CHAPTER SEVEN

Summary: Hermione's secret is discovered by The Order of the Phoenix. Before Harry is rescued, she needs to be first. But from who? With the help of Sirius she learns to put the past behind her, and with the help of two Weasleys, they show her a happy future. But Hermione isn't who she thinks she is, what she discovers will change her life for good. Rated M for a reason.

Disclaimer: All original characters and canon events belong to J.K. Rowling. Non-canon events are my own ideas. I am not making any profit from posting this fanfic.

Page count: 10

12 Grimmauld Place - Monday 25th December 1995

Early Christmas morning Hermione awoke screaming. She automatically gripped her necklace.

'Padfoot,' she thought.

'I know, Kitten, I'm on my way,' he replied.

She sat up in bed and wrapped her arms around her knees, sobbing into her arms as she waited for Sirius to come to her.

Sirius leapt out of bed and made his way down to Hermione's floor, just as he reached Hermione's room, Harry came up the stairs with a glass of pumpkin juice in his hand.

When he saw Sirius he stopped.

"Why are you going into Hermione's room?"

Sirius looked at his Godson, he hadn't seen him since he arrived. It seemed Hermione's words four days ago had no effect on him.

"Does it matter?"

"If you're going in there to sha..."

"For Merlin's sake, Harry! I would never even look at Hermione that way. I'm ashamed that you would even think that about your friend. Hermione is going through a difficult time right now... "

"And I'm not?" Harry cut him off.

"So is Hermione, she's had a very difficult childhood..."

"More so than me?"

"Yes," Sirius said without hesitation. "I love you Harry, and I will always support you, but right now Hermione needs me too." Sirius turned around and whispered the password, the door opened and he slipped inside, Harry could hear Hermione's cries until Sirius shut the door.

Sirius changed into Padfoot and climbed onto the bed and Hermione immediately clung to him, crying into his fur.

Half an hour later she'd calmed down.

"I can't do this anymore, Padfoot."

Padfoot's head snapped up and looked at her fearfully. He shifted out of the hold she had on him and he turned back into Sirius.

"What?" he asked quickly.

"I can't do this anymore," she whispered. Sirius grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up, shaking her slightly with his grip on her.

"No, you are not going to harm yourself, I won't let you!"

"I can't be a Granger anymore," she said quietly, and he immediately relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn't contemplating hurting herself. He pulled her to him and hugged her tightly. "I can't be related to those people. I hate having their name. I don't want to be a Granger anymore. I don't want to be reminded of what they did to me. Every time someone says my name I remember. I want to change my name."

"We will, I'll go to The Ministry and get the right forms. We'll fill out the paperwork and have it filed."

"I need a new name now. I can have any name in the world. Any suggestions?"

"I know just the one."

"What?"

"It's a surprise."

~000~000~000~

Sirius was thankful that that The Ministry was open twenty four hours and seven days a week, as soon as Hermione had fallen asleep, he left her room and returned to his own, he showered and dressed and then slipped out of Grimmauld, heading straight to The Ministry to get the forms he needed.

When he returned only Mrs. Weasley was awake and she was cooking breakfast in the kitchen.

"And where have you been?" she asked as she would a teenager that was late for curfew.

"I had something I had to get for Hermione," he replied. At his words her frown immediately dropped, she nodded and left him alone.

When everyone was up, breakfast was eaten and The Weasleys left to the hospital to visit Mr. Weasley, Sirius pulled Hermione into his study and handed her the forms.

"These aren't name changing forms, these are adoption forms," Hermione whispered, looking down at the paperwork that had already been filled out by Sirius. She'd recognised the messy handwriting anywhere.

"I'm already your guardian, I already think of you as a daughter. I thought we could make it official, even if you are technically of age, but The Ministry won't see you as of age until next year, so by age you're seventeen, by law you're sixteen," he said confidently, but when Hermione looked up at him, she could see the anxiety and fear of rejection flittering in his eyes.

Without needing to take a moment to think it over, she picked up the quill and signed her name on the dotted line, becoming the daughter of Lord Black, becoming Hermione Black. Sirius stared at her in joyous surprise.

"You're the only person I've considered to be a father, besides Mr. Weasley. It'd be an honour to wear the Black name with pride. Not the name of your ancestors and the name that holds fear. But your name, the Black name that means strength, honesty and protection." He smiled at her softly. "That's what you are Sirius, and if you can put your past behind you, then so can I"

"I don't doubt it, Kitten. The paperwork will take a couple of weeks to be filed, but then you'll be Hermione Black, my daughter."

Hermione had tears in her eyes and she struggled to keep them from falling as she hugged him tightly.

