In this story, the plot of Druella and Walburga's characters is inspired/taken from redrainofroses (Druella) and macvanliepertja (Walburga) on TikTok. It's not all the same as their series, but they heavily inspire it, so please go and check out their Druella and Walburga series. Thank you :)
- Disclaimer -
I do not own any of the characters in this story so far. I only own the plot - the rest belongs to JK Rowling, despite how much that pains me to say.
TRANS PEOPLE ARE WELCOME HERE. JUST BECAUSE I AM USING JK'S WORK DOES NOT MEAN I SUPPORT HER VIEWS AND OPINIONS. THANK YOU FOR CLICKING ON THIS STORY - I HOPE YOU ENJOY :D
The sound of hushed conversation was what greeted Hermione when she woke up for the second time that day, immediately alerting her to the presence of other people. Despite hitting her head, she still remembered the situation she was in. She was locked in a house full of pureblood Death Eaters without a wand and no way out. Keeping her eyes closed, she strained to hear the whispered conversation taking place on the other side of the room.
"-fall must have done more damage than what I had first thought, and I suspect she must have lost her memories. We can only hope that this second fall has done no more damage and, if we're lucky, it may bring back her forgotten memories. It's rare, but it happens."
Forgotten memories - surely they weren't talking about her? Opening her eyes, she was about to protest the ridiculous statement when, suddenly, a girl's face loomed over hers. Their eyes locked for a second, and the girl looked like she was about to speak before a gasp ripped its way out of Hermione's throat. She felt her eyes roll backwards, her body seizing.
"Druella! What did you do?"
"Nothing! I just looked into her eyes, and she started seizing!"
Hermione felt cold hands clutch at her cheeks, turning her head left and right, heard several people calling her name and what sounded like sobs, but she couldn't see anything. It was black for what seemed like forever as her body thrashed up and down on the mattress, her senses slowly leaving her one by one. She couldn't hear anything, and the cold touch on her face was fading, but she wasn't panicking. If she was dying, then at least she could escape the hellhole and join her friends in whatever afterlife awaited her.
"Oh please, Hermione. We all know Druella is better at sewing than you!"
Her thoughts came to a halt - what on earth was that? If Hermione had had any control over her body, then she probably would have frozen. Something had just flashed through her mind. It was like a memory, but it didn't belong to her; she had never seen that girl in her life.
"See, I told you! I knew you would get into Slytherin - I don't know where you got that silly fear of getting into Gryffindor. You're a Slytherin through and through, Mione!"
Panic bloomed in her chest as more and more of these 'memory snippets' zoomed through her mind. Slowly, things seemed to make sense, but as more memories rushed in, the more her mind felt like it was going to explode as two lives fought for dominance. Hermione Granger and Hermione Rosier were at war, their conflicting morals striking against each other. Each hit against the other expanded the pain that she felt, and she could've sworn her head was splitting open.
Suddenly, her senses seemed to snap back to life, but it took her a moment to realise that she was no longer seizing. Instead, the cold hands that had touched her face earlier were now pumping up and down on her chest, and she quickly realised that she wasn't breathing. Immediately, Hermione took a deep, shuddering breath in. However, she never got around to exhaling because the two raging personalities of Hermione Granger and Hermione Rosier seemed to collapse into each other as soon as the cool air filled her lungs.
Instantly, a scream tore through her throat as her body began thrashing up and down again - this time from the pain, not a seizure. She had never experienced pain like this - not even Bellatrix hadn't been this bad. The two conflicting lives were merging, yet their memories were still separate. Even while screaming, she knew that Hermione Granger didn't exist anymore, nor did Hermione Rosier.
They were gone, and in their place was her, a mixture of them both.
Her scream suddenly stopped, almost as quickly as it had started, and her eyes flew open involuntarily. Without a second thought, she knew that she would have to act clueless to what had happened - both just now and when she had first woken up. She had no desire to try and explain why she had screamed and then ran around the house trying to find an exit.
"Hermione, dear?"
The woman she now knew was her mother slowly approached her, deep concern written across her face as she sat down in the chair next to the bed. It wasn't hard for Hermione to act confused, her eyebrows pulling together as the corners of her mouth pulled down into a frown.
"Mother? What happened?"
Hermione cringed at the croak that was her voice - the repeated screaming had strained a few vocal cords. Her mother's eyebrows rose slightly at her answer, turning in her seat to look at the others in the room before turning to look at Hermione again. This time her face was confused as she looked down at her daughter, voice shaking ever so slightly as she spoke.
"You don't remember anything, darling?"
Shaking her head, Hermione looked past her mother at the other people in the room. She was surprised and relieved to recognise everyone in the room - her father, the family healer, her two younger sisters, and her twin sister, Druella. Knowing everyone was disconcerting. These were the same people she had run from just a few hours earlier, and now they were a comfort to her.
Looking extremely worried, her mother stood up, moving out of the way as the healer stepped forward to examine her. A light was shone in her eyes, her throat was prodded, and she had more potions poured down her throat in 5 minutes than she had in her whole life. She was grateful for them, though, as they got rid of her sore throat and pounding head almost immediately. Satisfied, the healer nodded before smiling at her and turning back to talk to her parents.
"She seems fine. Her memories are back, and the potions have healed everything else for her. The only thing I recommend is bed rest for a few days, and then she should be back to her normal self."
"Just like that?"
"Exactly. I have to be going now that I know everything is ok, but floo me immediately if anything seems abnormal. Otherwise, I will be back to check on her in a few days." He looked over at Druella, who had begun to inch towards the bed. "I would also recommend that you give her some space for now. I know that you want to try and figure out what happened, but she needs her rest. Any questions you have will have to wait."
Hermione thanked her lucky stars. A few days gave her time to try and think about how to spin her story. The last thing she remembered before waking up without her memories was playing hide and seek with her siblings, not looking where she was going and falling down the stairs. She would have to say that she only remembered falling and then waking up in her bed with a sore throat.
"Druella, she needs her rest!"
"I know, I'm just giving her a hug!"
Turning her head to the side, Hermione barely had time to blink before her sister's hair smothered her. God, is this what people felt like when she hugged them? She never thought she would find someone with hair as bad as her own, but here she was.
"I'll come to visit you every day, ok?"
Smiling at the whispered promise, she nodded. Grinning, Druella let go before walking meekly back to her mother's side, waving as they walked out of the room. Hermione didn't get time to wave back before the door was closed. Sighing in relief, she relaxed into the mattress, only now realising just how soft this bed was. She hadn't slept in a bed this soft since she had been at Bill and Fleur's.
Despite knowing that she had to figure out a way back to her own time, she allowed herself to relax. She was currently in a 12-year-olds body which meant that she didn't have a magical core as large as she was used to. It would be a while until she could find her way back and knew she couldn't recruit outside help. They would think she had gone mad - especially with this recent head injury.
For now, she would relax. There was plenty of time to figure a way back.
