A/N: Done! I'm so nice, you get two updates in one day. The next update should be soon enough, I'll be focusing on this, The Dating Game, and Arms of The Ocean until I'm done with them. I can't wait for this story to all be done up, because I have the perfect ending in mind. I might put in a sequel, though, because I have an idea for that too. I just need time to write it out. Please enjoy this chapter, I like it the best thus far!

WORD COUNT: 2,370

DISCLAIMER: Oh, J.K. Rowling, the rights? To me? You're so generous! Now there are no disclaimers and I can bring characters back to life and make my stories cannon! Wait, what? But it's not even April Fool's Day! Now, that's just cruel. Because now I still have no ownership rights. *Sigh* I guess the Plan will have to commence later. Until then, we're still AU, Sage.

Who is the lamb and who is the knife?

- Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), by Florence + the Machine

::0123456789::

When I came to, Prongs was hovering over me. He stared at me worriedly, then jumped back in surprise when my eyes fluttered opened.

"Sagey, you scared me!" Prongs unnecessarily proclaimed, shouting rather loudly. I rolled my eyes in return. How could Flower ever stand him, let alone fall in love with him?

"Fine, Sage. Be that way. I'll go back to Flower now," Prongs announced, pouting and turning away. I giggled.

"Come back later," I whispered near silently. "Then we can talk."

Prongs gave me a nod and turned his head to flash me a bright smile, before walking through the doors of the Hospital Wing.

"Rather unfortunate that you're back here already, Miss Rosier," Madame Pomphrey commented a moment later, rushing about. All I saw was a blur I surmised to be her from the voice I recognised.

But suddenly I couldn't think anymore. Flower and Prongs together, in such a quick succession, was affecting me. Nightmares of Pads and Moony. Wormy there. Marlene and Dorcas and Fabian and Gideon and Alice and Frank and all of them...

... They swam around in my blurry eyes, images taking shape all around me. They blinked and smiled and held out their hands for a handshake. But all too soon they shifted, screaming and shaking, faces melting to the floor in pools of blood. The world began to burn, hot flames reaching the ceiling and consuming everything as the walls crumbled to dust. Jets of light streamed from every which direction in varying colours, varied screams sounding in my eardrums, louder than sirens.

The vivid nightmare controlled me and possessed my every sense. This was not my perfect life, not anymore. Now I was not only a little unwell, but I was a mental case.

Madame Pomphrey didn't notice. She just bustled about the Wing, grabbing potions before approaching me and shoving them down my throat.

"You're free to go," she eventually told after force-feeding me numerous potions.

I moved and left, but not before she could remind me to lie down for the rest of the day and that tomorrow I needed to come in for my glasses.

::0123456789::

I spent the rest of the day up in my dorm, reading a Muggle book I had secretly ordered. It was called Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Even though I had only gotten it last year, it was my favourite book and I had read it about a bazillion times. It was very fancy, blue-leather bound, with gold shimmering on the side. Neat scribbles were in nearly every margin, favourite quotes highlighted. Everything was colour coded for which time read through I had marked it. The first time read was sky blue ink and highlights, second was orange, third was crimson, fourth emerald, and now it was royal purple.

I loved this book.

I spent the time reading, from Elizabeth's visit to Rosings to her unintentional meeting with Mr. Darcy at Pemberly. Pemberly reminded me of the old manor Pads basically raised me in when he took care of me. Forests and gardens and rivers and meadows with a ginormous house- yes, the descriptions matched.

When I heard footsteps outside the door, I dog-eared the corner of my page and shoved it under my mattress, diving under the covers and changing my breath so that I looked asleep.

The door opened, and I heard the whispers of Emma, Elizabeth, and Fiona wafted over to my "sleeping" body.

"Sh!"

"Why?"

"She's asleep."

"Did you understand her boggart?"

"No, but it looked awfully like that dreadful Sirius Black."

"Don't forget the Galleons!"

"You know what I really don't understand?"

"What?"

"Why our parents support the Dark Lord but hate Sirius Black. He's in our side, after all."

"I don't get it either."

"I just wish that whole Dark Lord business could be over and done with already."

"Me, too."

"You've got my vote."

They fell silent.

