This particular chapter is written in the form of a Daily Prophet article published several years after Voldemort's defeat. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: This is all JK Rowling's universe – I'm just taking it for a bit of a test drive.

Where Were You When the World Stood Still?

By Alice Tolipan

There is no doubt that when Voldemort died the wizarding world as a whole was gripped with a collective memory of the moment we heard the News. Your intrepid reporter, Alice Tolipan, set out to find out where you were when the Boy Who Lived vanquished Voldemort, a name that the world can now say without fear. This is what the randomly polled wizards in Diagon Alley had to say on the subject on the anniversary of the Day.

Our first interviewee, Mrs. Olivia Olivet, a mousy young woman in her late 20s, thinks of the Day fondly. "I remember it like it was yesterday. My husband and I were away, so we got the news by owl. When we finally heard all the hooting and pecking, we opened up the window and there were fifteen owls all lined up in a row on the sill!" When asked as to what she was doing so that neither she nor her husband heard the owls, Mrs. Olivet refused to answer further questions, stammering something about it being their honeymoon.

Mr. Albert Lunsford, of the Lunn and Lunsford printing company, recalls the day as one of relief. "My wife and I had always been ardent supporters of Dumbledore and his policies, so when he was murdered and Voldemort appeared to be on the rise, my pregnant wife and I fled the country. No one knew where we were, so we didn't hear the News until the owl came to our flat with the weekly Bulgarian Post two days later. We were so excited that my wife actually went into labor! My son was born later that day, never to know the fear of Voldemort."

Mrs. Hortensia Frank and her 13-year old son, Patrick Frank spoke to us after coming out of Flourish and Blotts. When asked the question, Mrs. Frank was the one to respond. "I was right in the process of giving him (indicating Patrick) a strong dressing down after he'd run outside and flashed the neighbors when my husband apparated in with the News. I don't think Patrick was old enough to understand what was going on, but he was certainly happy that I was no longer cross with him!" Young Patrick flushed hotly when this story was mentioned, but claimed not to remember the incident.

Not everyone was as excited to share their memories. When a patron entering from Knockturn Alley was asked his memories of the day, he had only this to say. "Of course I remember. Let's just say I'm less than eager to share my memories with a supporter of today's administration. They might be…misinterpreted."

Five years have passed. Jobs have come and gone, we've grown older and wiser, yet we all remember the Day as though it had just occurred. The day the nation stood still and got its picture taken.

A/N: This fic focuses on flashbulb memories, which are "memories for circumstances surrounding hearing about shocking, highly charged events" to quote my Cognitive Psychology book. Terrorist attacks, assassinations, and other shocking, emotional events fall into this category. Flashbulb memories feel extremely vivid, as though they just took place yesterday. We can all remember where we were and what we were doing when we learned the news with extreme accuracy – or so we think. One of the most recent instances of a flashbulb memory, from the American point of view, is the September 11th attacks. We can all remember where we were when we heard with great vividness and confidence.

It actually turns out that there are only minor differences between flashbulb memories and normal memories. They are rehearsed a great deal more than average memories (every time we tell a friend about them or watch a news clip) and they involve a lot of emotion, both of which make the situation easier to remember. But the accuracy of the memories actually isn't all that different from other memories. The only difference we think we remember them correctly, even when in most cases we don't. So, while the wizards in the story may feel as though they remember accurately, it's unlikely that they do.

Wizards seem rather fond of capitalizing important events and names and making them dramatic, so I thought I'd include that in the "News" and the "Day". "The day the nation stood still and got its picture taken" is actually a paraphrased quote from a researcher describing the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, another case of a flashbulb memory.

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