Chapter I
The Girl Who Slumbered

Crack

The first time she woke up, all she could feel was pain. The stiffness of her joints, the tightness surrounding her chest, and- oh Merlin, her head. The pounding inside her skull was relentless, and if she could feel her eyes, they would be screwed shut.

What was going on? Why was she in so much agony? Where was she? Why couldn't she see?!

Crack

She tried moving her limbs, believing herself to be in a standing position but having no luck with moving her legs. The only movement she could feel was in the fingers of her right hand, and the more she wiggled them, the freer they felt.

It was like they were held around something that was no longer there, but the extra space granted her the freedom to clench, and she felt a hard substance crumble and fall from around her fist.

CrackCrackCrack

The more she fought to release herself from whatever had confined her, the more those sounds echoed around her. She pulled her arm back from its position held high, trying to work the rest of the substance off her arm, and it was working. The pain in her head was making it difficult to concentrate, so she focused on the relief she felt in her body as more of it was finally exposed to the air after… how long?

With the substance now falling from her shoulder, she brought her hand to her face to get a sense of what she was working with, and was horrified to find the texture of stone beneath her fingertips. Panic shot through her like a bolt of lightning, so she started clawing at the stone as well as pulling away from it with every muscle she could control in the rest of her body.

With one arm free, the stone at her right side was considerably weaker which fortunately made it easier to scrape it off from her neck and face. Taking in a large gulp of air, she allowed herself to slow down and rest so she wouldn't exhaust herself too quickly.

'What… happened to me?' she thought to herself as she scoured her surroundings. She was in some kind of chamber, but certainly not one you would just stumble upon during your daily life. It was built with a kind of metal that shone like gold and a blue/green swirled marble. There was another material she noticed that looked… active, but she could not identify whatever it was. It was like water trapped beneath a sheet of glass, but it didn't move like it should if that was the case.

'This is- is this The Map Chamber?' she asked herself, looking around in bewilderment. She didn't recognise the environment at first, likely because she was still disorientated from whatever had put her in this situation, but the intricately crafted gold barriers around the perimeter were a dead giveaway. She couldn't yet angle her head to look behind her, but she was sure the four great portraits of the Keepers were there.

Peering down at herself, she confirmed that the substance she was coated in didn't just feel like stone, but it looked like it too. 'At least it's not all that difficult to get rid of.' She began to work the rest of it off, shaking the remnants from her head before moving on to her other arm. Within a few seconds she had successfully freed her upper half, realising with a smirk that she'd be able to walk herself out of here in no time.

Her legs were now almost free as well, which meant whatever spell had been used to seal her clearly wasn't all that. Next time whoever - or whatever - decided to try it again, they were gonna wish they'd just finished the job the old fashioned way. Or maybe they didn't kill her because they couldn't? It seemed like a preposterous notion (surely a well-placed shot of the Killing Curse would've been much simpler than this), but if the last year had proved anything, it was that it's extraordinarily difficult to kill V-

"Vail, eh? Felt like I was duelling an expert." A boy with thick brown hair looked at her with an intrigued spark in his eyes. "Sebastian Sallow, by the way."

Her hands shot up to the sides of her head which now felt like it was splitting apart, and a strangled cry broke out from her throat. Sebastian! Where was he? The last time she had seen him was in the Undercroft, arguing with Ominis after… after what? Sebastian had done something - something terrible - so why couldn't she remember?

"No matter what happens from here - I'm glad we met."

With a horrified sob, she realised that her memories of Sebastian were unravelling.

He had a sister, Anne. She was ill with… something. A disease? A curse? A poison?

Ominis was always mad at him. Ominis was his best friend. Who was Ominis?

He lived in Feldcroft with his uncle and his sister. His uncle had died. Killed?

He was in Slytherin. He was her closest friend. What was his sister's name?

He lived in Cragcroft- no, Feldcroft. South of the school. What school? For witchcraft and wizardry. Who was the Headmaster? Not important. What school?

She went there with him. He was her classmate. He was her friend. He was-

… who is 'he'?

