Hermione sat on her bed, completely oblivious as to how she had walked down the street to Ollivander's, flooed back to Hogwarts and climbed the stairs to Gryffindor Tower. Her mind was miles away from her heart. She had always been so dependent on logic…on facts that one could read from a book….facts that could be tested and proved or disproved. There simply wasn't room in her thought process to allow for this kind of emotional upheaval.
She thumbed the seal of the letter. A green clump of wax with what looked like a "K" embossed in the center. She warily lifted the seal and unfolded what she hoped would be the truth.
My Dearest Hermione,
I hope this letter finds you in the best of circumstances. I know you must have many questions and I will answer what I can. I trust you have been loved and cared for by your guardians as much as I wish I could have cared for you myself. Because you are now eighteen years of age, as per my instructions with Gringotts, you are entitled to my fortune. I hope you will use it well. The necklace was very special to me and I hope you will guard it closely. As for the postcard book, it is my way of allowing you to know me. I imagine you are hurting to find out such a truth so late in your life, but I can only hope you will one day understand my reasons for doing so. I loved you from the moment I felt you kick. I loved you the minute you were born and I loved you the last time I ever held you in my arms.
Rest assured, if you are reading this letter, then I am dead. Do not grieve though, my dearest little one, for my blood pumps in your veins and I will always be there to guide you when you call upon me. No harm will ever come to you as long as the bringer of light and the severer of darkness remain loyal to a mother's last wishes.
Continue to be as brilliant as I know you have become.
All of my soul,
your mother, Katrina
Hermione's eyes welled up with tears. What did any of this mean? What did she mean by "guardians"? Did she mean The Grangers? Who was the "bringer of light"? Who was the "severer of darkness"? What of her father? Hermione felt a tremendous emptiness as she looked up at her tear streaked face in the bathroom mirror. She wondered whose nose she had, where her hair came from and most of all,
she wondered who else had lied to her.