Nine

August, 1991

"Uncle Brian! Uncle Brian!" cried Atalanta, racing down the path to the jolly, twinkling man in the bright green and yellow shirt, entering at the gate. In the arching oak that stood by, a meadowlark sang.

"There's my Atalanta!" Uncle Brian laughed, sweeping the little girl high into the air. "Where's your sister?"

"Hermione's coming," Atalanta replied, giggling as the old man tickled her. "She never runs anymore. Not after she turned eleven and got all mature. Do you have any sherbet lemons?"

Uncle Brian chuckled in return and set the girl down, handing her a candy. "Don't tell your mum," he murmured as the front door banged open and Hermione skipped down the path.

"Uncle Brian!" she exclaimed, "I've been reading like you told me and I've been practicing, too! We went to Diagon Alley last week and look at my wand! I can make bluebells!"

"Have you, my dear? That's wonderful!"

"Can I show you?"

"Of course, but perhaps later – we'll have practice later! I have something very special that I want to show you."

Hermione smiled broadly, and the two girls each clutched a hand and ushered the old man into the house, chattering and laughing.

August 1998

The song of the meadowlark drifted on the early morning breeze that stirred the curtains of the tiny room atop the Headmaster's tower. The errant breeze also ruffled the papers on the table.

The trio in the tower paid it no heed.

"This is horrifying," Minerva murmured.

"And it gets us no closer to retrieving my brother," growled Bill, shoving away from the table.

"I'm so sorry, Bill. We are doing the best we can."

"I know... It's just, Ron's my brother and... we've lost so many already."

"Unde Orieris does not, as far as we know, affect people other than the victim, correct?" Snape interrupted from the window where he was watching the sunrise.

"Correct. Severus, we've covered this."

"And the Unde Orieris Curse has affected Hermione's memory, correct?"

"Also correct."

"So what if what Albus did to her – effectively erasing Hermione's memory of her sister for whatever reason, has combined itself with the Unde Orieris Curse to allow her to not only move between the two realities but also..."

"You're saying I can affect one reality while I'm in another?" Hermione asked suddenly from the corner.

Minerva and Bill jumped, and Bill cursed as his knee banged into the table leg.

Snape restrained a start. Hermione's popping in and out of reality was grating on his already taut nerves. Not that he'd admit that to either Weasley or Minerva.

"Miss Granger. Welcome back," he allowed.

"I wish you would call me Hermione when you know I'm here, Severus," Hermione huffed.

His heart tightened. The girl had no business trusting him.

"Hermione," Snape said, stepping carefully towards her, "how much did you hear?"

"Only that the Unde Orieris Curse can allow me to affect what happens here while I'm at home."

Snape looked expectantly at Minerva; if she wanted to play Headmistress over her prize pupil, he was more than willing to allow her to answer that question.

"Hermione," Minerva said, "do you think you can stay with us for a while?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes," she replied, "I want to ... I want to help."

"I know you do, dear," Minerva replied. Hermione smiled and Bill eased back into his chair. "But there are things that are... complicated."

"There are unpleasant facts, Miss Granger," Snape said, "and these facts involve you."

"Me? More unpleasant than the fact that I caused my boyf- my ex-, my friend to vanish?" Hermione demanded.

"I'm afraid so, Miss Granger."

"Hermione, it seems this is not the first time that your mind has been ... tampered with," Minerva said.

Hermione looked stricken. "My mind?"

"By somebody other than Dolohov."

"By whom?"

There was a long pause. Bill stared at his hands. Minerva watched Snape.

"It appears that the summer before your first year at Hogwarts, certain events, certain members of your immediate circle, were removed from your memory," Snape recited dispassionately.

Hermione sat down suddenly. "Who would have done this?" she whispered. "How would it have affected what's happening now?"

Snape took a long breath. "It may have an impact on what is happening now because your perception is altering the very fabric of the reality around you."

"I don't... I don't understand."

"Miss Granger, were you aware that you had a sister?"

Hermione laughed; silvery peals of mirth danced on the air with the motes of dust in the early morning light. "A sister? Don't be ridiculous!"

"Miss Granger, Hermione," Snape tried again, "I'm not joking. Do you know who Atalanta is?"

Hermione sobered. "No," she replied. "I don't."

The silence in the room was heavy. Bill was now standing by the window, gnawing on the side of his finger. Minerva had been called away by a deferential house-elf to supervise some task within the castle.

Hermione stared at the file before her as Snape sat silently, impassively, across the table.

"How ... How could he have done this to me?" she whispered.

"He obviously felt that any attachment to a sibling would be a hindrance to whatever plans he had for you." He laid his hands on the table – pale with burn scars on the sides of his fingers.

"Plans?" Hermione stared at his hands – roughened by work, nails clipped short. They looked strong, capable against the dark grain of the wood.

"To be Potter's sidekick."

"But I didn't even talk to Harry until that Halloween! Not after his awful friend made fun of me for not having any friends!"

"Awful friend?"

"Harry was friends with a redheaded boy, I think. I never knew his name but he was horrid. He used to make comments about me and other people all the time that weren't nice, and then he said that I didn't have any friends and that's when I hid in the girls toilet and got trapped by the troll!"

"His name was Ronald," Bill said intently, gripping the windowsill so hard his knuckles were white. "And he was my brother."

