Memory

Midnight
Not a sound from the pavement
Has the moon lost her memory
She is smiling alone
In the lamplight
The withered leaves collect at my feet
And the wind begins to moan
Memory, all alone in the moonlight
I can dream of the old days
Life was beautiful then
I remember the time I knew what happiness was
Let the memory live again
Every street lamp seems to beat
A fatalistic warning
Someone mutters and the street lamp sputters
Soon it will be morning

Later that night, Jaimie awoke very suddenly from a very vivid dream whose details were slipping her. She was slightly sweating, and her blankets were snaked around her in twists. She sat up and looked around the room. All around her was still dark, and the moon, nearly full, shone brightly through the windows. Instantly she thought of Remus. He'll be transforming soon, She thought. She felt parched, and got up and poured herself a glass of water from the pitcher on the window sill. She gulped down the water and went back to her bed. She tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't for the life of her, so instead, she went down to the common room and checked the time. It was four a.m in the morning.
She went to the comfy arm chairs near the fireplace, its embers dying slowly, and stared pensively into the ebbing flames. She curled up on her seat and closed her eyes, remembering fondly once when her parents had bought marshmallows and sat around their fireplace roasting them. She sighed, and leaned back in her seat. Suddenly, the portrait of the fat lady swung open and she turned to see who could possibly be wandering around the castle at four in the morning.
No one was there. Slightly put off, Jaimie stood up and called, "Who's there?"
No one answered, and not a thing stirred. Instead she heard shuffling, and a whispered argument, though it was impossible to tell who or what was arguing, all she knew was that there was more than one. She walked to the hole and stood, her arms crossed, looking around the seemingly empty common room. The whispering and the shuffling had stopped, and silence greeted her.
After a while she shrugged and presumed it was peeves or one of the ghosts and went back up the stairs to her dormitory, not wanting to be caught out and about. She was at the bottom of the stairs to the girls' dormitories, when her arm was grabbed by someone from behind.
She shrieked, and instantly had a hand placed around her mouth, another slid around her middle. She tried to see who it was and saw it was Sirius, Remus and James, who had stuffed something in the boys' staircase. Her eyes widened in surprise as the scene unfolded itself.
"Shh." Sirius cooed, and he let go of Jaimie .
Jaimie placed a hand on her chest to feel her heartbeat, which was going a mile a minute. "Don't do that! You scared the crap out of me! Next time just say my name or something."
Sirius nodded, and gave a weak smile. Even in the early hours of the morning he was still attractive. But wait-what would he and Remus and James be doing at this time?
"What are you doing out at this time?" She voiced her thought.
"We couldn't sleep." Remus said simply.
"What are you doing?" Sirius asked her.
"I couldn't sleep either." Jaimie replied, crossing her arms once more. She didn't think the boys needed to see more than they could in her pajamas.
She heard movement on the girls' staircase behind her and looked back. Lily, and their other two room mates Jennifer Hannel and Rita Lesley came walking down the stairs, putting on robes and yawning sleepily.
"Jaimie? What are you doing down here?" Lily paused, as she saw Sirius, Remus and James standing stiffly behind her best friend.
"What's going on?" Lily asked slowly.
"Are you going man hunting at this time?" Rita asked, acting flirtatious at the sight of the three boys.
"No! I couldn't sleep, and I didn't want to wake any of you up, so I came in here. But then I heard some shuffling and some people arguing, and I thought it was a ghost or something. I didn't want to get caught out of bed so I came up here, and then they showed up." Jaimie explained, a bit annoyed.
"Uh huh, a likely story." Jennifer said, an amused glint in her eye.
"Hey, Jaimie we heard you broke up with Damion, and now your up with three guys. Moving on kind of fast aren't you?" Rita asked.
"Hey, Rita, just because you have a hard time getting what you want, doesn't mean Jaimie can't!" Jennifer accused, looking at Remus unnecessarily.
"Hey, I'll have you know that I worked hard to get Jaimie and Damion-"
"Shut up all of you!" Lily interjected.
Rita crossed her arms in indignation and turned the other way.
"Okay, let's just all get to bed, and talk tomorrow. Come on, Jaimie; Sirius, Remus and James good night. See you tomorrow and on and on." Lily said, pulling Jaimie along.
Jaimie followed reluctantly and Rita and Jennifer after them, quietly.
When they had gotten to their dormitory, they all crawled into bed wordlessly and three of four girls instantly fell back to sleep. Jaimie sat up thinking about Rita and Jennifer's argument. Oh boy, tomorrow's going to be a long day. She rolled over, and tried to go to sleep.

