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The Detour to Reality	By : Lancelot47 Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Harry/Hermione Views: 4408 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-The Detour to Reality
- 2-Chapter Two
- 1
- 2
The
Detour to Reality:

A
Harry Potter Story

Authors Notes:

The following story is based on situations and
characters owned by J.K. Rowling or her publishers.

I
am just playing with 'em I don't own 'em. If I did own 'em I'd be
rich. :) I own nothing, the bank does. Damn! :(

Spoilers
for all seven books.

With
thanks to my proofreaders: "What contented men desire",
“Mlui” and “tumshie”

Chapter
One

Harry was
staring aimlessly out the car window. His uncle had just picked him
up at King’s Cross station.

Uncle
Vernon was very quiet after his little chat with Mad-Eye and Arthur;
Harry was contemplating the last month. He wondered how his friends
were doing after being injured at the Ministry. He didn’t know
if Sirius was gone or not. He passed through the veil, but did that
mean he was dead or just lost? It was so frustrating. Harry was
startled out of his thoughts when he realised that the car had
stopped and his uncle was speaking. He looked around in confusion;
this was not Privet Drive.

‘Come
on boy, I haven't got all day,’ Uncle Vernon instructed as he
headed for the roadside café.

Harry
collected his wits and followed his uncle. Once the car door slammed
shut, Uncle Vernon activated the car’s remote locking without
stopping or looking around.

Harry entered the café
to find his uncle already sitting in a quiet booth sipping tea. He
beckoned Harry to sit down. A waitress approached but Uncle Vernon
waved her off.

‘Boy, if those
friends of yours think they can intimidate me they are mistaken.
Remember, I can easily dispose of that damn bird of yours. Here is
what's going to happen: you will do the chores and keep your freak
friends away or...your bird dies. If you keep your head down I'll see
about letting you eat more, okay?’

Harry nodded sullenly,
wishing that the wizards had never opened their mouths. They returned
to the car once Uncle Vernon finished his tea.

That evening after
unpacking in his room, someone politely knocking on his door
disturbed Harry. He cautiously opened it to find his cousin Dudley on
the threshold, looking nervous for some reason.

‘May I come in?’

Harry was confused at
Dudley's politeness, but he beckoned him into the untidy bedroom.

Dudley shut the door
after himself. ‘I've done a lot of thinking while you were
away. I was told to get something from the attic, and I found one of
your freak books. Those monsters were real?’

Harry processed this
ramble and said, ‘Yeah. They’re called Dementors.’

Dudley continued, ‘You
saved me, right?’

‘Yeah,’
responded Harry uneasily, wondering where the conversation was going.

‘Well, I wanted
to thank you and say sorry…well, sorry.’ With that,
Dudley turned and left the room and a very confused Harry.

The following morning,
Harry was sent out to weed the flowers. The weather was really
strange; there was a cold mist in the morning, but it got really
windy after dinner. Uncle Vernon never said a word about their
conversation in the café, but Harry believed that the threat
was real, and he was not looking forward to the rest of his summer.

Over the next couple of
days Harry was given a lot of chores to do, it was as if Vernon had
purposely made more work for him. Hedwig was also acting strange.
Harry had left the window open, but she did not want to leave the
room. Also, now that he thought about it, he had seen none of Mrs
Figg's cats at all, or any other animal for that matter.

Harry turned over and
killed his alarm clock, got up and crossed off another date on the
calendar. It was the sixth of June 1996. After getting dressed, Harry
trudged downstairs to prepare breakfast. Uncle Vernon came down half
an hour later, and started into his large meal. As Harry was tidying
up, Uncle Vernon called for him to mow the lawn. Harry replied that
he had done it three days ago.

‘Well do it
again. The grass is growing very fast with all this strange weather.’

After Uncle Vernon left
for work, Harry got out the mower, hedge clippers, and a sack for the
grass. He started on the front lawn.

It was difficult as the
wind was blowing very hard, but he managed all right. When he was
finished with the front, he went around to do the back all the while
cursing his uncle. Damn! The mowers grass box had to be emptied.
Harry shut off the petrol engine, and detached the grass box. He
struggled to cover the mouth of the container with the sack, the
blowing wind not making it easy for him. He turned around at the
sudden silence and gawked at a tornado that was bearing down on him.
Harry reached for his wand to cast a shield spell, anything really
before realising that he had locked it into his trunk so that he
would not be tempted to use it on his uncle. The last thing
he saw was the world spinning before he lost consciousness.

Hermione was glad she
had taken a potion for the pain; the motion of the train was making
her chest very uncomfortable. An unnamed, silent, purple-coloured
spell had injured her. She didn’t tell anyone about the
severity of the injury, as she felt Harry had enough to deal with
without worrying about her, and she did not want word to get back to
him. Madam Pomfrey was very reluctant to let her go, and advised her
to go to St Mungo's for treatment, but she refused and instead asked
for the prescription of potions. The pain potion allowed her to at
least fake normalcy. She watched Harry leave with his uncle before
looking for her parents. Hermione let her father take her trunk and
Crookshank's carrier to the car. When her mother, Jane, hugged her,
she bit back tears. “The potion must be wearing off.”

Hermione tried to
settle comfortably in the back seat of her father’s Mercedes
Benz E500, but nothing she tried worked. Jane kept throwing looks
over her shoulder, but kept silent. There was an almost oppressive
air in the car, and she was glad to get out of it once they arrived
home.

After supper, Hermione
retired to her room and locked the door. She gingerly pulled her
jumper over her head. She slowly unbuttoned her blouse, grimacing at
the sight of blood seepage on the garment. Slowly, she unwrapped the
bandages on her chest. A sudden knock on the door startled her.

‘Hermione, can I
talk to you please?’

Hermione debated with
what to do, but reluctantly decided she would have to face the music
eventually.

Jane was worried,
Hermione was acting strange, and normally she would be telling
stories about school or talking about Harry and Ron. She could sense
reluctance in the hugged greeting at the train station. Then,
Hermione fidgeted all the way home in the car, she was sullen during
supper, and now she had locked herself in her room. “What's
going on?”

She knocked on her
daughter’s door again, asking, ‘Hermione can I talk to
you please?’

Jane heard muffled sobs
before the click of the door unlocked. She stood dumbfounded on the
threshold of the room staring at her daughter. Hermione stood, arms
akimbo, one hand holding her bloody blouse, the other a bandage
clasp. Her chest was wrapped in bloody bandages. Tears of pain and
shame were streaming down her face.

Maternal instinct drove
her forward; she needed to see how bad it was. She guided Hermione
back to sit on the edge of the bed with her arms reaching for the
sky. She slowly unwrapped the damaged torso.

“Oh my god! What
happened to my poor baby? I'll gut the bastard who did this. Oh no,
this doesn't look right.” Jane raged in her mind as more and
more of the damage was revealed.

From below Hermione's
neck to just above her bellybutton, the skin was a dull purple
colour. The skin was cracked and peeling, puss was oozing from sores
on the skin. The breasts resembled shrivelled grapes. Jane gasped at
the damage visible on her daughter’s body, and she winced when
she remembered the train station and Hermione's reaction to the hug.

Hermione sat in shame
at having been caught. She was worried at her mother’s
reaction, and figured she would have some explaining to do. Jane
turned and closed the door so it would be just between mother and
daughter.

‘Explain,’
instructed Jane in a soft voice.

‘I'm afraid there
is a lot I have not told you.’ Hermione raised a hand to
silence her mother’s protest.

‘I never really
made friends until Hogwarts; it started just the same there too until
Halloween. I was depressed, I had no friends, and a boy called me
horrible names. There I was: crying in the toilet when a troll, all
twelve feet of it, came in.’

Jane listened
attentively as her daughter laid out her experiences at school.

‘Harry came
because he was worried about me. Ron followed and the two saved my
life. That night I gained two friends, even though Ron was the one
who had said those nasty things, I learned later that's just his way.
Second year, I was petrified by a Basilisk. Not pleasant, let me tell
you,” Hermione chuckled at the lame joke, then winced in pain.

‘Harry is famous
in the magical world because he survived a killing curse at the age
of one. He considers me a friend; his relatives, the Dursleys,
don't treat him well, but he never says anything about it. Two
years ago, Harry discovered he had a godfather who was wrongly
imprisoned. Harry got to know him well after he escaped, this past
year, and Harry was lured into a trap; I went with him to try to
help. And was injured.’

Hermione paused to
catch her breath, since it was very short. ‘Madam Pomfrey tried
to heal me, but the potions effects are reduced to one tenth of their
potency for some reason. She thinks that ten weeks worth of potions
will heal me, but it hurts,’ Hermione sobbed.

