"Mum, things don't add up." sixteen-year-old Lily approached Hermione with her twin brother in tow.
"What's that?" Hermione put aside the book she was reading as her twins sat across from her.
"You're thirty-nine." She pointed out.
"Dad died when he was eighteen." Harry added.
"You were in the same year at school, but you were almost one year older." Lily continued.
"How could he be our father?" Harry finished the question, "You didn't have us until you were twenty-three."
Hermione sat back; she had been waiting for this question. She smiled at her children and replied, "I promised you when you were born, that the day you asked me about the math I would tell you the whole story. Do you want to cancel dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, or do you want the story tomorrow?"
"How long is the story?" Lily looked at the clock, they still had hours before dinner.
"Longer than two hours." Hermione grinned, "This will cover my life from the age of eleven and several instances from before that."
"Start." Harry stated, "We'll hold questions at least until we're back home."
"I'll answer the math question." Hermione began, "A lovely woman helped your dad preserve his line even though he was dying. Her family knew a spell to remove and freeze sperm from a man and how to impregnate a woman with it later. He asked me to find someone worthy or to use it myself."
"You used it yourself." Lily grinned, "I'm glad you did."
"Either way I would have stayed in contact with his children." Hermione grinned, "He was my best friend, I loved him dearly. Though we wouldn't have had kids together had he lived. There was never any physical attraction. But I never found anyone for me and no one worthy of Harry. I'm not sure I am worthy either but it's the best I could live with."
"You said he needed to preserve his line, what does that mean." Harry asked causing Lily to nod along and turn back to their mother.
"Your father was an orphan." She sighed, "He was just about fifteen months old when his parents were killed by a very bad man. That is a story we'll get into tomorrow. His family was very old and very wealthy, and he was the last one. He spent his last few weeks deciding how to split up the money, he gave me the lion's share for your inheritance. It is all still in a bank here in Sydney."
"Is it terrible that I want to know how much?" Harry asked looked conflicted.
"With the interest and investing I've done you're looking at close to thirteen million." Hermione answered, she understood the feeling he was having, she had taught them the value and dangers of money "Its why I've never been worried about a college fund. Keep this knowledge to yourself and you won't have to worry thinking someone likes you just for your money."
"Did dad have that problem?" Lily asked.
"That was one of his problems." Hermione nodded, "He had several more that were even worse."
"You didn't marry, so why is your last name Potter?" Harry asked.
"Several reasons, most of them I'll cover tomorrow." Hermione grinned, "The one I will give you tonight is that I didn't want to confuse you when you were small by having a different last name."
I'm glad you used it." Harry hugged his sister and mother at the same time, "I couldn't believe your math was so far off."
"I still can't believe it took us this long to catch on." Lily added with a shake of her head.
"What made you think of it now?" Hermione asked them.
"We were giving them a quiz in math tutoring." Lily shook her head, "We were trying to make it fun."
"We told them to figure out how old their parents were, the office gave us all the birth years of the parents from the school's files." Harry grimaced, "Including yours."
The next morning Hermione sat her children down with cups of hot coco as she sat down with tea. She took a few sips as she mentally gathered herself together.
"One reason I didn't want to tell the whole story last night is because Grandma and Grandpa Wilken really are my parents, your grandparents. I used a memory charm to make them forget me and move to Australia to protect them from the second British wizarding war. Your father and I were both very involved in the war."
"Wait a minute." Lily jumped up and ran from the room. She returned a minute later with a book, "Was it in the nineteen hundreds?"
"You say that like it was a hundred years ago." Hermione huffed, "But yes, he died in nineteen ninety-eight."
"Is he the boy-who-lived." Lily had turned to a page in her history book and turned it to her mother.
"I had no idea." Hermione breathed out the words and took the book, "It covers the beginning well enough for most people. Voldemort killed his parents; death eaters killed his grandparents, and he was hidden."
"He was hidden because he had saved them." Harry had read the story, "They were afraid death eaters would kill him while he was young. But it doesn't say where."
"They don't want to know." Their mother said bitterly, "He was sent to his muggle aunt, his mother's sister. He didn't admit it until he was dying, but they abused him. Starvation, beatings, and the cupboard. His bedroom was the boot cupboard under the stairs."
