(A/N): I hope you liked the last chapter. Thanks for the reviews. Here is the next instalment.
Chapter 2: Silent Slumber
Draco Malfoy watched from outside Flourish & Blotts as a girl with black hair stood talking to a man in a suit with two beefy men behind him. Next to the girl stood an old man and woman and she looked like she was trying to protect them as the man took out his wand. They were standing near Gringotts, too far away for Draco to see what was happening clearly, or even who they were. Behind him talking to an old school friend stood Lucius Malfoy. The two had been talking to each other for a long time and Draco was bored, but he could not leave the whole purpose of the trip to Diagon Alley had been for Draco to meet some relative of theirs, an Italian Royal who Draco was to have the pleasure of succeeding to the throne as the man as of yet had no heir, and did not want to adopt in to the family and destroy the purity of their bloodline which was claimed as the purest in Europe.
His father had stopped speaking to the man and was saying goodbye. "Hurry boy, don't dawdle, we will be late and a Malfoy is never late." Lucius rushed forward his son following quickly behind, they did not run however as a Malfoy never ran in public, well at least Lucius didn't. They were on their way to the Leaky Cauldron where Lucius had arranged to the Italian royal as they passed the group standing at the bottom of the Gringotts stairs Draco took a good look at the people as did Lucius, the girl looked dazed and pale, Draco thought she looked oddly familiar but Draco couldn't place where he had seen her before. Suddenly a voice called out 'Hermione,' startled Draco looked up to see Harry Potter running towards them followed by the Weaselette that Draco had forgotten the name of. Lucius had stopped suddenly and was looking intently at the people on the stairs, Draco followed his gaze to see the girl with the black hair close her eyes and sway for a moment before she started her descent to the floor. Harry ran towards the girl just as she was caught by the man in the suit.
Lucius began to walk towards the man, "Robert is that you?" Form the sound of his father's voice Draco could tell that the man had changed a lot since they had last met. Still holding the girl who had fainted into his arms he turned and faced them. "Ah, Lucius, you haven't changed at all, I'm very sorry but it does appear that I will be late for out meeting, and the matter which we needed to discuss is no longer an issue I have found the rightful heir. Look at her Lucius," the man said indicating the girl in his arms, "Do you recognise her?"
Lucius Malfoy frowned and tried to remember, her face seemed extremely familiar, quite suddenly a name came into his mind or rather two but one of the names was so preposterous he pushed away the thought, the hair colour was all wrong for it to be the Granger girl. "Am I mistaken in thinking she resembles Sophia?"
The man nodded in delight, Lucius had also recognised her and that meant that he was not mistaken in her identity, Lucius had been old enough at the time of his brother's marriage to remember what Sophia had looked like clearly. Harry and Ginny stood by looking confused and worried, as did the Grangers, Harry approached them and tried to ask them what was wrong, but they looked shocked and were unable to answer. Mr. Granger managed to shrug, while opening and closing his mouth repeatedly but emitting no sounds.
"But she is too young!" Lucius stated coming to the same conclusion as Robert had earlier.
"Indeed, I believe this girl is her daughter, I don't think Sophia actually had a miscarriage, I think they just hid the child. In fact I carried out a paternity test just now and we have proved that I am her Uncle, there is no doubt about it."
"What's her name?" Lucius asked, slightly put out that his son would not be taking over the as the King of Italy. However he had quickly realised that if he worked fast they would be able come to arrangement that pleased both parties suitably, after all they were united in a similar aim; maintaining blood purity.
Draco was staring at Muggles who were giving Potter blank looks, then at the girl still being held upright the man. 'What were they doing here?' he wondered not really paying attention to his father's conversation with the man.
"Her name at the moment is Hermione Granger," on hearing the name Draco looked up startled, "but I believe her parents were planning to call her Isabelle Marie Labello, well at least it's the name on the death certificate and the grave stone."
'Oh crap,' thought Draco, 'That's Granger,' he looked again at the collapsed figure taking in her features, 'No wonder she looked so familiar.'
Draco realised the Muggles must have been Granger's parents and standing in front of him talking to his father was the girl's uncle, the King of Italy, who had the purest blood in Europe and maybe even the world and he was saying that Granger was his niece. The thought made him smirk, but then realisation dawned on him. Those Muggles weren't part of the Italian royal family, which could only mean one thing; Granger was a Pureblood, which was the only way Granger could be related to the Italian royal family. Granger wasn't a Granger she was a Labello. 'No wonder the girl fainted,' thought Draco, as he himself felt dazed by the overload of information.
"Come Lucius, she will need to lie down after the news she has just received, we should at least take her to the Leaky Cauldron," he the turned to the Grangers, "Mr. and Mrs. Granger, please come with us, we need to resuscitate her." He turned and pointed his wand at Hermione and muttered 'Mobilicorpus' levitating her body to follow them through the surging crowds towards the Leaky Cauldron. They were followed by the Malfoys, the Grangers and Harry and Ginny. They got curious looks from the people in the inn as they went inside and waited patiently for Rupert, one of Robert Labello's bodyguards to arrange a room with Tom the owner.
Inside the best roomat the inn Hermione was quickly laid down, Mrs. Granger tucked her into the bed, before kissing her forehead and stepping aside for her newfound Uncle to revive her. The man pointed his wand at Hermione's chest and said "Ennervate." The girl on the bed gasped and started to breathe as is she had been suffocated for the last ten minutes. Surrounding her were worried faces, except for the Malfoys who were both looking at her with some newfound interest, her uncle who looked blissful and the two bodyguards who looked as if they had been trained not to show emotion. Her parents did not look happy in fact they looked as if they were having a hard time believing what had happened and Hermione could not blame them after all they had had fake memories of giving birth to her implanted into their brains so they would love her unconditionally, in their minds she was theirs, they remembered the night that she had come into their lives.
