Chapter One: Secrets in the Library
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Sirius was standing in the warm library of Grimmauld Place with Hermione, helping her to build her occlumency shields. Hermione Granger had been a regular visitor in his home since Harry's first year at Hogwarts. Her favorite room was the library, bibliophile that she is, and he was pleased the little mundane born witch felt so welcome. It was the antithesis of everything his mother wanted for the House of Black and few things made him happier than thwarting his mother's expectations of how he should conduct his life and affairs. The Lord Black had assumed the title after his mother's death, after the fall of Voldemort, and remodeled the dark, gothic house of his childhood into a bright, inviting home in which friends from all walks of life were welcome.
"Ok, Kitten, I know we talked about building a mindscape that helps to organize your thoughts, but you also need to use the mindscape to protect your thoughts from anyone who might try to invade your mind."
Hermione looked up at Sirius with confusion."Sirius, why would someone try to invade my mind?" She was muggleborn, and so trusting of authority and the wizarding world. Sirius knew Hermione hadn't had a picture perfect childhood, but it was nice that she had grown up in a loving home without parents willing to dig through her mind, looking for secrets and ready to punish severely, as Sirius did. He knew the Grangers were people of science, and something like magic had been too nebulous for them to understand without the ability to fully experience it. They couldn't even see the entrance to Leaky Cauldron without Hermione holding on to them, how would they grasp the realities of transfiguration or charms?
"With your brilliant mind? Who knows? I know you've considered working as an Unspeakable and someone could attempt to breach your mind to learn about your research. Or an overzealous and ambitious reporter could attempt to find out information about Harry. Being a young lording heir is just the sort thing to attract tabloid writers"
"Oh, I hadn't even thought about that! Of course I would want to protect Harry… and my work, of course." She sputtered, blushing a pretty pink and smiling shyly.
Sirius smiled at her tone. Of course, Harry was the main reason why Sirius was helping Hermione in the first place. He had come to Sirius to ask his help with this project, too embarrassed to confess his feelings for Hermione to his parents, knowing Sirius would value her protection from anyone who may want to harm her, including Dumbledore. Harry had noticed Dumbledore's odd behavior when it came to Hermione over the years, and as he had grown closer to Hermione, he only became more suspicious of the Headmaster's motives. A healthy amount of suspicion and caution, if you asked Sirius. During the war, his old headmaster seemed intent on putting Sirius at risk, and keeping him away from his family, friends, and his love. It felt like he was separating them on purpose, keeping Sirius away for months at a time with a brief break of a day before he left again. He tried not to think about lost love, and used the occlumency shields for just that.
Hermione marvelled as she noticed Sirius' face go from pensive to unaffected in the blink of an eye, then he raised his wand and said, "Ready? Legilimens."
Sirius was unsurprised to find that Hermione's mindscape was a library. Vast expanses of shelves extending in front of him and to his side, he wandered to a random shelf and picked up a book. Opening it revealed a memory of a summer's day at the beach. Little Hermione must have been four or five years old, with a toothy grin and big doe eyes taking in everything and everyone around her. "Perfect." Sirius thought, and placed the book on the shelf. He wandered further into the library, wondering where she might keep memories she might want to hide when Sirius noticed a box on a table. "Surely she didn't hide things like this? We will have to talk about a better defense." He hated to invade her mind when this was an attempt to hide a memory, but knowing how she hid the memory could only help him teach her. He cautiously opened the little box.
It wasn't a memory at all. Magic swirled out of the box, enveloping Sirius in two very familiar feelings. The magic of the House of Black, and the House of Bones. They stretched, flowing and expanding like a fog to take up every available space. Sirius retreated out of the library in Hermione's mind, into the one at Grimmauld Place and reeled back as he took in Hermione's altered appearance.
Hermione stood there, shocked and confused, but delighted as the unfamiliar feeling of family magic wafted over her, embracing her as the strangest sensation trickled down her body. It felt like an egg running down her face and torso, and she reached to wipe it away but didn't feel any of the cool wetness she half expected to be present on her hand..
