Disclaimer: I can claim nothing from the HP Universe. Items written from book 5, OotP, are followed by page number from the American hardback version.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Artemisia went to Dumbledore's office and found that he wasn't there. She thought about waiting for him, but remembered Snape's words to her at the train station. She wondered if she could trust the potions' professor. She knew that Sirius and he barely tolerated each other, but something in her told Artemisia that she could trust him. She entered the dungeons and instantly felt apprehensive as she neared his classroom.
"Artemisia, when I said that I wanted to talk to you, I didn't expect you to seek me out." Montague smiled at her.
"I didn't." She replied. "I came to ask Professor Snape a question about our homework." She lied quickly.
"If that is the reason for you being in the dungeons, Miss Nott, then I don't believe that Aden has any reason to keep you." Snape announced from his door way. He motioned the blonde into his classroom. He ordered Montague away and closed the door. "My office."
She walked into the room, hesitantly. "Professor, when you told me that I knew where your office was," she paused and he gave her a nod in encouragement, "did that mean that you were inviting me to talk to you about my memory?"
"Yes, Miss Nott." He motioned her to sit in a chair.
"Could you call me Arty?" Artemisia paused, flushing lightly. "If I'm going to talk to you about what's bothering me, I don't think that you calling me Miss Nott is going to put me at ease.
"I will, but only when no one can hear if." He looked at her for a moment as if judging her. She knew that he found her adequate when he announced. "At these times, you can call me Severus if you wish."
"Thank you." For some reason, she felt as if she knew how hard it was for him to allow this.
"Now, what about your memory is bothering you?"
"Since…."
He cut her off. "I take it that you mean since your memory was taken from you?"
"Yes, well, I've said odd things and mentioned names that don't fit anyone that I know."
"What names?" He looked a bit worried.
"Shawny, Lily, James." She replied and saw his reaction in a slight wince. "That's not all." She paused unsure how to continue. "I've known things that I shouldn't."
Severus leaned on his desk and steepled his hands before him. "Such as?"
"That Sirius drank his tea with loads of sugar, where the Gryffindor common room is, and…" Artemisia paused unsure how to say what she had realised only the day before while sitting in the Great Hall during lunch. She closed her eyes and blurted it out. "And that Harry looks just like his father, but he acts more like his mother."
"How do you know that, Arty?"
She stood up. "That's just the thing, Severus. I don't know how I know that. I just do." Tears filled her dark green eyes. "I was pregnant and I don't have the slightest idea by who. And tonight…."
"Calm down, Arty." Severus stood up and to her surprise gave her an awkward hug. "What happened tonight?"
"I had to take Ron and Hermione around for their first round of checking the halls. While I was waiting for them, near their common room, I had a flash of memory."
"What was it of?"
"It was me dressed like I was in the seventies with a group of people. We went into the common room and that was it." She met his eyes as he moved away from her and sat back down at his desk. Artemisia noticed that he was avoiding eye contact. "Severus," he looked up, meeting her eyes, "there's only one conclusion that I can draw from this." She paused. It wasn't logical but it was the only answer she could come up with and when she thought about it, it made perfect sense as to why she had her memory removed. "Dumbledore sent me to the past, didn't he?"
Her answer came in the form of Severus gapping at her. She sat down in the chair and tried to process what she had just learned. Her mind spun with all of the odd things she had done and said since the removal of her memory. Artemisia had obviously been in the past. In the past, she had to have had friends and a life that she had left behind if Dumbledore felt that she needed to have her memory of the time removed.
Artemisia stood up and took a deep breath. "I'm going to go to my common room now. Is it okay if I come back here when and if I have more questions?"
"Of course, Arty." Severus stood up and looked at her with sad eyes. "I'm sorry that there isn't more that I could tell you about that time."
She walked to the door of his office then turned to look back at him. "Were we friends?"
He looked like he was hedging on an answer, when he nodded. "Yes, we were."
"Thank you, Severus." She made it to her dorm room without running into anyone. Artemisia was glad that she wasn't stopped because she wasn't certain that she would have been able to hold a conversation on anything.
It was a couple days before the Hogsmeade trip that Artemisia did something odd again. She was coming back from the library, where she had been working on a Charms paper that she was certain she had done before. She turned down a hall to do a quick sweep of the halls before going to her common room. She stopped and stared for a moment at the person walking down the hall towards her. Artemisia stood there blinking as he came to a stop in front of her.
"Hello, Arty." Harry gave her a light smile.
"Oh, sweetheart." She gave him a hug and ruffled his hair. "Your parents were so happy when they had you. James carried you out into the waiting area, telling us how perfect you were. And Lily," a laugh bubbled out of the blonde, "I remember her owling me because she was positive that you liked James better than her." She smiled at him. "You remind me so much of her." She ruffled his hair again and kissed his forehead before walking calmly away.
