My Sister's Keeper
By: Mortania Hottersander
A/N: So I got my nails done today, and I feel…sassy! :D So this is kind of a tribute to my awesome day.
Disclaimer: I own…the plot. Sort of. JK Rowling owns…the characters…except those you do not know.
CHAPTER THREE: Nails, Suspicions, Confirmation
I had now re-read the letter about seven different times. Wondering how it was I was supposed to sort out the trail of breadcrumbs and suspicions my sister had left me. She had hinted at the Granger girl being her daughter, hers and Rodolphus' daughter. If this was indeed true it meant that being first born of Bella's supposed three children, Granger would be the one whom would get the majority of the treasure in the vault at Grigotts. The solicitor whom was put in charge of Bellatrix and Rodolphus' estate had contacted me four times in the past week, urging me to find the beneficiary to the Lestrange fortune and homestead which had been abandoned for several years now and was probably in need of repair. Bellatrix, being the brilliant witch she was, had left me more than enough pieces of hair in order to perform the proper spells and potions tests to determine if I had actually found a daughter or son of hers. If there was a son between her and Rodolphus-then he would be the recipient of the majority of the fortune-age be damned. I decided that I needed a day away from the Magical World-and the place I often found myself in the muggle world was a nail and hair boutique just outside of the Leaky Cauldron. They had a marvelous deal for manicures and pedicures-cheap but absolutely brilliant. Not that I couldn't just pay the salon people to come to me…sometimes, it was nice to get out into the sunlight.
Today, when I walked into the salon, Brittany, one of the beauticians smiled warmly at me and instantly placed her hand on my arm, leading me over to the many polish colors upon the wall. Normally, I had them toss on a dark purple or green color-but today, I decided upon a dried dark red blood looking color and was ushered over to the pedicure spa chair. While I was given the massage remote, I sipped on my glass of ice water the Beverage Boy, Bernard brought me. I almost spit out the icy cold water when I saw a girl walk into the boutique that was familiar to not only me but my son. It was the girl herself that I was suppose to figure out how to get into contact with. She was all by herself and looked absolutely thrilled to be in such a beautiful place. Of course, her face still had a cut or two on it from the battle which had taken place three weeks ago.
She looked over at me after selecting a shade I normally selected. The girl, Laura, set Miss Hermione Granger in the chair beside me.
"How, peculiar finding you here, Mrs. Malfoy, do you come here often?" Hermione spoke to me first. While not entirely friendly of a tone, I could tell that she was merely acknowledging that Narcissa Malfoy, Pureblooded wife of Lucius Malfoy and traitor of the Dark Lord during the most crucial point in the war-was sitting in the Muggle World surrounded by people who knew nothing of the tragedy or war over their lineage.
Looking at the girl's eyes, which was what Bellatrix had commented about-I saw the honey brown color which was indeed known to Rodolphus. Her face was slim and sophisticated; her nose was exactly that of Bella's. I shook my head and broke my dumbfounded look and answered her. "For your information, Hermione Granger, I do come here often. The service is friendly and they have my favorite color of polish. However, my husband and son do not keep track of what I do when I am not at home. I'm quite invisible unless I am needed for some trifling social event or planning of something."
Hermione was taken aback by my sudden burst of social engagement with truth. "Oh." She looked down at Laura, who was massaging her calves. "My mum use to bring me here." Hermione quietly muttered. I turned my head to look at her with a curious expression. "I suppose I should say Karen Granger use to bring me here. It was part of our 'girls out' day we use to do every other weekend before I went to school. Of course, when I'd come home for the summer we'd keep it up-if she wasn't busy at the Dental practice."
"Why do you call your mother by her given name? If you don't mind me asking." I was merely curious as to why the girl had corrected herself.
"Because I named her Monica Wilkins and relocated her last summer." I was slightly dumbfounded at that. She had given her parents a new identity and relocated them so they would be safe during the war-or at least, this is what I understood. "When I went to restore her memories, I pretended that I was her sister's daughter and she confided in me that she remembered who she was, and who I was-and told me to look in the safe behind the family portrait above the mantel. I did."
"And what did you discover, Hermione?" Brittany was now rubbing my calves with the exfoliating rub, before she would trim my cuticles on my toes and paint them.
