Chapter 1 – The Letter.
It was a day just like any other day. At least it seemed that way. What made this day different was the fact that today Hermione Grangers world would shift on its axis.
The sun was relentless, shining down from a cloudless, blue sky. It was a hot, lazy day, the kind of heat you only get in July. Hermione was lying on a blanket in her parents garden, with a book propped up against a cushion. This allowed her to work on her tan, while catching up on Arithmancy.
Hermione had become a beautiful young woman; she had really blossomed since the war ended a year ago. She was a petite witch, just 5'3". After running around the countryside with Harry, looking for Horcruxes, and fighting Death Eaters, her body had become strong and toned. She had kept in shape, exercising regularly. She had also filled out a bit more though, and had firm, round breasts, a slim waist, round hips and long, shapely legs. Her hair had darkened and tamed, so instead of the bushy hair she sported during her early years in Hogwarts, she now had beautiful curls, reaching almost down to her waist. Her eyes were brown with specks of gold, framed by long, dark eyelashes.
She had a great tan from the trip with her parents. They had taken her to Italy for three weeks and had returned to Britain one week ago. It had been wonderful. They'd rented a beautiful flat in Taormina, a stunning resort in Sicily. From there they took short trips to discover the island, or spent time at the beach and had dinner in a local trattoria. It was a wonderful trip, and Hermione had even learned some Italian from a young Italian man she had met. It had been a short, but sweet holiday romance.
The day after their return, her Hogwarts letter had arrived.
During the Battle of Hogwarts, the school suffered severe damage. The rebuilding of the old castle after the battle took almost a year. Because of everything that had happened during their seventh year, the Ministry and the Board of Governors had decided that all the students needed to repeat the year.
When she opened her letter, and the Head Girl badge fell in her lap, Hermione was overjoyed. It had been her dream since her first year at Hogwarts.
She was really looking forward to going back to school; not only to finish her education, but she had also missed Hogwarts, as well as missing being around Harry and Ron.
Hermione had dated Ron for a couple of months after the war, but it was soon evident that although she loved Ron, she was not in love with him. They had agreed that they were better friends than lovers. There was no passion between them, and they had never gotten past the snogging and fondling. Hermione suspected that Ron had stronger feelings for her than he was letting on, but he had agreed to the breakup.
During the year that had passed, she had been working at St. Mungo's. She wanted to become a Healer, and had been reassured that as soon as she had passed her NEWT's, she would be offered an apprenticeship at the Hospital.
Yesterday, she went to Diagon Alley to buy all her schoolbooks. She still had to go back to get some other supplies and some new robes, but that could wait. Her books, on the other hand, could not.
Hermione rolled over on her back, putting her arm over her eyes to protect them from the sun. The neighborhood was so quiet. The bees were buzzing, and she could hear a lawn mower somewhere in the distance. She started dosing off.
Flop! A letter landed on her stomach. She sat up, a bit startled, and looked around. An unfamiliar owl was perched up on the back of the garden bench by the fence. The letter looked official, with the seal of the Ministry of Magic.
She opened the letter and read it. After reading it the second time, she just sat there, looking at it, completely dumbstruck.
She slowly got to her feet and went inside. She sat down at the kitchen table and wished her parents would hurry home. They had gone to Sainsbury's to buy groceries, and would be back soon.
They had to be back soon, because she really needed an explanation to this letter. Hermione read the letter again. Just as she had finished, she heard her parents' car in the driveway.
As soon as Margareth Granger walked into the kitchen, Hermione got up from the table.
"Can you please tell me what this means?" She handed her mother the letter.
Hermione watched her read, and narrowed her eyes as her mother turned white as a sheet. The letter dropped from her hand, and her eyes filled with tears as she looked at her daughter with a look of utter despair.
"Hermione..." she started.
"What does this mean?"
"We were going to tell you…," her mother tried again.
"What were you going to tell me?" Hermione was shouting now, her eyes were angry and confused.
Richard Granger heard his daughters angry voice all the way out to the car, and hurried inside the house.
"What on earth is going on in here?"
"Well, you tell me," Hermione picked up the letter her mother had dropped, and gave it to him. He saw the fury in her eyes.
As he read the letter, he could feel their world falling apart.
"Why do I have to go to the Ministry of Magic about my parentage? Can you tell me that?" She was crying now.
Her father tried to put his arms around her.
"Don't touch me!" she yelled and hit his hands away. "Don't you dare touch me! I want you to tell me everything, and do it right now!"
