DISCLAIMER; HP belongs to JKR. The story line and all new characters, new develoment are my intellectual property
A/n Another short 2 or 3 chapters with a possibility of more. This one has and ending of sorts. A rabid non-reformed Death Eater might or not get the witch, or end up very much alone.
Prologue
"I understand Draco's desire to withdraw out the public regard, and even his craziness for the Muggle monastic life; and his wish to be with other magical beings, whose minds were challenged during the war. Another hit from the boy-who-should-have, die…, ehem. But it is your fault, after all you refused to shag him, that shouldn't had been too hard, after all the ones of your kind do it easily enough."
The facilitator said for the third time, " You need to refrain your slurs, we might be here to see you, but I am a trained Auror." He stopped at the arrogant wizard's sign to zip his mouth.
"And, you, Miss You, let your wonder boy drag old and young men, and, even, 'idiotic witches' alike in such folly. And last but no least, drag Severus with him. Imbeciles that is what they are. A Vow of celibacy and poverty, it won't last. For what two or three years, ha, ha, ha. But You, that is not what you are here for, is it?
"Once again, the name isn't You, it is Hermione Granger, and you might call me Miss Granger, or any other appellative, as long as it is neither racially biased nor insulting."
"That is why I refrain to address you as anything. You, is good enough, since the names I find suitable to use around you, might land me in Azkaban, and we don't want that." He replied with sovereign disdain, while looking at his perfectly manicured nails. Not once did he lift his eyes to look at the witch, sitting right in front of him.
At the other end of the table, Smith and Cumbent, her assistants boiled in anger at the Dark fool's words and poor behavior. Both admired their boss, the youngest head of a Ministry in hundreds of years, however, she refused to exert the power of her position to make the Dark Wizard comply, or not.
She stood up, obviously making an effort to restrain her anger; one that those who knew it, feared; it was an effective tool that worked even at the Muggle Ministry. It might had something to do with the feeling of thousands of insects crawling inside your body, when she looked at you and her eyes shone red.
Chapter I.
Only a few closed associates knew a small secret related to the famous fighter of the light. She might be a Muggle, might being the key element, because next to nobody really knew. Hermione had been attacked by a former Death Eater outside the ministry, less than a year before, and a Muggle law man had found her.
She was taken to a Muggle Hospital, and they blood typed her, she was found to have an extremely rare blood type. She needed an urgent blood transfusion, and the parents were found and tested. They had to be restricted and brought by force, saying they didn't want to have any dealings with her.
She had some blood element that couldn't be identified, and they should have been a match.
They weren't even close. The clinic trained in such cases, and immediately alerted the right office. The Grangers assured the Muggle authorities, over and over, that they were the parents.
Meanwhile the Muggle Ministry had been contacted, after eyewitness alerted the Aurors , "We tried to do something, but it was too late, Miss Granger was put in inside a Muggle machine with a flashing light." And she was finally located.
Of course Hermione was transferred to Mungo's, and blood replenishers were given; however, the can of worms had been opened.
An investigation ensued; and the Grangers couldn't be found. It wasn't hard, she found her parents in the same place where they had stayed in Australia before.
And many questions had been answered for Hermione. She finally understood her parents' relative coldness and less than stellar treatment. They argued that fear had made them behave badly; it started when found out about her magic when she was a toddler; and it was later found out that they had punished her when she was but a tot. She had received harsh corporal punishment whenever she would climb on her toy broom, and would try to fly around their home.
Her magic was bad enough, but worse was their fear of the 'tall Dark Man,' who had found them more than once while walking, and they'd managed to lose him in crowds. They said it was the devil wanting her for nefarious purposes, indeed.
During their interrogations it was clear that they had long wanted her out their lives, welcoming her desire to spend the long summers away from them. After they were given Veritaserum, shecfound she wasn't the Grangers', and they had kidnapped her. They had been unhinged after Dr. Grange's third miscarriage .
Dr. Jane Granger, who had been suffering severe PPS (depression after pregnancy), had followed a young woman pushing a perambulator. The baby inside was glowing, and she'd thought that it was due to a battery opperated light; she attested to that under Veritaserum. The young lady dressed in rather odd clothing, was walking with a tall man wearing a long dark coat. They were arguing, and after things got heated, he pulled her to the side of the adjacent building. At this point, the interrogation ceased, and the memory was extracted.
