I'm sorry it's been a long time since I posted the last chapter but I had midterms unfortunately.

Also there has been no reviews for the last chapter so please, if you read it leave a review. It won't take much of your time and will very much help me!

Anyway, enjoy! :)

CHAPTER THREE: INTO THE PENSIEVE

Victoria Black fell onto the ground, panting. She looked around with confused eyes, trying to understand what had just happened.

'Are you alright ma'am?' asked a young man, coming up to her. He was a rather small, round-faced man with very pale skin as if he hadn't been out in the sunlight for a long time. Contrary to his complexion though, he had chocolate coloured eyes and hair.

'Wha-what did just happen?' asked Toria, her heart pounding in her ears.

'That was the first memory that you wanted to forget,' he said, pointing towards the Pensieve Toria obviously just had her face in. 'Well, half of it actually. You got out too soon.'

He helped Toria get up and brought a stool to have her sit down along with a glass of water.

'Forget?' she repeated as she took a sip. 'But I knew what was going to happen.'

There was a discerning smile on the little man's face.

'Really? What happens next, then?'

She inhaled to speak but realised she didn't know. There was something though, like a name she remembered from a dream.

'Fenrir Greyback,' she whispered. The man raised his eyebrows incredulously. Toria shook her head. 'I-I don't know.'

She examined the room around her for a while, trying to calm down. Apart from the pearly-white ghosts that were floating around, it was filled with tall, cone-shaped figures that were shimmering , lighting the entire room. Looking closely - as she was sitting right in front of one that was labelled Victoria Black - she realised they were nothing but containers that held many flasks which were filled with a substance. It was neither gas nor liquid and was the reason these containers shimmered.

'What is this place?' asked Toria curiously. 'Who are you?'

'My name is Bryson Eustace and here is a memory bank,' explained the man simply. 'My family owned this place for generations.' He looked at Toria but seeing she still had a confused expression on her face, he continued. 'This is a container holding your memories ma'am,' he gestured towards the glistening figure. 'We call it a 'Tree of Life'. I was actually named by one of our early customers. She said it reminded her of a Christmas tree.'

'But, why am I here? I mean, why does this place even exist?'

'Well,' the ghost that was behind the counter earlier, spoke in a misty voice. 'I guess it started when I wanted to help out my sister. Her only son was killed by a werewolf, and she was devastated. I watched her melt away day by day with grief and decided that I couldn't let this go on. So I bewitched her to forget about the death of her son but stored her memories in case she wanted to remember. She was happy after that and was able to move on. It's controversial of course; is it really ethical to just forget about a person? But the people who knew what I did - I had to inform others you see, otherwise they could come up and ask her about her son - wanted me to do the same for them. And eventually, it became what it is today.'

'What am I doing here, then?' asked Toria miserably. 'Sirius Black's not dead. Am I really that selfish to abandon my husband because he was in Azkaban?'

Bryson smiled kindly.

'I don't think that's the reason you're here ma'am.'

'How would you know?' she snapped. 'You don't even know me.'

'No, I don't.' He looked at her left hand. 'But I understand there is a reason you're still wearing that ring today. I doubt you ever took it off.'

'I didn't,' she waved her hand dismissively, 'but that's irrelevant. I didn't even know it was a wedding ring until very recently.'

'I remember every single customer that I had, Mrs. Black ,' said the ghost warmly. ' We asked you to hand the ring to us; however, you refused. I warned you that it would lead you right back here but you said you had a promise to keep. Maybe you don't realize it but that ring kept you connected to your past. I think that tells us something.'

She touched the ring on her finger affectionately. She wore it for as long as she could remember but she always thought it was a family heirloom. That's what her parents told her. If it wasn't about Sirius Black, then who did she want to forget? What was the pain she had tried to avoid so desperately? She inhaled deeply.

'Do you want to continue?' asked Bryson.

She nodded. She couldn't bare not knowing anymore. Even if the truth was difficult to face, she had to do it. She sank her face back into the Pensieve and started falling down, then suddenly, she was back on the Hogwarts Express.

'I-I am a lycanthrope.'

A heavy silence fell onto the compartment as the others stared at Toria, Georgie and Zoe nervously, wondering how they would react. Just as Toria opened her mouth, Georgie spoke.

'Fenrir Greyback,' she whispered, looking into Remus' eyes intently. 'He did it, didn't he?'

Remus nodded ever so slightly. This was not the reaction he expected. There were tears glistening in Georgie's eyes.

'He, um,' her voice was trembling even though she tried to suppress it, 'he attacked my little brother as well.'

The girls exchanged anxious looks. They knew that Georgie had lost her younger brother three years ago but they never saw her talking about it. They assumed there had been an accident of some sort. He was a blonde, round-faced boy with amber eyes just like his sister. He would have been starting Hogwarts this year.

'I'm sorry,' said Remus, brushing her cheek with his fingers to wipe her tears.

'You should count yourself lucky,' said Georgie suddenly, sounding fierce. 'It's not very often that he lets people go with only a bite.'

'I know,' he said darkly.

Lily gave Georgie a comforting hug as Toria and Zoe joined in.

Georgie smiled weakly.

'That's rubbish,' said Toria suddenly as all eyes turned on her. 'I mean, that's not an excuse Remus. You think I won't let you in because you're a werewolf?'

Lily nodded, smiling but Remus shook his head.

'There's a full moon on Christmas Eve. What if I attack any of you?' He shuddered at the idea.

'What do you do at Hogwarts during full moon, then?' asked Zoe.

