"Harry, mate, it's good to see you!"

A genuine smile scrosses my lips for the first time in ages. "It's good to see you, too, Ron."

"So, what gives? Why are you staying at the Cauldron?"

I shrug. "My relatives went to my aunt's funeral, and I didn't feel like hanging around in an empty house for a few days."

"Oh, you poor dear!" Molly says as she crushes me in a hug. "It must be terrible, losing a family member like that."

"I wasn't fond of her." I say. I don't mention my hand in her demise, or the startling lack of remorse I feel all these weeks later.

"Still, it must be awfully hard on you. That's no excuse for running off, though! Really, it's not safe, what with Black on the loose."

"I can handle myself, Mrs. Weasley. Besides, the Minister saw fit to grant me an underage magic exemption until Black is caught. So even if he does find me, I won't be defenceless."

Mrs. Weasley obviously doesn't approve of that turn of events, but I quickly move so the twins are blocking her view of me. God only knows she'd raise a fuss about me being too young or some such tripe. I like her, but the month I spent with her last summer taught me that she can be a bit smothering.

I see a surprisingly morose Ginny standing at the back of the crowd.

"How's she doing?" I whisper to Ron while nodding my head towards her.

Ron shoots a concerned glance over his shoulder. "Not good." He whispers back. "She was isolating herself all year, so she's got no friends to support her. Between that and losing most of her memory of the year, she's not been coping well. The mind healer she's been seeing has helped, and she looked fine when we saw Bill in Egypt…" Ron kicks the ground. "I don't think she really felt better, though. I think she just wanted us to stop worrying."

A pang of guilt shoots through me. I know I'm not technically responsible, but Tamelyn is, and I've been helping her.

Oh, whatever. Honestly, the whole point was not leaving witnesses. Leaving an unobliviated witness is just asking to get caught.

'Was it necessary to wipe her memories of the whole year, though?'

I was possessing her throughout the year. Leaving many of those memories intact would have been asking for trouble.

'What about school, though? How will she pass her classes if she can't remember most of the year?'

Oh, obliviation doesn't affect procedural memory, and I did my best to avoid interfering with her memories of lessons. She'll still be able to cast spells, even if she can't necessarily remember learning how. If anything, this should be a huge boon to her. She'll have my knowledge of how to cast up to seventh year spells, and won't feel the guilt of having gained her knowledge through an incomplete possession. I won't say she should be grateful, but she could have gotten off a lot worse. Few people know more about magic that I do, after all.

'You're only seventeen.'

And I was still one of the most learned people in the fields of the mind and soul arts when I graduated from Hogwarts. You'd be hard pressed to find a better legilimens than me.

"You alright there, mate?" Ron asks. "You looked like you spaced out a bit."

"Yeah," I say, "I've had a lot on my mind what with my aunt dying and Black escaping."

Ron gives me a confused look. "You care about those Muggle relatives of yours? I mean, they treated you so terribly. I can't see myself wasting tears over them."

Huh, he's not got a bad attitude for a "blood traitor".

'Shut up.'

"Nah, I don't really feel bad about it." Which is true, even though I'm the one who killed her. Sort of. "It's just surprising, you know? Some things in life are just so expected. Even if something bad disappears from your life, it's weird to realise you won't have to deal with them anymore, you know?"

Ron doesn't really seem to know what to think about that, so he brushes it off. "Yeah, sure, I guess. Wanna go look at Quidditch supplies?"

I grin. "Yeah, sure, let's go."

His attitude isn't bad, but his intelligence leaves much to be desired. He has all the makings of a good minion. He's eager to please and far too stupid to question orders.

'Shut. Up.'

Hermione meets up with us as we leave Quality Quidditch Supplies with a large mass of orange fur in her arms.

"Honestly, you two!" She chides. "Have you even done your school shopping yet? You can't go for the Quidditch supplies first every time!"

Ron groans. "We aren't all learning crazy like you, Hermione!"

"Besides," I cut in, "I already did all my shopping."

Hermione looks shocked. "You did? When? How?"

"I've been here for a couple of weeks? There's only so many times I can go to Fortescue's for ice cream."

"I'm surprised to see you taking the initiative, though."

