Samantha ran around the corner, breathing deeply. She needed to find some new hiding spots, they were always finding her. Samantha Collins had spent nearly every year of her sixteen-year-old life running from bullies. Sometimes there were new faces in the crowd of her oppressors, but often they were the same familiar, cruel laughs of her usual tormentors. Today was one of those strange days. For some reason Tami Kitchens thought Samantha had slept with her boyfriend, and that was odd, because Samantha had never even kissed a boy.

It's not that she was ugly. Samantha had actually grown into quite a beautiful young woman; she just never had the time for boys. She was more interested in maths and literature, and the boys didn't seem to mind that she never paid them any attention so that had always been one of the few happy balances in her life. Her sister had been the one who was the boy magnet and that was just fine.

If she could just crouch here until free period was over, just three more minutes until the bell sounded her freedom, everything would be fine until tomorrow. Samantha could hear heavy footsteps headed in her direction and she held her breath, praying they wouldn't find her. She had hidden here from Timmy Jacobs last week, but Tami had been ill that day. Maybe she wouldn't think to look here.

Suddenly, a pair of brown eyes was staring maliciously down at her and they just happened to be on the face of no other than Tami Kitchens.

"Well, well, slut, looks like your hiding spot failed you. Anything you'd like to say before I give you the pounding you deserve?"

Samantha took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry that you think I would do such an awful thing, Tami, but I swear I've never even spoken to your boyfriend."

"Yeah, right, you lying bitch!" the enraged girl snarled, grabbing Samantha by her blonde hair and slamming her back against the brick wall she had been leaning on. The world started spinning. Samantha could feel blood trickling warmly through her hair, she could see the shapes and colors in front of her spinning into a whirl of shades and blackness, and she could hear Tami's cold, cruel laughter as her mind numbed to nothingness.

"Sami?" someone kept repeating urgently from somewhere over her. Nobody called her that. It was always Samantha or Sam. It was a boy's voice, urgent and panicked, and hands were shaking her gently. Her eyes flickered open and the world came back into focus, but it wasn't the scene she had just left. A handsome boy about her age, who she had never seen before, was shaking her and staring down at her with worried gray eyes. She was outside, but she was lying on grass, not on concrete. There was no brick wall, though her hair was still full of blood. And she wasn't wearing her school uniform; she was wearing clothes she had never seen before.

"Oh, my god, Sami, I'm so sorry!" said the boy. "This is all my fault. Are you okay? Say something, please. Oh, god, Remus is going to kill me!"

"Who are you?" she muttered, trying to place him.

He groaned.

"No, no, please, you have to remember me. I'm Sirius, remember? You like to use me as a punching bag when you're angry."

She frowned, which made her head hurt.

"Sirius?" She looked up into his expectant eyes and suddenly she felt safe.

He grinned. "Oh, thank god, you remember me. Ugh, you're bleeding everywhere. Remus is going to kill me."

"Remus?"

He nodded.

"Yeah, you know, Remus Lupin. You've only been dating him for the last year."

Uh-oh. She was in some other place, some other world, and completely out of her element. She had a boyfriend.

"I don't feel so good," she admitted. "What happened?"

"Well, I, uh," he said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "I sort of told Snivellus to go through the passage under the Whomping Willow. I didn't think he'd do it. Anyway, you and James rushed down here to stop him, to stop Remus from killing him, and you got hit by the willow and James managed to pull Snivellus back and save his life. They're in the hospital wing now. I should probably take you. Are you okay to move?"
She tried to sit up, but her head began spinning again and she whimpered in pain. He looked really upset.

"I'll go get a teacher. Don't move."

As if she could have moved. If not for the pain of her, well, whatever had just happened, the shock of what was going on hitting her like a ton of bricks was enough to stun anyone into not moving. Sirius was back quite quickly, with two adults close behind him.

"Oh, Miss Collins!" said the woman in the bottle-green robes, her hair in a tight bun. "How do you feel?"

Samantha shrugged.

"Not exactly wonderful," she admitted.

"Well, let me heal that cut for you, and we'll levitate you to the hospital wing."

What? Levitate her? Heal? Right, there was magic. That was new. Definitely another world. Suddenly, the blood stopped leaving her scalp, which closed up, and she felt herself floating off the ground, heading in the direction of the castle with the three people surrounding her. They went inside the stone castle, up a marble staircase, and off toward a room with white cots that really did look something like a hospital. Inside was another boy her age with messy black hair, and one on a cot nearby with greasy locks and a hooked nose. The messy-haired boy said, "Remus is going to kill you, Sirius."

"I know," said Sirius sadly as they levitated Samantha to a cot next to the other boy.

"If she has any lingering scars, issues, or injuries from this…"

"I get it James!" snapped Sirius. "I screwed up! It was stupid. Remus is already never going to forgive me, and I don't need this from you right now. I'm freaking out. Did you see her hair? Can you see how much blood she lost? That's my fault! She couldn't move, James, she was in too much pain. That's my fault too! I deserve to be expelled for this."