From what was known from the voices and event still imprinted in the long ago memory, and they were able see the events from that day.
The young woman calls him Tom, over and over. "...Tom, and she is my baby, and no, you won' t raise her to be your second in command. I don't care if you already 'marked,' her and shared your powers with her, and cannot take them back. I am telling my husband, whose baby she is, he will be glad to raise as his own...and yes I might have thought I loved you before; but you forced yourself on me, I was too young…You are wrong she is not yours…"
In the memory they 'see' the woman. She is a petite woman, dressed in elegant robes, witch's robes, her hair is long and a mass of curls, and he is very tall, and could be the Dark Lord.
While they are not paying attention, Dr. Granger picks up the sleeping bundle, a three week old baby, and puts her inside the large shopping bag, and mingled with the crowd. She gets in her car and hears a chilling roar, but she closes the door and drives as fast as she can. Her husband, looks glad to see her happy, and after not seeing reports on the telly, he is happy to keep his mouth quiet.
Within a year the baby starts floating things around the house. She thinks the child is possessed, and she is denied food and water regularly. In her memories she punishes the little witch, severely, for floating on top of her play broom. They move several times, the man is closing on them. Until one day, when Hermione is one or two or three years old, she can't remember, the man is gone.
Hermione cried at the memories. The Aurors who saw it later to try to identify the witch, all had different reactions, some would hurt her, as Harry's did.
The rest was hearsay, the man was indeed Tom Riddle, the woman a witch, who was later identified as a daughter of a great house. She was married to someone well known. She was contacted, and all that could be said, is that Hermione had changed some. It was said thatt Hermione had refused to meet the woman, even when she had come crying to the MoM. She was upset about being Voldemort's child, her mother was at fault. And why hadn't she try to find her before?
Others knew that the dislike for her 'mother' worsened after Harry watched the memories, for the ongoing investigation. He treated her as if she was tainted, and decided to seek mental peace, away from her.
He blamed her for having tainted blood; right at the MoM he yelled, "You have tainted blood, who knows how many times you betrayed me. I feel dirty for caring so much for one of his own blood. I need to find peace; I need to find a way to forgive you." Those who heard him thought he was being a jerk, it wasn't her fault whose child she was.
The Tom Riddle's fatherhood theories were merely a guess, because Hermione and the ones in the investigating room at the time weren't talking. One the Aurors on call was Harry, the other Ron, and the third another an Auror, who had gone off with Harry and his group. They were the ones who had seen the pensive. But many have read the report.
Tom's name was mentioned because the angry little witch's eyes although not quite red turned into bright orange. After the revelation, the same happened whenever she was angry.
In the Muggle woman's memories she would levitate as she got older, thus she was indeed powerful, and often looked at Dr. Granger with those reddish eyes, and the tips of her hair would be in fire. And how about her index finger, that shut fire and burnt things around the Granger's home. Which also came back after she saw the memories. Somehow she had inhibited all those traits as she got older, surely the Granger's had punished them out from her.
That was information that Zacharias Smith could have cleared, his mother's family had a strange trait, their witches' eyes would turn orange when angry, and the tips of their hair as well, and at times they would be on fire, that wouldn't burn them, just for effect; now the fingers shooting short bursts of fire, those were not from his mother's side.
Now as far as everyone was concerned, and to everyone but a few, she was still and would always be a Muggle, as per her wish. At least for the meanwhile, until she had more facts.
With her former kidnappers she showed little mercy, Obliviated them again, and off to Australia, to the life they had formed. Their memories as Grangers were forever gone. She ordered their house burned down once she took all she'd had wanted out of there, and that chapter was closed.
Lucius and his new mission
Smith watched with growing interest, he was sure that Hermione was his sister older than him by less than a year, it all fit. He already admired her, and the undeniable filial love filled his heart.
His baby sister had been snatched by Muggles when she was less than a month old, his mother had nearly lost her mind when the baby had been found, dead, and hardly recognizable, or so everyone was told. Now he saw it as Riddle's plot to deceive his mother and able to continue the search uncumbered.
The Riddle suspicions came from his father, he had extreme hatred for the Dark Lord, his family had once sympathized. And by the way, he secluded his mother until this day.
Nobody had ever told him that, and there was not way to prove one way or the other. He still thought the Hermione could be Voldemort's daughter on account of the fire streaming fingers, Besides the best evidence, that she was his siste without a doubt, he carried in his pocket, reduced to a small square and safely secured. He would confront Hermione one day, soon. He wanted all of them to be a family, and would get his stubborn sister to know all the facts.
