Disclaimer - Not mine, don't sue.
It has been brought to my attention that Ron's eye color is in fact blue not brown so I apologize for making them brown in the previous chapter. Thank you to Tickle The Dragon for pointing this out to me.
I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed so far, so - thanks!
To answer of your questions the romance really won't start for a while. Sorry. I promise that the action will start in this chapter or the next though so it will be a little more interesting for you. 'Mione is Hermione's nickname. It's easier than typing Hermione all the time so I use it when they're just talking sometimes. I think that's all the questions. If you have any more feel free to ask.
I want to give a huge thanks to Weasley Pride and Casper; my beta-readers.
-=-=-=-
Hermione lay awake in her bed for a long time before sleep found her. Parvati and Lavender were chattering incessantly from their beds, but that wasn't what kept her awake. She was once again thinking about her parents. The canopy above her bed billowed softly in the breeze and she watched it until sleep finally took its claim on her, and she drifted off.
The next day classes started. She groggily pulled on her school uniform and robes. The Commonroom was full of bustling students trying to find their quills and talking excitedly about their lessons. The first years all stood in a little bunch near the corner of the room. Hermione felt sorry for them; their first lesson of the year was Potions with Slytherin.
Harry and Ron were sitting on a couch playing Wizard Chess in an attempt to calm their nerves. Hermione joined them, but both were so absorbed in the game that they didn't notice until Ron had defeated Harry.
"Hey, 'Mione." Harry said and collected his broken pieces. He placed them side-by-side in their box and closed the lid so they could go about repairing themselves.
"Morning, Harry. Morning, Ron." Hermione yawned and stretched. The first day of classes was always tiring, even before it started.
Breakfast was served in the Commonrooms to give the students one less thing to do in the morning. The threesome each grabbed a scone and a piece of fruit and ate them on the way to their first class, Charms.
There were only a few other students in the classroom when they arrived. They quickly took seats near the middle of the room before they were all taken. Their fellow classmates filed through the door in little clusters, and soon the bell rang to start class.
"Good morning, students!" Flitwick squeaked from atop his podium in front of his desk. "Now, since this is your first day back we won't have a real lesson. All I want you to do is review your charms from last year. One by one you will perform your favorite one for me and then after everyone has completed that you are dismissed." A cheer swelled from the students and wands were quickly whipped out to start practicing.
Hermione, Harry, and Ron practiced quickly and mastered their charms before everyone else so they could have a chance to talk.
"Hermione are you sure you're going to go through with this whole talk to Dumbledore thing?" Ron whispered out of hearing range of everyone else. "I mean, do you realize how much you're risking?"
"I never thought I'd see the day where you were the voice of reason, Ron." Hermione smiled a bit but it quickly faded when the matter at hand reentered her mind. "And yes I'm sure. I need to know where I came from. Is that a crime?"
"No, of course not. It's just-" Hermione quickly cut him off after his answer.
"Then why are you treating me like a criminal?" She always had a way with turning people's words back on them. It was one of her many talents.
"Just forget it." Ron sighed and sat back in his chair, careful not to make eye contact with Hermione or Harry. Harry hadn't joined in on their little quarrel, he never did. He never knew whose side to take. Either way he went, someone would end up mad at him, so he stayed out. Now, it was his turn to reason with Hermione.
"Are you feeling okay, 'Mione?" Harry moved over to sit in the empty chair next to her. His eyes were filled with concern when he lifted up her face to look at him.
"Fine. I just really wish you two would support me on this instead of trying to stop me. I need to do this Harry; I have to do this." She tried to smile at him but failed when tears began to gather at the corners of her eyes. She brushed them away with the sleeve of her robe before anyone saw.
"We do support you. I promise. It's just, we don't want to see you get hurt." Harry took her hand in both of his and squeezed softly. Flitwick walked over to their table so they would perform their charms. Harry and Hermione completed theirs flawlessly but Ron, still angry, held his wand backwards and the charm aimed at the wall hit him and he found himself slowly turning into stone.
"Oh my God! Somebody help me!" Ron dropped his wand and flailed his arms around in an attempt to slow the transformation. Professor Flitwick quickly recovered from the initial shock of having one of his students turn to stone and preformed the opposite charm so soon Ron was back to normal. Hermione seemed to think that Ron had suffered enough for their quarrel and the two were talking again.
The rest of the day went by with no unexpected surprises unless you count Neville falling down the stairs and getting sent to the hospital wing, but you can hardly call that a surprise.
