A/N: Hi Everyone! Junsui asked me a really good question. So you're confused as to why Hermione remarried. I have no idea whether it was legal or not, but I just went with the idea that if Hermione was legally considered dead (and she was), then her marriage to Harry was dissolved when she died, leaving him free to be married again, and her, too, under her new alias, which had never been married in public America. Does that help? And as you'll see in later chapters, Hermione really can't stop herself from falling in love. She's too much of a love force to stop herself. I hope that clears everything up for you, Junsui! Thanks for reading! Love from Turice

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE IMPOSSIBLE

Harry wasn't looking up as he walked into the kitchen, so the first thing he noticed was that suddenly, everyone was silent. He looked up from his feet and received the shock of his life. Hermione was standing there, not three feet away from him, looking as awestruck and scared as he did. Former husband and wife eyed each other. Harry's throat went from tight at CeCe's words to tighter at seeing his former wife after so long. She was supposed to be dead. He knew that, but he also knew that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him and he wasn't hallucinating. She was here, back close to him, and all he could think was, "Why?"

Dumbledore appeared at Harry's side, and put an arm around him to stop him from falling, Remus crossed the floor to do the same to Hermione, who had lost all color in her face. The two carried Harry and Hermione into a room just opposite the kitchen and sat them on separate couches. Dumbledore then hurried out of the room and returned a minute later, with something in his hand, which Harry recognized as a goblet, much like the goblet of fire used in the triwizard tournament. Indeed, this one had purple flames in it.

Dumbledore set the goblet on the coffee table between Harry and Hermione, seated himself at Hermione's side, and motioned for Remus to join Harry on the other couch.

"I suppose I owe the two of you an apology," Dumbledore said, looking between Harry and Hermione. Harry had his face in his hands and Hermione was staring at a brick on the wall. "I didn't intend on the two of you meeting like this. I was hoping to reintroduce you in a place where one would not see the reaction on the other's face, and you would each have time to let it sink in what was going on. Harry, I owe you an explanation as to what Hermione is doing here after all these years. But I can't do it at the moment. I have something else that must be seen to right now, and that involves all three of you. Hermione,"

She turned to look him square in the eye with a gaze filled with frost. "Yes?"

"You are Sirius' daughter." he said quickly.

He let the news register in her head and waited until she decided whether she believed it or not. Her face, which was already pale, turned snow white. "That can't be. Sirius wasn't my dad…" she trailed off.

"He was." It was Remus who spoke this time. "Hermione, he was your dad. Really," he said when she looked at him, incredulity in her sad eyes. She propped her head up on her elbow and sat there, not wanting to talk.

"I'm sorry to spring this on you so out of the blue, but you had to know before we go on. This," he gestured to the goblet, "is Sirius's will. The three of you are in it. Sirius will explain everything to you all. Everything he ever wanted you to know, you will know now." And with that, Albus stuck the tip of his wand into the silvery substance, muttered an incantation no one but he had heard. A swirling image of Sirius appeared to rise through the liquid.

Sirius let his feet appear in the substance, stepped out of it, drew himself to his full height, smiled around at them all, with his eyes landing on Hermione.

"Hey," he said gently.

Hermione tried to respond, but all she could manage was a strangled "hi".

Sirius took a deep breath and let it all wash over him. It was obvious, by the way she was looking at him, that she already knew the news. Well, part of it. His tongue seemed to feel as if it had swollen twice its normal size. This was his daughter, this was the only time he would ever be able to talk to her as her dad, and he could not find the words to tell her what he felt. This bites, he thought to himself.

"Hon, oh God, this is so much harder than I envisioned it would be. I thought I would just be able to look at you and tell you you were my daughter, tell you I've loved you for years, tell you why I didn't have you, and be done with it…" he gave his daughter a sheepish smile, "it just isn't that easy."

She smiled and raised her eyebrows, noting that Sirius looked just as he did twenty-one years ago. His dark hair was still falling into his mischievous eyes. He was still a shadow of the knockout he had once been.

"Why didn't I know, Dad?" she questioned.

That one word, Dad, hit him where it hurt. That was the first time she'd ever called him by the name he wanted her to.

