The Forgotten

The Forgotten

"We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds." - Tryon Edwards

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Act I: A Collision of Madness

"Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting." - John Russell

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1996, July 17

Surrey

It was late at night as Harry Potter sat at his bedroom window, looking out across Privet Drive and wishing, not for the first time or the last, that he were somewhere else.

He wondered vaguely what Ron and Hermione were doing. Sleeping, most likely, as most normal people would be at this hour of the night. But lately, Harry had found he had trouble falling asleep. It seemed as though he lay there for hours, the ceiling growing dark and the light as the hours crept slowly by.

He did his schoolwork whenever he felt as though he were about to explode under the weight of everything. Since he'd felt that a lot recently, almost a third of his summer schoolwork was already done. He wondered occasionally when he would receive his O.W.L.s, but he knew there wasn't much use fretting over how many he had gotten until they actually arrived.

A dark shadow flickered across the ground as something swept past a streetlamp, and for a second Harry thought it was a Dementor; but then he saw Hedwig's outline as she glided towards him. He stepped back from the window and she fluttered into the room, coming to perch in her cage, a dead mouse in her beak.

"You realize that's disgusting," Harry said conversationally to the owl, who gave a muffled hoot and turned her back on him. Harry rolled his eyes and went to shut the window before he tried to get some sleep.

A chilly wind buffeted the hedges bellow, blowing several leaves and a sweet wrapper down the pavement as it swept by headed for somewhere else.

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London

"Don't forget, we have our first test next week, on chapters one through three."

James Aston smiled at his class as they scrambled to their feet, swinging book bags over their shoulders as they filled out the door, a few of the bolder students waving goodbye as they left.

"Bye Professor Aston!"

"See you next week!"

James shook his head as the last few people hurried out the door. He took a moment to erase his notes from the blackboard before he put his books and papers into his knapsack and left, shutting the door quietly behind him.

The sun was shining brightly as James went through the double doors at the end of the hall, and out into the afternoon. It was lunch hour, and students and teachers alike where rushing to get to classes or else sitting down to eat their food in the fresh air.

Wednesday was the one day when James only had one class, so that meant he normally spent the next few hours eating in a small café while marking papers. But it was the beginning of the summer term, so there where no papers or tests to go over, which meant that he had the entire afternoon to spend doing whatever he liked.

James headed down the steps and out, onto the pavement. He strolled along with almost no idea where he was going, except that he knew there was a small park a few streets away, and that he had a sandwich and a bottle of lemonade with him, meaning he did not have to stop for lunch.

As he walked, James listened to the conversations of the people passing him, making up their backgrounds and histories as he went along.

"I swear, if he misplaces his keys one more time-"

"-There's no way we're leaving early-"

"-And I'm just left standing there, with no clue what's going on."

The park was busy as James veered off the pavement and onto the path. A young mother was pushing an empty stroller along while her small son walked at her side. An elderly couple where sitting on a bench, laughing quietly to themselves. A red haired woman was walking a small dog, who seemed to be unwilling to stay in one place for more than two seconds.

Finding a deserted bench, James dropped down onto it, pulled out his lunch and ate slowly, watching the small boy, who had seen the dog and was rushing over to see it. The two women laughed at something one had said and began chatting happily as their two charges investigated a small weed growing in the gravel.

James grinned and turned back to his lunch.

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"I'm Lily Reynold," Lily said, reaching out to grasp the other woman's hand. "And this is my baby," she added, gesturing with her free hand at the small dog currently straining against his leash. "Loki." The dog wagged his tail, blinking soulfully up at them before he turned back to the boy, who was apparently much more interesting.

"Jenny Tyler and this is my son Gabriel. He's turning five in two weeks," Jenny said, smiling down at her small son. They both had the same sandy blond hair, though the boy's eyes where blue and his mother's eyes grey. Still, the resemblance was obvious, especially with the proud expression on Jenny's face as she watched her child.

"He's adorable," Lily commented. Jenny laughed and turned back to face Lily.

"He's also a handful. Do you have any children?"

Lily shook her head regretfully. "No, I don't."

Jenny laughed again. "Well then, that explains why you think he's adorable."

Lily chuckled then yelped as Loki wound his way around her legs, entangling her with the lead.

"Loki! No!" Lily managed to detach herself from the lead relatively quickly, and by the time she was done her dog had lost interest again, apparently finding a smell in the grass much more interesting. Gabriel was watching the dog with the utmost fascination, his eyes wide as he stared at Loki.

