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, the reviews I have gotten on this story have been very much appreciated and so very overwhelming! You guys are the BEST! I was really happy that just as many people were surprised about the Daniel/Emma twist as were expecting them to be Ron and Hermione's kids. Sorry that I left you hanging there at the end of Chapter 5; hopefully, this quicker than usual update will make up for that.
I had really only planned on this story being about a total of 6 chapters and that included the Prologue and the Epilogue. However, as you can see we are now aPrologue and 6 Chapters in and things are just getting good. I guess as with real life, I've decided that the scenic route with this story is just so much more fun. The only bad thing about that is that the story design I've had in my head all along will need a little rethinking. I hope to have the next chapter posted as soon as possible!
Until then...HAPPY READING!
CHAPTER 6 – Who Am I? Part Two
After turning the last corner on her trip home from Salem, Hermione glanced into her rearview mirror to see that both the twins had dozed off. They did this every time she picked them up from spending the weekend at the Chase's. They would both talk, at the same time of course, about what they had done during their stay and then would fall asleep less than five minutes from home. These quick little catnaps only served to recharge their little batteries so they could keep going and going and going.
Hermione was pleased to find out that they had behaved their selves during this stay. The twins usually found their way into mischief more times than she could count, on both hands, and she always fretted about leaving them with their surrogate grandparents; however, Desmond and Eleanor always assured Hermione that the children were no problem at all.
They emphasized often that they were very thankful to have Emma and Daniel in their lives, since they would probably never have grandchildren of their own. Jarrod, obviously, wouldn't be producing any children with any of his boyfriends; their oldest daughter swore that there was no way she was ruining her figure to bring some thoughtless, ungrateful brat into this world; and their youngest daughter had some medical problems in her early teen years that left her sterile.
Hermione shouldn't have been surprised by the elder Chase's attachment to the twins. After all, they had been a part of their lives almost as long as Hermione had. A sad smile crossed her face as she glanced in the mirror one more time before turning into the driveway. She really was happy that her babies had a surrogate family to substitute for the family that she didn't have to give to them.
After shutting the car off and gathering her purse and the kids' overnight bags, she was able to rouse Daniel as she unbuckled his seat belt. Emma on the other hand was currently content to be napping. She picked her purse and Emma's knapsack from the driveway where she had sat them before pulling Emma out of the car and into her arms.
"Danny, can you please take your bag inside for me? Emmy is still tired and needs Mummy to carry her."
Daniel rubbed his little brown eyes and yawned before picking up his backpack with a picture of Spiderman and said, "I'm a good helper."
Hermione patted him softly on the top of the head and said, "Yes, you are a very good helper. Come on, love, let's get inside and see if Uncle Mark and Joe are here."
Hermione smiled as Daniel's eyes lit up at the mention of Joe. Against Hermione's better wishes, Joe was teaching Daniel all about drumming and the four-and-a-half year old was absolutely enthralled with it. Joe had even wanted to buy the little boy a drum set for this coming Christmas, but Hermione had set her foot down firmly on that one. Thank goodness, Mark had supported that decision as well, telling Joe that the neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate the noise.
As she watched her son take off across the yard toward the back door, Hermione placed a quick kiss on the top of Emma's head and gave the girl a little squeeze before making her way in as well. 'This all that matters. They are all that matters. Last night was unimportant and if Mark brings it up, you're gonna tell him to just drop it and move on.'
Truth be told, all Hermione had thought of the entire afternoon was the events that had happened the night before. Unfortunately for her (most of the time, that is) she liked to over analyze every thing. So she had went through the events of the previous night backwards and forwards and like every other aspect of her life, she couldn't make complete sense out of any of it. She sighed as she was about to step through the door and into the kitchen, hoping that Mark wouldn't mention anything about finding her in tears and she wouldn't have to dodge an explanation again and she could finally, FINALLY put last night behind her.
After hearing Mark saying, "This is Uncle Mark's friend Harry," and then entering the kitchen to find Ron's dark haired friend sitting across the dinette from her friend, she sighed again and thought, 'Not bloody likely!'
'----------
Ron would have to say that the one thing that he loved most about being a wizard was the methods of travel available. Thirty minutes ago, he had sat down to share a whiskey with his best mate and the man whom Hermione was living with in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States, and now he was standing in the front yard of Harry and Ginny's home at Godric's Hollow not too far from London, England.
Every situation or conflict that had arose since Hermione had been made to disappear, Ron had faced head on, most of the time without a second thought. This time, however, he ran, and he had run to the only person he felt he could run to with the information that he had just been presented with…Ginny.
