A Glimpse of Power

Warm light was pouring over Hermione's eyelids waking her from her peaceful slumber. Opening them she noticed her bedroom window shades had been drawn back just enough to soak her face in sunlight.

"Damnit," thought Hermione, "Why must she always do this. Day after day, waking in such a manner must do something harmful to me. Maybe I could try to convince her morning light causes cancer…"

This 'she' Hermione had been complaining with such annoyance about was actually her nearest and dearest friend, Miss Natalie Renan (A/N: Pronounced ray-known). Also being her ex-roommate, Natalie still owned a key to Hermione's apartment enabling her to enter the house on a regularly basis, mainly in the early mornings. Every other day or so, she would come over and break out the chemicals scrubbing, wiping, and organizing everything within her eyesight.

As much as Hermione stated that no person without any magical power could get up as early as Natalie did every morning, she still wasn't a witch. She did however know about Hermione being one, and her life within the walls of Diagon Alley. It seemed as if she had taken on being au pair to her, even though it was obvious the most brilliant witch of her time could look out for her own well being.

"Wake up sleepy-head! It's time for you to get moving. I have coffee brewing for you when you get out of the shower," Natalie yelled cheerfully in her heavy British accent. Her voice was coming from somewhere in the apartment but since Hermione was still in a drowsy, hung-over state, she couldn't tell where.

"Why must she always torture me with such happiness so early in the morning?" thought Hermione unpleasantly.

"Or maybe I could continue to torture you with my joyous nature at such an early hour. Either way works for me." Natalie said in a know-it-all voice.

Hermione groaned, perturbed at her friend.

"How does she always seem to know what I'm thinking?"

"How the hell are you such a morning person?" Hermione stated loudly, more to herself than anyone else.

"How the hell are you such a night owl?" was the reply she got.

"True."

Hermione was always awake into the early hours of the morning. Usually dancing her heart out at a club somewhere or reading next to her cozy little fire in the living room. During her last year at Hogwarts she had spent these many late hours studying and preparing for the countless tests and the final N.E.W.T.'s exam. Upon leaving she needed something to occupy her. Luckily she had met Natalie one day at a café and decided to join her for a night out on the town. Since then, it had been a daily routine to dance the night away in the heart of England. Hermione, the 'bookworm' no longer described her personality accurately.

Hermione rose groggily to a sitting position and scooted to the end of the bed, her silky black and silver sheets bunching around her as she did so. Glancing around the room, she saw everything was in its designated place. Her clothes were folded and carefully hung on hangers waiting to be put away and her writing utensils had been sifted through and put in their proper places on her desk.

"What time did you get here?" Hermione asked to the empty room and yawning after she did so.

"And what did you do?" Sure, Natalie did clean her house, but always to a certain degree, usually between clean and spotless. Hermione's stainless white carpet looked newly shampooed and she could smell hardwood floor cleaner. Whenever Natalie needed something like a place to stay, or when she did something wrong and wanted to be forgiven, Hermione's apartment got a royal treatment.

She slowly leaned sideways so she could now view down the hall from her position. The floor was sparkling. Natalie had most likely scrubbed it with Orange Glow while Hermione was still asleep. The walls were free of their ever common smudges and handprints. Farther down the hall, all of Hermione's books were in their rightful places among the millions of others that were resting in the multitudes of shelf upon shelf that made up practically all of her walls.

"Oh, I don't know, around 4:30 or so. A little later then I had hoped but I wanted to stop by the store and get you something," said Natalie. Hermione could hear the crinkle of paper and knew instantly what her friend had brought her.

"Poptarts! I knew that she was a good friend. God I love her." Hermione's stomach let out a loud growl. Natalie's playful laugh echoed throughout her apartment.

"I heard that. Hurry up and get ready so you can eat!"

Hermione stood slowly, looking around the room for a towel. She walked over to her full length mirror and focused on the person standing before her. Honey brown eyes were looking back at her. They were one of the main things Hermione liked about herself. Staring at the curse of her existence, Hermione reached up grabbing at her frizzy brown hair trying to make it look less like an explosion went off on her head. Natalie always called it her wild, raving sex hair which repeatedly brought a smile to Hermione's face.

Hermione began to open her mouth to say some smart comment about how Natalie was hiding her towels from her but before she could, a yell came from the kitchen. "Towels are in the bathroom under the sink."

"How the hell does she do that?"

She headed towards the bathroom and walked in. The room not only smelled of bleach and soap, but also shined as the sunlight from her open window hit its white counters. She was about to shut the door, lest be blinded by the unearthly cleanliness of her bathroom, when Natalie entered, eyes fixated on the ground before her feet. She glanced quickly around the room and then fixed on Hermione with worry plastered to her face.

