Hagrid
Hermione's fellow students didn't fail to amaze her by accepting the excuse quite easily. The most wonderful case were Dean and Justin, who had guessed it to be a Transfiguration mishap before McGonagall had even told anyone.
As Snape had predicted his house showed no surprise or curiosity toward her sudden change in features. However, their normal hostility toward her decreased, Draco Malfoy being the exception. His remarks got more bitter and venomous. The difference was that now Slytherins would snicker every time he said something to her, like it was a joke to them.
She sometimes felt they knew. Although they hadn't asked anything directly, their attitude toward her was different.
Hermione was tired of the looks people would give her every time she was asking a question at any class, so she tried to avoid sticking out by keeping a low profile. She wouldn't ask many questions from her professors, and she quit raising her hand frequently to attract less attention. Of course, It backfired horribly; Professors were now concerned and her friends asked her if anything was wrong. The ultimate reaction belonged to Snape.
On a bright and sunny Monday, Hermione found her way to dungeons with Harry and Ron. They had decided to go a bit early in order to escape an overzealous Colin Greevey, who wanted to take a shot from Hermione's new looks.
Other students gradually joined them. Neville was the last to enter just before Snape arrived.
Snape strode to his desk and sat behind it.
"I must inform you, that your reports, excluding a select few, were dismal."
He waved his wand and sent them their papers.
Hermione was pleased to see an O on her paper. Harry, on the other hand, shoved the paper into his bag without a word.
Snape started to explain the process of making a simple cure for muscle damage, and its use in strengthening other Potions.
"Now, who can tell me why this Potion should never be coupled with Pepper-up Potion?" he asked, his back to them.
Hermione gulped and resisted the impossible urge to raise her hand.
Shape looked for hands shot in air. He searched for a couple more minutes before freezing momentarily followed by a deep concerned frown.
His expression alerted Hermione. She decided to raise her hand but it was already too late. Snape did the one thing he had never done before:
"Miss Granger, care to elaborate?" he said softly, his face showing nothing but a very subtle anger. His eyes were fixed on Hermione.
"The Potion would cause unwanted reactions and will have the following side effects: diarrhea, abdominal pain, and in some cases, internal bleeding."
Harry could tell that Snape was more than unhappy.
"And what's the cause of these unwanted reactions?" he asked with an agitated tone.
"Salamander Blood and undissolved fish brain make a very dangerous poison called Blue Death that can kill you immediately, but since the dosage is rather low in most cases the side effects are less severe."
For a second, Harry thought Snape would ask another question. Snape, however, silently gazed at others around her.
Slytherins were smirking. Malfoy glanced to Hermione warily.
Hermione realised that not following her paradigm had brought her even more attention.
"Perhaps Miss Granger thinks that she is above this class to raise her hand. Detention at five, Miss Granger. Don't be late."
Harry and Ron wanted to protest but Hermione stopped them.
"I don't want you to get punished, too."
From then on Hermione would always raise her hand at Potions.
As a result of her change in looks and behavior, other professor started to behave differently as well. Flitwick was no longer in wow every time she got a spell right. Sprout once called her Malfoy by mistake which made Hufflepuffs giggle madly.
Hermione could see a very visible trend and began to compare their behavior toward other students. She soon realised that they had found a new favorite student: Justin Finch-Flenchly.
Umbridge and Snape's case was different. Snape had suddenly realised he had a very bright student called Hermione Granger who made excellent potions. Slytherins would mindlessly nod every time he said something good about her.
Umbridge had became much more lenient on her as well. She would smile at her in the corridors and their so called defense sessions. Her smile was driving Hermione mad, because it was the same smile she would give to respectable pureblood Slytherins.
Frustrated by Umbridge's lack of teaching anything useful, Hermione tried to convince Harry that teaching defense to other students would be a fantastic idea. And it certainly was, even though Harry was hesitant to accept.
It had taken her a week to convince Harry to become their instructor. A small meeting had been set up and Hermione's progress so far were good enough. She had managed to get a bunch of people to join their new club. It was easy to have Neville and Dean join them and Lavender had tagged along. Neville had been a bit weird about it, because he kept staring at her and when she'd asked why he had answered, "I'm sorry, Hermione, I didn't mean to be weird. It's just… Your face reminds me of someone. I just don't remember who."
That had made her uncomfortable and a bit alerted, but she knew that Neville would never do her her bad. He needed to learn defense, as did many others.
The idea was more popular than she'd initially thought it to be. Cho Chang had jumped at the opportunity of being with Harry in the same space. Ginny had helped getting Michael Corner and his friends. Others wanted to learn something as opposed to nothing.
