Hermione Down Under

Chapter 9 REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST

Now that he had a wand back, Ron was tempted to Apparate directly to the bunkhouse, not only because it was quickest, but to celebrate that he had his power back. But he also had a borrowed horse to return. Trying to Apparate and include the horse in the spell was not a good idea – what if he wound up at the stables with only part of the horse? He would have to get back the hard way.

He had lost his sense of direction during the ride out; which way was the Station? Looking around him, he saw dim lights in the distance, visible only because the intervening land was thoroughly flat, and because his eyes had accustomed themselves to the darkness. The Station was the only institution within kilometres. Ron directed his horse in that direction.

It took nearly half an hour to get back the stables. It took nearly that long to figure out how to unsaddle the horse without aid and get it back in its stall; somebody would get suspicious if he did not. Finally he got out Hermione's wand and performed the Relashio charm to loosen the bonds. For the first time in his life, he felt embarrassed that he had to use magic to get something done.

Finally – his watch said after 1 AM – he got to the door of their room at the bunkhouse, and turned the key.

WHOOSH. Hermione ran into his arms and hugged him tightly for nearly half in minute. Then she backed up and started punching him.

"Ron, where the HELL have you BEEN? You've been gone for HOURS. I was worried SICK. Even went out to LOOK for you, even though the whole IDEA was for me not to be SEEN."

"Gerroffame!" Ron took a deep breath and tried to explain about the Elf, but the words would not come. The Elf really had put a magical prohibition on him. Thinking fast, he said, "I, um, did something stupid, Hermione. I was so glad to get the wand back that I did some spells, then had a lot of trouble eliminating the evidence so the Muggles wouldn't notice. Here's your wand."

Hermione took the wand and seemed to accept the explanation. That was embarrassing, that she found a confession of Ron's stupidity very plausible. "Oh, all right, I'm sorry. I was just worried for you. I – like you a lot, Ron." She gestured toward the bed. "Let's get some sleep; we need it after such a horrid day."

"I'd prefer to take a shower first." It occurred to Ron that after all that riding, Hermione might detect a horsy smell, particularly with them lying next to each other.

"Considerate of you."

Ron went off to the men's shower room. Afterwards he examined himself for a moment. Wouldn't it be cool to walk in on Hermione like this? He was sure that he would look more virile than Harry—

Things were too complicated to open that can of worms. He put on his replacement clothes.

When he got back to the room, Hermione was already in bed, apparently asleep. Ron climbed in on the other side. He noticed that Hermione had neglected to put up her Shield Charm this time. Either deliberately or instinctively, she must have decided to trust him not to touch her against her will.

KNOCKNOCKNOCK

Hermione and Ron both jolted awake, colliding with each other in the confines of the bed. Ron looked at the bedside clock: after 9:00. They had overslept, after the anxiety and exertions of the previous day.

"Oh, damn, I'm not presentable," Hermione moaned. "Could you answer it, Ron, and get rid of them?"

Ron walked to the door while Hermione carefully stood out of the line-of-sight. But it was not a visitor he could get rid of. It was Mr. Granger.

"Oh. I'm sorry if I'm – ah – interrupting something," he said. Presumably he thought they had been making love. "I just wanted to tell you the news. They've agreed to wait until Monica can see a doctor about these memory spells. In the meantime, Monica will perform duties that won't involve meeting the guests. I wanted to thank you for putting in a good word."

"You're welcome, sir. Why don't you come in for a few a minutes?"

"I don't want to intrude – " but Mr. Granger came in anyway. A reasonable request from a guest was probably to be considered a command. Ron shut the door behind them.

"FINITE!" yelled Hermione from the corner, pointing her restored wand.

Her father fainted, but Ron was in a position to catch him. "Hermione, what's happened to him-?"

"I don't know – I haven't undone a spell on this scale before. Lay him out on the bed." She sounded terrified that something had gone wrong. Ron realized grimly that the nearest experienced witch or wizard was thousands of miles away – unless you considered the Elf, which Ron was reluctant to do.

Mr. Granger's eyes fluttered open. "Where am –" he looked around vaguely. "Minnie? But what happened to your hair? And you look older—"

Minnie? Ron had never heard anybody call Hermione that before, but he kept his mouth shut. This was between Hermione and her dad. He wondered if he should walk out altogether, but Hermione might need his moral support.

"It's summer 1998, Dad – summer in England, I mean. A lot's happened. You've had amnesia."

"Amnesia?"

"Yes. I can explain, but first I need to cure Mum, and talk to you both. Dad, do you remember being a Mr. Wilkins?"

He spent a long time thinking. "Yes. It's strange, I remember being Mr. Granger AND Mr. Wilkins."

