The Dragon of Hogwarts

Dragon of Hogwarts

Chapter 5: Forgetting

Hermione felt very drowsy as she trudged up the steps toward her house. Her thoughts were muddled and she wondered distractedly if she might be coming down with something.

Shrugging, she pushed open the front door.

"Mum, Dad! I'm home!" she called and headed straight for the nursery.

"Hi honey! Did you have fun with the Weasleys?" her dad asked as he stepped out into the hall.

"Weasleys? Oh, yeah, sure did," she answered, distractedly as her eyes searched for the small form of her brother with a desperation that she couldn't explain.

She stepped passed her father and walked into the nursery. It was empty.

A strange sense of loss gripped her, and she could feel tears burning her eyes.

"I have to admit, I was surprised to get your letter saying that you weren't coming straight home," Hermione's mother commented as she entered the room.

Hermione felt a relief so intense that she nearly passed out as she saw her seven-month-old brother crawling after her mother on the floor.

"Jason!" she exclaimed, as she scooped him up into her arms.

She held the warm, sweet smelling body close as a tear slipped from her eye.

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A few hours later, she was sipping a cup of tea while sitting in the rocking chair watching her brother sleep. Her parents had taken the opportunity to go out to dinner for the first time since Hermione had left for school.

She knew something was wrong, she just couldn't remember what it was.

Hermione remembered leaving Blaise's room a little after dawn, four days ago. But she couldn't remember what happened after that. A voice in her head was telling her that she'd spent a few days with Harry and Ron at Grimmauld Place, but that didn't make any sense to her.

She didn't remember staying there. She didn't even remember getting on the train. It was strange. She felt like the time had passed, but she just couldn't remember it.

She sighed, and then smiled down at Jason. He'd gotten so big! She suddenly frowned. When she'd arrived at her parent's house, she'd been afraid he wouldn't be here, but that was absurd! Wasn't it?

She was suddenly distracted by an itching sensation on her left wrist.

Hermione gasped and dropped her teacup onto the floor at the sight of the scabbed over slash on the wrist. There was a matching one on the right wrist.

Why couldn't she remember how this had happened?

After cleaning up the spilt tea, Hermione grabbed a baby monitor and went into her bathroom down the hall.

She slowly began to strip; not believing all of the healing cuts and bruises that she was seeing. Hermione gingerly pressed her hand against a rather large bruise on her upper arm and was surprised to feel no pain.

It was probably a spell. Whoever had done this to her, apparently didn't want her to discover it right away.

Throwing on a bathrobe, Hermione headed to her room and pulled her wand out of her trunk.

"Finite Incantatem !" she cried, aiming the wand at herself.

That had been a huge mistake.

A wave of pain washed over her before she blacked out.

Twenty minutes later, she awoke to the sound of Jason's wails on the baby monitor. She struggled to her hands and knees and crawled into the nursery.

Hermione couldn't stand up, much less hold a baby. She ended up leaning against the crib, and sticking a hand through the bars to stroke his back. Luckily, she was able to get him back to sleep by singing Christmas carols for the next ten minutes.

She crawled back to her room, and rummaged through her trunk for her Charms' textbook. It didn't take long to find the spell that vanished pain, as she had already read about it. However, they had not yet gone over it in class, and she had never cast it before. Her aching body convinced her that she had to do something. It took four attempts before she could feel it working. It wasn't as good as whoever had cast it on her before, but it would have to do.

The Grandfather clock in the den chimed nine and she realized that her parents would be home any minute. She quickly went back to the bathroom to redress and was startled at her reflection.

Whoever had cast the pain vanishing charm on her body had also put a glamour on her face. There was a very large bruise under her right eye and three rings of bruises around her neck like some morbid necklace.

The sound of her parents' car pulling into the driveway startled her into action. She hurriedly redressed, then grabbed her wand. A quick glamour hid the ugly bruises again, and Hermione was thankful that she was eighteen and allowed to do magic at home.

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Hermione was extremely busy helping her mum for the rest of the week. It seemed as if everyone remotely related to her had come to meet the newest Granger and eat up all of their food. It was almost a relief to go back to school. Although, it had been very difficult to leave Jason again. The next time she'd see him, he'd be over a year old.

The train platform was crowded, as she searched for Harry and Ron.

She saw Blaise talking with Malfoy, and Goyle off to the side. They instantly quit talking when they saw her look at them. She waved at Blaise and he nodded back. All three Slytherins were giving her a very odd look.

Hermione was about to go over and demand to know what was going on, when Ron literally ran into her.

Harry and Ginny laughed at the two of them sprawled on the ground.

"Sorry, Hermione," Ron said, blushing as he helped her to her feet.

"That's okay," she said, unable to hide her wince of pain.

"Are you okay? You look a little, uh, pale," Harry asked her, quietly.

"No, I'm not. I..." the train whistle cut her off.

"I'll tell you on the train!" she yelled.

"What?!" Ron called back over the noise.

Hermione rolled her eyes and motioned for them to follow her to the train.

They didn't have to worry about getting an empty compartment, as there were a lot less students riding the train than back in September. Once settled, Harry firmly shut the door and cast a silencing charm so that anyone passing by wouldn't overhear them.

"How did you get home for Christmas? You weren't on the train." Ginny asked.

