Authors Note: Please enjoy this chapter and give me any feedback or anything. In the next chapter I'll really get into the plot.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter . . . or much else for that matter.


"I have had a strange feeling of being happy as if something was pushing and drawing in my chest and making me breathe fast. Magic is always pushing and drawing and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of magic so it must be all around us. In this garden - in all the places."

― Frances Hodgson Burnett


"I'm going to have to wipe your memory."

Audrey's brow furrowed as she tried to put his words in a context understandable to herself. "I- I don't understand," she said quietly, taking a tentative step back.

"I'm very sorry Ms Williams but it's procedure that has to be dealt with. Mr Crouch always says that –"

"What do you mean 'dealt with'?" asked Audrey, feeling quite scared about the amount of things she didn't know. "And who is Mr Crouch?"

"Once again you display a surprising ignorance about process and rules," said the man haughtily; Audrey wondered if she'd offended him somehow.

Very slowly, so as not to draw attention to it, Audrey started to kick at a piece of hot metal near her feet, needing something to rely on if thing turned sour. "What's your name?" she asked him casually, blowing her long hair out of her face.

"Percy," he replied. Percy looked at her with apprehension, like he wasn't enjoying the decisions he had to make. Audrey got the feeling he was usually one to be sure of his actions.

"I need you to talk to me like I'm stupid," said Audrey, bravely stepping forwards so they were speaking at the same level. "What are you going to do to me?"

Percy sighed and fiddled with his glasses awkwardly. "I will have to take away the last hour or so from your memory."

"How?" said Audrey with narrowed eyes.

"With magic," replied Percy. "Don't worry, it won't take away anything of importance."

"Importance!" Audrey spluttered indignantly. "I've just discovered a whole new race of people who can create light and wipe memories and blow up tents and I just have to forget that happened? You tell me what's important."

The voices around them had begun to rise as the crowd started to return form their retreat into the woods. Percy took a quick look around and grabbed her arm, dragging her over to the edge of the crowd. Audrey still smelt the smoke from the various campsites and saw the utter relief on everyone's faces as they realised they were safe; this didn't happen often Audrey concluded. A wizard in a strange dress choice of plus-fours hurried past yelling, 'Make a path, Obliviator coming through," causing Percy to step swiftly in his line of sight to avoid him seeing the girl.

"Ms Williams," he started again in that reasonable tone. "You are a muggle and you shouldn't have been able to get here in the first place- in fact, how did you get here? There are muggle-repellent charms completely surrounding this area."

"I- I was, er … walking home and I really needed to get home, you know? So I decided to cut through this field and I just walked into . . . this," said Audrey, gesturing around at the destruction. She was starting to acknowledge that her situation was real and knew she had to get away before this stranger acted upon his threat.

Percy nodded, searching her with a calculating look. "Thank you for your cooperation. I know it must be overwhelming to see all of this," he said, giving the shadow of a smile.

"It's a little more than overwhelming," she replied.

"Percy!" someone shouted from a little way across the field. "Percy, over here!"

The boy turned to see two red-heads jogging towards them. One was shorter and musclier than Percy but had the same brown eyes and the other was tall and had a long ponytail down his back. Percy seemed to recognise them because he accepted the short ones relieved embrace.

"Where did you run off to?" he asked, slinging an arm around an uncomfortable looking Percy. "Me and Bill lost you about fifteen minutes in."

"Bill and I," corrected Percy, ducking out from under his arm. Bill and the other one shared an amused glance before shifting their attention to the girl standing next to him.

"Who's this Percy?" asked Bill as he stepped forward and shook Audrey's hand in a firm grip. "Picking up girls in the middle of the battle? That doesn't sound responsible, would Mr Crouch approve?" he teased, grinning widely. Percy's ears turned bright red and he shot them both dirty looks which they absorbed contently.

Audrey smirked slightly at the pompous boys' embarrassment, it must have been a sore spot for him. She stayed quiet, she didn't know who these people were no matter how nice they acted; anything could happen to her and her father would never know.