Natalie's beautiful black hair hung in perfect curls on her shoulders encasing her face. Her knee length black dress flowed over her body, framing its curves at the right places giving her the look of a Hawaiian angel. Her dark skin was an Islander tan look matching her other wonderful features. She was beautiful and perfect in every way, but what Hermione was most jealous of was her hair. It was all natural. All she had to do was shampoo and condition it to get it as it is now. Her hair was a flawless masterpiece while Hermione's was just a ball of untamed frizz.

"What did I do?" asked Hermione stupidly.

"Nothing, just take your shower." Natalie walked over to the door and turned her head around to face Hermione again. She opened her mouth as if to say something but then closed it. Turning her head back around, she started walking out. "We need to talk" was all Hermione heard and then she was gone.

"I called it. I knew she wanted a place to stay. But why is she so worried? It's not like I'll say no or anything.

She shrugged it off and closed the bathroom door.

Undressing from her usual night attire, she hopped into the shower and turned the hot water on at full blast. It flowed over her bare, pale skin sending chills up her spine as goose bumps quickly covered her body. It wasn't from the heat either. To Hermione the water was still too cold. For the last month or so she had become completely intolerant to extreme temperatures. Everything had to be extremely piping hot, or freezing cold making most of her everyday activities slightly more difficult. The water was as hot as it could go but Hermione was still shivering slightly from the lack of heat. She really was tempted on several occasions to just thrust her hand into the fire and see if she would be warm enough in there. The only thing that restrained her from doing so was that she didn't want to maim her perfectly soft hands.

Hermione reached over and grabbed her favorite shampoo. Opening it, the smell of roses floated around her, eliminating nauseating stench of bleach and soap. She loved roses. They were one of her most prominent weaknesses. Weaknesses that made her knees buckle and her heart race, blinding her from seeing the truth or reality. The kind of weakness that if anyone knew of, could get anything from her. Money, equity, sex, you name it. Hermione had plenty of that type of weakness too. Everyone had them; it was just that she knew herself well enough to know what they were. Hermione had a list somewhere around her house. She knew it wasn't a good idea to write them down, but what if she forgot? How would she know what and who to avoid?

Snapping back to reality, Hermione wondered how long she had been in the shower. She then quickly shampooed and conditioned her hair making sure not to get too caught up in the smell. She got out of the shower and grabbed her black bathrobe. After putting it on she grabbed a towel from under the sink and stepped outside. Steam poured out of the bathroom in her wake, fogging the mirror and windows of her small room. Hermione was sure she used up all the hot water in her apartment but didn't really care. She had learned that she was perfectly capable without it.

She threw off her robe and walked over to her closet. Looking around she decided on some loose jeans and a v-neck black shirt that said 'Bite Me' on the front in bold green letters and on the back written 'If you dare…'

Hermione had been out of Hogwarts for years now and was going to turn 21 in a couple months. She had taken on being a healer for the war, which had happened 2 years before. She had seen so many deaths during that war and had shed so many tears that she had given up the job when it had finally ended. Hermione had decided on taking a less exciting one as a bookkeeper in one of the many books store in Diagon Alley. She had been there ever since and loved the fact that she got half off of any book in the store. She really wanted a book store to call her own but at her current financial state, it wouldn't be happening any time soon.

Although Hermione had spent most of her time behind a counter for the last couple years in now, in no way was she out of shape. Her body had filled out perfectly creating an hourglass figure that any girl would want. She had all the right curves in all the right places. She would definitely be one sexy chick if it wasn't for her cursed brown hair.

She dressed and wrapped the towel she had around her hair. Yawning yet again from the rude awakening she had been put through that morning, she left her room and walked down her pure white halls.

She hated the walls in her apartment. They absolutely drove her crazy. She had originally planned on painting them some type of foresty green color but decided against it. In the end it would cost too much and when she moved to a house later in her life, she would have to paint everything white again.

Hermione walked into the kitchen and sat down on a stool that was conveniently placed right in front of the toaster. She inhaled the fragrance of chocolate sundae poptarts and her mouth began to water. Her stomach growled again reminding her of the constant level of hunger her stomach was at. She began to reach for them when she heard Natalie yell from the living room.

"Hermione! Ignore your stomach for once in your bloody life and come here!" Hermione slumped over and walked into the living room dragging her feet. Sitting down next to her, she grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl that was resting on her coffee table. Taking a bite she said, "What's so important?"

"What's so important that you had to pull me away from eating my favorite food?"

"Why do you always talk with your mouth full?" Hermione was about to explain when Natalie continued. "Don't answer that. We really have to talk. It's about your parents." Hermione swallowed.

