Lost Memories

xxxv. lillies

The seven of us struggled up the slippery path toward the castle dragging our trunks. Hermione was already talking about knitting a few elf hats before bedtime. I dreaded my first day back, being one of my first lessons was Potions.

Professor Snape gave no sign of acknowledging our conversation two days ago– besides the weird sideways glances. The morning Potions lesson did nothing to reassure me, as Snape was as unpleasant as ever– the only weird thing was an odd feeling as I mixed my potions. As if energy flew through me while brewing Eruptment Potion, the cauldron... exploded.

"What seems to be the problem here?" he drifted in front of me.

"I-It exploded," I kept my eyes on the broken cauldron instead of looking up at Snape.

"I can obviously see that," said Snape. "Now why did it explode?"

"I don't know. I've never had a potion do t-that before– Eruptment Potion isn't supposed to erupt the—"

"I know what it's supposed to do, Harring. Ten points from Gryffindor. Evanesco," he took out his wand and the exploded mixture disappeared. "I expected more from you," he whispered lowly to me.

My head snapped up to look at him, his eyes were cold and glaring. I nodded curtly and rewrote my formula. Hermione quietly repaired my cauldron. Today was the first day I'd ever gotten a zero on anything at Hogwarts– especially not Potions.

"What if you jinx him?" I suggested as I watched Zacharias Smith walk away.

After our lunch, Zacharias had come up to Harry asking when the next D.A. meeting was, ignoring my presence. Harry had told him that he needed to go to Remedial Potions this evening instead of having their usual meeting.

"You take Remedial Potions?" Zacharias had laughed. "Good Lord, you must be terrible, Snape doesn't usually give extra lessons, does he?"

My eyes narrowed at the back of his head, "I'm telling you, just a quick jinx and he won't talk for a while. Only that one of you guys have to do it..."

"Forget it," said Harry dismally. "It's what everyone's going to think, isn't it? That I'm really stup —"

Harry was cut off by Cho Chang. The four of us turned around to see her swinging shyly, staring at Harry.

"This is our cue to leave," I said quickly and grabbed Ron and Hermione's elbows, dragging them towards the stairway.

During Harry's Occlumency lesson with Professor Snape, Ron and Hermione wanted to do homework in the library, but I excused myself to go find someone I'd been missing after two weeks. The corridors were almost empty, a few stragglers walking back from dinner to their own houses. Up the stairs and towards the Astronomy Tower, I searched the corridors for any lingering people.

"Looking for someone?"

Spinning around, I gave a large smile and embraced him in a hug, "Hi."

"Hello, how was your holiday?" Draco asked.

Memories of tears and hunting flashed with the ones of laughter and family.

"It was all right," I nodded. "And yours?"

"Spent locked up in my room, waiting to come back here," he sighed, "to see you."

"Since when did you become such a softie?" I laughed and sat on the bench instead of my usual spot against the railing.

"Oh, shut up! I missed you, actually, since you didn't say goodbye before you left," Draco gave me a pointed look as he took a seat next to me.

"I had a family problem, I had to leave quickly," I muttered, looking down.