A/N: OK, I know it's taken me a while to update, but like I said, this story isn't high on my priorities. Anyway, I finally finished it. One of the dreams in this chapter may seem confusing because you see the dream and what's happening while she's asleep, but it should make sense. Just remember, the italics are the dream. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Enjoy!

Nightmares

When Vallerie woke up the next morning it took her a few minutes to figure out where she was, and remember the events of the previous night. She sat up slowly, rubbing her arms to fight off a chill, and looked around cautiously. She was thankful her headache had subsided quite a bit. Unsure of what she should do, she just sat there for a few minutes, lost in thought. After about ten minutes there was a soft knock on the door, causing Vallerie to jump in surprise.

"Yeah?" she called quietly. The door opened slowly.

"Hey, you hungry?" Remus asked. "We're getting ready to eat breakfast if you're interested." Vallerie just looked at him uncertainly. Remus sighed, taking a few slow steps toward her, wearing a kind expression. "You need to eat. Come on." He held out his hand to help her up, but she didn't take it. Remus didn't take it personally, he knew this situation was probably hard on her.

Vallerie stood and followed him downstairs, not saying anything. Not only was she apprehensive about being around these people more, but she couldn't get the dream out of her head. There was something about it that just wasn't sitting right with her, and she had a gut feeling it probably wasn't a dream at all. She hoped she was wrong.

---

"I don't like this one bit Arthur," Molly told her husband quietly as she finished up making breakfast. Arthur sighed.

"Molly, it'll be fine. She's barely an adult, and now she has lost most of her memory. Don't you think she's going through enough without our suspicions?"

"What about the children? What if she is a Death Eater? She could be playing all of us. I don't want to put the children in unnecessary danger." Arthur place his hands on his wife's shoulders.

"We're not," he assured her.

"What are you guys talking about?" Fred questioned. The other teenagers looked curious as well. Most of the adults looked at each other uncertainly, none sure of how they would handle this situation.

"Probably me," Vallerie said casually from the doorway. Fred, George, and Ron's mouths fell open slightly.

Though her appearance was shabby, she was definitely attractive. The boys could honestly say they'd never seen someone like Vallerie, with her piercings, tattoos, and all around grungy appearance. Her loose, low jeans and short t-shirt showed off her abs and belly button ring. She hadn't done anything with her hair so it was just messily hanging down.

"Oh honestly," Hermione huffed. Ginny just rolled her eyes at her brothers.

"Boys!" Molly snapped. The three Weasley boys finally shook themselves out of their stunned stupor. Molly shook her head disapprovingly. Vallerie had to bite back her smirk.

"So, who are you?" Hermione asked bluntly, though trying to use a polite tone.

"Vallerie," she answered shortly as she and Remus joined the group at the table.

"Are you in -" Ginny started but was cut off by her mother.

"That's enough talk for now. Eat up before the food gets cold," Molly instructed.

Vallerie didn't say anything, though she did note that the people she hadn't met the night before, all of whom were teenagers younger than herself, were watching her with curiosity. A few of the adults, mainly Remus, Arthur, and Tonks, tried to start up a conversation with her, but Vallerie just stared at her plate, picking at her food.

The meal seemed to last, to Vallerie, for what seemed like an eternity. She knew she should probably eat, but she just wasn't hungry. In all honesty, she felt like she was about to throw up, but didn't want to say anything. She just moved the food around the plate with her fork, not really paying close attention to anything around her. Her head snapped around sharply when she heard a deep, hoarse voice mumbling.

"It's just Kreacher," Sirius informed her. Vallerie looked over at him slowly, not really wanting to look away from what was making the noise, but figured it couldn't be too dangerous if no one else was worried.

"What's a Kreacher?"

"The miserable excuse of a house-elf that lives here," he told her grimly. Vallerie noted he didn't like this Kreacher.

"Please tell me you think house-elves deserve better treatment," Hermione sighed, jumping into the conversation. Vallerie looked over at her, and furrowed her brows.

"First you're gonna have to tell me what the bloody hell a house-elf is." Hermione looked shocked.

Sirius grinned at Vallerie's confusion, but went on to explain what they were. After he was finished, Vallerie just nodded and went back to picking at her food.

"So...where did you go to school Vallerie?" Ginny asked her conversationally. Vallerie shrugged. Ginny and Hermione exchanged curious glances, while Bill and Remus looked apprehensive.

