Chapter One
"Sal, Luc, Jean, come on we have to go!" Hermione hollered across the small two bedroom apartment.
"Coming," three small voices chorused from the larger of the two rooms.
A month after moving in Hermione had given birth to triplets; her three beautiful children looked very much like their father, especially her identical sons, Sal and Luc. They all had the same white-blond hair that was so famous amongst their father's family; however, they each had different colored eyes, which was the only real way to tell Sal and Luc apart. Sal had deep brown eyes, almost black, while Luc had the opposite gray eyes, almost white. Jean on the other hand had smoothly curled hair; Sal and Luc's was straight; and beautiful ocean blue eyes.
Hermione's two, almost three, year old children came racing out of the empty room toward her. After nearly three years Hermione was returning to Hogwarts, with good reason too. In one of the magical Libraries that she went to she'd discovered an ancient book thought long since destroyed. The book contained a very powerful ritual that could destroy Voldemort. The first part of the ritual which she had already performed, yanked the soul parts of Voldemort from the Horacruxes, no matter how near or far, and brought them to the caster. She had placed the pieces together in a heavily protected jar, where they'd immediately joined back together. There was, however, one piece missing, the piece that was in Voldemort's body. The second step was destroying the soul, she'd attempted this step but found that she simply did not have enough magic in her magic core to do the job. The third step could be done without having done the first two steps; it destroyed the soul in the Dark Lord himself.
A few hours later they were standing outside of the Hogwarts Gates, Hermione had to calm herself before she could open the gate and walk towards the huge castle. She had changed in the years she'd been in America, both appearance wise and any other way she could think of. Her entire use of magic was now only wand less and she could do most any spell there existed. She wasn't the bossy know-it-all anymore either, through her time as a teenage mother she'd learned to respect other people's wisdom and their privacy too. Now she only ever asked questions if she absolutely needed to know the answer, and if it didn't really concern of effect her she kept herself from asking. Her once bushy hair had calmed itself into smooth curls like her daughters. She had a very womanly body, she was slim with curves in all the right places and she'd grown confident in herself.
She reached the large wooden doors with her three children, slightly out of breath, behind her. Before opening the door, she checked her watch, everyone should be in classes, and made sure her magic was still nicely hidden from detection. Then she turned to her children and made sure their magic was also hidden.
"Alright Guys, be sure to stick close to me, ok?" Hermione said softly to her children.
"Yes, Mama" The three answered together.
Hermione nervously smoothed out her dark green blouse and black dress pants before running her hand over her braided half-tail to make sure everything was still in place. The four of them walked down the hall, Hermione's short heels clicking softly on the stone floor. They stuck to the shadows so as not to be seen or noticed. When they got to the statue in front of Dumbledore's office, Hermione stood there guessing for a bit until Jean yelled out 'Milky Way' and the statue reveal a staircase leading to the hidden office. They stopped short when they heard voices inside.
"Severus, Lucius, I just don't know what to do anymore. We've looked everywhere for Miss Granger and you've checked all of Tom's hideouts?" the Headmaster asked sounding very defeated.
"Yes we have, Headmaster, she is nowhere to be found" she heard Professor Snape answer, followed shortly by Mr. Malfoy's growl of frustration.
"If we have to tell Draco and Harry that she is most likely dead the two of them would be devastated" Lucius said solemnly.
"Yes your right; the two of them have been so close since Draco asked him to help you" Dumbledore said.
"Yes it was rather brilliant on Draco's part to tell all the Slytherins he was just pretending to be Harry's friend to get us inside information" Severus commented.
After a moment of silence Hermione decided it would be best if she knocked now.
Inside the room the three adults were each lost in their own thoughts. Now-a-days there was so much to worry about; it was really tiring. All of them looked up at the door as a knock sounded against the door; not one of them could read the magic of the person behind the door. It must be Filch then, there wasn't anyone else in the castle that didn't have magic.
"Come in, Filch" Dumbledore said.
The door opened slowly; the person behind it spoke before they could see them.
"Sorry, but, I'm not Filch" a feminine voice replied.
The door opened the rest of the way to reveal none other than Hermione Granger.
A collective gasp sounded throughout the room as the adults stared in shock at the matured girl.
Hermione turned to close the door and noticed that her three kids hadn't followed her into the room. Sticking her head back out the door she looked down at her frightened looking triplets.
"What's the matter, guys? Are you scared to meet the people I've been telling you about?"
All three little heads nodded and they clutched each other tightly.
Hermione stepped fully back out of the room and went to them.
"Don't worry, my little ones, I'll always be there for you."
Sal and Luc immediately attached themselves to her legs and Jean raised her arms to be picked up. Hermione complied and lifted the little girl then looked down at the boys as Jean buried her head in her shoulder.
"You ready down there?"
When she felt them nod she re-entered the room; the adults were surprised to see three little kids clinging to Hermione. Seeing their surprised looks she gave them a shy I'll explain smile and turned to the couch that sat in between the chairs that Severus and Lucius occupied.
"Alright guys, on to the couch" she instructed the children.
Sal and Luc unattached themselves from her leg and, still hiding their features, attempted to get on to the couch. Hermione couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her as she watched her sons slide back down to the floor.
"Do you guys need help?" she asked them laughter in her voice.
"No, we big boys" they answered simultaneously.
