Draco Malfoy, Broken

Chapter 44 - Love Actually

Chapter 44 – Love Actually

Published: 3/25/2019

Draco watched as Professor Flitwick pointed his wand at Dean, who did not like being part of the demonstration. Draco smiled with a vindictive kind of pleasure at his helplessness.

"But Professor..." Dean whined.

"Tut tut. What are the words you are supposed to remember?" the tiny professor asked, raising his wand.

"Sugar mice," he said, clenching up slightly and then winced from the pain of the hemorrhoid hex.

Draco smiled, again.

"Obliviate!" Professor Flitwick said, aiming at Dean.

Dean looked around dazed for a second, his eyes distant. He looked a little spaced, like he had just woken up. "Are you going to do it, Sir?"

"See, now? What's the last thing you remember, Mr. Thomas?"

"Umm... you said to stand up and that you were going to use a Memory Charm on me," he said, uncertainly. He had the look like he wasn't sure about the whole thing.

"Thank you, Mr. Thomas. Have a seat," Flitwick said.

Dean was still a little confused and went back to a different seat. He just sat on the bare wooden chair, instead of his donut cushion, and yelped. He swore a few times and the professor chastised his words. Draco sniggered loud enough to earn a glare from Dean. Daphne whispered into Theo's ear. He cast a look a Draco and gave Draco a smile, too.

"What?" he whispered as Professor Flitwick continued to question Dean about the two words that had just been wiped from his memory.

"Nothing," Theo muttered, still smiling.

Blaise opened the door, mumbled an apology to Professor Flitwick and took his seat next to Draco. He merely nodded, but looked a little better than before. Draco gave him a look-over, but straightened up as the professor told them to pay attention to the signs that a Memory Charm has been placed over someone, namely unfocused eye movement, confusion and disorientation. He then went on into memory recovery. Draco was honestly more concerned with Blaise, but he was drawn to Flitwick's lecture.

"Now, when I told you to stand up... what do you think happened next... don't try to remember too hard... some of it comes from guessing," Flitwick said, trying to get Dean to answer.

"I'm sorry," Dean murmured, trying to remember, despite Flitwick's instructions. "I think I moved... over there... you pointed your wand at me, and... I didn't like it."

"Very good! Did you see how I asked questions to help his mind fill the gap that has been removed? But be very careful when you question someone. You can't use leading questions... you can't tell them what happened. They might adopt that idea as the memory. Some can even do it as they cast Obliviate. That is called memory augmentation and isn't easy to recover from, as the memories get muddled. With memory erasure, however, some of the memory may be irretrievable. We were able to get at least a partial restoration just after a few questions. He could have guessed the positioning, but he remembered specifically not liking it."

Dean looked at Seamus next to him, for answers, but he only shrugged.

"Now... what are some reasons why Mr. Thomas was able to gain back part of the memory?" the deputy headmaster asked.

Hermione's hand shot up.

"Ms. Granger?"

"Sensory input. We are at the place where the memory was lost."