"These potions, when taken one after the other, will reveal your greatest and worse memories." Professor Snape said, staring at the class. "It will be as if the class was physically there with you but you will be in the memory."
Snape looked at his class, every year he went through the same routine, only to pick a student with fluffy, candy cloud, shallow memories. The said student would then run out crying about how their life was ruined. Still, it was part of the curriculum and Albus insisted on it. Something about class bonding over hardships.
"Who would like to volunteer? Hurry up, before I pick someone myself!"
Potter and his two henchmen sat in the direct middle of the classroom, the girl, know-it-all, Granger, furiously scribbling notes. Draco sat along with dumb and dumber, looking smug and strangely cheerful. There was no doubt Draco would not reveal his innermost secrets and he knew Snape wouldn't make him. Secretly, Draco hoped Snape would pick Potter.
"I'll do it." A quiet, voice sounded from the darkest corner of the classroom.
Inside Snape was curious. No sane student would ever volunteered to have all their memories put on display in front of a teacher and his class.
"Come to the front of the class then Ms. Barnes." Snape growled, pointing to a stool in the front.
A tall girl rose from the shadows, a Slytherin half-blood, Eliza Barnes, her brown hair fell to her waist like a waterfall and her eyes seemed to glow unnaturally in the shadows.
'A new transfer student from America.' Snape recalled.
She silently moved, weaving through the chairs and tables and took a seat on the stool. The perfect picture of poise and confidence.
Regaining control of the murmuring classroom Snape ordered, "Take these in rapid succession then sit completely still." Then addressing the classroom he sneered. "The room will change according to the memory and and Ms. Barnes will take her place inside the memory. The memory will gives us the information needed so nothing will need to be explained"
Nodding she took both vials and shot them down, almost like she had experience taking shots. The room swirled in color until it faded to a grassy field. Screams of laughter could be heard echoing across the tall grasses. The sun shown down, warm but not hot. It seemed like the perfect summer's day.
Suddenly, the students all screamed in fear as a 4-wheeler flew over the hill, barreling towards them.
Two girls sat on the machine, Eliza appeared to be the one driving. Her much lighter hair, now completely blonde, glowed in the blazing sun. The other girl, Katrina, held onto her waist, her brown hair flying behind her like a kite. Katrina furiously tried to get Eliza's hair out of her face but as she removed the hair, more would fly in.
The 4-Wheeler slammed to a stop as both girls jumped off rolling and laughing in the hot summer grass. They were both dressed similarly in jean shorts and short shirts that revealed their stomachs, crop tops, the memory corrected to the viewers. Quite scandalous for the wizards of Hogwarts and the boys looked away, blushing.
"Honey!" Katrina yelled over the field as a golden dot in the distance grew bigger and bigger to reveal a dog the size of a small wolf. The dog, Honey, barreled to Katrina, tackling her to the ground as they play fought in the grass.
Pansy Parkinson, shrieked in fear thinking the girl was being attacked, however, Eliza lay, unconcerned, in grass laughing as Honey came over to lick her face.
"Katrina! KATRINA! Get your mangy mutt to stop attacking me!" She yelled in almost breathless laughter.
"Never! Besides, you said you loved Honey!" She laughed back, equally breathless.
—
The class watched as memory swirled, like a pensive to reveal mountains grander than they had ever seen. Eliza stood on a rock jutting a few feet from the side of a larger one. A hundred foot drop was two inches from her toes. Wind rushed around her, blowing her ponytail around her face and whipping her shirt and pants around her. Her eyes were alight with excitement and adventure.
"I wonder what's over that ridge?" She said to herself, turning to go and climb to it.
—
The scene changed yet again this time to the interior of a car, a mini-cooper. Katrina was driving at what seemed to be a hundred miles per hour down a winding highway. Music blared through the open windows.
'So what we get drunk? So what we smoke weed?'
The two girls sang the lyrics into the night at the top of their lungs.
Eliza took her feet off the dashboard and unbuckled her seat belt.
'We're just having fun. We don't care who sees.'
Eliza and Katrina both danced, even though Katrina was driving.
'So what we go out? That's how it's supposed to be!'
