Chapter 3

Declaration

The young woman in the hospital bed lifted her hand to her eyes and rubbed them lightly. She fought groggily to wake up her mind and sort out a strange feeling of displacement. She slid up in bed toward the headboard, so she could properly sit up. With a small shake of her head she tried to make her eyes focus, so she could look round to see where her glasses were. As her hand reached out toward the table beside the bed in order to feel for her glasses, she noticed that there was also a chair with someone sitting in it. She squinted as she unfolded her glasses. "Professor?"

Remus felt his body respond to her soft voice, but only said gently, "Yes?"

"The Healers told me that I've had my memory Obliviated and that you were telling me the truth." She saw him nod his head slightly in agreement. "If that is so...well it must be awful for you too, me not remembering, and saying the things I did. I'm sorry for earlier."

Remus had stood and taken a step forward as she spoke her apology, but when he saw her nervous flinch he stopped still. "You have nothing to be sorry about, Edwina. This must be incredibly frightening for you."

Edwina looked up at the white, scared face of the man standing by her bed and then looked away briefly. "Will I ever remember?"

Remus did not respond for a moment, but then looked her directly in the eye before saying, "No, probably not. Your memories were erased, not just hidden. Didn't the Healers explain this to you?"

"Yes, but they told me that you would explain everything else. I don't know what the 'everything else' is."

Edwina noticed that Remus' mouth tightened as he abruptly sat down. He did not speak. Edwina felt a very sudden rush of anger build up in her chest. She balled up her fist and punched the bed fiercely. "Why? Why would someone do this to me? Who would do this?"

Remus seemed to be watching her face as if he were looking for the answer to some question she didn't know, but he responded to her own question instead. "We don't know. The Ministry has not yet classified this as a criminal Charming crime, so we may only ever have our own suspicions, Edwina. We, my friends and I, have been doing everything we could to investigate whilst you have been in here, but we haven't found any answers."

Edwina's voice squeaked as she asked angrily, "How can they say this wasn't an attack? I don't understand it."

Remus looked extremely uncomfortable as he answered, "Partially because you are a Breochaidie. It is rare, but some Breochaidie women begin to exhibit early onset of senility."

"But the Healer didn't say I was senile. Did he? I'm not, am I?"

"No, most definitely not. The Breochaidie witches that experienced premature senility all had one thing in common that you do not. They were all extremely experienced, practising Dark witches. You know that you were not allowed to continue with NEWT Potions or NEWT Transfiguration because of danger to your health, do you remember?"

"Yes. Some of the potions used ingredients that came from Dark creatures that can be harmful to a Breochaidie and I fainted too many times in Transfiguration, so Professor McGonagall wouldn't allow me to continue her class."

"Right. That is because certain types of magic are harder than others for you to tolerate. The witches who experienced early senility had all tried to ignore these restrictions, so repeated exposure to Dark magic began to cause their minds to decay."

"Oh! That won't happen to me, will it?"

"No, of course not. But they are checking your wand for your spell history to make certain that this is not what has happened."

"But that isn't fair! Didn't the Healers tell them that I was Obliviated?"

Once again Edwina had the sense that he was uncomfortable and wondered if he were hiding something. "Yes, they did. However there is at least one current case of a Breochaidie managing to mask the syndrome enough to continue to practise the Dark Arts. Also, there is some prejudice in your case, I think."

"I thought that there were only two other Breochaidie living in Britain right now and I know them both, they are cousins."

"Well, this woman is your cousin, though not a close one. She is a Black."

"Oh. Her. But she is in Azkaban."

"No, actually. She escaped Azkaban along with some other supporters of Voldemort, last year."

Edwina involuntarily flinched at hearing the name of Voldemort and after several moments replied softly, "I hated her when I was little. My Grandmother Bledsoe was a Black, well I guess you knew that, but that's how my cousins and I all have it. The Black and the Sinclair families have had most of the cases in Britain. I met her when I was very small. She had a horrible laugh."

Remus considered his words before replying, "Yes, I remember her."

"It isn't a nice family to be a part of, even if only distantly."

Remus did not say anything for several seconds. Edwina watched him sit and think. She was now sure that he was hiding something.

"Neither is the McCrudy family." (Readers: please see note below)

"You are related to the McCrudy clan?"

"Yes. My paternal grandmother."

"Oh, wow. We even learnt about them at school."

"I know you did. We did, as well. So you see, most of us have questionable relatives."

"I suppose so. Will you tell me whatever it is that you keep avoiding, please?"

Remus was obviously startled, but after a moment he stood and walked over towards the window. "There are two things that I should tell you. The "everything else", I suppose."

"Please tell me?"

Remus sighed and returned to place his hand on the back of the chair beside her bed. "I am a werewolf."

Author's Note (McCrudy clan):

Muggle readers, who will not have heard of the unfortunate history of the McCrudy clan should count themselves fortunate and not attempt to learn any more. Wizards or witches, who might have forgotten about the history of this cursed clan, are advised to revise their OWL level texts.