Chapter V
I awoke abruptly, my eyes flying open as my senses returned to me. I blinked rapidly, middle of the day sunshine glaring brightly into my eyes. I was flat on my back on the ground, and I quickly noticed golden wheat reaching up around me and waving slightly in the wind. The ground was welcomingly warm beneath me and oddly comfortable, and I remained where I was for a few, long moments. As my eyes adjusted I looked up at the sky above me, which was almost completely devoid of clouds except for a few small, wispy ones. As I looked up at the magnificent blue sky the wind suddenly gusted, making the wheat sway to the side, and for a second I could see tall, magnificent mountains rising in front of me. I quickly remembered why I was here and sat up. That was when I saw her.
Only 20 feet away from me, I could see her hand reaching up from the ground, twirling a piece of wheat back and forth between her fingers. My heart leapt into my throat at the sight. I scrambled to my feet and began to make my way towards her, not caring to notice that I had tripped over my bag, which had I had completely forgotten about. I made my way towards her, and when I almost reached her a breeze blew through again, swaying the wheat. She too was sprawled out on her back, simply twirling the wheat and gazing up at the sky. As I quickly skimmed my eyes over her, I noticed she had numerous small cuts and bruises on her face. I was almost on top of her when she finally noticed me. She turned her head slightly, her eyes lazily looking away from the sky and to me.
"Hello," she said, smiling at me.
"Hi," I replied back to her, my voice shaking. She looked at me for a moment in silence, her face open and smiling.
"How are you?" she asked. It seemed too unreal that she had no memory of us. She almost seemed normal.
"I'm alright," I replied, sitting down next to her. "And you?"
"Pretty good," she replied.
For the next few moments, we just sat in silence. She turned her gaze back to the sky, seemingly fascinated by it, and I stared at an empty space in front of me, my senses completely tuned into her. She seemed so calm, so carefree, so vulnerable. I wondered how I would go about making her trust me and follow me back to Hogwarts. I suppose I would have to tell her about the whole magic, wizarding world…thing. We were to travel by a spell Dumbledore had quickly taught me that would return us to his office. I ran a hand through my hair nervously. How am I supposed to do that if I just appeared out of no where and she doesn't even care?
"You, uh…" she said quietly, breaking into my thoughts. "You wouldn't happen to have any food with you, would you?" I turned my head slowly towards her, and saw her smiling up hopefully at me. I felt a smile that I couldn't deny creep across my face.
"As a matter of fact, I do," I replied, smiling and nodding my head. A smile broke out on her face that stretched ear to ear, a smile of hers that I hadn't seen in a long time. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
Over the next hour we sat on a blanket I had brought, and pulled out the food that Dobby had packed for me. She was starving and ate like I had never witnessed Hermione eat before. I couldn't blame her, seeing as it had been around a day since she'd last eaten. She happily ate away at sandwiches and cookies while talking quite animatedly with me about basically nothing. All she could speak of was her surroundings, which included the mountains, sky, wheat, and me. When the topic of conversation turned towards me, she finally unleashed the barrage of questions that I had been expecting when I first saw her.
"So, what's your name?" She asked quite suddenly, before breaking a cookie in half and tossing it into her mouth.
"Harry," I replied. I could still hear Dumbledore's warning about refreshing her memory in my head, but I still had no idea what he had meant. Before I could really consider it, she asked me a question I could not avoid.
"Do you know what my name is?" she asked just as suddenly as her last question.
"Yes," I replied. I glanced over at her and saw that she had frozen in the middle of raising food to her mouth, and was staring at me curiously.
"You do?" she asked. I nodded slightly, hoping that I wasn't going to mess this up.
"Hermione," I said quietly.
"Hermione," she repeated, the word sounding foreign to her tongue. "Do you know who I am?" she asked eagerly, putting down her cookie and turning to face me. She looked as if she was on pins and needles, and was staring at me as if I was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen.
"Well, yes, I do," I said quietly. Her eyes widened and she crawled towards me on her knees, her eyes boring into me.
"Really?" she whispered. I nodded to her again, and couldn't help but smile at how eager she was becoming.
"We go to school together. We're best friends," I told her.
"We are?" she said again, inching even closer to me, into my personal space. I nodded, the sudden closeness making my cheeks feel like they were on fire.
"Harry?" she asked, suddenly grabbing my hand in both of hers. My eyes darted up to hers, which had gone from curious to incredibly sad. Just the sight of her tears made me want to tell her everything and hold her and reassure her that she'd be alright. But Dumbledore's voice was still fresh in my mind.
I placed my hand over hers gently, and looked deep into her eyes.
"Listen, everything will be alright. Where I'm…well, we're from, they're working on something right now that will bring back your memory. We're going to go there in a few days and everything will be fine," I reassured her, squeezing her hand. She just stared at me, slight disappointment crossing her face.
"I'm here to take care of you. Don't worry, okay?" I said, watching as a single tear rolled down her cheek. As I reached up and gently brushed it away, she nodded silently, and the look on her face broke my heart. She looked so lost and confused it made my heart ache. She sniffled quietly and then looked up at me with purpose.
"Thank you Harry, I believe you," she said quietly.
"You're welcome," I said, smiling at her. "Now, how about you let me take a look at those cuts on your face. Our school nurse gave me a bunch of stuff that is supposed to heal them and keep them from scarring," I told her, reaching into my bag and pulling out numerous bottles, along with the instructions that Madame Pomfrey had scribbled down for me.
A few minutes later Hermione was lying quietly on the blanket while I carefully cleaned the cuts on her face. The curse had done quite a number on her, and had left a particularly nasty gash that began at the bottom of her cheek and ran under her jaw. I suspected as soon as I saw it that it would leave a scar, no matter how miraculous a potion Pomfrey had given me.
"Is it bad?" she asked nervously after noticing I had paused to study the cut.
"No, not horribly. It might scar though," I replied to her, and all worry left her face.
"Well, that's not a big deal," she replied. She lazily closed her eyes as I began softly dabbing the cut with a cleansing potion.
"That's making it feel a lot better," she said quietly. I smiled at her as she sighed deeply, settling into the blanket. After a few moments I noticed she was breathing deeply, and a soft peace had settled over her. I quietly closed the bottles I had scattered around and placed them back in my bag. As I turned back to Hermione, she rolled onto her size, and settled back into sleep. That simple action made my heart swell in my chest.
"Sleep well, Mione," I whispered as I laid down on the other side of the blanket, silently watching her until I fell asleep.