Hermione was very surprised that after ignoring Harry's patronus the wards around her parents' home shifted to allow someone to apparate within the boundary. It wasn't as if she ever brought anyone to visit her home during holidays. While very proud of her muggle heritage, she always felt as if even her best friends would look down on her or her parents. Harry's only experience with muggles was abuse at the hands of his own family. The Weasleys looked at muggles as if they were a fascinating new species of unicorn, even Mr. Weasley was far too interested in children's toys to take the time to understand the muggle world.
With her wand in hand she peeked through the windows to find her mother staring at the house with a trembling lip. Her beautiful face was red and splotchy from crying, it was obvious that the revelations at the manor deeply hurt the woman and for a moment Hermione felt extremely guilty for once again running away. Without a thought she rushed to the door and threw it open to call out to her mother, her heart clenching painfully at the way she was looking at their muggle home.
"Mum!" Hermione shouted, drawing the petite witch's attention to her standing in the door way, Violet looked confused before taking a tentative step towards her.
"Si-Hermione! Come away from there! It's dangerous!" Violet whispered in fear as she frantically waved for her daughter to come closer.
"What do you mean?" She asked curiously as she hopped down the steps, glancing back at the house in confusion.
"Did the death eaters do that?" Violet asked as she nodded her head to the house behind her, Hermione was perplexed until she took the final steps to stand by her mother and finally saw the devastation her mother was seeing. She had completely forgotten some of the measures she went through the make sure death eaters never touched her childhood home.
"It's an illusion." Hermione whispered with a small sad smile, her child hood home looked to be in ruins. The center of the roof on the two story home was collapsed in, all of the windows had charred, black borders and the door lay in pieces on the porch. She was actually quite proud of her spell work, she spent months researching ways to tie the large scale glamour to the house itself. "Like Hogwarts but it only affects wizards and witches...its not perfect and it took nearly a month to get the wards right."
"How?" Violet gasped, taking a hesitant few steps forward and watching closely as the illusion melted away before her eyes, leaving the home they purchased almost exactly as she remembered. The lawn needed tending and the flowers obviously weren't cared for but somehow she was comforted that the home she shared with her family for the last sixteen years was still standing.
"It's tied to ward stones placed around the property...thankfully it's size is nothing compared to Shafiq Stronghold so I was able to ward it alone." Hermione whispered softly as they made their way into the sitting room illuminated by candle light. It was dusty, without being cared for in nearly a year but Violet managed to ignore that as she made her way to the sofa and sat down heavily.
"It's very impressive, to do all that at only fifteen!" Violet gasped and looked to her daughter for the first time. Her lip trembled as she reached out and forcefully pulled Hermione down onto the couch beside her, keeping her arms wrapped around her slight frame. "I'm so sorry."
"You didn't know...I didn't..." Hermione's voice caught in her throat as her mother lightly traced her fingers down her spine, comforting her.
"Shh..I'm here how, bug." Violet cooed softly into Hermione's hair, effectively breaking down the last of her daughter's resistance. She couldn't help but melt into her mother's comforting embrace, completely exhausted from the last twenty four hours. They stayed silent for a long time, both of them just staring into the candle light before Violet chose to speak first. "I'm sorry that you didn't have the life you were meant to...I thought that we were saving you from a fate th-" she couldn't continue, tears gathered in her eyes and she struggled to stay composed.
"I didn't have a bad life, Mum." Hermione whispered as she sat up and looked to her mother with a small smile. "I still had you and Dad with me...in a way. It's very disorienting, some times the things you say...or the way you move, it's like you're the same people but then..." She sighed sadly, looking away from her mother before she could continue. "You talk like you would just rather forget the last sixteen years or say muggles are beneath you. I can't-"
"I would never trade any of my time with you, muggle or magical." Violet cut her off in a choked whisper, unconsciously tightening her arms around her daughter. "You don't understand...it's like the last sixteen years were a dream that's slowly becoming more clear. When we woke up, we were ourselves and I didn't even know how much time had passed. It took me a few minutes to realize you were my daughter! I know this must be hard for you and I don't want to make it any more difficult...I was just so excited to get back to our lives!"
"But I can't!" Hermione exclaimed, pulling away from her mother with a grimace on her face. "I can't be Sienna Shafiq, I don't know who she is. During school, I was teased and ridiculed for being a muggleborn but I showed them all that it didn't matter how you were raised or what blood flowed in your veins. I worked hard and I helped my best friend take down a madman who wanted to exterminate my kind-"
"But you were never-" Violet tried to interject but Hermione roughly grabbed her mother by the shoulders, silencing her with a harsh glare.
"I was always a muggle raised witch, it doesn't matter what kind of blood I have." Hermione said slowly, meeting her mother's incredulous gaze with her own determined one. "We spent a year on the run, starving and fighting for our lives because we also believed that all witches and wizards have a right to the magical world. You are my parents and even though you don't have the same face, deep down, I believe you are still the same. The ones who taught me that you must never dwell too long in the past but always look towards the future, forgive always but never forget. You brought me to the library and argued with the Mrs. Marowitz for an hour about limiting the books I could read because of something as silly as my age. I will never be like Pansy Parkinson or Daphne Greengrass..."
