Chapter 9

Hermione sat at the table facing Harry, Ron, and Draco.

It had been a few hours since she had received the letter that Ernie was found, and in that time it seemed that somehow their wold had gotten all that more complicated.

As soon as she got word, she had instructed Draco to find Harry and Ron and brief them on all that had happened while she went to St. Mungo's to deal with what had happened and hopefully cure Ernie from his memory loss.

She hadn't been able to tell any of the other Healers at work that there was a connection without explaining everything to them, and that was not something she was able to do. So if any of them suspected a connection between the two cases, none of them said anything on the matter.

Her intern had the day off, so thankfully Mary would not be there either. She was rather smart, and Hermione had no doubt that she would find it abnormal.

When she had arrived in Ernie's room, he had been just as clueless as Parkinson about his heritage, which was odd for the both of them, as neither had much muggle knowledge, yet all of a sudden they seemed to be fairly knowledgeable on the matter, given the circumstances. So whomever had tampered with their memories had not only removed knowledge of their magic, but planted just enough memories in their brain for them to perceive themselves as muggles.

Normally, in a memory modification case, she would start off with a similar procedure as she did with Parkinson, testing the basic cases before moving on to more complicated spells. However, given her inkling about the connection, she went straight for the spells that she knew worked, and within seconds Ernie's memory had returned.

It was the one good thing about knowing there was a connection; that she already knew how to treat them.

Except despite them remembering who they were, neither of them had any knowledge of how they ended up losing their memories in the first place. It seemed that those memories were far harder to find, if even possible to do so. She guessed that whoever had done this had taken care to ensure that neither of her patients would remember that fact.

So she had turned over care of Ernie to another on call Healer to help deal with the damage that had been done to him not pertaining to the major injuries which had already been healed or the memory loss that she had just restored.

She had asked him questions about it; to verify that he had his memory restored properly. Unlike Pansy Parkinson's memory loss, he remembered the events of the earthquake and what happened up to several days later.

Meaning his accident had happened after Pansy's, and that they were two separate incidents. It was one thing if she could say they happened at the same time, so that it was one instance and that it wasn't likely to occur again. But the sheer fact that within a week two patients turned up with similar conditions meant that it was highly probably that this was only the beginning, and that more patients were likely to turn up soon.

She told a few Aurors that had been instructed to surveillance the hospital to watch over Ernie's room. The last thing she needed was for the perpetrator to come back and finish him off. It was unlikely such a thing would occur, given that they had had the chance to do so already and had chosen not to take it. But it would be unwise of her not to take precautions when it came to a patient's health and safety. They had already lost enough people in the earthquake's aftermath; they didn't need to lose anymore.

Now she was back at home sitting across from her friends and Draco as she finished explaining what had happened, from a medical stand point.

"So what, now we need to sift through eighteen combined years' worth of memories?" Ron asked incredulously. "Do you have any idea just how long that would take?"

Harry nodded, "I mean don't get me wrong, Hermione. I know looking through their memories might be one of the only ways to truly find out what happened. But you have to admit it sounds a little tedious, doesn't it?"

"We could always divide up the children's memories and each take one, then swap out with the remaining person whenever we get tired," Draco suggested, trying to help.

She closed her eyes, knowing fully well what they were saying was right.

"I would have thought of that!" she said frustrated, "Future me, I mean. I wouldn't have just sent them back here with no way of knowing what happened. I would have already pulled out my memories and sent those back instead, or I would have written a note or something!"

Harry placed an arm on her, "From the version the kids told us, it didn't seem like you had that much time, Hermione. Otherwise I know you definitely would have done something."

She sighed, placing her head in her hands.

"If only we knew which memories to look at," Ron grumbled.

But as he said so, an idea came to her mind, "Ron, you're a genius!" she exclaimed, eyes widening.

"I am?" he asked in confusion. Draco and Harry were no closer to understanding either.

"You know how my work is focused on memories?" she asked all of them. "There's something I've been working on over the past few months, but it's still in very early stages. It's a way which allows you to 'mark' or 'flag' certain memories in your mind for later. Like if you read something important in a book, instead of trying to figure out what you read later, or searching your mind for that exact memory, you would have that memory already bookmarked for later, so you know what you need. I haven't been able to succeed yet, however."

"So how is that supposed to help us?" Harry asked in confusion, but Draco seemed to start to make the connection.