"Oh, Kitten. Sit down. Please sit." Sirius said as he directed her to a sofa. "I need to floo Amelia, and call James." He pulled the mirror from his pocket and called out for James as he walked to the fireplace. "James, I need you over here. Harry too. Lily, if she's around. We have a situation." He whispered as he glanced back at Hermione. Bending down to throw some floo powder in, he called for Amelia Bone's office at the DMLE, and tried to calm his racing heart.
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James and Lily Potter stepped gracefully through the fireplace, followed by Harry. As they turned to Sirius, they took in the sight of Hermione sitting straight and stiff on the couch, alarmed and panicked. Her hair was almost black. A rich ebony with soft, lovely curls framing grey eyes. The familiar appearance of Hermione Granger had changed, and she was instead looking like a feminine version of Sirius Black.
"Oh my." Lily said softly, as she walked over to her son's best friend, reaching out to touch her curls.
"Merlin." James muttered from his place by the fireplace.
"Holy shite." Harry exclaimed and he slowly walked towards the girl he loved. In a way, she looked more like Hermione than she ever had before, as if her coloring hadn't been harmonious, but had been corrected. He sat down near Hermione and reached out for her hand. "Sirius, what is going on?"
Amelia Bones arrived with a whoosh of the floo system, cleaning the residual soot from her sharp maroon auror uniform with a clearly irritated expression on her face. She took in her surroundings, and looked at the girl on the sofa as a nebulous understanding of what she was looking at coalesced in her mind. Her family magic was stirring within, but she didn't understand how it was possible. She knew she should know her. The Bones family magic was radiating off of her in waves, along with another familiar magic. Amelia's eyes widened as she looked at Sirius, "Are you feeling what I am feeling? How is this possible?" She looked to Hermione, "Who are you, child?"
Hermione was very confused, indeed. With the flurry of arrivals into Grimmauld place, with the way everyone was looking at her, with this strange, but comforting magic stirring in her magical core. She looked at Harry, eyes wide, "Harry? Sirius? Mr. and Mrs. Potter? What is going on?" She burst into tears and hid her face in Harry's shoulder.
Harry answered for Hermione, "Madam Bones, this is Hermione Granger, whom you do know. She came to work on occlumency with Sirius today…"
Sirius stepped in to explain. "I had instructed Hermione to not only work on her shields, but to construct a mindscape in which she could conceal information and memories also. When I wandered around the mindscape, I noticed an odd box, opened it, and the family magic spilled out. When I pulled from her mind, her appearance had changed to what it is now."
"Wait! My appearance has changed?" Hermione got up to look in a mirror above the fireplace. She looked like herself, a color corrected version of herself, and also like a Black. "Sirius, is it me, or do I look like I could be your sister? The hair, the eyes," she made a face at herself in the mirror, "this smirk thing that I have going on now?" She turned to face the room. "Maybe we should check the tapestry."
"Brightest witch of her age," James muttered as they all made their way to the tapestry room. And there she was, under Sirius Black, with a line connected to Amelia Bones.
Hermione Jean Granger (Black)
September 19, 1979
Hermione looked back and forth between a very confused Sirius Black and Amelia Bones as Lily wrung her hands and came up to hug Hermione, and whispered in her ear, "Are you ok, Hermione? Do you need to rest? Or do you want tea? A calming drought, perhaps?"
"I think I'm going to go lie down. Sirius, can I use the library?" Hermione wandered towards the library in daze, as Harry went to move after her.
Sirius grabbed his arm, "Let her go, Pup. If I know Hermione, she needs to process new information for a bit." The rest of the family, and Amelia adjourned to the kitchen for tea and an awkward conversation.
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Everyone settled around the kitchen table, trying to figure out what was going on. Sirius' mind was racing all over the place. How could there be a baby? But then again, he was gone so often and for so long on Dumbledore's missions that he could easily miss Amelia being pregnant.
