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Coming soon

(English is NOT my first language, so if there’s any mistakes, please let me know)

She could feel Fred's long fingers on her back tracing imaginary shapes with all the delicacy in the world on the fabric of one of his oversized T-shirts that she had stolen from him.

His brown eyes looking her face with adoration as the witch quietly told him about what had happened with her best friend that day in divination class, one of the few they didn't share.

They hadn't had a moment of intimacy like this in a while, with Umdridge being a bitch to everyone at school, the exams, with the constant presence of their friends around and with the fact that the girl had taken advantage of those excuses to avoid him a little.

The fact that they were relaxed in his bed in the boys' dorm was only thanks to Fred, who had almost dragged her out of the library pleading for some attention from his girlfriend. So adorable, always wanting to spend time with her.

“You are not listening to me," said the witch, noticing the bright and lost look on the redhead. He blinked awake from his reverie and smiled slightly.

“No, I'm sorry." Fred apologized. "I was just thinking...” he said looking at her with love. “you're too beautiful."

The witch laughed slightly, rolling her eyes.

“You are a player, Weasley," Adelaide joked. The wizard laughed on his breath without taking his eyes off her. "What?" Said the woman after a while.

“I love you, Adelaide," said Fred in a whisper so low that the witch hardly heard him.

Adelaide's eyes widened, feeling her heart pounding against her chest. But not joy or excitement, rather fear and guilt. She sat slowly on the bed looking at him carefully.

“Are you ... are you being serious?" Asked the brunette.

“I mean it," said the redhead slightly concerned by her unexpected reaction, the witch looked away from him. "I love you, Adelaide."

She let out a gasp as she heard those words come out of her boyfriend's mouth again, feeling even worse, she bit her lip hard as she felt that familiar sense of guilt hugging her even more tightly.

Fred loved her, that was not something new, he was a wonderful boyfriend, he always made her laugh, he comforted her when she cried, he always checked if she was warm and if she ate properly, he kissed her whenever he could and had no problem showing that he felt something for her.

But ñ he had explicitly told her he loved her ... it was like waking up from the bubble of self-deception she herself had created around them. Adelaide shook her head.

“Freddie...

“I just ruined everything, right?" Said the wizard, looking at her with fear, he ran his hands through his hair, stretching the red strands. "Merlin, I knew it was too early to say, I'm an idiot ..."

The witch scowled at him and felt tears pool in her eyes. He was not an idiot, the idiot was her for going so far into the relationship, believing that she could achieve what she had proposed herself when she agreed to have a date with him a long time ago.

"It's not too soon, Freddie," the girl said slowly. "It's just ... it's just ..." she interrupted herself, not sure what to say without hurting him too much.

“You don't love me, do you?" Fred's whisper sounded pained and the witch, seeing his face flushed with sadness, wanted to cry.

She didn't love him. She was not in love with him. She felt nothing but friendship for the redhead in front of her. She always knew that.

Because whenever Fred came to the Gryffindor common room when she was sitting reading a book, she couldn't help but look first at the wizard who was with him everywhere he went, and when the two wizards were not together she always found herself asking about the absent boy, with false curiosity.

She had been fooling herself and fooling Fred. She was madly in love with George, his boyfriends twin, and Fred could never be him, even though she had tried to think they were the same person.

But whenever she looked closely at Fred, she noticed that he didn’t have that small bump on the bridge of his nose, nor that scar on his neck that his twin had. Being with him always showed that he was the most talkative, outgoing and always started the jokes of them both, and all that, instead of making her love him more only made her remember how in love she was with George.

Of the calm with which he spoke, his subtlety and the slight shyness that he sometimes showed around her, that he always knew what to say in any situation, of the patience he had when explaining his pranks and experiments. She had fallen in love with George Weasley a long time ago, she was almost sure it had been in fifth year, when both of them had spent the night talking nonsense in front of the fireplace in the common room while everyone slept.

There was a moment in her life when she believed that he reciprocated her feelings. George, who didn't usually spend much time in the library, had started to join her in her study sessions where they laughed quietly and shared glances, he started walking her to class and asking her how her day had been more often. Until all that stopped and the wizard began to become close to Katie Bell, little by little the witch saw how what he used to do with her, he did with Katie. All hope had gone down the drain.

After a while Fred had asked her out on a date, and Adelaide thought it would be a good idea to date the wizard's twin who broke her heart without even knowing it. If she already had feelings for George, maybe ... maybe she could have feelings for his twin.

That never happened, and she found herself in a relationship where only one was in love, pretending to love Fred with all her heart while George enjoyed his obvious singleness.

“No." Adelaide blurted out. "I'm sorry, Freddie...”

The wizard looked away, hurt and let out a sigh and then looked back at her.