"Sit down, Hermione," he said, and pulled out a chair. "Please…"
She sat down, her back was rigid, and she stared at her parents sitting close together on the other side of the table. Her mother was crying silently.
Richard Granger took a deep breath, and began.
"Almost four years after we got married, we found out that we could not conceive a child of our own. We wanted a child more than anything, and decided to adopt." He looked at his wife and took her hand in his, before he met Hermione's angry, tearful eyes.
"We contacted an agency, and the woman we spoke with told us to contact St. Nicholas Orphanage in London. They found you on the steps of the orphanage only two days earlier in a small basket. There was a handwritten note tucked inside the blanket wrapped around you. It said your name was Hermione Jean, and that you were born September 19."
"The day we brought you home was the happiest day in our lives," her mother said. Her voice was almost a whisper, and she looked at Hermione with pleading eyes.
"When you were two years old, we got a letter from the lady who ran the orphanage," her father continued. "She told us your birth mother had contacted the orphanage to find you, and she told her you had been adopted. Four days later, she was found dead in a place called Hollow…something."
"What!" Hermione got up from the chair so fast it crashed to the floor. "You mean Godric's Hollow?"
"Yes, I believe that was it, Godric's Hollow. I'll find the letter," he said and got up. He went into his study, and came out with a gray folder. He pulled out the letter. Hermione snatched it from his hand, and read the letter. She paled and sat down on the chair that her father had put back at the table.
"This can't be…" she said. "How can this be?"
"What is it?" her mother asked.
"She was killed on Halloween 1981," she said, "in Godric's Hollow."
"Yes…" her parents questioned.
"She was killed in the same place, and on the same day that Harry's parents were killed." She shook her head. "This has to mean she was a witch," she continued.
"Yes, we suspected that after you got your letter from Hogwarts," her father said.
"And you didn't tell me anything!" Hermione looked at them, tears streaming down her cheeks with a renewed anger.
"We were afraid we would lose you," her mother cried. "Don't you see? You were going away to somewhere that, to us, was another world completely. And when you came home, telling us all about how wonderful everything was, it just became harder and harder to tell you the truth."
Hermione got up from the chair.
"This is just too much," she said. "Have you any idea how betrayed I feel right now? Any at all?" She felt numb, and all she wanted to do was to get away from the two people she had loved and trusted more than any other in this world. She didn't feel sure about anything anymore.
"I'm going to my room."
"Hermione, don't go. Please…"
"Just leave me alone!" she cried, running upstairs and warding her door. She threw herself on the bed and just cried herself to sleep.
Later in the evening, she woke up. The tears had dried on her cheeks, and her face felt stiff. She was thirsty, and went to the bathroom to get some water and clean up a bit.
"Hermione," Margareth called from downstairs. "Please come down, you haven't had anything to eat, and we would really like to talk to you."
"Well, that's just too bad," she answered, "because I really don't feel like talking to you right now. I don't have much of an appetite either. I guess discovering that my entire life has been a great, big lie has something to do with that!"
She went back into her room and slammed the door shut. She put up her wards and a silencing spell before lying down on her bed again.
'I wonder who my father is. Why is he coming for me now?' she thought. 'Why has he not tried to contact me earlier?'
She frowned as she pondered this.
'Why was my mother killed, and what was she doing in Godric's Hollow?'
She got out of bed and opened the window, breathing in the fresh air. She sat beside the window, looking out over the quiet neighborhood. She thought about writing Harry or Ron, but decided it would be better to wait until after the meeting at the Ministry.
'I'm not a Muggle-born after all,' she thought wondering how she would be received by the wizarding world now that her status had changed.
She sat there for the longest time, lost in her thoughts. Finally, she crawled into bed and fell asleep.
Hermione woke up early the next morning. She stretched, and looked out the window.
'Another beautiful day,' she thought, and then the memories of yesterday came crashing down on her. She felt her stomach churn, and her breath hitched for a moment. The numb feeling she had had the day before returned. She rolled to her side, and pulled her knees up to her chest.
She showered, got dressed, and went down to the kitchen. Her parents were already there. It didn't look like they had gotten much sleep. They both looked at her with wary eyes.
"Are you ok, sweetheart," her mother asked.
Hermione didn't answer. She made herself a cup of tea and some toast.
"Hermione…"
"Do you really think I'm ok?" Hermione didn't even look at them.
"I have just found out that one of the most important pieces of my life has been a lie, and you ask if I'm ok?"
