I forgot everything. I could only feel the warmth of the sun on my back and the warmth of her body on mine. I wrapped my arms around her and almost could feel tears of happiness welling in my eyes. I surprised her by responding so enthusiastically to her light good morning kiss, that she broke away for a moment. I looked at her, already bracing myself for the waves of crushing disappointment that were guaranteed to come. This was when I would wake up from the glorious dream. It always was. But she kept looking at me and I kept staring back. She wasn't fading and my vision wasn't going blurry.
"Well good morning to you too!" she said laughing. She tossed her hair back, and I was lost in her beauty. I moved closer to her, and she did not move away, or flinch. Instead she sat down on the lawn chair and pulled me on top of her. She kissed me and the world flipped upside-down. She was everything and without her the world was gone, a blank, empty, colorless space. I pressed myself into the kiss. My hands were tangled in her hair and I knew that I would never let her go. How had I lived without her?
She broke away, smiling and whispered "We can't ... Not now... Rose." She nodded towards the door to the house. Rose... The name was strange on my tongue at first, but then a face connected to it, the face of the small girl. More memories connected with the name flashed through my head. Memories that weren't there before. Lily holding Rose as a newborn baby, Rose and I walking through a park, chasing butterflies, Rose saying "Good night, daddy, I love you" after I read her a bedtime story.
"Right, Rose, our daughter." I said in understanding. She smiled at me with that beautiful smile and gestured that we head back into the house.
Rose was still there in the kitchen eating a stack of pancakes. It surprised me that she wasn't extremely chubby, but I smiled to myself as I recalled that she could eat monstrous amounts of food. Where were all these memories coming from? Lily went over to clean up the dishes and I headed back to the bedroom to get dressed.
I went over to the mirror and studied my reflection. There were frown lines in my face, but not nearly as deep as they used to be. I was definitely healthier, but there was something else too. I dug around in my brain trying to figure it out. I thought of Lily and Rose, two beautiful girls in my house and a smile flitted across my face. There it was again. That startling difference. I smiled again. I felt like I couldn't remember the last time I smiled, but then I did remember smiling, thousands of times. I was letting my emotions come to the surface, something that I had perfected the exact art of not doing.
Something extremely weird was going on. I could remember thoughts of my life, but they all seemed blurry and faded, like long forgotten dreams. I knew several things though. There was a war, I was a double agent, and everyone hated me... That stood out rather clearly, and most of all, the woman that was supposedly in this house, should have been long dead.
There was only one thing for it. I needed to speak to Albus.