A/N: Hey lovelies! I asked for 10 review, which I got (I was jumping up and down for like ten minutes, such excitement!). I promised another chapter this week, so look out for that on Thursday!
This part is going to be some answers to reviews, so feel free to skip if you'd like. First of all, a huge shoutout to PADfootBalck, drakonpie250, and aussieKayz for reviewing.
drakonpie250- You'll just have to wait and see :) it'll come up in the next chapter.
guest1- Here's my idea for pairings. Hermione, as an eligible, and suddenly desirable Pureblood witch, will have many suitors looking for her hand in marriage. I'll write many random snippets of those scenes, but none of those will be the actual pairing. I also do agree that harems are meh. I'm still trying to narrow down who I want the pairing to be, and it's open for debate, but I narrowed it down to: Blaise Zabini, Terry Boot, Oliver Wood, or some random Muggle boy who Hermione dates just to spite the Pureblood culture. Thoughts?
guest2- I totally agree. Hermione and Harry are essentially siblings. I wrote the ship once on request... never again haha.
Once again, huge thanks. I love you all. Enjoy!
Having never lost her love for planning out every step to her goals, Hermione began making a table. In the first column, she wrote down the names of each of the Sacred 28 families. Then, she made a note of their affinity towards Light, Dark, or Neutral magic and their current status in the wizarding world in terms of members. Some families had become extinct before she had even known about the wizarding world, while others perished in the course of the Second Wizarding War.
She and Harry brainstormed for a while, debating which families were most likely to still know about the Sagittas' existence and demise. Certainly, no one else knew anything about them as they were written out of the history books, but perhaps some of the ancient family tomes still held information. Clearly, Walburga had known, so they figured the Blacks had passed on the tale to some degree. The pair decided to question Andromeda and Narcissa, hoping they knew something. The Rosier line also only continued through them , checking off two of the 19 still extant families. Also, while visiting with Narcissa, they would have the opportunity to speak with Lucius. Not feeling quite comfortable with the directly approaching the other Dark families, Harry and Hermione agreed to then visit the Longbottoms and the Weasleys. As Molly was the last remaining member of the Prewetts, 6 families of various magical affinities would be accounted for.
Hermione felt as if she were missing something important. She sat back, looking over the information that she had, trying to remember. She glanced over the names again, stopping at Ollivander. In her mind she replayed the events of her first trip to Diagon Alley. She had stopped at the wandmaker's shop and had gone through 7 wands before she found the one that was hers. He had stared at her, almost eerily, as if he could see right through her. "You will make your family proud one day. With such a wand, we can expect you to stay straight and true." She had smiled brightly, gushing about how excited her parents were that she was a witch. She had handed him her seven galleons and turned to leave. She couldn't be sure to this day, but she'd thought she'd heard him whisper after her, "Straight and true. Like the arrow."
She gasped and stood up. Harry, standing over by a bookshelf, shut the book he was flipping through. "What is it?" he asked.
"Ollivander," she replied, "We need to go see Ollivander first. He knows." She grabbed his hand, and they apparated together to the wand shop. As it wasn't around time for new students to be getting their wands, the store was empty, save for the old man. "Mr. Ollivander," she greeted him.
"Ah, you've come. I was wondering when you would come into your inheritance." His eyes bore through her as he spoke, as was his usual way.
"So I was right. You do know about my family. Why haven't you said anything?"
He waved his wand, summoning two chairs in which the two young adults sat. "You, Miss Sagitta, are the first of your family to have entered my shop in four generations. In fact, your family was said to have died out before my time."
"But how did you know who I was? All those years ago..."
He nodded in acceptance of her question. "The Ollivanders, for generations, have passed down many secrets. From wandmaking, to the ability to read auras, to old secrets best left buried, I've been taught it all." He stood up quite suddenly. "I believe, Miss Sagitta, that you are in need of a new wand."
Hermione stared at him blankly, while Harry was absorbed with conducting more research out of a thick, dusty book. "A new wand? My old one is perfectly fine!"
Ollivander brushed aside her words and began opening boxes. She didn't dare argue for she knew he always had a method to his madness. She tried a few wands, and although she had enough control over her magic that nothing exploded, none of them felt quite right to her. Then, he brought out a wand from a pile of boxes in the very back of his shop. He handed it to her, and immediately, it felt perfect. Hermione felt her magic sing, rushing through the wand and back to her in an endless cycle. It was a rush she had forgotten over the past few years. Sometime during her Hogwarts days, she supposed, her wand stopped matching to her personality as well as it once had. She knew she had changed. She just hadn't realized how much, nor how that change affected her magic. She paid for her wand and sat back down, listening to the tale the wandmaker had been telling her as she tried the wands. A spell, a nasty one at that, had ensured that the family of wandmakers would never be able to share the plethora of information it had gathered, unless the asker had some prior knowledge of the subject and their reasons for wanting more information were not harmful to anyone.
She knew he could sense her desire for revenge, but she also realized that her reasons for wanting to know about her family were pure. That part, she just wanted to know so as to know herself better, to unravel this mystery she was caught up in. Ollivander told her what he knew of the betrayal. It seemed as if his family was less involved in covering up history than some others, namely the Blacks, the Weasleys, and the Gaunts. Hermione's eyes grew steely at the mention of the Weasleys. That betrayal certainly hurt the most, even if it was generations ago. Ollivander continued, detailing the lies and treachery, describing how every history book was burned and rewritten. Scores of witches and wizards were obliviated. Every piece of evidence was gone, except for Sagitta Manor, as the wards had made it impossible to find. He also shared the story of a young girl of his family who was betrothed to the last member of the Sagitta family before he faked his death. The girl vowed to never let her lover's family be forgotten, standing by his side always. She was kidnapped to keep her from spreading the truths buried so close to the surface. She struggled to break free, to fight for love, and in return, she was subjected to long sessions of the Crutiatus curse. When they proclaimed his death, she was released back to her family, a mere shadow of her former outgoing self. She locked herself in her room, weeping from the loss. So deep was her love that she never left that room again. Her family found her, a week later, dead of a broken heart, clutching a picture of the couple in a pale hand, cradling it tightly against her chest.
Hermione knew that he spoke nothing but what he understood to be the truth, and she, albeit warily, took up the offer of his help should she need anything while planning her revenge. Everyone, in her eyes, needed punishment, but some, she decided, needed much less than others. The Ollivanders had committed a horrible misdeed, but they had also betrayed one of their own, and suffered the consequences of a loss as a result.
The witch, now much more powerful because of her new wand, stood up and shook hands with the wandmaker. Harry rose after her and did the same. Hermione smirked with a glint in her eye. Now, with a dedicated, loyal, and vengeful best friend, and a strong, influential, and knowledgeable ally, she could interrogate other families and plot their demises from the inside out.
A/N: Next chapter: Hermione confronts Andromeda, Narcissa, and Lucius. Here is to a few heated conversations and flying hexes!
As always, I love reviews, and all my followers, favorite-rs, and reviewers get lots of virtual hugs and chocolates and happiness!