"It's still early to feel something like that," said Fred trying to understand her. "It's just that I fell in love with you so easily, Ade."

The witch shook her head running her hands over her eyes trying not to cry. Fred Weasley was one of the best men she knew and she was just making him suffer, she was an idiot.

“We have a year and two months together," she said tiredly without taking her eyes off him. "I don't love you, Fred, and I'm not in love with you either," she admitted slowly seeing the wizard's eyes full of sadness.

He was silent and his gaze fixed on her, as if he could not believe what he just heard, as if he refused to believe what he had heard come from the mouth of his beloved girlfriend.

“Are you joking?" He asked in a neutral tone of voice. The witch pursed her lips, he left out a surprised gasp. "Why? Why were you with me if you didn't feel the same? Did you want to break my heart?”

“No!" Adelaide exclaimed quickly still trying not to cry. "I thought ... I thought I'd fall in love with you, Freddie." He looked away. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry ..." she repeated.

“Just go, Adelaide," Fred said without looking at her.

Adelaide could not contain her tears, guilt eating her from inside and quickly got out of bed, she put on her skirt quickly and then took off Fred's shirt and threw it on the floor, grabbing hers and putting it on, then grabbed her shoes in her hand and looked at Fred with guilt.

"I'm sorry, Freddie," the witch whimpered. "It's not your fault, you're a great boy and I’m an idiot”

He didn't look at her, and the brunette knew she had to go. She left the room feeling the tears fall down her cheeks as she hurried down the stairs feeling the cold stone against her bare feet.

"Adelaide!" A voice was heard and two hands rested on her shoulders stopping her, through the tears the witch recognized George. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing ... nothing ..." she murmured, letting go of his grip, the girl tried to keep going down but the redhead held her arm, looking at her with concern.

"Did Fred do something to you?"

Adelaide smiled sadly.

“No, Georgie," Adelaide said. "But I think you should go see him."

She took one last look at the younger twin and turned around, walking away quickly without giving him time to stop her again, heading to her dorm to she could cry alone. She had just broken the heart of one of the nicest people she knew and maybe she had made that person hate her.

Harry feels the hot summer wind hit his face as he wanders through Diagon Alley and searches for that store that he had heard Hermione comment to Ron one day.

He found it after a while. A gray sign with gold letters let him know that he had arrived at the bookstore he had searched so much that day. He felt stupid when he realized that he had already passed by and noticed the place. He looked inside and his heart skipped a beat as he recognized his ex-girlfriend sitting on a stool inside the store. He blinked appreciatively. It seemed she was prettier than before and he bit his lower lip, debating whether to enter or not. It would only cause pain to enter and speak to her, surely she still did not recognize him.

Pleione looked carefree, her tousled hair was no longer like in her Hogwarts years, the black color had changed it to a blonde with pink tips and it looked like she had ironed it, but her brown eyes were still the same, they were fixed on a book that rested between her thin little hands. Harry a slight tremor in his hands, how long has he not seen her? Three, four months? Maybe three, the last time he had seen her was at the Battle of Hogwarts for a brief moment, fighting on the wrong side and he was just thankful that she got out of that magical massacre alive. But how long have you not really seen her? When was the last time he heard her voice or felt the warmth of her hand against his?

The wizard shook his head. He entered the store called Arae, as the late younger sister of the young woman, a bell was heard announcing his entrance. Soon the smell of books enveloped him, he looked at the place with curious eyes. There were many books, from new to old and ancient. There were beanbags and sofas with tables in front. Harry smiled slightly, Pleione had managed to open her shop and it was everything she had ever dreamed of.

He paused at the Potions book section, touched the books with his fingertips, subtly directed his gaze towards the witch. She was looking at him with her mouth parted and her eyes full of wonder. Harry gulped. Did she recognize him? He smiled at her slowly approaching her.

“I like your store," he said with an awkward nod, she seemed to wake up and gave him a tight smile.

"Thank you," Pleione thanked him.

The wizard blinked stunned when he heard her sweet voice after so long, he bit his lower lip when he saw that she still did not remember him.

“Is business doing good?"

She did not answer that question. She stared at him intensely, running over his features over and over again.

“Sorry if it sounds weird, my name is Pleione." She started scanning him with her eyes, he noticed how she avoided saying her last name. She shook her head. "Sorry, I forget you do know me, I think you know that my mother took away a part of my memory." The witch bit her lower lip. "I know we used to date, back at Hogwarts."

He widened his eyes and kept quiet with thousands of thoughts running through his head. At last she had confirmed the suspicions of all those who had been her close friends, they oblivieted her to forget about part of her past, but the memories of them were too strong, they had shared so much ... She looked desperate, Harry imagined that it must not be nice to have a gap in your head, just as it was not seeing her and not being able to give her the kiss that she deserved.

