Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or world, everything belongs to JKR, etc. etc.
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Chapter 2
A light-haired man in long robes fell through Hermione's fireplace, hitting his head on the way out, a stream of curse words leaving his mouth.
"Hermione Granger?", he asked, dusting soot out of his hair. "I'm with the ministry. Your fireplace is unusually low and difficult to find".
On instinct, Hermione had whipped out her wand and was in a defensive stance, ready to strike this intruder at the first sign of danger. "Name and department", she demanded.
"Department of Domestic Services, Aaron Leveret", he replied uneasily. "I'm here with important news regarding your heritage".
Hermione lowered her wand slowly, still suspicious as it wasn't commonplace for the ministry to barge into a home. "What do you want?" she asked curtly.
"Recently a young man has come to our department looking for news of a lost family member. Some genealogy and locator spells were done to determine the validity of his claim as well as the location of this witch or wizard, and it was determined that you, Ms. Granger, are not who you say you are", Mr. Leveret replied. "We will need to take you in for questioning, as well as secure the premises in case anyone else comes looking for you".
"You can't just take me in for questioning! I have rights!", she replied, somewhat outraged that this man had not only barged into her flat but also demanded her immediate presence at the ministry.
"Ms. Granger, it is better for the safety of everyone involved if you come quickly and we get this matter sorted out. It is possible that there are those who wish to harm you over this new information".
Hermione gave him a withering glare. "I can take care of myself, Mr. Leveret. In any case, I consent to questioning at the ministry, but I will take myself there".
"That is fine, Ms. Granger. Please report to the Domestic Services department in one hour, or we will come bring you in. Please also be prepared to share any familial identification you have, such as birth certificates or a family tree". With that, the man stepped back into Hermione's fireplace, firmly declaring the ministry as his destination.
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Forty-five minutes later, Hermione Granger found herself in a stare-down with herself in the mirror. She knew that she had to go to the ministry, they were quite clear about this, and she was definitely curious about this ridiculous heritage claim, however, she wasn't sure if she was ready to go through the ministry's questioning process again. After the war, they'd given the trio around a week before demanding they all come in for extensive questioning. It was a gruelling process, one that Hermione was in no hurry to repeat.
All the same, she found herself gathering what documents she had saved: her expired muggle passport that she hadn't yet gotten around to renewing after the war and some pictures of herself as a baby with her parents. She knew this wasn't much, but it was all they could realistically expect from her, especially as she had no idea where her birth certificate would be, and couldn't very well ask her parents. With these things in hand, she stepped outside and apparated to the ministry, having little desire to use the floo network.
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It had been a little over an hour in the ministry, and Hermione was seething. They had grilled her on her childhood, her parents, and her family, all the while refusing to give her any extra information. She had been told that the mystery brother she supposedly had had gone through the exact same questioning a few days prior, but that didn't do much to ease her nerves. If anything, it angered her further, as they'd had this information for days and she was only now learning about it.
Once the ministry official decided he'd gained enough information, and she was, in fact, not lying about her identity and instead as confused as her "brother", they ceased questioning and invited her to ask any questions she might have.
"Does this mean I was adopted?", she demanded.
"Ms. Granger, I believe it would be better to allow your brother to explain your familial history to you, including the specifics of how you came to be with the muggles you consider to be your parents", the man who had been questioning her, Mr. Hemlock, replied.
"Is he here right now?", she asked nervously. She wasn't sure she was ready to meet this brother. What if he was someone she knew from school? What if it was someone like Cormac McLaggen? She wasn't sure she could handle knowing that she'd gone on a date with her brother.
"He has been waiting in the main department office for the last couple of hours", Mr. Hemlock responded. "It is up to you whether you choose to contact him. If you would like to put this behind you, we can arrange a quiet departure through an alternate exit for you. However, if you choose to not meet your family, you will be required to sign some paperwork abdicating your right to the line".
"No, that's fine. I'll go meet him", she said, head spinning with thoughts. Was it really possible that she was adopted? It was hard to wrap her head around the idea that her parents weren't really her parents, and that she could have an entire family she'd never known about. "Does that mean I'm free to leave?".
"Yes, Ms. Granger. Remember that if you later choose to change your last name to that of your biological family's, you will need to send correspondence back to our office".
"Yes, of course, Mr. Hemlock. Thank you", she responded, eager to leave.
