Unforgettable (Fred & Hermione)

VII

Tossing and turning didn’t help Hermione fall asleep that night. She could have blamed it on Ginny’s continuous mumbling and groans in her sleep or on the fact she doesn’t think she’ll ever feel entirely safe in Hogwarts again but it was because of Fred. She couldn’t shake the fact that while he was back, he was not back at all. After the boat house got too cold they returned to the castle and Hermione spent hours in the library looking for a way to get his memories back to him. There was no potion or spell that could reverse the spell obliviate if the memories were not preserved. The last three years of Fred’s life were gone. Of course people could explain to him what happened. He was told about Dumbledore’s Army and about how Fred and George had left school to set up their joke shop and how it was a roaring success until the War began to break out.

But no one could explain what had happened between Fred and Hermione. George could tell him that he had never seen his twin care about any girl like he had with Hermione. Mrs Weasley could tell him that Hermione and Fred were something good among all the bad they had endured since the Triwizard Tournament. Ron could tell him that Hermione spent night upon night messing with the radio to tune into Potter Watch just so she could hear Fred’s coded messages that when decoded would read something as simple as – All safe. Please be careful. Missing you. Yours, F.

But only Hermione and Fred knew the whole story, and then again only Fred knew his side of the story. If they had been a real couple Hermione could tell him how he should have felt but they weren’t. They were real, they were strong, they were powerful and yet they weren’t official.
Huffing and throwing the duvet off of her body Hermione climbed out of bed. She padded down to the common room in her socks hoping she could walk around a bit until she tired herself out. Another member of her house had the same idea.
Harry was half way down the sixth floor corridor in the East Wing when Hermione rounded the corner.

“Still can’t sleep through the night?’ Hermione asked her friend as she fell into step beside him.

Shrugging his shoulders Harry admitted into the darkness “I don’t know how I ever used to sleep straight through. Its all over but parts of it still linger”

Hermione wrapped her arms around herself as she walked, wishing she had thought to put on an extra layer. Harry had a point. The war was over, the final battle had been won but things had not gone back to normal. While Hogwarts was almost returned to its former glory and many of the brave witches and wizards who had fought had returned home things were still not right. Patients still lay in hospital beds, scars were still fresh and nightmares were only just getting acquainted with their sleeping hosts.

Even for Ron, Hermione and Harry it was bizarre to be back at Hogwarts. They had spent so long fighting and searching for horcruxes, living day by day and just surviving as best they could. But now they were in one place, stopped. They didn’t have to run anymore. And yet Hermione knew that Ron still woke in the middle of the night at any noise that could be a snatcher ready to take him, that Harry lay awake thinking about everything he regretted and wished he could have done, the people he could have saved.

“I think parts of it will always linger Harry” She whispered back.

It was a sad truth but a truth nonetheless. It was a truth none of them had wanted to face as so many of them refused to return to normal life until things felt normal themselves. Hermione understood this as why the Weasleys had not yet returned to the Burrow. Things didn’t feel normal yet as Fred still tried to grasp at his lost memories, Percy had returned to the family, Ron was no longer on the run and Bill and Fleur were free to settle down and start the family they wanted so much.

“I wish they wouldn’t” He admitted shoving his hands into his pockets and staring at his feet. “I dont know how we go past this. How we go on from here building our lives. I didn’t have a future last week. I don’t have a plan... I don’t even have my NEWTs done Hermione”