A/N: Hello! Hopefully if you're reading this that means you are about to read my attempt at a story. I hope you enjoy the first chapter and it leaves you wanting more. The more will be supplied later since I simply hate when authors abandon their stories. I'll have more to say at the bottom so tune in then!

Explanation

Hermione Granger considered herself a fairly level headed person.

Sure she may get into a ridiculous amount of fights with Ron over inconsequential things, but Hermione always knew when they were both at their breaking point and she cut the argument off with grace.

By that she meant the argument was ended by her walking off before it could worsen.

When her friends copied her homework for the sixth time in a week, she resisted the urge to refuse their pleas for an essay with a few well placed comments they would not understand until after she left. Instead she told them in a normal voice (with a hint of irritation) that they would never truly learn anything and it would not be her fault when at the end of the year they failed all their exams. She rarely blew up, but when she did her anger could rival that of Mrs. Weasley upon finding her sons had dropped out of school.

So, of course, when her parents, who Hermione had trusted for seventeen years, told her she was adopted she gave the calm, rational reply of…

"WHAT!?"

Crookshanks hissed angrily from his spot in Hermione's arms, but was not acknowledged by anyone in the room. Not by the somber Mr. Granger, the crying Mrs. Granger, or the furious Miss Granger. When the latter's face started turning a bright shade of red that Crookshanks had not even seen on the freckle boy, he decided to make himself scarce until Hermione's mood was more cordial. Hermione did not even blink when her cat jumped out of her arms and bounded up the stairs. All she could think about were the two people sitting in front of her.

"Hermione, sweetheart, if you would just give us a chance to explain you would understand." Mrs. Granger's words were choked by her sobs which she was trying to stop. Her husband just looked at her with sad eyes and put an arm around her shoulders for comfort.

"A chance? Has the past not been enough?! You've had seventeen years of chances!" In another time Hermione would have been shocked to hear herself talking so coldly to the two people she loved beyond anything in the world. She sounded like a Slytherin, a malicious and uncaring Slytherin. At the moment though, she could not care less. Maybe she needed a bit of Slytherin at the moment.

Hermione's mother, Jean, wiped away some tears and continued with only a slight tremor in her voice.

"Please, listen long enough for us to tell you everything we know and then," Hermione could practically hear her swallow "you can make your judgments."

It really took a lot for her to sit down stiffly on the couch and not spew some caustic retort. They did deserve respect even if they were… Liars? The Slytherin in her head suggested. Best to ignore it for now otherwise she might go into another rage.

"Well seventeen years ago," For some reason, her father looked guilty at Jean's words. "I discovered I could never have any children. I took the news hard at first, as did your father, but we knew adopting was still an option. So months after we first found out I couldn't have children we had all the forms filled out and went to the hospital to meet our daughter. We went to Maranders hospital on a rainy day in June of 1980. Ours was a rather unusual adoption because children who are ready to be adopted are usually months old… you were three days old when we first met you."

"That's not possible." Hermione choked out in a whisper "I was born in September; it's on my birth certificate is it not?"

Jean just sighed and shook her head. "Your birth certificate isn't exactly real. Please though, allow us to get through the story. I'm sorry to say we do not even understand everything so questioning may be futile a lot of the time. "

All Jean received from her daughter was a stiff nod of acquiescence. Some small part of her brain told her it was better than yelling, but at the moment she would have preferred the angry Gryffindor to this one.

"So yes we met you the fifteenth of June in 1980. You were born on the twelfth to a Miss Cassandra Selene Barden. We talked with her twice ever, once on the day we adopted you and again the following day. We tried to find her later… but… we were informed that she died shortly after we last saw her.

Naturally we were shocked by her sudden death as she had seemed healthy- radiant really the last time we were with her. The only thing I noticed was that her expressions were a bit off. One moment she would seem perfectly content and then there would be a flash of grief before she covered it up again. I think it may have had something to do with your birth father, but what I have no clue. Cassandra mentioned him once when we asked if she wanted for you to know him. I remember her words perfectly. She said, 'Right now it is my wish that he never sees her. I assure you that he will have an impossible time finding you so you needn't worry about him knocking on your door. However, around the time she is seventeen it's likely that he will find her so be prepared for then.' She would not tell us why he would be able to find you easily so far in the future, but when you received your Hogwarts letter things did start to clear up a bit. As we learned more about the world of witches and wizards we were certain that Cassandra was a witch."

Hermione could not help but question her since there were many holes in the story and none of what Jean had said was making sense. She interrupted her in a rush.

"What made you think she was a witch? Could the things you noticed have just been coincidences?" Jean shook her head sadly.

"Hermione now that you know you are adopted, don't you think it strange that your hair is exactly the same as mine was through my life? The same applies to your eyes. They are the exact shape and color of mine."

A sharp gasp came from beside Jean. She looked at her father and saw him gazing at her slack jawed.

"You mean her eyes were the exact shape and color of yours." He whispered. He received no response, but only an equally surprised wife with enough presence of mind to thrust a mirror at Hermione. She nearly dropped it when she saw her eyes. Moments ago, they were slightly round and a chocolate brown color, now though there were almond shaped cerulean eyes staring at her. The color was a bit of a shock at first, but they were rather pretty…

"Cassandra's eyes…" Jean muttered "Does this convince you that she was a witch? She must have done this as a way of hiding you from your father. That must be what she meant when she said around the time you were seventeen he would likely find you."

She said this more to herself than the other two in the room before turning her head back to Hermione.

"Do you know of some spell that could do this?"

Hermione tried to allow the know-it-all bookworm to come forth and spill the answers to the question, but it was like pulling a child out of their room to go to the doctor. When the bookworm came it was extremely reluctant and did not possess all the answers. Shocking, really.

