Hermione spent the rest of the day pacing around the house, eager for Remus to wake and remember her. Sirius tried to get her to eat something but she refused. She tried to sit and read but she couldn't focus on anything but Remus. Thoughts of him consumed her whether it be memories or thoughts of an uncertain future.
"Harry's here with another auror to get your statement on the 'kidnapping'." Sirius told her as he came into the kitchen. Hermione had completely forgotten about that.
"Right. Okay. What do I tell them? Because obviously I wasn't kidnapped unless you count by an errant time turner." Hermione said and Sirius shrugged.
"Why does everyone think I'd been kidnapped anyway?" She asked him as she walked around the dinning room table to pass him.
"I'm not sure actually. Someone must having been covering for you. Someone else who knows the truth. Maybe Snape?" He said and Hermione just sighed as she walked into the other room to see Harry and a woman she didn't know, standing by the fireplace, looking around.
"Hermione Granger I presume?" The woman asked and Hermione noticed she had a high squeaky voice, unmatched to her tough and hard exterior.
"You presume correctly. And you are?" Hermione asked as they shook hands.
"I'm Carla Finnigan. I need to ask you some questions about the kidnapping." She said, all business. Hermione glanced at Harry to see that he was smiling sheepishly at her.
"Alright why don't we take a seat. Would you like some tea?" Hermione asked, being polite when all she really wanted to do was kick the woman out and go see if Remus had woken yet.
"No thank you." Carla said as she sat down, her movements precise and rigid.
"Okay then, ask away." Hermione said from her place on the couch.
"What were you doing on the night of August 30th?" She asked her and Hermione sighed.
"I'd been to a party with some friends to celebrate the new year and returning to Hogwarts for school." Hermione said.
"And what happened that lead to your kidnapping, if you could please run us through the events." Carla asked. Hermione had a flash back to the first time she and Remus had ever slept together and she blushed.
"Well I, you see... I'd got really drunk and went home with a man. The morning afterwards I hardly remembered what had happened and was shocked to be sharing a bed with someone I didn't know, so I ran out. I remember leaving the house in a rush, wanting to be anywhere but there and then nothing. I just went blank." She told the Auror who was writing it all down.
"And what happened when you woke up?" Carla asked.
"I saw Harry sleeping next to me on a chair in the hospital." Hermione said and the woman raised a delicately plucked eyebrow at her.
"So you don't remember anything that happened during the year you were held captive." She asked, scepticism in her voice.
"Not a thing. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help to you." She said.
"You don't seem very concerned by the notion of not knowing what happened to you Miss Granger. They could have done anything to you and you would be none the wiser." Carla said.
"Are you trying to scare me?" Hermione asked mildly.
"I just want you to tell me the truth." She said and Hermione nodded.
"And I am. I really have no idea what transpired all that time." She said.
"Alright Miss Granger. Thank you for your time. If you remember anything, please let me know." The woman said and then stood and went directly for the floo, leaving without even a backward glance. Hermione stared after her for a moment before shaking her head and turning back to Harry.
"Is it true Hermione? Do you really not remember anything?" He asked her and Hermione flinched internally. She hated lying to Harry. But could she tell him the truth?
"How did you find out that I'd been kidnapped?" Hermione asked him, ignoring his question.
"They sent a randsom note two months after." He told her.
"Why wait two months to do that?" Hermione mused out loud.
"I've no idea. They're idiots I guess." He dismissed.
"DO you really think that I would allow myself to be held hostage by a couple of idiots for a whole year?" She asked him and he seemed to understand what she was implying.
"So where were you then?" He asked her accusingly.
"I was in the past Harry, with your parents." She said and he stared at her in shock.
"What do you mean?" He asked her sitting down next to her now.
"When I ran, I didn't run out of the house, I ran down the hall to my room and bumped into my dresser. I broke my time turner and it malfunctioned and took me back to 1978. That's where I've been all this time Harry. Your grandfather helped me get back with a blood ritual and the veil and it took a toll on me. That's why I was in a coma for so long." She told him and he seemed to take it rather well considering everything.
"If that's all true, then why did someone want us to think that you'd been kidnapped?" He asked her.
"It seems as though Dumbledore erased me from history through the memory of everyone I crossed paths with, apart from Severus Snape. I'm guessing he kept the secret, just until I got back. I'm not one hundred percent certain about it but it was him who sent the notes." Hermione said and Harry ran a hand through his messy hair, making it stick up at all angles. Some things never change.
"Right, and why didn't you tell Carla the truth about what happened?" He asked her.
"Terrible things happen to wizards who mess with time Harry. I've told you this before. I don't know all the changes that have occurred because of me being in the past. The Ministry would send me to Azkaban for going back to far. They have rules about these things and I broke a lot of them." She said thinking about Remus once more. She was sure there was a rule about forming relationships with people while misplaced in time.
"Right, so it's all hush hush. I'm glad you told me." He said and Hermione smiled at him softly.
"I'll let you look at all the memories I have of your parents in a pensive some time." She said and he beamed at her.
"Thanks Hermione." He said.
"There's one more thing Harry." She said.
"Please tell me you didn't carry on an illicit affair with Snape." He whined at her and she laughed.
"Not quite." She told him.
"What do you mean not quite?" He asked.
"Well the man that I slept with and ran from before I left was Remus." She told him and he laughed out loud, which confused her.
"Ginny and Ron both owe me twenty quid." he said triumphantly.
"What?" Hermione asked, confused.
"I bet that you and Remus would hook up before you both went back to school. Gin and Ron said that you'd have some kind of affair that started half way through the first semester. I was right." He said still laughing.
"Well I guess you could say both happened, considering that I was with him in the past too. Dumbledore made me attend my seventh year there and so I shared classes with him, Sirius, your parents, and some others." She told him and Harry's laughter died down.
"So what now?" He asked her.
"He doesn't remember me. Dumbledore took his memories of our time together. The old man wanted to get inside my mind and gather all the information I had on defeating Voldemort and do it before the time line allowed. He killed your grandfather while I was trying to get back here, he wanted it so bad." Hermione said and tears came to her eyes at the thought of Charlus, sacrificing himself for her.
"That rat bastard. He's lucky he's dead." Harry swore.
"Sirius said the same thing." She told him.
"So we find out a way to make Remus remember." Harry declared.
"It's already done. According to Severus, he needed a strong reminder of me in order to unlock the memories so I kissed him and he passed out." Hermione said and Harry burst into another round of giggles.
"He fainted when you kissed him? Ha ha, that precious." He said through his laughter.
"So are you together or what's happening?" He asked her and Hermione sighed.
"He's still asleep upstairs. I won't know what he wants until he wakes up." She said nervous just at the thought of it, but anxious to get it over with.
"He'd be crazy not to want you still Hermione." Harry said as he pulled her into a hug. She returned it, needing the comfort.
So I may have gotten carried away with the dialogue and such in this chapter. I mean to have Remus wake up and then wrap it all up here but I'lll add another just so you get a hint of happy ever after smut at the end.
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