───ANGELINA HARDLY GOT ANY SLEEP ON THE FIRST NIGHT. Too worked up over the idea that Saros had requested to speak with her in privacy had left her heart racing to the point where she felt like she needed to keep her body moving in order to calm herself down. She was beyond nervous to hear what he had to say to her, after all, their latest meeting still had not gone in her favour because Saros didn't recognise her. After the incident on the train, Angelina had been so fearful that the Malfoy family was going to show up at any given moment during the Start of Term feast to take Saros home. But thankfully, it appeared as though he was going to stay through the night. 

As she remained in bed, it was difficult to even force herself to sleep, long after Alicia had given in and decided to head to bed. Of course, she had confided in Alicia and Katie as to the message that Malcolm had delivered and as much as they wanted to be happy for her, they expressed their concerns. They told Angelina to practice caution because there was no telling what the Malfoys had managed to do to Saros over the summer. They didn't want to believe that he was capable of doing anything harmful, but anything was possible at that point. But too stubborn in her own ways, Angelina refused to believe that Saros would call for them to meet if he was going to cause problems.

However, their concerns left her to be somewhat nervous, enough that she couldn't bring herself to close her eyes unless it was to blink away tears. Ever since the discovery of Saros being alive, Angelina felt so incredibly torn between the relief that he was alive and devastated because his family had once again decided to hurt him in some of the worst ways possible. They had done something to Saros, she just knew it. It had been their intention to do something to him as soon as they had permission to take him home from St Mungo's and it made Angelina sick to her stomach.

All the hard work and challenges that Saros had to overcome the year before seemingly had been for nothing in the current state he was in. And that left Angelina with a heavy chest as she remembered all the pain that Saros had to go through and she didn't want him to go through it again, even though it seemed it had to be the case in order to get the real Saros back. She just hoped that all would go well the next morning or it was going to be an incredibly rough first day of classes.

By the time her body registered the fact that sleep would be a good idea, it was too late. It was a quarter 'til seven in the morning and Angelina was already up on her feet in the dorm room. She made sure to tiptoe around, careful to not disrupt any of her friends and dormmates as they tried to sleep as she made her way to get ready. She was able to get a quick shower in before throwing on her uniform and robes as quickly as possible. Brushing her teeth and making her hair was somewhat manageable, she made her way out of the Gryffindor Common Room with only a couple of minutes to spare to be on time. 

The corridors were empty and quiet as she travelled through them and down a series of stairs. But when she finally arrived at the Great Hall, it appeared that Saros wasn't counting the seconds to her arrival, as he sat at the Slytherin table staring off into the distance. However, he was there and that was enough to make all the lack of sleep from the night before completely worth it. Making her way over to the table, she took a seat on the opposite bench across from him and waited until he acknowledged her.

Thankfully, Angelina didn't have to wait long as the sudden movement across the way was certainly enough to grab his attention. As he turned to look at her, he became still and had yet to say anything right away, not even a greeting. But it wasn't to be rude, he just seemed to be taking in the image of her as she sat in front of him. His eyes trailed over her hair, making her wish she had done something more presentable with it, they travelled down over her face and made their way back to her eyes. And finally, when he had finished his little observation, he spoke.

"Good morning."

His throat felt so incredibly dry as Saros addressed Angelina for the first time that morning. It all seemed to start as soon as she sat down in his company. Maybe he didn't recognise her because he didn't recall any memories with her, but it didn't stop him from finding her wildly attractive. She was a tall witch, something he had noticed on the train during their first encounter in the Prefect's carriage. Her hair was pulled back into a rather stiff looking ponytail, but her expression remained soft, especially with the gentle brown eyes that looked at him with such an understanding gaze.

He had been so unsure of what to say to her to start the conversation, but it needed to get going before any sort of interruptions developed. After his brief confrontation last night with his little brother, Saros knew what he was doing was considered wrong by the standards of the Malfoy family, but he didn't care at that moment. Draco had asked him why he was acting strange, questioning what Malcolm had spoken to him about, and warned him that Saros had to be careful to who he spoke to within the castle walls.

