Hermione's POV

The portkey twisted away and Hermione felt her stomach lurch as she was pulled into the familiar vortex by the tip of her index finger. She felt her eyes starting to water and her eardrums throbbed as the pressure around them increased with the crescendo of the wind. It went on for a lot longer than she had anticipated although even as the discomfort increased her analytical mind told her that she'd never taken a long-distance portkey in the past. When her feet finally slammed into the ground, it came as a surprise and she staggered forwards, her legs giving way. Before she could fall on her face, a hand had caught her around the wrist, dragging her upright again. Automatically, her own hand flew to the wand in her pocket. The impediment jinx caught the middle-aged wizard in the stomach before she'd even focused properly on her surroundings. Caught by surprise, he froze, his hand jerking backwards and Hermione lost her balance and fell over again. She suddenly found herself kneeling on a tiled floor, in a small office-like room that contained a mixture of mismatched desks and filing cabinets. The jinxed man in front of her had a look of surprise on his immobilised face. He had the slightly over-stuffed appearance of a man who's physical fitness has already peaked and is now in decline.

'Hermione?' She looked round to see Ron staring at her in shock.

'Here! What's going on in there?' The Australian twang was evident even through the wood of the door. A second later, it had burst open and half a dozen witches and wizards poured through into the small office. Hermione registered the six wand tips pointing in their direction and felt bile rising in her throat. She'd really messed up this time.

'Expelliarmus!' Six voices shouted in unison. Hermione felt her wand fly out of her hand. Ron's followed suit.

'Here now… we didn't… please don't…' Ron's stammered, looking around at the six wand tips and their furious occupants.

'What did you do that for?' The jinxed man had regained the power of movement and was now glaring down at Hermione as she knelt in front of him. His hand twitched towards his wand. Hermione felt the blush rising in her cheeks before she even began explaining. She hated her vulnerability; kneeling on the ground just waiting to receive whatever punishment was coming her way.

'I'm sorry, I'm sorry…' Hermione mentally stopped herself from wringing her hands but she could hear the pathetic note in her voice and despised herself for it. She never used to be such a sorry excuse for a witch. She was normally the strong one, the one who took care of others.

'Sorry mate, I think you took her by surprise.' Ron took a step towards the other wizard but immediately retreated again, putting up the palms of his hands in a pacifying gesture as seven wands twitched in his direction. Hermione noticed that the tips of his ears had turned red.

'She attacked me!' From this angle, Hermione could see that the man had a small piece of fried egg dangling from the end of his moustache. She gulped, suddenly feeling slightly nauseous.

'I'm sorry… I… I don't react well to… that sort of thing…' Hermione brandished feebly with her hand trying to demonstrate 'that sort of thing' without going into specifics. '…ever since… I'm sorry.' She felt Ron pulling at her elbow and allowed him to help her to her feet.

'Hermione was attacked a couple of months ago.' Hermione blushed again as he carried on from where she'd trailed off. Ron wrapped his hand around hers and squeezed it gently. It felt so good to finally know that her feelings for him were fully reciprocated. Even in this awkward situation, the feeling of his hand in hers sent a thrill of almost indecent pleasure tingling though her body.

'She really didn't mean to.' There was a moment of awkward silence and then a collective sigh ran around the room as everyone seemed to breathe out at once.

'I really am very sorry,' Hermione offered her free hand, the one that wasn't currently removing all of the circulation from Ron's, to the man she'd attacked. She tried not to look at the piece of fried egg, bobbing up and down in his moustache as he stepped forward to shake it.

'So you must be Miss Hermione Granger and Mr Ron Weasley. It's a pleasure to meet you both of course. We've all heard so much about you. Welcome to Melbourne, I'm Herbert Saddleworth and I'm your contact here at the Australian Ministry.' Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione saw the other wizards and witches filing back out of the room. A clock on the wall pronounced it to be three thirty in the morning. She wondered vaguely why there were so many people in the office at such an early hour.

'Yes we are, thanks.' Hermione heard Ron's polite reply and dragged herself back to the conversation.

