"A troll? Really?" Hermione sounds offended, and I can't help but feel the same too. We just bested a Basilisk. Well, I didn't help as much, but how would they think a troll could ever stop us after that? It was just waiting for us once we turned onto Charing Cross Road, which took a while. We had to take some of the back roads after Hermione demolished all those buildings, and it was disturbingly quiet. I don't know what Narcissa or Hermione were thinking about, but I was definitely thinking about what she said about hating her. I have a hard time considering she could say anything that would make me hate her, but… I do have a vivid imagination.

A part of me wonders if I even truly want to know.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" She casts the levitation spell on the troll without much fuss and it decided to watch it's club be raised above the ground rather than attack the caster… Merlin, trolls were dumb. As soon as it got at a decent height, she cancelled the spell and the club hit it right on top of the head. As the troll came down and I stare at Hermione, who looks bored.

"Oh, that's how I dealt with it the first time. Harry and Ron tried to distract him, but really, trolls are fairly stupid." She shrugs, "This was in my first year, so I was rather scared at the time-"

"Ouch." I wince, "Why was there a troll in Hogwarts?"

"Voldemort." It seems like everything ties back to him, but she just stares at the twitching troll and sighs, "If the Basilisk is the worst thing we have to deal with, I have to wonder what they're thinking. All of these obstacles ARE conquerable."

"Without a wand, though?" Narcissa asks with a disgusted look on her face, though I think that's just because she was the one closest to the troll.

"Maybe not, but I found a wand." She twirls it in her hand, "Who's to say there wasn't an extra one in there?"

"Well, we should get going." I say to move us along, "Do you think there's going to be anything in Diagon Alley?"

"...no." She says slowly as she gingerly steps over the troll's fingers, "At least, I don't think so. The wall should be there, and it's not like you can get in there without a wand, so it should be safe. Hopefully."

"What about the Ministry?" I ask, "If I recall, we don't need magic to go in there. Theoretically, any muggle could just punch in the code for the visitor's entrance and enter." Obviously, Ministry staff would Obliviate them if they weren't supposed to be there, but still.

"There will be… something there." She says, before pointing up at the street, "There it is. Just being curious, Bella, but can you see it?"

"...Kind of." I frown, watching the familiar building fade in and out of view with alarming speed. Honestly, it's making me a little sick, especially knowing we have to get in there. What's affecting my magic so much?

"I can see it." Narcissa responds, and that makes me even more depressed. Something's up with the both of them, but we're so close to Diagon Alley that asking them questions seems a little impatient. I merely close my eyes and grab Hermione's hand.

…

It's very warm…

"Oh, okay." She says, and we make our way to Diagon Alley silently. Part of me wants to get closer to her, but what she said after the Basilisk still weighs on me. It takes a few minutes, especially as I'm closing my eyes, but eventually I hear the bell and I open my eyes. It's oddly… familiar.

"This place hasn't changed a bit, huh?" Narcissa agrees with my thoughts, "I used to think it disgusting and dingy, but now I just find it… comforting."

"Yeah."

Hermione slowly makes her way out to the back, and we follow. Just as we exit the pub, I see the stone wall collapsing and the alley definitely looks different, but it doesn't seem dangerous. Yet. Who knows what'll happen once we get further in…

"It looks fairly normal to me, and I think I was right about it not having any traps." Hermione says with a small amount of smugness, "I doubt they expected us to get through the wall. I'm not suggesting we go charging in-"

"Mostly because we're Slytherin and you're the one non-moronic Gryffindor?" Narcissa smirks, and Hermione… she clearly wants to argue the point, but she just nods. She knows.

"Right. Just to be safe, though, we should beeline towards Ollivanders." Though I still want to examine the alley to see what's changed, I admit that getting a wand takes the priority, so we start walking quickly to the back of the alley. Once we get there, and it looks just like it always did… Hermione sighs deeply, almost sinking into the ground with relief.

"Okay, okay… We finally made it. We're close, you two." She opens the door and we step in, "Please, try and find a wand that works for you two. I'm not sure how it'll all work, as this wand seems to be perfectly fine… While you're doing that, I can explain what's going on." We both split up, Narcissa scanning through the ones on the large wall, and I start searching through the ones underneath the window.

"First off… I'm an Unspeakable." Hermione's taken one of the chairs and is just rocking back and forth in it, "As I've told you. Once the war was over, I was… well, all three of us didn't get to go back to Hogwarts for our seventh year. We were a little busy fighting in the war at the time. All three of us had a job offer from the new Minister to work as Aurors. Both Harry and Ron instantly agreed, but I wanted to go back to finish my seventh year anyway. Mostly… I guess I just wanted to stop fighting."

