This should've been out a week ago. I have no excuses. Anyway, sorry for the short length I was kind of at a low point motivation/other stuff wise. Frankly I'm just glad I got this chapter out. As always check out my other stories, you can find them on my profile; and please leave a review. Enjoy.
Dani's day just continued to get stranger. First the Grangers surprise her with a birthday party as well as a date for said event. Then they reveal that William and Elsa had officially adopted her into the family. And then Dani finds out that the big family secret was that Hermione could use Magic. Finally a random stern older woman came to visit much to the surprise to the Grangers. Dani supposed that her visiting wasn't the most odd thing about the encounter, but the fact that she was wearing a robe instead of normal clothes was defiantly odd. All things considered the old woman's hat should've tipped Dani off who and what she was a lot sooner than it did.
"Professor McGonagall, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked once she opened the door to the now identified McGonagall.
"Well hello to you too Miss. Granger." McGonagall answered causing Hermione to blush slightly.
"I'm sorry. Would you like to come in?" Hermione apologized.
"Only for a little while, then I must be on my way." McGonagall answered as she stepped into the house. The Professor quickly observed the room's festive decor as Hermione returned to her parents and Dani's side.
"To what do we owe this pleasure Professor?" William asked, curious as to why the older woman decided to visit.
"Nothing much. I'm just making my yearly rounds delivering Hogwarts letters to Muggle-Borns and this was my next stop." McGonagall answered handing Hermione her Hogwarts letter.
"Um... Professor I already know about the Wizarding World, shouldn't I get my Hogwarts letters by owl now?" Hermione asked.
"Normally you would be correct." McGonagall answered. "Yet since I had to come here in any case I found it more efficient to bring you your letter as well." With that, and to the shock of everyone in the room McGonagall tuned and handed a second letter to Dani. Taking the envelope Dani took a moment to piece together the implications of receiving the same type of letter Hermione received.
"Are you saying that I have Magic?" Dani asked looking at McGonagall with a carefully blank expression.
Letting a slight smile grace her lips Professor McGonagall answered "Yes, you have Magic. You are a Witch Miss. Fenton."
Danielle took a minute to let this latest revelation sink in. McGonagall and the Grangers just waited letting the young girl absorb the new information. Yet as it turned out Dani managed to process this new information relatively quickly "I don't believe you." Dani said completely deadpan, much to the surprise of everyone. William and Elsa shared a bewildered look, Hermione looked scandalized by the blunt response directed towards a teacher, and McGonagall looked like she couldn't comprehend what she had heard.
"Pardon?" McGonagall managed to reply still seeming to question the reality of the situation.
Dani for her part managed to look slightly embarrassed. "Sorry. It came out wrong."
"What do you mean you don't believe her?" Hermione said finally able to form words. "I showed you the moving pictures and my text books!"
"Right." Dani replied looking towards her new sister. "I believe that Magic exists, you've shown me that much." Turning back to McGonagall she continued. "I just don't think I have Magic."
"But you wouldn't have gotten a letter unless you had Magic!" Hermione explained.
Dani glanced back at her and countered "However they find people that have Magic is made by People. People make mistakes, so whatever they used to figure out if someone has Magic is not infallible." Much to her chagrin Hermione couldn't think of a adequate counter argument.
Luckily McGonagall interrupted having found her footing "Ah yes. As well spoken your argument is Miss. Fenton, the Trace is rarely mistaken." McGonagall reaching into her robes and extracted a small length of wood. "Yet I believe that you would need more proof than my reassurances." Showing everyone the length of wood Mcgonagall continued "This is a Toy Wand, meant for magical children to get a head start on controlling their Magic. It responds to Magic, a Muggle, someone who doesn't have Magic, wouldn't be able to get it to work. For example Mrs. Granger if you would care to demonstrate?"
Taking the offered item Elsa hesitated for a moment before giving the wand a wave to the result of absolutely nothing. With a shrug Elsa handed over the toy wand to Dani, who examined the length of wood with a doubtful expression. Finding that it look like any other piece of polished wood Dani sighed and waved the wand. Unlike with Elsa the wand reacted by shooting multi-colored sparks in a miniatured fireworks display.
"Uh. What?" Dani asked as eloquently as possible as her brain attempted to process what just happened. Hermione was saying something that Dani couldn't bring herself to actually register as she tried to puzzle through what had just happened. Normally Dani would still be skeptical about the whole impromptu test, if only because there was Magic involved and any results would in theory be easily faked, but when she waved that small piece of wood she felt something. It could be the fact that she's almost hyper aware of meta-physical affects that happen with in her body thanks to the fact that she had to constantly exert some type of control over her ghost powers. Never the less she felt a unknown energy from the place that she recognized held her ghost energy when not in use react to her using the toy wand. The energy was completely foreign to her and the fact that it came from her baffled her mind to the point that she was having trouble getting her thoughts straight.
