CHAPTER NINE
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: 11
12 Grimmauld Place – Saturday 6th January 1996
Hermione stared in shock as everyone yelled over each other, trying to be heard and to get their points across.
She looked between each member of The Order and she could feel herself getting a headache. She sat down in one of the empty chairs that had been vacated by the members of The Order that were now standing and yelling in each other's faces. She sighed and rubbed at her temples in hopes it would ease the pain. It didn't.
Sirius who had been sat back in his chair with his arms crossed didn't miss Hermione's actions and he felt a protective instinct fill him. He wasted no time in raising his own voice to quiet the squabbling wizarding folk, and they all turned to face him.
"Stop acting like children, you're giving my daughter a headache," he said angrily. Some of them had the grace to look sheepish and retook their seats, Snape looked bored and Moody eyed her suspiciously.
"Why did you bring this information to us?" Dumbledore asked, whilst he was looking at Hermione with a twinkle in his eyes.
"She's been identified as The Blue Mage, people will soon begin to notice what she is and it can't be kept a secret. We thought it best that we warn you first, before The Ministry becomes aware of the situation. Also, good old You-Know-Who will learn of this development..."
"And he'll want to recruit her," Mrs. Weasley whispered, looking at Hermione fearful for her future and safety.
"It is fortunate that Miss. Black will be working for The Order," Dumbledore spoke.
"No, I'm not sure that I will," Hermione spoke quietly, but everyone heard perfectly and they all looked at her in shock.
"WHAT?" Moody roared.
"Blue Mages are wrong righters, do gooders, warriors. But we're supposed to stay neutral, we're supposed to watch over battles and make sure that neither side has too great an advantage. We keep things balanced, but we don't choose sides, ever. Who knows what could happen if I choose sides? It's never happened before and it could have disastrous consequences. For the time being I need to stay neutral, until something happens that forces my hand and I have to choose sides, but for now, I can't."
"It's okay, Kitten," Sirius said softly.
"I think you're making a mistake," Dumbledore said.
"Then it's a good thing it's not your decision to make," Sirius snapped. "You're not the one that will be alive for the next five hundred years. You're not the one that has to keep a war balanced, but still allow for nature to take its course. You're not the one that has to control amazing abilities in case you accidentally get too emotional and lose control of your magic. You're not the one that will be a target!" Everyone stared at him in surprise for his outburst. "You will not make my daughter feel guilty for something she cannot control."
Hermione had tears of guilt rolling down her face. Sirius turned his attention to her.
"Kitten, why don't you go to bed, it's late and you're catching the train in the morning?" He spoke softly.
"We need to do the test," Dumbledore injected.
"The test can wait, she's exhausted and she needs time to digest everything. She only learned of this morning, besides, what more proof do you need? You've seen the evidence, there is no other possible explanation for what she can do," Sirius glared at Dumbledore. "Kitten," he said softly, "Go to bed and rest."
She wiped away her tears and nodded.
"The twins are waiting for me anyway," she nodded in agreement.
"The twins?" Bill and Charlie questioned in surprise.
She nodded and then stood and kissed Sirius' cheek as she walked past him, heading out of the kitchen.
"Are the twins her mates?" Charlie asked Sirius slightly awed.
"No, not that I know of, at least not yet, her magic will choose for her, but she has decades before she has to decide." Charlie nodded, slightly disappointed.
Sirius then turned to Dumbledore. "I do not appreciate the way you've treated Hermione. You come into my home, albeit a shitty one, but a home nonetheless and the one I offered up to you without thought, and you make my daughter feel guilty? That's out of line. I've always respected you, as has my daughter, but what you've just done has made me question my opinion of you. How dare you do that to my daughter and in her own home?" Sirius stood and stormed out of the kitchen, leaving behind silence.
~000~000~000~
Hermione entered her room to see the twins both waiting for her. She closed the door and walked over to her bed, laying down in-between the twins, but not touching.
"How did it go?" George asked her.
