Alexia

"I'm serious, I don't need to-,"

"You are required to get a checkup after injuries the likes of which you've had," Bertie reminded her. "And since Potter said your eyes have gotten worse-,"

"Lily isn't my eye doctor, she doesn't know what my eyes are like!" Alexia argued. "I'm fine, Bertie."

Bertie looked at her so sternly that, for a moment, he reminded her greatly of Charlus. It had her quieting while he spoke. "This isn't up for debate, Dolohov. I can contact Lady Potter if you'd rather hear it from her-,"

Alexia shook her head quickly. "No, that's okay."

"Then you will show up there in an hour. Lucky for you, it's in the same building as your neurologist."

"So we got the whole thing about them thinking I'm dead figured out?"

Bertie laughed. "No, of course, not! We've simply altered her memory and some records. Hermione Granger is still dead, but Alexia Dolohov is alive! If your brother needs to get involved, they believe he is your… what's the muggle term? Ah- power of attorney."

Despite being grumpy, Alexia found herself grabbing her things and making her way to the Auror offices. When she got there, she sat on James's desk and let out a huff. He glanced at her and chuckled. "You good there, Ash?"

"You're coming with me," she told him.

"Uh, now?"

"Now." she confirmed. "If they're making me do this dumb shit, you're getting your eyes checked, too."

James frowned. "My eyes are fine!"

Gideon snorted from a few desks down. "You lost your glasses yesterday and hexed Sirius."

"...maybe I was trying to hex him."

"C'mon, Jamie," Alexia said. "I also have my neurology checkup, and Lily'll want you to be there since she's on bedrest."

James let out a dramatic sigh. "Fine, but if I get fired for leaving in the middle of the day-,"

"You need to leave?" Amelia asked, walking over. She looked between them and nodded. "Let me know if you need anything and if you'll be in tomorrow."

"Oh," he frowned. "That's it? Last time I left work in the middle of the day was when Harry was born, and Moody still chewed me out for it."

Amelia smiled. "I think we can manage without you. Is this for DOM matters?"

"Sort of," Alexia shrugged. "Bertie's making me get an eye test, so I'm making Jamie get one, too. After the one he got in London when we got back, I'm pretty sure his eyes are worse."

"Oh, good," Amelia said. "I was going to suggest it as well. Once you get your prescription, you can take it to Healer Menary. She's in Diagon Alley, and she can get your glasses done in an hour or less."

"You don't have glasses," Alexia pointed out. "Neither does Susan."

Amelia's smile got a bit stiff. "Yes, but Edgar did."

The twins both shifted awkwardly, and James flashed Amelia a smile. "Thank you, Amelia, I'll be back later."

Taking advantage of her ability to Apparate in the Ministry, Alexia grabbed James and Apparated them away. They landed outside a large hospital in London, and James stepped back to remove his Hit Wizard robes while she removed her Unspeakable robes. Both were shoved into her bag, and they made their way into the building together.

"I've got my checkup first," she told him as she guided him up the large staircase toward the second floor. They entered a quiet waiting room together and sat to wait after she'd checked in.

James let out a dramatic sigh and dropped his head on her shoulder. "Where's Dolohov? I'd think he'd wanna come to this thing."

Alexia rolled her eyes at him but rested her head against his. "In Russia again. I'm going to need to… go over when we're done with all of this, too. He's worried there's something going on with Feliks since everything went to hell."

"Why?" her brother frowned at her. "He's still stuck there, right?"

"Well, yes, but we haven't been the best at looking for discrepancies in our universe. I guess Uncle Kir went to drop off his lunch and said that Feliks looked… we just want to make sure, so I'm going to stop by and make sure everything is okay. I get the feeling Antonin is a bit frustrated, visiting Feliks so often and doing the tests himself."

"Better than you doing them," James muttered. "I'm still of the opinion that he deserves a lot worse than sitting comfy in a big house in Russia."

Alexia let out a small laugh. "Jamie, you've never been to the houses in Russia. They can be nice, but we definitely didn't give over the best property to this bastard. Actually, we put him where Kastya and Nikita took me."

He looked at her critically. "And would any of the other members of your shitty family try and… get him out?"

