Chapter Four
Hermione had to stay in the hospital wing until the following day and wasn't let out until lunch time the next. She'd missed potions with her father in the morning but from what she'd heard so far it seemed that not very many people actually liked him - or his class - very much.
"Mione, over here," Harry called from the opposite end of the Gryffindor table, just as Hermione walked through the double doors.
As she made her way over towards Harry she glanced up at the teachers table to see her father looking down on her, he gave her a quick smile before returning his attention to his food, his mouth set into a scowl once again.
Hermione smiled sadly, she reckoned that this was what it was going to be like in public from now on. From what she'd gathered, her father had a reputation at Hogwarts for being the mean, greasy, dungeons bat and she didn't think that reuniting with his daughter was going to change that; although a piece of her wished it would.
"Hey Harry," Hermione said chirpily as she plopped herself down next to Harry, "Where's Ron?" She asked, glancing around for a head of ginger hair. She caught sight of Fred and George, who were currently torturing Percy with a piece of ham - he was vegetarian - and she also saw Neville sat awkwardly on his own a few seats down.
"He's just on his way, should be down in a minute, how are you feeling?" asked Harry, looking Hermione up and down to make sure she didn't have any obvious injuries still.
"Much better," Hermione reassured him, smiling at him and placing her finger under his chin to lift his head up so their eyes were at the same level.
"You sure?" He asked, he felt as if he'd known Hermione his whole life and he couldn't help but worry about her, he felt a strong protective urge towards her and if he was being honest then he'd felt like this as soon as their eyes met on the train.
"Certain," Hermione told him, smiling at him to assure him she was being truthful. The two of them went back to filling up their plates and awaited for Ron to make his way to lunch.
Hermione began giggled as she looked towards the door, Harry looked at her oddly before following her eyes to the sight of Ron running through the doors, his shirt half tucked in and tie hanging loosely around his neck. As he caught sight of them he waved, a stupid grin spreading across his face before he face planted the floor after tripping over his robe.
"Hey guys," Ron said, red with embarrassment, as he ran towards them and sat opposite the two of them, he quickly began filling his plate up and looked up at the laughing faces of Harry and Hermione.
"It's not funny," Ron mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
"Sorry Ron," Hermione apologised, before looking at Harry again and bursting into laughter once more.
"Sorry my arse," He muttered, reaching over to take a handful of crisps from a bowl to his left.
Harry and Hermione eventually calmed themselves down and were now reaching to take more food and filling up their cups with pumpkin juice.
"Miss Granger," a voice said from behind her, she looked over to see Professor McGonagall leaning over her.
"Hello Professor, is everything all right?" Hermione asked, wondering why McGonagall was over here.
"I have your time table, because of your incident last night you didn't receive it," She informed her, handing the piece of paper to Hermione, who took it gratefully.
"Thank you Professor," Hermione said, watching as McGonagall turned around.
"Oh and 5 points from Gryffindor Mr Weasley, tardiness is not tolerated in my house," She said sternly over her shoulder, before flouncing back over to the teachers table, ignoring the sniggers coming from the Slytherin table at her comment.
"Tardiness?" Ron shrieked when McGonagall was out of hearing range.
"Your tie Ron," Harry pointed out, trying his best not to laugh when Ron huffed at the ridiculousness of it all while muttering about bloody ties. Hermione watched the boys in amusement and as she lent across the table to get some sausage rolls she caught sight of Neville again, he really did look lonely.
"Guys, Neville looks a bit lonely, do you mind if he sits with us?" Hermione asked, the boys looked at her anxiously before looking at each other then looking over at Neville.
"He looks okay over there Hermione," Ron said.
"Yeah, he does," Harry agreed.
"You boys are ridiculous," Hermione retorted, standing up from her place on the bench, "I'll just go get him myself," she huffed, stalking off towards Neville before she sat herself down next to him.
Her sudden appearance caused Neville to jump in surprise, making him spill his pumpkin juice all over the front of his robes.
"Whoops, sorry Neville," Hermione apologised quickly, cleaning up the mess with a quick scourgify.
"How did you do that?" Neville asked in wonder, staring at Hermione in awe.
"Do what?" She asked, a little perplexed at the sudden question.
