Eternal Patience

Valentine's Day

(A/N: I've already written about this in my story "Valentine's Day at Hogwarts" from Sarah's POV, so I'll be glossing over it a bit in this story. I'll hit the highlights though!)

Barnaby had little time to speak to Sarah over the next few weeks. She'd been busy running all over Hogwarts and defeating Ravenclaw in the latest quidditch match. Not to mention this week had been packed with themed lessons, and becoming party-planning apprentices for some famous author guy. 

The next Hogsmeade Weekend though, he did stumble across her in the the shabby pub, the Hog's Head Inn.

"Hey Sarah, what're you doing here?" he asked, joining her at one of the sticky tables. 

"You invited me," she said, regarding him strangely.

"I did?"

"Yeah, you said you needed to ask me something."

"Oh, right. Sorry, I...uh, I saw a goat outside and now I've got nothing but goats on the brain." Truthfully, he did remember what he wanted to ask her, but now that she was sitting beside him, he'd lost the nerve to ask her. 

"I suppose I could...nevermind," she said with a sigh. 

"What is it?"

She looked at him with troubled eyes. "I just found out from Dumbledore that I'm a legilimens. It means I can read people's minds," she explained, before he could ask what a legilimens was. "Snape told me to practice, but I feel horrible breaking into people's private thoughts, especially without consent."

Barnaby nodded. "So, did you want to try to read my mind?"

"I couldn't ask you to do that," said Sarah. "I can't imagine what I'd do if somebody unlocked all of my secrets." She shuddered. 

"Don't worry about it. I don't have any secrets. Everybody always knows exactly what I'm thinking."

She chuckled. "I suppose that's true." She raised her wand hesitantly. "Are you sure?"

He nodded. "Good luck getting it to work though. I've been told I have an especially thick skull."

She gave a bashful smile, cleared her throat, and said, "Legilimens."

Images flashed across Barnaby's mind in succession. He couldn't see Sarah or the pub anymore, only his old memories, the painful as well as the pleasant. He saw his father yelling at him for crying and locking him away in the pantry, the time he'd managed to stack nine puffskeins on top of his head, camping out in the woods when he'd been kicked out of the house. He saw himself surrounded by his friends at the pub, his gran pushing him down the stairs, the other Slytherins laughing and calling him "troll." 

He saw a memory that he'd hoped he'd buried away forever. Lord Voldemort standing over him, using his magic to hold his pet kneazle Nelly under the water of their fountain, as Barnaby kicked and screamed, trying to free himself from his father to rescue her, until the bubbles and splashes stopped. 

He saw this and countless other memories, some of which he didn't even realize were still tucked away inside his brain. When the reel of memories ceased and the pub slowly fogged back into his vision, he couldn't tell if only a few minutes or hours had passed. 

Sarah still held her wand up vaguely. She was staring not at him, but through him, as if she was still watching the onslaught of images. A single tear ran down her cheek. 

"What's the matter?" he asked. "What did you see?"

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice weak. "I knew you parents were Death Eaters, but I didn't realize they treated you that badly."