Sorry for the delay, been having computer issues.

6

Part 18 – One Step Forward, Any Steps Back?

Harry woke with a massive headache and a growing feeling of nausea. With great effort he opened his eyes and tried to get a sip of the water from the glass the room had put in front of him. He fell back into darkness. The next time he woke his headache was gone, replaced by a horrible case of cottonmouth. He raised his head, and was surprised to see Neville was still out. Harry sat up slowly and drank some more water, before wishing off the hourglasses and standing up. He touched Neville's arm, and the other boy woke. They leaned on each other and staggered to the door, and fell through it into the hall.

"Bloody hell."

"Second that."

"Bloody hell."

Neville laughed. "Next time Seamus decides to try firewhiskey I'm making him try the room."

Harry gingerly sat up. "I am one big bruise."

"Beats the hangover effect from before though." Neville stood, and offered a hand up.

Back in the room, the boys went back to the potions area and downed another vial of revealer. Neville glowed white, while Harry was a light violet. Harry rolled his eyes, "Figures." Harry wished the hourglasses back on, and was about to drink the restorer potion when Neville stopped his hand.

"I think you should drink some water and go to the bathroom first, Harry. Or even wait a day or two."

"What?"

"Well, look." Neville pointed to the open door to Neville's bedroom. The room had ringed his bed with large dreamcatchers 2 on each side of the bed.

"I didn't know multiple dreamcatchers worked better than a single one..."

"Well, with having the larger one hanging just outside the little one, maybe the little one catches what the outer one misses."

"So if the room is expecting our next nights to be filled with nightmares, maybe I should wait a day or two for the first group to settle in."

Neville nodded, staring at the bed like it was a dementor.

hr

They didn't have long before their usual bedtime, when the memories would begin to come to the fore, and the prospect had both of the boys filled with dread. Without speaking they dove into training, hoping that physical exhaustion would ease their minds somehow. They ran, but as they hit their rhythm the dread of the nightmares to come kept eating at their minds. The room turned the track they were running into an obstacle course, and soon they were so intent on dodging curses and projectiles that they had no time to think.

They kept going, covered in sweat, running until they could run no more. Then they staggered and kept going. Finally over an hour later the room drenched them both with tepid water, and then surrounded them with jets of air. The boys finished drying themselves with a charm and stumbled to their bedrooms. As exhausted as they were, as soon as they hit their respective beds they collapsed into sleep. The room put blankets over them both.

When Harry woke up every muscle in his body was screaming with pain at the slightest move. With each breath pain lanced out from his shoulders to his neck like a stab wound. He moved his hands to push himself into a sitting position, hissing in a breath as he did so feeling like a ton of bricks had landed on him. He grabbed the pain potion and downed it thankful it had no lid, for he couldn't have removed it. As he let himself fall back flat onto the bed, he barely had time to think that falling wasn't as painful as rising before he was out again.

When he woke next he was still overly sore from the workout, but the potion had numbed the pain. He pulled himself out of bed and into the bathroom. Harry had to lean on the furniture and walls as he traveled as he became dizzy. When he made it to the bathroom, he found Neville asleep but strapped in under his arms so he couldn't fall under and drown in the large whirlpool spa. Stripping to his shorts, Harry climbed in, and was soon strapped in and asleep again.

The room woke them. Harry physically felt normal again, even though his skin felt extra sensitive and was wrinkled from the time in the spa. Harry was dying to ask Neville what he remembered, but dreading the same question in return. Instead, he like the other boy got out of the tub, grabbed a towel, and headed to his own room to get dressed.

hr

At the table, Neville still was bleary eyed as he read one of Ravenclaw's compendiums while shoveling porridge in his mouth.

Harry looked to Neville's room, and through the open door saw all the dreamcatchers were dripping a black tar. Harry's dreamcatcher hadn't even looked half as affected; his returning memories had met his expectations: wizards preventing muggle government from removing Harry from the Durselys'. "Are you alright?"

Neville looked up, and shook his head.

"Did you want to talk about it?"

"You guys were right. My uncle was a monster."

It took Harry a few moments to catch the reference, Neville's uncle had put him in danger to try to spark his magic or prove him a squib. "So it was more than just the time that proved you weren't a squib?"

Neville shook his head, "He never stopped. Anytime I was alone with him… Did you know I'm not clumsy at home? Never broke my arm tripping over my own feet, never broke my leg sliding down the banister…" Neville stared at the far wall.

"I'm sorry."

Neville shook himself, and pointed at Ravenclaw's book. "I kept waking up last night. So I asked the room to give me all the research done on animagus forms. Turns out rumors of the Founders having magical forms were, for once, understated."

"What?"

"According to Ravenclaw, Helga and Godric were experimenting with becoming animagii, and accidentally discovered how to obtain multiple forms. Apparently if you take the potion assume the form only once, and then take the potion again, you can obtain multiple forms. Ravenclaw apparently obtained seven forms once the other two told her, each smaller than the last."

"What was her smallest form?"

"A dragonfly. But I think they neglected another aspect, apparently she did them all in one afternoon right after another."

"So the size factor might be a sign of magical energy."

"And it looks like they didn't let the potion age."

Harry moaned, "There was only one article that mentioned allowing the Animagus Potion to cure would improve the outcome, and the author himself said there was no firm way to judge."

"All the other potions in that class are more effective after aging."

"Pity the room doesn't have any foreign potions journals for us to check out."

Neville replied, "Even if Snape did have any, he'd probably have them locked up too tight for the room to get at."

Harry sighed, "From the little the room & Binns know about the information blackout, Snape probably would be blackballed from most sources just from having his own potions registered here."

