Disclaimer: It all belongs to J. K. Rowling.
Previously on "I Don't Know You Anymore":
Draco grabbed Hermione's hand. "Watch out!" The ground was splitting open all over the place. "Get out!" He yelled at the others as the ground opened up and the two of them fell into the earth.
The two hit the ground and sat up slowly, groaning. "Where are we?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know," Draco said. "All I know is I can't Apparate. We're stuck here."
Chapter 4
Hermione got to her feet, carefully inspecting her surroundings. The two of them had fallen into a rocky area, with storm clouds overhead and water nearby. She could hear it running. Draco came and stood up next to her. "Do you still have your wand?" She held it up wordlessly and then tried to Apparate. "Why can't we Apparate? Is it something like what they have at Hogwarts?"
Draco shrugged. "Most likely. But no time to figure it out. The...projection that you saw earlier, it said that you would be punished. This may be another one of the punishments, so we should get out of here."
"Yeah." Hermione turned around, looking for something familiar. "Where do you think we are?" Draco looked around as well. 'I've never seen this place before, but based of the rain clouds, we're still in England. He smiled. Hermione half laughed,looking at him. "Draco Malfoy, joking! What else is new?"
His mouth twitched. "Well, you got married. You're an Auror now." The two of them started walking and Draco talked about her life now, in a way that showed Hermione that if she hadn't believed they were married before, she did now.
Harry and Ron walked through the rubble, searching for the way that Draco and Hermione had disappeared. A half a dozen Aurors searched with them. "Where did they go?" Harry asked the Head Auror, after he had finished his inspection. The man shrugged. "I don't see how ow where they fell through. I've looked in all the cracked areas and-"
"Sir!" A younger Auror ran over. "I found something. As I spelled the rubble, I noticed something. A rock was made into a Portkey and placed there, so when Draco and Hermione fell through they fell onto it."
Harry and Ron went over to look at the rock that he pointed out. "Could you get the Portkey to open up to the last place it was enchanted to go?" The Auror frowned. "I'll talk to a expert and see if it's possible, Mr. Potter."
Harry smiled. "Thank you."
Hermione stopped as the two of them came up on another pile of rocks and groaned. "Malfoy, we're going in circles."
He looked around. "Are you serious?" She pointed to the ground. "The ground is soft. That's where we landed." She burned an X into the ground. "We need to figure out what to do and how to get out of here. This place is just taking us in circles. It must be magic."
Draco groaned. "Yeah, you're right. How though? We've tried the Four-Point-Spell and it looked like we were going the right way."
Hermione turned to him. "Do you have any spells like the one before? Anything that could help?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Yes, Hermione. I've had something that could help all along, and just didn't want to say anything because I enjoy being imprisioned in a magical place that won't let me out with the woman that I love but can't remember me and still despises me." He took a deep breath and looked at her expectantly.
Hermione looked at him, her face blank.
"You're such a drama queen."
He gasped. "Am not."
She smiled. "I don't despise you, Draco. In our last year, I know you didn't really have a choice, and from what I've been told, you have truly changed. I know that we are married, and while I don't know where to go from there, with me only having bad memories of you, I do know that I wouldn't have maried you unless one, you really were good, and two, I really loved you."
He stared at her for a long minute. Then he took a breath, focusing again. "I will show you I have changed, with my actions, on my own. And I will get your memories back."
She smiled. "Alright. Now, any ideas, drama queen?
Two hours later, the brightest witch of this age and the arguably brilliant Draco Malfoy, creator and master of spells, were stumped. Hermione flopped onto the ground. "This is pointless. Let's just wait, Harry and Ron are bound to find us."
Draco jumped to his feet. "Or, whatever "punishment" that psycho who took your memories is planning is coming for us. We don't where we are or why. It's getting dark. We should make a fire, put up wards, create some semblence of a camp for the night."
Hermione nodded. "OK."