"You're protected now." She appeared to be confused by his statement. "Now that you're my daughter, your blood status will change. Legally you'll be a Pureblood although your blood can't and won't change, your status will. All magical folk will have no choice but to view you as a Pureblood. It's a Pureblood law that was written centuries ago when Purebloods were struggling to procreate. They had to bring in new blood into the bloodline, the only way to do that is by adopting. If anyone calls you anything less than a Pureblood or insults your lineage, it'll be an insult to The House of Black."

"Are you telling me that Pureblood lines actually have Muggle lineage?"

"Yes, they don't advertise the fact; they're ashamed that the inbreeding is killing them off."

"I don't believe it!" she exclaimed. "Those lying, pompous, narcissistic, slimy arseholes!"

"You just insulted yourself, Kitten," Sirius chuckled. "Not all Pureblood families have muggle lineage, just The Parkinsons, Greengrasses, Flints, Puceys, Bulstroudes and a few others. You are the first to be adopted into The Black family. It's why everyone's so insane, the inbreeding. The bloodline wasn't changed when it should've been."

"How am I safe, we're blood traitors?"

"But we're still Purebloods, haven't you noticed there have been far less Purebloods killed than any other blood status. Purebloods are still Purebloods. They don't want to kill us and wipe out a line of magic. Instead they will convince us to go over to their side, enslave us or use the Imperius on us. Being a blood traitor still gives you more protection than being a Muggleborn, being a Black gives you even more so. We are the second wealthiest house in Europe, not far behind The Malfoys."

"Egotistical prats," Hermione muttered and he snorted at her. "You'll be a lot safer as my daughter"

"And we'll both have family," she said quietly. "I'll never be able to give you a better present than this," she muttered.

He chuckled. "You agreeing to be my daughter is the best present I will and could ever receive," he said honestly.

"Still, I do have a gift for you that I think you'll like." She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of his study and down towards his mother's portrait.

Sirius stared before he burst into laughter; Hermione had done exactly what she told the twins she would do. She'd enlarged the drawing of the ogre Fred had done and placed it over Mrs. Black's face; you could faintly hear outraged shrieks coming from behind it.

"That's brilliant," he said through his laughter and she beamed.

"Fred drew it and I asked him if I could keep it."

"I'm glad you did, it's a massive improvement."

When they heard the floo roar to life they stepped into the main living room to see The Weasleys stepping out one by one, including Mr. Weasley.

Hermione and Sirius beamed at them and greeted them. The atmosphere was much more gleeful in that moment.

Mr. Weasley still wasn't fully healed, but he should be within a couple of weeks. He was sat in a wheel chair and had bandages covering most of his body, but he wore a beaming smile and his eyes twinkled in a fashion similar to that of Dumbledore.

Mrs. Weasley immediately set to work preparing Christmas dinner and everyone spent time together in the living room, chatting happily. When dinner was ready Hermione went up to Harry's room and opened the door without even bothering to knock, knowing he wouldn't answer it anyway.

"Christmas dinner is ready, Mr. Weasley has been released from the hospital and is downstairs." Hermione then turned around and went to leave.

"What's going on between you and Sirius?" she heard Harry's tone bite out.

"Nothing," she replied, turning around to face him.

"I saw him going into your room. Why aren't you sharing with Ginny? What's going on with Sirius?"

"That's none of your business," her spine stiffened.

"He's my Godfather." he snapped at her, storming towards her.

"And he's my father," she replied coldly and then she turned around and left him gawking and spluttering.

Hermione went back downstairs and into the kitchen, where food was being passed around and heartily dug into.

Hermione sat in-between Sirius and Remus, she had barely been sat for five minutes when Harry stormed into the room, slamming the door open and it hit against the wall, causing all talk and laughter to cease.

"What the hell do you mean Sirius is your father?" he asked glaring at her. Everyone turned to look at her in surprise as his words.

"Exactly that, he is my father," she answered.

"And she is legally my daughter," Sirius replied with a shrug and he put a fork full of food into his mouth, not bothering with Harry's apparent mood. He was hungry, it could wait.

"What?" he snapped.

"You're giving me a headache," Hermione warned.

Sirius turned his eyes to Hermione when she spoke in that dark tone. He shared a look with Remus, both worried for what might happen should Harry continue to antagonise her. They both agreed to keep their attention on Hermione as they couldn't risk her losing control of her magic, if they had to, they would remove her from the situation.

"How the bloody hell is Sirius your father?" Harry raged.

"I adopted her this morning," Sirius said simply and that had everyone gasping.

"So now you're stealing my Godfather from me? What happened to your parents?"

"They're in prison for being drunk, abusive and rapists!" Hermione snapped and then she stood, her chair flying across the room as her magic began to take over.

She then left the room, the door slamming behind her without her even touching it.

"What?" Ginny, Ron and Harry all said quietly.