Jane stood stunned as
the fragments of Hermione's life at Hogwarts sank in. Jane's first
priority was to help Hermione; she would worry about whether or not
to let her return to Hogwarts later, only after her daughter was
better. Hermione showed Jane a bag of medical supplies all charmed to
self apply. The only problem was that the old ones had to be removed
by hand, and the bandages had to be changed three times a day. Jane
decided to take sick leave from work to look after Hermione.

The talk with Frank was
not pleasant. He wanted to kill Harry Potter for dragging his
daughter along on his adventures. The following week was unpleasant
for Hermione, as she got no sleep because she was in so much pain;
the pain potion was gone and Muggle painkillers didn't work.

Hermione started to
write in today's medical diary for Madam Pomfrey, the date was the
sixth of July 1996. She was lying in the hammock out on the patio,
since it was the only place in the whole house that allowed her to
rest comfortably.

Jane sat in the kitchen
contemplating what to do about her daughter’s fate. Would they
allow her to go back after hearing the full story? She was startled
out of her thoughts by the glass in the windows and patio door
exploding into the kitchen, and the fierce roar of the wind. The
patio was empty; Hermione was nowhere to be seen.

The old man sat in his
armchair reading the Times. It was dated the sixteenth of February
2008, and he was reading an article about the freak weather over the
last few years. For example: the flooding that shut down the
motorway, forcing people to spend the night in their cars. Or the
freak occurrences of tornadoes last year, which had, torn tiles from
roofs. The environmentalists were harping on about recycle this and
reuse that—protect the planet. He was pulled from his reading
by a roaring noise. He put down his paper and looked out his window
in to the farmyard. A tornado picked up his Range Rover and chucked
it into the barn, hitting the gas tank for the house’s central
heating system.

The resulting explosion
blew the roof off the barn. The tornado lifted up the debris and spat
it at the house, shattering the windows and peppering the walls with
steel roof supports. The man risked looking again after ducking for
cover from the explosion. He saw his prized Jaguar E-type lying on
its roof half way up an oak tree when suddenly the branch broke. The
car flattened upon impact. Cursing, the man went to investigate the
rest of the damage done to his property. He was shocked to discover
two bodies among the debris. He found the boy in a field behind the
barn where the trail of destruction had stopped, and he phoned the
emergency services. They found the girl lying face down on his gravel
driveway in front of the house on their way into the estate. He just
hoped his insurance would pay for all of this.

Alan Shearer was a
medic, sent out to the Hutton-Bury estate; he was told that there was
an injured boy there. They were racing to the scene when they spotted
a body on the estate’s gravel road. Bernard, his driver,
swerved the ambulance to avoid hitting the body. Alan went to
investigate, and found an unconscious
girl with bushy brown hair. Bernard retrieved the stretcher; once
they had loaded the girl, they proceeded to the farmyard.

It
looked like a bomb had gone off; the barn was on fire, but the fire
brigade were due any minute now. They retrieved the other stretcher
and followed old man Hutton-Bury to where the boy lay. After loading
him up, Bernard tried the ignition but the engine just would not
start. Alan was just getting in when he received a strong static
electrical shock from the door.

‘It
won't start!’ Bernard said, shocked.

‘But
it was only just serviced, and the servicing department gave it a
clean bill of health! Try it again.’

Bernard
did. The response from the engine was silence. Just as Bernard went
to check the engine, it roared to life.

‘Strange,’
commented Bernard before communicating with the hospital about the
two casualties in the back. He passed the Fire Brigade on his way out
of the estate.

Doctor
James Spencer frowned. He was baffled by his case from ten days ago.
After examining his two new patients, he discovered that the girl had
a damaged heart, and fluid in her lungs. She was hooked up to a life
support machine; the third one they tried. The first two mysteriously
broke down. The boy seemed to be just unconscious, and Jim was
waiting for him to awaken. However, he did have a strange gash that
was not healing.

They
changed the bandages twice a day, but nothing seemed to work. He had
just tried to stitch it; the boys wound bothered him, and it was in
the shape of a lighting bolt on his forehead, a nasty looking cut.
The wound reminded him of something, something that bothered him.
Nurse Lisa Grint stuck her head into Jim's office and reported
another strange occurrence, this time in both the boy's and the
girl's rooms. The lab had just reported finding two strange
substances in the boy's blood stream. They could extract one of the
substances, which turned out to be a very strong poison of unknown
origin. The other substance they could do nothing with, but it did
seem to be cancelling out the effects of the poison.

After
the nurse left, it struck him; he had seen that gash before: but it
was in a film he had been forced to go see last summer by his
daughter Anne. She was a big fan of a young actor called Daniel
Radcliffe. She even dragged him to that play of his, “Equus.”
She was only a year younger for God's sake. He decided he would read
all seven books tonight, because he had a feeling that it would shed
some light on his two new patients.

Over the
following week, Jim poured through the seven stories. He was sure
that the young man was Harry Potter from the novels of the same name,
and that the young woman was his friend Hermione Granger. At a guess,
he suspected that it was after the fifth book due to Hermione's
injuries. He would not know for sure until one of the two woke up.
But the weird occurrences added credence to his theory. After reading
the books, and re-watching his daughter’s DVDs, he came to the
conclusion that Harry was from the books as opposed to the films, as
he looked similar to the actor Daniel but there were obvious
differences. His height, weight, and build were similar to a
concentration camp victim after a year or two of “treatment,”
not a healthy Hollywood actor. He decided to contact his friend Aaron
McClain who was a social worker and an avid Sci-Fi fan, so he should
hopefully have an open mind.

Aaron approached his old college buddy’s
office with trepidation. They were in contact through e-mail ever
since the two kids cropped up onto the system. He did not believe in
hocus pocus, but he knew Jim was a level headed, intelligent surgeon
and not prone to making jokes, unlike himself who owed his graduation
to Jim after all the pranks he pulled in his college days, which
distracted him away from his studies. He would give Jim the benefit
of the doubt. The e-mails had hinted that the two kids were
characters out of a children's book, one of the more successful
granted but still a children's book. If it was the truth, he did not
know what to think, but he had joined social services to help
children in need and, if Jim was telling the truth, that's exactly
what he was going to do: help them in any way he knew how.

Jim looked nervous sitting behind his desk,
thinking that Aaron was going to have him committed, but proceeded to
explain everything that happened since the two kids arrived in his
care. He further explained that the rest of his staff would swear to
tell exactly the same thing he had. He had various mutated objects,
such as a bedpan with a bright luminous green flower growing off of
the dark blue stained bed pain, to back up his fanciful tale. Jim was
not a person to tell extraordinary tales or try to fool people, and
he did have strange objects that were not easy to replicate, which
proved his story. So they moved on to the life of the kids and what
information the books provided. Aaron had gone out and bought the
series after he started to believe Jim.

During the meeting, he decided to close the file
so it wouldn’t draw undue attention to the two teenagers. He
guessed that the kids would not stay here indefinitely and would be
returning to the world described in the book. Aaron was disgusted
with some of the developments he had read, and decided before meeting
Harry and Hermione that he would make sure they would be thoroughly
prepared to face the tasks that would be waiting for them. He would
contact his brother John, an ex-Navy Seal now working as a detective
in New York, about some training for the pair of them: no questions
asked.

Aaron's brother John was twenty years older than
himself. He had left England to find a life for himself before Aaron
was born. Shortly after arriving in the U.S., he fell in love with
Tam, a Vietnamese-American woman. They married after an
eighteen-month courtship. Tam received word from Vietnam that her
grandmother was expected to die shortly, and she wanted to say
goodbye. John agreed, and the young couple moved to her home. John
became great friends with Tam's father, Lee. Lee had taught John
various forms of martial arts during the six-years that Lee was
alive.

Shortly after the start of the war, Lee and John
returned from hunting in the jungle for food to the village they were
living in, only to find it destroyed. Soldiers had killed all the men
and were systematically raping all the women. Lee went in to a rage
at seeing his dead wife and daughters. He managed to kill one soldier
before he was himself killed. John's reaction to finding his own wife
lying dead was slightly different. He knew he could accomplish
nothing now; he would escape and return with Marines to get revenge.

After returning to the States, he joined the
Marines. His determination was spotted during training, as it was
different to the other grunts’ reluctance to fight. He was
transferred to the Navy SEAL's enrolment exam straight from basic
training. His drive to avenge Tam's brutal murder forced him to the
very top of the elite unit. He served for fifteen years before being
discharged on medical grounds. He sank into drink, trying to find
solace in the bottle.

Aaron was in Chicago for a conference on
psychology, and was rushing to meet a date when he fell over a bum on
the street. He stopped to make sure he was not injured and was
shocked to look in to an older, mirror image of himself. He knew he
had an older brother he never met living in the US, but he never
imagined that he would find him as a bum on the street. Aaron spent
the next three year's helping his brother to rebuild his life. He was
appalled to discover the fate of his dead wife and his in-laws.