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Nymphadora Tonks was not having the best of days.

She knew she was in perfect health, but apparently no one else believed her, and she hadn't been outside St. Mungos since she'd been "allowed" to go watch Harry get picked up by his aunt and uncle from Kings Cross.

"I'm fine, Kingsley!" The tall African man raised one eyebrow at her statement, a gesture which did absolutely nothing to improve her temper. "I've been stuck in this place for a whole bloody month," she waved her hands at the walls of St. Mungos to emphasize her point. "And if I don't get out of here now I'm going to go stir crazy! I told you, I'm perfectly fine!"

Apparently her loud and angry argument was doing nothing to convince her two captors of her good health.

"I think she's already gone stir crazy in here," Bill commented dryly, which made Kingsley chuckle.

Tonks scowled at both of them, crossing her arms and kicking her chair, and doing her very best impression of an annoyed adolescent. This only made the two men snicker louder, and after a few moments she gave up, throwing her hands into the air in defeat.

"Fine! If I can't go on a mission for the Order can you at least tell the Healers to let outside for a while? Maybe take a walk around Muggle London or something? I mean," she added. "How much trouble can I get into?"

This last addition made Bill let out a howl of laughter, and though Kingsley showed his usual self-restraint he to was chuckling.

"You'd be surprised," Bill said a few minutes later when he had finished wiping tears out of his eyes, "just how much trouble you can get into, Tonks."

Tonks grinned, her bad mood gone in an instant. "So I can go, right?"

Bill sighed, rolling his eyes, while Kingsley still wore that expression of vague amusement. But they nodded and in the time it took for them to blink Tonks was out of her chair and at the door, her wand in one hand.

"I swear I'll come back in an hour," she said, waving her index finger at them. "And if you two don't come back tomorrow and visit I'll break out of here and walk to Hogwarts."

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It was too perfect an afternoon to last.

"Look out!"

The scream came from a young woman, most likely no older than twenty, with bubblegum pink hair and a look of panic on her face. She was clutching a thin stick in her hand, and appeared to be chasing...

A shadow?

The thing held the shape of some looming human figure, but its dark body was transparent. It wore some sort of black cape with a large hood and silver and blue trim, which flared out as it sped across the pavement, two feet above the ground.

The streets were oddly empty, and James suddenly realized that the thing and its pursuer were headed directly for the park and its inhabitants, who had all frozen, gaping at the bizarre sight.

As the shadow sped directly at the park, the pink haired woman pointed the stick at it, shouting as she ran.

"Stupefy!"

A jet of red hot light shot right through the shadow, which let out an unearthly shriek of pain. It was with that sound that James, suddenly finding he was able to move again, leapt into action. The two women, the child and the dog with them, were directly in the path of the shadow, and as James rushed towards them, intending to help, the shadow reached the spot where they stood frozen.

The shadow flew straight at the red head, but it suddenly seemed to notice James, and in that moment of hesitation, it collided with the mother.

She screamed in panic and tried to duck, but then suddenly she was no longer struggling, and the shadow was merging, there was no other word for it, with her. As two different faces fought for control of the same body, the pink haired woman shouted again.

"Stupefy!"

This time there was no terrible scream, only the dull thump as the woman/shadow toppled to the ground. It seemed that neither had won the struggle for power, because the face and body was left frozen, half some sort of creature, half human.

The boy was wailing as he rushed over to his mother, but the red haired woman scooped him up quickly, shushing and rocking him in her arms as she and James shared an alarmed look.

Pink Hair had reached them now. She was panting hard, and sweat trickled down her face, which was very pale. She looked as though she might collapse at any moment.

"Damnit, Kingsley and Bill are going to kill me." She muttered, kneeling beside the knocked out woman. Suddenly she looked up at them.

"I don't suppose you would happen to have a portkey to St. Mungos, would you?" She asked hopefully, and then continued speaking, not waiting for an answer. "But no, not a lot of us hang out in the Muggle side of London. I don't think a lot of us ever hang out in this side," she was babbling now, her face still white and her hands trembling. "Except at Kings Cross, but this is the middle of a park and it's not September yet is it?" She gave a long shuddering sigh, and then stopped in the middle of it. She looked up slowly, disbelievingly, and as if she had just noticed they were standing there, her gaze went from James to the red haired woman and back again. She seemed at a complete lost for words.

"That's... but... you..." she gaped at them. "You're... that isn't... you're dead!" And then, as though everything that had just happened was suddenly too much to handle, she toppled over onto the grass and lay there, unconscious.