DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANY CANNON CHARACTERS, I CAN ONLY CLAIM THE PLOT AND ANY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS PRESENT
The only test Hermione Granger ever failed.
Chapter 5: The Ministry
The following morning Molly got me and Harry up at six am, so that even if Fudge tried to pull a fast one Harry would still be perfectly on time.
Harry seemed to just be just a bag of nerves, everything was riding on this for him, if he lost he would be expelled and have his wand snapped like Hagrid's. I had tried to reassure him but he was still sensitive after my revelation yesterday. Which he had every right to, I mean it's not every day you find out that your best friend is the child of the evil madman who killed your parents and is hell bent on murdering you! To tell the truth I was rather nervous too. I was about to go to the ministry and tell them who I was and change my name back to Hermione Sophia Black. Knowing Fudge he'd lock me up for no reason like Sirius.
Mr Weasley was absolutely fascinated with the tube so it took three times as long to get through that part of the journey. We finally got off in Westminster. We walked for about five minutes before Mr Weasley just stopped beside a telephone box and told us to get in. He chuckled saying something about never going in the visitors' entrance before. The phone box was cramped… No cramped is an understatement, there was literally no space once the three of us squeezed in.
After we had stated our purposes for visiting and affixed our visitors' badges on we went to the security desk. The guard on the desk barely looked up at us as we approached. "Place your wand on the scales and state your full name." he said in a dull bored tone. His hand listed lazily to poin set of golden scales on the top of the desk.
I placed my wand on the scales, which seemed to glow for a second "Hermione Jean Granger"
A piece of paper shot out of the side of the scales and he ripped it off. "10 ¾ inches vine wood with dragon heartstring. Is that correct Ms Granger?" I nodded as he handed me back my wand and the piece of paper "Please keep that paper with you for the duration of your visit."
I said a tense goodbye to Harry and Mister Weasley agreeing to go to Mr Weasley's office after I was finished. I walked through the large golden gates to the right of the security desk. I stood for a moment looking at the golden fountain showing a witch, a wizard, a goblin, and a house elf all working together and all I could I could think of was: What a load of Bollocks!
The lifts were an experience… They reminded me of the glass elevator in 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' by Roald Dahl. Finally we got to the sixth floor, the elevator chiming out; Level 6: DMLE, Misuse of Magic Office and Department of Magical Records. I stepped out of the lift and made a beeline for Magical records.
I spoke to the very sweet secretary behind the desk, who turned out to be Alicia Spinet's mother, although I couldn't tell her who I was and she said that she would have someone come right out and talk to me.
I sat down in one of those uncomfortable waiting room chairs, apparently magic didn't improve those. I was only sitting there for about a minute or so before a tall woman with shoulder length auburn hair came into the room and called my name. As I stood up she staggered backwards and her breath hitched, she recovered quickly however and quickly lead me to a small office down the hall.
As we sat down she opened a folder on her desk and I recognised as my adoption certificate from Gringotts. The woman looked up at me and I felt her calculating stare on me for a few seconds before she began to speak. "Good morning Ms Granger. I'm sorry if I was a bit shocked to see you but as you are probably well aware by now, you very much resemble your birth mother. Bellatrix Lestrange…" She seemed uneasy as she said this. She probably lost someone to my mum or Dad. "…Now as I understand it you wish to change your name back to the one that you were given by your birth mother. I have all the forms here. Just sign the bottom and you'll officially become Sophia Andromeda Black." She said handing me a bright red quill. "It's a Blood Quill, it's used for signing contracts and official documents that have to be signed in blood to be magically binding… don't worry, It'll heal the hand straight away, but you hand will be tender for a while with the amount of paperwork we have to do today." She said; a sad expression on her face. I nodded and signed the bottom of the page.
