Chapter One: The Call

Hermione was gently shaken from her peaceful slumber on a golden Thursday afternoon during her summer break from Hogwarts. She opened her eyes to the face of her distressed looking mother. Although, this really wasn't of much concern to Hermione considering that her mother was scatter-brained all the time--a true contrast from the daughter she had raised.

"What's wrong mum? Did you lose something again?"

Hermione's mother didn't respond allowing silence to stretch to every corner of the bedroom.

"Mum?"

"Honey, your father is on the phone...," she trailed off not meeting Hermione's eye.

"What? What's wrong," Hermione shouted, sensing her mother's distress and fearing for her father.

"No honey, not your stepfather...," Hermione's eyes instantly narrowed at the noted difference and she became alert.

"Oh"

Down the stairs she marched stiffly to the kitchen where the receiver lay off the hook.

She spoke into the phone, "Yes?"

"Is that you, Herms?"

"Yes this is Hermione." The back door opened and Hermione's dad (technically stepfather, but more a father than the man on the phone had ever been) stepped into the pale yellow kitchen. He was home from the dentist's office where he and his wife worked together. Upon seeing his daughter was on the phone, he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and began the food for dinner.

Her biological father ignored the difference, "Herms, I got great news to tell you."

"What," Hermione responded dully.

"I'm getting remarried."

Hermione gripped the receiver with both hands. "W-what?"

"Baby girl, I'm getting remarried."

"...You called just to tell me this 'good' news of yours?"

"Yeah baby girl, I want you to be there. I want you to meet her and she even has this boy your age--"

His little rant was enough to get her blood pulsing in her veins out of sheer anger.

"Eight."

"I'm sorry, eight what Herms," her father asked, completely oblivious to the anger coursing through her veins.

"Eight. I was eight when you left me. No, correction. Left us. Me and Mom." Her step dad paused in his cooking and stared curiously at the person on his side of the line. "It's also been eight years since then. Eight years since I've had any contact with you at all. You never bothered to keep in touch, no matter how much you claimed 'I'll miss you' the day you left.

"Half my life has gone by and I've grown up. I'm not your 'Herms' or 'baby girl' anymore. You lost that right the day you left, suitcase in hand. Half my life you haven't cared. How you possibly harbor the optimism to expect that from me? Please tell me, why I should care."

Her stepfather stood across the room watching in silence looking slightly angry, as he had realized who was on the other side of the conversation but Hermione didn't notice. The silence following her rant rang throughout the room.

"Because...," he scrambled to think up a good excuse, "I'm your father."

"Well if that's your argument, I'm your daughter, but that never stopped you from leaving."

"Please... Hermione," her father begged. "I want you there, you're my daughter. At least come down to meet her and for the ceremony."

The use of her full name and not a stupid childhood nickname what was what quieted her down. "It depends," she said slowly.

"On what," came the other, eager voice. Despite not knowing her for eight years, he seemed to have understood that the sixteen-year-old had backed down slightly.

"When is it," Hermione asked defeatedly.

"End of August. Hermione, you'll love her. And she has a boy your age, so we're having it before you both leave for school--"

"Wait. On one condition."

"Anything," he promised desperately.

"You remember my birthday don't you?"

"Of course... beginning... of... August?"

"Yes."

"Before the ceremony?"

"Yes."

"Excellent. We'll have a smashing birthday party--"

"No! I will not have a birthday party and I will not visit on that day. I will be here with Mum. The. Whole. Day. Understood?"

"But--"

"I will be here that day."

Her father understood that her decision couldn't be swayed so he changed the topic.

"Tomorrow then?"

"Alright. Fine. Good Night."

Ignoring her stepfather who was blatantly staring at her (his poor male instincts not knowing how to comfort a teenage girl on a war path), she marched up to her room. And even though she had just woken up from her nap, she collapsed onto the bed and sprawled across the only thing that felt familiar in her life right then.

A/N ;; I know Hermione's birthday is in September, but it fit better in August, for purposes better explained in later chapters.

The chapter title is what it is because i lack originality when it comes to titles.

Review. Please?