Disclaimer : The Harry Potter characters in this story belong to J.K. Rowling. Many thanks to her for letting them roam about in the world I created for a bit.
As always, thank you so much for your reviews!
CHAPTER 2 – Remember Me
"Ladies and gents, give it up for the Buffalo's own, Ms. Miranda Chase."
Hermione stood beaming back at the audience who was showering her with cheers and applause. She still couldn't believe the rush that she got from performing even after months of getting on stage at least once a weekend. For a few minutes she felt like there was nothing she couldn't do!
Quickly she sought out Jamie-Lynn behind the bar. Hermione had purposely chosen to sing "Light In Your Eyes" for her because the bartender absolutely loved the song, and with the crowd tonight, she'd need a little cheering up. Hermione was a little disappointed when she found that her friend was currently looking quite annoyed and was trying to get the attention of one of the customers standing next to the bar.
With her smile fading slightly, Hermione looked to see who had the other woman so agitated. Upon locking eyes with the patron that was paying no attention to his drink order, her heart sped up and her stomach fluttered. The reaction wasn't caused by whom she saw, because even though there was something oddly familiar about him, she was sure she'd never seen the man before. No, the goose bumps that now covered her skin were caused by the intense look of awe on the face of this man with flaming red hair.
Hermione couldn't ever remember seeing such a look on a man's face and definitely never directed at her. She smiled shyly at him as she quickly took in his appearance: tall, muscular build accentuated by the tight black T-shirt that stretched across his chest, and his flaming red hair. 'Oh, my, he's like something out of a dream. Mmm, red hair.' She quickly looked away, embarrassed by the reaction her body had at a single thought. 'My dream!'
She turned to grab her bottle of water in an attempt to calm herself and, unfortunately, met the eyes of Mark's friend Joe, who was stationed behind the drums. She was sure by the look he gave her that he was quite curious as to what had elicited the slight bout of embarrassment in her. She quickly looked away, but not before noticing that Joe had looked over her shoulder and out into the crowd. She had known Joe long enough to know what was coming next if she didn't distance herself from him, so she took a few quick sips of water then turned her attention back to the audience.
She thought that perhaps he wouldn't have a go at her while they were on stage. When she heard him clear his throat, she knew she wouldn't be so lucky. Hermione could just hear the smirk in his voice when Joe said into his microphone, "How'd you like to give us another one, Randi?"
She winced slightly before smiling into the crowd and saying, "I'd love to. And don't call me that." She turned slightly to glare at the drummer from the corner of her eye.
"Ah, yes. I forgot our favorite little Brit doesn't seem to like my nickname for her." Joe laughed and then covered his microphone to add so that only Hermione and the surrounding band members could hear, "But that's what you are, aren't you, love, and I think it has an awful lot to do with that guy over there who seems to have annoyed Jamie."
Hermione blushed furiously but wouldn't give Joe the satisfaction of turning to look at him. 'Well, if I'm that obvious, I might as well try to get myself some attention.' She turned to look at Brent, the lead guitar player, and said, "I think I wanna do Leann tonight." The boys had told her many times that this particular song made her voice sound quite sexy.
Under his breath, Joe said, "Told ya!" before the band started playing.
'------------
Ron was dreaming. He had to be. Hermione didn't sing, did she? Ron stood in complete shock staring in awe at the beautiful form of his best friend and love of his life, searching his memories for any of Hermione singing. 'That doesn't mean she never sang.'
Ron couldn't stop staring at her. She looked just as gorgeous as he remembered her. He noticed that there were subtle things that were different about her. The most obvious was that she no longer had the body of a little girl because she had filled out into the curves of a woman. She had also cut her hair a little shorter than she had ever had it and it looked to be a little lighter in color, but it was still curly and Ron just knew that it would be bushy if she hadn't tamed it. However, it was when she had made eye contact and smiled at him, that he knew that there was no other person in the world that the woman on stage could be.
He stood fighting a battle of inner turmoil as emotions were racing through his body. Suddenly a large form blocked his view of the stage and thus pulled him out of his reverie. Quickly, he focused on a dark skinned man who had about four inches and at least fifty pounds on Ron.
"I believe the lady behind the bar would like your attention, sir."
'Oh, yeah. Drinks…but Hermione.' He attempted to look around the larger man so he could once again see the stage. 'You know, I could take you down if I wanted to,' thought Ron. However, before Ron felt compelled to engage in a brawl, he heard her angelic voice again agreeing to sing another song. 'Okay, Weasley, get a grip. She's not going anywhere.'
Ron turned his attention to the bartender. "Sorry about that." He apologized over the sound of the music that had now started to play. "What do I owe you?"
"Don't worry about it. She's quite amazing, isn't she?" She smiled at Ron. "That'll be nine dollars."
Ron removed some Muggle American money from his wallet and paid the woman. "Is she here a lot?"
"Yeah, she waits tables here. She just sings a couple songs each night her friend's band plays." The bartender winked at Ron before walking away to take another drink order.
