A/N: Sorry this took so long but I tried many different ways to do this chapter. This is the result…obviously.

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Chapter Forty-Two

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She awoke to the best-looking face she had ever seen. Though, once she thought about it, it was the only face she had ever seen. This face had dark brown, floppy hair and honey-colored eyes and was seen from over the shoulder of another person. The arms that belonged to that face were wrapped around that other person.

The honey eyes met hers and he sat up, letting go of the other person the other person turned around to look at her, smiling. The other person had blonde hair and green eyes. A girl.

She watched as he whispered something in that girl's ear before getting up from where he was sitting. She didn't want him to go.

She shifted, feeling her limbs. Her eyes followed him to where he left, but the girl caught her attention with words. "How are you feeling?"

Something clicked in her brain in familiarity with the voice but she couldn't place it. She sat up and glanced around the room. It was mostly white, though the walls were stone. "Where am I?" she said. Her voice sounded strange to her and she reached up to touch her throat.

The girl gave her a puzzled look. "Pepper…" the girl began, but was cut of by a middle-aged woman coming over with the boy. They were followed by a third person that had bushy hair.

The woman swooped down on her, feeling her forehead and other such fussing. She was taken aback and laid back down. "How are you feeling?" the woman asked her.

"All right, I suppose," she said. "But who are you? Where am I?"

The bushy haired girl looked down at her with concern.

"Oh dear," the woman said. She shooed everyone else away from the bed. "Go fetch the Halliwells," the woman commanded.

-

"She WHAT?" Piper shouted.

Hermione had gone as quickly as she could to the tower the Charmed Ones were currently occupying after Madam Pomfrey had sent her. Hermione had also instructed Blaise Zabini and Alana Stoke to return to their common room.

"She seems to have lost her memory," Hermione repeated for a hysterical Piper. Phoebe and Paige were on their way down the stairs. Hermione herself was having a hard time staying calm. "She had no idea who any of us were or where she was. Madam Pomfrey wants you down there."

Piper was hastily tying her bathrobe, as Hermione had woken her up from sleep.

"What's wrong?" Phoebe asked, slightly bleary from just waking up. She was also throwing on her robe, as was Paige, who was following Phoebe down the stairs.

"We have to go to the hospital wing – now!" Piper exclaimed.

"Has Pepper woken up?" Paige asked. But Hermione didn't hear an answer because Piper had dragged her sisters out of their temporary apartment.

Hermione sighed shakily…So Pepper does have brain damage, she thought. I'll have to tell Harry, Ron and…the other Pepper.

-

"I still cannot see them," the Seer reported.

The Source growled in anger. "You have not been able to see any of them for three weeks! You are useless!"

"Perhaps they have come up with a spell that blocks them from your Sight," said Voldemort.

"We can still waken the girl if we send demons to attack her," said the Seer. "She is the only one at Hogwarts who knows how to vanquish them."

"But Dumbledore could probably do damage to them," Voldemort said. "Though we have demons in numbers so we could spare a few to weaken her."

"Their numbers are thinning!" said the Source, angry. "And it is not your right to order them around! I could only spare a few. We lost many in the battle."

"We work together!" Voldemort hissed, standing. "I can order them around if I choose."

"They won't listen to you!"

"We'll just see about that!"

-

All of Pepper's friends and teachers had been informed of her unconsciousness. They all took turns visiting her when they could and Alana had brought her boyfriend, which is how Blaise had ended up by Pepper's bedside. Friends and teachers also knew of the replacement Pepper so they could try and act normal around her. Pepper's aunts had stayed out of sight, just in case news of them away from the Manor reached the ears of evil. Surprisingly, Leo and Cole had only called them to the Manor twice in the past three weeks. They took that as a bad sign.

-

Hermione dashed up the boys' dormitory stairs. She had searched her dorm room and couldn't find the fill-in Pepper anywhere. She went into the sixth-year boy's dormitory to find the lights out. All the boys were asleep. There was only a little light coming in from the window.

"Lumos," she muttered, lighting the end of her wand.

The first bed she looked into was, luckily, Ron's. She poked his shoulder to wake him up but he didn't respond. "Ron!" she whispered, putting her wand to his face.

He groaned, opening his eyes. "Hermione!" he said loudly, sitting up. Hermione took a step backwards, her wand lighting up the whole section of the room, revealing that Ron was only wearing pajama pants. Hermione felt her cheeks heat up, and Ron shielded his eyes from the light.

"Nox," Hermione said so her wand was extinguished. Her voice was still a little shaky from being in the dark about Pepper's condition.

"What's wrong, Hermione?" Ron asked, noticing her wobbly voice. He reached out for her in the dark and grabbed her arm, sitting her on the edge of the bed. "Did something happen when you went to visit Pepper? Is she alright?"

"Where's temporary Pepper?" Hermione asked in a whisper, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Probably in bed," said Ron. "Hermione, is something wrong with Pepper?" He moved to dangle his feet off the bed, sitting next to Hermione so he could rub her back reassuringly.

"She woke up while I was there," Hermione said.

"Well that's good, isn't it?" Ron said, slightly puzzled.

Hermione drew in a shaky breath. She has brain damage," she whispered. Ron tensed and put his arm around Hermione's shoulders. "She didn't even recognize me. She didn't know where she was…"

"Bloody hell," said Ron. Hermione rested her head against his bare chest.

"I hope it'll be okay…maybe Madam Pomfrey knows how to heal amnesia…"

"I'm sure she'll find a way," Ron assured his girlfriend. "And Pepper always gets out of awful scrapes, why should this be any different?"