Three very sore and tiring hours later, we had finally finished all the paperwork. The Name change, the cancelling of the adoption, meaning that as my parents and first choice of guardian were all wanted felons, incarcerated or believed dead, I would go to Andromeda Tonks. The Magical emancipation order, effectively making that last one irrelevant in the magical world, Andromeda could now only make the decisions on the muggle side of things. Exemption to the reasonable restriction of underage sorcery act, and an Azkaban visiting order, that one didn't use a blood quill thankfully. The woman sat back in her chair as she co-signed the last document. "Well everything seems to be in order Ms Black. By close of business today you will be a legal adult in our world. I'll send copies of the name changes to Professor Dumbledore and don't miss that visiting order. Getting another one before Hogwarts starts back would be difficult… Also, I would like to apologise again for my behaviour earlier, I'm still a little bit sore form the last war. Your father personally executed my fiancé and his brother. I let my emotions carry over into my work and I apologise."
I nodded. "I'm sorry for what happened to you… and if it makes you feel any better I want nothing to do with my father, I know the official ministry line is that he is still dead, but I'm good friends with Harry and will stand with him to the last." I said the last bit with confidence. She smiled and closed the folder with all the new documents in it and came around my side of the desk.
"I admire your strength Sophia; I hope you keep it…in the end. Now I have another meeting to get to, and please give my love to Arthur and Molly, this must be a hard time with Percy acting the way he is." She smiled again and escorted me back to the department reception. "And if you have any questions just send me an owl, ok" she said handing me a card.
I quickly put the card in my pocket and made my way towards Mr Weasley's office on Level 2. On the way down I saw Fudge talking to Lucius Malfoy… I still shuddered to think that we were related. The Misuse of Muggle Artefacts office was a small closet office in the corner of the second floor. Yet it somehow managed to fit Mr Weasley and two others. It appeared that the trail had gone well although Mr Weasley seemed to be quite busy, something to do with bewitched teapots, so I decided to ask when we got back to Grimauld Place.
I was exhausted by the time we got back to Grimauld Place, We had to go home the muggle way, as Flooing straight into the house of a wanted criminal was not the best thing to do if you wanted said criminal to remain at large and not rotting in Azkaban.
It turned out that Fudge had been so confident of getting a conviction that he summoned the entire Wizengamot, except Dumbledore who he had deposed as chief warlock and suspended him from taking his regular seat. He also broadcast the trial on the wizarding wireless. It all royally blew up in his face.
"Hermione!" Sirius shouted as I got down to the kitchen where the party was already in full swing. "Or should I call you Sophia?"
"Sophia. Three bloody hours of paperwork! And I saw Lucy Malfoy talking to fudge on my way out, he looked mad." Sirius let out his barking laugh, Which Drew Mrs Weasley and Tonks over.
"Wotcher Sophia, I take it everything went ok?" said Tonks enveloping me in a massive hug.
I nodded "Yeah everything was fine, but if I ever see another blood quill, I'll kill something. Also I need to borrow you on Monday." She looked apprehensive but nodded anyway before skipping back over to Remus. "Molly, the person who did all my paperwork with me said to give you and Arthur her best…" I pulled out the card she had given me "…someone called Shelly Harrison."
Molly just had a sad smile on her face and went back to the party without another word; Mr Weasley just had a knowing expression on his face. "Hermione, I mean Sophia, Shelly Harrison was engaged to Molly's Brother Fabien. She was pregnant when he was killed but had a miscarriage shortly after. Both he and Molly's other brother Gideon were killed by Voldemort himself."
I gasped, I knew that her fiancé was killed by Voldemort but the miscarriage and the connection to the Weasley's was a bit of a shock.
The celebrations went on for several more hours. I sat and tried to enjoy myself for the rest of it, but the entire day was a bit emotionally draining for me. I bid everyone a goodnight and went to bed without dinner much to Molly's chagrin. It was going to be a long couple of weeks before we all made it back to Hogwarts…
A/N: Hi everyone! Hope you all enjoyed this shortish chapter. I'm going away tomorrow so I'll probs won't have the next chapter up for a couple of weeks especially as I have my driving theory test on at the end of the month.
As always please review and tell me what you thought
Also some people have been asking if this is going to be a femmeslash story. I'm still unsure.
-Slygrifflepuffclaw