Hey Peeps, just the usual, when people start reviewing, i'll reply before the story.
Disclaimer: Already said it, don't wanna repeat it.
Chapter Two
Looking Into the Past
Claire's eyes fluttered open. "That must've been a dream" she muttered to herself. She sat up and looked around the room. "No..." She realized she hadn't been dreaming. She was still in the room with the rows of beds. She let herself fall back onto the pillow.
Minutes later Dumbledore entered the room and sat at the edge of her bed. "Claire, have you calmed down?"
"I suppose."
"Good. Then please, just relax. I'm sure you'd like me to explain everything," he told her gently.
"Yes. Please." Claire said, a bit eagerly.
"Well, I can't tell you the details of your personal life, you'll have to consult your friends for that," she saw a slight smile flicker across his face for a moment, "but I will tell you what I know about your disappearance, and I'm going to try to find a way to help you remember everything you've learned in the past seven years."
Claire simply nodded and listened closely as Dumbledore began to explain.
Ron and Harry ran behind Hermione all the way to the Gryffindor common room. When they entered they watched as she automatically ran to the girl's dormitory. They collapsed onto chairs by the fire place and tried to catch their breaths.
"I wish she would explain before she runs off like that." Ron said, breathing heavily.
"I know what you mean," Harry said, nodding, "but at least she had an idea and I'm sure she'll tell us once she comes back."
When their breathing had returned to normal they turned and watched the door, waiting for Hermione to reappear.
Harry glanced at his watch, "What's taking her so long? It's been nearly ten minutes."
"Who knows? With Hermione it could be anything. Maybe she found a book and got distracted."
Hermione came into the room at that moment with a blue book in her hand. "I got it!" She said as she sat down next to them.
"A book..." Ron asked skeptically, "don't tell me you have a cure for amnesia in there."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Well, not exactly. Look at the cover."
The two boys looked at the front of the book, Claire's Diary was scrawled across the top.
"Where did you find this?" Ron asked, taking it from her and staring at the cover.
"I can't tell you that." Hermione told him.
"Why not?" asked Harry, "It's not like we can get into the girl's dormitory anyway. Remember a few years ago when Ron tired?" he started laughing.
"Oh ha ha." Ron said sarcastically, "How was I supposed to know it's turn into a slide?"
Hermione giggled. "That's not the point. The point is, we can have Claire read her own diary. She's had it since before she came to Hogwarts... in fact, I believe she once told me she got it for her eleventh birthday, so she'll know what it is when she sees it."
"Brilliant." Ron muttered, still staring at the bright red letters. He turned the diary over in his hands and ran his finger along the edge of the pages, "She must not've written much though. This book is so thin, if it's the same one from six years ago..." he looked up at Hermione who was smiling.
"Well, she actually writes quite a bit. She filled the last page near the end of our first year."
"Then how...?" Harry started.
"You see, I had been reading quite a bit of spell books and came across the infini charm." she paused.
"Go on..." Harry said.
"Well, the infini charm makes certain things never ending. I used it on her diary so that she'll never run out of pages. It may look as if the book holds only about one hundred pages but really she's filled more than six hundred or so."
Ron examined the book. "You're too smart for you own good Hermione," he told her with a faint smile on his face.
She blushed. "Thanks... I guess."
"So... what happened? Why can't I remember anything?" Claire asked Dumbledore.
"Well, how about we start with when we realized you were gone, shall we?" Dumbledore asked, a twinkle in his eye.
Claire nodded.
"Excellent... but I believe you'd understand it better if you saw it, rather than heard it."
"But... how...?" Claire said, confused.
"You forget, Claire, that there is magic. Now..." he looked around the room, "where did I put it? Ah, here it is." He picked up a bowl filled with something that looked gaseous yet liquid at the same time.
"What is that?" Claire asked, staring at the substance swirling.
"It's a pensive. It holds my thoughts very well. I've used it to show things to your friend Harry a couple times and it's worked wonderfully. Now, wait a moment," he seemed to be looking for something as he stared into the contents of the bowl.
He took out his wand, dipped it in, and pulled out a strand of the white substance and began waving it around in a small circle. "Very good." It began to form what looked like a window, she could see Dumbledore walking along a deserted corridor. She looked at him sitting in front of her. He smiled, "Just watch," he said, gesturing toward the image in front of her.
Claire looked back at the Dumbledore in the window. He walked along for a while, undisturbed. As he passed a window she could see that it was night and seemed to be nearing autumn, the leaves on the trees in the distance were just beginning to change color. She heard footsteps approaching. Very fast footsteps, as if the person was running. As the figure came closer she could see that it was Ron.
"Professor..." he said, trying to catch his breath.
"Mr. Weasley, what are you doing here so late at night?" Dumbledore asked, "It's almost midnight."
"I don't know where she is. She's gone. She's gone." Ron told him frantically.
"Who?"