"That spell, we don't learn that until third year," He explained, be it a little timidly.
"Oh, I ... um, read it in a book and taught myself," She admitted. She'd found it in a book she was reading in the hospital wing and decided it would be useful so took it upon herself to learn it .
"Well, it was great," Neville complimented her, returning back to his more shy self.
"Thank you," Hermione said sincerely," we were wondering if you wanted to come and sit with us," She said, motioning towards Ron and Harry who waved sheepishly at Neville.
"Oh, it's fine. I don't want to be a bother," Neville told her, looking down at his thumbs as he twiddled them nervously.
"Don't be silly Neville, we'd love for you to come and sit with us," Hermione insisted, when Neville didn't say anything in return she huffed and pulled him up herself.
"Come on, we're not going to bite," She joked, praising herself when a small smile graced his lips.
"Okay," He muttered, following Hermione over to Ron and Harry.
"Hi Neville," They both replied, concentrating on their meals as he sat down.
"Hello," He replied. He looked between the three of them before staring at Harry and then back at Hermione.
"Is something wrong Neville?" Harry asked, a little put off that he kept staring at him.
"No, no. It's just that you and Hermione look quite similar," He told them. Harry and Hermione looked at each other while Ron looked up from his plate to assess the two of them.
"Bloody hell, he's right. You do look similar," Ron agreed, leaning in closer to examine the two of them at a shorter distance.
"No we don't."
"Don't be ridiculous Ron."
Harry and Hermione exclaimed together, looking away from each other and shuffling their bags onto their shoulders before declaring that it was time to go to charms.
...
"I'll catch up later," Hermione called.
"See you later 'Mione," Harry called back while Ron muttered a quick bye before leaving with Harry to dinner.
Her and the boys had just finished their first double charms lesson, and her stomach was rumbling in anticipation of dinner.
Hermione made her way to the library in a hurry, she really needed to get a move on if she didn't want to miss out on dinner. While on her way there she began thinking about all the information she currently had on her mum.
So far she knew that her name was Olivia, if she could hazard a guess then Hermione would say that she would be in the same year as her dad but that wasn't a definite yet. She also knew that her mum was a Gryffindor and that she had piercing blue eyes and dark skin. She hoped it wouldn't be too hard to find her, she had enough information ... right?
As Hermione walked into the library she noticed that there weren't many people around, they were probably all at dinner.
"Can I help you dear?" An old woman asked, as Hermione made her way to the front desk.
"Yes, please. Could you tell me where the school year books are kept?" Hermione asked politely.
"Of course dear, if you just follow me," The lady replied.
Hermione followed until the lady - that Hermione assumed to be the librarian - walked into an aisle and pulled out a massive stack of books.
"Here you go," She announced placing the books on a table before returning back to her chair at the front desk.
Hermione looked at the stack in front of her and mentally calculated what year her father and hopefully mother graduated from Hogwarts.
"1978, 1978, 1978," She muttered as she ruffled through the stack of books.
"Ah, here you are," She said triumphantly as she pulled a book out of the stack. The front was brown and embellished on the top was 'class of 1978' with the Hogwarts crest nestled above it. Hermione opened the book and scanned the pages for someone called Olivia, she noticed Harrys mum in there and stopped to stare at the woman for a second before continuing on her search, making a mental note to bring Harry here to have a look.
She hadn't found anyone by the name of Olivia by the time she made it onto James Potters page, Harry really did look very much like his father, she couldn't believe the resemblance between the two of them. She quickly scanned his page and was surprised to find that he had a twin sister in the same house. Unfortunately, it didn't mention her name but specified that her information was on the next page. Hermione was confused because as far as she was aware Harry didn't have an aunt on his fathers side. Intrigued, Hermione turned the page before dropping the book unceremoniously onto the table in front of her.
There on the page was none other than the name Olivia Potter, Hermione couldn't believe it. Her mum was James' sister which made her Harrys aunt. That meant that her and Harry were cousins.
"Are you alright dear? I heard a noise," Madam Pince asked, popping her head around the corner.
"Yes, I just dropped a book. Sorry about that," Hermione apologised, picking the book up in her hands.
"Are you sure? You look a bit pale," Madam Pince replied.
