Chapter 3

Silence, Sounds, and Separation

As it happened, Harry wished he had thought this trip through a bit more. He was currently staying in a rather disgusting muggle motel, had yet to find where the wizarding world could be reached, and was getting low on muggle money to continue this stay. So far he had received two owls, one from George complaining about his abrupt disappearance and Chrookshanks' incorrigible behavior in his absence. George had also inquired about where he'd gone off to, claiming he deserved to know since he was currently being subjected to 'that horrible cat.' Ron had also written, to apologize for his drunken state at their last meeting, but he had also pointed out that he was right and he wasn't going to apologize for what he said. Harry had not responded to either of these owls. In fact, his last month had been spent standing outside of the muggle library he'd seen in the paper under his invisibility cloak watching everyone who filtered in or out of the entrance. So far, he had seen exactly nothing of note.

There were some regulars who came to the library everyday, but Hermione was not one of them. Harry had managed to memorize a fair number of them, as well as the times they arrived. Unfortunately, none of this got him closer to finding Hermione. He was becoming more and more impatient with every uneventful day. It was on day 32 that he decided he had had enough of the cloak, and instead decided to sit in the coffee shop. He still stayed all day, much to the annoyance of the barista, who shot him disapproving looks when he spent the day drinking water and only purchasing a muffin. It was nearly 4:00 in the afternoon before it happened, she walked in. She scanned the coffee shop and her eyes passed over him without so much as a flicker. She looked so different, her hair was blonde and braided neatly over her shoulder, and she wore a lovely purple sundress, a sleeved thing that covered her arms but not her legs. This gave him a clear view of her shins, which where covered in an array of tiny scars he wouldn't have noticed if he didn't know they'd be there. He knew what caused them as well, he and Ron shared them, they were burns, from Bellatrix's vault. She had more curves than he remembered, she was still on the thin side but most definitely a woman, not the girl he remembered. It really was no wonder she hadn't been found, she didn't look like herself, not really. The blonde hair didn't suit her and looked horribly out of place.

Harry was frozen as he watched her enter the small coffee shop, arms filled with books and notepads, a pen tucked behind her ear. She picked a small booth and Harry watched closely as the barista approached her, they seemed to know one another and Hermione ordered a drink of some sort and something the barista said made her laugh. Harry could've sworn the air left his lungs. He was not close enough to hear the conversation, but her laugh rang clear and he nearly cried with elation at the beauty of it. It was a sound he hadn't realized he'd needed, but now it felt like oxygen, like he would die without it. How had he forgotten her laugh? Her voice?

As soon as the barista had left Hermione began to spread books over the table, opening notebooks and beginning to work in earnest. He held back for only seconds before shouting her name. She lifted her head as he approached, her expression confused. Instead of the recognition and happiness he desperately craved. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" She asked. If she was lying, she was doing a remarkable job of it. Her face gave nothing away and Harry's chest ached.

"Yes, I'm Harry, we went to school together, you're Hermione Granger, don't you remember?" His voice sounded desperate, even to himself but he couldn't help the slight pleading in his tone. This was not the reunion he'd spent three years fantasizing about, this was anticlimactic at best and heartbreaking at worst.

"It's Slate now, actually." She responded, breaking his reverie.

"Um, I'm sorry, what now?" He asked quietly.

"My last name, it's Slate actually." She held up her left hand and Harry saw it, a small but tasteful silver band, with three diamonds in the center, glittering on her finger. Harry began to wonder if he would asphyxiate from the sheer number of times he'd had the air forcibly removed from his lungs. If he wasn't staring right at her he wouldn't believe it was her at all. She was married. Barely 20 years old and Hermione Granger was married. "But my maiden name was Granger, and to be perfectly honest with you, I wasn't terribly popular in school, so I didn't have a lot of friends, but I apologize for not remembering you." She continued as though she hadn't just turned Harry's life upside down. Not terribly popular? She had been awarded an Order of Merlin, first class, in absentia, he'd been saved by her more times than he could count, and he'd thrown three years of his life away in search of her, she was on a Chocolate Frog card! It didn't get more popular than that. He felt horribly blind-sided.

"I went to a boarding school in Scotland, you remember it, don't you?" He asked desperately.

"Of course!" The look on her face showed growing concern, she seemed to be unsure of his mental state and he briefly wondered if she was agreeing with him for the sake of ending the discussion. "The Merlin Academy, you attended as well?"

"Wait, like a muggle school?" Harry asked. This was the most horribly disconcerting conversation he'd ever engaged in, The Merlin Academy? What in the world was that? How had she forgotten her best friends, Hogwarts, the war. It felt like he'd been hurled into a chess game where he'd been shorted half his pieces.

"I'm sorry, a what now? It was just a regular boarding school I suppose." Her eyes darted around the cafe as though looking for a reason to leave his presence and panic coursed through Harry, he needed to wrangle his emotions. Snape's voice blazed through his mind 'control your emotions!' He took a calming breath and schooled his features. She clearly did not remember him, he needed to learn what she did remember, he needed her to allow him into her life, which meant he needed to at least seem like a sane person, kidnapping her wasn't an option.

He tried to tie his emotions up in a neat little box, envisioned it in his mind. The desire to jump on her and apperate home, the desire to tell her how long he'd thought of nothing but her, to tell her she'd been the singular focus of his waking mind for three years and he'd missed her terribly. Thankfully, what came out of his mouth was much more controlled, "yes, The Merlin Academy, I'm sorry, I just haven't seen anyone around here, from school I mean, it's lovely to see you Hermione. What do you do?"

There it was again, that laugh, that heart-stopping, arresting sound, that sound that broke his heart and filled it all at once. "To be perfectly honest, very little, especially compared to what I'd like to be doing." She began, as though she hadn't just stolen the very oxygen he so desperately needed, for the thousandth time since she'd walked in.

"I apologize, will you be here tomorrow, I'd love to meet. Unfortunately, I have a prior engagement I cannot change." He knew it was a was a weak excuse but he couldn't process all of these developments with a straight face. "Same time, same place? I"ll buy you a drink. Promise."

She nodded and Harry made a hasty exit. He needed a plan, at least an idea of one, because his current plan was to kidnap her, and something told him that in this case, it wasn't viable.