Chapter 24

A/n: Hey readers! So I'm having spring break right now and I've been working on this chapter for a while and there's... well... a lot of excitement. So I really hope you like this chapter because Scott says a lot of wise things in the end that took a whole half hour (like forever!) to come up with so... yeah.

Review Responses:

Nekogurl888: So I was bored and I decided to check the reviews on my FanFictions. You don't understands how I was dying of laughter when I read how you described Octavius White. Because I actually was going to give him pale skin and Luscious-Malfoy-white hair but his eyes are green. But as the reader, you can decipher the character to look how ever you want in your mind. I see you ship Team Scay. I also did at first but then I added Alice and I love her too! I just can't decide. Scott has to break someone's heart either way :'(. But what about Mystery-girl from the rooftop? Could she mean anything important? What didn't you think of her? Also, you should totally become a song writer, XD love the rhymes!

marauding-mischief78: Thanks for the hug. ;) Omg your so nice! Your stories are awesome too! I really hope you like this chapter.

That's it for reviews. Right now there's 53 reviews, so if we hit 75 reviews I'll give 3 shoutouts and mention those shoutouts in my chapter. So (not forcing, but encouraging to) please review. Even if your a guest. They light up my day, just ask my friends. I smile like an idiot the whole day. So yeah, always feel free to review.

I enter the dorm room to find Sirius laying on my bed. "Black, the girls dorm is on the other side of the common room."

Sirius flushes when James and Remus laugh. Peter chuckles to look like he understood my joke but he looked rather confused.

Sirius crosses his arms. "I want to know what happened this morning, Wayward."

I raise my eyebrows. "What happened this morning?"

"In the Shrieking Shack? When you said someone was in trouble and disappeared."

I close my eyes. The thoughts of mystery-girl come back to me. I mixed the Truth and Lies and now Sirius wants an explanation.

I look down. "I- I can't tell you."

Sirius glares at me. "I told you everything this morning. Every. Bloody. Detail. But you can't tell me how or why you disappeared?!"

I reach for the doorknob, trying to get out of the room and out of the conversation. "I wish I could. But… I just can't." Right as my hand touches the knob, Sirius pulls out his wand and screams, "Colloportus!" and a flash hits the doorknob.

He locked the door. Before I can pull out my wand, Sirius disarms me. He shoves me into the door. "I am sick of unanswered questions, Scott. Tell me what the hell happened this morning!"

"Sirius," James says slowly, "I don't know what's going on or what happened-"

"Neither do I!" Sirius spat.

"-but you need to calm down."

Sirius's eyes shoot an evil glare at James. He points his wand at James.

"Padfoot, he's your best friend!" Remus cries.

In the middle of this, I try to sneak away but Sirius catches me. "Petrificus totalus!"

I freeze. Immobile, stunned and weaponless, Sirius shoves me into the wall again, slapping my cheek hard this time.

I taste blood in my mouth and know how hard his hit was, my body more numb from the sting of his slap then the spell itself.

The others gasp. "Sirius, this is going too far," James whispers.

"Not like we haven't gone further with Severus!"

Severus? Severus Snape. That was who Lily used to be friends with. So the boys bullies Severus? Was that why Lily hated James?

"But Sniveless is… is… Sniveless!" James argues.

Sirius frowns. "It's because he's a Slytherin and you know it."

"But Scott isn't," James responds.

I block out their conversation. If I mix the Truth and Lies I'll be free of the numbness. The Lie is that the spell only lasts a minute, the Truth is that it really can last a minute for super powerful wizards, but for an average one it lasts twenty-four hours if no one does the counterspell and I need to be able to defend myself and… and… I close my eyes in concentration.

Wait. I blinked! I'm unstunned! I bend my fingers. My wand is about five feet away from me. I lunge for it.

Sirius blinks, confused. "Oh right. The spell only lasts a minute."

My mix worked.

"I'll just have to do it again. Petri-"

"Expelliarmus!" I scream.

His wand flies to the other end of the room.

I put my wand down. "I don't want to fight you, Black."

"So tell me what happened!"

I look at the others and look down. "I…"

"Um, why is the door locked?" Kevin calls from outside the door.

No one has the courage to answer. "You what?" Sirius asks me.

"I just can't."

Sirius inhales. Then, he lunges for me. He knocks me to the floor and twists my arms behind my back. He makes a fist and I shut my eyes tight, not bearing to see what he'd do next.

The door opens. "Um, what's with the- Scott!" Kevin cries.

Sirius punches my eye so hard that my head crashes into the hard glossed, wooden floor.

I scream in pain. The horrible pain in my eye, my head and my chest. Kevin, Remus, Peter, and James scream too. But Sirius was still on top of me. "There's blood," he says bitterly.

Those were the last words I heard before the darkness took over me.

