Chapter 1

"Hermione, can you come down please?" Jean called out.

"Coming, mum" Hermione called down. She slipped a bookmarker into her book to mark her place in the book. Before, she headed down. Hermione peeked into the kitchen but neither of her parents were in there. So, instead she headed to the living room, where she found both her parents sitting on the couch waiting for her.

Hermione sat opposite her parents; a feeling of dread suddenly overwhelmed her as she looked at her parents. There was a look on their faces that chilled Hermione to the bone.

"Hermione…." Jean started, but suddenly she couldn't seem to finds the words to finish her thought.

Robert took hold of his wife's hand, "Hermione, there is something that me and your mum want to talk to you about".

Hermione nodded, she pulled her legs under her and curled up on the couch, getting more comfortable. Her instincts were telling that this was going to a difficult conversation, so she figured that she might as well be comfortable.

"Hermione, you know when I was about your age, me and your grandparents got into a car accident, that was the day I lost my parents. Not only was it a difficult time for me emotionally but also physically as I was in a really bad shape, the doctors had to do an emergency surgery on my pelvis" Jean recounted lost in memories of a dark time, the only thing grounding her was her husband's hand and her daughters eyes watching her.

Hermione watched her mum, she had heard this story only once, the day she asked her mum where her grandparents were. She had only been six and there was an event at her school where grandparents had been invited to attend. Hermione went home that day and asked her mum why she didn't have grandparents, that was the day she first heard about the car accident that had killed her grandparents.

Jean took a deep breathe carried on, "My pelvis had been crushed, and that had caused damages to my womb, the doctors due to my injuries the best thing to do was remove my womb".

Hermione looked at her mum with her eyes wide open in shock, "But… that means…."

Robert gripped his wife's hand a bit tighter, "That means that your mum could never have kids"

Hermione was hit by wave of shock and this caused her slump back into the couch. There were tears filling her eyes, her sight becoming bleary, with a shuddering breath she asked, "Am I your daughter?"

This question caused Jean to shoot up from where she was sitting and she gathered her daughter up into her arms, "You will always be our daughter" she whispered over and over into Hermione's curly hair. Robert stood up and walked over to his two girls and he gathered them both in to his arms. The three of them sat together, both parents ensured that Hermione was inbetween them, wrapped up in each other. Hermione finally wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "What does this mean?"

"Your mother and I thought that now that you are nearly fifteen it was time to tell you the truth" Robert placed his arm around his daughter and wife's shoulders.

"Am I adopted?" Hermione's question was whispered, but her question still seemed resound in the room.

Jean pulled herself closer to Hermione, she looked at Robert silently asking which of them should answer her question. Finally, Jean sighed, relenting to her husband's pleading eyes, "Yes, sweetheart, you are adopted. We adopted you when you were born".

Hermione was silent for a while, there seemed to be million thoughts firing around in her head and all she could think was, I am adopted. Hermione didn't know what to think, how to feel and this scared her, usually she was good at thinking through new pieces of information but this just threw her out of the loop.

Both Jean and Robert kept quiet and allowed Hermione the time to process the information that she had been given. Finally, the haze seemed to lift from Hermione and she started to ask her questions. "Why did you keep this from me? Why are you telling me now? Why did you adopt me? Why was I put on adoption? Where are my biological parents? Who are my biological parents? Why did they not keep me?" questioned Hermione in rapid fire.

"The reason that we not tell you this before, is because we wanted to make sure that you were told enough to understand what this means and that you understand the concept of adoption. Also, to ensure that you understand that you will always be our daughter and that we love you and we always will. This is not something that we wanted to keep from you but the day we brought you home from the hospital, me and your mum decided that we would wait to tell you the truth" explained Robert, he held his wife's hand tightly hoping that Hermione would understand the reason they kept the truth from her.

Jean decided that the best course of action is to answer Hermione's questions, and hopes the Hermione understands how much they love her. Jean silently hoped Hermione didn't hate them, as she started to answer the questions Hermione had asked. "When your father and I decided that we were ready to start a family we signed up for adoption after many discussions. We both planned to adopt a baby, we filled a profile form and we were matched with you. We both fell in love with you when we saw your sonogram" Jean explained, she could see that Hermione was getting frustrated at her not for answer all her questions. "To be honest sweetheart we have no idea who your parents are, your biological mother asked that it be a contact free adoption, so we never met her. The social worker that was in charge of the case had most of the details. And truthfully, we were just so grateful that we were going to have you in our lives".

"But we know that you have these questions that you want answered, so we have asked the social worker who was in charge of your case to come and speak to you" Robert explained before Hermione got more upset. They both knew how difficult it would be for Hermione to absorb this information, it would take her awhile to understand. So, they both understood when she pulled away from their group hug and silently walked upstairs. Jean and Robert sat together on the couch, silently reminding themselves that telling Hermione was the right thing to do.

/-/-/

The doorbell rang, the ringing resounding in the silent home, so silent you would never think that there three people currently in the house.

Robert opened the door with grim face, "Hello Maria, thanks for coming".

"Hello Robert, it's wonderful to see you again", Maria was an older woman, in her 60's and looking at her face you could see that she many laughter lines and you could see that she loved her job even when it was hard.

Maria followed Robert into the living room where Jean was waiting, "Maria, it's good to see you again. Thank you so much for agreeing to this" Jean said gratefully.

