A Matter of Time

(This thread follows Fragile Balance)


Sophia murmured incoherently in her sleep. Such a strange dream... Brown eyes blinked open, slowly taking in her surrounding. She was in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. Her brow furrowed in confusion. That made no sense.

"Why am I here?" the woman murmured aloud as she sat up, trying to recall the last thing she had been doing.

Ric stared down at her in concern, softly brushing back her hair. Why was it her that always seemed to end up in the wars? First it was the psychic powers and now she'd fallen down some stairs. No doubt because of those powers.

"You're in the hospital wing love. You fell down some stairs. Do you not remember?" He asked.

Sophia turned in surprise at the voice, tensing when the man reached out a hand to touch her. Pulling back slightly, she reached up her own hand to gently push his arm away.

"Down some stairs?" she frowned. "I donnae recall fallin' down any stairs, but why would I be brought tae Hogwarts? I graduated with honors some years ago. An' I'm sorry, but... who are you? Have we met?"

He frowned and pulled his hand back, immediately sensing something wasn't quite right. "Yeah, some students found you. I was worried sick... You work here Sophia. Do you not remember anything?" He asked, he couldn't bare it if she forgot about him.

A broken sound caught in his throat as his worse nightmares were confirmed. "Yes, i'm Asric... your husband." He said willing her to remember.

"Work here?" Sophia echoed, frowning in confusion. "As a professor, ye mean? No. No, I jist got back tae Scotland. I've been travelin', researchin' the divinatory practices of other cultures. I donae teach. I mean, I considered it, but I donae really think I'm teachin' material."

The sound he made did something to her. It made feel wretched and cruel. "Asric," she spoke the name softly without any apparent recognition, expression bewildered.

"Husband? We're married. What did I do, seduce you?" Sophia asked, tone a bit blunt. She quickly became apologetic. "I'm sorry. That wasnae... It's jist that men like yerself usually avoid the lunatic fringe."

He nodded. "You teach Divination. You're head of Ravenclaw, how can you not remember?" He asked looking for to see if Demetri was anywhere to be found. He had to be able to do something to fix her memories, he couldn't do this without her.

"Come on Sophia rememeber, please!" He cried before his hands began searching his robes. "What about AJ? Asric Colin you've got to remember him." He remembered pulling out a moving photo of the three of them together to show her.

"But I don't! I'm nae!" Sophia exclaimed. "My name is Sophia Wyse, I'm twenty-four years old, an' I jist got back from travelin' abroad."

Her frustration and bewilderment continued to grow by the moment. The man kept asking her to remember things that couldn't possibly be true. It was obvious how much he wanted her to remember, and it broke her heart that there was no way she could. Perhaps, he was unbalanced, or somehow had her confused with some other Sophia.

"Asric Collin? Is he a relation of yours-" Sophia broke off as he extended the photograph towards her. That was her in the picture; her and this Asric and a baby. She felt stricken - and then she was overcome by a surge of anger.

"No!" she snapped out. Throwing the picture back at him, she got out the opposite side of the bed, facing him furiously, tears stinging her eyes. "I donnae kinn whit ye're playin' at, but I think I'd remember if I had a child! Why are ye doin' this? Whit d'ye want from me?"

Sophia had started to tremble, hands resting on the bed to lend her balance and support. Everything she had always wanted, all that she had dreamed about since she was a girl, was summed up in that one photograph. But it was a lie. It had to be. And if it wasn't, that would be even more cruel, because what sort of person forgot their own family?

Asric shook his head. "Your name is Sophia Chaos, you're 29 and you married me over a year ago." He explained. "You moved in with me and we later had a son who we name after me and your father. Does none of this ring any bells?" Why did this had to happen to them? Hadn't he suffered enough already? With Stark's death, then his parents, his brothers, his new 'gift' and now Sophia. Where did it all end?

"I want my wife back! What possible reason do i have to lie Sophia?" He asked. "Look at me Sophia. Tell me do you feel nothing at all? If you don't i'll leave."

"I dunnae know!" Sophia shouted. She sank to the floor, drawing her knees to her chest, she buried her face against them, her hands coming up to tangle in the back of her hair.

"It doesnae make ane sense, though," she cried. "Ye say we're married an' we have a son, an' ye show me a picture where we together an' happy... but if it were true, why would I forget? How does a person forget havin' everethin' they ever dreamed about? How does a person lose five years of her life?"

Sophia raised her head to look up at him, tears brimming from her eyes and tracking down her cheeks. "I know ye're tellin' truth. I can - I can jist tell, an' that makes it all th' worse, cos I don't feel nothin'. I feel so much an' I don't know why that is, cos I swear on me life that I dunnae recall ever seein' ye before. It doesnae make ane sense! Men like you dunnae fall fer messes like me."

Asric frowned and sat on the edge of the bed. He had no idea what to do. The first thing he wanted to do was wrap her in his arm but he knew that was the worst thing for him to do right now and thats what hurt the most.