"Hermione's parents abused her from the age of four, and her father sexually abused her from the age of eleven," Sirius replied, his voice sending a chill down their spines. "I told you Hermione's had a far more traumatic childhood than you. I'm not condoning the way you were and are still treated, but you were never forced to do the things she did." He then stood and left the room, Remus soon followed.

Fred and George looked at each other and in agreement they both stood and went to leave the room.

"Where the hell are you going?" Ron muttered.

"To Hermione," they replied.

"Why the hell would you do that?" he asked gruffly.

"She's our girlfriend," Fred answered, glaring at his brother. Everyone gaped in shock, especially Mrs. Weasley.

"Just because you can't see her for how beautiful she is, doesn't mean no one else can, or that no one else hasn't noticed, because I assure you, we certainly have." George said and then they both left the room.

"She's not our girlfriend," George spoke as they climbed the stairs.

"Yet," Fred replied and George smirked at his twin, he liked his thinking.

When they reached Hermione's room they knocked on the door, not only for her privacy, but also because they wouldn't be able to enter without the password that was protecting the only entrance into the room, and there were only two men that knew the password, and they wouldn't give it up even on their death beds.

"It's us," they spoke together. They heard her sobs stop before the door opened for them. They stepped inside and closed the door behind them.

Hermione was sat on her bed with her arms around her knees that were drawn up to her chest and they could hear sniffles, as she slowly calmed herself down. They made their way over to her and sat on either side of her but they were careful not to touch her.

Their presence alone seemed to calm her, soon after Hermione's sniffles had stopped and the room was plunged into silence.

"You didn't tell us that Sirius was adopting you," Fred spoke, breaking the silence. Hermione looked at them both to see that they looked a little hurt.

"I didn't know," she replied honestly. "I only found out myself when you left to visit your father at the hospital this morning." They nodded, the hurt disappearing from their faces to be replaced with understanding.

"So, everyone now knows," Fred commented, Hermione nodded.

"They also know about us," George said lightly.

"Us?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"That you're our girlfriend," he confirmed. Hermione tilted her head slightly. "Right?" he looked a little nervous. A small smile tugged at her lips and she nodded. She heard them both sigh in relief.

"We've got a girlfriend," George said smugly.

"So I heard," Fred laughed.

"How did they find out, not that it's a secret but they've been clueless at school?" she asked.

"Ron, he asked us why we were coming to see you."

"I've never seen him so shocked," George chuckled. "Almost chocked on the chicken he stuffed in his mouth."

"So, Lady Black?" Fred said. Hermione nodded. "I like it, it suits you."

"Sirius said it'll offer me protection in the war."

"How so?" they asked her.

Hermione proceeded to tell them everything she'd learned from Sirius regarding Pureblood lineages and they stared in shock, before laughing.

"Next time Parkinson sneers at us for being blood traitors, I'm going to inform her that at least I have a full magical lineage, unlike her family, imagine the look on her face," George spoke with a devious grin, looking far too pleased with the prospect and they chuckled at him.

"When will it be finalised?" Fred asked her.

"Sirius said a couple of weeks, I'll be Hermione Black, then everyone will likely know."

"At least Malfoy will be stunned into silence, you'll be his third cousin, if we're lucky, he may even swallow his own tongue, or better yet, choke on the fumes from his Gelling Potion," George smirked.

"Lovely, I'm related to the bouncing ferret," she replied sarcastically and they laughed at her.

~000~000~000~

Saturday 30th December 1995

Five days later and Ron, Ginny and Harry had yet to speak to her, not that it bothered her to be honest and the twins spent more time with her now that everyone knew about them. They no longer felt the need to be subtle with their actions towards her.

They were sat together in the library when Ginny and Ron entered. Fred and George were in the process of telling a story to Hermione, that had her holding her sides as loud laughter left her. The twins were also laughing, making their words harder to understand.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Hermione and the twins immediately stopped laughing and they all turned to look at the new arrivals.

"What?" Hermione frowned.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Ginny asked with a glare.

Hermione stood up and returned her glare.

"First of all, it's none of your business. Second of all you wouldn't understand. You have the perfect family, loving parents and protective older brothers that would kill for you. And lastly, I don't trust you."

The twins were surprised by her last statement.

"Don't think that I don't know what you did because I do. You've been spreading rumours about me since your third year, you're the one that told Parkinson that Harry and I were dating, in turn she told Skeeter and I was attacked by Viktor's fans. You've got a problem with me because Harry doesn't pay attention to you, I'm the only girl Harry does interact with and that's got you pissed, you're jealous. I watch everything I say around you because I have to."

She then looked at Ron.

"And you, I don't particularly trust you either, at times you're even crueller than Malfoy. If you ever found out about my past then you would've use it against me." His ears turned bright red.

