So, I took on a part-time job that has me working mostly nights/weekends so I'm going to try to write during the day and update as much as possible. It's not like... a hard job, but it's a job and my family doesn't get paid when I just write fanfiction, lmao!
ANYWAYS, if updates get sporadic, feel free to drop me a message or comment and I'll let you know where I'm in regards to updating the story!
Enjoy! :)
Confusion: disorder, upheaval, tumult, chaos.
Hermione entered the Burrow tucked tightly under the arm of Nymphadora Tonks. She hadn't stopped shaking since reading the tapestry. She let out a sharp scream when a wand was shoved in her face.
"Who the hell is this!" Bill Weasley hollered, "You can't just bring strangers to our home, Tonks!"
"Relax." Tonks sighed heavily, "It's Hermione. Can I get her sitting down? It's clearly been a tough night."
A gasp was heard from Andromeda, and Tonks was pretty sure the look on Remus' face bordered on sadness and fear.
Tonks led Hermione to the large wooden kitchen table, setting her down at the side bench and gesturing to Molly to give the trembling girl a hot cup of tea.
"As you can see, Hermione has undergone some changes tonight. We'll explain what we can, but there's still much we don't know." Kingsley stated.
Meanwhile, across Britain, a small group of people had gathered in the resplendent drawing room of Malfoy Manor.
"Was she revealed?" Regulus asked, eagerly awaiting news of the night.
Bellatrix spoke first. "Yes. I cast your revealing spell at every person I could, regardless of if they looked like Potter or another. She was riding a thestral! A thestral!" she cackled. "She was with the Auror, Kingsley Shaklebolt. At first, there was no response, but as I started flying away, I heard the screams and so I turned to follow. They flew beyond some wards and didn't come back out, so I came back to the manor. I am not sure where they are at this time."
"I sent an owl to Andromeda," Narcissa said, "I told her that I felt the shift in the family magic. I took advantage of the rumors regarding Bella's state of mind and told her that Bella did not feel the shift. I am hopeful that my insistence on protecting the Black name will have her responding to me."
Severus stood silently against the back wall of the room, feeling as though he was drowning in information and conversation. He knew the order still had access to Grimmauld, but he couldn't access it himself safely. What he wanted to do was storm to Hogwarts and demand answers from the portrait of Albus Dumbledore, but the timing wasn't right.
"Regulus," he spoke softly, "The girl, Hermione, she's... she's more than just smart, she won't stop until she has all the answers of what has happened to her this night, and in regards to her own history. I would think you only need to be patient, and she'll reach out to someone here."
Regulus nodded, and the group adjourned to their own rooms within the expanse of the Manor.
At the Burrow, Kingsley had just finished telling the story of the Death Eater screeching a spell in Hermione's direction, her screams, and their apparition to Grimmauld place, and his subsequent summoning of Tonks and Arthur.
Tonks took over the conversation, explaining how she received the Patronus from her mother, and she looked to Andromeda to explain what she had experienced that night.
"When there is a change in a family, other members of the family can often feel a subtle shift in the family magic. This is most often because of deaths, births, and marriages." She noticed several occupants of the room nodding as they had experienced this within their own lines.
"When the event is highly traumatic, or hidden secrets come to light, this shift can feel rather violent." She continued. "When the Order took over Grimmauld Place as it's headquarters, Sirius gave me the Black family grimoire. Being disowned, it truly belongs to Bellatrix, but Sirius entrusted it to me because he didn't want it falling in the hands of anyone it shouldn't at the family home.
I had placed it on the highest bookshelf in my living room and simply forgotten about it. I was awaiting the return of my daughter from your mission tonight, and the book screamed." she explained.
Molly coughed sharply, choking on her tea. "It screamed, Andromeda?"
"Yes." Andromeda continued softly. "The Black family grimoire is unique in its characteristics, the book is nearly sentient in its old age and with the magic in its pages. When the family status changes significantly, the book will notify the family, it just chooses a poor way to do it."
"So... Hermione was the change?" Remus asked.
"When I arrived at Grimmauld, she was screaming, clearly in pain but every diagnostic spell came back clean, no spell damage or dark magic on her at all. Within a few minutes, she was only whimpering, and she was able to sit. I gave her a pain potion and once she was calm enough, we took her to the tapestry room." Tonks said.
The room grew quiet, the occupants waiting to hear what was found on the tapestry. The only sound was the tinkling of Hermione's teacup as it rattled in her hand against the saucer she held in the other.
"The only change on the tapestry was the addition of a daughter. It was Hermione's photo. Her name is Lupa Hermione Black. It was right there, clear as day." Tonks continued.
"So Sirius had a child?" Remus inquired, "Who is her mother?"
Hermione let out a choked sob at the question and dropped the cup and saucer back to the table.
"No," Tonks said quietly, rubbing her hand in slow circles on Hermione's back, attempting to calm the girl. "She is the daughter of Regulus Black."
Remus stood quickly, his chair scraping the floor loudly. "But... that can't be right. Regulus... he..." Remus stuttered. "How? Who is her Mother, Tonks?"
"There was no mother on the tapestry. It was just Regulus." Tonks answered.
"How do we know it's real?"
Andromeda snorted, a rather ineloquent sound coming from the most put together woman in the room.
"You mean, besides the fact that she looks like a Black daughter? Those eyes and that hair?" she sneered. "Of course the great Order of the Pheonix can't trust old magic."
"There is a spell, known to all members of the Black family. It was created by one of our patriarchs who found himself outside his marriage bed more than appropriate, and those extra-marital conquests came with certain... shall we say, consequences. He developed a spell to show familial relation to members Black family." Andromeda continued, "Either myself or Nymphadora can cast it, and it will show the relation between the three of us in the room."
"Do it," Hermione whispered roughly. "Cast the spell, let's get it over with."
"The spell is designed to show not just that people are related, but to some degree, how they are related," Andromeda explained. "A golden thread will indicate parental relationships. If Regulus or Hermione's other parent were here, there would be a golden thread connecting them. A silver thread connects those with a sibling relationship. Grandparents are indicated with a light blue thread, Aunts, and Uncles with a light red thread, and cousins are indicated with a light green line, but any relatives more distant then 3rd would likely not show up at all."
Tonks waved her wand and murmured the incantation under her breath, careful not to let anyone hear the words of the spell, to protect the Black family secrets.
A golden thread stretched between Tonks and Andromeda, the parental relationship. A thin green line reached between Hermione and Tonks as well as Hermione and Andromeda.
Hermione stared blankly at the lines bisecting the room leading from her body. A look of shock was on her face at the unexpected line thrumming from her chest.
Gold.
A gold line.
Her eyes rose to follow the thread, wondering who in the room could be her parent and why the hell they didn't say anything all the years they'd known her.
She found the confused gaze from across the room. Gasps and sounds of horror and bewilderment filled the room as the two locked eyes.
"Remus?" she whispered before her vision blackened and the room disappeared.