The room was still watching her for a reaction of some sort but she didn't know what to say or feel. She just felt numb; her whole life had just crumbled around her. Suddenly from across the room there was a gasp as Ginny looked at her intently. "Hermione you are starting to look like Harry, the hair and the eyes, you look like brother and sister or something." At this her uncle laughed, and said, "Of course dear they are related after all, second cousins I do believe." At this comment the room went silent and both Hermione and Harry stared at the man incredulously. The man simply laughed again. "Surely you must both know that all pureblood families were connected to each other in some way or other?" Hermione nodded, frowning at being referred to as a pureblood, the very idea was strange to her as she had spent most of the last six years being called a Mudblood by two of the men sitting in that very room.
"Well Harry's Grandfather on his dad's side was the brother of your Grandmother on your Mum's side. That's where the colour of your hair comes from, but I believe the green eyes are from your dad, as I've been told that young Mister Potter here inherited his eyes from his mum. The Potters' were a highly regarded pureblood family even before the appearance of Harry, but the sole survivor of their blood line, yes you Harry, is not a pureblood because James married a muggleborn. But that doesn't mean you two aren't related, yes I believe I am right in saying you two are second cousins." At the far side of the room Draco and Lucius were talking in heated whispers. "Does that mean I'm related to Potter and Granger too?" Draco asked concerned after hearing the conversation between the royal and the two teenagers. "Of course Draco, don't ask silly questions, though I will tell you that you aren't very close to them in blood line terms. Us Malfoys are related to Sophia's girl through Robert and Alexander, the girl's father.
I believe one of their Great Uncles married a Malfoy, one of the rare girls in the family ands due to the lack of suitable purebloods to marry I believe there were quite a few marriages between that strand of the family. In fact son if you look at Robert you will notice that he has the Malfoy eyes."
"Why did they give me up?" Hermione's question rang out through the room interrupting the conversations that were going on, and was directed towards her uncle. The man paused at looked at her as if judging whether she could handle the truth. he had heard of this girl before, even papers in Italy had picked up on the amount of magical talent this girl was reported to have, yet he had not recognised her earlier as her face had appeared much younger and her eyes and hair had been different to what they were now. If only he had recognised her earlier he had believed himself to be the only remaining Labello for so many years, with no immediate family, now he had a niece. He took a deep breath and began his tale.
"Your mother and father were the most powerful witch and wizard this world had seen for almost a century. They fought for the light side and there were many who sought their destruction. They were part of a group of young witches and wizards watched closely by governments all over the world. Harry, I'm sure you know that your parents and their two best friends were also part of this group. They were referred to as the wizards of the new age. Your parents were two of the most powerful and obviously when they announced that they were expecting a child, there was uproar. You were expected to be one of the most powerful children ever conceived and the world was filled with rumours that Voldemort was planning an attack to capture you and use you to aid the dark side." At the mention of the name Lucius hissed while Ginny shook imperceptibly only to have her hand held by Harry.
The man continued, "I believe that is why they did what they did. It is my belief that they cast charms on you to change you appearance like your hair and eyes and then gave you to the Grangers after altering their memories enough for them to believe that you were really theirs. They claimed that you were dead and there is a coffin buried under your real name at the Royal cemetery. Both your parents disappeared soon after the service yet wee know nothing of their whereabouts, and the world believes I am the last Labello and being unable to conceive children means that I was expected to be the end of our bloodline." He smiled for the for first time since he had started talking, "Now that I have found you we know that is not true the Labello line will continue to live."
All around the room mouths were open as they started at the man in shock. When Hermione saw Lucius watching her uncle intently his smirk firmly in place she snapped to her senses, was her uncle really as dense as to reveal that much information to a known Death Eater, especially Voldemort's right hand man. Robert watched his niece with interest and when she looked into his eyes she felt as if they were piercing her soul. "Yes, Hermione I can imagine what you are thinking, there is however nothing to worry about," the man said reading her mind as he turned to Lucius Malfoy and lifted his wand and said one word, "Obliviate." Lucius' face took on a dazed expression and her uncle simply said "We should wake Hermione soon," making it seem as if the conversation had never happened.
Hermione however was still worried, she didn't trust Draco either. He was sitting there with a slightly stunned expression on his face, having watched what the royal had done to his father. Robert turned to the young man, who shuddered when he noticed how the similar to his own eyes the man's were. Robert removed his piercing glare and turned to Hermione. "Don't worry, he can be trusted, he won't mention what happened inside this room to anyone." On hearing this Hermione frowned, she had never heard anyone refer to her worst enemy as someone who could be trusted. However Hermione felt she had no choice but agree with her uncle after all he was obviously a leglimens and would not have said Malfoy could be trusted if he had no reason to.
The dazed expression on Lucius' face quickly faded and Hermione laid back down with her uncle standing over her. "Ah, your awake," he boomed, "you gave us quite a fright there, love." Hermione sat up once again to see her mother crying her heart out into her father's shoulder and all she wanted was for her father to hug her too and to make this nightmare go away just like he did when she was a girl. Yet she knew that was no longer a possibility. However much they loved her, this had to be taking its toll on them too. She was their miracle baby; her parents were told that they could never have children when she came along. She remembered how her mother used to tell her stories about the weird food she had craved when she was pregnant and the story of her birth, but it was nothing but lies. Lies her biological parents had implanted to keep her safe.
But right now she didn't feel safe at all; her life wasn't what she had believed it to be, and all the security she had once felt started to drain away as a single tear slipped down her cheek unseen by almost everyone.
(A/N): Well please tell me what you think. Do you like it? Review, Review, Review