the one | h. potter

18. The memory vault

harry's pov

I am cold. Very cold. It was Friday, and we'd been working and learning in the freezing cold memory room all week. Ron, Liz, Katie, and I are all wearing our robes, but I'm the only one shivering.

The memory room is a strange place. Always guarded by a pair of aurors, the long, seemingly never-ending room holds hundreds of thousands of memories given as evidence during court cases. All week, we'd been viewing them, learning about memory jinx and spells, and connecting them to different cases as part of our training.

Our instructor had no idea that the last time I watched a memory in a pensieve, I was heading off to die.

Or that I'd spent the entirety of the sixth year watching memories with Dumbledore.

The instructor finishes speaking (not that I was really paying attention, I'd get Liz's help afterward if I needed it) and gives us free rein through the archives.

I meet Liz's eyes and find that she looks a bit nervous. I raise my eyebrows at her and she shrugs. I turn around and start browsing the memory catalog. All the memories are listed here, and all you had to do was spell the trial name on the stand with your wand. Several of these stations were located at the beginning of the room, and once you spelled out the trial name, the memories used as evidence during the trial would be summoned onto the stand.

Out of boredom, I racked my mind for trials I'd been at. There was mine, back in the fifth year, but there were no memories presented as evidence at that one. The most recent trial I've attended was Malfoy's, so I write the name 'Draco Malfoy' onto the stand.

A container with at least 10 memories appears on the stand. I grab the container and haul it off to a nearby table. I examine the names on the vials.

Written in elegant cursive handwriting, the names: Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Narcissa Malfoy, Kingsley Shaklebolt are the only ones I recognize at first until I find a vial buried below all the other ones. The name written on the vial makes me stop dead.

Elizabeth Smith.

My first thought is that the vial must be in the wrong place. Liz didn't testify at Malfoy's trial, I was there. I would have remembered it. But then I see the smaller lettering underneath, one that said: Witness for the accused, D. L. Malfoy.

Examining the memory, I notice the strange color. All the memories I've ever seen were a shimmering silver, but Liz's memory is the color of the night sky; blackish-blue with specks of silver.

It has always intrigued me that Liz never shared what she did during the war. She was always so put together; always excelling in training, knowing exactly what to say or do. Did this memory have the answer to why she hid her past?

I'm so curious about the memory that I stow it in my robe pocket and send the container back to its shelf. There's a pensieve here in the memory vaults, but I think I'll take this one back to the pensieve I found at Grimmauld Place.

I scout out Liz amongst the room; she's sitting with Katie, pouring over some case files, a memory container in front of her. Liz's hair is up in a ponytail today (one of my favorite hairstyles on her). Her face is focused and she's in deep conversation with Katie. Liz meets my eyes before smiling shyly and looking away, which causes Katie to hit her shoulder, whisper in her ear, and Liz to blush.

I should probably ask her out, right?

What she told me before she left on Sunday morning is still a mystery to me. Did she imply we were going on a date?

Not that I didn't want to go out with her. I really did.

We'd made plans; she was to come by Grimmauld place tomorrow at six and we'd head off to dinner and a stand-up show I'd already purchased tickets for. I couldn't wait.

As I watch Liz work, my mind drifts back to the memory in my robe pocket. I don't want to invade Liz's privacy by looking in her head, but all the questions I have would probably get the best of me in the end.

What was so special about her past that she had to keep it a secret?

Why would she testify at Malfoy's trial?

• • •

Liz is supposed to floo over in an hour but I'm already ready and placing the living room by the floo. I'm still racking my brain, trying to come up with interesting conversation topics.

To busy myself, I go up to my room and start cleaning. The rest of the house is clean (courtesy of Kreacher), but per my instructions, my room is to be left untouched. I make my way towards my bed and go to hang up my auror robes. I hear the clink in the pocket and remember: I stole Liz's memory!

What was I thinking? What if she sees it?!

I study the vial again and a wave of curiosity floods through me. The memory is a long one, 45 minutes in length, so I could watch it and be done before Liz gets here... Should I?

I head towards the pensieve downstairs, carrying the small vial with me. I may try to avoid it, but my curiosity will get the best of me, so better to watch the memory now than later, right?

Biting my lip, I uncork the memory vial and pour it into the pensieve. The murky liquid goes dark and I see images; a long, black table, with black-robed people sitting at it; a large, barely lit bedroom; a silvery patronus; and a figure, who I recognize as Malfoy, standing in a doorway.

I know I shouldn't, that if Liz ever finds out she'll be super pissed. But my curiosity gets the better of me and I plunge my face into the liquid.