Out of Time

Chapter 63

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.

We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot

They step out of the Floo in Adelaide into a pristine penthouse high above the city. Hermione wouldn't have been surprised to see dust, but there's not a speck to be found anyway. She runs a finger along the mantle of the fireplace as Draco opens the shades to let in some light.

She's impressed. The furniture isn't even draped with covers. Perhaps properties not in active use have stasis charms upon them to keep them clean. How handy. She prefers that thought over house elves slaving over uninhabited properties in addition to the ones in use.

Around the next corner, she revises this assumption. On the kitchen table, an intimate round size for perhaps five people, is a vase of fresh flowers. She's no expert on flora but these look quite spry - even if this is what's under a stasis charm rather than the sofa cushions.

There are other signs that people have been here. A stylish travelling cloak hangs on an ornate coat rack near the Floo, and a black robe is draped across the back of an armchair. Hermione feels self-conscious at once. Have they unintentionally interrupted Lady Zabini? Perhaps she favours this property.

"Hello?" she says, trying to both project her voice and not shout.

"No one's here," says Draco with more confidence than she feels. How is he so sure? No, it's not the size of the manors in the UK, but it's still plenty of space. Maybe someone's sleeping.

At her sceptical glance, he grins and sweeps her up. "Let's have breakfast and go over the plan again. If someone's here, they'll smell it and join us."

She relents. Draco calls for Suz, who pops into the kitchen with utter delight. Hermione relents on this, as well, slowly becoming accustomed to the way it gives the elves so much pleasure. She doesn't have to understand it to see that it's true. She's making an effort to stop imposing her own views on everybody else, as if her outlook is the only outlook to hold.

No one comes out to join them and it seems Draco was right, after all. They eat and discuss. Hermione persists with the details long after Draco's ready to go. It's as if she's been revising for her NEWTs - she can't simply accept that she knows everything she needs. She must go through it again. And then again.

They'll be staying here in Australia for as long as it takes, something they're both resigned to as a possibility. Hermione's not overly hopeful about the state of her parents' memories. While not trying to be narcissistic, she knows she's a skilled witch. And she'd put everything she had into her memory charms. If there were weak points or gaps to exploit, they were unintentional and probably only caused by shaking hands and open crying.

But the books say it could be possible. It'll be difficult, the most difficult thing she's ever done with magic. She'll have to pair the correct reversal charm with a calming draught and be extremely cautious. Simply thinking it's a reversal charm is a mistake. The magic is incredibly intricate.

It would be easier to keep them calm if she could lift a corner of the obliviation at a time, peel it back gradually - but by removing such a complex thing (herself) from their memory, Hermione affected almost twenty years of their lives. Nearly two decades of life had to be altered.