The next day Jaimie woke up as the sun hit her face. She slowly opened her eyes, and saw that it was morning. Sleepily she pulled her blanket off and struggled to get herself up. She looked to her roommate's beds and found them empty. She glanced briefly at her bedside clock and saw that it was seven in the morning. So getting dressed in her Hogwarts uniform she went down into the common room to see if her friends had left her. They were waiting for her to wake up in the common room. When she made her appearance, they turned to her and said, "'Morning!"
She nodded, and yawned. She was still very sleepy, not getting her usual amount of sleep.
"We were going to come wake you, but we thought you would want more sleep." Lily said, from her seat on the sofa.
"Well, then, should we go to the Great Hall for some breakfast then?" James asked them cheerily.
Jaimie still wasn't up to being happy. Or normal, she didn't think she could ever be normal. So wordlessly, she followed the four boys and Lily to the Great Hall. Remus slowed down a bit and walked side by side with Jaimie so they could talk.
"Do you feel okay?" Remus asked.
"Yeah, I feel fine." Jaimie replied, trying to be cheerful.
She remembered that tonight was the night of the full moon, and looked straight into Remus' face. He was pale and seemed preoccupied. He didn't look well at all. Well, that's obvious. She thought bitterly
"Remus, you alright?" Jaimie whispered to him.
"Yeah, well besides the fact since you know. . . I'm really starving, we have to be so far away from the Great Hall." He grumbled aloud. Sirius turned his head around and laughed, and slowed down so he could walk one Jaimie's other side. He placed an arm around her shoulder, and she returned the gesture by putting an arm around his waist. He smiled reassuringly down at her and said, "You okay?"
"I'll be fine." She replied.
He pinned her to him, and her face met his chest. Her nostrils filling with that godly cologne. She pushed him away and slapped his shoulder.
"Your evil, I don't like you anymore! I'm going with Peter now!" She walked away from Sirius and took Peter by the arm. Peter smiled nervously at the girl who had clamped herself on him. They were both the same height, and it was a relief, for she didn't need to look up at him. His face flushed as Jaimie looked him in the eyes. The smallest of the Marauders was deprived of many things, and having the attention, let alone the arm, of a girl was one of them, the attention went mostly to the others who were overall better than him. His knees gave a nasty wobble, as Jaimie's penetrating stare had not wavered and Sirius came hurrying up, and took Jaimie off Peter's hands. Sirius smiled at Jaimie and said, "Thanks for saving her Pete!"
They went ahead of the group, which had suddenly been increased in number, as a group of Jaimie's and Lily's friends appeared out of the corner and started flirting and talking with James and Remus, Peter standing quite a ways back. But she could not avoid it, rumors at Hogwarts had spread nastily fast, and she soon found herself surrounded by the friends she was supposed to meet at Diagon Alley, asking the same questions.
"Where were you on twenty-ninth? We were waiting for you guys, but only Lily showed. We were really worried." A curly blonde haired girl named Haley asked.
"Yeah we thought you'd ditched us."
"Yes, and what happened to you and Damion? Rita said that you guys had broken up." Said a tall and curvy black girl named Chantel
"They did." Sirius answered for her.
"But why? You guys were so good together." Said one girl that they could not see.
"Well it may have seemed that we were destined to you, but we're not. Obviously, now please, can you just leave me alone? Go tell everyone that we really are broken up so no once can approach me anymore!" Jaimie burst.
The pack of girls stopped abruptly and put as much distance between themselves and Jaimie, no doubt talking about her sudden outburst. But Jaimie didn't care, let them talk. Sirius led her to the Great Hall, and to a spot a little ways away from other people at the Gryffindor table. He plopped himself next to her and started piling food upon his plate. Jaimie was following his lead as the others had come in, James looking annoyed, Remus looking weary and pale and Peter just as quiet and out of place, as usual. Lily was the only one who looked normal at all, and sat down on Jaimie's other side, spearing a sausage onto her plate. Lily was about to say something when a loud rustling noise could be heard overhead, and Jaimie looked up to see hundreds of owls flutter down to their owners, carrying packages or a letter. She returned to her breakfast when an owl had dropped a letter each in front of Jaimie and Remus.
Jaimie opened her letter, and out fluttered two square pieces of white paper, she opted to read the letter first.

