Sisterly Love
I gaped as I watched my parents from across the street. They were inside their house and the sun was beginning to set. I watched my mother through the window as she plugged in the lights on the evergreen tree in the living area and my father gathered up the news paper on the coffee table. I smiled as he walked over to my mother and wrapped his arms around her waist and they both looked at the shiny tree.
Tears of joy sprang to my eyes while I watched them. It was like nothing had changed. Yes, mother had cut her hair a little shorter and perhaps my father had a few more strands of grey in his, but they looked just like they did the day I had taken their memories. And today I was going to give them back. Finally, after four years of agony, they would recognize me as their daughter.
Draco squeezed my hand as I wiped a tear from my cheek and Ginny put a friendly hand on my shoulder. I stood up strait and cleared my throat. I could do this. My hands started to shake as I remembered that Draco had said they'd gotten their memories wiped again after witnessing a wizard fight and I suddenly felt so afraid that the counter spell wouldn't work.
"What's the matter, Love?" Draco asked, squeezing my hand again and rubbing his thumb gently on the back of my hand.
I looked up into his stormy eyes. "I'm just nervous." I said.
He smiled and nodded. "It will be okay."
"I'm worried the spell won't work." I confessed.
"'Mione, Your the smartest witch I know." Harry said. "It will work."
I smiled at him and hoped he was right.
"Ready?" Ginny asked.
No. I wasn't ready. And yes, I was, more than anything I was. But I wasn't. I couldn't. I could. Maybe. Would I ever really be ready?
I nodded and pressed my shaking hand against my pocket where I could feel my wand.
"We can go with you if you want." Ron said.
"I think I better do this alone." I smiled wearily at him.
He nodded and I let go of Draco's hand before stepping onto the pavement. With my stomach in knots, I kept my eyes on my parents through the window as I crossed the street and headed up the cement walkway. My eyes traveled to the lights that were strung across the front of the house and to the cardboard snowmen that were standing in the yard. I couldn't believe that tomorrow was Christmas already. It seemed like just yesterday that I was bumping into Malfoy in the cafe back in London.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Then I knocked on the door. It sounded so loud against the quiet night, like a loud drum marking a victory at the end of a brutal war, and in a way it was. I heard heavy footsteps draw nearer and pretty soon the door was swinging open and my father's confused face was poking out from behind it.
"Yes?" He said and my heart ached at that voice I'd missed so much.
"Um..." I really hadn't thought about what I was going to say. I needed to get them together, so I could do it all at once. I need to get in their house. "Um.." I shook my head. What was I going to say? Perhaps if I could just get them both at the door...
My father frowned at me. "Is there something I can help you with?" He asked impatiently.
"Do you mind if I speak with your wife?" I asked quickly.
"My wife? I'm sorry, who are you?"
"I'm a friend of hers from awhile ago." I said, not sure if this was going to get me anywhere.
"Wait." He said, and a flash of recognition passed over his face. "Are you one of Henrietta's friends?"
I hadn't the foggiest who Henrietta was, but if it would allow me to see my mother, then I was definitely one of her friends. "Yes!" I said, a little too excitedly.
"I'll get her, just a moment." He retreated back into the house and shut the door to my disappointment. I was hoping he would simply call for my mother and they would both stand in the doorway to talk to me.
I looked tentatively behind me where I could just make out Draco and Analiza's form as they both were propped against the tree across the street and Harry, Ron, and Ginny were underneath the invisibility cloak. No doubt Ron had refused to let Draco under with them and Harry seemed not to care too much for Analiza.
Then the door opened and a girl just around my age with long blond hair bounced out of it. "Jackie I-" She started to exclaim and then stopped when she noticed that I was indeed not 'Jackie'. She looked at me just as confused as I looked at her.
This was not my mother! Who was this girl and what was she doing in my parent's house?! "Who are you?!" I practically shouted.
"I am Henrietta. Who are you?" She asked furiously.
I looked at her, dumbfounded. I almost couldn't find my words. I looked back over my shoulder to see Draco on his feet and that Ginny, Harry, and Ron had taken off the invisibility cloak. "Do you... do you live here?" I whispered. Tears pricked at the back of my eyes as I formed an assumption about who this girl was.
"Yes." She huffed. "Who are you?" She asked again.
"I... I'm..." I couldn't talk. I couldn't force the words out of my mouth. I was so confused and flustered and excited and angry all at the same time. It was too much. I put my face in my hands and let the tears leak between my fingers. This was not how it was suppose to go!
Then, before anything else could happen, Ginny was there. "What's going on?" She asked the girl accusingly.
The girl crossed her arms. "That's what I want to know!" She yelled back "Who are you people?"
Analiza had come up behind Ginny, quickly followed by Harry, Ron, and Draco.
"Who are you?" Ron asked, narrowing his eyes at the girl.
"I'm Henrietta!" She shrieked. "I live here! Those are my parents!"
"What?!" Analiza exclaimed. "Hermione, you didn't tell me you had a sister!"
"I am not her sister!" Henrietta huffed.
I rubbed my eyes and looked up at her. She looked angry and confused and perhaps a little scared. "Actually." I said, not quite sure how to say it. "It appears you are."
"WHAT?!" They all seemed to exclaim at once.
"Okay!" Henrietta laughed. "I don't know who any of you are, so..." She started to head back inside. "This was really funny, don't do it again."
"Wait a second." Harry reached out and grabbed her arm before she could back away inside.
"Get off me!" She flailed her arm to get it out of Harry's grip, but he held firm.
"Your not going anywhere until we get some answers!" He said and pulled her away from the door.
It was odd seeing Harry being so forceful like this, but he was as angry and confused as Ginny and I, and that wasn't something you wanted a Gryffindor to be, especially when there were two others.
"I don't know anything!" She said, struggling to break Harry's grip. He walked her over the bench in their yard and the rest of us followed. He pushed her down so that she was sitting and the rest of us could be more intimidating above her.
"Harry," I said to him. "I just want to return my parents' memories. We can figure everything else out later."
"Do you know who this is?" He asked.
"I might." I bit my lip.
"Hermione, you said she was your sister." Ginny said.
I just wanted my parents! "I think she is." I said, studying the confused blond on the bench.
"You think she is?" Ron asked. "How do you not know?"
"Henrietta?" I said looking at the girl. "Were you adopted?"
She looked like she was about to burst with anger. "That's none of your bloody concern!" She shrieked.
Her yelling must have been loud enough to alarm my parents because my mother and father both were at the door in no time.
"What's going on?!" My father bellowed at the seven of us.
I nearly choked at seeing them both so close. I could just run up and touch them if I wanted to.
"Hermione, do it now." Draco whispered to me.
I swallowed and took out my wand. I raised it at my parents angry faces in the door way.
"What are you doing?" My mother asked.
Before anyone could say anymore, gold sparks shot from the end of my wand and floated around my parents and into their ears. Their faces changed from anger to confusion. I felt for Draco's hand and laced my fingers around his. This was it. My parents would be my parents again.
Then the sparks were gone and there was silence. I realized I was squeezing Draco's hand very tightly, but I didn't let up. My parents stood with a look of complete shock on their faces.
It was completely and utterly silent.
Then my mother broke the silence. "Hermione?"