Memory Lane

Chapter 17

I wake up before Granger does and decide to move us while she sleeps. Maybe that's a mistake, but I think waking up somewhere different might be less jarring than being awake for the location change - if she's aware of them at all. She may not be, but I'm no longer sure of anything anymore.

I put one hand gently over the side of her head, still resting on my chest, and muffling her hearing. "Next place, then," I whisper, hoping that was the right thing to say. I think I remember Blaise saying he uses that phrase to move about. The mist comes in and I inhale deeply, brushing Granger's hair away from her face slightly to make sure she gets it too.

It did work - we're on a couch in a random flat, in the same position - but now I have another complication I hadn't thought about. Our missing clothing cast aside onto the floor of the shop did not transfer with us.

Bollocks. What now? We're both naked from the waist up.

I think this is brilliant, Granger's breasts still pressed against me while she sleeps, but I don't think she'll be quite as thrilled about walking around topless while I think up dinner.

When I thought for a couch, one appeared. When I think for food, it appears, and we can eat it. I try to think for clothes now, hoping I can recall what her shirt looked like.

I think it was... green, a light green t-shirt, maybe? Her bra was white. That should be easy. But I have no idea what size she is. I'm not a good judge of these things. A good bit more than a handful; why don't they measure bras like that?

I'm entrenched in the finances of this park now, completely and entirely, but I have no idea how the magic here works. I haven't really cared as long as it did what I needed it to, and this is no different. I haven't the slightest idea how specific I need to be with the clothing and finally I give up. The clothes still exist. The fic location was physical. They're laying on the floor there.

'I need the clothes we left in the bookshop,' I think almost desperately now. Surely she's going to wake up any minute.

To my general astonishment, after two more moments of anxious waiting, they do appear. They're in the same general position they were probably left in the shop, not that I noticed, but they're still just cast along the floor.

I close my eyes in relief. The last thing I needed was to make her more uncomfortable by being half naked, unable to explain why she was or why I couldn't fix it, or even why the clothing could appear like that if she saw it happen.

With one potential problem solved, I go back to stroking Granger's hair and trying to simply enjoy being here.

But what now? She's remembering more. Some of this is great; she remembers that we're - what? Not together. That we've hooked up twice now? That she fancies me? I don't know. But enough to second-guess things when she noticed I hadn't shown up for several days. Even that shouldn't be possible. What else does she remember or notice?

Weasley - Blaise - ditching her, possibly just prior to sex. I still don't want to know about that, but she knows she hasn't seen Weasley in forever. Seeing Harry - me - for the first time in what felt like ages, too. Food appears at random, and I called it 'magic' when she asked.

And that Occlumency is important.

Things I need to be careful of: whether Granger notices the location changes. Whether she notices her dormmates coming and going oddly, their Obliviation. She's not going into any fics but mine, now, so she's spending far more time in her own mind - days on end there, this week, seeing her dormmates disappear and reappear seemingly at random.