"Honestly, I'm fine," Hermione insisted, waiting until Madam Pince was out of sight to look at the open page again. She stared at the picture of her mum, transfixed on her features. It kind of all made sense now, she supposed that her and Harry did look rather similar in appearance.
Thinking back on lunch earlier today, Hermione realised that they had the same nose and jaw line. Both of them had messy hair and were relatively short for their age. This must've been why they felt a familiar connection when they met on the train.
As Hermione read the information on the page she found out that her mum was Quidditch captain from her 5th year, beating her brother in that aspect. She was also a prefect and best friends with Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes and Alice Fawley.
This was the only information on her mother in the year book but one question still remained. What had happened to her mother? Surely if she had died, she would've been mentioned in a newspaper of some sort, being Auntie to the boy who lived and all.
Hermione made her way to the back of the library and it was here that she found a whole section stacked with every Daily Prophet article ever published. Hermione made her way along the stacks of newspapers, scanning until she came to the section labelled 1981. She thought she would start here because it was the year that Harrys parents had died, so her mum was most likely to be named as one of the mourners for her brother and best friend.
she picked up a stack that was labelled October and began scanning through them. Finally, she reached one that recited the events of the 31st October 1981 and felt a tear trickle down her face. Although she didn't remember ever meeting her aunt and uncle, she still felt a twinge of sadness that Harry hadn't had very long with them and that she'd never remember or meet them herself.
After calming down a bit she scanned through some more papers until one extract in particular caught her attention.
THE BOY WHO LIVED, FOUND AND POTTER A CRIMINAL?
By Rita Skeeter
Early this morning, Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, was found in McKinnon Manor, where Marlene McKinnon was found dead this morning. The Boy Who Lived was in an upstairs bedroom.
Late last night Olivia Potter was found in the home of Frank and Alice Longbottom, she was charged with the use of unforgivables on both Mr and Mrs Longbottom, which has landed them both in St Mungos: Spell Damage with insanity from prolonged experience with the cruciatus. Their son, Neville Longbottom, was found in a cupboard in the very room they were tortured in, it is thought that the poor boy was locked in their while he had to endure the screams of his parents.
Albus Dumbledore has taken charge of the boy who lived, found in the McKinnon Estate but won't talk to anyone about his whereabouts. For know though, some questions remain. Why did Olivia Potter torture the Longbottoms? Who killed Marlene Mckinnon? And what was The Boy Who Lived doing with the late Marlene McKinnon in the first place?
Hermione couldn't believe it, she'd talked to Neville just a couple of hours ago, not knowing that her mother had done this to his parents. She didn't want to believe it but the evidence was right in front of her.
Hermione stood frozen. How could her mum do that? And how could her father not tell her? It felt like she was being torn from the inside out, like all of her organs had turned to jelly.
She felt trapped.
Torn.
She bit her tongue, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to leave her eyes. She'd only known of her father for a not even a day and already she loved him more than anything, she felt betrayed and disgusted. Betrayed because her father hadn't had the decency to inform her that her mother was a criminal and disgusted that she was related to someone who could do such a thing.
First, one small crystal bead escaped from her right eye. She could feel the warmth, sliding down her cheek, and rolling off her chin. Then another. And another. Until her eyes were flooded with them, coming like a rainfall. She had to get away from all of it, away from the newspaper and the evidence of what her mother had done.
In an instant Hermione was racing away, she didn't know where she was going and before she knew it her legs had given out. She collapsed against a massive oak tree that sat by the edge of the black lake.
Emotional pain flowed out of her every pore. From her mouth came a cry so raw that it would make even the eyes of Satan himself wet with tears.
She blinked briny tears from bloodshot eyes, her thick lashes sticking together in clumps as if she'd been swimming, while tears made wet tracks down her face as they dripped from her wobbling chin.
The thing that made all of this worse was the fact that even though she knew she shouldn't, she still wanted to meet her mum. She craved to have the real love of a mother, or at least to know that her mother didn't love her so she could at least give up on the hope she still held in her heart.
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Reviews are appreciated but obviously not necessary :)
Chapter Question: Who would you like to see Hermione end up with romantically? A boy, girl or no-one? Who should it be?!
edited 30/08/2019