Narcissa was surprised to see an owl at her window since Lucius received the majority of the owls that flew to the manor. When she took the letter from the owl she noticed that it was closed up with the Potter family seal and a flare of hope flowed through her body. She stared at the letter for a moment, scared to open it, scared of what it might say. With a deep breath she ripped open the envelope and pulled out the letter. As she read it, the hope that she had felt when she received the letter increased even more. Her daughter wanted to see her! She was so happy that a tear rolled down her face.

"Mother? What is it?"

Narcissa looked up to see Draco standing in the doorway with a look of concern on his face. She hadn't even noticed he was there.

"Your sister sent me a letter."

"She did? What did she say?"

"She wants to meet me tomorrow!"

"Just you?" Draco asked with a small amount of disappointment evident in his tone.

"Yes, just me. I'm sorry, sweetheart."

"It's fine. I'm just glad she agreed to see at least one of us. Uncle Sev must have somehow convinced her to see you. Good luck tomorrow, Mother."

"Thank you," she said as she gave him a hug.

The Next Day

Harry was leaning against the door frame watching Hermione pace back and forth across the sitting room's floor. He could hear her muttering 'what was I thinking?' under her breath. He worried the poor girl was going to give herself an anxiety attack. She had straightened the same picture frame three times and now started fiddling with the tea set she had gotten out for the visit.

"Hermione, you need to calm down a bit before you send yourself into a fit," Harry finally spoke up. She whirled around to face him and the look on her face was pure panic.

"Calm down! Calm down! How can you say that, Harry? Don't you know what's happening here? Narcissa Malfoy, who happens to be my birth mother, is coming over for lunch. I'm going to have lunch, in my home, with a Malfoy! And I'm related to her!"

"Right, got it. You're related to the Malfoys."

She glared at him.

"Not funny, Harry."

"Sorry. Look, she's going to be here shortly. Why don't you run upstairs and relax a bit? I'll take care of welcoming Mrs. Malfoy when she comes. Maybe that will give you a bit of a buffer, you know?"

"That's a great idea, Harry, thank you! You are the best."

"I know," he replied cheekily. He was awarded with a smack on the back of his head before Hermione rushed out of the room. She left the room so quickly it was as if she had a dragon hot on her heels. Even though he joked around with her, he was concerned about her panicky state. He questioned if she was really ready for this meeting, but Hermione knew her own mind and what she needed the best. All he could do was be there for her in case things went south. He pushed himself off the door frame and straightened up when he heard the whoosh sound that usually signified a portkey. Narcissa Malfoy was waiting in his sitting room once more. She looked around the room, presumably searching for Hermione. He thought he saw a brief flicker of disappointment that Hermione wasn't there to greet her. Her gaze finally landed on him and he gave her a reassuring smile as he stepped forward to welcome her.

"Mrs. Malfoy, welcome to Grimmauld Place."

"Thank you, Mr. Potter. Please, call me Narcissa."

"Only if you call me Harry," he said with a smile. She smiled back at him, as if she was grateful that he was being so friendly.

"Of course. I must say, Harry, you've done wonders with this house. I didn't even recognize it as Grimmauld Place the last time I was here. Of course, I wasn't exactly paying attention to the decor. This room is simply gorgeous."

Harry listened to her ramble with a small smile on his face. Hermione had the tendency to do the same thing when she was nervous. And while Narcissa was trying desperately to hide it, she was nervous. He really hoped things went well during their lunch because he thought they could be good for each other. Noticing that Narcissa had stopped talking and was staring behind him, he turned and saw Hermione had come back, looking slightly calmer than she was earlier. He cleared his throat and both women looked over to him.

"Right. Well, I'm just going to go. I'll be in the library. Narcissa, it was nice to see you," he said as he exited the room, leaving the mother and daughter alone. Neither of them knew exactly what to do. Narcissa was looking at her with such longing than Hermione felt a pang in her chest at the woman's plight.

She broke the ice with an invitation: "Would you like to sit down? I made tea and some finger sandwiches."

"Of course, dear, that sounds lovely."

They both took a seat in front of the fire, in chairs that were facing each other. Hermione poured their tea and handed Narcissa a plate full of food. Neither ate.

"This is weird," Hermione spoke up.

"Yes. I must tell you, however, how much it meant to me to receive your letter. I am extremely grateful that you agreed to see me."

"It was the least I could do, I suppose. I talked to Uncle Sev and he gave me some things to think about. He didn't put any pressure on me, but I could tell he really wanted me to talk to you. Plus, of course, I know what you did for Harry. That certainly helped in my decision."

