Chapter Two: Seed of Memory

Ron was saying something to me, but all I could hear was this buzzing noise. Camden was also talking, but I didn't hear anything he said after the, "I don't love you anymore."

When I was able to hear again, Camden was saying that he had found somebody else. After that, he hung up. Ron who had been saying something to me the whole time I blanked out, finally came over to me and held his arms out. I leaned into him and just sat there.

After a while, I remembered I had food to eat. I ate my food and decided it was time to get home. I looked at Ron when we stepped outside and asked, "How did you get here?" He opened his hands and keys jangled out of them. He hit a button and I saw blinking lights on a car nearby.

"Come on," he said. "Let's get you home. You didn't drive here did you?"

"No, I walked."

His eyes bulged at that. "Y-you-w-walked?"

"Yea I live right over there," I said pointing to a group of dark buildings straight ahead of us.

"Oh," he said opening the door for me. I got in and he shut the door. He walked around to the driver's side, got in and started the ignition.

"Uh, Ron?" I asked. "How'd you learn to drive?" He mumbled something about his dad and Harry and backed out of the parking spot. I was skeptic about being in a car with him driving. He actually wasn't that bad of a driver, I've seen muggles drive way worse that he is. He began heading towards the dark buildings that I pointed to earlier and asked, "Which one is yours?" I gave him directions and closed my eyes.

I must've drifted off because the next thing I remember is Ron carrying me to my apartment. "You can put me down now," I said. He set me down and I dug into my purse to get my keys.

As soon as I opened the door, Shadow, my cat came running towards me. "Hey there," I said picking her up and heading into the kitchen. "You want anything to drink?" I asked Ron over my shoulder as he shut the door and locked it.

"Sure," he said standing in my living room.

"You can sit down, you know," I told him gesturing towards the couch.

There was an awkward silence while I was getting the glasses down from the cabinet.

"Firewhiskey okay?" I asked him getting it out of the freezer, looking at him.

He nodded and I began pouring our drinks into the glasses that I had gotten down from the cabinet. I walked into the living room with the two glasses and bottle of firewhiskey. I handed Ron his drink and sat down next to him. While we were drinking our drinks neither one of us said a word. Instead, I looked at him and took in his body. He had definitely bulked up since Hogwarts. I noticed that he was no longer tall and gangly, he was still tall, but his body fit his tallness. He didn't seem as awkward as he used to be.

I was about to say something because I could no longer stand the silence, when Ron blurted out, "So are you going to tell me where in the bloody hell have you been the past seven years? We all thought that one of the remaining death eaters killed you or something. You just dropped off the face of the planet."

I looked away and didn't say anything for a while. When I looked back, Ron was staring at me, waiting for my response. My head was filling with images of that night. The night Voldemort killed my whole family. It was seven years ago, the summer before what was to be my seventh year at Hogwarts, when everything I had ever known changed drastically. I was out celebrating my 17th birthday with Seamus (my current boyfriend at the time), Ron, Hermione, Harry, Ginny, Neville, and Luna. We ended up going to the movies and seeing some scary movie that I had been wanting to see. I love scary movies. After the movies, we went to this muggle club called 'Distortion' and danced until the wee hours of the morning.

After dropping Luna safely off at her house, we decided it was time for me to go home next, seeing as I was the next closest. I lived in a magical community so we didn't have to worry about muggles seeing us with our wands drawn just in case we needed them. When we got to my house, I noticed the Dark Mark above my house. I was startled at first because I hadn't seen it from far off, but then again I was to busy talking to really notice it. I saw that my front door was wide open, the downstairs windows were blown out, and there was stuff randomly thrown about my front yard. I started to run towards the house to check on my parents and siblings when four strong arms held me back. I turned to see who was keeping me captive, it was Seamus and Ron. I then saw a silvery otter and knew that it was Hermione alerting the Order about what had happened, with a patronus.

Minutes later, there were popping noises, alerting us that the Order had arrived. I saw them go into the house to check and see if it was clear. They came out with grim looks on their faces. I broke free of Ron and Seamus's arms and ran into the house. What I saw would forever haunt me. My parents were thrown about on couches, their eyes glazed over. They had obviously been Avada Kedavarad. However, what I saw beyond them was truly horrifying. My baby brother and younger sister were nailed to the wall with the words: You'll be next, blood traitor!, written in their blood.

"No!" I shouted running to them, taking them down from the wall and hugging them close to my body. I sat on the ground for what seemed like forever rocking them back and forth in my embrace, singing to them, when I felt them being taken away. I tried to keep them in my embrace, but someone else was tugging me from behind pulling me in their embrace. My eyes were too blurry from me crying to see who had picked me up. They carried me up the stairs and to my room. Once inside my room, the person carrying me sat down on the bed with me still in their arms and began whispering.

"It's okay," the voice whispered and I realized that it was Seamus. He hugged me closer. We stayed just like that, me crying and him holding me, until someone came in and said that we needed to get going. Seamus got off the bed, with me still in his arms, and carried me out in the hall. The person that came in asked something, but I didn't hear them. Seamus said something and carried me downstairs and outside. A couple of minutes later, I realized that Tonks (she was the person who came in my room and told Seamus and I that we needed to leave) had packed everything, furniture, and all, into my Hogwarts trunk. I had it charmed a few years back so I could fit more stuff in it. I love to read and since every summer, I would end up getting more books to read during the school year, I ask my parents to charm it so that I could take them along as well. Tonks floated my trunk near me. I asked Seamus to put me down and I sat on my trunk.

Once everything had been cleaned up, the Order began arguing about where I was to stay until the war was over. Arthur Weasley said that he'd take me in at the Burrow, Tonks said that I could stay with her parents, the others were discussing various other places.

I couldn't take all the arguing anymore so I bellowed out, "Quiet!" All of their heads turned to me at once and I continued, "Mr. Weasley, as much as I'd like to stay with you and your family at the Burrow, there's just not enough room. Tonks there's no way I would put your parents in any more danger than they already are, plus I don't want to impose on them like that," but before I could finish what I was going to say, Fred and George both spoke at once saying, "She can stay with us at our apartment above our shop. We have extra rooms in that she can stay in and any of the Order members that want to watch her when we can't keep an eye on her." I was about to say that I could bloody well take care of my self, when everybody agreed that it would be a good enough place for now until they could figure out a better place. So, with that thought, we all apparated to the twins store and began setting my things up in the room that would be mine.

When everything was put into place, I layed down on my bed and snuggled up with Seamus, while everybody else went into the main room and began discussing who would stay here to watch me. I drifted off to sleep not caring about anything except what had happened with my family.

I was brought back to the here and now, to Ron getting up and putting the glasses and firewhiskey up. When he sat back down in his seat and stared at me, still waiting on a response. This time though, he had a softer look in his eyes. It was like he knew that I was thinking about that night all those years ago. A seed in my memory.