He shook his head. "I don't know, i wish i had the answers for you, but i don't. All i know is what i was told, and that is they found you at the bottom of the stairs with head injuries." He explained softly. He really didn't want to scare her off, he just wanted his wife back and if he had to win her heart again then so be it.

"Women like you don't fall for men like me Sophia, sometimes i wish you hadn't because you deserve so much more but i'm too selfish to let you leave. Are you okay to walk? I want to take you somewhere. It can wait though if you're not up to it." He reassured.

Sophia let out a rather choked laugh. "What woman wouldnae fall fer a man like ye?" she asked, brushing tears from her cheek. "Jist look 't ye - ye're practically perfect."

She drew in a breath, then pulled herself back to her feet.

"I'm fine. Jist... jist a bit shaken an' confused. Maybe a lot shaken an' confused." Her arms wrapped tightly around her middle in a self-hug. "I can walk. Not sure if I really wanna stay put jist now, anehow."

Ric left out a choked laugh. "You really don't remember do you? I'm more messed up, than most people. Believe it or not you actually saved me." He'd been a mess before she came into his life. More so than he realised. He'd allowed drink to destroy everything he'd ever had.

"Then i hope this will help a little." He said leading the way out of the hospital wing, hoping she'd follow him out.

************Sometime later********************

He lead her out to the lake and stopped. "Does this bring back any memories?" He asked, hoping that bringing them back to the place they first really met would jog her memories.

Sophia followed the man from the hospital wing and through the castle. Not much had changed since she last remembered seeing it. Not even at the lake.

She closed her eyes, breathing deeply of the air. Of course, the place brought back memories - she'd attended Hogwarts, after all, and the lake had been a favorite haunt of hers. But...

Snow. Freezing cold. Images of violence, flashing across her mind.

That could have been from any point in her life, however. Sophia sighed, opening her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said. "This lake has been a favorite place of mine fer years, but I... I'm sorry, Ric." The 'Ric' was spoken without conscious thought, slipping easily and naturally past her lips - the only sign that somehow, somewhere, she did remember. Sophia had never called him Ric initially until he'd asked her to.

The nickname on her tongue didn't even draw his attention. He was just so used to hearing her say it that it was just something he no longer seemed to pick up on anymore. But it was clear that she didn't remember.

"This was where we first met." He explained looking across the lake, so that his back was to her. "Or the first time we really talked out side of work. We'd both been restless that night and ended up going to a walk. It was like fate had guided us to this very spot." He said turning around to look at her now but still keeping his distance.

It was the dead of winter.

But the words didn't pass her lips. How silly would it sound if it had been midsummer or spring? Sophia folded her arms about her middle.

"I'm sorry, Asric," she said, taking small step closer to him before halting. She shook her head. "I can tell that ye care fer me, very much, but I jist... I cannae recall - th' memories jist arenae there. Maybe... if I lost them, then maybe they'll come back. They cannae have simply disappeared. Am-amnesia is temporary, isn't it?"

Sophia startled as she belatedly noticed something on her hand. So much else had been swirling through her mind, and the weight of seemed so normal, that her subconscious took no note of it until it pressed into her arm when she folded them. She stared down in renewed surprise at the ring resting there, snug on her finger, further evidence that what he had been telling her was true.

The woman was almost wholly convinced, and then, a raven fluttered to her shoulder and she no longer had room for doubt.

"Och, laddie," Sophia breathed, tears stinging her eye as she took her familiar onto one hand so she could examine him better, "ye've gotten so old..."

Ric nodded. "I know, i just can't help but wish there was something i could do. I hate feeling so useless." He frowned shrugging off his jacket and draping it over his shoulders. He wasn't so bothered by the cold, he was more bothered about the circumstances.

He nodded. "We'll find a way to get them back." He promised, they had to. He couldn't live without her, he and AJ needed her she was his brick. Without her he would surely go back to his old ways.

He smiled, a small ghost of a smile as her raven flew in. At least she had someone she remembered so she wasn't entirely alone. "I've got to get back to AJ. I've left him with Pan." He confessed. He wasn't sure if she would want to come with him or go off on her own to figure out her head or not but he needed his son.

Sophia gave an empathetic smile. She didn't like feeling useless, either. Somehow, she felt comforted by his declaration that they would get her memories back. Somehow, she believed him.

Her mind zeroed in on the name. "AJ?" she echoed, walking closer to him. "Our - th-the boy? From th' photo?" Sophia felt bewildered, uncertain whether she should ask to go with him to see the child or not. Did she even have the right? Wouldn't forgetting him negate that?

Ric nodded and held back the need to close the gap between them as she came closer. "Yes, our son. I could take you to see him if that is what you wish." He said holding out his hand but he made no further attempt to move. He left it open to her.

"He's back at house, i could apparate us both there."

Sophia's gaze went to his open hand, his words resonating in her very being. Our son. Was it really possible?

She walked closer, raising her own hand to place in his. It seemed so natural, holding his hand. Could holding a stranger's hand feel so utterly right?

Sophia thought not.

Looking back up at him, she gave a small smile. "I... I think I would like that," Sophia said softly. "Very much."