A/N: Hello, hello, hello!!! Have fun reading!! The chapter name is a play on the Movie title Finding Forester. And I still haven't made up my mind about the story title yet... I'm not sure what I want to do with it...
Alyssa Rose: The family info is coming…I just wanted to get a bit about Ginny's "experience" out before I send someone to visit her. And to the speediness of it, like I said, I'm not at home, so my chapters are going pretty fast, but I'll try and slow them down for you!! :)
Summary: What's up with Harry? Why are Hermione and Ginny disappearing all the time? Who is this enticing new Gryffindor? And just where in all hells is Ron? Reincarnation is a strange and dangerous thing that toys with the present in hopes that the present will somehow turn out like the past, but will the past repeat itself in this occurrence, or will the reincarnation of the great King Arthur fail to save the world as we know it from a foe greater than any seen in this word yet?
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
And We Thought it Was the End
Chapter 6
Finding Father
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June 16, 1997
Hermione Granger stretched luxuriously in bed and smiled in her sleep. The soft silk of her down comforter was sinfully comfortable and she didn't want to get up just yet. She wanted to take a jog around the grounds, but that could wait.
Soon she sighed knowing she'd have to get up sometime. Running a hand through her hair, she could feel the tangles and the knots and wild curls that were her own unique style of bed head: bush head.
She placed her feet on the soft carpet and dragged herself off the bed and into the bathroom. She turned on the shower to its hottest and climbed in, clothes and all.
Her curses were heard several rooms down the hallway and one Draco Malfoy housed in a bedroom two doors down was at that time wondering why she just didn't strip to her skins before getting in the shower.
Hermione walked into the hallway thirty minutes later feeling as if she looked considerably more refreshed than she had getting out of bed.
Which is more than can be said for some people... She thought as her brother passed her on his way to the third floor commons. She messed his hair up a bit more and continued walking in the other direction towards the stairs and into the foyer.
Narcissa was walking through as Hermione made her way towards the front door.
"Where are you going my dear?" Narcissa asked with a slightly disapproving glance at her attire.
Hermione looked down at her running clothes, a pair of biking shorts, a running bra and tennis shoes. "Running." She said simply. "I'll be back for breakfast."
"Be careful on the drive." Narcissa said as Hermione went out the door and turned towards the park. She decided to run to the gate and back three times, that would be roughly two miles...right?
As she ran, her thoughts of the past week raced through her head.
Upon reaching her room that night after returning from Diagon Alley, Hermione had started reading her mother's journal, and had finished it the next day. But blast it all! She was no where near figuring out who her father was!
Leave it to her mother to be completely criptic about who she was dating. She'd blotted out the name every time it was mentioned, it was almost as if she'd been worried someone would read her journal without her knowledge.
Hermione only knew a few things about her father, he was a Quidditch player in her mother's seventh year, he was a senior prefect (or seventh year prefect), and he was very rich... that was all, and it wasn't much. It could have been anyone...
She sighed and ran back to the house to shower and get ready for the day. "I mean it's not like I have a year book to see who played Quidditch that year." She muttered to herself.
Suddenly her head snapped up just in time to catch the overhang in the hallway. "YOW!!!" She clutched her head, feeling only a dull pain, her mind was speeding around it coming to conclusion after conclusion. "Why didn't I think of that before??" She muttered out loud. "I mean really! It's kind of obvious, hell it is obvious. What the hell is wrong with me? Why the bleeding hell did that take me so bloody long to figure that out?" She was pacing back and forth in front of the stairs now not really paying attention to her surrounds, despite the fact that that's how she ran into the overhang in the first place. She peered at the stone outset and grinned grimly. "Maybe I should run into things more often..."
"Talking to yourself Granger? Isn't that the first sign of insanity?" Blaise stood leaning against the door jam of the dinning room smirking at her.
"What the bleeding hell are you doing here again Zabini?" Hermione snapped at him. She was a bit put off that he'd heard her talking to herself, and that she was dressed in sweaty clothes.
"Breakfast and dancing lessons." He said. "Party's tonight, don't want to look like a fool." He gave her a glance. "Speaking of fools, you're not wearing that are you?"
Hermione looked down at her attire. "Maybe I will, maybe I won't." She smirked at him.
"Honestly Zabs, leave the poor girl alone." Blaise's head snapped forward as someone popped him across the back of his head. "Hey Mia." Rachel walked to her. "Sorry about him, he hasn't had his coffee so he isn't particularly sane yet."
Hermione smiled at her. "Oh well, I just ignore him anyway."
Rachel eyed her bra and shorts. "Let's go get you cleaned up. You look a mess."
