Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not own Harry Potter. I do not - ah bloody hell! What's the use? (Sorry, trying to convince myself of it . . . j/k) We all know I don't own Harry Potter. It was all J. K. Rowling's idea!

I know I said I wanted 5 reviews, but I had the chapter ready so I just figured I'd post anyway. I'M EXPECTING NO LESS THAN SEVEN MORE REVIEWS THOUGH SINCE I DIDN'T GET THE FIVE I REQUESTED! It's not that hard! You just read, review and it's done and over with!) If you have any shred of decency and you are currently reading my story . . . REVIEW! Ahem Anyways, sorry about the evil little cliffy that I left in the first chapter, but it seemed like such a wonderful place to stop. I mean come on; did you really want to hear about what happened to Hermione? Well, I guess you should . . . I wasn't going to with hold that information from the public forever! Enough talking, now it's time for reading!

Chapter 2 - A Phoenix's Tears

The next thing Hermione remembered was waking up alone in the hospital. Terrified and alone . . . that's how she was to remain spending the rest of her life she figured.

She sat up and felt a sharp stab of pain in her left arm and along her ribs She lowered her right arm to her side and felt thick bandages and pulled her hand away only to see that it was covered with a small amount of blood.

She laughed bitterly . . . she had escaped with a mere scratch and her parents were dead. Killed right in front of her. "How lovely . . . completely and utterly perfect," she spat out acridly. "I watch them as they're murdered before my very eyes and then the idiot turns on me and can't even kill me properly. Fan -bloody - tastic. I know how Harry must feel now."

Hermione crossed her arms harshly over her ribs and didn't even care about the pain it caused. In fact, she welcomed the pain.

She felt as though she deserved as much pain as possible. Considering she basically killed her parents in her mind.

'I hadn't gone home with them, I got caught in the pantry when I called the police, I trusted the bastard when I knew that he shouldn't be, I didn't even try to keep my parents alive when I had my stupid wand right there and could have prevented their deaths easily.'

'I had not done one single, stupid, bloody, thing right. I did absolutely every possible thing wrong. I didn't even try to protect them; I only cared about my damn self. I was being so selfish. As far as I'm concerned, I could very well have been party to my own parents' murders.'

'The last thing I said to my own mum was that I'd see her when I got home, after being totally rude to her because of her concern. I didn't even see or talk to dad.'

With herleft hand, she punched the nearest thing to her (the wall) and realized she had put a hole in it and looked at the blood forming on her knuckles where the skin had broken.

'I didn't even have a chance to say that I was sorry or that I loved them. I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye.'

She finally took notice of the single solitary tear that slid down her cheek. She brushed it off with herleft hand and harshly laid it back on her ribs.

She felt satisfaction at the immense pain it caused.

However, that pain soon disappeared and was replaced by a soothing relief. Hermione frowned and felt for the bandage beneath the hospital gown and tore it off the bloodied gauze. She felt for any sign of an injury or blood, but found none. No cut, no scar, not even a slight scrape was present. She then took the bindings on her wrist off anxiously and quickly. She moved her wrist in circles. Not one ounce of pain, no bruising, nothing.

She scowled at the lack of injury, and tried to figure out what got rid of it. Just then, a nurse walked in. "You're awake!" she said in happy astonishment.

"Well, unless I'm dead or asleep . . . I should assume so," said Hermione tartly.

"Let me go get the doctor!" she said running out of the room hurriedly.

Less than a minute later, the nurse walked back in with a doctor. "Miss Granger, it's us," They said taking out their wands and whispering, "Finite Incantatum." This revealed Albus Dumbledore and Minerva Mc Gonagall; Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress/Transfiguration Teacherof Hogwarts respectively.

"My apologies Professors, but I am in no mood to be very nice right now," said Hermione politely.

"It is quite understandable Miss Granger," said Professor Mc Gonagall putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Yes, quite understandable as you lost your parents just three days ago," agreed Dumbledore.

"I've been asleep for three days?" she asked incredulously.

"I'm afraid so. You see . . . you broke your wrist and were shot three times in the side before the police arrived. It is a miracle that you survived at all," Dumbledore said.

"Well I wish I weren't. I wish to God I was dead and my parents were still alive instead. I deserve that much at least for not killing those bastards when I could have," she said with dark conviction.

"Speaking of those men, could you possibly explain what happened to them? What did you do after you parents died? They were burnt something awfully, and they unfortunately did not die either," said Mc Gonagall tersely at the mention of the men who hurt her favourite student.

Hermione was silent for a moment trying to recall what had happened . . .

Flashback

Hermione ran to her parents and, not caring about how dirty she would get from the blood, fell onto them and held them tightly as she began to yell frantically, "MUM, DAD! PLEASE DON'T DIE! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME ALONE LIKE THIS! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE! I'M SO SORRY! PLEASE COME BACK!" Tears of sorrow laced with tears of anger mingled with spots of blood on her cheeks in shiny streams as she confirmed that Anna and John Granger were indeed dead. She held them for a second longer and then let go and stood to face the man with the gun square on. She attempted to tackle him in her rage, but he threw her easily to the ground and she heard a sickening snap in her wrist as she landed on top of it. She yelped from the pain of the breaking of a bone in her wrist, but she quickly stood up again as he held his gun and readied himself to fire again, this time at her.

