DISCLAIMER/AN:

I do not own any of the recognizable characters in this story. This story has also been posted under an older pen name of mine (Bellatrix7), Unfortunately I have lost access to the email account associated with that account and will be reposting some of that work under this account.

To address concerns from reviews... Yes, Hermione was 19 at the time of her pregnancy that said she did just fight in a war which for some would leave them to wanting to feel anything other than the emotions they have become accustomed to thus a relationship with an older man who happens to be able to rival her intellectually which cannot be said for her peers in most cases. In addition we never hear of a Wizarding College so it is not inconceivable that a highly skilled 19 year old would be a teacher, especially if that person happens to be Hermoine. Also I wrote this story originally 10 years ago when I was 18 almost 19 with a huge crush on Alan Rickman... so there's no real shock that I would have Hermione, the same age I was at the time, fall in lust with Snape... anway on with the story.

Chapter 2

First Real Birthday

Eleven Years Later…

A young girl with curly jet black hair, piercing black eyes, and a porcelain complexion sat sullenly at a window seat in a small London orphanage. She looked out the large window towards the darkening skies as she murmured to herself, "Happy birthday to me… happy birthday to me… happy birthday, dear Gwen… happy birthday to me…" a sad smile crossed Gwyneth's face as she looked down at her copy of The Mysterious Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The book was old and was among Gwen's favorites that she kept in a bag by her bunk bed. Its black leather binding showed tell tale signs of use and clearly threatened to break right down the spine, yet for some reason it stayed in one piece. The books that filled her green and gold bag were all classics as those were her favorites.

However, despite her love of classics none of these were truly her most prized possession. No, that position went to the small black book that she had received in the post for her birthday the previous year. It was a diary with a gold lion on one side and silver serpent on the other. Both animals were encircled by a crest of sorts, the lion enclosed in red and the serpent in green. It was an absolutely beautiful book. Despite Gwen's impulsive scribblings in other notebooks and in the margins of her textbooks she had yet to write anything in the diary.

The skies outside of the room were now dark and street lights were starting to flicker on. Moving away from the window to sit on her bed and read. Tucking into the bed she pulled her feet up against her and perched the book in her lap.

As she read Gwen began to hear footsteps and voices come from the hall.

"Oh Harry, that's her," a woman's voice said as the footsteps got closer.

"Ginny, how can you be so sure?" came a man's voice. He sounded skeptical.

'They must be here to adopt' Gwen thought to herself. Cynically her subconscious added 'Well I can just stay here it's never me.'

"Come on, Harry, she looks just like them! She has her mum's curls, her father's hair color, her mum's complexion, and for Merlin's sake, Harry, look what she's doing!" the woman said a bit too excitedly.

"Reading?"

"Just like her parents," the voice now was very close.

Gwyneth pulled her book a little closer to her using it sort of like a shield. It was never her that people were talking about but these two seemed to know her. Or at the very least think they did. With a deep breath she looked up at the couple.

"Can I help you two?" Gwen asked with more edge and annoyance in her voice than she really meant there to be.

The couple stepped closer and were beside her bed looking rather intently at her. Almost as if they were studying her.

"Perhaps you can," the man said calmly, "Is your name Gwyneth Elizabeth Snanger?"

Gwen studied him carefully. He had a mop of black messy hair atop his head, wire rim glasses, and an odd little scar on his forehead. She shifted her gaze over to the woman who had waist length red hair, a spattering of freckles across her face, and blue eyes that seemed to possess a warmth despite their cool color.

She nodded her response.

"I told you!" the woman said rather triumphantly. "Gwyneth, oh I'm so happy to meet you. I'm Ginny and this" she said motioning to the man, "is my husband Harry."

"It's Gwen not Gwyneth, and I don't want to sound rude but are you two here to adopt?" Gwen asked, adding 'or are you just here to gawk at me?' to herself.

"No, however we are here to take you with us, Gwen," Harry informed her with a small smile on his face.

Confused, Gwen snapped her book shut, "What? Wait… where are you taking me?"

Ginny beamed and responded, "To stay with us for a bit and then in just a few weeks we'll bring you to Platform 9 ¾ and send you to the best school in the world."

Gwen rolled her eyes. 'Great two people who are completely mental are here… just my luck. Platform 9 ¾ what a load of rot.' She raised a single eyebrow, a look that instantly made Ginny and Harry think of the girl's father, and returned her attention to her book.

"Gwen, has anything unusual ever happen to you? Anything that for one reason or another you can't seem to logically make sense of or explain away?" Ginny asked gently.

This got the girl's attention, "What do you mean? Like the time one of the other girls had their porcelain doll fly off her of her bed and hit a wall after she told me that I couldn't play their idiotic game?" Gwen asked as she closed her book once more and stared at the couple.

"Yes, that's wem… a rather good example of what Ginny was talking about," Harry said as he ran his hand through his hair, "Has anything else ever happened that seemed almost as if it happened by-"

"Magic?...yes…" Gwen said as she cut him off. Her voice was quiet almost as if it were in disbelief. She had always thought it was odd, something out of one of her books as if she were Matilda making books move off of shelves so she could better reach them… but she never really put too much thought or credence to any of it. "What are you saying? That I'm some sort of sorceress or something? A mutant from a comic book? Because I'm not laughing."