'Oh, please let her be here!' Ron thought as he made his way up the walkway toward the front door of the quaint little house that had once been home to Harry's parents.
Ron knew that he was being quite immature about the whole situation. To say that he had been shocked when he looked at the photograph that Mark had handed him, would've been an understatement. He was terrified beyond belief.
Of course, he didn't bother to wait around to find out if the twins in the picture with Hermione were her children or his for that matter. 'But how could they not be. The little boy was a spitting image of me when I was about to turn five years old except it appears that he has Hermione's brown eyes. And that little girl was a little Hermione with dark auburn hair. If the picture was current, then it would put the twins at the right age to have been conceived about five years ago.'
Tears began to form in his eyes once again. He knew he was being selfish. He shouldn't be going all wonky over the fact that 24 hours ago he was simply Ron Weasley, Auror. Now he was the Ron Weasley, Dad. It was selfish of him to think that he was the only one hurting here…because more than anything, he was hurt that the Fates had kept him from watching his children grow up.
No. He couldn't even begin to think of how much Hermione had been hurt. Now he understand why she was having such a hard time in her personal life when she met that other bloke friend of hers. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to be eighteen years old and find out that you're responsible for not only one other life but two. Now at nearly twenty-three he was having a tough time of grasping the idea.
It was entirely his fault. He had once again caused Hermione all kinds of pain. 'She obviously has to be hurting still. Embarrassed even about being a mum and raising her kids on her own. She didn't even mention them last night. I should've known to cast that damn charm. Every one of my older brothers drilled it into my head since the time I turned twelve. She's going to hate me when she gets her memories back for ruining her life. I should've never let her leave. No! I should've went with her. I should've insisted!'
By this time tears were flowing freely down his face as he stood at the bottom of the steps leading up to the front door, staring blankly at it. He was so wrapped up in his mental berating of himself that he didn't even noticed Ginny come out of the house until she was shaking him by the shoulders and screaming hysterically.
"Oh, god, Ron! What happened? Where's Harry? Oh, dear Merlin, please tell me he's okay? RON!"
Ron quickly came to his senses and realized that his sister must be thinking the worst about her husband. Ron quickly pulled her into a hug and said, "Gin, calm down. Harry is fine. He's still in Boston and at this moment he's probably sipping on a glass of whiskey staring at a photo of his niece and nephew. I'm sorry I scared you."
Ginny pulled away and quickly smacked Ron on the shoulder. "Don't you ever do that to me again! So why are you….hold on a minute. Did you say a photo of his niece and nephew?"
Getting lost quickly in his own thoughts again, he just looked blankly at his sister and nodded in agreement.
Ginny once again grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him slightly, chuckling nervously. "Ron. Are you sure you're okay? Harry doesn't have any nieces or nephews. Remember, little James here," she rubbed one hand over her bulging stomach, "is the first grandchild born into the Weasley clan."
Ron focused once again on his sister's eyes with his once again filling with unshed tears. "No, Gin, he's not."
'----------
When Hermione walked into her kitchen and found Harry Potter sitting at the dinette with Mark, apparently sharing a drink with him, that feeling of dread and horror washed over her much like the night before when she had thought that she had heard Ron say 'Hermione.' When she noticed that there was a third glass on the table and that Joe didn't drink any type of alcoholic beverage, she must've got a look of total panic on her face because Mark quickly jumped up and went to her.
"Miranda, love, what's wrong?"
Hermione took a deep breath and slowly let it out. 'Okay, you know that Mark isn't going to let anything happen to you or the kids, so just calm down!' Hermione flinched slightly when Mark took hold of Emma and was attempting to pull her daughter away from her.
"Sweetie, I'm just going to go lay her on the sofa. She's getting much too big for you to stand around holding her."
Hermione reluctantly let go of Emma and watched as Mark left the room calling for Daniel to come with him too. Once he had turned the corner into the sitting room and was out of sight, Hermione's eyes quickly shot to the third glass sitting on the table. She jumped and nearly screamed when Harry spoke.
"He's not here."
Her eyes quickly shot to the other man's and for the first time she noticed that they were the most brilliant shade of green she had ever seen. 'Almost like emeralds.' Her eyes went wide with shock. There it was again. The heebie-jeebies hit her like a ton of bricks. She knew those eyes. They were the eyes of the boy in the woods in that horrible nightmare of hers.
She could feel tears of fear fill her eyes as she asked, "Who are you?"
"Harry Potter. Remember we met last night. I'm Ron's…"
"I know who you are, but who are you? What are you doing here? And if he's not here, then where is he?"