Hermione sat across from Harry at dinner. She loaded her plate up with various types of foods, but didn't eat anything; just pushed it around on her plate with her fork.
"You gonna eat that?" Ron said and pointed at her roll. She shook her head and handed it to him.
"Hermione, you haven't eaten anything." Harry commented when the plates cleared themselves. Hermione had always been thin but she always at least ate.
"Not hungry." She mumbled. "Too much on my mind, you know."
"Right." Ron and Harry said at the same time and then turned to talk to Seamus and Dean.
"I think I'm going to talk to Dumbledore after dinner." That caught their attention. They both whirled around looking rather startled.
"A-Are you sure? Absolutely positively one hundred percent sure?" Ron stuttered and nearly choked on the last piece of his chicken leg.
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Hermione muttered more to herself than to anyone else. "Let me repeat it one more time and then I'm not going to say it again. Yes, I'm sure. And I'm going to talk to him after dinner once he gets back into his office."
Neither Harry nor Ron said anything. They didn't know what to say. They just looked at the table and nodded. They knew they couldn't stop her and there was no point in trying.
After dinner, they each hugged her and wished her luck before she made her way to Dumbledore's office for their meeting. She said the password (Chocolate Frog) and climbed the spiral staircase into the circular room. The Professor was busy filling out many rolls of parchment at his desk.
"Umm - Professor? I was wondering if I could talk to you." Hermione said quietly and approached the desk. He looked up from his work and gave her a small smile.
"Of course Ms. Granger. Please, do sit down." He summoned a chair from the corner of the room for her. He folded his hands over the papers and waited while she sat down. "What is it you wanted?"
"Well sir, you see, I found out this summer that I was adopted. And I was wondering if you could tell me a little more about my parents. You know, my real ones. I only know they were students here." She said the last three sentences all in one breath but he managed to catch it all.
"I was wondering when they were going to tell you." He smiled and the familiar light twinkled in his eyes. "Let's see, you're parents as I remember them were some of the most diverse in their year. Your mother was in Ravenclaw. Smart as a whip that one. They both were. Guess it's genetic." He winked at her. "She was a school Prefect too."
"You're father was in Slytherin." She cringed at this. A Slytherin? "He was very cunning. Always thinking of ways to outwit his classmates. They both liked to do that from time to time. Incredibly bright, they were. If I recall this correctly, they got married only a few days after graduation, hopelessly in love. No one thought they would ever make it, being in different houses as they were, but they did. Professor Snape was crushed when they wed-"
"Snape? What does he have to do with my parents?" Hermione cut in, not caring whether she was being rude or not.
"Well, your father was his best friend back in their school days. Did almost everything together. Rather inseparable, much like yourself and Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley. When they got married, your father and Professor Snape drifted apart. I don't know if they talked after the wedding. Your parents moved to Hogsmeade and Professor Snape came to work for me."
Hermione was wide eyed. Snape, her father's best friend? This was just too weird. The man she hated most was the man who had at one time been closest to her birth father. She shook her head in disbelief.
"And where are they n-now?" She asked quietly; not able to look up at him.
"I believe they still reside in Hogsmeade. They run a bookshop if I'm not mistaken." He answered her carefully. He had always been able to steer clear of making his students more upset than they already were by knowing the right thing to say and how to say it.
"Thank you Professor." Hermione stood and quietly made her way out of the room. Dumbledore gave her a reassuring smile and returned to his paperwork.
The walk back to the Commonroom seemed to take a long time. The hallway grew as she walked down, staring straight ahead. How would she ever be able to hate Snape with the same vengeance again? From time to time her shoulder would bump into the wall but she took no notice of it. She was in a daze and oblivious to the world around her.
Harry and Ron were waiting up for her when she finally arrived in the room. She lowered herself onto the couch next to Ron and just sat, not looking at anything. Slowly, she started to shake, and once she started she didn't stop. It was almost as if she was shivering only she wasn't cold. Her emotions had numbed her out and she was empty, not feeling anything.
The next day, she didn't remember Harry and Ron carrying her up the stairs, frightening her roommates when they took her to bed, or tucking her in. She didn't remember their worried expressions or the way they talked in hushed voices while she was shaking on the couch. All she remembered was that she had parents, and that they were alive.
-=-=-=-
That's it for chapter four. See? I told you the plot would kind of start to develop. It gets more complicated though, I promise. Anyway I hope you enjoyed it. It was a bear to write. No inspiration.
Sorry it took so long to get up. I have been so uninspired but I finally decided I had to just sit down and write it anyway so if it sucks, I blame that. Sorry. REVIEW!
