a/n posting in celebration of hitting my 50,000 word goal for NaNoWriMo before the end of the month, still more to go, I have a few more chapters complete and a few more started with at least a few beyond that to work on. Thank you to everyone following and reading, please please feel free to review. I know people are reading but have no idea what you like or don't.

11/27/99 (some words are straight JKR, I take no credit for them)

Hermione,

The memories I'm sending today go much further back. They should be some of the first that you had of me that would be gone. They are also memories I'm not proud of. I was a horrendous child. At the time I didn't think that. I rather thought I was better than most anyone due to my family name and our money. I learned better though it took some things that no one should have to live through for me to learn. You will see some memories that you appear in, though the first is just me and my dorm mates after our first potions class together. Before you even view it and the one that follows I want to apologize and say if after seeing them you decide not to continue I understand though I will try to convince you otherwise, selfishness is still one of my more predominant traits though I am working on it.

This is a time where once again I will let the memories speak for themselves just please keep in mind I was a young, ignorant, fool.

Always yours,

Draco

As had become their habit Harry and Hermione stood side by side at the Pensieve and leaned over the bowl together. They landed in a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantlepiece, several high backed chairs sat around it.

"The Slytherin common room," Harry murmured.

Several young boys sat in the chairs, an even younger Draco than Hermione had seen in the previous memories stood in the middle of them.

"Who is she?' he groused, "Who does she think she is? Some Mudblood practically jumping out of her seat to answer questions as if she knows anything at all. She shouldn't be so eager to prove herself an idiot. I could have answered all of that but you didn't see me nearly wetting myself in excitement. Potter was the one that was supposed to answer there was no reason for any of the rest of us to even try."

They heard the other boys make noises of agreement as the scene in front of them changed. They were no longer in the dungeon; they weren't even in the castle any longer. They had landed outside Hagrid's hut. They could see little Draco peering in the window through the crack in the curtains and when they came up behind him they could see their younger selves sitting around the table where they watched the dragon egg on the table crack open and the young Norwegian Ridgeback come out.

The color suddenly drained from Hagrid's face - he leapt to his feet and ran to the window.

They could hear him say "Someone was looking' through the gap in the curtains - it's a kid - he's runnin' back up ter the school."

Young Harry bolted to the door and looked out. Malfoy had run between the adults and was headed back up the hill.

Seconds later they were back in the castle where two people were grappling with each other. A lamp flared.

Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, had Malfoy by the ear.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you-"

"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter's coming - he's got a dragon!"

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on - I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

The two figures walked away down the hall and the scene changed once more. Now they stood in the front hall with Malfoy and Filch, watching Harry, Hermione, and Neville come down the stairs.

"Follow me," said Filch, as he lit a lamp and led the children outside.

Hermione pulled back on Harry by their joined hands until they were as far back from the children as they could be without leaving the Pensieve.

"This isn't right," she said. "I remember all of these I've been in but it wasn't Malfoy it was Theo Nott."

Harry looked at her, "Theo Nott?"

"Yes," she insisted.

As the children entered the forest with Hagrid, Harry pulled them out of the memory. As they stood next to the table in the small room again he looked at her and said, "Ok let me be sure I understand. You have these memories. You remember us at Hagrid's when Norberta hatched. You remember seeing McGonagall catch someone and give them detention as we were headed to meet Charlie with the dragon and you remember going to detention but in what you remember Draco is never there, it's Nott instead."

"That's exactly what I'm saying Harry."

He shook his head, "I don't understand. Draco's memories match mine. I don't-"

She shrugged and interrupted, "I don't understand either but I know what's in my head. Here, take Draco's memories out of the Pensieve." She picked up the vial and handed it to Harry.

Harry used his wand to draw Draco's memories into the vial, capped it, and set it aside. Hermione lifted her own wand to her temple, drew out a long thin silver strand, and sent it down into the pensieve. She took Harry's hand and said, "Here."

They landed back at Hagrid's hut, this time inside near their younger selves. Once again they watched the baby dragon hatch from its egg, Hagrid coo over it, then jump up and rush to the window.

"What's the matter?"

Young Harry bolted to the door, opened it, and saw a student running away. The adults stood close behind him. They could clearly see that it was black haired Theodore Nott running towards the castle.

Shortly they were again standing in the darkened hallway watching two figures struggle and the lamp flare to life again. There stood Professor McGonagall in her tartan bathrobe and hair net. It was Nott that she held by the ear insisting that Harry was coming with a dragon. It was Nott assigned to the detention, and it was Nott that she said that she would speak to Snape about.

It was little surprise to Harry when they found themselves standing in the entrance hall behind young Harry Hermione and Neville across from Filch was Theo. Filch again led the children to the Forbidden Forest to be met by Hagrid.

At this they came back out of the memory. Harry stepped back for a moment, crossing his arms over his chest, putting a finger to his lips, "So Unspeakable didn't just remove memories he modified some of them."

"I suppose he did all of the spells non-verbally," Hermione said.

"Yes," he replied. "He never said a word. Kingsley assured me that he would use Leglimens along with Obliviate to be sure that he took only what was necessary and left behind the rest. I should have realized they would also modify. We haven't spoken about what happened at school since your Obliviation or I might have realized before now that that was what was done."

She leaned against the table, "I wonder what a effect this will have on recovering my memory. I wonder if it will be easier to recover a modified memory rather than one that has been taken away."

Harry looked to the ceiling and back down at her, "I don't know. It seems like it would be easier. I guess we'll find out. I have an idea take your memories out and put them in a separate vial. I'll show you my memories of the same times."

Hermione picked up her wand from where she had laid it next to the pensieve on the table and used it to draw the silvery strand of her memory from the pensieve and into an empty vial that Harry had summoned from number 12.