Before Harry could offer any type of answer, Mark had returned to the room. He quickly walked over to Hermione and pulled her into a warm embrace and suddenly all the anxiety left her body. She let out a long sigh of relief as she returned the hug. Mark was the only person she knew that could make her feel completely better just by an act as simple as a hug.
He slowly pulled away and looked her in the eyes. "You know that I'll do anything at all to keep you and the twins safe, right? You trust me as much as I trust you, right"
Hermione was beyond confused and she really didn't like the feeling she was getting as to where this was heading. However, Mark was right. She knew that he'd never do anything to put her or her children in harms way and she trusted him with her and Daniel and Emma's lives. "Of course."
"And remember our rule we set up when we moved in here together, that no matter what, we always hear the other person out before we try to argue our own point?"
Again Hermione just nodded.
"Well, Hermione, I think you need to sit down and listen to what I have to tell you."
Eyes wide with fear, she suddenly felt very sick.
'----------
Ron was deep in thought as Ginny sat down next to him and put her small hand on his back between his shoulder blades. "Everything checks out fine. We leave in twelve minutes."
Ron mindlessly put his arm around his sister's shoulders and gave her a half hug. "Thanks for everything, Ginny." Ron didn't have to look at her to know that she was giving him that pity smile she was so good at giving him over the past several years whenever anything regarding Hermione was mentioned.
Ron sighed and looked around the small waiting room outside the Ministry of Magic's Portkey Office. Before they could travel by portkey, witches who were in their third trimester of pregnancy had to be cleared by a Mediwizard before they could get an authorized portkey. Ron was really hoping that no one from his department, especially Kingsley Shacklebolt, caught sight of him at the Ministry before he and Ginny could catch a portkey back to Salem. The last thing he needed right now was trying to explain why he and Harry had disobeyed a direct order.
Ron glanced over at his sister and had to smile at her as she sat staring at her protruding belly and absentmindedly ran her hands over it. He felt a small pang in his heart knowing that he had missed seeing Hermione when she was "glowing with motherhood" as his mother liked to call it. Ron gently placed his hand over the center of Ginny's belly just as little James kicked. He finally met his sister's stare and said, "Thanks again, Ginny."
She leaned her head over on his shoulder and said, "Don't mention it Ickle Ronniekins."
They both laughed before Ron returned to his thoughts. He still wasn't sure how he was going to deal with the whole being a dad thing or how he was going to approach Hermione now. After explaining everything that had happened in the last twenty-four and all the information that he currently had, Ginny had reassured him the situation really wasn't as grim as he was trying to make it be and that Hermione wouldn't hate him for getting her pregnant and then sending her off to a foreign country with no memories since Hermione had agreed completely to the plan to keep her safe, and there was no way that either one of them could've known at the time that she had gotten pregnant. Although, Ginny did reiterate that although their parents and older brothers would be ecstatic about the additions to the family, they would probably threaten to hex his bits off for being so irresponsible.
"Gin, why are you going back with me anyway? Don't you need to stay here to finish brewing the potion for the Pensive?"
"Well, my dear brother, the potion will be just fine. It needs to brew another two days before it is complete and you don't even add the next round of ingredients for the next twenty-two hours. So, I think I'm safe in venturing to the States for a bit. Plus, there is no way I am leaving my bumbling brother, my sexy but even more bumbling husband and some bloke I've never met to explain this highly complicated situation to one of my best friends and hopefully future sister-in-law."
As he always seemed to do, Ron reverted back to witty comments to cover his true feelings of dread and embarrassment. "So, I'm not sexy?"
Ginny laughed and shook her head and rolled her eyes. "You know, Ron, you never change." She stood up and grabbed him by the hand. "Come on, Daddy, it's time to go get you your future."
'-----------
Hermione sat on the flat roof of the kitchen just outside the guest bedroom's east window with her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her knees. She stared into what should've been the dark night sky had it not been illuminated by the glow of the Boston city lights. Her face was damp and her eyes were swollen from hours of crying. She had lost track of time, but she was sure that it had been at least 2 hours, if not three, since Mark and Harry had finished telling her their stories.
'And that's all they are…stories! It can't be real. None of it can be real. Magic is just something from fairy tales and movies. It defies all sense of logic.' Hermione buried her face in her hands once again. 'But why would Mark lie to you about any of it? Mark would never lie to you…NO! Wait a minute! He has been lying to you since you've known him…Yeah, but he had to for his job. Anyway, there have been times he's tried to explain the strange things that happen around here and you've just blown him off.'
Hermione growled silently and leaned her head back against the side of the house, trying to focus on the music that she had blaring out the window. She needed to focus on anything at the moment besides all these thoughts that were colliding in her head.
