Waves of Sorrow
Draco sucked in a sharp breath. "Hermione are you sure, it's...?" he didn't quite know how to finish. The chances of Hermione's father stumbling right on to them seemed far too good to be true and he was still very much on guard after Theo's attack. It felt like hours since he had been under the git's control but he knew that only minutes had passed.
"Sir, what's your name please?" Hermione approached him timidly.
"Wendell Wilkins Miss, head of Bayside community watch," he told her proudly "I take it you folks aren't from around here?"
Hermione thought she might faint. His face was far more tanned and there were a few more wrinkles than she remembered and his hair had started to become peppered with silver grey at the edges.
"No, we're from England actually" she smiled at the fact that his chatty personality was still there. "Could you, could you show us the best way down please?" she asked. As soon as he had led them back inside the cavern and out of sight of the bay, Hermione raised her wand, arm trembling. It was now or never. "Un…uh" she took a deep shaky breath as her hand began to shake violently, she knew that if she couldn't keep calm it could make or break the spell.
"Un-obliviate" she heard behind her. Draco voice was calm and even, his wand outstretched and aimed squarely at her father's head. Wendell stumbled, and Hermione caught him by the arm as his eyes became unfocused.
"What did you do to me" he panicked as the memory of a frizzy little girl laughing entered his mind.
"Daddy, Daddy watch my trick" she squealed, as she leaped from the sofa and soared briefly around the living room before landing lightly back on her feet.
"Hermione?" he whispered groggily, staring at the young woman in front of him. "What happened?" he asked as Hermione threw herself into his arms and cried for the second time that day. Draco began to retreat, suddenly feeling as though he shouldn't be intruding on such a momentous moment.
He returned to the bay and watched the waves as he allowed Hermione and her father to have some much-needed alone time, he also couldn't help but think of his own father. If Lucius had ever shown that kind of emotion to him, just once, he might have been the kind of man that could have deserved someone like Hermione from the start. If he were ever lucky enough to have a family, he vowed to be better, like Hermione's father was. He then couldn't help but laugh internally at the fact that he was now idolizing a muggle, what on earth would his twelve-year-old self think of him if he knew?
"Draco" he heard her summon him and looked behind to see them both approaching, hand in hand, he noted in relief. He had secretly worried that Hermione's parents would be angry when they found out what she had done. "Draco this is my dad, David Granger, Dad this is my…erm…my Draco" she fumbled the introduction awkwardly. Mr. Granger was kind enough to ignore his daughter's blushes and extended a hand to Draco. "Hermione tells me you were at school together," he said graciously. The two men exchanged a look that clearly said they could easily make this a lot more awkward and were trying to avoid it. "I know we've never met before now Mr. Granger, but if I may say so Sir, it's good to have you back," Draco told him, eyeing Hermione's dazzling smile as he did so.
"Yes well, unfortunately, there is still the matter of my wife to attend to, Hermione says that this spell or whatever it is has to be done individually?" he looked to Draco for confirmation and he nodded. "In that case, why don't you come back to the house and have lunch with us?"
"Are you sure this isn't, well, a family only kind of time, so you can get reacquainted?" Draco asked awkwardly. Mr. Granger smiled. "After what I just saw on that cliff boy, you and my daughter seem pretty well acquainted" his eyes twinkled mischievously. Draco had no answer to that, so allowed his arm to be linked through Hermione's. He thought about the introduction she had given him "this is my…my Draco" she had faltered. Part of him loved how possessive that sounded, if he was her Draco then was she his Hermione? He liked the sound of that but really, what were they to each other? Should he be having lunch with her parents, not to mention her recently un-obliviated parents who were sure to want to be filled in on every aspect of her life for the last two years, when they didn't even know what they were? A cold wave of realization came over him as he fully realized what they were heading into. She would have to tell her parents about the last two years of her life…about Voldemort and the death eaters and him. It wouldn't be possible, even with them being muggles, not to tell them that they fought on different sides, it would come out eventually.
