Dandelion Within the Marigold Sea

1st September 1998

The train ride to Hogwarts feels melancholy and subdued for Hermione Granger. She sat alone in the compartment that she used to share with her best friends, Harry and Ron. Now, she's staring at the view from the compartment alone, with no laughter accompanying her. Professor McGonagall offered her the position of head girl, she was delighted at first, but eventually rejected the offer. She didn't need another burden on her already tired mind.

Talking about loneliness, it's not that she didn't want to share with Ginny along the ride, but she and the Weasleys haven't been in a good term since she come back from Australia.

Talking about Australia, she released a deep sigh.

Her trip, a month after the fall of Voldemort was one of the things she looked forward to. Since she didn't know where her parents live, it took her 2 weeks to locate them. Since they are not magical people, the tracker she used – the one that have to spill a drop of her blood, took longer than usual to find them.

Her locator brought her to the south part of Australia, Adelaide – South Australia's cosmopolitan coastal capital. She was delighted to find that her parents live in the area that they'd been dreaming of since, the coastal area. Finding their house wasn't that hard, at the moment her feet step into Adelaide territory, the signal become clearer.

The hardest thing is to reverse the charm she put onto them. She lives nearby them and starts to become their friend. For 4 weeks, she spent all her time with the Wilkins. They treat her good and two times a week they have dinners together. From her notes, she needs them to familiarise with her before trying the reverse spell on them.

She waits patiently, hoping and praying to the deities to let the reverse memory charm she uses work on them. After deducing that everything is in line with the preparation, she uses the charm on them.

She waits. Holding her breath.

Their eyes went from recognizing her to blank and back to recognising her. Her mother stared at her and called her first.

"Hermione?"

Releasing the breath she'd been holding, her tears start to fall down her cheeks. Quickly she hugs her mother. But then, an unexpected thing happened.

"Who are you?"

The voice came from her mother, Jean Granger. The mother she's still hugging, who went rigid in her hold. Distancing herself a bit from her mother to watch Jean's face, hoping she's just joking with her, to her utter disappointment, only a blank and desolate look decorating her face. Hermione's relief smile fall, face turns into a grimace.

No, no this can't be happening.

She followed everything from the tomes she'd been researching in 6th year. This is not one of the possibilities. The tears of joy on her face quickly turn into tears of misery. Checking on her father, only a blank look on his face. No words were utter, and no movement on said person.

No, no, no

She'd promised them, that the charm was reversible. She'd ask the opinion of the professors at Hogwarts regarding this memory charm. All of them agreed with her discoveries.

Please, please let them come back to me.

I can't fathom another loss in my life.

She leaves them at their house for a while. Before apparating to Australia Wizarding Hospital, she warded the house to protect them from an outside force.