It has been brought to my attention that Ron's eye color is in fact blue not brown so I apologize for making them brown in the previous chapter. Thank you to Tickle The Dragon for pointing this out to me.
I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed so far, so - thanks!
To answer of your questions the romance really won't start for a while. Sorry. I promise that the action will start in this chapter or the next though so it will be a little more interesting for you. 'Mione is Hermione's nickname. It's easier than typing Hermione all the time so I use it when they're just talking sometimes. I think that's all the questions. If you have any more feel free to ask.
I want to give a huge thanks to Weasley Pride and Casper; my beta-readers.
-=-=-=-
Hermione lay awake in her bed for a long time before sleep found her. Parvati and Lavender were chattering incessantly from their beds, but that wasn't what kept her awake. She was once again thinking about her parents. The canopy above her bed billowed softly in the breeze and she watched it until sleep finally took its claim on her, and she drifted off.
The next day classes started. She groggily pulled on her school uniform and robes. The Commonroom was full of bustling students trying to find their quills and talking excitedly about their lessons. The first years all stood in a little bunch near the corner of the room. Hermione felt sorry for them; their first lesson of the year was Potions with Slytherin.
Harry and Ron were sitting on a couch playing Wizard Chess in an attempt to calm their nerves. Hermione joined them, but both were so absorbed in the game that they didn't notice until Ron had defeated Harry.
"Hey, 'Mione." Harry said and collected his broken pieces. He placed them side-by-side in their box and closed the lid so they could go about repairing themselves.
"Morning, Harry. Morning, Ron." Hermione yawned and stretched. The first day of classes was always tiring, even before it started.
Breakfast was served in the Commonrooms to give the students one less thing to do in the morning. The threesome each grabbed a scone and a piece of fruit and ate them on the way to their first class, Charms.
There were only a few other students in the classroom when they arrived. They quickly took seats near the middle of the room before they were all taken. Their fellow classmates filed through the door in little clusters, and soon the bell rang to start class.
"Good morning, students!" Flitwick squeaked from atop his podium in front of his desk. "Now, since this is your first day back we won't have a real lesson. All I want you to do is review your charms from last year. One by one you will perform your favorite one for me and then after everyone has completed that you are dismissed." A cheer swelled from the students and wands were quickly whipped out to start practicing.
Hermione, Harry, and Ron practiced quickly and mastered their charms before everyone else so they could have a chance to talk.
"Hermione are you sure you're going to go through with this whole talk to Dumbledore thing?" Ron whispered out of hearing range of everyone else. "I mean, do you realize how much you're risking?"
"I never thought I'd see the day where you were the voice of reason, Ron." Hermione smiled a bit but it quickly faded when the matter at hand reentered her mind. "And yes I'm sure. I need to know where I came from. Is that a crime?"
"No, of course not. It's just-" Hermione quickly cut him off after his answer.
"Then why are you treating me like a criminal?" She always had a way with turning people's words back on them. It was one of her many talents.
"Just forget it." Ron sighed and sat back in his chair, careful not to make eye contact with Hermione or Harry. Harry hadn't joined in on their little quarrel, he never did. He never knew whose side to take. Either way he went, someone would end up mad at him, so he stayed out. Now, it was his turn to reason with Hermione.
"Are you feeling okay, 'Mione?" Harry moved over to sit in the empty chair next to her. His eyes were filled with concern when he lifted up her face to look at him.
"Fine. I just really wish you two would support me on this instead of trying to stop me. I need to do this Harry; I have to do this." She tried to smile at him but failed when tears began to gather at the corners of her eyes. She brushed them away with the sleeve of her robe before anyone saw.
"We do support you. I promise. It's just, we don't want to see you get hurt." Harry took her hand in both of his and squeezed softly. Flitwick walked over to their table so they would perform their charms. Harry and Hermione completed theirs flawlessly but Ron, still angry, held his wand backwards and the charm aimed at the wall hit him and he found himself slowly turning into stone.
"Oh my God! Somebody help me!" Ron dropped his wand and flailed his arms around in an attempt to slow the transformation. Professor Flitwick quickly recovered from the initial shock of having one of his students turn to stone and preformed the opposite charm so soon Ron was back to normal. Hermione seemed to think that Ron had suffered enough for their quarrel and the two were talking again.
The rest of the day went by with no unexpected surprises unless you count Neville falling down the stairs and getting sent to the hospital wing, but you can hardly call that a surprise.
Hermione sat across from Harry at dinner. She loaded her plate up with various types of foods, but didn't eat anything; just pushed it around on her plate with her fork.