"I haven't succeeded," Hermione said. "That doesn't mean that I might not have succeeded in the future in doing so. If I did, the memories in the children's minds might have successfully been marked for us to go extract."

"That's brilliant," Draco said, giving her a slight smile. She noticed Ron watching the interaction closely between the two of them, but he didn't say anything. "How would you know if it worked?"

"I would have to use Occlumency on their minds to look and see, but looking through a mind can be like being in a dark space with dozen of memories flowing around. You just have to look for certain markers that point out ones. Personally, I've been playing the idea of using a red book mark as an overlay of those memories like I would use in a book. Of course, this is all hypothetical at this stage, and it's also possible that in the future I use something else entirely. But the only way I would know is to look in their minds"

"I'll go get the boys," Ron said as he stood and left the room.

"How are you holding up?" Harry asked as he turned to her. 'It's been a stressful few days, and I wanted to make sure you were okay; getting enough sleep, eating properly, and the sort. I heard about your visit to Malfoy's place. That couldn't have been easy either."

She smiled at her friend, "I've been doing my best with everything," she said. "And it was nothing I didn't expect. I don't know how I would have reacted if my child came to visit me and told me that a child came back from the future either."

"You would want to meet the child and ask them a bunch of questions about the future," Harry said, giving her a knowing smile. "Then you would insist on spoiling the kid rotten and making sure they are healthy, reading books, and flossing their teeth properly. So basically everything you've just done with Scorpius and the boys."

She laughed lightly at that, "I suppose I probably would, wouldn't I?"

"Yes," Draco and Harry said together.

She shook her head in amusement at the both of them, but didn't say anything in response. She looked up when she heard three little voices sound louder as they made their way closer to the room. As the three boys and Ron piled into the kitchen as sat down; Scorpius insisting on her lap, Harry began to explain lightly that Hermione would need to look through their minds. He tried his best not to mention the children's past to keep them from getting upset about it, but she noticed that Scorpius instinctively snuggled closer to her.

She protectively wrapped his arm around her son, as Draco placed a hand on Scorpius' shoulder.

"I'll start with James," Hermione said softly. "I promise it won't hurt. Just relax, okay?"

James nodded, and Harry comfortingly brought his son close to his body. She focused her attention and delved into the boy's mind.

She was met with darkness around her body, as memories swirled around her. She caught fragments of each memory. She watched for any indication of some sort of mark of flag, but began to feel discouraged as she saw none. Maybe future her hadn't been successful after all…

That was until see saw the first one. The memory was glowing slightly, as if it had been highlighted. She opened the vial she had in her hands and used her wand to bring the memory into the vial. As several more passed by her similarly she did the same thing.

Finally, when she had collected all the memories, she exited James' mind.

"So?" Ron asked her when she came to again.

She smiled as she held the vial in front of her. "I did it! I got the memories!" she said excitedly. It was really astonishing for her to know that she succeeded. Like every other magical aspect in her life, it was a constant source of amazement when she accomplished anything which she didn't think to be possible.

"Of course you did," Harry said with a grin. "If anyone would be able to accomplish something impossible, it would be you, Hermione."

"You're absolutely brilliant," Draco said with awe, causing Scorpius to giggle against her body. She felt herself grow red slightly at the compliment. It was probably due to the fact that she wasn't used to compliments from him as much as she was from Ron or Harry, and it probably had nothing to do with the way he was looking at her with admiration.

"Thanks," she said softly, as her eyes met his warm silver ones.

"Mommy's brilliant!" Scorpius giggled again as he hugged her tightly. She felt her heart soar at the contact and cuddled her son into him.

It was still a weird feeling to be a mother; she didn't deny that. She had no idea how to be a parent to a child that wasn't quite hers. But at times like these, she also wouldn't deny that she didn't enjoy it or the happiness she felt as a result of it.

The others around her laughed as she smiled at her child's words.

"Thanks, Love," she said with as she pressed a kiss against his forehead.

"Shall we do Hugo next? Ron asked, causing his own child to squirm slightly.

"I promise it will be fine, Hugo," Hermione said. "James, what did you think?"

"It was a little strange at first, but it didn't hurt, I swear," James told his cousin.

Hugo nodded nervously and Ron held his hand in his. As Hugo began to relax, Ron gave her a nod and she entered the redheaded child's mind. It didn't take as long, since she already knew what she was looking for, so she quickly gathered up the memories and exited to not prolong her visit.

