Author's note: First off.. HELLO! Welcome to my version of an Adopted!Hermione story. This story is slightly AU, so don't be worried if somethings aren't as they are in Half blood Prince it will all come together still in the end. :) Thanks!
Draco sprinted down the hallway trying to reach Granger before she could disappear again. It was as if she knew secrets about Hogwarts that no other person did, which would be impossible because she was only a filthy mudblood and had no one to tell her secrets about the old castle. This was the fifth time this month that he was trying to catch her sneaking around, everyone thought she just hid away in the library but she was always creeping around the school at all hours. Draco knew this of course because he hadn't seen her in library lately and was curious as to why he hadn't had to fight with her for books needed for research. So here Draco was running after again and he just wanted to catch her this once. Refusing to slow down even though he was running out of energy he couldn't seem to catch up. Thank merlin for magic to be able to silence himself or Granger would have heard him forever ago what with all of his panting and wheezing. He really needed to workout on more than just a broom. He looked up just in time to see Hermione's bushy hair whip around the corner Draco ran forward and when he turned down the corridor that she had just turned onto she was… gone. Again.
"Dammit!" Draco whispered harshly to himself .
He looked over at the painting on the wall to see if he could ask where the brunette had disappeared to but he saw that it was just a painting of trolls who were attempting to dance ballet.
"Well fuck" he muttered out loud to the empty hallway. The trolls stopped dancing and just stared at Draco for a moment before shrugging and going back to their ballet unconcerned for the angry boy.
Pacing back and forth the length of the corridor Draco wondered where she could have gone too. He didn't want to think about why he was so… well he wasn't concerned he just wanted her to actually get caught for once. Draco wasn't made a Prefect for nothing you know. As Draco paced back up the hallway he looked up and noticed a door that definitely had not been there on the wall before. 'What in Merlin's name, this wasn't here before, what is going on' Draco wondered to himself as he stepped forward and reached for the door knob. When he entered the room all he could see was junk piled high everywhere. There was everything from textbooks that had been collecting dust for at least a century to what looked like old dragon shells on the floor. In the middle of the room was the vanishing cabinet that had caused so much trouble for Montague last year after the Weasly Twins shoved him in there. 'Wonder how that came to be in here' he mused.
Draco found himself exploring deeper into the room while trying to remain quiet to see if he could still try and catch Granger in the act. Whatever that act maybe. Draco quickly became distracted as he started reading the titles of some of the books that were stashed away in the room. 'Bloody hell, there are more than just old text books in here, people have been hiding away illegal books for years in here it seems' Draco thought to himself as he picked up a copy of 'Obscura Magik- First Edition' 'my father doesn't even have this book.' Draco placed the book in his satchel, as he picked up the next text he heard the door open and close. He looked up quickly and realized that once again he had lost her.
"Next time I will catch her now that I know where she is going." He said to no one in particular.
Draco put the book he was holding down and quickly left the room casting a look of longing towards the lost and hidden items before shutting the door and heading back to his common room. He had been gone long enough anyway.
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Several weeks had passed and Draco didn't see Hermione head towards the room of hidden things again. In fact he hadn't seen Hermione at all outside of classes, meals and the library. Draco speared a chicken leg from the plate in front of him and reached for the potatoes all with a heavy scowl on his features. She was always carrying around her Herbology book reading it as if it contained the answers to the world. Which Draco found curious because he had been reading the text along with the class and it was very dull who cares about why the Venomous Tentacula is dangerous anyhow the only time you will ever see one is here at Hogwarts. Draco looked up from his meal and noticed that Hermione had shut her book and was all but gone from the Great Hall. Quickly he stood up and darted after her determined to actually find out what she was up to this time. Casting a notice-me-not charm and a silencing charm back to back Draco sprinted up to the seventh floor, while zigzagging out of the way of the dinner stragglers to see if he could follow her into the room before she disappeared again.