"Pain = beauty love. It takes a lot to stay this way." Hermione said. Plus I have a strict training schedule that I have no choice but to stick to. She admitted in her head. Can't defeat the dark lord with out knowing how…
Rachel only shook her head and led Hermione up the stairs and into her room.
Over the past two weeks, Rachel and Hermione had become inseparable. It didn't help that Blaise was there almost everyday to keep Draco entertained. Rachel, his orphaned cousin, naturally came with him.
Hermione riffeled through her closet for something to wear. Naturally, with her entrance into a different level of wizarding society, her wardrobe had doubled and tripled since her arrival at Malfoy Manor, all thanks to Rachel and Narcissa of course. Hermione pulled a deep purple day gown out of her closet and held it up to her body. "What about this?" She said turning to her friend.
Rachel turned from the desk where she'd been going over Helen's journal. She'd been helping Hermione to decipher it all week. She twisted one long chestnut curl around her pointer finger and screwed up her sapphire eyes. "Hmm... I dunno, Narcissa's wearing lavender, you wouldn't want to seem like you're trying to match her." Rachel herself wore a simple royal blue gown.
Hermione nodded. "I hadn't noticed her wearing that..." Then she turned back to the wardrobe. "What about this one?" This one was also a day gown, but a bit more elaborate. It was hunter green with gold embrdery around the collar, cuffs, and hem, and it had a braided gold belt that went round her waist.
Rachel looked up from the journal again "Perfect." She looked away from Hermione. "You'll match Zabs..."
"What was that?" Asked Hermione who had gone back inside the wardrobe in search of matching shoes.
"Nothing doll." Rachel said smiling to herself. They really did make the perfect pair. She watched as Hermione darted into the bathroom and started the shower.
The door was closed to a crack so they could still talk, but so that Hermione could have her privacy.
"You know, I figured out a way that we could figure out who He is." Hermione said form the bathroom.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Mum says that he was a Quidditch player, a prefect, and rich. If we could find a yearbook or something we could see who fits the bill and narrow it down from there."
"That could work..." Rachel said. "I think there are some from Lucius's years at Hogwarts in his study."
The shower shut off and she could hear Hermione's wet feet padding across the marble floor. "Can we go in there?"
"I don't see why not. It's being used as a storage room for all his things. Narcissa didn't want them anywhere near her."
"What about-?" Hermione's voice was muffled as she pulled the dress over her head.
"All the dark arts things have been confiscate by the ministry or sold to a benefactor." Rachel said peering through the journal "There's nothing remotely dangerous there."
Hermione came out of the bathroom in a cloud of steam. "Then I don't see why we can't go. Should we bring the boys along?"
Rachel nodded. "We probably should, they would feel left out if we didn't include them in this."
Hermione nodded and rang for a house elf. When the little fellow arrived, she sent him off with a message to Blaise and Draco to meet them at her room in half an hour. She pulled the towel from around her head and her dirty blond curls fell in waves and curls around her face. "Is half an hour fine?"
"We can leave as soon as I do something about your hair. If the boys have to wait, so be it." Rachel said seating her friend at the vanity. "Honestly, I don't see how you deal with this bush..."
"It's calmed down!" Hermione said defensively. If she was touchy about anything, it was her hair.
"Mmmm hmmmm." Rachel murmured. She had pins stuck in her mouth as she twisted Hermione's hair tightly to her head in little buns everywhere on her scalp.
"Isn't that going to look really weird?" Hermione said reaching up to finger one of the coils. She waved to the boys as they trooped in and sat near the fireplace arguing abut Quidditch or something.
"I'm not going to leave it like this for forever, just until we start getting ready for tonight, it'll turn your wild bush into a set of organized curls, smaller than mine, but it'll fit your face. And when I put it up for you, it'll look really pretty. We both get to wear our hair up tonight."
Hermione smiled at her friend, knowing how important this was or her. In the posh wizarding society, it was custom for girls to wear their hair down at parties and balls until their seventeenth birthday, then they could put their hair up as a sign of an entrance into womanhood. Then, after they were married, or when they came into their inheritance, which ever came first, they added a tiara to the hair.
Hermione had learned so much in etiquette lessons with Narcissa over the past two weeks that her mind was ready to burst, but she was glad she knew all this, or she'd surely make a fool of herself at the ball.
Rachel pinned down the last coil and placed a large hat over Hermione's head. "It's only for now, and it's kinda weird, but it'll have to do." Rachel said. "Alright, lets go loot Lucius's study!"
Rachel grabbed the journal from the desk and held it in her hand. Then she and Hermione linked arms and strode out of her room, the boys and Gwydion followed close at their heels.
It was a long way to the other side of the house, the deserted West Wing. The secluded wing wasn't large, only a few rooms and only on one floor, but it was shut off from the rest of the house by a set of huge double doors made from heavy wood. It wasn't locked, but no one but the house elves went in there.