"What do you expect of us?" Violet asked slowly, confused as to what point her daughter was trying to make while she rambled.
"I want you to accept me for who I am, for who I was raised to be..." Hermione said slowly, licking her lips as she gauged her mother's reaction. "I'll learn all the pureblood traditions you want and probably disagree with them but I will try and keep an open mind. In that, I want you to try and remember that you were a muggle for sixteen years! For almost seventeen years you got by without any magic at all and raised me. If you and Dad want to continue believing that you are inherently better than others just because of their birth...I don't think I can..."
"You would leave us for the way we were raised?" Violet demanded, her heart pounding erratically as she watched her daughter closely. "We don't go out torturing muggles or killing muggleborns! You think you're superior to your own parents for being proud of our heritage?"
"That's just it I don't think I'm sup-" Hermione started but her mother scowled as she shook her head impatiently.
"No, you think you're morally superior!" Violet scoffed, rolling her lovely eyes as she sat up straight, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. "You believe that the lessons I was taught by mother, the same lessons she was taught by her mother before her are inherently wrong because you don't know. How could you? What with being muggle raised. Do you think that's what I wanted? For you to be ignorant of our world, prejudice against your own?"
"I'm not!" She exclaimed, flinching away from her mother in surprise. "I unde-"
"No! You don't understand the traditions because who would teach you? The Weasleys? Did Molly Prewett sit you down and explain courting, rituals, your family history?" Violet asked pointedly, looking much calmer now that Hermione was caught unaware. "It's not your fault you don't know these things, it's mine. It doesn't help that we haven't even had the time to actually sit down and talk to you about all these things."
"I said I would learn..." Hermione sighed, rubbing her temples as her mother continued looking at her pointedly. "What more do you want?"
"I want you to accept your place in our world!" Violet said passionately, instantly drawing Hermione up short. Violet barreled on, holding her daughter's hands tightly in her own as she forced Hermione to meet her gaze. "Stop being all morally indignant for just a moment and actually listen to me. You can't tell me you will take lessons and admit that you'll disregard them in the same sentence. There is so much more than you'll ever know if you don't stop limiting yourself. My best friend in school was Dorcas Meadows, she was a half blood that was kept away from the wizarding world. She too thought that the muggle traditions were the only way until my mother practically adopted her. I know sometimes...I maybe be a bit...enthusiastic, especially yesterday when you lifted the memory charm, but what did you expect? I woke up and the muggle my husband was posing as aged forty years!"
"He did not age forty years!" Hermione scoffed, forcing herself to try and absorb her mother's words, especially after hearing that her mother was friends with anyone with less than pureblood.
"Muggles...they don't age well..." Violet sniffed disdainfully, reaching out to cup Hermione's cheeks in her palms. "You need to give us time...and I suppose we will have to get to know one another again. Some thin-"
"Did you tell Dad you were coming here?" Hermione interrupted her abruptly, sitting up straight as she felt the wards ripple around them. Someone apparated directly in the property but there were others probing along the ward lines.
"No, your father was going to ask the Weasleys if they knew where you were." Violet huffed impatiently as she watched her daughter leap from the sofa to peer out the window. "What is it? I thought we were going to talk about this?"
"Someone apparated into the garden and there's people wandering around the boundary line." Hermione hissed as she looked through the blinds, her eyes sharp and her entire body tense as while she scanned the lawn for any sign of danger.
"Relax, it's probably your father and your friends." Violet got up from the couch as well, her brow furrowed with worry dispite her words.
"Mum!" Hermione exclaimed in a hushed tone, moving past her mother towards the dark kitchen with her wand out in front of her. "There's still death eaters out there and you ne-"
"Hermione!" Antonio shouted from the back garden as he approached the ruined house, his knees feeling slightly weak at sight of devastation to the home he raised his daughter in. Violet and Hermione rushed out the door to find the him kneeling down, staring up at the collapsed roof with a heart broken expression on his face.
"It's an illusion, Ant." Violet said soothingly as she wrapped an arm around his waist help him to his feet. Hermione stood back from them in a defensive stance, searching for the others that approached the ward boundaries.
"Did anyone else come with you?" Hermione asked sharply, not even bothering to look at her parents, just stayed with arm's reach so that she could lash out and grab them if they needed to make a quick escape.
"Someone sent a patronus to let me know you received a warning for underage magic in the muggle world." Antonio said slowly, watching his daughter wearily as she motioned them silently to follow her back to the house. "What's wrong?"
"She's been on edge since you arrived." Violet whispered as they followed her back into the house, Hermione immediately made her way back into the living room so that she could look through the front windows. They heard a very familiar, deep voice bellowing incoherently. Antonio strode past his daughter, ignoring her protests to open the front door and step onto the small porch. He didn't not expect to find the minister shouting at the Weasleys and a distraught Harry Potter.
