Chapter Nine: Family Ties
Saturday, 31st July 1999.
Merlin appeared in the air of Fundamenta, watching silently as the four laughed at one another, confusing his systems once more. They often exhibited strange behaviour like this, but he had come to ignore it most of the time. The facility's sensors detected several high energy emissions in the nearby control and storage rooms and he attempted to draw the attention of the others.
"Welcome back." He stated, the four turning to face him and their laughter dying out.
"Hello, Merlin. How are you?" Luna asked.
He still wondered at the logic of asking a computer system how it was feeling but replied regardless, having adapted to the unusual comments of the blonde. "I am well. As you all seem to be. A successful mission?"
Harry rolled his eyes before speaking. "Kind of. We got what we asked for, but we need a better remote dialer."
Merlin simply watched him in return, awaiting clarification of the statement.
"The Astria Porta was underwater," Neville explained, shivering slightly, though Merlin could not see the cause as the life support system of the building was running at peak efficiency. "Seems that the Consortium was quite literally falling apart."
"That is distressing. It was a place of great knowledge." The computer replied, considering ways to return and salvage the data stored there.
"Thor saved it," Hermione added. "He has taken it away with him for now."
"And he gave us all we asked for in return." Harry finished, smiling widely.
"That is excellent news. I detected several other high energy bursts in the nearby spaces moments after your own arrival. Presumably the supplies." Merlin explained, pointing to two of the nearby doorways.
Neville nodded and headed for the storage room, the one that Luna and Harry had first appeared in when arriving in the structure. Inside were several tall stacks of dark grey metal ingots, laid out in well-organised piles reaching right to the roof. Beside them were yet more piles of clear crystals and in the corner were several chests filled with more crystals of varying colours and shapes.
"Looks like all the building blocks of some fancy new tech." He called over his shoulder.
"What is this?" Hermione asked, her voice coming from the control room.
Merlin shifted position instantly, joining her in the room as the others slowly filed in and saw her standing by a translucent white pillar with a flat pentagonal top. On its surface were five small yellow egg-shaped half stones.
"These look like the stones that Thor was using on his ship." Luna noted, "The gift, perhaps?"
"Seems likely," Harry said, stepping up beside Hermione. "They're numbered with Asgard runes."
Hermione picked up the rune labelled one and turned it in her hand. There seemed to be nothing unusual about the stones visually, but Merlin detected a low-level energy field contained within the stone. The girl placed it back but Harry moved as her hand retreated and he shifted the stone to the bright white circle atop the platter, a light scraping sound coming from the two materials as they experienced friction.
They were all surprised as a different kind of hologram appeared between the pillar and the main controls, this one taking the form of an Asgard.
"Welcome, class," it said in clipped English with a slightly metallic tinge to the words. "I am Mímir and today we will be discussing the Asgard Matter Translocation technology."
Harry tapped the stone and the hologram froze in place. "Amazing."
"Welcome class?" Hermione murmured softly. "That is…"
"I have a feeling this was not originally meant for us," Luna noted, stepping up to the hologram and waving her hand through it, before doing the same to Merlin who watched her without expression. "Unless Mímir was aboard that ship and was recording them while Thor was talking to us."
"What I have on hand. I think this might have been intended for the SGC." Hermione agreed.
"Allies and equals," Harry said aloud, looking as though he'd just figured something out. "We offered all the knowledge we possess, Thor reciprocated in the only way he could at the time. By providing us a learning resource he must have been saving for when the SGC reached a level at which they could function as equals."
"An astute observation. I will record the lessons to my memory bank," Merlin offered, "but I believe I will require someone to begin each one. I lack the physical means by which to maneuver the stones."
Harry tapped the stone once more and Mímir continued on, explaining the general operating principles of the technology. "It is quite similar in design to the beaming technology that Merlin utilised in the labs, though that was created shortly before their ascension by Ganos Lal on the remote planet upon which she chose to meditate upon her ascension, according to the notes from the Lab at least. I believe we should be able to integrate its design with our own. If I am correct, with the power provided by the potentia, this will allow instant travel across all of Earth's surface."