She groaned.
"That good, huh?" Fred chuckled.
She sighed. "They were surprised to say the least, Dumbledore immediately assumed that I would work for The Order. He made me feel guilty for staying neutral," she said quietly.
"Don't listen to him, Hermione. You have to stay neutral, Blue Mages have never chosen a side; they just watch and repair the damage. It's not your fault," George said softly.
"I supposedly have all this power and I can't even use it."
"You can though. You can use it to do good; you can use it to help keep people safe without actively fighting in the war," Fred said and she smiled slightly.
"How do you do that?" she asked in awe.
"Do what?" they both asked confused.
"Make me feel better, you don't even try."
They grinned at her. "It's easy, not everyone is Ronniekins," George chuckled.
"Though Georgie over here is known to put his foot in his mouth from time to time," Fred said.
"I've noticed," Hermione said dryly and George scowled as Fred laughed, but it dropped when he heard Hermione giggle.
"Well, you're just jealous I'm the handsome twin," George replied smugly.
"We're identical, you prat," Fred snorted.
"Yes, but I'm handsomer."
"There's only one way to settle this," Fred mock glared at his twin and they both nodded and turned to Hermione.
"Hermione, Love, I'm the more handsome twin, right?" George said, her stomach flopped at the term of endearment, but she felt a smirk pulling at her mouth.
"Actually, I think it's Fred."
Fred burst out laughing at the look of disbelief on George's face.
"You seriously think he's the more handsome brother?"
"No, I think Charlie is," she deadpanned.
Fred immediately stopped laughing and he and his twin both stared at her with wide eyes and opened mouths. Hermione couldn't keep a straight face and she burst out laughing. Her body shook as she gripped her sides and tears were on the verge of leaking down her face.
"Oh, so you're just dating us to get close to our older brother?" George asked.
"Of course," she said, as if it wasn't obvious.
"It's the muscles and tattoos isn't it?" Fred narrowed his eyes.
"Don't forget the dragons," she sighed dreamily.
They all burst out laughing.
"Seriously though," Hermione said when they calmed down from laughing enough to speak. "Charlie's handsome, but I prefer mischievous pranksters to burly dragon tamers."
"Well then, I guess it's a good job we're mischievous pranksters," Fred grinned.
"Even better for you, there's two of us, lucky witch," George teased and she snorted at them, shaking her head.
"Are you ready to return to school?" Fred asked her, changing the subject.
"Yes and no. I'm ready to get back into a routine and I'm ready to get back to learning, I need to know everything I can so that I can teach it to Harry and Ron, and then that can be passed onto the D.A from Harry," she sighed. "What I'm not ready for is Umbridge, people finding out about my being a Blue Mage and I'm not looking forward to dealing with Malfoy and the other Purebloods. I'm not looking forward to the rumours that will spread once my name is officially changed in a week's time and I'm not looking forward to Ron's and Ginny's behaviour either."
"What about us?" George asked quietly. "What about when people find out?"
"Then they found out, our family knows and they're the only people that matter to me. They seem to have accepted it, well, almost everyone." They snorted at her. "The others can stick a sock in it,"
"Eloquently put," Fred nodded and she chuckled. "You seriously don't care that you'll be the subject of gossip?"
"I'm always the subject of gossip for some reason or other, it makes no difference to me what people think about our relationship. I am, however, worried out the backlash of your little fan club."
"They hurt you and they'll be finding Hair Loss and Fungi Face Potions in their food for weeks," George said seriously, with no sign of amusement or playfulness. All traces of humour were gone, leaving only a glare on his face.
"Plus, when it comes to light just who you are, not only a Black, but a Blue Mage too, you'll be the most feared and awed witch in Hogwarts, Europe even. They'll be begging for your forgiveness," Fred added.
"Lovely," Hermione said sarcastically whilst rolling her eyes and they chuckled at her.
~000~000~000~
Hogwarts Express - Sunday 7th January 1996
"Okay, Kitten, you got everything?" Sirius asked her as they stood on the platform.
