AN: You people are the best! I wasn't planning to have posted this much by now! When school restarts in the fall you all have to promise not to get angry with me because I won't have time to write as often. Also, I'm going to start messing with the HP plot line a little bit. Basically, I'll be including events that in this story were left out of the Harry Potter book series for Marie's sake. Poor Marie!
Harry watched Marie go with a sudden feeling of apprehension. She would have to go back to Hogwarts, that was certain, but where would she go from there? School would be out for the summer and she couldn't stay there alone. He looked over at Ron who was still watching her walk down the hall. Not for the first time Harry felt sorry for his friend. Harry at least had Hermione and even Draco had seemed moderately happy with Ginny who was ecstatic with him. Poor Ron had been forced to watch all of their relationships grow while he himself could never have loved anyone but Marie. Maybe it had been because in truth Marie had been the first person to show Ron that he was just as special and just as important as Harry or Hermione. Harry wasn't sure, but he was still scared as hell of what Ron might do to get Marie back.
Marie sat on her bed watching as Taffy pulled at a secret compartment inside the closet. Marie had never even noticed it before. She was still in shock from what she had just been told, but she couldn't understand these new feelings and memories that were coming back to her. It was as if all of a sudden a light had switched on in her head. She was starting to remember bits and pieces of conversations she had had with teachers and friends and enemies. Draco Malfoy basically consumed the entire enemy category all on his own. She had never really like the Slytherin when she had read about him and that feeling had only seemed to worsen now that she knew he was real. She thought about Harry and Ron, and how from the moment she woke up she felt safe with them around. Especially Ron she thought feeling rather silly. Of all the characters in the book she had always been fascinated by poor Ron. He was the normal one. He had all of the problems and none of the answers, but he wasn't stupid. On the contrary, Marie had never thought of him as anything but loyal and brave, and rather good at wizard chess, and well he was definitely much better looking than Harry… What was she thinking! This was Ron she was talking about! He had been her friend for God knows how long, much to her father's dismay she realized with a slight giggle. Her father?! Who was her father? Once again she was starting to sink into a feeling of loss and confusion when suddenly…SLAM!
Her thoughts were interrupted as Taffy pulled a large trunk down to the floor. It had previously been standing on its end tucked into the compartment. It was a huge trunk decorated with stickers and decals from places that were obviously magically operated. Marie slowly sank to the floor and let a wave of new memories wash over her. She touched the top of the trunk, and remembered her mother. Her name was Anne. Her name was Anne, and everyone used to say how I looked just like her!
"Anne" Marie whispered her name like it was the name of some all-powerful god.
"Good. You're starting to remember." Taffy said giving her a weak smile and sitting down next to her. "What else do you know child?"
"She was your sister. You're my aunt! Aunt Taffy! So that's why they sent me to stay here! She was a… um…a Ravenclaw! And you were a Huffelpuff!"
Taffy nodded her head knowingly. "You're starting to remember things! That's great!" There was a sad look in her aunt's eyes. It hadn't been there before, but immediately Marie knew what it was. Her mother was dead!
"Oh God!" Marie whispered at this sudden realization. "So my real mum is really dead! She was my secret keeper wasn't she?" Taffy's only response was a slight nod of the head. Marie could feel the tears reforming in her eyes.
"Oh God! Oh I want to die!" she wailed as Taffy grabbed her holding her in a tight hug. "It's-all-m-my- fault! Sh-she'd still be alive if it weren't for me!"
"Shh! Shh!" Taffy soothed as she rocked Marie gently back and forth. "It'll be all right. It's not your fault. She volunteered to be your secret keeper. She wouldn't want you to blame yourself, and as you regain your memories you'll realize that more and more. Right now you need to look at some of your old things and try to remember. Please stop crying little one." All at once Marie's tears seemed to stop. Somewhere inside her there was a voice telling her that she had to be strong. She had to be brave. Just like her mother would have been. With the back of her hand Marie whipped the rest of the tears from her eyes, and pushed open the heavy trunk lid.
What she saw amazed her. Slowly, she began to pull out things that she had long ago forgotten about. First, she pulled out a set of wizard's robes.
