Sirius was deep in thought. This nine-year-old girl couldn't possibly see the photograph move. The only way she could see if she was… That had to be it. Hermione Granger had to be a muggleborn witch. How else was she able to see through the charm? Sirius hasn't messed up that charm since 6th year, and even then, it was a minor flaw (James' eye was still winking). Even so, there was still a chance that he did mess up or that the charm was wearing off. After all, Azkaban can leave a wizard kind of rusty. He needed evidence. Evidence that Hermione was a witch.
"Sirius… Sirius!" John shouted bringing Sirius out of his musings.
"Huh? What?" Sirius asked still a bit dazed, shaking his head like a dog. "I'm sorry. You were saying?"
"I was wondering where you got this mead. It's absolutely amazing."
"Oh. I got it at this small liquor store over in Newcastle. Not many people know about it though. If you want, I can get you a bottle or two."
"That would be just lovely, Sirius. Thank you," Rose smiled.
'Now's as good a time as any Sirius,' he thought to himself. "John, Rose can I ask you something about Hermione?" when both of them said yes, Sirius continued, "Has anything weird ever happen whenever Hermione gets scared, angry, or overemotional?"
John narrowed his eyes a bit. "Exactly why do you want to know this?"
"It's just that strange things have been happening with Harry whenever he gets moody. I wanted to know if this was happening to Hermione as well." It wasn't a complete lie. He just left out a few details.
John opened his mouth to say something but Rose beat him to it. "Well now that you mention it, there was this one time with the bookshelf. She was trying to get her favorite book from the top shelf when we were in the other room about three years ago. We heard a scream, so we ran into the study. We saw Hermione falling in slow motion, literally."
Arthur started coughing like crazy. "Sorry," he said a little horsely. "The mead got stuck in my throat. Please continue."
"It was like time was slowing down for her but everything else was happening at normal pace. We didn't think much about it at the time because we had very little sleep the night before and we thought it was just our minds playing tricks on us."
Remus stood up and turned to Sirius. "Sirius, can I talk to you in private please?" Sirius nodded and stood up to follow Remus.
They walked until Remus stopped in a hallway with a window showing the backyard. Sirius noticed the disapproving look on Remus but thought that he could lighten up the mood if just slightly. "Nice people, eh Moony?"
"What the bloody hell are you thinking?!" Remus yelled.
"What do you mean?"
"You are suggesting to a muggle family that their daughter is a witch! You realize that if you are wrong, we'd have breached the Statute of Secrecy!"
"But she is a Witch! I know it!"
"And how exactly do you know?"
"She saw the picture of James, Lily, and Harry move."
Remus' eyes grew wide. "Move? A-as in"
"As in that the body parts of all three of them were in motion."
"Well that could just be the charm being old and is wearing off." Remus said trying to think of a logical explanation besides magic.
"Then why couldn't John or Rose see it?"
"Hermione is a child. Children are known to have an overactive imagination."
"Then how did she slow her fall two years ago if she isn't a witch?"
Remus tried to think for an answer but couldn't. It did make sense that she was a witch, be he really didn't want to risk revealing the magical world to a bunch of muggles on the off chance that she isn't. "Look Padfoot, I just think we need a little more evidence before we tell them anythi-"
"SNAKE!" yelled a voice that sounded like Hermione's. Sirius and Remus charged towards the window to see that a snake was slithering its way towards Hermione.
They ran as fast as they could to the back door. They passed their guests and Sirius yelled without ceasing his sprint, "Follow us! Hermione's being attacked!" The Grangers and the Weasleys immediately stood up and chased Sirius and Remus to the back door.
When all of them made it outside, Sirius and Remus reached into their pockets for their wands; however, what happened next caused everyone who saw's jaws to drop. With a great wave of her arms, Hermione sent the Snake flying. Sirius turned to Remus and whispered, "Is that evidence enough?"
Hermione looked at what she just did and began to cry. 'Why did it have to happen here and now. Just when I was making friends.' She forced herself up and ran past Harry, Ron, and Ginny and into the woods. All the three could do was watch in shock.
The first to come out of shock was Harry. "We have to find her," he said to the twins. With a nod, all three split up into the forest to find their sad friend.
"Hermione!" Ron yelled. He hated going into the forest. There were spiders in the forest and Ron was afraid of spiders more than anything; but he liked Hermione, and there were very few things that he wouldn't do for people that he likes. "Hermione!" he yelled again as he went deeper and deeper into the forest. Then he heard something. It was the soft sobbing of a young girl. Ron followed the sobbing until he finally found Hermione crying. Ron sat down and asked, "Hermione, what's wrong?"
Hermione kept her head down and said, "You don't want to hang out with me. None of you do."
"Of course we do."