"Come on, we need to work on our Defence homework."

"I still don't get why we have to take that subject."

"I don't know why, either."

::0123456789::

I awoke and glanced at my watch I had left on my wrist. A candle still lit on my bedside allowed me to read the time as 2:55 A.M.

Prongs must've missed me and felt deprived of conversation, for I saw him. He sat at my side, looking down on me with a sorrowful expression. The clearness of his body, the way I felt him brushing my hair behind my ear, the way I heard him humming my favourite lullaby, it all mixed together and brought tears to my eyes.

Prongs smiled bitterly when he saw that I was awake. "I was missing you, Sage," he whispered sombrely. He had tears glistening in his hazel eyes; so realistic I almost forgot that he wasn't truly alive.

"Prongs, what's wrong with me?" I meekly wondered, hoping to understand why I saw him and Flower and all the others. Why I was so afraid of money. Why I had the memories. Why I was such a failure.

"You've seen too much, Sage," Prongs sadly answered, tears welling up in his eyes. "You've seen too much."

::0123456789::

The weeks passed by uneventfully, the months. Ridicule followed me around after I received glasses, but I mastered contacts within a week, determined, and hadn't needed the bothersome accessory since.

Professor Lupin called for me after the lesson. It was near time for the holidays, but his transformation would also occur simultaneously.

Harry Potter also stood beside his desk when I approached. Professor Lupin smiled kindly, and offered both Potter and I a seat.

I swallowed discreetly, fear gripping at me. I remembered him, but did he remember me? Hopefully not- that would be disastrous.

"Sagittaria, Harry, glad you could join me," Professor Lupin beamed.

I stayed silent for a moment, debating on using manners or not. My silent side won out, as always. The coward I harboured inside me, the coward that had paralysed me all those years ago and kept its hold ever since.

Harry glanced sideways at me- a prim, perfect Slytherin, full of pure blood prejudice. He was the well known Boy-Who-Lived.

"Harry was questioning me on the unfamiliar entity in his parents' photo album the other day," Lupin explained to me; smile still plastered on his face.

My heart dropped into my stomach, heavier than any boulder could ever get. I steeled my nerves and held my breath, no air entering or leaving for fear of hyperventilation. This could not be happening, not at all. A panic attack would occur, that much I was sure of. I couldn't remember that night, not ever again, not unless it was the anniversary. Even then, I was prepared and acted sick.

Lupin noticed my discomfort. "Sage, you have nothing to fear."

All Prongs', Flower's, and Padfoot's training came back in full force. I exploded for the first time ever, and I was standing in an instant.

"Nothing to fear, you say? Hm, no, absolutely nothing! Just the entirety of the school finding out, seeings how nothing can stay secret when it comes to Boy Wonder over there! No, all I have to fear is my entire family's reputation being ruined; all I have to fear is the lethal panic attacks striking again! All I have to worry about is everything, my entire life I built from the destroyed ashes you left remaining, all crashing and burning, most likely killing me in the process! You were gone before any repercussions began, before I couldn't breathe at nights and was nearly strangled daily!"

I paused here, my face undeniably flushed, my breathing fast and erratic. I felt exhaustion sweep over me from my quick and sudden outburst, and collapsed into the wooden chair I had risen from.

Lupin and Potter eyed me apprehensively, as though I was a grenade ready to explode at any second. Given, I had exploded at a moment's notice without hesitation seconds earlier.

"Boy Wonder?" Potter eventually asked.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "You have a problem with it?"

He shook his head violently. "Nope, perfectly fine. Best nickname I've ever had!"

I think Lupin had taken something illegal when he began laughing really hard. Both Boy Wonder and I stared at the deranged professor who was currently gasping for air.

"Sorry," he apologised apathetically.

I raised my eyebrow again.

"You two reminded me of a conversation between two of my friends back in their first year," he explained.

"Prongs and Flower?" I guessed unthinkingly. They both went silent, Potter in confusion, Lupin in surprise.

"You remembered?"

He didn't dare raise his voice above a whisper. It was too reverent a question. I nodded and bit my lip, worried.

"Who?" The clueless Boy Wonder inquired.

I turned toward Lupin. "You get to explain. I was too young."