I can't mention that Tamelyn's been harassing me about my attitude towards academics, so I fall back on the best excuse I have.

"After what happened in the chamber, I realised that I need to take my studies more seriously. The next time something happens, they might not be kind enough to only block my memories after beating me."

"Well," she says, "I'm glad to see you taking your studies seriously. Will I be seeing you in Runes and Arithmancy, then?"

"Oh, uh, no."

Hermione starts glaring at me. "You signed up for Divination and Care of Magical Creatures, didn't you? The two easiest classes? How is that 'taking your studies seriously'!?"

'Uh… Help me out here, Tamelyn.'

Oh no, I am having far too much fun watching this to intervene.

'I hate you.'

Funnily enough, no you don't. Now answer your friend before she starts really tearing into you.

"Well, Harry?"

"I wanted to, um, avoid taking on too much at once?" That sounds plausible. "I need to improve myself in all my other classes, and I didn't want to take on too much else."

"But runes are so practical! They're the basis of all enchanting, and you'd be limiting yourself by not taking the course!"

'Tamelyn, I can't tell her "the future Dark Lady inside my head doesn't want to be bored". This is at least partially your fault, so please help me fix it.'

Oh, fine. You need to practice coming up with better lies on the spot, though.

I feel a gentle shift at Tamelyn takes control. "Of course, Hermione." She says in her usual charismatic way. "That's why I plan on studying the course on my own time and taking the O.W.L. for the course at the end of fifth year."

"Oh." Hermione replies. "Wait, you can do that?"

"Of course," Tamelyn continues, "there is a small fee to do so, but it is possible."

"Hey, Harry?" Ron asks. "Why are you smiling like that?"

Aw crap. Figures that Tamelyn would immediately go for her "charming lady" technique, ignoring the fact that I am neither charming nor a lady. I pull control back from her before she can make any more mistakes.

"Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about." I hastily reply. I really do need to work on my lying .

That hurt, you know. It's unpleasant to have control wrenched from me.

'You do that to me all the time. Besides, you can handle a little pain if it means I can keep us from getting caught.'

Hmph. Fine.

This is going to be a trying year.

I was so focused on diverting attention away from my behaviour, that I almost forget to ask about the furry thing Hermione's been carrying.

"So, uh, what is that, Hermione?" I ask.

"Oh, this is Crookshanks." She explains, lifting the mass of fur slightly higher. "He's a half-kneazle."

A what?

A type of magical feline. They can interbreed with cats.

"Oh."

"Here, would you like to pet him?"

Ron shrugs and moves up to the orange mass, but he's rewarded with a hiss and Crookshanks lunging for his pocket.

"Ack, what the hell?" Ron yells as he tries to shake the cat off

"Crookshanks!" Hermione chides. "Bad kitty!"

Crookshanks gives an unconcerned meow and sits down in the middle of the street. I try to pick him up, but as soon as I reach my hand out, he lunges at my outstretched arm and starts clawing.

"Ow! This thing is a menace, Hermione!" I complain.

"He really is!" Ron added. "He almost got Scabbers!"

"I'm so sorry!" She gushes. "He's not acted like this with anyone else."

Tamelyn pulls out my wand and casts several healing spells at the bloody scratches on my arm.

"How did you learn to do that?" Hermione asks.

'Dammit, Tamelyn! Stop making me act out of character!'

Those scratches hurt! I wasn't about to let them be for longer than I had to!

"I said I was taking my studies more seriously." I reply noncommittally.

"Oh. You'll have to show me which books you've been reading, sometime."

'Tamelyn! You need to help me find books with those healing spells!'

Ugh. Fine. I liked it better when you were alone. There was less work and less restraint involved.

'If having you in my head continues to be like this, then I preferred being alone, too'

'We have to say something to her.'

No, actually, we don't.

'It's your fault she's like this!'

I. Don't. Leave. Witnesses!

'You could have fooled me with the way you were going around with that basilisk!'

And it took you being a parselmouth and the help of your genius friend to discover her identity. I'm kind of mad I gave you credit for that back in the Chamber, by the way.

'I was freaking out a bit much at the time, and didn't want to concede any ground! And stop looking in my memories!'

