Erased But Not Forgotten

Chapter 7

Secret Meeting and an Unlikely Alliance

Rose walked inside to find the gang all up in her room. As she walked up the stairs she brushed away a tear that she that she told herself she shouldn't be shedding. She opened her door to everyone staring at her.

"Okay, party's over. Everyone out of the pool," Liz said as Rose walked over to sit on her bed next to Harry. As everyone headed to their own rooms, Rose sent Liz a mental thank-you.

When Liz shut the door behind her, Harry looked at Rose. "What's up, Sleeping Beauty?" he asked.

"Lots and lots of drama," she replied, burying her face in his shoulder, taking in his scent, his voice, this moment with him.

"Things not go very well," Harry assumed. Rose just groaned.

"Well, now he has feelings for me, and I love you, and I'm so confused and I don't know what to do or feel! I can't exactly say that I don't still see him in that light but I'm yours now and he can't just have me now that he's smartened up. I don't know what's wrong with me! I can't sort out all the feelings I have for both of you and I feel so…torn. I'm just so confrustrated!" she ranted exasperated.

Harry lifted her chin and looked her in the eye, an air of seriousness so thick around him that you could cut it with a knife. "Rose, tell me straight, do you regret saying yes when I asked you to marry me?" Rose's eyes got very bright for a second as she looked into space, thinking for a moment.

"No, I don't regret my choice," she said, looking into his emerald eyes. "I'm just not sure if we should do this right away. Harry, I know I love you, but now I feel like we're kind of rushing into this." She grabbed his hands gently as his eyes got misty.

"Is this because of Jul?" he asked in a very small voice.

A solemn expression came over her face. "Harry, I'm not leaving you, definitely not for Jul. He just brought some things into focus. I don't want to marry you to get out of the confusing situation that I had with him. I just want to make sure that I'm not marrying you to get back at him," she explained.

"So where are we now?" Harry inquired quietly.

"I don't know," said Rose, unable to meet his soul-shattering gaze. "I guess there's a part of my heart that I gave to Jul a long time ago, that I can't get back, no matter how hard I try. And I'm a little lost and I don't know what to do or say or think or feel." She paused and finally looked into his bright green eyes, shining with a single diamond-like tear. "But what I do know, Harry," his emerald eyes rising to meet with her smoky green ones, "is that I gave a much bigger part of my heart to you, and that I don't want to live my life without you. I love you, Harry, and you're not going to be losing me." He smiled faintly as the twinkling tear leaked down his cheek. She leaned in to kiss him first on the lips and then on the cheek, where the tear lingered like a glass bead, brushing it away.

As soon as Rose fell asleep, Harry managed to creep out of the bedroom without waking her. He snuck down the stairs, out of her fox-like hearing range, before apparating to the porch.

It was slightly surprising that such a hard sleeper could wake up at even the slightest sound. Every time Harry had tried to sneak into her room to wake her up, she always semi-woke up as soon as he crossed the threshold, making it impossible for him to surprise her.

"You can come out now. I'm not going to kill you," Harry declared to the darkness. A few whispered words and a faint click, and Jul appeared out of the shadows. "Yet."

"You don't have to gloat, Rose is yours, I get that now," Jul said, stepping into the moonlight, a look of defeat welled in his sapphire eyes, mirroring the pale moon.

Harry relaxed a little and sat up on the rail, hoping to loosen Jul up enough that he'd work with him. "You know, Jul, I'm not that sure that she is."

Jul eyed him suspiciously. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, that Rose isn't sure anymore and I was hoping you would help me clear up her feelings, for all our sakes."

"Oh. Well, how are we supposed to do that?" he inquired.

"I think if we clean the slate then she can choose, disregarding her past with us," Harry explained.

Jul's blue eyes looked questioningly at Harry. "Clean the slate?"

"Yeah, erase her memory of us temporarily. That way she can't get confused trying to figure out the past and focus on what she wants," he clarified. Jul nodded.

"So you're trying to get her to be more confidant in you by forgetting me?" he accused venomously, his sapphire eyes like icy daggers.

"I just want Rose to be happy! If that means that she marries you, then fine! I just don't want her to regret choosing me when it's too late for her to go back! I love her but I promised her that I would never cause her pain, and if that means letting her go then I guess that's what I'll do!" he said angrily, pacing up and down the porch. He stopped to look at Jul who stood there calmly.

"Okay, what do we do?" he asked, holding out his hand. Harry took it and they shook on it, an unlikely alliance having just been formed.

"We can make her forget us, only us, until we decide together to trigger her memory. We can't let her know anything about our past with her, and no one can know that we did it. Okay?" Harry and Jul stayed up talking until late into the night, perfecting their plan.

Rose was slightly roused from her peaceful sleep in the middle of the night by a peculiar draft in her room, though the windows were closed. Half awake, she looked at her alarm clock. It was four in the morning.

'I'm gonna be tired tomorrow,' she thought as she moved into her former position up against Harry. But all she felt was the blanket. After scooting back a few more inches she finally turned over to see where he'd gotten to. But Harry wasn't there.

"Harry?" she called quietly. She heard a few footsteps and something ran into her closet door. "Who's there!" she called, alarmed.