Hermione and Rachel stopped in front of the close doors and stared at the heavy handle. The boys stopped just behind them.
Hermione shot a look at Draco and Blaise over her shoulder. "Your mother is okay with this, right?" She asked Draco.
"Are you kidding? She's desperate to get this place cleaned out, she was going to hire someone to do it. The fact that we're doing it and it gives us something to do makes her even happier."
Hermione said ok and smiled at them. "Well, here goes." She took hold of the door handle and gave a great tug. To her surprise, the door swung open easily, and it wasn't that heavy at all.
She didn't see Draco give her a surprised and confused look, she headed right into the corridor.
"Wow it's dark in here!" Rachel said. But just as she said that, a torch holder near her sprang to life with bright fire. She shrieked and jumped into Draco's arms.
"Wow Caddo, didn't know you felt that way about me." Draco deadpanned.
"Shut-up." She said whacking his arm. She pushed away form him and continued down the hall way ahead of everyone. As she walked, the torches sprang to life one by one.
Hermione walked a bit slower, inspecting each portrait on the walls. They were all members of the Malfoy family.
But it was one portrait at the end of the hall that drew her gaze. There were three girls sitting companionably around a fireplace. One had black hair and black eyes, another had fire red hair and liquid brown eyes, and the last had white blond hair and watery blue eyes. Except for hair and eye color, they all looked slightly alike, except for their expressions. The black haired one looked ready to throw the book she was holding at the person painting the picture, the red-head looked happy and jovial as she was propped against the side of a massive white sheepdog that looked remarkably like Gwydion, and the blonde looked at the artist with a soft and calm smile as she held an embroidery hoop in one hand and a sharp needle in the other.
But what drew Hermione's attention about this portrait was that, unlike al the others in the hallway, this one neither spoke, nor moved. It was completely silent and still.
Hermione now noted Draco's presence beside her. "Who are they?" She asked softly.
"They are Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa Black before they became Bellatrix Lestrange, Andromeda Tonks, and Narcissa Malfoy." He smiled ruefully. "My mother and her sisters. It was the only painting Lucius let her bring here. The rest are at her family's home in Wales. She brought this because no matter how much they went through she still loved her sisters. She was always the peace maker of the family, especially between Bella and Andy. If it weren't for her, either one or the other would most likely be dead by now." He grabbed her gently by her arm and pulled her towards the study. "Come on, we have a job to do."
They entered the study and Hermione was immediately taken by how large it was, and how many books were there. Book cases covered every wall but one where huge floor-to-ceiling windows took up the walls. Despite the fact that boxes covered most of the space n the center of the room, Hermione could tell that it was of a formidable size.
Rachel was already going through the boxes on one side, and Blaise had started on the other side of the pile.
Hermione looked at Draco. "Guess that leaves us with the book cases." She said. "You start at that end, and I'll take the other, we'll meet in the middle." She started at her end and riffled through the book cases. She was extremely thankful of the sliding ladder, it made it extremely easy for her to reach the top shelf. Though she was by no means petite, that top shelf was a good twelve feet off the ground.
She was smack in the middle of the set of shelves when she came to the set of seven yearbooks. "They're right here!" She called out. Rachel and Blaise took the time to glance up from what they were doing, then they went back to sorting through the boxes.
Draco stood at the bottom of her ladder. "Toss them to me and we can look at them town here."
"Well, we only need the one from, the '78-'79 school year... Ah! Here it is, the last one. Catch Draco!" She dropped it, completely forgetting to tell him how heavy it was. Accident, or no?
"Thanks a lot Granger!" He snapped.
"Hey, you forget, that name no longer applies to me by blood..." She said climbing down the ladder.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah..." He muttered taking it over o the now empty desk. He placed it in the middle and sat in one of the chairs on either side. Hermione took the other chair on the opposite side. She opened a drawer I the desk ad pulled out a quill and parchment, then she handed them to Draco. "Take down names as I read. But first right this down."
"What am I a scribe?"
"For the moment, yes, now write before I break every single one of your digits off."
"Yes ma'am!"
"Write: Requirements, played Quidditch, senior prefect, and rich."
"How will we know if he was rich or not?"
"That's why you're here."
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh." Hermione made a face at him and opened the book to the Quidditch section. "Ok, let's see... There were three seventh years on the Gryffindor team, only two were a senior prefects, write down Remus Lupin ad Frank Longbottom." She shuddered thinking she might be Neville's sister...
"What no Potter?" Draco said with a horrible smirk. "Your hair fits the description."
"No, Harry's dad, James, was Head Boy along with Harry's mum, Lily, as Head Girl." Hermione said with a small smile.
"Oh."