"You mean without using the Porta Mundas?" Neville enquired.
"Correct."
"Merlin," Hermione said, tapping the stone once more and pausing the hologram. "Is there a reason you did not tell us that we are genetically similar to the Lanteans?"
The computer turned and observed the girl. "I currently have a sample size of four. My scans indicated a similarity, but I was unable to determine whether it was due to lineage or evolution."
"You don't know if we're the descendants of the Lanteans or if we've just evolved in the same manner they did." Luna clarified.
"That is correct. It is this similarity that has allowed you unfettered control and access to the Lantean settlements. In their later years, the Lanteans protected their technology with a genetic marker requirement. Only people with the marker can use the control chair interface, for example. While anyone with an understanding of the language and the controls can operate the terminals here once they have been powered on by someone with the marker."
"Are there any other things about ourselves you are assessing that we might want to be made aware of?" Harry asked, looking at Merlin in an odd manner, as if he was angry at the computer.
"No. The scans of your genetics were simple information gathering by the system after you managed to use locked technology. The computer needed to know the status of your kind in order to cater its options for completing the mission. Without a broader sample size for a deeper analysis, anything more would be premature conjecture."
"In the future," Hermione said, moving beside Harry and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Inform us immediately of information of this sort, and we will assess what is relevant. We do not enjoy being kept in the dark about information that pertains to us."
The pair glanced at one another before they departed the room and the Porta Mundas activated. Merlin turned to the two remaining figures, uncertain what had upset the others so much.
"Harry has a bad history of being manipulated by those with more information than he has. You'd be wise to be completely open with us going forward." Neville explained as he too left the room, heading for the barracks.
Luna smiled at the hologram and tapped the stone once more, turning to observe the recorded Asgard. Merlin set a subroutine to record any of the transmissions being generated by the stones and began a new process dedicated to attempting to understand the odd ways of his newest companions. They continued to surprise and confound his expectations.
ϟ
Monday, 2nd August 1999.
"We've gone through four of the stones," Luna explained to the others as they sat about the table that Harry was sure had not been in this room the last time he had entered it. "So far we have incorporated the Asgard Matter technology into Fundamenta. The second stone contained the detailed breakdown of the galaxy we asked for in a data transfer burst. It took Merlin three attempts to capture it entirely.
"The third was the detailed record of the history of the Alliance of Four Races from the perspective of the Asgard. Again a data burst, but this time Merlin was able to absorb it in one go. The fourth is the complete analysis of human physiology they've accrued over the past few millennia."
"Did you find anything of value in that so far?" Hermione asked.
"I haven't looked through it. The second, third and fourth were data transfers of records and medical data… easier for Merlin to look through those, but they are in the database now if you want to dig through them. The final stone conjured a form of the matter device that we could integrate into our system. So, I busied myself working on the first stone and I noticed that when we combine the two forms of beaming technology, they function easily as a technological transfiguror, or as Merlin calls it, a molecular matter converter."
Luna grinned at them all as she leaned heavily on the table. Harry looked at the pale surface once more and realized what she meant. "I knew this wasn't here before."
"What?" Hermione asked, glancing in his direction.
"This table. This room was a storage room with seven boxes in it. They were all long decayed dried foods. You really…"
Luna nodded back at him. "The beam takes in the matter, and normally it is stored in a buffer and then beamed back out at the destination exactly as it was. But if you instruct the beam to only place the molecules in the buffer, you can reprogram them in the system before reintegration. Making something new."
"That's incredible," Hermione stated, looking closely at the surface of the table before dropping to the floor and inspecting the underside. Luna smiled at the other girl's behaviour.