And he'd put two and two together. First, he had witnessed his mother's renewed sadness, and she had come to the MoM too often, lately. "Zach, darling, I went shopping and wanted…" and would look around…aha, looking for Hermione; and he added the facts, namely: The alleged mother had been identified; she had been notified; she had tried to see the stubborn Hermione more than once; Hermione refused; his mother looked as if she were in mourning, again; and his mother, stubbornly, hugged the witch whenever she was given a chance, and kissed her when greeting and whe saying goodbye, and was happy for days. Those days Zacharias had to smile, his mother was a bit cunning, how could she refuse her hug, one she had been glad to receive before she knew who her mother was.
The hair and the eyes, were a bonus, and he was getting ready to spring it on his reluctant sibling.
Thanks to his wife Ginny he had the cinching evidence. Theirs, Ginny and his, was an arranged marriage, thanks to her parents who had paid the Weasley her weight in gold. They wanted a large family, and when they heard Harry was leaving, they jumped to the first place, in front of the waiting line for the fertile witch. And they made an offer that Molly couldn't refuse. Not only would their child, Ginny, be properly taken care of, but also the parents.
Ginny was upset at both Harry's leaving, and the fact he had donated what was left of his Black fortune to his best friend and sister, not to Ron, to Hermione. He'd told her that he owed it to his sister for killing her father, another evidence for Zacharias as to the identity of Hermione' father, namely: Tom Riddle. As for the money, Hermione put it away, it was foolish, and she knew he would be back sooner than later.
Hed asked Ginny to find him baby pictures of Hermione. But the big finding came while she searched. The unwise kidnapping parents, had kept the fancy wrap she was bundled on. It was the only way to make her stop crying, and she carried the wrap until she was seven or eight. Surprisingly it stayed pristine just with a rinse.
Zacharias nearly fainted just a few weeks ago, when Ginny, had 'burrowed' it for him during one of her visits at Hermione's flat, she chose one of two...It was one the wraps made for the family's children, from a rare Afghan magical breed. There might be others but he doubted it, the weave was exclusive, it had the family's name written in code.
The picture of Hermione at the age of one could have been the one from Zacharias, and exactly the one of his mum.
He had an old aunt whose name had been Hermione, and he knew she must have the same small mark with her name, inside her thigh. His mother was also a Smith, and all Smith's did, the mark with their name was predetermined at birth. The curly hair was his mother's, his and Hermione's. He had his mother's coloring and her blue-grey with gold specs, which was a little strange, and her mother's eyes and lighter color hair or not, she was his sister.
Unknown to Zacharias, She had noticed discrepancies from the pensive and a slight colovario charm was unconverted by her. Her hair had turned a shade lighter and her eyes the blue grey of and there a slight change on her facial bones, but nothing very noticeable. But she reversed the charm. 'It will stay until later," she'd told a close friend, and also that she remembered doing it.
"I must have been four or five, and wanted to look more like mommy, thinking the change would have make me more lovable. I guess I forgot about the charm until now." She reversed it, look, and put it back, no, not yet.
Needless to say his father had not welcomed the idea, he was sure. But now, considering that the Smiths never managed to have a daughter, he had reconsidered since. Zacharias, had been commissioned by his father, to manage a project; to keep tabs on the witch.
His parents should have been Slytherin, both of them, instead of a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor. Whenever they went to his house, and Hermione was visiting, Zacharias mother, who next to Hermione looked like they were related, would give her great hugs; and Hermione would try to keep her distance. His mother wouldn't relent, and he could see Hermione caving in.
Mr. Smith, saw his wife on Hermione, and he forgave her for her slip, it had been his fault after all, she was in love with Hermione's father, and his parents had made the contract go through. So now, the entire family was after Hermione accepting her roots. A team effort, that was the way Zacharias saw it, but without all parties involved necessarily sharing all the information.
Ginny was excited to think Hermione was her sister in law, and helped Zacharias on his quest. With Harry no longer in the picture, no need to be jealous, besides her marriage to the pompous Zach had turned into a good thing.
He was haughty with others, and funny and warm in their home. He was a good lover, no, he was an excellent lover, plus he was unselfish, and worshiped the ground she walked. She was Ginny Smith, not Mrs Potter; and they were established and very rich. Best, she didn't have to worry about the legion of admirers and fans after Harry, and she was #1 in Zacharia's heart.