"No!" she wept, her knees buckling underneath her. Piece by piece, she could feel parts of her being erased. Everyone and everything she had known. Why was this happening? What kind of dark magic could do such a thing?!

Fragments of her memories flashed before her. The wind whipping through her hair as she soared above the clouds on the back of Highwing - Natty's gleeful cheer filling the night sky. The unbridled delight of witnessing the hatching of the golden snidgets she and Poppy had worked so hard to protect. Amit's awestruck gasp when they had discovered the secret of the astronomy tables together.

She had to get out of here. If she could get to the surface, she could find someone that might be able to help her. Someone that might know what was happening to her.

"Well, I'm quite sure I've never seen anyone take so quickly to a second-hand wand," said the old man in front of her. This man - Professor Fig - had been her mentor over summer as he prepared her for the transfer to-

Fig! He would know, right? He had to. He had to. There's no one else that could help-

"You need to contain it!" the wizard yelled over the booming of rock and debris falling all around them. He held his wand in both hands, struggling to keep the cavern's ceiling from crushing them both. His chest- there was so much blood.

Then her vision went white.

The second time she woke up, she felt like someone had laid her down on a bed of clouds. Cracking her eyes open, she took in her new surroundings and deduced she was in a medical ward of some kind.

There were beds lined up against the walls, four on each side including the one she was occupying, separated by a portable curtain that looked like it could be extended to obscure the entire length of a bed. There was also a bedside table next to each one, and when looking over at the table closest to her, she could see a folded royal blue cloak and a charcoal coloured scarf.

Were they hers?

With a groan of reluctance, she sat herself up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, but she had to pause for a moment as she briefly felt a dizzy spell overtake her. The sound of a door opening made her whip her head around, and it seemed like the woman looking at her felt equally as surprised as she did.

"Careful now, don't get up so quickly!" said the old woman, dressed in a long crimson robe with a white pinafore apron and a cap on her head to keep her greying hair back. She grabbed a metal jug from a nearby shelf and a glass cup before rushing over to her side. "You've been unconscious for hours, so you must be thirsty. Drink up."

The woman - the matron of the hospital wing, she guessed - filled the glass with a clear liquid and gave it to her. She looked down at the glass, her brow furrowing, and then looked up at the matron with a questioning expression.

"Oh don't look at me like that, it's just water. If I wanted to kill you we wouldn't be having this conversation, now would we?" she tutted.

A fair point.

While the matron moved over to the foot of the bed to grab a clipboard that had been hanging from the frame, the girl brought the glass to her mouth - slowly. Now that she had begun moving again, her muscles ached a little and the effort required to hold the glass was definitely unusually high for her. Admittedly she was quite parched, so the water went down her throat faster than she had intended, which caused her to choke and cough a little.

"Watch you don't drown yourself in my infirmary, the paperwork is brutal," warned the matron, but there was a slight undertone of amusement in her words. She pulled something out of the pocket of her apron - a wand - and with a flick, a sheet of paper from the clipboard folded itself into a triangle shape and whizzed out through the doors.

"Where am I?" she asked, her voice sounding hoarse. That caused the matron to pause.

"Did you bump your head?" she asked with a frown, putting down the chart and returning to the bedside. She felt around the girl's head but seemed to come up empty for whatever she was looking for. "You're at Hogwarts, dear. Gave the house elves quite a shock when they found you down in the dungeons. What were you doing there? Term hasn't even started yet."

Hogwarts? House elves? Dungeons?

"Um… I'm sorry, I don't… I don't understand."

The matron's lips contracted into a fine line.

"Well I can't find anything physically wrong with you, except dehydration but that's normal in these circumstances. I'm afraid you'll have to speak to Professor Dumbledore." Before she could ask who that was, the matron looked over her shoulder and smiled. "Perfect timing, Professor McGonagall."

The girl turned around once again to see another older woman, but this one was dressed in emerald robes over a black long-sleeved dress, topped with a pointy black hat. She had a stern expression on her face, but it softened slightly when she looked at the two in the wing.

