AN: Hi everyone! Sorry for taking so long to update. I have been so busy with school and everything. Hopefully this will make up for it. I hope you like it. R&R No flames!
"Mother, are you okay?" Blaise asked walking into their library. He couldn't ignore it for much longer. His mother had started crying after she had told him "Happy birthday" this morning and she hadn't stopped. Blaise could only guess that his mother was trying to hide the fact that she had been crying being in here. He watched as she quickly wiped the tears off her face. Claudia Zambini was a beautiful woman. Her ebony curls were held up with a silver pin yet a few curls had tumbled out. Her green eyes were filled with so much love and endearment. Blaise knew that he would do anything for her.
"Yes, I'm fine." She muttered trying to gain her calm again. Blaise could see a picture frame being held tightly in her grasp. He could barely see the people moving. Who was in that picture?
"Mother, something is troubling you." He growled. Blaise quickly sat on the couch beside her. "What's going on?" Claudia handed him the picture frame slowly. Blaise looked down at the moving photo. It was his mother and...father. The man that abandoned them...or disappeared as his mother put it. His father was twirling him around with a bright smile on his face. Yet it was what his mother was doing that confused him. She was holding another baby.
"I never told you about your twin sister, Blaise." She sighed watching numerous emotions flash across his face. "Your baby sister…barely a year old before she disappeared with your father." Blaise's mouth closed quickly as he tried to process the information that was coming at him. "Say something, darling." Claudia pleaded grabbing his arm tightly.
"What's her name?" he asked looking up at his mother for the first time since she revealed this to him.
"Maria Alessandra," she answered watching Blaise's reaction. Claudia shrank into her chair as a sudden emotion appeared in his face. Anger.
"Something about this isn't right. How could you let Father take her away?" he growled getting up from the chair. "You wouldn't let him take her. Something must have happened…something dangerous." He watched as his mother grabbed her locket that was given to her by her husband. "Tell me, Mom." Blaise demanded. "What happened to my sister?"
"Antonio never wanted to join sides in the first war, Blaise." She began motioning him to sit down. Her green eyes never left him as she continued to tell her story. "We wanted to remain neutral, fearing that Maria and you would be danger. Of course numerous pureblood families thought us to be cowards, taunting us in public hoping to get a duel from Antonio. Your father held steady…He never faltered in his beliefs. Antonio believed that everyone should be able to practice the art of magic and nothing could change his mind." Blaise could see the tears began to fall. The worst is coming. "One night, we were woken up by loud explosions. Somebody was trying to get through our wards, the wards that had been in place around the mansion since the 1400's. We separated instantly; I went to your room while he went to Maria. I grabbed you and waited for your father to appear. He appeared with Maria crying in his arms and I could see fear in his eyes. They were breaking into the wards like clockwork. We could only guess that Voldemort was there in the mass crowd. Nobody could get through those ancient wards that fast. "Claudia looked up to see her son watching her calmly. He was keeping his cool very well. A true Slytherin… "Antonio wanted to split; I was to go to Dumbledore while he went to an old friend of his, a mentor that he had as a child. I was against it of course, but I couldn't convince him otherwise. I apparated to Hogsmeade and that was the end of it. Your father never appeared with Maria. I lost a husband and a daughter that day." Claudia looked at her loving son and smiled. "Yet I have been blessed with you, Blaise. I don't know hwo I could have survived if you had been taken from me."
"She could still be alive." Blaise muttered watching the photo carefully. His mother looked happy with his sister in his arms. "Maria could be out there." Claudia nodded in agreement.
"Your father was a brilliant wizard, Blaise." She muttered cupping his face gently. "I wouldn't be surprised if he hid her somewhere."
"Well we have to find her, Mom." Blaise retorted.
"You don't know how long I tried, Blaise." She muttered sadly. "Yet when your father wanted to hid something, he hid it absolutely. There were no clues left behind, nothing to go on. It was as if Antonio wiped her off the face of the Earth.
"Hermione!" Her mother yelled banging the roof with a broom. "Wake up, sleepyhead." Today was Hermione's seventeenth birthday. Jane could hardly keep her tears in. Her baby was growing up. Thoughts of how they came across their little angel flashed in her mind instantly. Her other life….what would happen when she realized that she wasn't their's.
"I'm already up, Mum." Hermione muttered rubbing her eyes as she entered the living room. She was wearing a pair of blue jeans with a black and white t-shirt. Her hair was in a messy bun with curls falling out to shape her face. She had changed dramatically. Her hair had grown longer making the curls more balanced. She became more built from all the training she had with Remus. Her skin was pale and radiated with a gleam that could send chills down anybody's spine.
"Happ birthday, love." her mom stated happily hugging her could hear Hermione laugh from the attention she has getting.
"Can't breath, Mum." Hermione joked finally being let go. She sat down at the table and watched as her mother sat breakfast down for her. She could see that tear stains that decorated her mother's face. Something was wrong. Hermione could swear that she had seen her mother cry silently as she did work around the house. Her father wouldn't even look t her anymore. It was like it pained him to much to look at her. They were sad...she could see that. But from what?
"Your father wanted me to send his love." She stated watching Hermione eat silently. "He was called away to work and couldn't get out of it." Jane could feel her heartbeat jump with the lie she had spoken. Alex couldn't bear it to watch his daughter suffer when she was told the truth. Jane insisted that she do it alone. Alex had already suffered through a heart attack and she didn't want him to go through that again.
"Mom, what's going on?" Hermione asked placing her fork down suddenly. "There's something you aren't telling me." Hermione watched as her mother's face paled. "I want to know what's bothering you and Dad."
"Hermione, dear." her mother stammered sitting down beside her. She took her hands into her own and held onto them for dear life. "There is something that we aren't telling you."
"You aren't getting a divorce, are you?" Hermione blurted cringing at the thought. Her parents seemed happy together, but you could never know what happened behind closed doors.
"No, dear. Please let me finish." she stated shrugging off Hermione's question. "Hermione, you're adopted." Jane watched as different emotions ran across her face. "Hermione, you have to say something."
"B-b-b-ut how?" she whispered. Her heart felt like it had stopped. She was adopted?? How could this be?? Hermione watched as her "mother" got up and went to her father's desk. She pulled out a ivory white envelope and a clear vial filled with liquid. Even from where she was sitting, Hermione could see the bloodstains on the envelope. What was that?
"Here," her mother stated handing Hermione the envelope and vial. Before she could say anything else, Hermione could feel the familiar pull at her naval and watched as the world around her disappear.