"Arty!"
She turned around. "Yeah, Harry?"
"What you just said about my parents, how…?"
Her eyes widened as Artemisia thought of what she had just told him. It was clear in her mind. "I'm so sorry, Harry. I don't know. I just don't know how I know half of the things I do. I wish I could tell you what I know, but I don't even know myself."
Artemisia left him standing there and went to her common room. She stood in the entrance and stared out at the blue and bronze colours that decorated the room. She looked across the room and saw Sadie and Laelia sitting at a table doing homework. She thought about joining them but she felt that she needed to think about the talk she had just had with Harry.
She had known his parents. They had been her friends. That meant that she had spent time with them and that they had known her or at least known part of her. Artemisia moved to a large stuffed blue chair and fell into it. She stared moodily into the fire. What did that tell her? That if she was friends with them that she was friends with their friends. But who were their friends? Sirius had to have been one. After all, he was Harry's godfather.
Her eyes widened. The thought that had come to her with that revelation made perfect sense. When she put two and two together she came up with only one answer. A smile curled her lips. Sirius had been more than a friend. Artemisia would put money on a wager that he had been the father of her baby. The smile faded as quickly as it had came and tears filled her eyes.
"Arty, could I talk to you?"
Artemisia looked up and found Roger Davies standing over her. "Not now, Roger." She stood up and attempted to move pass him.
He grabbed her arm and announced loudly to the amusement of all that were watching, "no, Artemisia, we're going to talk now."
Pulling her arm out of his grasp, she glared at him. "Roger, I believe that I've made myself clear. I'll accept your friendship but that is it."
"How can you say that?" He looked hurt. "Did what we have mean so little to you?"
"No, but obviously it did to you."
"Artemisia, I made a mistake. I admit that but it doesn't change my feelings for you."
Her eyes went to the floor as she tried to find a way to tell him what she needed to, then she finally looked up and met his hopeful gaze. "I'm sorry, Roger, but I don't share those feelings."
His gaze darkened. "There's someone else isn't there?" He plunged on. "Who is it? One of the Weasley twins?"
"Fred and George." Laughter at the idea bubbled forth. "Why would you think that?"
"I don't know, the way you spend time with them. So which one is it?"
"Neither. I'll admit that there is someone else but he doesn't attend school with us."
"Who is he?"
"That's none of your business, Roger. If you really cared for me, then you will leave me alone and let me be happy." Artemisia went to her dorm room and sat down on the bed. She pulled out her photo album and flipped through its pages. The last picture that she remembered putting in it was one of her and Laelia that had been taken at the Yule Ball last year. She found to her surprise that it was no longer the last picture.
Artemisia flipped the page and stared at a picture of her and two girls sitting in what appeared to be a dormroom. She knew without a doubt that the girls with her are the mysterious Lily and Shawny. She looked at the picture on the next page. There was a picture of four boys. Artemisia stared at them. One of them looked just like Harry, except for a few obvious differences. That had to be his father, James. She took a deep breath and turned the page. She smiled back at herself as one of the four stood with her, his arms wrapped securely around her. The picture on the next page was just of him. Artemisia stared at this young version of Sirius and her heart clinched.
Then there was four pictures that had to have been taken after she had left Hogwarts. One of all six of these people who had to have been her friends. Then one of her and Sirius with a couple who she know knew to be James and Lily Potter, Harry's parents. That was followed by one of the four with a baby that had to have been Harry. The last picture was of a young man that was instantly recognisable as Professor Snape. He stood in the kitchen that Artemisia had remembered at one time. She flipped back to the side by side pictures of her with Sirius and the one of Sirius by himself and stared down at him, feeling a mixture of love and deep sadness.
"Wow, who's the cutie?" Laelia laid down on her best friend's bed and stared at the pictures. "You definitely did well for yourself over the summer. Am I right in assuming that he's the one?"
Artemisia took a deep breath, before getting up and closing the door to the room that was hers alone as Head Girl. "Lae, I really need to talk to someone, but no one else can know anything that I tell you."
"Arty, I can't believe that you would think I would blab to anyone. You're my best friend and think of all the things you know about me that no one knows."
She smiled at her friend. Yes, she did know things that others didn't about Laelia, like the fact that she had a large crush on one of her close friends. "I didn't mean it that way, but you have to listen to me, Lae, and please don't doubt what I tell you, okay?"
"Art, you could tell me that the sky was permanently pink and I'd believe you." She grinned. "Even if I saw the truth with my own eyes."
"You're absolutely nutters, Lae."
"Thanks. Now, spill." Words failed Artemisia as she stared at the pictures of Sirius. Where did she begin? Laelia must have understood her friend's problem because she smiled. "I know everything until you disappeared on me. Why don't you start there?"
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