A/N: Hello everyone, so I want to thank all of you for your support on this story. Early upload of this story this week. So hope you're doing alright, and I hope your weeks started off well because now without further ado, on with the story!
"What do you do when you leave someone you love and have the chance to make things right?"
"You don't hesitate."
"Then why am I hesitating?" Harry countered.
"You shouldn't be, you have the chance to make things right. To get the girl." JJ reminded.
"I'm not that person anymore, you know that. The other day you were just telling me how much I've changed!" Harry explained.
"You've changed yes, but you're someone who's willing to get things done. You actually like who you are don't you?" JJ questioned.
"Of course I do. That's the thing, I'm fine with who I am and what I do. I'm happy with my life. That's the point. I'm happy, I'm satisfied. I made a difference here."
"So go make a difference there!"
"It's not that simple." Harry snapped.
"Since when has it ever been simple with you? Huh? When? I'll tell you, never. You've never had it simple but has that ever stopped you? No."
"It's not about that JJ!" Harry argued.
"No? Then what's it about?" He retorted.
"Everyone there."
"What you think their gonna judge you? That they even have a right to?"
"More like the fact that I don't want to be told who I should be. What I should do. Who I should be with. I got away from that, what makes you think I want to go back to that? Expectation? Standards? Yeah I'm known here, but I'm more known here for what I can do, not who I am. There? It's the opposite."
"All because of your name. We both know that's why the press couldn't follow you here. Because you ditched your name first chance you got. Magical Britain thinks you're backpacking through Europe, you're welcome for that by the way." JJ hounded him.
"Fine alright, fine! You're right. Very few people know who I actually am here for a reason. I'm not that person anymore. Going back will make me. And I did notice a lack of me in the news over the past year."
"It doesn't have to. Go back, go become Harry Potter again, being Justin Blake doesn't have to mean you aren't still Harry Potter. And being Harry Potter doesn't mean you aren't still Justin Blake. It's just a name. To be honest I'm surprised you've stayed out of it this long."
"A name that's attached to nearly everything in the British Magical world and need I remind you, Justin Blake is ruthless, and guess what? I'm him." Harry retorted.
"So? Yes, you changed and yes some would probably say not for the better but what they say doesn't matter. You help people doing what you do. Have you done and seen things, yes but it's the job." When he did respond, JJ continued "Look Harry, I'm not going to make you go or do something you don't want to. I just think that if you're going to lie to me, the least you could do is be honest with yourself. Just think about it." JJ turned on his heel and left the room, leaving Harry to do exactly what he said, think.
He thought about for longer than he thought he would. Debated it over in his head but it all came back to one question. Why? What had happened that suddenly made Hermione regret it? The only way to find out was to do what JJ said, go back.
That's how he ended up in first class on a plane, about to land at Heathrow airport.
That's how he ended up back in his old house, setting his bags down.
That's how he ended up on her front step, hoping she still lived there.
That's how he ended up knocking on her door, waiting for an answer.
The door opened in front of him. "You came back?" She inquired shocked, before she moved out of the way and gestured for him to enter.
"Yeah, honestly? I wasn't sure if I was going to but I needed answers." Harry admitted as he walked into the house and made his way to the dining room to sit.
"That's makes two of us." She sighed before following him and sitting at the dining room table across from him.
"What'd you mean?"
"I don't know how, but I'm seeing things. My dreams, apparently what I see in my dreams actually happened. That's why I wanted you here."
"Why me? Why not Ron? I'm sure he could tell you what you want to know." He questioned.
"Well I'm sure he would tell me what he wanted me to know. When I got home from St. Mungos you know what I never noticed but should've? The world around me. So many people seemed to know you or ask me about you. But I never questioned it because I didn't want to believe it. This past month, I've been questioning a lot of things. But never to Ron. That's why, I need someone who will tell me the truth because denial… isn't an option anymore."
"Alright." He answered hesitant.
"Over the past month, I've been I guess you could say remembering things. I definitely don't know everything but I know something's. And rather than telling you everything, I want you to see it for yourself." At his curious look she continued. "Hope you know how to get into some bodies head."
"Better than you would believe." He muttered but she still heard it. Deciding not to question it she continued. "Because I need you to get into mine."
"Fine." He pulled out wand before pointing it at her. "Legilimens." He whispered before getting pulled in.
In Mindscape
Once he was in, he started walking turning his head both directions, when he heard shouting and screaming. Running towards the noise, he entered a hallway, he started seeing a memory playing on either side of him. Leaning forward, he watched it.
"What do you mean you didn't tail him?! Who did?! As for not getting an honest answer, why not give him the benefit of the doubt? He's your friend your supposed to trust him!" She was close to yelling now.