'Okay. So at least she won't be disappearing on you!' Ron thought as he turned his attention back to the stage. 'But are you absolutely sure that it's her?'
Once again, Ron was mesmerized by the sight of his long lost love. 'Oh, Dumbledore, please give me a sign so I can be sure!'
Ron closed his eyes briefly to feel her voice reverberating through his body. He couldn't believe how deep and sultry it was. It washed over him and made him feel like he was at complete peace with the world. When the words that Hermione was singing finally registered in his mind, his eyes shot open.
"Please remember. Please remember me."
Ron's eyes went wide. Hermione, again, made eye contact with him and it was as if she was singing only to him when she started again.
"Goodbye. There's not sadder word to say. And it's sad to walk away, with just the memories."
Then she broke eye contact once more and began singing to the crowd. Ron simply looked to the sky and said, "Thank you, sir!"
He quickly turned and began to push his way through the crowd with his drinks now forgotten. He needed to find Harry and they needed to get Neville and Seamus out of this bar before they saw her. He knew that he had a very delicate situation on his hands. Remus had repeatedly gone over what Ron and Harry would be dealing with had they found her when they sat out searching after the war was over. He was going to have to think quick on this feet and clearly focus on the matter at hand. 'Damn Seamus for dragging us to all them bloody bars! Thank goodness we didn't stay in one of them long enough to have more than a beer each. I just hope Harry's still got a clear head, too.'
He was only about three meters from his original position at the bar when he walked right into his raven haired friend.
"Hey, mate. There you are! Neville and I were beginning to think that you had found yourself a companion for the night." Harry smiled his cocky grin that he always wore when he was working on riling up his friend.
Ron paid it no attention. He quickly grabbed Harry's shoulders and said, "I have!" He completely ignored his friend's gasp and look of shock and continued. "It's her, Harry! It's really her. We've found her….finally found her!"
Harry hesitated and Ron was sure he was debating voicing the question that was ringing in his mind. His curiosity got the best of him. "Who?"
Ron pushed Harry forward so that he could have a straight-line view of the stage and said, "Hermione."
Ron watched the look of confusion on Harry's face turn to shock and then to awe as his friend finally got the first good look on the woman on stage. Ron quickly grabbed him and turned him away from the stage so that he could have his friend's full attention. Right now, time was of the essence.
"Ron?" Harry questioned, and Ron could see the thousands of questions that had raced through his own mind only moments before flashing in Harry's eyes.
"I know, Harry. Look, we have got to act fast and we've got to be careful. Remember what Lupin told us before about if we found her?"
Harry, still in shock, just stood nodding his head repeatedly in agreement.
"I need you to find Neville and Seamus and tell them that they need to report back to the hotel and await further orders. I know that Seamus will probably give you shit about having to leave, just make something up to get him out of here. Bloody hell, if you have to pull rank and order his sorry arse out of here! Then I need you to Apparate to the Salem portkey office and get an emergency portkey back home. Tell Remus what is going on and get him and Ginny back here as soon as possible! Okay, mate?"
"Yeah, yeah, I can do that! What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to hang around here and keep an eye on her. The bird behind the bar said that she's a waitress here, too, so I don't think I have to worry about her taking off before we can get help back here. I'll do whatever I can to work on a way of getting her out of here with us."
"Alright! Good Luck." Harry turned to start his hunt for the other two Aurors when he turned back around with a smile beaming across his face and looking back toward the stage one more time. "It's really her, mate! I can't believe it's really her."
"You and me both." Ron smiled the brightest smile he had in the last five years. "Now go!" And with that, Harry was off to do his part of their most important mission ever….Operation Remember!
'----------
She didn't know what it was about him, but Hermione couldn't seem to keep from continually focusing on that gorgeous redhead that appeared to be just as enamored with her as she was with him. Well, at least he had until up to a few minutes ago. Now, as she was finishing up her last song of the evening, she noticed that he had moved a little deeper into the room and seemed to be having a very intense conversation with another man.
As she stood smiling back at the now applauding crowd, she couldn't help but think that maybe she'd try real hard to give the red haired stud in her dreams those glistening, bright eyes that this stranger had fixed on her with so much admiration. 'Hmm, maybe Mr. Mysterious would be interested in making that particular dream of mine come true!' Hermione stifled a chuckle. 'As if that's going to happen! Knowing my luck, the other man is his boyfriend!'
Hermione gave a little wave to the crowd as she descended the stage and heard Joe announce that the band would be taking a ten-minute break. She stopped by Mark's table to ask what he had thought of her performance.
Mark playfully pulled Hermione onto his lap and said, "I thought you were brilliant as usual. I especially liked the way you were undressing that red-headed stallion over by the bar with your eyes!"
Hermione immediately turned beet red before she smacked him on the arm and exasperatedly said, "Oh, honestly!"
