The World Ahead

Unneeded – Don't worry. You'll find out. *Smirk* When I thought of it, I couldn't help but laugh, but I feel it should remain a mystery for now. Just wait and see.

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“Combe Brianus...better known as... The Cleopatra of the world. Used in potions... some sa-”

“Hermione!” A bushy head of hair burst from behind a pile of books, like a plant sprouting in fast forward. Before her on the floor, a parchment with homework that hadn't been assigned yet, but she knew it was coming. Better to be prepared.

“Yes mom, what is it?” The door opened just slightly and her muggle mother pushed further after peeking in. “Is something the matter?”

“I believe Harry Potter is at the front door darling.” Hermione was up in seconds, pushing past her mother with a stuttered 'excuse me'. She nearly fell as she flew down the stairs and bust open her front door. There he stood, her best friend looking... rather fat. “Harry? Are you alright?” For a moment she wasn't sure what to do. Never once had any of her school friends come to her home, and certainly not in the middle of the night.

“I'm fine Hermione.” With his free hand he motioned past the door and smiled. “Do you mind?”

As if struck her eyes widened, and she steped to the side. “Not at all! I mean, please, come in. Harry, it's freezing out there, you catch a cold... and, why are you so plump. Did you stop at the Weasley's before you came here?” Shutting the front door with a click, she rushed to him, removing his Hogwarts robes and finding three of them stuck together.

His words came out between his laughs. “Not at all.” He shrugged his arms out of the robes and pulled the four sweaters over his head. “I just didn't want to leave anything, and I still can't use magic outside of school.” If it had been an option, Harry surely would have shrunken his belongings and pocketed them in an instant.

For a moment, he wasn't sure if Hermione was pink from the cold or is she was turning into a balloon. “Harry James Potter, did you run away?” She looked flabbergasted. Her mother even poked her head round the corner to see what all the fuss was about.

“How are you Harry?” Her mother took the sweaters and robes from Hermione, only spending a moment examining the layers. The last time Harry recalled seeing this woman was in Flourish and Blotts the summer before their second year. “I suppose you were warm then...”

“Mom, Harry has run away from home! What were you thinking?! Harry...” She stopped here and took a breath. Bushy haired and bucktooth now more grown and refined, Hermione Granger had grown to be more like a mother then a friend every time he saw her, but that was part of the reason he had come to her instead of running to Mrs.Weasley. “... The wards on your house are supposed to keep you safe, why did you leave?”

“They don't work. Or they aren't there.” He let down his wrapped album and inside out invisibility cloak, placing it next to Aunt Petunia's purple posy bag full of books and parchment. “I've been walking away from that house every day since I was little, and no one has ever come to check on me. I had a hunch so I packed up and left. No one came, so I just assumed that if there were wards, they must have gotten old or just disappeared.”

A large sigh left her and she patted his arm. “Be that as it may, what are you going to do now? If Dumble... If McGonagall finds out that you've left, you'll be serving detentions past graduation.” It was their sixth year at Hogwarts and Harry wasn't sure he really wanted to leave. “You're risking expulsion.”

“It's a risk I suppose I have to take.” He licked his lips and smiled at her, his usual awkward smile. “Hermione, there are a few things I need your help with.”

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The next few hours were spent in companionable silence. Hermione looking through her library of a room, and Harry making notes on helpful things he had found. He had been looking for nothing in particular, just general categories of material. It was nearly two in the morning as the final book closed on the young witch's lap. “Healing potions, transfiguration spells, ancient riddles, Harry what do you need all this for?” Her eyes came to face him and the tip of his wand already glowing with a spell.

“Obliviate.” A gentle light overcame her. It was as though every memory in her mind had been ripped to shreds and placed back together, blurs filling the gaps in which pieces had been removed, and then darkness.

Harry was careful to lower her head to her desk, arranging a quill in her hand and an open text that had been present when they had taken to their research. “I'm sorry Hermione.” As silently as possible he crept from her room, taking his notes, and a few books that had more information then he was willing to write. He had no want to harm her. He had no desire for her to be hurt in any way, shape, or form. As he did the same to her sleeping parents, and crept out the front door with his belongings, Harry tried desperately to convince himself it was for the best. It was for her own good that she not know what he planned.

With a flick of his wrist his wand was illuminated and in mere seconds, the night bus was at his disposal. Stan of course was quick to greet him and take his belongings. “Where to tonight, Mr.Potter?”   

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