To the Moon and Back—Chapter 2

"So what do you recommend for this case?" asked a tall, young Asian man in a short white coat, holding a pen and clipboard at the ready. He looked at his teacher for advice: a pretty woman with sparkling brown eyes and very thick, wavy brown hair that was pulled out of her face in a clip for the moment.

"Step number one, Mr. Chen," Hermione Granger responded, picking up her stethoscope and slinging it around her neck. "This is our patient. He is a child with a family and a story, not simply an object of study." She paused, he looked at her expectantly, and she was reminded that he was just a medical student eager to learn the profession. "What is your proposed treatment plan?"

"The rash looks like impetigo, so bactroban ointment for two weeks," the student said with a note of uncertainty in his voice.

"Exactly what I would do as well," Hermione said with a nod of affirmation. "He's also just a year old, so you'll want to check with his parents that he's up to date on his vaccinations. Why don't you do that while I write the prescription?" The student nodded and turned to go back into the exam room at the clinic in which they were working. Hermione bent over her prescription pad, but just then a plump nurse with shiny blond hair pulled into a bun called to her from the nurse's station.

"Doctor, it's 12:30. You told me to remind you—" she was cut off by Hermione wincing.

"Oh, I forgot," she groaned. "Thanks Rachel!" She dashed behind the desk and retrieved her purse, hastily finishing the prescription and signing it before turning to dash out the door.

"But what-?"

"It's a bit of a drive to the summer camp, and I have to pick up my kids at 3pm. Please hand that prescription to my patient's mother before they leave, schedule a follow up, and tell my student that he should work with Dr. Marcus for the remainder of the day."

She hastily made her way toward the car in the parking lot of the pediatric primary care office where she now worked as a Muggle pediatrician. Hurriedly starting the car, she tore off her long, white coat and tossed it into the back seat before fastening her seatbelt and pulling out of the parking space.

She loved her job at the office, and though she missed many aspects of the world she had left behind, especially her best friends through school, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, and felt a painful stab of guilt and grief at remembering them. She had grown to love her life here in the suburbs of Muggle Richmond, Virginia. She loved her new home, her job, and especially her children.

Finding out she was pregnant was simultaneously one of the most painful and hopeful experiences she'd had in her life. She knew Harry, the father of the babies, had died in the war, and she knew that his death was the result of some fault of her own even if she could not remember the details. Being a mother was what pulled her out of the immense grief she'd felt at the deaths of her best friends, and she'd risen to the challenge.

Knowing she was to have two children in only a few months had wakened something in Hermione, and she knew she would need help. She had arranged to travel to Australia to locate her parents and return their memories of them. It took several days to locate them, but once she had found them, restored their memories, and explained her own story, she was relieved that they accepted it all, though not without a fair number of questions. They volunteered to move to the United States without hesitation.

Under the weight of her guilt, she'd resolved to remain apart from magical world. She knew it wouldn't be long-term, as she did not want to keep her children from attaining a wizarding education. To make locating her more difficult, she'd changed her name, adopting Harmony Wilkins as her new identity. Hermione wanted to protect herself and, most of all, her babies from any witch or wizard who attempted to hunt her down in the war's aftermath. She had also wanted to ensure that contact she had with witches or wizards from her past would be on her own terms.

On July 7, Hermione gave birth to her twins in an ordinary Muggle hospital. James Harry was born first, at 7 lbs even and Lily Annelise was second at 6lbs, 12 ounces. Despite a touch of newborn jaundice, her children were two healthy, vivacious little ones with cries to rival a mandrake. While she had assumed a new identity for herself, she decided to give her children the surname of Granger, so as to minimize the confusion they would undoubtedly feel when reentering the wizarding world later.

Hermione began school again, faking a university degree and enrolling directly in medical school. Her parents had supported her by caring for the twins when Hermione was attending classes and studying, enabling her to complete her medical school training and her residency in pediatrics. It was very difficult, particularly financially, but she had managed. Once she had finished her training and secured a job with regular hours, the twins were 7 years old and in school full-time, and Hermione's parents had decided to move back to England.