Ginny ducked her head and sat down on the bed. "Well, not a sorceress but you are a witch."

Gwen suppressed a laugh, "Okay I thought you two were crazy but now you have me convinced. I'm too old to believe in magic any more. I haven't believed in fairy stories in quite some t-"

But she was cut off when Ginny pulled a long stick out of her sleeve and pointed it at the book in Gwen's lap. With a flash of light the book was pulled from her hands and landed in Ginny's lap. Gwen's jaw dropped and she shook her head in disbelief. There was no way. No way this could be true and yet there was no way of disputing what she had just seen. This was real.

"Erm… can I have my book back?" Gwen asked, still astonished but beginning to believe in magic for the first time in a long time. Ginny handed the book back to the girl which Gwen flipped over in her hands inspecting as if she was convinced it would leave her again. "So, where exactly is this school you two were talking about?"

Ginny smiled at Harry. That was a lot easier than she anticipated it to be. "You will be attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland."

"And I'll learn magic there?" Gwen asked still with a lingering tone of total disbelief in her voice.

Ginny and Harry merely nodded.

"Now before we do anything we need to fetch all of your belongings," Ginny said.

"Oh that won't take long at all," Gwen muttered as she kicked her feet off of her bed and ducked under it. She pulled out the ruck sack that she had filled with books and dragged out the duffel bag that had been given to her by the orphanage. Quickly she pulled the week's worth of clothes she had to her name out of the drawers beside the bed and tossed them in the empty duffle bag. Then she turned to her bed and gently folded up the gold and silver blanket she had gotten for her seventh birthday from, she assumed, the same sender as the diary. She then gently wrapped the diary in the small pink blanket that she had had for as long as she could remember and with that she was packed up and ready.

Swinging both the rucksack and the duffle bag over her shoulders Gwen said, "Okay, I'm… well I guess I'm ready. Is there anything you need to do? Any paperwork or anything?"

"No, that's all taken care of. We've made it so that as far as the orphanage knows you were never here. You'll be staying with us and our children," Harry told Gwen as he reached out and took her bags from her.

"That reminds me we really must be getting back to the house, Harry. After all Teddy is watching the kids," Ginny said as they stepped out of the building and into the empty street. "Gwen, I need you to hold my hand. You are going to side along apprate with me to get to our house. It will be tight and for a moment you may not be able to breathe well but that is only temporary so take a nice deep breath before I get to three. Alright, we'll go on my count then… One" Gwen grabbed Ginny's hand tightly. "Two…" Ginny looked down at the young girl and nodded. Gwen took a deep breath in and then, "THREE!"

They turned on the spot and continued turning for a few seconds before they touched foot on the firm ground. Gwen gasped for and and then looked up towards a small cozy looking older home. A boy with turquoise hair came running out the door. Chasing him were two young boys with messy black hair, one had freckles and blue eyes while the other one looked a little younger and had green eyes with no freckles to speak of.

Ginny let go of Gwen's hand and scooped up the green eyed boy as he came running over. "Albus, care to tell mummy what exactly you are doing chasing Teddy around?" Ginny asked the squirming child in her arms.

"Mummy!" the boy squealed, "we were playing tackle Teddy! James and I were winning!"

"Hear that, Harry?" Ginny asked as a pop signaled Harry's arrival, "Your sons were playing tackle Teddy."

"Why are they only my sons when they're being rowdy? Yes I heard," Harry responded not paying too much attention to what his wife was trying to tell him. He turned to Teddy and spoke, "Teddy?"

"Yes, Uncle Harry?" Teddy asked. The boy turned around. At this point the other small child was attached to his back and giggling.

Harry motioned to Gwen to join them. She shyly took a step towards the two and smiled slightly.

"Gwen, this is my godson Teddy. Teddy, this is Gwen. She will be staying here with me and Ginny until term starts."

Teddy truck out his hand to shake Gwen's.

"Hey, nice to meet you. You must be a first year. I'm a second year Gryffindor," Teddy said enthusiastically as he shook Gwen's hand.

"I'm sorry you're a… a what?" Gwen asked more than just a little confused by the gibberish that was coming from the blue haired boy.

"Oh… erm I'm going into my second year at Hogwarts, the school you'll be going to in September. The students are all placed into one of four houses their first day there. You know based on your personality. So I'm naturally a Gryffindor because well I'm brave," Teddy seemed to stand a little taller.

"Yeah you'd have to be brave to pick that color hair," joked Harry as he peeled the child off of Teddy's back.

Gwen smiled at Teddy. His eyes were a soft brown which contrasted greatly with his brilliant blue hair. But he seemed nice enough and she made a mental note to pick his brain about the school and the houses and the professors and well everything about this new life she found herself in.

"DINNER!" Ginny shouted from the porch of the house.

After dinner a cake was brought out that read "Happy 11th Birthday Gwen!" and for the first time in her entire life Gwen had a real birthday. There were presents, new clothes, school books and then a small box that had a silver locket in it. On the locket the same lion and snake that graced the covers of her diary were gently carved into the metal. When Gwen asked Ginny and Harry if they had gotten her the locket or the diary they both denied it. Nevertheless, Gwen was happy. After all it was her first real birthday.