Chapter Three
Hermione was expecting the knock on her home's door. Her parents were not.
Hermione was sitting upstairs in her room. Most of it was packed already and she put away the last few things, with tears running down her nose. She'd placed an undetectable extension charm on her school trunk, and on a small beaded bag that was her mother's. She'd used it for some dinner or dance as it was only palm sized, far too small to be of much practical use without magical help.
The beaded bag had everything she would need for a few years at least, all of her books, most of her clothes and plenty of toiletries and basic medicines.
Everything that was larger, or she wouldn't need, was in her trunk. With one final burst of tears she carefully folded her beloved red ball gown and shut the lid on her trunk.
The knock on the front door echoed through the house.
"I'll get it!" Hermione shouted, forcing her voice not to shake. She wiped her eyes quickly and made sure the long plait running down her back wasn't too messy before walking down the stairs and opening the front door.
Lily smiled at her, "Are you all right?" she asked, spotting that Hermione had been crying recently.
Hermione shook her head, "No. But this has to be done and I'm just glad I'm not having to do it alone."
Lily couldn't think of a thing to tell her. This was so horribly unfair, "I've organised, well I've tried to organise but… well… anyway they're going to try and bully my sister and her family to allow someone into their house after we're finished here. I don't think there will be any trouble for them…"
Hermione nodded, "Yeah. Come on in."
Jean and Richard Granger were looking in rather confused from the living room door.
"I'm not sure we've met properly before, although I've seen you around." Lily smiled kindly, "My name is Lily S… Evans. I'm Harry's mother?"
"Hermione has talked a lot about a Harry Potter?" Jean said, as gently as she could.
Lily laughed, "Yes, that's him. Evans is my maiden name."
"Sorry, we didn't mean to pry." Jean said, shaking her head, "Everything is just slightly confusing for us, there's always so much to learn!"
"Whole new world." Richard put in.
"I know how you feel, sort of." Lily said, "I'm a muggle born myself, like Hermione is. I know it was difficult for my parents and then I had to learn so much as well. Especially once I became more involved. Learning the correct nobility levels was tough enough." she laughed.
"Our Hermione made a wonderful chart." Richard said proudly.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Dad!"
"What? It was bloody marvellous if I do say so myself, aren't I allowed to be proud?" Richard said, nudging her on the cheek.
Hermione felt another wave of tears building inside her and looked to Lily for help.
Lily took the hint, they needed to get moving, it wasn't fair to drag this out for Hermione, "Mr and Mrs Granger, would you mind if we sat down for a moment?"
"Yes of course." Jean beamed, "Sorry, caught me off guard for a moment. And please, call us Jean and Richard."
Lily followed the couple to their very nice, if slightly dull, sitting room, sitting next to Hermione on the brown sofa.
There were pictures everywhere, nearly always of Hermione. These were clearly very proud and loving parents.
"Would you like a drink? Tea or coffee?" Richard offered, "We were about to put the kettle on ourselves."
Lily nodded, "Tea would be lovely, thank you. Milk and two sugars."
They sat for a few minutes, small talk about the weather and how brilliant Hermione was before Richard returned with four mugs of tea, setting them out on the polished wood coffee table.
"We're always very pleased to meet Hermione's friends." Jean said, taking a sip of her drink, "We met… Lucius I think it was, a few years ago and he was so charming."
Richard frowned at his wife for a moment before smiling, "Yes, our Hermione is doing so well. And she'll finish school with top marks I'm sure! Last year to go!"
Hermione let out a sob before slapping a hand over her mouth and taking several deep breaths.
Lily clutched at her hand, trying to help as much as she could, "Yes… it's about that that I'm here actually. How much has Hermione told you about the… struggles, 'our' world is currently facing?"
Jean and Richard's smiles faltered for a moment, as they gave each other worried looks.
Richard cleared his throat, "Not… not much, why? She says that she doesn't want us to worry."
"She did say that there have been some difficulties at school with some people, 'DE's. She said a few people have been hurt." Jean added, looking worriedly at her daughter.
"I think it's very sweet that Hermione hasn't wanted you to worry." Lily said, smiling sympathetically, "But things have gotten worse, and-"
"I'm not going back to school next year." Hermione said, tears running silently down her face, "It's gotten so bad I can't; it's too dangerous."
Richard and Jean looked horrified.
"Hermione… you have to go to school, to finish your education!" Richard said sternly.
"I'm afraid Hermione is right." Lily said quickly, "It would be far too dangerous for her to go back to school this coming year. I am here, because as a parent I thought you deserved to know, have the right to know, what is about to happen. I wish we could talk about it, but there can be no discussion about this I'm afraid."
"Hermione is our daughter!" Jean snapped, "We barely know you and you are telling us what will be happening?"
"Mum, please." Hermione said softly.
"I wont pretend to know how this must feel, and it's only about to get worse." Lily tried to explain, "But please understand that we have not taken this course of action lightly. My own daughter was hurt, nearly killed just a month ago. I will have to go into hiding for the foreseeable future and Harry won't be with me. I have been ready to kill when people have made decisions for me regarding my children-"
"So why are you doing it to us?" Richard demanded, trying to take everything in.
"We have no choice." Lily said simply, "We really don't. Bad things are coming, very bad. There are people out there who want to kill Hermione, and me and many many others for no other reason than the way we were born, or that we disagree with them, or both in the case of us."
"You're in real danger?" Jean gasped, as the colour drained from her face.
Hermione nodded, "Yes. And so are you."
"Well we want to help." Richard said at once, "Please! Tell us what we can do!"
