Vagary

{One}

Vagary

va·gar·y

/vāɡərē/

noun

an unexpected and inexplicable change in a situation or in someone's behavior

When Harry awoke, the first thing he did- and the only thing he'd ever imagine doing- was limp over to see if Hermione was alright. The figure had fled, and it seemed the spell hadn't knocked him out for long, as no one had bothered to check on them yet. There was no one in the alley itself anyways, but Harry was more worried over Hermione as she rubbed her head and looked at him wearily over the windowsill that separated them.

"What happened?" She hissed at him, sounding disappointed in them both for their poor handling of their assailant.

"Dunno," Harry replied pathetically, "I finally got a chance to spell the tosser, and he took me down instead... and took my book, too."

"What?" Hermione said in horror. "Merlin's sake, the papers will do anything, won't they?"

She got up quickly and grabbed her wand, pulling Harry up as she brushed off and looked around uncertainly, any disappointment she may have held completely diminishing in favor of what looked like distress.

"Yeah," Harry said all the while, looking her over while she analyzed the situation. "Except this time when I find out who's responsible, they're going to be dealing with the DMLE."

Hermione noticed something Harry didn't, evidently, when with a near unreadable expression she apparated them away from the crime scene. He held off chewing her out for breaking protocol when they stumbled into the halls of Grimmauld Place, but no quicker did he notice that than Hermione thrust his own hand before her eyes. What was there startled them both, but she had it ripped from his ring-finger before any speech occurred.

"H.P. and D.M., two-thousand and one," Hermione muttered as she read the inside of the ring, her face contorting, "What-"

"What are you on about, 'Mione?" Harry asked, his tone of distress bordering on anger since she didn't seem inclined to answer.

Looking quite the bit annoyed herself, she put her left hand before his eyes where a silver ring nearly identical to his and an engagement ring encased one of her nimble fingers.

"Oh."

Backing away from him, and rightfully so as Harry felt he was on the brink of going insane, Hermione handed him 'his' ring back and took off the ones on her finger.

"H.G. and S.S., two-thousand and two."

"That's last year... did we get obliviated?"

At the mention of that spell, Hermione tossed him a dirty look but pushed by it, realizing sensitivity about her parents right now wasn't exactly appropriate then cast a quick diagnostic charm that came back negative.

"No, it doesn't make sense anyways," Hermione said, starting to pace, looking about the house with a frustrated glare. "Two-thousand and two would more likely be the future if we'd have been obliviated, not our past. I certainly don't remember getting married... I remember us both being quite single. And I don't know why anyone would just erase our spouses from memory, although it's a possibility."

Something had happened, and she was doing her best to figure it out while he could only gawk. Time and memory charms weren't exactly his specialty as an Auror, spell-casting, tracking, and training new recruits was more his speed.