Chapter 4

The Second Meeting

Harry did not have a restful night. In fact, he spent the majority of the evening adding more notes to his collection. Unfortunately, these notes consisted of half-formed ideas and thoughts. This was going to be more difficult than he expected. She was married, she had no idea who he was, she did not remember Hogwarts, or their history, or their friends. Somehow he had to find those memories and return them.

What of this mysterious husband? Was he a wizard? Did he know who she was? Had he done this to her? Or was he entirely separate from the whole affair? A coincidence she'd happened upon since she'd clearly become a muggle? When Harry looked over his notes again he found more questions than answers. It was worrying. For the first time in three years he'd been close enough to touch her, heard her voice, saw her right in front of him. Yet, he'd never felt further from her. It simply wasn't her. This strange muggle version of her walking around wearing his best friend's skin was so far removed from the Hermione he'd been searching for he didn't know where to go from here. Was he supposed to make friends with this new Hermione?

He had started to write about 15 separate letters, to Ron, to George, and even one to Kingsley. All of them were now crumpled in the dented wastebasket in the corner. What exactly was he supposed to say? 'Hello, it's Harry, I've found her, but it's not her?'

So by the afternoon of the following day Harry had resolved to find out as much as possible about her life before he made any sort of decision. He would just learn, pretend he'd just met her and learn. This is what he repeated to himself over and over as he headed for the library.

He found her again in the same booth, with books and notebooks spread around her once more. Only his resolve was broken entirely when he saw she wasn't alone. Tucked inside the booth was a small child, and not just any small child, a little girl. A girl who so resembled Hermione herself it made his head swim. Her curly dark hair bounced around her chubby cheeks and she had buck teeth that brought Harry forcibly back to Hermione in first year. If he didn't know better he would think the child had to be her daughter, but Hermione was much too young and responsible to have a toddler. It had to be a sister or a cousin, he decided.

"Hello Harry!" She said brightly has he approached her booth.

"Hello Hermione, and who's this?" His voice shook a bit more than he would've liked as he asked but he couldn't help but dread the answer.

"Sorry, I couldn't get a babysitter, this is my daughter, Lily. Lily say hello to Harry." Harry almost felt a manic laughter try to escape. This had to be some sort of joke. Was George hiding around the corner waiting to see the look on his face when this polyjuiced version of Hermione announced that she'd named her daughter after his mother? Oh and she had a daughter! He'd clearly stepped into an alternate reality because this was completely absurd.

He took a moment to take a deep breath and gather himself, before he tried and failed miserably to casually ask why she'd chosen that name for her daughter. To his surprise, she sighed heavily and shook her head before she answered, "Conner, my husband, hates this story." She started. "You see sometimes I have these dreams, but they're so vivid I wonder if they're memories. There are things about my life I'm certain I'm forgetting. Anyway, one of these dreams there's someone telling me about a woman named Lily. I just remember the words, 'it was always her, he loved her all of his life, just Lily.' It always seemed important, and the name was lovely. So when I discovered I would be having a girl I wanted to call her Lily. Conner didn't seem to mind so, there you are." She gave Lily an affectionate pat at the end of her story.

Harry was beaming. It was the last conversation he'd had with Hermione before she'd disappeared, she remembered him. He had told her and Ron about Snape, how he'd sacrificed everything for Lily, for him. Most importantly, she remembered. The Hermione he'd searched for was in there somewhere, which meant he could get her back. The hope that had bubbled up nearly made him burst. After a moment he realized he was just staring and smiling at her so he cleared his throat and gestured to the books laid out on the table, "so what's all this anyway?" He asked.

"Oh well, I'm something of a freelance researcher, mostly for law firms and things. They hire me when they need help researching a case. When I got pregnant Conner didn't want me to work, I disagreed, this was a sort of compromise." She shrugged but Harry noticed a little bit of something else in her expression, something that made him think she wasn't completely thrilled with this compromise.

"I've got a godson, a little bit older than her." Harry started. "Maybe a play date some time?" He really wanted a reason to meet her husband, and to find out where she lived.

Hermione looked a bit unsure for a moment before she nodded, "I wouldn't mind that. Would you like that Lily?" She asked and Lily nodded but didn't seem terribly keen on entering the conversation. "I apologize for not remembering you from school, what about your life, what do you do?"

Harry wasn't sure how to answer this question, especially since the truthful answer would be 'I search tirelessly for you, and spend most of my time with an old house elf and your obnoxious cat.' What he said instead was, "I live in London, I've got a cat, my godson's parents are gone so he spends a lot of time at my place, bit boring really.'

"Gone? Gone where?" She asked politely.

Harry swallowed, it was still hard to talk about, still horribly painful, even after all the years he'd lived without them. "Oh, they're, they're dead." He told her softly.

Hermione apologized profusely and seemed somewhat embarrassed to have misunderstood his meaning. He quickly steered the conversation to safer waters.

The pair spent the rest of the afternoon chatting over coffee and Harry found himself relaxing a little, she was still herself, just a stranger version of her. He learned her husband went to London on business pretty regularly but Hermione herself didn't join him. He learned strange things often happened around Lily that Hermione couldn't explain, but Harry knew meant she was definitely a witch. He learned she was a smart girl but Hermione worried because she had a horrible temper and struggled to make friends. On closer inspection he saw that the girl had subtle differences from Hermione, her hair was darker than Hermione's, and her eyes were lighter. All of these things only made Harry more curious about the girl's father.

Hermione told him that Lily hadn't been planned either. She had dated her husband only four months when she'd gotten pregnant at only eighteen. This was important information to Harry, based on Lily's age that meant Hermione had gotten pregnant barely four months after she'd disappeared, which made her husband the most likely cause of her altered memories. She hadn't been thrilled to become a mother so young, but her husband had, this made Harry even more suspicious. So when she finally told him she had to leave, Harry knew he would be following her.

Under the cloak he watched her pack her things into her small car and strap Lily into the back seat. He wished he'd thought to bring a broom, when she drove away he had to apparate every few yards to keep her in his line of sight. After a few tries at this his stomach was turning over. This went on for nearly twenty minutes, when finally, to his relief, she pulled into a small cottage with an equally small fenced yard. He waited for her to go inside before he cautiously approached the window.

There he was, this Conner Slate, he had dark hair and a rather impressive frame, much larger than Harry himself. He was neatly groomed with blue eyes and an engaging smile, it was not hard to see why Hermione had been attracted to him. He seemed to take very little interest in his daughter though, which Harry found odd. He patted her head and kissed Hermione before appearing to start making food.

Harry stayed until late in the evening watching the little family. It was mundane, boring even, nothing to suggest she had been snatched from her real life and thrown into this facsimile of a perfect family.

By the time he watched Hermione and Conner head up to bed for the evening Harry had sat down on a patch of grass to mull over the strange events of the day. He was so lost in thought he didn't hear someone approach until he felt a whisper in his ear, "I know you're there, Harry Potter, hidden under that cloak, it's time for you to go home. If I even catch a hint you've returned, if you tell anyone where she is, I'll kill her. Run along now."

Harry was sure his stomach dropped into his feet. Before he could even reach his wand Conner was headed back into the house, he sent a sinister smile in Harry's direction before shutting the door with a soft click.

Authors Note: So, you're welcome to try and guess who Conner actually is and how he knew Harry was there, I do intend to explain all of it. I appreciate the reviews very much. Thank you guys. I know the chapters are short but it gives me the ability to finish them faster and move the story at a pace I like.