Well, I've picked up another follower since the last chapter so welcome aboard to that person, hope you stick around.

CHAPTER SEVEN: Rituals

Harry brought the car to a halt outside the station and climbed out before going round to the passenger side and opening Hermione's door for her. "Come on,"he told her encouragingly.

Hermione looked towards the station nervously. "Are you sure we should do this? Everyone's going to be looking at me or they're going to talk to me and I'll have no idea who they are."

"We always see the children off at the start of the school year,"Harry explained. "They'll get upset if you're not there."

Hermione sighed. "Have you always been this good at emotional blackmail?"

"No, I just learned recently."

Reluctantly, Hermione got out of the car and followed him towards King's Cross. "So what platform is it?"

Harry gave a slight smile. "9¾."

Hermione gave him the incredulous look that he'd seen quite a lot of the last few days. "What?"

Harry gestured to the walkway between Platforms 9 and 10. "See that barrier there? We walk through that and we find ourselves on the platform. It's hidden from non-magical people." He saw from her look that she wasn't entirely convinced. "We can go through it together if you like."

He felt Hermione's hand grasp his and his heart fluttered slightly at the contact. The last few days, anything approaching physical intimacy had been removed from their relationship, much of it spent filling her in on the basics of the magical world and their family history. To hold her hand again felt like a special privilege. Even if she did release it as soon as they'd stepped through the barrier.

Harry looked around the platform, seeing parents that he remembered from school, children he remembered from previous years. A few of them, mostly first years, stopped and looked at the pair when they noticed them.

"I told you,"Hermione complained. "They're all looking at us."

"Yes,"Harry conceeded. "But not because of that." He sighed. "I should probably have mentioned it before. We're war heroes."

Hermione had the look of someone who felt that her life made less sense the more she found out about it. "We're what?"

"War heroes. You, me, Ron, Neville, Luna, quite a few of our year. About twenty-five years ago, when we were at school, a dark wizard called Voldemort took over the country. He attacked the school with his army, we made a stand against him – the staff and the older students and a few others who were still on our side – and he was killed in the battle, his movement collapsed." Harry decided that was enough information for the moment.

It was at that moment that they caught sight of James, Albus, Lily, Rose, Hugo, Martin and Emily, who were all standing with Ron, Neville and Luna. The children caught sight of them and hurried over. Lily hugged Harry. "Hi, Dad,"she greeted him. She turned to Hermione and hesitated. "Um, hi."

Hermione drew the girl into a hug. The moment broke the ice and Rose and Hugo hugged her as well. "I feel like I should be giving you some motherly advice at the moment, like study hard or eat properly or something."

Rose smiled at her. "That's what you usually say. We'll do it anyway this time."

James had been glancing in the direction of the train during the conversation. "They're about to set off."

"Can't be late now we're prefects,"Albus reminded Rose.

Rose's hand flew to her mouth. "Oh gosh, I'd nearly forgotten!" She and Albus ran to the train.

"You want to get a carriage together?"James asked Emily. "I can give you tips on your OWLs."

"In case I want to get four Es, three As and a couple of Ps as well?" Emily asked teasingly.

"I got an O in Muggle Studies,"James protested.

"Do you remember what results I got?"Martin asked his sister suspiciously.

Emily blushed slightly. "I need to go to the prefects' carriage with them anyway. But save me a seat!" She rushed off.

James and Martin looked round at Lily and Hugo, who were looking at them expectantly. James sighed. "Okay, let's all find a carriage."

The adults were left standing on the platform alone. "Are you sure my being here made a difference?" Hermione asked.

Before Harry could say anything, Ron answered her. "Trust me. It did."

Rose, Albus and Emily made their way towards the prefect carriage. Scorpius was already there, sitting with Zara and the other Slytherin prefects, but as soon as he saw his friends enter he got up and went over to Rose to hug her. "How are you?"

Rose shrugged. "Getting there."

"And your mum?"

It was Albus who answered. "She still doesn't remember anything. But she's back home and Dad says she's coping."

Scorpius continued to address his comment to Rose. "Well, that's good, right?"

"Ahem?" The group turned towards the Head Boy and Girl, Ravi Kapoor and Mary Brown, both of whom the teens knew as members of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. "If we could get started?"Ravi asked.

Rose nodded. "Yes, sorry." The group sat down. Scorpius continued to hold Rose's hand, ignoring the glares Zara was shooting in his direction.

Harry had had a hard time convincing Hermione to stay at home. He had taken leave from work to deal with her convalescence so there was no point pretending he was going there. In the end, he'd told her he had some errands to run. He hadn't felt like revealing the truth to her: He had called a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix, at their headquarters of Grimmauld Place.

Harry glanced an eye over the assembled group: Ron, George and their brother Percy; Luna; Seamus and Hannah; Oliver, Katie and Angelina; Teddy and Victoire; Cho Chang and Michael Corner; Parvati and Padma; and Gabrielle Delacourt. Aside from Hermione, the only absentees were Neville and Ernie, who were busy getting ready for the welcome ceremony at Hogwarts.

"We heard about Hermione,"Seamus confirmed, breaking the awkward silence. "How is she?"

"Healers say there's no way they can restore her memory,"Harry said. "I'm not going to accept that."

"Do you think it's the Death Eaters?"Teddy asked.

"The ones that escaped from Azkaban?"Hannah amended as if clarification were necessary.

Harry had considered if there was a connection with the fact that Lucius Malfoy and six other prisoners had escaped from Azkaban a few months earlier. All of them were still missing, along with Pansy Parkinson, who had worked with Draco Malfoy to facilitate the escape. "It's the sort of twisted revenge they'd come up with,"he confirmed.

"Well, we'll all keep an eye out for them,"George noted. "But we've been doing that already."

"There's something new this time,"Luna stated.

Everyone looked at her. "What?"Cho asked.

"The memory wipes."

"Yeah, that witch,"Ron agreed. "Harriet Kenwood. Someone wiped her memory too. What's all that about?"

"I've been thinking about that,"Harry considered. "And I've got an idea. Madame Manoharan said that she was on the verge of coming up with a way to restore erased memories. What if she succeeded?"

"Then Hermione would have been cured straightaway,"Padma concluded.

Next to her, Parvati's eyes widened in realisation. "So someone erased her memory as well so she couldn't cure Hermione!"

Seamus considered this carefully. "So what we're saying is that if we restore her memory she could tell us how to restore memories?"

"I was just thinking that,"George agreed.

"It gives us something else to work on,"Harry answered. "Because we are going to find the person responsible for this."