Author Note: Apologies for the long gap between posts. I've now finished university and am busy working. Hopefully posts will be much more frequent now I'm settled into my new routine. Hope you enjoy Chapter six.
Chapter 6 - New Memories
When she returned home later that night, swimming through Hermione's mind were flashes of happy images, ginger hair, happy noises and delicious smells from her day. The Weasley's had welcomed her into the fold instantly, and just being wrapped up in Molly Weasley's hugs had provided more comfort than all of the counselling sessions at the hospital had done. The last few days seemed to have sped by too fast, and she desperately wanted to slow them down, replay them, and treasure them, to ensure they were committed to her memory and not lost as her old memories had been.
Flicking on the lights as she entered the living room, she sank onto the sofa and tipped her head back to rest on the cushions. Eyes closed she thought back over the day and savoured particular moments. She had met her family after the long years of searching and wondering, and they had exceeded all her expectations and hopes. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she thought of her missing parents, the guilt at not remembering them, and the simple knowledge that if her memory didn't return she would never truly know them. She forced her mind to focus on the hundreds of positive emotions bursting forward, and her lips curled into a wistful smile as she thought of the conversation she had overheard that morning.
She had been planning to ask Ginny about the missing last diary, not just to fill in the gaps, but to answer the one question she felt she already knew the answer to. Her suspicions had been confirmed with a few words spoken between Harry and Remus, words that had kept her smiling all day. He had loved her. More importantly to her, he didn't need her memory to return, he was falling in love with her again.
Her biggest fear, and subsequently the theme of her book had been the fear that people wouldn't like her as a person without her memories, not just new people, but the individuals from her past. Harry, without even knowing it, had calmed her deepest fear, and given her hope for her future.
Hermione fell asleep there on the sofa, a soft smile on her face, and no worries about her future, whatever happened she was looking forward to it. Tom, returning from a dinner with Jennifer, grinned to see her not only smiling, but sleeping more solidly than he could ever remember her sleeping without the aid of tablets. He grabbed the blankets from her bed and gently placed them over her before switching off the lights.
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Harry lay awake gazing at the ceiling of his room in Grimmauld Place, a smile pasted onto his face. It had been like having her back properly today, as if she remembered, and though she didn't it didn't matter. He loved watching her discover everything, and the way she had already researched them all from her diaries in a typical Hermione fashion. He was too busy remembering every moment they had spent together today to think about sleeping. Just remembering how she had hugged him so many times today made him forget every day spent without her.
It was Tom's day off tomorrow and she was spending the day with her flatmate. As much as Harry wanted to see her, now that he knew where he could find her he didn't mind, knowing she had created a life for herself before she found out about her old life. It was tempting to walk past their building in the hopes of catching another glimpse of her…Harry laughed out loud, and realised exactly what Ron would say to that idea - he was obsessed. Mind you, they both knew that Harry Potter had been obsessed by Hermione Granger for a long time now, five years in fact, one spent with her, four spent without her. No, he'd behave himself tomorrow, he should head into work and make sure the textbook orders were ready to go to Flourish and Blotts, and sort out some of immense piles of papers threatening to take over his office.
With a sigh he rolled over, closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep, the image of a certain brunette seemingly burned to the inside of his eyelids. He eventually drifted off remembering the day they had first kissed all those years ago.
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Hermione and Tom sat eating ice cream in the sunshine in Hyde Park, chatting and catching up on each others lives after a ridiculously eventful few days.
"So you like her then?" Hermione asked, tipping her head back to take in the sunshine, before turning to look at Tom enquiringly, his grin answered her question and she smiled back.
"I liked her, very friendly, exactly what you need - someone to make you leave the house, we both know I was never good at that during my Hermit period."
Tom laughed.
"True, but you're most definitely out of the Hermit period now, in fact you were before you met Harry. Speaking of Harry, any chance that there's been a single moment during today that you haven't been thinking about him?" He asked slyly.
Hermione peered over the top of her sunglasses sternly before giving in and allowing the goofy grin to spread back across her face.
"Ok, ok, I'm completely smitten." She laughed before looking at her friend thoughtfully.