Dear Jaimie

How's your first day back? I hope it wasn't too
horrible. I'm just sending off some things that I think
you might have wanted from the house. I hope you
have a good day!

Love from,
Aunt Charlene

She picked up the two square papers and found, to her surprise, they were photographs. One was of her family and Remus' last year when they had taken a trip to America. They were at the beach, Aunt Charlene and her mom were busy laying down under the shade of an umbrella, talking animatedly, her uncle and father played magical horseshoes, where the pegs they were aiming for were moving targets, while Remus and herself were out by the water, Dominique was flirting with a boy, and promptly walked out of the side of the picture. She smiled inwardly to herself, as she remembered the trip fondly, and picked up the next picture.
This time it was a picture of her family, this one taken at a much longer time ago. Dominique seemed to be eleven in the picture, herself ten, as they stood around a pyramid. They were all four sunburned, and freckley, but happy.
Jaimie stared at the pictures, nostalgia filling her. Remus bent over the table and asked her, "What does yours say?"
"Nothing really important, just asking me how my first day back was. And they've given my some pictures."
She handed Remus both of the photos and he laughed as he saw the one at the beach.
"I remember this! Dominique had such a sunburn!" Remus laughed reminiscently. He held both pictures casually in his hands, leaving Sirius free to take them. He looked it over and smiled widely, he looked back at Jaimie and said, "You don't look bad in a bathing suit." He eyed her mischievously
Jaimie turned to him, confused and saw that Sirius was looking at the picture interestedly, she tried to take it from him, but couldn't. James looked over his shoulder at the picture and his mouth cracked into a grin as wide and as evil as his best friends'.
"Yeah you don't look half bad!" James said, turning his head as Jaimie made another swipe at it.
"Watch it, Potter." Sirius said, joking with James.
"Sirius." Jaimie said reprovingly, shaking her head.
When Sirius had finally relented, and given the photo back to Jaimie, Lily took them, and looked at them pensively.
"Where and when was this?"
"California, last year." Remus said, thickly. His mouth was full of cold cereal.
"Oh, you look positively smashing Remus." Lily commented.
Remus turned a shade of pink, and James glowered. Finally, when Jaimie had gotten both of her photos back she placed them carefully into her Defense Against the Dark Arts book.
Just then, Professor McGonagall, the formidable twenty-something head of Gryffindor house, was walking up and down the Gryffindor table and handing out schedules for the day. Jaimie had taken hers and looked it over. Her first class was Defense Against the Dark Arts, she was relieved, she liked Defense Against the Dark Arts, except their current teacher, Professor Riley, an irritable Irish drunk who was as mean as his hair was curly and red. Her next class was Transfiguration with Professor Mcgonagall who was as strict as she appeared, then she had lunch break, and after that they had double Potions.
She sighed, today seemed like a day for hard work. She would soon find that she wasn't wrong.
When she stepped into the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Lily by her side, Sirius, James, Remus and Peter after them, the teacher was not inside the class at their arrival, but they took their seats nonetheless. Jaimie sat down near the back of the class, and Sirius automatically took her side. Lily took her other side, and James, for one indecisive moment, took the seat next to Lily. Having recovered her less than mutual feelings toward him, she sniffed slightly but did not protest against his presence. Remus took the seat in front of Jaimie, and Peter beside James. The other students filed in and took their seats. Once every seat in the class had been filled, the teacher entered the class a briefcase in hand, and laid it down on his desk, not taking the seat, but placing his hands on his desk and leaning on them.
"We have in our hands, another school year. And what can I say, but that next year you will take the N.E.W.T.'s, as you all know, the N.E.W.T.'s are the highest qualification that Hogwarts can give you. Much studying is required in order to pass this test. So, let me be the first and only person to tell you that, may the endless torture begin." He smiled maliciously around the class.
"Well, wands out, this lesson will be a practical one." He ordered the class harshly.
So the class as a whole rummaged their bags or pockets and produced their wands.
"Well I'm glad we could all do that effortlessly, now please stand up and follow me. Now when we're walking in the halls, keep your mouths shut because other classes are in session, we don't want to disturb them. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir." The class responded, devoid of any emotion.
Sirius smiled at James, and at Remus, who shrugged, and pointed to his prefect badge. Sirius frowned in mock disappointment.
Jaimie stood up and followed the herding class slowly out of the solitary door and followed Riley's curly red head to wherever he would take them. Jaimie and Lily walked wordlessly in the back of the group with Sirius and James bringing up the rear, hexing and cursing things and people as they walked. Remus walked, alongside them, his fingers massaging his temples lightly, his eyes open in a pained look. Peter watched the duo, sniggering uncontrollably, as they made the floor behind them slick and slippery, turned people's hair different colors, and wrote messages behind people's backs ordering others to kick them, or suggesting that the person which had the sign on them was a troll or something or other.