"Alright if you insist; come on Jean on the couch otherwise you won't be able to watch your brothers try to get on the couch." Finally Jean dropped her arms and loosened her legs so Hermione could set her down. By the time she'd straightened herself again Sal and Luc were about ready to cry.
"Mama, I can't 'et up!" Luc cried out.
"Oh, don't cry I'll help you" she said lifting him onto the couch, and then lifted Sal up on the couch also. Once they were settled Hermione sat down beside them and looked up at Headmaster Dumbledore. She was met with looks of surprise from all three adults; they were extremely shocked at the resemblance the children had to both Lucius and Draco. Severus and Lucius found that the two boys looked just like Draco had at their age, especially the one with the grey, almost white, eyes.
"Well you seeā¦" Hermione started to nervously explain, "They're part of the reason I left. I'd been planning on telling their father about them, but with Voldemort's rebirth, I didn't know whose side they would be on. I'd already planned to run if he'd reacted to the news badly, or if the ministry was going to make a big fuss about my pregnancy."
"That is understandable, Miss Granger-" Dumbledore began.
"Hermione" she cut in, "I'm not a student here anymore. You don't need to address me so formally."
"You know you're welcome to come and study here again."
"Thank you that's very kind of you, but I've already learned more than this school could teach me. I didn't stop me studies when I left, I taught myself what the teachers here would have taught me and then some more."
"Why is it then that we can't sense your magic, Miss Granger?" Professor Snape asked her.
"Oh, that's right!" Hermione exclaimed realization washing over her. Waving her hand over her children than herself, Hermione released the spell that concealed their magic. The room was overcome with powerful magic as the spell fell away from them. "I'd concealed our magic so we could surprise you."
"My, my, my, It seems you've become rather powerful" Albus commented, his blue eyes twinkling. "Now what exactly brought you back to my school?"
Reaching into the bag she had with her, Hermione pulled out the jar with Voldemort's soul in it and the book that contained the ritual for its destruction. Putting the jar on Dumbledore's desk, Hermione held on to the book.
"I need your help."
"What exactly is that?" Mr. Malfoy asked finally speaking.
"That," she said pointing at the jar, "Is Voldemort's soul, except for the piece that Voldemort himself carries in his body."
"How exactly did you get something like this, Hermione" Dumbledore questioned the twinkle fading from his eyes.
Opening the book to the right page she laid it on the table for all of them to see.
"Last month I preformed the first part of the ritual, I imagine it must have been rather painful for Harry to go through, than two weeks ago I attempted to do the second part, however, I'm not powerful enough to complete it without killing myself. That's why I thought to come here and you would perform it with me, since Professor Snape and Mr. Malfoy now know about it, and their powerful wizards themselves, we could all four perform the spell without it effecting us. We'd still have most of our magic left and would be able to perform the third and final step, before Voldemort even realizes what's going on. There is one more thing mention at the end of the ritual, it says that if a piece of the soul was stored in a living creature the living thing will need to be cleansed, with this last spell here" Hermione explained pointing at the extra spell.
"Hermione, you truly are the brightest witch of the age. I cannot tell you how proud of you I am for discovering something not even I could." Dumbledore said admiration firmly in his voice. The other adults agreed with him, it was enough to make Hermione truly grateful for deciding to come back.
"Thank you, sir. Now on to brighter things, since it would be best to wait with performing the ritual until Friday in case it drains us more than I thought it would. Would you mind calling Draco in? I should go ahead and tell him about his children, and because I overheard you say Harry and him are friends, might as well call Harry in too. After all he's bound to find out real soon anyway." Hermione stated looking down at her kids. "You guys ready to meet your Daddy?"
All three nodded very excitedly, their eyes going wide.
"Very well, they should be in Transfiguration right now. I'll ask Minerva to send them up." Dumbledore said chuckling lightly. While Albus fire called Professor McGonagall, Hermione spoke to her three two year olds again.
"While we wait for your Daddy and Uncle Harry to get here why don't you three tell me who these adults are, after all I've given you enough information for you to know."
Sal, Luc, and Jean sat thinking for awhile before Jean spoke up first.
"Well, the pewson that looks like Santa Clause gots to be gwandpa Albus"
"That's right, and the other two?"
"The one in black must be Uncle Sev'us" Sal said.
"And the last one?" Hermione asked.
"He looks like us, so he has to be gwandpa Lucius" Luc finished.
"Aw, you guys are so smart! Why don't you go say hi," Hermione praised them.
All three of them slid off the couch and went up to Albus, who had finished his call and put away the jar and book, and stood in front of him.
"Hi, I'm Jean" the girl said sticking out her tiny hand for Albus to shake.
The boys followed her and also stuck out their hands.
"I'm Luc, and the oldest."
"And I'm Sal, the youngest." The boys introduced themselves as Albus shook each of their small hands.
"It's very nice to meet you; you may call me Grandpa Albus. Would you three like a Chocolate Frog" the elderly man asked.
"YES" they exclaimed loudly.
Hermione cleared her throat behind them making it known to them that they should answer respectfully.
"Yes, please" the three answered again after looking back at their mother. Once they'd received their sweet they thanked him and gave their chocolate to Hermione to hold while they introduced themselves to Severus and Lucius. They went to their grandfather first.
"Hi," all three chorused as they stood in front of him.
Lucius leaned forward to greet them, "Hello little ones" he said to them. The three then proceeded to introduce them-selves again. Afterwards they did the same to Severus and they'd just barely settled back on the couch when a knock sounded at the door.