"Ready?" she heard a man whisper.

"Yeah," another man replied. Then they both whispered something that Rose didn't catch and she could feel a spell hitting her. For a moment she could see the men in her room. "What the heck?" she exclaimed, before slipping out of consciousness.

She woke up the next morning with the sunlight streaming in through the window, feeling strange. It was like she should remember something that was important but she couldn't put her finger on it. 'Liz will know what's going on,' she thought. She got up and quickly threw on a pair of jeans and a tank top before going to the bathroom to wash her face and put in her contacts. She hurriedly put her chestnut hair into a barrette before heading into Liz's room.

"Liz, something weird's going on!" she was surprised to find Liz still asleep; Liz was always the early riser.

"What?" she demanded of her best friend, pulling the blankets over her head. "What could possibly be weird this early in the morning?"

Rose laughed. "Wake up, Cinderella! It's eleven!"

"What!" Liz exclaimed, sitting up sharply. "Okay then, what's up? Guy issues?" she assumed.

"No," Rose answered truthfully, "I can't seem to remember what I did most of yesterday. I remember you, Hermione and I talking, but I can't remember what about. That's it. And I can't remember anything from most of the past year. I remember doing stuff with you, but nothing else and I feel like I should."

Liz looked at her best friend inquisitively. "Rose, are you feeling okay?" she inquired.

"Yeah, fine. I just don't remember," she answered sincerely, growing worried.

"Umm, Rose, do you remember the Bathroom Incident?" Rose shook her head, confused, "The Harvest Moon Ball and the whole Sleeping Beauty thing?" Again, Rose shook her head, bewildered. What was her friend talking about?

"Did this happen when I went to England, before you got there? Why did you come anyway? Other than to see me, of course!" Rose asked Liz.

"What are you talking about?" Liz replied. "So you remember me and all that we did, but you don't remember…" She suddenly had one of those 'Eureka!' moments and suddenly grabbed Rose's hand and basically dragged her out of the room and down the stairs.

"Liz! What's going on?" she protested.

"Harry!" Liz called.

"Who's Harry?" Rose inquired innocently.

"Who's Harry?" Liz repeated, astonished. "Who's Harry? Rose! Harry Potter!" she tried but Rose didn't catch on.

"Oh!" she caught on after a blonde moment. "Oh my gosh, he's here!" she said more out of almost disgust than excitement.

"Of course he's here!" Liz replied in a 'Duh!' tone of voice.

With a popping sound, Harry appeared. "Yeah Liz?"

Rose wasn't positive who he was, but she couldn't deny that he was cute. With his ruffled jet black hair, glasses, the strong chin, and the visibly noticeable athlete's body, she couldn't help but think 'Bloody hell!' She smiled in approval of her best friends' friend, before replacing it with a solemn look. She wasn't going to be won over by the famous Harry Potter just on looks. 'With as famous as he is, he's probably just like every other preppy jock in the world,' she thought grimly.

He smiled at her and she just rolled her eyes slightly. "So Sleeping Beauty is awake! Good morning, flower. Sorry I wasn't there when you woke up," he apologized, leaning in to kiss her. Instinctively, Rose backed up a few steps, putting Liz in between Harry and herself.

Harry looked surprised and Liz said to Rose, "Rose, do you know who this is?"

"No," she answered slowly, "Should I?" she inquired. Harry just stared at her for a moment.

It was Liz who was the first to say something. "Look on your left ring finger," she replied shakily.

Rose looked down to see the most beautiful ring ever. She pulled it off of her finger to read what was written. Then she looked up at Harry inquisitively. "Who gave me this? Am I engaged, Liz?" she asked, terrified of her lack of memory.

"Yes," was all Liz could say. Then Rose's eyes rolled back into her head and she fainted, caught only inches from the ground by Harry, who could only stare, astonished, at his fiancé.

"This feels so wrong," Harry said to Jul as he entered the barn. "I mean, what right do we have to take away her memory of us?"

"I know, but we can't just undo the spell," Jul replied, "It has to be triggered, remember?"

"Vividly," Harry retorted mournfully. "Do you know how hard it is to let someone chose for themselves when you can't tell them 'Hey, you know, we're engaged but I'm teamed up with your ex and we're going to make you choose between us." It's not any easier when her best friend knows everything about her and has the answers to almost any question she might think of!"

"Well, I'll find out this evening, so then, yes, I will know how hard it is not to blurt everything out to her about me," Jul answered calmly.

They just stood there, absorbed in their own thoughts before Harry muttered, "So that's where we slipped up!"

"What?" Jul inquired.

"We slipped up before we cast the spell! We took the pictures and everything but we forgot to take her engagement ring off! That's how she knew that she was engaged!" Harry ranted, in the middle of an epiphany.

"Did you put your names on the ring?" Jul asked fiercely, his blue eyes shining with intensity.

"No!" Harry answered quickly. "No just her nickname and that I'll love her forever." Jul breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, we should go back to acting," Harry said after a minute.

"Yeah, see you two tonight," Jul replied.

"Later," he said as Jul disapparated, "It's going to be a long day!"

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and so the plot is revealed! tell me what you think, any predictions? lmk!