She nodded and sighed, and he looked at her sadly; he didn't want her to leave either.
"Yes, I've got everything; I'm not looking forward to the reactions."
"I'm sending the letter informing The Ministry of your status off next week; they'll likely come to you afterwards to do the test, I've bought you as much time as possible."
"And then everyone will know," she said quietly. "That'll be fun," she grouched.
"It's better this way."
"I know," she sighed, they'd already discussed it.
"I have some good news though." She looked up at him. "The papers came back early, they arrived this morning. You're officially Hermione Black. It'll take a week for all records to be updated but you're now Hermione Black." She couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face. She jumped into his arms and he chuckled and hugged her tightly.
"I love you," she whispered. She'd never said those words before and she felt tears spring into her eyes at the fact she could now say them, and mean them.
Sirius stiffened before he hugged her tighter. He'd never heard those words before and he felt his chest tighten.
"I love you too, Kitten," he whispered.
They pulled away from each other to see everyone staring at them with small smiles; Remus was beaming, obviously hearing them with his sensitive hearing.
Sirius handed a letter to her.
"It's a copy of the confirmation letter, you show that to our delightful cousin Malfoy, and he'll back off, at least he'll stop insulting your blood and family ties."
Hermione and the others finished their goodbyes and Mrs. Weasley looked at her sadly when Hermione didn't hug her, only Remus.
She turned to the twins who were waiting patiently for her off to the side. They held their hands out to her and she took a deep breath and walked over to them, taking their hands in hers and together they stepped onto the train.
They walked down the aisle looking for an empty compartment and walking past the gawking students and furious members of the twins' fan club. They ignored them and found a compartment.
They'd been on the train for an hour when the compartment door opened.
"Hey, there you are, there's rumours flying around the train that you and Granger were..." Lee trailed off when he saw Hermione sat in-between the twins, holding their hands with their fingers interlaced and she didn't take any notice of his arrival as she had a book sat open in her lap. Fred and George looked away from their conversation and to Lee, stood in the door way.
"That Granger and us were?" George prompted.
"Seen together without arguing and holding hands," he said, looking at their joined hands with wide eyes.
"Well, she is our girlfriend," Fred shrugged.
"What?" Lee spluttered, clearly surprised by the confession.
"She's our girlfriend," George repeated.
"Since when?"
"December," they both shrugged.
"You've been dating Granger for over a month and didn't tell me?" he said sceptically.
"I guess it slipped our minds, anyway, it's not like we hid it from you," George said. "You asked us where we were going and we told you we had dates."
"Yeah, but I never thought it was with Granger." Lee watched her carefully; she was too busy reading her book that she paid no mind to anything that was happening around her.
"Why not?" George said defensively. "What's wrong with her?"
"Nothing, it's just she's Granger. She's..."
Fred could see where he was going with this and quickly intervened. "Beautiful, intelligent, kind, understanding, scary as hell?"
"I agree," George nodded at his twin's words.
Lee blinked. "What's brought this on all of a sudden? You usually do nothing but complain about her."
"We saw her in a different light, between fifth and sixth year we noticed her, but Ron had all but claimed her. We spent more time with her over the previous summer and she informed us of her non-existing relationship with our dim-witted brother and so we went for it," Fred shrugged.
"You've like her since sixth year?" he questioned in surprise. He was getting a headache.
"Yep, even more so since the beginning of summer," Fred confirmed.
"But you were always complaining about her," he replied confused.
"Well, we had to talk about her somehow without being found out," George rolled his eyes.
"So you two really are dating her? It's not a prank? It's not payback? You really do like her? The both of you?"
"We would never do anything to hurt Hermione," George said, outraged by the accusation. "She's special, and yes, we both like her for more reasons than we can ever explain. Do you have a problem with our relationship?" The twins both had narrowed eyes.