Neither of the children spoke and they both had tears in their eyes. Hermione stopped to breathe deeply for a moment and took several more drinks of tea. Harry crossed to the chair she was in, pulling Lily with him. They sat on the floor and leaned on a knee each.
"I met Harry for the first time on the Hogwarts express." Hermione grinned, "I remember he was sitting with Ronald Weasley. I was helping Neville look for his missing toad."
Over the next several hours Hermione laid out the entire story. Multiple cups of tea, lunch called for delivery and a large bowl ice cream helped her get through it. No one had dry eyes by the time she was done, and she was thinking of getting a headache potion.
"So, this Wesley idiot just assumed you'd marry him?" Harry looked disgusted.
"Ron Weasley, and yes he was an idiot." She shook her head, "I would have never been friends with him if Harry hadn't been first. We became friends later just on the fact that we knew each other so well. I had thought he'd grown up but… he was just an idiot. Of his brothers he was the second biggest idiot. They others were brilliant."
"Why did Dad become friends with someone like that?" Lily asked also disgusted.
"He wasn't allowed to have friends at home." She frowned at the thought, "His cousin would beat up anyone who tried. Ron was the first person to be nice to him."
"Will you ever tell Grandma and Grandpa?" Harry asked.
"No, I can't, I'm not allowed." She sighed, "When I arrived, I had to tell the Australian government what I had done. The Ministry tried everything they could to help me get them back. When nothing worked, we agreed not to tell them. I could try and get some kind of a relationship, but nothing could be forced."
"Can we tell them?" Lily asked.
"No, I'm sorry." She felt for the two of them, "It would be the same as telling any muggle about magic."
"Can we go to England?" Harry asked starting to smile again, "We could see Diagonally and Hogwarts."
"Diagon Alley." Hermione chuckled, "I'll have to check out the political landscape, but I'd really prefer to wait until you were both seventeen."
"That's six months?" Harry complained, "Why?"
"Mostly for your safety." She admitted, "If they arrest me for being a muggleborn you can get back here on your own and get our ministry involved."
"They would do that?" Lily was shocked.
"The last law they made before I left was an order to all muggleborns and halfbloods requiring us to register." She frowned, "That way they could track us if we started trouble. I left without registering."
"Six months." Lily agreed, "But if the politics are that stupid, I don't think we should go."
"We could stay muggle and just see London." Harry said, "Maybe see if his relatives are still there."
"They are not." Hermione grinned at him, "A few people took care of that already. They did it before I left."
"Oh poo." Lily grumbled.
For Hermione the six months was too short. The Australian ministry said Britain was still closed off from the rest of the world and not many visited, but they'd not heard of any arrests of muggleborns in a long time. She felt safe enough to go to muggle London and look around. They visited her old neighborhood; it looked the same, but she didn't recognize any of the people. Next, they found the building where her parent's old dentistry had been. They spent the rest of the week seeing the normal touristy spots.
"What are we doing today?" Harry asked.
"I'm going to look into the wizarding half." Hermione said, "You should go see a movie or something until I get back."
"But what if they try something?" Lily worried.
"I brought something that belonged to your dad." Hemione reached into her bag and pulled out a cloak made of an odd material and showed it to the kids before throwing it over her shoulders.
"You have an invisibility cloak and didn't tell us?" Harry asked shocked.
"Are you really surprised?" Lily asked her brother, "You were already a trouble magnet, something like this would have made you ten times worse."
"Your father was twenty times worse, so I knew how much trouble you could cause." Hermione grinned taking it off and putting it in her jacket pocket, "You can have it when you turn fifty."
"What movie do you want to see?" Harry asked his sister.
Once the children were gone, she decided to start at the Leaky Cauldron. One quick pop and she arrived finding it nearly deserted, only a few drunks at tables, and no one was working at the bar so she slipped to the back room. Just for her own peace of mind she pulled out the invisibility cloak and draped it over herself before tapping on the wall. It pulled away and she was left speechless. The alley was barren. No one was walking though the shops, in fact most of the shops were boarded up. There were only two bright spots in the street, Gringotts and Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes. Heading to the Weasley's store she was surprised to find it unlocked but empty. She jumped when a voice yelled that they'll be there in a moment. She quickly took off the cloak and made sure her glamor was still in place. She currently looked about sixty years old.
