Gwen stood outside the tall townhouse, she listened to the sounds of the cars that sped pass. This man didn't live in the heart of London, but he was close enough to it that it was loud with honks, speeders, sirens and pedestrians calling out to one another. Of course there was also the cyclists, Gwen was sure it would be safer to walk in the middle of road, taking her chances with the cars, than anywhere near the bikes. She'd almost been taken out by three already and not one 'sorry' or 'excuse me' was to be heard. Taking a deep breath, Gwen pushed the call button and stepped back waiting, the door was thrown open by a middle-aged woman wearing a dust-covered blue dress with her grey-streaked black hair pulled back in a bun.
"Can I help you?" She asked, a friendly smile on her face.
"I'm looking for a Mr. Dudley Dursley?" Gwen meant it to be a statement but her nerves got to her, as usual, and it came out a question instead.
"Come in" The woman said, moving aside to let her pass "And whom can I say is calling?"
"Gwen...Granger" She answered, haltingly, if this man knew Hermione Granger than he may speak to her because of her last name alone.
"Wait here" The woman ordered, she walked off down the hallway, the clacking of her shoes growing more faint with each step. Gwen was starting to get impatient when she heard the sounds of heavy footsteps coming from the way the woman had gone. For a moment she worried that he would end up being just like his father, a mean bullying dickhead that would roughly throw her from his front door. Dudley Dursley was taller than his father by an inch or two, his shoulders were wide and he had the build of a football player (American football player that is) his blonde hair wasn't plastered to his head like it had been in the pictures of him growing up, but was cut short and messy.
"Do I know you?" He asked, by way of greeting.
"I'm Gwen Granger" She told him "I needed to speak with you"
"About what?" He asked.
"Do you know a man named Harry?" She asked "May have the last name Potter...that's what your father called him anyway"
"You met my father?" Dudley asked, surprise written on his face "I take it my mother sent you here then, how is she?"
"Skinny, snobby and completely overshadowed by that prick of your father" Gwen answered, she was worried that maybe she shouldn't be so honest in her feelings about his father but it was out there now. To her surprise the man threw his head back and laughed heartily, placing his hand over his stomach and shaking his head.
"Okay" He said "I think I like you now, you don't have a filter, do you?"
"Not really" Gwen agreed "Please, do you know Harry Potter or Hermione Granger?"
"Granger" He repeated, nodding his head "That's why your name sounded familiar, I know Harry, he's my cousin...how do you know him?"
"Just through this old diary" Gwen held it up, he held his hand out for the book and she let him take it, he turned and motioned with his head for her to follow him as he went down the hall and to his office.
"Wow...I was unpleasant" Dudley said, more to himself and she nodded "Why is this so important to you?"
"I don't..." Gwen started "I don't know. It's a mystery and I've always had a hard time leaving mysteries unsolved...this, Hermione Granger, claims to be my late aunt and uncles daughter, but they had no children"
"Were you close to them?" He asked and she shook her head negative "Then how do you know they had no children?"
"The whole family knew" She explained "Look, I'm not trying to be rude but...this doesn't have anything do with anything that I'm researching"
"What if she doesn't want to be found?" Dudley asked, he was leaning against his desk "What the hell, did my mother tell you about my wife?"
"She said she was a witch" Gwen rolled her eyes "Maybe she can...hop on her broom and look for Hermione from the clock tower"
"Not likely" Dudley snorted "Allie doesn't like to fly" She made a face to herself but didn't push the conversation further "Look, I'll send a note to Harry and if he feels like its something worth looking into, he will contact you"
"So I just go home and wait?" She dropped her head back and let out an annoyed sound that made him laugh.
"Yes" He answered "Harry's got no patience and he loves a good mystery, you'll hear from him soon enough"
~~~/ /~~~
Allison Dursley, a witch that came from America about a year after the war, now worked for the Ministry in the Department Of Magical and Muggle Inclusion. It was a department that had started in Iceland and had been adopted slowly throughout the magical world. It was the hope that, in time, Muggles would be allowed to know about the magical communities and interact with them normally. If all went well there would be no more hiding or memory charms, no more forgetting your families or being looked at strangely for marrying a muggle but embraced for it. Allie was sitting at her desk, writing up another proposal for a possible merger with muggles, at this point she didn't care in what form. It had been nineteen years and they still hadn't agreed to anyone's proposals, she honestly felt like writing these up were pointless, but the time did pass before lunch when she got to go home and hear about Dudley's morning. He was a personal trainer and some of the stories that he told her about his clients made her laugh until her stomach hurt. With quick glance at the clock, Allie let out a loud sigh and gathered her stuff up before leaving the office, it was a Saturday which meant coming back for the second half of the day was optional and she wasn't going to be doing that.
"Dudley?" Allie called out from the living room as she stepped out of the fireplace and wiped dust from her clothes "Are you home?"
"Yes" He said, form the dining room "I bought us salad with grilled chicken on it"
"Sounds good" She kissed him and followed him to the table where the salads were waiting, there was a glass of wine as well and some of the expensive bread that they both loved so much.
"Honey" Dudley said, halfway through the meal "What would make an entire family forget one of their members?"
