Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the world of Harry Potter. That includes any characters, creatures, or "wizard terms" from the books. (I'd think that everyone knew by now that those things belong to J. K. Rowling!) However, I _do_ own all of my original characters, etc.

A/N: Well, here's the first part of the scenes in Child of Memories, as promised. I really hope you enjoy.

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EXPLANATION: This one takes place shortly after Christmas, probably during the first week of January. Miette now must spend her free time in classes, with the trusted teachers. Here she is waiting with Aina Kenton for the beginning of the next class. (This scene actually has no real part in the story, but I wanted to give Aina's people a bit of culture.

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After staring at Aina's tapping black-nailed fingers for a few minutes, I said, "I thought you were married."

She looked up at me, a puzzled expression on her face. "I am."

"But then, how come you don't have a wedding ring on your finger?"

Her expression cleared with understanding. "My people have a different custom. We don't wear wedding rings, because we don't wear jewelry. Most jewelry would get ruined in the waters where we live."

"That makes sense. So," I tilted my head a little, "what do you do instead? So that other people know you are married?"

"Well, each person, from the time of the engagement to the day of the wedding, has to take locks of his or her own hair and create two armlets in the form of four-strand braids. There are many spells that are also used in making the armlets - spells to allow the armlet to stay at a comfortable tightness, and to keep the strands from breaking or wearing."

"Cool! But - wouldn't everyone's hair have to be really long to be able to do that?"

"We use charms to connect strands if they are too short, but all of the males have long hair. My husband's hair wasn't very long though, so he had to connect quite a few strands. Would you like to see one of my armlets?"

I nodded, curious to see what it looked like.

She pushed her left sweater sleeve up to her shoulder easily because she apparently had on a sleeveless shirt underneath. She then turned so I could see her arm better. The intricately knotted band was about a centimeter wide, and was a rich copper hue. I couldn't see any break in the braid that should have been there to hold the band closed.

"That's your husband's hair?"

She nodded.

"Is he a.."

"A human?" Aina finished for me.

I nodded, a little embarrassed.

"Yes, he is. Intermarriage with humans is a common thing among the Naiades. If we hadn't married humans, we would have died out. Though we somewhat prefer magical humans to Muggles; it is a lot less troublesome to explain ourselves around people who already know we exist."

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EXPLANATION: January 10th, Miette is kidnapped by Death Eaters, but just as Miette disappears, Sirius (as Snuffles) runs forward and grabs the fabric of her shirt. He is pulled with her. Sirius manages to get the two of them out of the Death Eaters' camp, but now they much journey through the Forbidden Forest in the winter - and Sirius's wand was taken away.

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The waning moon struggled to break free of the clouds above, but they kept it hidden behind their swirling mass. The wind bit at our faces as we trekked through the layer of snow on the ground. Sirius grumbled beside me, and I caught a few to do with wanting his wand how it was so bloody cold, he was going to free his arse off.

I tugged at his sleeve. "Sirius, I'm tired. When can we rest?"

He stopped and looked down at me with a worried expression. "Miette, it wouldn't be a very good idea to sleep in this temperature."

"But I'm so tired! We've been walking all day," I moaned.

He sighed. "Yes, I know. But we've got to get back to Hogwarts as soon as possible. It looks like there's a snowstorm on the way."

I groaned. "It's bad enough already."

Sirius gestured me closer to him, and we continued on, with his cloak pulled against us both. An hour later, the clouds grew much darker, and it became very hard to see a few feet in front of us. Sirius stopped.

I knew what he was thinking. We couldn't go any further tonight. We could get lost and start going in the opposite direction of what we originally wanted.

Sirius took a deep breath, trying to keep his temper from flaring up in annoyance, and then settled himself down next to a large tree, tugging his hood closer to his head. "I am going to stay awake, because it is dangerous to fall asleep in the snow. I could get hypothermia - that means that my body temperature is too low," he explained, "and I could freeze or get very sick. You may sleep, because I will make sure you stay warm."