"Hermione," he paused. Damn, why can't I breathe? "I wanted you to know. God, I wanted you to know so bad. I wanted you to be there, living with me, knowing I was your father, calling me such. I wanted to have you there, where you were my responsibility, and I could take care of you. But by the time I had found you again, you were comfortable with someone else, and I couldn't take you, no matter how bad I wanted to."

"What do you mean, 'by the time you found me again'?"

"I lost track of you when I went to Azkaban. I got to hold you for the last time as they were leading me to the cell. I didn't know it would be our last time, but it was. Your mother came to me a few days later and told me that you had been adopted by a childless Muggle couple. She had no idea where you were, but was confident you were okay. She had panicked and was leaving the country. I never saw her, or you, again. Naturally, I was furious. I wanted you. So bad did I want you. But I couldn't try and find you, and I thought I'd lost you for good. Until that night when you were thirteen. I knew you by sight, as did Moony the first time he saw you."

Hermione looked down to where her hand was clasped, and was startled to realize that Remus had moved to sit next to her. She squeezed his hand and smiled.

Remus started, "I had to sit and take a breather the first time I saw you, when I first saw you on the train, that night with the dementor, remember? I knew who you were, instantly, and I was shocked to see you, there, with Harry and your cousin,"

"Ron," Hermione whispered in awe.

"Yeah. It was all too perfect. You and Harry were together, best friends, and none of it by the doing of your parents. Harry didn't know about his dad's best friend, who happened to be your father, and you didn't know your dad. I could not believe that the two of you were together. I may have been pissed at your dad at the moment for what I thought he did to Harry's dad. But neither of you knew, I didn't want you two to know for risk of ruining your friendship, and I couldn't hold you to something you had never known. You didn't let me down. Sometimes you were so much like him, he showed through you so strongly, that you made me laugh. I kept as close to you and Harry as professionally and morally possible that year. I missed your fathers, the way they would make me laugh doing so many of the things you three were doing. I watched you both. Learning who all of you were, because, although I no longer had James and didn't know Sirius, you two were spitting images and I felt I had a responsibility to take care of you. When I found out Sirius was innocent," Remus stopped, reminiscing, chuckled, and went on, "when I found out he was innocent, I almost had to tell you. But you were gone, along with Harry and Ron. And when I saw Sirius in the Shack, you right behind him, I knew he knew who you were, and it was killing him to have you there. Oh, he knew. I guess that's a parent thing, because he hadn't asked your name or anything. He just knew, and he was as shocked as I was to see you with Harry. Do you remember the first time you spoke to him?"

"Yes," Hermione answered, thinking back to when she had asked Sirius about how he knew Scabbers was Peter Pettigrew.

"Do you remember the look he gave you? You were smart, and right then he was a proud papa, you were thinking it all through, you were smart, and you were his. But you had called him 'Mr. Black'. I knew when he winced that that had stung him. But he shook it all off, and answered you. He told me later that had hurt, and he was shaken to see you after all those years. He had been looking for you, and you had fallen into his lap. He asked me if I knew who you had become, how you were doing, whether I thought you were living okay or not, where you were when you weren't at Hogwarts. Then you returned to school in July to marry Harry, and Sirius was thrilled. Except he couldn't play your dad that day. He had to be Harry's. Although he loved Harry and was honored to take James's place, he wanted to walk his own daughter down the aisle. So he watched me walk you down the aisle, and smiled. That was all he could do. You were marrying the one person he'd ever trust you with, always wanted you with, and you had done it on your own. He was so happy. He almost blew his cover when you were pronounced Harry's wife. He hugged you first while he was crying. He loved you then, always had. He wanted to have both of you with him. But he would never tear you from where you were. Harry was safe with his aunt, and you were happy with your mum and dad. He didn't mention to you who was your real father and mother, and let you come around with Harry. He never led on to you that you were more to him than his goddaughter-in-law."

"When you were around, Hermione, I just watched you, trying to remember that you were there for Harry, and not me. You would give me hugs and kisses. That hurt because they were, to me, empty compared to what they could have been. You were my little girl, you were in my arms, hugging and kissing me. But not for who I really was, just who you thought I was. I watched you go back to your Muggle family every time you left, even met them a couple of times, and did nothing to show you how much you meant to me. I never tried to get you to live with me, because they could give you so much that I couldn't. I watched you grow from afar, not always knowing where you were, how you were, and torturing myself because you were out there, you were mine, I wanted you to know, and couldn't do anything about it." Sirius stopped, looked her in her teary eyes, and said, "That was the worst pain I have ever felt."