"Claire. She ran away, outside. She hasn't come back. I looked everywhere. I called for her. She hasn't come back."
"How long ago was this?"
"Hours. Six... maybe seven o clock. She would've come back by now. She's afraid of the dark... especially when she's alone."
"I see." Dumbledore said, looking worried, "get back to your common room. I'll get the other teachers and we'll look for her. She must be here somewhere on the grounds. We'll find her. I promise."
Ron nodded and ran off.
The scene changed. They were no longer in the dark corridor but in a brightly lit, circular room. There were many paintings on the walls and dozens of small, silver items on tables throughout the room. Dumbledore was sitting at the desk, various others were standing around the room.
"Have you found her?" Dumbledore asked the crowd.
"No." replied the woman standing in front of him.
"Have you notified her parents?"
"Yes," the woman said, "I sent the letter just ten minutes ago."
"I see. Very good."
"What do you think happened to her?" a man said from the corner.
"I'm not sure... there's no doubt that she's been kidnapped. I know her well enough to know she wouldn't run away alone, into the dark. But by whom, I do not know." Dumbledore replied.
"What do we do now?" the woman asked him.
"Wait. And try again tomorrow." he looked up at her, "Minerva, I need you to go talk to her friends. Tell them not to worry."
She nodded her head.
"The rest of you..." Dumbledore continued, looking from one person to the next as he spoke, "Go back to what you were doing."
The room slowly emptied as the teachers left. Dumbledore sighed, stood up, and disappeared through a door at the back of the room.
The scene faded away and the window vanished. She looked up at Dumbledore. "So I was kidnapped."
"Yes." he replied, "We don't know where you were, what happened, or how you got back.
"How long have I been gone?"
"Almost three months. You were taken at the end of September and it is now nearing Christmas."
"Oh..." Claire said, thinking about everything she had just learned.
"Do you have any more questions?"
"No... I don't think so."
"Well, if that's so, then I think you should stay here until tomorrow at least, then you may go back to Gryffindor tower and your friends can help explain everything they know." He stood up and turned to leave, "I shall be in my office if you need me." He exited the room.
The next morning Hermione, Harry, and Ron met Claire in the hospital wing so they could show her the way to Gryffindor tower.
"C'mon. We have something for you back at the common room." Harry told her.
"You do? What is it?" Claire asked them.
"You'll see when you get there." he replied smiling.
As they walked along the corridors Claire asked her friends questions about themselves, trying to get to know them.
"Well I'm muggle born, like you." Hermione told her.
"Um... muggle born?" Claire asked, she couldn't remember what a muggle was.
"A muggle is a non-magical person. A muggle born is a witch or wizard you comes from a muggle family, like you and I." Hermione explained.
"Oh. I see. And I can do magic?"
"Yes," Harry answered her. "You're actually really good, better than Ron anyway." he and Hermione laughed.
"Hey..." Ron said, smiling, "Well, I guess that's true."
"But shouldn't you be better though?" Claire asked him, "Your whole family is magic, isn't it?"
"Oh, that means nothing." Ron told her, "Hermione's muggle born and she's the best in the class. And Neville is from a wizard family and we're surprised he hasn't blown up the school."
"Okay." Claire said, just as they came to the portrait of the fat lady.
"My dear," the Fat Lady said when she saw Claire, "You're back!"
"Erm... yes." Claire replied, a little surprised that a painting was talking to her.
"Hippogriff wings." Harry said casually. The portrait swung open and the four of them walked into the room.
"That's the password," Hermione told Claire, "you can't get in without it."
"Alright." she replied, nodding, "Now where's that surprise you mentioned earlier?"
Hermione smiled and retrieved a book that had been hidden under a chair. "Here." she said, handing it to Claire.
Claire looked at it and gasped. "My diary." She looked at the blue cover and the red letters. "I was writing in this just as the owl flew into my room." she said.
"Well, you've been writing in it ever since," Ron said, "I suppose it should tell you everything that's happened since year one." His face started to go slightly red. He had not yet told her that they were dating. He didn't see the point, if she didn't remember him, then the information would mean nothing to her.
"Wow." Claire said, smiling. Her smile faded as she ran her hand over the lock. "I don't suppose you have the key though, do you?"
"No. You did a very good job of hiding it." Hermione informed her, "but that really doesn't matter." She took the book from Claire and pulled out her wand. "Alohamora" The lock fell to the floor. She handed the book back to Claire, smiling. "Comes in handy."
"Nice." She said, she opened the book to the first page, it was what she had written the night of her eleventh birthday. It seemed to have been just a week ago, but Claire knew it was really over six years in the past. She flipped through the book. Hundreds of pages filled with thousands of words passed before her eyes. She watched as the handwriting became better and the entries became longer. She got to the last entry and stopped. She quickly closed the book.
"Thank you. I'm sure this will help." She smiled at her friends. "It may take awhile to read it but I'm sure I'll enjoy it."
Will She regain her memory? Read and Review.