"Danielle, are you all right?" Hermione asked suddenly breaking Dani from her thoughts.
"Hm? Yeah I'm good. I was just caught off guard a bit." Dani replied with an embarrassed smile for having been caught zoning out. "Where's the professor?" She asked noticing the older Witch's absence.
"She left a while ago." Hermione answered with a worried look.
Dani blinked. "Right. I was caught off guard more than a bit... You know, I think I'm going to go to my room and... Think a bit. Yeah, I need to think."
As she retreated to her room Dani could practically feel the worried look Hermione was giving her. Yet Hermione didn't follow to try to pry or push the issue, which Dani was thankful for. For the birthday girl the day ended much as it had started, with Dani laying in her bed staring up at the ceiling alone with her thoughts. Despite the fact that she's been finding herself doing this more often, Dani felt that it was understandable considering all the changes her life had gone through lately. Of course she now had Magic to add to that list of changes.
To Dani, her having magic seemed a bit asinine especially considering she already had a nice set of supernatural powers that she was already used to. Hell, her having magic didn't even make sense by any stretch of logic. Dani might not have been in existence for very long but all things considered she would have noticed if she had powers that weren't connected with her ghost powers. Also considering who she was cloned from how could she have magic? Danny never showed any signs of having something like that, excluding bing Half-Ghost. How does one even have or obtain Magic?
A knock at her door brought Dani out of her thoughts "Danielle, may I come in?" Hermione's voice asked through the door.
"Yeah sure, come on in." Dani replied with a sigh. A moment later she felt Hermione sit on her bed.
A slightly awkward silence descended upon the two girls for a moment before Hermione finally spoke. "You seem to be taking this a bit hard."
"Which bit? The adoption, the birthday, or the magic?" Dani said some what moodily.
"I thought you were happy." Hermione stated taken back by Danielle's tone.
Realizing how she probably sounded Dani sighed "I am happy about the adoption and stuff... It's just a lot to take in." Glancing at her window Dani noticed that night had fallen and added "A lot more than I first thought."
Hermione nodded "I think I can see that. I mean, I can imagine."
"I don't think you can." Dani mumbled before continuing "A hand full of months ago I was just able to survive, then suddenly your parents let me live here as a foster kid. Then out of the blue they take me into the family proper? It's insane and only now starting to sink in to be completely honest." Dani ran a hand though her hair before continuing. "Lets not forget about the fact that I apparently have Magic. How do you even get Magic anyway?"
Hermione shot a funny look at the younger girl before answering. "You don't obtain Magic. You're born with it."
"You sure about that?" Dani asked skeptically.
"Yes. Magic normally passed down family lines, like hair or eye color but sometimes you get people like me that don't have any magical relatives but have magic anyway. Of corse the other way also applies with people who have magical parents not having magic."
"So... Its genetic, but also completely random?" Dani asked confused before shaking her head.
"I'm actually kind of confused, you seem to be having trouble with the fact that you have Magic."
"You make it sound like its something that should be easy to accept."
"Well, normally it explains a lot of things. Before being trained a Witch or Wizard's Magic reacts towards their desires and emotions. It could whisk you away from a dangerous situation, or simply conjure up homework that you misplaced."
"I don't remember anything like that happening to me, and I've been in plenty of situations where something like that would have been handy." Technically true, anything supernatural Dani did was because of her ghost powers not because of some deus machina something or other. Not to say that she never had miracles happen to her but those were because of other people and not Magic.
Hermione really didn't know what to say about that as her sisters past was always a bit of a touchy subject. Danielle didn't really go into much detail about it plus... "Oh my gosh. I have a sister now."
That single line caused the mood in the room to do a complete one-eighty as Dani snorted. "Looks like it's finally sunk in for you too."
"Y-yeah. I think I understand your reaction a little better." Hermione replied and Dani showed she agreed with a knowing nodding of her head.
"Hits like a freight train doesn't it."
"Yes but it sneaks up on you."
The two sat there in a comfortable silence before Hermione decided to break the silence "Well. I'm sure we'll both get used to the sibling thing. And I'm positive that you'll defiantly get used to the idea of Magic."
"Right. Forgive me if I don't start calling you 'Sis' in the near future." Dani said.
"Fair enough. Friends first?"
"Friends first."
"Excellent. Now Mum and Dad are making plans to go to Diagon Alley soon and you'll get your first taste of the Wizarding community." Hermione said with a grin.
With her mood looking finally looking up Dani replied "Alright seeing new things is good. Now I do want to talk about Magical naming conventions, because what type of name is Hogwarts?"