**Sorry about not posting for a month or two but everything is hectic with the start of school. Thanks to everyone who still follows!**

Chapter 13

Fred and George weren't supposed to come by till 8:00. I had the Room make me a couch in front of a fireplace. I sat watching the fire crackle and jump. My knees were curled up to my chest, but there were no tears anymore. Time had become meaningless to me, but the 7:30 bell had rung quite a few minutes ago. The tears had stopped within the first 30 minutes I was here; now all that were left were dry tear tracks. Even the puffy eyes had eventually faded. I hope, at least, seeing as I didn't have a mirror.

In my mind I saw Hermione's face again. My friend. Her eyes were wide with pain and something deeper. Fear. She had been afraid of me. One of my best friends had been afraid of me. And what's more? I enjoyed seeing that look for a second. For a tenth of a second I relished seeing the pained, scared look she gave me. It was like there was two people inside me. And I didn't know the other one, but I kept getting flashes of her life.

"Hey," Instead of reacting, my body didn't move which was a pleasant surprise. I didn't even feel the surprise. Instead of surprise my brain calmly informed me that someone was in the room. And I knew who it was.

"Hey, Birch." I said, my voice cracking from two hours of disuse.

"You knew it was me." He didn't sound surprised.

"Obviously." I said drily. He cleared his throat and then sat down on the other side of the couch. "How did you find me?" I asked.

"My legs just started walking." He sounded confused and I nodded. To anyone else he would've sounded off his rocker, but I understood.

"You don't remember anything either?" I already knew the answer, but I felt it was necessary to break the tension.

"Nope." He popped the 'p', leaving an awkward silence behind. "Do you get dreams?" He asked me after a minute.

"Yea, I dream. Everybody does." I purposefully beat around the bush.

"You know what I mean, Sere." I snapped my head up.

"Why did you call me that?"

"Call you what?"

"Sere. Only my friends call me Sere."

"I'm your brother." I winced. He looked at me quizzically. "I am. You might as well get used to hearing it. We should work as a team trying to figure this out." "I always really preferred to work solo." I told him. Though I was 90% sure he was my brother that other 10% could possibly be fatal.

"Come on, Sere!" When we talked like this; it seemed like we were related. I sighed. I didn't want to have associations with a house outside my own, much less someone I had known but didn't know. I sighed in defeat.

"I guess your right; it just seems weird. Why take our memory away?"

"Whoever did it must've had there reasons."

"The sorting hat told me it was a bad sign that I lost my memory." I confided. Hoping I could fully trust him, and sensing that I could.

"It said the same thing to me. I think the people that did it weren't the people in charge. We weren't meant to loose our memory. You can tell me everything you remember. Then, I'll tell you. Let's go memory by memory." I nodded, to tired to argue.

"The second night I had a dream. I was in this… well, it's rather weird. It was like being in pitch dark, but pitch white." Birch sat up straight and stared at me with eyes wide with recognition. "People were… well they weren't really people, more like demons or zombies. Some more decayed then others. They all looked a bit… lost. Like they couldn't see. You were there. Weren't you?" I remembered the boy grabbing my arms and holding me protectively.

"I was. I don't know how. It was the first night that I had that dream. I ran into different people trying to follow your screams. I felt like I knew what I was doing." I nodded and he shuddered. "Let's move on."

"Agreed. Then," I thought back to what happened. Just then, the 8:00 bell rang. I jumped to my feet.

"What? What is it?"

"You need to go." I said, urgently pulling him to his feet and towards the door.

"Why?" I shoved him out the door.

"Run!" I whispered urgently and ducked back inside the Room. I closed my eyes and willed the workshop to appear before me. It did. No sooner was I done with that than the door opened and in came laughing Weasley twins.

"Hey! Were were you?" Fred asked, still laughing. "you disappeared at dinner!"

"I decided to fast." I said. "Stuff to do. So, what'd McGonagall give you?"

"Detention one month. Mad-Eye?"

"Month detention with Snape. Starts tomorrow." Fred made a face.

"Well I'll guess I'll see you tomorrow then." I gave him a 'really?' look.

"We see each other every day." I reminded him. He looked embarrassed.

"Right. Yeah. I meant more than usual." He stammered.

"Is the famous Fred Weasley stammering?" I asked, looking flabbergasted.

"No. I'm just having a hard time finding the right words." He defended, badly (I might add). I laughed and he glared at me. "Don't make me come over there." He threatened causing me to pause my laughing.

