Disclaimer: My t-shirt says I don't own Harry Potter, and we all know that t-shirts don't lie.

I dedicate this chapter to Emma Barrows, who appears to be the only one reading the story. Enjoy!

Chapter 4

AClueHarrySees

Hermione left her flat early August 31 to get some things she would need for the upcoming school year. Ron had moved in a week ago and had immediately painted his room orange, much to Hermione's chagrin. She thought it would have looked better blue.

Okay, so today I need to visit Diagon Alley and get some reference materials for next year's classes. Then I can visit Harry and Ginny, who should be back from Paris by now, for lunch. After that, I finish packing. I think I should be ready for the start of term after that.

Note to self: Don't forget the household spells.

Oh right. Thanks. I need to pack the household spells.

Avoid Mrs. Gonsoulin.

Too right you are. It seems that all she does is sit and wait for me to leave my flat every morning! I am sure that that much obliviation is damaging to the brain.

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Hermione knocked on the door of Harry and Ginny's flat and waited. Harry opened the door a moment later.

"Hermione. It's great to see you." He handed her a mug of tea. "That should help you warm up a bit."

Hermione gave Harry a hug and returned the sentiment. "It's great to see you as well, Harry. How was Paris?"

"Oh, it was really good. It was nice to get away for awhile...Hermione?"

"Yeah?" Hermione took a long sip from the tea Harry had given her. It was good.

"Do you want to play air-hangman?" It was a game Harry and Hermione had made up during the war. Harry used the same spell Riddle had in the Chamber of Secrets, but he instead drew a hangman game in air. They hadn't played it for years.

"Um, sure Harry. Why now?"

"No reason. Okay, I get to be the person who comes up with the word." He drew the platform the person to be drawn on, and he added a boiling cauldron underneath. Then he slashed eleven blanks next to it. "Category: spells."

"Wow, vivid, Harry. Um, how about a T."

"Good job. One T." (- - - - - - - t - - - )

"Hmm. Nothing comes to mind right away. I guess I will just go with all the vowels. A, E, I, O, and U."

"You usually aren't supposed to guess more than one letter at a time, but I will give it to you. U and E are wrong, so there is a circle for the head, and some bushy hair." He winked. She gave him a look. "Let me fill in the correct vowels now." (o- - i – i a t i o -)

"Wow." Hermione was starting to recognize this word. She wasn't the smartest witch in her class for nothing, but she didn't believe that that was the word Harry had chosen.

I mean, why would he? What a random thing to come up with, right? All I have to do is choose letters different from the spell that I am thinking of, and then I will see that I am just being paranoid. Okay, here it goes.

"How about a C?"

Harry's response was to draw fearful eyes on the bushy-haired head.

"Um, D?"

He added a mouth in an O shape.

"F. I bet there is an f."

Suddenly there was a nose on the floating head.

"G."

Harry had a look of deep concentration on his face as he drew a long stick for the body.

"H or J or K?"

He put two sticks on either side of the long one for arms and added one hand.

"Wow." She laughed nervously. " I am not as good at this as I used to be. Um, M?"

"Did you say N?" He went to add a letter to the blanks.

"No, no." She replied hurriedly. "M."

"Oh." He drew another hand.

"Please let one be P, Q, or R."

He drew two legs and a foot.

"S?"

Another foot.

"V?"

The rope was drawn.

"Oh, I guess I died. It's my turn right? I'll just erase this game-"

He put a hand on her wand. "No, Hermione. This is extreme hang-man. She won't die until she falls in the cauldron. You can save her if you guess right in the next five turns." He said all of this with a very serious expression.

"Right." She sat back down. "W."

Hermione sighed as he let the string break a little bit.

"X?"

It broke a little more. The girl in the game struggled with the rope and glared at Hermione.

Hermione turned away. "Y?"

It broke even more. It wouldn't hold her for much longer.

"Z." There it was. The last letter she would let herself use.