Draco watched the joy shine in Hermione's eyes as she walked along the beach clutching her father's hand. Please don't let me ruin this he begged. "Here we are" Mr. Granger announced, bringing them up to a large yet understated beach house. Hermione gasped "Dad this place looks amazing, the views you must have…" she asked in awe.
"Wendell, is that you love?" a voice called through the hallway. Hermione froze and looked at her father apprehensively. He gave her a stern yet reassuring gaze and prodded her forward. Jean Granger was in the kitchen fussing over tea and sandwiches and humming along to some Australian muggle hit on the radio. She was exactly as Hermione remembered her, unlike her father, her mother didn't seem to have aged a day.
"Do you want me to do it?" Draco asked her. Hermione shook her head but looked at him gratefully.
"I did this. I need to undo it" she breathed, reaching for her wand. "Un-obliviate" Hermione whispered, the jet of light hitting her mother between the shoulder blades and causing her to drop the mug of tea she had been holding. The mug shattered noisily on the floor as Hermione, Draco and Mr. Granger peered at her nervously. "What the…Wendell?" she asked with a slight edge to her voice, as though her husband's name was suddenly unfamiliar to her. She was in a hospital bed and a nurse was telling her she was nearly there, she heard cries as a bawling baby girl was placed in her arms. "David?" she gasped, reaching for her husband's hand as memories of her daughter and their old life continued to assault her brain. Hermione clutched Draco's hand tightly waiting for her mother to react. She was relieved that the charm had worked, but terrified of what her mother would think of her. "David, I don't understand" she frowned looking from her husband, to Hermione, to her surroundings.
"We lost our memories my love, but we have them back now. We have our Hermione back" Mr. Granger tried to explain to his wife.
"I don't understand" she repeated, her voice rising rapidly as she started to become more distressed "look at my purse David, look at these letters, they say I'm Monica Wilkins, all of them. I don't understand!" she began to fight off her husband and gasp for air as he restrained her. Hermione watched in horror as her mother struggled in panic.
"I think perhaps you two should give us a moment" Mr Granger supported his trembling wife "why don't you go and freshen up and we'll call you down for tea when things have settled down" his eyes were looking at them both kindly but Draco could tell that there was now a new sort of guardedness about him after seeing the effect that the spell had had on his wife. Hermione nodded and backed away tearfully, Draco had to practically hold her upright as she tore through the foreign house.
Even standing on the veranda Draco and Hermione could hear her father trying to reason with her hysterical mother.
"She did it to protect us Jeanie" Mr. Granger tried to comfort his wife.
"We're her parent's David, we are supposed to protect her! Not the other way around" she cried.
"You know we can't Jean, we're not…" her father began
"I know perfectly well we're not magical David, thank you very much! And I have never, ever had a problem with our daughter being special because I never, ever dreamed she would use those gifts against us. She took our Memories, David! This wasn't some short vacation she sent us on, she stole our lives, the life that we built together is gone." her mother's lips trembled again. "What happened to my house? Our friends? TWO YEARS David, I don't even know if Janice is alive!" she began. Mr. Granger's jaw tightened, Janice and Ray were their oldest friends, since their own school days. They weren't unlike Harry, Ron, and Hermione in how close they had become. Janice was also Hermione's godmother and had been battling cancer when Hermione had returned home for her visit. Jean hadn't wanted to upset her by telling her. He pondered his wife's words and began to wonder if he had been hasty in instantly forgiving his daughter. His wife, after all, had a point, she had saved their bodies, but she had murdered the lives of David and Jean Granger. Who were Wendell and Monica, and what on earth were they supposed to do now?
Out on the decking Draco was holding Hermione in a tight, fiercely protective embrace. She kept whispering "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" over and over again to the air, as if in a trance. Draco felt the temptation to go back inside and shake some sense into Mrs. Granger. He knew only too well the fates she had saved her parents from, how could they not understand that? Could they not see how much it had destroyed her to do it, how much the prospect of losing them again was affecting her? He had never seen her so shocked and broken. She was deathly pale and frozen rigid despite the raging heat. She stared out over the bay at nothing in particular, as if her whole world had come crashing down.