"And Ms. Granger?", he asked as she got up to leave.
"Yes?"
"Thank you for your part in the war. We'll do our best to keep this information from the press until you're ready to release it", he said, standing up to shake her hand.
"Thank you, I appreciate it", she said. And with that, Hermione left the room, determined to meet this mystery brother of hers.
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Hermione had definitely found the main department office. About 5 minutes ago. However, she immediately wished she hadn't. The only wizard her age there happened to be Blaise Zabini, with who she was currently in one very long staring contest, neither of them seemingly willing to make any sort of move otherwise.
Hermione had thought having Cormac McLaggen as a brother would be bad. Well, it would have been. But this was arguably worse. She was a Zabini? No. This was preposterous. She refused to be not only Blaise Zabini's sister but the daughter of a woman who had had something like 7 husbands, each one mysteriously dying after the last. At least the Zabini's were notoriously neutral in every wizarding war. Zabini had never fully claimed a side, preferring to stick himself unwaveringly in the middle until the war, and then promptly go into hiding when the fighting started. It was rumoured that he and his mother disappeared to Italy, but never really confirmed. She guessed he was back now though, mostly based on the fact that he was determinedly staring at her from across the room, a slightly sad look in his eyes. Then again, Hermione may just have been imagining that look, as she wasn't sure if Zabini was capable of showing emotion.
Giving herself a quick mental slap in the face, Hermione calmed her nerves and took a step towards him. This was not what she imagined.
"Granger", he said softly. "Hermione- may I call you Hermione?".
"Yes", she replied curtly. "So are you- I mean, are we…? You're my brother then?", she said, trying to piece things together in her head.
"Twin brother", he corrected. "My mother- Our mother… She, well, she gave you to a muggle couple- The Grangers- when we were babies".
"Why in Merlin's beard would she do that?", Hermione demanded. "Is this some pureblood 'male children are better for the line' thing?!". Hermione was appalled.
"No- fuck no, Hermione", Blaise said with a look of repulsion on his defined features. "She didn't want to draw attention to us. The dark lord was in full power when we were born, everything was in chaos. She was scared that she might have to declare a side". Blaise was staring her straight in the eyes while giving a very rational explanation, but Hermione was having trouble processing it. "Magical twins aren't just any twins, Hermione. Throughout history, magical twins have been some of the strongest witches and wizards. She didn't want the dark lord to claim us, so she sent you away before he found out she'd had more than one baby".
Hermione opened and closed her mouth a few times. This was beyond difficult to take in. "So she just abandoned me?".
"Hermione, I don't know, she was protecting the both of us. And it worked, didn't it?", Blaise asked, somewhat despairingly, this was going about as horribly as he'd expected.
"It WORKED? IT WORKED, ZABINI?", Hermione demanded. "You call this working?", she cried, pulling her sleeve up to show the rough scar on her arm that distinctly spelled out the disgusting word that Bellatrix Lestrange had brutally carved into her.
A look of horror flashed across Blaise's features, and he roughly grabbed her arm, digging his fingers into her wrist. His eyes bore into her arm, and Hermione almost felt it starting to burn. She ripped her arm out of his grasp and quickly pulled down her sleeve. "I had no idea, Hermione", he choked out. "I'll kill them".
"She's already dead, Zabini. Bellatrix Lestrange did it", Hermione said. "And I don't need your protection just because we're related".
"Blaise. Call me Blaise, Hermione. You're a Zabini now too", he said with a vulnerable look in his eyes. Hermione almost felt bad before responding:
"I am not a Zabini just because we share blood, Blaise. Family is earned".
"Hermione, please. Just come back to the manor, meet mother at least. You could stay with us, we have plenty of rooms. Just let me prove to you that I want to be your brother", he pleaded. "All my life I've felt like there was something missing; a hole. Please just let me fix things".
Hermione considered this. His words struck at something deep inside her… She too had always felt that gaping hole but had assumed it was a lack of real friendship, and then later, she'd just gotten used to it, assuming that maybe it was just a deep thirst for knowledge. She supposed that it couldn't hurt to humour Zab- Blaise. "Ok, Blaise. Fine. I could come to meet your- our mother, but I won't make any promises to stay".
"Thank you, Hermione. You won't regret it", he responded, the desperation hesitantly disappearing, and being replaced by a look of satisfaction.
With that, Hermione followed Blaise home, scared of what she might discover about herself there.
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