Written for scatteredintime and snowweisz at LJ's Hogwarts is Home, who both wanted Australia!fic.
When Hermione had asked Harry to accompany her to Australia to retrieve her parents, he had jumped at the chance. Over a month of being the saviour of the wizarding world - always in demand, constantly having to reassure people that the war was over, that Voldemort really was gone this time - had left him more than ready to get away for a while. Besides, the Weasleys were still reeling from Fred's death, and they could do with some space alone to deal with things, without always having Harry and Hermione hovering in the background. Yes, he'd accepted Hermione's offer with relief.
And it was nice to spend some time with Hermione, who was, after all, one of his two best friends in the world. Not only that, but before his eleventh birthday, he'd never thought he'd be able to travel anywhere, so the idea of getting to Australia...
Hermione, walking in front of him, stopped so suddenly that he nearly banged into her. "We're here," she said, so softly it was almost a whisper.
Wendell and Monica Wilkins, formerly Charles and Janice Granger, were now living in a small house in suburban Sydney. The garden, though obviously well cared for, was a riot of bright-coloured flowers that contrasted sharply in Harry's mind with the endless clipped hedgerows of Privet Drive.
Harry heard Hermione inhale sharply as he followed her up the short path to the house. She was obviously uncomfortable, and had been since they left England, but he wasn't sure what was bothering her. All she had to do was reverse the memory charm and she would have her parents back. Wasn't that what she wanted? Or maybe she was worried that she'd done something wrong; it had, after all, been the first time she had altered someone's memory. Still, this was Hermione, the cleverest person Harry knew; if anyone could perform a perfect memory charm first time, it would be her.
Hermione reached the door to the house, paused momentarily, then rang the doorbell. Harry could hear the sound of footsteps inside, then the door opened to reveal Hermione's mother. "Hello," she said, her tone cheerful but containing no hint of recognition.
Hermione was silent for such a long time that Harry was starting to wonder if he should say something, but eventually she seemed to pull herself together. "Hi," she said, a slight tremor in her voice. "Are you... are you Mrs Wilkins?"
"Yes, I am," replied her mother. "What can I do for you?"
"I'm Hermione, and this is Harry." If Mrs Granger recognised the names, there was no sign of it. "We're visiting from England. I've been researching my family tree, and I think we might be distantly related. So, well, I thought I'd just look you up while I was here."
"I see," said Mrs Granger. "We are from England, so I suppose that would make sense. Why don't you come in?"
Harry followed Hermione into the house, pleased that the cover story they'd come up with had worked so well. They couldn't reverse the memory charms out in the open, of course, so they had spent a morning suggesting and discarding ways to get inside before settling on this one.
"Why don't you sit down," Mrs Granger said, gesturing towards a group of well-stuffed settees. "Would you like a cup of tea?"
"Yes, please," replied Hermione, and Harry nodded in agreement.
As Mrs Granger turned to leave the room, she almost collided with Hermione's dad. "Ooh, sorry, dear!"
"Not a problem, Monny," Hermione's dad replied. "Now, I see we have visitors."
"Yes, this is Harry and... Henrietta, was it?"
"Hermione," came the soft correction.
"Ahh, Hermione. They're visiting from England. Hermione thinks we may be distantly related. I was just going to make some tea."
"Why don't I do that, darling, and you can stay and chat?" Mr Granger gave his wife a gentle nudge towards a sofa, then disappeared in what Harry presumed was the direction of the kitchen.
Once Mrs Granger was seated, the trio sat silently for a long moment. Glancing over at Hermione, expecting to see her pull out her wand and begin to reverse the memory charm, Harry was surprised to see her staring at her mother, unmoving. Frantically, he cast about for something to say. "This is a lovely house," he managed finally.
Fortunately, that seemed to be just the right thing. Mrs Granger's eyes lit up, and she sighed contentedly. "Yes, we're very happy with it. It was so strange; we'd both always wanted to move to Australia, then one day we just decided to go. We thought it might be difficult to find somewhere to live, but this place was one of the first we looked at, and it's been just perfect."
She looked up as Mr Granger entered the room, carrying a tray with tea cups, a milk jug and a steaming pot of tea. He set it down on the table and poured for everyone, handing out the cups before taking a seat next to his wife, his free arm around her shoulders.
"I was just saying how much we love it here," Mrs Granger told him.
He smiled brightly. "We certainly do! It's lovely and warm, and the people here are so friendly. We're dentists, you know, and we were worried about being able to find jobs for both of us here, but now we work in the same clinic, only a short drive from here. Things have worked out even better than we'd imagined."
"That's... that's great," said Harry, when it became apparent that Hermione was not going to respond.
"Thank you, dear." Mrs Granger beamed at him, then turned to Hermione. "Now, you were saying something about us being related? Wendell has some cousins back in England, don't you dear, but I'm an only child."
"Yes, um, yes," Hermione stammered. Harry was expecting her to pull out her wand any minute now and get started, but instead she continued to speak. "My great-great-grandfather, I think, was your grandmother's brother, Mrs... um, Mrs Wilkins."
"How interesting!" Mrs Granger exclaimed. "I don't really know anything about my family history; somehow it never really occurred to me to wonder about it. What more do you know?"
As Hermione stumbled her way through a false history of her fabricated family, Harry wondered what on earth was going on in her head. Why didn't she just get on with the charm reversal? Was she waiting for him to do something? He began to slip his wand out of his sleeve, then hastily replaced it as Hermione shook her head slightly. He would just have to wait and see how things played out.
