Upon waking up, I discovered I had a terrible headache. I blamed it on the amount of wine I'd had the night before.
After a shower and some breakfast, I felt much better. The dress hanging up in my bathroom, however, reminded me of the previous night's events.
So much had happened. I couldn't believe that I'd told Harry about my feelings for him. It had not ended poorly, however I did really need to talk to him.
Fury was building within me towards Christopher. Anger no longer appropriately summed up my feelings. But at the same time, I could not completely lose it on him. He still had one thing that I wanted: Sophia. And I knew he would use that against me. I knew that it would not take a lot to be cut off from my daughter, but I had to keep my toes on this side of that line. I loathed him even more because of that.
Miriam brought me Sunday's Daily Prophet because it had pictures of the ball last night. There was a picture of Christopher and I in it, but I did not look at it long. It just annoyed me, so I placed the newspaper on the end of my bed and relaxed.
Around noon time, Harry finally showed up. I'd never been so happy to see him before, and he carried a paper bag that I could tell contained food for us. He knew how to make me happy.
He greeted me with a kiss on the forehead, and immediately my brain began to analyze that. What exactly did it mean? But I tried to be rational. He would tell me soon.
"Sleep well?"" I asked him.
"Didn't wake up until ten," he said. "I haven't been hungover in ages and I forgot how unpleasant it is."
"You were drunk at the party?" I asked. He had been drinking with me, of course, but I didn't think he'd had enough to be really drunk..
"No," he said. "After I brought you back here. I was... so angry. I had to do something to preoccupy myself or I would have done something stupid."
I reached out and grasped his hand. He recoiled it to open up the bag of food and handed me a sandwich.
"I got you a chicken salad sandwich," he said. "I wasn't quite sure what to get you. There's a deli underneath where I live and they've got really nice sandwiches."
"Thank you," I said, accepting the sandwich. It was a nice gesture and tasted delicious. "I'm sorry you were so worked up over it."
"That man is a monster," he told me. "You need to get as far away from him as you possibly can."
"He still has Sophia," I said, shrugging. "I need to be at least... communicating with him. I know if I try anything right now he will cut me off from her and I can't do that. She's my daughter."
"I know," he said, leaning forward and looking me straight in the eyes.
"So I have to wait until I get my memories back, because then I'll know more how I can get her out of there."
"Which brings us to our next point in conversation," he said, standing up. "Can I sit next to you?"
I moved over and made room for him, glad to have him close. Being that close to him made me feel a lot safer. My heart began to race again because I was nervous and had no idea what he was about to say. "I'm nervous," I admitted.
"Don't be," he said. "Let's see..."
"Don't feel obligated to reciprocate anything," I warned him. "I told you last night because I'd had a couple glasses of wine and they gave me the courage to."
"Anna," he said, smiling. "I fancy you back."
"Oh!" I exclaimed, and a great happiness ran through my veins. I couldn't help by smile back.
"But it is more complicated than that," he said.
I sighed, but he was right. There was hardly anything easy about this. "I knew the but was coming," I said.
"I don't think that we should... be in a relationship now," he said. "I think we should wait until you get your memories back and then you can get Sophia and I'll help you get away from Christopher. It's not fair."
"To who?" I asked quickly trying to keep up with his words. "Christopher? He doesn't deserve fair. He isn't fair."
"He doesn't deserve anything from you," he said. "You're right. But be the better person, Anna. Break it off clean when you don't have to worry about him doing anything stupid with Sophia. Plus, it will be so much easier then to be in a relationship. You won't be in the hospital and we can just... be."
I liked the idea of that. Sophia would be with me, Christopher would be out of the picture, and we could just... be.
"I can't wait," I told him. "I hope I wake up with my memories back tomorrow. I'm so sick of this half life... I want to leave the hospital."
"Soon," he promised. "I promise."
"Will you tell me about your last girlfriend?" I asked, realizing I knew virtually nothing about her. "I don't even know her name."
He sighed, and raked a hand through his hair. "Her name was Ginny," he said. "Ginny Weasley. She's probably in that newspaper if you looked in the Sports section. She's a big Quidditch player for the Holyhead Harpies."
A Quidditch player, huh? That interested me a little. I thought she had been too pretty to be a Quidditch player. "How long did you two date?"
He let out a big sigh. "A long, long time," he said. "Like, we should have been married by now."
"How long?" I asked again. I was really interested in the number.
"Let's see... we started dating when I was... er, sixteen. Then we broke up for about two years for a couple of reasons. Then when I was eighteen we got back together... and then her work got in the way. She played for England's Quidditch team in the World Cup, so had to go on a six month tour for that, so we were broken up for a bit then. We got serious about it though about three years ago, maybe," he rattled off.
That was an incredibly long time. About seven years of his life, off and on.
"But you broke up?" I asked.
He nodded. "I'm not going to say it was mutual, because it wasn't. But from here, six weeks later... it was time. We knew we weren't going to get married. I think we'll always be in each others' lives."
"Why?" I asked.
"I'm friends with her brother and her family's sort of taken me in," he said.
I could probably deal with that, I thought, as I rested my head against him. There was only one more thing that I wanted to ask him about. Something Christopher had said last night had bothered me- that Harry was famous.
"Are you famous?" I asked him, looking up at him.
"I knew this was coming," he said, shifting away, which made me nervous. "I... technically, yes. There was a war, a few years back, yeah? Remember, I told you I was involved in it?"
I nodded. He had said it when we went out to find a Christmas tree and he was explaining why he was here. "Yeah, I remember," I said.