"Thank you," said the woman. The matron nodded her head before leaving through the wing's side door, the same one she had entered through earlier.

She watched nervously as Professor McGonagall approached the bed with an air of scrutiny around her. The girl got the feeling that this professor had a notable level of authority, judging by the way she carried herself as she walked. When the professor reached the foot of the bed, she looked down at the girl and hummed in a way that sounded like she was clearing her throat.

After a moment, she spoke. "If you're capable of getting to your feet, then do so now and follow me."

She opened her mouth to respond, but the professor didn't wait. Instead, she turned back the way she came. Cursing internally, the girl realised she didn't have any shoes on so she started looking around the area surrounding the bed. Not by the table, not on the other side, not behind the curtain- aha! There was a pair of knee-high brown leather boots tucked away under the bed. Knowing they almost certainly didn't belong to anyone else, the girl quickly slipped them on, smiling at how they seemed to fit her perfectly. Definitely hers, then.

Jumping up from the bed, she swiftly made her way out the door to follow the professor who hadn't gotten very far, so she managed to catch up in seconds. The woman pulled out her wand when the girl fell into step behind her and gave it a swish before returning it to wherever it came from. The girl looked at the professor's back curiously, but 'oh'd in understanding when the cloak and scarf that had been on the bedside table floated over to her and landed on her shoulders.

"Fizzing Whizbee." The great bronze gargoyle, satisfied by the answer given, started twisting upwards which revealed a stone staircase. Once it had settled into place, Professor McGonagall started climbing the stairs without giving the girl a second look. Knowing she had no choice but to follow, the girl continued after her.

At the top of the stairs was a circular office of some kind, complete with books that lined the left wall, a cabinet of curiosities on the right wall, and a claw-footed desk near the back wall. On either side of said desk was a staircase that led up to the next floor, but she couldn't see what was up there from this angle. Scattered around the room were dozens of portraits, each with the image of a person - for some reason, they all appeared to be sleeping.

"Ah, there you are," came a calm and pleasant voice to her left. Standing by one of the book cases, coincidentally with a book in hand, was a tall man that looked older than the professor that had guided her here. He wore a colourful robe and had long silver hair with a matching beard that could be tucked into his belt. His eyes were a piercing blue that held none of the scrutiny that surrounded Professor McGonagall, and instead just seemed… curious. "What an exciting day it is for us at Hogwarts, and the school's academic year hasn't even begun yet," he commented with a chuckle, moving to sit at the desk.

Professor McGonagall took a place at the left side of the desk and gestured for the girl to come further into the room, so she did and it was then that she noticed another person in the office with them. He was leaning against the wall on the right and had been obscured from her view until now.

This man, presumably another professor, was thin and dressed in all black robes. His hair, also black, was shoulder length and rather greasy, and his face looked like it may be in a permanent scowl. Or maybe that was just because she was there.

The girl had no idea what to do. To be honest, the only reason she hadn't freaked out already was because she hadn't had the time to gather her thoughts yet. She was just working without thinking at all, doing what she was being told to at least to buy herself some time. The most worrying thing about this whole situation wasn't the three people staring holes into her, and neither was it the high likelihood that said people were all armed while she wasn't.

'If they start asking me questions, what fuck am I going to say?'

As it had occurred to her only minutes ago, the girl didn't even know her own name, which seemed ridiculous. The matron had claimed no physical injuries, and yet surely she must've missed something because how else would she be walking around without a single meaningful thought or idea about who she was? She should've looked around harder. Should've checked the clipboard in the infirmary. Should've tried to find a label or some other identifier on the clothes she was wearing.

"I have been Headmaster of Hogwarts for many years, some even say too many years," the old man began, "and I can claim with confidence that I could name every single student that has passed through these halls during my tenure. So I'm sure you can imagine why it might be concerning that I… have not a single clue as to who you are or where you came from."

At this, the girl let out a nervous laugh. When in doubt, go with the truth. They'd believe her, right? At least the older man looked willing enough to listen. "I'm sure I'd love nothing more than to tell you, Professor…?"

