Epic Proportions: Genealogy: Resilience
The rest of the day flew by for Hermione. She missed breakfast, lunch, and almost dinner if Dobby hadn't popped in with a tray laden with food.
He had to make a few scuffling sounds before she noticed an extra individual's presence in the room, she was so intent in her studying. She whirled around in her chair, her wand clasped tightly in her white-knuckled hand. As soon as she realized it was Dobby, she relaxed. "I'm sorry, Dobby. I wasn't expecting anyone to be in my room."
"No, no! It is Dobby who is most sorry for scaring Miss!" He offered the food out to her. "Where should Dobby put the food for Miss? Harry Potter and his friend came to Dobby concerned that Miss had not been down to eat and asked Dobby if Dobby could bring Miss food!"
She cleared her desk off, meticulously arranging all the notes she had been going through before Dobby's arrival. "Here is fine."
Dobby set the tray down, cautious not to hit anything off her desk. "Miss, Dobby heard about your loss. Dobby is most sorry."
Hermione's eyes widened. How much did he know? How much did anyone know about her predicament? "How did you find out?" She asked, right before picking up a piece of orange, suddenly feeling the emptiness in her stomach.
"The Headmaster announced that Miss's parents were killed." He noticed she had stopped nibbling on her food. "Keep eating Miss! Must stay healthy for the rest of the school year!"
"Dobby, I have to know, did he say anything else?"
Dobby narrowed his eyes in thought. "No, that was it, Miss. But please eat! Dobby shall be very upset if you don't and Harry Potter and friend of Harry Potter will be upset too!"
She took a larger bite of the delicious looking chicken on her plate. And then another one, it was so good. Dobby looked on with a critical eye as she finished everything on the tray.
She leaned back in her chair, emotions high-strung. She closed her eyes but opened them a short while later to see Dobby still standing beside her. "Dobby, do you know where Harry and Ron are right now?"
"Harry Potter and friend are outside the door, Miss!"
She opened her mouth to speak but couldn't find the words she was looking for. She opted to just close it again. Pushing the tray a little further from the edge of the desk, she stood up and walked to the door of her room, pulling it open to see two sheepish males.
Ron held out something in his hand, "we brought desert?"
The irritated look on her face slid off as she pulled them both into her room. "You...!" Words failed her.
"Look Ron! I think she loves us!" Harry teased, grabbing Hermione for a hug. "On a more serious note, how are you holding up?"
"I'm doing all right, I suppose. All things considering." She brushed her hair out of her eyes.
"All right enough to finish off all the food we had Dobby send up," Ron added to it, looking dismayed at the empty plate. "Not even a little left for me?"
"I thought you brought desert, Ron," Hermione asked as Harry let go and Ron hugged her.
"Mmm. Chocolate frogs. It was all I could find at the last minute. I thought about bringing the Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, but then I realized all that was left were the ones we weren't sure about."
They all goofed around a little more, not even noticing when Dobby left. After about ten minutes, things settled, and Hermione was weighing in her mind whether or not to tell them. It was a fast mental debate, of course she would tell them! They were her friends! They helped each other through everything.
All three were comfortably seated on her bed, enjoying the confidence each person's aura gave off.
"I'm about to go into the Viper's Nest."
"That has got to be the most random sentence I have ever heard you make, Hermione," Harry said to her, smiling slightly.
"I found out something about myself I hadn't known. Something no one knew."
Wisely, Ron and Harry stayed quiet through all of this.
"When I took the potion in Snape's class, I figured nothing would happen since I wasn't from a wizard family, like with you Harry, since your mother was muggleborn. Instead, I actually had something appear and it was the coat-of-arms of Slytherin. Naturally I was familiar with it from all my studies of the History of Magic. Last night, when Dumbledore came to tell me about my parents'…" She swallowed a lump in her throat. "…Deaths, he told me the truth of my adoption. Apparently I am the daughter of Circe Slytherin and Ethan Flamel. They put me up for adoption to keep me safe from Hyperian Slytherin and other evils he is connected to. I figure he already has custody over me."
