Alexandra Weasley: Book 5

23

"What happened?" Snape asked, walking so swiftly, Laila almost struggled to keep up.

"Severus! I'll need you to test the residue of this vial, and find an antidote. She's yet to wake up and I see no evidence of toxic elements in her notes. It could simply be a matter of the potion making its way through her system. I don't see any errors in her working out, but perhaps you'll spot something." Madam Pomfrey explained.

"She did this to herself?" He frowned. And opened the book. "A memory potion. I assume you aided her, Miss Granger."

"No. She did it all herself. I didn't even know." Hermione said.

"It's true, sir. We all found her together." Laila said.

"This is a two part potion." He said. "Drinking the potion and enlisting someone who knows the basics of legilimency to aid her in finding the memories she wished to erase."

"There's no one like that at Hogwarts. Alex didn't get past teaching me the theory of what you taught her. We never actually practiced legilimency since neither of us had mastered it." Snape nodded.

"That's probably what went wrong. In attempting to do it alone, she had no one to help her navigate her memories. I'll double check her calculations first, but should they check out, the solution could be as simple as my pulling her out myself. I will need the permission of her parents, Poppy. If you could get to drafting a letter to her family."

"Of course." Snape turned and left with the vial and the notebook.

True to her word, Hermione didn't leave Alex's side. When Umbridge attempted to force her to leave, threatening her with points and detention, Hermione faked illness. Thankfully Madam Pomfrey played along. It was hours before Snape returned.
"I have the permission from her parents, Severus." Poppy informed. Snape nodded.

"You may stay in the room if you must, Miss Granger, but you will have to stay out of my way." Hermione nodded and stepped back to the foot of the bed. Snape took a seat next to Alex's bed and closed his eyes. Using legilimency on an unconscious patient without resorting to the spell was difficult, but he was skilled so he managed.

It seemed to take forever, but eventually Alex opened her eyes. Hermione surged forth, to Alex's other side.
"Alex." She breathed. "Thank god, you're alright. The next time you do something so unbelievably stupid, I'm going to tell Lavender you admire her and want to be her best friend." Alex blinked blearily.

"My name is Alexandra, not Alex. Who are you?" Hermione flinched.

"What?"

"Miss Weasley." Madam Pomfrey stepped into view. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"Um..." Alex closed her eyes. "I don't know. I went to sleep."

"What's the date?"

"What do you mean what's the date? It's the twelfth."

"What year?" Alex frowned.

"Who are you? Where am I?" She sat up. She looked at Hermione. "You're wearing Hogwarts robes. Why am I at Hogwarts?" She looked around the room. "And why am I in a hospital wing? Where are my parents? Or my brothers at least?"

"Alex-"

"Alexandra, if you please." She said curtly. Hermione lips turn downwards.

"Right. Let me guess, you think it's 1990?" Alex frowned at the words. She looked down and saw she too was wearing Hogwarts robes.

"I've lost my memories, haven't I? I've got amnesia or something?"

"Miss Weasley-"

"How long has it been? You're implying it's not 1990 and the last thing I remember is going to bed on the twelfth of august 1990. I'm supposed to wake up in the morning, and go to Diagon Alley with my family to get my things and start Hogwarts in less than a month."

"It's 1995." Hermione said. "You've lost five years worth of memory."

"Miss Granger, please wait outside." Madam Pomfrey said, disapprovingly.

"I'm not leaving." She said. "At this point we're all strangers to her. Besides, she's logical. She's already figured almost everything out herself. I'm just filling in the blanks."

"Before you had Miss Weasley's permission to be here. She may not be as comfortable with your presence as she used to be."

"No, it's okay." Alex said. "I don't mind. She's right. Everything's strange anyways."

"Okay. How do you feel, Miss Weasley?"

"Fine. Hungry, actually. And confused. What happened to me? Did I hit my head? How long was I unconscious?"

"You haven't eaten since breakfast, I'm pretty sure." Hermione said. "And you didn't hit your head."

"So how did I lose my memories? Were we practicing the obliviate charm in class?"

"Don't worry about all that, dear." Madam Pomfrey said, sending a sharp glance towards Hermione. "Severus, be a dear and send a house elf with plates of food for Misses Granger and Weasley."

"Of course." He said, stiffly, and walked out.

"I'll be back." Hermione said before running out after him. "Professor!" She said. "Professor."

"Yes, Miss Granger? Is there a reason you're taking up my time?"

"You said Alex was supposed to have someone help her, right? To help her navigate her memories. To help her choose what she wanted to forget?"

"Your point?"

"She might have intended only on forgetting Cedric, but without a second person to guide her, her request was too vague, right? So she forgot what happened all these years, because deep down she wanted to forget everything. That's why her memory loss begins from the day of her trip to Diagon Alley, right? Because that's when everything wrong started. Griffiths, her mum, Nagini, him."

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"Asking you."

"Your theory has merit. Don't go getting an enlarged ego, any idiot could have come to the same conclusion."

"Right, of course. I have another question. Will she ever get her memories back?"

"It's possible, but not probable." He said and left. Hermione took a moment to herself before turning back to go see Alex. Well, she did look a lot different. There was nothing weighing on her. No shadows behind her eyes, no weariness in her shoulders.

A/N- So Alex is in a bit of a bind. Heh, oops.

Favourite line is "The next time you do something so unbelievably stupid, I'm going to tell Lavender you admire her and want to be her best friend."