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: Thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing and thanks to the person who recommended this story! It's my first ever recommended fic! I'm so happy! I just can't remember who it was and I can't check! Now, someone has noticed yet that I totally botched up the chapter numbering (it's what happens when I'm having to update very very quickly because of the fact that I'm picking up my dad's wireless network connection and it drops out continually cause it has to travel through the house and halfway down the backyard to get to my room and I can never find my memory stick to put the update on before I go to use his computer…). So forget the chapter numbering, I'm over it and I will continue to mis-number my chapters cause I'm stupid…
Eight
Hermione, being Hermione, wasn't content to let her memory come back to her as it happened. Being Hermione, she was certain that it was something that a book could help her with.
That being said, the book that she needed had gone missing. Ron, her confidant to what she was trying to do, had explained that Minerva had taken all objects from Hermione that would twig her to something.
Including her journal.
But Hermione, being Hermione, was not deterred. Harry was startled when he walked into the common room that night and found that Hermione had set herself up at one of the tables up the back of the common room, working on a rather large bit of parchment.
'Hi,' he said approaching the table. She held up a hand, telling him to be quiet whilst she finished what she was doing. He stood at the edge of the table, patiently waiting.
'Sorry,' she said, looking up. 'Had to get that down.'
'Er, what exactly are you doing?'
'Something to help me,' she said brightly. 'I'm recording everything that has changed since what I remember- well, what I know has changed, see,' she held up the chart. 'And I'm going to focus on remembering them all one little thing at a time.'
Harry looked carefully at the chart. In the very centre of the very bottom he saw his name written in big, bold letters.
'Uh, you remember who I am,' he said carefully.
'I know,' she said, spreading the chart back on the table. 'But I have to remember things to do with you- like things I've helped you with.'
Like things I've helped you with.
Her last words rolled around in Harry's head as he bade her goodnight and headed up to his bed. It was still only early, but he didn't much fancy hanging around in the common room. Ginny had been trying to catch his eye all afternoon and Ron… he didn't really know what had been up with Ron that day. He had seemed so had yet so happy when Harry had stumbled across him in the library. Harry was still reeling from how bizarrely he had been acting when Luna Lovegood had appeared and starting talking about something so baffling that Harry couldn't even remember what it was.
Hermione had hit the nail on the head, wishing to remember things she had helped Harry with since the previous November. She had helped him with so much. If only she could remember just how much…
~*~
The ground of Hogwarts were covered with snow and it was the first sunny winters day they had had all winter. It was also the first day of the Christmas holiday's. Harry and Hermione had said goodbye to everyone from Gryffindor that morning- they would be the only students staying at school over the break. Hermione stayed because she wanted to use the library, to study for the NEWT's. Harry had stayed because he wanted Hermione's help with research on the Horcruxes and because Hogwarts was the only place he felt safe, although not as safe as he had felt whilst Dumbledore was still alive.
They had spent most of the morning in the library, Hermione writing out a list of assignments that she wanted to complete over the break, Harry sitting there alternating between watching her and looking longingly out the window.
'C'mon, let's not waste the entire day,' he said mid-way through the afternoon. They had only left the library for lunch.
'But I'm almost done on this essay,' Hermione said briskly.
'Hermione, it's a brilliant day outside. Let's not waste it!'
She considered him for a moment, then looked back at her half finished essay. She hadn't written anything new on it for about twenty minutes.
'Oh, alright.'
They hurried back up to Gryffindor tower, where they put on their boots and cloaks and then headed out onto the grounds. They walked along the shore of the lake, talking about different things. They talked about how strange the year so far had been. It was a different school, since only a handful of Slytherin's had returned. There were no Slytherin's from fourth year up, only one or two from each of second and third years and six new first year Slytherin's. It was strange to not come across Draco Malfoy and his cronies and Hermione confessed she even missed Pansy Parkinson's snide comments.
They sat down in the snow, beside the lake as they sun started to set and they were quiet for a few moments.
'This is nice,' Hermione said simply.
'What is?'
'Being here, with you and only you.'
Hermione awoke with a start and for a few frenzied moments couldn't remember where she was. Giving her eyes a chance to adjust, she realized she had fallen asleep at the table where she had been working on her 'remembrance chart'. She looked at the chart, at the bottom where she had written Harry's name.
They had been alone over Christmas, she remembered now. Her dream about the day in the snow was real, it had happened. Hermione could see it all clearly now. The way they had talked, the snowball fight that had happened in the dark as they had headed back up to the school. They had eaten dinner in the common room, in front of the fire and they had sat up late, drinking hot chocolate and dreaming of their life after Hogwarts.
She could see it all so clearly, but could not remember why it seemed so significant.
Taking up her discarded quill, she dipped it in ink and in small hand writing, wrote a small note underneath Harry's name.
Christmas. Walk in the snow. Talking.
She then rolled it back up and packed her things up and checked her watch. 2am. Yawning, she gathered her things in her arms and headed up to her dormitory.
~*~
Hermione woke at daybreak after having a dream free sleep once she had gotten into bed. As quietly as she could, she pulled her chart from her bag and found her eyes immediately drawn to where she had written Harry's name and her note. A thought had come to her as she was climbing into bed and she looked at the broken line she had drawn between Harry's name and Ginny's.
She had realized when she was climbing into bed that Ginny had snapped at her 'because you're with him'. Could that have something to do with the dream she'd had the night before?
'It would explain a lot,' she muttered to herself, drawing out her quill and scribbling those words along the broken line.
She dressed in her school robes quickly and stuffed her chart into her bad. Her first lesson that morning was with Minerva and it was straight after breakfast. She would show the chart to her and see what she thought.
Ron was already up and in the common room when she headed downstairs and they had gone to breakfast together. Ron had seemed so much happier since the conversation they'd had in Hagrid's Hut. He was positively beaming whilst they ate breakfast and she broached the subject as they were climbing the stairs for her to go to her lesson with Minerva and he to go to Charms.
'Can I ask you a question?' she said and he looked at her with a smile.
'Sure.'
'That conversation we had yesterday. The one we've had before,' she said and he slowed down a bit, the smile fading slightly. 'We- we had it before Christmas, right?'
'Um, yeah,' he said. 'In November.'
'And…' she paused, unsure of how to say it. 'And since then, have you… you know, started to see someone else?'
Ron stopped dead and seemed to not want to answer.
'Sorry,' she said quickly.
'What for? It's just…' it was his turn to pause as he looked at her. 'I hadn't actually told anyone.'
'Who is she?'
'Just someone,' he said vaguely.
'Well, whoever she is, she makes you happy,' Hermione said almost wisely. 'You've looked so much happier since our talk yesterday.'
'Yeah, well…' he trailed off.
'So, who is it?' she asked again as they started to walk. Ron mumbled something and she didn't catch it. 'Sorry?'
'Luna,' he said quickly and Hermione felt like her jaw was sitting on the floor. 'Don't laugh.'
'Was I?' she said, smiling at him. 'I'm happy for you, Ron.'
'Just don't bloody tell anyone,' he growled as she reached Minerva's classroom.
'I promise, I won't.'