2. A Forgotten Jerk

"FLEUR!" He interrupted her rather rudely and hurriedly opened the door.

Everyone outside was caught with their wide open mouth and eyes.

"Oh god!" Hermione was moaning and Ron had his face hidden in his hands.

"Listen, I'm really sorry… Ummm..." Harry said to Hermione and then turning to Fleur, whispered "Help me."

"Let me," Fleur said to the others, stopping Molly and Bill on their way into the room, "I know their history, so… Wait for us downstairs for a few minutes. I'll handle this."

"Are you sure?"

Fleur confidently nodded in response to Molly's question.

"Please stop crying," Harry said to Hermione while Fleur closed the door.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said through her sobs.

"Harry, that line never works," Fleur told Harry, going and sitting beside Hermione, grabbing her in a hug.

"It's alright, it's alright. He doesn't hate you. Not even a little mad at you. Neither is anyone else. Everything will be fine, sweetie, it's alright."

"I'm so sorry, Fleur, I just… I didn't even greet you there. I'm such a horrible person."

"You're not. It's ok, Hermione, it's ok. Calm down. Take some deep breaths."

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Hermione said again, once her sobs had stopped.

Fleur continued rubbing Hermione's back slowly. "You ok?" She asked, finally pulling away.

Hermione nodded.

"You sure?" Harry asked. Hermione nodded again.

Harry pulled a chair from Ginny's desk in front of Hermione and Fleur's position on the bed and sat down. He sent a questioning look towards Fleur who sighed and nodded in response.

"I wasn't acting back at Hannah's party. I wasn't trying to make you angry or anything. I honestly can not remember who you are."

"That's not possible."

"It's true, I'm sorry," Fleur said to Hermione.

"But it can't be. It literally can't be. You can't forget us, Harry."

"We've spent too much time together," said Ron.

"What about the tent? Harry?"

"You mean, after sixth year, when I was hunting Voldemort's… You know about those?"

"Of course we do. We were there, Harry. Think, think. Think about how you got the sword?"

"A patronus. I followed it, and it was in the lake."

"How did you take it out? Think!"

"I swam, because I couldn't summon it."

"You wore the locket, Harry and it tried to drown you."

"No!"

"Ron saved you."

"But that doesn't make sense."

"Harry, our fourth year, the second task, who did you save?"

"Parvati, she was my date."

"No, Harry, you saved Ron."

"No! Fleur, is it true?"

"It is."

"Our first year, Harry. Who sat with you on the train?"

"No one!"

"No!"

"Yes, I sat alone. Neville came looking for his toad."

"Ron was with you. I was with Neville."

"At the end of the year, how did you get past all the obstacles?"

"I don't remember. I was knocked out because of Quirrell."

"No, Harry, we solved it together," said Hermione, now badly starting to tear up again, "what about the troll, Harry? Do you at least remember that?"

"What troll? The one on Halloween? When Quirrell came to the Great Hall?"

"Do you remember what happened with it?"

"The teachers must've taken care of it. I just went to the common room."

"No, no, no," Hermione moaned through her tears, "you saved me that day."

"What about in third year when -" Ron started to ask.

"Stop! This isn't making me remember. My brain's telling me that you're lying."

"NO!" Hermione shouted.

"I KNOW. I know. But it is. I'm sorry."

Hermione started sobbing again.

Fleur hugged her again and said, "We'll solve this. When Mr. Weasley comes back, we'll find a solution, alright?"

"Just like your parents, huh?" Ron said, coming to stand beside Hermione and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"They had amnesia too?"

"Harry, this isn't amnesia," said Fleur.

"Then? Someone obliviated me?"

"Something like that…"

"But who would want to make me forget my best friends?"

"I think we should go downstairs. This discussion isn't helping as much as I thought it would."

"I'll be down in a minute, with Hermione," Harry told Fleur.

After Fleur and Ron had left, Harry moved to sit beside her.

"Hermione?"

She gave him a sad smile.