"Merlin has already salvaged any remaining material from the destroyed conscensa and has the system mining resources from remote inaccessible places and is repairing the damage the ice has done to this structure over the years. Within a few weeks, this place will be as good as new. We can even use the converter on the ice, though those molecules possess less usable matter, being made almost entirely of hydrogen and oxygen."
"So instead of melting the sheet above us with the shield, we can just beam it out." Neville noted. "That will speed things up. And conserve the energy in the potentia far longer."
"Both technologies had the function to a point, in fact, it's how Merlin originally planned to build the Sangraal. Molecule by molecule."
"Then why do we need non-terrestrial matter to build it?" Harry asked. "Can't we just mine some dense materials from here on Earth and convert them?"
"Possibly, but what we lack is the full schematic. The design for the Sangraal is not stored in the lab here on Earth."
Harry sighed as he sagged. He thought they were so close to achieving their goal. Hermione resurfaced and moved up beside him, laying her head on his shoulder softly.
"It seems, whoever updated the system with the final entry also erased any trace of the plans from the records. Merlin believes it was an ascended being pretending to be Myrddin. The biology was close to a match for previous visits, and only another ascended being could fake that well enough to trick the sensors. It also means the Porta Mundas is a weakness in security when dealing with the ascended."
"How so?" Neville asked.
"The lab is designed to keep ascended beings from being able to enter or see into it. Myrddin was building what amounts to a weapon of mass ascended destruction. Merlin guesses that they feared he would use it against the Others and for that reason, they stopped him."
"So if an ascended being managed to get inside, they would have had to use the Porta Mundas." Hermione clarified
"Exactly. The record shows that is how access was achieved for the last entry."
"So we can't use them anymore?" Harry asked.
Luna smiled at him. "We don't have to. The beam technology works. I returned to Area 51 after we got it up and running in a single jump. Directly from here. I resealed the Astria Porta there and returned without issue."
"Well, at least this will speed up things once we do have what we need."
"What about the Astria Porta? Thor broke down the other two into their base components." Hermione noted.
"He only broke down the damaged ones. The Consortium gate was intact, but Merlin took it apart yesterday."
"Why?" Harry called.
"There is a new design in the database here. It will connect to the existing network, but apparently incorporates the updates of the Pegasus generation and then some. It can only be reached from off-world by dialling a unique changing nine chevron code. Making it about as secure as possible."
"Cool. I guess that is better than sealing it with an iron plate every time we want to use it."
"It'll take a while to fully build and integrate though. So I was thinking, maybe it's time we headed home for a while."
The others looked at each other. Harry considered the idea. They had been mostly out of touch with the rest of the world for the past three months, excepting his trip to the Ministry and the few people they spoke with during the week they went home and brought Neville back with them.
"I think that's a good idea. We're all a little prone to getting lost in our own worlds at times. And I haven't had a chance to talk to Ron in months."
Luna smiled at him softly. "He's due back from his honeymoon tomorrow."
Harry's eyes went wide and he choked on the air. "He what! Why wasn't I invited?"
"They eloped." Luna offered simply as she stood and headed for the exit.
Harry jumped up to follow her, nearly dislodging the chuckling Hermione as he moved. "You can't say that and just walk away, Luna. LUNA!"
ϟ
Tuesday, 3rd August 1999.
"Anyway, it's great. You should really give it another try, Harry." Ron said, stirring Harry from his dazed state once more.
"Give what? Marriage?" He mumbled in reply glancing over to the table where Hermione was chatting to Mary.
Ron smirked at him and clapped him on the shoulder. "That too, eventually. I was talking about Quidditch, mate. Where is your head at lately."
"I'm sorry, Ron. I haven't seen you in weeks and now I can't even focus."
"Nah, it's alright. You're just pretending not to be mad that I got married without you there." Ron noted, gazing longingly at the redheaded woman at the table in the kitchen. "I just… couldn't wait any longer. We were there, and it felt right. Meeting her just made the world right, you know?"