"I was surprised to find that you and Severus were already close. Pleasantly surprised, of course. He is a very good man. As is your Mr. Potter."

Hermione let out a laugh.

"It's not like that. We aren't shagging, regardless of what your son might think," Hermione said with some amusement present in her voice, as she thought back to what Harry had told her.

"Draco can certainly be uncouth at times. Now, I imagine you must have questions for me."

"I do. I think my biggest question is, why? Why did you give me up but not Draco? Uncle Sev said we were twins. How could you give one away and keep the other?"

Narcissa looked stricken. She knew she was coming here and would have to explain things to her daughter, but she suddenly didn't know what to say.

"I'm not sure what Severus told you, but we were in some very dark times. I had never been happy that your father and Severus were Death Eaters. You have to believe that I never thought the stance on blood purity made sense. It wasn't something I agreed with, but I made my choices and stood by your father. Even though he hadn't wanted to be a Death Eater, Voldemort considered him a highly dedicated follower," Narcissa explained.

"It always comes down to him, doesn't it? He must have gotten off on ruining families."

"Yes, that seems to be the case. Merlin knows, he certainly ruined ours. He was going to take you from us."

Hermione's jaw dropped. Whatever she had been expecting, it wasn't that.

"He... what?"

"He was at the manor one night for a meeting. I had just found out I was having twins, a boy and a girl. Mixed gender twins are rare in the wizarding world. I was so excited; I couldn't wait to tell Lucius. I had forgotten about the meeting and in my excitement, I had accidentally let my occlumency shields drop. Because of that, Voldemort saw that I was pregnant and that I was having a boy and a girl. He immediately dismissed me, stating that he needed to talk to Lucius. I was so scared as I left the room."

Narcissa's voice broke as she told her story. Hermione was on the edge of her seat, wanting to hear what Narcissa was going to say next, but at the same time not wanting to know.

"Lucius came back about fifteen minutes later, looking very grave. He sat me down and told me that Voldemort wanted you as his heir. He was going to take you right after you were born and raise you himself."

"His heir? The wizarding world is notoriously sexist when it comes to heirs. Why in the world did he choose me and not Draco?"

"As I said before, mixed gender twins are incredibly rare in our world. Add that to the fact that you are the first female Malfoy born since 1775. With you being a twin, who normally are a bit more powerful anyway, and a female born Malfoy, he believed that you were going to be an incredibly powerful witch. He wanted a powerful heir, someone he could mold into what he wanted. He thought you could be that heir."

Hermione was horrified at the thought of growing up with Voldemort as her father. Horrified. It was almost enough to send her into a full blown panic attack; something that hadn't happened since shortly after the war was over. Her breathing started to come in gasps. Narcissa looked at her with concern written all over her face. She started to get up to comfort her, but Hermione held up a hand to stop her. Narcissa slumped back down in her chair. Hermione closed her eyes and stuck her head in between her legs. After taking a few deep breaths, she felt a bit better. She lifted her head to see tears threatening to spill over onto Narcissa's face.

"I'm sorry, that was unexpected."

"No, it's me who should be sorry. I'm so sorry, Cassi, so very sorry! It's all my fault, everything is my fault. I knew I couldn't let him have you, so I did what I thought was best. I went to Dumbledore and begged him to help me. He knew I didn't stand with the blood purity ideals and he was aghast that Voldemort was planning on taking you. It was his idea to put you with a different family. He would place a glamour on you, tell no one where you were, so that he would be the only one who ever knew. The enchantment was supposed to break when you came of age. You can imagine our distress when your seventeenth birthday came and went without getting the notification. Your father was convinced you were dead."

"And you? What did you think?"

"I had hope. It was hard, but I knew you were alive. Severus helped comfort me even though I'm fairly sure he agreed with Lucius. I have no idea why the enchantment is just coming off now. You've been of age for a while."

"Maybe I was of age in the wizarding world, but eighteen is the age of maturity in the muggle world. I turned eighteen on what I thought was my birthday the day you showed up here."

"The muggle world? That makes no sense. Why would he do that?"

"Who knows? Why did he do anything? The man knew my brother was horrible to me and yet he did nothing. He knew! He could have said something, gave me a hint. Anything!"

Narcissa looked confused.

"Draco was horrible to you? Why did he act that way towards you?"

"Who knows? Take your pick. I was a Gryffindor, I thought I was a Muggleborn, Harry Potter was my best friend."

"What? Dumbledore was supposed to place you with a wizarding family! I told him putting you with Muggles would further endanger you which is what I was trying to avoid!"

Narcissa suddenly looked dismayed as what Hermione had just told her finally fully sunk in.