However, Malcolm had revealed more than Saros had learned basically all summer, along with Harry Potter. They were willing to actually tell him things, while his family members took vows of silence. And there was evidence to back up what strangers had to say when his own family were hoping that he would just go along with word of mouth. He couldn't do that, something in his mind refused to just go along with his family's words, as much as he wanted to trust them.

At the mention of having a girlfriend, Saros could finally understand the pain behind Angelina's gaze as they had remained behind in the prefect's carriage the day before. If it was all true, Angelina had to be one of the strongest people he had ever encountered. For her to keep her composure when he was flat out ignoring her, even if it was due to no fault of his own, it still left him feeling terrible about the whole ordeal.

"Good morning," she repeated back to him, " how are you feeling this morning?"

"Lost," he admitted without any sort of hesitation. "I think that's been the common feeling over this entire summer, just feeling lost. Sorry to have made you wake up so early but-"

"Saros, please don't apologise," Angelina said, " I don't want you to be sorry. I'm glad you decided to speak to me. That's what I've been waiting for. Do...do...do you remember anything?"

While he understood why everyone seemed to ask that when he encountered them, Saros was growing to hate that question more than anything. He hated it because he normally had to answer with a "no." Shaking his head, he pressed his lips together for a moment, squeezing his hands tightly under the table before releasing them and then placing them on top of the wood.

"A little," he confessed thinking back to the memories he had seen in the Hospital Wing, " just fragments of things. I still don't remember you, or at least, I have no memories with you...yet. But Malcolm told me about you. He said that you...you were...are...I...he said that-"

"I'm your girlfriend?" Angelina finished for him and watched as he turned bright red in the face. A small smile formed on her lips, watching as he seemed to become rather bashful about the idea, as she hoped it was for a good reason. Saros quickly nodded his head to confirm before she went on.

"Yes, before what happened, we were dating," she told him and Saros felt his chest tighten, "Malcolm was right about that."

"My family never mentioned you," he went on to say, " nothing. They mentioned other people like Hermione Granger because she's a muggle-born and said I shouldn't associate myself with her kind, but I don't believe in that, do I?"

Angelina peered down at the table for a moment, twiddling her thumbs back and forth. "You used to," she confessed, " that's what your family raised you to believe. But then at the Quidditch World Cup, something happened that made you question everything and you developed your own thoughts on it-"

"The tent collapsing on me, right because of what was happening to that muggle family. It was chaos-"

"Yes!"

The excitement in her voice wasn't pertaining to the idea of the muggle family being openly mocked by Death Eaters, but more of the idea that Saros remembered something.

"My father found you," she said, " brought you back to our tent to heal you and he was the Healer that looked after you when you arrived at St Mungo's after they found you."

"Found me?"

Angelina didn't like the sound of the confusion that laced Saros' words when it came to how he was discovered to be alive. It sounded like he didn't even remember being found among muggles, which didn't make any sense considering he had been among them for quite some time. But it made her think back to the time when she had approached him in Flourish and Blotts and he didn't even recognise her as the one who had found him living among muggles in the first place.

"Saros," she whispered softly, leaning against the table, " what do you remember of the summer? What do you think happened to you or rather, what were you told?"

Saros visibly swallowed and averted his gaze down at the table once more. "Father said I had an accident but no one told me anything in the household because the Healer advised that nothing be said to be. That I had to recall it all on my own or things could wind up being detrimental. I've just been at the manor all summer-"

"No, Saros, you were not at the manor all summer," Angelina interjected quickly, " not at all. I know this, my father is your Healer, Arnold Johnson, remember him?"

"No."

His voice quivered ever so lightly and his eyes widened as it seemed there was even more information that he couldn't recall and even with his memory lapse it was apparent that he should have remembered it.

"Something isn't right," Angelina said, shaking her head, " I mean, we already knew that but something...something happened to you, Saros. Harry told you what happened in the graveyard, but after that, you managed to get yourself to safety. You didn't have your memory but you were living with muggles. This family took you in and were helping you. How do you not remember them? You were with them for weeks? I found you in London, I was the reason you were brought to St Mungo's, my father examined you and you don't remember any of that..."

