Hogwarts: Gryffindor Tower
1996: First Day, Sixth Year
POV: Hermione

"'Mione, you OK? You haven't been your usual chatty self," Harry said, quietly sliding beside me onto the floor, in front of the fire. I stare at him with eyes too tired of crying. He looks at me a little alarmed at my silent stare.

"Something happened over the summer, Harry," I admit hastily. "It's... it's life-changing news."

"You fall in love?" he jokes.

The question seems to jar Ron awake from his cat nap on the chaise. "Wha-?"

"No, of course not, Harry! " I cast a sidelong glance at him as I feel a blush creep up my neck. "Of course not! Nothing like that. It's more serious than that."

"More serious than love? Really?" He catches my silent gaze and I watch his twinkling green eyes sober. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I shake my head. The names in the hospital file fill my mind.

It's too soon, too raw and I need to do a more research first.

I get up and send them both a sorrowful smile before heading up to the girls' dorm, back to that thick file of hospital records.

I need to learn all I can about my parent's real daughter, Emmanuelle before I can formulate a clear plan to discover my own parents.

Hogwarts: Slytherin Dungeons
1996: First Day, Sixth Year
POV: Draco

The sorting is done and everyone's back in their assigned dorms. I escape the common room and shut the curtains around my bed. I've also thrown up a silencing spell to keep any noise I might make in my sleep to myself. Since Father's incarceration, in the last few weeks at home, I've screamed myself awake to escape from the nightmares. It seems in dreams, I allow myself the weakness of showing fear. I am horrified that the same will happen here.

For the umpteenth time, I hold the record of the prophecy in my hand. I feel desperately alone.

The white light within the orb burns bright as I focus on the cryptic message, trying to locate any clue that will help me to figure out this blasted prophecy. The message seems cut short, but who am I to question Father? I turn my eyes back to focus on the center of the globe.

"There is one, a Slytherin heir, who will be the Dark Lord's most effective weapon against the one who threatens to vanquish him...He shall use her to weaken and overcome the powers of The Chosen One. For she alone can ensure that the one marked as His equal will not survive-"

Female and a Slytherin heir?

I shake my head. The Slytherin line is all but extinct as far as I know. This is impossible! I need someone to help me. Perhaps I can go to Snape. He's supposed to help me. That's what Father said. For some reason, I don't want to go to my godfather and I haven't any inkling why.

"Oi! Malfoy, you in there?" Blaise Zabini is threatening to rustle the draperies that keep me hidden. I wipe my face with a shaky hand and stuff the orb beneath my pillow. Before he steps closer, I push my head out of the slit between the closed curtains.

"What do you want, Zabini?"

"Just checking if you were around. The lot of us are-"

"No. I'm tired." I rudely interrupt his unwanted invitation, quickly pulling my head back behind the curtains.

I scowl at the sound of his retreating voice swearing that he'll never try to include me again, no matter what any pretty witch asks of him.

Don't these people know I have more serious things to contend with?

I pull out the glowing ball again and hold it in front of me, willing my brain to work this time.

FLASHBACK: 1937-1955
Of Blood and Weasels

Catherine Sengue was preparing for her first day at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. Earlier, her mother, Miranda, sent her off with a teary goodbye, making her promise that she'd do much better in life than her barmaid mother. At last Miranda's galleons would be put to good use.

Catherine was quaking inside with the excitement of traveling to France and finally being able to receive formal training to use her magical powers. She was determined to be the best in her class. Smoothing down her errant, dark brown curls, she found her way to the first year coaches that would take her off to the mysterious Academy. In her pocket, she held a wand with a dragonstring core. The Academy, she discovered, was shrouded in secrecy, a fact that delighted her mother. She'd discovered that her new school was unplottable, no one really knew where to find it unless they knew where to look. And this was particularly important to her mother who had her write that her last name was Senguis, not Sengue.

Catherine had long stopped asking about her mum's relatives. As far as she knew, they'd only written to Miranda once in response to the news that she'd given birth to a little girl and that the father was a wizard from Little Hangleton. The nosey innkeeper, Miranda's boss, had confided that her mother had been in a deep depression for weeks after that letter came from her parents.

If they hated her mother enough to disown her, well then, Catherine wasn't about to give them the time of day. Yet, she still wondered about her father. Knowing her mum's habits, though, Catherine knew it was unlikely that Miranda even knew who sired her.

As she progressed in school, Catherine developed few friends, having spent most of her time in the great libraries of the Academy. By Sixth Year, she had no real romantic interests. She, however, was top of her class and had every expectation to stay there. She was Beauxbatons' most clever witch.

Her last year brought the first Muggle Studies class to the Academy. The course included an unprecedented exchange program with Muggle England's University of Oxford. Catherine, of course, won placement in the program, bringing her to Muggle England for her last semester. It was through this program that she learned of Muggle-borne wizards. Some of the brightest, apparently, attended this prestigious university, having not previously been introduced to the wizarding community.

While at Oxford, Catherine met Leopold Mustelidae, a Muggleborn wizard with unruly, bushy brown hair and dark, sparkling, knowledgeable eyes. His keen mind entranced her, they shared a desire to learn, a love of books, and together they made some powerful magic when, during their graduation summer, Catherine brought Leopold to Wizarding England, at last introducing him to Miranda.

Naturally, they fell in love and married, continuing to keep house in Muggle England, with the occasional visits to Little Hangleton. They were blessed with one child, a spirited, little brown-haired boy, the spitting image of his father.