After a lengthy conversation about the family history, a discussion of the relative merits of Australia as compared to England, and a tour of the Grangers' home and garden ("look, the daffodils are just beginning to come out, aren't they glorious"), Harry found himself outside the front door of the house, the Grangers' farewells echoing in his ears. Without a glance in his direction, Hermione marched off towards the street, not quite running. Harry hurried after her, utterly confused.
A few doors down from the Grangers' house, he managed to catch up to her. "Hermione, wait. Stop!" He grabbed her by the arm and spun her around to face him. "What on earth was that? What happened to fixing your parents' memories and taking them home with us?"
Harry was shocked to see tears well up in her eyes and begin to run down her face. Awkwardly, he pulled her into his arms, feeling her begin to shake with sobs. He patted her on the back and stroked her hair, feeling the frustration of not knowing what was wrong or how to fix it.
Gradually the storm of tears subsided, and Hermione pulled back from him, fishing in her pocket for a handkerchief. "Sorry," she muttered, not looking at him.
Harry was uncomfortably aware that the shoulder of his shirt was soaked with tears, but all he said was, "S'okay. Why don't you tell me what's going on?"
Hermione took a deep breath. "They just... seemed so happy. They have lives here now, friends, good jobs, a nice house; they love it here. How can I take that all away from them?"
Harry shook his head, not able to believe what he was hearing. "They had happy lives in England, too, Hermione. You're not taking anything away from them, you're giving something back."
"It's not the same," Hermione said. "That was to keep them safe. To change things now, just because I want them to be different, would just be so... selfish."
That was too much. "Of course it wouldn't!" Harry exploded. "Do you think your life would be better without your parents in it? Or without me and Ron? Without you, how do you think our lives, my life could possibly be right? Even if they don't remember it, you're still their daughter, and you're still you. There's no way anyone could be worse off knowing you!"
Hermione gazed up at him, so much doubt in her eyes that he knew he had to do something to make that expression go away. Leaning forward, he pressed his lips to hers.
The feeling he got in response was absolutely electric. Hermione pressed closer to him and he wrapped his arms around her, deepening the kiss and awakening desires deep within him. He'd thought, he'd even told Ron, that Hermione was like a sister to him; Harry had never had a sister, but he was fairly sure that kissing one was nothing like this!
Eventually they broke apart, breathing heavily. Hermione gave him a tremulous smile. "That was..."
"I know," he replied breathlessly, not letting go of her.
"Ginny?" she asked, pulling away a little, and suddenly the world came crashing down. Ginny wasn't the issue - they'd never managed to get things going again after the final battle, and had eventually decided that they were better off as friends - but Ron...
His expression must have shown his horror, because Hermione was suddenly extricating herself from his grasp. "It didn't mean anything," she whispered, obviously trying to convince herself as much as him. "I'll explain to her, it was just that I was upset, it wasn't..."
"Stop," he said finally. "Ginny and I aren't together - haven't been for a while now. But you and Ron..."
Suddenly, Hermione laughed breathlessly, and Harry wondered if he were going mad. "Ron and I? Nothing ever happened there. It was too much, and too complicated, and we're really not even that compatible. I just... he's nice, and... I thought there was no chance with you."
"So did I," replied Harry, a little bewildered at where things were going - there had obviously not been enough communication going on over the last few weeks at the Burrow. "But that kiss..."
"Yeah, I know." They stood in contemplative silence for a moment, then Hermione snapped back to being all business. "We'll have to deal with this later; there's far too much going on right now. Let's get back to England, and then we can sit down and talk about things."
"Right," said Harry, feeling a curious mixture of excitement and apprehension bubble up inside him. "First, though, we're going back to get your parents."
The Grangers were obviously puzzled by their reappearance, but were happy to invite them in again once Hermione explained that she had some more questions for them. When they were all seated, Hermione asked her parents to close their eyes. Seeming a little unnerved by this peculiar request, the Grangers nevertheless complied, and Hermione immediately whipped out her wand. The muttered incantation and complex wand movements were over in a matter of seconds.
Hermione looked apprehensive as her parents opened their eyes and blinked a few times, obviously disoriented. She opened her mouth to say something, but whatever it was was drowned out by her mother's shriek of "Hermione!".
Hermione flew to her mother, and both of them were encircled by her father's arms, the three of them laughing in relief and happiness. Harry surreptitiously blinked away tears at the sight of the happy family reunion and Hermione's expression of stunned joy. Even with his reassurances, she had obviously not allowed herself to hope.
After the explanations - the war was over, Hermione was no longer in danger, it was safe for them to return to England - the Grangers set about preparing for their return in a whirlwind of activity. Mrs Granger was on the phone to Qantas, asking for the earliest possible flight, while Mr Granger was searching the phone book for removal companies. Every once in a while they looked over at Hermione, back in her seat next to Harry, as if to make sure she was still there, still real and alive and returned to them.
"Told you so," Harry murmured when he was sure they weren't listening.
"Thank you," Hermione replied softly. "Thank you so much."
Harry wasn't sure where the future lay - there was still the rebuilding from the war, their relationships with Ron and Ginny, so many things that might never be the same - but as Hermione snuggled closer to him and her hand crept into his, he knew that he was looking forward to seeing it.