Much to my dismay, Dumbledore requested that I didn't leave right away. I protested, but he reminded me that my belongings needed to be collected from Oxford, and I did need some sleep.
Reluctantly, I had got about three hours of sleep, and as the hospital wing clock stroke eight, I decided that I couldn't wait any longer to see Gennie, the Weasley's and Harry.
"Are you sure you want to leave now?" Dumbledore said warily, as he led me to his office. I was going to use floo powder to get to the Burrow, which was the name of the Weasley home. I was going to meet with Molly Weasley, and get some breakfast before everybody else returned.
"Yes, Professor." I said firmly, fiddling with the straps of my rucksack. My belongings and cat Minnie had been sent to the Burrow, so I just had my rucksack and myself to take along now. "I need to see them all. Harry's probably going out of his mind, anyways."
Dumbledore smiled warmly at me. "I'm sure he is. Now, are you clear of how to use Floo powder?"
I nodded. "I have to get a handful of the floo powder, and step into the fire. I have to speak clearly, and drop the powder at my feet. I have to keep my elbows tucked in, so I don't go through the wrong grate."
Dumbledore looked impressed. "You catch on quickly, just like your Mother. Ahh, here we are. Fizzing Whizzbees."
A gargoyle sprang open, and we walked silently up stairs to the office. Dumbledore pushed a door open, that lead into a very large room.
It was a large and beautiful circular room, full of funny little noises. A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were snoozing gently in their frames. There was also an enormous, claw-footed desk, and, sitting on a shelf behind it, a shabby, tattered wizard's hat - the Sorting Hat.
"So that's where you keep it," I said, looking at it with interest.
"Yes, I believe he is coming up with the next yearly song. It would be best if you don't disturb him." Dumbledore said, and he walked over to a perch, where a marvelous bird sat.
It was ruby red, with a golden plume and a tail the size of a peacock's. I hesitantly stroked it. "Is that a phoenix, sir?" I questioned.
Dumbledore nodded. "Fawkes is, yes. He saved your brother's life in the chamber of secrets. I'm sure young Genesis told you that story."
"She did, yes." I said softly. "Am I allowed to go now?"
Dumbledore smiled, and took a pot of floo powder from the top of the fire grate. "Are you ready, Aurora?"
"Why do you call me that?" I asked curiously. "Everybody else calls me Rory."
Dumbledore smiled a small smile. "It is who you truly are. You are Aurora Potter. Not Rory Oswin."
I squirmed a bit at that, and picked a handful of floo powder from the pot. I ducked under the fire grate, and stood up tall.
"Thank you, Sir." I said quietly. "I can't thank you enough."
"You can thank me by not loosing anymore memories." Dumbledore said kindly. "Have a good time at the Weasley's. I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing them."
"I will." I said truthfully. "The Burrow!"
I dropped the dust to my feet. Dumbledore was fading away, and so was Fawkes....
I felt as though I was being sucked down a giant drain. I was spinning very fast - the roaring in my ears was deafening - I tried to keep my eyes open but the whirl of green flames made me feel sick -something hard knocked my elbow and I tucked it in tightly, still spinning and spinning - now it felt as though cold hands were slapping my face hardly - squinting I saw a blurred stream of fireplaces and snatched glimpses of the rooms beyond - my empty stomach was churning- I closed my eyes again wishing it would stop, and then...
I fell, face forward, onto cold stone. I lay on the floor for a few seconds, trying to gain a sense of self-awareness.
"Aurora, dear! Are you alright?" It was Molly Weasley, Ron's Mother, pulling me to my feet.
She looked so concerned and worried for my well-being, that I crumbled. I started to cry, and I hugged her like I imagined I would have hugged my real Mother.
"It was really bad," I whispered onto her shoulder. "I f-forgot everything, and then I attacked Dumbledore earlier, I was scared."
"It's alright, dearie." Mrs Weasley said, rubbing onto my back. "Dumbledore's fixed you, and everything will get better now, okay?"
"Okay," I said, pulling away from her, and wiping my eyes. "When is everybody getting back?"
