Ch 1 – Something a little different
The sun was hot outside on this beautiful Thursday afternoon while Hermione Granger did her job or what she thought was her job as a dentist in her parents practice. Now although Hermione loved teeth there was just something missing in her life; something that she knew was just that little bit off, as if there should be more then just dentistry. For as much as she had always loved it as a girl she never really saw herself doing it for the dream got lost as she grew yet for the life of her she couldn't figure out WHY.
Hermione waved to her last patient, a little girl of four who just got her first cavity filled. "Now remember to brush every day," she said as the little girl nodded and she waved as she proudly clung to her new toothbrush.
Hermione grinned as she turned to the wall where the list of patience waiting folders hung. It was half full and Hermione sighed knowing that it meant that she most likely wouldn't be going home early tonight to get some much needed rest.
"Mr. Kaiser," Hermione said walking into the first room where she knew a man with his name should be waiting after being prepped by an underling.
"Hermione Jane Granger?" he asked and she saw he wasn't in the chair where he was suppose to be and her guard immediately went up although she didn't quite know why.
"You need to return to the chair if…"
The man turned on her pointing a stick in her direction as the door slammed shut and locked all by itself. A flash of what Hermione could only call a memory ripped threw her mind. A dark and dangerous place that was round and every time a door was closed a bright red X was burned into it. "Who are you?" Hermione demanded placing his chart on the tabling figuring that he probably wasn't here to get an exam.
"My name is Will Courtney and I work for the collection of lost memories department."
Another memory flew threw Hermione mind as she saw herself diving head first into a basin of what she could only describe as watery milk. "The department of what?"
"The Department Of Lost Memories," Will replied.
Hermione crossed her arms as he lowered his stick, "I still don't know what that is."
Will looked a little confused being told this was the brightest witch of her age but right at the moment she was acting dumber then a Muggle. "It's a section of the Ministry located on the third floor."
"The Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, Obliviator Headquarters, and Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee," Hermione quoted as if reciting it from a book. A shock crossed her face as she had no idea why she said that but the moment she did she knew it was true.
"Yes," Will replied, "I'm here to recover a memory from you."
"But," Hermione was still confused but at that exact moment a pain surpassing anything she had ever felt before crossed her and she screamed out in pain as she feel to the ground. Her life, her entire life, came rushing back in a wave of excitement, like a dog to it's owner who has been away a very long time. "I'm… I'm…"
"A witch? Yes," Will replied. "I thought the rumours of your complete memory loss were fake although seeing your reaction now does make sense but you remember now? You remember everything?"
Hermione thought and yes she did remember everything and with a steady hand and strong mind she called, "Wand!" A stick came flying threw the air minutes later and she felt power running threw her like she only remembered feeling before when she was eleven and first touched this wand.
A firm knock came from the other side of the door, "Miss Granger? Are you alright? Why is the door locked?"
Hermione went to the door as Will removed the locking spell. "I just found out some bad new," she told the receptionist as she opened the door. "I have to leave for awhile; will you please tell my mother I'm fine and I'll call her when I get the chance?"
The receptionist nodded and looked over Hermione's shoulder toward Will and whispered, "Are you sure you alright?"
Hermione followed her gaze and nodded, "This is just someone from my… old job… um… so I have to go now so will you…"
"I'll be sure she gets your message as soon as she gets out of surgery. Be careful Dr. Granger."
Hermione closed the door and whispered, "Muffliato," and turned to Will, "how can I forget my life? My entire magical life! I didn't think there was spell strong enough to make one forget everything while keeping their mind!"
"It was discovered two year ago and the Death Eaters have been known to have used it on a few people but the good side of it is that it's effects can be reversed easily by spells and potions or as you saw in your case by a simple reminder of who they really are."
Hermione swore as she happily went threw all her joys and feelings of elation of being a witch but her moment of happiness was a bit stifled by why a member of the Ministry was at her job. My mother's job, she reminded herself quickly for she knew new the truth; she wasn't a dentist but an underling Auror in training. "Um… so what is a member… what are you doing here? I mean was it to help me remember who I am?"
Will sadly shook his head. "I actually came to recover a memory. The memory of what happened a month ago?"
