Ethereal ✭Fred Weasley✭

69.

Sophia took Molly's offer to hide away in Fred and George's room when the Order had their meeting. Fred had wanted to stay with her but decided against it when Molly had informed the others that he was the only one that Sophia was comfortable with completely. This fascinated them and they wanted hear more, even asking to get Sophia to come out and sit with them. This was obviously not going to happen, but Fred did reluctantly sit in the kitchen with the Order for the meeting.

"She knew us," George stated to the group. "But it's like we're strangers to her. She only knows our names and basic knowledge."

"Sounds to me like an Obliviation spell gone wrong," Arthur suggested.

"No it's nothing like that," Mad-Eye grunted. The Weasleys' resisted the urge to roll their eyes at the man's usual contradiction but listened anyway, his eye watching them closely for any sign of daring to speak up against him. "It's got to be some sort of coping method. We can't know for sure unless we see for ourselves, but I think that she was indeed tortured physically as well as mentally. We know how Lestrange is with her mental curses. She could have tortured the girl into madness like she did to the Longbottoms' if she wanted to."

"So you think she forced herself to forget us?" Fred asked, hating the image of Sophia wanting to forget about anything and everything she knew.

"Not just us," Remus butted in, lightly surprising everyone. The man had spent most of their meetings in silence while sitting with his hand enclosed in Tonks', who would sometimes speak for him. "I don't think she remembers anything but her name. I doubt she remembers any magic. It's like she's a child again..."

"But... what about me?" Fred inquired again. "Why does she only remember me?"

"If I might cut in-" Dumbledore spoke politely after not saying a word since the beginning of the meeting. "-I believe that she obviously was and is very fond of you Mr Weasley. She may have only been able to latch on to one thing while going through this torturous time. It may be possible that Sophia forced herself to only focus on the one thing she knows is safe and means no harm to her. I'm not aware of Miss Lestrange's abilities when it comes to Occlumency but it could also explain this. She might have wanted to have as much of her thoughts and memories hidden. I do know that unfortunately Harry's failure at Occlumency did lead to Sophia's capture. They had been watching her through him for most of last year."

"We can't know for sure," Mad-Eye said gruffly. "We need to look into her memories. Find out what she told them and what they did to her. And the only way is either Occlumency or Albus's Pensieve-"

"Absolutely not," both Fred and Remus stopped him at the same time. They glanced at each other and mentally agreed that they would not allow this invasion of Sophia's mind. Not only was it unethical, it would be painful for someone who had just gone through three months of intense physical and emotional torture.

"I have to agree with Mad-Eye," Bill joined as he looked back and forth between Fred and Remus who wore hard looks. "It's the only way we can get the full explanation. It'll help us help her get better too."

"I know for a fact she won't let us do it willingly," Remus shot back angrily. "Regardless of that, she would lose all sense of trust that she barely has now! I will not allow this."

"Remus, it would help with her mental state if we use the Pensieve," Dumbledore urged with his most gentle smile. "We can pull the memories away from her. She won't have to suffer with them at such ferocity."

Both Fred and Remus still looked entirely unconvinced making the table deflate with a sigh. They were still completely in the dark about what happened yet they had the ability to find out. Mad-Eye could be seen with a harsh look on his face as his enlarged eye flickered between Remus and Fred, not understanding what the issue was. But the man was never one for sentimental issues and emotions in general. If it were up to him, he would have held the girl down with a petrifying curse and extract the memories from Sophia's skull himself. But for some reason, that was frowned upon.