June 24th 1996 Continued
It was the smell, Hermione realized as she sat in the back seat of the 1992 Mercedes 190 E as her father navigated the streets of London away from Kings Cross. The leather seats had a distinctive smell that brought back memories. The first time she'd ridden in the car was on her way home from her first year at Hogwarts. The car had been almost new then and the smell had been much more defined. She remembered that ride very clearly. She'd talked nonstop as she recounted all the things that just couldn't be described in a letter. She still wondered if her parents believed her as she described trolls and a three-headed giant dog. She did know they had been disappointed that she hadn't been able to demonstrate the incredible magic she'd learned to do. All she could do was describe it to them. "All this time and they've never seen me do real magic," She thought. Then she remembered that she had shown them magic. It was right after she'd ridden in this very car the last time, a little more than a year in the past to her. She remembered the astonishment of her parents as they watched her perform several magical feats. Then she recalled the last bit of magic she'd done for them, removing their memories. "Ironic," She thought sadly as she watched the other cars out the window. She closed her eyes and forced those memories aside. "Harry's right," She mused. "They are but a dream, something that I remember but that never really happened. I'm sixteen again and mum and dad are in the front seat with their memories intact," She instinctively opened her eyes and looked toward the front of the car only to see her mother looking back at her.
"So dear, how was your year?" Jean asked. Hermione could tell it wasn't really her year that she really wanted to ask about. "At least now we know why your letters seemed to be less detailed. Was Harry also the reason you missed Christmas?"
The memories of that Christmas came flooding back to Hermione. Waking up to discover that Harry and the Weasleys were gone; the explanation from Dumbledore, lying to her parents about needing to stay at Hogwarts to study, the trip on the Knight Bus to Grimmauld Place, St. Mungos, Mr. Weasley... She shook her head slightly to clear it before answering. "Harry's not the reason for the letters and he wasn't my boyfriend at Christmas, as for the year, well..." One of her favorite lines came to mind and it seemed fitting for an answer to how her year had been. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
"And of wisdom and foolishness?" Her mother asked. "Well at least you're not forgetting your literature. So what were these reasons? We need a little more elaboration than best and worst of times. Let's start with testing; how did they go, what are they called again?"
"OWLs Mum; Ordinary Wizarding Levels," Hermione replied. "I'm confident I did well, but I won't get the results for a few weeks."
"That's good," Jean replied. "So what else have you been up to this year? What besides OWLs constitutes the worst of times?"
"What I want to know," Mr. Granger interjected, "is why we need that magical protection around our house. You didn't really say why it was necessary and your Headmaster wasn't forthcoming about it either."
Hermione sighed as she grouped her thoughts. Last time she'd told them everything; she really couldn't help it since she was required to take ten potions a day because of the curse she had suffered. She considered not telling them but as her eyes met her mother's again she remembered the vacant look that had been in those eyes right after she'd taken their memories.
"What is it?" Harry asked. "I can feel your sadness, something wrong?"
"No, just being with my parents is reminding me..."
"IT didn't happen, will not happen," Harry said emphatically. "You have to move past that love or you'll never find the peace you need."
"I wish you were here," Hermione said. "I really could use a hug right now."
Harry sent the mental image of the sunrise from that morning to Hermione. "I am there in your heart. I love you."
"I love you too," She replied before steeling herself for what she needed to say. She took a deep breath and let it out. Finally Hermione started. "The tests were fine, definitely not the worst of times. It...it was a lot of other things that made the year bad. There are a lot of things connected so let me start from last summer," Hermione took another deep breath before continuing. "Last summer after I left to go to Harry's Godfather's house, Harry was attacked by Dementors..." She went on to describe the highlights of her fifth year as best as she could remember including Harry's trial, returning to Hogwarts and Umbridge. She described why she really had stayed at Christmas as only Ron and Ginny' s father had been attacked. She told her parents about Ministry's attack on Harry and everything else that happened. "That's why I stopped writing descriptive letters, we found out the Ministry or at least Umbridge was reading our mail," Her mother gasped when she told of Umbridge being arrested and what she eventually confessed to. Then Hermione made it to the events of the previous week. She reached into her school bag and took out the Daily Prophet from the day after the Ministry events and the Quibbler story.
"Last week..." She paused before she continued with the lie that really wasn't a lie, "Last week we, I mean Harry was tricked by Voldemort into going to the Ministry. He thought his godfather was being held prisoner there by Voldemort. When we got there, there were twelve of Voldemort's supporters, Death Eaters, you remember me telling you that's what they were called," Her mother, who had grown pale nodded. "They were there waiting. It was a trap."
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