"I've been asking myself the same question for the past week," Hermione said irritably.

"You don't know?" Harry asked.

"No. I remember kis-, uh, saying goodbye to Blaise, then everything gets all muddled and the next thing I remember is arriving at my house in a taxi cab, four days later."

They all stared at her in stunned silence.

"That's not all. I had this idea in my head that I had spent that missing time with you guys at Grimmauld Place, and my mum mentioned receiving a letter from me saying that I was doing so."

"You weren't with us, Hermione. I don't know where you were," Ron told her.

"Do you think that you were Obliviated?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. I've never been Obliviated before so I have nothing to compare this to."

Harry was staring at her, intently, and she got the impression that he was trying to read her mind.

"What else?" he asked.

Hermione fidgeted and broke eye contact. Sighing, she pulled her sweater over her head.

Harry and Ron gaped at her as Ginny let out a squeak of surprise. Hermione calmly reached for her wand, as if it was an ordinary thing to only be wearing jeans and a bra in front of her friends.

"Glamour Finite!" she said, pointing the wand at herself. She had not wanted to end the pain vanishing spell.

Her three friends were now gaping at her for a different reason.

Harry paled, his jaw clenching in rage. Ron flushed a dark red-purple, his hands curling into fists. With tears in her eyes, Ginny pulled Hermione into a hug. It was that small act of compassion that broke the dam. Hermione let Ginny hold her as she cried out all of the pain and frustration she'd been hiding all week.

When the tears finally stopped, someone handed her a handkerchief and she cleaned her face up as best as she could.

"Thank you, I needed that," she admitted to Ginny, who smiled and patted her on the back.

The boys turned away as Ginny helped her redress and Hermione leaned back in her seat with a sigh. She felt like a weight had been removed from her shoulders.

"You need to tell Dumbledore," Harry said, breaking the silence that had descended on the small group.

Hermione nodded wearily.

"I have to meet with him, Snape, and McGonagall before classes tomorrow anyway. I'll just tell them then."

"But won't Blaise be with you?" Ginny asked.

"I'm not keeping this from him," she said.

"But Hermione," Ron began.

"He's a Slytherin," Harry spat.

Hermione glared at him.

"He did not have anything to do with this," she said, her voice low and dangerous.

Ron and Ginny quickly backed away, sensing a storm, but Harry stood up to her.

"I think you need to ask yourself just how well you really know that guy," he said.

"He's my friend, Harry. I trust him!"

"Has he told you his secret yet?" Ron asked, stepping in between his two best friends while Ginny listened, curiously.

Hermione paled.

"No," she whispered.

"Then maybe you should hold on to some of your secrets until he's ready to share his."

"But..." Harry began, but Ron turned on him.

"Look mate, I'm ready to kill someone too, but we need to figure out what's going on first."

"Hermione, you be careful around Zabini, and keep us informed about him." Ron said to her and she nodded.

"Harry, let's wait and see what Dumbledore says before we do anything, okay?"

Harry nodded, but he didn't look happy.

Hermione sat back down in her seat, and winced. The spell was wearing off again.

Harry sat down beside her and she could see the guilt in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Hermione. I just can't stand seeing people get hurt because of me." he apologized.

"What makes you think this happened because of you?" Ginny asked.

"When is it not about me?"

"It's okay Harry, just a hazard of having a great friend," Hermione said, giving his hand a squeeze.

He looked at her uncertainly.

"It's worth it," she whispered and leaned her head on his shoulder.

She felt Ron move to the seat on her other side and grabbed his hand. Hermione quickly drifted off, feeling safe between her two most trusted friends.

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Hermione felt like she'd barely closed her eyes before they woke her up. The train was pulling into Hogsmeade station.

Ron looked at her apologetically.

"We let you sleep as long as we could."

"Thanks."

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Harry asked, as Hermione redid her glamour.

"Actually there is," she said and taught him the pain vanishing spell.

Hermione may have been smarter than Harry, but he was definitely more powerful.

She sighed in contentment as the four settled into the carriage that would take them back to the castle. Soon, they were waking her up again and she decided to skip dinner and go straight to bed.

Blaise was waiting for her in the common room when she entered.

"Did you have a nice Christmas?" she asked, sinking into a chair next to him.

"Yes. Did you?"

"I can't remember," she said, watching him carefully.

Blaise flinched.

He knew. The bastard knew and he wasn't going to tell her a thing. She carefully got to her feet. "Well, I'm off to bed," she announced, trying desperately to keep the tears from coming.

"Hermione, the..."

She held up a hand. "I'm sorry, Blaise, but I'm too tired to talk to you right now."

"I was just going to say that our meeting has been rescheduled to tomorrow after dinner," he said.

"Oh. Good night."

"Hermione, wait!" She stopped walking, but didn't turn around.

"Can I have a hug?" he asked, hopefully.

She turned to glare at him.

"What? Friends hug!" he said defensively.

"Oh, are we still friends? I wasn't sure, because friends don't betray each other," she spat.

His head jerked back like she'd slapped him, but he didn't ask her what she meant. He already knew. She could see it in his eyes.

Hermione ran into her room and slammed the door. She fell onto the bed, and cried herself to sleep.

End Chapter 5