They began to do as Draco had suggested. Hermione had just cast a spell to warn if there were intruders when the two of them heard a bellow. Hermione raced back to the fire. "What was that?!" she demanded as the ground began to shake. Draco pulled out his wand. "Something that's big-and coming this way."
Hermione cast shields around them and Draco took his cue and did the same, renforcing them. As they stood back to back next to the fire, they could feel the vibrations getting larger and larger, and the creature, whatever it was, bellowed again.
The trees began to shake and from the darkness a Troll appeared. Hermione shrunk back, remembering her first encounter with one of these creatures, trapped in Hogwart's bathroom. Draco didn't move though and cast an Impedimenta Jinx at it, followed with a Stupefy. Hermione mustered up her courage and stood, facing the creature as well. The two continued using all the spells they could think of to stop the Troll. Slowly it staggered backwards and eventually, as both Hermione and Draco cast a simultanous Stupefy, the mountanious creaturetoppled backwards, unconsious.
Hermione took a deep breath, and stepped forward, Draco immediately following. She place a Body-Binding Curse on the Troll, and then encased it in chains. Draco levitated the creature and secured the chains to two large trees. "So..." he began. "Do you want to find a different camping area?" She laughed, a little breathless. "Yeah, that would be nice."
The two turned and started walking. Hermione put out the fire and whispered Lumos as Draco removed their wards and then also lit his wand. As they silently moved away from the area, she laughed a little. "Wow. I...think I can truly believe that we are allies-and partners," she said. Draco turned. "Congratulations. What triggered that?" She smiled."We were in perfect sync back there. We didn't even need to talk. It was like...basic motor functions, I just knew what to do, and what you were going to do."
Draco's mouth turned up. "We were Auror partners for 7 years," he said. "And we've been married for 5. We're like..two beans in a pod." He smiled, proud for remembering the Muggle phrase. Hermione laughed out loud and he frowned. "What?"
"It's two peas in a pod."
"Huh?"
"Not "Two beans in a pod". Two peas in a pod." Draco looked sheepish. "Yeah, that." Hermione grinned. "C'mon. Let's find a place to sleep for the night. Tomorrow we're getting out of here."
Hermione woke up with a rock in her back and another jabbing her leg. She sat up slowly and groaned. Light was slowly coming in around them in the little area they found, not quite a meadow, where they'd stopped and slept under the shelter of trees and magical wards. Draco lay a few feet away, still fast asleep. She stared at him for a minute. These past few days had definately been the most confusing of her life, but she'd dealt with worse. She knew they would be able to fix this and then she would remember Draco and they could have their life ba-
She stopped.
Wow.
She had no memories of Draco being anything but cruel, racist and prejudiced against her, and she was already expecting to one day be living with him again, as his wife. She got to her feet slowly. Maybe this was a second chance. Maybe this was someone's way of telling that being married to Draco wasn't a good thing. She didn't know how much he had really changed or if he even had.
She decided that when she got her memories back, she wouldn't go straight back to/with Dra-Malfoy. She would give herself some time to think, and use this period of not knowing who he was now to see if she really even cared for him.
Draco woke up smelling smoke. He lurched up suddenly, wand at the ready, only to see Hermione crouched over a small flame. He smiled and relaxed. "Hey, love."
She stiffened and turned, and he realized his mistake. "Sorry. Um, morning."
She turned back to the fire. "Good morning." Her voice was as stiff as her back, and cold. He frowned and came forward, puzzled, but didn't mention it. "No breakfast, huh?" She looked at him. "Where would we get food from, Malfoy?"
He recoiled at the tone of her voice. "I...I was just commenting. Making conversation. Are you okay?" She appeared to be about to say something, and then changed her mind. "Fine. Just not a morning person." He scoffed. "What are you talking about? Yes you are. You love mornings, and watching the sun rise. It reminds you of your mom." His voice trailed off as she looked up at him again, furious this time. "Stop it Malfoy! Stop showing me how well you know me, and how we've been together for so long. I get it, we are married, but I don't love you and I wish you would stop trying to force your image of what we used to be onto me!" She stopped, slightly out of breath, and got up, storming away. Draco sat in shock, stunned into silence.