She took a moment to consider the question. "I've been a bit busy to sit down and get to know people that I don't want to get to know, but if I had to guess, Silvestr would be the most likely. We have him set up in the Netherlands. He's finally got a contract, thank Merlin. I was ready to tell him to die alone."

"Merlin, you really got into all that, didn't you?" he wondered. "I didn't really think you'd… take part in the Dolohov family affairs."

Alexia smiled. "Kir said it when we told them we got married - they can either listen to us or die alone. I'm sure as hell going to do my best to fuck up Anatoly's vision of this family."

"Ah, spite," James grinned at her. "Your best motivator."

"Alexia Dolohov?"

The twins got up together and followed back the nurse. After being weighed and getting her height, Alexia was led to exam room 7 and left to wait there. James started playing with the medical equipment, shining the eye light at his sister. "So, Lily wants to talk about baby names."

Alexia's eyebrows shot upward. "You haven't already? Merlin, Jamie, the kid's due in a month."

He shrugged. "We had plenty of boy names. We were gonna name her after Lily's dad if it was a boy, but it's a girl. None of our ideas seem good so far."

"Well, what's your best one?"

"Marlene," he smiled. "It was Lily's idea, but Emmaline and Dorcas said they're going to use a surrogate and name the kid either Marlene or Marcus."

"After Dorcas's brother," Alexia nodded quietly. She still missed her friend, and remembering her death hurt greatly.

"Yeah. Lily wants to let them have it. She says the right name will come to us, but it doesn't have much more time to come."

There was a knock on the door before Dr. Morris stepped in with a smile and sanitized her hands. "Alexia, how are you doing?"

"Well," she replied. "Did you meet my brother, James?"

"I believe I did," Dr. Morris reached out to shake both their hands. "Now, we got your scans from last week back and I'm glad to say that they do look a lot better than when I first saw you. It's incredible, how your body seems to aid so much in healing you. Almost impossible, luckily for you. I do want you to take it easy for a while, though. What've you done since I last saw you? Nothing too strenuous, I hope."

Alexia exchanged a glance with James. "I will admit, I've had to go back to work. My work is very…"

"Crucial," James offered for her. "I don't want her there either, but…"

"There's only two people that can do half of my job, and that's my husband and I," she explained. "And half of that job, only I have experience in."

Dr. Morris looked displeased. "And what do you do?"

"It's some deeply classified government research," she explained. "I think my friend Eli called you?"

Dr. Morris shook her head. "He did. I know him because he's my nephew, actually. I didn't realize he could be connected to classified government research."

Alexia offered a smile. "Actually, I knew Eli growing up. We were pretty good friends until I was eleven, and I had to switch schools."

"Hold on," Dr. Morris's eyes narrowed slightly. "I thought I recognized you. Hermione Granger?"

James snickered. "Couldn't have just kept your mouth shut, huh, Lex?"

Alexia rubbed her eyebrows. "Everyone thinks Hermione Granger is dead, Jamie, it's not my fault that I'm not."

Dr. Morris nodded. "I met you at a couple of Eli's birthday parties. You were his best friend as he grew up. We always wondered what happened to you."

"I got in some trouble and had to move away," she resigned herself to telling a similar lie to her that they'd originally told Eli. "Changed my name, was adopted. There was a… something happened a few months ago and legally, Hermione Granger is officially dead. Alexia Dolohov, however…"

"Got it," Dr. Morris smiled. "Well, if you have to be working, I want you to come back again next week for some more scans. Have you had any pain?"

"Not really," she said. "It's just headaches here and there, but it may also be from an, uh… incident a few days ago."

"This incident was before or after your scans Friday?"

"After."

Dr. Morris sighed. "What happened?"

"That's… difficult to explain without telling you some things that I can't tell you," she admitted. "I doubt it affected my head. Just my memories."

"Damage to memories could be damage to the amygdala, hippocampus, and neo-cortex," Dr. Morris explained. "I'd like to get those scans today if something has happened since Friday. Do you have the time?"

"Well, my boss wants me to get my eyes checked, so I have the afternoon off," she said slowly. "I'll just have to tell my husband I'll be late. Jamie can stay, too."

"Great, I'll get those set up for you, and they'll be back for you in a few minutes."

After she left, Alexia slumped in her chair and made a face. "This is dumb. I'm sure I'm fine."

