I couldn't tell how much time was passing.  I didn't really care.  The thing I did care about was the memories.  Memories flooded my unconsciousness constantly.  They were both meaningless childhood memories and forgotten, lost memories of my parents.

    I stood holding Mum's hand, looking at the hooked-nosed, greasy-haired man in front of us.  Mum looked pained, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Please Sev, take her.  You-Know-Who is after us! This is her only chance of a happy life," Mum said.
"No.  Not the offspring of Potter," Uncle spat.  Mum looked down at me sadly and lovingly.
"She's mine, too, Sev," Mum said pleadingly, her eyes clouded with pain.
"Never.  Not a chance.  I'm sorry, Lily."
I tugged on Mum's sleeve.
"Mummy, what's happening?" She ignored me.
"Please! She'll die!"
"What about you? Don't you care?"
"She's four! It's too young! And you're her godfather.  Please Sev." Something in Uncle's face softened.
"Okay.  I'll do it," he said grimly, his jaw set. "But no one will know her true identity. Not even Harry."
Mum sniffled, but bent down to me.
"Honey, I need you to be brave for me. You're going to stay with your uncle Severus for a while, but then you're going to come home to me and your daddy."
"Pinkie promise?" I asked, holding out my pinkie finger. Mum's finger latched onto mine and we shook on it. She kissed my cheek lovingly, and I felt the warmth of motherly love flow through me.
"I will always love you, Scarlet." She turned and walked back towards the house. Dad wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close, not even offering Uncle a sneer. They looked back at me with sad eyes that I now knew belonged only to those who knew they were condemned to die. I latched onto Uncle's arm and we Apparated away without a second glance.
It hurt seeing Uncle's hatred, and his denial of me.  I never knew, but I wished I had gotten more time with my parents. They had clearly loved me, and I them. I sunk out of my half-consciousness again, into another memory.
    I walked quietly into Uncle's room, following the sound of crying.  Uncle sat on his bed holding the Daily Prophet in one hand and a handkerchief in the other, staring at the front page listlessly. 
    "What's wrong, Uncle?"
    "Lily... your mother... is dead."
    "What about Daddy and Harry?"
    "Dead.  He's dead.  Gone," Uncle said, a sickly grin on his face through the torrents of tears.  He didn't seem to have heard me, but he had answered: my family, the entire thing, was dead and gone forever.  I backed away, not liking the deranged look on Uncle's face. It scared me.  I let out a strangled sob once I reached my room.

The last memory that stood out to me was different, very recent, but I couldn't seem to remember any of it, but it was still there, like a pond covered by a sheet of ice, unreachable.