'As I'm sure that you are aware, we are here to locate my parents. I cast a false memory charm on them to keep them safe about eighteen months' ago and now…' She trailed off because Herbert Saddleworth was nodding animatedly. The bit of fried egg in his beard flicked itself free and dropped to the floor and she suddenly fought down a slightly hysterical urge to giggle.

'Yes, we've been in touch with your Minister for Magic, Mr Kingsley Shacklebolt, incidentally, a wonderful man if you don't mind me saying, and he gave me the specifics in this case.' Herbert Saddleworth turned back to his desk and shuffled some parchment with his back to them. There appeared to be several large and untidy stacks of documents covering the surface of his desk so Hermione wasn't at all surprised when he turned around empty handed.

'I can't locate the document in question at the moment but rest assured that I located your parents very easily Miss Granger. They are living about a hundred and twenty miles down the coast from here. It is too early to bother them at the moment so I have taken the liberty of organising a suite of rooms at our Ministry hotel across the way.'

He gestured out of the wide window behind him. Outside, they could see the luminescent neon sign of a slightly dilapidated fast food outlet. A painted banner across the sign pronounced it to be 'shut for refurbishment'. Hermione wondered if the Muggles that lived in this area of Melbourne cared that the restaurant was never open. Herbert Saddleworth clicked his fingers and a plastic key card appeared out of thin air on the palm of his other hand. Hermione reached out to take it but suddenly found that her brain had sprinted forwards and she was suddenly imagining the hotel suite. It would be the first time that she'd be alone with Ron, really alone with him. At the Burrow there were always too many people around for them to have the place to themselves and the atmosphere there was so depressing at the moment.

'Thank you…' Hermione felt as though her mumbled expression of gratitude fell a little flat.

'I would suggest that you rest there a while and we can go later on today. I'll find that paperwork for you to sign in the meantime.' He grinned somewhat sheepishly, altogether losing his otherwise pompous air and Hermione felt herself warming to him.

'Right then, if you'd care to follow me then I will take you to your rooms.'

Ron POV

'Are you ready?' Ron asked because Hermione had been staring at the house in front of them for well over a minute. The house was huge; he could tell that it was much bigger than the house where the Grangers' had raised Hermione because she'd shown him several of those strange unmoving muggle photos. The posh bay windows and the manicured garden made him feel slightly nauseous. Merlin, if he felt this nervous then he had no idea what Hermione was feeling right now.

'I'm ready.' Hermione finally replied, her voice faint. Ron resisted the urge to wrap his arms around her at the brittle expression on her face. He wanted to hold her tightly until he made her feel better... Merlin, he wanted to… Ron felt the heat flushing through his ears and hoped that Hermione was too preoccupied to notice. The memory of what they had just done back in the hotel room was unhelpfully still at the front of his mind and right now he needed to concentrate. His eyes moved back to the house and he bit his tongue hard enough to make his eyes water. The pain distracted him a little which was good.

Herbert Saddleworth cleared his throat discreetly behind them. When neither Ron nor Hermione turned around he stepped towards them and tried again, louder.

'Well, I'd leave you to it then. Best of luck Miss Granger.' Ron dragged his eyes away from what he thought was probably the corner of a large marquee that could just be seen peeking out from behind the corner of the house. He nodded to the other wizard before he walked away down the road. At the corner, he turned on the spot and vanished into thin air. A loud crack broke through the sleepy silence around them.

'I'm ready.' Hermione repeated, taking a hesitant step forwards.

'Are you calm enough to undo the spell. You have to be calm to…' Ron knew he shouldn't have spoken even before she interrupted him.

'Stop nagging me Ronald!' Ron bit back a smile as the tone of her voice changed abruptly and followed her up the driveway. Her short temper would sometimes drive him demented but he'd always found it slightly sexy nonetheless.

When they reached the front door Hermione paused again but only for a second before she reached out a shaking hand and gently rapped the brightly polished brass door knocker. Then she took a step backwards and wrapped her arms tightly around her body. She looked like she was trying to hold herself together. Ron had seen Tansy do the same thing several times but he'd never seen Hermione look so fragile.

