Before Brian could get an answer from the wizards present, he was surprised to notice the sky darkening. Could the legends be true? Were storm clouds gathering now, about to bring this forest a rain that would revive all living things?
The thought vanished in an instant, because a second later, Brian realized that "darkening" was the wrong word. It was not darkening, but fading. Everything was losing its color!
The miniature Golden Cup at Hufflepuff's cuff, the Sword of Gryffindor, Slytherin's glittering Locket, Ravenclaw's Diadem, the black smoke in the forest, the gray clouds overhead, the sky with its faint traces of blue amid the gray-all of them had become a single color-
It was a yellowish black that defied precise description, like some wondrous magic that stopped the world in its tracks.
But Brian no longer watched the changes taking place in this strange world. He froze where he stood as a flood of memories poured into his previously empty mind. He remembered his name, remembered that Hogwarts was the magical school where he worked, remembered many, many people, and remembered why he had come to this forest.
Understanding dawned on him. He walked over to Godric Gryffindor, who now looked like a projection of an old black-and-white photograph, lifted the cloak behind him, and took a plain, heavily patched hat with a large rip from his waist.
The hat and Brian himself were now the only two things in this world that had any color or could move of their own accord. In the hat's case, movement meant that its large rip was wriggling like ocean waves.
"Hello, Sorting Hat." Brian raised the hat, his eyes flickering. With his memories back, how could he fail to realize that everything that had just happened was a "lifelike illusion"?