"Sorry, I'm not usually here." George entered apologizing, "We don't do much business here or in Hogsmeade, we keep them both open though and have a portal between them so I can help if anyone comes, like you."
"Last time I was here about thirty years ago this was a busier place." She looked out the door and then back to George, "What happened?"
"All was well until the death eaters tried to take over." George explained, "It was really the beginning of the end for folks here. We thought it would all get better once Harry Potter killed off Voldemort, but he was killed shortly after. The people in charge saw no reason to change how things were run and continued to discriminate against the muggleborns. I think they got fed up with it all because they vanished." George said with a shrug, "Muggleborns were still showing up at Hogwarts for a few years but soon that stopped as well and no one knew why. But instead of changing for the better and trying to fix things they started to discriminate against the half-bloods more. That was when I relocated my main business to the magical district in Paris. Half-bloods certainly didn't put up with it as long as the muggleborns did and were gone. Just five years after the war with Voldemort, there weren't enough pure bloods to keep the society going. A lot of them left with their muggle-born or half-blood spouses like me. Those that stayed and continued to intermarry began to have difficulties. They've not had a magical birth that lived two weeks in more than ten years. The squibs are either dropped off in the muggle world or killed. There is only one class left at Hogwarts and then it will close, there aren't enough children to pay the teachers enough to stay. The old families here are just too stubborn to admit defeat."
"And no one has tried to change things in the least?" she asked.
"One man tried. But he'd engrained his son in the old ways so well that the son had him committed for losing his mind and took his spot in the wizengamot." George shook his head, "He's the minister now."
"Family can do amazingly horrid things to each other." Hermione commented.
"My family considered Harry family back then." George sighed, "Three siblings and our mother abandoned him in his last pain filled days because he refused to marry my sister, the youngest. He said she was far too young, and he couldn't do it to her. For years after his death, they'd go to his memorial site every week and burn all the flowers and gifts people left."
"That's… petty." She knew she couldn't react too harshly. George had no idea she knew who he was talking about.
"That's the nicest response I've heard yet." George grinned, "Sorry, I need to get back to France, is there something I can bring here for you?"
"No, I'm headed to France in a week or two, I'll just stop by then." She patted his hand, "Thank you for the information."
"No problem, I'll keep an eye out for you." He watched her leave and went through the portal to his other store.
Hermione decided she needed to see the ministry building next. She returned to the Leaky Cauldron and took the floo. There was no one at the security desk so she threw on the cloak and wandered around. Before long she found herself in the auror department. Ron Weasley looked to be one of two aurors on duty and he was as big around as Dudley had been when Harry turned fifteen. He was sitting at his desk eating, with a picture of a heavy woman on his desk. It took her a few minutes to identify Lavender Brown.
She started to leave but had to quickly step aside as someone else entered. It only took her a moment to identify Draco Malfoy.
"Weasel." Draco drawled.
"Ferret." Ron drawled back.
The terms actually sounded like pet names, and it was proven as such when Draco pulled up an empty seat.
"Have you heard from Buttercup lately?" Draco asked.
"Not in months." He huffed, "She's too busy leading her life to check in with Mum and Dad. How about Scorpius?"
"Same." Draco shook his head, "Kids these days are so disrespectful of their elders. My father would have hexed me had I disappeared like this."
"Speaking of him, how is Lucius doing?" Ron asked.
"They've not been able find out anything." Draco huffed, "You'd think thirteen years in the hospital they'd find the reason he's spouting nonsense. I mean my father would never tell me to bring the half-bloods back. He wouldn't dream of having a muggleborn in the family. I think the fact that Astoria's next two births were still born, and Pansy's were all squibs made him lose his mind. He had wanted a contract between Scorpius and Pansy's daughter."
"I wonder what he cursed us with and when he left it." Ron wondered aloud, "I was told he was too weak to do any magic. I think that was a lie, obviously."
"I just can't see McGonagall helping him with it." Draco crossed his arms, "I still say it was Granger."
"Herms wouldn't have hurt people like that." Ron waved him off, "She was such a goody two shoes that she would yell at Fred and George when they tested pranks on first years. Besides she spent all her time trying to cure him, it had to be someone else."
"Did Bill find anything?" Draco continued his questions.