"Oh I'm shaking with fear." I sarcastically quipped, always the one to get the last word. He scowled across the room at me and I shot him an innocent smile to which he rolled his eyes.

"Come on, there's work to do." Fred chose to ignore my antics. I started toward the table and then a jet of light hit me straight in the chest. I actually flew backward and landed on the ground. My body was filled with a strange sensation and then every ticklish spot on my body started tickling. Giggles erupted from me and I knew I was rolling over on the floor laughing. "Say your sorry."

"Stop! Stop!" I gasped for breath, tears were running down my cheeks.

"Say it!" Fred insisted and I faintly heard George laughing.

"Never!" I failed at sounding resolute. Heck, I could barely talk.

"Okay then I guess George and I had better go. Wouldn't want to break curfew, would we?" Fred said even though it couldn't have been later than 8:30. I heard footsteps getting fainter.

"Wait! I'm sorry!" I conceded. The jinx wasn't lifted.

"For…?" Fred prompted.

"For… whatever-" gasp - "I did-" - gasp- "wrong." I was seriously starting to get out of breath. Wasn't it unhealthy to withstand this much laughing?

"And what did you do wrong?" Fred asked.

"Accused" - gasp, gasp - "You of" - gasp - "stammering." I was starting to get light headed when the curse subsided. I lay panting on the floor, knowing how pathetic I must look and hating it.

"Hey, are you okay?" Fred asked, finally noticing my panting. I gave him a thumbs up. He laughed. "Well, you brought that on yourself." Maybe I did. Probably. He helped me up.

"I'm fine." I told him, regaining my breath.

"Cool, but seriously there's a lot of work to be done. McGonagall went over metamorphaguses today. So I have all these new ideas to try." We joined George at the work benches. Actually, there were three tables, one for each of us and we knelt on the floor. If we got cramped, the Room would make us a chair. This place was pretty cool. "Okay," Fred continued. "I know for a fact there is flaberworm mucus. How much of it is still X." He said, jotting something down on a notepad he had taken out of his bag.

"There's definitely frog oil." I noted and Fred pointed the quill at me in acknowledgment. The door opened, making everyone jump.

"Hey, sorry I'm late guys. The hall was crowded." Lee apologized. I breathed a sigh of relief. Only Lee. "But guess what I found out?"

"This better be good." George said. Lee gave George a mock glare.

"I got Lilly to talk to McGonagall about making a potion for metamorphagus and she got three ingredients. Lilly sure has a way with words." Something flickered in his eyes but was gone so quickly I had only gotten half a read on it. Was it longing? Or lust? Or was it something deeper like Lo-

"Ow!" I snatched my hand back from the blue liquid that was now seeping through the wooden table. I cradled my burned hand with one arm, assessing the damage. The right part of my left hand was burned lightly, causing it to redden. The other half had skipped the reddening step and went straight to peeling. I hissed in pain as someone lifted it. I slightly turned my head to look at Fred's worried face.

"What'd you do? Pour it on yourself?" He asked, lightly while taking out his wand. He whispered a spell and my hand started to close up. With one final stab of pain the wound was gone. I flexed my hand cautiously.

"Thanks." I muttered.

"No problem, Sere. Can't have you loosing a hand. Can we?" I rolled my eyes.

"Gee thanks. Nice to know I'm appreciated." We laughed for a moment and then he excused himself back to his station. I watched him go with calculating eyes. There was something weird about Fred that made him stand out from everyone else. I shook my head to clear it and went back to working.

The 9:30 bell came all too soon for me and I gave a disappointed sigh. I was sure I was on to something with the spider blood. The potion had to contain insane magical qualities and it probably had to do with an animal. I bit my lip and frowned.

"Coming?" I looked up at Fred holding the door open for me. I nodded and walked out the door.

"Nope, I was planning on sleeping in the Room." I told him sarcastically. He rolled his eyes.

"Sure you were." We headed down the hallway and took a right, stepping through the tapestry.

"Why wouldn't I?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at him. He laughed.

"One because you wouldn't have any clothes tomorrow. And two because sleeping in your Hogwarts robes is very uncomfortable." He informed me.

"You would know. Beetlejuice." I said just as we stepped through the portrait. Fred laughed.

"See ya later." I gave him a half wave, smiling. He smiled back and suddenly I felt queasy, or I think it was queasy, but it felt a little different. I turned, frowning, to walk up the stairs.