𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 | Harry James Potter x Reader

DH ☆•°~'* 09

"Is this the place we used to know?
Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?"

❈🌠➵9¾♌ ⚯ 🗲━━━━━★. *･｡ﾟ✧⁺

There was no feeling like it. The emptiness in Y/N's heart quadrupled ever since she'd regained her memories. A gaping hole was left behind, never to be filled unless she found them again - unless she found him. 

Lord knows what Harry, Ron and Hermione must have been thinking for the past three months. For all they knew, Y/N could be dead, or else being tortured. Y/N did not want to think about how Harry was feeling. She knew the necklace he wore gave it away that Y/N was perfectly alive; she could feel her half of the heart charm drumming softly, almost synchronised with Y/N's own heartbeat, meaning Harry was OK, too. 

Y/N wondered whether Harry knew it was not wholly her choice to part from him, Ron and Hermione. She feared he might be thinking back to what the prophecy had said. She feared he might believe Y/N had left him on purpose to join forces with Voldemort, as he had thought she would do a year ago. It caused nervous dithers in Y/N's stomach to even imagine how he'd react if they reunited again. Would he be mistrusting? Angry? Upset? Or worse, refuse to even be around her?

A sensible part of Y/N knew Harry would not behave in such a way, not again, anyway. He had made that perfectly clear. But still, Y/N's insecurity caused her to doubt everything. 

The image of the Pensieve had faded from the page, replaced by a small, golden inscription in the middle, in a familiar thin, slanting writing:

Memories are treasures of the mind, holding the wealth of our experiences and the essence of who we are. Never let them go.

Y/N scoffed, but knew Dumbledore was right. She could barely recognise herself before, the fabricated memories feeling inherently foreign. But they had gotten one thing right: Y/N was related to the Black family. Only not as closely as the Malfoys made it out to be. 

She glanced down at the bracelet around her wrist, the one Sirius had gifted her and which belonged to Y/N's supposed great-great-great-grandmother, Iola Black. She tried not to think too hard about what Sirius might've done if he'd learned what Y/N had been through the past months. 

Instead, she redirected her thoughts towards another pressing subject, one that had kept Y/N up at night several times the past year or so: Leonora. All Y/N's memories about them had resurfaced, memories Y/N had never touched upon but were now as clear as day. 

She understood now that she and her parents had been Obliviated, but Y/N still had no idea where Leonora had disappeared for all those years. Y/N guessed Leonora was about four years old when she went missing if Y/N remembered their last shared birthday well with the four, colourful candles on their cake.

The last memory with Leonora that Y/N could think of seemed rather murky. They had been watching a children's show on the television with their parents, when the front door opened of its own accord and a hooded stranger entered, brandishing a stick at them - a wand - then nothing. 

Y/N strained her mind further, eyes shut in an attempt to recall anything else that might have happened. Only a child's distressed sobbing... crying out for her Mama and Papa... and Y/N...

She opened her eyes again, her vision swimming. Y/N let out a sigh, wiping her eyes tiredly. Perhaps Leonora knew more? But Y/N did not know whether she could trust them enough to tell them she had regained all her memories. But Leonora had told Y/N to follow Snape's advice-

Snape. 

Y/N sat up, mind reeling. Snape was the one who had told Y/N to use the journal and phoenix-feather quill to get her true memories back, but how did he know? What was he playing at? Why would he help Y/N to remember her real self if he was a Death Eater? Was it all a ruse, a trick to fool Y/N into trusting him? He had killed Dumbledore, he was the one who had relayed the prophecy to Voldemort... But Dumbledore had always trusted him - perhaps it was all part of a bigger plan? Was Snape still playing as a double agent, as he had been doing before Voldemort took over?