Chapter 21
The girls flopped down onto Molly's bed.
All Molly wanted was for everything to be fine.
Rosie yawned and stretched out her arms.
She wished her parents could just be happy again!
Smash.
The potion on Molly's beside table tumbled to the ground.
Molly backed slowly towards the door, stuffing what was left of her hands in her pockets as she did so. When her back finally hit the door, she turned and sprinted back through the corridors to the common room. She could hear her family calling her back but ignored them, she had a very good idea about what was causing this and she needed to talk to Matt and Rosie.
After practically yelling the password at the Fat Lady, Molly bounded through the portrait hole and marched over to where her best friends sat. Completely ignoring the fact they were both immersed in homework, Molly grabbed their arms and hauled them over to an empty corner.
Matt smiled brightly at Molly, "What's up?"
Molly smiled back, it was infectious, "Oh, nothing much," her face fell, "Except my dad's forgotten I exist."
"What?" Matt and Rosie whisper-shouted at the same time, their jaws dropping simultaneously.
"Completely forgotten me," Molly continued, "doesn't recognise me at all!"
"But he's your dad!" Matt protested.
"Tell him that!" Molly sighed, as she slowly removed her hands from her pockets, "And now this is happening."
Matt's eyes widened and he passed his hand across the area which used to be taken up by his friend's fingers, "Where've they gone?"
"I'm fading," Molly said, as though that answered Matt's question, "My parents have forgotten who I am. Pretty soon, all my family will have and I'll completely vanish."
Rosie looked at her own hands and gasped, "My nails!"
Two heads snapped to look at her and Matt raised his hands too. "Oh my god," he muttered, "We're all fading!"
"Professor McGonagall!" Rosie suddenly exclaimed, "And Professor Longbottom, they forgot the students too! Our lives are being reversed!"
"Why though?" Matt asked into his friend's shocked silence.
That's when Molly's face fell, "Erm, do you remember that potion that Roz knocked off my bedside table?" she asked awkwardly.
Rosie groaned and Matt slapped a hand to his forehead.
"It was when my parents were still arguing, and before we knew about the baby!" Molly sighed, "I remember thinking that I wished my parents could be happy again and that everything was all fine! Then ever since that bottle smashed, adults have been forgetting us! Maybe whatever magic was in that potion is reversing time until it's back to when my parents were happiest!"
"That's-" Rosie began.
"-crazy," Matt finished, "but it makes sense."
"Well, not really," Rosie said, "It doesn't make sense at all. After all, what type of magic can do that?"
"But the timing, the follow-up, everything! I bet you anything we could write to my mum right now and she wouldn't even know she's married, let alone pregnant. She will have forgotten all about the magical world, and me and-" Molly choked on her words, "-and dad," she finished sadly.
Matt wrapped Molly in a hug, just a chaos took over the common room around them.
"My fingers!" One girl shouted.
"What's going on?" someone else said in a panic.
"Where's my hand?" someone cried.
Within seconds, the entire common room was in uproar as students looked down, noticing that they could no longer hold their quills.
Over the bedlam, Molly could just hear a faint knocking coming from the portrait hole.
"The password's 'almighty'," a student was shouting as they banged desperately on the wall, "I've told you already!"
"And I've told you, young man, that it most certainly is not! I don't recognise you either!" the Fat Lady screeched back.
Molly began to walk towards the portrait hole as the shouting continued, "You don't recognise me? I've come through this passage at least three times a day for five years!"
"Don't be utterly ridiculous! If that were true, I'd at least know your face slightly!"
"Well then maybe you need to be more observant!" the student shouted back.
Molly reached the entrance and pushed the door open from the inside to let the student in. He looked at her gratefully before pushing past Molly and heading over to his friends.
Matt, Rosie and Molly crossed the common room to join Jake, Steph, Tara, Amy and Matt's mate Ollie Bradford. Jake had his arm draped over Steph's shoulders as the poor girl shivered in fear, staring at her missing fingertips.
"The poor lamb's scared," Jake smirked at Steph who batted his arm and complained.
"I'm not scared," she pouted, "Just confused."
"Sure," Jake replied, stroking her gently on the cheek, "You tell yourself that, sweetie."
Matt laughed, "I take it you got your girl then?" he said to Jake.
"Yeah, I did!" Jake whooped, "Although at this rate I'm going to lose her again," he said, indicating to his girlfriend's hands.
"Any idea why this is happening?" Ollie asked, inspecting his own half hands, "We can't think of anything!"
Molly coughed awkwardly and looked at Matt and Rosie.
"No," Matt deadpanned, "We have no idea."
"Do you reckon it has anything to do with what happened to Professor McGonagall?" Tara asked as she flicked one of her long ginger plaits behind her shoulder.
Again, Molly squirmed uncomfortably on the sofa, but this time it didn't go unnoticed.
"Are you alright, Mol?" Tara asked, "You look a little pale."
"I think we're all a little shaken at the moment," Molly quickly lied, "I'm going up to the dorms, I'll see you guys later."
And with that, Molly skipped up the staircase, just in time to hide her falling tears.