"No you don't!" Hermione shouted raising her head and revealing her puffy tear-stained eyes. "What happened with the snake happens more often than you think. Strange things happen every time I get scared or really upset."
"So?"
"So?! I'm a freak!"
Ron flinched. If there was one word that he hated, it was freak. He still remembered how Harry didn't even know his own name because the only name he was ever called by his "relatives" was freak. "You are not a freak."
"Of course I am!"
"No you're not! You are as much of a freak as I am. What you did wasn't weird; it was magic."
"But magic isn't real."
"Then how do you explain what happened with the snake." Hermione opened her mouth to say something but closed it when she couldn't think of an answer. "I know what I'm talking about. I'm a wizard. My whole family is and so is Harry. And you, Hermione, are a witch."
Hermione stopped crying as Ron confessed to about magic. "A-a witch? So everything from the fairy tales is true?"
"Well, I don't read a lot of muggle fairy tales b-"
"I'm sorry, but what is a muggle?"
"Oh yeah. A muggle is a what we call people who aren't magical. Anyways, the stuff from muggle stories I've read exist, but aren't exactly accurate. Mermaids and dwarves aren't that cute and fairies don't really grant wishes. They're actually quite annoying really."
Hermione couldn't help but giggle at Ron's attempt at a joke. "How come you, Ginny, and Harry don't have random outbursts of magic?"
"Oh we do. Whenever we are very scared, upset, or super mad, we do what we call accidental magic. It's normal for all pre-Hogwarts (that's a school for magic) witches and wizards. Now I promise to tell you more but I think we should go back."
Hermione nodded and stood back up. "Ron?" she asked as the two walked back to the backyard.
"Yeah?" he replied.
"Thank you."
Ron smiled. "Your welcome."
Sirius couldn't help but grin. Harry was getting along so well with Hermione, but once he started Hogwarts, he'd probably never talk to her again. Now that would not be a problem because Hermione will be in Hogwarts with him and Ron and Ginny. Sirius' grin didn't go unnoticed by John and Rose though; and frankly, they didn't like it. "Why are you grinning?" John asked disapprovingly. "My daughter almost got bitten by a snake and ran into the forest!"
"John, I beg you to relax," Sirius replied. "I warded the forest so people under a certain age can't get too far in. I am sure that one of them will find them. The reason why I am grinning is because of what Hermione did to the snake."
"Why would you grin at that?" Rose asked.
"Because it proves my suspicions and hopes to be true. Your daughter is a witch."
"Rose looked outraged. "How dare you say such a thing about my daughter! And here I thought that you were dec-"
"No no no Rose! You don't understand!" Remus interrupted. "We mean this quite literally. Hermione is a muggleborn witch."
"A what?" John asked.
"A muggleborn is a witch or wizard who was born to two non-magical parents, or muggles as we call them."
"So let me get this straight." John said pinching the bridge of his nose. "You want us to believe that our daughter has magical powers?" after seeing both Sirius and Remus nod, he said, "Blasphemy! All of this is utter nonsense!"
"I was afraid you would act this way." Sirius said. "Here let me give you a demonstration." Before the Grangers' and Weasleys' very eyes, Sirius disappeared, and in his place was a big, black, shaggy dog. John's eyes looked like they were about to fall out of his head. When she saw Sirius transform back, Rose fainted in shock. "So John, do you still think this is utter nonsense?"
"Maybe this isn't as blasphemous as I previously believed."
"How about we bring Rose back inside and we can continue this conversation there. Molly, Arthur, can you two stay out here and look out for the kids?" When the three saw them nod, Sirius and John proceeded to carry Rose back into the house.
Arthur looked at Molly and asked, "Do you think I can ask them about the function of a rubber duck now?"
Ron stopped walking when they got close to the house. "FOUND HER!" he yelled to nowhere in particular. Within a few minutes Harry and Ginny came running and hugged Hermione.
"Thank Merlin you're all right," Harry said in relief. "Let's get you back to the house."
As they were walking, Ron and Hermione were explaining what happened. Harry and Ginny had predictable reactions when they found out that Hermione called herself a freak. "Hermione, never call yourself a freak! I have no idea how you even came to that conclusion." Ginny said.
"Well that's what this kid at my school calls me."
Harry stopped in his tracks. "Who is this kid?" he asked hoping that the one person he was thinking of wasn't the same kid.
Hermione let out a sigh. "His name is Dudley Dursley."
A/N: Again I'm sorry I updated so late. I'm not going to promise that I will update soon in case that I don't but know that I will not give up this story. I hope you like this chapter. Please Review and check out my other story, The Switch. I want to know if I should continue that one or not.
Also, does anyone have any ideas for what should happen to Dudley when the four get to school? Please leave any ideas you may have in the review section.