"Well, I basically... ended the war. So that's brought me a lot of fame. I hate it, but luckily it's died down a lot over the years. I can usually go out with my mates and not get bothered. But the breakup with Ginny stirred up a lot of attention, and obviously being in here did too. It will die down soon."
"That's why you live in Muggle London," I said.
"Yes it is," he said. "Plus their food is much better."
I laughed, but smiled. Him being famous didn't sound nearly as bad as I had been making it in my head. "Are we done talking about serious stuff?" I asked.
"I think that can be arranged," he murmured. "A game of Exploding Snap sound good?"
"Yes, please," I said. It was such a simple game, but it was a routine and I liked it a lot. The game didn't take a long time to play, so we ended up getting a few rounds in before Miriam came in.
I assumed she was here to give me my afternoon snack or medicine or something. But she was not.
"I'm afraid it's time for Harry to leave," she said.
"What do you mean?" I asked. He had always stayed as long as he liked. "Why does he have to leave?"
"He is a visitor now, not a patient, and he is not related to you. Non-related visitors are only allowed to visit for three hours a day. You may come back tomorrow for three more hours if you'd like," she informed us.
"Can we have five more minutes today because we didn't know?" Harry asked.
She nodded, and checked her watch before leaving the room. As soon as the door was shut, I looked to Harry. "Christopher," we both said at the same time.
"This reeks of him," he said. "I had a non-related visitor for more than three hours. That's crazy."
"Now I'm going to be alone for the rest of the day," I said.
"Or worse, Christopher's coming," he said, standing up and putting his coat on. He gave me a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. "When would you like me to come visit tomorrow? Morning? Afternoon? Evening?"
"Maybe... mid afternoon? Later in the day than today," I decided I would rather spend the majority of my day waiting for him then being sad he had left.
"All right. I'll be here. Bye, Anna," he said.
"Bye Harry," I muttered, watching him leave. I was panicked and anxiety rose as I waited to see if Christopher would come in.
Ten minutes later, when he hadn't, I deemed it safe. I really had no more purpose for the day, and all I did was lay in bed. I turned on the radio and listened to a radio program, but other than that, I waited for tomorrow.
I needed to have my memories back really soon so I could get the situation with my life straightened out.
In the morning, Healer Davis came to see me before lunch time.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"I'm fine," I explained.
"Is your knee bothering you?" he asked, as his quill scribbled furiously over the paper.
"Not at all. It feels great," I told him. "Other than my memories, I'm in good shape."
"I agree," he said. "The only thing keeping you back is your lack of memories."
I sighed in frustration. Of course they were.
"Is there anything we can do to help you?" he asked. "They say that the best environment that someone with amnesia can be in is a relaxed, comfortable environment with reminders of identity."
"I..." I trailed off, wanting to tell him about the anxiety that Christopher was causing me. "Will you tell people?"
He shook his head. "Anna, I'm here to work for you. Everything is strictly confidential," he assured me.
"I have to get away from Christopher," I informed him. "He stresses me out and just brings so much anxiety into my life and I can't deal with it right now."
"All right," he said. "I can't remove him from your life, but I will do my best to minimize his visits. What is helping you?"
"My daughter," I said. "I love spending time with her, she makes me really happy."
"I will see if we can arrange visits from her every day. I agree with you, that's an important part of your identity. What else?"
I sighed. "I wrote my father," I told him. "Because, apparently, I'm not very close with him at the moment. But I think I need to meet with him and hear about myself from him. I really want to make amends with him."
"You wrote your father?" he asked, looking down at my chart. "It doesn't appear you have mail privileges. When did you do that?"
"Last week. I gave the letter to Miriam," I explained.
"It didn't get mailed, Anna, I'm sorry."
I was relieved that was why he hadn't written back. He hadn't rejected me after all! He just hadn't gotten the letter. But at the same time, I was really angry with Miriam. What a waste of time that had been. "Thank you for telling me," I said.
"And Miriam says you spend a lot of time with Harry Potter?" he asked.
I nodded. "We've become good friends," I told him. "He understands what it's like to be stuck in here."
"Good, I'm glad you have a friend." he said. His quill reached the bottom of the page, and he quickly glanced through what it wrote. "I have a few things to go over in your notes. I will be back tomorrow, there's something I need to think about in regards to your case. If there's anything you need in the meantime, tell Miriam."
He left me alone. When Miriam delivered my lunch, I gave her the silent treatment. I knew that was terribly childish, but I was angry with her for lying about my letter to my father. The whole thing bothered me.
I couldn't bear that I'd been lied to, but I was glad I knew now. I really did like Healer Davis and how he was working with me. He cared about getting me healthy, not the other people in my situation.
After lunch, I received a letter from Christopher.
Dearest Anna,
I spent part of the morning speaking with your Healer. Unfortunately, my schedule will forbid me from visiting you this week, but I will try to come see you before Christmas. However, Connie will be bringing Sophia to you for a visit every afternoon from one to two. Healer Davis thinks this might be a good part of your identity of which to be reminded.
I am attributing your disgraceful behavior on Saturday night to the amount of wine you drank and mostly empty bottle of wine found in your bedroom. I trust it will not happen again.
Rest up, love. I can't wait to have the real you back with us.
All my love,
Christopher
Author's Note: So, here's another chapter! That was quick, but I figure this is a better ending than the last one. Probably won't be able to update this story again until next weekend. To those of you who read it, I know I owe an update to 'Tomorrow' but it's just not coming as easily as I want it to so I'm not forcing it. Sorry :( Anyways, thanks for the great reviews yesterday. Let me know what you think! Thanks to karmonblake for the beta!