With Aaron's help, John went back to school and
later joined the New York police force. When questioned about his
reasons for working in law enforcement in New York, the response was:
“I met Tam in New York. I want her to be proud of me when we
meet again.”

John rose through the ranks to become a detective.
He got an awful lot of stick after some film called, “Die
Hard.” The force wanted John to retire, but he was far too
stubborn, so they reappointed him to training the new cadets. Aaron
was sure that John was the perfect man to help Harry and Hermione,
and anyway, John did owe Aaron for saving his sanity.

John took the first flight to London he could get,
after ending the call with Aaron about the two kids his brother was
trying to help. Anything is easy after helping me was his thought. He
hated long flights, but it gave him time to read the books about his
two new trainees. Aaron, Jim, and John met at Jim's office to discus
the situation.

After
exchanging pleasantries, John dropped a bombshell. ‘About two
weeks ago I had a strange dream. In it, I was training two
Caucasians, one male with black hair, and the other female with bushy
brown hair. The training was the stuff I used to do with Lee, my
deceased father-in-law, which is why it stuck with me, it has been
bugging me ever since. The other strange thing was that the two kids
moved like Jedi out of “Star Wars.” I figure I'm here to
help them.’

Jim
responded that both teens were unconscious and Hermione was severely
injured. John responded that in his dream she was fit and healthy.
John went on to suggest trying to train Harry in magic, so that maybe
Harry could heal Hermione.

Jim
responded, ‘How? We know nothing about it or how to train
them.’

John
further explained his ideas on how to help the two teens. Jim was
doubtful, but said he would give it a chance. Harry woke up the next
day.

Harry slowly regained consciousness
to the noise of a steady beep and the smell of disinfectant. He
opened his eyes to look around, but everything was a blur. He
searched the locker beside the bed to no avail. He was fully awake
and realised he was in a hospital, a Muggle one. A shape appeared at
the foot of the bed. It was predominately white with some pink blobs
and topped by a black splotch of colour.

‘Hello, I’m Doctor Spencer. That’s
an interesting scar on your forehead.’

Harry regarded the doctor before saying hello and
asking where he was.

‘Normally when introduced, you give your
name.’

Harry blushed in embarrassment and replied he was
Harry. The doctor frowned, but Harry missed it without his glasses.

‘Harry, can you see?’

Harry responded by asking again where he was and
if the doctor had seen where his glasses went.

Harry
tried to observe the doctor, but it was hard without his glasses; the
doctor sat after finishing his exam. Harry guessed that the Order was
on their way to retrieve him, if they knew he was here. The doctor
spoke, pulling Harry out of his thoughts.

‘Harry,
my name is James Spencer; my friends call me Jim. I would like you to
call me Jim, okay?’

Harry
frowned and wondered why the doctor was trying to be friendly but
said, ‘okay.’

Jim
leaned forward and told Harry how he was found and how long he was in
the hospital.

Jim
paused and regarded Harry, wondering if now was the time. He knew
from reading the books that Harry hated to be kept in the dark, but
there was Harry's temper to consider and with the weird phenomenon,
obviously now magic. If the conversation with Harry went badly it
could cause a lot of trouble.

Jim took
a leap of faith. ‘Harry, I have something to tell you, and I
beg you to keep calm and let me finish. Can you do that?’

Harry's
curious response was ‘mmm okay.’

‘Harry,
the date is the ninth of
March 2008.’

Harry
gasped in shock but remembering their earlier conversation he stayed
quiet, fearing it would get worse. It did.

‘There
is an author called J.K. Rowling, and she wrote a seven book series
about a boy who went to a magical school called Hogwarts. The last
book was released last year, and the books were so successful that
the sixth film is in production right now. I believe that you have
just finished your fifth year at school, and are missing Sirius
Black, and that Hermione Granger is two floors above us in a critical
condition.’

Jim
paused to let that sink in. Harry resembled a gold fish lying on a
table gasping for water.

‘For
the past week, after a hunch to your identity, I searched for any
trace of magic. The only trace was this ward and the one where
Hermione is staying...’

The
bedpan beside the bed started to rattle, a light at the far end of
the room exploded in sparks, and Harry's bed started to levitate. Jim
surged towards Harry and wrapped him into a hug.

‘Harry
relax, please... That’s it, deep breaths in through the nose
and out through the mouth.’ The room returned to normal, but
Jim wasn't taking chances. ‘Harry, please clear your mind.’
Jim grimaced at the tension in the boy. It was as if Jim could sense
the magic in him.

‘Can
I see Hermione, please?’ asked Harry. Jim wondered if it was
safe so soon, but Harry was too emotional right now.

‘Harry,
look at me. I want you to do an exercise for me. Concentrate on my
voice and clear your mind.’ Jim frowned as he realised Harry
was not good at clearing his mind in the books, so he took a
different tack. ‘I want you to visualise a tap, just a tap and
noting more. Do you see it?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good.
Now think about water flowing out of it. Do you see it?’

‘Yes,’
Harry responded dreamily, almost hypnotised by Jim's voice.

‘Good,
just concentrate on the water flowing, nothing else, and let you
thoughts drift away.’ Harry’s eyes had a slightly glassy
look to them. Jim hoped this next bit worked. He was not sure, but if
it failed, he didn’t know any other way for Harry to control
his magic while staying at the hospital.

‘Harry,
don't speak, but try to do what I ask please?’

Harry
nodded.

‘Harry,
do you feel the sheets on your body, the mattress under you, the air
entering your lungs, the blood flowing through you? Somewhere deep
inside you is your magic. Try to find it. Taste it. Feel it. Know
it.’

Harry did
as the voice asked. He could feel the starched sheets and the
uncomfortable mattress. His chest rising and falling pumping air into
his lungs; the thump of his heart pumping blood and, just at the edge
of his senses, magic. It felt like a part of him, powerful but
strange at the same time. He was surprised he never noticed it
before.

‘Harry,
relax please.’

Harry's
eyes snapped open to see his bed floating high above Jim. He tried to
visualise the flow of water from the tap, and was surprised at it
working. His magic relaxed.

‘Good,
well done.’

Harry
gasped, ‘I could feel my magic.’

Jim
replied, ‘Harry, I'm afraid until you control your magic, I
can't allow you to see Hermione.’

Harry
moved to respond.

‘When
you came in we lost two heart monitors, to what I now know is your
magic. She is currently monitored by a nurse and a machine 24/7. In
your current state, you would make things worse. I'm sorry. This
evening an optician will test your eyesight for some glasses. I will
come by every day to see you, and I think you have enough to think
about for today.’

‘You
mean there’s more?’

‘Oh
yes. The contents of the books among others, but for that I think
Hermione deserves to know as well. Don't you?’

Harry
made no comment, deep in thought.

‘Once
I think you’re in control I'll bring you up, so try to
practice. One of the nurses will be monitoring, so don't tire
yourself out.’

Jim bade
farewell and left Harry to his surprisingly calm thoughts “I'm
not in Kansas any more. Hermione is here in trouble. Jim seems to be
trying to help, and it worked!”

Jim
returned to his office to relay his meeting with Harry to Aaron and
John. Jim said, ‘It was scary, all that energy, but he
responded to your suggestion Aaron.’

‘Good.
I still agree that we should train him and Hermione. I believe that
when they return, which they will do, things could be very
different,’ replied Aaron.

‘How?’
responded Jim.

‘The
butterfly effect,’ responded Aaron.

‘Explain,’
interjected John.

‘The
butterfly effect is when, if you go back in time and change one
thing, the world you return to could be vastly different.’

‘But
they didn't time travel, responded Jim.

‘Yes
they did, in a way. The books are set in the nineties, and this is
2008. If you tell them the contents of the last two books, they will
then have knowledge of their future, which could lead to the
butterfly effect.’

‘Alright,
but how do you suggest Harry heals Hermione?’

‘I
have a suggestion,’ interjected Nurse Lisa.

The three
men turned to regard the woman, just realising that the office door
was open. She explained that she came to the conclusion of the two
teens’ identities herself. She admitted to being a fan of the
books and made a suggestion on how to heal Hermione, with Harry's
help. The men agreed with the idea, thinking it was the best thing
they could hope to come up with.

That
afternoon a male nurse arrived with a wheelchair. Harry frowned at
it, and the nurse responded that it was hospital policy for the safe
movement of patients. So, Harry got into it and was brought to a room
at the other end of the hospital for his eye exam with the optician.
The optician introduced himself as Dave Everett. He was a small
little man of five foot two, with short-cropped hair and a white
moustache. Dave said he would get new glasses either tomorrow or the
day after. That evening, before falling asleep, Harry tried what Jim
had shown him and enjoyed a peaceful night.

Harry
woke up the next morning, confused, until his memory informed him of
yesterday’s events. The various items in the room started to
shake and rattle. Harry tried the exercise he was shown, and was
pleased when it worked. He thought about what the doctor said, and
decided since he did not see any owls from the Ministry, or any
members from the Order, and he was aware of magic, maybe he might be
telling the truth.