All that Draco could do was hold her and wait.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, David Granger emerged. "Just a slight panic attack, this is an awful lot to process," he said in a strained voice. "Better give her a few minutes to right herself. How long are you two here for anyway?" he puffed, hands in his pockets. Hermione did not answer, she was finding it difficult to look at her father after what she had just heard.
"We return to England the day after tomorrow Sir" Draco answered. "Maybe, maybe we could go and set up lunch and give Hermione a few minutes alone with her mother? I'm sure Mrs. Granger could use the rest" he suggested boldly, desperate to try and bring some direction to the conversation.
Mr. Granger gave Draco a tight smile. His eyes fell on the slumped Hermione and he moved to give her an awkward half hug. "Right, yes…very good then" he breathed deeply and headed back inside.
Draco had absolutely no idea what to do in a muggle kitchen (or a wizarding one for that matter) and Mr. Granger seemed to sense this. "Just you concentrate on the tea son and I'll do the rest" he sighed, smiling but appearing quietly exhausted. He busied himself cutting up bread and preparing sandwiches while Draco stood there humiliated and panicking. He recognized the Kettle contraption, it was the same evil looking thing that Hermione had attached in their common room. Knowing that this man could likely be his future father-in-law was not helping with the pressure either.
Think Draco. What did Hermione do? "Aha," he chirped in triumph as he recognized the round white tea-baggy things on the counter. He popped one in each cup and then poured the water from the kettle thingy in after, impressed with his handiwork. Sugar! He remembered, proud that he hadn't forgotten any of the last details as he put a spoon of white powder into each cup. Take that house elf he thought smugly as he carried the trembling tray into the conservatory.
The two women were sitting in silence, Hermione with her head down staring into her lap and Mrs. Granger with pursed lips, wet eyes, and wringing hands. It seemed that neither one knew what to say to each other and both looked grateful for the distraction of tea arriving. Hermione and her mother seized the cups and took a large gulp eagerly. For a split second Draco was happy that he had done something helpful, unfortunately, his joy diminished quite abruptly when both of them promptly, coughed, spluttered and spat the tea all over his shirt.
"what *cough* was *cough* that" Mrs. Granger heaved banging her chest.
"Erm..tea?" Draco whispered, terrified at the mess he had caused.
"Draco, did you boil the water? or did you pour it straight from the kettle?" Hermione grimaced fondly, looking at him with the same queasy expression Goyle used when he had eaten too many chocolate frogs and was trying to keep them all down.
"I'm sorry" Draco stared at the floor, his face aflame. All his life he was taught that wizards were better and cleverer than muggles, yet he couldn't even make a bloody drink without using his wand.
There was a pause and both women burst out laughing. "Draco never used a kettle before" Hermione tried to tell her mother through the laughter.
"At least I remembered the sugar!" Draco tried to defend himself from their growing laughter. Mrs. Granger looked him up and down quizzically.
"Oh, my dear boy" she patted his shoulder, "I'm afraid that was the salt" she shot him a sympathetic look while Hermione doubled over, her shoulders shaking silently as tears of laughter ran freely down both sides of her face. All Draco could do was rub her back grumpily as she tried to breathe through it.
Mr. Granger walked into the conservatory and looked suspiciously around the room. "What did I miss?" he asked, clearly surprised at the upbeat atmosphere. Hermione and her mother exchanged a brief look that seemed to contain an entire unspoken conversation.
"Nothing Dear/Dad," they said together, giving each other the first real smile of the day.
Mr. Granger huffed disbelievingly but chose to let the matter drop. Stuffing a sandwich in his mouth he reached for his mug to wash it down.
"NO!" three voices shouted instantly and the room dissolved into hysterical laughter once again. Draco couldn't help but smirk this time as Mr. Granger looked around, befuddled, and remained none the wiser.
"And so it begins again" he grumbled quietly looking affectionately at the smiles on his wife's and daughter's faces.
