Cousin Ferret introduces himself. Lucius and Greyback question Hermione about her Muggle parents and life. Narcissa joins the party. Hexes start flying. Hermione finds out the meanings of her name.
A/N: I'm so sorry about the first chapter! I had dates in front of my paragraphs to show which were the present and which were the past. I was posting the story when my tablet froze! I had to wait for it to unfreeze before I could finish posting and I didn't realize until now, it didn't save my dates!
Hermione looked at Scabior. He was staring at her, totally mesmerized by her closeness. Lucius and Greyback, seated to each side of the young couple, knew they'd have to supervise them for a while. It wouldn't do anyone any good at all to get Aurora back only to have her fleeing again, in fear of her husband. All the Death Eaters were watching the girl closely. It was hard to forget that just mere minutes earlier, she'd been simply 'the mudblood,' a girl they all wanted a piece of or rid of. Now she was the daughter of the Dark Lord's most fanatical follower, Bellatrix Black Lestrange. What really threw them for a loop however was the revelation that Fenrir Greyback, their most notoriously savage werewolf, was her father, not Rodolphus Lestrange, Bella's husband!
Bellatrix and Rodolphus were still furiously arguing in the middle of the room. Rodolphus, knowing he was more in the wrong than Bellatrix, had resorted to dragging out old slights from their courting days. Lucius was used to it and easily tuned them out. Fenrir was waiting patiently for Bellatrix to hex Rodolphus. Hermione was fascinated by the fight, despite not knowing half of what they were screaming about. The Death Eaters knew it was about to get ugly because they had both resorted to cursing each other in French!
Draco came over, followed by Narcissa. He wanted to tease her about them being related now. He did something that he'd seen Potty and the Weasel do countless times at school. It made him cackle every time he saw it. He grinned mischievously at his father and Greyback. He knelt behind Hermione and leaned close. Rowle, Mulciber, Yaxley and Dolohov, the Death Eaters closest to them, watched curiously. He spoke loudly right into her ear. "Greetings, sweet cousin!"
"GAH!" Hermione screamed, throwing her arms up in fright. She whipped around and glared at the laughing Slytherin. "Do that again, Ferret! I dare you! I slapped that ferrety smirk off your face in third year and I'll do it again!" The four older guys were dying laughing at her. Fenrir and Lucius were biting their lips, suppressing their own laughter. Scabior couldn't quite repress a snort of laughter. Hermione frowned at him as she resumed watching her new mother fight with,,,, her stepfather?
Then Draco's words registered with her. 'Wait, cousin?' she looked at him. "Cousins? We're not-!" he raised a brow and nodded at his mother and Bella. Hermione started making connections. Narcissa was his mother. Bella was his aunt. Narcissa and Bella were sisters. Bella was HER mother. Therefore, Narcissa was,,, her aunt! Making the Ferret,,, she groaned as she covered her eyes. "Oh, no! No! No! No! Bloody hell! Ron will NOT let me live this one down!" Draco was smirking at her smugly.
"Oi, cousin! Look at it this way. We're at the top of our class at school. Likely it'll be the first time ever cousins have been Head Boy and Head Girl! We're keeping it in the family!" he told her. She cocked her head and thought about it.
"I've not been at school this year. It's very doubtful I'd be anywhere close to Head Girl." she said seriously.
"Yeah, right. Uh huh. So you don't have seventh year textbooks in your bag? You haven't been practicing new spells on the run? Really?" he cocked a disbelieving brow at her. She rolled her eyes at him. 'Well, of course she did! She wouldn't be Hermione Granger if she didn't keep up with her studies!'
Then her stomach shrank, remembering that she was no longer a Granger. 'No, she was now, according to three different people, either a Black, a Lestrange or a Greyback! Oops, make that four.' remembering that she was bonded to a Scabior. She looked down and twirled the ring that circled her finger. Scabior reached around her and took her hand in his. He pulled her back against him as he lowered his face to bury it in her hair.
Lucius, Narcissa and Fenrir had sat quietly, allowing the cousins to start bonding. They knew Hermione would need someone her own age as an anchor and a confidante. This new life of hers would be very confusing as she attempted to navigate through all the pureblood traditions and etiquette, not to mention she'd have to grow accustomed to the fact that her parents were followers of the Dark Lord. She might very well have to decide whether she was going to join him or not. They hadn't even let the Dark Lord know of this startling new development yet!
Fenrir knew he was the odd man out in this whole situation. His blood status wasn't much better than her former blood status. His mother had been a Muggle. His father was a Muggleborn. He was a Muggleborn werewolf. That only made her a half-blood because Bella was the pureblood parent but it was higher than him. They might very well convince her that she didn't need to know her blood father. She could easily cut him out of her life in favor of allowing that bloody ass Rodolphus to be her father! He snarled inwardly at the very thought. As if she were reading his thoughts, Hermione suddenly threw herself into his arms and snuggled against him, hugging him tightly as she glared at young Scabior. He chuckled. 'The boy must have tried to take advantage of their bonded status'. If his glare was anything to go by, he'd expected her to fall into his arms!
"So, sweetling, exactly how did you end up in the Muggle world?" Fenrir asked quietly. She shrugged at him.