The intro had been rocky yet successful. Nobody had left their meeting at Hog's Head, during which Ron made a fuss over Michael Corner dating his sister and Hermione was forced to do some damage control before he could go punch the poor lad into face.
Not long after Umbridge, gave them decree number 24 by which she made unauthorized clubs illegal. Harry believed that she had somehow found out about their club and now they had to go around that decree. Fortunately, Harry found the perfect place for them and she had found a great way to communicate with members. The spell was a bit complicated but she had managed to do it just fine.
Days ago Harry had had a chance to talk with Remus in Snape's room. Draco Malfoy had provided the excuse by angering Neville, who was apparently a bit touchy about her parents' mental state. Remus had advised caution and discretion. Sirius had turned up at some point and talked to him only briefly. He had warned him that Dung had overheard them there, and that's how they knew about it. They had told him that Molly Weasley was firmly against the idea, but she was on a mission so she couldn't tell him herself.
What worried Hermione a lot, was Harry's scar as it kept hurting. Harry did tell Remus, but refused to talk to Dumbledore about it. Hermione tried to distract herself by laying clothes for house elves all over the tower. She had hoped that if an elf wanted freedom they could find it. She got really angry when she was told by Harry that Dobby was taking them.
"Other House Elves refuse to clean the tower. They find your little hidden clothes insulting." Harry told her.
It took a lot of will power to control her anger.
"Okay, I'll stop doing that. They can be the happy slaves they are. Not many appreciate freedom like Dobby does. No they don't." she said.
Harry couldn't contain his laughter at her expression.
DA turned out to be great. Her fake Galleons made it easy to communicate. Albeit a few people started to call it the Gold Mark as a reference to the Dark Mark. Harry was disturbed to find out that Hermione had in fact got the idea from Voldemort.
Things were finally getting well when a horrible thing happened. Harry, George and Fred got banned for life! That was courtesy of Draco Malfoy who provoked them to attack him. It would have devastated them if Hagrid had not come back.
They had left their tower to meet Hagrid immediately. He had welcomed them into his hut but the moment she took off her hat and scarf, his expression changed.
"Wow, I didn't know Malfoy had a sister !" He said in surprise.
"Hagrid, it's me, Hermione." she said.
"No, ye're not. Ye're blond, yer skin is different and yer too tall." He exclaimed.
"It's a long story, Hagrid." Ron said as they sat.
"What happened to you, Hagrid?" she said. "You look awful."
He did look awful and pretty damaged. He looked at her suspiciously.
"Is that blood?" asked Harry. Hagrid ignored that. He kept staring at her with one eye that was OK.
"Ye outh to tell me what happened te ye first. Then I'll talk." He responded.
So they told him everything. Well not all of it but they trusted him enough to tell him most of it.
"Well I don' kno what te say." Hagrid didn't say more. After a minute he told what he'd been through and how bad it had ended up. Before he could complete his story someone knocked. It was her. The bane of all good things, Dolores Umbridge. She and Hagrid had a very uncomfortable conversation. Fortunately, she left early.
"Inspecting, huh?" Hagrid asked.
"Trelawney's on probation already, so be careful. I don't think she likes you very much." Harry warned.
"Would you mind telling us what's your plan for us this year?" Hermione asked as she tried to keep any emotion out of her face.
Hagrid froze momentarily as he looked at her carefully. Lucius Malfoy would be proud to see that empty expression on her face. He didn't say that, of course, as she smiled at him. She did look like Sirius, too.
"Um, I've prepared a couple o' thimgs. Keeping something special fer O.W.L year." He couldn't stop himself. "Any idea who yer parents are 'Ermione?"
She became stoic. "No Hagrid, I already told you?" she said, "Sirius had his theory debunked by Lucinda Malfoy. He guessed that I might be theirs but turns out that's not the case." she smiled half heartedly, "There is another theory; Lupin thinks I might be Marlene McKinnon's."
"Yeah, poor Marlene. She was a good girl." Hagrid sighed. "Ye don't … ye know … uhm … look like her."
"I know I don't." she said cooly, "Hagrid, is it really bad if one of my parents is a Death Eater?"
"Absolutely not! Well, it's bad, but that doesn't make yeh bad. Sirius had horrible parents, I tell yeh lot. He is a good lad though. Ye're our 'Ermione no matte' what."
Hermione smiled and then she hugged him.
"Don' yeh worry about it. Dumbledore is gonna take care o' it." Hagrid assured her.