Lily and James grew up in Richmond in the Muggle community, with non-magic friends and enrolled in Muggle schools, not knowing anything about the magical world at all. Hermione had done this intentionally, not because she wanted to keep it from them, but because she wanted them to grow up as normally as possible. They would likely have their names down for a school of magic in the United States, and Hermione knew that she would have to tell them everything when the time came. She did not want to keep them away from magic forever.

Despite the years passing, Hermione could never forget the challenges she had faced with her two best friends at Hogwarts, particularly the year leading up to the Battle of Hogwarts. Most of her memories of those horrors were so vivid that she had trouble recalling them without trembling or crying. Even eleven years later she still woke sweating, screaming, and shaking from the nightmares of being tortured in Malfoy Manor, fighting off the snake Nagini and the narrow escape from Godric's Hollow, watching her friends and allies die time after time. The only memories that weren't clear were those that followed the first part of that last battle, the time in which she knew Harry, Ron, and Ginny had all perished because of her. The excruciatingly painful feelings that this remembrance triggered left no doubt that she did not need the images to suffer nightmares from that instance.

While Hermione found it easy to block these distressing memories out during the day, it proved impossible to completely hide her nightmares from James and Lily. The twins sometimes heard her screaming in her sleep whenever nightmares plagued her, rushing into her bedroom to ensure nothing was wrong. When they were younger, both would become frightened by their mother's "Bad dreams" and insist on crawling into bed with her, effectively warding off the nightmares. She hated that she did that to her kids and it tore at her heart to see their little faces mirroring her own terrified expression, Lily crying with her without knowing why and James standing there patting her shoulder and telling her to be brave because it was only a dream.

Of course, they were older now, were used to the nightmares, and no longer came bursting into her bedroom. Hermione often saw her bedroom door open a fraction and close again as Lily or James checked in to "make sure there isn't an axe-murderer in the house," as they had explained one morning at breakfast. If she continued to sob after waking, Lily would still sometimes crawl silently into bed beside her.

For now, though, she concentrated on the present as she pulled into the parking lot of the camp and parked the car. The car's clock read 3:30, a bit later than she'd anticipated. James and Lily had been coming to this sleep away camp for the past 3 years and Hermione knew it was the highlight of their summer holidays, so she doubted they would mind if she was a bit late. She made her way into the cool camp mess hall and pulled off her sunglasses, eyes sweeping the room that was bustling with color and activity for a hint of her own kids. Then, out of nowhere, she was bombarded by what looked like two colorful, backpack-wearing and beaming 10-year-olds, both jumping up and down with excitement.

"Mom!" Lily squealed, hurling herself into Hermione's arms and nearly knocking off her glasses in the process. Her thick, wavy chestnut hair flew behind her as she ran into her mother. Hermione held out her other arm so that she could hug her son James, a boy with untidy brown hair the precise shade of his sister's and warm brown eyes.

"Hi, Mom," he said, grinning so that his braces glinted in the sunlight and hugging her back. They collected their duffel bags and dragged them out to the car, hoisting them into the trunk. Both kept dashing back to say good-bye to their friends and dragging Hermione over to meet the other parents. She didn't mind this in the slightest, glad that her children generally had an easier time making friends than she had as a child. Eventually, the twins were corralled back into the car.

"How was it?" Hermione asked, adjusting the rearview mirror so that she could see Lily more clearly in the back seat (James sat in the front today). She pulled out of the parking lot and began the drive back to their house.

"Excellent!" they both exclaimed at once, beaming. And they began rambling on about the camp activities and events.

"But one of those things happened again, Mum," James said, suddenly looking slightly perplexed. Hermione looked up, frowning. By 'one of those things,' she knew that he meant accidental magic.

"What sort of thing?" she asked with interest, pulling into the driveway of their house.