"Dumbledore."

Ah, the one the matron had mentioned. Should've guessed. "Professor Dumbledore. However I appear to be facing one small obstacle."

"And that is?"

"I… think I have amnesia."

Finally the man in black spoke - or rather, scoffed - at her answer. "You can't be serious. If you'd really like us to believe you, I would've gone for something much more believable than 'amnesia'."

"Professor Snape, please." Professor Dumbledore raised his hand to the other man who rolled his eyes, but kept his mouth shut.

The girl shifted between looking at the Headmaster and McGonagall to gauge their reactions to Snape's response. If either of them agreed with his judgement, they didn't show it.

"I'm really not sure what else to tell you, Professors," she replied sheepishly, biting her bottom lip for a moment before realising that may make her look suspicious.

"Why don't we start with something simple, hm? Do you know your name? Or any details about yourself?"

The girl exhaled softly and looked around the room. It was a fair question, but one she was struggling to answer. She had already established with herself that a name was impossible to give but, come to think of it, what about any other names? Her parents' names? Did she even have parents? She tried to recall any information about them, even just their faces, but it was all just… blank.

Was that sad? She thought it might be.

What was one supposed to imagine when they thought of their parents? Love? Comfort? Safety? That should be normal, but she also knew that wasn't the reality for an unfortunately large number of people, especially in the wizarding world. Pure-blood families, specifically the kind that invested a lot of value into blood status, have been known to provide less than stellar parenting. Could she belong to one of these families? Were there people out there kicking up a fuss about her being missing?

She took a break in her thinking when she noticed a disturbing looking leather hat on a shelf that appeared to be… staring at her. Weird.

Then there was perhaps the opposite. What if she had been exiled from her family? What if she had disappointed them in some way? Stained the family name, snogged a muggle-born, or was born a squib. Hell, even just telling your great-aunt that her dress made her look fat would be enough to be kicked out and disowned in some circles.

How did she know all this? If she wasn't trying to appear as neutral as possible, her face would've screwed up in confusion. She could make jokes about pure-bloods and their bullshit but didn't know what her parents named her or where she lay her head at night.

Oh, these professors were going to have an utter field day interrogating her.

"Professor Dumbledore, if I may," the greasy man turned his attention from her to the Headmaster. "Just a few drops of Veritaserum and we'll get all we need to know." The Headmaster held up his hand once again, but Professor Snape continued regardless. "Need I remind us all of the uneasy times we are in? The Dark Lord would not be above sending in a child to do his dirty work if he believed there was even a slight chance it would work."

At this, even Professor McGonagall, who had stayed silent this entire time, nodded in reluctant agreement.

"I appreciate your candour as always, Severus, but I do not believe we are yet at that stage," Professor Dumbledore said with a smile, then turning back to the girl. "Please, sit with me over here. My first mistake was not allowing you to be comfortable."

"'Dark Lord'?" she asked as she sat down on one of the two puffy chairs in front of the desk. It was very soft.

"A power-obsessed megalomaniac hell-bent on spreading darkness and despair so that he may take control and rid the wizarding world of those with muggle heritage."

The girl stared at the old man with a dumbstruck expression.

"But let's not fret about that, it's not important right now. What is important is getting to the bottom of your sudden appearance in our school. Could you explain what you were doing down in the dungeons? From what I've been told, it appears you were unconscious just outside a gate to a storage corridor."

Now that she had a better view of the man, she spotted the book that he was holding earlier. It was on his desk in front of him, and he had his hand on top of it like she was going to try and grab it and run.

It was bound with leather and had a bronze clasp to keep it closed, and it looked to be packed full with parchment paper. The cover was emblazoned with the letter 'H' on top of a coat of arms, but she couldn't see any details beyond that.

