Disclaimer-I do not own Harry Potter. In other words, Harry Potter is not in my posession; I have no part in the ownership of Harry Potter.
Feel free to review, and yes, I do accept flames and C&C (comments and critisism).
A/N-I'm so sorry for the really really long update time...but I've been really busy with the holidays and whatnot. Sorry again, but here's the chapter you've all been waiting for, and to make it up to ya'll I'll try to make it extra long (2-3 pages).
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Chapter Eight-The Transformation
-----Recap-----
"You forgive me then, Ron?" Hermione asked hopefully, taking his outburst as a sign of good. Ron smiled weakly.
"Yeah," he replied.
"Oh, Ron!" Hermione cried, flinging her arms around him. Ron was surprised at his friend's sudden rush of emotion and awkwardly patted her on the back.
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Hermione lay on her bed, staring up at the crimson hangings above her. She pulled back her robe sleeve and glanced at her watch. Six-thirty. Only a half-hour before I see who I truely am....she thought, turning on her side. As the minutes slowly ticked by, she lay there on her bed, wondering what she was to look like after she transformed....and who she really was. Hermione was lucky that no one was in the dormitory at this time, and that everyone was in the Common Room, gathered around the scene of Ginny's suicide. Inwardly smiling at her luck, she looked at her watch once more. Six-fifty. Better get going then, she thought, sitting up. She got up from her bed and left the dormitory. As she walked through the Common Room, she heard Ron and Harry call to her ("Hey, Hermione!" "Fancy a game of Chess, 'Mione?") but she had ignore them. She had to reach the Hospital Wing before seven'o'clock. Don't want to be altering appearences right in the middle of the halls, she urged herself.
"Ah, Ms. Granger," Madam Pomfrey murmered as Hermione entered the Hospital Wing. "Your room is ready...right this way...." She led Hermione into a large powder-blue room. "Reserved for special cases," she heard Madam Pomfrey explain. "You just come on out when you're ready." She closed the door behind her. Hermione glanced at her watch again. Six-fifty-five. I made pretty good time, she approved as she turned to look around the room. It was a rather large room, with only one white hospital bed and a number of other medical instruments Hermione had seen on Muggle TV shows. There were numerous chairs and coffee tables on one side of the room, probably for friends of the patient. On the oppisite wall from where Hermione was standing, there was a large mirror and a white sink.
Hermione walked across the room and towards the mirror. Nothing to do now but wait....she silently told her reflection. Maybe for the last time. What--? She leaned closer to the mirror, and she saw that her eyes were slowly turning from chocolate brown to mixed silvery-grey color. It begins.....she murmered to herself, her watch alarm going off to mark the coming of seven'o'clock.
Suddenly, a blinding white light engulfed her. Hermione tried to reach up and shield her eyes, but her arms felt so heavy....as quickly as it had came, the blinding light disappeared altogether, leaving Hermione alone in the powder blue room once more. She peered into the mirror again, her eyes unfocused. As her eyes slowly slid into focus, Hermione let out a cry of surprise. Calm down, she told herself, closing her eyes momentarily. You were warned about this. She opened her eyes once more and at her reflection. Looking back at her was not the bushy-haired girl that she was before....Hermione's eyes were no longer brown, but a mixed silvery-grey with flecks of light blue. She reached up to touch her silky hair. It was now a light reddish-brown color, and straight. She marveled at her new hair, perfectly straight and smooth. Hermione also noticed that she was now taller, from 5'4" to about 5'6"...a bit shorter than Harry. Her teeth were now perfectly straight and perfectly sized.
"Amazing...." Hermione murmered, staring wide-eyed at her reflection, touching her new hair. "Amazing..."
"Isn't it?" she heard a voice from behind her. She whirled around to see Professor Dumbledore standing at the door. How does he do that? Hermione wondered. Dumbledore smiled. "You look just like your mother."
"I can't believe this," Hermione told the Headmaster, still staring at her reflection. "My hair...my eyes..." she looked up at Dumbledore.
"You may go back to your dormitory now," the Headmaster smiled. A wave of fear washed over Hermione.
"Professor-how am I going to explain this," she gestured to her new features. "to the rest of Gryffindor House?"
"Why Ms. Granger," Dumbledore said, giving her an "I'd have thought you would have came up with the simple solution!" look. Hermione stared at him, bewildered at what he meant. "An Illusion Charm, Hermione." the Headmaster explained.
"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, pulling out her wand. "Illusio." A jet of white light burst from her wand and onto herself. A feeling of warmth trickled through her veins. She turned back to the mirror to check if she had done it correctly. Staring back at her was her old bushy-brown-haired self.
"Excellent," Dumbledore told her. "Off you go then." Hermione nodded, slipping her wand back into her robe pocket and making for the door. Oh..right...she thought, turning back to Dumbledore.
"You told me that I was not to tell Ron and Harry about...this," she gestured to herself. "until the transformation was complete....but am I to tell them now?" Dumbledore smiled.
"That," he told her. "is for you to decide. I have one more warning for you, however." he looked into her eyes. "You may find that new qualities will be taking effect as the term drags on." Before Hermione could reply, he strode towards the door and left the room. She stood alone in the huge powder blue room. I'd better go...she thought, going towards the door once more. Hermione's footsteps echoed through the near empty corridors of Hogwarts as walked the all-too-familiar path to Gryffindor Tower.