"And I... I made something happen to him?"

"I'm afraid so," Bill replied tightly

"What?"

"You made him vanish. As far as we can determine, Miss Granger, you made him disappear," Snape said calmly. His voice soothed her. If Professor Snape is lecturing me, she thought, I can focus. I can learn what's wrong, and I can fix it.

"Oh, God. How?" She fought the rising panic in her stomach.

"According to what you've told us, you wished him out of existence."

The room began to swim. When Hermione spoke, her voice sounded very far away to her ears. "How did I do that?"

"We don't know," Snape replied. "But there seem to be two spells affecting you."

"I don't ..." Hermione felt the room begin to spin.

"Miss Granger, you need to focus," Snape said. "As I was telling you, you wished Mr Weasley out of existence. Now, I believe that there are two factors at work here: one is the Unde Orieris Curse that effectively shunts you out of reality, and a spell known as the Refracto Legilimentis that Albus cast upon you the summer before your first year."

"And you believe that..."

"It is our belief that these two spells are working in tandem with each other to affect your reality."

"I don't ... I don't feel so well." The nausea returned and the room began to fade.

"Hermione! Stay with us!" Bill's voice held a note of panic.

"Miss Granger! You will attend to me!"

"Severus, don't shout at her. Hermione, you must try to focus!"

I'm trying, Bill.

"Hermione, can you hear me?"

I'm coming, Dad, but I need to solve this first.

"Severus, we're losing her!"

"Dammit, Weasley, stop whingeing and help me – if she slips away from us again, who knows what she'll do! Do you want to be next?"

Why is Severus yelling?

"Hermione, my darling girl, please try to fight this – I know my bright, shining girl is in there. Come back to us, please!"

I know, Dad, I know, and I want to, I really do.

"Can we do something? Anything?"

"We can try this."

"What Albus did? Severus, are you mad? It could destroy her mind completely!"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"No."

What does he want to do to me?

As if she were waking slowly, head filled with sand after a long night of restless dreams, Hermione's blue-painted bedroom began to come into focus. Her father sat on the edge of the bed, clasping her hands. She noticed Atalanta was standing in the doorway – arms folded.

"Refracto Legilimentis." The words echoed through her brain.

Bill. That was Bill's voice. Bill Weasley was calling. He must hate me so, for what I did to his brother. I wish, I wish I could remember.

Suddenly, she felt the pull into the real world – the world of her parents and sister. A world where she was safe.

But that means leaving Severus behind.

The waking stopped and the blue room began to fade again.

"Hermione! No, stay with me!" her father cried out, and his voice jerked her back into her bedroom.

Her father sat upon the bed, his beard silvering, his brown curly hair flopping onto his forehead, worry lines etched into his face. He smelled of pipe tobacco. He smelled of home.

"Dad," she whispered, "it's okay, I'm here."

"Oh, my girl." Her father folded her into a tight embrace.

"I'm here, Dad. I'm here." I'm safe here – nobody hates me here, I can't make... I can't make people vanish here.

"Severus, help me!" The voice echoed, far, far away – like half-heard conversation through a wall.

"Can't you do anything properly? Refracto Legilimentis!"

No, I... what do I want? Why am I... Oh, God what's happening? The room began to sway.

"Hermione, fight this! Please – stay with us!"

"Dad!" she cried, reaching out to him. "I want to stay, don't make me leave this place! I want to stay home!"

But, as if she were being sucked backwards, the blue-painted bedroom disappeared into a pinpoint of light and a plain room of drab grey stone began to come into focus.

A dark-haired man stood before her, holding her chin in a cool, dry hand, staring intently at her. Behind him, a younger man stood, his scarred face twisted with concern. Both men were pointing sticks at her.

She blinked. What the hell is going on?

"Welcome back, Miss Granger," the dark man said as the younger man, red hair aflame in the sunlight that streamed through the casement window, sighed his relief and spun away.

She swallowed. Who is Miss Granger?

"Where..." she began, "where am I?"

"You're at Hogwarts, Hermione," answered the redhead. She noticed he had shaggy hair and an earring that swung with every movement of his head.

The dark man still held her face in his cool grasp, his eyes watching her carefully, his hair hanging limply about his shoulders and face. His expression was angry, worried, and relieved all at the same time.

"Who are you?"

The dark man laughed softly as a tall, thin woman with pursed lips burst into the room.

"Severus, I've just been talking to Albus and would you believe... Hermione, how are you?"

Hermione blinked and struggled to answer the question.

"I ..." she began.

"Severus, what are you doing to Miss Granger?" asked the thin woman.

Suddenly, there didn't seem to be enough air in the room. Hermione, whoever she was, gasped and wrenched her face away from the dark man. He was familiar – her brain grasped for a name. I know it, I know it. The room began to fade – she felt sick.

"Severus!" she heard a shout as the sweet relief of blackness enveloped her.

"Get Poppy," she dimly heard

"You've lost her. Severus, what did you do?" the woman cried.

"No, you interfering old... she's not going into another state – she's merely ... Oh, hell, the damn girl's gone and fainted."

"Atalanta, get Dr Gupta on the phone."

"Dad..."

"Atalanta, don't argue!"

AN: Not mine no money. Special thanks to Subversa, SavineSnape, and Bluestocking79 for their invaluable help!