After
having breakfast, he tried more meditation to touch his magic and
discovered it was a little bit easier to do. He spotted a plastic jug
of water on the bedside locker. He tried to levitate it, but it only
wobbled. For the next fortnight, Harry slipped into a routine of
pestering Jim to see Hermione, practising his meditation, and trying
to levitate the jug of water. He was successful in two of his
endeavours, but not in his attempts to see Hermione.

Jim
entered Harry's room and pulled up a chair. ‘Harry, we have a
problem, we can’t help your friend Hermione. We’ve tried
everything we can think of.’

Harry sat
in stunned silence on his bed.

‘However,
we believe that you can help her.’

‘How?’
gasped Harry, as if it was a lifeline.

‘I’ll
explain the how later, but first I’ll tell you how bad it is.
Normally, the hospital would only tell the next of kin, but I know
you are the only person here who she
knows.’
Jim paused to let this news sink in before proceeding to explain
Hermione’s injuries. ‘We have discovered liquid on her
lungs. The walls of her heart are very thin, and we are concerned
that she might have a heart attack. And, finally, the skin on her
chest is badly damaged, including her breasts, and is getting
infected as time wears on.’

Harry lay
on the bed stunned at the extent of Hermione’s injuries, he
guessed that it could be from the Ministry, but wasn’t sure. He
didn’t know how he could help Hermione. Jim proceeded to
explain that as the injury was most likely caused by magic, the
solution was also going to be magic. Harry argued that he knew of no
spell that he could use to help; besides, his wand was not here. Jim
retorted that he could now levitate a jug of water without using a
wand, so therefore anything was possible. Jim produced a biology book
and went through the heart and lungs with Harry, explaining what he
wanted Harry to do.

That
afternoon, Jim skipped to a section in the book about female breasts
and explained how they were used to feed babies and help form a bond
between mother and baby. Harry expressed his doubts.

The
following day, Harry was brought to a room just two doors down from
his own. The blinds were closed on the windows inside. A bed was
placed in the middle, and there was a woman lying on it. It was Nurse
Lisa. She was lying topless, asleep upon the bed. On the walls were
various posters showing medical diagrams of the subjects Harry had
covered yesterday. Upon a table was a medical bust made from plastic,
with removable sections displaying the various organs and body parts.

First,
Jim walked Harry through the various posters before moving on to the
medical bust. Then he explained how he hoped Harry would heal
Hermione, and that he needed a specimen to show what her repaired
body should be like. Harry was instructed to let his magic flow
through Lisa, focusing on her heart and lungs. Once he was familiar
with the healthy organs, he moved on to the healthy skin and breasts.
Jim instructed Harry to meditate and touch his magic.

“Good,
now Lisa here is a health young woman. In your meditative state, I
want you to feel her heart beat and her respiration. Study her
organs. Know what a healthy heart is, what healthy lungs are, and
what healthy breasts are,” Jim instructed.

Harry's
magic flowed around Lisa's form, and through her. She stirred as
goose bumps popped up on her skin, caused by Harry's magic studying
her healthy organs.

At first
Harry was embarrassed to be thrust into a situation where he was
shown nude breasts, but it dawned on him what he was expected to do.
This sobered him up very quickly; he was doing this so that he could
try to heal Hermione. At first, he was doubtful about his chances,
but soon remembered his first couple of lessons in Hogwarts and how
it was his willpower that made his magic work with his then new wand.
He remembered his doubts then, and how he overcame them. He would
succeed, he had to, and Jim was implying that Hermione was close to
death.

Over the
following week, Harry practised his magic, and was shown various
women with various problems. However, unlike the first day, these
women were fully clothed. Harry knew there was something wrong with
the first woman—his magic told him so. When he told Jim, Jim
nodded and said the woman had breast cancer. After visiting the
second woman, Harry again could tell there was something wrong—this
time it was the heart. Jim told him the woman was likely to need a
heart transplant soon as the drugs weren’t working any more.
The last woman had lung cancer.

Harry was
getting anxious to see Hermione; after hearing about her condition,
he was too busy trying to help to dwell on his feelings. He never
realised how much difference there was between men and women—the
biology of it and how many things could go wrong with a body. He
didn’t know how he was going to help Hermione, but trusted Jim
to know what he was doing.

A frantic
nurse woke Harry up. He observed that the calendar said it was the
thirty first of March. The nurse brought Harry to Hermione’s
room. The room was similar to the one he had met Nurse Lisa in, but
there were no diagrams and loads of electronic equipment with wires
and tubes connecting them to Hermione. She was lying motionless in
the bed. She had a sickly pale complexion, the sheets were only
pulled up to her waist—over her upper body was a tent-like
structure covered in blue cloth. Two IV lines ran from her upper arms
into bags hanging from a hook above the bed. On the opposite wall,
there was a black stain, covered with fresh paint. Harry gasped in
shock; she looked worse than second year after she’d been
petrified. The monitoring equipment started to rattle and shake.

‘Harry,
calm down please; this isn't helping. Hermione is in an induced coma
to protect her and us from her magic. See the black mark on the wall?
That happened the day after the two of you arrived. Meditate; focus
your magic. Good.’

Harry
calmed down, but frowned. “How is it that Jim always knew?”

So, Harry
asked. ‘When you use magic, it feels like severe pins and
needles. When you control it, the feelings go away.’

‘Did
I hurt Lisa and those other women?’ Harry asked.

Jim
responded by saying that Lisa found it to be a strange experience,
but not painful. Harry relaxed.

‘Harry,
do same as before. Sense Hermione; feel her heart beating, her lungs
breathing.’

Harry
gasped as he sensed the damage.

‘I
wanted you to concentrate on just her heart. Find the damage and
repair it by removing all the dead and damaged cells, and creating
new ones.’

Harry
concentrated on the rhythm of Hermione's heartbeat as he tried to
heal it. It was irregular, but Harry was to busy concentrating on
trying to heal her to worry. Her heart almost stopped once but Harry
used his magic to help it continue beating. He started to sweat,
after what felt like hours, as he worked on trying to heal the damage
to her heart. Suddenly, he could feel that he did it. It worked! In
his newfound confidence, he moved on to the lungs. He found liquid
and, sensing that Hermione was struggling to breath, he concluded
that it should not be there.

Trusting
his instincts and the little training, if you could call it that, he
had received, he proceeded to heal the lungs using the same procedure
as before. He felt the liquid, which he had felt shouldn’t be
there, and removed it by thinking about the banishing spell.

He was
getting tired now, so Jim stopped him saying, ‘That's very good
but, you’re exhausted. In this state you could do more harm
than good, tomorrow you can work on the lungs.’

Hermione's
mind was reeling as she remembered being picked up by the tornado and
seeing the table, and some of her heavy schoolbooks, hitting the
glass patio door before losing consciousness. She remembered the
feeling of floating in a haze of pain and worried voices, of time
drifting by. She was worried about not hearing Mummy and Daddy's
voices. She felt a presence. It awakened her mind from its slumber;
it felt like Harry but…no that can’t be right, she
thought. The presence touched her heart, and she felt immense pain
for a short time. After a long passage of time it moved up to her
chest and she could feel it getting easier and easier to breath. Then
it left. She felt the loss keenly as, even though it inflicted pain,
she could now breathe and could feel the steady thump of her heart,
where before it had been beating erratically.

The following day, Harry returned to Hermione’s
room feeling confident. He thought that she looked healthier than
yesterday before he tried to heal her. Jim
directed him on the medical aspects of what should happen to healthy
skin and how he would normally use skin grafts,
but, with Harry’s newfound magical abilities, he wouldn’t
need to. Harry
decided to concentrate on a clean environment just above the affected
area. Once done, he removed all the damaged skin and cell being
careful to note where Hermione's breasts were. When he decided to fix
those first, his mind went back to the first day meeting with Nurse
Lisa and the sense of his magic had of healthy breasts. He was
concerned that he might make them look wrong and, with a burst of
inspiration, he tried to contact Hermione's magic.

Her magic
answered Harry's gently, almost as if it was Hermione herself. He
decided not to ask to be shown what Hermione's breasts looked like,
but instead showed her magic what he had done and how he was trying
to repair her damaged body.

Unfortunately,
Hermione's magic was very weak, so Harry offered some of his own
power to help. Her magic finished the job Harry had started, and went
on to fix the skin and restore the energy to Hermione's vastly
depleted stores. Harry slumped in the chair. He was feeling very
tired when suddenly his scar exploded in pain, worse than anything he
experienced with Voldemort. The room was alive with magic and static
electricity, his newly developed sense of magic felt Hermione's magic
touch him in thanks for healing her, but it reeled from the stain of
dark magic in Harry that he never noticed before.

