The rest of the Christmas holidays went by quietly. Matt and Hermione spent most of their time together, reading and cuddling by the fireplace in the common room or out on the grounds under a tree. Matt was too smart to get into another snowball war, he figured Hermione and Ginny would have figured out his tricks and he did not want to spend more time developing new ones. He had more pressing matters to deal with, like holding his girlfriend and making out with her.
As the New Year dawned and the couples around Hogwarts shared tender kisses, Matt and Hermione spent more time in the Room of Requirement. The pair found it increasingly difficult to sleep apart, preferring to hold one another and, when the circumstances arose, did more than just kiss.
With the next term started, Matt found himself immersed in schoolwork and when he was not in the library proper, he was in the Restricted Section. Both Matt and Hermione had gotten special permission to investigate the more dangerous books of the Hogwarts Library for memory spells. Hermione was working out exactly how she would lift the memory enchantments on her parents while Matt was doggedly pursuing a way to restore his own memory.
As the month wore on, Matt was not gaining ground in his research. Hermione, however, was finding limited success in her quest. At one point, she was sure she had something, some much so, that Matt allowed her to test her theory and alter his memory of the previous five minutes and then had her reverse it. It had worked for them, but Hermione had not been willing to try something more difficult on Matt, as she feared she would not be able to reverse it once done.
Matt was confident in Hermione's skills and was willing to let her alter sizable portions of his memory from years past to try and see if she could reverse it. However, she had balked, not wanting to risk her boyfriend's memories. He understood and continued to voice his confidence in her. While she would not press trying the spells on him further, the fact he was willing to let her use him as an experiment said a lot to her.
Hermione was not only impressed, but deeply touched, that he would let her not only alter his memories but trust her to undo her own work. Especially given that he himself was missing part of his recent past and was seeking to recover it. It was either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid, and Hermione was never sure which, as those two traits seemed too often, to go hand in hand.
As the days went by, Matt was less and less confident he was going to find his answers in the library at all. He would sometimes start in the Restricted Section, only to wander to a different area later, attempting to find a different avenue inspired by something he read, only to return later and pick up where he left off. He knew he was growing increasingly moody and irritable. Hermione was the only person who seemingly could not set him off, anyone else though, he had shorter fuse with.
She noticed her boyfriend was less and less himself as he sought an answer to his problems, and she started to wonder if perhaps the answer lay outside the magical world. A mind healer could possibly help but really, they were only good for very recent traumas and working with intact memories. Since Matt's issue was neither very recent nor memory intact, Hermione did not even bother to suggest it. She knew somehow it would not work. It bothered her to see him trying so hard and failing. It was made even worse when she realized that she would not have any issues lifting her parents' enchantments and restoring them. She had not wanted to tell Matt, afraid that it might deal too big of a blow to his ego and cause him to shut down. She knew she could always tell him later when he was in a better headspace.
"A Pensieve." Matt said one late evening in the common room.
"I'm sorry?" Hermione asked, as she looked up from her book.
"A Pensieve, would that help?" he wondered.
"Oh! Hmm…" Hermione quickly caught on to what he was saying. "I've never used one before, but Harry has. He extensively used Dumbledore's in the past. I'm sure Professor McGonagall would still have it. You should ask him next time you see him." Hermione said.
"And if it works…I'll finally have my answer!" Matt's voice was full of hope. "I can finally learn what happened, to learn the truth, to clear my own name, to find out who was behind it!"
Hermione smiled; her boyfriend was finally getting out of the stormy mindset he had been in nearly the entire month of January. However, the happy mood would not last, as the following day was Transfiguration with Professor Sharp.
"Acceptable work Miss Granger." Sharp said as he prowled the classroom. "However, were this on an N.E.W.T. test, I'd hardly expect you to score above an 'E'. You can do better." The stern professor seemed to demand even higher work than before.
Hermione simply replied with a quiet "Yes, Professor."