"Little bit." Harry replied, trying to tear his eyes from the kitchen. He finally managed to turn back to Ron. Once more feeling the sting of the fact that when Ron was tying the knot, he was likely no more than a few dozen miles away, preparing to travel to another world. "Why my birthday though?"
"Coz, I'll never forget the anniversary." Ron joked and Harry couldn't help but smile at his one-time best friend. "Seriously though, it just happened that way. Hope you don't mind."
"Of course not, Ron. I'm honoured. Just be a little more patient and invite me for the next big thing."
"Course I will. Unless it's…"
"Yeah, no. Let's not go there. You are free to do that without ever telling me a thing."
Ron chuckled and stood. "I'll be back in a sec, gotta show you my new outfit. Can you believe it?"
Harry nodded as Ron rushed out of the room and he sighed gently. He was happy for Ron. His friend was moving on with life at last after the pain the Weasley's had endured at the Battle of Hogwarts. Losing both his father and Percy in the fight had hit them all so hard. Harry had tried to be there but always felt like he was intruding on their pain. But now the boy he'd grown up beside had become a man, and while he wasn't looking. The unfortunate truth was that after that night on the Hunt, things had never truly returned to normal between the boys. Harry had tried, but something in their friendship was irrevocably tarnished by what they both said that night, and nothing so far had managed to mend the damage. As much as he wanted to do so, Harry was uncertain how.
Ron returned, a broad smile on his face and a hideously bright orange jersey on his torso. When he spun about and showed the back with the Keeper's number 1 and WEASLEY emblazoned on the back, Harry stood and walked over to him. Grabbing the other man in a firm hug as he turned around.
"I'm happy for you, Ron. And I'm glad stuff is working out for you."
Ron looked at him a little strangely for a moment, as if he wanted to question the behaviour before he shook it off like usual and his smile returned. "What about you? You've been away for a while. Mum wanted to invite you around for…"
He trailed off, his voice becoming slightly morose towards the end and Harry knew exactly what he meant. "I know, but I had to get away. You know what people are like… I couldn't deal with the looks."
"I know mate. It's hard enough for me. They all look so happy, like we are the reason the sun rises every morning. But… I finally understand how you felt all through Hogwarts. Winning loses its appeal when the cost is as high as it was."
Harry was proud of the change Ron had made in the past year. He had grown more since the war than in the decade beforehand. It was just a shame that he'd had to lose so much in order to get there. Harry would have given anything to spare the Weasley's the pain he'd known all his life. But today's visit had cemented one fact to Harry more than any other. He was slowly drifting away from the family he had once considered his own. Their paths were diverging and he was both a little scared by the idea of walking his own path alone, yet excited for its eventual destination.
"C'mon, let's go toss the ol' quaffle. Keep me sharp before the season starts." Ron encouraged, guiding him to the door.
He glanced back at the table as they passed, Hermione catching his eye. The smile on her face told him that he wasn't walking the path completely alone, and maybe he never truly would.
ϟ
Friday, 13th August 1999.
Hermione sighed as the beam energy dissipated around her form, leaving her alone in the calming silence of Fundamenta. Her eyes drifted slowly over the shape of the walls and the oddly hard yet forgiving floor and her mind felt at peace for the first time in days. It concerned her slightly that she now felt more at home in this alien facility than she did anywhere else but Grimmauld Place.
Something had changed in her, and now she felt out of place amongst those she had once considered friends. The politicking that went on around her and Harry was annoying enough, but now there was a disconnect between herself and the few she had managed to grow close with during her time at Hogwarts. A small handful still drew her interest, but they were the exception, it seemed, and not the rule.
The final straw had been her mistake of visiting her parents' former home. Seeing the happy family that had bought it seated in the front yard, despite the cloudy threat of summer rain, cooing at their little baby as they took what may well have been their first steps. An event she couldn't recall for herself. Had she done so on that very same lawn?
She wiped the forming tears from her eyes and stepped into the barracks, planning to have a lie-down and hopefully squash the return of the emptiness that she felt whenever she let herself remember her missing parents.
