Walking up the stairs back up to her room, Hermione was completely overcome with the amount of information that she had been "blessed" with since she had woken up that morning. Deciding that she would prefer to take her bath before she did anything else, she made her way over to her dresser and pulled out the top left hand drawer for a bra and a pair of underwear. Putting a matching set on the top of her dresser, she moved over a drawer and pulled it out as well to look for a shirt. Settling for a blue and black tank with her name on it in silver lettering, she threw it too with her underwear, moving another drawer down, she found her black and silver cotton skirt with her name on it in blue lettering. Stretching, Hermione made sure that her drawers were shut.
'I don't know why I don't have a choice. How does Dumbledore know whether or not I want to leave the Grangers? Not that it matters now, I've already said that I'll go.' Hermione felt a deep resentment whelm up in the pit of her stomach as the thought of her Headmaster just assuming that she was okay with being the daughter of a man that had tried to kill her a few months before. 'But also, a few months ago. We finished Him off.' Hermione reminded herself as she started the water.
"Hermione Granger? Father! She… are you trying to tell me that I've treated my own flesh and blood like she is a mudbl—" Draco began yelling at his father but was cut off by his godfather.
"You only treated her the way that you thought appropriate at the time. Now that you know, and the time has come for her to come back to live here, now is the time that you repent. I wouldn't blame her if she didn't forgive you though." Severus' cold sneer pissed Draco off so bad that he found himself clenching the front of his shirt and pushing him up against the wall that he had been leaning against only seconds before.
"If I remember correctly, you have also made her cry!" Draco yelled as his father pulled him off.
"Draconis! Get your temper in check. Wash up and come back here before noon. We need to go over to her house. Legal arrangements with the Ministry and the school need to be made." Lucius instructed his son as he dismissed him.
She didn't know around what time she had fallen asleep, but about noon, Mrs. Granger was waking her up. "Hermione dear, you need to get dressed and you need to pack a night bag." Hermione sighed and stretched as she got up out of the tub to do as she was told. After getting dressed and packing a bag, she flung her bag over her shoulder and made her way down the stairs and back to the living room.
"Hermione, the Malfoys are here." Mr. Granger's voice informed her as she walked in and looked up to see that the Malfoys were indeed there, along with Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, and the Minister, Cornelius Fudge. "Hermione, we were just showing your mother a picture of you accidentally doing magic."
"Oh? Which one?" Hermione found herself blushing, a lot of the pictures that they had managed to capture of her doing magic had all been when she was having tantrums or when she was after sweets.
"The time where you got flustered because your swing wasn't going high enough." Mrs. Granger answered her with a sweet smile. Hermione winced and bit her tongue.
'They had to show one of my fits!' Hermione thought to herself as she turned back to look at the people in the room. "So, was it the one that my hair was on end and the swing's chains were rattling visibly, or was it the after picture where I was on my back crying because I had fallen off and scrapped my elbow?"
"The first Gran—Hermione." Hermione jumped at the sound of Mal—Draco's voice answering her.
"Oh." Hermione got out as she tried to swallow. The swallowing problem was starting to bother her.
"But I would have much rather preferred to have seen the after shot." Draco sneered, interrupting the comfortable, but tense atmosphere.
"Ooh shut it you!" Hermione snapped as she stomped to his seat and smacked the back of his head—hard. "Professor Dumbledore, will I have to be re-sorted?"
"I'm afraid so Hermione. We need to make sure that you have been placed in the correct house." Dumbledore answered her. But that was the last question that she got to ask for the nest two hours. After twenty minutes of defiantly standing however, she had collapsed onto the left armrest of their couch next to her "brother".
"So the papers are finalized Albus. Diane Lyn Malfoy is now in the custody of her biological parents, and the Grangers have promised not to mention ever having a daughter named Hermione." Fudge stated to the room. The sudden noise from the announcement made Hermione jump, and fall to the floor on her side.
Pushing herself up onto her knees, Hermione looked at the Minister and demanded for him to repeat that.
"The papers are finalized…"
"Not that, what you said after that!" Hermione nearly yelled.
"You are in the custody…"
"Shut up! My name!" Hermione snapped as she whipped her head around to look at Dumbledore and then to her parents and then to the Grangers. "You never told me that I had such a beautiful name. You never told me anything!" Hermione had finally started to yell, she had been holding it in all morning, and she finally snapped.
"And you've always treated me like shit! Professor McGonagall, even you knew! Why wasn't I told when I started school? Why now! I'm going to have to readjust! Is being the daughter of an ex-Death Eater that troublesome? The way I see it, I would've been protected and safe if I had known. I wouldn't have been striving to prove myself if I had known, I would've had friends growing up, I wouldn't have felt alone and disserted if I had grown up in my rightful place!" Hermione was standing by now, letting it all come out. "All my life I've been made to think that I was a worthless Muggle! That I have no place in the world! And now I'm being expected to forget all of that and say 'hello' to a new life? I've missed out on sooo much because of this shit! This bloody hell hole of a life!"
"Diane…" Hermione looked up to see her father slowly approaching her with his hands slightly raised.
"All my life… I've been thinking that I've no place in the world. I have no friends in the Muggle world, I've always been 'too weird', and I've never belonged in the Wizarding world—until now, and just barely. It's been a week since Voldemort's been dead, and I'm finding out that my own—my real father—was one of his top ranked? You expect me to be okay with this? Don't I have any say? Will I ever have control of my life? Or do I subject my life into the hands of another. Another to decide my fate for me?" Hermione had backed away from them all and into the far wall by now, and they were all standing up staring at her.
