Megan took a shaky breath, which betrayed her strength. She'd gotten used to keeping her pain bottled up inside along with the grief she felt over the losses they'd endured over the years.
"I'm glad you're here, Ern," she said, giving him a weak smile. "I don't know what I'd do without you, Justin, Ioan and Hannah. And I do know I can talk to you, but all of you were there for all the things that still haunt me."
Megan's fingers brushed over the scar from fifth year on the back of her right hand. The words from Umbridge's quill still lingered there, but at least they were so light that you couldn't read them unless you stared at them for a long time.
"I still have this scar and sometimes I still feel the pain of the Cruciatus curse," she whispered, trying to hold back the tears that threatened her eyes. "I don't ever want to feel that kind of pain again. That's why I write in this book. I want to remember it, but I want to get it out of my head. I guess it's sort of like a makeshift Pensive without actually removing the memories from my head."