Lest Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot

Hermione entered the ward at St Mungo's walking briskly; she had only just got time off work to visit her daughter, who had been brought in a few days before. She was quite worried when she first heard that her daughter was here, as far as she knew her daughter didn't know anything about magic, but when her husband came home after visiting one day and reassured her that everything was fine she didn't think any more about it. However, now those worries were returning. She began to search for the right bay but what grabbed her attention first was a familiar face.

"Professor Lupin? Is that you?"

Remus and Tonks stopped arguing for the moment and turned to look at the sleek brown haired witch dressed in muggle clothing who was standing in front of them. It took Lupin a while to register how he knew the voice of that witch. It had been a long time, almost thirteen years since he had heard it. When he realised who it was, however, he could barely contain himself.

"Hermione? What a surprise! You've changed so much since I last saw you it was quite a while ago now wasn't it? Have you used one of those fancy new hair potions? Your hair is looking very sleek!" He could tell all the while that the compliments weren't going down well with Tonks reckoning that at this point she would be mentally shooting daggers at him. They got on with each other in such a way that allowed them to be best of friends and worst of enemies at the same time, some people thought it remarkable that they were still married. Tonks and Lupin knew that it was because of their love hate relationship that they were still married.

"Well Lupin, It was about 13 years ago that you last saw me, I was 22, I am bound to have changed. And the answer is no to using a new hair potion, I've been to the hair dressers. Oh I am sorry," she said turning to Tonks then said to Lupin, "you haven't introduced me to your friend"

Tonks rather startled by this comment looked around trying to see who Lupin's friend was, when she ouldn't find anyone she finally realised that Hermione was talking about her. Then she twitched her nose and transformed it into a pig snout, one of her famous party tricks that Hermione and Ginny both used to love so much.

"Tonks!" Hermione exclaimed, "You've changed too! Though now that I think about it you change daily. So what are you two doing here?"

Tonks replied, "We are on top-secret Auror business. Aren't we Lupin?"

Lupin looked up, startled that he was being involved in the conversation. He he had a habit of giving far too much information away about the top-secret missions and Tonks had learnt that lesson often enough. He was used to keeping quiet whenever they were asked about the missions. "Um… Yes of course we are, um… but what I can tell you is that we are guarding a young witch who was attacked with a very nasty curse. She was brought in the other day and has just come round OWWWW!"

Tonks had just neatly stomped on Lupin's foot in an effort to get him to shut up. She had only asked him about it for him to back her up, so that he wouldn't get left out of the conversation. She should have known better than to let him talk to someone about a mission. She made a mental note to never do it again. Except if the whole mission was a trap and the people they were talking to were meant to find out, then she would ask him. Nobody else she knew gave away so much information in such little time.

Then in an effort to draw attention away from the fact that Lupin was now rubbing his foot she asked, "Why are you here then Hermione?"

"I'm here to visit my daughter," she explained, "I'll see you, I guess"

Nobody mentioned anything about why they hadn't seen each other in so long or why they had lost contact in the first place as she walked further into the ward, when she stopped just outside a curtained bay and entered it.

They both fell silent as the truth dawned on them.

Watching from their post Tonks whispered to Lupin, "Wasn't that the bay with…" Lupin finished for her "…with Sarah in?"

"Sarah?" she whispered, looking at her daughter who was now conscious and well, she hugged her saying, "I'm so glad you're awake! What happened to your arms?"

Sarah looked down at her arms for the first time. They looked as if they had been burnt and there were lines like veins running up them all the way to her shoulders. The events of the night a few days previously came back to her and her eyes began to fill up with tears.

Harry looked up at the woman who had entered the cubicle. He hadn't expected her. Well he had, just he didn't expect to look up and see a person who he had lost touch with years ago. That was the thing he least expected. He recognised the swish of brown hair even if its style had changed. He kept staring trying to see how much she had changed from the Hermione he used to know.

She looked older, he expected that, but still looked youthful. He had read about her many achievements and advances in potions in the prophet, she was one of the leading experts in potions now. Harry had a feeling that it was connected to the many muggle chemistry courses she had taken in the few years after they had left Hogwarts. Hermione had rewritten many old recipes and her potions books were now being used as the OWL and NEWT resources; however, they were published as Hermione Granger, Harry didn't even know that she was married let alone the fact that she had children. He expected it was because of what happened between Ron and herself all those years ago, it had definitely taught them all a lesson. None of that mattered to Harry. Hermione looked, sounded and acted exactly the same; he even reckoned that when he got to talk to her their friendship would take up just where it had left off.

