Prologue

It had been 2 days. 2 days since Cedric had died and it felt like the world had gone to shit. Hermione was back home, sat in the living room. How do you tell your parents a psychopath is back and the whole family is in danger?

"Come on, Hermione. I thought you were telling us why your 'magic' school shut early? You weren't expelled, were you?" Her Dad said, evidently already exasperated with the situation. Hermione rolled her eyes, her Dad had always been skeptical about Hogwarts especially since she couldn't show him anything she had learnt there.

"No, Dad. It's just hard to explain, OK?" Both her Mum and Dad stared at her expectantly. She began to explain everything. Right from the beginning of first year. Silence. They both must have been in shock. After what felt about half an hour her dad broke the silence.

"Hermione, can your Mum and I have some privacy?"

Once she was in her room she let the tears fall. She had no room to complain really. Her situation wasn't that bad. Not compared to loads of kids her age. Not compared to Harry. Her parents had never purposefully hurt her. She had just never felt like she belonged in the family. Personality wise they were all quite similar. Quiet, independent, practical and intelligent. However, something wasn't quite right. Maybe it was just that they didn't look alike? They all had brown hair, that's where the similarities ended. Her hazel eyes contrasting with their blue eyes. Their paler skin contradicting her olive skin tone. No that couldn't be it, recessive genes could make all those things possible. She just never clicked with them. She felt like they'd never loved her. They'd looked after her and spent time with her, but the love was never there. Then the news of magic came when she was 11, which made the split between the family more obvious. Hermione now spent most of her holidays at the Burrow to avoid them. A situation everyone seemed to benefit from.

She could hear mumbles of quiet arguing downstairs. Another eternity seemed to have passed when soft footsteps travelled up the stairs.

"We've decided we can't take the differences between us anymore Hermione." Her Mum stayed silent and refused to look up from the floor as her Dad continued to speak.

"And now your existence is putting our lives in danger. We can't take it anymore Hermione. So, we need to tell you a secret. As you know, we struggled to have children for years. A friend from America ended up struggling with relationship issues so we offered to help her and she came to live with us for a few months. When she got here she told us she was pregnant and didn't know what to do. She had hoped we would adopt her child. We agreed to it and she disappeared back off to America. She has kept in touch until about a year ago. Now I know you feel it too, we've never had a connection and now you have put us in danger. We can't have you in this house anymore so you have a choice. You can either run to your magical world I'm sure this Weasley family would take you in or you can go to your biological family in America. We called them and your biological older brother is happy to take you in." The person she had thought as her Dad finished this paragraph as calmly as he would if he had been reading a boring article in a newspaper. This news was more than she could bear and his blasé attitude only made it worse. Years of Hermione's pent up frustration bubbled over.

"How dare you. My biological mother must have trusted you both to escape here and she must have trusted you to love me as if I were your own. At least both of your wretched attitudes finally make sense. You've never made me feel welcome and hiding behind your pathetic excuse that I'm not biologically yours is despicable. I will find my family. Now, get out" Hermione practically growled.

Once they had left the room Hermione collapsed on the the bed. Confused and exhausted, her tears fell even harder.