She quickly removed herself from the lap of her laughing friend just as Joe approached the table wearing a shit-eating grin. "I don't want to hear it from you either!" She pointed her finger at the drummer. "You both are just so…so…oh forget it! I need to get back to work."
She walked away trying her best to look upset, but all three of them knew she was just frustrated and embarrassed. She had just about made it to the bar when both Joe and Mark shouted, "We love you, Randi!"
She shut her eyes and cringed at that awful, awful nickname Joe insisted on using for her. For a long time, she told him that he just didn't understand what that name implied where she came from. Each time he told her that he knew exactly what it implied. She finally gave up trying to convince him not to use it.
She took a deep breath and opened her eyes so that she could continue to the bar but found they were now focused on the expanse of a rather broad chest covered in black cotton. Her eyes traveled slowly up the chest to finally rest on the face that she had been drawn to only minutes ago.
Holding her breath, she searched her mind for anything to say, but she couldn't seem to string two words together into anything coherent. When the stranger smiled at her, she thought she may actually drop dead right there on the spot, and then when he spoke, she thought that she had died and gone to heaven.
"They really don't get it, do they?" His voice was deep and he was clearly British. He gave Hermione the most adorable crooked grin that she couldn't help but think looked vaguely familiar.
Suddenly what he had said sank in, and she just looked at him completely confused as to what he was talking about. "Huh?"
"These silly Americans. They might as well just call you Desperate for a Shag, eh?"
Hermione's eyes went wide. 'Oh my. He did not just say that, did he?' At that point she couldn't help herself. She burst out laughing harder than she had in a long time. "No. They don't get it at all, and, trust me, I've tried repeatedly to explain it to them."
The stranger continued to smile at her as if she was the most beautiful sight that he'd ever seen. Normally men looking at her this way made Hermione very uncomfortable, but now, with this man, she felt almost…loved. She quickly shook off that feeling. She smiled back at the man, extended her hand and said, "Miranda Chase."
Hermione noticed that the man's smile faltered slightly, but then took her hand in his and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miranda Chase. I'm Ronald Weasley, but please call me Ron." He kept holding onto her hand and couldn't seem to take his eyes off of hers. "Can I buy you a drink?"
Hermione's stomach filled completely with the proverbial butterflies, and she began to feel the blush creeping up her neck. "Actually, I can't. I'm still kinda working…waiting tables, you know."
"Oh, yeah. Sorry." The stranger, Ron, looked quite crest-fallen.
"My shift ends in thirty minutes. If you don't mind waiting, we could go across the street to the diner and grab a cup of coffee then." She waited on baited breath for him to answer.
"Love to!"
Hermione couldn't believe that she was not only going to be going out for coffee with a complete stranger, but in essence, she had asked him out. 'But there's just something so, oh, I don't know, just so…about this guy.'
"Okay. I'll hunt you down when my shift ends."
Ron nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, I'll wait around here for you."
"Alright then."
They both just stood there smiling and staring at each other. Suddenly Hermione was pulled back to reality by the sound of Mark shouting, "Excuse me! Can I get some service over here?"
Hermione reluctantly removed her hand from Ron's and said, "I won't be too long. Thanks for waiting." Then she turned back toward the table that held Mark, Joe and the rest of the band. She was so going to kill Mark!
'----------
As Hermione walked away, Ron said under his breath, "I've always waited for you, love."
He turned to go find an empty seat at the end of the bar to wait patiently for his one and only. 'You've waited five long years, what's thirty more minutes, right? Plus, remember that Lupin said that the first thing to remember when we found her was to come on subtle as to not frighten or overwhelm Hermione.'
He found a seat, ordered another bottle of beer, and began his short wait until his life began again. 'Oh, please, let Harry get back soon with Remus so we can get Hermoine back home where she belongs.'
As he sat drinking his beer, picking at the label on the bottle, and watching Hermione work her way around the bar, the thought never occurred to him that maybe she was already where she belonged.
'------------
A/N – The song that Hermione sings in this chapter is Leann Rimes' Please Remember from the Coyote Ugly soundtrack. When I first began this story, I had a completely different song in mind for her to be singing as a "sign" to Ron. I had completely forgotten about the Leann Rimes song until just this past week as I was searching through my CDs for something different to listen to on my two hour round trip to work each day. I couldn't believe how perfectly the song fit the story and how much it inspired me with this chapter.
Also, when Ron is talking about how they might as well call Hermione "Desperate for a Shag" when they call her Randi, was borrowed from a season six episode of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer where one of Willow's spells goes wrong causing the whole gang to loose all their memories ultimately forgetting who they are and Spike comes under the impression that he is Giles' son, Randy.
Also, once again thank you to everyone that has reviewed! Being a newbie to writing and posting fan fic, you have been extremely encouraging! For those that voiced some concerns with Mark, just remember that if Harry Potter has taught us nothing else it is that things aren't always what they seem to be. In the next couple of chapters we'll learn a lot more about Mark, and Daniel and Emma will finally make an appearance.
Reviews not only welcomed….they're encouraged!