"Are you from London?" Hermione asked politely, though Vallerie could hear the pushiness in her voice. Yet again, Vallerie just shrugged. Hermione was watching her, as though analyzing.

"I think Vallerie's just tired guys," Bill told his sister and Hermione. Ginny shrugged and turned back to talking to Fred and George, but Hermione still looked curious.

The rest of breakfast passed by mainly with Vallerie ignoring Hermione's inquisitive glances, Moody's suspicious stare, and others' polite chitchat.

---

Vallerie was just laying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Her mind kept running over everything. She still couldn't remember anything from before the previous night, unless the dream was actually a memory, but that was it. Even though most everyone at breakfast had tried to be friendly toward her, tried being the key word, Vallerie knew they were suspicious. She couldn't explain it, but Vallerie had felt their mistrustful scrutiny. She decided it would be best to just try to avoid them as much as possible.

KNOCK KNOCK

"Yeah?" Vallerie raised her head off the pillow slightly to see Remus begin to enter the room.

"You didn't eat much at breakfast," he said, slight concern evident in his voice.

"Wasn't hungry," she replied simply, letting her head fall back down onto the pillow.

"You feeling okay?" Vallerie didn't say anything, just continued staring at the ceiling. Remus sighed, taking the hint that she wasn't going to talk to him. "Well, um...I just wanted to bring you this," he started, holding up a raggedy backpack that looked oddly familiar to Vallerie. "You had it with you in the alley where I found you. No one was sure what to do, but Moody wanted to check over it...you know, just in case." Vallerie sat up and took the backpack from him.

"What'd he find?" she asked hesitantly.

"Nothing that would tell him you're a Death Eater," he assured her, noticing her apprehensiveness about looking in it. Vallerie just nodded, and continued staring at the backpack. "Well, I'll leave you alone." He started to leave, but glanced back over his shoulder. "If you wanna talk...I'll be here," he told her sincerely. Vallerie glanced up at him and held his gaze for a second, but looked back down quickly. Remus took the hint, and left.

Vallerie took a deep breath as she slowly opened up the backpack. She swallowed hard when she saw an apron on top of the pile of stuff in it. It was the same apron from the dream. This only served to further point to her dream not being a dream at all. Vallerie closed her eyes for a second, but then continued looking through the backpack.

There was a pair of low-rise jeans, a few t-shirts, a couple tank tops, a pair of boxers and men's athletic shorts, a hoodie, and a worn blue jean jacket, along with some undergarments too. There were also some toiletry items, a CD player with a few CDs, and some cash.

Vallerie looked over all of the contents from the backpack, now spread out over the bed. She couldn't help but notice that she would be able to live out of the backpack, and the gnawing feeling in her stomach was back. It was the same feeling she'd had last night before she went to sleep, and this morning after remembering the dream. It was the feeling that maybe she didn't want to remember what happened to her.

---

A slightly younger, but more disheveled, Vallerie walked into the diner after taking a deep breath. She received a few curious glances, but most just ignored her. She walked up to the counter, where a man behind it was filling up some drinks.

"Excuse me, are you the owner?" Vallerie asked politely.

"Yeah, what do you want?" he replied impatiently, not looking over.

"I saw your 'help wanted' sign." The man looked over, taking in Vallerie's appearance and apparent age.

"You good on your feet?" he questioned, taking the drinks over to one of the tables.

"Yes," she told him, following him. "I'm a quick learner and I work hard, I'll do any job." The man stopped and looked back at her.

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"You do drugs?"

"No."

"Drink?"

"Not often." The man raised his eyebrows, but nodded approvingly at her honesty.

"Willing to work long hours with few breaks?"

"Yes."

"You're hired." Vallerie smiled.

"Thank you." The man chuckled.

"Go wash up, then put this on, and get to work," he said, handing her an apron and placing a notepad and pen on the counter.

Vallerie's eyes shot open as she woke up, though she didn't move otherwise. She looked around, taking a minute to figure out where she was. She took a breath and ran her hands over her face as she sat up on the bed. Vallerie pulled her backpack up on the bed, and pulled out the apron.