“Yes," he murmured. She opened her eyes in anguish. "H-How do you know?"

“My friends told me things about my past, which I don't remember, something at least." Her voice sounded broken. "Did we loved each other like they told me we did?" She bit her lower lip. "Or they just say it to make me feel better?"

He giggled.

“We love each other even more," Harry smiled. "It was real and ..." Before he could continue she got up from her stool and nervously snapped her fingers.

“Would you tell me everything?" She asked hopefully. "You don't know how horrible it is to see people your friends say you knew and not remember a single thing about them." She licked her lips with her tongue and smiled sadly. "I searched so much for those memories in my house ..."

“Of course it is." The wizard hastened to say. "I can help you remember, Pleione."

•••••

The next time he saw Pleione was at Grimmauld Place.

She had appeared with a shy smile and he had invited her in. The witch looked with curious eyes at the house where she had been so many times but did not remember.

“It looks so familiar." He heard her murmur, she turned to see him. "Have I been here before?" Or am I just going crazy?”

“You were here many times." Harry said. "You lived in this house for a while."

“Didn't I always live with my uncles?" She asked confused. He slowly shook his head. "They never told me that ..."

“Let's sit” He took her hand, his heart racing as he felt the warmth of his ex-girlfriend's hand again. Damn, how he had missed holding her. He guided her to the couches and she sat down with an awkward smile.

“mistress Pleione." Kreacher appeared with a surprised look.”You are here.”

The young woman smiled sadly, not recognizing him.

“She doesn't remember you, Kreacher," Harry said taking the albums from the house elf. “Not yet.” The elf growled and turned around without first giving the young witch a weird look. She looked at the albums in the wizards hands curiously and he sighed nervously. "These are mine." The boy touched the red and gold albums. "These are yours." He touched the green and silver one. "We have a lot of photos from our Hogwarts years, you were obsessed with your camera."

The first photo he showed her was from her album. He saw calm in her eyes when she recognized all the people in the first photo. There were four of them and they were laughing out loud in the Hogwarts courtyard, Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Cassana Travers and Pleione Lestrange were wearing their Slytherin uniforms. The wizard saw her smile tenderly.

“I remember that day." She smiled. "Some of it." She bit her lower lip. “They helped me look for my memories but we couldn't find them, they are good friends. They helped me so much trying to remember.” She turned to another page. They weren't all snakes anymore in the next photo, there were two Gryffindors, a Hufflepuf and two Slytherins. Pleione was kissing Harry's cheek and then smile at the camera, the witch giggling as she saw how the wizard's face blushed in the photo and how he smiled awkwardly. Beside him, Hermione Granger was waving and Alys Borgin making a funny face, sitting on the floor was Pleione's younger sister, Arae, with a huge smile. She ran his fingers through the smiling witch with tousled black hair and green cape with silver, then jet eyes went to the Hufflepuf, the wizard could see how she frowned.

“I remember seeing her dead body at Malfoy Manor after they oblivieted me. ”Harry's eyes widened at the young woman's whisper. "They erased my memories of her ... I didn't know she was my friend. I didn't even cry for her.” She said. What Harry knew about Alys Borgin was that she had disappeared very shortly after Pleione left the Black house for good. Nothing was ever heard from the witch, he suspected her death but did not imagine that.

“What?" He asked. She turn the page.

The young woman's frown grew larger when she saw herself surrounded by strangers in the Black Mansion. Harry loved that picture, everyone looked so happy, he had his hand on hers while Pleione leaned on his chest and smiled, Sirius was there raising a glass, Remus looked happy and everyone from the Order of the Phoenix too. She turner another page. Pleione was throwing herself at Harry in that photo as he laughed, behind them were Hermione and Arae laughing. They seemed to be in Hodsmeage. It hurt him to think that the witch no longer felt anything for him while Harry died for Pleione. Her fingers ran over young Arae. She got up throwing the album on the floor and Harry did the same with a confused look.

“I know where the memories can be." She had tears in her eyes when she looked at Harry. The witchy laughed slightly. “I am an idiot! They are in the only place where I would not look! The only place that I would not destroy to get those memories!”

"Pleione ... where?"

“At my little sister's grave, Harry!" The witch took her coat from the rack. "My mother thought it would never occur to me to look there, I never went to her grave." She said. “It's the last place I'd look. ”Harry pulled on his coat ready to go with her, seeing that action, the woman said: “My family's mausoleum is in France, Harry."

“I know." He nodded. "And I want to go with you. If you want that.

“Of course!" He exclaimed laughing. "You will help me regain my memories, Harry Potter!"

He smiled. He would have his sweet Pleione back.

Harry Potter.

Ron Weasley.

Hermione Granger.

Fred Weasley.

George Weasley.

Ginny Weasley.

Draco Malfoy.

Bill Weasley.

Cedric Diggory.