"Meanwhile, as I expected, you Mr. Santini, cannot seem to transfigure your way out of a wet paper bag!" Sharp snarl. Matt was nearly as far along with his assignment that day as Hermione, with Hermione having successfully conjured a chair for herself to sit in and half of their desk to work on. Matt had managed a chair, although not as comfortable as Hermione's, and the top of the desk, but was missing one leg still.
"I've almost got it, sir." Matt said and waved his wand, the final leg of the desk appearing.
"You should have had it ten minutes ago, before Miss Granger was ready for it! How are you supposed to be a wizard, if you cannot anticipate the needs of others around you and rise to meet them?!" Sharp snapped.
"But sir- "
"Quiet! I'll have ten points from Gryffindor for your lack of preparedness. And I think a round of detentions are in order. Some fresh air with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest might help you out of the library where you're clearly not gaining anything!"
Hermione gave a painful expression as Matt looked flabbergasted and defeated. Once class ended, Matt was first out of the room, not even waiting for Hermione. That was unusual even for him, usually he waited for her, even on bad days when Sharp wanted to take his frustrations out on him. Matt seemed to be the professor's favorite punching bag, Sharp was almost always smiling at the head table during the next meal, after giving Matt a detention or having deducted house points. Hermione hated it, she knew Matt was being punished for simply being himself and that was supremely unfair.
Hermione wandered the corridors looking for her wayward boyfriend, she knew he must feel awful. She herself was reminded how badly it felt to be punished and ostracized. Hermione had never been lonelier than in the years between starting primary school and going to Hogwarts. Her thirst for knowledge had driven her. She was eager to learn as much about the world around her as possible.
Hermione had absorbed it all, reading constantly and always asking questions. She often had all the right answers and was seen as a teacher's pet. Her fellow classmates hated it. She was different from them, not one to fit in or go with the flow. Hermione would not break rules, routinely informing teachers of her fellow students' misbehaviors. Her reputation quickly became that of a pain in the ass. Few people would talk to her and even when they did it was just to get help with homework.
Once, when she was nine, Hermione remembered another outcast had befriended her. It seemed like the other girl really wanted someone to talk with and needed a friend. And Hermione latched onto that. They exchanged notes before classes, ate lunch together, even studied together. It was not until the Easter holidays that year that Hermione discovered why this person had been nice to her. The other girl had been put up to it by some of her real friends. They had gotten a lot of personal information on Hermione and then broadcast it to the whole school via banners, letters, and signs.
Hermione had cried for a week straight it felt like. She refused to go to school but was forced to attend anyway. Her parents, both being dentists, meant there was no one to watch her. Even the teachers who had been happy to call on her and talk to her after class, giving her suggestions on reading material and extra credit assignments had stopped. Hermione found herself entirely alone.
Oddly, Matt's situation mirrored her own in many ways. He was trying hard to overcome a bad and underserved reputation. Most of the students had stopped saying things behind his back but some were still wary of him. The first-year students did not know what to make of him and some were frightened, so they all avoided him. Hermione caught the pained expression on his face whenever this happened. Her boyfriend worked hard and did not give up easily and he was talented.
While Matt did not always get things the first time, within the second or third try he had it and a few more tries after that he would be on her level. Hermione liked that every now and then he would slip ahead of her on a spell or assignment, surprising her. He challenged her to keep up or at least keep ahead. But no matter how hard she worked Matt was always right behind her or right with her. She felt like she had a true companion. And now that companion was hurting.
Hermione used her instincts and intuition to perform a more thorough search and finally she homed in on a possible location for her boyfriend. She knew the route a little too well, straight out of the Gryffindor common room, down the hall to the right and up a short staircase. Hermione found herself in the same classroom she had been in barely two years before, still empty, where she had fled after seeing Ron and Lavender Brown kissing following Gryffindor's first Quidditch match of their sixth year.
Not unlike herself, Matt was sitting on the edge of the desk, and he had conjured some canaries. It was like she had told him herself what she had done in the past.
"Hey." Hermione spoke quietly, silently closing the door to the classroom behind her.
"Oh, hey Hermione." Matt replied, only just noticing her come in.
"I know you're not ok…" Hermione began and reached out to take his hand in hers. He looked down at their hands and then up at her.
