hey everyone! sorry about the delay with chapter 10...haha...technical difficulties!
just to let everyone know, to avoid writing myself into a proverbial corner, i had to make a minor change/update to chapter five "who am i?"...check it out...it may make more sense to reread it before chapter ten...unless you are reading this story for the first time, in which case it really doesn't matter.
anyway...enjoy!
-smiles-
boots!
Ron and Harry sat across from each other, playing Wizard's Chess as the rain slapped against the windows without mercy. Harry's mind was a million miles away from the sadistically intellectual game. He was thinking about Hermione, that stupid letter and of course, his raven haired crush. He began to think that if Hermione was in fact lying to him, maybe she wasn't worth his worry; but quickly pushed the thought out of his mind.
"Check"
"Check what?"
"Bloody hell Harry! Get your head in the game!"
"Sorry…just…thinking"
"Clearly it doesn't seem to be helping"
At this moment, Ginny came out of the girl's dormitory and sat on the other end of the common room with a new diary in tow. Ron acknowledged her presence but Harry didn't seem to notice her at all.
"It's like Hermione's hiding something" Harry finally said.
"Like what?"
"I don't know…I followed her to the library – "
"I thought you said you needed a book!"
"She wasn't even there! I couldn't have been that far behind her…surely I would have seen her."
"Maybe she was in the bathroom or...maybe she forgot something in her room…or maybe-"
Ginny was annoyed at how concerned Harry seemed over Hermione. She knew there was nothing between them but she did sometimes get jealous of their closeness. Perhaps if she could help Harry, he wouldn't be so concerned for Hermione and would have more time to pay attention to her.
"Or maybe she's with her secret boyfriend!" she blurted out.
"No comments from the peanut gallery please!" Ron sneered.
"How are you so sure she doesn't have a boyfriend?" Ginny crossed the room and drew the postcard out of her pocket.
"What's that there?" Ron reached at the postcard but Ginny pulled it back.
"Oh nothing…just a note from Hermione's secret lover!" she gushed.
That caught Harry's attention for sure. A bolt of lightning struck remarkably close to the window and both Weasleys jumped a little at the angry sound of the thunder that followed.
"Let me see that"
Ginny handed it to Harry with a warm smile to which Ron rolled his eyes. As Harry carefully read the words, his face turned from one of concern to one of extreme curiosity. "S?" he directed the question at Ginny who eagerly shrugged.
"What does it say?" Ron snatched the card from him.
"Ron – what boys in Gryffindor have names beginning with S?"
Ron was too in shock to answer. Ginny had been right! Why had Hermione kept this from them? It was clear that he was visibly hurt.
"It could be a last name" Ginny piped in.
"True." Harry was pacing now. "Could it be Seamus?"
Ginny frowned in disapproval.
"Maybe it's not a Gryffindor at all" Ron sighed.
"Let's see…there's Stephen Cornfoot and Ryan Sykes in Ravenclaw…there's Herbert Summerset, Sam Tuttle and Sidney Dollop in Hufflepuff."
"What about Slytherin?" Ginny queried.
"I don't think we have to worry about that". Harry took the postcard from Ron and read it over again. Neither one could imagine Hermione with any of the boys they had listed. Could it be a Slytherin?
Hermione's eyes welled up with tears almost instantly as she walked into Dumbledore's office and saw her muggle parents. She bit down on her lip and let the tears spill silently over her cheeks.
"Please Hermione, have a seat" Dumbledore motioned to a comfortable chair near the fireplace. She moved in silence towards it, keeping her eyes straight ahead.
"Sweetheart, Professor Dumbledore summoned us here to talk to you" Martha reached a pale hand out to her daughter but Hermione did not accept it.
"I understand you received a letter from Gringotts, Miss Granger"
"How long have you known?" she choked back her tears.
"I only found out last week when it was delivered – the same time that you…"
She stopped the old wizard before he could continue, staring at her parents in a way she never had. "How long have you known!" she asked angrily.
"We…we knew when you were…we…" Martha burst into tears, unable to control her emotions any longer. "Hermione- I'm so sorry!"
The young witch looked down at the floor with a hurt frown.
"Perhaps it would be best to leave parents and child to sort things out. Minerva?"
The two professors left together and Steven tried to comfort Martha.
"Hermione…you have to understand, we –"
"No! You have to understand what this has done to me over the last few days!" she screamed. "Do you have any idea what it's like to wake up and not have a bloody clue who you are!"
All three were silent for some time. Lightning lit the room from time to time and the raging thunder shook the castle and resonated in Hermione's breaking heart. Why were they here? Why had Dumbledore summoned them?