The other boy softened his hazel eyes, full of pity.

"You're right, Sirius, it's your fault, but I think Remus will forgive you eventually, particularly if Samantha does, and she always does."

"What if she doesn't this time?" said Sirius in a low voice. "I don't really deserve to be forgiven, especially by her. I could have killed her."

"Well," said James, "I think the one you've really got to worry about is Snivellus, especially since he was the actual intended target."

"Oh, don't make me feel worse, James. I'm not sure that's even possible."

"I forgive you," said Samantha softly from the bed. The two boys spun around and looked at her, pausing only a moment before rushing to her side.

"What?" said Sirius. "Are you okay, Sami? How do you feel?"

"I forgive you," she said, still very soft. "I'm not mad, even though I don't really remember what you did."

James frowned.

"Is she okay? How hard did she get hit?"

"Out of the way, boys," said a woman sharply in a nurse-like outfit. "Miss Collins needs to be properly examined. It's probably best if you wait outside so that I don't get distracted."

They looked about to protest, but then Sirius considered Samantha for a moment and nodded, grabbing James by the arm and dragging him out of the infirmary kicking and screaming.

The woman examined her and asked her a series of questions, most of which she simply didn't know the answer to. They were simple things, like where do you live, what classes you are taking, and what was for dinner last night but she just didn't know. She knew where she lived in her own world, she knew what classes she took at her own school, and she knew at least what her mother called what they had for dinner last night, if not what it was made of, though she knew none of this knowledge applied to the world she was now in.

Then the woman sighed deeply, asked her if she was tired, and Samantha nodded, rolling over, curling her eyes and trying to fall asleep. However, she wasn't yet asleep when Madam Pomfrey, as James greeted the woman, let the two boys back in to the infirmary and talked with them in low tones about the conversation.

"She's all right physically, but she's suffering mentally."

"What do you mean?" hissed Sirius urgently. "Is she in shock?"

"That may be a part of it, but mostly it's from the force of the impact, and it's not something one can heal. She's suffering from amnesia. She knows her name, she seems to know your names, but she doesn't remember anything about her life. She can talk, she knows how to do what basic things I have observed, but she doesn't know anything about who she is or where she is. She may be quite a different person, and it may never reverse itself."

"Oh, Remus's going to kill me."

"Well," said James, "what do we do?"

"Just treat her as normally as possible, but if she reacts strangely, or doesn't know how to act or what to do, you need to be patient with her, remind yourselves that this is the way she is now and it's not her fault, and then help her through it. I'm afraid that's all that can be done."

"Can we stay with her?" whispered Sirius, so softly that Samantha almost didn't hear it.

"Only if you're quiet and you leave her alone. She needs rest."

She heard the boys sitting down next to her, both perfectly silent. Perhaps they were both so in shock at the news they had just gotten that there was nothing left to say. For some reason, she got the idea that neither of them particularly would like being silent. Eventually, she fell into a peaceful, dreamless sleep, but was awakened the next day by furious shouts.

"I can't believe you, Sirius!" cried a voice she hadn't heard.

"I'm sorry, Moony, I'm so, so sorry. I don't know how to tell you how sorry I am and if I had the chance to do it over, this would never have happened. I'm such an idiot. I know you'll never forgive me, but Sami forgave me yesterday before she fell asleep."

"Yeah, before she got examined and you all realized she forgot who she is! How could you? You've ruined her life, Sirius, forever, and you're lucky you didn't end it."

"Merlin, I'm sorry, Moony! I don't know what else to say!"

Was Sirius crying? It sure sounded that way. Samantha's eyes flickered open and she looked up at the bed next to her. A sandy-haired boy was lying there with cuts, bruises, and a sling around his arm, glaring daggers at Sirius. This must be Remus, her boyfriend.

"Can you imagine," said Remus, dangerously soft, "how I would have felt if the tree hadn't knocked her out of the way and I had woken up in the hospital wing this morning to find that I had eaten my girlfriend because of your stupidity? Her parents already hate me, Sirius, I don't need this. I really don't!"

Sirius flinched.

"Remus," she whispered.

The sandy-haired boy yelped with surprise and looked over at her, his eyes pleading. He was hoping she remembered him.

"Remus, please don't be mad at him," she said. "I'm okay."

"But you don't remember anything," cried Remus. "You're not okay, you're not you anymore!"

"Remus, please, I've forgiven him. I'm alive. He didn't mean to. It's okay, really."

It looked as though the sandy-haired boy was crying, but he turned his head a little, as though he didn't want her to see.

"I may not be the me you knew," she said honestly, "but I'm still here, and that's good, right?"

He nodded, but he didn't seem to really agree with her. He seemed to want to punch Sirius in the face still, but instead, he held out his good hand to Sirius, who shook it, relieved.