"I had a friend do it okay? Either way It doesn't matter. And benefit of the doubt?! It was a theory and I ran with it okay and I'm glad I did or nobody might ever know!"
"A theory? A theory that ruined my relationship! You ruined it!"
"I didn't ruin it, he did! I care more about you then about your relationship! If there was even the possibility of you getting hurt I wanted to stop it! I saved you from getting your heartbroken!"
"WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH ANYWAY HUH?!" She screamed at him.
Deciding he saw enough, he stepped back and continued forward down the hall. Hearing the sound of water when he stepped, he looked down.
"What the hell?" He mumbled, looking down, the entire floor was wet, it shimmered revealing the fact that it was covered in water. Seeing something odd in it, he squatted down looking at it. Looking closer it shimmered again before he realized what he was seeing.
"You really shouldn't have done it." Hermione said from beside Harry.
"I know, I suppose I could've just used a confundus charm." He replied, turning his head to the left to look at her. Once she processed what she said she turned her head to face him shocked.
"That was different. That was tryouts not an actual game." She defended as he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a full vial and showed it to her. "You didn't put it in?" She questioned and he shook his head in return. "Ron only thought you did." She said putting the pieces together and receive a deep nod as answer as they both turned back to face where Ron was in the center of the room as Lavender was pulling him down and kissing him. Seeing everything, Hermione slipped away from beside Harry unnoticed.
Once he turned realizing she was gone, he followed. Seeing sitting at the base of the stairs, he stood next to her.
"Charm spell, just practicing." She said explaining the tiny birds flying around while wiping a tear away, once she realized he was there.
"Well they're really good." He praised as he sat down next to her.
"How does it feel Harry? When you see Dean with Ginny? I know, I see the way you look at her. You're my best friend." She responded. Right after, they heard giggles and footsteps, turning to look they saw Lavender and Ron giggling with each other as they entered the hall.
Once they spotted Harry and Hermione on the step Lavender said "Oops, I think this rooms taken." As she held onto Ron's arm.
"What's with the birds?" He questioned as Lavender ran off back out the way the came.
Standing, Hermione replied, "Oppugno." Causing the birds to fly above her and zoom towards Ron. He ran backwards to the doorway they came in and the birds barely missed him, hitting the door beside him.
As he left the room, Hermione sank back down on to the steps beside Harry and leaned against him, laying her head on his shoulder.
"It feels like this." He answered as he comforted her.
Hearing a louder rush of the what seemed like water, Harry was pulled out of the memory and stood turning around only to get thrown by the sheer force of the tidal wave of the memory's rushing into the hallway. Not being able to fight it, Harry was thrown backwards into a wall at the end of the hall before dropping to the rapidly filling floor and falling right through it.
He kept falling until he hit a solid ground. Dazed, and laying on the floor, he groaned and rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.
"Harry! Are you okay?" Came a voice rushing towards him, turning his head, he say Hermione kneeling on the ground next to him. Looking around he realized he was back in her dining room. Slowly sitting up, he leaned back against the wall.
"I've been better." With a bit of effort and a useful wall, Harry was back on his feet. Making his way back over to the chair he had flown from, he bent down and picked it up before sitting back down before beckoning Hermione to seat as well. Seeing the look on her face he assured her, "I promise I'm fine." It seemed to satisfy her somewhat, she still wasn't sure but she sat nonetheless.
"What happened?"
"Oh you mean aside from being thrown several feet in the air directly into a wall and then dropping several onto hard wood floors?" He remarked.
"I see your sarcasm still works." She stated dryly.
"It was odd, I appeared in your head, I heard shouting. I ran towards it, little did I know it was a memory. I would up in a hallway. The memory was playing on either side of the wall. I watched a bit of it, before I continued forward. I heard something, like water moving whenever I stepped. I looked down, the entire floor seemed like it was covered in water, I squatted down to get a better look and it shimmered. Another memory started playing. I realized it wasn't water, it was memories. I heard what sounded like a huge rush of water. I stood and as soon as I turned around I was thrown. It was like getting hit by a tidal wave."
"Then?"
"Then I was slammed into a wall before falling to the ground, I went right through it. I kept falling until I guess I hit the actually ground. You know the rest."
"The wall you slammed into, what did it look like?" She asked as she cocked her head in thought.
"Well I was a little busy being thrown into it to study it." He remarked. At her raised eyebrow, he sighed. "It was cracked. Cracks going through the entire thing. I wouldn't bet on its structural integrity." Thinking she nodded, before standing and going over to a bookcase in the living room and coming back with a book. At his questioning look she explained.