Hermione rolled her eyes and looked back at the book. "For Ravenclaw, there were two seventh years, and they were both senior prefects, only one's a boy. Write down: Ashton Bankfort."
"It's not him." Draco said in a decided manor.
"Well, write it down anyway."
"I'm telling you, it's not him."
"Draco, just write it down." She snapped. Then she went back to looking in the book as he started to write. "Hmmm... In Hufflepuff there were quite a few. There was Weston Bridges, Theo Thorne, and Raymond Fossil. Wow, must have been a good year for Hufflepuff's Quidditch team..."
"They haven't even been to the final since. They lost to Gryffindor that year. They had a brilliant seeker." Blaise muttered from where he was peering into a book. He made a face and hastily shut it and threw it into a book, then moved the whole box to the throw away pile.
"Thank you Zabini for the Quidditch history update." Draco said smartly.
Hermione glared at him and he started to scribble away at the paper again.
"Ok, last house." Draco said making another column on the paper.
"Right, Slytherin." She flipped the page and peered at the picture. All tall imposing figures that inspired fear. All except for one face. His blonde hair shone in the sun and he stared at the camera, neither smiling nor scowling, but he somehow didn't look as menacing as the other boys in the picture. He actually looked nice. She looked down at the caption and peered at the name. "MALFOY?!"
Draco looked up from the paper where he was drawing out a Quidditch strategy. "What?"
"No! This is a picture of your dad!"
"Lemme see." He spun the book in his direction and peered at the picture. "Yeah, so?"
"He actually looks nice." Hermione kept her voice to a whisper as if the mere mention of the idea would turn her to stone.
"Oh heaven forbid a Malfoy ever even look like he might give a hoot about someone other than himself." Draco spat. "Lucius wasn't always as bad as he became. Mum said it started the year they got married, right after they graduated."
Hermione stared at the page. "I wonder what happened."
"Your guess is as good as mine." Draco said spinning the book back in her direction.
Hermione shrugged. "I guess we'll find out in good time." She peered at the list of names. "I guess we could include him on this list then."
Draco didn't say anything, just scribbled the name down as the first name on the Slytherin list.
Hermione stared at him. "What no biting remark about how we couldn't possibly be related? No scathing comment? Draco, you're going soft on me!"
He only looked at her impassively.
She shrugged and continued to read off names. "Reggie Flint, and Freddie Lestrange. Ewww...hope it's not either of those..." She made a face at the book.
She shut it and put it aside. Then looked up at Draco. "Okay, what have you got?"
"Ok, it's not anyone from Hufflepuff, they weren't rich enough. Its not Bankfort either."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because Bankfort's gay. The only kid he has is adopted form Indonesia." Draco said moving down the list and crossing off names. It's not Longbottom or Lupin. Not Longbottom because your IQ is better that Longbottom Jr. can ever hope for, it's be a serious gene pool screw up if you two were siblings. And it's not Lupin because werewolves rarely have children ever, and when they do, they're usually lupine. There's usually a 1:100 ratio of human children to lupine children. Now, that leaves the Slytherins..."
Hermione did not like where this was going...
Draco continued unaware of her distress. "Let's see... It can't be Flint, or your teeth would be just as bad as Marcus's and you'd be just as ugly too. Though your teeth used to a bit on the large side, they were never that bad... though that'd be a sight to see... And you're not ugly by any standards."
"Drakie, are you saying that I'm pretty?" Hermione said batting her eyelashes at him in a pansy like manner.
"Of course he thinks you're pretty!" Blaise said looking up. "All b-" He suddenly stopped with a strange look on his face. He looked at Draco who glared at him, then he muttered, "Never mind," and went back to digging through a box.
Hermione turned back to Draco with an expectant look. "What was that all about?"
"Nothing." He crossed Flint's name off, only two left. "It can't be Lestrange either, he couldn't have kids, because of some freak accident in his sixth year. Bella's brat is actually the whelp of some random Russian wizard that looked like Fredrick."
Hermione nodded then froze. "That only leaves-"
"Lucius..."
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A/N: Ok, that was really long… about nine pages… wow…
Like I said earlier, I don't know when I'll update again, I'm not at home, and when I do get home on Friday, I'm babysitting the cousin from hell…so who knows… I'm trying my darndest to keep it up like every-other-daily. Haha, I like that…'every-other-daily' haha…
Anywho… the reason these last two chapters got up so fast is because they were already done…like seriously…when I left the house yesterday, they were on a disk in my back pocket. Then I updated earlier, and now I'm doing it again!! Isn't it wonderful?
And I'll try and slow down the action a little and put some more family time in…but I dunno if it'll be in the next chapter or what… It'll most likely be in the "Ginny" chapter after the next "Hermione" chapter.
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