"What are you telling me?" Jack asked the kids as they walked away from the restaurant.
"Sam remembers what happened, and we need to get her help," Rose said. "We've got to get to London, she's on her way there now."
"What do you mean what happened?" Jack asked.
Rose and Colin looked at Pansy.
"We should go to your house first," Pansy said.
"Who are you?" Jack said as they turned up his walk.
Pansy found a teapot and cups, but working a stove was out of the question. Jack watched with amazement as she pulled a carved wooden stick from her coat and waved it over the pot and it started steaming. She then poured the tea and had Colin serve the others. Jack was sitting on the couch, still stunned from everything. The beautiful woman that he could touch without pulling away in disgust was one of several mysteries. Sam was a strong and capable teenager, and he knew that she would be fine running off to London for a bit, frankly he was surprised that it took her this long to run away from home. She'd been unhappy for months. He picked up his cup and took a sip. It was delicious. This was a strange group assembled in his living room.
"Jack, my name is Pansy Parkinson. I'm a professor at a school, and we've met before, you just don't remember it because I wiped your memory. I didn't want to, but I had to so that we could insure the safety of the wizarding community," Pansy said, knowing that he wouldn't believe a word of it.
"You and Sam crashed your plane in the Forbidden Forest, and stayed at our school for a few days. It was lovely. Colin and I made friends with Sam and promised to visit her, but we couldn't say anything about the school because your memories were erased," Rose said.
"Except that is just it," Colin said. "Sam's memory wasn't wiped, she is remembering things. Little bits and pieces, and we think that it is affecting her."
"The Forbidden Forest?" Jack said. "Our plane was in a an open field." He thought for a moment. The missing days, Sam's behavior, that vision of emerald silk and the perfume on the breeze; it was the same perfume he smelled now as the woman sat next to him on the couch.
"Jack, you don't remember because I wiped your memory," Pansy said.
"Do I know you?" Jack asked.
Pansy squeezed his hand. "Yes you do. Very well. When I wiped your memory, I planted a suggestion. It was a mean trick but I suggested that you hated being touched by any woman other than me," I apologize.
Jack continued to hold her hand. "I would have done the same, I think," he said. "Is there any way to get my memories back? I'd like to know what I missed."
Rose and Colin shook their heads because they knew it was impossible, but before they spoke, Pansy said, "Yes. I saved your memories, but it will take a little time to give them back." She turned to Rose and Sam and said, "I know that you are worried about Sam, but I think that your parents would want to give their permission before you ran off to London. Why don't you two take the Floo home and I'll take Jack to London to find Sam. I think that is best."
Rose nodded. She had no intention of doing that at all. Sam was her friend and needed help. "That is probably for the best," she blatantly lied. "I got into trouble last summer for staying out too late and I don't want to do that again. Will you let us know when you find her?"
Colin looked at Rose and was about to object when she poked him. "Uh, ok," Colin said simply and stood up as Rose did. He said goodbye and followed her out of the door to leave the two adults alone in the house. "What are you doing?" Colin asked. "We can't abandon Rose?"
"I know that," Rose said. "We've got to find her because she needs our help. Those two are taking too long, and what's with all that hand holding?"
"Oh," Colin said, "They are in love."
"What?" Rose said as they walked down the sidewalk, back towards the little market.
"I saw them kissing back at school. They definitely had something going on." Colin said.
"That explains why she's here, and why she kept his memories," Rose said as they entered the shop and faced the same old man that had given them directions to the restaurant. "Excuse me," Rose said. "I wonder if you could give us more directions with your phone please?"
The man regarded her for a moment, like he was thinking about why she didn't have a phone, or why a teenager couldn't figure things our herself. Colin looked around the shop, and realized it was odd. Everything was older than it should have been, and the light blue walls were faded and depressing. He wasn't up to date on the latest muggle products, but he was sure that they should have had less dust on them. There were dozens of old tobacco products on the wall behind him but no signs or advertisements for any of the brands like other muggle stores he'd been in. There was no music playing, in fact, if it weren't for the dreary, flickering lighting, he wouldn't have been sure whether there was any electricity at all.
"Are you going to buy something?" the man asked.
Rose looked at Colin, and he picked up a small package of biscuits, Donover's Best, it said on the package. It looked like it might have been best in 1961, Colin thought.
"That will be one pound thirty," the man said.
Rose pulled out a coin from her pocket and put it on the counter. Before Colin could stop her from placing the Galleon on the counter, or trying to explain away the strange currency to a Muggle, the man said, "A Galleon? Do you want change for this?" and he started laughing. A deep joyful laugh that made the flickering overhead lights burn a little brighter.
"Are you a wizard," Rose asked?
"No," the man said. "Nor am I a squib. Some of us are in between"
"I don't understand," Colin said. "Aren't you either a wizard or not?"
"I was born in Pakistan many, many years ago. My parent's knew I had a gift, but there was no Ministry of Magic, or School of Witchcraft or Wizardry available to me. I was a poor child in a village that didn't have much to offer. When I came to London as a young man, I was followed for a while. Not by the police, but by wizards. They finally brought me into the Ministry where they informed me that I was technically a wizard, but only by one drop, they said. I couldn't do any proper spells, but there is some magic in me somewhere. That was good enough for them, I suppose, so I have kept my distance from them, and they from me. My shop does a tidy little business with the local wizarding community in the area. Are you sure that you'd rather have that old package of biscuits rather than a Pumpkin Pasty? Look in the case behind you," the man said.
Colin turned to face a dark, refrigerator case that looked like it had held Cornettos years before but lost power before he was born. However, when he opened the case, it was filled with beautiful wizarding snacks. Chocolate Frogs and Pumpkin Pastys as well as Butterbeer, all fitting in a tiny container that had been magically enlarged. Colin pulled out a Pasty and exchanged it for the package of old biscuits.
"So you are a wizard, but not really?" Rose asked.
"You could say that, but I would rather than you call me Qasim," he said laughing again.
"We need your help. Our friend Sam has run off to London tonight and I want to know how to catch the train she is on. Can you tell me a stop is between here and London? Maybe where she would have to change trains and we could find her?" Rose asked.
"Samantha? From down the street?" Qasim asked. "I see her from time to time and something has changed about her lately, I can feel it."
"Yes," Colin said. "She and her father crashed a plane into the Forbidden Forest and spent a few days at Hogwarts. Their memories wer erased, and something happened to her after that. She remembers things and now she is trying to find the Leaky Cauldron in London. We need to find her."
Qasim was looking at his phone as he spoke, "The Ministry tries too hard to suppress Muggle knowledge of the magical world. Muggle-born Wizards' families know where they go to school and squibs are allowed to go to Diagon Alley. It doesn't make any sense why they mandate that memories are wiped all the time. It can't be good, look what it did to your friend." He scrolled his phone for a moment and then declared, "If she left recently, then she needs to change trains in Reading. I imagine you can beat here there if you take the Floo. Tell Berthilde at the Maudlin Doll that you need to get to the Reading station and she'll find the best Floo. Tell her old Qasim sent you, but hurry."
Rose and Colin thanked the shopkeeper and ran out the door towards the Maudlin Doll. They had to find Sam.