"You were pregnant." Sirius looked at Amelia with a frosty glare, never looking more like a Black than he did at that moment.
"I was. And then I wasn't. You started acting suspicious and I was afraid to let you know about the baby. You weren't even around for me to tell you! I was pregnant. And then there was an explosion. I was thrown across the room, and when I woke at St. Mungo's, they said the baby was gone. But she wasn't gone, was she? She was taken. Did Death Eaters do this? Why would they hide her with Muggles?" Amelia was crying and the anxiety was pouring off of her.
"I don't think it was Death Eaters, Amy." James said quietly from the other end of the table. "Harry has mentioned some things about how Dumbledore interacts with Hermione that makes me think he knew she wasn't just your average muggleborn witch." He waved off their confused looks. "Nothing concrete, of course. Nothing you could ever confront him with and catch him off guard. He would just say he was interested in her as the headmaster of the school she was performing so well in. She's top of her class. She's magically powerful. Of course he would pay attention to a witch like that. But combine it with the fact that she actually is your daughter, sending Sirius away so often and for so long, and your clearly altered recollection of her birth… we have a situation." James finished and leaned back in his chair.
Sirius understood what James was saying. And there was obviously something larger going on here, but he was stuck on one detail. "Can we talk again about how you hid the fact that I was going to be a father from me?" Sirius spat out.
"I THOUGHT YOU WERE THE TRAITOR!" Amelia shouted, anger at the whole situation coursing through her. She had lived almost 18 years thinking she had lost her only chance at motherhood. At Sirius. Then Susan came along after her brother's death and she had been able to pour some of that mothering instinct into her.
"Did you all think that?" Sirius looked devastated. He valued loyalty and trust. He had never lied to James about anything, nothing big, nothing small. There were no lies between them. He trusted James with his life.
"We were fine, Pads. You were busy and gone a lot, but I never doubted you. You're my brother in all but blood, and you know it." Sirius sagged in relief as James clapped his hand on Sirius' shoulder.
Amelia sighed, "Dumbledore would say things to me. He planted all of these little doubts in me, knowing my auror training would lead me to analyze and be suspicious. We all knew there was a traitor, and I felt it was a personal mission to figure it out. You know how I am with clues and information." James chuckled and gestured with his tea cup towards the library. "You mean, the way Hermione is?" Amelia smiled at them, "Yeah, exactly like that. So Dumbledore sent my inquisitive mind on a wild goose chase, but what I still don't understand is why he did it. He's going to be troublesome when this all comes out, I can feel it."
"Well, we need to go to Gringotts and make this as official as possible." Lily spoke up from her chair across from Amelia. "There will be a brouhaha in the papers, and you will want official documentation of her ancestry. Also, she's going to have to talk to her parents, but I fear that's going to alienate them from Hermione even more than they are now. She's going to need family, so you two," Lily gestured to Sirius and Amelia, "are going to need to work this out." She thought for a second. "Amelia, maybe you need to undergo a full check for mind magics by the bank."
Amelia suddenly looked up at the mention of family. "Susan. Hermione and Susan are cousins. I know they are friendly now, but they deserve to know each other as cousins. As a family. Should we wait until after Gringotts?" Amelia looked to Sirius, who startled in surprised at the consultation.
Sirius thought for a moment. "I think that's for the best, Amy. I think Hermione will be really pleased when she realizes they are cousins. She likes Susan very much. And Amy, Lily is right about the mind magic. We need to know what happened that night."
James leaned into Sirius and whispered, "Walk with me, Pads."
"So, Dumbledore, huh?" Sirius started. "He's always been a meddler, and this has him written all over it. But why?"
"About six months before Amelia lost the baby, he started acting weird, well weirder than usual, in Order Meetings. I thought it had to do with the horcruxes, and his search for them after Regulus came forward with the locket. Honestly, it could have just been that, and what Dumbledore wants to keep close to the vest, he never lets anyone know." James was verbally processing his thoughts.
