Chapter 2: Figuring things out
AN: Sorry for the wait I don't own Harry Potter or Wolfblood. Please read and review.
When Mum got home from her meeting that night, I told her what I had done. She was understandably upset as I was forcing her hand but said that we would come up with a plan as soon as I heard from McGonagall. She told Dan and Eric what I did at dinner. Eric gave me a low five under the table and Dan asked why I felt the need to do this. I explained that if they were right and the Dursley's hadn't told Harry anything then we would be needing to this year and it would be best if we did that before his first wolf's moon. Both Mum and Dan seemed to understand what motivated my decision to bring McGonagall in. Mum was still upset that I had done so without their permission. She was also having a hard time looking at me since I still looked like Dad. I pulled her aside after dinner to discuss it since I was planning on slowly losing the "Hermione granger" mask and looking more like myself. I wanted to be me again and I know that I can't spend the rest of my life being someone I am not. I am not Hermione Granger. I am Astrix Endera-Black. Yes, Hermione is my second of three middle names, but it is not my name but the only people who call me Astrix or Trixie are my grandparents and Eric. Mum won't even call me by Celeste which is the first name she picked out (she picked Celeste and Hermione, Dad picked Astrix and Jean; they couldn't agree or decide so they went with all four).
I actually did tell Harry that Hermione wasn't my first or even my second name at the end of last year when he was catching me up on everything that had happened while I was petrified. Harry and I have always been a lot closer than Ron and me. I am almost certain that Ron only tolerates me because of Harry, and I am okay with that. Harry is a better friend then most and when you earn his loyalty, he will do anything for you, and you can't help but love it for him. So I kind of have a crush on Harry but he is my Alpha and despite the fact that my parents are betas I have a more Alpha personality and hope that when we are both changed ore wolves will connect as Alpha and Beta if not as mates. Harry will always be my priority possibly only superseded by a mate and any pups we have.
I received a response from McGonagall late the next day saying she would arrive the morning next around ten after her meeting with a muggleborn and their family in my area. She would only have two hours before her next meeting, and she hoped that whatever I needed could be settled quickly. I hoped so as well but if we didn't then I hoped we could schedule another meeting. Despite being tired I still, in a very Hermione Granger fashion, created bullet points for what we needed to discuss. I figured it was best to open the meeting with a lighter less serious topic of my education. the next three points were all rather heavy with the Wolfblood reveal father reveal and Harry's part in everything as well as the issue with his hearing. I figured the most logical order was to start with the Wolfblood bomb and then use Harry as a Segway into the whole Sirius Black is my father reveal. With that decided I saved the list on my computer to show and discuss with my Mum tomorrow, so she was ready for the meeting. She would be more able to provide an accurate history then I would, so it was important that she knew exactly what I was going to bring up. After that, I went to bed setting my alarm for eight so I would be able to catch Mum before she went to work.
I wake up a little before 8 a.m. to the smell of bacon and ham and the sound of Eric and Dan arguing again. That has been happening a lot this summer. Eric was at an age where he was almost ready to move out on his own and take lead of his own family. With him and Meinir planning to complete the mating(wedding) ceremony so she will be coming to live with us at the start of the new year and then Harry also coming to leave with us within the next year, Eric wants to expand the basement and or get another location to go on wolfmoons because the basement was crowded as is with the three of us down there and adding two more of us was going to make it so much worse. Dan thought that was too risky and that people were going to ask questions no matter which one we did. I was siding with Eric with the argument that we could explain it off with 2 new people coming to live with us. Mum was as of yet undecided in either direction as she believed that both sides had valid arguments. When I entered the kitchen, mum was at the stove while Dan and Eric were standing on opposite sides of the room shooting each other dirty looks. I choose to ignore them grabbing a plate and sitting at the table.
"Mum, McGonagall sent a response. She'll be here tomorrow morning I have made a list with things to discuss with her. Would you like to look it over tonight when you get home?"
"What all is on your list Hermione? How much are you planning on telling this outsider?"
"Everything. It will make it so much easier if we have someone who knows the truth that isn't hindered by bias from prior knowledge of our history. Yes, she'll have some bias because she knew Aunt Lily, Uncle James, and Dad but she didn't know the whole truth so she can't have fully developed biases. Because she also knew them it will also allow for a better understanding of some things that we will be telling her, especially about Harry's part in all of this."
Dan interrupts "But an outsider Astrix it's never been done."
"you do realize you are an outsider right."
"But I was raised in the pack"
"She needs to know. Harry has a hard enough time controlling his temper I am going to need help keeping him in line and explaining everything to him. Harry will be madder if I don't tell him the full truth. He hates when adults keep him in the dark. I am not going to betray my alpha's trust, but I am going to need support at school to explain everything.