"I like your name."

That made the two laugh a little. She straightened up and offered him her hand. "I'm Hermione Weasley."

"Oh. Right. Forgot you two were married."

"Well, we are for now. You know what, no," she said, extending her hand again.

"I'm Hermione Granger."

"Nice to meet you, Hermione Granger, I'm Harry Potter."

She chuckled and Harry continued, "Look, uh, I wanted to apologise. I clearly meant a lot to you -"

"You do."

"- and you must have meant a lot to me too."

"I... did," said Hermione in a broken voice, hiding her face in her hands.

"No, don't. That's not what I was…"

"I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. What I wanted to say was, I'm sure everything will be fine. Even if this is permanent, I would love to be your friend again."

"You're still just as kind," she said with a smile.

"You're still… Gorgeous," Harry said in response, making Hermione beam.

"I don't think you've ever said that to me before... but thank you."

After a few seconds, Harry asked, "so should we -?"

"Let's."

Harry stood up and gestured towards the door as if to say ladies first, making Hermione smile again. When she was almost at the door, she abruptly turned around and…

"Oh!" "Woah!"

"Crap!" "Careful!"

"Well I'm glad you still have your seeker reflexes," Hermione said when Harry loosened his grip on her arms.

"Didn't stop me from bumping into you."

"That was my fault." After a few seconds, Hermione asked, "Harry, do you mind if I?"

"What?" Harry asked while Hermione put her arms around him, "oh right, no, of course," and gave him another hug.

After a period of time that felt either too long or too short, depending on whom you asked, Hermione pulled away.

"You still hug the same way."

"I do?"

"Yes… Awkwardly," said Hermione, turning to walk down the stairs.

"Oh. Right!"

"You ok?" Ron asked Hermione as soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs who smiled and nodded in response.

Harry came up behind her and extended his hand, "Hello Mr. Ron Weasley, I'm Harry Potter."

"Nice to meet you, you git."

At Harry's slightly affronted look, Hermione explained, "he means git in the best friend kind of way."

"Oh, right, sorry, I was afraid I'd offended you or something."

"No, it used to be pretty much what we called each other."

"Right, right," Harry laughed, "interesting."

"Did you guys make sure he hadn't forgotten anybody else?" Hermione asked Bill.

"Do you think there's a possibility of that?" Fleur asked in response.

"Well, a slight one… Oh my god! Victoire! She's so gorgeous," Hermione cooed, coming up to Fleur.

"Yep, that's my little girl," said Harry, coming up on Fleur's other side.

"What?"

"Well, technically, she's Bill's. It's not my fault she loves me more than her father," Harry explained while everyone else rolled their eyes.

"Right, right, yes, completely understandable," Hermione responded with a grin.

"Harry spends all his free time with either her or Teddy," Mrs. Weasley added.

"How's that little monster?" Hermione quickly asked Harry.

"Oh he's wonderful. Still impossible to take out into public without covering him up from head to toe."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm guessing he has a better memory than me and probably remembers you. Otherwise, I'm sure he would reel you into one of his metamorph tricks."

"Like what?"

"Like, once, I think it was when I introduced him to Neville and Hannah. He extended some of his hair and wrapped it around her wrist, and when she tried to pull free, he started laughing."

Hermione laughed, "That's brilliant."

"He doesn't know how to speak but he already likes to joke around. He's gonna be a terror when he grows up. That's for sure."

"How's Ginny?"

"Oh she's doing great," Mrs. Weasley answered, "in fact you can probably go meet her, she's going to Hogsmeade on Saturday."

"Oh that's wonderful. We should," said Hermione.

"How is Australia?"

"It's… A mixed bag, really."

"The shop's doing bloody great," Ron said towards George who replied with "Duh!"

"And college is wonderful. I'm learning so much. And Melbourne's just… A great place!"

"But?"

"But there are… Things... That we miss about this place. And although now they're happy with me, my parents were a bit hard to deal with at first."

