Valentine's Day
On Monday, Harry asked Cho to go with him to Hogsmeade on Valentine's day. He really was clueless about girls and he has almost lost the opportunity to propose.
That evening he went to Snape's office. Snape had a cauldron nearby simmering.
"Do you know what that potion is, Potter?" asked Snape asked.
"Um, the cough potion, sir? It smells like it." he said with uncertainty.
"Yes, it seems that you've learned something at last. This is what we are working on today if anyone asks."
The first session proved to be a disaster as Snape attacked him constantly and Harry failed to repel him with the same consistency. Hermione tried to play it down, but Harry was clearly discouraged.
"Harry, it cannot be that bad, it's the first session. Lucy said it would take a long time." she said while she was checking her heritage tree potion.
"Lucy?" asked Ron bewildered by the unfamiliar name.
"Snuffles' friend." said Harry, hoping Ron would get it.
"Ah… I see." He looked sheepishly at Hermione's disappointed face.
"Well as I was saying, you need time and practice," said Hermione.
"I'll try, Okay?" Harry blurted as he darted to his dorm. He was too tired, and didn't want to argue about this any further. He checked his potion, making sure that it was all right and then threw himself in his bed. He wasn't looking forward to the next Occlumency session with Snape, because he already knew it would be even worse than this one. He was aware of his biggest problem; He had never been never been good at containing his emotions. Hiding his emotions felt unnatural, not something entirely feasible to him. He basically ran on emotions and without them he would be an empty husk. However, Harry had to at least see if he could make some progress, so he tried to calm himself down by concentrating on breathing.
Later on, Harry told Hermione most of what had transpired in his first session with Snape, including his discovery of a place that he kept dreaming about. Hermione was concerned with Harry's curiosity since it could discourage any progress in Occlumency. Not that it made much of a difference right now. Harry had had another episode last night.
"Look, Harry, you need to take this seriously." insisted Hermione. "You cannot have him inside your... head." Her voice trailed off as he saw Neville Longbottom coming to them.
"Hi, guys." he said.
"Hi, Neville" said Harry and Ron.
"Hermione, I'm sorry about what happened before. You know my grandma is a bit …" He pointed his index at his head and rotated it around his temple.
"Yeah, that was nuts Neville." said Ron. "I mean. Hermione? I can't even fathom what she was…"
"Thanks, Ron, that's enough, OK?" Hermione said with a menacing tone.
"Look Hermione you're my first friend ever. I can't lose you. Could please forgive her craziness?" Neville asked hopefully. Hermione then realised that Neville had simply refused to believe his grandmother. He had refused to believe what she said was even possible.
"That's not really necessary Neville. You're grandmother was a bit harsh, but…"
"It was madness Hermione." Neville said, smiling ashamedly. "I don't know where she got that idea from. Anyway, let's not talk about it, please." He waved his hand. "I've got a potion to throw out."
"Ron, I never got to ask you. How's you're potion going on?" asked Hermione to distract herself.
"I got rid of it a week later." He paled a bit at her horrified expression, "It's not that I was ever planning to take N.E.W.T. Potions."
Harry immediately got away before Hermione could explode. He needed to work on his potion and listening to them rant about a Ron's non-existent potion was not something he wanted to do.
The very next day the reason for Harry's episode was exposed as they got Daily Prophet. Ten Death Eaters had broken out of Azkaban last night. Hermione was nervously checking the names. Antonin Dolohov, Augustus Rookwood and finally she saw her. Bellatrix Lestrange. She and her husband had got out, too.
Hermione looked around. There was a lot of tension amongst students. Slytherins were thoughtfully silent whereas Ravenclaws were whispering in hushed voices furiously. Hufflepuffs seemed worried and Gryffindors were shocked.
Neville's stare had been fixed on Dean's newspaper. Hermione knew he was trying to deny it so hard but the woman in the paper had an uncanny similarity to Hermione albeit her face had lost a lot of its beauty.
Dumbledore had a depressed look as he avoided to even look at the Gryffindor table, further confirming Augusta Longbottom's theory for Hermione. She was troubled as she realised how she had avoided this issue. Her friends had ignored Madam Longbottom, because ignoring her idea was the only thing they could do to prevent insanity. Ron had refused to look at any pictures of Bellatrix Lestrange and Harry wouldn't talk about it or even mention it.
She looked at Malfoy at the Slytherin table. He was eyeing her intensely. Snape was showing no reaction to whatever Minerva McGonagall was telling him. Umbridge looked like she just had a very bad case of diarrhea.
"They're blaming Sirius Black." She said.
"Well, they have to blame someone, I guess." said Harry indignantly as he bit his crispy bacon.
"Here's an interview the new Department of Mysteries' head. He seems to be more reasonable. He thinks they shouldn't be jumping into conclusion."
"Wait for him to be sacked. I don't think Fudge would buy that." Ron mumbled.
"Then Fudge will be sacking the another Head of the Department of Mysteries in just three months, and he's already under pressure for sacking the previous head." said Neville.
After breakfast, Hermione was asked by Professor Snape to be in his office. He took her to meet Sirius on the meeting chairs. "Miss Granger, as you know there is a ridiculous rumour going around regarding your parentage and now that those lunatic Lestranges are out, these rumours could prove to be detrimental to your health." Snape looked at her impassively. "You must refute any notion that you're related to Bellatrix. In a month we will test the Heritage Tree Potion which is going to tell everyone your parents are Sirius Black and Lucinda Malfoy. Until then we need to introduce some new rumours. I believe Lupin's theory is perfect for this purpose."
