Chapter 1: Eyes Open

I woke with a start. The pain shot through me as though my chest was on fire. I lay back down, scared of making a sound and attracting attention. As I looked around the dark room, I noticed a high ceiling, and a lot of beds. It looked as though I was in some sort of hospital set in the Natural History museum. Confused, I tried my luck again at sitting up. The pain shot through me again, so I gave up and lay back down. I wondered how I had got there, and why I was in so much pain.

"Hey, you're awake!" A voice whispered from my right, and I looked round quickly. A boy was staring at me: I couldn't see much in the dark, but I could make out short hair and a smile.

"Hi." I replied hesitantly.

"We were worried you weren't going to wake at all." The boy told me, still staring intently at me.

"Where am I?" I asked him, and he seemed to frown at me.

"You're in the Hospital Wing. We managed to get you here easily enough from the Ministry." This only confused me even more.

"Why was I at the Ministry?" The boy hesitated.

"Hermione-"

"How do you know my name?" I asked him suddenly, and he paused again. He sat up on his bed and stared at me.

"Do you know who I am?" I stared intently at his face, but I didn't recognise him from anywhere, so I shook my head.

"I'm sorry, I don't know you. Who are you?" He seemed worried by my response.

"My name's Ron." He said softly, waiting for some sort of response, but I just kept staring at him.

"I don't know a Ron." I told him quietly.

"Hermione, what's the last thing you remember?" I thought for a minute before answering.

"I was just about to go to my parents' surgery for lunch."

"What year is it?" The boy – Ron – asked me after a while.

"1991. Why?" Ron stared at me for a bit, before running his hand threw his hair.

"Hermione, it's 1996." I stared at him.

"What?"

"It's the 9th of June 1996." I laughed uneasily.

"You're kidding, right? Have I been in a coma for the past 5 years?" I was starting to panic. "Where are my parents?"

"Hermione-"

"Who are you? I don't know who you are!" I was yelling now, and other people around started to stir. A light came on and a woman ran towards them.

"Ms Granger! You're awake. Thank goodness, I was worried you wouldn't wake up. Are you in pain?" She was wearing a very odd outfit, making it look like she had stepped right out of the 1940s.

"Where am I?" I yelled at her, thoroughly confused.

"You're in the Hospital Wing. It's alright, you are back at Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts?"

"Yes."

"What's that?" The woman stopped in her tracks, and looked to the boy who was still sat on his bed.

"Madame Pomfrey, she thinks that it's the year 1991. I think she has memory loss." The woman called Madame Pomfrey stared at the boy.

"Is that so? Well, don't worry, Ms Granger. I'm sure it'll come back to you soon enough. This sometimes happen when people are hit with this kind of spell." This confused me even more.

"Spell?"

"Yes, spell. You were hit with a very rare one, and it will take a while to recover. Thankfully you have finished all of your exams." She was babbling, and I wasn't listening. Where was this mad house?

"I want to see my parents." I told her.

"Now, now, Ms Granger. You will have to board the Hogwarts Express for that and return to London."

"But my parents don't live in London!" I exclaimed. "We live in Brighton!"

"Regardless, the train only goes to London." She seemed satisfied with me and walked towards the boy.

"Mr Weasley, you are healing nicely." I stared at the ceiling, trying to take it all in. The woman checked up on the other people in the beds before telling us all to be quiet and to go back to sleep. There was silence once more in the room, and I continued to stare at the ceiling.

"Hermione," the boy whispered, "Hermione, how old are you?" I stared at him.

"I'm 11." I whispered back. "But if what you say is true and it's the year 1996, then I must be 16." Ron nodded in the dark.

"You're 16 years old. I'm 15."

"Who are you to me?" I asked him.

"I'm one of your best friends. It's a long story. I'll tell it to you in the morning if you still want to know."

"I'd like that." I whispered back. We said goodnight, and I closed my eyes again, and tried to go to sleep. After a while Ron started to snore, and the noise sounded comforting to me. I tried to concentrate on the sound, but my mind was still whirring. I had a five-year gap in my memory, and it was worrying me, like it would any sane person.