The rope shredded a bit more until it was only being held by a small fraction of what it use to be. The girl in the game was getting very frustrated.

"Hermione? You have one guess left. If you guess the word right, you can save her. Come on, Hermione, don't let her fall into the cauldron. She won't appreciate it very much."

Hermione faced the girl again, sighed, and gave up. "Obliviation." she mumbled.

"I'm sorry. I didn't catch that." Harry had a patient smile lighting up his face.

"Obliviation!" The letters filled in, the rope and cauldron disappeared, and a floating platform saved the girl. She bowed and it all disappeared.

Harry sat down across from Hermione. "So."

"So what, Harry?" she said, exasperated. "What was this all about?" Hermione was pretty sure she knew, but she didn't want to believe it. How could he have figured out what I was doing? "Was there a certain reason you chose obliviation for your word? Why did we even play that game?"

"Oh, the game? I just thought it would be fun." He paused and looked at Hermione for a moment. "Anyway, you know how I taught you and Ron occlumency during the war? Well, part of occlumency, as you may remember, is organizing your thoughts, so you can allow people to see only what you want them to see."

"Yes, Harry, I remember."

"Good. Well, I have continued to use those techniques because I find it keeps my mind sharp, which always helps in auror training, and one never knows when occlumency could come in handy."

"I see your point, Harry, but where are you going with this?"

"Just give me a minute. Now, there are many reasons that people might forget things: maybe because it just wasn't important enough for to remember, perhaps a busy schedule made it easy to forget, or a spell...obliviation, for example... caused them to forget. However, no matter the reason, occlumency doesn't allow me to forget."

"Harry." She was starting to get just a bit nervous.

"Let me finish. That day we talked over coffee, you asked me about Kreacher." Hermione looked about ready to run away. She stood up and began pacing around instead. "I got upset, and you made me forget what we had talked about, but later, when I was organizing my thoughts, it was still there, and I remember. Hermione, why did you do it?"

"I don't know! Remus taught me, and you were really angry, and I didn't want to get in a fight." With that, she burst into guilty tears.

Harry laughed and enveloped her in a hug. "It's okay, Hermione. We all make mistakes. I'm not mad, but I would appreciate it if you abstained from erasing my memories- or anyone else's- in the future."

Hermione returned the hug and gave a weak laugh. "I guess that's a reasonable thing to ask, Harry. I will try my best, but what should I do? I have obliviated a lot of people recently. I performed that spell on the entire Cannons quidditch team the other day!"

Harry's eyes lit up with amusement. "You did? That is priceless! I wish I could have seen their faces."

"Did you know that Dumbledore had to put up anti-obliviation wards at Hogwarts because of me? Of course, he didn't know it was me, but still."

"It really is a shame." Harry spoke with a serious face. "Look at all the trouble one ex-head girl can cause." He tisked and shook his head before giggling hysterically.

"Wow, Harry. It really wasn't all that funny. I think I should leave before you are diagnosed as clinically insane." Harry sobered up a bit at that. "Um, Harry…," she said as she gathered up her things. "You won't tell anyone about this will you? Please?"

"No, Hermione, I won't. You know I can't deny that face." His voice turned to a whisper as Ginny came through the door. "One more thing, Hermione."

What he told her made her eyes widen in realization, and he smirked before pushing her shocked form the rest of the way out the door.

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As Hermione packed her things that night, her mind kept running over what Harry had told her. She wondered what she would do when she got back to school. She was a little scared, to tell you the truth.

She would not be afraid enough to quit or anything, but she knew it was only a matter of time before he caught up with her, and obliviation wasn't even possible at Hogwarts anymore.

"Remember, Snape is an occlumens too..."

Harry had thought the whole thing was rather funny, but she hoped he still thought it was funny when he was giving the eulogy at her funeral once Snape realized that it was she who tripped the wards.

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A/N

What do you think? Is everyone excited about the showdown with Snape? I, for one, cannot wait to see how Hermione handles it.

Only one more chapter!

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