"Hermione!" Ron and Harry cried simultaneously as she walked into the Common Room. It was nearly empty, which was no surprise, for it was quite late, for a school night. There were only a few seventh year girls huddled in the corner giggling about something or other.
"Where'd you go?" Ron asked, looking up from his Potions homework. Write a scroll and a half essay on the three known antidotes for doxy venom, which Hermione had finished in the small amount of time between her meeting with Dumbledore and the transformation. It was quite simple really, she thought happily. The three types are clearly stated on page 427....
"Hermione?" Harry said, waving his hand in front of her eyes. He turned to Ron. "She's completely spaced out..." 'There are three antidotes to doxy venom known to wizards as of today-Trilium, Porstrae, and Itilese...' Hermione quoted from her essay. "Hermione!" Harry cried, more violently waving his hand in front of her eyes.
"What? Oh, I'm sorry, what did you say?" Hermione asked, turning slightly pink.
"I asked where you went," Ron stated. "But what's up, Hermione? You never spaced like that before.." He had a look of general concern in his eyes.
"Oh...I went to the Hospital Wing...I was...erm...uh..." she trailed off.
"Hermione...what's wrong?" Harry asked gently, placing a hand on her shoulder. Hermione bit her lip nervously. Should...should I tell them...? she thought. Of course I should...she decided unsurely.
"Well...first of all...we need to get somewhere private..." she said slowly, gesturing to the three seventh years in the corner. "I don't want this news getting out..." Harry nodded and went up to the Boy's Dormitories to return with a large lump under his robes.
"Invisibility Cloak," he muttered to Ron and Hermione. They crouched behind the couch and draped the cloak over themselves. Hermione led them out to the corridor and down a few flights of stairs. Suddenly, Harry realized where they were headed. "Hermione...no...we aren't..?" he whispered.
"Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom," Hermione whispered back as they rounded the corner, pushing the door open and edging inside. "Come on." Harry and Ron threw off he Cloak as the door closed behind them. "Hello, Myrtle." Hermione called.
"Who's there?" a gloomy voice called from inside one of the stalls. A ghost of a young girl appeared through the door and glided up to them. Her expression considerably brightened when she saw them. "Oh! Hello...finally came to visit?" she asked.
"Yeah," Harry told her. "Would you mind giving us a bit of...erm...privacy?" he said this last word in a nervously small voice, afraid as to offend the weepy ghost.
"Oh. Alright, I understand," Myrtle said gloomily, her eyes darting from Harry to Hermione then to Ron. She glided through the stall's door and they heard a splash. She had gone into the U-Bend. Hermione waited for a few moments before taking out her wand.
"Hermione..what..?" Harry said, watching his friend step back into the shadows.
"Deillusion," Hermione muttered, taking the Illusion Charm from around herself. "This is what I wanted to show you." she said as she felt the warmth of the illusion slowly disappear. Ron stared at her, open-mouthed, and Harry's eyes widened with disbelief as she stepped back into the light. Hermione brushed back a loose strand of her auburn hair from her face and looked at them.
"What..Hermione...huh?" Ron rambled, surprised by her sudden change in appearence. Hermione made a small grin at his confusion.
"It turns out," Hermione explained. "that I'm adopted. A pure-blood." She put her wand back into her pocket once more and looked up again at the confused and hurt expressions on her best friends' faces. "Oh, honestly. I just found out myself, so don't get mad," she looked away for a moment.
"Do you know..anything about them?" Harry asked kindly. Hermione looked back at her friends.
"All I know about my parents is that they were being pursued by Voldemort," Ron flinched when she said his name, but Hermione ignored him. "because they were part of a secret resistance other than the Order. They were the only survivors from that resistance and took to the Great Wizard Migration for safety...and they left me for my own protection."
"I...see...." Harry slowly replied, taking everything in--the fact she was adopted, her family information, her new looks....Hermione looked at her watch.
"Bloody hell! We'd better get back--it's nearly midnight. Filch'll murder us if he finds us here," she cried in a hushed tone. Her friends gaped at her, for she'd never used that type of speech before. "Oh, right. Dumbledore told me that new qualities about myself will be taking effect...my new airheadedness for example? I suppose now I'm a bit more rowdy as well."
"Oh, ok..." Ron said, with a look on his face telling both Harry and Hermione that he really had no clue what that meant. Hermione giggled.
"Let's be off then," she said, draping part of the Invisibility cloak over herself.
"Erm...Hermione....?" Harry said, tapping her shoulder. She took off the cloak and turned to him. "Spell." he told her. Hermione looked into the mirror over his shoulder. An auburn haired, silvery-grey eyed girl looked back at her.
"Oh, right....darned spacing...." she muttered, blushing profusely. Pulling out her wand she murmered, "Illusio." and that warm feeling of illusion dripped into her veins once more. "Let's go..." She pulled part of the Cloak over herself and followed Ron and Harry as they silently led the way back to the Tower.
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There you go my friends-the long awaited Chapter 8!! Tune in next time for....The End of the Term. (I'm sorry guys...but I gotta get this outta my system.....)
Next time on Tears....Hermione, Harry, and Ron's Sixth Year at Hogwarts has near drawn to a close, and Hermione's meeting with her parents is coming closer. Who are Hermione's mysterious parents? What will they say when they see her? Will Harry and Ron accept them? Will her parents accept Harry and Ron? All this and more in the next chapter of.....TEARS!!
Sorry people....I've always wanted to do that...heh heh....well...seeya soon!