Disclaimer: if it was mine, I'd be rich. But I'm not.
Hey! So SUPER long chapter, and a very sad one, for our poor characters. :(
And we FINALLY figure out what's going on with our favorite Black, but it's kind of like baptism by fire. Out of the frying pan and into the fire and all that jazz. Yeah, well anyways, here you go!
Read, Review, and Enjoy,
Stars.
We're all in class, and it's a Wednesday. A week has passed and Regulus hasn't had any luck finding this illusive part of his brother's soul. We're in Transfiguration and I'm sitting next to Lils, as per usual. A boring Wednesday that everyone wants to be over, so we can all go relax and get out of our school uniforms.
In a stunning change of events, someone knocks on the door to the classroom. McGonagall looks worried, and goes to answer the door. I hear her say,
"Oh no, not any more, yes, come in and take who you need." Everyone in the class holds their breath. We all know who it is: Aurors, here to tell someone that their parents are dead. I exchange a look with Jamie and he forces a smile at me and mouths 'everything's alright'. The man comes in, and then another, and another. Three Aurors. There's usually only one, maybe two if the family had worked for the Ministry, but three…the people killed were Aurors. They had to have been.
"I'm looking for the Potter children." James winces like someone has beat him and Lily grabs my hand on top of our desk.
"You must have the wrong people, I'm an only child." The man lifts up a sheet of paper,
"Not according to this. We're looking for a James, a Natalia, and a Sirius. If you three would please come with us." I go to grab my stuff, but Lils grabs my hand,
"I'll get it. Leave yours too Potter. We'll take care of it. Go. And don't forget Black." Sirius is standing by the door, with an air of someone who would rather be planning to go kick kittens or something.
Jamie puts an arm around me and we follow the Aurors out, into Dumbledore's office. I stand in the middle of the two boys, and the Aurors turned to face us. Jamie has his arms around me, and his chin on top of my head, and Sirius is just standing there, not feeling much, as usual.
"There was an attack yesterday night, on Godric's Hollow. Your house was not attacked, but your parents; they were both Gryffindors, brave and selfless. They ran down to help fight the Death Eaters, and I'm very sorry to say, but—" he's broken off by a glass contraption shattering into splinters to his left. James looks at me and I mutter,
"Sorry." The man continues, looking rather glad he has two other people with him,
"I'm very sorry to be the bringer of tragedy, but there were four deaths in the raid last night, and your parents were two of them." No one says anything for a long moment. Then finally someone breaks the silence.
"You must have made a mistake. They're not gone. They can't be. They can't be gone. It's not allowed. We're not supposed to be burying our parents at 17 and 18." I hear Jamie say this, and I agree. But I would be a hypocrite if I said that being an orphan was something that was unfamiliar to me. It's all I've ever been: that girl with the dead parents.
"You're lying. You have to be." I say. I have to believe it. They weren't allowed to be gone.
"Padfoot, take her back to the dorm. I'll take care of anything that needs to be done here." I'm not in control of my body. It's like someone else is operating it. I feel myself shake my head as Sirius pulls me out of the room.
"Come on, Holmes. Let's go. You don't need to see this." He pulls me out of the room easily as I stop putting up a fight against him, seeing the wisdom in leaving with him. We walk out of the Head's Dorm and Lils is there, waiting.
"Nat! What happened? Is everyone okay?" I shake my head.
"They're dead Lils. Dorea and Charlie are dead." Her eyes widen,
"Oh sweetie. Get off her Black. She's my best friend and I'll take care of her, like I always do when she can't fend for herself."
"Evans, she needs someone who understands. Someone who's lost them too. so get your ginger mitts off this emotional moment." She looks at me with an inquisitive look. Why was he acting normal? Why was he pretending that his soul was still intact? I'm asking myself the same questions silently. But then I remember Regulus saying that he's been complaining of headaches.
"Headaches are a symptom if the spell is preformed incorrectly." They both turn to look at me and Lils' eyes widen and Sirius just looks confused. I really need to work on not saying things out loud. Honestly, could I be any more transparent? Lily turns suddenly to Sirius,
"Who's your best friend?" He looks confused for a second and his expression clouds over and I swear he's going to say Mulciber or someone just as repulsive, then it clears and he mutters, mostly to himself,
"I...can't remember. It should be Regulus, but I keep thinking it's James Potter." I feel like crying, and going to hug my cousin for being inept, simultaneously. She hadn't taken part of his soul after all. She had preformed the spell wrong and had only turned off part of it. Thank God for her lack of talent. Ah, there are somethings that can't be fixed, even by Voldemort. Lily gives me a look that says 'are we really getting off this easy?' and I smile and return a look that says 'hopefully'.
He puts his hands over his head.