"I'm afraid I really don't know, Professor. You say I'm at Hogwarts, but I don't know what or where that is except for that it is a school, and only because you've mentioned that. I don't know what you mean by 'dungeons' as I'd have no idea why such a thing would exist in a school, and as this conversation has progressed I have to admit that I'm worried I'll be finding that out very soon." She suddenly felt very stiff all over again. To stop herself from bouncing her leg skittishly she pressed them both together tightly with her hands trapped between her thighs.

Professor Dumbledore observed her for a few moments longer. Then he shifted his gaze over to Professor McGonagall who looked right back at him. Then he did the same with Professor Snape. Then he turned back to her.

"Very well, Miss Vail. I believe you."

. . .

"Sorry?" asked 'Miss Vail'. Even the old man's fellow professors did a double take.

"Albus?" Professor McGonagall looked taken aback the most by the Headmaster's reveal.

Professor Dumbledore opened up the book to the first page, spun it around so that it faced the girl and pushed it forward as a wordless request to see for herself.

She leaned closer to the desk to inspect the book, and there it was in the top corner.

Tempest Alderose Vail.

Tempest.

Alderose.

Vail.

She sounded it out in her mind a dozen times.

"I don't like that name." Her face scrunched up. "Are you sure it's mine?"

"Well, this book was found in this bag," he reached under his desk and pulled out a satchel that was meant to cross over one shoulder, "which was found on your person. Forgive the intrusion, but I skim read through it and it seems to be a sort of study guide for a fifth year student at Hogwarts. Given that you look to be around fifteen or sixteen years old, and you were found in the school, I would be happy to conclude that this does indeed belong to you."

"How can we be so sure that this is not all just part of some concoction meant to deceive us?" asked Professor Snape again, though with the inclusion of the book he did appear to be at least slightly less sure that there was a conspiracy brewing.

"Call it an old man's intuition, as well as perhaps a smidge of Legilimency." Professor Dumbledore leaned back into his chair with his elbows on the armrests and his fingers intertwined in front of him.

'If I didn't feel so thoroughly put out of place by him, I would've thought that he was just someone's gentle grandfather,' Tempest- no, Vail (that sounded much better) thought to herself. She wasn't sure whether she should feel relaxed or uneasy around him, and that was probably the intended effect. 'And what's 'Legilimency'?'

"Really, Albus? You're getting nothing at all?" asked the woman at his side. She sighed and shook her head, looking about ready to just toss her hands in the air and call it a day.

"Nothing that could answer our questions. I can only see as far back as her waking up in the hospital wing. There are no other memories beyond that and, I hope you don't take any offence to this, Miss Vail, but I find it truly fascinating."

"Well, I'm glad someone does," she snapped back without thinking. The Headmaster either didn't take notice of the added attitude in her reply, or he dismissed it. She was thankful regardless.

"I must, once again, be the one to suggest the involvement of the Dark Lord. As you're well aware, he is an accomplished Legilimens, which is an understatement, and so there arises the possibility that he has simply 'hidden away' that which he does not want to be revealed until the time is right," Professor Snape explained as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Madam Pomfrey has already ruled out any physical ailments which only leaves magical manipulation as the reason for this 'amnesia'."

"I agree with you, Severus-"

Vail's face dropped.

"- on the matter of magical manipulation. There is undoubtedly some dark sorcery at hand here, but I am sure that the Dark Lord has nothing to do with Miss Vail here. Not just because his preferred use of Legilimency is for torture and interrogation, not subtlety and assassination, but also because of this," the Headmaster reached across the desk to pick up the book again. He stood up from his chair and began to walk slowly around the room, explaining his thoughts as he did so.

"I have thoroughly enjoyed reading through this study guide, Miss Vail. You take some beautiful notes, and I'm pleased to see that you take your studies seriously. I'm sure you were an excellent student." He paused, like he'd had a thought. "You'd probably get along marvellously with a few students in this incoming fifth year class."

With a look of impatience from Professor McGonagall, he nodded and continued. "Unfortunately you didn't seem to note down anything personal about yourself. There's no mention of where you came from, your family or your friends; you are a complete enigma in that regard. Nevertheless, we at least know that you are indeed a witch at this school, despite your lack of uniform and wand, which is a promising start in finding out the truth."