His mind
was still spinning and trying to grasp what was happening to him. At
first, he was trying to heal one of his best friends that had gotten
injured because of him, then he realised she was right and had known
it was a trap but still followed him to the Ministry that night. As
he berated himself, he thought he heard her voice telling him to stop
beating himself in the far reaches of his mind. He went searching for
her voice again. When he found it, his newly developed sense of magic
discovered that Hermione's magic was their trying to console him.

Harry
had to ask, Is
that you Hermione?

She
responded groggily, as if her mind was just awakening, Harry
what's going on, where am I?

Harry’s
mind raced through the last six or seven weeks, replaying everything
that happened, wondering how to respond to the question, all the
while trying to ignore the severe pain in his scar.

Thanks
Harry. came
the sleepy reply.

Huh?
Harry
thought in confusion. He was tired and in agony from the pain in his
scar.

The pain
suddenly vanished and it was as if a great depression was gone from
his mind. Straight after Hermione's voice came into his mind, a flood
of images assaulted him.

Oh
Harry, I'm so sorry about Sirius. My injuries are not your fault. I
should have picked a better spell than “Silencio” to use.
I never thought of silent casting before. Thank you, thank you for
healing me. I felt it when your magic touched my heart and how tired
you were when working on my lungs;
it
was a strange sensation to feel your magic working and to hear Jim's
instructions through your ears.

Thank
you for thinking about my feelings when you…when you worked on
my, err. . . breasts and stopped to show my magic how to heal myself,
I really appreciate it. I never guessed at how draining it was for
you yesterday, healing me, but when my magic followed yours
guidance,
I felt really weak; sorry I took so much of your power but my mind
was not fully awake and coherent. When I went to give it back, I
sensed your scar. It felt like the restricted section of the library,
with all the old Dark Arts books, so I tried to help you like you
helped me. Sorry about the pain, I tried to heal the scar wound, but
I think it will still leave a mark. Sorry, I'm rambling, so I'll stop
now.'

Harry
worked through the babble of Hermione's thoughts before trying to
process the flood of images. The shock in her mother’s face at
her wound. Hermione studying her injury in the bathroom, before
trying to bandage it with tears streaming down her face at the
realisation that she was scarred for life. Hermione trying to
convince Harry that it was a trap, realising that Harry wanted to
save Sirius, and deciding to help anyway. The long conversation with
her mother in the kitchen about life at Hogwarts, the new friends she
made in the magical world, and about Voldemort.

The last
few images were of Harry, happy on his Firebolt or in the company of
herself and Ron, while her thoughts focused on the task Harry's magic
had given her. He followed Hermione's thoughts on the dark magic
contained in his scar and how she tried to get rid of it, like how
Harry had banished the liquid in her lungs. The scar caused the
intense pain. The scar contained dark magic. The dark magic was
causing intense pain through an unwillingness to leave Harry's body.
But Hermione's stubbornness won out.

Harry
felt his body slip into contented slumber, but his mind was still
connected to Hermione's. He tried to answer her questions about the
hospital and Jim the doctor as best he could. When Hermione's
questions drifted to Sirius, Harry did not know how to respond.
Instead, he decided to show her the memories of Sirius he had, and
how being with him was better than living at Privet Drive;
unfortunately, this lead to a trip down memory lane. His life before
Hogwarts, living in a cupboard under the stairs, how the spiders
never bothered him as they were his friends. His depression at the
loss of his friends in the summers, and Dumbledore's decrees of no
communication for fear of discovery by Voldemort's thugs. He could
feel Hermione's shock and horror at Harry's home life and how she
never saw the signs. Unfortunately, Harry's trip down memory lane led
to the night he tried to rescue Sirius and the words of the full
prophecy came to mind.

“The
one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... Born to
those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...
and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power
the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the
other for neither can live while the other survives.”

And
Professor Dumbledore’s thoughts on the subject of the prophecy.
He could feel the gears turning at a high rate of speed in Hermione's
mind, processing all the information. She asked if this was like when
Snape taught him Occlumency? That triggered all of Harry's thoughts
and feelings on all his sessions with Snape. He could feel Hermione's
impressive intellect work through Snape's lessons and his memory of
reading the book that was supposed to help him block his mind. She
guided him in what he should have done, using Jim's meditation
techniques, and he was surprised to discover forgotten memories being
reintegrated with his memory: spells he had forgotten, parts of
Binn's lectures on history that he was awake for. He could tell
Hermione was doing the same to her own mind. He found the experience
of sharing mind and magic with Hermione oddly safe and comforting.

Hermione
was dozing in her mind when she felt the presence again, but this
time she felt pins and needles throughout the area of her chest that
was scarred. Then, all sensation left that area and she felt the dead
and damaged skin and muscles removed, with a surprising lack of pain.
She cried in her mind at the loss of her breasts, but stopped when
she felt a curious sensation where they once were. The presence
touched her mind, and she gasped in shock to discover that it was
Harry's magic, and that the first time she had felt it was Harry
healing her damaged organs.

She
beamed at the thought that Harry had tried to subconsciously limit
the amount of pain he caused her yesterday by healing all of her
damaged organs at once. Her joy soared at the reason for Harry's
magic contacting her mind and magic. Harry wanted the healing to be
perfect, and respected her too much to ogle her new breasts, so he
was showing her how to do it herself so that he would not have to
invade her privacy. Her mind was flooded with Harry's meditation
techniques, and his weeklong study of the female form so that he
could heal her. Using these new techniques, she re-grew her own
breasts and the skin and underlying tissue to the affected part of
her chest. Hermione was getting fatigued very early in the process of
healing herself, but Harry leant her some of his magic so that she
could finish the task at hand. The infusion of Harry's magic felt
brilliant; she felt powerful, as though she could do any thing she
put her mind to.

At first,
she was confused by what Harry's magic was saying. He was berating
himself about the fiasco at the Ministry, about getting her hurt,
about how it was only after Neville’s reassurance that she was
alive, that only then could he collect his wits and fight on.

She
tried something to console him. Harry,
stop it. It's not your fault you were tricked.
She
sent him reassuring thoughts and feelings to try, and calm him.
Harry's puzzled response returned.

Is
that you, Hermione?

A flood
of images of Harry also being picked up by a tornado accompanied the
confused reply.

Strange,
she
thought, Images
of all his time from that incident to now.
Hermione
thanked him, but Harry continued to be confused.

She could
detect something wrong and, using what she learnt from Harry, she
traced it back to his scar. It was a new presence, evil and
disgusting. Realisation struck: this must be what causes Harry to be
an open book to Voldemort. But she instinctively knew that she was
stronger than the presence, and pulled on it. She felt the pain she
had caused Harry from pulling on it. She winced in sympathy, hoping
Harry would forgive her. That didn't work, so she repeated what Harry
had done yesterday to the liquid in her lungs: trying to banish it,
and was pleasantly surprised when that did the trick.

Hermione
could sense relief wash through Harry at the loss of the almost
mind-numbing pain, and she felt guilty at having caused it. She
proceeded to thank Harry and tried to console him about his loss of
Sirius, and her failure in battle. She vowed to be better next time;
she would be, she hoped. She thanked him for just being himself,
trying to heal her, and teaching to heal herself. She then realised
that she had also sent some of her memories; trying to distract Harry
she questioned him about the people he met. She discovered that
Harry's body had fallen asleep, but was delighted to know that he was
still communicating with her mind.

Hermione
enquired about the staff in the hospital, and about Sirius. Harry
responded by showing her a flood of his memories, as she processed
the memories she was aghast to learn that the memories were pretty
much all that Harry could remember about his life: from his earliest
memories right up to the present. She was horrified to learn of the
suffering he endured before coming to Hogwarts; the grief Dumbledore
inflicted with his order of no communication. She was shocked and
appalled to learn that she had added to Harry's burdens, by cajoling
him incessantly to study all the while he was suffering nights of
mind numbing pain inflicted by Voldemort. She was secretly pleased
that he still studied when she asked him too. However, she was
dismayed that she had never seen the signs that Harry's life away
from Hogwarts was so horrible.

She
processed the prophecy, and was dismayed at Harry's understanding of
it and the fact that he thought that he was going to die. Changing
thoughts, Hermione sent an enquiry to Harry, Is
this mind-speak the same as what you went through with Professor
Snape?

In
response, she received a detailed recollection about all of Harry's
private lessons with the Potions Master; she was horrified at
Professor Snape’s teaching methodology. After assimilating the
information, she tried to implement the theory in conjunction with
Doctor Spencer's meditation technique. Hermione was pleasantly
surprised at how her impressive memory was now almost better than
photographic recall. Pleased with this, she guided Harry through what
she understood of the technique and was ecstatic that Harry
understood, and above all implemented it. Hermione re-sorted her
mind, like a librarian does after receiving new books, to include the
new information.