"They're walking back now. They should be about half an hour at most. If you want, you can unpack your things, they're in Gennie's bedroom. I thought you'd want to stay with her."
I nodded. "Thank you for letting me stay."
Mrs Weasley smiled. "Come along, I'll show you where the room is."
I followed her up narrow staircases, with frayed carpets and creaky stairs. The muted wallpaper was covered in moving photographs of the nine Weasley's, all looking happy. I felt a lump of emotion in my chest. It was so homely here, and I felt a stab of envy for Ron and Ginny for living here.
We reached a door on the second floor, which had a dragon burnt into it. "This was Charlie's room, but Gennie is using it for the summer." Mrs Weasley explained, pushing the door open.
The room was small, but in a cosy way. The walls were panelled wood, with posters of dragons and various other magical creatures across the wall. There was a small bed near the window, which had Gennie's faded flowery duvet from Godric's Hollow.
Next to Gennie's bed was a small camp bed, with a flower patterned duvet cover over it. I smiled. It also reminded me of my camp bed in Godric's Hollow.
A smile crept onto my face. I was always going to remember that. As long as I used my ring, I was going to live a full and memorable life.
I then noticed that my trunk was at the foot of the bed, and a small black tail was poking out. "Minnie!" I cried, ducking under the bed to collect my cat.
She purred affectionately as I hugged her to my chest. "She seems calmer with you," Mrs Weasley observed. "She nearly clawed me to death when Dumbledore gave her to me--" She showed me two cuts on her hand, "--it seems she wanted you."
I just smiled into my cat's fur. "She's temperamental about who holds her, sorry."
"Why not we have some breakfast before you get yourself unpakced?" Mrs Weasley suggested. "We'll be able to see them coming, then."
I could tell from her tight lips that she was anxious for her children's return. And I was anxious to see Harry and Gennie.
With Minnie still in my arms, we headed back downstairs into a small and cluttered kitchen. I smiled warmly as I took a seat. I knew I was only here for two weeks, but I knew that I was going to love it here.
Mrs Weasley piled lots of delicious looking pancakes, eggs, sausage and bacon onto my plate. I tucked in straight away, feeling suddenly ravenous. It came into my mind that I hadn't actually eaten anything since before the Quidditch match last night.
As I was three quarters of a way through my breakfast, Mrs Weasley let out a strangled cry. "There they are!"
She dashed outside, and I sat nervously in my chair. Suddenly nine ginger, one dark haired, one blonde and one person with brown hair burst into the kitchen.
I jumped to my feet, to see Harry had pushed to the front of all the Weasley's. He stared at me for a minute, and I stared at him. And then we were running at each other, and hugging each other like our lives depended on it.
"Rory, you're... better." Harry mumbled into my hair.
I nodded, pulling away from him, whispering, "I remember everything now."
Everybody began to stare at me, before all talking at once.
"So, what exactly happened?"
"Did your mind screw up?"
"How are you better?"
"It was really scary!"
I stood feeling quite overwhelmed, my mouth not being able to form words.
"Be quiet, everyone!" Mrs Weasley snapped. "If Rory doesn't want to talk about it yet, nobody can force her. She's safe, she can remember everything, and she's not hurt. I think that's enough to know for now!"
I smiled at Mrs Weasley as a gesture of thanks.
Harry, Gennie, Ron and Hermione all looked quite disappointed. "Later," I mouthed to them. I cleared my throat. "So where is Cole?"
"His Uncle came to pick him up from the campsite," Gennie explained.
"I think we all need some strong tea, that'll make us all feel a bit better," Hermione said firmly, and proceeded to make us all mugs of tea.
Once we were all settled down with tea (and Firewhisky in Mr Weasley's case), Bill Weasley handed his Father the paper, while Percy looked over his shoulder.
"I knew it," said Mr. Weasley heavily. "Ministry blunders. . . culprits not apprehended. . lax security. . . Dark wizards running unchecked... national disgrace. . . Who wrote this? Ah. . . of course. . . Rita Skeeter."