"No," Lee said quickly. "it's just going to take some getting used to that's all, it's strange," he cautiously took a seat opposite them and watched as the twins went back to their conversation, never once removing their entwined hands from Hermione's. She was oblivious to his presence and to the conversation that had just taken place.
It was half an hour later when Hermione looked up, appearing to be surprised when noticing that Lee was there. She looked sheepish and she removed her hand from George's and waved her wand, stowing it back in her pocket and taking a hold of George's hand once more.
"Sorry, I didn't hear you come in," she said guiltily. "Silencing Charm," she explained and he nodded. Well, that explained why she hadn't heard his conversation with the twins and to be honest, he was glad she hadn't.
"I can't believe you're the mystery girl," he said, eyeing her carefully.
"Mystery girl?" she questioned with a frown.
"The one the twins have been ditching me for," he clarified.
"They did what!" she exclaimed and the twins winced when she glared at them each in turn. "You ditched your friend to spend time with me?"
"Of course not," Fred said, at the same as George said, "We'd do it again."
"Honestly," Hermione huffed and the twins smiled at the small pout on her lips. "You shouldn't do that, if you have plans with your friends you should stick to them, don't even think about changing them so you can spend time with me," she told them and they nodded, but everyone in the compartment knew they wouldn't listen to her.
"I can't believe you're dating," Lee muttered. "It's weird," he scrunched up his nose.
"How so?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well...you're just so..different."
"Are we?"
"Yes," he nodded.
"You think so?"
"Yes," he replied without thought.
"Hmm...We're all intelligent, we all care about the same people, we've all pretty much grew up together, we see each other every summer, Easter and Christmas, in addition to everyday when we're at Hogwarts. We're both rule breakers, except I don't get caught, which means that I have to be mischievous. I smuggled a dragon out of the castle, I fought a werewolf and played a life sized game of chess, I killed murderous plants and solved a potions riddle. I survived being attacked by a basilisk and I got Harry through the Triwizard Tournament and I got a convicted killer's wrongful ruling overturned."
He stared at her, his mouth open and eyes wide.
"She's perfect for you," Lee said, looking at the twins and they grinned in response.
"We know," Fred said.
"And we don't plan on letting her go any time soon," George said.
"That fan club of yours won't be happy," Lee commented.
"Does everyone but us know about this fan club?" Fred asked exasperated.
"Yes," Hermione and Lee replied without hesitation.
"Back to the point," spoke George. "This so called fan club won't hurt her, not after the news that will be hitting the headlines next week."
"What news?" Lee asked intrigued.
"You'll find out soon enough," Hermione replied. "Right, you've had Christmas with me; I'll go and find Harry so you boys can have some bromance time."
"Bromance time? What's that?" Lee scrunched up his face.
"Never mind," she said.
She gave the twins' hands a squeeze before letting go and standing up, walking out of the compartment.
~000~000~000~
Hogwarts
"So, Hermione" Hermione groaned when she heard Lavender's voice pipe up at the table, she looked at the blonde, sitting a few seats down and across from her.
"Yes?" she answered tiredly.
"Is it true that you're dating The Weasley Twins?"
"You're the Queen of the gossip mill, you tell me."
"Well, rumour has it..."
"Yes, we're dating," Hermione interrupted the long winded speech that was heading her way.
"Since when? Why keep it a secret?"
"Since December and we haven't kept it a secret, we just haven't paraded our relationship around the school, like others would and do."
"Why are you dating both of them?" she huffed.
"It's not illegal, you should know growing up in the Wizarding World," she shrugged. "And who would you choose? Fred or George?" Lavender opened her mouth, but no sound came out. "Exactly, Fred and George are two separate people, but a single unit. They're a package deal and they both have flaws and qualities that separate them. But I could never do that to them. I could never pick one over the other, it wouldn't be right and mostly, I don't just want one of them; I want them both." She turned back to her food, signalling the end of the conversation.