"Understandable." Narcissa remarks, pulling out a few boxes and opening them at random, while I study the boxes intently.

"Well, once I got there, McGonagall gave me the Head Girl position." No surprises there, "And considering the war, I tried my best to make sure all of the Muggleborns who entered, including some 12 year olds that should've already gone through their first year, were doing alright. I know plenty of us had trouble in the first year, even if they hid that from everyone else. So I had a little club for the muggleborns, to make sure they kept up to speed."

"That sounds… no offense intended, of course… ghastly." I say, examining a wand made of Red Oak and Dragon Heartstring. I gave it a few flicks, but I felt nothing. All those 11 and 12 year olds? Merlin, I'd rather take my chance with that Hungarian Horntail.

"Well, it was tough. I don't deny that." Hermione laughs nostalgically, "I forgot how annoying I was at that age. Still, a lot of them were really grateful, and one of them in particular loved the club. He was a 12 year old Ravenclaw, and honestly… I think you'd like him, Bella. He was a natural scientist. Before learning about magic, he wanted to grow up to study diseases. But he asked so many questions about how X worked, or why would you need to use Y, or why the heck were we still using quills." She giggles, "He constantly gave the teachers conniptions, but I quite liked him. At one point, I remember telling him about Pensieves."

"Pensieves…" I've never used one myself, but I know my father has one. For as intricate as the magic was, and as impressive as it was, I always just found it a little too… specific.

"He asked a bunch of questions about it I couldn't answer, because I hadn't studied it personally, but… he did get me thinking about it." She sighs, "Poor McGonagall, I kept accidentally interrupting meetings in order to study the Hogwarts Pensieve. Eventually she just gave it to me to put in the Head Girl's room, and told me to bring it back at the end of the year. I learned some stuff from it. Not as much as I'd have liked, but enough to explain exactly how it worked. And that intricate study…"

"...Lead to the Unspeakables offering you a job." Narcissa finishes, holding a Walnut wand that looked extremely springy, "Which you took."

"I always thought I'd work to make Magical Law more friendly for non-human creatures, but the more I thought about it, and the more it bored me. I could understand all the Legalese and paperwork, but I found it extremely boring. I remember one day when a bunch of us were out in Hogsmede, complaining to Luna Lovegood about how boring it all was. She got inspired by it, apparently, and decided to try her hand at it." She shrugs, "She's better than I would've been. She's quite good at marrying the emotional with the logical, in a way I would find it hard to emulate."

"Wait, Lovegood?" That name seems familar to me, for some reason…

"He was that weird 1st year that got in trouble for trying to free some of the Thestrals." Narcissa reminds me, and Merlin that's right! One of them had almost gotten away before Hagrid was able to calm it down, and he got dinged 50 points, which lead to Slytherin winning the house cup that year. A few of the Slytherin seventh years actually got him thank you presents. Surreptitiously, of course, to make sure he wasn't targeted by Gryffindors or Ravenclaws any more than he already was.

"Sounds like Xeno." Hermione rolls her eyes, "Anyway, now that I was free… I accepted the offer at the end of the school year, and my first avenue of study was the very same thing that got me accepted into that office in the first place. But they had far better tools than what I was using, and the things I learned… well, shocked me. Greatly."

"What'd you learn?" Trying another wand, Redwood and Unicorn hair… I felt a little something, but barely. Like a twinge or something.

"The potential they all have is frightening. Whoever figured out the first one must've been one powerful Wizard or Witch, but… for some reason, I have no idea why, they must've died before researching it any further, or that research got lost throughout the ages… They're all filled with so much potential, and we use them for their most basest purpose. It's like… going to Hogwarts, only to learn about Potioneering."

I stop my search for a brief second, too interested in what she's saying to continue. Narcissa is fairly distracted as well, grabbing a wand she already tested.

"Their potential." She breathes in deeply, "You could live in one. If you cast certain spells, on both yourself and the Pensieve, you could theoretically live INSIDE YOUR MEMORIES. Fully."

"How the… bloody hell would that work?" Narcissa frowns at the wand she'd already tested, so she moves to get the ladder to get up to the higher levels.

That does sound extremely suspect.

"How would you… even do that? With your memories, in theory, being a finite thing." I pull out my next box slowly, not even noticing the wand wood, "Your memories only notice that which is directly around you. If you look out of a window, you will be able to see the ground outside, but at some point the range has to fail."