'I'm 16 today! Today is my SWEET 16! And they have not said one word of Happy Birthday!' Hermione's inner voice screamed in her head, but just as quickly asked of Draco, the second thought actually getting voiced.
"Has anyone even realized or cared to have remembered that today is Draco's and my birthdays? Have you?" Hermione closed her eyes as she felt tears start to blur her vision. When she opened them, she smiled faintly at Draco's expression. It had softened at the mention of it being his birthday—of it being their birthday.
"Diane, we're sorry. But today has been sooo…" Mrs. Granger began to say but Hermione's voice cut her off.
"I don't want to hear that you're bloody sorry! All I want is to be acknowledged for the Witch I am, for the Witch that I've been. For the Lady that I will be and the Child that I was!" Hermione screamed at the top of her lungs. The raw emotion of her rage and agitation rippled through the air like a whip of magic, and in seconds half of the china and glass that was in the near vicinity burst into millions of pieces. Sending showers of glittering gold, silver, jade, porcelain, and tinted and plain glass through the air.
"Diane!" Hermione felt her knees buckle beneath her as her adrenalin rushed out of her, splicing her energy tenfold. But instead of feeling all of the broken pieces stabbing her knees and legs and untimely her hands, arms and face, she found that she was being held up by two strong arms that were wrapped around her shoulders.
Hermione's ears rang with many "repairo" s through the next minutes. And as everything was pieced back together, and the air has stilled again, Hermione managed to move her head to look at the people in the room for what felt like the billionth time that day. "I'm sorry." She faintly muttered.
Light chuckles made her feel better as she gripped her savior's arms as she tried to keep from crying. She smiled and tried to hide her puffy and tear-streaked face as her father walked to her and reached for her chin.
"Diane, it's alright. Your frustration is understandable, and we all apologize. Diane, I'm sorry for all the trouble you've been through. You must understand that we thought that it was for the best." Lucius apologized to her in the softest voice that she had ever heard him use, and she smiled up at him as she felt a resounding warmth toward him rise in her chest and spread to her face as she tore from her savior's arms and hugged her father.
"I agree with Diane, Father." Hermione turned as she realized that her brother had been holding her up and she smiled as she cocked her head to wait for him to continue. "All I want is to be acknowledged for the Wizard that I am, for the Wizard that I've been. For the Man that I will be and the Child that I was! I'm sixteen Father, Mother, and I've not received a single 'Happy Birthday' from either of you at all."
"I'm sorry Baby." Narcissia apologized as she stepped closer to Draco. She turned slightly to see Hermione staring at her, and smiled at her. Hermione smiled as her mother reached out and gently wrapped her long, elegant fingers around her wrist and gently pulled her from her father's grip. "Happy Birthday to my wonderful children!"
"Diane, please keep out of trouble." Mrs. Granger asked as she hugged Hermione.
"Yeah, and don't think that just because you have a richer and better family that you can abuse it." Mr. Granger scolded her jokingly.
"Yes Madame, yes sir." Hermione agreed as she pulled away from them and stepped next to her father.
"We will be sending House Elves to retrieve her things. Thank you for taking such good care of her." Narcissia said as the Malfoy's disapparated.
Hermione gasped as she felt the unforgiving tugs and twist stop and she suddenly felt solid ground beneath her feet again. "I don't think that I like appearating much." Hermione voiced as she shook her head.
"We're home." Draco announced as he let go of his mother's arm and walked in front of Hermione.
"So Diane, why do you not look like a Malfoy?" Draco had been curious since his parents had told him that she was his baby sister.
"I don't know, I figure a charm or something of the sort." Hermione answered him.
"Quite right Diane." Lucius praised her as he started to walk with Narcissia towards the Estate. "Come on you two."
"How different do you think I'll look Draco?" Hermione asked her brother as they made their way behind their parents.
"I don't know, probably a lot different. Since we are twins, you'll probably look like the female version of me, but with gentler proportions and features. You aren't too fond of this illusion are you Diane?" Draco answered her as they walked into the entrance foyer.
"Not really. I anticipate the change." Hermione responded to her brother's question. "Father? Where's my room?"
"Follow Draco dear, and change into something formal. We will be dinning with the Zabinis tonight." Lucius informed them as they nodded and ran up the stairs.
"Zabini, as in Blaise Zabini? Draco! I don't think I'm ready to face anyone from school yet! What will I do? What should I say? I have no idea how to behave at authentic formal wizarding dinners." Hermione started to ask but was stopped as Draco stopped abruptly and turned to face her.
"Don't worry. You have manners and common sense. You can be taught later if you wish, right now, just be polite. It's as simple as that Sis." Draco's reassurance made her smile and they continued to walk down the hall and up another set of stairs.
"Dray? Will I also be given a map?" Hermione asked once they had reached her room.
"That, we don't provide. But you live here, so you can roam anywhere in the house and anywhere on the grounds. But if you're instructed not to do something, you do need to listen." Draco explained as he opened the door for her. "Well Sis, I need to get dressed myself. Mother should come to help you. From experience I know that dinner isn't until 7:30. It's three o'clock now, take a little soak."
Hermione smiled as she closed the door and observed the décor. Smiling with pleasure and a sense of comfort, Hermione dropped her bag on the floor beside the bed and collapsed backwards onto it as she decided that she'd take a nap after such an informative day. "Ahh, velvet." Hermione muttered as she buried her face into the soft and furry fabric.
"Diane, Miss Malfoy." The little house elf sighed as she tried to pull her owner over onto her back, but after several attempts, disapparated to find Mistress Malfoy.
