Disclaimer: CCO.

Crappery: This took me a few days, but I'm relatively pleased with the way it came out. Now, some asked me what the pairing was of this story it is a Hermione/Sirius romance, if you don't like it, then leave. Many of you have been wondering if Sirius is actually going to show up or if this is just a mentioned romance. For those of you who have read some of my other fics, you should know by now that the romance does not start immediately. Yes, he will be showing up within the next two or three chapters and will be a permanent character there after. Response to reviews will be at the bottom, enjoy.


The Travesty of My Life

Three

I slept soon after coming to the decision that I would soon find out the secrets of the Grey family and upon waking up, it was Saturday then, I arose. Soon I was dressed and stood in front of my fire place, looking at the dancing pumpkin flames with a furrowed brow.

It would be impossible to get to the Grey Manor by floo; it would most likely be blocked. I absently gnawed on my lower lip; trying to recall the facts I had crammed into my head the year before to combat my grief.

I believe that, my dear readers, it is time for me to speak a little more about myself, breaking away from the storyline to make my situation clearer. Hogwarts suffered greatly during the War, loosing countless innocent lives that had been thrust into this epic battle.

Harry and Ron had been two of the casualties. If you could see my face as I write this, there is a sad smile on my lips. I thank the gods everyday for them, but also curse them for ripping my brothers from me.

They died deaths that any Gryffindor would have been proud of. They saved me a fate worse than any curse; the rescued me from the clutches of Voldemort himself. The deranged half blood had duped himself into believing that any child that I conceived and carried within me would be a babe of mind boggling power.

Andespecially so if he, a dried up cadaver fit only for the grave, fathered it. I still have terrible night terrors of his scaly touch against my skin and the dry, rough feeling of his lips brushing against the neck.

It is truly amazing how far one's brain will go to block out harmful events, barricade them into a dusty, long forgotten corner of their memory and leave them there to fester defiantly until the poisonous taint of them becomes too strong, it's ooze of corruption suddenly sullying the mind.

This is ability is something all human's possess, a primeval instinct that we are equipped with to protect ourselves from the terrible ferocity of the world we live in.

And now, back to this delightfully riveting tale. Grey Manor was located near a small town, which I believed to be called Lyre and this village was home to the world famous pub, The Green Faerie. A smile, one I had spent years cultivating before a mirror, spread over my face, it's delightfully evil tint causing a slight flush to settle onto my cheeks.

"To the Green Faerie it is then." I murmured.

I despise floo travel and flying, the two most common ways of getting around the Wizarding World, go figure, and that trip was no different. Once a handful of glittering, seemingly glass shard pocked powder had been thrown into the fire and I had called out my destination, I took a step forward into the flames.

I ignored the pleasantly warm sensation tickling all the way up my legs, absently patting one of the fiery tendrils snaking up my side.

There was a steady, extremely unpleasant, tugging behind my belly button that reminds me painfully of the sensation one experiences before vomiting profusely, and I was jerked away, out of Hogwarts, hopefully to the answers.


I landed quite roughly on my knees, a soft hiss coming from me as I felt angry bruises begin to spread their darkened touch across my skin. Most of the talk about me stilled and I felt countless pairs of eyes rest on me.

Slowly I lifted my head and all must have seen something in my face that shocked them to the core, for utter silence reigned in the slightly grungy pub. I pushed myself up onto my feet and walked to the bar, slipping onto one of the barely padded seats.

The woman standing behind the counter watched me in something akin to horror, the ragged dish towel she was holding pressed against her mouth.

"Lady Raven?" She squeaked, hope filling her hazel eyes.

Something inside of me cracked at the optimism appearing on her face and it physically pained me to shake my head slowly. "I am sorry, but I am not she. At least, I do not think I am." I muttered the last part in an undertone, more to myself.

Her hues grew dull once more and she nodded, motioning deadly to the array of multi-coloured bottles behind her. "Can I get you anything?"

"No…But could you tell me in which direction the Manor is?"

"Go up Main Street, you cannot miss it."

