By the time school had started, Hermione had her new look perfected. While remaining pale, she added a healthy glow to it while keeping her height and figure the same. Her attitude and wardrobe would help to disguise her figure, making sure every bit of her seemed as Slytherin like as possible. Hermione now had more form fitting and expensive looking clothes and had already bought some in Slytherin colors. Her eyes were changed to a almost frightening white-blue while her hair became a chocolate brown, leaving her curls as is.
"not bad" she thought while looking in a mirror, once again practicing the well know Slytherin smirk. While everything was well thought of, including her background history, her name was still undecided. She couldn't use the name Hermione, and she surely couldn't use her birth name, so what would it be?
Dumbledore had Hermione staying in a room hidden on the 7th floor of Hogwarts, multiple charms cast around it so it couldn't be found. Hermione had also requested he put a charm specifically on her so she wouldn't turn up on the Mauder's map given to Harry by Fred and George. The two boys had visited her frequently, telling her how everyone was doing and giving their own stories of pranks they planned on pulling or had pulled. While it seemed like Hermione always disapproved, she couldn't stay mad at them for long before they made her smile. She also was helping them with their plan of building a joke shop of their own. Hermione kept track of the potion formulas, income, and any other crazy ideas they thought of. Fred and George were highly underestimated, their brains matching Hermione's.
"no more seeing them every morning in the common room, no more cheering for them in Quidditch" she'd miss that but they had promise they'd find a way to keep in touch with her. One thing the two were well known for, aside from trickery and pranks, was keeping promises.
The days flew by and before she knew it, it was her birthday. She didn't expect to get any gifts or presents, her adoptive family was dead and she was dead to her friends, but was pleasantly surprised by the pile of carefully wrapped boxes at the bottom of her bed. All the colors were red and gold, she frowned. It was the last she was going to see of those colors.
Fred and George had, shockingly, gotten her separate gifts. She had received a box of color changing quills from George that changed ink colors as her mood did, and a black leather journal from Fred. From Minerva there was a gorgeous necklace with matching earrings that took Hermione's breath away, she vowed to wear them every day to thank her. Dumbledore's gift had confused her, not that she hadn't expected it. It was a tiny statue of a wolf, and when she had picked it up, it moved. She laid her hand out flat and the small wolf walked to her ring finger and laid right at the base of it, transforming into a silver ring that fit perfectly. Staring in awe, she flipped over her hand to see that there on the plain silver ring was the wolf's head with dark amethyst eyes staring up at her. Odd, she'd have to ask him about it later.
While she knew she should be happy, she couldn't help the frown that appeared on her face. No more gifts from Harry, Ron, Ginny, her adoptive parents, , or any of the other loved people in her life. Hermione held back tears, now was not the time for crying.
The rest of the day Hermione spent reading up on her heritage. What she had already known came from the knowledge of Dumbledore who had known few of her aunts and uncles, and even less of her father. She had found old articles of The Daily Prophet which had announcements of her father birth, his striking resemblance to Merlin, and of his marriage to a muggleborn, the scandal of the century. Hermione smiled softly at the picture of her mum and dad, moving from the gazing lovingly at each other to waving happily at the camera, showing off Juliana's wedding ring. Her eyes got teary as she noticed each resemblance that she had to each of her parents. Juliana's hair, his eyes, her smile, his nose. The list went on when she came upon another article, this one being the announcement of her older brother, the picture showing him staring at the camera with the cutest confused face ever, blinking in shock at the flash. She laughed, her brother seemed so adorable! They had named him Simon Connor Alexander, and with his nearly black violet eyes they had predicted him to grow up to be a heartbreaker. The next article she had been dying to read, her own birth announcement. The picture was of her father and mother smiling, her being in her mother's arms while Simon was being held by her father.
"Scarlett Phoebe Hermione was born on September 19th 1979" was the caption under the picture. They wrote that similar to her father, she had purple eyes but of a lighter color than her brother's. In another picture they showed a close up of her and her brother, both reaching out for each other. She could almost hear the crowd saying "awwww" as it happened.
It was the last article that she did not want to read, and so she was thoroughly grateful for the knock at her door.
"Hello Hermione!" Fred greeted her, walking through the door with George close behind. They had both literally walked through the door seeing as casting a charm on it to just look like the rest of the wall was easier then having locks put on it. No "Alohomora" would open this door.
The bed sunk in on either side of Hermione where the twins sat, and she turned a sweet shade of red when kisses were placed on both of her cheeks. She sneakily slipped the article under a book on her bed before smiling back at the twins.
"Hi Fred, hi George," she replied back happily, "been getting into any trouble lately?"
"Us?" Fred said, with a look of shock on his face.
"Trouble?" George said next, with an identical look as his twin
"Always," they said together and Hermione shook her head.
"We've created a new candy-"
"-that turns you into an animal!"
"Nothing too big of course-"
"-and it only lasts for an hour!"
Hermione rubbed her face with her hands, the school was bound to be a zoo by next week. She actually felt bad for her poor teachers, Fred and George were unstoppable.
"Are you ready for tomorrow 'Mione?" George asked, putting an arm around her shoulders. She sighed deeply.
"Yes. No, I don't know," she replied and Fred grabbed her left hand in both of his.
"We're here for you you know," he said, looking into her eyes so she would know just how honest he was being. George squeezed her shoulder lightly as his agreement.
"I know, thank you," she gave both of them a smile and they smiled right back. Even with their help though, it didn't make things any easier. She decided to change the subject.
"Did you know I have a brother?" she asked and they shook their heads, "His name is Simon, Simon Connor Alexander. I wonder where he is"
"Maybe he's in another wizarding school like you," Fred suggested and she knew it could be true.
"He could even be in Hogwarts for all we know," George added, and somehow she knew it wasn't true. Her extraordinary skills were well known around the castle, if someone else had equal if not more power than her like she assumed her brother would, she would know.
"No, he'd stand out more. We'd know of him," Fred corrected his brother who nodded in response.
"Durmstrang then? Or Beauxbatons?" George tried again, "We could always as Dumbledore to look into it,"
"True, but for all we know he could be in Azkaban, or even dead," Hermione said with tears starting to form in her eyes, suddenly her tears disappeared and she felt an odd feeling. It was strange, but somehow she knew Simon was alive.
"I would think that its-"
"-highly unlikely for him to be dead, after all-"
"-someone definitely took a big risk to save the two of you so-"
"-for one of you to just suddenly die just wouldn't be right" George finished and Hermione nodded.
"You're right, come with me to Dumbledore so we can find out more?" she stood up and walked to the door, turning and waiting for them.
"Most definitely" they smiled and the three went of to see the wizard.
Meanwhile…
"Not one attack in days, surely they haven't given up…" the boy said, pacing furiously. His friend sat on his bed, rubbing his temples in concentration.
"Of course not, we wouldn't be on the run AGAIN if they've given up," the second boy replied. The first boy nodded, stopping his pacing to look at his best friend worriedly.
"Do you think she's found out?" he asked and the second boy gave him a sympathetic look, "Do you think she's on the run too?"
"Wish I could tell you man, but I don't know," both boys sighed, but shot up as they heard a knock at the door. It opened to reveal a man in his mid to late fourties, head down and hands in his pockets. He looked at the first boy with sparkling green eyes and instantly both boys knew something had happened.
"She knows now, your sister knows. And he's after her, pack your bags boys we're going to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry"
review? pretty pretty please?