Alexandra Weasley: Book 5

31

Hermione hesitantly walked along the corridor towards Snape's office. She paused once she reached the door. She probably wasn't supposed to be anywhere near him, especially not to talk about Alexandra. But, she knew he wrote to the headmistress about Alexandra's memory loss. It hadn't even occurred to Hermione to write to anyone. He cared and probably should be made aware, and she doubted Alexandra would go to the hospital wing which meant Snape wouldn't find out for a while.

Hermione loitered in front of the office for a few minutes.
"Miss Granger, you either enter or you leave. One or the other."

"Sorry, sir." She walked in. "I have a question, related to a potion."

"Is it related to a class?"

"No, not really."

"What is it, Miss Granger?" He asked coldly. Reminding herself that it was all mostly kind of a front, Hermione took a deep breath.

"If, hypothetically, Alex was recalling some memories... over the last couple years... does that mean it's all going to come back?"

"What memories?"

"Um, small stuff."

"Like what?"

"Moments with friends..." She shrugged. Alex's other memory was about Snape, she was sure. She wasn't sure if that was something she needed to tell him.

"Anything about Mr Diggory?" Hermione shook her head. "About her time away?" She shook her head again. "Miss Weasley may get back some memories, over time. I very much doubt she'll get back her full memories. The undesirable ones, most likely, will remain forever lost."

"Because the potion reacted to her. To what she wanted to forget. Right. Thank you professor." Hermione turned away and left.

She found Alexandra out by the black lake. She was attempting to skip stones across the water.
"He doesn't like it when you do that." She said, plopping down next to her friend.

"What?"

"The giant squid. Sebastian the squid. He doesn't like it when people skip stones across the lake. It means he can't come up unless he wants to risk being hit."

"You named the giant squid?"

"No, you did." Alexandra dropped the stones in her hand.

"Right. Because giant female squids don't grow that big." She muttered.

"Exactly."

"Sebastian. Taylor. Kichiro. Venus. Mars. Saphira. Rani. Mari. Scar. Freya. Milo. Snuffles. Okay, the last one sounds really made up, but those names are in my head all the time, but no one at Hogwarts has those names."

"Follow me." Hermione stood up and brushed herself off. Alexandra looked uncertain and Hermione held out her hand. After a moment, she took it. Hermione led her to the forbidden forest and Alexandra hesitated as they reached the opening.

"Why are we going into the woods? It's against the rules. There are dark creatures in there."

"It's safe, I promise. You taught me this." Hermione said and continued to lead her down. "You used to come here every day. They're pretty used to you, but you have to be careful. Don't frighten them."

"Frighten who?" She asked. Hermione just shrugged and continued to lead her deeper in the trees. "Are we breaking the rules right now?"

"I mean, you kind of have a special pardon." Hermione shrugged.

They were walking for quite a while before Hermione stopped.
"Okay, be careful, be open, and whatever you do- no sudden movements." She said before walking ahead. Alexandra followed and gasped.

"Unicorns!" She exclaimed. "That's so cool." A unicorn walked up to her. "Kichiro." She said and Hermione grinned.

"Yeah, that's Kichiro. You were there when he was born."

"Cool." She said, petting Kichiro. "I think I remember that."

"Yeah. That's Mars, and that's Venus, and that's Freya and Milo. That's Scar over there, and Rani is the foal. Mari over there's her mum."

"Which one's Saphira?"

"None of them."

"Taylor? Snuffles?"

"Snuffles was a cerberus you befriended in first year."

"Oh wow."

"Taylor is a crocodile that I'm not entirely sure even exists." Hermione said. "And Saphira's a dragon. Are you ready to go see her."

"A dragon?"

"We found her chained in the forest in third year. You worked to break the enchantment the day after everyone left the school for summer and sent her to stay with Charlie. She got really sick being too far away from you though, so we brought her back to a different part of the forest without any chains. She misses you."

"Oh."

"If you're not ready to see her, say so. Don't say you are, if you're going to freak out on us. She doesn't deserve that."

"I want to see her." Alex said. "She was important to me, I think."

Hermione smiled and nodded. "Kichiro's probably going to come. He's not going to want to leave your side."

"That's fine. Shall we go, boy, and see a dragon?"

"He already knows Saph. She spends some time with them sometimes." Hermione explained leading her down some other path. Kichiro followed Alexandra. "Saphira can get a little excited, and don't freak out if you can hear her. She and you have a special bond, so you can understand her."

"What?"

"Here we are!" Hermione said. "Saph! Brought Alexandra along."

There was silence, and Hermione rushed forward. "Where is she?" Alexandra asked.

"Saphira! Saph!" Hermione frowned. "I don't know. She's always here or with the unicorns."

"There she is." Alexandra said, looking up at the trees. Camouflaged amongst the foliage at the top of the trees, was a hovering dragon. Hermione looked up.

"Saph! You worried me. Please come down." The dragon slowly flew down. "It's okay. She doesn't remember everything, but she remembers you. It's okay."

The dragon looked at Alexandra curiously. "Hi." She said. "You're so pretty." The dragon stepped towards Alexandra, but she didn't flinch. "Saphira. You're an Earth dragon. How do I know that?"

Your uncle gave you a book.

"My uncle? I don't have an uncle."

A/N- Hermione being protective over Saph and the unicorns 🥺🥺 and lmfao Saphira just accidentally dropping bombshells.

Favourite line is "You named the giant squid?"

"No, you did."