"Is that bad? I've only known him a few days and yet I can't think about anything else. Surely I should be focusing on remembering my life, rediscovering other people and places, but I just love being around him. I have to resist the urge to hug him continuously…he just makes sense to me - and although I feel as if I could remember him, it's not that I don't think, it's just that we fit together…" She trailed off and stared thoughtfully across the Serpentine before turning back to Tom.
"It's not strange at all - it's exactly how I felt the first time I met Susan- I felt like I was supposed to spend time with her, we were supposed to be together and that was the most important thing." He smiled wistfully thinking back to the time he had spent with her. Hermione reached across and placed a hand over his.
"God, we're hopeless romantics aren't we?" She laughed softly.
"Nothing wrong with that my dear Kate - sorry, Hermione…"
"No, I'll always be Kate to you - I like that - I don't want to just throw Kate away, and for Kate you'll always be the one person that mattered most." She said softly. They held hands silently, acknowledging their friendship, and vowing not to lose it now that Kate was merging with Hermione.
"Anyway, I wouldn't say we were hopeless romantics, romantics - yes, but hopeless - no. Look at us, you've never been so happy now you have Harry, and I'm finally being positive and I've met someone I could be happy with." Tom continued.
"Do you think I have Harry?" Hermione pondered.
Tom grinned.
"Most definitely. Do you want another ice cream to get all over your face before you go and see him?" Tom asked cheekily.
"Hey! I can eat ice cream neatly if I really try" she laughed, "and damn you for knowing I was planning to go over there." She winked at her best friend before pulling him to his feet and heading over to get another ice cream.
Harry opened the door to 12 Grimmauld Place and a broad grin spread across his face.
"Still haven't learned to eat ice cream then?" He laughed.
Hermione's hands flew to her face and she blushed as she laughed.
"I can't believe Tom let me come over here with ice cream on my face." She shook her head.
"Come on in, this is a nice surprise, I wasn't expecting to see you here today." As they walked through the door, Harry's hand instinctively moved to rest at the small of her back, and Hermione moved closer towards him, neither acknowledging the movements, but both smiling slightly.
They were settled into comfy armchairs in the living room before Hermione remembered that she had forgotten to tell Harry the reason for her visit. She looked up across at him, noted his raised eyebrow and friendly smile and she laughed lightly.
"Sorry, my head's all over the place today, we've been sunning ourselves in the park, and I may have had one ice cream too many." She apologised while Harry grinned over at her.
"I had a favour and a question to ask you actually, which is why I popped round."
"Fire away."
"Well, I suddenly realised that I don't know what you do now? I don't really know what anyone does now actually!"
"I'd better fill you in then. I'm teaching at Hogwarts, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and so far I seem to have beaten the curse, I start my second year in a few weeks." Harry said with a wink.
Hermione beamed at him.
"I'm so pleased for you Harry, you must be a wonderful teacher." Harry smiled back at her, a little shyly before filling her in on everyone's lives. Hermione sat and took all the information in filing it in the relevant sections of her mind, mentally flagging up one name in particular - Neville Longbottom, a Healer at St Mungos. They chatted away until Harry remembered her second reason for coming over.
"What was the favour you needed?"
"Oh! I'd almost forgotten about that. It's worked out even better than I'd hoped actually - I was going to ask if you would teach me to use my magic again - right now I'm much too tempted to do it by myself and logically it would be safer to have an experienced wizard around to repair any mistakes." She said sheepishly.
Harry smiled and reached a hand across the gap between their chairs to take her hand lightly.
"I'd love to teach you magic, I doubt it will even take very long - you always picked everything up ten times faster than the rest of the students at Hogwarts." He grinned to see a faint blush in Hermione's cheeks at this compliment, but was soon blushing himself as his stomach emitted a most inelegant and rather loud rumble. Hermione smirked, and at Harry's mock stern look her smirk dissolved into a giggle which soon had Harry laughing with her.
"Well, it looks like we're going to need to go in search of food before we get any work done." Hermione said with a smile.
"Fantastic idea, and I can't face the thought of cooking on such a nice evening, let's go out somewhere."
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