Hermione
offered to exchange memories of her life before they met, in exchange
for what Harry had already shared. They proceeded to reminisce about
both of their lives before and during, Hogwarts. Hermione discovered
the motivation behind his more reckless decisions, among other
things. Harry, meanwhile, learned that Hermione was insecure
underneath what she showed the world. They spent what seemed like
eternity just sharing thoughts, ideas, feelings, and dreams. After a
long while, a stray thought blossomed into Hermione's mind about an
old game her father enjoyed.

Trivial
Pursuit? she
asked Harry. Did he want to try something new and ask each other
questions about obscure magical facts?

Harry
responded that he would try, but he was concerned that he could cheat
by reading her mind. Hermione responded that she trusted him
implicitly to play in the spirit of the game, not scan her mind, and
stay out of parts she asked him to. Harry agreed to stay out of
certain areas of her mind and agreed to the rules. He found that the
game helped him to learn new spells, from the vast array of books
Hermione read in the Hogwarts library, as Hermione shared her
understanding and practice of the spells. She enjoyed the game as it
gave her a fresh perspective and could now see Harry’s point of
view about Quidditch and the sense of freedom he got from flying.

They
enjoyed this new form of communication, however, all good things must
end, and Hermione was disappointed when Harry was awakened and
returned his mind to the waking world. It was a worried Doctor
Spencer that had disturbed Harry. She was pleased to discover that
Harry offered to let her mind piggyback in his so she could listen
into his conversation with the doctor.

Jim was
worried—it had been three days since Harry passed out. He was
concerned that he had pushed Harry to hard and to fast, but
Hermione’s vitals were failing so he had needed to rush Harry
into the procedure. He was amazed that Harry managed to repair the
organs, and Hermione made a noticeable improvement. The following day
was amazing and Jim was fascinated, watching the skin heal behind a
soft blue mist. Jim was concerned when Harry slumped, exhausted into
the chair beside her bed.

He was
transferred back to his room to sleep off the effects, but that had
been three days ago. It was strange; Harry did not appear to be
comatose and, after examining Hermione, it was discovered she was
also was simply asleep. On his third visit to Harry, he tapped him on
the shoulder to try to awaken him, and was surprised when he
responded groggily.

‘Hello,
Harry, how are you this morning?’ inquired Jim.

‘I’m
fine, thanks. Is there a reason that you woke me up?’ Harry
responded.

‘You
realise that you were asleep for three days, right?’

‘Oh.’

‘Hermione
hasn’t woken up yet, even though we believe that she has made a
complete recovery.’

‘Okay,
I’ll ask her to get up then. She doesn’t want anyone to
be worried about her.’

‘Pardon
me? Explain, please,’ Jim requested, once he got over the shock
of Harry’s statement.

‘Well,
after healing Hermione, I discovered that we could communicate. So we
were just talking until you shook me, she is now taking to the nurse,
a Ruth Bakersfield, I believe, Harry replied.

Jim
slumped in his chair in shock. Harry had just described doing things
that he had certainly never done in the books. ‘Thank you,
Harry. After my examination of Hermione, I will meet with both of you
and share the contents of the books with you. Sound good to you?’

‘Okay,
I can’t wait to see Hermione up and about,’ Harry
responded.

He spent
the rest of the day practicing the meditation techniques Jim had
shown him. Hermione spent her day going from one medical exam to
another, mostly stress tests done on her heart and lungs. Jim decided
it was too late for the meeting, and told Hermione she would be
seeing Harry tomorrow and the rest of what he had to reveal would
happen then. Hermione relayed this to Harry, and both enjoy a
pleasant night in their shared dreams.

The
following morning after breakfast, Harry was brought to a new room in
the hospital, it had been set up like a lounge. There was a
television mounted on the wall, two large windows, and large
comfortable armchairs. Harry sat in one, wondering what was going on,
when the door opened and Hermione flung herself at him in a hug.
After a short period of time, Jim cleared his throat, and Harry and
Hermione both took their seats.

‘From
what Harry told me, can I assume you’re up to speed Hermione?’
started Jim.

‘Yes,’
responded Hermione.

‘I
wanted to share the contents of the books with you both, however, I
got sidetracked. My daughter, Anne, is a fan of the series and has
lent out some of her books, I hope to share them with you by the end
of the week. This room is halfway between both your two rooms, use
it, there are books on shelves under the windows, and the TV has all
the channels if you want to be couch potatoes, I’ll leave you
to it.’

With
that, Jim left.

That afternoon, Jim found an old mansion for sale
about fifteen miles from the hospital. It was in okay condition, and
was for sale because the revenue commissioners were trying to recoup
outstanding tax owed by the previous owners. The price was high; none
of the people involved in the project had that kind of money solely
or collectively. The mansion stood at four stories of red brick
construction. A large courtyard enclosed it, with stables against the
north wall. It was listed as having six master suites and contained a
further twenty-two bedrooms, excluding the servant’s quarters.

There was a large parcel of land included in the
sale price; approximately forty hectares. As Jim viewed the property,
an agent of the revenue commissioners approached him. The man
introduced himself as Jeremy May. Mr May explained that the property
had been on the market for about eighteen months and was attracting
little to no interest. Jim inquired as to the reasons for this. The
response was that the area had a myth that it was a haunted house.
Jim thanked the man for his time and left. Two hours later, Jim
received a strange phone call from Mr May saying he had been given
the deeds to the estate. When Jim inquired why this was so, the
response shocked him.

‘Doctor Spencer, you were the only one who
managed a full tour of the property untouched. Every other
prospective buyer fled in terror, the press has begun to call it a
“Dangerous House of Horror.” We don't want to try to run
the place, as the running costs are about 100,000 a year, and no one
is willing to work on it. Therefore, we decided to offload it to you.
Thank you. Good day.’

Jim thought, “At least no one will bother us
about stray magical emissions.”

The next morning, Jim and the McClain brothers had
a meeting in Jim’s office to discuss the new developments. Jim
started by saying that Hermione was up and about after making a full
recovery, all thanks to John’s suggestion. They went on to
discuss the situation.

‘I’ve been thinking—Harry is a
troubled young man with a heavy burden, and Hermione is at his side
for the majority of the seven books. But I fear it will be different
when they get back,’ Aaron commented.

‘You expect them to return, don’t
you?’ responded Jim.

‘Yes. I am a fan of science fiction, and
this is as close to time travel as it gets for Harry and Hermione;
anything they learn about the next two years covered in those books
can have disastrous consequences for them. Have you ever seen “Back
to the Future?” It is one example of what can go wrong with
time travel.’

‘But they left their world, it is not the
same.’

‘I agree, but the eventual repercussions
could be just as bad.’

‘So, what do you think could happen if we
help them?’

‘It has already changed. Hermione's injuries
were worse than was ever described in the books. They have spent the
time since Harry healed Hermione’s injuries bonding; in the
books, Harry ends up falling for Ginny. Do you see it happening now?’

‘No. I don't see it happening after what
they went through since they arrived here.’

‘Exactly. I suspect that it will be much
worse when they go back. They need help because of what they could
face once they return.’

‘How can we help them? Why should we help
them?’

‘First we train them. They appear to be able
to do magic; we research it and push their magical abilities to the
limits. We train them in armed and unarmed combat, swordsmanship, and
tactics. But we will also train them in English, maths, science,
arts, and crafts. Have John train them the skill sets he used in his
old detective job. Secondly, the two of us took an oath, as medical
practitioners: “Do no harm”. I believe we will be harming
them by not helping them.’

John spoke up. ‘I am going to help them, on
my own if need be. I already told you of my dream; I always seem to
get two dreams a year that have helped in someway, and the last one
showed me helping them.’

Jim nodded but said, ‘I agree, but we should
offer to train them and give the reasons why. From the books have
shown, he hates been kept in the dark about things. Dumbledore ran
his life with no input from Harry. Frankly, I'm surprised he has no
resentment issues.’

The meeting wrapped up with John saying he would
contact a friend he knew who would be perfect to train them in
swordplay. He was a Scotsman named Connor Wallace; he was currently
living in the Bahamas after moving out of New York last year. He owed
John a couple of favours, no questions asked. After contacting
Connor, arrangements were made to contact a lot of Jim and Aaron’s
old college buddies to help with the planned training. Connor booked
the next flight to England; he was looking forward to passing on his
skills with a blade. They were pleased to find that he had
instructors for each planned course.

They had a close-knit group of friends that they
trusted to teach the various subjects he wanted Harry and Hermione to
learn. John and Connor would handle the combat side. He was shocked
at the good fortune of finding the perfect place. It was close to
where his friends lived, so they could commute easily. Jim wanted it
to be a complete package before offering the two kids their options.
He was concerned about his next meeting with Harry and Hermione, and
how they would react to the contents of the final two books. He liked
to think he could make his own future and not have it planned by some
one else.