"There are several actually. A simple Confundus would explain the possibility of an early adoption, but I do not know of any spell that would remain in place after the caster died. Even if she had some kind of Glamour spell on me that was effective after she died, it would have worn off by now."

Hermione nearly growled in frustration. It was not an everyday occurrence that found her completely clueless about a spell. All she wanted to do at the moment was go to the Hogwarts library and immerse herself in the shelves until she found her answer.

Hermione sighed in defeat and willed herself to stay focused on the two people sitting across from her if they had anything else to say.

"Is that all?" she said emotionlessly. Jean looked at her husband nervously before answering Hermione's question.

"Well there is one slight detail. Cassandra requested that we do whatever we could to protect your identity so we," Hermione's indifferent gaze switched to suspicious "we changed our names." Jean finished quietly. Hermione wasn't too shocked by this revelation. She was actually rather relieved that it was not another life-altering fact. After all, she had just been told her mother was a witch who died days after giving birth and she was adopted by the Grangers. The name change was a trifle compared to that.

"I suppose that makes sense." Hermione reasoned ever the logical one. "The chances of my middle name being the same as your first are ridiculous if I was named before you met."

"That was why I chose Jean, to try and piece together a more believable existence for you. I had always planned on giving my daughter my name as her middle name so I figured it would work in reverse as well."She cleared her throat a bit before continuing "Our names before we changed them were Margaret and Warren Brown." Hermione nearly snorted because the first person she thought of with that name was Lavender Brown. She quickly shook the thought from her head since it was a quite common last name.

There was an awkward silence as the three sat in the dim room. Hermione's brain was whirring incessantly trying to comprehend everything she had just been told and the gaps left in-between. Somehow she had more questions now than she had a second ago and the questions were just multiplying endlessly. She eyed the Browns (ugh that felt weird to think) and knew they would not be able to answer any more questions. She had already learned everything they knew regarding her adoption and she was sure the only thing they had left to say were some lovey-dovey words that were completely clichéd.

"Sweetheart," So it begins. "Just know that we will always love you even if you don't feel the same for us. We wanted to tell you, but it was all so hard. We worried that if we did tell you that you would be insistent upon finding your father and that is the one thing Cassandra was adamant about not happening. Apparently he's meant to find you soon."

Hermione considered her words carefully and thought about what had just happened. Yes, they were not her birth parents, but in the end did it really matter? They loved her and she loved them so why should everything change now?

"Jean- Margaret… Mum, I still love you entirely, but this is going to change our relationship. Whether or not 'he is meant to find me' the truth would have been appreciated. I am not sure of what will happen now, but I would still like you to be in my life. "

Margaret nodded weakly, but her eyes shined in happiness that Hermione was not going to cut them out of her life.

"I think it would be best if I go to the Wizarding world and find a place to stay. If my father is supposed to find me then I imagine it will be easier there than here. Erm, when I do meet him I guess I'll come back and tell you how everything went."

Hermione paused and looked at the people who had been her parents for so long. She wasn't going to lie to herself and say how it had been perfect since that was not the case. True, she loved them, and it was obvious they loved her in return, but it still felt as though they were relatives taking care of their favorite niece, not their daughter. Hermione had never minded since she was certainly not needy, but maybe, it would have been nice growing up with her actual parents.

"I'll just go pack my things now." She stood still for one awkward moment before departing the same way Crookshanks had not too long ago.

x HNL x

The train rumbled its way past Hermione's window as she threw her bag onto the floor. She surveyed what would be her home for at least the next week and possibly longer depending on how long she could convince Tom to allow her the room. That's right, she was currently lodged in the Leaky Cauldron and besides some floating dust particles, it looked clean and that was good enough for her. Hermione fell onto the bed and pulled the thin hangings around to block out some of the light streaming through the window. As she lay down she considered where she was.

Sure she had told Jean that it would be easier for her father to find her in the Wizarding world, but was that really what she wanted? Maybe all she wanted was for this whole thing to have been a nightmare and she would wake up and find that the mother and father she had known all her life were the same and had not been harboring any life-altering secrets about her.

The realistic side of Hermione would not be squashed that easily. It barged in and told her to accept what had happened and appreciate the situation was not any worse. She ignored the creaking bed, what looked to be a roughly patched hole in the wall and vibrating windows because it was clean and safe here. What more could she want at the moment?

The life you thought you had?

The Slytherin in her head was becoming quite irritating as it always showed up when she was weak and prone to believe whatever it was saying. Stupid, sneaky, blighter had a way of popping up during Jean's story as well.

You mean Margaret.

Although it was annoying, the voice brought up a good point. Well, in a roundabout way it did. It helped remind her of the name theories she was thinking of while packing.

Many things about this whole situation confused and hurt Hermione to no end, but she felt confident in her assumptions about not only her name, but also, the name of her mother. A few months ago she had read a book on Wizard Anthroponomy and it held several bits of information that could help her current predicament. Cassandra Selene Barden… Barden… Hermione was nearly certain that name was on the list of old Wizarding families in the back. Cassandra and Selene were both names from Greek mythology so it would be safe to assume she was named for the Hermione from Greek mythology rather than the Queen of Shakespeare's play.

That only left Jean a mystery.

Why would her mother give her a name that was quite plain compared to the rest Hermione had analyzed?

CRACK

Well that was an easy way to divert her attention.

~TBC~

A/N: Like it? Love it? Hate it? Or something else it? Feel free to leave a review *nudge*nudge*. I realize I left many, many, many gaping holes in Hermione's story, but what point would there be to the story if I spit everything out at once? All will be revealed… eventually. Bye for now! xxxxxxx