Once she was back in her seat, she placed the second vial down on the table.

"Scorpius, baby, I need you to relax for me," she murmured to her son. "I need to look inside your mind okay?"

Her son looked up at her as he placed his tiny hand on her face, "Okay, Mommy," he said with a smile.

She smiled back as she noticed Draco grinning at the sight, which didn't fade as he caught her eye.

She focused her mind for the third time, as she entered her son's mind to collect memories.

Hermione had intended to be in and out, just as she had done for the other two children, she really did. But as the memories flew by her, she felt herself getting slightly lost in a few of them.

"Happy Anniversary, Granger," she watched Draco say as he scooped memory her up in his arms.

She looked older, but not by much. She saw Scorpius beside her, happily clapping in his high chair as he used his fingers to eat the crackers that had been placed before him.

"It's Malfoy," Memory her said, as she wrapped her arms around his neck. Draco pulled her in closer as he moved a strand of hair out of her face, placing a deep kiss against her lips.

"How could I forget?" he teased. "I'm reminded every night of just how wonderful of a wife I have," He said, voice getting husky at the end of it.

Memory her slapped him lightly on the chest, "Not in front of Scorpius! You don't him to hear anything he might remember in the future! Do you want to scar your son?"

"It's not like he'll remember too much from this age anyways. He might understand us, be he doesn't get the context of what we're saying," Draco said gently, as his hands began to roam over her body.

Hermione huffed, causing Draco to laugh deeply before pulling her in for another kiss.

"I love you so much," she heard her future self say contently as she rested her head against his chest.

She watched in amazement as she saw herself so happily settled into this family life in front of her. It couldn't be more than four or five years from now, and while she was similar in a lot of ways to who she was now, she seemed at home as she made her way through the kitchen, cleaning up slightly as she wiped Scorpius' face.

"I think he's ready for a nap," Hermione murmured to her husband.

"Maybe after you put him down, the two of us could take a nap as well," her husband said suggestively, causing her to laugh.

"Yet somehow I doubt sleeping is the furthest thing on your mind," she said as Hermione watched her eye up her husband.

"You know me so well."

She felt the memory fade as Scorpius started to drift off to sleep. Deciding against looking at any other memories of a life she wouldn't ever have, she proceeded to collect the memories in a similar manner as before, before exiting her son's mind.

When she returned, she didn't look at Draco. Not because she was mad at him or anything, but because it was just so strange to have seen herself acting so domestic with him, even if it was a rather minor memory.

She placed the third vial on the table as she nodded to the room, "It's done."

"How are we going to view them?" Draco asked the room, not noting the change in her behaviour towards him.

She knew logically that she wouldn't be able to treat him differently. If they were going to view the children's memories, it was likely that there would be more scenes of the such, and she would just need to deal with it.

"McGonagall gave me Dumbledore's pensieve after the war. I mentioned wanting on to store memories that I didn't want to recall as vividly and she said that Dumbledore would have wanted me to have it," Harry said softly. "It's upstairs if you guys want to go use it."

Hermione stared at her friend in shock. She knew he had nightmares from the war; they all did. But she had no idea that he had decided to get a pensieve. Clearly neither did Ron from his expression.

"I'm going to ask Ginny to watch the kids," Ron said standing up. He left the room while she noted Harry had been watching her as Draco's attention turned to Scorpius, who seemed eager at the moment to go sit with his father.

When Ron returned, Harry guided the three of them to the attic. She was walking closely by her friend as Ron and Draco trailed behind the two of them in silence.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked her in a low voice so the others didn't hear.

"I just saw a memory of Scorpius' when I was in his mind, and I wasn't quite prepared," she admitted. "It's one thing to know you married someone in a future. It's another thing to see yourself married to them, and acting like a couple. I guess I just think to expect such a thing. I don't even know why I'm surprised though."

Harry placed an arm around her as they climbed the stairs, "It's a strange situation all around, Hermione, and nothing is going to prepare you for it. But we're in this together, and I promise it will eventually stop being so weird."

She smiled at him, "Thanks," she said silently, as they opened the door to the attic.

The pensieve was standing in the middle of the same attic that once held a Quidditch pitch. As the four of them stood in front of the structure, Hermione emptied the three vials into the opening. She watched as they swirled around inside the pot.

"Are you ready?" she asked them.

They nodded, as slowly they all entered the pensieve, unprepared to face the future that could have been.