"Listen, I already know about them wanting a divorce and I'm ok..."

"No, not them," said Natalie cutting her off. "I'm here to tell you about your true family."

Hermione choked. "What do you mean?" she asked a little stunned and confused. She didn't understand what her friend was talking about and wasn't quite sure she wanted to.

"What did she mean by true family? My mom is a house wife and my dad is a dentist. They are my true family". Questions exploded into Hermione's head all at once leaving her lost within her mind while Natalie just sat there calmly staring at her with pity written all over her face.

"You are adopted."

"Uh……"

"Huh?" was all Hermione could muster.

Natalie shifted as if she was getting comfortable for a long lecture a professor was about to make. She sighed lightly and took in a deep breath.

"You were actually born into a very rich, pureblood wizarding family. When you were not even a month old millions of owls came in from rich pureblood parents all over the world asking for your hand in marriage." She paused taking into account at what she had just said. "Marriage for when you were older and for their children of course." Natalie smiled. "Your parents wouldn't allow it though. They believed you should fall in love on your own. One day, one of the suitor's parents came and tried to steal you away so you would marry their son. In an attempt to save you from the greed of the world, your parents sent you away to live with a muggle family. Ever since then they have been keeping tabs on you and have been to all the reward ceremonies and graduations that had you in them. They love you and have decided it was time you knew your true role in life. They are now requesting for your arrival in America."

Natalie grinned happily, proud for remembering such a long speech. Hermione would have congratulated her for having such a spiel unrelated to fashion and/or guys, but considering her predicament, she was allowed to hold that off for later.

Hermione was dumbfounded. Her best friend had just altered her life completely by informing her that it was a total falsity. And what was she doing? She was sitting there smugly on the couch smiling to herself.

"Bitch."

"Nat…how do you know all of this?" Hermione asked frustration and anger hinting in her voice. Natalie blushed lightly, slightly embarrassed that she had forgotten to mention how she knew.

"As I said, they have been watching you like a hawk. Obviously, they knew about me so they decided to have a little...uh, visit." Natalie shook her head trying to rid herself of the memory. "It was very unpleasant by the way to have them just pop out of the fire like that."

Hermione's blood boiled completely. "So they will tell a complete stranger my life story, but not their own daughter!" Hermione rose and glared daggers down at her friend. "I just found out my entire life was a lie and they expect me to pack up and leave my home and job to go gallivanting off to their mansion in America?" By this time Hermione was practically yelling. She could feel heat rising in her and the room growing hotter by the second. She wasn't sure what was happening, but at the time, Hermione couldn't care less.

"Correction. Beach house!" Cried Natalie excitedly. Wow. Her best friend was a complete ditz.

"Could she be any more of an idiot?" Nat smiled excitedly. "No she probably couldn't."

Behind Hermione her once quiet fireplace was now blazing hot with large strands of fire stretching out of it. It looked as if they were trying to grab hold of her and drag her back to the now blazing red ambers. Her eyes began to fade to a pitch black and Natalie could swear she could see little flames dancing within them. Hermione was obviously angry yet her face was placid smooth.

Natalie nervously stood up and reached her hand out to touch her best friend's arm. As her fingers lightly grazed over Hermione's bare skin, she quickly drew back in pain. She was sizzling and Natalie now had light singe marks on her fingertips.

"Hermione," Natalie said softly, her voice trembling with uncertainty. "Your skin...You're burning hot…"

The fear in Natalie's eyes was the only thing that brought Hermione back into her right state of mind. The room slowly got cooler and the flames in her fireplace and eyes went out. Natalie noticed that things were returning to normal and quickly said, "I'm glad I only know one witch. I don't know if I'd be able to handle more then just you."

Hermione nodded slowly. "What the hell is happening to me? No witch has ever gone through this. Maybe I should really go see my parents. Find out what is wrong me…But what if they don't know?"

Becoming more confident with the situation, Natalie smiled happily and began to talk without hesitation. "Hurry up. The plane leaves in a couple hours and you still need to pack your things, and eat." She walked into the hallway and turned back. "Won't it be grand? America! I think you'll be residing on one of the Hawaiian Islands. I bet there will be a ton of hott guys and …"As Natalie continued rattling away a dreamy look drifted onto her face.

Hermione's world had just been turned upside down and all Natalie could talk about were guys. All the stories of her birth, of her young life, were all lies. Her vision blurred and the room began spinning at an unearthly speed. She could feel gravity pushing down on her, willing her to fall. Her knees grew weak under the pressure and buckled, leaving Hermione plunging into the dark of unconsciousness.

A/N: Ok, this is my first fic. Please read and review!