Zacharias had not told anyone, that he suspected the father was Voldemort, which turned out to be a good thing. There were already enough Death Eaters that would be vying for her hand, well, for Tom Riddle's daughter's hand.
And Ron, what happened to him? Well, that was a tough call. He had thought Harry foolish on his quest, and he remained friendly with Hermione, yet, he kept his distance, or at least it look that way. He had recently taken a sabbatical, because he was "busy" on a project. A project financed by unknowns, but he wasn't telling anyone.
Lucius and the request.
"Mr. Malfoy, I am going to give you a last chance to address me properly, or I will have you detained for disrespect to a Minister and continued alluding to racial slurs."
He stood and banged his fist, "You won't do such thing, I haven't alluded to any names. Prove it."
"I heard you," Smith dared him.
"As I did," Cubent corroborated.
"This is a conspiracy. Miss Granger," he spitted the words out his mouth.
"Much better Lord Malfoy. How do you take your tea?"
She pulled the tea cart that had just appeared in the room. He was too angry to answer and dismissed her with a wave of his hand; but when she placed a couple of the tiny Muggle choco-chip buscuits on his plate, he accepted it just to be gracious.
"As I was saying, I need one from a noble house to accompany me to the negotiations, a former Dark Wizard, as you so claim to be. Draco was filling the spot, but now he is gone, you fit the bill perfectly, besides they like your Dark reputation."
"Is that so? Why, because I am Draco's father, a worthless Black he turned out to be. Could you pass some more of the chocolate biscuits?"
Everyone ignored his remarks. "You see the Malfoy's have been so tooted, that only you would do."
"He can go with you, if you would care to tell me, where you have stashed Draco since he decided to stand against me! I have feelers, and some said Draco isn't with them. But wherever he might be, is because you told him to do so." Lucius's arrogant voice made her want to hex him.
Damn though Zacharias, as the tips of her hair turned bright red. A good thing she had worn her camouflage glasses.
"I didn't do such a thing, what he did is not of my business, we dated and then we didn't, not that is any of your business. Furthermore, if anyone has him stashed somewhere, hmm, let's see, that would be you. I am onto you, believe me. I also have the same information, and I believe you took him. Why would he have gone nearly ten months after the others?"
"Nah, no, he is with Mr. I-am-the new-coming. What a brainwashed fool, to turn back to the old religion, going to be in a mission as a healer, what a sad fool. A vow of poverty and celibacy, is he an idiot or what, and to drag his brain dead mother, who dared to divorce me to follow his pimply behind. He just waited to go with them. I hold your responsible, your fault, they are polluted with your Mudblood ideology, you, Miss Muddy who would never understand."
Bloody mercies, her finger had burnt a hole in the cushion in the expensive chair in the Malfoy parlor. Zacharias was ready to guffaw.
"You are fined 10,000 galleons. For the racial slur, we all heard it, and one month in Azkaban." Mr. Debeat who was the facilitator/Auror, happily declared.
"I didn't, it might have sounded like that, but I mean—" He was irate, red splotches running across his face.
"Enough. Smith, please accompany Lord Malfoy to his rooms, at wand point, make sure he packs a the appropriate dress robes, and the required sports attires. You are dismissed. Is either this or Azkaban, or this and Azkaban, take away his wand as well, and I 'll manage it."
"Ah for sake appearances we will be sharing the same suite. You suppose to be my current love, the group we are seeing will trust me more if I am going out with you. This way the Aurors coming with us, will only be guarding one suite, they will stay in one of the rooms."
Her face was no longer angry, but mischievous. "You may have to hold my hand and whisper sweet nothings, and maybe an occasional snog or two. You haven't have a date in nearly one year, it might be good." She winked her eye to Lucius Malfoy, who looked in the verge of bursting an artery.
Smith and Cumbent had to hold their lips tight not to laugh; a thing of beauty, now Malfoy looked ready to barf his stomach contents. She noticed and smiled to them, and Floo to her house to change.
When she arrived she found an owl. "There is an island that belongs to Malfoy, I am trying to hire a wizard who brings supplies ocassionally. He asks for 500 Galleons but will take Muggle Euros, around 100, 000. I'll need you to ..."
She danced a little happy war dance. She hoped they were on the right track, she missed him so.
A/n let's hear from you, this makes three.