"Who'd have figured he was the one to make the last two imperius detection potions."

Harry shrugged, "Figures that the Ministry'd question the effectiveness since he had a black mark. I wondered how it could be an Unforgivable if there was no independent way to prove it happened. Besides imperius detection makes more sense than what Hermione thought he'd got his mastery for…"

"What?"

"She thought it was Wolfsbane. Didn't listen when I said he wouldn't have unmasked Lupin if he was using him as a guinea pig."

Neville shrugged, "I think he'd be more likely to, if Snape was done with him. No credit sharing that way, ."

They calculated how much potion they could make given the remains of their potions kits, and discovered it was only ten doses worth if they didn't discard the withered edges, eight if they did. They decided for Harry to take the Restorer Potion and to brew and let cure the Animagus Potion. Each of the boys wanted the chance to have multiple forms, and knew they'd be too impatient to hold themselves to a single transformation to each form.

Harry started laughing. "Could you imagine Snape's face if he heard us talking about potions?"

Neville smiled, "His head would explode."

ooOOOoo

It was with a growing sense of anxiety that Harry bolted down the second Restorer Potion. He clasped his hands over his mouth as his butterflies turned to outright nausea after consuming the potion. Harry clenched his eyes shut, and tried to concentrate on his breathing without reaching a meditative state. As Harry's head began to throb hotly with pain, he had enough time to decide that passing out quickly last time had been a blessing, before the darkness finally took him.

ooOOOoo

When Harry woke, he was surprised that Neville was no where to be seen. Quickly Harry did a tempus, and was shocked to discover that it had been over four hours since he had taken the potion. He sat up woozily and with one hand bracing him up, slowly reached for and sipped the glass of water the room provided. Though his head seemed to throb with every thought, Harry couldn't help but wonder what made this second experience with the potion worse. Could it have been just that it had cured longer? Was it an overdose, with not having much repressed? Or did fate or whatever just hate him. Setting down his glass, Harry collapsed back down onto the floor clutching his head. Fate just hated him.

ooOOOoo

When Harry next woke, his head no longer felt like a kettle drum. He sat up, his muscles protesting from lying on the floor and staggered to the bathroom. When he got out a sweating, dirt covered Neville greeted him.

"I had the room get me when you woke up again. Did you need help going out?" Neville then looked down at his dirt caked pants, and waved his hand, only to get partial results from the wandless cleaning charm he'd tried.

Harry sagged a bit more against the frame of the door. They'd known that the gains in wandless magic they'd made would be set back as much as their occulmency. But seeing Neville have trouble with the first wandless charm the other boy had mastered made Harry fear that they might have far more troubles than they had thought they would.

Neville repeated the charm, slipped past Harry to wash his hands, then helped Harry to the door. After Harry remembered to wish off the hourglasses, the door opened. Unlike last time, Neville wasn't affected by leaving the room, so was able to catch Harry's suddenly dead weight as he passed out again crossing the threshold. But like last time Harry quickly recovered, and Neville brought him back in the room as soon as Harry regained his footing.

The room had made a couch right by the door; after helping Harry sit, Neville sat himself on the other end. "Harry? Don't forget to turn the hourglasses back on."

With a shrug, Harry complied. They both sat, staring off into space for a long time. Neville finally noticed Harry's breathing was becoming audibly raspy. Looking over at his friend, Neville saw a few tears had begun to leak from Harry's eyes. "Did you want to tell me?"

Harry took a deep breath. "The ones I just got back are actually back, and I would love more to come after dreaming tonight. He took my memories of my family." Harry took a drink of water from the glass the room suddenly gave him. "I'd thought it was because I was so young. Muggles, at least, usually don't remember anything before they're toddlers."

"Wizards do. That's why the Rites of Introduction are so elaborate, after all why have a ceremony for naming godparents if the child won't remember it?"

"So you remember yours?"

Neville sighed, "Ours you mean. Not until last night. It was one of the few things Dumbledore did to me instead of my uncle."

Harry smiled and bumped his shoulder into his friend's, "And do you still have the toy quidditch men?"

Neville laughed. "I had thought that was just a dream from a quidditch match I'd been to or something. Imagine how different things might have been if my Gran had only seen us fly the men around my room."

"Your dad was so proud. Though I'm not sure which of us had the men that crashed into my dad."

Neville stood up abruptly. "My dad… Wouldn't he have bragged to his mom?" Neville turned to face Harry. "Could my Gran have been oblivated too?"

"Maybe." Harry shrugged, "I don't really have a sense of time for those memories, they're just sort of jumbled up. It might have been in October."

Neville sat back down. "I had wondered who my godmother was."

Harry laughed, "I hadn't. Sorta stupid. I mean, my mom had to have friends, especially since they weren't supposed to have got on so well when they were younger." Harry bumped into his friend's shoulder again, "I'm glad our moms were friends. Makes me wonder though, why she wasn't listed as a possible guardian in my parents' will."

Neville sighed, "She might have been, but that part of a will would be set to automatically update. If it was first read after… then it would be frozen without my parents as possible guardians."

"Sorry, I didn't realize… Would it have removed people who tried to kill me?"

"Anyone who intended you serious physical harm at the time of the reading."

"Dumbledore knew."

Neville turned and looked sharply at Harry. "What?"

"If Sirius had betrayed us, he couldn't have been listed as a guardian."

"We need to find a truth potion that works on Occulmens, Harry. And a way to make the revealing potion nontoxic."

"Damn him."

Thanks for reading. Needed to get this part out as it kept changing on me.