A/N: Thank you to all the readers who have followed on from the beginning, and thank you to those who have joined along the way.
Chapters 1-4 are styled as vignettes. Chapter 5 is the beginning of the story proper. I hope you enjoy!
Chapter One: The Lost Heir
The Grangers had always known something was different about their daughter.
Precocious and stubbornly so Hermione had entered the world three weeks early with bright eyes and a dazzling smile reserved only for her parents. With every month that elapsed Hermione surpassed her milestones with an insatiability that was as charming as it was exhausting. Odd occurrences became the norm and being firmly scientific individuals Mr and Mrs Granger persistently managed to reason each one away.
The strange, almost ozone-like scent that surrounded their little girl was simply a 'new house smell', despite it preceding the date that they had moved and only appearing with extremes of emotion. The static snaps in the air when Hermione cried were blamed on 'faulty electricity' - but not one electrician seemed to be able to find anything wrong.
It was when Hermione was just over a year and a half old that one such incident occurred which simply couldn't be explained away.
Mrs Granger had taken Hermione to the park one Saturday morning and was stopped by a young woman with large, almost protuberant pale eyes and hair that streamed down her back like liquid sunshine.
"Beautiful," murmured the woman, as she gazed gently down at Hermione in her stroller. Mrs Granger smiled indulgently, as it was wont for parents to do when their offspring were complimented, and nodded her thanks, preparing to push the stroller further towards the little pond. Before she could do so however the woman reached out and gently grasped her wrist.
"Wit beyond measure indeed," the woman whispered, bending to brush her free hand over Hermione's forehead and suddenly Mrs Granger found it impossible to move. With a twirl of her fingers the woman produced an odd bunch of ruffle-edged blooms in white, purple, yellow and blue, which she began weaving into Hermione's shining brown locks.
"Hope and faith, spirit and purity. Royalty, valour and wisdom, oh yes," she sang in a lilting Irish brogue, tucking each flower away with a deft hand. "The lost heir has returned."
Hermione giggled when her flower crown was almost complete, squinting at the last purple blossom in the woman's hand. With a slight scrunch of her brow, Hermione reached out a chubby little fist and Mrs Granger watched the flower float - in mid air! - towards her daughter's waiting fingers.
The woman looked up at Mrs Granger before she disappeared with a pop, her last few words and a laugh like a thousand bells echoing in the air.
"Don't worry, dear. You're just as sane as I am."