King Of My Heart | R. BLACK

34 | altered memories

"Have you thought about maybe not going back to school this year?" James suggested, his arms stretched toward the ceiling.

Angela narrowed her eyes, "You're going back."

"Right, but it's different," he countered with a shrug.

She sat up at this, "How so?"

"Well, er-"

"I'm waiting."

"Sirius, help."

"Don't look at me," he replied, his hand in the air as a show of surrender.

"It's just..." he began cautiously. "Between America and Daisy, and R-er, everything that happened...Don't you think it's a bad idea?"

"James, America hasn't been heard from since Diagon Alley, I have nothing to worry about," she informed him. "And I have nothing to be ashamed of. It happened. I can't change that and I certainly won't run from it. End of story."

"But-"

"If you need me, don't bother," she cut him off swiftly before she walked away.

Angela made her way toward her room with a huff. She reluctantly stopped when someone called after her.

"Angela, dear, can you speak with you for a moment?" Euphemia requested from her doorway.

"Yeah, alright," she replied reluctantly before joining her mother in her room and sat on the bed. "Is everything okay?"

"I know your brother has been pushing the whole you staying behind thing-"

"Mom, please, I'm fine-"

"I know," she replied. "In certain instances anyway. We've just never really had the chance to talk about everything."

"There's nothing to talk about," she countered, "I told you everything."

"I'm not talking about what happened," she explained, "I'm talking about Regulus."

Angela's back stiffened immediately, "There's nothing to talk about." Euphemia raised an eyebrow, "It doesn't matter now. He was playing me. It's over."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Mom, he acted as though he cared about me and then left me to die."

The woman hesitated, "There's something we've been keeping from you."

"What is it?"

"When you came to after everything, your memory wasn't exactly great," she began cautiously. "There were certain things you couldn't recall and we assumed it would come back but it never did."

Angela frowned, "Okay..."

"Regulus was the one who returned you to us."

Her face paled significantly as she took in the new information, "What?"

"He showed up that night, with you in his arms," she went on. "We aren't sure what happened on the other end of things, but he seemed worried about you. James punched him and sent him back to make it seem as though he and Sirius had found you and Regulus had nothing to do with it."

Angela stared at the ground, as she tried to remember what had happened. The last thing she remembered was begging him to kill her. Next thing she knew she was in a hospital room surrounded by her family and auror's.

"How did you even find out about Regulus to begin with?" she asked, leaving that particular comment as it was.

"You're brother is very obvious," she answered. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"You gave me that book, you warned me about this," she pointed out in frustration. "I did the one thing I was never supposed to do!"

"Ang, when I gave you that book, my intention was not for you to fear love," Euphemia informed the girl, placing her hand over hers, "I merely wanted you to be cautious."

She snorted, "Well, look what good that did me."

The woman smiled softly, "You are so incredibly brave and strong, Angela. I know that it hurts but you will get through it." She squeezed the girl's hand, "And I'm not going to force you to stay behind but I am going to ask that you avoid any situation that could result in you getting hurt."

Angela smiled at her mother, "Thank you. And, er..." she hesitated. "Could you possibly not mention this to Sirius? James knew but Sirius only had suspicions. And given the circumstances..."

"Don't worry, honey, your secret's safe with me."