It has been over a year since the murder of his wife, Lily, and James Potter wishes every day that it is simply a nightmare that he will wake up from. Unfortunately, it isn't and in the wake of her death, James finds himself as a single parent to th...
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Despite the fact that Renata clearly didn't understand a word he was saying to her, she could see the distress on James' face and concern overtook hers. It seemed she wanted to help him in any way that she could as she stood up slowly and invited him to sit down for a moment. But James didn't want to sit down, in fact, at that moment, all he wanted to do was cry or kick himself because he had been too late to rescue her before they did whatever it was they did to her mind. It was one thing that she didn't remember who he was, but to erase the entire English language that she was practically fluent in, James could tell that they didn't want her remembering anything from her time in England.
That hurt him more than anything, that he had her right there in front of him, but he couldn't communicate with her. He hadn't even thought about that scenario being a possibility and now he hated himself for not coming up with a better plan. But then again, James hated himself for the reason that if he hadn't overreacted at Harry's birthday party, they wouldn't have been in such a predicament. If he had sought help earlier and attended therapy sooner, perhaps all of the pain he was feeling earlier could have been avoided.
And it wasn't his own pain that hurt him either, it was not knowing what Renata had gone through in order to become the person he was faced with. Very similar to what he and Sirius had suspected, it seemed all of her memories shared with him were gone, he was nothing but a total stranger to her. After everything they had been through, after everything she had done for him and Harry, there wasn't that connection anymore. They had taken it from her and it was like Alcina or whoever had anticipated James coming after her, so she created the language barrier.
He couldn't hold back anymore as the stress of the situation finally broke him down. Thinking that once he found her everything would be better, only to find her and become completely stuck with how to help. James placed one hand over his eyes to hide the fact that he was already starting to cry, leaving Renata looking quite alarmed at what was unfolding before her.
After all, to her, she was just coming by the restaurant to have a meal and read her book in peace, not have some stranger ramble on in a foreign language and then proceed to break down in front of her. He felt terrible just for putting her in the awkward predicament as he couldn't imagine what was running through her mind.
Suddenly, he felt the gentle sensation of her fingers touching under his chin, guiding his head back up. James dropped his hand, only to come face to face with Renata once more, a faint smile on her face as she offered him a napkin to wipe his eyes.
" Ti prego non piangere," she whispered to him, " non preoccuparti, andrà tutto bene."
He didn't know what she was saying to him, but he could gather it was something comforting to get him to stop crying, especially as she used her thumb to wipe away a fallen tear. When he met her eyes, there was a hopeful approach that she would recognise him or snap out of whatever had a hold on her memories of him. Instead, her eyes scanned over his face as if she was trying to recall who he was, but as her smile faded, he could tell that she was just as lost as he was at the time.