"True. Living in your memories like that would only be useful in certain instances." Hermione moves to steady the ladder so Narcissa can climb it, "I personally tested that, and I can attest that it's extremely limited… and extremely fucking mind-breaking. I could actually interact with my memories! I actually talked to my past self!" She shakes her head, "Not that I was actually talking to my past self, you understand. In the Pensieve, that would be impossible."

"Just what you thought your past self would be like." At her nod, "Which, for someone like you, is probably pretty intricate."

"Oh yeah. I actually used a time-turner in my third year, to take all the electives," Somehow that does not surprise me at all, "So I've always wondered what it would be like to talk to myself. For someone who isn't as concerned with potential breaks of time, it's probably pretty boring to talk to them."

"So you can live inside your memories… what else?" Narcissa starts handing down wands and Hermione just pools them next to the ladder.

"Actually, after I did that, I was curious to see if I could actually… break my memories. I don't know if you two have ever used one, but when you put a memory into the Pensieve, you technically 'lose' that memory for the time being. Even if you go in and see it, it can be surprising to you. So I tried my hardest to break a certain memory I had, that really embossed itself into my memories. It was when Professor McGonagall came to my house and told me I was a witch."

"Let me guess… you called her crazy." For as logical as she seems to be, there is no way she just accepted it. Even if she had those strange spurts of accidental magic, I bet she'd be more likely to say her mind was playing tricks on her, rather than going to the magic explanation.

"Hah. You know me so well already." She grins at me, and then turns back to help Narcissa off the ladder, "Well, that was true. Me, my parents, and McGonagall actually had a really in-depth conversation about the potential origins of magic, it's potential misuse… I love my parents, and I knew they were 'smart', but I didn't realize they were that smart. Dentists don't really come across as the smartest of doctors, I suppose."

"Teeth, Bella." Narcissa supplies as she begins opening the boxes, one by one.

"Anyway. That was the setting for my second experiment, and I was trying to see if I could literally change what I remembered. I asked McGonagall for her memory as a base, just in case I… really mess with my mind." Her face looks exceptionally grim, "So… I tried killing myself."

"What!?" I can't help but shout, and I notice Narcissa almost recoil at the statement.

"I know. I know. I was… perhaps, a little…" She pinches her fingers close together, "Reckless."

"That's more than a little reckless! That's bloody fucking insane!" Merlin, how can you even attempt that? What if you have a vivid memory of you DYING, when you were ELEVEN!? How fucking crazy can you get? What would happen? Wouldn't you… drive yourself mad?

"Well, luckily for me," She seemed surprised at my outburst, "Nothing like that happened. I tried a lot of things before that though. I stunned McGonagall before she entered the house and pretended I was her, I appeared in the middle of the explanation and freaked everyone out, I even stunned myself and surprised McGonagall with myself, aged 21. I guess killing myself seemed like the next option?" That made me feel a little better, but… What an idiotic thing to do! Even if it's in the pursuit of knowledge.

"That didn't bother you?" Narcissa asks, flicking the wand she'd just dropped.

"Well, I admit to having a nightmare about it after the fact… but not especially. Even though the changes stuck, I still remembered having the idea to kill myself inside that memory, so I knew it wasn't real. I absolutely, one hundred percent, knew it wasn't real." She shrugs, "I had an idea it'd be like that."

"Still, that… that's exceptionally dangerous!" I flick the wand I was holding, and I actually get a single spark in response. That's more than I've gotten so far, so I should keep that one for safe keeping, but I dunno if that was because the wand (Pine and Phoenix Feather) or because Hermione got me angry. Merlin, she almost ruined her mind permanently! For someone as incredible as her to ruin her mind would be such a waste! Even if she had a theory that it would be fine…

"...Sorry." Hermione apologetic eyes catch my own for a brief second and I can feel… something pass between us, "So, knowing that, I had a few options for trials I could perform next. I didn't want to try the one I'd just tried with someone who didn't know it wasn't real, because… well, that just sounds dangerous," YES, YES IT IS, "So I actually tried my next avenue. Which was… stringing memories together."

"How so?" Narcissa seems to be studying a wand of Hazel, and I can tell it seems to be responding to her.

"Well, firstly… Harry and Ginny were moving into their new house, which I'd never been to. It had two stories and an attic, so I made sure I never even glanced at the attic while we helped move them in. I went inside my Pensieve, into that memory, and found that when I opened the door to the attic, there was nothing there. So the next time I came over, I made a point to fully examine the entire house, including the attic. I extracted the first memory, and I opened the door to the attic again… only to be able to be up there this time. Of course, this wasn't… perfect. Occasionally Ginny or Harry or Ron would go up the ladder, but they'd disappear as soon as they entered the place. Considering I really had no idea what they were going up there for, it made perfect sense."