Oblivious to the fact that Sirius and James were doing this, Jaimie and Lily noticed many girls' skirts suddenly flutter upward, as if an unfelt wind was coming up from the ground, the girls hastily stopping the skirts from riding further. Jaimie and Lily looked bewildered at each other, and looked back at the two boys, who were now talking animatedly to each other, wands away. When Sirius and James noticed that the two girls were looking back at them, they waved cheerily, and caught up to them. Sirius putting his arm around Jaimie's shoulders nonchalantly and James trying to persuade a skeptical Lily that he had not done any of those things.
They quickly turned their conversation to other subjects, when one girl had suddenly noticed the alteration to her appearance. Professor Riley turned around swiftly and placed a finger to his lips, stifling their voices.
"What did I tell you, Miss Bardoe, about walking in the hallways?" He looked at the girl's hair which was once a shiny blond, but was now a neon green.
Exasperated, Professor Riley flicked his wand and her hair turned to its normal color. "Foolish girl! Do not shriek when you change your hair color to one that is undesirable. For I am sure that no matter what you do, it will still be hideous."
Virginia Bardoe's eyes watered angrily, but she did not retaliate.
Professor Riley glanced at Rita Lesley briefly, and did a double take. For what was once smooth skin was now covered in angry, purplish-red boils. Rita tried to touch her face, but was obviously afraid it would do much worse.
"Professor!" She pleaded helplessly.
"Go to the hospital wing, Miss Lesley, Miss Hart kindly escort her to the hospital wing. If I ever found out who has done this, I will personally make sure that they get detention for the rest of the year."
The two girls hurriedly headed for the opposite direction, toward Riley's classroom, and disappeared around the corner, but their shrieks of surprise could be heard even so. Professor Riley said urgently, "Stay put, if any of you do anything, you will have me to see to."
He walked briskly toward the girl's direction, disappearing around the corner. When the professor had gone, the class had begun to murmur in silence. Others noticed the rude signs on people's backs and removed them. Jaimie and Lily rounded on Sirius and James and began scolding them in hushed voices.
"I can't believe you! And in Professor Riley's class, too! You two can be so bull-headed sometimes, can't you ever think of other people's feelings?" Lily chided.
"Yeah? What could possess you to turn Virginia's hair neon green?" Jaimie asked, incredulously.
Sirius and James stood sheepishly in front of the girls. They were taller than both of them, and it was quite a comical sight to see them looking downcast. Peter was trying mightily to stifle his sniggering, and was looking expectantly at James and Sirius, Remus looked interestedly at the four of them.
". . . And no one deserves to get boils as bad as Rita's! What were you thinking?!" Lily continued.
"But she was spreading rumors about Jaimie and Damion, and the stupid git tried to snog Sirius last year, and now she's interested in Remus. If anyone deserved our tricks it was her." James returned.
The arguing stopped, James and Lily glared at each other so dangerously, Jaimie could feel heat rising from the both of them from her spot.
"James, thank you for that kind gesture, but I'm sure I can take whatever that girl has got to say, and Remus is a big boy, he can take care of himself." Jaimie said calmly.
Neither Sirius nor James could not think of a reply to this, and were saved from having to as Professor Riley had just appeared, his curly red hair askew. His mouth was turned in an upside down crescent and his eyebrows were so close together, it seemed as if they were one.
He approached James and Sirius, and leered at them. "A month's worth of detention for both of you, and fifty points each from Gryffindor." He spat.
"WHAT?!" Sirius and James both said in unison.
"You know exactly what you did, Black, Potter. Don't give me those innocent looks."
"I'm sorry, Professor, but I don't know what you are talking about." James said, crossing his arms.
"I'm quite sure you know exactly what you did. Give me your wands."
"Why?"
"Give them to me before I dock more points from you house, and give you a year's worth of detention."
Reluctantly, Sirius and James handed over their wands, and said, "Priori Incantato!" He pointed his wand to the tip of James', and out of the the tip of it, came a black and white hologram model of a grimy cauldron that had cleaned itself instantly.
Undaunted, Professor Riley handed James' wand back with a skeptical look, then repeated the process with Sirius' wand. Out of it came a glass that had broken and was repairing itself. He handed Sirius the wand back, who was trying to supress a look of satisfaction on his face. Peter was sweating profusely behind Remus, who had his hands in his pockets, eyeing the sitiuation with complete attention.
Professor Riley's look of uncertainty disappeared and he said, "I guess I was wrong."
"So does that mean we get back our points and our freedom?" James asked, sounding offhand.
Professor Riley grunted, and Jaimie took that as a sign of agreement.
He walked to the front of the class and said, "Whoever did those things got lucky today. Do not feel so lucky next time." He led them around the corner and into an empty classroom.
Jaimie shot Sirius a look of uncertainty. Sirius smiled at her and said, "Remy gave me his wand." He smiled mischievously at her, and Jaimie rolled her eyes as she went into the classroom.

