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Starlight, Silver*Chime, littleminx69, blanche, Stellarsiren and Calbee.

And to anyone else who is reading and keeping up with the story.

Chapter 15

Eleni's breath deepened as full consciousness slowly returned to her mind. She opened her eyes and blinked several times in an effort to focus and get her bearings. The ceiling was stark white, ornate but unrecognisable.

She was lying flat on her back, on something firm but comfortable. And the air around her was warm and caressing, soothing her inwards as she breathed it in and out. 

There were no screams, nor reptile masked men or blinding flashes of light.

Where was she?

Her mind was fuzzy and dull but she searched it trying to remember what had brought her to this room.

'Welcome back Eleni,' said a voice.

Spears of pain seared through her body as she turned her head a few inches towards the voice. It was worse than being hit by a dozen "Bludgers".

Professor Dumbledore was sitting beside her, smiling but his eyes were the gravest she had ever seen them. Eleni rolled her eyes shut before reopening them again. She moistened her lips with her tongue and tried to speak.

'Hi,' she managed to rasp.

'It's good to have you back,' said Dumbledore.

Eleni again closed her eyes. Some of the images were returning. Going to bed, taking the potion but then jolting awake with the faces of her dead parents staring at her at close range. And the man laughing through her screams like he wanted to devour her brain like a rapid dog.

She didn't know how she had gotten into the forest but she remembered running and running and then weeping at the foot of a tree. Then the "Vampirimots", hovering over her, her blood seeping through her skin, dripping down her face, till she was on her knees fading to nothing.

The Centaurs coming to their rescue and the spell that took them underground through the forest and back to Hogwarts. The school visible in the moonlight, taking tentative steps, calling out to him and then…..nothing.

Eleni re-opened her eyes and looked at Dumbledore.

'You're in the hospital wing,' he said.

What about him she thought. Her eyes danced in fear. Where was he? Had something happened to him?

'It's all right,' said Dumbledore, guessing her thoughts, 'Professor Snape is fine. He brought you here in the middle of the night and he's been constantly at your bedside. I sent him not long ago to get some well earned rest.'

Eleni breathed in relief. Constantly at her bedside. Thank God nothing had happened to him.

She tried to speak again but her throat was dehydrated and parched, like it been lost in the desert for weeks.

She looked at Dumbledore and with much effort managed to say. 'Please some water.'

'Certainly,' he said, waving his hand and conjuring a jug of cool water and a tall glass. Eleni watched in desperation as he filled the glass. If she could move she would have snatched the jug and gulped the whole thing down.

'Now let me first sit you up,' he said, lifting her shoulders and placing extra cushions behind her.

Dumbledore held the glass to her mouth. She pressed her lips on the rim and took long greedy slips. The water stung as it travelled down her throat yet felt revitalizing as if it was a hot summers day and she was dangling her feet in a cool refreshing creek.

'Easy,' said Dumbledore, 'not too fast or you'll make yourself sick.'

She finished two glasses before easing herself back against the pillows.

'Thankyou,' she whispered.

'How are you feeling?'

'It…hurts…everywhere,' she said.

'It will pass.' He smiled. 'Count yourself lucky to be alive.'

Eleni thought of the images and looked at him again. 'Professor Dumbledore, I remember everything. My parents, my brothers, all those dead people. The man,' she gulped as tears filled her eyes, 'he tricked me, he told me it was going to be a surprise party. But it wasn't…they were all killed…he wanted to kill me….'

Dumbledore's blue eyes deepened with concern. 'I know you remember. I'm sorry. I wanted your memory to return gradually, not in such a violent manner.'

Eleni blinked away the tears. 'When it came back, I thought I was going crazy, I just started to run, to get away from it but it was in my head and then Professor Snape…'

'Yes I know,' said Dumbledore. 'Professore Snape found you in the Forbidden Forest.'

Eleni's spirit sunk even lower. The Forbidden Forest. Every student knew it was out of bounds. Hogwarts was the only home she had had and now she had gone and thrown it away.

'I'm sorry,' she said, 'it was a stupid thing to do. I suppose it means I'm going to get expelled.'

'No,' said Dumbledore, 'because you didn't go into the forest deliberately but I'm certain Professors' McGonagall and Snape will still want to give their obligatory detentions.'

'Did I hear my name,' said a voice, looming out of the darkness and coming towards them.

'Ah Severus,' said Dumbledore, half turning, 'you were supposed to be resting.'

'I have rested,' said Snape, moving to the bed and looking at Eleni. 'I see you're awake,' he said to her. 'How are you feeling?'

'Okay.'