"It feels like…like he's pitting us against each other." Matt said his voice was just as quiet as hers.
"I know. I hate it." Hermione replied.
"It's like he's pushing me to constantly be better than you. And I'm not. I can't be. I'm just not, you." Matt said forlornly. "But the thing is, I don't want to be better than you. I'm happy with you being the best. I like that about you."
"Oh…Matt…" Hermione felt her cheek blush and her eyes fill with tears.
"You…you picked me. You said yes to us. And I don't want to compete with you. I just am happy being yours."
Hermione leapt into Matt's arms and wrapped her own around him.
"I feel the same way! We're not better than each other, we're a team, a couple." Hermione said, hugging him tightly and holding on. "I've got you."
Matt held onto her and let himself get lost in her embrace, her touch almost felt like she was pouring some strength into him. And he liked it. It took a long time before they finally separated.
"I love you, Hermione." Matt said.
"I love you too." She said quietly back. "Feel better?"
Matt nodded and smiled at her. Hermione felt relieved and took his hand in hers as they exited the classroom.
Their next Transfiguration class, the couple decided to get a little revenge on Professor Sharp. Once given their assignment, Hermione practiced with Matt until he got it right, making sure Sharp saw Hermione struggling before she managed to match her boyfriend. Professor Sharp was less than enthusiastic about Matt's sudden improvement but decided not to comment on it. Merely ignoring the couple, which to them, was vastly preferred over constant glares and verbal abuse.
However, Professor Sharp was not one to let his favorite door mat get away clean. A few classes later, when Hermione was in top form again, he came down harder on Matt than ever before and gave him a double detention and was threatening Hermione with the same if she ever feigned ignorance again.
"Well, it was a good try." Matt said, defeated as he and Hermione trudged to the Great Hall for a meal.
"I thought for sure he was going to finally take his sights off you for once." Hermione said, equally disappointed.
"Too much to hope for…" Matt replied, exhaustion evident in his voice.
"Oh, look, it's Harry." Hermione said and waved their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor over.
"Yes, Miss Granger?" Harry asked, more amused than anything.
"We were wondering, do you think it's possible to use a Pensieve to help with Matt's memory? You've had the most experience with them." Hermione asked.
Harry paused for a long moment and thought.
"Yeah, I suppose it is possible. Can you recall anything from that night, you know, that it happened?" Harry asked Matt. Matt closed his eyes and concentrated.
He focused his mind on the school, and he could see flashes of the courtyard, spells flying, wizards both familiar, unfamiliar, light and dark, all around battling. And then nothing.
"Yeah, I think so." Matt said.
"I'm not a mind healer, but we might be able to siphon off that memory and use the school's Pensieve as way to get around whatever's blocking you." Harry said, sounding all too familiar with trauma.
"Then we've got to try." Matt said. Hermione took Matt's hand into her own and gave him a reassuring squeeze.
"I can't promise that this will be painless…" Harry said, knowing that memories are very personal and could be traumatizing if not handled with care.
"I have to know." Matt said, determination filled his voice. Harry simply nodded.
That night, Matt gathered the most important people to him, and they all walked to Professor McGonagall's office. Matt, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Luna, and Harry ascended the staircase. The Headmistress was taken aback by the number of people who stepped into her office after the knock.
"I'm surprised to see you all here. I thought this was something that only Mr. Santini was doing with Professor Potter." The Headmistress said. The Pensieve was already out of the cabinet and on its pedestal, waiting.
"I want the others here, to see this." Matt said, taking hold of Hermione's hand.
"Very well." Professor McGonagall relented. Matt closed his eyes, focused on the memory and Harry held the tip of his wand to Matt's temple. A moment later, a silvery, wispy strand emerged. Matt groaned as it was extracted, and Harry placed the memory into the bowl. Matt looked nervous as he hovered over the basin, but he swallowed and took a deep breath and nodded to the others.
Everyone crowded around the stone bowl and leaned forward, dipping their faces into the silvery liquid, and disappeared into Matt's memory.