Walking Along Memory Lane
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters, insignia and stuff are owned by J.K. Rowling and not by me.
Summary: Draco is involved in a terrible accident and falls into a coma. A few years later, he wakes up with amnesia. Plagued by dreams of a certain brunette, whom everyone by now thinks is a widow; he decides to get on with his life in search for his identity. DM/HG
RATING: PG-13
Chapter Six
Dad?
Well… a woman can dream, can't she?
Hermione sighed as she quickly stood up and offered her hand to Devon.
"Good day, sir. I'm Hermione."
Devon accepted her hand and kissed it.
"Devon, Devon Black."
Finally, it was the break time of Joan and friends at Hogwarts.
As Joan sat down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, Andrei continued to rant about Snape's injustice to Gryffindors and his partiality towards the Slytherins.
"Bloody hell!" Andrei yelled, causing some gossiping Gryffindor third years to glare at him momentarily.
Andrei just ignored them. "It's just the first day of classes, the BLOODY first day! How can HE deduct BLOODY TWENTY points over trivial matters! And to think one of his reasons was -."
James cut in and made a good imitation of the said Potions master. "'Five points from Potter, for looking so disgustingly like your father.' "
"'And you too, Weasley, another five points deduction for cursing me under your breath.' "
"'Lastly, five points from Ms. Malfoy, for NOT laughing at her friends' expense.' "
"'By the way, two points each from Potter and Weasley, for taking exactly after their troublesome fathers.' "
"'And, another point from Ms. Malfoy, for being such a know-it-all Gryffindor.' " Andrei and James both said simultaneously as they dramatically ended their Snape speech.
"I don't get it, why does Joan only get six points taken away and the both of us seven points each?" Andrei asked, placing different viands of food on his nearly filled plate.
Joan grinned, or rather, smirked at them. "Well, what can I say? He liked my father a lot."
"And so what if he does?" Andrei continued to argue. "How come he still deducts points from you?"
James groaned. "How dense can you get, Andrei? She's IN Gryffindor! We all know he hates Gryffindors – most especially, the group of my father, your father and Aunt Hermione."
Joan placed her arm on James' shoulder. "That's James' reasoning for you Andrei!" She smiled.
Andrei groaned. "Why do you like ganging up on poor me?"
Devon contentedly sipped the last of his coffee as Hermione wiped her mouth with a napkin.
"Well… Not only did I found the brunette, Hermione, but also a job." He thought smugly to himself. "It just can't get any better for me, can it?"
Hermione spoke. "Why don't we go to the office right now to set your files straight? You know, each employee has to have a record there."
"Sure." Devon got up, helping Hermione out of her seat. "By the way,"
Hermione faced him.
"I bought these," He said, handing the paper bag containing clothes to Hermione. "For you so you can have more comfortable clothes on as of now."
Hermione accepted the package. "Thank you."
Devon sighed as he sat at one of the couches at the lobby while he watched the retreating form of Hermione head to the second floor.
Lunch period found Joan, Andrei and James in the library, in one of the more isolated sections. Andrei, much like Ron, was grumbling, being forced to eat fast to leave the Great Hall to search in the library.
"Tell me again Joan – how did you manage to drag James and me into this suffocating place?" Andrei asked, not for the first time.
"Andrei," Joan replied, not bothering to face him as she scanned the bookshelf. "This is NOT a suffocating place – this is a library."
Andrei rolled his eyes as he helped Joan with the search of a certain book. "THAT was a rhetorical question."
Joan feigned surprise. "Oh my! Andrei said a four-syllable word: RHE-TO-RI-CAL!"
"Joan…"
James broke in. Joan's teasing attitude usually ended up in a verbal battle between his two friends. "Anyway, Andrei, let's just help her out, ok? Besides, after this period, we'll be at the field."
Andrei merely nodded, finding the thought of having their first formal flying lessons appealing, and continued to scan the bookshelves in search for a certain title.
The three eleven-year-old Gryffindors resumed their hunt in silence until Joan cried out in delight.
"I found it!"
Hurriedly, James and Andrei crowded to her.
It was the yearbook of their parents' batch at Hogwarts.
Joan turned the cover and opened it to the table of contents.
Andrei grunted impatiently. "Now that it's found, let's go and check it out of the library."
"We're all set."
Hermione and Devon has just got out of a wizarding photography shop, having bought appropriate tools for Devon's new work – a photographer. It was not like the Daily Prophet did not have the gadgets, but Devon insisted he wanted to use something of his own. Hermione could only agree, after all, she did owe her life to this man and she is in need of a photographer.
Devon glanced at his watch. "It's lunch time."
"Really?" Hermione looked at her own watch, unbelieving that time could be that fast. "Merlin, it is."
