Sorry about the long and unexpected Hiatus, but I'm back! And I'm hoping for a while :) Beta hasn't been set up yet, so apologies in advance for any errors :)
Another thank you to everyone who has kept with this story though the hiatus, you guys are amazing!
Chapter 9
"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it."
― Maya Angelou
Hermione lowered her wand from the temple of Alice Longbottom and held in a sign; another session that yielded no results. At least once a week, Hermione ensured that she had a one-on-one session with Neville's parents. Sometimes it was just for her to talk to them and for her to do some observations on their reactions to certain words or images. Others it would be to try out knew theories that she worked on to see if she could do anything to alleviate their catatonic state. A select few times she would work with their memories. No significant progress had been made with the Longbottoms in ten years, but Hermione refuses to give up.
Sticking her head out of the room, Hermione called over Alice's assigned nurse. "Rufus, I think we're done here for today. I'm sure Alice is quite tired and would like to go back to her and Frank's room to have a rest." He gave a curt nod and made filed the chart that he was looking at.
"Alice, I'm going to have your nurse take you back to Frank now. You did very well today, but I think you need a rest. I'll come visit you both in the morning when Neville comes to visit, I'll bring some tea." And with that she gave her dear friends mother's still hand a warm squeeze.
As she walked back to her office, Hermione's mind was whirling with information. Though none of it was proving to be useful. It frustrated her to no end that he brain was full of all of this knowledge, and that she was frequently been deemed the smartest witch of her age, and yet she had yet to accomplish anything. All the books that she had read over her lifetime and still nothing; nothing to restore her parent's memories, nothing to bring Neville's parent's into the present. Even the Ministry was pulling back from her research. Clearly, they didn't think that she would be making any progress.
Dropping down into her chair, Hermione drew out a large role of parchment. When she was trying to understand a complex subject, she always found it more useful to work in mind maps and connecting new ideas to old ones. It allowed her to understand the concept quicker and at a more complex level than memorizing lines out of a book. In the centre, she drew a rough outline of the human brain. Having read through a number of magical and muggle anatomy and neuroscience textbooks, she knew that memories were one of areas that very little was known about. And that is how she sat for close to a half hour, staring at her crude drawing of a human brain, going through all of the facts that she knew about the organ and the memories that it held.
This is what she knew: Excessive or prolonged stress is thought to damage the storage capability of the brain, making it difficult to store memories. That partially explained why Neville's parents were had so much difficulty remembering him even though he visited them frequently. She knew all of the parts of the brain that are involved with memories, and their hypothesized function. And she knew that damage to these areas could cause problems with memory storage or recall. She knew that memories could be pulled and stored, but only how the person remembered them. This explained why it was often hard to convict death eaters who had tortured wizards into insanity or who's memories had been tampered with to protect the dark side. You never knew what the truth was.
This is what she didn't know: What damage did magic cause to the brain? Do memory charms or prolonged torture affect the physical makeup of the brain or is it something deeper that no one had discovered? Is there any way to reverse the damage?
What she needed was to be able to slice open their minds and take a look herself. Open their minds and take a look herself…Hermione had toyed with the idea of using Legilimency on Neville's parents. But wizards that she knew who were skilled in Legilimency were far and few between, and most of them were dead or likely to spit in her face if she asked. She needed someone that she could trust to move around in the minds of her patients.
The thought that filtered through her mind next, hit her all at once. Before she could even think it through completely she was calling into her fireplace.
"Hello?"
"Harry!"
"Hermione? What going on, it's nearly eleven, you never floo this late. If everything okay?"
"Yes. Yes, everything is fine. Well, possibly more than fine, actually. I think I may have come up with a way to make some progress with Neville's parents!"
Harry's face took on a look up surprise and excitement, "That's brilliant 'Mione!"
"So, I just need some help from you. Back in sixth year, when you were taking you occlumency lessons, were you ever told of anyone who could preform Legilomency?"
"I'm sorry, Hermione, but I only had a few lessons with Snape and he never mentioned anyone. Even the Ministry doesn't have a list because everyone that has that skill would be able to fool them using it."
And there it is again; that weight on her shoulders seeps through her skin, into her bones, and rests below her stomach.
"Hermione? Are you still there?"
"Oh, yes. Sorry, lost in my thoughts like always. Thanks anyways, Harry." She thought she saw a flicker of concern in the embers of his eyes, but it could have been a burning coal. She shook her head, it was a pile of embers for god's sake.
"Why don't come over and have dinner with Ginny and I?"
"Another time, I have loads of work to finish up."
They bid each other goodbye after Hermione promised to come over for tea on the weekend.
Though she tried to keep her spirits up, Hermione was feeling defeated. She truly thought that she was getting somewhere after all these years. But something had come along and blocked her path, once again.
When Hermione opened up her flat she noticed two things. One: she hadn't finished her tea from this morning, and two: there was an owl waiting patiently outside of her kitchen window. She immediately recognized the owl as Harry's, a lovely light grey barn owl. He couldn't bear to get a snowy white one after losing Hedwig. She dropped her purse and quickly had way to let the bird in. It lifted its leg and patiently waited for her to remove the letter and toss him a treat. After giving the top of his head as quick scratch, Hermione opened up the letter to see Harry's messing writing.
Hermione, I know of someone.
- H.P.
Thanks to everyone who is still reading this! It means a lot to me :) Send me a quick review and let me know what you think. Next chapter should be ready soon!
Also! I have another HP story that I am working on and would love to have a beta on. If you are interested, or know anyone that would be, please let me know!
