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It burned. It burned and burned and burned, and somehow, Hermione couldn't even scream. She held on to the snitch, her fingers pulsing around its scorching heat and the suddenly-sharp edges of its wings that cut into her skin with every attempted flutter. The pain was her focal point as she kept repeating in her head, Must not let go. Must not let go. Must not-
And then it stopped.
Hermione stumbled, nauseous and disoriented, clutching the snitch with one hand while using the other to right herself. Her head lolled forward and she swallowed down bile as she blinked rapidly to get her eyes working again.
The colored shapes surrounding her solidified into a room she hadn't expected, hadn't thought she'd ever see again. Not at Hogwarts or the Ministry or even at Malfoy Manor. No, it was a Muggle home. Her parents' home.
The night she'd replaced their memories before sending them to Australia, when she'd been over-confident in her spellwork and erased their true memories forever. The night she lost her parents.
But not anymore.
Still holding onto the snitch, Hermione tip-toed towards the living room to hide behind the curtains and wait for her younger self.
The scene in the Granger living room was familiar, and not just because it still haunted Hermione. In her memory, everything was leeched of color, felt foreboding and inevitable.
In reality, it's calm, domestic. Her mother reading a dental journal while her father had the cricket on, like it had been since Hermione was little. She could almost see herself as a child, barging in with an over-large book to show her parents another amazing discovery.
This version of her didn't barge in, but apparated. She mightn't have known the invisibility spell yet but was adept at making herself unnoticeable.
There were deep lines etched into her young face and her eyes were simultaneously dull and full of tears as she took her parents' memories and replaced them.
Hermione waited for the moment she knew was coming, when she'd run upstairs to get her parents' Bat Mitzvah gift. The chai necklace she'd been too embarrassed to wear at Hogwarts. The one she'd been wearing under her robes every day since.
With experience, it was quick work, fortifying her parents' true memories and anchoring them in their hearts.
As soon as it was done, the snitch started burning in Hermione's hand.