"Thank you." I said slowly and headed towards the exit

I was only a few feet away when a hand snatched my upper arm, fingers digging into my flesh. I wheeled around and looked into a face. My brow instantly furrowed as I tried to place this person, their countenance striking a chord within me.

It was as if I was trying to remember something from a half forgotten dream, everything was hazy but I knew there was something more than the meager picture I was presented.

"Who…My does it feel as if I know you?" Confusion was the dominate feeling.

"You do, Lady." The haggard female said, touching my face with gnarled knuckles.

There was a strange tenderness in her whitening eyes, an almost motherly love that I had received many times from the woman who had raised me. A soft cry of frustration escaped me as anything about this creature eluding me, taunting me with golden tendrils but flaming into ashes when I got close enough to touch. It was too much, the hope on all their faces and this aged crone watching me as if I was a favoured child.

I drew my arm away from her and fled. Bitter cold bit at exposed flesh as the weather beat down upon me with all the furious intensity of Mother Nature. It definitely had not been as cold at Hogwarts, but Lyre was much farther north than my old school was and that dark season of cold and death, but ultimate beauty, had free reign here.


It took me some minutes to climb through the small village and up the hill the house was perched upon, all the while battling the elements furiously. My breath caught in my throat as I looked up at the mansion dominating the horizon, dark spires of angry stone reaching towards the raging heavens in cruel defiance.

This was not a place of warmth and happy memories and a distinctly cold feeling lanced through my stomach, it bearing no relation to the snow around me.

I had been to this place before, that was certain, and slowly I began to believe that perhaps there was a chance that I truly was this Raven Grey. I gave myself a quick, mental head shake and stepped towards the impressive gates that caged the massive house. To find the answers I would have to pass over that threshold and I rapidly felt my Gryffindor bravado began to slip away and my more Slytherin paranoia ate away at my innards.

I would be murdered the very moment I entered into this pureblood domain and I swallowed thickly. Of course, you all know that I did not pass away, for if I did, how could I be writing this? But in our mystical world of magic, it would have taken far more than my own death to keep me from achieving my goal. I sucked in a deep, gasping lungful of air and rested my hand on the wrought iron, giving it a gentle push.

I was not surprised in the slightest when a maelstrom of deep crimson fire began to swirl around my form, tugging at my clothes and jerking me off of my feet. For a brief moment I looked into the flames and saw an aged face, wrinkles swathing the eyes in creases of graying flesh. A brief, sharp cackle reached my ears and I was pulled away from my position, sucked into a swirling vortex of nothingness.


For the second time in less than an hour, my knees slammed into the ground, except this time it was into lush carpet and not biting stone. A hiss escaped me as I lifted my head and found myself looking into worn, tired eyes.

The woman sitting in a plush armchair was crone-like, muted by the vastness of the hunter green leather she hid in. She leaned forward as she watched me, a gnarled hand reached forward to point at me, yellowing nail seeming attempting to gouge into my face.

"It has been years since I saw your face, girl. I thought I was rid of you."

"Alexa Grey." I said simply.

"Yes, can you even recognize the twisted features of your own mother?" She laughed humorlessly to her self. "Of course you cannot. All my beauty has faded away into this." She spat, motioning to her crippled, old body.

I rose to my feet and took a step towards the woman. "My own mother? Why would I believe that you are my mother?"

She snorted and waved her hand at me in an imperial gesture. "You deny it? You are a Grey, no other family or mudblood can bear the mark." My hand unconsciously rested just below my right hip. "Ah, the raven that marks you as one of our own. You are a pureblood, a Grey, my daughter. No spell can erase the generations of breeding, the tilt of your cheeks, your dainty nose, all these traits that have been cultivated so the outcome is perfection. Can you not see it? If my own body was not so broken, I would show you the blemish that ties us together. Believe me, child, you will soon be the last of the Greys. Know your heritage and be proud of it."

I understood then that this twisted old woman craved human contact, how long had she been alone in the cavernous halls she was sequestered in? I lowered myself into a crouch and gently touched her hand. "Why did you send me forward into time as an infant? Was it truly such a sin to marry for love? He was a pureblood, was that not enough to please you?"