"Good, now if you boys are done being silly, I'm going back to sleep."

/-/

The next morning, Samantha wondered what this strange place she was in was, and what would be expected of her here. After all, her boyfriend had been genuinely worried that he might have eaten her, and that was certainly strange, stranger in fact than the mere fact of her having a boyfriend.

Her boyfriend was still asleep in the hospital bed next to her, but the boy on the other side was awake. He was sneering at her.

"So I hear you lost your memory, Collins."

There was venom in his voice, unmistakable venom. This boy was her enemy, they didn't like each other. But she couldn't recall his name.

"So maybe I did," she said.

He sneered at her. For some reason, that sneer made her want to leap over to his bed and strangle him, but she didn't have the energy for that, so she merely glared back.

"That's too bad. Your little puppy seems upset."

Samantha frowned. She has a dog? Why hasn't she met this dog before? The boy just laughed at her confused expression.

"I mean your boyfriend, over there, the werewolf," his sneer deepened. "Oh, Merlin, you don't remember anything, do you?"

Ah, yes, the boyfriend who was afraid of eating her. She had momentarily forgotten about that. The gleeful tone at her condition made her furious.

"I don't see why you're so happy," she snapped. "I've already figured out we hate each other."

Samantha couldn't believe she had actually just spoken to another human being like that. It felt good. No, it felt really, really good.

The door to the hospital wing opened and James was there, smiling.

"Good morning, Sam. Moony still asleep, I see? Well, I'll just put his things next to his bag. He'll be here another night, for sure." The black-haired boy glared at the hook-nosed boy. "I'm going to take you back to the common room, Sam. Are you ready to go?"

She nodded and climbed out of bed.

"What's wrong, Potter, afraid she'll lose her way?"

"Shut it, Snivellus. I shouldn't have saved your life. I should have stayed in the dormitory and maybe then she'd be okay."

That was quite a venomous statement, Samantha thought, but James didn't seem to mean it, despite how much he really did seem to hate this boy. They were positively glaring daggers through each other.

"Come on, Sam. Remus would be furious for me getting detention when I was supposed to be picking you up."

Samantha nodded and followed the boy out of the infirmary, taking one last look at the sandy-haired boy who was still sleeping. She tried to memorize that scarred face. James led her down corridors, up staircases, and even through tapestries until they finally came to a halt in front of a large portrait of a very fat lady in a gaudy pink silk dress.

"Firewhiskey," he said, and the portrait swung open, revealing a cozy common room with couches, armchairs, and tapestries. Sirius was there, on the couch, frantically doing some bit of homework.

"I've got her, Sirius," said James.

Sirius leapt to his feet, knocking his homework to the ground as he spun around to face them.

"Oh, Sami!" he said, rushing to her side and hugging her. "How do you feel?"

"Like I can't breathe," she said dryly, and he promptly loosened his hold.

"Sorry," he said, embarrassed. "I was just worried about you. The fate of my future children rested in your health."

What?

"I thought I was dating Remus. I'm confused."

James roared with laughter and Sirius turned an attractive shade of purple.

"No! No, you're dating Remus. I just meant if you weren't okay he'd castrate me. You're definitely dating Remus!"

Attractive? Had she thought his blush was attractive? It was bloody maddening. It should be a crime to look, and smell, that good.

"Okay," she said with a shrug. "Where do I sleep, I'm tired."

James laughed again.

"Sam," he said, "you practically slept three days straight. How can you possibly be tired?"

"I'll get Lily," said Sirius, ignoring the totally lack of logic in her being tired. "She can give you a tour, Sami."

As Sirius ran up the stairs to retrieve Lily, Samantha turned to James and said, "Who's Lily?"

She then was instructed that Lily was obviously a demi-goddess, because there wasn't a human being who possibly encompassed all of the wonderful traits James had just described. She also figured from this that James was dating Lily, which he never said outright, but it was what she got from the long rant about Lily's perfect looks.

Actually, that part of the rant wasn't far off. The girl was truly beautiful. Her auburn hair and almond-shaped green eyes were a stunning combination. The pretty girl smiled and Samantha with a graceful, pretty smile. She must be one of the popular girls. She must not be a friend of Samantha, and she was just being nice because their boyfriends were close.

"Hey, Sam! I'm so glad you're okay. I visited you earlier, but Remus said you had been sleeping most of the day. Let me take you up to your bed, Sirius said you're tired."

As the redhead led her upstairs, Samantha asked that awkward question which had been plaguing her mind since she had met her.

"Are we friends?"

Lily looked at her with sad eyes, which Samantha was getting used to. After all, she supposedly had a severe case of amnesia.

"Sam, you're my best friend in the whole world."

Samantha suddenly felt that she was really, really going to like this new life in the book world, even if she did have severe amnesia and a boyfriend capable of eating her. It was an improvement from having her head bashed into a brick wall.