"You gonna eat that?" Ron said and pointed at her roll. She shook her head and handed it to him.
"Hermione, you haven't eaten anything." Harry commented when the plates cleared themselves. Hermione had always been thin but she always at least ate.
"Not hungry." She mumbled. "Too much on my mind, you know."
"Right." Ron and Harry said at the same time and then turned to talk to Seamus and Dean.
"I think I'm going to talk to Dumbledore after dinner." That caught their attention. They both whirled around looking rather startled.
"A-Are you sure? Absolutely positively one hundred percent sure?" Ron stuttered and nearly choked on the last piece of his chicken leg.
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Hermione muttered more to herself than to anyone else. "Let me repeat it one more time and then I'm not going to say it again. Yes, I'm sure. And I'm going to talk to him after dinner once he gets back into his office."
Neither Harry nor Ron said anything. They didn't know what to say. They just looked at the table and nodded. They knew they couldn't stop her and there was no point in trying.
After dinner, they each hugged her and wished her luck before she made her way to Dumbledore's office for their meeting. She said the password (Chocolate Frog) and climbed the spiral staircase into the circular room. The Professor was busy filling out many rolls of parchment at his desk.
"Umm - Professor? I was wondering if I could talk to you." Hermione said quietly and approached the desk. He looked up from his work and gave her a small smile.
"Of course Ms. Granger. Please, do sit down." He summoned a chair from the corner of the room for her. He folded his hands over the papers and waited while she sat down. "What is it you wanted?"
"Well sir, you see, I found out this summer that I was adopted. And I was wondering if you could tell me a little more about my parents. You know, my real ones. I only know they were students here." She said the last three sentences all in one breath but he managed to catch it all.
"I was wondering when they were going to tell you." He smiled and the familiar light twinkled in his eyes. "Let's see, you're parents as I remember them were some of the most diverse in their year. Your mother was in Ravenclaw. Smart as a whip that one. They both were. Guess it's genetic." He winked at her. "She was a school Prefect too."
"You're father was in Slytherin." She cringed at this. A Slytherin? "He was very cunning. Always thinking of ways to outwit his classmates. They both liked to do that from time to time. Incredibly bright, they were. If I recall this correctly, they got married only a few days after graduation, hopelessly in love. No one thought they would ever make it, being in different houses as they were, but they did. Professor Snape was crushed when they wed-"
"Snape? What does he have to do with my parents?" Hermione cut in, not caring whether she was being rude or not.
"Well, your father was his best friend back in their school days. Did almost everything together. Rather inseparable, much like yourself and Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley. When they got married, your father and Professor Snape drifted apart. I don't know if they talked after the wedding. Your parents moved to Hogsmeade and Professor Snape came to work for me."
Hermione was wide eyed. Snape, her father's best friend? This was just too weird. The man she hated most was the man who had at one time been closest to her birth father. She shook her head in disbelief.
"And where are they n-now?" She asked quietly; not able to look up at him.
"I believe they still reside in Hogsmeade. They run a bookshop if I'm not mistaken." He answered her carefully. He had always been able to steer clear of making his students more upset than they already were by knowing the right thing to say and how to say it.
"Thank you Professor." Hermione stood and quietly made her way out of the room. Dumbledore gave her a reassuring smile and returned to his paperwork.
The walk back to the Commonroom seemed to take a long time. The hallway grew as she walked down, staring straight ahead. How would she ever be able to hate Snape with the same vengeance again? From time to time her shoulder would bump into the wall but she took no notice of it. She was in a daze and oblivious to the world around her.
Harry and Ron were waiting up for her when she finally arrived in the room. She lowered herself onto the couch next to Ron and just sat, not looking at anything. Slowly, she started to shake, and once she started she didn't stop. It was almost as if she was shivering only she wasn't cold. Her emotions had numbed her out and she was empty, not feeling anything.
The next day, she didn't remember Harry and Ron carrying her up the stairs, frightening her roommates when they took her to bed, or tucking her in. She didn't remember their worried expressions or the way they talked in hushed voices while she was shaking on the couch. All she remembered was that she had parents, and that they were alive.
-=-=-=-
That's it for chapter four. See? I told you the plot would kind of start to develop. It gets more complicated though, I promise. Anyway I hope you enjoyed it. It was a bear to write. No inspiration.
Sorry it took so long to get up. I have been so uninspired but I finally decided I had to just sit down and write it anyway so if it sucks, I blame that. Sorry. REVIEW!