"Who, exactly, did Dumbledore place you with?" she asked quietly.

Here it was, the moment of truth. Hermione was a bit worried about how Narcissa was going to take this. She looked her in eye while at the same time, held out her arm. She slowly pulled up the sleeve and waved her hand over it to remove the glamour she kept to hide the scar. As soon as Narcissa saw the word that was crudely carved into her daughter's arm she went deathly pale. A few seconds later, she fainted. Hermione raised an eyebrow. That wasn't exactly the reaction she was expecting. Although, if she was honest, she wasn't quite sure what she was expecting. She pointed her wand at Narcissa and whispered, "Rennervate."

Narcissa's eyes snapped open as the spell hit her. She looked at Hermione and immediately began to sob, loudly. Hermione could hear her repeating how it was all her fault. Suddenly, Narcissa grabbed onto her and drew her into a hug. She could hear Narcissa saying how sorry she was, alternating with how it was her fault. Hermione awkwardly patted her back, wondering if she should send for Severus. When Narcissa didn't show any signs of stopping or letting her go, she decided to send off her Patronus.

"Go to Severus. Tell him to get here as soon as possible and to bring a calming potion. Or two."

Her otter gave a quick nod and left immediately. Not five minutes later, Severus came barreling into the room, followed closely by Harry. They both stopped short at the scene that was still unfolding in front of them and could hear Narcissa's sobs and mumbling. Hermione lifted her head when she heard them come in and shot them a 'help me' look. That propelled Severus into action. He approached the two women and gently pried Narcissa from her daughter. He pulled out a vial, uncapped it, and brought it to Narcissa's lips.

"Drink this."

Hermione let out a sigh of relief when Narcissa listened and swallowed down the potion. They all waited quietly as the potion took effect.

"Anyone want to tell us what happened?" Harry asked.

"Narcissa wanted to know who adopted me, who I used to be. So I showed her."

"Showed her?"

"Yes. Showed her," Hermione answered Harry, while pointing to her arm. Harry gave her a reproachful look.

"You thought that was the best way to break the news?"

Hermione's eyes flashed but before she could say anything she was cut off.

"It's fine – Harry. It's something any Slytherin would have done. It looks like you would have done well in my house," Narcissa said with a hoarse and shaky voice.

"Actually, the Sorting Hat did think about putting me there. I never understood, considering I thought I was a Muggleborn, but I guess it makes more sense now. The Hat was going to put Harry there as well."

"I can just imagine the havoc you two would have brought down if you were in my house," Severus said with some amusement. Hermione and Harry both shot him a disgruntled look and Severus sent them a smirked back in return. Hermione was starting to feel badly about the way she went about telling Narcissa who she was. She certainly didn't think it was going to send her into hysterics, but she probably should have known better.

"I'm sorry. I should have handled that differently."

"Don't apologize. I didn't understand why you were so horrified when we first came here, but I do now. I'm not sure what I would have done if I were you, knowing the horrors your own family have inflicted on you. Dear gods, you are never going to be able to forgive us! It's a good thing Bellatrix is dead or I would kill her myself."

"Narcissa, calm yourself. You didn't know, this isn't your fault," Severus told her.

"It is! It is my fault. I should have thought of something else, came up with a different plan. I told him! I told him to put her with a wizarding family, that it would be safer. Why didn't he listen? Why didn't he listen?"

"There's no guarantee things would have turned out differently even if he did listen. Uncle Sev is right, this wasn't your fault. It's not even really Dumbledore's fault as he was just doing what he thought was best for me. Although I'm not happy he kept it from me, I guess I can understand. If we really want to assign blame, let's put it where it really belongs. With Lucius," she spat, a murderous look on her face. Narcissa was somewhat taken aback at the amount of venom in her daughter's voice when she talked about her father.

"This has been a rough afternoon for all of us. I think I should leave, but before I do, I need to say one last thing to you. I always, always, wanted you. I loved you from the moment I knew you were there. It just about killed me to have to give you up and I can only hope that one day, you'll be able to forgive me."

She gave Hermione a sad look, turned to Harry, and asked him to escort her out. He did and they left Hermione and Severus alone in the room. Severus turned to Hermione and just gave her the raised eyebrow he was so famous for.

"Don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't say anything; I don't want to hear it right now."

"You don't even know what I was going to say."

She snorted.

"I don't even know what I'm feeling right now. What I'm supposed to be feeling. I'm furious, sad, confused, all of it. And I really don't need you or anyone else making me feel worse. I'm going to my room. I'll send you an owl later."

And with that, Hermione swept from the room.

A/N: Edited 11/2014 with my awesome beta, erbkaiser. Please read and review!