As he caught up to Hermione he saw her hair lengthen and darken quickly as her curls loosened up. Hermione started to run faster as her appearance continued to change. Draco sped up and right as Hermione reached the Room of Hidden Things he slipped in behind her before she could shut the door. Draco was finally looking at Hermione and he noticed her once tan complexion was now pale and her brown rats nest that she called hair now hung much neater and was so dark that it almost seemed to absorb all of the light from the lanterns. Her now blue eyes narrowed as she looked around the room. Biting her lip she turned and took off towards the left darting in between stacks of books piled several feet high. He followed silently as Hermione continued her way through the room, finally she stopped in front of a cauldron that was simmering under a stasis charm. Hermione looked at herself in the old tarnished mirror that way laying against a chest of drawers near the cauldron almost seeming unsure of what she was about to do.
"Come on Hermione get a grip" she muttered to herself. "You have to take the potion, you have to continue this until you can finally figure out what is going on." Hermione measured the potion into a cup and drank it quickly trying to hide her discomfort. Suddenly before Draco's eyes she began morphing back into her normal looks. Draco stepped back quickly startled by what he was seeing, he stepped so far back he backed into a disfigured suit of armor. Hermione looked up quickly once again narrowing her now chestnut eyes. "Harry?" she questioned, "are you in here?" Looking around for her invisible friend. Confused Draco looked around as well, Draco knew then that he wasn't seeing things back in third year when Harry's head floated in front of the Shrieking Shack.
'I knew it he's got an invisibility cloak" Draco thought scornfully. As Hermione turned back around she shrugged her shoulders and took back off for the door. Draco stood there still thinking over everything he had seen. "What in the world is going on." Draco wondered aloud.
He made his way over to the cauldron and took a vial out of his robes, he filled and stoppered the vial so he could further study the potion. He would have to wait until he made it back to Malfoy Manor though as he was no longer allowed extra time in the Potions lab. As of right now Draco was not a favorite of Slughorn's.
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Hermione looked around quickly as she fled from The Room of Requirement, the last thing she needed right now was Harry or Ron catching her in there looking different than what they know her as. Hermione and Ron had enough problems right now what with Lavender hanging all over Won-Won all the time. Therefore she hadn't told anyone yet that she was adopted as a young child, mostly because she herself hadn't even known until recently, but also because no one seemed to notice anything was even wrong with her.
Hermione could still remember how when she woke up on September 19th, her 17th birthday she had felt different. Like something wasn't right. When she got out of bed to take a shower before classes is when she noticed how she looked different, everything was different. Instead of freaking out though she took a minute to calm down and think rationally. Obviously there was something magic at work, and somehow she knew everything would be okay. So Hermione grabbed her wand and cast some glamour charms to change her appearance back to normal until she could get to the bottom of the situation. As the weeks went on Hermione had done a lot of research on potions to change one's appearance for weeks at a time that wouldn't leave traces like a glamour charm was known to do. She had finally found the potion she needed in a book that was in the restricted section, Hermione swiped the book and ran to the room of requirement where she spent weeks studying the potion and gathering ingredients to she could brew the potion.
Today was her second dose of the potion, she had to find out more information soon though because the potion could only be ingested a total of 5 times before it would stop working. Which meant she only had 3 doses left. That would get her by until she left for Christmas break. She would go home and question her parents in person, as this obviously was not a question to ask through owl post.
She made her way to the library so she could hide in the back corner and try to get some studying done, with all of this sneaking around she had begun to slip on her assignments some. There was no way she would allow that to happen. She was known as the brightest witch of her age for a reason and even though she had other problems right now she couldn't start slacking and cause the professor's any worry. Sitting down at her favorite table in the library she pulled out her potions text book and began to reread the instructions for the draught of living death, just how had Harry beat her when he brewed that potion. He was awful at potions.
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Christmas break started today and Hermione was ready to get away from Hogwarts for a change. She wanted to go home and find out what was going on with her and why her parents had hid something this big from her. Her parents were always honest with her and they had a deal. She would actually start to keep them up to date on what was going on at Hogwarts and they would be honest with her. They knew something hadn't been right when she came home last school year with a strict potion regimen and she wouldn't speak a word about what had happened until her parents threatened her with not allowing her to return to the boarding school that took their only child away from them for most of the year. Hermione sat by herself on the train ride and realized just how much she had secluded herself here lately. Not only was she not talking to Ron, but she had begun to keep Harry and Ginny at a distance.
"It's probably for the best anyhow." muttered Hermione.
"What's that Hermione?" Neville questioned as he sat down next to her for Breakfast before boarding the train.
"Huh?" Hermione questioned, caught unawares.
