Why can't I just forget? *Open*

Max looked at Ashton. He could help? Help what? What had happened to this girl that she would need his help? It was about something that she had trouble with from her past, that was all he understood. But maybe he could get a good starting point from there. He sat in the grass, looking her in the eye, and took out his drawing pad, wanting to work on his sketching while they talked. It would help him focus on only her, and he had the feeling that was what she needed right now.

He started out by drawing a few lines that had no form. They would soon, but right at the moment, they weren't important. He continued his sketch as he started talking to her.

"First off, I'm going to tell you a little about myself. I'm sure that Ashton has told you something about my history, so I'm just going to give you aa general rundown." He started shading in a part of his picture.

"I went home for a weekend with the intention of telling my parents that I'm bisexual. And when they heard it, I was instantly disowned. They already thought I was a freak because I can use magic. Well, there was a family there that took me in when they saw this happen. I've been living with them ever since. I'm sure that you've already heard that part." His dark brown eyes shot up to meet hers briefly and he continued his drawing.

"Then a little bit later, I received a bit of interesting news. My former father had died, and I was summoned to the will reading. Needless to say, I was confused. Why would I need to be there? I had been disowned, there would be no reason for it. But as it turned out, there was quite a reason for me to want to be there. I had inherited everything. And I do mean everything." His eyes shot up to hers again.

"I'm not telling you that to impress you, just to make my next comment make sense. I'm using the money to renovate the house that I inherited. I'm turning it into a halfway house for troubled magical teens. I am going to run it and be one of the counselors. That's what I want to do with my life." He finished his sketch and held it up for her to see.

"Now, I cannot help you unless you tell me what's wrong." He tore out the sketch of her that he'd done, and handed it to her.

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That was a great thing to do, and she had to admit she was liking him already. He was kind, and had good intentions. Not something you saw in the normal teenage boy population. She smiled weakly at him as she took the sketch. She looked at it in amazement. This was another thing you didn't see in the normal teenage boy population. Good art skills that were actually put to use.

"This is really great." She gestured to the sketch, but then she realized she was sort of changing the subject. "It's the last memory I have of my parents. It's been haunting me since it happened. They were killed in a fire... and no one did anything to save them. They saved me and ignored my parents. I watched them burn... and I still remember every detail. The screaming... the flames... the smoke..." Knowing that Ashton was there made it easier... but it didn't stop the memory.

She closed her eyes as the memory came back to her. All the screaming, the flames. She was reliving it again. She watched her parents die... her being dragged away. She felt tears come to her eyes and she was brought back to reality. She wiped her eyes once more.

"That's great, what you're doing with the house and money, by the way."

Max's eyes closed briefly. He'd never talked to anyone with this kind of problem before. He wasn't sure how to handle it, but he was certainly going to try, since it could possibly come up in the future again.

He looked at the girl in front of him. Her parents were gone. Killed in a fire, and no one had tried to help them? How could that possibly be? There had to have been someone, unless there had been no hope for them. But here she was, alive, and kicking, if not happy about it.

He stared at her for a moment, formulating how he was going to talk with her about this. It was going to be difficult, but Max knew that in his chosen line of work, it would be that way quite often. He clasped his hands in front of him.

"You had to watch your parents die? I am so sorry. I've never known anyone to have gone through that. But I will try to help you the best that I can, I promise."

He held out his hand for her to shake.

"I'm going to do my best."

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She smiled meekly at him before holding out her hand as well. She shook his hand and looked down. She'd never met anyone that had to deal with it either. Not that she'd ever tried. It had affected her in a way that had destroyed her socially. She'd never been able to have a conversation with someone before Michelle, and that's when she realized it. Michelle had started this, helping her. But even Michelle couldn't stop the nightmares. She could only hope that talking to Max would.

"Thanks."

Max smiled at her and looked her over. How best to start? He supposed it would have to be with the nightmare. That was her problem right there, but he didn't really know the whole story, did he? He only knew what she had told him. And that alone wasn't much help. Maybe there had been a reason why no one had helped this girl's family. Maybe they were beyond help and the rescuers knew that already when they'd pulled this Slytherin girl to safety.