"Please try to concentrate on being Mr. Wilkins long enough to arrange a meeting between Mum and me. Both she and the Station personnel want to keep us apart."

Ron had been staying in the background up to now, but he had an important thought. "Perhaps it's best to arrange the meeting in the evening. People will be less likely to spot you together, or notice that everybody is behaving oddly."

Hermione made a face, but nodded. "Good idea. In the meantime we can arrange to leave as soon as possible afterward, and get back to normal life."

"Normal life?" repeated Mr. Granger. "I don't know what normal life is anymore."

Eventually he felt healthy enough to rise and go out again, promising that he would bring Hermione's mum to the "wool storage shed" at 6:00 that evening. Ron and Hermione stared at each other.

"You didn't tell him you caused the amnesia," Ron pointed out.

"I know I've got to, but I only want to do it once, talking to both of them." She paused for a moment, biting her lip in thought. " Do you think I'm a coward, Ron?"

"No. I think you're a determined girl who was forced to do something horrid, and you're doing your best to fix it. My advice is, try to embrace the good parts of the situation. We've travelled halfway around the world. We're on a doodle ranch designed to entertain guests. We've got several hours to kill. Why not do something you enjoy? Have a nice meal, go horse riding during the day."

"Okay."

Hermione still looked glum during the late breakfast, but fortunately nobody noticed. Cherry's family was still making a sentimental fuss over Ron; as far as they were concerned, Hermione was just his tag-along wife. Others were mystified because Mrs. Arwen had suddenly checked out and vanished. Mrs. Agon, who had lost a horse-race to her the prior day, declared loudly that the older woman hadn't been up to the "rough life". Ron was, of course, unable to tell anybody, even Hermione, what he knew.

After breakfast they went out to the stables. Ron offered to ride with Hermione. He had only had a day's lessons, but he thought the magical rapport with a horse accustomed to being guided by humans had taught him what to do.

"That's odd," said Hermione after a few minutes riding. "My horse seems tired. I wonder if somebody else has been riding her after hours? I thought it was reserved for me. Oh, well, I'll just be careful not to do anything strenuous."

Ron tried to look bewildered. He hoped that somebody else wouldn't get in trouble for his secret ride with Mrs. Arwen.

He scanned the surrounding fields, trying to locate the area where he and Mrs. Arwen had sat around the campfire. But the whole place looked too different during the day, and besides, the Elf may have disguised the area. Had she really left, or just gone into hiding? Ron was not anxious to run into her again. In fact, he would be glad to never see her again, except that it would be nice to get his own wand back.

Eventually they reached a grove of trees, and Hermione decided to give her horse a rest, while they sat under a tree. Ron had never seen a tree quite like it; Hermione said it was a eucalyptus, native to Australia.

"Ron, is there a girl?" Hermione asked suddenly.

"What?"

"I know I don't have a right to ask, since I lied to you on the subject, but I was wondering – you were gone for several hours last night, and somebody has been using my horse. This is a vacation place, after all. I wondered if you had found a girl and gone riding with her, and – other things."

"There's no girl, Hermione." That was the truth, the Elf was too formidable for Ron to regard her as a 'girl'. "And I'm not going to conceal anything from you as payback - we agreed to put that behind us!. Do you want to know how far Lavender and I got?"

"Um, I WAS wondering—"

"Not too far. Frankly, I was flattered for a girl to throw herself at me the way she did, but it would have been wrong to take advantage of that. And SHE never proposed it. It was puppy love on her side - all "Won-won" and drawing valentines."

"So you've never—"

"No. Though I'd thank you not to repeat that to anybody."

Hermione was looking very thoughtful as they got back on their horses. And for Hermione, that was saying a lot.

Eventually evening approached, and the crucial meeting time. Ron insisted that they eat an early supper – it was possible that things would get very frenzied, and they might not get a chance later. They asked direction to the wool storage shed and found a place to hide.

At exactly 6:00, Ron heard familiar voices approaching, and they emerged into view.

"Mrs. Waters?" Hermione's Mum said in puzzlement. "But I don't understand."

"It's going to be all right, darling," said Mr. Granger, stepping behind her.

Hermione was trembling, nearly dropping her wand. Ron hoped that she got the spell out before she panicked.

"FINITE!"

Mrs. Granger crumpled just as her husband had, but the man caught her. They took her inside and laid her on a stack of wool to make her comfortable. She began stirring after a moment.

"Um – what happened? Minnie?"

"I'm here, Mum."

The older Granger woman stared at the younger in bewilderment, then focused on the wand.

"It was you who made me brainsick for a year! My own daughter cursed me! How could you? You little BITCH!"

TO BE CONTINUED