Percy peered over the top of his glasses at her and leaned into the two boys beside him. Audrey only caught a word that sounded like 'muggle' but had no idea what it meant. The two boys' smiles vanished instantly and they nodded solemnly at whatever argument Percy was presenting.

"Hello Audrey," said Bill, but this time there was a hint of seriousness under his cheerful tones. "I know this is difficult, but we do have to wipe your memory and it would be good if you could give us your permission otherwise this is going to a bit . . . well let's just say you should let us do this."

Audrey stared at them, eyes wide. "No!" she exclaimed, horrified at the very thought. "They are my memories; you can't just take them."

"No muggle can know about our world unless they have a deep personal connection with a witch or wizard. It may be stupid but they are the rules," said the short one.

"That's inhumane," she muttered as they went back to their private conversation. An idea hit her, so obvious that she was surprised she hadn't thought of it before. Using the dense crowd as cover, Audrey crouched down and moved through the people, avoiding elbows and swinging legs but effectively avoiding the three red-heads.

She had no idea why losing her memories of the night was so frightening; everything she had seen in the last twenty minutes both terrified and captivated her so she was now utterly enthralled by the world she had discovered. Losing her memory meant losing control, it meant that these people had power over her, it meant that for the rest of her life she wouldn't know about the amazing world that existed so harmoniously with her boring one that it was invisible.

Panicked voices could be heard from where she had left but she wasn't turning back, Audrey was so very curious that she had to keep moving and find out more.

A women hurried past her, robes billowing in her rush, had a note pad suspended in mid-air in front of her, a feather-quill writing down notes while she was talking. Audrey grinned, this was incredible! Two men were thoughtfully leaning on a light post, both smoking something that was emitting puffs of different coloured smoke, adding a sweet smell to the existing night air. They were both wearing curious garments: a full-body swimming costume and a lady's dress; she spared a few chuckles for those men.

A younger woman was trying to get her daughter to stop crying, in the end she took out her own wooden stick and brandished it in a spiral, creating a little toy broomstick which flew around the child's head, making her gurgle with joy. This one made Audrey gasp in wonderment.

It was all making her head spin; it was like she was standing on the edge of a cliff with a valley of gold below her. She was on the verge of opening something wonderful and it was exactly what she needed to see.

All her life she had known the world worked in certain ways and people lived certain lives: grow up, get a job, get a house, get married, have a kid. No one ever told her that life would contain so many mysteries hidden on the way home.

I won't forget one line of this, Audrey promised herself.

The crunching noise of footsteps on burnt wood reached her ears but she thought nothing of it, instead Audrey continued to observe the people.

"Hey!" she cried as someone grabbed her roughly by the arm. "Let go!" Audrey looked up to see Percy standing behind her, looking angry. Bill and the other one caught up, out of breath and looking somewhere between annoyed and amused.

"Sorry," said Percy hastily, dropping her arm. "Are you alright? You can't just run off like that."

Audrey nodded but stood her ground, defiantly looking into his eyes. "You are not going to make me forget this. You can't do that."

And finally, Percy let his head fall in defeat.

"Alright," he replied seriously. "But there will be conditions."

Bill and the other one stared at him, disbelief written through every inch of their faces. "Who are you and what have you done with our brother?" said the short one. Percy blinked, appearing as confused as they were.

"Can you show me some magic?" asked Audrey timidly, not wanting to push her luck.

"Sure," replied the other one. "My name's Charlie by the way." They shook hands and Charlie stood back, giving a gentlemanly push to Percy who stumbled forwards. "You found her, she's your responsibility now."

Percy scowled and shook his head.

"Please show me, I've never seen anything like this and I doubt I ever will again," said Audrey encouragingly. "Does the wood in your wand create energy? Is it a technique that you have to learn? What sort of people are magical? Can you learn to do magic? Have humans evolved to be like you or are you a completely different species altogether?" She stopped, breathing heavily from the torrent of questions that had been pressing on her mind since Percy conjured the purple light.