"Why don't we head back to the Leaky Cauldron or someplace to eat before getting on with my hands-on? I'll treat." Devon offered.
"Uh-uh." Hermione's independent side took over. "You've done so much for me; I don't want you wasting another Knut on my expense." She said waggling a finger in front of Devon's face. "Let's go to my place, I'm sure I can cook fine." Seeing the look of reluctance on Devon's features. "I won't take no for an answer."
Devon just shrugged.
"Crud… I just invited a man over to my place." Hermione thought to herself. "What's wrong with me?" Hermione just shook her head as she led Devon to an apparating point.
She held Devon's pale hand as she whispered her address and apparated.
After they apparated, Devon and Hermione arrived in front of a medium-sized house.
Hermione unlocked the red gate of her home and entered, ushering Devon in.
The house has two floors with a pale green roof and white walls. The door was a lovely rose color with a silver doorknob. There was a terrace at the second-floor, overlooking the garden, which was at the left side of the red-bricked path at which they were walking. The garden was a party of colors. Sunflowers, violets, and daisies, to name a few, graced the small patch. At the other side of the path is a swing set, which is the type that you usually see at playgrounds.
Devon was puzzled at first with the swing set when it dawned upon him that Hermione, if she is the real brunette she was bound to have a child.
"Ok, I'm home." Hermione said, after muttering the unlocking charm and holding the doorknob. She turned to Devon. "It's not much, but it's livable." She turned the knob.
"Hermione Malfoy! Where have you been all night?" A feminine voice cried out the moment Hermione stepped inside the room.
"Bloody hell…" Hermione could only curse in her mind.
Devon thought to himself. "Hermione Malfoy? It DOES sound familiar…"
A red-haired woman came out of the shadows of the living room and hugged Hermione tight.
"Hermione! Where in the world have you been? Thank goodness you're all right! We've been worried sick! Harry and I dropped by last night, only to find out that you weren't home. We figured that you must be at the office. Harry contacted the Daily Prophet, only to find out that you were there." Ginny Potter paused to take a breath. "But this morning, while we were having breakfast, Ron flooed over, looking for you. When we told him that you never did agree to stay with us, Ron said you weren't home. Immediately, I contacted the office, learning that you weren't there yet. Then we went over here at once. Upon inspecting your room, we deduced that you neither slept here nor went home last night. Thus panic ensued."
Hermione's face fell. "I'm sorry to have caused much chaos – where are the others?"
"Lavender is at their house, resting like a pregnant woman should. I brought Angel and Lily there after their classes. Sirius is still at school. Ron and Harry are at work – though they wanted badly to absent themselves. But since they took a leave yesterday to see the children off, they can't afford to be absent today. Anyways, what happened? Are you ok?"
Hermione sighed. "It's a long story – but I'm fine now." She was about to suggest contacting Harry and Ron to tell them that she was home when Ginny noticed Devon shifting his weight from one foot to the other at her back.
"Hermione, who's he?" Ginny queried, raising an eyebrow at Hermione.
Hermione led Devon in her home. "Forgive me, must've forgotten my manners. Ginny, this is Devon Black. Devon, this is Ginny Weasley-Potter."
Devon awkwardly shook Ginny's outstretched hand. Though habit told him to kiss Ginny's hand as he was used to doing to women, he would not dare do so to a married woman for it might cause a wrong notion.
Seeing Ginny's questioning stare at her, Hermione replied. "Later, Ginny, I'll tell you over lunch. Right now, I think we'll have to contact the guys and Lav."
"Oh, right." And with that, Ginny headed to Hermione's study to write Ron, Harry and Lavender a note each.
Hermione turned to the silent Devon. "Well… So, you've met one of my closest friends – sorry if you were bombarded with her chatter. We really are just like that."
Devon answered. "No, no. It's ok." He looked around the room. "You said your home is not much – but hey, it's elegant. You sure have a great sense of style." He said, eyeing the simply furnished but homey living room.
Hermione almost blushed at the compliment. "Thank you. Um, Devon, why don't you wait here while I cook lunch? Feel free and make yourself feel at home."
Devon nodded absent-mindedly as he sat down the couch.
As Hermione headed to the kitchen, she inwardly scolded herself. "'Make yourself feel at home?' Did I exactly tell a total stranger that? And did I just leave him alone in MY house? Crud...What's with me?" Though Hermione was feeling weird about her sudden change in attitude, what she wondered more is that Devon did not make her feel unsafe but rather left a secure feeling about her. She just attributed it to the fact that Devon has saved her.
"Why in the world would you want to borrow THAT anyway?"
"Oh, bugger off, Andrei." Joan replied to her friend's question. "You're starting to annoy me." She clutched the yearbook closer to her chest as they headed to the Gryffindor common room.
"Come on, Joan," James cut in. "Lighten up. Why did you want to borrow that?"