'That's actually an excellent point. Where's my wand?' she patted herself down but came up empty.

"The thing I find most fascinating, however, also happens to be a strong hint as to why you are such a mystery. It explains why I have no recollection of you and why you've never heard of the most infamous dark wizard of our time. It even explains your clothes, which are lovely, but very out of place for this time period."

"'Time period'?" Vail asked aloud. 'My clothes?' she asked herself, looking down at them. She hadn't had a reason to question them thus far.

A knee-length blue coat that split between her thighs on both sides, and was closed at her back with leather laces, as well as a leather harness that had a holster for a wand on her left side. She also wore leather armguards and a pair of duelling gloves. She thought it was all fairly standard gear to have, but apparently not.

"Yes, my dear." Professor Dumbledore finally approached her with the book in hand, taking a seat on the chair next to her. "On this page is your first entry which was for your first class: Defence Against the Dark Arts. You learned the Levitation Spell, Levioso..."

He again turned the book to face her so that she could read it.

"... in the year 1890, which was almost exactly 105 years ago."

A few hours had passed since her experience in the Headmaster's office, and now it was nightfall. As she lay on the bed in the hospital wing, since that was really the only place she could stay, and wearing a plain cotton top and trousers that the matron had given her to change into, she went over the events of that day in an effort to process what they meant for her.

To start with, the two younger professors had immediately jumped to calling Vail's so-called 'time travel' an absurd notion. Not only was travelling forward in time an impossibility, but travelling so far came with catastrophic consequences that would have shown themselves by now. As such, Professor Dumbledore answered these irregularities with one simple explanation: she did not time travel.

This time, Professor McGonagall had actually thrown her hands up in the air in exasperation, asking the Headmaster how else her jump in time (which was technically 104 years as her last entry was dated in 1891) could be explained as she showed no sign of ageing and did not appear to be using any transfigurations to disguise herself.

The Headmaster could not answer that, but claimed that whatever the reason, he looked forward to finding out.

They had also mentioned that while she had been conscious, Professors Dumbledore and Snape had went down into the dungeons to investigate the site of her appearance, but discovered nothing out of the ordinary, no matter how many times they used the Revelio charm or other means of revealing the unknown. It was like she had just popped into existence right on the dusty old floor.

Professor Snape had immediately suggested referring to the Headmaster of that time, Phineas Nigellus Black, to which she was shocked when Professor Dumbledore had turned to address one of the portraits on the wall, and it talked back to him.

Unfortunately the portrait was of no use as, unlike the current Headmaster, he had no interest in "wasting energy in the unremarkable", which roughly translated into 'I have no idea what you're talking about'. The professors were seemingly not surprised by this portrait's lack of knowledge or care.

At least he had allowed her to take the study guide with her, although Professor Snape wasn't too pleased about that. She spent some time sitting on the bed looking through the book under candlelight, but nothing in it jogged her memory (assuming there was anything in there to jog in the first place). Most of the book was actually filled with details about Hogwarts itself and the surrounding areas, which was nice, so she was no longer completely clueless about where she was. There was still the pressing issue of her missing wand, which was quite disheartening. A wizard's or witch's wand was an absolute essential part of them, and to be without one was like walking around naked.

Which then leads on to the next thing that happened: Professor Dumbledore's plan.

While Professors Snape and McGonagall had suggested passing her over to either St. Mungo's (wizarding society's best known hospital) or the Ministry, Professor Dumbledore had immediately shot that down and claimed neither of those places would get anything done for her, and that "help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it". Vail had almost broken down crying when he turned to her, the question unspoken but still asked.

To stop herself from becoming a blubbering mess in front of the professors, she had made a joke about her name sounding like someone had dropped a bunch of pompous sounding words into a hat and pulled them out at random, to which Professor Dumbledore shared his full name with her in sympathy: Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. He requested that she not ask where his parents got "Brian" from.

