The Waiting Game

After Aila woke up, and was able to see her father again she spent all of her time talking to him about her childhood. There was just the slight problem that, his 'wife' was somehow not in any of them. She explained it off by saying that she was always at work, or that she was on a business trip, or that she was sick, or just not home. She was shocked that he wasn't getting any hint that she was in no way, shape, or form married to him. He just thought she was busy working, getting all the money.

Another unexplainable problem was that his second daughter was never home either. She can't work all the time. So the story was that Hilary had lots of health problems, and was always sick, or at the hospital. She had a disease that was miraculously cured before she went to school. Aila hated lying to her father, but there was no choice. Suddenly he had been married to his wife for 17 years. Not married 6 divorced 11. Wouldn't it have been easier to tell him that she was his ex-wife, only here to comfort her daughter? Of course not.

But, Aila loved envisioning her parents married. She sometimes made up stories about their family. Mum making some stew, and accidentally making it explode, or her and Hilary's 8th birthday, or something. Mum would fill him on their first date, their wedding, life at school, their life without kids, how they met, and all the true stories that Aila never ever heard. Like how when she finally first asked Dad to go on a date he ran off with some tramp named Lavender, and that he saved Mum from a mountain troll their first year at Hogwarts, that she had always loved him, and he never returned her affection, how she helped him onto the school Quidditch team by confounding the opponent, that she attacked him with birds, that when he accidentally swallowed a poison he said her name in his sleep, it made Aila wonder how they ever lived without each other. They were such a big part of each other's lives!

OoOO00OOoO

She could smack her head against a wall. She had a boyfriend. She was not married to Ron Weasley. Why did she say he was? She didn't even know. So she had been toying with the idea of being married again, but not to him. Maybe. She liked telling him all of the Hogwarts stories, it was so much fun. But that was past this was now. She is dating Joshua. Had a date for tonight. How would she explain leaving? "I know I said that we were married, but I was lying and now I have a date with another man. See ya! Then leave. No. That would be cruel, he was the father of her daughter, and he wasn't about to leave her life again.

So there she was. Sitting at the edge of his bed. Hoping his memory would come back as soon as possible. The healer said that the damage wasn't permanent, and that it would come back sometime in the next month, if he takes his potion regularly. It amazed Hermione how much magic could and couldn't do for a thing like this. They can make him heal, but they can't do it with just a flick of a wand. They can make his memory come back but again, not with a flick of a wand. If magic makes it easier, then can't it at least do it faster? She was thankful that it could do what it could, if they were muggles, then now he would be dead because of his internal injuries.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came to visit Ron as often as they could, but they had so many grand kids that they took care of, they were obviously the first choice for a baby sitter. Sometimes Hermione insisted that Aila and Hilary go with them, to get away from the hospital, and for Hilary to get to know her grandparents and cousins better.

It was pathetic how cute he was clueless. And that she could admit it.

OoOO00OOoO

Hilary bounced her little cousin, Andromeda, on her knee. She was helping take care of her cousins at her grandparent's house. Her mother had sent her there to give her a chance to get away. And Hialry was thankful; everything was so serious there. Here everything was so exciting. They lived on a farm in Scotland They said that they used to live at the Burrow, but had sold it to Ron after he got married so that they could have a smaller house. And so that Granddad could have a place to put his muggle trinkets, because their shed at the burrow was getting very cramped.

Grandmum was very upset that Hogwarts was giving her so much time off. Her education was all too important for her to miss it. But Christmas break was only a week away, why go back to leave again? She lay back in her seat and poked the little girl in the tummy. She giggled and smiled up and Hilary with a big smile. She was so cute.

She stood up and walked across the room and put Andromeda down. Across the wall were pictures of her father, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The first picture was a clipping from a newspaper. Here dad must have been about thirteen, and they were standing in front of a pyramid, all waving. What caught Hilary by surprise was that her father was holding a rat. A rat. She moved down and there were pictures of all of her aunts and uncles when they were either young or UN married. There was one picture of Mamma, dad, and uncle Harry all sitting together in the Gryffindor common room. They had to have been 15 or 16. There were no pictures of them from their 7th year of Hogwarts, but no one would explain why that happened.

It was almost December and they were very behind on their studies, so they had to expect a load of homework when they got back. Her mamma was a bit upset that she was missing so much school and was very worried about her finals coming. They had missed so much work. So tomorrow Mamma was going up to Hogwarts to get their homework, and she was planning on tutoring the two over the rest of their time off. It would be a while before they were completely caught up, and she was not looking forward to studying again. Her mother was bound to be a slave driver. She walked out to the kitchen and got herself a muffin from a cooling rack and decided to take a walk.

OoOO00OOoO

A couple weeks went by, and Ron had not gotten his memory back yet. Hermione tutored her daughters. She was so proud of how intelligent they were despite their long absence from school.

The Healers expected Ron to get his memory anytime soon. But Hermione for some reason wanted things to stay the way they were. With her and her daughters together all the time, her (ex) husband being so loving to her all the time. Joshua had broken up with her a week ago. He was tired of her not spending time with him. But she wasn't sad. He was too demanding. And besides she was 'married'. So he acted somewhat like a 4-year-old most of the time, what's new?

She sat by his bed while he told her all about the dream he had had the night before. He was a boy, about thirteen, and he was stuck in a shack with a girl (who strangely enough looked like Hermione) and another boy who had messy black hair, a scar on his forehead, wore glasses. They were with a guy who said he was their teacher, a guy who said he was the black haired boy's dead father's best friend, and a man who could turn into a rat. He said that his leg had hurt a lot and that apparently the rat-man was once his pet. "Odd huh?" he asked after saying exactly what had happened in his dream.

"oh, very odd." Said Hermione, who was puzzling over the fact that that had actually happened, and he dreamed about it. She asked the healer about it and she said that that was a very good sign. His memory was coming and might even be back by the end of the week.

Hermione hoped he wouldn't remember his time being memory-less.