"No, he searched my house, the ministry, Diagon and Hogwarts. No curses, no long-lasting spells, nothing dark in or on any surface." Ron sighed, "He suggested we move to France. Said people in France don't seem to have any issues. I am not going to France with their fancy parties and stupid language."
"Astoria drug me to one of those parties." Draco shuddered, "We were the only purebloods there, I was afraid to touch anything. I wonder how he cursed all of us. One child each and the rest are stillborn or squibs."
Hermione realized they were blaming Harry for cursing them. She wasn't going to waste any more time here than she already had. She slipped back out of the ministry and returned to her hotel.
"Do we get to see the wizard side now?" Harry asked excitedly.
"There isn't anything to see." She told them sadly, "They didn't change and there is no one left."
"But the muggleborns…" Lily began.
"They left and shortly after them the half-bloods left." She sighed, "There is only one class left at Hogwarts and not many children. The families remaining haven't had children in years. Too much inbreeding led to only squibs and babies too weak to live."
"Are they all idiots?" Harry asked.
"Yes, only the idiots are left." She agreed thinking of her time in the ministry, "I can take you to where your father is buried if you'd like to go."
"If it still exists." Lily huffed.
Hermione pulled the laptop Harry was using into her own lap.
"Hey." Harry pouted.
"I'll start a new page, don't worry, your game will still be there when you get it back." Hermione did a quick search on Godric's Hollow then handed him the computer back, "It's still there but used as a renaissance village during the fall. The graveyard is undisturbed and well taken care of if the site is correct."
"Can we go there?" Harry asked taking the computer back.
"Yes." She agreed, "Do you want to see any more sights in London?"
"Where else would we go?" Lily asked, "I'm not ready to go back home yet."
"How about France? You can meet some of the people I considered close friends." She offered.
After a quick, but emotion filled trip to Godric's Hollow Hermione got them train tickets to France. She already knew where the wizarding district was in France, so they headed there as soon as they arrived. She found Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes easily enough and paused outside to answer her children's questions.
"What if that Ron idiot is in there or one of the others that don't like us." Harry asked after pulling her to a stop.
"Ron is one of the few still in London." Hermione promised, "He has no interest in coming here. Percy didn't get on with George. Ginny is the only one I'm unsure of. Just remember, no one gets to know which county we live in. That is why you have English accents at the moment."
"Come on Harry, we can take her if she gets nasty with mum." Lily grinned, "This place looks great!"
"Ok." Harry relented and followed them into the store.
Since it was fairly late in the day by this time the store was mostly empty. A young teen stopped by them as they entered.
"We'll be closing in about twenty minutes, and we open tomorrow at ten." The young man stated then stepped away.
Hermione nodded and watched her children looking around. She spotted George coming from the back and left her children to go speak to him.
"Hello George." She said as he looked up.
He was confused for a moment before his eyes widened, "Hermione?"
"The one and only." She smiled, "How are you?"
"Hermione!" George yelled and pulled her into a hug, "It's so good to see you. How are you, what have you been up to, are you here alone?"
"I'm good, working and no." she chuckled at him.
"Not alone?" he asked skeptically, "Where is he?"
"Them." Hermione corrected him and she turned back to find them and called, "Kids."
The two of them turned and walked over to her, she turned back to see George's reaction. His mouth hung open and he looked to her then back at them and to her again. Harry was the spitting image of his father, except his eyes. He had his mother's brown eyes. Lily on the other hand had green eyes and blond hair. She took after Hermione's own mother, except of course her eyes.
"You used it?" He asked and at her nod he grinned and pulled her into a hug, "I can't wait for Bill and Charlie to meet them. I hope they look as stupid as I looked just now."
"Kids this is George Weasley, George, this is Harry Orien and Lillian Luna Potter." She introduced, "I changed my name to Potter as well."
"Harrikens, Lilikens stole your eyes." George said in the way of a greeting.
"Funny." Harry shook his head, "I thought he'd be funnier, with owning a joke shop and all."
"Lilikens?" Lily asked grumpily, "I get Lilikens?"
"Initial nickname, it won't stick once we know the real you." George grinned at her then turned to Harry, "You're staying Harrikens. Do you fly?"
"On broomsticks we do." Lily clarified just in case.
"Dad, we close in five and mum will not be happy if we're late for dinner, again." The same young man from before said on his way past, "I've cleaned everything we just need to lock up."