With the start of term being two days from now (it was Friday and the students and the rest of the faculty were expected to arrive on Sunday) it was decided that Vail should enrol yet again as a fifth year student with the hopes of triggering some memories for her. At worst, she would at least have a chance at having a normal life after graduation.

Of course there was the slight issue of her lack of memory, but Dumbledore had suggested building her a false background. While transfers into wizarding schools were rare, especially as late as fifth year, they were not unheard of for those that had been thus far homeschooled by their families. Therefore her explanation was that her parents had tutored her in magic from the age of eleven, but over the summer had tragically died in an accident with their wills stating that their wish was for her education to continue at Hogwarts should the worst happen to them.

As for everything else, if she is ever asked a question that she cannot answer, she can simply claim selective amnesia as she too was in the same accident which left her with brain trauma.

Very straightforward. She saw no issues that could arise with such a plan.

So now there she lay, holding a mirror above her head to poke and prod at her face. It was a strange feeling to not recognise yourself, though in her case it's not like she had any idea what 'yourself' was. She could look between the face staring back at her now and the face of someone at random and she wouldn't be able to tell who the stranger was.

She had white skin, paler than both Dumbledore and McGonagall but nothing like Snape's sallow complexion. Golden blonde hair that came down to her chin and had some waviness to it, and vapid steel coloured eyes. Nothing beyond average, she would say, and the one unique feature she did have was a flaw: a thin, 2-inch long scar that cut across the end of her eyebrow on the left side.

She huffed and returned the mirror to the table that also held her cloak and scarf. She had put the boots back where she had found them originally, and the rest of her outfit was hung on a wire hanger that hooked over the bar of the portable curtains.

To feel nothing while looking into a face that she would've realistically seen every day was frustrating, to say the least. She questioned multiple times how she was expected to "trigger" any memories if she wasn't familiar with anything around her, but couldn't come up with an answer.

'It's not like I have a choice,' she supposed, sighing as she turned over onto her side in the bed. 'No family, no friends, no options. My best chance is to just get through school here and hope for a miracle.'

Author's Notes:
To start off with, this is my first fanfic (woohoo!) so, go easy on me?

For real though, I've dabbled in and out of writing over the last few years but never given it a proper shot, so while I'm super excited to share this with you all, I'm also very nervous! I don't have a career in writing or anything, this is just purely a hobby, so please forgive any mistakes! Especially since I'm sure most of you are probably quite familiar with the HP books, whereas I'm more a HP movies kind of person. Not to say I've never read the books (I have, but it was many years ago), but I can't guarantee everything in this fic will be book accurate all the time. I am consulting with my digital copy of the series, but occasionally you may find that the scenes I write line up more with the movies. So, let me know what you think? Maybe in a review? I'd really appreciate it! :D

I'm also probably going to be using the game as a resource quite often, at least for the layout of the school and the surrounding areas, just because it's so much easier to establish where things are and how they connect to each other. Speaking of the game, I acknowledge that there is quite a large difference in combat compared to the kind shown in the main HP universe. E.g. in the game you can easily take on a dozen enemies with four spells and can mercilessly cut them down without batting an eye, whereas that kind of feat in the main HP universe would be unheard of except in the cases of truly legendary wizards.

I will therefore have to "nerf" the player character, at least a little bit, but rest assured! I will still endeavour to treat her behaviour and abilities accurately, because she did manage to accomplish things that no ordinary witch or wizard could do. If that means having to "buff" the other characters in the fic a little, then so be it. One of my favourite things about the HP series is the magic (as I'm sure a lot of you would agree), so I'd be more than happy to explore and develop it further in this fic.

Also, the title of this chapter is pending (and the title of the story may also be a WIP subject to change; undecided on that). I'd like to call it something more meaningful than "Chapter 1", but I'm coming up empty as I type this. I'll probably have something figured out before I post the next chapter though.
Edit: gave the chapter a title.

For those of you who are curious, Vail is wearing "Herodiana's Attire" with the robe seen worn by the player character in the game's cover art, as well as the "Refined Duelling Gloves" and "Dusky Wool Scarf". She does not wear any face or head gear.