Lily reached forward and covered his clenched hands with her own, "Thank you. But the best thing you can do now, the biggest help you can be, is to follow our plan. We can't allow the… what was it you called them?"
"DEs." Hermione said quietly.
"We can't allow the DEs to find you." Lily said calmly, "They would torture and kill you to get to Hermione, and my Harry. The best thing we can do, is make it so that Hermione Granger never existed. It will keep you all safe."
"I don't understand." Jean whispered.
Hermione handed a large envelope to her parents. Inside were new driving licence, IDs, bank cards, the accounts already set up to look like they had been there for years.
"Where did you get these?" Jean asked, "They're fake, they're not real. This is my picture but it says my name is Monica Wilkins, married to Wendell."
"I made them." Hermione told them, "With magic. They're the best, the real thing as far as anyone outside this room knows."
"We need to complete the change though." Lily said, "We need to change your memories, make it so that you never knew Hermione. You won't have any children."
Richard choked out a sob and quickly pressed his fingers into his eyes as tears streamed down his face.
"You can't ask us to do this!" Jean shrieked, "Hermione will always be our daughter!"
Lily felt a tear fall down her own cheek. Her reaction would have been just as loud and probably a whole lot more violent if someone had told her she was going to have to forget Harry or Danica.
"I can't imagine how you feel…" Lily said, Hermione was crying too much to speak clearly now, "but we're not asking. We can't, there is simply too much at stake. We will reverse it though, of course. When all of this is over, when Hermione is safe again, when that happens we will reverse it all and you will get her back."
"If." Jean said, clutching at her side, "If things are really as bad as you say they are, it is not a case of when things are safe again, of when Hermione can come back to us, it's if. Isn't it?"
Lily nodded, "Yes, Jean. It's if."
Richard and Jean looked at each other for a moment before nodding, the unspoken way of communicating you get after living with someone for years and years. Lily had never had enough time to learn it with James, but she could talk about just about anything with Severus without saying a single word. She wondered if they'd still have that when, if, they could be together again.
"I assume saying no will have no effect?" Jean said, remarkably calmly.
Lily felt awful, "No… I'm so sorry but we…"
"Will have to do this." Richard finished the sentence for her, "Come here Hermione."
Lily watched Hermione hide herself in her parents arm for a moment, allowing them a last hug, they could spare those few minutes.
After a while, with great difficulty, Jean and Richard let go of their daughter and stood up.
"Thank you." Richard said, clearing his throat again, "For coming here to help Hermione do this, I'm glad she didn't have to be alone with all… this."
"We work very hard to make sure no one is ever alone when they need someone." Lily smiled, "I promise I will look after Hermione as much as I can. She'll be with Harry this coming year, so you can be assured that they will have every assistance and protection we can give."
"We have two things to ask, if we may?" Jean said, her voice breaking slightly, "Firstly, please allow us to help clear the house of everything 'old'. Everything that must go?"
"Yeah mum, of course." Hermione nodded quickly.
"Thank you." Jean smiled sadly, "And secondly, would you be the one to alter our minds Hermione? It only seems… you altered everything coming into our lives. And we trust you, so much."
Hermione nodded again and let out a sob, "Yes."
"Well." Richard nodded, "I think we should get started, I assume that it needs doing as soon as possible?"
"Yes." Lily nodded, unable to control her own tears, the pain being felt in the room was suffocating, "I wanted Hermione to have as much time with you as possible before… coming round."
Jean and Richard nodded.
Every bill, medical record, prescription and letter were piled on the table, Lily muttering complex spells over them to change the names, not only on paper but on whatever record they came from.
Next came the pictures, Jean and Richard sobbing as they picked a few that Hermione would keep whole in her trunk before Lily wiped Hermione from the rest.
"I want you to have this." Jean said, taking the heavy, Victorian locket from around her neck. It had a lake and a swallow engraved on the front.
"Mum that's your wedding present!" Hermione protested.
"It has a picture of all three of us." Jean insisted, "I won't have it altered!"
Hermione nodded and put the necklace on, tucking it under the top next to her heart, "I'll keep it safe mum, dad, I promise."
They double and triple checked the house, Lily checking with a few summoning spells as well in case anything had been missed, accidentally or otherwise but nothing had been. Lily couldn't help but feel that the Grangers were doing far better than she would have in their shoes.
Finally Jean and Richard swapped over their bank cards and gave Hermione a final hug. Lily washed her and Hermione's cups up, putting them away in the kitchen before magically warming Jean and Richards.
"How long will it take for us to fully forget?" Richard asked, tears streaming down his face.
"You'll feel funny for a moment or two." Lily explained, "Just enough time for us to get out of the house."
Hermione threw her arms around her parents again, "I love you." she sobbed.
"We love you too, so, so much." Jean sobbed into her daughter's shoulder..
"Never forget that!" Richard said.
Hermione nodded and forced herself to let the go. Her parents clasped hands and nodded. Hermione lifted her wand and muttered under her breath as her parents eyes clouded over.
"We should go now." Lily said, "Come on."
Lily grabbed the trunk, and guided Hermione from the house, locking the door behind her and held Hermione on the pavement outside.
Jean and Richard felt dizzy for a moment before snapping out of it.
"Gosh there's a draft from that window." Jean said, shaking her head, "Wendell, there's a girl sobbing her eyes out just outside. Should we do something?"
Richard sat down and reached for his daily paper, "Is she alone?"
"No. There's another woman with her." Jean said, coming away from the window; she didn't like to pry.
"Probably just a girl had a fight with her mum, Monica dear, come and drink your tea before it gets cold." Richard said simply.
Jean nodded and cast one last look at her daughter, without a single speck of recognition that she'd ever even met her.