"That woman's got it in for the Ministry of Magic!" said Percy furiously. "Last week she was saying we're wasting our time quibbling about cauldron thickness, when we should be stamping out vampires! As if it wasn't specifically stated in paragraph twelve of the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans --"
"Do us a favor, Perce," said Bill, yawning, "and shut up."
"I'm mentioned," said Mr. Weasley, his eyes widening behind his glasses as he reached the bottom of the Daily Prophet article.
"Where?" spluttered Mrs. Weasley, choking on her tea and whiskey. "If I'd seen that, I'd have known you were alive!"
"Not by name," said Mr. Weasley. "Listen to this: 'If the terrified wizards and witches who waited breathlessly for news at the edge of the wood expected reassurance from the Ministry of Magic, they were sadly disappointed. A Ministry official emerged some time after the appearance of the Dark Mark alleging that nobody had been hurt, but refusing to give any more information. Whether this statement will be enough to quash the rumors that several bodies were removed from the woods an hour later, remains to be seen.'"
"They were on about me, weren't they?" I asked quietly.
Nobody said anything, which kind of confirmed my point.
Mr. Weasley in exasperation, handing the paper to Percy. "Nobody was hurt, Rory was fine--Dumbledore had told me before I went back to the woods. What was I supposed to say? Rumors that several bodies were removed from the woods. . . Well now there'll be rumours."
He heaved a deep sigh. "Molly, I'm going to have to go into the office; this is going to take some smoothing over."
"I'll come with you, Father," said Percy importantly. "Mr. Crouch will need all hands on deck. And I can give him my cauldron report in person."
He bustled out of the kitchen. Mrs. Weasley looked most upset. "Arthur, you're supposed to be on holiday! This hasn't got anything to do with your office; surely they can handle this without you?"
"I've got to go, Molly," said Mr. Weasley. "I've made things worse. I'll just change into my robes and I'll be off. . . ."
"Mr Weasley!" I called, and he turned around. "Thank you." I said quietly. "Dumbledore told me that you took me to Hogwarts. I'm very grateful."
Mr Weasley smiled at me. "That's quite all right, Rory. I'm sure anybody else would have done it."
He walked out of the kitchen, and I turned back to the remaining people around the table.
"Mrs. Weasley," said Harry suddenly, unable to contain himself, "Hedwig hasn't arrived with a letter for Rory or me, has she?"
"Hedwig, dear?" said Mrs. Weasley distractedly. "No. . . no, there hasn't been any post at all."
Ron, Gennie and Hermione looked curiously at Harry. I assumed that Harry had sent a letter to Sirius us well, so I wasn't that curious.
With a meaningful look at us,Harry said, "All right if I go and dump my stuff in your room, Ron?"
"Yeah. . . think I will too," said Ron at once. "Girls, do you want to come?"
"Yes," we said quickly, and the five of us marched out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
They climbed two more flights until they reached a door with peeling paint and a small plaque on it, saying RONALD'S ROOM. Nearly everything in Ron's room seemed to be a violent shade of orange: the bedspread, the walls, even the ceiling. Then I realized that Ron had covered nearly every inch of the shabby wallpaper with posters of the same seven witches and wizards, all wearing bright orange robes, carrying broomsticks, and waving energetically.
"Your Quidditch team?" I asked.
"The Chudley Cannons," said Ron, pointing at the orange bedspread, which was emblazoned with two giant black C's and a speeding cannonball. "Ninth in the league."
"Right," Gennie said authoritatively. "Before Harry starts to explain stuff, Rory--spill the beans." She pulled out a tape recorder, and looked expectantly at me.
"What's that for?" Ron asked.
"Tape recorder. It records conversations. Since Cole isn't here, I'll record the conversation and send it to his Uncle's, and he'll most likely send it on to Alia. But anyways, he's under house arrest for the rest of the summer."
"What for?" Hermione asked.
"Well he was a bit drunk at the Quidditch match, that much was obvious." Gennie said. "He must have had some drink in his bag, had some before the match began... He went a bit odd after the match, if anybody remembers."
