Later at Hogwarts
Ever since Hermione went to talk to Minerva about her father, she had racked her brain to figure out if she could glean any other information from their conversation. However, that was the exact thing her professor had warned her against doing. It was maddening and the only thing she could do was read like Harry's life depended on it as he prepared for the third and final task.
The only piece of information that stood out to Hermione was the fact that it was dangerous for her mother to reveal any information about her father. It didn't seem that he had any issue with her, but that there was some bigger obstacle in the way. Was she conceived out of wedlock? Was he an important wizard? What could be so dangerous? Would it really be a big deal to be a bastard in the wizarding world than treated as a muggle born witch?
Something told her that there must be some sort of law regarding magical children and heritage and she was drawn once more to the library. With all of the pureblood prejudice in place, surely there had to be a very good reason for her parents to give her up. It seemed to her that both of her parents cared about her greatly and they would have raised her themselves if they could have. Thirty minutes before the library closed for the night, Hermione found her answer.
There were a number of terrible pieces of legislation in place regarding single mothers, wizards who raised children with other wizards and witches who did the same. The worst of all was that if these unions produced biological children there would be serious consequences including Azkaban and the barring of said child from the wizarding world up and to obliviation if necessary. Hermione gulped. Could it be? What if her father wasn't actually a man but another woman? But why would Minerva McGonagall being the rule abiding witch she was have a daughter while these sorts of laws were in place? For love, she mused. She kept reading, knowing she was up against the clock and found that these laws didn't actually go into place until she must have been four months old. Only four months old. An infant. The choice was taken from her parents just at the moment when they must have been the happiest. Regardless of the real reason, her parents must have gone to extreme lengths to hide the knowledge of her. She realized too that Minerva must have been hurting quite a lot to have all of these reminders of her past dredged up from Hermione's questioning, even if she had been initially happy that her daughter knew the identity of one of her biological parents.
When Hermione got ready for bed that night, she noticed a piece of paper on her bedside table that hadn't been there earlier. Curious, she picked up the pamphlet and looked in confusion at the cover: "Summer at the Ministry of Magic". Inside, she learned that rising fifth year students could visit various departments of the Ministry of Magic and even learn about the Wizengamot if they submitted a statement of interest and had achieved good grades at Hogwarts. Did everyone in the dormitory get one of these? She looked around and didn't see it on anyone else's nightstand. Shrugging, she placed it back down and pulled back the covers of her bed. Something caught the corner of her eye just as she was about to turn in for the night.
There was a small piece of parchment wedged in the pamphlet that she hadn't seen before.
In emerald ink was the simple message "I think this will interest you. Come talk to me if you'd like to apply. – MM" Now she was really intrigued. Evidently Minerva McGonagall left this for her. In light of their earlier conversation, she felt like this had significance beyond her mentor's interest in her finding a successful career path in the wizarding world. She was guiding her to something. She had never heard of this program before and the timing was too coincidental.
Tomorrow. Maybe everything would start making sense again tomorrow.