Hermione looked up from her novel, “The boy
in the striped pyjamas.” It was about a German boy, whose
father was the commissioner of a concentration camp during World War
Two, and the friendship he had with one of the boys incarcerated
inside. She looked at Harry sitting across from her reading
“Goldfinger.” He was completely engrossed in the novel.

She missed home, but Harry’s presence helped
combat the feeling of homesickness. Doctor Spencer took longer than
the couple of days he had said he would, and it was now almost two
weeks later. As she returned to read her book, the door opened and
Doctor Spencer entered. He pulled up a blue chair and sat down; he
looked apprehensive. Harry looked up at the new presence in the room.

Jim sat into the chair aware he had the two teens’
full attention. He was pleased with the progress they had made so
far. The nurses maintained a vigil in their rooms, due to the concern
that if either of them suffered a nightmare the hospital could be
damaged by magical emissions like it had before he taught Harry the
meditation techniques he passed on to Hermione. However, the reports
were that they both slept peacefully each night, which gave Jim hope
that his planned talk could go well. Both teens, perhaps aware of the
seriousness of the situation, closed their books.

Jim produced a large school bag and put it in
front of him. He removed fourteen books and stacked them into two
piles of seven. Harry guessed that they were the books Jim mentioned
after telling him that he was a character in them. Jim explained that
his daughter sourced through her friends the extra copies of the
books, and apologised for the lengthy delay. Jim further explained
that he was not keeping anything from them, but felt that the rest of
the information was too dangerous to reveal before they recovered and
had some control of their magic. He told them that they should read
the books and that they would speak again afterwards. If they wanted
to talk before hand, all they had to do was tell one of the nurses
stationed on the nearby ward and he would come quickly.

Harry
cautiously reached for the first book, called the “Philosopher’s
Stone”, and started to read. Hermione copied him and started
into her copy of the same book. After finishing the first book, they
compared notes. Harry found that, though the book was mostly
accurate, it omitted certain events he felt were important, such as
his various discussions with Hermione about what family life was
like. How he had kept his own home life hidden, he didn’t know.
The book did not cover his various bouts of accidental magic.
Hermione found the first book to be a brief summary of their first
year at Hogwarts and was struck with the thought that some of the
events in hindsight seemed fishy, like moving the Stone to Hogwarts
and the fact that Professor Snape had more hidden layers than
Hermione had first realised. As Hermione was an avid reader, she
spotted some good ideas in the text: namely the significance of
Harry’s dreams. She held off sharing this with Harry until she
finished reading the rest of the books.

After
discussing the differences between their experiences and what the
book told, they moved onto the second. Hermione was disappointed with
the lack of detail when she was petrified, and the fact that Harry
would often visit at night to see her and talk to her. She was
pleased to see that Harry’s recollection of the events in the
Chamber were modest compared to the recollection in the book. Harry
was generally disgusted with the second book; he felt that there were
large parts of his second year missing. On the nights when his
terrible nightmares woke him, he would visit Hermione’s prone
form in the hospital wing and talk for hours, about anything and
everything. The book didn’t tell about everything that happened
in the chamber. He was relieved that the book did not reveal his
secret, which he would eventually have to tell Hermione. He could
sense her curiosity.

‘Hermione,
there is something I have to show you.’ Harry told her at the
beginning of their discussion about the end of the second book.

He showed
Hermione his memory of the battle in the chamber. She did not, as of
yet, spot any differences between his memory of the event and the
description in the book until after the Basilisk chased Harry through
the network of tunnels under Hogwarts. Harry was running down a dark
tunnel, grasping the sword tightly in one hand. He tripped over a
pile of rubble and fell through a small hole in the floor that was
slightly bigger than he was. The Basilisk passed overhead without
noticing the pit. Harry looked up; he was in a small chamber, light
was provided by a small wall of sconces. He started to panic; there
was no door, no way out.

Suddenly,
he was bathed in a rainbow of light. He felt a strange sensation wash
over him. After what seemed to be an eternity, the light faded and
Harry found himself at the mouth of a tunnel looking down over the
chamber. Harry heard the Basilisk coming; he closed his eyes as the
giant snake moved to bite him. He felt the fang pierce his skin, and
he shoved the sword up through the roof of the snake’s mouth.

Hermione’s
mind was reeling as she watched the events continue to play out as
described in the book. She was puzzled about what happened to Harry
in the tunnels under Hogwarts. She asked Harry why he told no one
about it.

‘Something
told me to stay quiet about that room in the pipes, and now it’s
telling me to share the story with you. I don’t know what it
did and I felt no different before or after.’

Hermione
offered, via their linked minds, to try to discover what happened to
him in that room and what the strange light was. She was,
unfortunately, unsuccessful in her attempt to discover the cause of
the light and its effects on Harry’s body or magic.

The next
day they moved on to the next book, which was about his third year.
Harry was startled to realise that Hermione turned in his Firebolt
due to concern for his safety and not out of spite as he had first
thought. He was ashamed to not deduce earlier that Hermione’s
sporadic appearances at classes throughout the year were due to her
time-turner. He found it uncomfortable to be looking back over his
third year, as it was the year he was introduced to his godfather and
many of his father’s friends.

Again,
the book lacked detail about his time at Hogwarts. It was little more
than a quick summary, with some of his more eventful days recorded in
limited detail. He was dismayed to discover that none of his pranks
were mentioned, or his discussions with the Weasley twins about
pranks, as that was the first year he learnt more about his father’s
exploits at Hogwarts and had decided to learn all he could about
practical jokes and maybe follow in his father’s footsteps.

Hermione
found, after reading the third book, that she had been lucky to pull
the wool over everyone’s eyes with her blatant use of the
time-turner. She found, on reflection, that she enjoyed the ride on
the back of Buckbeak. At the time, she had been too scared of falling
to truly enjoy the experience.

That
night, they took a break from the books and watched a movie instead.
It was the first Lord of the Rings that Jim brought in to show them;
Harry thought it was nice to see a different type of magic shown on
screen and felt he could identify with Frodo and his struggle with a
task that seemed beyond him. The following day, they watched the rest
of the trilogy. Hermione was amazed at the advances in filmmaking
from her time in 1996. The last film she had seen was Jurassic Park,
two years previously; it seemed that special effects progressed in
leaps and bounds since then.

After
enjoying the break, they went back to the next book: the Goblet of
Fire. Hermione found that the whole book lacked a great deal of
detail; the conflict between the students of the three different
schools, each with different rules and regulations, meant that there
was an ongoing prank war occurring. She remembered the difficult
fortnight when all the ladies’ bathrooms were put out of order
because of a vicious prank on the doors that would magically strip
everything back to your birthday suit and destroy clothes, wands,
schoolbooks, and bags. It was next to impossible to counter, and the
solution had been to close half the men’s bathrooms and open
them instead as ladies’. The perpetrators were never caught.

Hermione
was lucky to hear through the Hogwarts grapevine that it was
discovered thanks to an unfortunate Slytherin first year caught by
the jinx as she left the bathroom. Due the curse, all the females in
the castle united, and it now meant there were no longer any feuds
between the women of the houses at Hogwarts. Hermione also learnt how
alone Harry had felt at the beginning of the year, caused by his
ostracism due his name coming out of the goblet. The book was also
very brief about the Yule Ball. Yes, Harry had gone with someone
else, but he did dance with her after her blazing row with Ron. He
had come to comfort her, even though he was enamoured with Cho. She
could see it in his expression that night—he thought that she
was beautiful. Hermione was coming to the conclusion that the books
were more like a biography, ghost written, about Harry’s life
with only half of the story told.

Harry was
coming to the conclusion that he was overlooking Hermione’s
contribution to his life.

Again,
the fourth book lacked important details; yet, it did show that
Hermione stood with him even when Ron abandoned him over the stupid
tournament. Looking back, he saw how poorly he had treated the one
person who stood by him, especially with his hopeless pining for Cho.
Harry was, at this point, no longer surprised that the book was short
on many details he personally felt were important. At this rate, he
was not looking forward to the fifth book. The book did not cover his
catatonic state after the battle with Voldemort in the graveyard or
Cedric’s parents’ reaction to him returning with the
body; the reaction was much worse than of what was told in the book,
and had led to the public turning against him.

The
following day was very uncomfortable for Harry as he read about last
year and he could find many faults that led to the disaster that in
turn resulted in the loss of Sirius. Harry was shocked, and appalled,
to discover that the injuries Hermione had sustained were played down
to an almost insignificant level. He was disgusted to learn, on
reflection, that Voldemort played him for a fool.

Hermione
was not surprised at the events depicted in the fifth book; it was as
she was coming to expect. The book didn’t detail any of the
D.A.’s reactions to the stupid decrees imposed onto the student
population, or how Harry swapped a fake broom for his beloved
Firebolt when it was confiscated. The fight at the Ministry as
described was very lacking. Hermione, on reflection, came to the
realisation that some of the spells she cast led to the death of at
least two Death Eaters; however, the book said twelve were caught and
did not mention any deaths at all. It just said that Sirius Black
fell through a veil and that was it. Harry must have killed at least
one—when she woke up in the hospital wing in Hogwarts, she
overheard the Aurors talking about six of Voldemort’s forces
dead and six captured.