She looked at the clock on the wall above the kitchen table. It was almost 8 o'clock. The letter had stated that they were to meet at the Ministry of Magic at 10 o'clock.
"We better get ready," her father said.
They arrived at the Ministry twenty minutes early. They were told to go take the lift to the Department of Family affairs.
As soon as they entered the front office, the Ministry representative asked them to take a seat.
"Good morning, I'm Celia Dunmore, and I will be your representative, Miss Granger. The petitioner's attorney, Miss Lynch, has been delayed. She should be here in a short while."
She opened a file and took out a paper.
"We should talk about what will happen today." She looked at the Grangers, ensuring they were paying attention.
"I'll be blunt, Miss Granger, I have gone through all the papers regarding the adoption. I'm afraid the adoption was never validated, since neither of the birth parents surrendered their parental rights in writing or by magical signature. The adoption was not legal."
"What are you saying? We did this the proper way, through an adoption agency. How can you say it's illegal?" Richard Granger was angry. "It's not like we went out on the black market. This is just wrong!"
"Well, since she is a witch, the adoption should have been registered at the Ministry of Magic. We understand that you were not aware of this when she was adopted. This, however, did not absolve you from the responsibility of registering her adoption when you discovered she was indeed a witch."
She gave them a firm look.
"What is wrong is that you never told me, Dad," Hermione said. "Even when you understood that I was a witch you kept it to yourself."
"Not now, Hermione." Her mother looked at her with pleading eyes.
Hermione turned to face Celia Dunmore.
"I don't see why I have to meet here though. I've been of age for more than a year."
"Since your parents come from two prominent Pureblood families, I'm afraid you are a subject to Pureblood laws as well as the laws of the Wizarding World."
"What does that mean?" Hermione asked, with a frown on her face. Why was it that she had never heard of the existence of such a law until now? There had been nothing on Pureblood law in any of the books she had read. She really only had Ron's family to share their knowledge of Pureblood customs and traditions, but they were different… very different than that of the Lestrange family. It's not like any of the Slytherin would welcome her questions. She sighed and decided to make the best out of the unknown. She may have discovered she was Pureblood and that her father, at least, was Slytherin, but she was sorted into Gryffindor and that meant facing new challenges head on.
"It means that although you are of age, you have to abide by your fathers wishes, until you are married."
"But that is preposterous!" Richard said, "Is the Wizarding World still clinging to medieval laws?"
Celia Dunmore glared at him.
"I don't think you are in any position to ridicule our ways, Mr. Granger. If you had registered the adoption with our ministry, as you were supposed to do, none of this would have happened."
"Would my father not have had any claim to me then?" Hermione asked.
"At that time, your father would not have had the opportunity to claim you."
Angelina Lynch chose this moment to enter the chamber. She had been standing outside the door, listening to exchange.
She gave them a brilliant smile, walked over to Hermione and reached out her hand.
"Good morning, Hermione. My name is Angelina Lynch, and I am your father's attorney."
Hermione shook her hand politely. She felt a little timid, but at the same time, she felt a strange connection with the beautiful woman. As she looked into her eyes, she felt a strange sense of trust and familiarity.
"Is … my father not with you?" she asked and looked towards the door.
"Not until we've determined the parentage," Celia Dunmore answered.
Richard Granger was puzzled when he noticed an expression of distaste and fear flashing over her face as she looked at Angelina Lynch. This, combined with the fact that the attorney had not acknowledged his wife or him with as much as a look, made him anxious.
"It is better if you were to be presented to your father after the spell has been placed, and we are certain no mistake has been made."
"So how is this going to be determined?" Richard asked.
"We use an incantation. It is a very accurate spell, I may add. It equals what you Muggles call a DNA test. With this spell, we determine the magical DNA that all witches and wizards possess."
She stood up, and walked over to the counter placed on the opposite side of the room.
"May I have one strand of your hair, Hermione?"
Hermione was curious. She pulled out a strand and gave it to Celia. She added it to the strand of hair that was already in the vial and poured on some liquid over them.
"Parentis Determinis!"
She took the vial and poured a drop on a piece of parchment. Slowly letters started appearing. She paled, and gave Hermione a sympathetic look.
"I'm afraid there is no doubt. Your mother was Susan Yaxley, and your father is Rabastan Lestrange."
At this moment, Hermione felt like all of the air was being sucked out of the room. The voices of the others sounded like they were under water, and then everything went dark.