Harry looked around, and everybody was nodding in understanding. Hermione took in his look and with a sigh, began to explain, "I, uh, I messed with their memories. And made them think they didn't have a daughter."

"Oh!"

"After sixth year. I knew I would go with you. But I wanted to keep them safe. So I made them think they really wanted to move to Australia, and they did."

"Wow. That's…"

"Awful, I know now."

"No, that's not what I was going to say."

"True, nevertheless."

"Anyway," George said after a few seconds of silence, "Hermione, Ron, this is Claire. Claire, Hermione, Ron."

"Oh! Hi, nice to meet you."

"Hello. You were the one with Harry at the party. Are you two…?" Hermione asked.

"Oh no, no, no! We're just friends." Claire was quick to correct her.

"For now," said George.

"And always," Harry added quickly.

"Even though Harry has a massive crush on Claire," said George.

"But she's into Bill," Harry said with a shake of his head.

"Uh-huh, anything else, guys?" Claire asked the room.

"And then there's Jon," George said dramatically.

"Bloody Jon!" Harry exclaimed.

"Jon loves her," Fleur said.

"And she loves him," said Bill.

"Even though we've already established that she's into Bill," Harry added quickly.

"So to hide her feelings about Bill, and put Harry off, she said yes to Jon."

"Bloody Jon!" Harry exclaimed.

"Jon's my fiance."

"Congratulations!" Both Hermione and Ron said to Claire.

"Bloody Jon!" George said this time, succumbing to laugher.

"Stole her away from me," said Harry, also laughing.

"Yes, well, Jon is very sorry, Harry."

"Bloody Jon! Hermione, he spells his name J-O-N. George, isn't that just so bloody Jon?"

"So bloody Jon!"

"He sounds really special," Hermione said to Claire after sending Harry a grin.

"He is, I just kept him a secret from these guys for a long time. Hence why all this."

"Is he from France as well?" Hermione asked Claire.

"You're from France?" Ron asked next.

"Uh, I am, wow, I'm surprised you could tell, most people can't."

"You've still got a teeny tiny bit of an accent."

"Well, okay. Jon isn't. He's English, like you guys. Well, except Fleur."

"Also me. I'm one-eighth Swedish. Hence my good looks," Harry quipped.

"Uh-huh. How could I forget?"

"When are we getting to meet Jon?" Fleur asked.

"Let me see. Today's Thursday. So… Never!"

"Oh come on."

"Fleur, I can't let these guys meet Jon. Just imagine what they'll do to him."

"They won't do anything. Just don't let them meet him without me."

"Sorry Fleur, can't take that risk. At least not right now. Maybe when we're done with uni."

"Oh you two go to university?"

"Yes, I'm studying Literature, and he's studying History."

"That's great. I wanted to go, but I hadn't really kept up with non magical studies while at Hogwarts. And then, everything just got crazy hectic near the end. Now I'm training to become a healer."

"That's wonderful."

"And Ron opened up a branch of WWW in Australia."

"Yes, George told me about that."

"That's going really well."

"How're your parents doing, Hermione?"

"They're doing well, Mrs. Weasley. They've pretty much forgiven me completely now."

"Their memory?"

"They got it back. Mostly. The main obstacle was really just their cooperation. Later on, they did give me a surprise, though. Turns out my parents really wanted a kid. So I'm getting a brother or sister soon."

"Are you serious?" Fleur asked.

"Yep. And I didn't even know my mother could get pregnant."

Everybody congratulated Hermione one by one.

"So, what did they decide? Will they stay in Australia or will they come back?"

"They haven't given me their final decision yet. But chances of them wanting to come back seem quite slim."

"And you?"

"Not yet. I'll stay there for some time more. At the very least, I'll finish this year of my training there, and we'll see after that."

"What about you guys? How's everything going?"

"Everything's great," Mrs. Weasley said.

"I got into Puddlemere," Harry said.

"We know, Harry. We were with you when you signed," said Hermione.

"No, you weren't," he said confidently before chuckling, although no one else did.