Aaron
McClain entered the room to a very subdued atmosphere. He saw the
cover of the book Harry and Hermione had just finished, and felt it
time to discuss their last five years before they read the final
books, which described their future. Hermione burst into tears as the
realisation that she had killed someone sank in. Harry asked what
happened to Hermione and, after she had explained through her sobs,
Harry retreated into himself. He realised what he had done, the three
lives he had taken, and as they had worn masks, he did not know whom
they had been. Aaron, realising what was going on, rang his brother
John to come and help him in his counselling session. After John
arrived, he discussed his life and how he understood where they were
coming from, considering what he had done after losing his wife.

After a
week of counselling, Aaron felt they were ready for his brother and
Jim to talk the two teens through the last two books. During that
time, Harry and Hermione came to grips with the fact that they were
in a war to the death with madmen led by a lunatic which meant that
people on both sides would die because of their actions or inaction,

Harry
was pleased to discover that his father’s good friend Remus
Lupin found love and could marry Nymphadora Tonks. He was dismayed to
learn of their death and the orphaning of their son Teddy. He also
was disgusted to discover that he would spend his sixth year watch
glorified home movies of his enemy, and that Hermione would not
believe him about Draco. He found the story and sections about his
seventh year similar to the Lord of the Rings film that he had
watched. He thought that after facing Voldemort
in the Ministry, he could not be beaten by a simple Expelliarmus; he
was appalled that Voldemort would, or even could, split his soul in
to several fragments, and he was pleased to see that Hermione stuck
with him throughout, even though Ron left.

Again, Aaron
had pointed out to Harry the phrase “Chest monster” in
relation to his developing romance with Ginny, and Harry had to ask
Aaron to explain what he was trying to imply. He went on to explain
the various symptoms of love, contrasted with the symptoms of lust.
Harry was very disappointed to discover that most of his relationship
with Ginny was not covered in the book, and wanted to know what
happened between the end of the last chapter of the seventh book and
the flimsy epilogue. He was, however, pleased that he could bounce
ideas he got from reading books six and seven off of Aaron and John.

Hermione
wondered what could have happened that could have caused her to
change so much in the sixth book; it show that Harry was right by the
end of the book, so what was going on? She was dismayed at the future
that the books implied; she was confused, she had always suspected
that Ron fancied her but thought that she had tried to treat the two
boys equally with her time. It was just that Harry had always needed
her more; she knew she was worrying about what to do about her
parents’ safety, and was shocked that her future self from the
seventh book was using illegal methods to send them to Australia and
change their memories—she liked the idea behind the beaded bag.

After
talking to Lisa about boys, she was quite disappointed with ending up
with Ron, as it seemed in the epilogue that he had not grown up and
that she had no known career. She mulled over the idea that she could
bend or break rules or laws to suit herself. Was she really as
vindictive and petty as implied in the last two books? She hadn’t
meant to make the charm last so long; the word sneak was supposed to
last maybe three months at the most, not the length of time that was
implied in the books. She was dismayed to find out that Harry was to
suffer more for the next two years. She closed the connection to
Harry as she puzzled out the books and any hidden information to help
Harry be victorious sooner rather than later, and without as much
loss and suffering.

She did
not like the idea that her life was controlled by a woman; she would
have much preferred that her actions in the here and now controlled
her life, not some author who changed her life and sent her parents
away with their memories changed on a whim. The McClain brothers
really helped her through the last two books with their fresh
perspective.

When
Aaron expressed his theory that the teens would be returning to their
world, Harry and Hermione didn’t know whether or not to be
pleased. At least here, in the ‘real’ world, no one was
controlling their life, or so it would seem. Aaron further explained
about his theory that it would be worse for them, and therefore they
would be provided with training.

When
Harry asked, ‘Worse, how could it be worse?’ Aaron
explained about fan fiction, and how some fans told stories about a
world in which Voldemort won and someone from the side of light went
back in time to change history, or where Voldemort took over Britain
and forced Harry to flee resulting in a world war, or a world where
magic was revealed and in the resultant few years all magic was wiped
out in retaliation by Muggles.

When
Harry expressed his objection to how his love life was set in stone,
Aaron answered that yes, in canon he married Ginny, but in fan
fiction he was paired with almost everybody described in the books,
however briefly. Harry asked about males as well as females, and
Aaron replied that it was some times both at once.

Hermione
scrunched up her nose in disgust, but he turned the tables on her,
‘It’s almost the same with you, paired with almost
anybody. The most popular are, in no particular order: Draco, Victor,
Ginny, Ron, Snape, Harry… well you get the idea.’
Hermione was almost sick at the idea of some of the names mentioned.

‘If
you want to see how bad it is, I can show you some of the sites on
the internet if you like?’ Aaron suggested. It was an emotional
couple of weeks as Harry and Hermione’s worldview was ripped
asunder.

Jim
approached the two teens with an offer to train them in various
subjects out in a country estate he had acquired for their use.

‘I’m
sorry to do that to you but we felt that, well what I mean is Aaron,
John, and myself feel that you should know about those books and we
want to help you. We believe that you will return home; however, we
feel that when you do things may be drastically different than the
books describe. Therefore, we believe you have a couple of options.
The first one is to do nothing and ignore what we told you in good
faith. The second one is do nothing but believe we are telling the
truth. The third option is to learn anything and everything that
could help you to succeed once you are back. Aaron, your social
worker, is a fan of science fiction and believes that the potential
future proposed in those last two books cannot happen now because of
what happened to you over the summer. There was no mention of
tornadoes in the book; instead, it mentioned a mist. He believes that
your future is now what you make of it and I for one agree.’

Jim let
that sink in before continuing his speech.

‘We
know that we know nothing about magic, but I taught you how to
control your accidental magic and how to heal injuries. We feel that
we could help you learn how to do magic through thoughtful
suggestions. John is an ex-navy man, and currently a detective, and
is willing to teach you everything he knows so you will have some
idea on how to go about stopping Voldemort. While you’re here,
we will endeavour to bring your Muggle education up to scratch, since
it is, at the moment, quite poor. At the end of the day, the decision
on what to do is yours. We believe that the two of you control the
length of time you’re here. Please take your time and discuss
it between yourselves; we will respect your decision. Thank you for
your patience and your time; see you later.’

Jim and
the others left the two puzzled teens.

Harry and
Hermione sat in stunned silence after that speech. Harry tried to
come up with something to start the conversation with Hermione, but
nothing came. Instead, he made contact with Hermione’s mind and
magic; he shared his full memories of reading and understanding the
books, as well as his current mindset. She then shared her reactions
to the books and their current situation after processing his.

Hermione
was surprised when Harry’s presence made contact again after
she pulled away while reading the seven books; it seemed worried and
nervous. After processing his mixed thoughts on the books, she asked
the question aloud. ‘What do we do now?’

‘I
don’t know, pick one of the options I suppose.’

‘I
think we should do the last option and train; I read a couple of
books and was surprised at the ending of the last book. I agree with
them; I don’t think we will go back home and expects events to
play out exactly like it did in the books.’

‘I
agree with you, we should train.’

‘What?
You do?’

‘Yes
I do. I may not always defend you against Ron, but I do pay attention
to what you say. I just don’t always act promptly because
I’m…well, a bit thick.’ Harry smiled.

‘Well
you are male and it is a problem with the species,’ Hermione
retorted with a small smile. Harry smiled in response.

‘How
long do you think we will be here for?’ Harry asked with a
sigh.

‘Don’t
know, as long as it takes, maybe. It feels like the “Wizard of
Oz,” especially after the tornadoes and everything.’

‘I
don’t think getting back will be as easy as clicking our heels
together three times and wishing to be back though,’ Harry
responded. He was pleased to have watched the film last week with
Hermione.

He
thought it was a little too convenient that his latest adventure
almost resembled the set up for an old film.

‘Doctor
Spencer and Doctor McClain seem to want to help, so I suggest that we
agree to the third option he supplied,’ Harry nodded, and then
sent his thoughts and feelings on what they could face in the future;
Hermione settled into contented peace now that they had a plan for
the future.

Jim
returned after Lisa, the nurse on ward duty, contacted him to say
that the two teens had made a decision and wanted to see him. They
told him that they wanted to start training. He informed Aaron and
John, and John replied that the mansion would be ready in a week’s
time. In the meantime, Jim started the teens on their training by
doing mental exercises and trying to get their magic to levitate a
simple glass of water without spilling or smashing the glass. By the
end of the week, they had mastered this simple magic spell.

A/N
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The Detour to Reality