From conception, Hermione Granger had been unwanted and unloved by her socialite dentist parents. The second she had been born by caesarean, 3 weeks early because there was an event planned when she was supposed to be born, the crying infant had been placed into the eagerly waiting arms of her young wet nurse, who would also be her nanny and closest thing to a mother she had.

It was also evident from almost birth that the young girl was always going to be special, at least to Zara Flamel. The young woman had only just graduated from school and almost 19 but as she was willing to be around the clock carer for the newborn, the two uncaring dentists hadn't even bothered to check her references.

She came from a large family, led by her 20th great-grandparents Nicolas and Perenelle Flamel, who were still as much in love today as they were over 600 years earlier when they fell in love at school. Beauxbatons had been the school every member of her family attended, and she had only graduated a few months before Hermione, or Mia as she called her, was born. With no want to go into a magical career, and certain she was doing the right thing, she had applied to an ad for a wet nurse, using the Adoptive Mother potion to make sure she was able to feed the girl.

What had pleased the young witch so much at the first feed was when she saw her ward's tiny mop of brown curls change colour to match her own fiery red locks, a gift from her Irish mother. As the girl fed, Zara had laughed gently and twirled around the room, she had known that it was the right thing to do and now she had the proof.

Later on things showed that Mia was far more advanced than any child she had even heard of, her extremely few slips in her metamorphmagus talent, even when she had the extremely rare tantrum, being a sign of that. Speaking, with the cutest lisp that had earned Zara scolding glares whenever she mentioned it, was achieved by 15 months and she was hindered in her movements simply due to her body limitations.

With the girl's 'parents' approval, Zara organised for Muggle tutors to come around every second day to teach the girl things she would need to know, certain she would never fit into a Muggle primary school, while the other days were spent as they always were, being together and teaching Mia everything that she knew about the magical world.

The years went by in happiness for the young girl, she loved Zara deeply as both her mother and her best friend. Her biological parents were away all the time, by the time she turned 11, the witch had calculated she had spent a total of 4 months with them, and that was only when they wanted something from her, usually when they had a new client who was family oriented.

The family manor had been in her father's family for centuries, and was incredibly large, so when her lessons became too easy for her and the tutors became professors from Cambridge in a variety of courses, almost all of them sciences though there was the linguistics professor who came for 3 hours a week, changes were made to the house. Mia and Zara had spent many hours renovating a number of rooms in her wing, shared by the redhead, so that there were rooms for her magical training as well as for her theoretical and practical Muggle studies.

Every holiday, Zara had taken her ward to her family home in rural France, where everyone had adored the girl instantly. Of course, as was tradition, the first people to meet Mia were Nicolas and Perenelle, who had grinned pleased at the newest addition, even if she wasn't by blood. Over the years, if Zara was ever looking for Mia while they were on holiday she need look no further than her pépé's office, many times Mia would be found sitting on his knee reading through his books with him, or helping him with some thing or another. It always brought a smile to her face.

On her 11th birthday, Mia received her letter from Hogwarts and instantly responded that she would be going before dancing about happily with Zara. They were both sad that it meant she would be heading away for months on end but it also opened up the chance to make friends who were not family, and that was something that the redhead wanted more than anything, if nothing more than to show that she had raised a well-adjusted witch.

The following year the pair spent more time at the Flamel home than at Granger Manor, with 90% of the family off living their own lives and coming around sporadically, it was a breath of fresh air for the centuries old couple to have the two witches there so often. Nicolas had the metamorph's attention more than anyone, the two geniuses had a bond that none of the recent generations had produced.

It was while they were working together one day, Mia absentmindedly flipping her hair and eye colours about, that she spotted a very dusty tapestry that she'd not seen before. With her fingers, as direct magic was known to destroy old material, she cleaned as much off as she could and gasped lightly, alerting Nicolas to her discovery.

He walked behind her and smiled gently as he looked at it with her, "I had the elves retrieve it from the attic, it has been a few generations since it was updated and I had the urge to do so."

"This is your family tree," conjuring a duster, Mia began to clean it some more, reaching the generations she had not been able to get to.