"Because she doesn't remember that she got herself out of awful scrapes," Hermione said.

Harry poked his head out from his bed curtains, his glasses half on his face. "Ron what the—Hermione?" he said groggily. "Hermione, what's wrong?"

"Pepper," she replied.

Harry shoved over his hangings and sat on the side of his bed, his glasses now fully on his face. "What's wrong with Pepper?" he asked anxiously.

"She's got brain damage…" Hermione said softly, "…amnesia. She didn't know who I was or even where she was…"

Harry ran a hand quickly through his already unruly hair. "Shit," he murmured. He looked up at his friends. "This is just ridiculous," he sighed heavily. "It used to be that everything happened to me, but now I've passed on the torch…" He sighed again. "Are the Halliwells down in the hospital wing now?"

"I think so," said Hermione. "I don't know what we're going to do! And I can't find temporary Pepper anywhere, either!" It was obvious that she was frustrated.

"Well, I think that we should deal with it in the morning," Ron said, yawning.

"I want to go visit her," Harry said as he stood up.

"Harry, you're wearing a nightshirt and boxers, you're not going to get very far," said Hermione. She lifted her head from Ron's chest. "No, I think Ron's right, Harry, we should wait to deal with it in the morning, there's not much we can do now."

-

"That is IT! There is no way she can continue her schooling now! We've got to take her home!" Piper cried.

"Things at home will be able to trigger her memory as well," Phoebe added, sticking up for her big sister.

"Voldemort will be able to track her at the Manor!" argued Paige. "The Seer will be able to find her!"

Piper and Phoebe were in hysterics over Pepper's amnesia. Paige and Dumbledore were trying to keep them calm, though the hysteria was starting to rub off on Paige.

"Professor Dumbledore said that Hogwarts blocks us from the Seer's visions. If we take Pepper home then the Seer will be able to see how defenseless she is!"

"We'll protect her!" said Phoebe, pacing Dumbledore's office with Piper. "And I want to go home! I'm behind with my column! It could be easier for Pepper's amnesia to go away if she were around familiar things!"

"Miss Matthews is right," said Dumbledore, sounding a little sad. "It would be safer for you all to stay here."

-

"Thanks for coming down with me tonight," Alana said to her boyfriend, resting her head on his shoulder. "Just don't tell anyone I'm friends with that Gryffindor—"

"—Or you'll cut off my balls; yea, I know," Blaise said sourly, tightening his possessive hold on Alana's waist.

"I hope Pepper'll be all right," said Alana, throwing her arm across Blaise's chest. The both of them were in his bed because neither of them could sleep after the night's events, though Blaise wouldn't admit he was sorry for The Golden Boy's girlfriend.

"Why, Stoke, I think the wittle Gryffindor is making you soft," drawled Blaise.

"Whatever," said Alana, though she was slightly afraid of that her self. "But don't you even feel a little bit sorry for Pepper?"

"Why should I?"

"Because, you big git, she has amnesia! She can't remember anything!"

Blaise shrugged.

"Sodding prat," Alana muttered, and he drew her closer to himself.

"Why did you want me there with you anyway?" he asked.

"I didn't want to sit down there all alone," she replied.

"You know, Lana, sometimes I wonder why you're in Slytherin."

"Thanks so much, Blaise."

"Well befriending Gryffindors isn't exactly the way to be cunning or to insult anyone…"

"Pepper isn't a normal Gryffindor."

-

"The Peppers are gone," Professor Giancarlo reported. "They must've disappeared when the real Miss Halliwell woke up."

Dumbledore, who was sitting behind his grand desk, steepled his fingers together. "Pepper's aunts just left here; they went to take Miss Halliwell from Poppy's care."

"Are they going home?" asked the professor.

"They are discussing what to do now. Piper and Phoebe feel that they should return to the Manor. However, Paige is trying to convince them that they should stay here, if not for their own safety, for their niece's."

"I can't believe that she actually lost her memory," said Professor Giancarlo, sitting in a high-backed chair.

"It is most unfortunate…"

"Should I include her in the private lessons?"

"At this point in time I don't think that is the best idea. Just continue the lessons with Mr. Potter. You might want to go over more demonic lessons with your students as well; it seems their knowledge might be necessary."

"You think that demos will come to Hogwarts?" she asked, alarmed.

"It is a very possible scenario," replied Dumbledore. "You might want to make your students aware of that possibility. I believe that everyone will end up taking part in this war."

-

They were trying to explain everything to her: the moving portraits, the shifting staircases, the mobs of students, the magic, her craft, her powers, her aunts, her teachers, her friends, her sudden memory loss, her past. She was trying to take it all in, but she wasn't doing very well. She still couldn't believe that she was magic, with special powers, who had been thrown into a wall just weeks ago and now forgot all of it.

She wanted to see her friends. She wanted to explore. She wanted to remember all of this wonderful life her aunts were describing to her in this great room with a ceiling so high she couldn't even see it. And she wanted to remember the name they had said she went by.

She, Aunt Phoebe, Aunt Piper, Aunt Paige and another person whose name she could not remember, were all sitting in this warmly decorated room. Three staircases led off to other rooms that she hadn't gotten a chance to explore yet.

Her aunts wouldn't let her see her friends today, though, because they wanted to get some sleep. Each of her aunts went up a different staircase and the other person, a man, stayed downstairs with her. She wanted him to leave so that she could investigate the castle that was apparently her school.

"Do you want to know anything, Pepper…? You seem uneasy, which is understandable I guess," he said.

"I want to see my house," she said.

"I suppose that would be alright," he said, shrugging and standing to come towards her. "Let's go. But only for a little while."