"It was weird," Lily said, exchanging a look with her twin. "Like the other things, but James didn't actually do anything at all."

"One of the boys, David Kenwin, was making fun of my braces," James explained, frowning slightly. "Lily grabbed my arm to drag me away, but then everyone was laughing, and we turned around and saw that his two front teeth were growing really fast, all the way down to his chin."

She had, of course, not forgotten the time in the fourth year that the same thing had happened to her. Appalled, she turned to face the two of them.

"But what happened to him? Was he okay?" Lily shrugged.

"Of course he was, but he had to leave early to go to see a doctor to have his teeth filed back down. Everybody looked very, very confused, but at least the other kids didn't think it was us." Hermione nodded, slowly.

"He didn't come back for the rest of the week!" James added with a grin that his mother couldn't see.

Hermione said nothing. There was no use. While her children suspected that the odd things that happened were somehow caused by them, they had no idea that they had magical blood in their veins. They could no more control their accidental magic than Hermione could have at that age.

The rest of the ride went without incident, the twins drifting off to sleep with their heads drooping onto their shoulders. She pulled into the driveway of their home at half-past six and woke the twins.

"We're going out for supper tonight," she told them as they hauled their things out of the car, shooing one of the neighbor's cats out of the way. "I'd like you both to wash up quickly and change into clean clothes before we go, alright?"

They nodded and started into the house, Hermione helping to carry the duffel bags up the stairs. Once they were settled in their rooms, Lily off to the bathroom, she retreated to the kitchen for a cup of tea and a bit of reading time.

A quarter of an hour later, James knelt on the floor of his room, still sorting the contents of his bright red duffel bag when he heard a knock on his door. Rat-a-tat-tat: Lily's knock, he knew. His mother's was three quick raps on the wood.

"Come on in, Lil," he called, not getting up off of the floor. Lily opened the door. She was already dressed for the evening in a white lacy shirt and pink capri pants, her wet hair hanging flat down her back.

"Hey," she greeted him, entering the room and climbing onto his bed.

"Oh, good," he said, throwing a dirty pair of shorts into his hamper. "I can take my shower now, then." He turned and glanced at the look on his sister's face, which was one of mixed concern and confusion. "What's up?" She was silent for a moment.

"Do you think that something's up with Mom?" she asked him, her brow furrowing. James shrugged, sitting on the edge of the bed and turning to face her.

"I dunno."

"It's just—it's just that she's been acting kind of funny. I mean, I think that most parents would freak if, say, you suddenly wound up at the top of a tree without knowing how you got there, or mysteriously caused another kid to have blisters pop up on every inch of his face. Always when one of us is upset or being teased. We didn't even get scolded, and you know how strict Mom can be about behavior." James nodded in agreement. Their mother was strict about their schoolwork, chores, and behavior.

"I don't know, Lily," James told her honestly.

"It almost seems as if she—"

"—knows something that we don't?" Lily nodded.

"Yeah, I mean, I know it sounds silly, but maybe there's something wrong with us. Maybe we have a psychological disease!" she exclaimed, suddenly looking terrified. James rolled his eyes. Leave it to Lily to turn any problem into something medical; she loved anything to do with the subject and was eager to become a doctor like her mother when she grew up.

"I seriously doubt it," he told her more confidently than he felt. "Mom would've taken us to a shrink or something by now. Actually," he said, frowning, "she would have done something. It's a bit weird, unless she believes all of that stuff is just a coincidence."

"Or maybe," Lily started, a thought crossing her mind, "our father was a bit weird as well, and it's been passed to us."

"Makes sense. Mom would already be anticipating the weirdness and wouldn't be surprised at all when that stuff happens." They both stared at each other, considering this. Then Lily started to get up and shrugged, as if hoping that the worry she had would fall off of her shoulders if she did.

"We can talk to her about it sometime," she said, checking the clock in James' room. "You should get in the shower, Mom wanted to leave for dinner soon, and I'm starving!"