"It's a compulsion charm!" Kingsley shouted out as he grabbed Ron by the shoulders and shook him slightly, the redhead looked close to hysterics.
"They're dead!" Ron bellowed as his knees started to give away underneath him. Hermione sighed as she stepped forward, wondering just how then entire Weasley family and Harry knew where she lived, she supposed Kingsley could have told them.
"Ron!" Hermione hissed impatiently, startling the group as she stepped past the ward line with her parents just behind her. It appeared that Arthur, Kingsley, and Harry seemed to be the only ones who weren't affected by the wards. Ginny, Ron and Molly were nearly hysterical as they mumbled incoherently, George stood off to the side with a slightly glazed look in his eyes.
"What's wrong with them?" Kingsley demanded, his voice deep and booming as he watched Hermione suspiciously. He was taken back at how familiar she looked, the exasperated expression on her face with her hands on her hips and her wand in hand was a pose he associated with the Gryffindor bookworm. He almost laughed but the hysterical redhead under his arm kept him alert.
"It's the wards..." Hermione said hesitantly as she silently waved her arm to invite them into the boundary. There was technically nothing that kept them away, she was not nearly experienced enough to cast anything too dangerously complex.
The Weasleys seemed to relax once they were safely inside the boundaries but they still looked anxious, like they were ready to run at a moment's notice. Ron, being the worst, had to be pulled along with the group. He kept throwing Hermione guilty, longing glances that she studiously ignored. Once they were all in the darkened house, Violet ushered them into the sitting room and started to conjure extra seats so that everyone could sit comfortably. Molly fidgeted in her seat, looking at Hermione as though she would like nothing more than to wrap her up in a nice, comforting hug.
"Why are you all here?" Hermione demanded as soon as they were all seated, she stood defensively next to her parents. She didn't want to deal with Ron at the moment, or any of the many issues for that matter, feeling completely drained.
Many nights when they were on the run, she would dream of finding her parents and relaxing in the muggle world. Her mother would attempt to bake something she found in some random cook book and her father would settle back to tinker with his old watches. Maybe she would take some time away from the magical world and get her a-levels or they could all take a holiday like they did when she was younger. She promised herself that when she got her parents back she would do anything to mend the rift in their relationship that had been steadily growing since the end of her fourth year. The last time she was completely honest with them was when she told them of her plan to capture Rita Skeeter. True, the muggles that raised her weren't completely comfortable with the many adventures she had with her friends but they always encouraged her to do what was right. After the rise of Voldemort, she kept them in the dark about many of their escapades, going so far as to spend as much of her time out of school with the Weasleys or Order headquarters as she possibly could.
"Your father said you ran off and we were obviously concerned...I must say your new look is rather...surprising." Kingsley spoke first, watching Hermione intently. He wasn't the only one, George was openly smirking while Ron stared with his mouth hanging open. Ginny looked at her with concern but there was a hard glint in her eye and the way her nails cut into Harry's arm made Hermione uncomfortable.
"Who knew the Gryffindor Princess looked so delectable in quidditch jerseys?" George leered with a wolfish smile on his face.
"Oh, Hermione!" Antonio gasped as he finally noticed his daughters choice of clothes, the cotton shorts were hidden under the large quidditch jersey and he quickly ripped off his own traveling cloak and wrapped it securely around her shoulders.
"She is quite stunning, isn't she?" Violet beamed proudly from beside Hermione, reaching up to tucking an errant curl behind her ear affectionately.
"Of course, she looks like just you, love." Antonio smirked as he wrapped an arm around his wife's waist possessively. Hermione was tense beside her parents, understanding instantly that they did not wish to talk about what happened in front of her friends. They wanted to look like the perfect family and it made Hermione internally seethe. Her friends looked between Hermione her parents with concern but didn't seem to know what to say to her.
"Thank you so much for going out of your way to help us find our daughter." Violet said demurely with a polite smile, her bright eyes swept over the room quickly before she went on. "I'm terribly sorry that there's no tea to offer you, why don't you come by our home sometime this week? Our elves have many specialties, I'm sure we can arrange something."
"That would be lovely but..." Molly started out hesitantly, not taking her eyes off Hermione. As she stood her hands unconsciously reached out to pull the petite witch into a hug but Arthur stopped her. "As long as Hermione is okay..."
"No. Don't you think we should talk about-" Ron started but Arthur placed a hand on his shoulder, instantly silencing him.
"There's nothing I would like to talk about with you, Ronald." Hermione said stiffly, clenching her teeth as she studiously ignored his pleading looks. She turned to her parents and was about to ask if they were ready to go home when her mother's eyes rolled back in her skull and she fell limp against Antonio.
"Violet!" Antonio stumbled slightly as his wife suddenly became dead weight in his arms, he waved his wand over his wife's face in an attempt to revive her but she stayed unconscious.
-0-0-0-
I'm very sorry for the delay. I can't believe it's been over a month since my last update. I'll be back with regularish updates again!