A/N: Enjoy!

Summary: Padma runs into Pansy in Muggle London, but it seems like the other woman has completely forgotten everything of the magic world.

Title: two steps forward (three steps back)

Word count: 1,627

Genre: Romance, Friendship

Characters: Padma P., Pansy P.

Padma runs into her in the middle of Muggle London.

She's just splurged on a shopping trip, buying more clothes than she could possibly need – and she doesn't even like clothes – in Muggle shops, because honestly, no one wants to wear robes any more.

She's just coming out of a boutique when she bumps into her.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry," she says as she picks up her bags from the pavement.

"It's fine," the person says, but Padma notes that doesn't seem to want to help her pick up her bags.

Finally, she stands up and looks at who the person is. "Pansy Parkinson!" Padma exclaims, a little surprised to see her here.

Pansy was one of those annoying Slytherin girls who thought they were better than every body else because they were Purebloods. She would never have thought that Pansy Parkinson was going to set foot in Muggle London!

The woman in front of her gives her a strange look, then seems to remember that is her name. "Do I know you?"

This time Padma gives her an even stranger look. During their Eighth Year, very few students had decided to come back, but the fed who did had gotten to know each other. Okay, maybe Pansy and her hadn't grown that close, but they had revised for Arithmancy together. And yet the woman seems so utterly clueless at who she is, Padma wonders if something is wrong.

"We went to school together?" Padma offers.

"Oh yes, of course," she says, but clearly this hasn't rung a bell at all.

"We studied for Arithmancy together, during Eighth Year," Padma tries again.

"Arithmancy, you say?" She's trying to appear nonchalant, but Padma can tell she's confused.

"For our NEWTs?"

"NEWTs?" This time she outright laughs. It's a loud shrill laugh, one that Padma knows was used to taunt more than one back at school. Padma remembers consoling her sister after she had laughed at her. But that was a long time ago.

This time Padma is more that concerned. Does she not know what NEWTs are? "You know what," Padma says, "Let me buy you a drink, to say sorry for running into you." Even if it was more like she ran into her, but Padma doesn't mention that.

Pansy sniffs. "No thank you."

"Please, I insist."

"Okay, fine," she gives in quickly.

"So, what have you been doing since you left Hogwarts?" Padma asks her.

"Hogwarts? What sort of a name is that?" Pansy laughs.

"The name of our school."

"Oh."

Padma brings all the information together: barely seems to remember her own name, doesn't know what Arithmancy, NEWTs or Hogwarts is. Clearly, something has happened to Pansy Parkinson. And it's lucky that Padma is one of the most skilled Healers in the Memory Ward.

Pansy takes a sip of her drink (strawberry milkshake, who would've thought?) and the red of her lipstick stains the edge of the cup. She's trying to look comfortable, like she's in complete control of what she's doing, when clearly she's not.

"Pansy," Padma starts.

"Oh, right, that's me." She's a strange mix of ditzy, proud and stubborn. She's got the personality of a time before, but she doesn't know who she is.

"You don't have to pretend," Padma tells her.

"Pretend what?"

"That you can't remember."

"What do you mean? Of course I can remember," Pansy shrugs it off.

"Who was your crush at school, then?"

Pansy gives her a blank look, purses her lips, opens her mouth and tries to say something, but nothing comes out. She blushes, then the most unexpected happens: tears start pooling in her eyes. "Okay, fine. I can't remember anything. I woke up one morning in an apartment in London I didn't recognise, managed to get to work thanks to a co-worker who called me. I've been living in utter confusion for 2 months."

Padma sighs.

"And the strangest things keep happening to me! The other day, I woke up with pink hair, thought I'm positively certain I didn't dye it! And then I have this strange stick-" she rummages in her bag and brings out her wand.

"Woah! Woah! Put that back!" Padma grabs her wand and stuffs it back into her bag, casting a weary look at the people around them. Thankfully no one has noticed. "You can't go waving your wand like that in Muggle London."

"Wand? Muggle?" Pansy looks bewildered.

Oh Lord. That's the worst, Padma knows. From what she's described, Pansy seems to have forgotten she's a witch. Padma knows she has to bring her immediately to St Mungo's. Memory Loss victims can sometimes become obscurials, and Padma does definitely not want to have to deal with an adult one.