Eliza stood up in her seat and stuck her entire upper half out of the sunroof and screamed the last lyrics.
'Livin' young and wild and free!'
—
Memories kept passing leaving the class in joy and wonder. Some would be innocent like winning a medal at a competition or getting an A on a test. Some would leave the class in breathless delight, riding a rollercoaster or racing horses down a beach. Some would leave a rebellious feeling. Severus now knew why she knocked the potion back so quickly after watching her take shots in the back of a pickup truck, the sun setting as stars came out to play.
Suddenly, the memories grew colder and they watched as a new, darker scene unfolded.
"Come on Eliza we're gonna be late for the meeting!" Katrina, dressed in jeans and a sweater yelled into a dark blue car.
"I know! I know! I'm coming! " She said as she climbed out of the car, dressed in all black with combat boots.
They both looked rugged, older, as if all of the joy from the previous scenes had left them, leaving them with a bitter taste in their mouths.
Eliza looked as she did now, long brown hair pulled into a pony-tail and the same unnatural brown eyes, glowing with magic.
"Hey 'Lizza?" Katrina said straightening up as if she heard something no one else did.
"Yeah Kat?" Eliza quietly responded, moving closer to Katrina. It was a code between them. When there was danger near, use the other names.
Katrina pulled her close whispering, "There are two guys over there, one has a gun and I can't see what the other is holding."
In a flash the world seemed to explode like a star. Both girls were thrown backwards on the ground, torn away from each other. Eliza stood up, dazed, blinking and trying to process the destruction and flames around her.
The class watched in bated breath as she furiously tried to locate Katrina in the chaos.
"KATRINA!" She screamed hobbling to a crumpled figure laying next to what was originally the gas station sign. Katrina had been thrown by the force of the bomb to the side, smacking into the pole. Eliza pulled fell to her knees and rolled Katrina over, dust, dirt, and burning embers falling though the sky.
Hermione shrieked as Katrina rolled over to reveal blood and soot coating her torso. The gruesome sight caused even Draco Malfoy to turn a bit paler in shock.
"No no no no no NO!" Eliza screamed, furiously trying to locate the bleeding. In the distance sirens wailed and people screamed, looking for loved ones among the destruction. "Don't you dare leave me. Kat you're stronger than this!"
"'Lizza." Katrina mumbled blinking her eyes in confusion. "Why do I feel so weird? What happened?"
"Remember the guy? He had a bomb." Eliza cried, tears starting to stream down her dust covered face. "We couldn't of kno- we thought it would be someone else."
"Was it dirty?" Katrina asked, a look of pain quickly morphing into a look of fear.
"No, no it wasn't! I'm not detecting any radiation." Eliza said, her magic reaching out slowly, feeling the air for any contaminant.
Figures in the distance rushed towards them yelling, as sires grew louder. Hands pulled Eliza off of her, laying Katrina onto the stretcher and wheeling her away. New hands appeared putting a rough neck brace around Eliza.
"NO, KAT PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!" She screamed, her raw voice cracking under the pressure as she was forced by unknown hands to lay down onto a stretcher. She was quickly strapped in and lifted off the ground, and that's when it all went black.
—
Not a sound could be heard in the class as the scene changed. Severus had never seen any students memory to be like this. Honestly, one kid's worst memory a few years ago was a parent taking away his broom! His thoughts cut short as the scene changed again and again and again.
Memories rushed past their eyes. Laying on a bathroom floor, knife in hand, sobbing, covered in blood and wondering when it would all end. Holding a crying Katrina on a bed as heart heart broke from a boy she gave everything to. Drinking to forget with a girl, Erika, on the top of a hill. Smoking cigarettes behind a Waffle house while a dug deal went on behind her. Running down a city alleyway in the dead of the night with two boys, laughing from the thrill of a chase, yet scared they would all be caught and killed.
Suddenly the memories slammed to a stop and faded into the classroom. Everyone was sitting in their original seats except for Eliza.
Somewhere along the chain of memories she collapsed to the ground, leaning against the stool with silent tears streaming down her face, completely oblivious to the world amidst her own pain.
"Class dismissed," Snape said quietly, mentally preparing himself to deal with the pain that would follow the student for the next few days.