A wave of fury swept over her and suddenly she felt herself levitating and a wave of scorching heat emanated from her and caused the men to scream in agony as the heat tore at their skin and burnt their flesh. "YOU SODDING BASTARDS!" she cried as another wave of heat, almost five times stronger this time, spread throughout the room and the three men in the room fell to the floor crying out in pain as their skin blistered from the immense amount of heat. Each feeling as though his flesh were literally on fire, and could almost accurately describe being burned alive.

Time seemed to slow momentarily as Hermione saw a haunting sight, she was surrounded by fire, and her hair was fanned out around her, but the most unusual thing was her eyes; her eyes glowed red, yellow, and orange like raging fire when she chanced a look into the full length mirror on the wall across the room. She felt a sense of fear, indifference, and peace wash over her as she looked into the eyes of her reflection, which looked nothing like the quiet little bookworm that everyone knew, and instantly felt the power draining from her. She felt suddenly very cold, almost like she was slowly being frozen to death. She felt as though everything in the world had suddenly just sped up and went back into normal time.

The next thing that she knew, she fell in a heap to the floor from pain and exhaustion, and the wave of heat subsiding, making the room feel like an arctic chill in a scorching desert, and everything went black as she saw the man with the gun stand and aim for her . . .

End Flashback

"Miss Granger?" Mc Gonagall pressed on.

Hermione shook herself from her stupor, "It . . . felt as though my blood were on fire. I was so furious with all of them. Then I levitated from the ground somehow, and was radiating heat waves. The whole room looked red . . . like it was melting. The first wave burnt them a little and they screamed. I was so mad that it hadn't caused them as much pain as they caused me, then another heat wave came, only it was more intense and they fell to the floor screaming, screaming because I was hurting them and their skin was blistering so badly. I felt guilty about causing so much pain and devastation even to murderers and thieves."

Hermione took a shuddering breath in and continued, "I looked at my reflection, but it didn't look like me at all. I was surrounded by fire, but it didn't hurt me, it was like the fire was my friend, or more like an extension of my body really. I was scared at first from looking at it. Then I felt indifferent, like who was I to be afraid of myself? And then I felt peaceful . . . almost happy . . . as I looked at it because I knew that it wouldn't hurt me and that I had tried to do something to help it. It was so eerie and haunting, like there was another person or being inside of me that I was looking at. The longer I looked at myself, the stranger I felt in my own body. My eyes were like fire. When I met my eyes, I felt like I wasn't meant to kill those men and so my energy was being slowly drained out of me almost like I had willed it to happen, because no matter how bad what they did was, they didn't deserve death on my account. My whole body went frigid. I felt so cold and alone. The whole room seemed almost blue and frozen because the heat was gone like hell had just turned into ice. Then the man with the gun stood and that was when I blacked out."

All was silent as what she just said sank in.

"It is as I have suspected," said Dumbledore at last as he and Mc Gonagall nodded to each other. Hermione jumped slightly at the unexpected breaking of the silence.

"What do you mean?" Hermione felt sure that she was missing something in relation to what was happening.

"Before I am completely sure of which theory I have is true, and tell you anything, I'd like to ask you a question. Has there been anything out of the ordinary that happened to you since you've woken up?" he asked eyeing the carelessly thrown strips of gauze on the floor.

"Well, I don't know how it happened exactly, but I was thinking about my parents. I punched the wall," she indicated the hole in the wall with a slight glance and continued, "Then I . . . wiped . . . a tear from my eye and the pain and injuries were gone," understanding was beginning to take its hold on her analytical mind.

"And you put that hand back on your injuries?"

"Yeah . . . I did," she said basically knowing what he was implying about her, but wanting confirmation of her conclusions.

"Your tears have healing properties. Your life was spared even an inch from death. Also, you demonstrate unnatural strength where you had none before, and controlled the elements of wind and fire in your anger and fear. Everyone knows of the first two, but few ever consider the others as knowledge that would be necessarily related. Some teachers and professionals that study magical and mythical creatures don't even know that a Phoenix, is the only creature that has those properties," confirming her theory.

"But how is it possible? And what was your other theory?" asked Hermione.

"Ah, yes . . . you were born this way, and only after you are angered enough to kill, does your power completely surface. The other theory was that you are an Elemental, a Double Elemental at that since you controlled both the fire and wind elements. They both show up in the same way, murderous animosity towards someone, it's just that a Phoenix has more stipulations afterwards and you have the healing tears of a Phoenix, so that instantly discounts the Elemental theory in it's entirety."

"So it's true then?" asked Hermione more as a rhetorical statement of confirmation meant solely for her to hear than as a question.

Mc Gonagall confirmed it for her even so, "Yes Miss Granger, you are indeed a Phoenix. . ."