Title: Remember To Forget
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Towards the end of a very strange seventh year, Hermione is attacked late one night by an unknown assailant. It is this attack that causes her memory to reset, taking her mind back six months… back to when she was dating Ron, not Harry…
Authors Notes: Ok so here's the update I promised!!! And, well… it's the second to last chapter… next one is it!!! So enjoy it whilst you can!!! We're almost at the end…
Thirteen
Hermione awoke with a start. She didn't remember getting into her nightgown, didn't remember getting into bed. It was obviously some early hour in the morning- she could hear Lavender tossing and turning and Parvati talking in her sleep, the normal nighttime noises in the dormitory.
She stared at the canopy of her bed, her mind mulling over the dream she'd just had. Kissing Harry… she could feel it, as if it was real…
She was smiling as she slowly drifted back off to sleep…
~*~
The snow had stopped falling the next morning and Hermione was confused when she woke up in Harry's bed in the boys dormitory, wearing one of Harry's old t-shirts.
Then she remembered. Dancing on top of the tower. Kissing Harry. Coming back to his room with him.
He had been a perfect gentleman. After all, they had shared his bed once before, at Christmas. He had lent her a t-shirt so that she wouldn't have to leave to get changed and they had spent the night wrapped in each others arms.
Harry stirred not long after she did and he didn't say a word. They just looked at each other for a few moments, before he kissed her gently.
A wave of relief flooded through her. She had been scared that he would say that the night before had been a mistake, that they should only be friends, that he couldn't do this to Ron.
They spent the morning in bed, not talking much, making up for lost time. It was lunchtime before she disentangled herself from him, desperate to go the loo. Neither of them had thought of going for breakfast or leaving the room- they knew moments like this were too precious.
They decided to leave the bed and Hermione went and got dressed whilst Harry snuck into the kitchens and got them lunch. They ate lunch sitting at the window, looking out over the grounds. They laughed as they fed each other bites of their food and shared long chocolate kisses. It was warm with the fire roaring and the sunlight streaming in the windows.
The sun set as they lay in each others arms, watching it, completely at peace. In three days the rest of Gryffindor house would be returning and Hermione wished they wouldn't. She was enjoying this too much.
'So…' Harry said once night had fully fallen, his arms wrapped around her as she lay with her back on his chest. 'What do we tell everyone?'
'Huh?' Hermione said distractedly. Harry's fingers had been making lazy circles around her belly button and she had been on the verge of falling asleep.
'What do we tell everyone? About us?'
She tilted her head back so that she could see his face. She could tell what he was really trying to say. What do they tell Ron. And Ginny.
'Nothing. Yet,' she said. 'Let's just figure this out for ourselves first. Cause what exactly are we?'
It was the question she had been biting back all day.
'We're us,' Harry answered simply. 'Us. Harry and Hermione.'
They went back into the comfortable silence for a few more minutes.
'I don't want you getting hurt,' he blurted suddenly. It was a mark of how well they knew each other that she knew exactly what he meant. It wasn't a question of him hurting her- it was a question of Voldemort.
She adjusted her position so that she was looking him directly in the eyes.
'I wont,' she said firmly.
'But if he finds out, he will hunt you and hurt you to hurt me.'
'I know,' she said. 'But I won't be anywhere but by your side. Haven't you realized by now- I'm not going anywhere. I've been there for you through everything and I'm not going to let Voldemort get in the way of what we have.'
~*~
When Hermione woke again, it was morning. Peering out from behind her curtains, she could see that Lavender and Parvati had already gotten up. The room was bathed in mid-morning sunlight.
She crawled out of bed and pulled some clothes from her wardrobe and dressed slowly, her mind wandering to her dreams.
Were they dreams? Or had they actually happened? She knew that if they were real, it would explain a lot. Why Harry looked so hurt all the time for starters…
Her mind drifted to the note that someone had given her. Drop everything, start it all over. Remember more than you'd like to forget.
Remember more than you'd like to forget.
She headed down into the common room, her mind spinning in what felt like thousands of directions. She didn't say a word to any of the students still inside, though it was only a handful of first years and the Creevey brothers, as she walked straight out the portrait hole and along the seventh floor corridor.