"Go ahead and tell mum I'm bringing three guests." George grinned and shot a spell at the door then turned to Hermione, "If that's ok?"
"Won't she kill you for bringing extras at the last minute." Hermione hesitated.
"No, the kids do it all the time, she's prepared." George insisted, "You remember Angelina? We married shortly after you left."
"I always did like those three girls." Hermione gave in, "Nicest ones in Gryffindor."
"Come on she'll love to see you again." George nudged her arm.
"Just making sure, those four won't be there, right?" she asked.
"No, they're not invited." George grinned, "But you are."
"Fine." She gave in.
"We have a group of portals back here and one takes us home." George led the way to the back of the shop.
"Where to the others lead?" Lily asked when they saw three doorways.
"Right is home, middle is the Hogsmeade branch and left is Diagon Alley Branch." George answered, "We don't man the other two stores. All stock is here, and we get an alarm if anyone enters those building. They all lock when this one does."
"Why keep them open?" Harry asked.
"There are still kids in Hogwarts." George explained, "I promised your dad that I would make sure they had their pranking needs met. Once the school closes at the end of this year. I'll close them down and consider my promise fulfilled in Britain. I will continue here in France."
"Neat." Lily grinned as George turned and walked through the right-side door.
The three followed and George waited until they were all in before he tapped a rune by the door, effectively turning it off. He then showed them into the rest of the house.
"In the kitchen." Angelina's voice rang out.
"Ladies first." He grinned.
"If she hexes me…" Hermione let the threat hang.
Hermione walked into the kitchen first and found Angelina with her head out the backdoor yelling for kids. Two girls entered from that door while a boy entered from the same door Hermione had used.
"Smells good Angelina." Hermione grinned when the woman spun around.
"Hi." She looked confused a moment before her eyes widened, "Hermione!"
She rushed across the kitchen to pull the other woman into a hug, "Oh, my gracious, it's so good to see you. How are you?"
"I'm good." Hermione pulled back, "These are my children, Harry and Lily Potter. Kids this is Angelina Weasley, quidditch queen of Gryffindor."
"Nice to meet you." Lily and Harry said together.
"Let me introduce you to the Kids." Angelina had only paused for a second before she turned to where her children were by the table, "Roxanne and Fred are our kids and Victoire is Bill and Fleurs. Ted will be down in a moment."
"He's working at the shop but came home before you arrived." George whispered, "We took him in when Andromeda died about ten years ago."
"I'm here." Ted declared as he entered the door, "Sorry I didn't want to eat in my uniform."
"Ted." Fred passed him on his way to change clothes, "Harry and Lily Potter and their mum."
"Hermione Potter." George added for everyone's benefit.
"Did George tell you what Ginny's doing now?" Angelina asked in a whisper as the kids started to get to know one another.
"No." Hermione wasn't sure she wanted to know.
"Holy Head Harpies for the last ten years." She told her, "National team starting this fall. She plans to use the international travel to find you."
"She plans on finding you, getting that vial and the gold." George added, "I'll be absolutely thrilled to tell her she's too late."
"At our ministry, all our information was declared a national secret." Hermione shrugged, "If she comes asking for me, my parents or the kids she'll be detained and questioned. If she answers wrong, she'll be banned from the county."
Angelina blinked in shock for a moment before she asked, "How?"
"I met the minister my first day in the county." She grinned, "After I took my NEWT's he hired me. What Voldemort did, what we put a stop to, was so evil that they refuse to let the information be known outside the unspeakables. I can't talk about it at all. If any British citizen asks about my former or current identity, that of my parents or children, or anything involving Voldemort they are detained on the spot. They will not get the information, but their reasons for looking determine how quickly they exit the county."
"What's for dinner?" Fred asked as he arrived freshly changed into muggle clothes.
"Shepard's pie." Angelina answered.
"Again?" Fred whined.
"No." Angelina chuckled, "I just like seeing that dejected look on your face."
"Thank Merlin." Fred sighed with relief, "So what are we having?"
"Sausages with onion gravy." Angelina answered and turned to Hermione, "We can eat on the terrace and let the kids have the kitchen table."
"That sounds good." Hermione agreed.
Once the children were occupied with food the adults settled with their plates outside.