James looked at her with a frown. "Can you tell me what happened?"

She hesitated looking at her brother. He'd nearly walked in on the memory problems in question after her last trip through the multiverse. She hadn't felt like telling him, and instead of the pillow fort he'd suggested, they'd gotten ice cream while he told her about his day. It had been a wonderful grounding moment, but it left her reluctant to explain. "It's just a side effect of what's going on. I don't think it's a big deal, but it was cause for concern for… a moment."

He sighed tiredly and sat back in his chair. "Ash, I'm really worried about you with all of this. You're always in danger. Something feels like it's always happening. Plus, it's really bad for Lily with the pregnancy, all the stress."

"If I could stay out of danger, I would," she promised. "But it kind of comes with the job. I never know what I'm walking into, even if I'm somewhat familiar with the place, like last time. Things can change, and we just can't constantly monitor every one of them. It's impossible. I'm really doing my best, but I… I don't think this is going to get better until I fix what I fucked up."

"How do you fix something like that?" he wondered. "Is it even possible for you to do? I mean… shit, Lexi, you're just a witch, regardless of your job. How would you fix it?"

"By putting a new universe where it used to be," she answered slowly. "How to do that is… I've got some people to talk to that might help me figure it all out. I'd be getting to work on all of this today if Bertie hadn't ordered this damn eye test. Before he told me to get it, I actually planned to cancel this appointment."

"Alexia!" James stared at her in disbelief. "You could die!"

The door opened again and as a nurse led her out of the room, she made a face at her brother. "Let Antonin know I'll be late, please."

So, he did. It was an exhausting ten minutes before she came back, and then they were made to wait for another thirty. By the time Dr. Morris came back in, the twins were so bored that they started playing War with a deck of cards Alexia had in her bag. The doctor laughed at the sight of them sitting on the floor of the exam room across from one another and closed the door behind her. "Yes, I can tell you're siblings now. Who's winning?"

"I am," they both said. They made a face at each other and moved to get up to talk.

"Well, Alexia, I'm glad I sent you for those scans," Dr Morris told her seriously. "I was right. There's some sort of degenerative damage to those areas of your brain, but I'm not entirely sure why. There's certainly no tumor or anything of the sort. I'd like to keep an eye on this, do more scans every couple of weeks and try and treat it as we go. If you have any more of these… issues with your memory, feel free to give me a call and let me know."

"Thank you," Alexia smiled. "But everything else is okay?"

"Yes, considering what you've been through recently, you're doing very well. I can give you something for the headaches, but otherwise, I'm just concerned about this damage."

"I'm alright," she waved the woman off. "We're good, then?"

Dr. Morris smiled. "Yes, you are. Just talk to Pat at the desk on your way out and set up an appointment for two weeks out."

Alexia and James wasted no time. It didn't take long to set up the appointment, and after that, they walked quickly down to the first floor again for their eye test.

James went first and was given his new prescription. While he waited for his sister, he looked around at the glasses on display. He only knew she'd come out of her exam when he heard her speaking.

"-I don't need glasses."

The doctor chuckled. "Yes, Mrs. Dolohov, you do."

"But my eyesight is perfect!"

"Not anymore," he told her. "Concussions, especially repeated concussions, can be known to damage your eyesight if they're bad enough. Now, you can take that prescription over to Sandy and order some glasses, or take it home with you."

With a huff, Alexia walked over to her brother. "Are you done?"

James snickered as he followed her out of the tall building to the Apparition point they'd arrived at. They Apparated to Diagon Alley and followed a couple of signs down to Healer Menary's store.

Together, it took them another hour to find their glasses, mostly thanks to Alexia making faces at James's choices until he waved her on to look for some for him. Out of her five picks, he grabbed a pair he liked, and they took both of their glasses up to pay. Once they were done, she let out a breath. "Can you pick mine up for me when they're done? I want to get to Russia before Antonin loses his bloody mind."

"Yeah, you're good, Lex," he waved her off. "I'll head home to Lily when I'm done here, so you can pick them up from me there."

"Thanks Jamie," she smiled. Ruffling his hair to annoy him - and doing so successfully - she slipped out of the store and went back to the ministry to set to work on getting the International Portkey she'd need.

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