"Hermione…the night you came into our lives was the happy night of my life" Martha said at last. "Your…your mother" she could hardly get the words out. "Your mother, Katrina…she was half delirious when your father found her in Hyde Park, near his office. She was desperate and insisted someone had been following her. You had just been born and were almost a month premature. When Steven saw you, he couldn't turn his back- even to a stranger."
Hermione stared out a false window. She gazed deeply at the stars, wishing she could live amongst them like The Little Prince - alone, drifting through time and space forever.
"Hermione…are you even listening to me?" she pleaded.
"Stop calling me that! It's probably not even my real name!" she hissed back.
"But it is."
Hermione turned to her with a look of surprise and pain.
"Your mother told us your name right away, though she never gave us the middle or last, which is why we chose Jane- after your great gr…well, my grandmother."
"You say she was delirious? Did she say who was following her?"
"No, she didn't say. She was feverish and kept saying 'he can't be…he can't be' over and over again. She spoke of having been through some sort of war – we figured it was just an expression. But she seemed to take it very seriously. She kept saying something about an owl."
"Naturally, we had no idea what she was referring to" Steven interrupted.
"Naturally" Hermione raised a sardonic eyebrow that rivaled that of Severus Snape.
"At any rate" Martha continued, "we decided she would stay the night…it was freezing and we couldn't allow a newborn out in such conditions. We had taken you upstairs to bathe you. Your mother was exhausted." Martha paused and took a deep breath, "There was a scream and we ran downstairs to see what was wrong. Your mother…your mother was dead. There was a strange glow around her…sort of a green radiance…I'm sure it was just the lights from outside casting a shadow, but it was rather frightening at the time."
"Avada kedavra" Hermione whispered to herself.
"What's that dear?"
"Oh, nothing…please, go on"
"We called the hospital and they came to remove…to take her."
"Hermione, your mother and I…we couldn't have children of our own and…well, we made up our minds that night to adopt you."
"Did my mother have anything with her? Any identification or…"
"I'm afraid not…though we have something that might be helpful" Martha rummaged through her purse and pulled out what looked like a stick wrapped in newspaper . She handed it gently to Hermione.
"What is this?"
"It was the only thing other than you that your mother had with her"
Hermione carefully lifted the paper and her jaw dropped at the sight of the beautifully carved ebony wand lying in her hands.
"Thank you" Hermione silently began to cry again. This was what she wanted; the truth. But it was all so overwhelming. She threw herself into Martha's arms and sobbed into her chest. Martha held her daughter tightly and stroked her nimble fingers through tangled hair as she had done on so many occasions before.
The storm was raging on outside but the wind seemed to have died down and the rain fell softer now, lightly tapping the ground and crying down the windows. After another hour of reminiscing, Dumbledore returned with Minerva in tow.
"Well, I suppose we should be getting home…I'm sure you have lots of studying to do."
Hermione nodded. She was never more grateful to have such devoted parents as she was right then. "One more question" Hermione pleaded, "what did she look like?"
"She was quite beautiful" Dumbledore interrupted. Hermione shot her one time mentor an impatient eye. She was sure he had been aware of her situation for as long as she had been at Hogwarts and looking at him now, she couldn't help but feel a great sense of disloyalty.
"She was in fact one of the most beautiful witches I have ever seen" McGonagall voiced her opinion as well, to which Hermione also felt a stab of betrayal. She looked to Martha for confirmation.
"I will say this; she was very protective of you. She elevated you above her own needs and that is the truest sign of beauty I know of".
Hermione smiled, said her goodbyes and hugged her muggle parents. Once they had gone, she directed her attention to Dumbledore.
"Well?"
Dumbledore looked at Hermione in his usual unassuming and absentminded way as if to say "well what?"
"Tell me what you know!" Hermione was a little shocked by her own brazenness, but held her ground firmly. "What was my mother's last name? Who is my father and why was this kept from me?"
"I'm afraid I only know as much as your parents know about your father, which appears to be nothing. And as for your mother, I can tell you of her kindness, her scholastic brilliance and her selflessness. But, I received an owl with specific orders the very night you were born not to divulge her name. I'm sad to say; you will find no reference to her in any yearbooks either. "
"Who gave you these orders? Who sent you that owl?"
"Your mother".
Hermione was now more confused than she had been upon receiving the strange letter from Gringotts. If her mother had not intended her to know any of this, then why had she written her that letter and left it in her safety deposit box in the first place? None of it made any sense. Hermione looked up at Dumbledore with a lost look of uncertainty, hurt and exhaustion. She collapsed in a heap on the floor.
"Rest assured, Hermione…the answers will come. Your mother wrote that letter to you when she trusted people that she later found she could no longer trust. Things can change drastically during times of war and deceit is not uncommon…you should know that better than anyone." He knelt down next to her and stared into her tired, wet eyes. "The answers will come when you begin to ask the proper questions".