Hermione thought, a month ago she was with Ron and Harry at the apartment they shared and, she gasped, for it was all fuzzy which meant the memory wasn't there or it was being blocked by something. "I can't… I mean… I don't remember!" This scared Hermione a lot for it meant she hadn't seen her two best friend one of whom she loved more then just a friend. "I don't remember," she nearly screamed in a panic, "RON… HARRY… what happened to them? Where…" but Will cut her off.
"We don't know! The last time we heard form either of you lot was a month ago. We received all of your resignations from Auror training so no one thought anything of it until Harry's godfather Remus came pocking around not believe for a moment that you lot went off to the Pocono's for a much needed vacation."
"The what?" Hermione frowned. "I'll explain on the way but we really do need to extract…"
Hermione nodded, "I'll meet you at the Ministry," and with a crack they were both gone.
"Now the Pocono's is where we were told you lot went," Will began as they took off speed walking toward the elevators, "and knowing what you went through during the final battle we figured you three deserved it but we soon found out that you weren't there yesterday when someone went to contact your mother and we saw you with her although they had said you didn't look quite like yourself. Later that day when Remus," Will held open the elevator doors allowing her to enter and pressed the button for floor three before quickly glancing around making absolutely sure they were alone continued. "Remus sealed our fears that we had lost you."
"Lost us?" Hermione turned to him as the doors slid open on their floor. "It makes it sound like…"
"I know what it sounds like and you are sorta right. The Ministry does like to keep an eye on you lot as well as a few others who fought in that battle as well as our Auror even those in training but when you… well… resigned we figured we'd back off a little after we saw you board the plane."
"You actually saw us bored a plane?"
Will nodded, "We figured we'd been suffocating you and since there was really no more true threat we'd let you be for awhile."
"Alright so we… or someone looking like us boarded a plan… then what?"
Will held open a door with giant gold letter on it reading DEPARTMENT OF LOST MEMORIES and Hermione hurriedly followed as he didn't say another word until they reached a pure black room with a single bowl like basin sitting atop a stone pillar right in the middle of an empty room. "Remus said he hadn't believed the letter after awhile and actually went to the Pocono's to look around and found no track of you lot or your magic. So then he came here."
"And you?" Hermione turned to the man as the door clicked behind them.
"And we did the first thing we could think of… go to your parents and we got lucky and found you right off the bat but we think your parent's minds were obliviated for they had no idea what we were talking about when we asked them what you had been doing since you resigned from Auror training."
"They didn't know what Aurors were? But I've told them all about…" Hermione knew that they had to have been for it was very important to them to know all about her and her work even though they couldn't really fully appreciate it they wanted to know their daughter. It was then that Hermione realized that she had just past guards, protective spelled barriers, and Will had put a silencing and unbreakable locking spell on the door. "Why are there so many protective measures being taken? The war is over and what's in this memory can't possibly be…"
Will cut her off, "Is it Miss Granger?"
"Hermione, please," she insisted, "and of course it is I saw…" but the way Will was looking at her made her start to doubt even what she KNEW happened.
"The loss of you and your friends were just the beginning of several strange and unexplainable things as of late and now," Will shrugged, "we just have no other explanation for it but…"
Hermione stopped him with a panicked look on her face, "Don't say it! I saw… I know what I saw… He… he's gone!!"
Will sighed, "Let's hope you are right but for now I'm being cautious until I find out what's in this memory."
"How do you know it's not… well gone?" Hermione wondered.
"It's my job to know," Will said, "plus we have to think positively right?" Hermione nodded with a little doubt in her mind. "All I need you to do is just relax, breath, and think about that fuzzy part of your memory and let me do the rest."
Hermione took a deep breath and closed her eyes and soon she felt the tip of Will's wand pressed lightly against her temple. He didn't remove it right away like normal when withdrawing a memory but placed his free hand against her forehead.
A pain began to build in her head and she bit her lip. "Cry out if you need to," Will said, "I know this can be painful but I'll make it as…"
With that word the pain was gone and she felt a strange amazing feeling starting to form around her head and the fuzziness began to slowly clear as he withdrew his wand from her temple and placed a silvery strand in the basin. "Shall we?"
Hermione couldn't believe he got it from her and eager to see what it contained nodded following close behind him as he dove into her memory.