'I was just assuring her that she wasn't going to be expelled,' said Dumbledore.

'No, perhaps not,' said Snape, folding his arms.

'And,' added Dumbledore, 'I was about to ask her some questions.'

'Very well,' said Snape, taking a step back and looking more like a silhouette than a person.

Dumbledore gave Eleni a piercing look. 'Now Eleni can you remember back to when you took the potion, the one Professor Snape gave you?'

She nodded.

'Did you have it with you the whole time?'

'No,' she said, looking a little confused, 'I left it on my bedside table so I wouldn't forget to take it.'

'And you took it that night?'

'Yes,' she said, 'right before I went to bed.'

'And it was the same potion? You didn't notice anything different about it?'

Eleni looked at him uncomprehending. 'I don't understand,' she said. 'I left it on the bedside table and it was there and I took it. I mean it did taste kind of bitter, like drinking mud. Usually it has a blue berry taste but I presumed Professor Snape forgot to add it.'

Snape made a sudden movement forward. 'You're certain of this.'

Eleni nodded. 'Professor Dumbledore could I have some more water,' she said.

Again he looked at her gravely as he filled the glass and held it to lips. Eleni drank much slower this time and noticed Dumbledore and Snape exchange glances.

'I don't understand what is going on,' she said, when she had finished drinking. 'Didn't I take the right potion?'

Dumbledore placed the empty glass down and then searched her eyes, seeking out what she knew and if she knew something she wasn't telling. She stared at him unblinking, puzzled by what was happening.

Seemingly satisfied, he leant back in his chair. Snape resumed his place behind him.

'I'm afraid Eleni,' said Dumbledore, 'that the potion you took wasn't the one Professor Snape gave you.'

'But,' she said, 'how can you….' She stopped with sudden realisation of what he had said. 'Are you saying someone went to my room and exchanged potions?'

Both Dumbledore and Snape nodded. 'It's a definite possibility,' said Dumbledore.

Eleni was so shocked she turned away. 'But why?' she mumbled. 'Who would do such a thing?'

Dumbledore cleared his throat. 'Professor Snape managed to extract two drops from the empty vial. After a preliminary analysis he discovered it wasn't what he gave you but a deadly potion called, "insaniaugment". It was designed to bring your memory back but with such force that you'd go insane.'

'Thankfully,' added Snape, 'because of the antibodies in the potion you had previously taken, the effect was lessened and delayed. It gave me enough time to prepare an antidote.'

She couldn't look at them. She couldn't speak. That someone hated her that much. But then could she blame them?

'Did they do it because of what I did? Because of all those people that died?'

'To be honest Eleni,' said Dumbledore, 'I don't know.'

'I guess I deserved it,' she said.

'No,' said Dumbledore, his voice rising to a low roar. 'I don't want to ever hear you say that. You were only a little girl, duped by an evil man, the worse type of human if you even want to call him that.'

Eleni turned and looked at him. 'Is that why no school wanted me, why I kept being asked to leave?'

Snape stroked his chin and Dumbledore pursed his lips before nodding.

'The Ministry lost many good people that night,' he said. 'It sent them into disarray, weakened their power or so they thought. And losing your parents was such a blow to the Wizard world. They were both powerful Aurors. You see Eleni the Ministry needed a scapegoat. Many couldn't accept what had happened, that we are living in dangerous times. And hence you were made the scapegoat. They wanted to punish you by letting you languish in some orphanage. Every time someone took pity and accepted you into their school, there were those in the Ministry that did their upmost to have you ejected. I've been trying for years to have you brought to Hogwarts but the Ministry thwarted every attempt till I finally succeeded.'

Eleni stared at the ceiling, wishing that the "Vampirimots" had killed her. Dumbledore's tone was enveloped with kindness but his words were like bullets. It was worse than what she could ever have imagined. Much worse. Single-handedly she had almost destroyed the Ministry, not to mention her family.

Dumbledore reached over and touched her forehead gently. 'Eleni those who want to punish you are few in number. The rest of us don't blame you. Voldemort's supporters are wicked, terrible people, there's nothing they wouldn't do to satisfy their aims. They would have found a way to get to that meeting. And I assure you that none of the professors here at Hogwarts blame you, we all want you to remain and finish you education.'

'But someone hates me enough,' she whispered, 'to have exchanged those potions.' Her voice was agonised with overtones of bitterness and self-loathing.

'Professor Snape assures me,' said Dumbledore, 'that after a full analysis we'll know exactly who made the potion. Rest assure we'll get to the bottom of this. Now I think I need to let you rest. We'll talk more tomorrow.'

Eleni nodded numbly.