Then it was Harry's turn to put his wand to his temple and down into the bowl. For the third time that afternoon they dove into the past landing in a slightly different location in Hagrid's Hut where they could see the table, the children, hagrid, and the hatching egg. Hermione didn't wait this time instead she walked to the crack in the curtains at the window to see the bright blond hair of the boy peering in. She turned to look at Harry just as Hagrid came running to the window.

"It's Draco," she said.

As young Harry called nearly the same thing from the door.

The familiar mists swirled as the scene shifted and they found themselves back in the hallway to the Astronomy Tower. There plaid clad McGonagall had blonde-headed Malfoy by the ear, chewing him out. This memory continue as the two figures disappeared down the hallway Harry and Hermione appeared from beneath the invisibility cloak.

Hermione was dancing, "Malfoy's got detention. I could sing!"

As they stepped down the stairs into the front entrance hall behind their younger selves and little Neville they saw Filch with young Malfoy. She didn't wait this time for Filch to lead the children to the forest to join Hagrid.

Again she leaned on the table considering, "It should be no surprise to me that your memories are the same as his. I assume we are to go back to Hogwarts again?"

He nodded. She gestured to the door and let him lead the way. Before following him she turned to look at the vial of her memories, the one filled with Draco's, and the swirling silver of Harry's in the bowl.

"I will understand this and get it all back," she insisted to the empty room before heading out.

As they landed outside the gate of Hogwarts Harry said, "We won't be going to the Slytherin common room as you've never been there anyway with or without Draco. We will however go to Hagrid's and up to the hallway outside of the Astronomy Tower. If you would like, I think we could get a copy of Hagrid's memory or one from Headmistress McGonagall and use the pensieve in her office to view them."

She thought for a moment, "I appreciate the thought but I don't think that's necessary. I believe you. I knew my memories had been deleted, erased I had just never thought that some might only be modified. I don't know that I thought it was possible."

They first entered the castle they went straight for the hallway outside the astronomy tower. Hermione had no different reaction there than she had in the library the first time they had visited it. She led the way as they walked back down the stairs to the entrance hall, next they walked to the edge of the Forbidden Forest and just stood there for a few moments. She walked back and forth there at the edge, risking a few steps into the Forest itself before she then turned and headed to Hagrid's.

The visit to Hagrid's hut took longer than expected as he was home and happy to welcome them for tea and cake. It had been several months he had seen either Harry or Hermione. He wanted to catch up with them and to fill them in on Grawp and Fang and the creatures that he was using this term in his Care of Magical Creatures classes. They all sat inside the hut at the same table that had so many times before. The one they had seen three times already today before arriving. Hermione only half listened as Hagrid spoke. The memories in her head hers, Harry, and Draco's took most of her attention. She knew of course it was possible to modify memories. It was what she had done to her own parents. She had simply removed herself from their memories however she had not replaced herself with some other child. She should have known that it was a possibility but hadn't given it a thought, simply concentrating on recovering the memories that were no longer there at all. It seemed she hadn't thought of that when she had first suggested the plan to Kingsley. Even that discussion was gone, she realized.

They didn't get back home until late that evening and both went straight off to bed.

The next afternoon Harry was sitting by the fire polishing his broom that had become dusty from lack of use and being stored in the hall closet when Hermione came rushing through the door.

"Come with me," she cried.

She didn't wait for him to respond. She crossed the room to stand in front of him, grabbed the broom from his hands, took them, pulled him from the chair, and took him with her out the door and into number 13.

"Hermione what's wrong?" asked Harry.

"I need you to come with me into the pensieve. I need you to see if you see what I see," she was quite nearly rambling.

Harry's left eye squinted as his right eyebrow shot up, "Slow down! What are you talking about?

"I just made a new copy of my memories and watched them but something's different this time. I think it... it... I need you to come with me see the difference," she insisted.

By then they had reached the room. She led him to the table but didn't let him get any further words out before sending them flying back into the past once again. They landed, as they had twice yesterday in Hagrid's Hut.

"What am I looking for?" Harry asked.

Hermione shook her head vigorously, "I'm not going to tell you. I want to see if you see what I saw."

By this time in the memory Hagrid was at the window and young harry was running for the door. At Hermione's urging adult Harry followed his younger self. There was of course a child running away from the hut that clearly had Draco's bright blonde hair but not his slight build. He turned back to Hermione.

Before he could say or ask her anything the scene shifted again. In the hallway once the lamp was lit, it was clear the child McGonagall held was Theo with Draco's hair. They saw the same thing again in the entrance hall with Filch and the others.

When they landed back in the small room at number 13 Grimmauld Place Hermione very nearly shrieked, "You saw it!"

Harry blinked his eyes then held up one hand, "You said those are new copies of your memory right?"

"Yes!" she squealed.

He walked over and sat in the large chair in the corner just on the edge of it, forearms on his knees. He started by looking at the floor sitting quietly for a little while, then raised his head to look at his friend, "It looks like your memory is repairing itself."

Hermione flung both hands out to the side, "I know! At least I think that's what's happening." She reached down to the table and picked up two vials that she had labeled D and H. I did what I've done the last two times. I went back in to rewatch the memories. When I went to rewatch my own something told me not to watch the ones from yesterday but to access them again so I did and this is what I got," she said pointing to the silvery swirls in the bowl.

Harry stood and walked over to her putting his hands on her shoulders, "This is great! This is progress!"

She laughed excitedly and hugged him then stepped back. As he watched her, her face fell, "What if they go back to the way they were? What if I don't get any better? What if I lose the progress I've made?"

"'Mione," he said quietly, "don't borrow trouble. Concentrate on the positive on the progress."

"I'll try," she promised.