"Bad Christmas presents?" Allie asked with a laugh, he smiled but shook his head at her.
"I'm being serious" He said, then he launched into the visit he'd had that morning with Gwen "So...what do you think?"
"Simple" She said "It's a memory charm. Hermione Granger wanted her parents to forget her for their own safety and she must not have been able to lift it"
"But if everyone in the family was supposed to forget her" Dudley asked "Then why is this girl looking for her?"
"The spell was likely not played with at all" Allie explained "From what you, Harry and Ron have told me about her, Hermione didn't believe in adding or subtracting things from spells because she assumed they were all perfect. They are, in a way, but not specifically perfect for the type of spell that particular caster wanted"
"Okay" Dudley looked lost and she laughed "Okay, magical talk I don't understand, maybe I should call Harry and Ron"
"That'd be best" She nodded.
Fifteen minutes later Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley were sitting on the couch listening to Dudley talk about Gwen's visit then about the spell that Hermione had cast all those years ago on her parents and how it was affecting everyone now. Then they talked about where Hermione was, that was a mystery all in its own. She'd gone missing ten years previous, no contact to anyone in the magical or muggle world, Harry and Ron searched everywhere, exhausted all avenues, talked to everyone from Hogwarts professors to muggle librarians and everyone in between. There was no leads and after searching for three years straight, her best friends were forced to give up, they turned all stones, numerous times and there was no new evidence pointing to where she could have gone. They'd hoped and prayed for something new, but nothing had come along yet, not until now.
"Gwen Granger" Harry repeated "I've not heard about her"
"She's young" Dudley said "Probably nineteen maybe twenty" They nodded "I want to know why she feels some kind of connection to Hermione without knowing her"
"The spell" Ron said, leaning back and looking in hallway where a cute little blonde-haired girl was looking at him with a big grin on her face and smiled back "Everyone knows that when you use a spell such as a memory charm, you need to change it to be specific to you and we all know that Hermione doesn't change spells. The memory charm that was put on her parents was set to affect anyone who ever met her outside of the magical world. Her friends, her parents friends, neighbors, family members...anyone that knew about her, heard about her or saw her...would forget about her"
"So, Gwen..." Harry led.
"Never met her" Allie finished "She feels a pull through the diary because she calls her aunt and uncle 'mom and dad' and she "knew" that they didn't have children and the pull of Hermione in general is the mystery" She shrugged "The more she learns about Hermione, the more she will see herself in her and then the pieces will fall into place"
"If we knew where Hermione was" Harry muttered.
"How can someone search for someone they've never met?" Dudley asked.
"How do the muggle police find suspects in a crime?" Allie countered.
"Clues" Harry said "She's following the clues she finds in that diary"
"The way I see it" Dudley said "You want to find your friend, Gwen is going to lead you there"
"How?" Ron asked, offering a smile to the little girl again.
"You need a Granger to find a Granger" Allie said, she followed Rons eyes and laughed "Fiona, are you supposed to be down here or in the nursery with Miss Carrie?"
"She's sleeping" The little girl lisped, she finally stepped out of the shadows. She was wearing a cute little pink outfit and no shoes, her blonde hair was in pigtails and had the sweetest blue eyes.
"I'll take care of it" Dudley said "I've been meaning the fire that woman for weeks, sleeping on the job is a pretty good reason to be fired, I think"
"What do you mean 'need a Granger to find a Granger'?" Ron asked.
"Hermione was clever, highly intelligent, picked up on things others overlooked" Allie explained while Dudley picked up their daughter and brought her upstairs "Gwen is likely the same way, she wouldn't have gotten this far without being so and she met with your aunt and uncle, alone, and got answers...she's brave. In order to find Hermione I think you'll have to have help from Gwen in order to do so, she could have answers you never even knew you had questions for"
"So, I'll meet with her" Harry said "I'll bring Ron, where does she live?"
~~~/ /~~~
It had been two days since she'd visited Dudley and still no one had called or contacted her. If she didn't have her job she'd likely go insane, making all the sweets, boxing them up, catering and cleaning kept her hands busy but her mind still thought about how close she felt to an answer and yet further away than before. She'd scoured the diary over and over again but didn't see anything new or helpful, she was a step away from questioning the neighbors but didn't want them to think she was insane. It was the afternoon on the third day and she was just getting ready to lay down for a nap when there was a knock on her front door. With an annoyed sigh, Gwen got out of bed and stomped down the stairs, hearing another knock and some chattering from the other side. She swung the door open and found two men standing before her, she looked at them wide-eyed. One of the men wasn't very tall, maybe 5'8", with messy black hair, pale-skinned, with shockingly beautiful emerald-green eyes and round glasses, he had a faded lightening bolt scar on his forehead. The other man was very tall, well over 6 feet, with short bright red hair, brown eyes, freckles and a long nose.
"Gwen Granger?" The dark-haired man asked.
"Yes" She said, looking them over again.
"I am Harry Potter and this is Ronald Weasley" He gestured between the two of them "I believe you've been looking for us?"
A/N: Thank you all for the reviews I've been getting. I hope you like this chapter, I have been battling one hell of a cold, I hope none of you get it, if you do let me tell you the first day is the worse! Please Review!