Hermione, whilst still fussing over her daughter, began to say to him, "Would you mind giving me and my daughter some time alone?"

"Sure Hermione," Harry answered, "I'll just be outside" and as he got up to leave, Hermione turned round, she had recognised the voice as that of one of her closest friends, "Harry?" she said, astonished, his hair was hiding his scar so she couldn't be sure, "Is that you? Why are you here?" she finished. Something began to tick in her mind. Aurors on the ward her daughter is in protecting a young girl, and Harry in the same cubicle as Sarah.

Harry realised what was going through her head and said to her, "Don't worry, we'll talk about this later. Spend some time with your daughter now, she missed you," As he headed towards the curtain he turned, "And try to explain to her why you didn't tell her a bit more about the wizarding world won't you?" he gave hermione and Sarah a cheeky smile then left.

A couple of hours later when Sarah was finally sleeping, Hermione and Harry were sitting on either side f the bed. He began to explain to her why he was there.

"Well there are a couple of reasons actually, firstly she needs Auror protection incase there is another attack,"

"What do you mean attack? Why would they attack Sarah? Who are they? And what if I want to protect her?"

"Hermione, you can trust me to protect her, I am a lot stronger now than I ever was before, try and curse her if you want"

Hermione aimed a silent densaugeo hex at her daughter; she knew it wouldn't harm her, especially if she knew Harry as well as she thought she did. Harry sent up a shield charm around himself and Sarah just as Hermione's spell left her wand. He had become a lot better at detecting magic and people's thoughts, but as soon as his shield deflected the spell he sent another one up around Hermione to protect her from it rebounding. She gasped she didn't know any other wizard able to shield others like Harry did.

"Well in answer to the other questions, the scars on her arms aren't just from some magical accident, how could they be? They were inflicted by a wand and a curse. But the curse does tie in with the second reason I am here. The hospital called me in because I am the only person her scars would be similar to. I am the only other person to have survived a killing curse."

"A KILLING CURSE?"

"Shh Hermione. Don't shout" Harry motioned to Sarah who was still sleeping silently between them, "It appears that Sarah is the girl who lived, just as I was the boy who lived, however I hope that most have forgotten about that by now"

"So what about my other questions?"

"To be honest we don't really know why they attacked her or indeed who they were."

"I thought Aurors are supposed to know!"

"Yes well it seems that Sarah is the only one who got a clear view of them, however Lupin got there in time to hear the curse and prevent further damage. Which brings me neatly onto the third reason I am here, the hospital also thinks that the Aurors may know what some of the other effects of the curse were. We know it was not purely a killing curse, it was also meant to capture something. We don't know what that something was or is and we aren't even sure whether they got it or whether that part of the spell failed as well. But I haven't seen anything like it before. The only obvious effect other than the scars is that it appears that she cannot move her right arm below the shoulder, which will undoubtedly make spell casting a problem. We really have no clue"

Hermione raised her eyebrows at him. Harry seeing this and her worry swiftly added,

"Yet. We have no clue yet. We are putting an article into the Prophet tomorrow appealing to anyone who has heard of the curse or seen similar scars before."

"So that's why you're here then."

"Well not entirely. We really had to break the news to her about the wizarding world. It also appears that Tonks and Lupin still don't know anyone other than me who was brought up among muggles. They thought it best for me to explain."

"And that's it then?" Hermione questioned. Harry shook his head.

"That and the fact they thought it best for her to meet someone whom she would see a lot more of later. It was a case of receiving 5 owls at once – Literally simultaneously, it didn't half scare Hedwig"

"What do you mean you'll be seeing a lot more of her later?" Hermione enquired intrigued by Harry's last comment.

"Oh yes. I forgot to mention that Professor McGonagal has asked me to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts and be head of Gryffindor this year at Hogwarts."

"Wow!" Hermione exclaimed then remembered to keep her voice down. "That's great Harry but how does that affect Sarah?" she whispered.

"Didn't you receive an Owl about it? She's got into Hogwarts" Hermione shot him a look of apprehension. After her son had been accepted and they then discovered he was a squib he was so disappointed. He had loved the world of magic at Hogwarts and then to have to go to an ordinary school after a term there was almost unbearable for him.

"Don't worry," he continued, "They've double checked so as not to dissapoint her. She's definitely got magic in her veins."