Guard your memories better if you don't want me looking through them.

'You're insufferable. Now, can we get back to the issue at hand?'

This issue at hand is Ginny Weasley, who has been sulking in the corner of the Leaky Cauldron while Ron, Hermione, and I were out shopping.

Fine. I refuse to take part in this. That vow I had you take should prevent you from accidentally letting overtly incriminating anything slip, but I will take control if I think it's necessary.

'Yeah, yeah.'

I find myself wondering just how much time our constant arguments cost us.

"Hey, Ginny," I say as gently as I can, "how are you doing?"

Ginny gives me a noncommittal sniff.

'Tamelyn, I have no idea what to do here. Help?'

You are so hopeless. You can't even get through a conversation without my help?

'Is that a "no", then?'

You want me, the person you continually call "terrible", to help you console a person whose misery I am responsible for in the first place?

'Um… Yes?'

Gods, you are thick.

Ginny still hasn't moved during my mental argument. Ron and Hermione at least gave me weird looks when Tamelyn drew my attention. She must be really out of it if she hasn't noticed yet.

"So… How are things going with your mind healer?"

Ginny sniffs again before speaking. "I don't know. I've been seeing her for months, but I still feel awful. She's starting to talk with my parents about replacing my missing memories with fake ones, but I feel like then I'll just be living a pleasant lie. Really, I can't help but think that it will make things worse. I'll feel just as empty inside, except I won't even know why I feel empty."

Huh…

'Yes?'

She's not displaying the usual symptoms of long-term obliviation. She should have at least started to recover by now. I'm just wondering if I might have damaged her soul when I did that ritual.

'WHAT!?'

Look, soul transference rituals are delicate, and I had to heavily modify that one to make it work. My soul was in four separate containers down there: you, her, my diary, and my spectre form. Two of those containers had souls of their own. There were a lot of different components down there, and her soul was mostly drained. I was pretty sure that I pulled it off perfectly, but her soul may have become a bit frayed around the edges as it was removed from my spectre and forced back into her body with my diary acting as a conduit.

'That is absolutely awful. Is there any easy way to fix it?'

Of course there is. But she'd probably object, since it requires sacrificial murder to do so. Not to mention that you'd have to explain how you determined that she had soul damage in the first place.

'Which would require mentioning you.'

And is therefore not an option.

'So she's just stuck like this?'

Soul damage naturally heals itself. Even fractures can heal if given the opportunity. Granted, if you're fracturing your soul, the point is generally not to let it heal.

'…I don't think I want to know.'

You probably don't, though I don't see you having any choice in the matter. You'll need to learn all the sordid details about my immortality if I'm ever going to get out of your head.

'Is that really necessary?'

Everything about our situation is technically impossible. It will take some highly unconventional tricks to get us out of this situation. Now finish your damn conversation.

Oh, right, I was talking to Ginny. I almost forgot about that.

Okay, now I just have to play this cool.

"Yeah, I would trust your gut in this instance. Maybe you should look into seeing if there was anything besides your obliviation affecting you?"

"They scanned me for most stuff in the hospital wing."

"Yeah, but we don't know exactly what happened in the chamber. Maybe they hit you with something really exotic that's tricky to spot. I would at least be worth looking into, right?"

"I… I guess so. I don't know if my family could afford it, though…"

"Well, if you do find any promising leads, let me know, and I can help cover it. I know you guys aren't big on accepting charity, but maybe if I'd been stronger then this wouldn't have happened."

That's technically true. Tamelyn seriously got the drop on me back in the chamber.

"Oh… Thanks, I guess…"

I resolve to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley so I can talk to them about my suggestion. I owe them that much at least.

Honestly, no one even knows it was you. I don't see why you're bothering trying to make amends.

'It's the principle of the thing!'

…Fine. Help your little ginger whelp. I at least should give you credit for suggesting exotic side effects. I'll make a good liar out of you yet, Potter.

'You just have to twist every positive thing I do, don't you?'

Of course I do. I am a Dark Lady, after all.

A/N: Writing the characters (sans Harry) similarly to canon is quite tricky for me. At least I don't also have to write canon Harry. I'm not sure I could handle that. I may have overdone Hermione's bossiness a bit.