"Sam!" Jack exclaimed. "Honey, how are you feeling?" he asked as he sat on her bedside.
"It's weird," Sam started. "I don't know what that guy did, but I can, I don't know, think clearer now."
Jack took Sam's hand and was about to say something when it happened again. In a moment, she was inside his head, just like they had been when they were at Mr. Teagarden's farm. This time, instead of seeing nothingness, and a flowing piece of emerald silk, she saw everything in Jack's restored memory. Hogwarts, the greenhouse, the Bedouin tent.
"Too much!" Sam said as she jerked her hand away from Jack.
"What happened?" Pansy asked as she sat on the other side of Sam's hospital bed.
"It was like I was inside Dad's memories again. The last time I just saw that piece of green silk and smelled, well, your perfume. But this time, all the memories were there… and I mean all the memories. I think you two must be in love," Sam said with a smile and a little shudder.
Pansy blushed and looked at Jack.
"Sam, you're right. I do like Pansy very much. Just before our memories were wiped, you suggested that she come stay with us, and I just mentioned that again. I like having her close, do you understand what I mean?" Jack asked.
Pansy was going to say something comforting, or helpful, or possibly reassuring, but when she touched Sam's arm, the same thing happened to her. In a moment she could feel Sam inside her head and filtering through her memories. She had many, many thoughts that she wanted to keep secret, and jerked her arm away. "What was that?" Pansy cried.
"You don't know?" Sam said. "I figured it was no big deal, like part of the memory wipe. Is something wrong with me?"
"Nothing is wrong with you, Sam," Pansy said. "This is advanced, untrained Legilimency and completely impossible for muggles. I'm sorry but I need to go speak to someone."
"You're not going to leave us are you?" Jack asked. "I need you."
Pansy kissed him on the cheek. "I won't be gone long," she said. "Stay with Sam and don't let them do anything to her until I get back." With that, she was gone and to where, Jack and Sam had no idea.
A nurse came in to check on Sam a few minutes later. "You are awake, well, go on and drink yer medicine," she said.
Sam took the goblet and took a sip. She grimaced as she swallowed it. "Gross," she said.
"Go on. Drink it all," the nurse said as she supervised.
Jack stayed silent and watched Sam finish the glass.
"Now what?" Sam asked.
"You sleep and you'll feel better in the morning," the nurse said. "All those troubling memories will be gone and there will be nothing to worry about. Nitey nite," she said happily as she left Sam to shout at her father for the treachery.
"What? That drink is going to erase all my memories? I thought that everyone promised that wouldn't happen?" Sam cried out.
Jack waited until he was sure that the nurse was gone and told Sam the truth. "Pansy switched the potion and it won't do anything to you. I couldn't tell you because I wanted you to think that it was real and you would act naturally. We've bought some time. Now I think that you need to go to sleep and when you wake up, pretend like you don't know where you are or something."
"Are you sure?" Sam asked.
"I know it seems crazy, Sam, I mean all this seems crazy, but I trust Pansy. I have to believe that she's doing something to help you. She couldn't have just abandoned us," Jack said.
At that moment, Pansy was walking through Hogsmeade village, her coat turned up against the cold night air. There were no lights on at the house at the end of the street, but she banged on the door anyway. No answer. She banged louder. In a moment, a light turned on upstairs, and then the ancient lamps on either side of the door flared to life. Pansy stepped back as the door opened.
"Professor? It is very late, is everything ok?" Neville asked.
"No Neville, everything is not ok," Pansy replied. "I need to talk to you."
Neville opened the door and Pansy came inside. The house was as ancient inside as it was outside. There was a fire smoldering in the kitchen area and a giant table filled with tiny cakes.
"Hannah is making them as gifts for all the professors, you have to promise to be surprised," Neville said.
Pansy looked at Neville, not in his headmaster robes, but just a man in striped pajamas who she had woken up out of a good night's sleep.
"Sam, the girl that crashed her plane in the forest. She's in St. Mungo's now, under the care of Justin Finch-Fletchley," Pansy started.
"I hope she's alright," Neville interjected.
"She's better for now," Pansy said, trying not to clench her teeth, "but they are going to erase her memory, and I need your help to stop them."
"I thought you erased her memory?" Neville said.
"It is so frustrating when you act like Dumbledore," Pansy said. "You do everything his portrait tells you don't you? Can't you have a regular conversation just once? We're not even in Hogwarts?"
"Hannah," Neville called out to his wife who presumably was sleeping upstairs, "I've got to step out for a bit, nothing to worry about, dear."
As Hannah answered, Neville waved his wand and transformed his pajamas into his best robes. Pansy thought that he took a lot of Dumbledore's flamboyant stylings too far, but the fabric of the purple velvet cloak was fantastic.
"Oh, that's nice," Pansy said.
Neville spun on the spot to show the full grandeur. "We'll need it, I'm afraid." He rummaged through a small drawer and pulled out a small cotton drawstring bag, Inside was something wrapped in paper. "Hand," Neville said as he extended his own behind him. Pansy took has hand as he unwrapped the tin soldier and touched it.
In an instant, they were standing in his office.
"You keep portkeys in drawers?" Pansy asked.
"They come in handy," Neville said nonchalantly as he walked over to the table of spindly-legged shiny silver machines. "See this one?" Neville asked. "It showed up almost at the same moment Sam and her father left the castle. It wasn't here before, Pansy. It came into existence because something important happened."
"The memory charm that didn't work," Pansy said quietly.
"I think so. Something happened while you were performing that charm. That is why Sam had partial memories," Neville said.
"That's not all. The reason I came to see you was that she is also a Legilimens. She touched my arm, and she could read my thoughts, Neville," Pansy said.
Neville stared at the little machine that was chugging away happily on the table. "I wish I knew what caused it," he said.
"The Resurrection Stone," Pansy said.
Neville was astonished. "She found it? In the forest?" he asked rhetorically, because he already knew the answer. Everyone knew that Harry abandoned the stone, just like they knew he broke the Elder Wand. "That makes sense. It has tremendous power. It must have given something to Sam while you were erasing her memory. Does she have the stone?"
Pansy shook her head, "Harry has it."
"Oh, you saw Harry. How is he?" Neville asked.
"Fine," Pansy said as she caught herself. "Neville, come on, we've got to help her, please."
"Seems like Sam means something to you?" Neville said.
"My personal life is my own," Pansy said. "I just want Sam to get the chance to keep what memories she has."
Neville nodded and opened a drawer in a tall cabinet. He held out his hand again without saying a word. He touched the fishing lure, and he and Pansy lurched through space to the lobby of St Mungo's.
"I told you, stay away from my daughter," Jack said, raising his voice. "You aren't doing anything until Pansy gets back."
"Sir, are you aware of my authority at this hospital?" Justin Finch-Fletchley asked.
"I'm not aware of you, your credentials, or that this is a real hospital," Jack said. "I came here in good faith, and with NO INTENTIONS of having my daughter's memory erased again." He blocked the doorway to the room. He was larger and more fit than the pale doctor, and people were looking out of doorways to see what was happening in the hall.
"I am the chief physician and I will treat my patient. I don't think that you understand what I can do to you if you do not stop this ridiculous behavior," Justin said. He pulled out his wand from his white coat and started to say, "Petrificus Total…"
"Hold!" came an amplified voice from down the hall. It was near deafening and froze Dr. Finch-Fletchley in his tracks.