brain to try remember, the less she did.
"What happened?" she demanded, "where am I and who are you?"
The new addition to the room chuckled softly, "I see you don't remember anything."
"No," she sunk back down into the comfort of the bed. She was exhausted. All of the mental uncertainty had really wiped her out. Plus she really didn't enjoy not having the answer to a question. It was something she prided herself in, knowing all the answers that was. You don't become top of your class by just doing what is necessary to get by.
"Well if I was informed correctly by the Healer..."
Healer! Oh no, what had happened?
"...that treated you throughout the night..."
So maybe it was at a feast where the incident had occurred. If so what holiday was it? She really had no sense of time. It could be Christmas or the middle of summer for all she knew.
"...you were on the receiving end of a poorly executed jinx..."
She remembered Hogwarts but in no great detail. All she knew was that it played a huge part in her life. There was no recollection of friends or family, did she even have any? But for some strange reason a name popped into her mind. She didn't know what it meant, or who the name even belonged to, but when she said it her voice was laced with venom, "Potter."
"I'm sorry," the Healer enquired, obviously confused by her patients sudden comment.
"I don't really remember," she sighed.
"That's all right dear. This sort of damage is rarely permanent. I'll leave you to your thoughts," and with that the Healer made a quick escape.
Great, just great, she was no better off now than she was before. All she really knew was that she had at least been at what was apparently the hospital for the night and it was now the next day. On top of that the Healer had called her Ms. Evans. Something about that just didn't seem right. But again she just couldn't place what was off.
xxx
She had drifted back into a restless slumber, but again she as plagued with a continuous real of images. If only she could place them together.
With a start she sprang up into a sitting position. Her legs were all tangled in the sheets and sweat was dripping down her brow. Hastily she swiped her hand across her forehead, and then up through her hair. Her long auburn locks fell back and splayed across the white starched pillow case in great contrast.
It was almost there, if only she could reach out and grasp the thoughts, the memories. Something, it didn't matter how small. All she wanted to do was remember. Who she was, what had happened, and most importantly who was this Potter character that seemed to be dancing just out of reach?
With her eyes closed once more she tried to concentrate. Channelling all of her energy she hoped to have some success, but still nothing. Maybe she could actually get someone to come in who actually knew what had happened. Was that too much to ask for?
Maybe a little more sleep was all she needed. Yes, that's what she'd do, and when she awoke all the little puzzle pieces would have magically arranged themselves into their proper positions.
xxx
Well, the puzzle pieces had not managed to create the entire picture, but a small portion had been organized into their respective positions.
It was a start. A small step, but the relief it caused her was astronomical. Charity and Rosalyn, two names that really didn't mean much to her now. She was just proud that she had placed something. As the hours wore on she began to realize that whenever she thought of those two names a certain combinations of images always flashed before her. Sitting within the stacks of what appeared to be a great library, wearing the colours of a sports team and cheering them on-although the game they were watching was still a mystery-and racing around the corridors of an enormous stone building. It was always dark on those adventures, so she was never able to make out the images beyond the windows. She knew that if only she were able to see what lay beyond the building, everything would come back to her. No matter what she did though, she could never draw the characters of her memory close to one of the windows.
Maybe tomorrow would be a more successful day. She hoped so, for she was becoming stiff from all the lying around. She needed a break from the hard, lumpy mattress that she had spent at least 24 hours straight lying atop.
The sun had risen and set outside her small window as it would the next day and with that thought in mind, she fell asleep for the night. Cursing the Healer's who refused to tell her anything. Citing it would be useless if they fed her information. At this point she just wanted the answers, she didn't care how she got them.
xxx
Miraculously the next morning did bring with it better prospects. as soon as she woke up she remembered something huge.
"Lily!" she wanted to jump for joy. She knew that was right, that was her name. Okay she hadn't come up with it completely on her own. For when she had opened her eyes as the first crack of dawn she had seen a beautiful bouquet of white lily flowers sitting in a vase atop her night table. She didn't know how they had been placed there as she thought she had awoken every time someone had entered her room throughout the night. Apparently she was mistaken.
She leaned over to inhale the sweat scent of the flowers. The arrangement was rather extravagant and it made her wonder who was out there that carried so much about her. As an after thought she couldn't help but contemplate why if they cared enough to spend a fortune on flowers, why were they not physically at her bedside? Were they parents or did she have a boyfriend? Maybe that was who that Potter person was? That made sense, after all the name was the first thing that came back to her, which implied that he was very important in her life. That had to be it.
With a sense of accomplishment she decided to try something else. The Healer's had warned her against doing it but she felt that she was ready now. Flinging the sheets back she untangled herself from her confinements and then swung her legs off the side of the bed. The sight of her own flesh sent a wave of nausea rippling through her body. Spanning both of her legs, from the ankle to mid thigh were grotesque blisters. It appeared as if she had walked through a fire, but why was the rest of her body fine? Anyway, that wasn't the point. She needed to see out the window now. Gather her bearings and try to piece a bit more of her situation together. Something told her the outside world was the key to her mystery.
