amnesia | d.m.

chapter 10

I sat in Dumbledore's office with tear streaked cheeks, choosing to skip the entire day of classes.

"I want to go to America," I murmured with fear laced in my voice. After spending the past half hour telling Dumbledore the details of my recent memories and calming down after bursting into tears several times, I made my statement. This alerted Dumbledore as he looked at me straight in the eye, carefully choosing his words.

"Terra, you must remember that although you've received memories of your home, your mother, and family, I still have no memory of who you are. Your peers have no memory of your past self. This only means that whatever magic that has been casted, that is still in effect. You must understand Terra that you only remember your past up until you were eleven-years-old. Nothing after that. We don't know where your mother is, who she is-"

"Cherry," I cut him off. "Cherry Zatara. That's her name."

Dumbledore sighed. His long beard was tied together with an elastic as it had grown several centimeters longer since the last time I had seen him face to face.

"We'll do our best, Terra. But if I am correct, it seems your mother doesn't want to be found. She must be hiding."

My whisper turned into a question. "From...Voldemort?"

"Possibly. But as of right now, we cannot risk your safety and send you across the seas to America when we have absolute no knowledge. When we have no idea where Voldemort is."

A frown etched itself onto my face. I slid back in my chair and stood up, angrily leaving his office without a word. If Dumbledore wasn't going to help me, then maybe I will go and find my mother myself. After all, I did have knowledge of magic and I did remember the exact state, town, and address of my old house.

And then I remembered that we had moved. I remembered that Mom had talked about moving houses into another town when I was 11, to start fresh and away from all the muggles who recognized us. I don't actually recall moving houses but I know for a fact we did. She had dropped the news on me that day after coming home from the park, saying how many of the neighbors grew suspicious of us often times. I didn't know what that meant at the time, nor do I do now, I was just angry that we were leaving Iris. I wondered where they all were, and how they were doing. Did they miss me?

Of course I couldn't survive on my own. Not even if my mom was hidden somewhere in the streets of England. As much as I did know about magic, there were a lot of things I didn't know as well. Possibly more secrets that Dumbledore was keeping from me, that I still had yet to discover. Besides, traveling the streets on my own, most likely still underage, sounded absolutely intimidating and terrifying. And I was stuck here, in this school, forced to spend every waking moment wondering where my mother was at and if she was okay. Was she looking for me? Or worse...did she even remember me?

I made my way back to the Slytherin dungeons, choosing to skip classes the rest of the day. And then I remembered...I had detention later today. Either I was gonna get another detention because I skipped Snape's class today or something worse.

"Fuck," I muttered in irritation as I had already entered the common room. I went back to the spot I was sleeping at this morning and sat down as I remembered the memories I had dreamt of in this very place the night before. I recollected the moments that felt almost like yesterday and thought about the face of my mother who was once a Hufflepuff at Hogwarts. Cherry Zatara.

Cherry Zatara...

And then another question hit me. If I had been living with my mother my entire life, that only meant that I went by her last name. I went by Terra Zatara. So why had I woken up and remembered that my last name was Riddle when I barely knew my father at all? Did Dumbledore miss this as well? Unless there was something that he was not telling me.