I flopped onto my bed.  Why was Bellatrix here? She's in Azkaban.  Well, she should be.  The door opened slowly and I stood up, expecting Draco to come nag me about breakfast.  I was disappointed and angry when Bellatrix's sick grinning figure walked into to the room.  How dare Draco let her in?
"Hello, sweetie."
"It's Scarlet."
"Okay sweetie."
"Why are you here?"
"I want to get to know you." I sighed.  That was obviously not the real reason. 
"How old are you sweetie?"
"Twelve."
"Who are your parents?" I paused, stricken before answering.
"Severus Snape."
"And your mother? You must have had one." I thought fast, not wanting a killer to know my identity.
"Petunia Jarter."
"Oh," she said, her smile flickering.  "Is that so? I didn't know Severus had a wife."
"She left for another man."
"Poor girl.  I can sympathize, sweetie." Suddenly, Bellatrix pulled out a long knife.
"But Lyra will not have the same problem." I jerked back my arm, but not before Bellatrix thinly sliced it, catching a drop of blood in a small vial. 
"Obliviate." she said, pointing her wand at me.  I saw my  eyes go fuzzy and watched myself forget that moment.  Bellatrix pulled me down the stairs to breakfast.  I watched myself rub the cut vacantly. 
There were many other dreams of my childhood, but they were all quickly forgotten.  The whole episode seemed to pass quickly.
***
    I woke up to the hustle and bustle of St.  Mungo's.  Except not around me.  Around other patients in the— I struggled to see the sign— the Janus Thickey Ward.  The ward for those with permanent injuries.  How long had I been out? I sat up and a nurse rushed over to me. 
    "She's awake!"
    "That's a first."
    "How long have I been out?" I asked cautiously. 
    "Four years, you may have some permanent mental damage, such as amnesia.  You cracked your head pretty hard."
    "When can I leave?" I asked, trying to disguise the shock in my voice.  I had missed Harry's first year at Hogwarts.
    "When we have assured that you are fine, other than the unfixable parts of you, and someone comes to pick you up.  That should be within the day, as it is dawn now."
    Later that day, once I had been deemed fit to leave, someone came for me.  The nurse told me that we were going downstairs to see my aunt.  I didn't know I had one, but that could be the "amnesia." I stood up and got changed into the robes I had been given.  I walked downstairs with Nurse Sera, and she directed me to a heavy-lidded woman with unruly black hair.  She turned around, a smile plastered onto her face.
    "Hello sweetie." I blinked.  What was she doing here? I turned to the nurse and said, "I remember Auntie Bella.  She's a real nasty piece of work.  I really don't want to go with her."
    "Honey, I'm sorry.  It's the matter of the law.  You have to go with her." I could have screamed when the nurse said that, and I almost did.
    "Come on sweetie, let's go home now," said my 'aunt.' I shook my head, but she grabbed my arm, her claw-like nails digging into my arm.  She dragged me out of the room.  The nurse called after her, "Wait, Miss, you have to sign the form of release..." But the rest was drowned out by the wind of Apparating.
    "I have the girl!" Bellatrix Lestrange cried in a sing-song voice.  I glared daggers at her then turned to look at the sneering face of Lucius Malfoy and the snooty face of Narcissa Malfoy.  I finally looked over to Draco, who looked very uncomfortable.  I looked around the room, of which I still had distant memories of.  The large pillars, the overall gray colour, it was all making me very nostalgic and depressed.  I turned in a circle, looking at everyone, and I said, "Why am I here?"
    "You remembered," Narcissa said bluntly.  "In your dreams." I glanced at her through my peripheral vision.
    "That's great, real great.  I remembered the day my family died." Narcissa looked at me sympathetically, but Bellatrix cackled, "But that's not all, is it."
    "And who's 'Lyra?'" Bellatrix raised her eyebrows at Narcissa.
    "Cissy, twenty Galleons please."
    "Really? You bet on me?" Bellatrix didn't reply, all she did was shoo me off to my old room.
    "Get along now, you must be tired."
    "I was asleep for four years.  Of course I'm tired.  NOT." But after that statement, I headed for my room, shooting more glares in everyone's direction before I left.  I opened my door and looked back at the elegant silver and green hallway.  Not a hair on the rug was out of place, and the crystal chandelier was well dusted. As I walked down the hallway, I saw a red head poke out of the doorway on my left side.  The girl attached to it looked slightly familiar, but I just couldn't quite place where I'd seen her before.  She looked over at me. 
    "Hi! I'm Lyra.  What's your name?"
    "Uh, I'm Scarlet." I stepped back into my room and was about to close the door when Lyra cried, "Come look what I can do!" I walked into Lyra's room.  It was, surprisingly, gold with swirls of red.
    "Mummy says it matches my hair.  She wants me to be in Gwyffindor 'cause the Deathies need a Gwyffindor."
    "Who's your 'mummy?'
    "Bella."
    "Bellatrix Lestrange?" She shrugged.
    "Who's your dad?"
    "Mummy says I don't have one, but I'm going to rule the world with my adoptive daddy someday." I shivered and asked nervously, "And who's your adoptive daddy?"
    "The Dark Lord," Lyra answered proudly.
    "Voldemort?" I asked, my blood running cold.
    "Mummy says not to say that word.  It's bad." I nodded my head to show I understood.
    "What were you going to show me?" I asked.  Lyra squinted at me, then her face brightened.
    "Oh yeah!" Lyra outstretched her hand and frowned in concentration.  A tiny spark appeared, then it grew larger and larger.  One of the bed hangings caught on fire and it slowly spread, but no one noticed.  I felt a sick sense in the pit of my stomach.  This wasn't ordinary underage magic, this was an unusual power.
    "When was your birthday?"
    "December 29."
    "How old are you?"
    "Five." The dread grew when I realized that her growth had been accelerated.  She hadn't been at Malfoy Manor on Christmas five years ago.  This girl must have my exact DNA, all merged together.  That was the only explanation as to why Bellatrix would want my blood. She looked identical to my five-year-old self from my dreams, and sounded like it, too. She couldn't be completely human.  I was an Animagus! I didn't know how she was created, but it used my blood.  Now I knew who she looked like: the little dream me. Suddenly, a little gray cloud drifted down my nose.  I looked around, realizing the room was on fire, and my wand was in my bedroom.  The fire was just about everywhere, blocking the doorway and clogging the room.
    "Lyra!" I called.  "We have to get out of here!"
    "How?" When she asked that, my heart sank.  We were going to die.  There was no way out, and in a selfish moment of panic, I transformed and Apparated out, forgetting Lyra.  I grabbed my wand from my room and fire-proofed the door.  Only then did I realize Lyra was still trapped in the room.  I opened the door and yelled, "Aguamenti!" As the flames died down, I looked around for Lyra.  She was sitting on her bed, grinning.  She looked completely unscathed, except for one tiny exception: on her back were two huge phoenix wings.  She stood up, slightly unbalanced from the weight of her new wings, and stretched them out, hitting her dresser in the process.  I couldn't do anything but gape.  How did she have wings? None one second and two the next.  Just from surviving a fire! But the biggest issue was telling Bellatrix.  I turned around to plan with Lyra, but she was gone, half-flying down the hallway like there was no tomorrow, screaming, "Mummy! Mummy! Look what I got!" I sighed.  I definitely was not that tactless when I was her age.
    I walked slowly down the stairs, just waiting to be punished at for "maiming" Bellatrix's precious child.  As I walked, I wondered what House Harry was in, and for that matter, Draco.  He was probably in Slytherin, I thought sadly.  I hoped Harry was in Gryffindor.  That's where the whole family was, after all. 

HERES MY EDITED LONGER BY OVER A THOUSAND WORDS CHAPTER! THIS IS A THANK YOU FOR THE MOST READS ON THIS CHAPTER! Okay, thanks! -Jess