"Those were the last set you had before the spell was preformed you know? Your father has all of your baby robes with him." Taffy couldn't help, but smile as she watched her niece studying the robes carefully. They were black school robes very plain looking with the Gryffindor badge sown into them. As quickly as she could Marie stood up and pulled the robes over her clothes. She studied herself in the mirror for a moment. They were about an inch too short, but they fit her well otherwise.
"I guess you'll have to get a new set when you get over to Diagon Alley those are just a little to short, ma' dear." Her aunt said with a sigh. Slowly, Marie ran her hand down the front of her robes until her fingers hit the Gryffindor badge.
"I was in Gryffindor!" she said feeling excited and nervous all at the same time.
"Why yes you were! I remember what a shock it was to your mother and father." Taffy laughed and then slapped her hand over her mouth.
"Why would it have been a surprise to them?" Marie asked although she already knew what the answer would be.
"I can't tell you. It's one of the things you must…"
"Yeah, yeah, that I must discover on my own." Marie said releasing a heavy sigh as she pulled the robes from over her head. She threw the robes on her bed and looked back into her trunk. The next thing that she pulled out was a textbook. It was old and dusty. She blew some dust off the top and read the title, Advanced Transfiguration, with a sudden fondness.
"This was one of my favorite classes." She said as she laid the book carefully next to her robes. The books that followed varied from topics such as Defense Against the Dark Arts to Divination, a class that she had a very clear remembrance of having hated. Memories of making up predictions with Ron and Harry returned to her with a few short giggles. There were so many books that Marie had to wonder when she had found time to take them all.
"You and Hermione." Her aunt mumbled and Marie instantly knew what she was talking about.
"Hermione and I were both such over achievers, but I had never really engrossed myself the way she had. Oh well! Blame it on my strict magical up brining." She replied with slight smirk as she pulled the last book out of the bottom of the chest. It was for her favorite class, Astral Projection. It had been a night class held only once a week, but she had loved every minute of it. Looking around her room she noticed that almost everything in it had something to do with the stars or had stars on it.
She pulled out some other school equipment that she really hadn't been in love with before. She gave a small hug to her brass telescope. The telescope her father had offered to replace with a gold one for her sixteenth birthday, but she had insisted that she was perfectly happy with this one. For a moment she knew that something special had happened with this telescope, but she couldn't remember what. Gently she put it on the bed. She pulled out a cauldron filled with potions supplies. She remembered having excelled in potions, but having never really enjoyed it. The last thing she pulled out was a long box, which she knew contained her wand. She opened the box to look at a long black wand.
"Ebony, 15 inches with a dragon bone core." She repeated to herself. For a few seconds she swish it a round feeling the slight tingling that it gave off in her hand. She suddenly, felt like trying a spell.
"Accio washcloth!" she called, and heard a shout of surprise come from the other room as the washcloth flew silently into her outstretched hand. She looked at her aunt who seemed to be suppressing a fit of hysterical laughter below the surface of her serene face. It was Marie who broke this silence by falling back onto her bed laughing hysterically.
"I think it's safe to say you scared the shit out of Ron!" her aunt laughed at her side. Marie stopped laughing with a sobering thought. One of the things she would miss most about her aunt was the way she laughed. She put the wand back in its case, and walked back over to the trunk. Now all that was left were her personal things. She pulled out some novels with titles like, Understanding the Unexplained and Druids: Are You One? Next, she pulled out a small sneekascope that didn't spin for even a second.
"Well, I guess that means you're trustworthy." She said jokingly to her aunt who had picked up a bag of Ernie Bott's Every Flavored Jellybeans. She tossed the bag over to her niece.
"Be careful with those. When, they say every flavor they mean it." Taffy said looking at her niece who didn't seem to understand. "Go ahead and try one." Carefully, Marie reached into the bag, and pulled out a brown one, which she assumed was chocolate. She bit into it.
"Ugh! Coffee! I hate coffee!"
"Well, I warned you." Taffy said with a smile playing on her lips. Marie put the jellybeans off to her side and reached into the trunk again. This time she pulled out an orange baseball cap with the words Cuddly Cannons flashing on it in green letters. Quidditch! Marie remembered every aspect of the game now to bad she was never any good at playing it.