He glared and I laughed.

Sighing, Lupin turned toward Potter, "Prongs and Flower were Sage's nicknames for your parents when you two were toddlers."

Silence reigned.

"Your father and mother were close friends of mine. Sage and you argue just like they did at your age. When you were kids, you two would always play together. Attached at the hip."

The one question I was dreading spilled from Potter's mouth.

"How did she know us?"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before opening them and staring at Boy Wonder. "My mother's cousin had taken me from my mother when I was a few days old. It was to protect me, she was a Death Eater. He raised me and we were at your house loads. He had left me there on Halloween when I was three, and that was the night you became the Boy Who Lived. I was hit with the curse, just remnants of it. It's not in the books because I'm not to be remembered. The Ministry wouldn't take my word and arrested my mother's cousin for apparently causing their deaths, which he didn't. I've been living with my grandparents since. Make sense?"

My thoughts were a little scattered. I was never articulate when I spoke my story- which had only ever been spoken in private before.

Lupin winced. "Sage, you know, he really did-"

"Don't!" I warned, holding a hand up and glaring. "I was at the street, he took me there, I saw it. You didn't. I may have been only three, I may have just been through trauma, but I swear in my life that it was Wormtail's fault."

"Don't saw things like that," Lupin frowned.

"I can when they are true," I snapped.

"I'm still confused."

"Aren't you idiotic Gryffindors always?" I muttered bitterly. Both Boy Wonder and Lupin were offended by above comment.

"What's a Death Eater? Who is your mother? Who is your mother's cousin? What did the Ministry think he did? Why aren't you in the books?"

Question after question.

"It had never mattered, nor will it ever," I spoke coldly.

"So, are you the one in the photos?" Boy Wonder attempted to clarify. I nodded stiffly.

"Do you remember?" He quietly asked, a sheepish look adorning his features. I nodded yet again.

"Do you have any scar from that night?"

Stupid Boy Wonder and his stupid questions and my stupid, stupid subconscious responses. Without thinking, I nodded, and lifted a hand to my cheek- to the spot where my glamoured scar was- an imprint of a star.

"Can I see?"

I regained control over myself. I shook my head and pushed Boy Wonder out of the way, rushing to the door. It opened without even a touch, and I rushed out. The door slammed shut and I guided myself through secret corridors to the Slytherin Girls' Dormitories (I knew my way around- whether the passages had existed before or not).

The didn't see me- not with my charm I had casted- and I was able to successfully hide myself in my bed and curl up with Pride and Prejudice, with nobody to notice.

I waved my wand and the glamour charms and makeups were taken off immediately. I was free of those stupid ways to hide- not that anyone was ever the wiser. I was hiding, and I despised it.

I started to cry. My silencing spells were all up, privacy guaranteed.

"Oh, Elizabeth, you are so lucky. Don't you see? Mr. Darcy has to keep up a fake for his family's sake, when you can be outspoken and say everything you want. You may feel oppressed, but you are free in a way I can never be. When faced with a choice, I will run. You will see me collapse. Please, Elizabeth, don't waste your precious gift of freedom."

I could not stop the horrible sobs that escaped afterwards. I was lost to sorrow, sorrow that I could never live in freedom.

Flower was free. Prongs was free. Alice and Frank and Fabian and Gideon and Wormtail and Boy Wonder and all those ruddy Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were all free while we, the Pureblood Supremists, were stuck in a never ending circle, a cage, or "decisions" that were all predestined for us. Nobody would ever realize how hard it was to be the cold ones, to be the cut off ones, to be the ones causing the pain.

Because for me, there was no decision.

Because it was all handed to me on a platter, I did not get to choose what was made, I did not get the opportunity.

Was it better to be the inflictor or the sufferer?

Who was the one sacrificing more?

Who was the one giving themselves up?

Who was the one that was truly hurt?

"Oh, please. Flower and Prongs and Alice and Frank and Fabian and Gideon and Marlene and Dorcas and Regulus and all of you… Why can't I be free, too?

"Why do I not deserve it?"

I paused.

"Why am I the one to slowly die every day because of my supposed 'choices?'"

They are not mine.

They are Sirius Black's choices.

Not mine.