'Someone's coming.' The smoky shape on the other side of the glass door was getting closer and closer. Maybe it was the distortion on the glass but the shape seemed to take forever to get to them. Then there was a loud click and the door swung open. A tall, balding man stood in the doorway. Behind him Ron could make out a wide, sparsely furnished hall with a highly polished wooden floor and a set of curling stairs leading up to the floors above.

'Daddy!' Hermione squeaked, taking a step forwards.

'I beg your pardon!' Ron reached out automatically but his restraining hand wasn't needed. Hermione withdrew her wand and flicked it at her father.

'Memoria refero!' Blankness momentarily replaced Mr Granger's confusion. Then the confusion returned, amplified by several hundred times. Mr Granger stepped unsteadily forwards, his arms outstretched in front of him.

'Her- Hermione?'

Tansy's POV

Tansy was sitting alone in the window seat of the tiny bedroom Minerva McGongall had given her when they arrived at the Scottish cottage two hours ago. She was staring out at the view beyond the salt-crusted window pane; the small, overgrown garden ending in a short stretch of boulders and rocks and then the pebbly beach of the private cove and the slate coloured water further out. It looked so beautiful that she wondered whether they could go for a walk later that morning. The sea air might clear her head and she might even be brave enough to put her toes in the water.

There was a knock on the door and she saw it swing open out of the corner of her eye but she didn't turn; she knew what her adoptive mother had come to tell her. She'd seen him arrive out of thin air in front of her window ten minutes ago; he'd wobbled as he landed and had grabbed at a dead-looking snargaluff stump to right himself.

'Tansy?' Tansy nodded but continued to stare out of the window. Minerva McGonagall took this as a signal that she could approach and Tansy felt her coming up behind her. A gentle hand caressed her back and she stiffened automatically but regretted it instantly as the hand was swiftly removed once more.

'Mr Weasley, er, Fred is here. He popped by to make sure you and baby Hope were settling in okay. He'd like to see you but…'

But I don't want to see him.

'What do you say?' The hand returned to Tansy's shoulder. This time she didn't flinch and the other woman left it there. 'Do you want to see him…? Tansy…?'

Finally, Tansy turned her head and looked up at Minerva McGonagall. She shook her head, firmly ignoring the disappointment in the other woman's eyes.

He's alone with my baby. What if he sees…? What if he realises…?

The panic that flooded through her with this thought seemed to show in her eyes because the Professor tightened her grip on Tansy's shoulder.

'Things will get easier again Tansy, I promise.'

Why do people keep telling me that? This will not get any easier. What will they say when they find out?

On an impulse, she reached forwards and grabbed a piece of scrap parchment and a muggle pencil from the bedside table. The Professor stood stock still as if she expected the younger witch to change her mind at any time. The pencil trembled a little in Tansy's hand as she put the point on the parchment. It shook even more as she started to write.

I'm sorry, ask him to leave, I can't, please.

It was disjointed and that single sentence to all of her concentration to write. Seeing the words, her words in front of her made her want to tear the parchment into tiny pieces. It was as if she was letting them in, letting them hear her thoughts and it felt wrong.

'It's okay Tansy. You don't have to see him. I understand and so does Fred.'

I can't look at him. It hurts too much.

Tansy gasped in horror and grabbed at the pencil with her other hand to stop herself writing anything further. With a second grab she caught up the parchment and scrunched it into a ball, hoping that the Professor hadn't seen what she'd written. But it was too late; Professor McGonagall dropped to her knees and enveloped the shaking witch in her arms.

'What do you mean Tansy? Why can't you look at him? Please tell me what you mean.' Tansy, her face hidden in the folds of the other woman's robes took a deep breath and tried to calm her thrumming heart while the Professor automatically stroked the top of her head. For the first time in her life, Tansy was glad of the anxiety that held her voice box so tightly in its fist that she could not utter a single sound, could not give away the secrets.

Thanks so much for my inspiring reviews. Life is hectic but I'm trying to find time to write.