"So you could… live in your memories, actually, if you stuck to places outside of that specific memory. Say, you lived in a memory of Hogwarts, but never went to Hagrid's hut. You could stay inside the hut, alone, without running into anyone." I surmise, and she nods excitedly.

"Exactly. Funnily enough, when I brought Harry into the memory with me… he couldn't see it either. Which makes sense. It's MY memory, after all. Harry living inside my memory doesn't mean his own memories of what happened in that attic add to my own. That would be silly."

"What was the next experiment?" Despite my search for a wand being important, I was just focusing on what Hermione was saying. She had a certain air about her when discussing her research, and despite my surface level attraction to her at first… Merlin, her amazing research just made me even more attracted to her, despite her… fatalistic approach.

"Well. At that point, I was a little curious at how it all worked. And something important occurred to me. Could other people do the same sorts of experiments that I was doing? Draco started a few months after me, and before he officially started… I asked him to try the same sorts of things I did. Do you think he could?"

Hmm, thinking about it… There has to be some way of protecting your memories in the Pensieve, so I shook my head no, exactly at the moment Narcissa nodded her head.

"Bella was right. He couldn't do it. In fact, he couldn't put any memories in at all. Because he hadn't started yet. Officially, anyway. I had him use the visitor's badge. And he couldn't. Because… because… he wasn't tied to the place yet. And it was then that I found out something very interesting… Only the 'owner' of a Pensieve can use it."

"But… you were doing experiments on the one at Hogwarts-"

"Because that wasn't tied to any one headmaster." Hermione responds immediately to Narcissa's remark, "It was tied to the school. Anyone who was, or should've been, a student at Hogwarts at the time of use could've used it. Staff too, of course. So Harry used it at the battle… well, he had before." She frowns a little, "Anyway. I went back to the school just to check on my theory, and it turns out I couldn't use it either. So in essence, I could use it at the age I was then because I was a student, but me at 22? No. I could have, however, if I was a teacher."

"And Draco couldn't use the one registered to the Unspeakables because he wasn't yet an Unspeakable." Narcissa nods understandingly, "Why does that matter, though?"

"Well, that led me down another avenue. What could the 'owner' of a Pensieve do? Those who weren't 'registered' as the owner could only view memories, and interestingly enough, they could only view memories that weren't locked. A spell I… well, I assume it was invented at one point and then forgotten, but I invented, or re-invented, a spell to lock memories. So I tested it again, with Harry and Draco. I showed them a memory that Harry knew but Draco didn't; me being attacked by a troll and then being saved by Harry and Ron. Draco was able to see it, but… Harry couldn't. He told me after the fact that it was like being stuck in a black void."

"Wait, where were the teachers?" Merlin, it's a wonder those three survived at all.

"Taking everyone else to safety. Come on, you know Gryffindors." She looks at me significantly, and I just roll my eyes. It's somewhat comforting to know Gryffindors haven't changed that much.

"Anyway. As soon as I learned the thing about the owner, I wanted to experiment on it. So I expensed another one, to be registered in my name. Or I tried to, anyway. Minister Shacklebolt dressed me down pretty harshly…"

"A Shacklebolt, Minister of Magic? Odd." They were definitely pure blood, but a much lower tier than the Blacks, Potters. Even the Prewett family was seen as higher. I always wondered if that was because of their skin color, because there was a Shacklebolt 3 years ahead of me, and despite being a Gryffindor, he was always pretty fair as a Prefect.

"So I had Harry buy me one." She says, slightly guiltily, "I felt bad for asking, but honestly, he throws money around like it's nothing if one of his friends needs something. So I got my own Pensieve, registered strictly to me. I did some of the same tests, and they all worked the same, so I gave it to Harry, and just as I expected, I couldn't do any of the same experiments I'd just done on the thing."

"So he kept the Pensieve you bought with his money?" I ask, and she nods.

"I didn't have any use for it anymore, but he might. That's what I thought, anyway. By that point, Minister Shacklebolt knew of my research. Obviously. And it was then that he asked me to explain everything that I'd found. It took a few hours, because he wanted to be sure he could understand everything… and then he asked me one single question." She licks her lips, which seem to have gone dry with all of the talking she was doing.

Or was it… anxiety?

"What was it he asked of you, Hermione?" Narcissa asks, holding Hermione's shoulder in a comforting motion.

"He asked… if I could… make the pensieve into a p-prison." She stutters out.

Oh. A prison.

A prison…

A… prison...

"We're… inside, a prison." I clarify, and Hermione nods. Narcissa… keeps a hold of Hermione, though I'm unsure if she's trying to comfort her or just trying not to collapse from shock.

PRISON