Hermione pushed her face into the soft pillowy surface of the bed and let go, allowing the tears to come and the sobs to wrack her body. She'd tried again to have the Ministry reach out to their foreign counterpart, but even in the months since they had first requested the Australian's search out her parents, they had found nothing new. Apparently, her parents were lost to her forever.
She paused in place for a moment as her mind made a connection that had eluded her beforehand. She sat up on the bed and wiped away the tears from her face, centring herself before she stood and rushed to the control room.
"Merlin?" She called into the humming air.
"Yes, Hermione?" The hologram asked, appearing in the air before her.
"I have a question. You scanned all of us, correct?"
"As we established, yes I did."
"And you have records of those scans?"
"Correct."
"And you can scan the surface of Earth for different types of energy and matter," she paused, "and people?"
"Indeed, the system is currently mining the necessary resources for the repairs to this facility from the Mariana Trench. Mainly the interplanetary sensor package now all the local sensors are repaired and fully functioning."
"Can you scan the planet for DNA signatures?"
Merlin tilted his head slightly as he looked at her. "Perhaps, I have never attempted to do so before now."
"Can you... " she paused again and tried to settle her racing heartbeat and quash the growing hope, just in case the answer was no. Taking a deep breath, she spoke once more. "Can you scan the continent of Australia for DNA signatures that match my own, with an acceptable margin of error to account for familial differences."
Merlin's face went blank for a moment as the computer processed her request. "Indeed. I have entered the parameters into a subroutine. I can inform you when the results are in. But I must warn you, such a search will take a lot longer than the ones we did for technology. Such a search requires a more detailed analysis of each subject to read to the DNA level."
His tone seemed to indicate that the computer system was at least mildly aware that her request was emotionally motivated. "Thank you. I understand. I'll be taking a rest in the barracks."
"On that note," Merlin added as she turned to walk away. "With the upgraded systems, I have managed to reinforce and repair several floors down from this location now. If you wish, there are proper rooms two floors down. You would not need to share a barrack, but rather have your own individual spaces, as you explained you have in your tent."
Hermione considered for a moment. "That… would be nice. Can you show me where?"
Merlin nodded and instead of vanishing, the hologram began to walk out of the room, a sight she had not often seen. Hermione followed the image, down several stairs and onto a floor she'd not been to before. She was aware from the reports and Harry's own information that the ferrum storage room started on this floor and extended down the next few floors, but Merlin was guiding her away from that section.
"Here we are." He indicated a door to their right and Hermione activated the panel by the doorframe.
The door slid open to reveal a much brighter room, and she stepped inside to get a better look. The walls were not the simple mottled grey of the upper floor, but had reds and browns graduating across the metals from which the walls were made. Several edged grooves on the walls indicated what she assumed were storage spaces and in the far corner was a large and extremely comfortable looking bed.
"It's wonderful, thank you, Merlin." She said to the image waiting out in the hall.
"You are most welcome. I have not installed emitters or scanners within the rooms, to allow you all your privacy. When I have a result on your search, I shall ping the intercom by the door."
With a nod, the aged image vanished and Hermione turned back to the bed. While it was still early in the time zone she had departed, the emotional drain on her body had her feeling ridiculously tired. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was out. Dreams of family filling her rest.
ϟ
Tuesday, 17th August 1999.
Harry opened his eyes as the control chair rose up once more. He sighed at the information he had just finished digesting. The SGC report that would have been rather useful to read before their journey to the Consortium, where that team had rescued the planet's sole inhabitant and identified the damage to the structure. It also noted that they'd been unable to redial the gate after their return indicating it had been buried in debris during the collapse of the structure due to the annual storms. Perhaps they'd have been luckier if it had stayed so buried.
As he sat forward, he noticed Hermione rush past into the control room. Surprised, he leapt from the chair and followed, where he found her looking over a scan result on the main control terminal.