When I opened my eyes again, I heard Ron's voice in the distance.

"Are you serious?" I heard a girl gasp. I closed my eyes again and lay still so as I could listen to them.

"Are you saying, " another voice, male this time, "that she has no recollection of anything that has happened these past 5 years?" I heard Ron acknowledge their fears, and someone whistled softly.

"I'm sorry," said a different male voice, "this is all my fault."

"Harry," the female voice piped up, "it's not your fault!"

"Yes it is!" The boy called Harry told the girl. "I dragged you guys into this. What if-" I heard him swallow, "what if one of you hadn't survived?" Silence fell over the group after this.

"Harry, I'm sorry about, you know…" She trailed off. This conversation was just confusing me even more, so I decided to 'wake up'.

"Hermione!" A boy looked up at me, and I assumed this was Harry. He had jet-black hair, and what looked like a scar shaped like a lightning bolt on his forehead. "You're awake! Do you recognise me?" I shook my head, and winced as I tried to sit up. "How are you?" He looked really guilty.

"Did you do this to me?" Harry looked shocked, and shook his head.

"No, no. That was Dolohov. A Death Eater. He follows Voldemort. Um…" He frowned as he tried to explain it words that I would actually understand. "He's a bad man." He finished lamely. I nodded slowly, but my expression was one of complete confusion.

"Are you in pain?" The girl asked me.

"Only when I try and sit up." Madame Pomfrey decided to appear at that instant.

"Ah! Ms Granger, you're awake. I need you to listen closely. There are five potions here, and they need to be taken in order. I will of course be here to administer them to you, but I prefer it if the patient knows what I am doing. Now: this one is to be taken before you eat anything in the morning; this one is to be taken directly after breakfast. This one is to be taken just before lunch, and this one is to be taken just before dinner. This final one is very important, because you have to take it twice: once after lunch and once before you go to bed." I listened closely, and told her I'd understood. She made me repeat it back to her and take my first potion before she went on to look at Ron.

"Who are you?" I asked the redheaded girl.

"My name's Ginny."

"Are you related to Ron?" I asked, eyeing her freckles and the red hair, to which she laughed.

"Yes, I'm his younger sister." I smiled at her kind face.

"I'm Harry." I nodded in his direction.

"You know who I am." They smiled grimly at her.

"Do you really not remember anything?" The girl asked me, and I shook my head slowly.

"The last thing I remember is heading to my parents' surgery for lunch in July." I stared at the ceiling again. "Where am I?"

"You're at a boarding school called Hogwarts." Harry told me. "Hermione, you're a witch."

"I beg your pardon," I told him sharply, and he smiled.

"I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean you're an actual witch; you can use magic. See? We all have wands. Watch this: Wingardium Leviosa." He pointed his stick – sorry, wand – at the empty bed on the other side of mine, and I gasped. The bed was floating above the ground. As I watched, it rose higher and higher, and then from side to side. It only returned to the ground when Madame Pomfrey yelled at Harry to put it back. I stared with round eyes at the boy.

"Do it again!" I told him eagerly, and the girl laughed.

"Hey Hermione." The boy who had been sitting on Ron's other side finally came towards my bed. He looked really nervous: his round face wore a terrified expression, and his cheeks were red. "I'm guessing you don't know me either. My name's Neville." I smiled at him.

"Hi Neville."

"Right, that's you two dealt with. Mr Potter, if I see you levitating anymore beds I will ban you from the Hospital Wing." Madame Pomfrey gave the boy one last stern look before walking to the other side of the room where a woman was lying very still in a bed.

"Who's that?" I asked them.

"That's Umbridge. She was a professor here."

"Was?"

"It's a very long story." Harry smiled a small smile at Ginny, and she looked down at me.

"I've got all day." I told them, and Harry sighed.

"I'll tell her." Ron piped up, getting out of his bed. "I promised her I would." Harry