"Me too!" James grabbed the khakis and black polo shirt he would be wearing that night and headed for the shower; Lily left her brother's room for her own orderly bedroom, which had a bright yellow duffel bag sitting open on the bed. She sighed as she sat down and began to unpack her things.

Dinner that evening was an uneventful but animated affair at a local seafood restaurant. Most of it was spent with the twins regaling their mother with tales of camp, the new friends they had made and the old ones with whom they had kept in touch from previous years, and the fun and silly things they had done and seen throughout the week.

It was after nine o'clock when Hermione pulled the car into the driveway of the house, and though it was summertime, she saw that Lily and James were ready to fall asleep. She ushered the two into the house and upstairs to their bedrooms, where they changed into their pajamas and called for her to tuck them into bed.

Hermione went into her son's bedroom first, and she was surprised to find that it was clean and neat, with all of the dirty camp clothes in the basket by the door. James was curled up in his bed, reading Tolkein's Lord of the Rings series in the light of his bedside lamp. She made her way over to him, sat on the edge of the bed, and took the book from him, examining it.

"Haven't you already read this whole series twice already?"

"Only three times," he said sheepishly. "It's a good series!" She laughed softly.

"It's okay to like to read, James," she told him, setting the book back on the nightstand and turning out the lamp. "I'm not going to try to stop you from reading, ever." She could see the outline of his face smiling at her in the dark.

"Thanks, Mom. Good night."

"Night, kiddo," she said, kissing his forehead and standing to leave the room. "I love you."

"I love you to." And with that, she carried his laundry hamper out of the room and closed the door, leaving it open a few centimeters. She turned across the hall to Lily's room and was unsurprised to find her daughter sitting up against her pillows, also reading. Unlike her son, however, Lily didn't much like fantasy books; she was reading a Nancy Drew mystery and promptly looked up when her mother entered the room.

"Hey, sweetheart, time to go to bed," Hermione said. Lily nodded, setting the book on the nightstand and allowing her mother to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Thanks again for dinner," she said with a smile. "It was great." Hermione beamed, bending down to kiss Lily goodnight. She removed her daughter's glasses gently, looking into her bright green eyes. Harry's eyes. She placed the glasses on the bedside table.

"Brush your teeth and wash your face?"

"Yep," Lily grinned to show as much of the surface of her teeth as she could.

"Good girl. I'm glad you had a good time at dinner. I'll see you in the morning, okay?"

"Okay." Hermione turned to leave after stroking her daughter's cheek with her own thumb.

"I love you, Lily," she said, flipping off the lights.

"Love you too," came the voice through the dark.

It was going to be hard, Hermione knew as she walked the hallway back to her own bedroom. A wooden trunk sat at the foot of the bed—the trunk that she had used at school. She sat on the floor beside it and lay her hand atop the smooth, polished oak. But she had to, for her children's sakes. It was the end of June and she knew that Hogwarts letters would arrive very soon. She wanted to be prepared when that day came.

She stood abruptly and made her way over to her sock drawer, opening it and rummaging in the back. Her fingers closed around something smooth and familiar, and as she pulled out her arm, her wand was clutched in her right hand. Going back over to the trunk, she made sure that her door was closed before pointing her wand at the trunk and uttering the first spell that she had used in over eleven years.

"Alohomora," she said in a shaky voice. For a split second, she thought she'd lost her magic or done the spell incorrectly, but the lid sprang open and revealed the contents within. Kneeling and dropping her wand on the floor beside her, Hermione began to sift through things that she had once cherished and had not seen daylight for over a decade. Yet the photographs still smiled and waved up at her, and the robes were as black as ever. Swallowing hard, she grabbed the first book her hands would reach: her old-time favorite Hogwarts: A History. Closing and relocking the trunk, she curled up into her own bed, lifted the cover of the tome, and began to read.

There you go, the latest chapter!

I would adore your feedback, good or bad. Next chapter should be up sometime over the weekend. Have a good one, friends :)

Staccato Sunrise