An hour later, they emerged from the empty classroom, very sore. They had been practicing stunning, and the lesson had not gone painless. Practicing the Stunning Spell included live subjects to practice on in order to see the result, in their case it was each other. Since Sirius did not want to harm Jaimie, she partnered with Lily, Professor Riley had placed pillows all around the room, to ease the fall a bit, and they worked for the large part, but once you were stunned, you didn't have much choice on which direction you landed. Jaimie and Lily had very little difficulty with the spell, as well as Sirius, James and Remus. They had it right on their first try. Poor Peter, his aim was so poor that he had hit a formidable looking Ravenclaw, and when he had roused him, the Ravenclaw loomed menacingly over him. Sirius fended off the Ravenclaw as Peter stuttered an apology.
So Jaimie limped carefully out of the classroom, Lily wincing with every step she took. The boys were much better off, save Peter, who was looking over his shoulder in paranoia. They headed to their right and down the stairs for their next class, which was Transfiguration. To Jaimie's great relief, the infliction of pain was not necessary, though they were set to the difficult task of transfiguring their tadpoles into frogs. Jaimie had always managed to do satisfactorily in this class, but the task was much harder than before.
So it was to her relief that they had exited the Transfiguration class to lunch. She set off for the Great Hall, Lily still limping heavily next to her
Jaimie sighed, and muttered, "This is the most painful first day back."
Lily sighed too, "Yeah, and its not like its an O.W.L. year either, and N.EW.T.S are still a year away. I suppose that I'd have to set up funeral arrangements for next year." She smiled.
Jaimie gave a sniff. Lily, completely shocked at what she had spoken off, hastily added, "I'm sorry, Jaimie, I didn't mean to-I would never-"
"Its alright Lily, honestly, I'm fine." She said, smiling but looked more like a grimace.
She sat down, and placed a few things on her plate, but did not eat any of it.

