𝕬 𝕯𝖆𝖗𝖐 𝕷𝖔𝖗𝖉 𝖎𝖘 𝕭𝖔𝖗𝖓 | 𝑇𝑜𝑚 𝑅𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒 |

Chapter 25- The Lost Memory

Frankie and Tom had appeared behind an eerily familiar blob of a little girl from the inky smoke of the memory. This six-year-old version of Frankie was standing before them, frozen on the edge of the first step down a flight of stairs, as if waiting for someone to tell her to start walking. The memory made her look so real. They both stared at her in amazement, briefly forgetting they'd technically been transported back in time. But, Tom was particularly perplexed by this vision from the past. It was so easy to think of her as a fellow orphan, who'd always been there beside him. However, there really was a time before she arrived at the orphanage. It was a hard thing for him to fathom for some reason, after such a long time together. The fact that Frankie once had a time in her life without him. Not yet an orphan.

She was not giving the thirteen-year-old version of herself or the random boy she had yet to meet standing beside her even the faintest of glances or glimmer of attention. They were realer than she was, but they weren't really there. The younger Frankie suddenly began to race down the stairs with tremendous speed. She was almost to the bottom when she abruptly tripped over the last couple of steps. Tom could see the realization in her bright hazel eyes that she was no longer breezing down stairs, but half her body was in mid-air, clinging to gravity.

"I don't want to fall!"

She closed her eyes and mentally braced herself for the impending fall below. Tom noticed that his Frankie did the same, as if she too was going to feel the pain. She was powerless to save her younger self from the impending disaster. However, there was apparently no need to save the girl because the fall never came. Both versions reopened their eyes to find that the younger was floating above the last few steps. Suddenly, a woman with the same sunlit hair was walking into the foyer at that very moment.

It was her mother...

Tom looked over at the actual Frankie, however, she was no longer standing beside him. She went running down the stairs with the same sort of tremendous speed to finally see her mother after all this time. Frankie tried to reach out for her, but the woman ran right through her, to grab the floating six-year-old by her stomach and pull her back down to solid earth again. Ignoring a buzzing pain in his ankle, Tom ran through them, to comfort the neglected Frankie. She'd had no one to catch her fall. Dumbledore was wrong. He had yet to see what that crazy old man was trying to teach them by letting them see the wretched past. Yes, Tom also felt that Frankie must see the memories in order to fully be free of her parent's grip, but she clearly was not ready for a spur of the moment magical trip after fighting a literal monster. A moment of sheer bravery didn't make her invulnerable from pain. The memory hadn't even really begun, and she already was getting tears in her eyes.

"It's just a memory, Frankie. Get a hold of yourself and remember it's not real."

Although, it might've come out cruel and coldhearted, someone needed to keep her grounded to reality. They were mere visitors and nothing they did could prevent the impending disaster. Frankie nodded, solemnly, and they continued to watch together. By the time they turned back to Elizabeth, she had managed to wrangle the girl away from defying gravity and back to solid ground.

"Don't do that again. Do you hear me? Don't you ever dare. I've told you a hundred times already..." her mother exclaimed. She was desperately trying to maintain a calm voice but could barely keep the agitated tone suppressed. She looked around wildly, as if she feared they were being watched. However, their house was clearly protected against such things. All the windows were heavily draped, the front door had about four different locks and, the only sign of a magical household, was a little top on the hallway table that said, Sneakoscope, along the rim.

"Why?" Frankie asked, looking up at her mother, with eyes flooding with a mixture of hurt and confusion. It had been a brief spot of fun in her otherwise solitary confinement of a life. Frankie suddenly remembered something from the past with a little more clarity. Her powers had been coming in for nearly an entire year. A few accidents here and there. Nothing too extreme, compared to what her friends said they did when they were first discovering their powers. Even Tom had gone nuts and was already starting to wreak havoc in the orphanage as they spoke. However, she always tried to suppress it for her mother's sake. Today was the first day she'd ever dared to ask why. Why were these great and wonderful things she could do thought of as such deadly sins? Why must she be punished for something beyond her control?