"I'm not sure about that." said Harry, "He's been avoiding me since Voldemort came back."
Hagrid winced. He seemed unhappy about Harry's lack of faith in Dumbledore.
"And he dismissed Hermione's condition as puberty issues." His angry eyes showed that he was barely containing his rage, "Sirius, Remus and Professor Snape are working on it though."
"Hagrid don't take it the wrong way, but I think you should keep the dangerous stuff out of your class." said Ron to everyone's surprise, "Umbridge will look for an excuse to sack you."
Hermione offered a few alternatives, but Hagrid didn't like them. He apparently had something much more interesting. He asked them to leave to end the conversation prematurely.
When it came to their Potions project, Hermione's potion was going well and Harry's was brilliant. He had managed to somehow speed the brewing process.
"I'm telling you, I didn't add anything I just left the roots exposed to sunlight to make them a bit more potent." Harry had explained innocently.
Snape was pretending to be ignorant of Harry's progress. He kept teasing him about his lack of effort and his clumsiness. However, Harry had been extra careful this year and now that he had a study time at Umbridge's class he would do his extra studies there. Umbridge had not complained. Hopefully, she would continue to ignore Harry in her class in order to keep him quiet.
Hagrid had brought Thestrals to his class despite their efforts to persuade him to do otherwise. Umbridge had a lot of complaints about them, and being dangerous was just one of them. Hermione defended Hagrid for bringing them while stupidly wishing she could see them. It oddly made Slytherins hesitant about saying more awful things about Hagrid to Umbridge.
December came and brought more change with itself. Her bone structure was shifting slowly but steadily. She found out that her new muscles structure and peripheral nervous system made her somehow better on brooms. She didn't like them before, but now they were much easier to ride. She practiced a bit when she could in case she ever had to use this skill to flee.
As December's end was nearing, Hermione decided to stay for holidays. Her parents were going skiing. She didn't want to face them looking like she did. She hadn't told them about change directly. Lupin had met them, and hoping that they might have some additional information, he had asked them a few harmless questions. It turned out to be futile and a great depressing point for her parents, as they seemed to believe strongly that Hermione was theirs.
"How dare you? I remember giving birth to her." had been her mom's words to Lupin.
Dumbledore had reluctantly visited them and checked their memories. He had confirmed that their memories had been manipulated by magic. He invited her to his office the other day and explained everything to her.
"Miss Granger." His voice was a bit shaky. "Hermione, I must warn you that when you find out about your real parents, you might be disappointed greatly."
"I'm aware of that, Headmaster." she said trying to keep her face expressionless. "Do you happen to know their identities?"
"I do Miss Granger, alas I cannot divulge this information with you as I've made an unbreakable vow to never expose their secret." He said sadly. "Your mother in return promised to never persuade you to join her side."
"So they are Death Eaters." Hermione shivered at the thought that was becoming reality. "Do I know them."
"You might have heard their names, they're quite famous." He said.
"So they're alive." She asked.
"Yes, that I can tell you." He smiled sadly, "You look a lot like them. However, I have a feeling that you'll have a greater physical resemblance to your mother."
"Should I go with Professor Lupin's plan, then?"
"Hermione, no matter how bitter the truth is, it's far better than a sweet lie." He said wisely, "Do you wish to allow your parents to define you?"
"No. I don't think that's a good idea." said Hermione instantly.
"You're a very brave witch, Hermione." He looked into her eyes. She felt as if she was under X-rays. "My dear girl, you'll be fine. You're true friends will eventually trust you."
Unfortunately, eventually was the key word.
"Will it be that bad, professor?" Hermione asked hoping to be wrong, "Surely they will recognise me for being the same person I've been for years."
"You're right my dear, but I'm afraid it will take some time for them to get used to the new facts." He sighed sadly. "Even the least biased people have their own biases which are hidden to them."
That had been a rather depressing conversation.
Over the next couple of he noticed that Malfoy was avoiding her like the plague. She cornered her the moment she got the chance.
"Are you avoiding me, Malfoy?" she asked him, "Are you afraid little, Drakey?"
She tried to give him a mean smile which terrified him. To his credit he got his composure soon enough. Draco Malfoy had made her life hell. It was payback time.
"You're delusional, Granger. Why would I care about you." He snapped. " You're just a filthy mud-blood." A terrified expression in his face told Hermione that he regretted his last sentence. She said nothing and walked away. As she was getting away she said, "Act less suspiciously, people might think you're in love with me."
She didn't see the revulsion in his face.
