The trees scratched the top of Cedric’s head as he zigzagged through the silver trunks without a sound. Like a ceiling, the fog hovered over him, and he could see only about another foot above his head, but he didn’t want to look up.
‘Never look up. Never look up . . .’
He trend soundlessly over the blue grass, keeping his head down all the while. He knew their blue faces . . .
They were waiting for him. In the land of the washed-out colours, Cedric looked up into the bright, yellow animal eyes. He scrambled away from them, but the more he looked, the stronger their feral gazes became.
They wanted him.
Cedric jolted awake. He wiped the sweat off his face.
“Sleep well?”
Cedric blinked several times, even thought he recognized Venturini’s voice. The Healer seemed to have Apparted to Cedric’s bedside. Cedric gave Venturini what he hoped would be a cold stare, but he figured, ‘I probably look more like a sleepy drunk than anything else.’
Venturini put Cedric’s lunch on a tray table and slid it over to him. Cedric stared down at the sandwich and chips before he looked back up at Venturini. “Can I have a newspaper? The Prophet, maybe?”
Venturini shook his head as he crossed his arms. “We’ve been over this everyday all week long. No newspapers, books, or anything else magical goes inside that bubble.”
‘Yes, I get it, you’re trying to keep me isolated so I’ll crack. I’ve gathered that, too,’ Cedric thought wearily as he remembered his week at Saint Mungo’s. He realized that the curtain separating him from the rest of the world had a silencing charm on it, so he couldn’t hear anything happening beyond his side of the steely drape. The little window that offered him so much hope his first night here only came with the view of a brick wall over a tiny, dingy alley.
Venturini established a daily routine that began with breakfast. After breakfast, Venturini and Nissel would come back, Venturini would remove the bubble, and Cedric would be escorted to a bathroom. Afterwards, he would sit in his bed until they brought lunch. Today, he fell asleep before lunch. After lunch, Cedric knew Venturini would visit several more times, Nissel would serve him dinner, and he would try and sleep during the night.
‘There’s nothing else to do but sleep,’ Cedric thought dully. They refused him everything. He wanted to read. Venturini said he couldn’t do that at all. There was no one to play a game with, and nothing magical would work inside his charm bubble anyway. Finally, Nissel caved on day three and brought him a pack of Muggle playing cards. He knew a few games from his Muggle born friends, but he didn’t remember them well; maybe that’s why the cards lost their entertainment value quickly. Or, as Cedric rather suspected, Muggle games were just boring.
Then, there were the nightmares. They began the first night in the hospital, and because he slept lightly, Cedric had them every night. To his annoyance, Venturini seemed to have figured out about the nightmares. ‘Well, he can’t read my mind, so he’s just going to have to be curious. Only he would be overjoyed that I’m bored out of my mind and having nightmares.’
While Venturini stood silently over Cedric’s bed, the two locked gazes. ‘And I thought he was going to save me! Ha!’ Cedric remembered that his first impressions of Venturini as a saviour quickly faded after their first meeting. ‘He wants me for the same reason the Aurors do. I’m a spectacle, and he just wants to study me. Instead of a cell in Azkaban, he’s put me in a hospital bed.’
“I’ll see you this afternoon,” Ventuini said as he turned and left the room. The curtain whooshed shut behind him, and the sounds of the hospital faded. Cedric sighed and picked at his lunch. With nothing to do, he found he had no appetite, either. He drank the water and finished half the sandwich before he pushed away the tray table.
Cedric popped his head up again. Nissel came into collect his tray table. Before the Healer could pick up the tray, a woman Healer rushed into the room.
“Someone put poison in the soup at the Leaky Caldron. We’re swamped downstairs.”
For the first time, Cedric watched Nissel forget he existed as he ran out of the room. ‘It’s kind of nice to be ignored again. He even left the curtain open.’
Cedric listened, but he didn’t hear much noise beyond the drape today. He still couldn’t see outside of his bedchamber, but it didn’t sound like anything interesting was happening on his ward. He leaned back in his bed and stared up at the ceiling.
When he heard the curtain move, Cedric raised his head. A woman in yellow scrubs and a white t-shirt cautiously stepped into the room. ‘If the curtain hadn’t moved, I doubt I would have even noticed her. Her bare feet allowed her to sneak in so quietly.’
“Were you sleeping?”
“Susan?”
The woman tilted her head to one side as she continued to look at Cedric. “Everyone knows my name, don’t they? Where did you find it?”
Cedric tried to close his gaping mouth. ‘I thought she looked familiar, but when she spoke . . . wait, what did she mean about her name?’ Cedric tried to get over the strange question, but then, he saw the little white tag on her chest emblazoned in ink with the name ‘Susan’ on it.
“I-it’s on your shirt,” Cedric stammered as he pointed at her. Susan stared down and fingered the little, white tag.
“You’re right! How nice. No one everyone knows me,” Susan giggled as she stared back up at Cedric. “You don’t have a name tag. What’s your name? Have we met?”
Cedric slowly shook his head. “No . . . no we haven’t met.”
Susan only shrugged. ‘She doesn’t seem upset that I didn’t answer that tricky name question. She’s dressed in hospital clothes, too. Maybe I didn’t get a nametag because Venturini is determined to keep me hidden. I am a special case, after all.’
Susan stared around the room, and then walked over to the window. ‘She lost interest in me fast.’ Only with Susan more interested in staring at the brick wall did Cedric realize that no one had really stopped gawking at him since the first painful moment of seeing his father. ‘Anonymity is a bit nice to have again.’