She knew of one place to get the answers to the questions she hadn't asked, knew the one thing that would help her 'remember more than she'd like to forget'. She spoke the password to a stone gargoyle and it jumped aside and she climbed the spiral staircase to Minerva's office and knocked sharply on the door. Minerva called her in and she took her usual seat at the opposite end of the desk.
'Hello, Hermione,' Minerva said warmly, looking up from her paperwork and smiling softly. 'How are you feeling?'
'Good,' she said. 'I was wondering…' she paused. 'I was wondering if I could have my journal back.'
Minerva looked startled. She had been expecting this and hoped against hope that it would come sooner, rather than later.
'Of course,' she said, standing up and heading over to the other side of the office. Whilst she was searching through a drawer, Hermione looked around at all the portraits. She could see Dumbledore, smiling serenely as he unwrapped a sherbet lemon and popped it into his mouth. Despite her state, she smiled as she watched him.
Minerva came back and slid the small black notebook across the table. Hermione nodded in thanks.
'Have you… have you seen Harry or Ron today?' she asked. Minerva looked at her in surprise.
'Yes, yes I have- I thought you would have too,' she said. Hermione looked sheepishly at her.
'I only just woke up.'
'But my dear… Harry left first thing.'
Hermione's stomach dropped.
'He's… he's gone?' she asked crestfallen.
'I thought he might have told you,' she said sadly.
Hermione forgot about politeness. She took her journal and walked out of the office, back down the stairs and out into the corridor. Once standing outside the gargoyle, she opened the journal and flipped through the pages until she found January 1st.
It was time to find out the truth…
~*~
January 1st
Dearest journal,
I do not know how to begin. It is late and I'm in my own bed… this might not seem odd, but it is considering where I slept last night, again…
I spent the night with Harry. Again. But this time it was different. This time it was…
Oh to hell with it! I'm in love!
I know I've said that to you many times, journal, but this time it's different… this time its, dare I say it, real…
I've pushed my feeling for Harry away for far too long- I've always watched him from afar, wishing that perhaps one day he would notice how I looked at him. I watched him stagger through his relationships with Cho and Ginny…
Without once realizing that he was watching me stagger through my relationships with Viktor and Ron…
Oh I am just so happy! I want to climb up on to the top of the tallest building or mountain I can find and just yell the truth from the rooftops. I want the whole word to know that I, Hermione Jane Granger am head over heels in love with Harry James Potter…
~*~
Hermione ran. And ran. She ran down all the stair cases, through secret passageways and then jumped down the last few steps into the entrance hall. She ignored the bemused looks of her professors and fellow students. Ignored the shouts from Filch. Hardly even noticed that she ran through Nearly Headless Nick. Ignored the dungbombs that Peeves was throwing at her.
She burst through the front doors of the castle and ran down the drive way, a stitch in her side…
It was all real… the dreams- they were real memories… she knew now why Harry had been looking so hurt and distanced since she got attacked. Knew what Ginny's remarks and that note she had received had been about. Knew why Ron had been how he had been…
Drop everything, start it all over.
She had forgotten the most important thing in the whole wide world. She had forgotten that she was in love.
Remember more than you'd like to forget.
Panting heavily, she skidded to a halt at the school gates and clutched her side. She only stopped for a few moments to get her breath back, and then wrenched them open. Standing outside of the grounds, she stared around wildly.
Harry had already left and she didn't know how much before her he had left. It could have been dawn for all she knew. She ran into Hogsmeade, knowing he wouldn't be there, but checked all the shops anyway. Stopping outside of the Hogs Head, she knew instantly where he had gone.
Turning quickly on the spot she disapparated, reappearing in the square at Grimmauld Place. She looked around wildly, as if Harry would be standing there.
But he wasn't.
She didn't dare enter the house of number 12 on her own. She was too scared of the magic that could be found in that house. And she didn't know if it would let her- the secret keeper of the houses location was dead…
Hearing the distinct sound of someone apparting, she pulled her wand from inside her jeans, knowing how stupid it was to have just come here out of the blue. Raising her wand high, curses flowing in her mind, she turned around.
And saw Harry standing there, a totally confused look on his face.