The three boys looked faintly horrified by the amount of curiosity coming from the girl.

Bill spoke up, doing his best to answer each question, "No idea, yes, erm- random and by families, no, er . . . bloody hell I've never even thought about it. Does that answer it?"

Audrey frowned, trying to follow what he had said according to her questions. "I think so."

"There's Mr Crouch," said Percy, spotting someone from across the campsite. "I'd better inform him about this." He scurried off after a man with a toothbrush moustache and the air of someone very important who had just been hit with a cricket bat; he looked a little lost.

"Off you go Percy," said Charlie, barely containing his laughter. "Oh merlin look at him, I'm almost ashamed to say we're related."

Audrey bit her lip, still very disordered from all the things she was seeing but decided the two men in front of her were good enough and put forward her anxiety. "When I was in the woods," she started uncertainly, waiting for the nod of assent from Bill and Charlie. "Well, I saw- , well I say I saw but I don't really know but, anyway . . . I think I saw the man who made the firework. I'm still a little confused about how he would do that but-"

"What?" interrupted Bill sharply, pointing towards the green skull that was still in the sky. "You mean the dark mark?"

"Er . . . I, yes," said Audrey.

Charlie started forward but before he could say anything Percy reappeared, looking a little put out.

"Percy," said Charlie to his younger brother (or at least, that's what Audrey assumed). "Audrey saw who conjured the dark mark."

Percy's eyes lit up; not in a good or bad way. It was like he had just seen a perfect opportunity. "Really?" he asked and walked closer, firmly taking hold of Audrey's arms. "What did he look like? What was he doing? Was he a death eater? How on earth weren't you killed? Who was he? We'll have to get you to the ministry to give evidence, Mr Crouch will be thrilled." He paused, realising that Audrey had frozen – taken aback by the amount of desire and forcefulness in his voice. "Tell me, tell me now because this could help everyone. Was it a spell, a curse or an enchantment? What words did he use? Was he wearing clothes from Azkaban-?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" screamed Audrey, properly scared by this point.

They both stopped, breathing heavily. After a few moments, Percy released her and placed a tired hand to his forehead. "You don't know anything do you?"

"No, and I think you'd do well to remember that," replied Audrey, still shaking slightly.

"You're just a muggle, just Audrey," he said in a relieved tone.

Audrey opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by Bill, "We'd better get back to the tent, we don't want Ron and Ginny returning with no one there."

Percy nodded absentmindedly, apparently still focused on his questions. "You go; I'll walk Audrey home."

His two brothers shared another look and began to make their way back to their tent.

Silence rang around the remaining two figures and it felt creepy, like the build up to a jump scare in any horror movie. To break the awkward silence, Percy drew his wand and waved it in the air, letting it create a shower of sparks; Audrey looked up in amazement at the gold and pink drops of light falling onto her.

Now that was magic.

Her gaze returned to his face when the magic rain disappeared. "What did Mr Crouch say?" she asked.

"He's not happy with me," said Percy looking very woebegone at his response. "I don't think he respects people who are soft with rules."

"Oh," said Audrey. She brightened when she remembered everything she had learnt that night. "Thank you for this . . . this is; I can't even begin describe to you how much this means to me."

Their eyes locked and Percy leaned forward and said, "Thank you too."

Audrey smiled, "I will never forget this."

"Indeed," he agreed straightening back up. "Remember this, remember . . . this is the day you discovered something wondrous. This has been the most incredible night of your life and I have faith in you not to forget it . . . and I'm sorry."

"What?" said Audrey. "Sorry for what?"

Percy stepped back, determination written into every line of his stature and pointed his wand at the young muggle girl in front of him.

"Obliviate."


Authors Note: Love it? Hate it? Any thoughts? If you have anything to say I'm open to it.