"Come on, it's funny!"

"Buddy, it's not," said George.

"How the hell did we not notice?" said Bill.

"I get the feeling that I might not have made him as happy as you'd thought, George," said Fleur.

"What do you mean?"

"That intervention party that you don't remember."

"For weeks before that, you'd been miserable. And two days later, you were, well, back to yourself."

"He must've done it in that day," Bill said.

"Who must've done it? That's the question," Harry followed.

"Harry, we -" Fleur stopped, seeing Hermione start to cry again, "go to Bill's room. I'll be right there."

"Look after Hermione," Fleur whispered to Bill, handing Victoire to him.

"I think I'm going to leave as well," said Claire.

"Stay for dinner, Claire dear," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Oh no, Mrs. Weasley, I should really get going. Jon must be waiting for me."

"Just bring him here then."

"Oh you know I can't, Mrs. Weasley. Maybe one day soon."

"I'm guessing that the answer to who did it is quite obvious."

"I think so, Harry."

"But why? Why would I do something so dangerous to myself?"

"I'm afraid most of us know the answer to that question as well."

"What? Just hit me with it, Fleur."

"Sit down… Come on. The simple answer is… You were in love with a girl and she got married to someone else."

"Did I tell you?"

"You did, that night, but well, I already knew. I think most of us did. Bill, George, me, Ginny knew before anybody else, I think. We never discussed it. Except Bill and me, but I think we all knew. You did some things that made it fairly obvious to us all."

"What?"

"Well, for example, when Ron and Hermione announced their engagement, you snuck out without even saying congratulations to them. Later on, when Bill found you with tearstains on your face, you told him you were just so happy for them that you couldn't control yourself."

"Wow!"

"We felt awful for you. But there wasn't really anything anybody could do. Ron and Hermione loved each other. We didn't want to jeopardize their relationship. I don't think you did, either."

"But today, the way they were talking…"

"I know. But that all happened after they got married. Hermione's parents. They didn't easily forgive her for what she did to them. They refused to have anything to do with her. But she wanted to convince them and so… She decided to go live in Australia."

"You didn't think that was a good idea. And you made that pretty clear. In front of everybody. I don't know what caused you to act like that, but I think maybe you'd just been hiding your feelings for too long and they well, pretty much exploded in the middle of dinner while everybody was saying "That's amazing, Hermione. Congratulations. Blah blah blah." It was pretty spectacular, to be honest."

"What did I say?"

"You were brutal! Unbelievably brutal."

"What?"

"Basically, you told Hermione that she really had become stupider after being with Ron for this long. That it was as if she couldn't stop making bad decisions -"

"Holy shit!"

"- then you counted out what you thought would happen if they did move to Australia. Their relationship would never survive, 'I bet 7 months, George, what about you?'"

"You sure it was me and not some imposter?"

"It was you."

"Wow... Then?"

"Hermione tried to argue, but you basically shut her up asking if you even mattered to her anymore, asking when was the last time she consulted you about what you thought about a decision. Then 'you know what, I'm actually glad. At least I don't have to wonder if I mean anything to you anymore.'"

"Then she started crying and shouting, but you just said, 'you know what, I don't even care. Just fuck off.'"

"Holy shit!"

"Basically the three of you never saw each other again until today. The only conversation between you being a letter that Hermione sent to you which was really really harsh. I mean, you deserved it, but still… Thing is, at least what I think the worst thing is, when you said those things to her, you were just angry. You had just found out that your best friends had decided to move halfway around the world without asking you. And when she and Ron wrote that letter, they were angry. But then when you finally read it, you weren't angry anymore. And it just destroyed you. Like, completely. It was awful."

"Really?"

"You were depressed, Harry. It was painful to see."

"What about that night? What did we talk about?"

"Well, first it took bloody hours to even get you to talk."

"But after everyone had left, I decided to stay. I took a break from taking care of Victoire and took care of another baby."

"Thank you?"