Marie took the cap off and looked back into the trunk. There were only a few more things left. She pulled out the last book, which was obviously a photo album. She was going to look through it, but decided against it. Just in case there was something in there she couldn't handle right now like a picture of her mother.
Finally, there was only one small box left in the bottom of her trunk. She pulled it out, and opened it slowly. Inside was the most beautiful necklace she had ever seen. It was a gold chain with a star pendent that seemed to glow with its own inner light. Slowly, she studied it for a minute. She felt tears beginning to fill her eyes.
"Mum gave this to me for my fifteenth birthday. That was the year I told her I wanted to study astronomy and astral projection." As she said this she held the pendent up to the light so that she could see it more clearly. Suddenly, her aunt reached up and took the necklace from her.
"Turn around dear. I'll put it on you." she said using the sweet motherly tone she had always used when talking to Marie. Willingly, Marie turned around, and felt her aunt pull her hair away from her neck and slide the chain around it. It felt good to be wearing the necklace again. It made her feel warm as if her mother weren't dead, but near by and safe.
"Now," said her aunt with a sigh, "we're going to have to do something about you're robes. Since your old ones are to short I guess I'll just give you a pair of your mother's. Stay here. I'll be right back." Taffy turned her back from her niece and walked out of the room. For a few minutes Marie sat there on her bed playing with her necklace. She felt as if something was missing. She had pulled everything out of the trunk, but she still felt as if there was something there she wasn't seeing.
Suddenly, Marie thought about the fact that she would be leaving for Hogwarts soon, and decided she had best pack away her things. Quickly, she pulled an old duffel bag out of her closet. She threw most of her magical belongings back into the trunk, but put some of the more important things in her duffel bag so that she could get to them later. These included her wand, the bag of jellybeans, her sneekascope, and her transfiguration textbook. As an after thought she also threw in her photo album, which she still hadn't opened. She threw some of her muggle clothes into the trunk although she wasn't really sure what she would need. Finally, she grabbed two notebooks and pens so that she could write down anything she might remember.
After about thirty minutes of searching her aunt returned with her arms full of witch's robes. She laid them all in a pile on the bed. The first few were normal black robes. These Taffy immediately placed in Marie's trunk. The next few were all different colors.
"There is no way that my niece is going to show up at Hogwarts looking like some homely little witch. Now Marie I know that fashion was never really your thing. To tell the truth it wasn't your mother's either which is kind of sad since both of you are beautiful, but just for this once let me dress you up." As Taffy said this she was picking her way through the different sets of robes. "Yes. These will do nicely," she said holding out a set of long green robes. Marie looked at her aunt with a wary smile. Then she went off to take a shower and get changed.
AN: Okay start throwing the fruit now! :: Dodges mangos, oranges and the like.:: I know I gave you more questions than answers right. Unfortunately for all of you there a certain things that Marie is going to remember much sooner than others.
LilyAyl: I'm trying not to tell you all too much about Marie's relationship to any of the other characters until they come up in the story. I can tell you that Marie, Ron, Harry, Draco, and Hermione are all about 19 in this story, and no, Ginny did not introduce Marie to Ron. Ron met her all on his own.
Singer: I think you might be my biggest fan. Answer to question 1: I've been reading and writing mythological stories since I was a little kid. I'm part Irish, Welsh, British, and Scottish so the legends of King Arthur have always just been in my blood I guess. Plus, I really like Morgan. I refuse to see her as an evil witch. Unfortunately, the only book that I have read where she isn't portrayed as evil is The Mists of Avalon. Answer to question 2: Sorry, but I make it a point never to give out my exact age on the Internet. It's not that I don't trust you; it's all the cyber stalkers out there I'm worried about. Just to give you an idea though, my writing level is a lot higher than you would usually find in someone my age. Answer to 3: I'm not that big on T.V. any more, but I do see the occasional Gilmore Girls episode.
Hermione A.G. Potter: Sorry you didn't like it, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and since most of my reviews have been positive, I'm going to assume that you didn't like the story's idea instead of the way I wrote it.
To everyone else, thank you so much for reading this story! I'd like to think that all of your comments are sincere, so I will! Keep reading, and try not to get to frustrated with me if it takes a while for the next chapter to come out.