"You said something, I thought you were talking to me you were looking right at me." Neville stated as he spooned some scrambled eggs onto his plate.
"Oh it was nothing, are you ready for Christmas break?" Hermione asked, changing the subject.
"Oh yeah, I want to see my Gran. She is supposed to start teaching me what it means to be Lord Longbottom when I come of age. She doesn't have much faith of course what with me being so poor at magic and what not. I'm excited anyhow though. My father didn't get to be in the position for long so it will give me a chance to do something with my name that my Dad didn't." Neville rambled on as Hermione nodded her head and agreed with Neville when needed.
The Great Hall was beginning to fill with all of the students who would be going home for the holidays, Ron and Harry walked and began to make their way to NEville before Ron noticed Hermione and abruptly turned around to go to the other end of the table. Harry shrugged his shoulders to Hermione as if to say he had no choice. Hermione nodded and began to play with the food on her plate. Her loss of appetite made her go on and head out of the Great Hall to find a compartment on the train. More than likely she could find one far enough back that she wouldn't have to worry about anyone finding her and bothering her. She had to figure out what she was going to say to her parents.
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Draco hadn't found much out about Hermione and what was going on in the past few weeks. He still went up to the 7th floor corridor and looked around the room every once in awhile. Yesterday during his trip he noticed the once steaming cauldron was now gone, which to Draco meant that something would be changing and soon. Was Hermione going to start to look different? Why does she look different, what would cause an appearance change like that? Draco still had not been able to find the book that Hermione had to of used for the pink potion. All of these questions just kept circling his head, to the point where he had begun to keep a headache.
Draco was startled out of his thoughts by Theodore Nott and Pansy Parkinson making their way into the compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Draco took in Theo's dark circles and shallow cheeks and grimaced, he was not looking well. Apparently his father getting caught in the Department of Mysteries last year was not going well for him.
'Thank Merlin my father managed to escape when he did.' Draco thought to himself not wanting to imagine himself in Theo's position.
Draco had no clue what Theo was up to but he knew that he was having to do something for the Dark Lord. While Draco's father was not in The Dark Lord's good favor right now because Potter got away and Voldemort was found out before he wanted to be he was better off then Theo's father who got caught and lost Voldemort's an Unspeakable in the Time Room of the Department of Mysteries. Draco's father just had to be careful from now on in order to ensure the safety of his wife. For now it seemed Draco would be safe from having to join the Deatheaters. Theo on the other hand was not so lucky he carried the dark mark and was on a mission, one of which he refused any help for and only seemed to be carrying it out to spare his own life. Draco knew that Theo didn't care for his father, he thinks that his father was responsible for the death of his mother when Theo was young it was never proven but nothing else could have caused her death.
"Draco," Pansy squealed "We were looking for you. Where have you been, I feel like I haven't seen you in forever." her nasally voice hurt Draco's head even worse.
"I've been here of course." Draco said allowing his mask of indifference to slide on perfectly.
"No, I meant at Hogwarts. I only ever see you in class and the Great Hall, you're never in the Common Room anymore." Pansy whined
"Yeah, where have you been mate?" Theo questioned.
"Studying, Father say's I have to finally best that Mudblood or I will wish I hadn't been born." Draco replied haughtily. Trying to keep his mask in place. He realized he was going to have to make more of an appearance in the common room or the others would get nosy. It wouldn't do for them to find out that Draco was running around following Granger.
"I don't know why it matters anyway, she's just a mudblood. It won't matter out in the real world anyhow. No one will care about her by the time The Dark Lord is finished with his plans." Pansy stated looking for the agreement of both boys.
Draco made a sound of agreement as he dug into his satchel for an illegal potions book from the room of requirement. He had charmed the book to look like his Defense Against the Dark Arts book a few days ago when he found it close to where Hermione's cauldron was placed. Ignoring the one sided conversation between Pansy and Theo, Pansy doing all of the talking while Theo ignored her, Draco continued to flip through the pages to see if he could find a potion matching the one he had found Hermione taking weeks ago.
A/N: Alright guys that is the first chapter of this story. I hope you all like it. I am going to continue writing whenever I work evenings (as I get to sit behind a desk and do nothing for most of the night) so I will work on this and will begin reworking/updating Changing Time (a time travel! Hermione fic). Let me know what you all think!