"What, when he was dancing around that girl?" I questioned. "I thought they were friends!"
Gennie shook her head grimly. "Cole just randomly started dancing around with a random girl. Apparently, he told her he'd go back to her tent! And everything would have been fine, but Cole's Uncle's friend saw it... Told his folks. He's totally grounded."
I frowned. "He seemed alright until the match started."
"Well we can talk to Cole about it when school starts," Harry said impatiently. "Now come on, Rory. Tell us what happened."
"Okay," I said, as Gennie pressed the record button. "So when the dark mark came up, I felt all dizzy, as if I was about to pass out. Everything was all blurry, and I fell to the floor--"
"You did look pretty spaced out." Ron added.
I glared at him to shut up. "And then my scar burnt, and started to bleed. I fell to the floor, and it was like the world had shifted. All of you were strangers..."
"It was really freaky." Harry said quietly. "You were crying and flinching like it burnt you."
"I did," I confirmed, watching the awe-struck faces of my friends. "I was crying memories. I saw myself set Adeline's hair on fire. And that's not the most pleasant thing to see. So, what happened after I passed out?"
The four of them exchanged a look. Hermione decided to talk. "Well you were thrashing about on the floor, and you were crying and screaming... But you were still out cold, and bleeding. So Ron's Dad picked you up, and said that Dumbledore would know what was wrong. Malfoy and Harry tried to go with him, but he said it would be dangerous. So he apparated away and Malfoy went somewhere."
"Then what happened when you woke up?" Gennie asked eagerly.
"Well I was in the hospital wing, but I didn't know that, and I ur... attackeddumbledore."
Ron snorted. "You what?"
"I attacked Dumbledore, okay!" I said, throwing my hands into the air. "I didn't know who he was, so I threw a potion at his head! And then he explained that my memories were coming out of me--from my tears. And I started crying, and saw Gennie and me get my wand last year--"
Gennie smiled at me weakly. "--And then I didn't know anything, so I got freaked out. Dumbledore used some freaky mind poking spell to get all my memories back into my brain."
"Legilimens!" Hermione declared, looking excited. "Oh it's a wonderful spell, and you have to be incredibly strong to fight off it! So then you use occlumens to protect your mind! But I suppose you'd have to give into it to let your memories go back in!"
We all stared at her. "Sorry," Hermione muttered. "Continue."
"Wait a second," Harry said, and everybody groaned. "Where did you get that ring from, Rory?"
I showed him the memoria anulum. "It's this really rare ring, thingy. It has a strong protection rune on, and some protection spells. I can't take it off, so I'm hoping its waterproof. It keeps all my memories in my head--I have all of my memories up until today."
"What about the future though?" Harry asked quietly. "How will you hold onto the future?"
I pulled the memoria renovo out of my bag. "Basically, I hold the ring to this page in the book every night, and the memories get stored in my head. I'll have to do it forever basically."
"It is pretty though," Gennie said, admiring the ring with interest.
"So that's it?" Ron said. He sounded quite disappointed. "I thought there would be more."
"Yeah, like why this is all happening. Why is your mind screwed up?" Harry asked impatiently.
"I'll forget you said that." I snapped. "Sorry, wrong pun. Anyways, its to do with our Mother and Voldemort."
"Is it to do with the memory wipe she did on you?" Hermione asked.
Harry stiffened up and I clutched onto his hand. "Dumbledore says that when he collected me, Mum's wand wasn't there. Meaning that she used a non-verbal spell, making it harder. And if Voldemort was barging through the house--its a miracle my head didn't blow off!"
Harry didn't laugh. It was a weak one at that. "If its at fault, it takes longer for the memories to leave the body... And Voldemort gave me the scar. Which was in a way, a part of him... Which poisoned the memory loss--"
"And you forget things when your around anything with him...." Gennie finished, her eyes wide. "That's why you freaked out with the Dark Mark. Your body couldn't take it."
"Gold star for you," I said dryly. "I can become dangerous if I forget too much--I could hurt any of you."