"You are certain?" She asked the hologram.
"Two results located within the acceptable margin for error, taking into account recombination. Both signals are located together and have been so since the scan identified them."
"What's going on?" Harry asked, having not realized that Hermione was even present when he had arrived.
Hermione looked up and smiled at him, her voice wavering with emotion. "We found them."
Harry glanced between her and the hologram, confused. "Found who?"
"My parents."
Harry felt a rush run through him as he mirrored Hermione's smile. "You're sure."
"As I can be from a computer scan. They match my genetics, are in Australia and are together. The probability of it being anyone else is so remote as to be…"
"Beam them here," Harry instructed the computer.
Merlin nodded and dissolved as Hermione's eyes went wide. "Wait… don't. I'm not ready."
Before she finished speaking, a pair of bright lights appeared in the corner of the room and two middle-aged individuals appeared. Harry immediately noticed significant similarities between the two and Hermione, who remained behind the console hidden by the projected screen, immobile as the two looked around the room in confusion.
"What just happened." The male asked.
Harry searched his own memory for the conversation that he, Ron and Hermione had shared almost two years before. "Wendell?"
The man looked at him suspiciously before responding. "No."
"No?" Harry asked in confusion. He glanced at Hermione who was still frozen in place before he turned back to the pair. "Er, my name is Harry Potter. I am a friend of… no that won't work."
"We know who you are. Where is our daughter?" The woman asked, looking at Harry critically as well.
"Wait, you know? But you said…" Harry turned back to Hermione whose eyes had gone wide and who was beginning to shake slightly. "I really don't understand what is going on. Hermione said…"
"She told you that she wiped our memories and sent us away, against our will." The man said as the woman stepped to the side, her head craning around the holographic screen. "When in actual fact, she had a very long discussion with us about you and that war. She's as stubborn as we are. We wanted to refuse, to take her and run. But she can be awfully persuasive when it comes to you."
Harry felt naked under the man's intense gaze as a sob from his right pulled his attention away. The woman was now standing in front of Hermione looking at her as though the girl were about to break in two, and Harry had to resist the urge to rush to her defence.
"Hello, Hermione." The woman slowly stretched out a hand to the shaking girl and as it made contact with her arm, Hermione's body leapt forward and wrapped around the woman's. "There, there. It's been too long, sweetheart."
The man soon followed, the woman pulling him into a three-way hug and Harry began to feel as out of place as he had watching the Weasleys the day before. An outsider looking in on the happiness of true family. He turned away, embarrassed at his feelings and made to leave when a hand took his own.
"Harry. Stay, please." Hermione whimpered and he turned to see her still in their arms, but reaching out for him.
"You need time. I'm…"
"Welcome." The woman answered. "It's about time we did this, Harry Potter. I am Natalie Granger, this is Richard, whose idea of funny is a name like Wendell."
"Hey," Richard complained lightly.
"You managed to get our daughter through the war alive and get her back to us, for this you are always welcome among the Grangers."
Hermione's eyes were fixed on Harry's and he knew she could see the conflicting thoughts within him, so he simply nodded and allowed the girl to pull him closer. Natalie soon enfolded him into the hug as well and Harry began to feel a strange heat in his chest.
Several long moments of silence passed as the family stood in the middle of the room, embracing. Finally, it was Hermione who pulled away from the adults, Harry by her side as the two pairs mirrored them, except for the fact Harry and Hermione were still linked by their hands.
"I don't understand. I remember doing it. I remember walking up behind you both and taking all memory of me away."
"I told you that was a bad idea," Richard mumbled as Natalie shook her head and took Hermione's free hand.
"Because that is what we agreed you should remember. Like your father said, we discussed it all in great detail. When you would not be swayed from helping Harry, we made a plan together that would keep us out of harm's way so that we could not be used against you. As hard as it was to see you go off to war, I am so immensely proud of you, Hermione."
"Then… it wasn't your memory that was altered?"