"I can help you remember," Padma tells her.

"I can deal with this myself, thank you," Pansy dismissed. See, she's still proud, and arrogant, and wants to be independent, because it's ingrained into her personality. But honestly, Padma knows she wants the help. The tears have dried up quickly.

"There has to be something I can do," Padma insists.

"Don't worry about it."

"Is it that you don't trust me?" she asks. It would be the logical answer. If some random stranger started to spout things about newts, and hog warts, and wands, she would probably have run away screaming. But Pansy knows there's something wrong with her.

"It's that I don't like you," Pansy drawls.

"You don't even know me."

"Oh, it's not personal. I don't like anyone."

"Okay," Padma simply says, "It was nice to see you again, then, Pansy."

Padma starts to leave the bar, putting on her coat and walking away, when suddenly, the other woman calls: "Wait!" Padma stops. "Wait for me!"

Padma smiles. "I knew you'd come."

She drags her into an empty street, walking briskly. Then, she grabs hold onto her arm and tells her: "You've done this before, trust me." And before Pansy can say anything, she's Apparated them both away.

Pansy becomes a patient at St Mungo's.

After bringing her in, and ignoring her bewilderment, Padma deduces that her memory loss is due to a curse. And it's not the first case they have of that. Some supposed 'do-gooders' have been going around, obliviating all those they deem had a role in Voldemort's rise.

Pansy didn't even do much. Okay, she probably liked having the ability to insult everyone, and she did suggest to throw Harry Potter to the Dark Lord, but she never hurt anyone. Harry and Hermione are doing their best to track down all the actual Death Eaters, so much that these extremist groups are often forgotten about, or they let things slide for them. It's not truly Harry and Hermione's fault, it's just that they've got so much to do.

Pansy and Padma build a tentative friendship, to begin with, though Padma hopes that maybe it'll become something more. After spending so much time in her friend's mind, nit-picking through her memories, talking endless conversations, she feels like she's beginning to know the real Pansy, though of course, neither of them know who that it. And maybe, just possibly, she's falling in love.

At least, it's a constant teamwork, trying to build her memory back. As the therapist Healer, Padma's job is to root around her patient's mind, using legilimency, a skill she coined fairly quickly. After all, she's always been a pretty intelligent girl.

But she's also the one who's going to go digging into the person's history, looking for family, friends, bringing them to her. She's also the one who'll talk with the patient, tell them of the magic world again, of the history of the magical world.

"This might not be too pleasant," she tells Pansy before she attempts to to talk about the subject of Voldemort.

Pansy steels herself: "If this is what it takes, I'll do it."

She cries.

And thought it might seem like Padma is doing a lot of the work – and after, it is her job – Pansy also works towards her recovering. She spends hours meditating, trying to bring back memories. And when she manages, she describes them minutely to Padma, trying to be as precise as possible, to help her.

After a while, she's even the one sorting through endless newspaper, books, letters, trying to find out who she was. Padma brings them to her, Pansy reads them, Padma rights down the information in the notebook where they write down all of her memories. The notebook is copper, a colour Pansy chose. Padma finds it funny. But still they're making progress.

They're a team.

After a couple of weeks, Padma starts to teach her the basic spells, as is normal when the patient has regained knowledge of the magic world. This is one of her favourite parts. If she hadn't become a Healer, she would have become a professor.

"Expelliarmus!" Padma cries.

"Protego!" Pansy deflects easily. The magic is strong within her, she knows it is. It's only learning to control it completely again.

"Well done!" Padma tells her when they've finished.

"Thank you," Pansy smiles back at her.

Her memory is not completely back, but enough. They've been through the hardest: her family dying or in Azkaban, Draco Malfoy married to another, the failure of the Dark Lord, her own cowardice and cruelty, but she's been strong. These horrid memories bring back more, it's like moving two steps forward, but then three steps back.

Maybe she won't ever remember everything, but for the moment, it's enough.

"Hey, I've had an idea," Pansy tells her.

"Yes?"

"When I finally get out of this place, maybe I could buy you a drink?"

"I'd like that," Padma replies and smile.

It's definitely enough for now.

A/N: I've officially decided I've become too lazy to write every thing I've submitted this fic for. I will now only write it if it's for an assignment. But let it be knows: it was written for challenges from the forum: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challengers and Assignments!)