Everybody was silent. "You won't." Harry said. "Even if you don't remember me, we'll keep you safe."
I looked around, to see everybody nodding at me. "So as long as I use this ring, I'm okay. I can live a normal life."
"As normal as you can have in this world." Ron joked.
"So that's it." I smiled. Remembering the tape recorder for Cole, I swiped it from Gennie's hand. "Hey Cole. It's me. Just so you know, stop smuggling drink into places like you clearly did yesterday! You'll just end up with a crazy hangover!"
"You've been drunk?" Hermione asked skeptically.
"A friend and I thought her brother's vodka was water!" I said, putting my hands up in defense. "We were only eleven! Kills your head! Anyways Cole, you stay safe. And if Alia gets this--well stay awesome, and I'll see you soon!"
I pressed the stop button, and handed it over to Gennie.
"There's something I haven't told you," Harry said. "On Saturday morning, I woke up with my scar hurting again."
I pursed my lips, holding in a burst of laughter. While it was strange that Harry and I experienced the same thing--at the same time--Hermione, Gennie and Ron's reactions were exactly like I thought.
"Just to put it out there, it happened to me as well." I said, putting my hands up. "And I saw that bastard of a traitor murder somebody."
"Helluva weekend for you." Gennie muttered.
"But - he wasn't there, was he? You-Know-Who? I mean, Harry - last time your scar kept hurting, he was at Hogwarts, wasn't he?"
"Wait, when we were all eleven?" I questioned.
Everybody nodded. "My scar used to hurt then. I thought it was just a weird muscle spasm. The oswins told me that I fell onto the glass coffee table."
"It was only a dream," said Ron bracingly. "Just a nightmare."
"That they happened to have at the same time." Gennie said grimly. "I dunno, its weird."
"It is weird though..." said Harry, turning to look out of the window at the brightening sky. "It's weird, isn't it?. . . My scar hurts, and three days later the Death Eaters are on the march, and Voldemort's sign's up in the sky again."
"Don't - say - his - name!" Ron hissed through gritted teeth.
"And remember what Professor Trelawney said?" I went on, ignoring Ron. "At the end of last year?"
Professor Trelawney was their Divination teacher at Hogwarts. Hermione's terrified look vanished as she let out a derisive snort.
"Oh Rory, you aren't going to pay attention to anything that old fraud says?"
"You weren't there," I said. "You didn't hear her. This time was different. I told you, she went into a trance - a real one. And she said the Dark Lord would rise again. .. greater and more terrible than ever before. . . and he'd manage it because his servant was going to go back to him, and I would change somebodies fate. . . and that night Wormtail escaped, and Sirius was free."
There was a silence in which Ron fidgeted absentmindedly with a hole in his Chudley Cannons bedspread.
"Why were you asking if Hedwig had come, Harry?" Gennie asked. "Are you expecting a letter?"
"I told Sirius about my scar," said Harry, shrugging. "I'm waiting for his answer."
"Copy cat, that's what I did." I muttered.
"Good thinking!" said Ron, his expression clearing. "I bet Sirius'll know what to do!"
"I hoped he'd get back to me quickly," said Harry.
"But we don't know where Sirius is. . . he could be in Africa or somewhere, couldn't he?" Gennie said reasonably. "Hedwig's not going to manage that journey in a few days."
"Yeah, I know," I said lightly, but there was a leaden feeling in his stomach as he looked out of the window at the Hedwig-free sky.
"Come and have a game of Quidditch in the orchard, Harry" said Ron. "Come on - three on three, Bill and Charlie and Fred and George will play. .. . You can try out the Wronski Feint... You three can be girls together."
"Ron," said Hermione, in an I-don't-think-you're-being-very-sensitive sort of voice, "Harry doesn't want to play Quidditch right now... . He's worried, and he's tired. . . .We all need to go to bed..."
"Yeah, I want to play Quidditch," said Harry suddenly. "Hang on, I'll get my Firebolt."
Gennie got up with Hermione and left the room. I followed hearing Hermione mutter 'typical boys.'