"What happened to me?" he asked.

"I don't know, but I'm assuming your family has something to do with it, in fact, I'm pretty damn sure they're behind it. That's why you didn't recognise me when we were in Flourish and Blotts after I saw you in London. Saros, I think your family altered what memories you did have."

No matter how gently she put it, Saros still managed to shiver at the mere thought that his own family would become desperate enough to do such a thing. After reading over so much during his remaining weeks at the manor to ensure that he would be up to speed with his classes, he learned how harmful memory charms could be and if his parents had attempted to do such a thing, they had risked damaging his mind even further.

"They wouldn't do that-"

"Yes, Saros, they would," Angelina wasted no time in reiterating that the Malfoys were more than capable of dealing something harsh, even towards their own son, " you don't know what they put you through last year. They hurt you so badly, they disowned you because you didn't want to hold prejudices against Muggles and Muggle-borns. They cut you off financially and cut all ties with you. Draco didn't speak to you unless it was to deliver a letter or something that they thought would punish you. By Christmas time of last year, you decided enough was enough."

"This is what A.S. was trying to help me understand, wasn't it?"

Angelina's eyes lit up with curiosity at the mention of A.S. "Wait," she began, " you know of A.S. too? They've been in contact with you, do you know who that is?"

"No," he said, " I don't, they were leaving me little messages around. One of them told me that my family was lying to me, the other told me to find Luna, and now the latest gave me a letter that I wrote to my mother...at Christmas last year, just like you said. Do you know who that is?"

She shook her head. "No, but I got a message from them too. They told me one day that you were going to be in Flourish and Blotts and that I should confront you. You didn't recognise me even though we have met previously and that definitely raised some suspicion. I guess my assumptions were right. I don't know what your parents did to you, Saros, but they definitely did something so that you didn't remember us. Or at least, so that you don't remember me."

He could hear the pain practically dripping from her tongue and if it was all true, if she really was his girlfriend, Saros could definitely understand why she was hurting. And he hated the fact that he was the one causing her the pain. Not on purpose, of course, but his lack of memory and only have little spurts that didn't involve her seemed to be causing Angelina plenty of pain. He wasn't sure why he was still even tiptoeing around the idea of " if it was all true" when in reality, everything was pointing to that being the truth, whereas nothing his parents said seemed to be holding up.

It explained why Draco appeared to be so much on edge the night before, practically interrogating Saros about what Malcolm had said to him. While everyone else was incredibly open, it seemed Draco and his parents were so set on keeping things under wraps for as long as possible. Even if the Healers had expressed not saying anything to Saros, it seemed no one was really set on following that protocol anymore. They wanted Saros to remember and he wanted to remember too.

Not just for his own sake, but for the sake of setting things right for others too.

As Angelina's eyes were focused down, Saros reached his hands across towards where her hands remained. He was hesitant about touching her in any sort of way, several times, he pulled his hands back unsure if he was about to do the right thing. But it looked like Angelina needed something to comfort her and since he was her boyfriend, it was his job to be there for her in any way that he could muster at the time.

Finally, with a deep breath, Saros was able to steady his shaky hands and leant forward to grab her hands gently in his. The gesture caught Angelina completely off guard as she jerked her head up, but she made no movement to snatch her hands back from him. She only listened to what he had to say.

"I'm sorry you're hurting because of me," he said, " I'm sorry that I'm hurting you because I don't remember. I want to remember, trust me. If you are the person to me that Malcolm described last night, then I don't want to lose you. I'm going to figure this out, alright? I'm not sure how, but I'm going to try my hardest. I just...need you to trust me that I'm going to do everything I can to make things right."

Suddenly, Angelina let out a small chuckle to cover up the ever need to sob right then and there. Her laughter earned her a curious look from Saros as he wasn't sure if she didn't believe what he said or if it was something else. But to reassure him, she squeezed his hands in return.

"You don't understand how much I do trust you, Saros."