"Hermione, please, we have to run." he said, his other hand on his wand in his pocket and the guards moving in on them.
"Who are you?" she asked but at his panicked expression she decided she had nothing left to lose and when he started running, she was right on his heels. "Okay, stop, stop." she said, finally, out of breath a few blocks away from Diagon Alley, outside a Starbuck's. "Who the hell are you?"
"It's me, Harry. Don't you remember anything, Hermione?" he asked, his head hung low. "I've been searching for you."
"For me?" she asked. "I haven't a clue who you are or how you know me. I was in a car accident." she said.
"A what?" he shook his head. "You've had your memory erased."
"That's absurd. It's called amnesia and it's due to the concussion from hitting my head on the steering wheel. I was in the hospital for months. It took me forever to remember my own name and I'm just now on my own feet and… and I won't have you ruining that with your rubbish." she said and turn in that way that she always did to walk back towards the subway station.
"Wait! You don't even know how to drive a car! No! Wait! Please let me prove it to you. We were best friends." he said. "Please, let me try." he begged. She stopped again and looked at her watch.
"Okay." she said and followed him uneasily to the brick wall that opened to Diagon Alley. She looked at him as if he were insane when he pulled out his wand and then gasped as the wall opened. "What are you getting at?" she said, more scared than angry.
"You're a witch, Hermione, surely you've not forgotten that – forgotten Hogwarts?" he said.
"A witch?" she asked.
"Best in our year." he said. "Best I've ever known." she wasn't sure why, but she followed him.
When Ginny got word, she screamed so loud she woke her daughter from her nap and sent Severus scurrying down the stairs if a panicked fit.
"Ginny, what?" he asked, out of breath and looking at her standing in the library with nothing but a wrinkled bit of parchment in her hand.
"He's gone and done it. He's found Hermione and she thinks she's a muggle." Ginny said.
"Oh, is that all? Bloody hell, I thought something had come to rip off your head." he said, leaning over to try and catch his breath. Ophelia padded out into where her parents were shouting in her purple feet pajamas, her dark red hair in a long braid down her back. She still didn't speak very much and Ginny was beginning to worry. Severus told her not to be concerned, that she would speak when she was good and ready, but Ginny fretted all the same. The child had dark brown eyes and her father's clear, white skin. Not a freckle to be found on the child and for that Ginny was grateful. Now, Ophelia reached up silently and grasped her father's hand. She loved Ginny and spent the most time with her mother but she was a daddy's girl.
"Is that all?" Ginny said, exasperated and threw her hands in the air and went to the study to owl Harry back.
Harry,
I am so relieved to hear this. Bring her to the manor to recuperate like we all have done. Perhaps Severus knows a way to reverse the charm. I shall ask him instantly.
Ginny
She tied the letter to the new black owl, Lenore, and she soared out the window. She watched the bird filled with hope. Severus came to the doorway of the study with his arms full of their daughter who had already fallen back asleep on his shoulder.
"I have to go away for a few days." he said. "At Dumbledore's request."
"To Hogwarts?" she asked. She never liked when he went away.
"Yes." Severus had resigned his position as potions master at the school but Dumbledore still called him in every month or so to help the new professor or brew a potion he needed or sometimes for advice.
"When?" she asked.
"In the morning." he said. "Would you like to… I mean, It's the weekend, I'm sure we all could go." he said.
"I invited Harry and Hermione to stay just now so I'd better not. I meant to ask, is there a way to reverse memory charms? Do you know of anyway to help Hermione?" she asked.
"I'll have a look at her." he conceded. "When I return." They spoke in hushed tones as not to wake the child. Severus left to put her back in her room and Ginny followed. Instead, Severus opened their bedroom door and all three climbed onto the big bed and finished Ophelia's nap as a family. Ginny slept with her forehead pressed to her husband's.
In the morning, Harry arrived with Hermione who looked surprise at everything she saw. Harry and Severus has been on what might be considered good terms if you knew the two of them as well as Ginny did. Ginny hugged Hermione close and she just stood there as stiff as a board but completely healthy except for not knowing who she was.
"I'm so relieved to see you." Ginny said and Hermione smiled weakly. Harry shrugged and hung his head. Severus stood behind Ginny glaring at his former student.
"I'm afraid I don't know you." she said. "I'm sorry."
"Oh, well, it's all right. We'll catch up in no time. I'm Ginny Snape. This is my husband, Severus." she said. "He's insufferable, so don't mind him."
"She was a Weasley, Ron's brother." Harry supplied. "Before she married Snape here."
"I am standing right here, I would appreciate it if you didn't speak of me as if I weren't." he snapped and stalked out. Ginny rolled her eyes.
"Harry always makes him sour. Come on, we'll get you two settled in and have some tea." she said and Hermione and Harry followed her to the guest wing. She gave them rooms across the hall from each other and called the house elf to arrange some tea. Harry and Ginny waited for a reaction to the elf who came and set the silver tray down but Hermione just looked frightened and said,
"Thank you," to the small elf. Harry shrugged again but looked defeated.
"I'm sure you're tired of talking about yourself, so what would you like to discuss?" Ginny asked Hermione, kindly. She smiled gratefully.
"Tell me about your husband?" she said, hopeful. "I just want to relearn everything as fast as possible."
"Well, that sure sounds like her." Harry said.
"Severus was a professor at Hogwarts for years and years. He was the potions master." she said.
"Potions?" Hermione asked.
"Like chemistry. As students, Harry and I both despised him. He was kind, though, after the war – he saved my life and it wasn't hard to become somewhat attached. Once you get past the cold exterior, he is wonderful." she said. "We have a daughter, Ophelia. You've not met her, she's two." Ginny said. On schedule, Severus brought their daughter in for breakfast and tea.
"Ophelia, darling, this is our friend Hermione. Can you say hello?" Ginny said, pulling the girl into her lap. She snuggled into her mother and said nothing. "She hasn't started speaking yet." Ginny fretted. Severus laid his hand on top of hers in comfort.
"Were you ever my Professor, then?" Hermione asked Snape who was decked in his usual black robes, and bored expression.
"Yes." he said.
"How did I fare?" she asked, thirsty for her past.
"You were know-it-all but you did well on exams." he said. Ginny smacked him lightly.
"That was a compliment, really." she said. "He was my Professor as well, eh Severus?" she liked to tease him. It was one of the few things that made him blush.
"Tell me the last thing you remember." Snape ordered Hermione, not beating around the bush or giving her a reprieve like Ginny did.
"Oh, um, waking up in the hospital, I suppose. The doctor told me I had wandered into the emergency room babbling nonsense so they sedated me." she said.
"Have you been having flashes of anything, deja-vu, anything that seems familiar but you cannot place it?" he asked.
"No, I'm afraid not. Harry has shown me pictures but the girl in the photos might as well be someone else. It's rather disconcerting how they move." she said. "I can't imagine I was ever a part of this world."
"I have business at Hogwarts. I'll brew a potion while I'm there that may help you." he said, rising.
"Now?" Ginny asked. He nodded once, curtly. "Excuse me, I'm going to see him off, I'll be back in a moment." she said, and lifted Ophelia into her arms and followed him to the study where the floo fireplace was. Alone in the study, she kissed him goodbye softly.
"Just for a few days, love, and you have Potter and Granger to keep you occupied." he said. "Goodbye my little pet." he said and Ophelia hugged him silently. "I love you both."
"I love you too Severus. Tell daddy goodbye." she said. Ophelia waved with a forlorn expression. She didn't like when her father left. Ginny watched him engulfed by the flames sadly as well and wandered back downstairs to her guests.