Harry looked confused. "But you're so close to eighteen, it won't matter much, will it?"
Hermione through her hands up in the air in mock-exasperation. "Honestly! Don't you ever pay attention in class? Until you graduate from a Magic school, you MUST have an adult to represent you, no matter whether Muggle or Wizard. It would not surprise me if Dumbledore isn't already corresponding with Nicolas Flamel to fight Slytherin in court, since they are, after all, close friends. Unfortunately I haven't got any other muggle relatives." The stereotypical "I-can't-believe-you" face accompanied this tirade.
"Now, back to what I was saying," she started up again, emotion devoid from her voice, focused completely on the task at hand. "I will undoubtedly be forced to endure their company and I plan on learning as much as I can from them. The problem at hand is I need to know them better. That's where you two will come in. I need both of you to help me find every little bit of research or newspaper information on them as possible in case it may give me any insight to their character so I can better recognize when they are hiding something or acting suspicious."
She stopped talking when she noticed Ron and Harry sharing a look over her head. "Hermione," Ron started gently. "I realize it is common for people to want vengeance right after something horrible has happened, but don't you think it might be better if you don't get yourself killed from Day One?"
She looked at him with disbelief. "You don't think I can do this!" She accused.
"Ron didn't say that, Hermione, he just wants you to be careful. It would be awful if anything happened to you. We care for you too much to lose you now."
Her back stiffened as she sat straighter. "I'm doing nothing. I want to join the battle more directly and this is how I will. I will do this with or without your help." She met Harry's eyes defiantly.
Finally Harry shrugged and sighed. When Hermione got like this there was absolutely no reasoning with her. "Fine. I promise to help you with whatever you need."
Ron's eyes widened dramatically. "What do you mean, Harry? You're actually going to help her get herself killed?!" He put his head in his hands. "Great, now both my friends aren't right in the head!"
"Come on, Ron, you know just as well as I do Hermione won't take no for an answer. She'll either nag us to death or do it herself. If we do it this way, we won't have to hear her nag, and I'd feel better knowing I was helping her."
Hermione wasn't sure whether she should bristle or smile.
Harry pulled her into another hug. "Hermione, just as you have always supported me, I'll do whatever I can for you. I don't know what I would have done without your knowledge about everything. I'd probably be dead now."
Hermione gave him a wan and tired smile. 'Both of you have this nasty habit of underestimating yourselves. I have full confidence you two can accomplish anything you put your mind to." She punctuated her encouragement with a large yawn.
Ron and Harry stood up and made their way towards the door. "Well, obviously you're tired so we'll let you go to bed now. I s'pose you'll need your rest for all these plans you've got," Ron said, opening the door.
"We just wanted to make sure you were ok and not getting over your head. I think we were too late for the second one." Harry grinned, closing the door behind him just before the pillow hit the door.
About 7:30 Thursday morning, Hermione was already downstairs at the Gryffindor table absently nibbling away at a few pieces of toast and some bacon. Her mind was still in another world, thinking about her parents.
Breakfast was a family tradition at the Granger household. Hermione inadvertently became a morning person because her parents would never allow her to sleep in. They believed the best way to start off a day was with a healthy breakfast together.
Well, she'd never have that again.
Harry and Ron dragged themselves out of bed and joined her thirty minutes later.
"Sleep well, 'Mione?" Ron forced out between two huge bites of scrambled eggs.
She smiled slightly. "I did all right, all things considering. Could you pass the jam?" She pulled her wayward hair back quickly to keep it from getting in her food. It had an irritating habit of it. "What about both of you? Did you get plenty of rest for the Quidditch practice you have this evening? I imagine you're starting early to get an advantage over the other teams?" She raised an eyebrow.
"You know us too well, Hermione," Harry grinned. "Will you be working on the research in the meantime?"
"Naturally. Will you..." she tapered off for a moment. "Will you join me later on and help out?"