Hermione then walked past them and out of the library. When she reached the door, she turned around to see an angry Ginny glaring daggers at her, her hand twitching as though she were wishing she had access to her wand.

"If my past ever comes to light and it starts spreading around Hogwarts, I will know it's the fault of one of you. Harry may be in a shitty mood lately, but he'd never betray my secrets, especially one as traumatic as this."

"And what exactly are you going to do?" Ginny challenged.

"I'm a Black, we are not known for being forgiving people," Hermione responded and then she stormed out of the room, the door slamming behind her once more, without her touching it.

The twins looked at each other in awe, both with the same thought.

'That's our girlfriend.'

"What do you see in her anyway?" Ron grumbled. "She's not pretty, she's bossy, she's a know-it-all, she's nothing."

"That's where you're wrong," George spoke coldly. "She's not pretty because she's beautiful, she's is bossy but she's caring and selfless too."

"She's incredibly intelligent and hard working, she's strong and she's a fighter," Fred injected. They both then went to leave the library.

"I'd leave her alone if I were you, Ginny" George said, looking at his little sister.

"We've seen what Hermione's capable of," Fred clarified.

"So have I," she responded, standing up tall and crossing her arms over her chest.

"No, you haven't," George shook his head, knowing his sister had no idea what she would be getting herself into should she decide to take on Hermione. The Bat Bogey Hex they'd taught her all those years ago wouldn't stand a chance against Hermione's power.

"What you've seen in D.A. is nothing compared to what we've seen her do, nothing!"

~000~000~000~

Saturday 6th January 1996

"I'm sorry, Hermione," Harry said.

They both looked at each other; Hermione sat on a leather arm chair in the library and Harry shifting awkwardly on his feet in front of her.

Hermione had been expecting this for a while now. He hadn't spoken to her since Christmas day, and in all honesty, she thought it would've taken longer for him to come to her.

"I didn't know about your parents."

"That's because I didn't want anyone to know, it's not something I'm proud of, Harry."

"How did they know?"

"The alarm, apparently since Voldemort's return Dumbledore has put an alarm an all students' houses that live in the Muggle World. They were alerted to something at my house. He, Sirius and Remus came to my house and found my father trying to rape me. My parents were arrested and Sirius was made my legal guardian. A week later there was a trial. Mr. and Mr. Weasley came with us, along with Professor McGonagall. Fred and George disillusioned themselves and followed us. My parents were sentenced to prison; my father twenty-five years to life and my mother got sixteen to twenty years in prison."

"I'm sorry, Hermione, I don't know what's wrong with me. I should've known there was nothing going on between you and Sirius."

"Sirius has been really good to me and he's helping me deal with it all. I told him that I couldn't be a Granger anymore. He surprised me with the adoption forms that morning," she said with a smile on her face.

Harry moved forward and went to touch her, but she flinched away.

"Sorry," she sighed when she saw his hurt look.

"Have you always been like this?" he whispered.

"Yes, but it's worse since my father tried to rape me," she said quietly. "The only people that can touch me are Sirius and Remus. I flinch when someone tries to touch me. I have trouble breathing in corridors at school. I jump when someone leans over me at the table, I can't even be hugged by Mrs. Weasley! I was good at hiding the bruises, Glamour Charms were the first form of magic that I learned, my weight problems were covered by my uniform and I quickly put on weight with the food from the house-elves."

"What about the twins?"

A smile lit her face. "I found out they knew at the beginning of December, they asked me to teach them to cast a patronus. A week or so later we had our first date, then our second. Now I'm their girlfriend."

"Can they touch you?"

"No, not unless I touch them first, but they understand and they're helping me. I hugged them when I first arrived for the holidays. That might not seem like a big thing to you, but it is to me. It's like Ron eating with his mouth closed." He couldn't stop himself from laughing at her comment.

"I'm sorry," he sighed.

"Stop saying that, it's annoying."

"Sorry," he replied. They both laughed when she glared at him.

"You know this means we're related now?" she said. A look of understanding crossed his features, before a smile lit his face.

"We're family now,"

"We are," she agreed.

~000~000~000~

Later that night Sirius and Remus called her to the study and Hermione had a feeling she knew what it was about.

Sirius and Remus both sat on the leather couch, and she sat on the other opposite them. She noticed that Sirius looked a lot more stressed and tenser than Remus, meaning he was just as in the dark as she was.

"You found the book?"

"I did," he nodded

"You read it?"

"I did."

"You know what's happening to me? Why can I control the elements? Who am I?"

"That's the wrong question, Kitten," he said softly. "You should be asking what am I?"

She gulped. "What am I?" she whispered fearfully.

The room was silence for a short while before he finally spoke.

"A Blue Mage."