Hermione looked at me square in the eyes-her brown eyes meeting my icy blue ones. "Adoption Papers-Without a name of my birth mother. I mean, how am I supposed to find who I really belong to, if there are no breadcrumbs? Why would my mother, memory slightly returned or not, never mention it to me before? I mean, shouldn't a person have the right to know where they came from?" She looked absolutely agitated. At this statement, I allowed myself to appear shocked and awed.
"Hermione, has it occurred to you that she perhaps felt as though she was doing you a favor?" I asked, smiling at her. "Think about it. What if your mother was like me?" I spoke tactfully, hoping that the girls' brains hadn't failed her in the year she had taken off from school. "But what if she wasn't on your side but my husband's side?" Now I was giving her ammunition. "What would you do if that person had asked your mother to take care of you because she knew that she, herself couldn't be as great as a mother as you deserved? Karen Granger will always be your mother, Hermione, even if she just took you after someone decided that they couldn't be half the person that she could. Maybe your biological mother couldn't have children and the person found your mother and liked what she saw."
"If that were the case that she was like you, Narcissa-then obviously I have been tormented and teased for all those years for being something I might not be. I think that deserves and explanation. Wouldn't you think so?" Hermione gave me a look-one that I had seen more than once, and it was in that moment that I decided that I wouldn't speak to the girl unless she spoke to me.
When Brittany had finished with my pedicure, she had taken me over to the manicure table, which ironically was sitting beside the chair which Laura directed Hermione into when she was finished with her pedicure. Hermione looked at me and was trying to figure out something, she eventually opened her mouth to speak again and when she did I was shocked at the words coming out of her mouth. "Narcissa, would you please join me for a drink at the bar after this?" I turned my face toward hers and sighed. This would be fun to explain to Draco if any news of the meeting were given back to him or Lucius after this.
"Yes." I answered, mentally slapping myself.
After Brittany had finished with me and Laura had finished with Hermione, we walked over to the Leaky Cauldron, where we found a booth in one of the dark corners. I sat with my hand on the table, my red nails glistening in the candlelight.
"Narcissa, tell me, are there ways of finding my real mother if she indeed is magical?" Hermione asked me, and for once, I could only surmise that this was perhaps the one book that she hadn't read. Or at least, that's what Draco's voice said when it popped into my head. Laughing slightly, I shook my head.
"Yes. However, you personally could not access the necessary records. I do know someone, however, that keeps track of Wizarding lineage and knows a little something about blood links." I paused, biting my lower lip, only stopping when I realized that Hermione was doing the same across the table. It was something that unfortunately, all Black family relatives did when they were thinking about something very deeply. "I would just need a little something from you, after I ask you a few questions." Hermione surveyed me for a moment before nodding.
After leaving the Leaky Cauldron, a lock of Hermione Granger's hair tucked safely in my pocket, and the knowledge that her birthday was September 19th, 1979, I instantly headed home. It was in this moment that I missed having Severus around. Damn Voldemort and his hair-brained ideas, he had killed the most talented Potioneer I had ever met. So I had done the next best thing, I went home and began brewing the potion for testing. Luckily, I had notes written by Severus in front of me-if there was one thing I was grateful for, it was having Severus Snape as a friend in my life-he had shown me several tricks and tips that helped me harness my talent for Potions. He had first noticed it at school, but seeing as how I was forced into marrying Lucius Malfoy and starting a family-I wasn't allowed to have a career. But if I would've chosen anything it would've been something with Potions and Herbology.
When the potion was complete, after twelve hours of mixing and slaving over it-I separated the portion I needed for testing purposes from the rest by placing it in a vial. I picked up the lock of Hermione's hair and placed it in the potion, and very carefully I reached into the bag with Bellatrix's hair and took one of hers. Very quickly, I read what the potion would do if they were indeed linked by blood-and added my sister's hair. Instantly, the clear white potion turned pink. I re-read what would happen, and sure enough, my sister had been right with her suspicion. I went to bed that night, laying beside my husband looking at his blond-going-grey hair and smiled to myself. I would have to contact the solicitor in the morning and inform him I found my sister's eldest child.
The hard part however, would be that I would need to contact her and tell her I had some surprising news for her.