The boys looked at each other with a wicked grin on all their faces and told their story. They told how they found out Remus was a werewolf and became Animagi to accompany him during every full moon. How the Whomping Willow was planted for Remus and how the Shrieking Shack was never haunted in the first place. How they have seen every inch there is to be seen of Hogwarts grounds and made a map of it, signing it with the nicknames they gave each other; Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

'Once,' Sirius gave a bark of laughter, 'we tricked Moony here to run all around the Forbidden Forest hoping he can get laid.'

'How did you manage that?' Georgie giggled.

'Apparently, Padfoot is surprisingly good at imitating female werewolf calls.' James gave Sirius a mischievous grin.

They howled with laughter again. All of them were crammed in a single horseless carriage pulling them to the enormous wooden doors of Hogwarts by now. Rain was pouring down mercilessly and everyone was soaking wet but they didn't seem to care. When they reached the entrance and got down from the carriage, they were all shivering, their chins, clattering.

Charms professor Flitwick was standing right inside the doors and was placing enchantments on students to dry them off. As the warmth of Flitwick's spell embraced Toria she felt really sorry for the first years who had to come to the castle by boats.

All the students walked into the Great Hall one by one and seated themselves on their house tables. Everyone was eager for the Sorting Ceremony to end quickly so that they could enjoy the food that would fill the now empty golden platters. Toria positioned herself at the Slytherin table, which was the table closest to the entrance, and watched as Zoe sat down amongst the Ravenclaws, Georgie with the Hufflepuffs, and the rest found their seats at the Gryffindor table.

A moment later Toria was joined by her friends Brianna Morin and Logan Sanders. They were two of the few Slytherins who didn't refer to Muggle-born witches and wizards as mudbloods.

'Hey Toria!' Logan called happily over the noise of the students who were talking about their summer holidays. He was a boy one could say who developed early. He was rather tall and muscular with a full auburn beard he apparently grew over the summer. His green eyes were gleaming under his thick eyebrows. 'What you think of the beard?' He combed it slightly with his fingers.

'It looks cool.' Toria nodded, smiling. She gave him a thumbs up. 'What do you think Bri?'

'Not bad,' said Brianna tilting her head slightly, examining him. She was a brunette with full lips and heavy freckles. Other Slytherin girls often enjoyed mocking her about her freckles so it was a subject she was sensitive about. 'You look a little scary, though, to be honest.'

'Oh, what do you know?' he waved a dismissive hand. 'So, captain,' he looked at Toria again, 'are we winning the Quidditch Cup this year again?'

Toria was the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team and was a chaser just like Logan. He was very competitive and ambitious about Quidditch and his friendship with Toria took a blow when she was made the captain instead of him. They made peace, however, when Slytherin won the Quidditch cup two years in a row.

'I can't see why not,' Toria said, grinning. If there was one person who was more ambitious than Logan, it was Toria. She looked at James as she remembered last year's final match. Slytherin had won 170 to 60. It had been a difficult match but Regulus Black, the Slytherin seeker, was an amazing player. Not that James wasn't well, of course. He was a mean flier, and a good captain. Unfortunately though, (fortunately for Slytherin) Gryffindor's dream team had separated when James was made the captain and the team had adjusting problems ever since.

Toria was distracted when the drenched first years walked into the Great Hall. She wondered if it would have made any difference whatsoever if they had swam across the lake. Professor McGonagall brought a stool and an extremely dirty and patched pointed hat into the Hall as silence fell over the students. A slit opened up near the brim of the Sorting Hat and it started to sing. Toria didn't listen to it, really. It was all the same every year. Even though it was a new song, she didn't need to hear it to know the qualities of each house. Instead, she let her mind ponder over the ton of new information she had just learnt about her friend Remus.

She didn't want the boys to stay at Hogwarts just because Remus felt like he couldn't come too. She appreciated and was impressed, to be honest, by the friendship between the "Marauders" as they called themselves. She couldn't think of anyone in Slytherin who would do that for one another.

Suddenly, she decided to write to her father, Damien Severe, about Remus' condition first thing in the morning, maybe he could find a solution. Damien, although very curious and sometimes meddlesome, was a harmless man. He was very knowledgeable about magical creatures and their behaviours. She was sure he would be helpful and discreet. After all, not all the research Damien made was, strictly speaking, legal. So he knew how to keep his lips sealed. The only concern she had was that her father might see Remus as an experiment rather than a guest.

Over at the Gryffindor table, Sirius and James were talking silently.

'Is she still looking?' asked Sirius. He had his back turned to the Slytherin table and was referring to Cynthia Parkinson: An annoying, arrogant girl who had somewhat of an obsession with Sirius.

James took a quick peek at her. Parkinson was talking to her friend Deidra Thorn and she looked rather miserable. She kept throwing teary-eyed glances at Sirius under her bangs.

'Yes,' answered James apologetically.

'She was sending me love letters over the summer too,' said Sirius irritably. 'We broke up over the Christmas holiday. Get over it already, will you?' he said a little louder than he intended.

'It's your fault,' said Lily, overhearing their conversation. 'You shouldn't have dated her in the first place. I mean, what were you thinking?'

Sirius turned around to look at Parkinson briefly. There was a guilty smile on his face when he faced the others again.

'She's so hot,' he shrugged. Lily rolled her eyes and Remus grinned. 'Also, Slytherin girls are so easy. Once they know you're a pure-blood, you're a god to them.'

'Oh, really?' asked Lily with a mischievous grin she borrowed from James. 'So you can seduce any Slytherin girl, can you?

Sirius looked at Lily with narrowed eyes.

'What's on your head, red?'

Lily stared at Sirius defiantly for a while then gestured towards the Slytherin table with her head.

'Work your pure-blood charm on Toria then.' Her lips curved up in a confident smile. She knew only too well that Toria did not share the pure-blood mania that was very popular among the Slytherins.

Sirius snorted.

'Please,' he said with disregard. 'consider it done.'

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