"I was a waitress?" she mused quietly, not really sure, but it was a definite possibility. She examined the apron in her hands, it was identical to the one in both dreams. Furrowing her brows in thought, she pulled out the wad of cash. It was all small bills. "Huh..." Vallerie muttered, putting the stuff back into the backpack and setting it back on the ground by the bed.

She sighed, and laid back down. Curling up in a ball, hugging her legs tightly, she tried to fall back to sleep, hoping that tomorrow would be better.

---

Vallerie had been at Grimmauld Place for two days. She still couldn't remember what happened to her, but her dreams continued to haunt her. After that first morning, Vallerie hadn't come out of her room except to go the bathroom. Remus would bring her up a plate of food after every meal, but Vallerie would only occasionally pick at it, never eating much if anything. Though at first she had talked a little bit, not much or about anything of substance, but now she didn't say anything, to anyone.

She had contemplating trying to sneak out of the house, but wasn't sure where she'd go, or what she'd do if those strange people in her dream were real and were following her. So, she decided to just avoid everyone, avoid their suspicious looks and questions, and maybe she'd remember somewhere that would be safe for her to run to. Though so far, all she could remember was what she saw in the dreams, and she still wasn't sure if they were real. And the dreams were only flashes, just pieces of the whole picture, nothing that made much sense at all to Vallerie.

Since she wasn't coming out of her room, her choices of activities to pass the time were very limited. She had her CD player, but no extra batteries, so she was only using it sparingly. She desperately wished she owned a deck of cards, that way she'd at least be able to play solitaire to pass the time. So, with the lack of things to do, Vallerie mainly just laid on the bed, staring at the ceiling, trying to force herself to remember, or taking a nap.

One afternoon during her nap, the dream she was having seemed more like a nightmare.

Vallerie was running. Fast. Though, she couldn't go too fast in the city, especially with all the buildings and people. She could, however, weave in and out of the alleys, and use fire escapes or anything else she came across, to help get away from her pursuers.

Chancing a glance back, Vallerie noticed the people in masks were still there. She wasn't sure how they were keeping up, they weren't very fast or smart runners, but yet they always seemed to be right behind her.

Sirius had just finished feeding Buckbeak, and was heading back down to the kitchen for a drink. He heard a strange noise, and recognized the room it was coming from was Vallerie's room. He stopped for a second, and realized it sounded like she was thrashing about. He knocked on the door softly, but getting no answer he listened more closely. He thought he could hear her saying something, but it was too indistinguishable.

"Vallerie?" he called through the door. Still not getting an answer, yet still hearing the thrashing, he cautiously opened the door slowly.

When he walked into the room he noticed Vallerie was asleep, but it definitely didn't look peaceful. She was tossing and turning violently, mumbling inaudibly, and was pale and sweating.

"Vallerie," he said softly, trying to gently shake her awake.

That didn't work. Vallerie continued to toss and turn, looking very distressed. Sirius sighed, pondering how to wake her up gently. He cautiously sat down on the edge of the bed, trying to nudge her awake.

"Vallerie," he tried again, yet still no response.

She kept running. After swerving quickly into an adjacent alley, she leapt for the fire escape.

As she was starting to pull herself up onto the broken ladder, Vallerie heard someone mutter something that sounded like, "Crucio!" And all once intense pain, like nothing she would've ever imagined, seared through Vallerie's entire body. The sudden onset of the intense pain caused Vallerie to lose her grip on the ladder and she fell hard onto the street below.

All she could think about and feel was the excruciating pain searing throughout her body. As the tears flowed freely, Vallerie couldn't keep herself from screaming in pain no matter how hard she tried.

All at once Vallerie bolted upright, tears falling, and screaming. Sirius tried to place a comforting hand on her shoulder, but as soon as Vallerie seemed to feel his presence she starting trying to hit him, muttering something about leaving her alone.

Sirius tried to calm and talk her down, but was having no luck. Vallerie continued to try to hit him, until he finally managed to grab her arms and pin them to her sides.

"Vallerie! Wake up! It's just a dream," he told her firmly, yet gently. Vallerie gradually stopped fighting, and finally opened her eyes. Sirius could see the panic, and fear, in her dark jaded eyes.

Slowly shaking her head, she whispered, "No it wasn't. It was a memory."

A/N: Well, I hope you liked that chapter! I'm not sure when I'll update again, but I'll try to not let it be too long. As always, reviews are GREATLY appreciated!