Bonnie's Family Tree

Disclaimer: The Vampire Diaries does not belong to me. Original characters are mine.

A/N I thought I would try something different from my other stories. This one is not very long, but it is very much something Bonnie is interested in. The story takes place after Esther's failed attempt to kill her children with a spell, but it is before Klaus makes Bonnie break the spell that ties the siblings together. She actually has time to think about something that is not dangerous for a change. Warning: the subject of slavery is discussed.

Chapter 1

Bonnie sat at her computer and stared at the screen. Information about her grandmother was right there in front of her. Sheila's date of birth, her parents' names, the date of her marriage, of her death, where she was buried. It was amazing. Who had taken the time to put that in the records? Of course, some of the information had been on Sheila's death certificate. Bonnie herself had provided some of the information, but the truth was, she had not known Sheila's father's name. But here it was on the screen.

Bonnie's interest in genealogy had been piqued once again just days ago after talking to one of her classmates, an African American boy named Tayvon. He and his mother had been tracing their family tree. His mother's ancestors went back through many generations of free blacks in Massachusetts and in New York state. During the 1600's some of the family had arrived in the colonies as slaves, but they had been freed by their owner. Tayvon had not yet tackled his father's family tree.

Now Bonnie felt a need to find out something about her own background. Neither of her parents had offered any insight into their ancestors. She had known two grandparents: her mother's mother Sheila Bennett and her father's father William Hopkins. Both of these people were now gone from her life, having passed away. Abby, her mother, was who-knew-where?

Tayvon had told her there was a wealth of information in the various genealogy sites, plus the census records, military records, cemetery lists and more. Bonnie was just getting started and as yet she really didn't know where to look for information. In addition, she knew that if any of her family members had been slaves, there might be no way to find a person's name.

"Dad, didn't Abby ever talk about her ancestors?" Bonnie asked her father, who was deep in reading the daily newspaper. It was odd to have him home because he often travelled for periods of time doing what he did.

"Her what?" he asked. He finally looked at his daughter.

"Her ancestors. You know, her grandparents. Great grandparents. That sort of thing," Bonnie said.

"Not really. Why?"

"I want to work out my family tree. Where I come from. Who my ancestors were."

"I imagine Abby's distant family members were like mine. Slaves, Bonnie. Generations of them. I don't even want to think about it. Let it go, girl," the man said. He returned his attention to the newspaper.

"Not all of today's Blacks are descended from slaves, Dad," Bonnie persisted. She had never heard her father speak of his ancestors. The fact that they had been slaves was no great surprise, considering the South's history. She did know that both Sheila and Grandad Hopkins on her father's side had been born in Virginia. So was Abby. So was the man sitting there reading his newspaper. This was a Virginia family.

"Well, I am," he said in answer to his daughter's comment. "So, you are. I don't know about your mother or Sheila, but I would bet they go back to slaves. Their features are not strongly African nor are yours. You carry white blood, you know, more from the Bennett line than my own," he said. With a snort, he muttered, "The Bennett name probably comes from some slave owner, so I don't know why the Bennett name is so damned important."

"Yes, you do, Dad," she said patiently. "It's because we are you-know-what."

This was not the first time she had heard her father express resentment over the Bennett name, but this time he seemed to be voicing disgust. There was no question that he disliked the practice of magic. There was no doubt that he had known Abby was a witch when he married her, but Bonnie knew love had overridden his feelings about that. Perhaps he had hoped a normal life as a wife and mother would keep her from the witchcraft. In the end, it had not.

He was Rudy Hopkins. He was not a Bennett. It was a name the Bennett women kept for generations regardless of marriages. Bonnie knew from her grandmother that it was passed down from mother to daughter. Rarely to a son. Although she had not known the truth in her childhood, she was now well aware that it represented a line of Bennett witches. And that line included her.

Her mother had run off some fifteen years or so ago and then she had divorced Rudy. Bonnie had been raised after that by her grandmother Sheila Bennett in Sheila's home. Sheila's husband, whom Bonnie never knew, was named Clive Jackson and he had died as a soldier during the Korean War.

Bonnie's father had often been away following his own dreams. He also distanced himself on purpose from the witch Sheila. Unfortunately, this distanced himself from his own daughter.

Rudy and Abby did not have any other children besides Bonnie, although Bonnie had learned that Abby had wanted more children. But after Abby used all her power to disable the Original Vampire Mikael, she had run away from her own mother, her husband and her little daughter. For fifteen years there had been no real connection between them. Now, Abby was gone again.

With no mother present and Sheila dead, Bonnie now lived with her father, who was not really interested in parenting at this stage. He felt Bonnie was old enough to look out for herself so that he didn't feel neglectful if he left town now and then. He had made sure there was always money in the bank that Bonnie had access to, and he had showed her how to pay things like the light bill. For the last year Bonnie had been quite self-sufficient and responsible for such things whenever her father was away.

As a child and younger teen, Bonnie had not been interested in her family background, not nearly as much as her grandmother Sheila had wanted her to be. One reason was because the girl had not known about witches or that she would become a witch. She hadn't known that her grandmother would die less than a year after she showed Bonnie that she already had some small powers.

The teenager really regretted not having had more meaningful conversations with her grandmother about ancestors and about witchcraft. She had always known that Sheila had some old books, some with tattered leather covers, some with odd drawings. As a child she had thought they were some sort of weird story books, but her grandmother wouldn't read them to her. Later, Bonnie was not interested. That had changed more recently.

School and her close friends were the big things for the girl, even when she was younger. She loved to read and learn. She was a smart girl. Except for math. She was not good at math.

Despite being a pretty girl with mocha coloring, she was quiet and shy, She hadn't gone out for cheerleading like her best friend Elena. She wasn't exuberant like her next best friend Caroline. She wasn't into sports, but she was good at some video games. Was that a sport? And she was a speed-reader. She could devour books.

Since becoming an active witch over a year ago, she had become involved in one dramatic episode after another involving vampires and werewolves, not to mention witches and ghosts. It was all the kind of thing her father pretended didn't exist.

"Did you hear me?" her father now asked, snapping Bonnie back from the wondering thoughts she had just been having.

"Uh, no, Dad. I was deep in thought, I guess. Sorry."

"I asked if you were determined to delve into the family tree."

"Yes. I'm going to try, anyway. Will you help me where you can?"

"I suppose so. I know a fair amount about my kin. Do your mother's side first, if you can."

"All right. I'll see what I can find out."

A/N I hope you all find this interesting as I write more. I know, so far it has little to do with the Bennett side of her family tree, but it will.