"Everything is so bright. Why is everything so bright?" I exchange a look with Lils worriedly. This wasn't good, "things are mixed up. One minute I'm sitting at home, alongside my brother, and the next I'm in the Gryffindor Common Room, playing Exploding Snap with James. It's all in my head." He looks at me and says with the voice of a small child, "Make it stop. Please, it hurts." I look at Lils and say,
"We need to get him to the Hospital Wing. If the memories are starting to resurface, maybe Madam Pomfrey can give him something to help him tell which ones are real." She nods and I turn to him,
"Sirius? We're going to go somewhere and help you figure out what's going on, okay?" He nods and I take him by the arm and gently pull him towards the Hospital Wing. He follows without much protest and once we get there, the memories all start to jumble again in his head,
"You know me. Right?" I nod and respond,
"You bet I do. You even live with me, James, and...well you live with us, at Potter Manor."
"So you know where I live?"
"You ran away from Grimmauld Place before you turned 16 last summer, just before Sixth Year. You were disowned and blasted off the Family Tree. You've lived with us ever since."
"I don't live with my parents anymore?" I shake my head,
"No, you don't."
"How did I get to your house? I don't remember any of this. I should live with my parents, but it feels wrong. I believe you though. For right now at least." I notice that Lily is walking behind us, watching, quietly.
"You...well, I don't really know how you got to the house, but you knocked on the door, and I answered it, completely unsuspecting, and you fell right on top of me, because you had been leaning on the door. You were really hurt. When you woke up, almost a day later, you told me that it had been your mom. She had done it. I never told James, he was taking a shower when you woke up, and we never spoke about it again." As I finish my story, we enter the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey looks up and Lils nods at her. I turn back to Sirius, who in the past twenty minutes has somehow reverted back to being a small child, "Sirius? I need to talk with the nurse, so can you stay with Lily?" Lils smiles at him warmly and he nods. I quietly walk up to the Matron.
"What's the matter dear?" The Marauders aren't infrequent customers at the Hospital Wing, but I am. So when I'm here, with the Head Girl, no less, it draws attention.
"Well, my cousin, Hayden, she's been staying here for a little while, and she's no good. She's wicked and mean and cruel and she showed up right before the Halloween Ball. We suspected that she cursed him because of his strange behavior. Detachment, headaches that I've heard him complaining about in the hallways, he didn't even know James was his best friend. Up until about twenty minutes ago, he became confused and said everything was bright and he didn't know what was real and what wasn't. I think that the...deaths of our parents jarred him." She puts a hand over her mouth,
"Dorea and Charlus? They're...dead?" I nod and she hugs me tightly as I fight back tears. Now's not the time. Later, but there's a confused boy that needs immediate attention, "They were good people, Natalia, and they were very proud of all three of you. Never forget that. It sounds as if your friend here is under a dark spell that was done incorrectly. You say you think that it was your cousin to do this?" I nod, "That doesn't surprise me, you're a sweet girl, darling, but you come from a rotten tree, like Mr. Black over there." We walk back over to where Lily and Sirius are waiting, .You should know, that while they recuperate, people that have been victims to these kinds of spell often latch onto a single person that they feel knows them." I smile,
"That'll probably be James. He'll be thrilled." She smiles a little and says,
"Dearie, I don't think it's Mr. Potter. I think you might be in for the long haul." Lily snickers and I groan.
"Great. Just something else to be excited for. Is there anything you can give him to help him differentiate the fake memories from the real ones?" I ask suddenly. I knew him, and knew a surprising bit about his life, but I hadn't been there for all of it, and no one's childhood should be a jumble of mixed up memories.
"I do, but it can only be administered after the spell has been broken for a few days, so it looks like he'll be here for a while. You two should head back to your Dorms. It is a school night, after all." We both try to quickly leave but I'm in no such luck. I make it half way to the door and I pause. My cousin, my fault. Damn. I turn back and look at the poor boy, so confused and upset and I sigh.
"Lils..." She smiles.
"I figured. I'll talk to McGonagall about extenuating circumstances, Nat. Sit tight, and I'll catch the boys up to speed, okay?" I nod and sit back down next to the bed that the Matron had put Sirius into.
"We're going to fix it. The memories, they'll stop soon, and you'll know what's real and what isn't, okay?" He nods and Madam Pomfrey hands him a vial.
"Dreamless sleep potion, dearie, it'll keep the memories away while you sleep, which is something you desperately need, if I'm not mistaken." He looks at me, and I nod, at which he takes the glass and downs it with the wrinkled nose. The Madam hustles off to do something else and I hear him say,
"Nat? Will you stay? Keep the memories away while I sleep?" I have no choice, and even if I did, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't take it,
"Of course I will. I'll be here when you wake up."
"Promise?" The potion is setting in and he's slipping into unconsciousness.
"Promise." He falls to sleep and I realize what I've done: I just promised to be there for Sirius Black. The fact that I had promised to be there for someone that needed it didn't scare me much, I'm used to Jamie needing out of a tight spot every now and then, but the fact that I really meant it, and how much this hurt to watch, now that scared me out of my mind.
With nothing else to do, I curl up in my chair and watch the boy with the broken mind sleep.