Fleur chuckled. "You told me about everything. You talked about Hermione. Your friendship. When you realised you'd fallen for her. And then when you realised that she didn't feel that way about you. We talked for hours. I don't think you'd ever told anybody the things that you told me that night," said Fleur, her eyes looking a bit teary.

"Did you cry too?"

"Almost more than you."

"So you think I obliviated myself the next day?"

"No. Not yourself. You had to have help. From someone experienced."

"What should I do?"

"About?"

"Should I get my memories back?"

"Why are you even asking that? Obviously, you should."

"But… What if I start to… Feel that way again?"

That gave Fleur pause.

"What do you think?"

"I… Uh, I don't know if just getting your memories back will give rise to the same feelings. I mean, it's not like we can just flick a switch in your brain and you'll be back to how you were back then. We'll have to go through them one by one. Probably."

"What about Hermione's parents?"

"What about them?"

"Did the same thing happen to them?"

"I'm guessing so. You might've got the idea from that."

"At least it worked as intended, right? I was happier after that."

"You were. But it is a pretty extreme thing to do, don't you think?"

"I guess. But to be honest, I think I did the right thing."

"I mean, the person you described doesn't sound like someone I would want to be."

"You weren't that bad. Only sometimes, when something happened with Hermione or Ron. Otherwise, you were almost the same as now, only less friendly with the rest of us."

"That's good, at least except the last part. There's something else. Before, when I was alone with them, did you hear what she was saying."

"Only a little bit at the end. Basically just enough to know it wasn't going well. Especially when you shouted out my name."

"Okay… Well, trust me, I barely even said anything. Now, this is a bit weird… But I think those two might've broken up."

"No!" Fleur said with a shocked look on her face.

"That's what it sounded like."

"She said she was Hermione Weasley, for now. Apparently those things I'd said to them at that dinner that day you were telling me about. She told me I was right. They had a horrible time there."

"What the hell? None of their letters ever mentioned anything like that."

Harry shrugged.

"They'll probably tell the others eventually. I suppose they're afraid of Mrs. Weasley's reaction."

"What else did she say?"

"Uhhh… I don't exactly remember. I was pretty overwhelmed. She told me she missed me a lot, told me that a number of times. And she sent a few letters but I never responded. Well, probably since I had no clue who the hell they were when I got those letters."

"How did you reply?"

"I didn't. I got too scared. She just kept going on and on. She might've been hyperventilating. Then I called you."

"But then, are they still living together?"

"I don't know."

"Oh my god! You know, maybe she told Ginny. Those two were always quite close, especially when it comes to things like this."

"Maybe,"

"This is huge!"

"Hmmm."

"We should go," Fleur said after a minute of silence.

"Probably," Harry said, standing up and following Fleur out the door.

As they got to the bottom of the stairs, everybody looked up at them expectantly.

"What?" Harry asked with a nervous chuckle, jokingly glancing behind himself.

"You ok?" Bill asked him.

"Yeah, of course. Why?"

"Well, we figured... you know…"

"Did she tell you about that dinner?" Ron asked.

"Yeah. Makes me glad I don't remember anything. Sounds like I was a self-centered asshole."

"No, Harry," Hermione tried to defend his past self.

"Why are you defending me? I was the worst to you."

"You weren't. You were right. We had been neglecting you."

"So what? It's your life. Didn't give me the right to comment on it the way I did."

"You were our best friend."

"Not a good one, though."

"You don't have any of the good memories, Harry, or you wouldn't say that."

"He probably would. You know him," Ron quipped.

"Well, yes, but he would still be wrong."

"Completely wrong, Harry," said Fleur, "you're a wonderful friend."

"Fine, I guess I could be," Harry relented with a sigh, "but enough of that. I'm sure Mrs. Weasley is getting sick of us standing here talking and not eating her wonderful soup."

After everyone settled down, Ron reverently put a single spoon of soup in his mouth before he got up and hugged his mother tightly.

"I've missed you, mum."