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Memories

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He took off his aviator glasses, and her excitement immediately faded.

"Oh you're not. Of course not he's dead," she mumbled. "Of course you're not Black."

Leonard thought the woman completely batty. Yet seeing as he sometimes was seen as batty himself, he decided instinctively to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"I'm sorry, who did you think I was?"

"Sirius Black of course," she replied tersely.

She pointed a gnarly arthritic finger at him. "That jacket, is his."

"Yes but who is he?" he asked almost pleading, to make some sense.

The old woman frowned deeply, as if offended by his ignorance. "Don't you know? Haven't you heard of him?"

"No I honestly don't." Though the name did have a familiar ring to it.

The woman seemed to consider something for a moment before waving a hand, and what looked like a piece of stick, over him.

Leonard felt tingles as she waved her hand over him.

"Hmm. that's odd. You're one of us." She mumbled something under her breathe as if talking to herself and Leonard was starting to think she was completely mad and he was wasting his time. Until the next thing she said, made him absolutely still as if his heart just stopped.

"Yes, you're one of us," she said definitively, "You're a wizard."

A wizard.

He should have laughed and shook her hand, and told her to have a nice life at the sanitarium, before driving off. Instead his heart stood still and it felt like a homecoming, like the falling together of pieces.

"A wizard?"

Her beady blue eyes narrowed at him again, her old face crinkling up at the edges. "Don't you know anything young man, or are you just completely ignorant of everything?" the woman demanded angrily, as if his level of ignorance actually offended her. And really he should have no idea what she was talking about. Except in some way it made sense. In a way it shouldn't make sense. Except none of it was possible.

"You really should get yourself educated, young man," she said with a roll of her eye and began to walk away from him, her shopping trolley creaking rustily behind her.

"Wait a second." He was still going over her words and wondering why he was so fixated on the idea of being a wizard, and really he must be partly as barmy as her for even listening. When Leonard realized someone was eyeing the unattended motorbike and quickly ran to get the keys out of the ignition before someone stole it and he had some real problems.

He hurried back to the old woman, who was walking at a brisk pace in a garish orange coat and pushing the shopping trolley, towards a signpost.

He called out to her, telling her to watch out for the signpost.

She looked back at him briefly and seemed to smile before she walked right into the signpost. There was a crashing sound as the shopping trolley ran into the signpost and then a loud crack.

Then she was there one second and then she was gone.

Leonard was left standing with his mouth open.

The woman had disappeared into thin air.

Into thin air.

He rubbed at his eyes. God he didn't even do drugs. What the fuck was happening to him?

.


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Harry grinned, his green eyes lighting up in away she hadn't seen for a long time. He was wearing a suit and looked quite dapper. Hermione would've been almost relieved to see him so looking so happy, after he'd been depressed for so long, if she weren't unnerved by the way Harry was staring at her.

"Where are the others?"

"They cancelled," Harry said a bit too quickly.

"All of them?" she asked skeptically.

Harry winced and rubbed nervously at his tie. "Yes." His eyes fixed on her so earnestly. "Is it alright if it's just us?"

"Yes." She stared around at the restaurant and realized how formal it was. "Yes of course it is Harry." She tried to smile and ran a hand through her hair which was in a fancy up-do, or as close as she could perfect a coiffure at the last minute. "I just wish you'd told me earlier so I didn't get dressed up so much."

Harry smiled. "You look fine. Great actually," Harry said quietly and lowered his eyes.

And did Harry, Harry Potter her best friend of fourteen years, just run his eyes over her?

No, she had to be imagining things.

"Let's go sit down. I need a drink," she winced.

Harry slipped his arm around hers and escorted her into the seating area.

The restaurant was truly dazzling, with waterfalls as walls and tinkering blue lights. Hermione thought she could see some of the richest most powerful people of the wizarding world seated around them, sipping haughtily from their wine glasses. It was such a fancy place. Not the type of place either Harry or her would ever go, despite being war heroes and famous in their own right. They tended to stay out of the limelight. She wondered why the aurors had decided to invite them here and then cancelled at the least minute. She had a niggling feeling it might've been some kind of set up. Aurors, of course, being sneaky by trade. Maybe they thought it was a good idea to invite their boss, the head auror, to a dinner date with his best friend. The meddlers.

Harry held out her seat for her and Hermione turned to sit down.

"Uhm, you have a scarf poking out of your dress," Harry said.

"What? Oh-" she looked over her shoulder and indeed her silk scarf had caught in the back zipper. She tried not to blush. "Sorry I was in such a a rush between getting off work and London traffic and there was this muggle business to take care of.." She fumbled with the zipper and struggled to get the scarf unstuck.

"Here I'll fix it," Harry spoke over her.

She flinched as she felt Harry's warm hands rub down her neck and fix the zipper of her dress.

"There." he smiled and handed her the scarf.

"Thanks Harry." she lowered her eyes. because she'd felt a bit heated when he touched her skin.

Maybe because it'd been too long.

She really was going to need a drink. Or two. If she was going to have these crazy thoughts.


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"Did you see that?"

Leonard asked breathlessly to some passerby, "Did you see that woman that was there? In the orange coat?"

They laughed at him like he was crazy. "Oi! Get your head checked Colt. There was nothin' there."

He stood firmly rooted to the spot though, still looking at the sign post where she'd disappeared. A small crowd formed around him.

He heard someone whisper. "Maybe he is as barmy as they say he is after the accident. Memory problems, they say."

"Pretty face," a woman's voice snickered. "I'd have a go. Shame he's not right in the head." She broke into peals of condescending laughter. "Last time I was with him, he couldn't even remember my name."

"I know what I saw," he barked, suddenly defensive. Even if he knew what he saw was completely insane. He refused to let himself be insulted.

He jumped back on the motorbike and delivered it to its rightful owner before he took anymore time up.

Still he was worried. And he kept remembering the way the old woman was there one moment and the next she was gone.

Somehow it felt like all the puzzle pieces were falling back together but he just couldn't understand how.

Yet they had to fit together? Shouldn't they?

Hermione. The bike. The old woman. Flying. Wizards. Disappearing.

He couldn't be imagining it all.

And if he did, he was in even greater trouble than he thought.

Leonard clenched his jaw and focused on the rough wind blowing through his hair as he pressed down harder on the gas and the engine purred louder.

Somebody had to have the answers somewhere.

He couldn't really be crazy.

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