The two of them eventually met up again, Hermione came back to the camp, and they set off without a word. Hermione felt a little bad for what she'd said earlier, but resolved not to apologize. Her decision to not go back once she got her memories back was stronger than ever now. She did glance a t Draco once, as they walked. His face was blank and he stared straight ahead. She turned and copied him and the silent pair walked on.
Meanwhile, Harry stood in a small ofice, waiting as people moved about, trying to figure out how to re-open a Portkey. Ginny was with him, having come downto see how thye were doing. He and Ginny had always remained friends. They loved each other too much to ever let things be awkward. "Do you think it'll work?" Ginny asked quietly.
"It has to. They could be anywhere, they could be in danger." Harry sighed. "I hope that, wherever they are, they're getting along. They're best when they work together."
Ginny smiled. "Yeah, they are."
One of the wizards, an older, frazzled looking man came up to them. "Mr. Potter, sir, we think we might have done it. We've re-opened the Portkey."
Harry and Ginny followed the man towards where the rock lay. The portal was already open and humming. Ron came running up. "Did we get it?" The wizard nodded. "I know it'll take you somewhere, but it will at least take you to where they were taken, so you'll have to find them on your own. Plus, we still don't know if it's a perfect replica of the original Portkey." He took a breath, looking like he wanted to say more, but Harry, Ron and Ginny were already joining hands, along with two other Aurors, and touching the Portkey.
They stumbled out onto a rocky area, cloudy and deserted. The five magicians got to their feet and Harry motioned for them to spread out and look for signs that anyone had been there. After a few minutes, Ginny called out for the others and they all rushed over. They all read the message on the rock. "That's them," Ginny said. "Hermione used her maiden name initial." Ron chuckled. "Yeah. So they're going South?" He looked at Harry."We're gonna track them, right?"
Harry was frowning. "I can't Apparate." The others all tried, with no success, and looks of worry quickly spread. "Well, that's why they didn't come right back," one of the Aurors said. Harry nodded. "We need to find them. I have a bad feeling about this."
Hermione broke the silence nearly five hours later. "We...should look for water." She was dehydrated and exhausted and a little weak from no food. Draco glanced at her briefly, then did a double take, looking more worried. "Yeah, there's been little bodies of water all up along this path." The next one he spotted, he turned and Hermione followed. They both sank down, exhausted, and Hermione cast a Scourgify on the water, then bent and drank, scooping water to her mouth. Draco followed suit. They sat for awhile, resting and catching their breath. Draco looked at her. "Hermione...I'm sorry.I shouldn't have overwhelmed you like that, and you're right, I did push the...concept of us onto you. It was wrong of me." She glanced up and met his grave stare. Uncomfortably, she shifted. "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have lashed out like that.I had been thinking about this whole situation and I decided...when we get back memories or no, I'm going to be on my own for awhile. I think this memory loss might have been a sign for me to... to do something else with my life."
Draco's face went cold and blank. "Do something else, as in not be my wife?" She nodded cautiously. He stared at her for a full minute. "Oh," he finally said. "Why?" She was taken aback. That was not a response she had expected and she grappled to find the words to explain. "Because...I want to see who I am, with the memory loss as something to use to explore and compare with what my life has been doing. I-I wanna see if...I made the right choice." She said the last part quietly, and waited. Draco said nothing. She dared to to look up andshe saw him sitting there, his face blank, and yet he looked as though someone had stabbed him. She felt regret and pain for making him hurt, more then she had expected to.
He turned and began walking. "Alright. When we get out of here, I'll leave you alone. You won't have to see me or Sam, or concern yourself with us being married." His voice was calm and professional. "And when you get your memories back, do whatever you want." He resumed walking. "Until then, you're stuck with me. Shall we?"
AN: Well, it's been awhile! Sorry, I had no wifi, but I'm back now. Please let me know what you think. I know the ending is crappy.