"No, pumpkin pie, it was yours." Her father explained. "You should have done it yourself the day after we left for Australia. It was the only part of the cover story we actually followed. You were supposed to meet us at the ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park in Sydney on the first of the month, whichever month it happened to be that this nonsense ended. But you just never showed. After a year…"
"We apparently made the mistake of missing a few of the firsts. When did you come for us?"
"June, last year. I searched all month, but there was no trace of Wendell and Monica Wilkins."
"You see, Richard." Natalie growled.
"She's here now." He rolled his eyes in return.
"A year too late, and look at her. She's barely holding it together."
Hermione looked at the floor for a moment and Harry gave her hand a gentle squeeze, trying to convey his support. Her breathing steadied and she looked at him for a moment before returning her gaze to her parents. "Merlin?"
Her parents both looked at her in confusion before jumping in surprise as the hologram appeared to their left. "Yes, Hermione?"
"How are the simulations coming?"
"The calculations are completed. I prioritized them while running your search."
"Will it work, Merlin?" Harry asked, glancing at the hologram.
"Using the memory technology schematics Hermione located in the database and with her practical knowledge of the magic involved, the computer has estimated a ninety-seven per cent probability of success."
"Harry…" Hermione whispered, barely audible even at this range.
He looked down at her and saw the indecision in her eyes. "What do I need to do?" Harry asked the computer.
"Take her to the repository. I will run the subroutine when she looks into it."
"I can do that alone," Hermione explained, her voice not sounding nearly as confident as he was sure she meant it to.
"You think I'm letting you out of my sight right now?" Natalie asked, holding Hermione's hand tighter.
Hermione looked at Harry and he smiled at her, to try and bolster her spirit. "Merlin, can you…"
He did not finish as white light surrounded them all and within a moment they were within the Glastonbury cavern, standing by the Mirror device. The computer had even lessened their separation in the transit, bringing Richard even closer to the other three.
"Sorry about that, we need to work on giving Merlin a delay for transport. He seems to enjoy doing it mid-sentence."
"What is this place?!" Richard asked curiously as he looked about the rough-hewn tunnel.
"Er, sorry. This place was built by a really clever alien over a thousand years ago. This device was made to allow any who found it to understand its workings and complete his work. But, because it interfaces directly with the mind and your memory, Hermione has apparently figured out a way to use it to restore hidden memories." He stepped up beside the Mirror device. "Only, it seems, it will be Hermione who'll be using it instead of you."
Hermione did not let go of either of the comforting hands as she turned to face the device, Harry moving so as to allow her to step up in front of it. She took a deep breath and glanced at her mother before she turned to face the Mirror and leaned up to look inside.
Harry watched as the lights within came alive and Hermione's face shone once more with their colour. The device hummed slightly as it worked and after a few moments, the lights vanished and Hermione stumbled slightly, but to Harry's surprise, she did not fall backwards, simply rocking back on her heels.
"How can I be so stupid? Of course I didn't just scramble your minds without talking to you first."
"Been worried sick we were going to disown you or something, weren't you?" Richard asked, smiling at his daughter.
Hermione released Harry's hand and threw her arms around her mother again. "There's my girl."
"Well, I was a little stupid. Who performs a memory charm that complex on themselves? Intentionally? I was such an idiot. I messed it up. The longer I went without finding you, the more I feared doing so. When you beamed into Fundamenta, I was caught between the two desires."
Harry backed away slightly as the girl embraced her father once more, Natalie watching from the side smiling at the proper reunion of their family, and Harry once more felt like he was intruding on something special they deserved to deal with alone. He fumbled about in his pocket, searching for the small dongle Merlin had fashioned, one for each of them.
As his fingers closed around it, Hermione turned to smile at him but her smile dropped as she saw his face. Her eyes narrowed and followed his arm as he depressed the button and with a burst of white light, Harry felt himself shifted away, one word ringing jokingly in his ears in Hermione's voice. "Coward!"