It All Started At a Lake

Chapter 13

Saturday, September 29th, 1998

After a long week of school work and a night at the lake, Hermione was tired. The tension between her and Malfoy had settled and they were almost at where they were before.

They're project was coming along well and Draco was almost certain that he had found the other curse on the locket. Hermione almost had the wand movement for the first hex nailed.

Hermione was so close to breaking down the walls that Draco had built up since their little argument and she was sure that she knew a way to break them back down. She wasn't so happy about the idea and it had weighed a lot on her mind, but she needed to get something off her chest.

She sat down beside him on her towel as they got out of the cold lake after their regular swim. The lake was getting colder even though they had used warming charms while in the water. Fall was getting colder and soon enough winter would be around.

"I want to tell you something." she said

Draco turned to face her. There was no expression on his face, his expressions have become more blank recently. 

"It's about my parents." she added

A flicker of concern showed on his face, but as soon as it was there, it was gone. Hermione was almost certain that he didn't know how to show emotion.

"They don't remember me right now." she said

"What is that supposed to mean?" he asked

"If you didn't interrupt me I would be able to tell you." she snapped. Draco shut his mouth and laid on his back, looking up at the night sky. "I did something to them and I think they're going to be mad at me."

Draco was confused about what was going on. He wasn't sure if muggles had different feelings from magical beings. He wondered what Hermione could have done to possibly upset her parents. 

"Before seventh year I was scared when the Death Eaters started killing off the parents of muggle-born's." 

He was almost certain that he knew where this was going. 

"I wanted to protect them. Of course they were going to be big targets because I'm best friends with the bloody chosen one." she said. "I knew that they always wanted to go to Australia so I got in touch with the Australian Ministry."

Now he was certain that he knew where this was going. What she had possibly done for her parents was one of the bravest things he had heard in a long time.

"They said they would keep an eye on my parents while I was still at Hogwarts, so I packed my bag and obliviated myself from their memories. Then I pretended to be a real estate agent and I convinced them to move to Australia."

Draco knew he would fail to do a memory charm that good on his parents. He would be too emotional and he would most likely end up messing it up because of his clouded judgment in the moment. What she had done was extraordinary.

"I was sad at first, but I would have preferred to have parents that don't know who I am instead of having dead parents." she said

"Can you get they're memories back?" he asked

"I think so. The Australia ministry knocked them out and shipped them to St. Mungo's just over a week ago. I'm just scared because there is a chance that the healers won't be able to return their memories." she admitted

"Those healers have been trained for years and I know somebody that they had to return memories to. It wasn't to the extent to what you did, but I believe that they can do it." he said