"In the beginning when someone would ask me stuff and if they brought Harry Potter up, I wouldn't think anything of it. I didn't know him. It's odd, like if I would find anything out about you, I wouldn't remember it a day later. Until this month."
"The dreams." He finished.
"Yes the dreams. When I first started realizing what was going on it was three months ago. I knew I kept forgetting something but…" She started only for him to cut her off.
"You couldn't remember what. How does that work? It's like anything to do with me you would forget not long after. How the hell did you deal with press? Wait bigger how, how did nobody find anything wrong?"
"I told you, I was in denial. The press, it's seems never found out about my visit to the hospital. Don't ask me how because I don't know. I rarely talk to the press." She admitted. "Anyway I bought a book on the matter." She finished, opening the book and sifting through the pages. After searching the whole book she came up empty.
"Okay well, tomorrow we can go to St. Mungos and talk to Healer Carter about it and see what she can come up with, alright?"
"At this point seems like our best option." She sighed.
"So you know, it's about dinner time and I can make a mean chicken parmesan."
"Oh can you now?" She teased.
"Yes… I can." He said seriously, causing them both to laugh.
WDYDW
Next Day
"We need to talk to Healer Carter." Hermione informed the receptionist who nodded and sent off the message. Nearly ten minutes later the healer appeared and beckoned them to follow and took them in to room.
"I see you found Lord Potter."
"Recent development. Anyway, he returned yesterday and I had him get in my head. I can't really explain it like he can so I'll let him." She finished gesturing to Harry.
"I appeared in her mindscape. Heard shouting and screaming, ran towards it, would up in a hallway. A memory was playing on either side of the wall. I watched a bit of it, before I continued forward. I heard something, like water moving whenever I stepped. I looked down, the entire floor seemed like it was covered in water, I squatted down to get a better look and it shimmered. Another memory started playing. I realized it wasn't water, it was memories. I heard what sounded like a huge rush of water. I stood and as soon as I turned around I was thrown. It was like getting hit by a tidal wave. I was thrown into a wall and then fell through the floor."
"What did the wall look like?"
"It was cracked, deep cracks throughout it." He explained causing the healer to pale.
"I never would have thought." The healer mumbled.
"What?" Hermione questioned.
"The wall, that's the problem. The section of you memories he wound up in was like a separate area from your others. That wall is what was blocking them off." She explained.
"Up until three months ago, anything I learned about Harry I would forget the next day. Does that have anything to do with it?"
"Not much is known about things like this because they're incredibly rare and not done. It's the overlaying of several spells to cause a constant pulse which was filtered to Lord Potter. Anything in your memory pertaining to him, was taken and stored in them at room like area. The mind knows this is unnatural so it fights it. I would take a guess and say that was what the tidal wave of memories was, them trying to get out and renter your memory bank."
"So if it was a constant and on going pulse, why did it stop happening?" Harry inquired.
"Well, over the time before three months ago, your memories were trying to get out. They just couldn't. My guess, they just needed a little help along the way, a trigger. Whatever the trigger was, it helped enough that cracks were put in the wall. This stopped the collection of memories. Over time the cracks got deeper as the tidal wave kept reoccurring that they eventually got deep enough that memories could flow through, but only at night. This occurred a month ago. Memories have been going through for the past month, and I would hazard a guess that it will continue until either you have all of your memories or the wall crumbles which ever happens first." She explained.
"Why can't someone just go in and destroy the wall?" Harry questioned.
"Because the mind, while strong can also be fragile. That would be like a rush of several years of memories all at once. For this, the mind must continue at its own pace. I think the real question is, what was the trigger three months ago?" The healer finished.
"What could it have been?" Hermione wondered.
"Anything really, everyone's mind is different and even with magic it isn't an exact science." The healer answered.
"Great another mystery to solve." Harry muttered even though everyone heard.
"Well as for who did it, just so you know it takes a person that's been doing magic for a long time to have the skill or the guts to attempt it. As it did eventually end up failing, it wasn't perfectly done but from the time frame it did work and on the scale it did I would they were fairly good. I'm sorry I can't help you more." Healer Carter apologized.
"You've been a big help. Thank you." Hermione assured her and Harry nodded in agreement before they left the hospital.
Arriving back at Hermione's they sat back at the dining room table. "Now what?" Hermione questioned.
"Now we find who did this, and make them pay." Harry answered with no hesitation.
"We?"
"I just got you back, I'm not losing you again." He promised.
"We're in this together." Hermione recalled.
"Always."
A/N: Just a heads up, I think there will only be a couple more chapters of this story, it's a short story and I don't want to drag it on to much. One of the memory scenes isn't mine, it belongs to the Harry Potter franchise. Anyway, thank you for the support! -DS