"Alright," I replied. He pulled me onto his lap and then pulled his cloak around both of us. It was definitely a good change from walking, as I had on only my sweater, pants, and shoes on. Soon I drifted off to sleep in the warm shelter of Sirius's arms.

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So dark, so dark.

No sound at the beating of someone's heart. I couldn't tell if it was my own.

Suddenly there was a fuzzy image of an empty corridor - or was it? There was the flickering image of a young girl wearing a silky, pale green dress with a ragged hem at her calves. I recognized her - she was myself. The dress left her pale arms bare, and they were outspread. There was a soft, eerie song in the background, and my flickering image began to dance; twirling around, her bare feet lightly touching the smooth stone floor. My image's eyes were vacant, as was her expression. She looked to be in a trance, or just daydreaming. Her long dark curls were flying out because of her spinning.

I noticed something swirling in the darkness around my figure. Very slowly, the objects came into focus, revolving around her. They were ribbons and strings of dimly glowing beads. Each ribbon and strand was only one color, though there were four colors. One ribbon and one string of beads were black, another set was dark green, another set was dark blue, and the last set was a platinum silver.

The darkness was pulsing with the beat of my heart, which coincidentally coincided with the beat of the music - which was getting faster. As the speed of the beat increased, so did the pace at which my still flickering form danced. The glowing ribbons and beads surrounding her were getting closer and closer to her.

The music wasn't any louder, but it was becoming screechy - as though a whole orchestra was playing a wrong note, and they were all playing the same wrong note, too close to the bridges of their instruments. The ribbons and glowing beads suddenly shot toward her and wrapped themselves about her small body, tangling tightly around her arms, legs, and neck.

My image screamed and struggled, emotion finally coming into her face. wasn't the emotion I was hoping for.

The music still hadn't stopped.

The darkness closed in.

I screamed..

And awoke, gripping Sirius's shirt tightly. After a few minutes of panicked sobbing, I slowly began to hear his voice, which was trying to soothe me.

" 's alright, Miette; it's alright. You're going to be fine. It was only a dream."

Only a dream.. Where had I heard those same words spoken before?

I was shaking terribly, and he drew his cloak closer around us, trying to shelter me from the winter chill. He wrapped his arms around me, rubbing my back to create more warmth in my small body. He rested his chin on the top of my head.

Everything will be better soon. We will get back tomorrow.." His voice trailed off, but then I heard him murmur to himself, ".hopefully."

In the morning, I awoke curled up against Sirius, feeling warm with his arms and cloak around me. When I looked up at him, I was startled to see that he was asleep. A two-inch layer of powdery snow had settled on his cloak, and was covering the top of the hood that was shadowing his relaxed face. Some snow clung to the locks of hair that had come out from under his hood.

Remembering what he told me the night before, I hastily shook him. "Wake up! Sirius, wake up! Please!" I exclaimed, panicking when he wouldn't respond. "Oh, no.." I began to shake him harder, and his head flopped back, hitting the trunk of the tree we were against.

He gave a disgruntled noise, and his eyes fluttered open. "Merlin! I shouldn't have fallen asleep!" he moaned groggily. He motioned for me to get up, and then he struggled to stand on his frozen limbs. He swayed a bit and leaned against the tree for support. His hood fell back, revealing his unshaven face. It looked strange to me, because whenever I saw him in his human form, he was always clean-shaven.

Once he had his balance, he began to stretch his arms, neck, and legs to get his blood flowing again. He shook one leg and bent it a few times, before he did the same with the other. After he was convinced that all his limbs were working properly, he took my hand.

"Let's get going."

We trudged on through the snow for a while, pushing past scratchy bushes and trying to avoid having clumps of snow drop on us from tree branches. It was very quiet; the only noise was the sound of crunching in the snow, and our heavy breathing. Soon a new sound joined the chattering of our teeth: my stomach. I hadn't eaten anything since before I was taken.

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A/N: Well, that's all for now, and I hope that wasn't too horrible. Oh. Just to let you know, Sirius and Miette ended up getting back to the castle safely, though the both of them were very tired and hungry.