Hermione knew what he meant. Right now, her own two children were within fifty feet of her, and they didn't know. She loved them, she wanted them, and they had no idea. He was right. That was one of the worst pains she had ever felt.

"There's one more thing I have to tell you Hermione. I found this out that first summer we were all back at Grimmauld for the Order. Not only are you my daughter, but you're Tom Riddle's granddaughter."

Nothing but silence greeted Sirius's last words. Every person's mouth was wide open.

"Sirius, are you certain of this? You're Tom's son?" Dumbledore looked flabbergasted.

"Yes. My mother wanted me to have his blood. I'm guessing she didn't know he was half-blood."

"Oh, Hermione, this is great for you. This is great for you and your children." Dumbledore said with excitement in his voice.

"Why?" Hermione wondered.

"Because, he personally cannot hurt his children, his children's children, or his great grandchildren. If he tries to use magic maliciously on any of you, it will hurt him and leave you unharmed because you all are too closely related. Physically, you are vulnerable. But magically, you're fine."

"But then why can he harm his parents?" Harry questioned.

"Children hurting parents is different. Children hurting grandparents is different."

"So are you saying that Voldemort is vulnerable to Hermione, but she isn't to him?" Remus asked.

"Yes. Although she can't kill him, because only Harry can do that, she can hurt him. She's his grandchild. Her children can do the same. But he cannot use magic on them."

"Brilliant" Hermione muttered, annoyed, into her free hand. "Bloody brilliant."

"Sirius, who gets what?" Dumbledore prompted.

"Oh, right. That's what I'm supposed to be doing. Right. Harry and Hermione, I am sure you can get along. The two of you split the house and the contents. Remus gets some, too. Remus, you also get the bank account. Dumbledore, you have my utmost appreciation for all you've done for me over the years, for protecting me, believing me, and caring. Thanks."

Remus had been struck dumb. This grant from his friend would help him live in between jobs when he needed it. Bills and meals weren't going to worry him anymore. Thanks to his best friend.

"Moony, man, don't start on me now." Sirius gave him a glowing smile when he looked up.

"Thanks, Sirius." Moony smiled back.

"We've had our times, you know that. We almost got ourselves killed more than once, but we had fun, didn't we? I love you like a brother, Moony." Sirius said.

"Love you too Padfoot." Moony answered.

"I have a special message from James and Lily to each of you, too. Moony, James and Lily say hi."

Remus waved.

"Dumbledore, James and Lily say hi, and thanks for everything."

Dumbledore smiled and said "They're very welcome."

"Hermione, James and Lily say hi to their goddaughter and daughter in law. They are happy that you married their son and had children with him."

"How did they know that?" Hermione asked incredulously.

"We can see all of you anytime we want. We know Harry and Hermione had two kids. We know she had to leave when she was twenty, we know where she went, we know you haven't said a word to each other, still yet, in seven years. We see it all." Sirius said simply.

Harry and Hermione glanced at each other and looked away quickly when their eyes met. Sirius laughed. "You two will work it out. You always have." and smiled on the pair of them.

"Harry, I'm glad you found out who I really was before you decided to attempt to kill me."

Harry smiled and chuckled to himself.

"I'm glad too that I got to spend the time with you that I did. You are sick of hearing this by now, but you are so much like James. Even still, you are a lot like him. James, Lily, and I all love you."

"I love all of you, too."

With that, Sirius turned back to his daughter. This was going to be the last time he ever talked to her.

"Hon, I love you. I always have. To say I am proud of you is cutting it short. I just wanted you to know. I love you. I love you so much." He smiled tearfully at his daughter. "You're my daughter. My one and only daughter. I have never done more right than I did with you. I love you." He was starting to choke up a little more than his pride allowed.

She was, too. "I love you, too, Dad."

And with that, Sirius was gone, going with contentment at knowing that his daughter knew she was his girl, and the people he loved knew he loved them, leaving all who saw him that night in awe.