"I don't really know where to start," he admitted. "Why don't we just begin with how the day started off, and we can get around to the fire and your parents as we go?"

He hoped that this way, he could maybe get a better feel for this girl's life, and maybe she had seen something that could be a link to why she was still having these nightmares. It had to be more than just missing them. It had to be more than just having to watch and hear everything that was happening in that fire, although, that certainly would have been enough for him.

"What did you do first thing that morning?"

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She couldn't remember much about that day, it was when she was eight. She had to try though, there was obviously something he was looking for. The question was... what exactly? She remembered eating breakfast... and then going to the store. Hm... She thought back to the day of the fire, which wasn't something she wanted to do.

"Well... my parents woke me up... and we ate breakfast at the vacation home we were at. I can't remember much... I was eight. Sorry."

Max thought for a moment. This seemed to be going exactly the way he'd thought. Something wasn't right here. She had no memory of the rest of the day, really, but perfect recollection of the fire? How was that possible? Usually when someone had been through a traumatic event, they blocked out what had caused the trauma, and remembered the remainder of the time. So how is it that this was the opposite?

He began another sketch while thought of how to continue. This one of the scenery around them for Cathy. He placed his tongue between his lips in mild concentration while he shaded in an area of the background with the trees that stood along the bank of the Lake.

"I want to help you with your nightmares, but I'm going to need a bit more information about them. Where does the dream usually start? Is it at the beginning of the day? Or sometime later?" He finished his sketch and closed the book. Now that he was starting to get somewhere in this discussion, he wanted to know whatever she could tell him. Maybe then he could piece together the information that it would take to help her.

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She thought about the nightmares, all of them were almost exactly the same. It was always the fire, with her parents screams mixed in with the crackling of the flames. Occasionally, she'd wake up, and feel as though she had just relived the day, and it was as if she had felt the heat. She knew that wasn't the case though.

"The nightmares are always focused on the fire... and my parents screaming... It's not the full memory though. It's almost like... a video that's being played over and over again, but the picture is fuzzy. The sound is exact, but the picture isn't, if that makes sense. If I try to remember the memory now, I remember every little detail." She shuddered at that. She hated thinking about it. She supposed part of the reason she remembered the fire so well, was because she knew the pain of the flames. They had injured her too.

Bth of her parents had been magical, but she understood now why they hadn't saved themselves with it. They could have easily exposed magic if they'd tried to save themselves. They'd left her behind though, and that was another thing that bothered her. They cared more about protecting magic, then they did about making sure their daughter wasn't affected. At least, that was what she thought sometimes. No matter how selfish it sounded.

"Why do I only focus on the bad memories? Do you think... Do you think there could be something wrong with me?" She sighed, though she could easily accept that. Focusing on the bad memories was stupid, but she couldn't help it. That was just what she did.

(277 Words, and sorry for the lateness. Gotta love sudden inspiration though, interesting how it always comes around midnight...)

Did Max think there was anything wrong with her? No. People that had been traumatized usually had memories that they couldn't get past. But for her to be remembering her parents screaming and believing that no one was helping them, there had to be a reason. There had to be a reason that she didn't remember the event the way she did the rest of the day. The fact that she remembered the whole day as a nothing; until she reached the fire and her parents dying.

She was having nightmares, and that Max could understand. He, himself had had nightmares when it came to parts of his past. His now deceased father locking him in his room without food, water or a chance to use the loo when he needed to. Being left alone to shop for his Hogwarts supplies. Max still was woken up by some of these things in the middle of the night. He knew that it was nothing compared to watching your parents die, and believing that no one wanted to help them.

"Perhaps the real problem isn't that something is wrong with you, just with the memory that your mind is playing. I'm sure that someone wanted to help your parents, but it wasn't possible by that time. They just couldn't be reached and the rescuers knew this. I'm sure that if they had been able to, they would have attempted to reach your family. I know that it doesn't sound helpful, but believe me, firefighters are trained to know when they can and can't reach someone through a fire. It's horrible to think about, knowing that they have to abandon someone when they want to rescue them, but to save others, they might have no choice. And your parents would rather have preferred to see that you live if you could be rescued, and you did. You are here to remember them."

He didn't know if what he was telling Cora would be of any help to her, but it was what he had to offer.

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