"Yes, it was an idea of my son Pierre's for my 100th birthday. It used to be on the living room wall but after a few too many close calls by grandchildren, we moved it to the attic for safe keeping," Nicolas ran his fingers over the names and smiled slightly sadly, "He passed not long afterwards, leaving Perenelle and I 5 wonderful grandchildren. This tree, as you see, was filled with names but now…"

Mia nodded, she had noticed that there were far fewer members of the family than she would have thought seeing as Zara was the 22nd generation and at the last family gathering there had been barely 100 members, "What happened?"

He didn't answer at first, instead he pressed his family ring into the crest on the tapestry. It glowed brilliantly and grew, repairing itself at the same time. Mia watched on in surprise and saw the names, dates of birth and death, and the corresponding family. But when getting to the last few generations, there were very few spouses and even fewer offspring, and the dates of death were far too close to the person's birth. That was when she realised.

She had asked Zara about her parents once and was surprised to hear that her dear friend was orphaned early in life, her parents murdered before the First Wizarding War began in the destruction it would be remembered for by Voldemort personally, they had refused to join his Death Eaters. That had led to a discussion about magical history, and the things that corresponded to it.

"They were killed in the war, that's why there are so few left," she breathed out while strongly holding onto the wrinkled hand by her.

"Oh yes, both during the latest monster's reign and the one before him. Gellert Grindelwald was killing people at the same time as the Muggle monster Hitler, he took so many of the family and then the rest were ravaged by Voldemort. Perenelle and I tried to save them but we were unable, that was our downfall as we had raised children with strong beliefs and they would not sit by and let people die without trying to help. Of Zara's parent's generation, only 10 remained, but there were 54 orphans who needed us all. We rallied together, as we Flamels always do, and are stronger for it."

Squeezing the hand she held, the currently silver haired witch went back to studying the tree. Her eyes darted so quickly that she had to go back and read what her brain had told her was there, and damn near toppled over when she saw it, "My, my, my…"

Chuckling, Nicolas sat in his armchair, Mia in his lap as they had done so many times before, "Did you truly think you were without a family my dear?"

The blush was proof enough that she had thought that but it vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Lengthening her hair to shield her face, she said softly, "Why am I on there? I'm not…"

"You are my 21st great-grandchild, through Zara. Perenelle was rather adamant that we tell you at some stage," both chuckled lightly at that, the old woman was very much the leader of the family, "I know that your parents aren't exactly, well, parents but that does not mean you do not have a family who loves you dearly. Please remember that."

Wrapping her arms around the man's neck, Mia allowed a few tears to escape as she whispered, "I promise pépé."

Zara and Mia had spent the rest of the time until the younger witch head to Hogwarts in France, visiting the sights, shopping in the large magical shopping district they had, getting the witch her supplies. It was a surprise really when Mia learnt she had a vault at Gringotts, only to be told by her friend, who was always open and honest about everything with her, that while her parents were never there it did not mean that they were not giving money towards her education, if for nothing else than their own appearance if people found they had an idiot for a child.

She had also said that the family vault had added into it over the years, the redhead was over the moon that family records now listed her ward as her daughter, it was a good thing.

But too soon it was time for her to catch the train, tears were shed when she bid the elderly pair goodbye, even though she would be coming back for her Christmas break. Walking onto the platform, Mia's trunk was shrunk in her pocket and the hand not holding onto Zara's was holding her early 12th birthday present. It was a cage that held a 6 month old male red-tailed black cockatoo, she'd named him Louis.

"Ok honey," the redhead knelt down and began smoothing down the girl's shirt, "I'm going to go back home after I clean out your rooms, mémé is getting together some rooms for you."

"Did they get the paperwork yet?"

Zara smiled, it was a little evil, "They were served whilst at the queen's luncheon. They were embarrassed beyond belief and are going to fight it, apparently. I don't think that they will be invited back to the palace anytime soon. I'll get in touch with Headmaster Dumbledore if we need you."

Both giggled before the cage was placed on the ground and Mia was hugging her friend for dear life, "I promise to be good, to be the best I can be. I love you Zara."

"I love you too kiddo," placing a kiss onto her forehead, the redhead turned her and gave her a playful swat on the butt, "Now go and see what your future holds."

Despite being very early, Zara waited the whole time, waving with the other parents and realising that that was what she really was. The smile didn't leave her face for many days.