Hermione
5.3
Her face smacking the bus window woke her up with a start. She blinked a few times to get her bearings but realized it didn’t help.
Hermione had no idea where she was.
A glance around confirmed she was on a bus. About mid way back, right side. She was wearing a grey coat, denims, and boots. Looking out the window she knew she was in London.
That was all she knew.
Her location, her first name, general words like bus and boots. But her last name, where she was 20 minutes ago, her address? Nothing came up.
She tried not to panic.
She put her head between her knees, taking deep breaths. She at least remembered how to do that.
“A plan. I need a plan,” she whispered to herself. Taking a deep breath, she turned to speak to the woman across from her.
“Excuse me, ma’am. I’m sorry to bother you. I’m not from here, do you know where the police station is?”
The woman eyed her for a second before replying. “It’s actually near the next stop. Go left after you get off. About a block away on your right. You’re not in some kind of trouble are you?” She looked like if she could move further away she would.
“Oh no nothing like that. A cousin works there and I wanted to surprise him. Thank you.” She was impressed she made this up on the fly. Maybe she’s a smart person when she doesn’t have amnesia.
Hermione got off at the next stop, turned left, walked a block, and found the police station with ease.
However, walking in and explaining to the front clerk she had no idea who she was proved a bit harder.
After some time, she finally convinced her to let her speak to a detective, who fingerprinted her as long as she promised to go to the hospital next. She agreed because honestly, what else did she have to do?
“Alright, your prints actually have a match. Don’t worry, you’re not a delinquent. Turns out your parents had your prints entered in case you ever got lost as a child, that way you could always be identified. Smart folks. Name is Hermione Granger. Address is 8 Heathgate Hampstead Garden. Parents are Helen and Richard Granger, both dentists…unfortunately it looks like they both passed last year. Sorry dear.” The detective helping her looked at her with pity.
Hermione supposed she should be sad over the loss of her parents, but it was currently hard to mourn people that she didn’t know existed.
She agreed to be driven to the hospital by the detective, who dropped her off with a sad wave.
The emergency room was busy. Having to explain her predicament again felt a bit tedious. But hey, it got her in quickly. A doctor came in and did a neuro exam and ordered a scan of her head.
The scans came back clean, so did her blood. A nurse was nice and brought her a sandwich, since she literally couldn’t remember the last time she ate.
The only thing the doctor could guess was that she had witnessed something traumatic, and her brain just blocked everything out.
“You’ll remember when it’s time dear. Or perhaps it's good that you forgot. I sometimes wish I could start over from scratch. Maybe this is a chance for you to do just that. We’ll call you a taxi to take you home. On the house!” He gave her a wink as he signed her discharge papers.
The ride home was confusing and familiar. She knew every place as she saw it, but didn’t know it until she saw it. Pulling up at the address on the slip of paper, she definitely recognized the place as home.
She even knew that the spare key was under the mat.
Walking inside, she knew her way around. Her bedroom was on the second floor on the left. Her parents’ room on the right. Office on the first floor with a computer.
Opening a drawer had her find a small notebook with all important passwords in a woman’s writing. Her mother must’ve been a forgetful person.
A separate notebook had the bill layout. Everything was set to come out automatically. She didn’t see a mortgage payment scheduled. Investigation proved the house was owned by her parents. Or by Hermione herself now.
Online banking told her she was well off. She definitely wasn’t going to starve to death.
Walking around, she realized there were no photos of her. Just two people who must’ve been her parents. Everything was also incredibly dusty like no one had been there in a long time. The food in the fridge was rotten.
Hermione curled into bed as it got dark outside, falling into a restless sleep. She dreamt of flashes of green and gold. Of silver eyes and white hair. Of castles and floating candles.
If only she would remember these dreams the next day.