Ron grimaced. "Well, we said we would, didn't we? Ronald Weasley never goes back on his word!" He said, sitting up straighter in his chair with a proud grin on his face.
"Thanks," Hermione added dryly. "I feel all the more confident now." She stood up and headed towards the doors that lead closest to the library. "See you both later! Don't get hurt yourselves! And oh! I'm not going to be in class today, so would you two PLEASE for ONCE take good notes?"
As the boys watched her leave, Ron turned to Harry. "What'd she mean by that?!"
Harry laughed at Ron's sullen expression once understanding seemed to kick in. "Other then that, what do you think about how she's holding up?
"Honestly, I'm waiting for her burnout. She's emotionally scarred, and now she wants to work all the time on putting some stop to her family. She's going to get sick soon. Mum would tell her to just sit down outside somewhere and have a good cry. Mum's good at stuff like that."
Harry frowned speculatively. "I'm surprised your mum hasn't written to Hermione yet. Do you think she's heard yet?"
Ron snorted and took another gulp of juice. "Of course she's heard! Even I saw all the different stares from the tables during breakfast either. I think everybody in the Wizarding world has heard about it. After all, she's Harry Potter's muggleborn best friend. That's newsworthy."
Harry's head hit the table with a thud, jarring the condiments nearby. "Poor Hermione."
Poor Hermione was right. She had the Daily Prophet in one hand, and her knapsack in the other. While it was two days after the murder, she knew there would still be some mention of her parents in the paper, most likely speculation as to what happened.
As she walked through the hall, each student who saw her would give her sympathetic glances, but few came up to her to inquire to her well being. All in all, she preferred it that way. The looks were hard enough to bear.
Information on Salazar Slytherin was easy to come by, and it was only a little harder to find some concerning his descendants.
In the History of Magic class, Binns often skipped over tales about the Slytherin family, somehow aware that it was a dangerous topic to address in any class. That's really deserving of credit on his part, considering he never noticed when the occupants of the front row of desks took lengthy naps throughout the lectures. Or the second row. Funny enough, the third row napped often as well, except when it was the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff class. Hermione always paid complete attention.
Hogwarts, a History, mentioned Slytherin, but only in vague terms. It talked about the Chamber of Secrets, but Hermione knew all about that from Harry, and her investigations into the petrification of the students. It touched a little onto the founding of Hogwarts, and Slytherins beliefs about the admittance of the children of muggle parents.
Hermione slumped back into the chair and stared intently at the book. Something looked...off. And then she saw it. She noticed that there seemed to be two pages stuck together in her copy of the book. She must have accidently gotten food on it during one of the many times she read it during lunch. Recently, Hermione took to carrying it around with her for whenever she had a chance to read it again, and just forgot to take it out of her book bag.
With interest, she slowly and cautiously pulled the pages apart, excitement building up in her stomach. How ironic that of all the pages she skipped throughout her numerous readings of the book, it would relate to what she was researching right then? Much less that she noticed it only now.
There were no pictures on the pages, and that made Hermione even happier. The more to read, the more to treasure the knowledge gifted to her for a longer period of time. There was something about words that she loved. Words are a never-ending jigsaw puzzle. You could put them in any order, and it made a new picture.
"Salazar Slytherin was renowned for his intense dislike of muggleborns and their presence in Hogwarts. Prophecies concerning Slytherin were in an abundance, one of the most notable and mysterious being the one in which his final heir is first mentioned. Slytherin remained living in Hogwarts and watching the children grow and learn, firmly set in his ways. Rumor has it, that he became close to one of the students during his last year living, and during this time, prophesied the coming of his final heir, the one who would complete all his ideals to create his perfect world. This heir would know all of his secrets and be able to find certain heirlooms that would apparently aid the heir in a personal quest. Salazar was to hide them where only the heir could find. Naturally, with the presence of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, people had no doubt who the heir really was."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at the last line of the passage. "People had no doubt." But that does not mean he really was the heir. Obviously even Voldemort had his doubts if he felt he had to destroy the remaining Slytherin family. Fate always had a way of ensuring the future was carried out. What if it was one of HER descendants who was the true heir? Chances were slim, she knew, but chances were chances. This made the entire situation just that much more dangerous. No wonder Voldemort had felt threatened by the Slytherin family.