It was a slow and painful process, even though the window was only feet from her bedside. She had to cling to the wall and shuffle along, one baby step at a time. Finally after she feared she could not take a step more she found herself leaning up against the sill. Gasping for air she tried to regain her focus. She had to blink a couple of times before it finally clicked what she was looking at. It was London. As her eyes scanned the horizon she realized she recognized the location of the building she was inside of. Down far below her on the street she had walked before.
Suddenly even more images began to bombard her, but this time they came in an order that she could decipher. An abandoned store front which opened to a waiting area and a sign. It said something, she knew it had the answer, if only she could squint harder. It was all the way across the room, to far away for her vision to read clearly. There, she could see it and better still she could read it. Somehow it had come into focus.
"St Mungo's," it was the hospital, in London. Something exceptionally bad must have happened if she was not in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. Madame Pomfrey was completely competent when it came to dealing with all the normal accidents and ailments that young wizards and witches could encounter while locked away in a castle.
With a yelp she showed her satisfaction of her progress. If she could manage to retrieve one thing from her memory bank, it seemed that a whole slew of facts would follow in quick succession. If she only had the energy to jump for joy she would have.
Now she knew she was a witch named Lily who attended Hogwarts which was a school that resided in a castle, and she may or may not have a boyfriend who went by the name Potter.
Her achievements were momentarily forgotten when she heard footsteps approaching once more and she realized she could not be caught out of bed. Making it back to bed before she was caught wandering would not be easy, but somehow she managed. The pain in her legs didn't subside for sometime after the work out she had given them.
"I'm ready to go back to Hogwarts," she beamed at the Healer who had entered to bring her, her breakfast.
"And pray tell me what has spawned this decision?"
"I've remembered," she replied joyously.
The Healer nodded for her to explain, which she happily did. As she was babbling on about how things just started to come to her, she realized the Healer was not as impressed as she herself was.
"That is wonderful news Lily, but it is only a start. We need to get you back to normal, or at least have you remember more before we can permit you to carry your wand again. I'm sorry."
Dejected she felt like a small child who had been reprimanded for not getting all ten words correct on her spelling test. Didn't the Healer understand how hard she had had to work to manage that much? Besides it appeared that she remembered stuff easier when physical objects were placed before her to trigger certain memories. What better place to piece together her life than the place where she apparently lived? She jerked her head to the left, to try another angle for the Healer but to her disappointment the room was empty. Next time. Until then, she just had to focus. That was all it would take. A little bit of focus, some dedication and a whole lot of hard work.
Much to the relief of Lily and all the Healer's that took care of her ward, the progress Lily would make was only beginning to speed up. Pretty quickly she was remembering not just broad subjects but incredible details. Still though she could not place who Potter was, or why she was actually in the hospital in the first place. It was odd considering she didn't hesitate to call for a Healer to explain the exact ingredients needed to brew a Pepperup Potion. Which she then followed with a gleeful rendition of how the first time she had been administered the potion she had had to endure steam pouring out of her ears for several hours. Quite the shock she chuckled for a muggle born witch.
The joy the Healer's felt at seeing the progress their patient was making was quickly replaced with frustration. Why could she not just remember the few small things that were key so they could discharge her, at least back into the care of the school matron? It was a mystery to them, and one in which they had no answer.
By the time a week had gone by, both patient and caregivers had finally had enough. Both were on edge whenever they were in the room together and that resulted into a wonderful string of snarky comments spewing out of both parties mouths.
To the relief of Lily she was finally permitted to return to Hogwarts, but with a few conditions. She was to remain in her bed until the sores on her legs were completely erased by the potion that was applied twice daily and she could recall the events of the day that had led up to her admittance into the hospital. The final condition was that she not entertain any visitors. She needed her rest. The Healer's knew how well the matron at the school was at keeping visitors at bay, but that had warned her that if by some chance she was unable to steer possible problems away, she was to bargain with the agreement that they could visit their friend as long as they didn't recount any of the details Lily had to come across on her own.
The next evening Lily was handed her wand by the shortest, plumpest of the Healer's who had cared for her for the past days. She thanked them but really her heart wasn't in it. They really hadn't done much except lock her in her room and wait. She wasn't naive enough to not realize they were frustrated with her small accomplishments, and that they were bothered by how excited she got. She figured none of them had ever had their memory wiped clear. Otherwise they would have realized and shared with her the excitement of remembering the twelve uses of Dragon's Blood. The twelfth being its use as oven cleaner.
It was magical to return to Hogwarts, even if it was only the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey rushed out of her office to retrieve her patient when one of the transporters escorted her from the fire. She was pushed down into a bed and told to not move a muscle or she would be in serious trouble.
Lily knew better than to ask the matron who Potter was, but she was antsy with anticipation. At some point soon she knew she was going to figure out who he was. It was only a matter of time. She was back at school and if she remembered correctly, word spread like the smell of a dungbomb throughout the corridors of Hogwarts Castle. She had waited this long, it would only be a little bit more.
With her head buried by the pillow and blankets that Madame Pomfrey had thrown at her, Lily did not hear the commotion outside the doors that led into the Hospital Wing. If she had have, she may have realized she should regret anticipating the re-meeting of one Potter boy.
xxx
a/n So new story which I hope will end up as a full length story. I hope I have caught your attention. Please review it's appreciated more than I can begin to say. Thanks. Cheers.