~000~000~000~
Hermione was the only one left in the common room, everyone else had retired for the night and gone to bed. She sat on the couch next to the fire place, her head resting against the back of the couch and the flames lighting up her figure, making her glow, and that's the way Fred and George found her.
They stopped and watched her. She looked beautiful.
"Are you going to stand there and stare all night?" Hermione asked amused, her eyes still closed.
"How did you know we were here?" George asked her.
She shrugged. "I just did." They both walked over to her and sat on either side of her on the red and warn couch.
"How are you doing?" Fred asked her.
"Considering hexing Pavarti and Lavender for being nosy sods." They chuckled at her.
"As much as we would love to see that, we don't want to see you in detention with the toad," Fred spoke.
"There's always the D.A." They snorted at her.
"Now that I would gladly sit back and watch," George grinned.
"Of course no one would know it was me."
"That's our girl," Fred said proudly and she smiled.
She opened her eyes and looked at the twins. "Do you want to see something?"
"Is it awesome?" George asked smirking.
"Hmm," she hummed.
"Then yes, show us something," Fred nodded.
She chuckled and stood up. She turned to face them and then she conjured a glass and filled it with water.
She held the glass up to her face and narrowed her eyes on it. It was getting much easier to control her elemental powers. She hardly had to try anymore, with smaller feats of magic that is. Those that were bigger were still difficult.
"What are you doi..." Fred trailed off when the glass started shaking in her hand and the water erupted from the glass, it suddenly collected into a blob and floated in the air.
Hermione put the glass on the floor and then turned her attention back to the water. She squinted her eyes and the water formed into a lion and they watched in awe.
She cocked her head to the side slightly and the lion suddenly burst into tiny molecules of water droplets and they floated in front of the twins, as if it had been raining and someone had pressed the pause button, you could see every molecule floating.
George reached out and touched a droplet with his finger.
"That's amazing," he whispered and she smiled widely. She looked at the glass and the water followed her line of sight, moving over to the glass and it dropped, leaving a regular glass of water behind.
"How long have you been able to do that?" Fred asked her awed.
"Not long, a couple of weeks. It's getting easier every time I do it."
"What else can you do?" he asked her.
"You've seen what I can do with lightning," she mused.
"And air, we were in the great hall when the pancakes moved to you."
She frowned at George. "I've only had two experiences with earth, one being my first act of magic, the other being yesterday when I was showing The Order my abilities. But fire..." she walked over to the fireplace and knelt down in front of it.
They went to yell out when she stuck her hand in the flames, but she didn't scream or cry. She pulled her hand out and stood and stepped away from the fire, the flames grew and moved out of the fireplace to touch her, licking at her fingertips.
"It doesn't hurt, it follows me," she whispered.
She then turned to face them and the flames retreated into the fireplace.
They were staring at her amazed.
"Wow!"
She laughed at their response; it was the only word that came to mind.
~000~000~000~
Wednesday 10th January 1996
Three days later and the entire castle knew about Hermione and the twins dating, most were surprised and gossiped and watched them interact, others glared and sneered but never approached her, and Hermione honestly didn't care, despite how much the twins had been glaring at anyone that dared to look her way with anything but a smile.
She'd just left the great hall, finishing her dinner and wanting to head to the library to finish her potions essay.
"Granger!"
She sighed, could she not get some peace and quiet?
"Yes, my delightful cousin," she turned around to face Malfoy, he had stopped in front of her, towering over her and a disgusted and angered look appeared on his face.
"What? Like I would ever be related to you and your filthy blood," he spat.
"But you are, I am Hermione Black, the daughter of Sirius Black, a Pureblood."
He looked at her speechless and she took pleasure in the silence. She turned and walked away giggling to herself.
She felt herself being shoved and then a hand grabbed her arm, spinning her around. She faced a furious Draco Malfoy; his hands gripped her upper arms tightly, definitely leaving bruises.
Something in Hermione snapped.
His height.
His fury.
His unrelenting grip on her.
His sneer.
His proximity.
It was her father.