Just then, something clicked in her mind. Dumbledore told her the prophecy was to be fulfilled by a female. Voldemort was definitely male, last she heard. That meant there had to be more information she had yet to find. Information of a much more specific nature that was hidden from the general public. Obviously Dumbledore was privy to the information, but Hermione had no idea if he would be willing to tell her right now. Dumbledore had that annoying habit of hiding information from the people most affected.
She poured through the rest of the historical books she thought might contain information about Slytherin and the prophecy, but to no avail. She could find little to help her with what she needed. There was plenty of worthless information, though. And things that she already knew. That left one more thing to try: the Restricted Section. As Head Girl, Hermione was given permission to access the Restricted Section whenever she pleased, which greatly pleased her since she would no longer have to sneak in there.
She made her way there, nodding briefly to Madam Pince and waiting for the Librarian to acknowledge her permission for Hermione to enter. Being liked by the majority of the faculty was a nice benefit for Hermione.
Hermione spent two more hours sorting through the books but getting nowhere. Dejectedly, she turned around, almost running into Professor Dumbledore.
"I'm so-"
He raised a hand before she could finish, silencing her. "It's fine, Ms. Granger." His eyes surveyed the area. "Looking for information on your family?"
Hermione lowered her eyes, somewhat ashamed. "Yes, sir."
"That's nothing to be ashamed of, Ms. Granger. It's normal to have an interest in your family. I take it you did not find anything?"
Dumbledore was not surprised when she said, "no, sir."
"I believe I may have some books in my personal library that will help you. I fear it will take me some time to locate them, so why don't you stop by tomorrow before classes start? That will give you time to get breakfast and read them while the others are in class."
Only tomorrow? Hermione scrunched her nose. She hated to wait when she knew something was right there, practically within her grasp. "That would be wonderful, Professor Dumbledore. I appreciate it."
Dumbledore cleared his throat. "I do admit I have some ulterior motives. There are some issues I need to speak with you about concerning the role your new-found family will have in your life starting now. Normally I would like to get it over with as soon as possible, but seeing what hour it is, you will need your sleep to better understand the books I'll loan you."
Hermione refrained from groaning. She did not even want to think about what she would have to do with the Slytherins, or what they would expect from her. "That's fine. Thank you again, Professor Dumbledore."
He watched her walk out of the Restricted Section, her head held high. He could feel the girl's emotions coming off her in waves. She was strong, Dumbledore admitted. She reminded him a lot of another amazing woman who attended Hogwarts some years ago. Lily Evans did wonderful things with her power, and he had full confidence Hermione Granger would be just as amazing.
Ouch. Our school's football team just lost to UT. 49-0. Eek. Feel sorry for the roommate - she had to suffer through the whole thing as a member of the band. Anyway, dreadfully sorry about how long it takes me to update X_x. I keep getting sick, and college FLIES by. I feel as though I've been here MAYBE a month.
Things are starting to pick up in the story, finally, and Hermione gets to meet the family a lot earlier than she wanted to. At the moment I think I know who I'm going to pair her with, but I may come up with something else. I'm always open to suggestions.
A few notes about the story:
The Slytherin family. As a rule, I tend to HATE fanfics that bring in new characters unless brought in slowly. Hopefully I can write them into this in such a way the rest of you grow to 'like' them as much as I do. Personally, I find them fascinating and can't wait to further play with their personalities.
OotP: I'm going to say this happens after OotP because I can. I will confess to you all that I'm rather rusty on OotP, so be warned. Most of what happened won't have a big play in this anyway, so I don't think you all need to be too worried.
Yeah, yeah. Hermione's not a muggleborn. Cliche. Bite me. At least her parents are unique. THBBBBT!
Hint. Hint. Review.