Sawyer looked constipated after Headmistress McGonagall's words, I could literally hear him gritting his teeth in rage.

"I understand your concern for the safety of Hogwarts students but I'll have to rule out your accusations." She ended in a patronizing voice, walking out of Professor Lambert Faringray's office with the Headboy and Headgirl in tow.

"Return to classes now students." She threw over her shoulders, sweeping out.

I didn't need her to tell me, I got up and made away as well.

Sawyer glared at me savagely before stomping away but I paid him no mind. I was more interested in how the cute girl with freckles knew that I had lost my memories.

Gabe slowed down to talk to me. "I had no idea." He sympathized, patting my shoulders. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

I just shrugged, it really wasn't that bad. Most people had just ostracized me at first, that didn't hurt much, not as much as Sawyer hexing me and kicking me in the side.

"It's fine, thanks."

He left soon after, waving at me as he did. It was weird because while Gabe hadn't outrightly ignored me, he never went out of his way to be social either.

I stopped thinking highly of him after I found out that Roxanna had been the one to convince him to bring me back on the team.

That felt like ages ago, now I was a proper team member and Captain Jon was expelled. How the turntables…

I wasn't too eager to return to Professor Esme's class and I still wanted to talk to the cute freckled girl.

She had left immediately after Headmistress McGonagall so she was a couple of feet ahead of me.

I picked up the pace so that I would be able to catch up with her but it seemed like she also had similar thoughts because she slowed down as well.

"Uh, hey, and um thanks?" I raised a brow, still confused by her presence and what she had pulled back in Professor Faringray's office.

We seemed to share one mind because her round cheeks colored up, her coffee-brown eyes looking down.

"Hi." She replied in a small voice. "You don't know who I am but my name is Nira Sutton…"

I slowed down till we stopped walking completely. "I'm Audric." I introduced myself even though there was no need to, I mean she pretty much had a file on me.

"How did you know that I had lost my memory?" I asked curiously.

Nira made a small sound of horror, cringing into herself. "I'm really sorry about that, I really didn't mean to say it like that but Freda said that you were in trouble and that evidence was brought against you for being Imperiused and I just had to help…" She curled further into herself with each word she said till she was nearly a ball.

"Hey, it's fine." I reached out to touch her then stopped halfway and thought better of it. "You didn't tell me how you know though?" I reminded her.

"My dad is an Auror, I found out from him." She answered in a tiny voice, nervously squeezing her robes with her small hands.

"It's fine, really." I tried to reassure her.

The entire school would have found out eventually, it was just a bonus that they had to find out this way.

It would have been straight-up weird for me to just go around telling people that I lost my memories from the accident that murdered my entire family, not to mention a hassle.

So I just pushed it aside, it wasn't exactly something that would be hidden for long.

Even Headmistress McGonagall knew about it; I didn't even know that she did.

Now that it had come out to light, news of my memory loss would spread like wildfire.

I studied Nira, she had no reason to help me though, for her to come running just because she heard that I would be in potential danger, just how nice was she?

She glanced up to find me looking at her, this made her flinch and look away again.

I just noticed something, Nira was really short, her head barely came up to my chest.

"So, you heard I was in trouble and came running…" I drawled, teasing her for no reason.

Nira immediately colored up, her entire face went so bright red that I started to get worried.

"Or maybe you're just nice and would do it for just anyone…"

She looked up at me with righteous anger when I said this. "Of course not, it's just you…" She realized what she said pretty quickly and before I could stop her, she turned around and ran.

"Nira!" I tried calling after her but she was already gone.

"Well, shit." My dumbass went and pushed too far.

I couldn't be blamed though, Nira just made it so easy to tease her. 

She would curl up into herself only managing to make herself look smaller, and then her freckles popped out whenever her face went red.

I had to find her and apologize though, that was very uncharacteristic of me.

I hadn't seen her in any of my classes and I had a couple with Hufflepuff, that only meant one thing. She was either a fifth-year or a seventh-year.

I couldn't even make a wild guess of which class she could possibly be in.

There were still several minutes left for Professor Esme's class but if I walked really slowly, I would get there just in time for the class to be over, then I could just grab my stuff and leave.

I should have expected that Sawyer would try and pull something, I expected it even but I never saw this coming.

Reporting me for being Imperiused? That's fucking dumb and I'm not even on his side.

But it showed that Sawyer was mostly harmless, at least for now. The stint he pulled just now had just brought the rest of his supporters to my side.

He couldn't curse me either because I was much stronger than he was. I had no plans to underestimate him but he literally did not pose a threat to me anymore.

My calculations were accurate and I got back to Transfiguration class just as Professor Esme was rounding up the class.

"Stay behind after the class, Albeline." She tossed at me as soon as I got in, barely sparing me a glance.

I cursed under my breath, my plan backfired.

I would have preferred coming right back to class to being made to stay back.

I sat stiffly behind my desk, waiting for the class to empty out. Whispered conversation floated around, it was easy to guess who they were talking about.

I was pleasantly surprised though at Professor Esme's actions, I had no idea what she planned for me but I didn't see this coming.

She gave me a rundown of what I had missed in class and sent me on my way, granted she was no nicer about it but Professor Esme has always been unbiasedly strict.

I was released a quarter of an hour later, saddled with more papers to write.

She hadn't asked me about my summon to see the Headmistress so it didn't seem like she had any ulterior motives for helping me out.

She probably just wanted to tie up loose ends when it came to teaching me so that I couldn't use the Headmistress calling me as an excuse to escape her questions in class.

Yeah, that was more like Professor Esme.

It was almost time for lunch so after leaving the Middle Courtyard, I headed straight to the dungeons. I needed some privacy for a while before going to the Great Hall for lunch.

As I made my way down stairs and through corridors, one thing was becoming glaringly evident. People were staring and whispering when I walked past.

It reminded me of the first days after I resumed, before the Boggart incident replaced the gossip of my family's death.

I didn't expect the news to spread this fast, it was almost like people had been waiting impatiently for the other foot to drop.

"Emerald Potion." I spoke the password to the cold brick walls that closed off the way to the common room.

I walked through the dim narrow corridor, slowing down slightly when I got to the common room itself.

"Audric!" Blair immediately jumped me as soon as I stepped in, Tanner flanking her. "We heard what happened!"

I raised a brow. "What did you hear?"

"That you lost your memories." She leaned closer to me to whisper, looking around surreptitiously.

"Everyone knows." Tanner cut in dryly.

"You don't say." I hummed, looking around the common room.

Everyone suspiciously looked busy, each and every one of them avoiding my gaze.

I looked back at Blair who was staring at me expectantly. "What? You want me to confirm it?"

She looked away nervously, saying nothing.

"It's fine." I said lightly. "I did."