"I am currently your alpha until Lily's son is old enough to take over, so you are bound to me."
"wrong. My wolf recognizes you as a beta it won't take orders from you anymore."
"That's not possible. You and Harry are still pups. Your wolf should still take orders from me as acting alpha."
"You do realize Jana has been taking over more of the alpha powers in the wilds within the last year despite only being a year older than me."
"That's because Alric has little control of his pack. He couldn't even control his own mate nor keep track of his own pups. Not helped by the fact that it turns out his eldest was found and raised by humans"
"Irrela… wait what?"
"I found out yesterday that Ceri found Rhyddian towards the end of the last school year. He was found by humans placed in the foster care system. He was discovered by Madilynn the youngest member of the Stoney Bridge pack and welcomed into their pack. Ceri brought him back to the pack after Brynn ran away to bring him back. Alric is up in arms about how his son is a tame now; claims he's corrupting his pups."
"That makes no sense his pups interact with tames on a regular basis in order to make sure that they don't get caught by humans."
"No one ever claimed Alric made sense. Either way, Jana will most likely be taking over the wilds soon rather than later."
"Anyway," I say bringing us back to our previous topic, "my wolf already recognizes Harry as her alpha and I'm inclined to agree with her. Which is why it's better I have some support at school so I can more easily explain everything to Harry as well as start his training. He's going to need it if he is going to be on the same footing as Jana by the start of fourth year. Even if he doesn't become full time acting alpha until after we graduate, he'll need to start performing some of his duties before then."
"When did you become so adult-like? Where did my little girl go?"
"Mum I've always been this way you just had a harder time seeing it because I'm your little girl and I'll always be your little girl. But you have to admit that we need help from an outsider now and that I picked a good one."
"Okay, but does your Dad have to be brought into this?"
"Yes, I want to be able to be me and I won't necessarily use my full name this year but I think I want to go back to Astrix."
"Why?"
"Because it's my name and I have a right to it. I also it feel it goes with my natural look better then Hermione does."
"You're going natural this year?" Eric buts in.
"Not completely no. I am going to make my hair darker not quite black yet and let the greyish blue show through more in my eyes that way on no moon days and the day after the full moon it won't require as much energy."
"That actually makes sense Mum how else was she going to explain the drastic changes those days?"
"I guess your logic is sound. Is there anything else I should know about this meeting tomorrow?"
"only that I plan on opening it with talking about my schooling in order to have a less stressful start and that she only has about 2 hours between her meetings to see us."
What about your schooling Astrix Celeste!? I thought you said your grades were good."
"They are I want to look into if it's possible to extra electives next year."
"what elective are you currently signed up for?
"Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, and Care of Magical Creature."
"And what's left?"
"Divination and Muggle Studies."
"You're not adding more to your schedule."
"What! Why not?"
"because from what I remember from Lily Divination is a wooly subject unless you are actually born with the gift and its not something that can be taught. Muggle Studies is about a century out of date and that's from when Lily was in school. Plus you can sit the OWL for muggle studies even if you don't take the class."
"fine then I guess we will just be discussing the heavy stuff tomorrow."
"We can go more in-depth tonight, but Dan and I need to get to the practice. Both of you behave today. Eric if you go to see Meinir today please call the office and leave a message with the secretary." Mum quickly clears the dishes making sure everything is off and that the leftovers are put away. Then both her and Dan rush out the side door to the garage.
Eric left shortly after they did and his message to the parents probably got there before they did. I was alone again so I decided to clean up the house and finish my summer homework. Once that was done, I broke the list down even more. I now knew exactly what we were going to talk about and what order I needed to go in. I reworked the list and decided that I first needed to cover the metamorphmagus thing so that I wouldn't have to hold the Hermione Granger mask very long which would also be followed by the name change and the paternity reveal. I would then follow this up with the Wolfblood conversation starting with what one was then the history of our pack and eventually the reveal that Lily Potter nee Evans was one and that her son would be one as well. More importantly that she was alpha and that would mean that when he came of age Harry would be ours and because of this he was likely t have more extreme reactions to certain things because he would be more in sync with his animal side. After that, I would discuss my worries about Harry's hearing and how it would be possible to accommodate him in his classes, specifically the more dangerous classes like potions or defense. All in all, none of this took very long and so I spent the rest of the day just killing time reading or sleeping so I would be at full energy tomorrow.
Mum and Dan came in later than usual because they stayed to file paperwork so Mum would be free tomorrow. Eric followed shortly behind them and then we all ate dinner as a family. Afterward, I gave Mum my list for tomorrow for her to look over and headed to bed early.