(LINEBREAKLINEBREAKLINEBREAK)

"Dumbledore!" I cry into the darkness. "Headmaster?"

The darkness starts to get lighter and I can see more. I'm… in the gardens. Mother's gardens. It seems as if it were never touched, as if she never died just a few feet away from where I'm standing.

A chill creeps up my spine. I run out of the garden, straight to the beach. Then I find him. Dumbledore is sitting on a toilet floating at the shores of the beach.

I blink. Some dream.

"Ah, Scott," Dumbledore says, apparating next to me. "Quite an interesting day, yes?"

"Where am I?"

"I think you know the answer to that good and well."

"No, I mean in real life."

He smiles sadly. "The hospital wing."

"Do you know what happened exactly? I blacked out and my memory's kind of fuzzy."

"That's what I was afraid of. Mr. Potter stunned Mr. Black so he wouldn't do any more damage. Mr. Grove and Mr. Lupin got you out of the room before he unfroze, though I think he knew how much damage he did. I believe he regrets it."

"Will he be punished? I mean, he's still my friend but I'm itching for revenge. I knew he wasn't thinking straight and wasn't being himself, in any case, I'll forgive him as long as he gets some kind of punishment so he'll learn to never do that to someone again."

why didn't you fight back? Didn't you think that's what a Gryffindor would do?"

Dumbledore smiles sadly again. "That would explain why you didn't fight back then. Didn't you think that's what a Gryffindor would do?"

"Well, he's my friend. I knew he wasn't being himself and that he was mad at me. I know I kind of let him hurt me, but I did end up disarming him in the end. But I would never do any physical damage. He's my friend."

"But he did physical damage to you."

"Again, he wasn't being himself. If you got into a fight with your friend, would you fight back to show strength, or would you keep to yourself and show bravery?"

He stares at me for a minute, as if thinking back on old memories. "I chose strength," he whispers, "but I know now that I should have chosen bravery. You are a Gryffindor, Scott. Probably the best there ever was."

I smile. "So Sirius's punishment...?"

"I don't think that should be on top of your worries."

Worries. "About that, um, how long does a stunning spell last?"

"A minute, of course. Oh, I get it, O.W.L.s are on top of your worries? A good student too."

O.W.L.s. Right. I completely forgot about those...

I imagine a blob next to me. Dumbledore gasps. "This is a recent one," he tells me.

"I know. I created it." I separate the Truth and Lie I made about the stunning spell.

"Scott, have you been creating these often?"

"No! It was an emergency. If the spell had lasted longer, Sirius could've done much worse."

"So that's why I said the spell lasted a minute. Scott, the spell lasts twenty-four hours. You realize that you just re-stunned yourself, correct?"

Oops. "Not again…"

"I'll perform the counterspell soon enough. But again, not of your highest worries."

"What is then?"

"Madam Pomfrey said that you hit your head really hard. She thinks that you might get amnesia."

I close my eyes. "That's why you were afraid of my memory being fuzzy."

He nods. "I don't know what you'll remember, but the man behind the mixing of the Truth and Lies is probably going to try to mess up your mind while you won't remember anything. I worry what he might do to you. I'll put an Occlumency spell on you, but I don't know if that will stop him."

"Mead. His name is Mead. Or part of it is."

Dumbledore raises his brow. "Really? This may narrow things down a bit." He reaches for his temples. "I really must get going. Good luck, Scott."

And he's gone. I stand by the beach alone. With nothing better to do, I head to the estate. It's empty. No servants. Just a silent house. I head up to my room, untouched of my last visit, except for a Gryffindor banner next to my bed. If only I could see Father's face when he sees that thing in his Slytherin family house. But I don't stay long. I have other plans.

I walk down the hall to my mother's room. I enter and walk around. Her room smells like the perfumes she used to wear. I look at the wall and I see a picture of my family. Avalon sits in front of father and Mother stands behind me with her hand on my shoulder. My turn for smiling sadly. But then Mother starts to fade away from the picture slowly, my smile joining.

I sit down on her bed. Her soft blue blankets brush my skin. I climb inside and remember how when I was younger I used to have nightmares and Mother would let me sleep with her. But she couldn't save me from the nightmares now. She was a part of them.

Then I feel the covers move up to my chin. I look up. Mother. She kisses my head. "I love you, Scott."

I blink and she's gone. In that moment, I feel like the six-year-old with nightmares that I used to be. I closed my eyes and let my memories fade.

A/n: Amnesia. Yup. Next chapter should be exciting. Please vote for Team Scay or Scalice. Also I just realized that we're like 24 chapters into the story and the holidays never happened yet. 24 chapters on 2 months. So when I make the holidays happen, the rest of the year might fly by pretty quickly, but it's only because I want to give you the ending and not have you sit through 108 chapters. But yeah. 3 you guys! Happy Wednesday!

~Booky