"Professor, do you think that - that I'm Bellatrix Lestrange's daughter?" Hermione said.
"Of course not, silly girl! I believe you to be Narcissa Malfoy's first born." Snape spoke with a slightly uncertainty. "My guess is that she hid you from the Dark Lord for the Malfoy's weren't in his good grace then as Lucius had committed multiple mistakes and he was to be punished at some point." He sighed and took a glass of firewhiskey and poured some for himself. "Narcissa was under a lot of pressure already, and then we found out that she was pregnant. She hid it well, of course. She told me because she trusted me." Hermione gulped as she realised what this could mean for her. She could be the sister of his nemesis.
"Narcissa aborted the child. At least that's what she told Lucius and me. Soon she was pregnant again with Draco and unfortunately, Bellatrix found out about it sooner than us. She told the Dark Lord immediately. She had suspected her sister last time but I think this time she sold us out to prevent Narcissa from aborting again." Snape guzzled his firewhiskey. "I always suspected that Narcissa might have lied to us."
Hermione faced Sirius, who was obviously very distressed.
"Sirius, I don't want to lie to my friends." Hermione told him.
"Well dear you technically aren't because you don't know who your parents are." Sirius gave her a nervous smile.
"I know they're Death Eaters." She said calmly.
"But how? Just because some crazy old hag thinks so?" he said indignantly.
"Because Dumbledore told me so."
"Dumbledore?" he exclaimed, his eyes got wide. "He knows them? Did he tell you their names?"
"He can't tell me their names. He mentioned their occupation though." She smiled sadly.
"So you can't be Marlene's. I was hoping deep down that was the case." Sirius said. "Look, Hermione, are you okay? I mean, it must be hard for you."
"Sirius, I don't care who my parents are, even if they were Peter or Voldemort. I have nothing to do with them. I have nothing in common with Death Eaters." She explained. Snape and Sirius seemed to be revolted by the idea. "I'm just afraid of rejection. I fear that people will treat me differently just because of my parents. Which is ironic, because I came to school as a muggle-born and everybody judged me based on that sole fact. Now people are going to judge me once more for I'm the opposite of that. They don't seem to care about who I actually am."
"That's not true, little bird. Lucinda and I won't judge you like that, neither will Harry and Ron. There may be some strong reactions initially, but people will come to their senses at some point." he disagreed.
"I hope I'm not burning on a stick when they do." Hermione joked.
"Then perhaps you should start practicing flame-freezing Charm." Snape suggested to her humorously.
Soon it was Valentine's day. Those who had managed to keep their Heritage Tree Potion alright so far, had a very busy morning completing one of the last stages of brewing. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were the exceptions of course as they had done this stage last week and they had both delivered their potions to Snape the previous day. He had been very pleased with Draco's potion. He had said nothing about Harry's as if it didn't exist. Harry had been joyful when Snape had given him an impassive look and told him that his Potion exceeded expectations.
He was hoping the rest of the day would be good ,but soon he found out that Cho Chang was too complex for him to understand. It was not that she was a complicated person. The problem was his instincts, as they constantly failed to guide him in his relationship with her. She had gone mad when he had mentioned that he had to meet Hermione Granger. She had ranted about him preferring Hermione to her since Hermione might be a pureblood and viable for him. There were loads of nonsense that poured out of her mouth.
When Cho left him, he had no choice but to go to Three Broomsticks alone. He met Hagrid who mumbled about importance of blood and family to Harry, which honestly made him sad for the big man. This day was going to give him a headache. People were being crazy today and seeing who Hermione Granger was sitting with made this crazy day even crazier.
Hermione was wearing a very nice dark green clock and fur hat. If she hadn't called him, he wouldn't have recognised her. He looked at poster of Bellatrix Lestrange which hang above Hermione and shivered at the resemblance the two shared. Next to Hermione he could see two individuals he had not expected to see today. Rita Skeeter was sitting quietly. Harry noticed that she was fidgety and uncomfortable where she sat. Harry was sure it had nothing to do with cold, as he could see her sneaky and occasional glances at the posters above Hermione's head. It couldn't have been easy for Rita; Hermione had kept that woman in a jar for quite some time and then she had blackmailed her.
The other companion of hermine was Luna Lovegood, sitting on the other side with her dreamy look.
Harry sat with them. Hermione elaborated about her plan to write an article in Quibbler about Voldemort's return. It was terrifying Harry, how politely and obediently Rita was listening to Hermione. She had been a little upset about writing for Quibbler, but she said nothing. Harry almost choked on his butterbear as Rita accepted not getting paid.
Hermione sat quietly as Rita asked her questions. She would glance nervously after each question to see if Hermione was satisfied with her question. Hermione at first was oblivious to this behavior but then she noticed how nervous the animagus had been when she left them.
"She was very nervous, wasn't she?" asked Hermione.
"Almost as if she was about to be killed if she made a mistake." Harry confirmed.
"Why?" she asked, bewildered by Rita's behavior. Then she saw Luna looking at something above her. "Oh shoot."
"She looks a lot like you." Luna said as if she was comparing Hermione to Myron Wagtail.
"No Luna, she looks nothing like me." said Hermione weakly as she stood.
Only a week until the world realised that she wasn't Bellatrix Lestrange's daughter. Hopefully Snape was right and she was Narcissa's long lost child.
"I'm surprised she didn't ask her about that." Luna told Harry.
"Well I am glad she didn't. We would have crime scene on our hand."
A/N: From now on chapters are going to be a bit longer. Who do you think are Hermione's parents?
I'll post the next chapter on May 29.