"But why hide a baby and not even tell her injured mother why? None of this makes sense. We could be missing something, but I fear we are missing many things." Sirius ran his hand through his hair. "James, Hermione's an amazing witch, and I missed her entire childhood."
James huffed out a breath, "Well not the whole thing, Sirius. Ever since Harry met her on the train, she's been a part of all of our lives. You didn't see her first steps, but you saw her with those cute teeth she used to have. The way she was so wide eyed and earnest about everything new she encountered. You saw her fall in love for the first time." Sirius looked at James in surprise. "Yes, I know. That boy has been enamoured with her since he saw her on the train. The Potter way, obviously. Just like his dad. And she has loved him for years. I've watched, Sirius. He's the heir of my house and I need to make sure he's being wise in his choices. And he is. Hermione's wonderful for him, so smart, patient, kind, beautiful before and after this morning. Lily and I can't wait for him to make a move."
Sirius was pleased for the kids too. They've always been a unit; Harry and Hermione, and Neville. Fortunately Neville is Harry's godbrother and has his own love in Luna Lovegood, that ethereal witch of Xeno's. Jealousy would be such a horrible dynamic. The Marauders were lucky that way. James had loved Lily always, Sirius had Amy, and Remus and Peter never had faffed about with jealousy, or so they had thought at the time.
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Hermione sat in one of the comfy library chairs, processing everything from the morning at Grimmauld Place. She always loved spending time with Sirius. He was fun, but paternal, always willing to delve into anything she didn't understand about the magical world. He had been a walking encyclopedia of the wizarding world for her. The occlumency lessons had been really fun, even if she didn't exactly understand why Harry insisted on her learning it. Harry had been taught from a young age, a helpful skill for an heir to organize their thoughts and mind, but Hermione hadn't felt it was a skill she needed until Sirius had explained some motivations others could have for legilimency. When that family magic had poured out from the box, at first she had been scared, but almost immediately she felt comforted, like a warm cozy blanket of magic had been placed on her.
She reached in herself to feel for her magic and felt the two different familial magics that were new within her. They felt at home, entirely welcome, perhaps even sentient. She meditated with the feeling for a bit, and began to feel the difference between the Bones and Black magic. The Bones magic was warm, wise, protective, and fierce, much like Amelia herself. The Black magic was cool, sharp, intelligent, aggressive, and loyal. Combined, they felt like her, but magnified by the experience of thousands of years of witches and wizards. It was fascinating, and she couldn't wait until she could talk to Sirius and Amelia about it. Her parents. Oh! Her parents! Richard and Helen Granger were her adopted parents. She had always known, and her bouts of magic as a child had been sort of brushed under the carpet with the thought that it was something from her biological parents that we just didn't need to talk about. When her letter from Hogwarts arrived, along with her visit from Professor McGonagal, the magic was no longer something that could be ignored. It was her future, and she would likely leave the mundane world because of it. Not that she wouldn't ever see her parents, but she would be of the magical world from then on. And she was. As soon as she set foot on the Hogwarts Express, she was a witch, no longer just a girl with vague hopes of being a doctor one day. She Met Harry and Neville, her first wizarding world friends, and the rest was history. Each letter home to her parents depicted a world they knew they wouldn't be a part of, couldn't be a part of, but Hermione didn't want to hide any of it from them. Inevitably, holidays became more strained, and eventually she spent as little time in the mundane world as she could, preferring the familiar comfort of Potter Manor with Harry and Neville. Reading books under the ancient oaks while the boys flew around the sky, throwing a quaffle back and forth, egging each other on and laughing. It became the soundtrack to Hermione's summers.
She needed to visit her parents and let them know what was going on. Explaining that would be difficult, as she had very little idea what happened this morning in the library. Well, I guess answers would come soon. Perhaps she should hold off on telling her parents until she knew more. How did she go from birth in the magical world to living in the mundane? Who would do a thing like this?
She took a final deep breath, letting go of the magic she had been getting to know, and looked up to see Harry leaning against the door.