"I don't know. The Grangers adopted me when I was just a baby. I know that. They were always very open about it. They had tried for several years to have their own child. She'd either carry to term and have a stillbirth. Or she'd lose the child in the first few months of carrying it. Finally they decided to adopt. The only problem was, they were considered too old. They were told they could foster any number of children. They were glad to foster several children at a time but they really wanted to give a child their last name. They kept trying to adopt even as foster parents. Finally, they were told that they would have to fill out a huge load of paperwork before they could even be considered. They gladly sat down and filled out every form they were given. They said the weirdest thing happened the next day. They took back that huge load of paperwork and fully expected to be told 'thank you for your patience, we'll be in touch soon' and that be that. But soon after they got there, the lady they were speaking with got up to file their paperwork in the next room. Five minutes later, she came back with a baby. She said congratulations, handed them the child and left again. No mention of a home visit, office visits or anything. Just handed them the little girl and left." she told him. "So that's how they came to adopt me."
Lucius and Narcissa looked at each other sharply. 'That sounded like a Confundus Charm!' "Hermione, dear, was there anything ever said after that? Did any of the caseworkers for the foster children ever question your appearance in the house?"
"No. According to Mum, they never seemed to even notice I was there. It was like I was invisible or something. They'd come in, inspect the other children's' rooms and completely bypass the nursery." Hermione said. The Malfoys looked at each other again. 'Confundus charm AND a Notice Me Not charm on her!' At this point, Lucius was willing to bet every last galleon he had that this had been the work of one Dolores Umbridge! She had been the last one seen holding Aurora!
"Well, please let us be the first ones to welcome you home." Lucius said. Hermione looked uncertain. She leaned back against Fenrir's arms as she stared up at him.
"Do you stay here? Or do you live somewhere else?" she asked him. Fenrir thought about his answer.
"I stay here sometimes but I'm often on the run with the Snatchers. Scabior and I are both leaders of our own groups." he told her.
"Would I be staying here or going with you?" she questioned him further. That's when Narcissa joined the conversation.
"You'll be staying here for the time being, darling. You may be bonded but there has been no formal ceremony yet. The bonding was merely the first step. There was to be a formal courtship as you both grew up. Once you both were of age, then you would be joined by the wedding ceremony. As it stands, there has been no courtship yet." Narcissa looked pointedly at Scabior. He huffed out a frustrated breath. Hermione smirked at him from the safety of her father's arms.
"The courtship can take place over the next several months. It'll take us that long just to plan the wedding. Everything must be done right, you know. With any luck, you and Draco will graduate. Then the wedding will be a month later. Or you might want a later wedding, maybe around your birthday. It is still September 19th, right? That old toad didn't try and give you a new date of birth, did she?" Narcissa worried.
"No, no! It's still September 19th. A September wedding would be beautiful." Hermione smiled at her. "I do hope this means you'll be helping me plan it? I'm simply awful when it comes to things like that!"
Narcissa smiled gleefully. There was nothing at all she loved more than planning or helping to plan a wedding. She'd spent years dreaming about the perfect wedding for Draco! "Of course, my dear! Nothing would please me more!"
Just then, as predicted, the screaming match happening in front of them erupted into a violent feud. Bellatrix and Rodolphus began throwing hexes at each other. To everyone's surprise, Hermione began cheering Bella on and yelling spells to throw at Rodolphus! He frowned darkly at her and she flipped him off. It was quite apparent to them that she and her 'supposed' father were off to a very rocky start! They all laughed as Bellatrix took advantage of his distraction and threw both a Leg-locker and a Levicorpus curse at him. He waved his arms wildly before she yelled "Libracorpus" and allowed him to tumble headfirst to the carpeted floor. He was promptly knocked out cold. Bellatrix smirked and strutted over to them. She knelt by Fen's side.
She and Hermione stared at one another. Then she reached out her hand. "Aurora." she whispered. "My dear, sweet baby Aurora. I've missed you so badly. So many years. I'm sorry. So, so very sorry. We should have left well enough alone." Tears were trickling down her face. "I missed," she looked at Fenrir, "WE missed your entire childhood. Now you're nearly a grown woman. You don't need us anymore."
"You're wrong. I need you both. I may be almost grown but I want you both in my life. My children will need their grandparents. I want to learn about my Black family heritage. I also want to learn about my wolf heritage. I have wolf blood, don't I? That's why you and him were both smelling my hair, isn't it?" Hermione asked Fen. He nodded. 'That's why she'd smelt so familiar to him. She shared his wolf blood!
"By the way, how did you know part of my middle name?" Hermione asked Bellatrix. She'd never told anyone her full name before. She'd been afraid of being mocked as a 'Disney princess' because of it. Bellatrix tipped her head.
"The Blacks have a tradition of naming their children after the stars or picking a name from Greek mythology. Your names are one of each. Hermione Aurora Lestrange Scabior." Bellatrix told her softly. "Hermione was the daughter of King Menelaus and Helene of Troy. It was also the feminine spelling for Hermes. Aurora was the Roman goddess of the dawn. Her Greek name was Eos. Aurora Borealis is what the northern lights are called. So you see, your name fully fits into our family heritage."
"What is your full name, Hermione?" asked Narcissa curiously. Hermione looked at her shyly.
"Hermione Jean Aurora Granger. Jean was my adopted mother's name." she told her. Narcissa smiled. She'd have to tell Bellatrix to allow Hermione to speak freely about her adopted parents. She obviously loved them dearly. It was apparent she'd been a well-loved, well-adjusted child growing up. They might not be her parents anymore but it didn't minimize their importance in her life.