Disclaimer:

JK Rowling's work is not mine. I do not receive any compensation for her work, and can only be grateful that she inspired this fanfic.

Prologue:

She had been only 15 to his 17, and while she should have been more cautious, she wasn't. She had been naïve and in love for the first time. She had expressed her love by letting him make love to her.

And then she had found out she was pregnant.

She was slim and Hogwarts robes hid many things. Her first two trimesters were hidden during school, and her last thankfully fell over the summer holidays, during which she told her parents that she was travelling to visit friends. She used all her Slytherin cunning to hide the truth. To the best of her parents' knowledge she returned to school on the Hogwarts Express, and her Head of House believed she was ill and would be back before the term had barely started.

Half-truths, mixed with falsehood. She stayed at a home for pregnant young ladies in London that summer, and gave birth early in September. She took one careful, heart aching look at her daughter, and passed her to a nurse who would take her to the anonymous adoptive parents. She knew they were of a good background, and that the girl would be cared for, and that was all she could bear to know. She would walk away from this chapter in her life and try to never think of it again.

Chapter 1:

Hermione had received a letter from her mother saying that the kidney dialysis was going well as she waited for her turn on the transplant list. Mrs. Granger wrote that she had been told she needed to take extra care of herself and be careful not to overdo anything, but Hermione's father had been very attentive and helped her to no end. The staff at the clinic had been wonderful, but it was so much better and more convenient to now have a dialysis machine at home.

Hermione folded the letter up, having now read it several times. She had broached the subject of personal organ donation with her mother twice now, only to be flatly refused. Her mother's condition was not yet terminal, and she had insisted she had the time to wait on the donation list, without putting Hermione in jeopardy. Hermione was 18, and that was too young, according to her mother.

There was nothing she could say to convince her mother by letter, but Hermione was holding out hope that she could make her see reason when she returned during the Christmas holidays. The train would leave after breakfast and Hermione had honed her arguments again and again during her sleepless night before. If only a potion or a charm could help her mother! Hermione had researched, but there was no cure available in the Wizarding World. Just as their Muggle counterparts could, mediwizards could only alleviate the symptoms, not cure the disease.

Hermione could only hope that her mother would have a change of heart.

When she walked into the house with her father, Hermione began searching for her mother. She found her in the living room, sitting in a comfortable arm chair, attached to the machine that was helping her kidneys to function. The sight stopped Hermione in her tracks, and stole the words from her mouth. She could only stare and take in the sight of her ailing mother.

"It's not nearly as bad as it looks, dear," Jane Granger said with a small smile.

"Oh Mummy!" Hermione's voice came out as a choked whisper, as she ran to her mother's side. "Please, please let me be tested for donation! I can help you!" Hermione looked at her mother with tears in her eyes.

Jane looked at her husband, who had entered the room, and they shared a long look. He sighed, sat on the couch beside his wife's chair and leaned over to take Hermione's hand.

"Hermione, you can't help your mother. She has a rare blood type and you don't match. You're also not a universal donor. The best we can hope for is a short wait on the public list. Thankfully, in the meantime, our insurance company pays for this private dialysis."

There was suddenly a heavy silence, full of tension. David shared another look with his wife, before she nodded to him, and continued the discussion.

"I didn't want things to happen this way, but with my condition there are things we have to tell you. You're 18 now, and a legal adult, and there are things you must know,"

"What types of things, Mum?" Hermione asked, confused over the change in topic.

"Before that, do you understand that we love you, have always acted in your best interest and would never intentionally hurt you or lie to you?" Jane asked.

"I think I do."

Jane raised her free hand to Hermione's face, cupping her cheek softly. "I have loved you from the minute the nurse put you in my arms. I will always think of that moment as the best in my life. You are my greatest blessing. You are my daughter in every way. Every way but one...I did not give birth to you."

Hermione froze at her mother's words. "What do you mean?" she whispered.

"We adopted you the day you were born, through a long closed adoption process. The only thing we knew was that your biological mother was very young, just 15 years old, in good health with no complications during her pregnancy, and that she wanted you to grow up with a stable, loving family. That's all-we don't even know her name," Richard explained.

Jane released her husband to hold tightly to her daughter. "We wanted to tell you when you reached your legal majority, but with your war, and my illness there hasn't been a good time. Your father and I swore we would tell you immediately when you came home for the holidays. We had no intention of hiding this from you, we simply wanted to wait until you were old enough to handle this, and have a mature conversation. With all that has happened, it's obvious that you should be treated as an adult. What we said in the letters was only to put you off until the term ended and we could have this conversation."