Dumbledore patted her hand. 'Harry, Ron and Hermione have been most concerned about you,' he said. 'I know that they'll be relieved to know you're alright and will want to see you.'

Eleni swallowed hard and tried to keep her voice even. 'At the moment I don't want to see anyone,' she said.

'Get some rest and we'll talk again tomorrow,' he said, deeming it best to ignore her comment.

'Could I talk to Professor Snape for a minute,' she said.

'Yes certainly,' said Dumbledore. He turned to Snape. 'Severus when you finish here, could you come to my office?'

Snape nodded and watched him leave before sitting in Dumbledore's seat.

Eleni's body ached and a part of her wanted nothing more than to sink into oblivion but her mind raced with different images. She stared at the moonlight playing on the ceiling and remembered her father's face, the shock when he realised what she had done and the final look when the man struck him down. Her poor father and what about her mother, famous Aurors respected by the Ministry, killed because their stupid daughter had been so eager, so naïve, thinking she'd please them with a childish deception. 

Oh God she thought, as she wiped away the tears rolling down her face, I wish I had never recovered my memory.

'Was there something you wanted to tell me?' asked Snape, watching her closely.

She could hardly look at him. She was ashamed and embarrassed. Eleni didn't want to consider what he must think of her.

'I just wanted to thank you for getting me out of the forest,' she said. 'I'm sorry, I know I endangered your life. I should have known better.'

'Yes,' he said, 'but it was doubtful that at that time you were operating with any clarity. The potion you took was very powerful.'

'Maybe you shouldn't have bothered to save me,' she blurted out without thinking.

'Is that so?' he said sourly. 'So I endangered my life for nothing.'

'I did such a terrible thing,' she said, 'I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive myself.'

'Miss Devon you need to pull yourself together and get over this odious self-pity,' said Snape. 'What happened, happened and like Professor Dumbledore said it wasn't your fault.'

'But if I hadn't been such an idiot,' she sobbed.

'I said enough. Your father would hate to hear you talk this way. It's wasteful and doesn't serve anyone. Rather you should be thinking of how you can help him and…'

Eleni's head jerked angrily towards him. 'How can I help him or my mother if they're both dead.'

'Of course you can help them,' he said. 'Those people that killed your parents are still at large. Instead of lying there feeling sorry for yourself, you should be wanting nothing more than to bring them to justice.'

'They were wearing masks,' she said. 'I don't even know what they look like.'

Snape's eyes glinted in the dark. 'If you think hard enough, I'm certain you'll come up with some clue. I know that's what I would do.'

'What would you know,' she cried out, with a ferocious burst of energy. 'I'm sitting here and all I can see is my parent's faces and people dead everywhere. How can I forget the way my father looked at me when he realised what I'd done and you tell me to stop feeling sorry for myself. Well I wish you hadn't saved me, you should have let the "Vampirimots" kill me because that's what I deserved.'

Snape bent over till he was only inches from her face, his eyes blazing with anger.

'What would I know?' he sneered. 'You don't know anything about me, nothing, you don't know what private demons I carry. So don't you dare presume. And if you want me to remain here, you will refrain right now from this useless talk. Understand?'

She stared at him with hate in her eyes. 'All I wanted to do was thank you.'

'Well you've done that, so I'll leave,' he said. 'Do you want me to ask Madam Pomfrey to bring you some dreamless sleep potion?'

'No, thankyou,' she said, turning away and closing her eyes. 'I'm fine.'

'As you wish,' he said.

Eleni heard him go and breathed hard, choking back rage and sobs. How dare he speak to her like that? What would he know about what she was going through? That half the Ministry were killed because of her, that her parents were dead because of her stupidity. She didn't deserve being at Hogwarts or having friends like Harry, Ron and Hermione. Once they knew what she had done, they would hate her too. 

She curled up remembering what Dumbledore had told her, how Snape had kept constant vigilance by her bedside, how he had prepared the antidote that had saved her life. He had known about her and he had still wanted to help. Painstakingly preparing potions each day, risking his life to get her out of the forest in one piece and this is how she thanked him. But then why couldn't he understand?  If he had been there that night, he would have seen, he would have known of the carnage that occurred.

Eleni looked at the empty chair he had occupied. She thought back to that night, the blood, the mangled bodies, dead sightless eyes that looked like the last thing they had seen was the devil, her father's disbelief, the man standing over her pointing his wand to her chest and then someone pushing her out of the way.

It then dawned on her.

(end of chapter)

Now this has been a strange chapter. I had it planned in my head and somehow it all got changed. Funny how that happens. But the plot will thicken.

Please review with opinions etc. They are much appreciated.