"Have you been to Britain yet?" George asked for an opening.
"I was the person you talked to a few days ago." Hermione grinned before it fell, "I also visited the ministry. It was unbelievable. How are muggleborns not just taking over the place?"
"You need to not do that again." George sighed and covered his face, "You may not have kept up with the news, but you were declared public enemy number one when you didn't go register. They have a kiss on sight order for you."
"I used Harry's cloak." Hermione assured him, "No one knew I was there."
"Good, at least I don't have to convince you how bad it is. Just don't go back." George sighed, "We have a British muggle-born committee here in France that keeps an eye on muggle-borns back home. As soon as they have their first bout of accidental magic they move to speak with the family. They used to let them choose, but after the fifth time a family decided to keep their child away from magic and it died in a weird accident, they stopped listening. Now if a family declines, they show them the statistics. If they still refuse then they lose the child in a weird accident, except now they create the weird accident, and the child is brought here."
"Hogwarts only accepts purebloods now." Angelina added.
"What will they do after the last class goes through?" Hermione asked, "What happens to the library and the castle?"
"A few years ago, I managed to create a spell that will fool the protection spells used to keep people from copying books in the library." George admitted, "I visited Hogwarts and used the cataloging spell in the library, and it gave me a list of every book, magazine and newspaper in the library, and a few other places I visited. I brought the list home, and we began the search. If a book in the library wasn't available anywhere else or very few copies, I went back and copied it and left the copy."
"Who is the headmaster?" she asked.
"Theodore Nott." George chuckled, "It was easy avoiding him when I went."
"I just find it so hard to believe that they blame it all on Harry." Hermione sighed.
"They do what now?" George asked.
"While I was at the ministry, I heard Ron and Malfoy talking." She grinned, "They're trying to figure out how and when Harry hexed them to only have one child and the rest die or are born squibs."
"Unbelievable." Angelina huffed, "We've told Ron why things are that way and we've told them why we left. They just want a someone to blame other than themselves."
"Ron always was that way." Hermione sighed and picked up her wine glass.
"I couldn't agree more." George grinned, "Do you have a place to stay?"
"We're staying in a hotel with a view of the tower." She smiled, "We're going to have to leave soon to check in."
"The shop will be closed tomorrow for family day." Angelina said, "We get together once a month with Bill and his family, Charlie and Arthur. Molly died a few years ago and Ginny doesn't have time in her quidditch star schedule for family, Ron refuses to come to France and Percy is always busy at the British ministry with no time for silly chats. You and the kids are invited to come."
"My condolences for you mother, I didn't know." Hermione offered.
"Well, she brought it on herself." George said, "Dad refused to make the three of us go to a family dinner at the Burrow with the three of them. She went off the deep end screaming that she wanted all the family she had left, together in one place. I refuse to be put in a position where my family and my choices are belittled. My wife doesn't deserve that, my children don't deserve that, and I don't deserve that. Bill and Charlie are the same. Therefore, we refused to be in the presence of Percy, Ron and Ginny and to a certain extent, our mother."
"She wouldn't make them stop belittling us." Angelina frowned, "She just expected us to accept it and realize we were wrong."
"She got so mad that day that she had a heart attack." George shook his head, "Evidently, she had a heart condition since the battle for Hogwarts but had ignored all the advice from the healers."
"Wow." Hermione shook her head, "That's…"
"Stupid." George huffed, "But at least now I don't have to feel bad about avoiding and disliking my own mother."
"They did try to save her." Angelina patted George's shoulder, "Her health was just so bad from her condition that there wasn't anything the healers could do."
"What time should we arrive tomorrow?" Hermione asked changing the subject.
"Any time after ten in the morning." George beamed at her, "I can't wait to see the stupid looks on my brothers faces. I just hope they're more shocked than I was."
"Was he more shocked than I was?" Angelina asked.
"Yes." Hermione grinned, "His mouth was gaping open, and he was looking back and forth between me and the kids."
"That was the least surprising part." Angelina nudged George, "I've told him for years that you used it. He didn't think you would."
"I never found anyone I thought was good enough for Harry." She shrugged, "I didn't find anyone as good as Harry, so I took the option. I officially changed my name to Potter before I used it."
"Good for you!" George grinned, "I'm glad I was wrong."