She stared down at where I was touching her and then back up at me, almost as if in awe. "This is what your father and I never could understand. Despite all that happened to you, still your sense of justice and uncaring love remained. Why? I ruined your life and yet you do not recoil from my very presence?"

"You might have taken me from love, but you could never erase my soul. The Wizarding World will not recede into darkness now, and secretly our people have you and Gabriel to thank. Now please, answer my question. Why did you do what you did?"

Alexa Grey dropped her head, eyes drifting to her lap. "He was not like us, he was different. He was a child of the Light and was sorted into Gryffindor, not a true Black at all."

"I was placed into Gryffindor as well; does that make me a traitor to the Grey house?"

"Yes." The woman said simply. "You would have sullied our line by marrying such filth. A mudblood lover and even worse, he cared not for the purity of the blood of his children. Your father and I believed that in the future, there would be more worthy for your hand. We planned to reclaim you upon your majority and wed you to a Malfoy, or perhaps a Zabini."

I mentally shuddered then at the thought of lying with Draco Malfoy or Blaise Zabini. Such an act was something I vowed never to do, I physically felt ill at the very idea. I knew enough, it was clear to me that Hermione Granger was merely a pseudonym for Raven Grey; they were one in the same.

I rose to my feet and looked down at her, trying to keep the contempt off of my face. In few words she had none too carefully planned my own life out and that was something I could not allow.

"I am leaving now." I said softly. "Goodbye, Mother." I turned to walk to the fire place when her hollow voice caught me.

"Do not leave me…Here, take this and never forget who you are." I heard something hit the ground at my feet and I slowly turned.

The glimmer of silver sparkled like a beacon in a deathly night as it lay half hidden in the dark carpet. It was in my hand a moment later and I smoothed my thumb over the peculiar pendant, lips moving as I silently spoke the Latin inscription.

I slipped it into my pocket, inclining my head slightly to her and then I left. To this very day I do not regret my actions and even now, I will not look upon Alexa Grey's face. It is forbidden from entering my mind, the only place she is left alive.


Review Responses -

Chapter One:

Dancing in rain: I hope I got the second chapter out fast enough for you.

Summery Ice: Ugh, I hate when people do that, turning her into a Miss America…It kinda destroys everything Hermione really is. It's okay to change her a little bit, but when there is no correlation to cannon, it's like why not make her giver her a new name and make her an OC? Thanks, rushing art tends to make it garbage.

Sheila: Oh trust me, the pairing will arrive soon enough.

Valentines Hater: It's a time turner fic, but definitely not what you are thinking of!

CharmedLoeLvr: Thanks!

Chapter Two (all reviews submitted after Two was posted) –

Moony's-Mate: Thanks, and will do.

LinNicole: But of course they will! Have a look at the pairing, she won't be snogging a dream!

Cookiedoughicecream: Thanks! I like yours too!

Rane2920072: Well, Sirius fell behind the veil, but it's has yet to be explained to us…

Tooki: Your review made me feel so happy; I've been trying extremely hard to make this fic different than the plethora of sameness that plagues this site. So many stories bear the same plot and I'm just getting sick of it. If you've read any of my other stories, you'd know that I strife to make my fics as out there and different as possible. I find it rather amusing actually, thanks!

Le Grimoire: Within the next few chapters, yes. I just have to finish setting the first threads of the story down before they come.

Kaladelia Undomiel: Thanks! Hmm…That seems like a really good idea! I'll try and incorporate it somehow!

FunnyCatGirl: Yeah…Thought it was about time Hermione wasn't something like Voldemort's daughter or something. That just got painfully old.

Faerie-kitty306 animelover: Aye aye.

Jade: Yes, he is coming.

The Lady elizibeth: It will have them, but you can't exactly have the romance start in the first chapters. It makes for a crappy story, usually.

Valentines Hater: Ello again! Will do.

Harder-to-breath: Oh I will finish it, hopefully before the sixth book comes out and we all find out that Sirius really is dead!

Dawn1: Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy the rest of it!

La lune magique du loup-garou: Wee! It's good thing to creep you out!

Thanks for all of the reviews, they make my world go round.

Blessed Be;

Dove-Feathered Raven