Later that night, as Jaimie and Lily crawled into bed, the faint smell of frog intestine lingering in the room, as they had to use them in today's potion, Jaimie took the pictures from her Defense Against the Dark Arts book. She looked them over, in her bed, her hangings pulled around her so no one would see. She silently remembered the trip to the beach, and whispered, "Good night Mum, Dad, Dominique. I hope you guys are happy where you are."
She placed the photos on her bedside table, propping them against an unlit candle and fell asleep.

Jaimie opened her eyes and found herself, in her pajamas, standing on the beach the day the photo was taken. She saw her mother beckoning her forward, and her father smiling placidly at her, cooking something on the grill. Dominique had her arms folded and was saying something, though she could not hear her. Jaimie took a step forward, and smiled to herself. They're alive, they're right over there! I just need to take a few steps and we'll be together again. Jaimie walked slowly toward them, unaware that with each step she took, the sand and the water would be replaced with a building or a store. The sand would turn to cobblestone steps, and people would appear mysteriously, draped in brown blankets, clutching large amounts of chocolate. Their eyes hollow with grief. Finally when she was within five feet of them, she stopped. She was no longer at the beach, but in Diagon Alley. In front of her, she could the bodies of her family disappearing slowly, as if they were a mirage.
Jaimie fell to her knees, and placed her face in her hands, and cried loudly. For the happy images that were her mother, father and sister were replaced by unmoving images of three bodies, dressed in robes, on the cobblestone street. People ran about in mayhem, Minsitry wizards draped in shadow coming closer to the scene. A cloaked and hooded figure was standing menacingly over the still bodies, laughing a cold and mirthless laugh that penetrated Jaimie's skin and surged in her blood, fogging her brain. Behind this evil entity stood countless dozens of people, also hooded, faces obscured, standing as if under the control of the laughing individual.
Jaimie yelled aloud, but could not hear it, and her eyes snapped open. She found that she was lying on the ground, her blanket pulled taut under her. She looked out of the window at the moon, which was a full orb in the sky, shining with a sickly light. She glanced around the other beds, and noticed that her roommates were still asleep. So she got up, and placed the blanket on her bed, but did not bother to do so herself. Instead she went out of the dormitory, and into the common room. She relit the embers of the fire and stared at the flames moodily. Trying to think of what had happened in her dream. She remembered that she was at the beach with her family. Suddenly, they died and a man was standing over them, laughing evilly. Laughing because he had killed her family. She felt a strong upsurge of hatred well up inside her.
Why would someone ever take pleasure in killing others. It was absurd! They were mental, it was just not right. Well, I hope you're happy, Voldemort. You bastard, I hope you're happy, because you will pay. You'll pay for what you did. She thought forcefully.
The happy images of her family looming out of the darkness in her head.


A/N: Alrighty, I just thought to make it a point to name the songs that I've used so far. Most of them, you might know already, but some of them are . . . yeah ok.

Chapter 1: I'm just a Girl No Doubt
Chapter 2: A Whole New World (I dunno know who sang it but its from Disney)
Chapter 3: Wherever You Will Go The Calling
Chapter 4: Drops of Jupiter Train
Chapter 5: Memory Barry Manilow (He he)

I'll list the next five songs after the 10th chapter :). Thanks to those who read and reviewed. Please, don't stop!