Hermione awoke slowly, to the sterile smell of the hospital wing. Try as she might, she couldn't quite remember how she had gotten there, scattered sensations of warmth and safety muddled her brain, and it took her a while to actually remember the glade and the meeting.
She tenderly sat up, how had she gotten so sore? It felt as if she had been run over by a flock of wild horses. She had barely gotten upright before madam Pomfrey was at her side.
"Well, good morning dear. Let me just check you before you go"
"But madam Pomfrey, how did I get here? And why?"
"Well, I found you here early this morning under a severe stunning spell, just about the same time professor Snape came back from one of those 'meetings' and I thought I'd let you sleep in… stunning spells have a rather nasty effect on the body if not rested properly afterwards"
Hermione and Harry had known about professor Snape since the end of their fourth year, when Harry had overheard a conversation between professors Dumbledore and Snape.
"I was out walking, and suddenly everything went black, are you sure I didn't just bump my head?"
"You know better than to second guess my judgement, that and professor Snape told me he had stunned you thinking you were an animal about to attack him, imagine his surprise when he finds one of Hogwarts brightest students out in the middle of the forbidden forest! Oh and the headmaster wants to see you when you are done here"
Hermione lowered her head in shame and walked slowly out of the room, she had been found in the forbidden forest, by the most biased professor in the school no less! She was going to be expelled, so close to finishing her education, AND she had missed her birthday party. She was thoroughly miserable by the time she was outside the gargoyle and trying to guess the right password.
"Jelly beans… Sour slugs… Sugar quill… lemon drop… candy apple…tenderheart toffee…"
Giving up she looked closely at the gargoyle
"Professor Dumbledore is expecting me"
The gargoyle swung aside without a sound, letting her continue her death-march up into his office. As she entered the first thing she looked at was the phoenix, Fawkes was tidying his beautiful coat of what looked like extremely new feathers. Noticing her, the bird let out a trilling note, without a doubt trying to comfort her.
"Miss Granger I assume"
A muffled voice was heard behind a curtain that she supposed was hiding the door to the headmasters study.
"Yes professor? Am I disturbing you?"
"Of course not my dear, I wasn't expecting you so early on a Sunday morning"
Hermione checked her watch and saw that it was still very early; breakfast hadn't even started yet.
"I'm sorry sir, I can come back later"
Headmaster Dumbledore chuckled as he came through the curtain still wearing his nightcap.
"It's no trouble my dear, now have a seat so we can talk about these recent developments shall we?"
"I am so sorry, I wasn't thinking and I don't even remember going into the forest, was as if I was talking to you and blinked and then suddenly was there, please don't expel me"
"Why on earth would I expel you? I haven't had any complaints about you since you started here almost seven years ago! No my dear, I meant to talk to you about your parentage"
"My parentage…-"
Then it hit her; they had been talking about her in the clearing.
"They were talking about me in that clearing, weren't they?"
"Yes, now I must ask you to relive the evening… I think it best to use a pensieve so we get see all the details, professor Snape has already given me a detailed description up until early this morning when he left the infirmary. I admit that I was surprised that the meeting was about you almost as much as I was surprised at how he found you. Before we begin, I must stress that this is optional but that I think it would be best to have all sides of the gathering to hunt out details"
Hermione felt her heart sink at the mention of mind magic; it was her one weakness; she was absolutely terrified of it.
"Sir, can I just tell you instead? I'm not… comfortable with mind magic of any kind…"
"I had expected this… very well, tell me as much as you remember"
"Well I was just coming from a check up in the infirmary on my way to the common room where the boys had thrown me a birthdayparty, or at least I think they had. Then I ran into you, and you told me that I was turning 18 and not 17 as I had thought, the next thing I know I'm sitting underneath a willow tree watching the ripples on the surface of a small pond and listening to the wind. I heard something rustling in the undergrowth and thought it was a beast wanting an easy meal, so I crept back against the tree trunk and the branches lowered and hid me from view. When the noise got louder I got curious and looked out through the branches, I saw a gathering of people, well at first I didn't realise they were human because they were all kneeling, in the middle of their circle a man stood looking at them, that when I realised that they were human, when he pulled down his hood."
Hermione hesitated a little, blushing at the thought of her finding lord Voldemort attractive.
"He was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, he looked so cold, like he had no soul… He was pale with blue eyes and messy black hair; he looked to be about 20. In a way he was terrifying, there was no feeling in his eyes… and all the heat was sucked out of the clearing when he arrived… He looked around and then started telling about the halfblooded witch and said that it was a job for his most trusted spy to form an alliance with her before she turned 18… that's all I remember, when they left I got up to see if I could find my way back, and everything went black"
Professor Dumbledore nodded lightly.
"That was in essence what our good professor told me, well except for the description of Voldemort, but he hates him so deeply that he would probably look the same if he were prancing around in a clown suite to him"
Hermione giggled despite herself, imagining lord Voldemort dancing around in a clown suite and making balloon animals.
"That's right my dear, laughing is the first step to getting rid of the fear"
"So I'm not a muggleborn, but a half-elf?"
Hermione quickly changed topics, wanting to know but dreading the answer.
"In a sense yes, but your parents are still your parents, your mother is still the one who gave birth to you and your father still helped raise you. So in spirit nothing has changed, and in a way everything has, you are now 18 and so your powers will start blossoming very soon, if they haven't already. You are physically a copy of your mother without the restrictions she is under, but you must remember that you are yourself and not your mother… you've had a different upbringing and a different personality and many different experiences, you are a different person than her."
"But can't you lift the restrictions?"
"It would be far too dangerous, she has no training and an untrained witch in her age is almost impossible to train correctly, especially such a powerful witch, she is too set in her ways"
"Oh, I understand..."
"The most important thing right now is to get you trained, until you graduate you will have advanced classes and training sessions, after that I'd suggest you get an apprenticeship here, so you can train and still study for whatever you want to be… I know you were hopping to go to the university in Wales, but an apprenticeship with any of the Hogwarts staff would give you the same qualifications as a university degree "
"I don't think that I would be able to get an apprenticeship as what I want to become"
"Well what would you like to become?"
"A potions misstress"