Magic couldn't really exist, could it? Well, she couldn't explain the things that Mark had demonstrated down in the kitchen with anything other than magic. But, her, a witch? She just couldn't see how it was possible. If she was magical, she would think that she would feel special in some way, but she didn't. She was just plain ol' Miranda Chase. Okay, so she wasn't. She was Hermione Granger and now Mark knew that was her name and apparently this Harry Potter and Ron knew that was her real name all along.
She had to chuckle a bit at the thought that even though she was utterly confused and scared to death, she was able to get hacked off at Ron for blatantly lying to her the night before about saying 'Hermione.' She couldn't explain it, but it felt oddly natural to be upset at him. She quickly shook her head at that thought.
'But why in the world would you willingly give up all your memories and put you life in the hands of another person who would be the only one who would know where you were at? Come on, Hermione! You're not that stupid!'
Hermione looked to the sky once again and whispered, "Why me?" while shaking her head in exasperation. She tried to tune her thoughts on the music again when she heard arguing just inside the window that she was sitting only about two meters from.
"You listen here, the both of you. It's your fault that we're in this mess, so I don't want to hear one more peep out of the two of you about pregnant women climbing out windows and onto roofs!"
A small smile passed across Hermione's face. She knew without a doubt and without being properly introduced that the woman's voice she had just heard was that of Ron's only sister. She sounded just as Ron had described her. She most definitely had more bits that Ron and Harry put together.
Hermione looked over to see the very pregnant woman struggling to climb through the medium sized window. Once through the window, she straightened herself up, brushed off her shirt and smiled. She had opened her mouth to speak when Hermione beat her to it.
"Hello, Ginny."
There was a collective gasp not only from Ginny but from (Hermione assumed) Ron, Harry and probably Mark as well from inside the house. "You remember me?" Ginny asked excitedly.
Hermione frowned but quickly recovered into a sad smile. "No. Sorry. Just simple deduction, you know."
Ginny gave Hermione a genuine smile before struggling to sit down on the roof next to her. Hermione watched Ginny reposition herself to try to get comfortable and couldn't help but comment, "Just be thankful you're not carrying twins."
Ginny's head snapped toward Hermione. The red haired woman was obviously shocked by the comment, but it seemed to fade quickly and the woman smiled at her again. Hermione quickly found her fingernails very interesting and the two of them sat in silence for several moments. Once again Hermione had a million and one thoughts running through her head. She was pulled from her reverie by Ginny's soft voice.
"What are you listening to?"
Hermione jumped slightly at the sound of the silence being broken. She smiled slightly and said, "It's a Cast Recording of Les Miserables."
"Ah, yeah. I've heard of that. I studied about it and other production in my Muggles Studies classes back at Hogwarts."
"So you're a witch, too?"
"Yeah. Just like you."
Once again Hermione just looked at her hands. She felt very uncomfortable with the entire situation she was in. She was especially uncomfortable with everyone suddenly being so nonchalant about the idea of magic and witches and wizards. She really just wanted to take Daniel and Emma and disappear.
"What's the name of this song? It keeps playing over and over again."
"Yeah, I have the CD player set to repeat it."
"Well, what's it called?"
"Who Am I?" Hermione turned her head so that she was looking at Ginny once more and in a condescending tone said, "Kind of fitting, isn't it."
Suddenly, Hermione was taken by surprise as the other woman threw her arms around her and hugged her tightly while she giggled almost uncontrollably. "Oh, Hermione! You've still got that sarcastic humor to you. I bet you've even already rolled you eyes at least once at something Ron has said."
Unexpectedly Hermione burst into tears and Ginny's grip on her tightened. She didn't know why she was crying so hard all of a sudden, but it was as if in her heart of hearts she knew she could believe this woman sitting next to her, holding her in a sisterly embrace and that meant that Hermione's world was quickly falling to pieces.
Ginny was slowing stroking Hermione's hair when she said, "Come on, 'Mione. How about we go inside where we can talk more comfortably and I'll answer any question you have, alright?"
Hermione had so many questions to ask and she felt much more comfortable talking to Ginny than any one of the guys. She shook her head in agreement, stood up, wiped her tears away then helped Ginny to her feet. The woman hugged her once more before making her way to struggle getting back through the window.
As Hermione climbed through the window and into the now empty (expect for Ron's only sister) room, she couldn't help but think that tonight was going to be a much longer night than the last. And for one split second she also couldn't help but think that she had gotten absolutely no where on the project for her summer course.
'Oh well, If I really am magic, I'll just wave my little wand and the project is as good as done.' Hermione couldn't help but wonder if it was possible to become unjaded as quickly as her attitude had become jaded this afternoon.