"I will let Hermione know that you are here" Robert said, while Maria greeted Jean, before heading upstairs to get Hermione.

Robert knocked on Hermione's door, before poking his head in, "Hey sweetheart, just wanted to let you know Maria the social worker is here". Hermione nodded silently. Knowing that she would be down in a moment, Robert headed back downstairs.

Hermione was laying on her bed, looking at old family photos, with one last look at the photo, of her seventh birthday when the three of them had gone to Kew gardens and they had a picnic there before heading to watch Cinderella pantomime. Hermione closed the photo album and went downstairs. There in the living room, was a woman sitting on the couch where Hermione had been sitting this afternoon, whereas her parents were sitting in their places from the afternoon, Hermione decided to sit on the single settee.

"Hermione this is Maria, she was the social worker that was in charge of your case" Jean introduced the woman after a few silent minutes. Hermione gave a half-hearted wave.

"Hello Hermione, It's so wonderful to see you again. You look so different from when I last saw you," said Maria with a small smile. "Now your parents have asked me to come here and explain a few things about your biological parents".

Hermione nodded.

"Now how what would you like to know?" asked Maria.

"Who are my biological parents? Why did they give me up? Where are they? Did they not want me? where am I from?" Hermione fired her question without so much as taking a breath.

"Right, your biological mother's name is Amelia Potts, she was 19 when she had you. Now what you need to understand is that I had not met your biological mother until she was six months pregnant with you. She got in contact with the adoption agency, and I was given her case file. I first met Amelia at the park and she told me that she would like to give her baby for adoption"

"But why?"

"The day before Amelia contacted the agency, she had been at the doctors. She had been diagnosed with a brain aneurysm; she had been advised to terminate her pregnancy as the doctor's thought that it could prove fatal to her" continued Maria without beat.

Hermione bit her lip in an attempt to keep her tears at bay, she could just see where this story was going.

Maria could see the look on Hermione's face, but she knew she need to carry on. Hermione deserved to know who she was. So, Maria continued, "Amelia told me, that she could never think about terminating the pregnancy. Amelia herself was an orphan who had been adopted by the Potts family, unfortunately her adopted parents died a few months after Amelia had turned 18 and she had no other family to speak of. That's why she made the decision to get in touch with the agency, as a last resort, your biological mother loved you Hermione and she wanted the best for you. It was two months before you were born that we matched you to your parents, Amelia wanted a no contact adoption, this meant that you parents never met her and all updates they were given was by me. The day you were born, I contacted your parents to come to the hospital, a few hours after you had been born, Amelia's brain aneurysm ruptured and she passed away".

Hermione could hear the gasp from her mother but it all seemed so far away, it was like she was on a completely different world, where she could hear and see what others were saying but she couldn't talk to them. All that looped around in her head was "She passed away". Her biological mother was dead, she had died the same day after giving birth to her. Hermione couldn't help but wonder if it was her fault that her biological mother was dead, after all she had been advised to terminate well her.

Suddenly, Hermione seemed to come back, when an arm drew her into warm, comforting and familiar hug. Quietly, Jean hugged her daughter, before drawing her up and taking her to sit between her and Robert. Jean could see the direction Hermione's thoughts had taken her and this was something Jean had hoped her daughter would never feel, guilt. So, once Hermione was safely between Robert and her, Jean whispered, "This is not your fault Hermione, your biological mother made the decision to keep you alive. And this is something that I will be eternally grateful for".

Maria also seemed to understand the thoughts that Hermione was having and decided to address them, "Your mum is telling you the truth Hermione, this is not your fault. Amelia had been given the facts about her condition. Yet, she decided to carry on with the pregnancy and give birth to you, because she loved you".

Hermione nodded tearfully, acknowledging Maria's words, there was something she wanted to know, "Did she hold me?"

"Yes, she held you for nearly an hour before she allowed the nurses to take you away" Maria smiled lightly.

It was quiet for a while, everyone seemed to be lost in their own thoughts, when they were brought back to reality by Robert clearing his throat, "What about Hermione's biological father? Who is he? Is there any information about him?"

Hermione looked up at Maria, this was something she wanted to ask about. Maria frowned at the thought of breaking this beautiful girl's heart even more, "No I am sorry but I have no information about Hermione's biological father. All Amelia had said was that there was no way for her to contact the father, she gave no name or contact details so that we could try to contact him ourselves".

Rather that upsetting Hermione, this information actually made her wonder, could there be a chance that her biological father was a wizard. Maybe, that's why Amelia couldn't contact him, and she didn't know anything about him.

Maria looked at the time, she had to leave soon, "I have another appointment, so I will have to go. But before I leave, I have brought your file, this has all the information that we were given by Amelia and by your parents. This file also contains letters that Amelia wrote to you and your biological father. Maybe this may help you find your Biological father when you are ready", as she took out a blue file with a stamp of the agency's name and Hermione's name on the side of the file. She handed the file to Hermione, who took the file gingerly, "Thank you" Hermione whispered.

Hermione didn't even notice her parents following Maria to the door, to thank her and to say goodbye. She traced her name with her finger on the side of the file, she looked at the file as if it seconds away from bursting into fire. Without waiting for her parents to come back, Hermione took the file and headed to her room.