Hermione was in shock. She needed time to absorb this shift in her reality. She needed to know more, like a good little Know-It-All. But most of all, she needed to get out of this house to think.

"I love you, but I need some time," she said. She hugged them both, then disapparated.

Hermione spent some time alone at her family's cottage in the Lake District, writing to her parents as her head cleared. She stayed away for a week before returning home, looking for answers. Her parents told her everything they knew, giving her all the paperwork from the adoption. They had little hope that she could find out more, but gave their blessing for her to try.

She did try. She went to the adoption centre and interviewed with the staff, only to find out that her mother had given her away without leaving her name. She disappeared. Hermione tried the home for pregnant young women in London, only to find that her mother had entered as Jane Smith and left before they could discover who she was.

Hermione had wondered if all of this meant that her mother was truly a witch, or if she was a Muggle. There was no way to tell without knowing her identity.

Hermione had then started to research magical methods of determining paternity, a more common issue than determining maternity. Wizards, especially purebloods, had historically had more interest in determining if a child was really theirs than a witch would, as surrogacy was such a rare phenomenon, while cheating was not.

It was during this research that Hermione found a spell that allowed a child's blood to be tested to determine paternity. If she could not discover her mother, it seemed that she may be able to start with her father.

Unfortunately, the spell was considered dark because it uses blood and potentially meant purebloods could dispose of unwanted children. She would not be able to do this on her own, at least not if she wanted to avoid trouble with the Ministry.

It took her awhile to think through her options. In the end, she wrote to Kingsley Shacklebolt and Alastor Moody. As both current and retired Aurors, they may be able to test her, or help her find alternatives that would keep her from getting into trouble with the law.

Their replies had asked for official documentation proving that she was adopted, and that her parents were unknown. Once that was received, they gained Ministry approval to use the spell she had found, which was allowed only as her blood would be willingly given. The date for the testing was on the Monday of the last week of the holidays.

Her parents were concerned that this search had taken up so much of the holidays and their time with Hermione, but understood that she needed answers. She had left school anticipating a holiday spent with her mother and trying to help her medical situation, but that was out of her hands now. Instead, she was focused on learning as much about her parents before the end of the holidays and her return to Hogwarts as possible.

Hermione had very maturely accepted that she was adopted, but knew that she had been loved her whole life by the Grangers. The only aspect of this change in her life that confused and upset her was the mystery of her parentage. She understood her birth mother was very young, and likely terrified. But who was she? Who was Hermione's father? She had to know.

The Grangers arrived at the Ministry at the agreed upon date and time. They were greeted by Kingsley and Moody, who both welcomed the family warmly.

"It was a real shock, to receive your letter," Kingsley said to Hermione.

"Imagine how I felt," she replied with a smile. Alastor snorted beside her. "We'll take you up to an interview room in the Aurory , where we've prepared the necessary items for the spell, and we have signed approval from the Minister to conduct it. Do you feel ready, Hermione?" Kingsley asked her.

"I just want the truth, and to move ahead with my life, so yes, I'm ready," she replied as they rode the elevator up.

The group entered the Aurory and were led to a comfortable room, which had been cleared of excessive items. The floor was already marked with runes, and the flora was arranged at specific points around the room. The scents of lilac, honeysuckle, roses and cedar could be detected.

At the centre of it all stood a raised basin, also covered in ruins.

Alastor directed the Grangers to move to the seats against the wall, and for Hermione to stand before the basin. He and Kingsley took their positions across from her, at the other side of the basin.

Hermione looked them in the eye, and said clearly, "I'm ready."

Kingsley gave her a small smile of encouragement before raising his want and chanting, "Elementa naturae, da quaeso veritatem. Illuminabit paternitas pueri huius in responso et pretium sanguinis est."

Alastor took Hermione's hand, raised a dagger and sliced across her palm. He held it up over the basin and squeezed until blood dripped in a steady flow from the deep wound. Hermione had flinched at the cut, and pressed her mouth into a tight line as Alastor began filling the basin with her blood.

Kingsley leaned over, adding dried cardamom pods. Alastor dropped Hermione's hand, his task finished. Kingsley again chanted, this time saying, "Natura verum aperiat nobis. Nominare hoc puer pater!" Kingsley's wand flashed with a red light as a spell cast over the basin. Hermione was enveloped brightness. It hovered over her frame for a few moments, and then burst into a vivid white.

The blood moved in the basin. Instead of a pool of liquid, the blood had formed a name:

Sirius Black.

Author's Notes:

Latin translations are as follows:

i Elements of nature, I ask you to grant us truth. Bring to light the paternity of this child, the price and the answer to be given in blood.

ii Nature, reveal the truth to us. Name this child's father!