"I'll tell you in the common room." Joan replied as they stopped in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady to say the password.
When they entered the warm atmosphere of the common room, they immediately went to a cozy spot in front of the fireplace, which, unknown to them, was the same place where their parents hung out in their Hogwarts years. Then again, the common room never did seem to change.
"Well?" Andrei demanded, as they got comfortable. "Spill, Joan."
Joan fingered the gold lettering of the yearbook. "Actually, I wanted to borrow this to, you know, know my father better."
James nodded understandingly. "Oh, right. This has a lot of information. Dad says it is enchanted in a way that it updates itself on its own whenever something in the lives of the graduates changes, like a marriage or death perhaps."
"Oh… I get it." Andrei's face dawned with comprehension.
"Let's check on your mom first, Andrei." Joan said, as she turned the pages of the yearbook. "Brown, right? Let's do it alphabetically." She paused at Lavender's picture.
The page has Lavender's picture in the middle with her name written in her handwriting below it. There was a paragraph about her written by her, as it was required per student. What really intrigued the children most is not the moving portrait but the additional information seemingly computerized below the paragraph. The first bullet says: "Married- Ronald Weasley, Gryffindor." It was underlined and color blue. The next bullet says, "See family tree", and yet another, "Profile".
"Hey!" Andrei exclaimed. "It's like those hypolinkies in spider sites!"
Joan rolled her eyes. "It's HYPERlinks and WEBsites, Andrei. Really, you must take Muggle Studies in third year."
"Whatever."
James brought out his wand and tapped the underlined text. "I know this, Dad said that when you tap those underlined text in the book, the page would magically fade and another page would appear."
The picture of Lavender faded before their eyes and the page of Ron appeared.
Delighted, Joan cried out. "Cool!" And she tapped the family tree bullet.
The family tree of the Brown-Weasley family appeared.
The names of Ron and Lavender were joined by an equal sign, which was connected to three other words by another line.
"Hey guys!" Andrei said excitedly. "Look! There's my name… and Angel's and… Baby? I guess this must be pretty updated." He smiled, recalling his mother who was currently expecting.
"And you know what," James continued with his knowledge about the yearbook. "If you go to the table of contents, there's a spell there that makes this yearbook thinner and lighter. In order to view the other pages, you can tap the words at the table of contents."
"Andrei," Joan said. "I guess have to agree with you saying that this is like a website after all."
Joan turned to the table of contents and said the spell. Immediately, the yearbook thinned until about ten pages were left.
"Now, to Aunt Hermione's page." James said, tapping 'Head Girl: Hermione Granger' on the page. "Dad says their pictures were taken at their chosen setting at Hogwarts but the pictures of the Head Boy and Girl were taken inside their respective sides of their common room. He said it was to add a sense of authority or something like that."
They were all surprised when the page reappeared complete with text but the picture was empty. All that was left was an elegant mahogany chair with a red seat and the Gryffindor lion banner at the wall behind it.
"Where's Mom?" Joan asked, her brow furrowing.
"Must've gone at some other photo," Andrei said nonchalantly. "Probably to your father's."
"Right." Joan agreed, wrinkling her nose and tapping "Married- Head Boy: Draco Malfoy".
The page about her mother faded and soon her father's face became visible.
Andrei laughed as he saw the picture. "Told you! Told you! One point for the Weasley! Told you Aunt Hermione is at your father's page!"
Joan just smiled as she saw the picture-self of the seventeen-year-old Hermione sitting on the lap of the picture-self of the seventeen-year-old Draco. They were both smiling at each other as Draco twirled locks of Hermione's hair.
"Blimey, Joan," James stared at the picture. "I didn't know you resembled your father that much."
Joan just nodded, as she was busy reading the paragraph of her father.
"Yeah, I thoroughly agree with you," Andrei said, peering over Joan's shoulder. "Look: 'I am an intolerable git who is also a humongous 24/7 prat to most of my schoolmates – most especially to certain Gryffindors.' How true, how true…"
James smacked Andrei's shoulder. "Haha. Very funny." He remarked mockingly.
Joan shook her head and tapped "Profile" and as she was reading, she gave a short gasp.
"What?" James paused from annoying Andrei to turn to Joan in a concerned manner. "What's wrong?"
Joan did not answer but just tapped "Cronies: Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe". Immediately the pages of Crabbe and Goyle appeared at the two pages opened before her. Joan pointed to the text as she whispered. "Look."
'Death – Exact date unknown, but it was during the war between the Light and Dark Side' was written at the edge of each of their pages.
The pages faded fast before their eyes as Joan tapped text once more.
"Look." She repeated.
James and Andrei read what she was pointing to.
It was the profile of her father and there, at the edge of the page, it was written: 'Death – Not Applicable'.