 Professor Rhibear ~ Madam Solo ~ ❄ Showtunes > Everything ❄ ~ Accio Jedi ~ Gryffinclaw ~ Just a doll
Desiree was more than a little relieved to hear that the falsified memory wouldn’t replace the real one in her mind. She didn’t want to forget the real way she used magic for the first time! The more she heard about memory modification, the more excited she was to try it.
Before using the Pensieve, she practiced the individual spell components starting with the incantation. “CA-poot In-FEE-dum,” she said quietly so as not to disturb the other students. “CA-poot In-FEE-dum, Caput Infidum, Caput Infidum…” That spell was a bit easier to say than the other one! After several tries, she felt confident enough in her pronunciation to move on to the wand movement. Holding her wand firmly in her left hand, she made a careful clockwise circle with a swish at the end.
Desiree practied the wand movement a few more times before emptying her memory into the Pensieve.The silvery memory swirled in the bowl, and she saw a five-year-old Desiree sitting on the floor with a black and white cat. Present-day Desiree surveyed the room, noting the leather sofas and dark color palette of the room decor. Yeah, that had to go! Envisioning her grandparents’ house in Rouen, she cast, “Caput Infidum!”
The leather sofas changed to chintz print upholstery. Her eyes fell to the magazines on the coffee table. “Caput Infidum!” she cast again, and the magazines’ text changed from English to French. “Caput Infidum!” Another spell changed the walls from beige to a cheery pale yellow.
With the decor taken care of, Desiree turned her attention to the cat. She imagined a dog with similar markings and cast, “Caput Infidum!” In an instant, the cat was gone, and a black and white French bulldog sat in its place. As she watched her younger self play with her pet, she focused on the furry blue toy mouse in the little girl’s hand. “Caput Infidum!” The mouse turned into a ball, but it kept its color and fur.
Satisfied with her changes, Desiree extracted her other two true memories, placed them into vials, and moved to Professor Liu’s desk. “Would you like to guess my memories, Professor?” she said.
She poured her memories into the pensieve. The first memory showed a three-year-old Desiree in a pink dress with a matching bow in her hair. She stood beside her father in a small whitewashed bedroom. A dark-haired boy of about five or six years old sat on the bed. “Desiree, this is Adam. He’s going to be your brother,” her father said. Little Desiree screamed and cried that she didn’t want a brother until her father hugged her and explained that Adam didn’t have a family of his own.
That memory dissolved and faded into the second memory. A five-year-old Desiree sat on a living room floor with a black and white dog. The house’s furniture looked mismatched, as if it belonged to two different houses. The yellow wall color looked off, and if one looked closely, they might notice that the French text on the coffee table magazines translated to gibberish. Little Desiree dangled a furry blue ball in front of the dog, and the dog swatted it out of her hand with a catlike gesture. Suddenly the ball shot across the room by itself, and the dog darted after it with a sound that sounded suspiciously like a meow.
That memory dissolved, and the third one took its place. A thirteen-year-old Desiree stood in the Hogwarts entrance hall with four other students. While the students were talking amongst themselves, Peeves appeared with a book in hand and started blathering on about wonderful gifts. Suddenly, Desiree transformed into a wombat, and the other students started showing signs of weird powers too, such as speaking bubbles or conjuring butterflies. Wombat!Desiree chattered angrily at Peeves as he disappeared with a cackle.
Desiree looked expectantly at the professor. Which one would she think was the false memory?
__________________ Old voices I had thought long since dead whisper of another life I might have led
If I could take that second chance, If I could make my life anew, If only dreams came true... |