“It’s not much of a view,” Cedric said, and Susan looked back over in his direction.
“I don’t think I have a window in my room,” Susan replied as she unfolded the chair Venturini usually sat on when he came for his visits. She sat down and leaned forward on the chair so her elbows rested on the tray table. “I don’t think I had lunch yet,” Susan said as she stared down at Cedric’s half eaten meal. “Can I eat these?”
Cedric nodded. As Susan began to munch on the chips, Cedric found himself realizing how little attention she paid him. ‘She really has no idea who I am . . . or who everyone thinks I am. Maybe she hasn’t read the papers. Maybe it’s not in the papers . . .
“Susan, how long have you been in Saint Mungo’s?” Cedric asked.
Susan paused to finish chewing a chip before she said, “Oh . . . I don’t really know. How long have you been here?”
“You don’t know?” Cedric asked. Susan frowned and looked down at her hands.
“I told you I don’t know!” she snapped as she got up from the chair. Susan’s face filled with fear, and she looked like a trapped animal looking for somewhere to run.
‘She . . . she’s lot her memory. That’s why she has the name tag . . . it’s to remind her of her own name . . .’
“Susan . . . f-finish my lunch,” Cedric stammered. “Please?”
Susan’s eyes darted back to Cedric. She stared at him suspiciously for a moment, and Cedric felt a shiver go down his spine as a brief, knowing look crossed Susan’s face. ‘Does she . . .’
Then, the moment passed, and Susan’s entire body seemed to relax. She sat down and began to eat the chips again as if nothing odd happened.
“These are really good,” Susan said after a moment. “Why didn’t you want them?”
“I-I . . . I wasn’t hungry,” Cedric fumbled out the words. ‘She went crazy, but now . . . it’s like nothing went wrong. I remember reading how memory loss can alter personality, but she really seemed terrified. I can’t very well ask her how she got her memory erased, though.’
“Susan!”
A woman who looked like the generic image of a grandmother on Muggle food boxes bustled into the room. She shot Cedric a fearful glance as she pushed the tray table away from Susan. “Come on, honey, let’s go. You can’t be in here.”
The woman grabbed Susan by the arm, and for a moment, Susan tensed up. ‘Is she going to have another fit?’ Cedric wondered as the elderly woman attempted to pull Susan out of the chair. Susan stared off into space, but when she was tugged, she stood up.
“I’ll take you to get some lunch, okay?” the woman cooed, and Susan followed her out of the room. Before she disappeared behind the curtain, Susan smiled and waved to Cedric. This time, the Healer didn’t forget to close the curtain behind her.
Not long after the Healer and Susan left, Venturini came back, flinging the curtain aside before closing it again. ‘That didn’t take long. Good for him to realize he’s only human, after all.’ Cedric watched Venturini pace the room for a moment before sitting down in the folding chair.
“I have something to talk about today,” Cedric said as he positioned himself so he was sitting cross-legged in the center of the bed.
“I’m sure you do,” Venturini replied dryly.
“How did Susan lose her memory?”
Venturini pursed his lips. “Come on, now, you’ve been begging me to tell you anything for days. Why is Susan at Saint Mungo’s?” Cedric pressed the issue.
Venturini leaned back in the chair, his hands still resting on his lap. ‘Come on, tell me something. It’s not a very harmful question.’ Cedric fought the urge to chew on his lower lip. Venturini seemed to be looking just beyond Cedric’s head.
“How do you know Susan?” Venturini finally asked, but his gaze still remained distant.
Cedric bit into his lower lip. “She walked into my room today. I noticed she’d lost her memory.”
‘Come on, I didn’t give that much away. Come on . . . just tell this to me. You’re going to lock me up here until they send me to Azkaban . I deserve to know . . . something.’ Cedric look the edge of his grey robe and wiped the blood from his mouth. Adam leaned forward in the chair, and Cedric focused on the Healer again.
“Okay, I can tell you a little bit about Susan,” Venturini said in what Cedric judged to be a perfect conversational tone. “She was brought here last October. She performed a Memory Charm on herself, but that’s not what I personally considered interesting about her case. You see, it takes a bit of skill to be able to cast a very powerful memory charm. With some exception, most people who cast a memory charm on themselves only erase very short periods of their memory, but as you saw, Susan has trouble remembering her own name.”
“Why did she cast it on herself?” Cedric asked. “Did it backfire?”
“That’s what the Aurors were led to believe happened, but no one could figure out why she cast the first charm on some random Muggle. The second one was probably intended for the first Muggle’s companion, but she cast it on herself. However, that’s not what really interests me right now,” Venturini’s voice acquired an edge as he leaned forward again, like a fox cornering a rabbit. “What really is interesting is that, out of all the people you’ve met, Susan is the first one you’ve asked about. I think this means you know her.”
‘Hmmm . . . I should have figured the chit-chat was just to put me off guard,’ Cedric thought as he continued to stare at Venturini. Finally, Cedric replied, “Who says I haven’t known everyone I’ve met? You have no idea what I do or do not know.”
Venturini chuckled and stood up. “I think you’re a bit wrong there. I’ll be around for your full physical examination in several days.”
‘Swell. Really great, Cedric, well played,’ Cedric mentally scolded himself. ‘That man is never going to tell you anything. He knows who you’re supposed to be, but he’s not going to ever tell you, is he? And what now? I’m going to have to listen to him interrogate me every day until the Aurors remember I exist. Then, they throw me in Azkaban for crimes I never committed.’