Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to JK Rowling.

Note: For this story to work, some things from the original books need to be different: 1. Sirius Black was never killed and Harry never found out about the prophecy at the ministry because Dumbledore never told him 2. Severus Snape was killed without getting the chance to tell Harry about the last Horcrux 3. Because of #2, Harry never learned about the last bit of soul inside himself, meaning that he never confronted Voldemort as he did in the original Deathly Hallows. 4. Because of #3, Neville never got the chance to kill the snake 5. Everything else will be answered in this chapter, especially what happened in the forbidden forest. Enjoy!

The Chapter in Which I Learn the Meaning of My Life

The first things that came out of my mouth when my Aunt Hermione told my that my parents were wizards were, in this order:

1. The chunk of apple I'd just bitten into, and

2. "Oh, really? So, I guess that means that I am too. Or am I a squib?"

Yes, I already knew enough to deduce the fact that I was a witch. I didn't know anything about magic except that I was one, and so was my Uncle Sirius, who I have to thank for this information. He was the only one to visit me at the orphanage and when he did, he explained this to me, and taught me how to defend myself with a stick or as he called it "wand". Of course I was skeptical at the time and decided to humor him, because he seemed a bit bonkers, but he seemed impressed by whatever he was trying to achieve with me. That was the only time I saw him though. I figured someone finally shipped him to an asylum of some type.

But anyways, back to the topic at hand.

Aunt Mione looked like someone had shoved an encylopedia up her face. "But how do you know," she paused, "How do you know what a squid is?"

"My crazy uncle Sirius came and had a chat with me several years ago." I said calmly. "I thought it was just him, but I suppose there's a whole world of crazy people if you believe this crap to."

"Anna, these things your Uncle Sirius told you, and that I'm explaining now are true. Sirius was your father's godfather and was, I assure you deadly serious about what he was saying." I looked around the small, cozy kitchen that Hermione lived in with her husband Ron and their two kids, Rose and Hugo. It seemed very normal, as well as organized. But then again, so did my aunt, and she was obviously crazy. Unless of course she wasn't. Then I guess I was the crazy one.

"Prove it." I said figuring it was the only way.

She gave me a long look until she turned towards the stove and pulled out a wooden stick like the one I borrowed from my great-uncle that one time and pointed it at the tea kettle. It made a 'pop' and turned into a rabbit. She turned it back again and laid her stick on the table. Ok, so that was pretty legitimate.

"And me?" I asked.

"That should be pretty easy." She said. "Have you ever made anything happen? Something you couldn't explain?" I thought this over and the answer was obvious. How many times had I done something to scare the other kids at the orphanage but couldn't explain to Ms. Poopkins or the other kids. I even have vague memories from when I was back with my parents of landing myself on the roof.

"Yes." I answered plainly.

Aunt Mione smiled. "You're a witch Anna."

"But then what happened to my parents? If they were wizards, why couldn't they save themselves?" I asked.

"Well, I should start from the beginning I suppose." She began. "When your father was one, the most feared dark wizard of all times, Voldemort, otherwise known as You-Know-Who, or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, attacked his family killing his parents, your grandparents. When he went to kill your father, just a baby, he couldn't, earning him the name the Boy-Who-Lived and Voldemort disappeared. Your father then moved in with his non-magical (muggle) relatives until he was eleven. His relatives treated him horribly and he lived in a cupboard.

"On his eleventh birthday, Harry was finally told that he was a wizard by someone from Hogwarts named Hagrid, who happens to be an old friend of ours now."

"But what's Hogwarts?" I interrupted.

"Simply one of the best schools of witchcraft and wizardry. It's where we all went to school, including your parents. So anyways, Hagrid took Harry to get his school supplies and then to the train for school. This is where he met Ron and myself. He and Ron were instantly best friends and I became friends with them on Halloween that year when we beat up a troll together. That first year was great despite a rough encounter with Voldemort for Harry.

"The next year, your mother Ginny came to school with us. She was Ron's little sister and was very quiet around us, probably because she had a schoolgirl's crush on your dad, who was famous for being the Boy-Who-Lived. Later in the year it was discovered that she was being possessed by Voldemort through a diary owned by Tom Riddle, Voldemort's real name."

"But wait, I thought Voldemort was gone?" I questioned.

"Oh he had disappeared, but was far from being defeated. So anyways, your dad and Ron ended up saving the school from a monster that Voldemort had been releasing upon the students. Harry was the one who saved Ginny in the end and defeated the monster. That was the end of our second year, and in the next two years, we met Sirius, Harry's godfather, who had been on the run from Azkaban, a wizarding prison, for a crime he didn't commit. We also met our family friend Remus Lupin, who was best friends with your grandparents along with Sirius. We learned who had betrayed your grandparents to Voldemort, a man named Peter Pettigrew, who is dead now.

"The next year was the year Voldemort returned. Harry saw it happen personally, and dueled him, escaping him again. No one believed him for another year until Harry faced him again at the Ministry of Magic when the public saw him personally and had to admit to him returning."

Hermione was interrupted by a clanging noise coming from the entryroom adjacent to the kitchen. "Hermione? Are you here?" called a voice.

"Yes Ron, I'm in the kitchen! I'd like you to come meet someone!" She called back. A tall person with red hair the same shade as mine walked in and came over to give my aunt a kiss on the forehead. He looked towards me now, noticing me sitting there. "And you are?" He was scowling, as if he was struggling to think of something.

"Ron, this is Anna." Hermione said patiently. "I went and got her today remember?"

"Yes, I remember now." He replied looking at me. "So youre Anna huh?"

"Errr... yes, I mean, I guess so. It's nice to meet you..." I said hesitantly.

"Er, yes." He said scowling as if in pain. "Yes, it is." He turned to Hermione. "Everything's good at the Burrow, Hugo and Rose should be home about eight." Then he left the room without looking at me.

"I'm sorry." Said Hermione. "You remind him of Harry and Ginny a lot, which the very topic of makes him leave the room. He still isnt over what happened to them." she sighed.

"And you? Youre over what happened to them?" I asked

"No." She said softly. Her face looked dreadfully serious and sad. "Not at all."

"So what happened after the world found out about Voldemort?" I asked.

Hermione snapped out of her phase as if she had woken up from sleeping. "Oh, yes. Well, the next year, Harry became very close with the headmaster of the time, Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore had given him a mission for when he died. I might regret telling you this, it's so dark and evil, as well as repulsive but... Anyways, what i'm trying to say is that Voldemort had done the deed of splitting his soul into seven parts, creating what is called a horcrux. Harry's job was to destroy these pieces when Dumbledore couldn't. He recieved lessons from Dumbledore throughout the year about them. Oh, this was the year that Harry began dating your mother, by the way.

"So at the end of the year, Dumbledore was killed by the Potions master and longtime enemy of Harry, Severus Snape. This happened after Dumbledore and Harry had attempted to retrieve a horcrux, which turned out to be a fake. Harry was there when Snape killed him. So the next year, in what was supposed to be our last year at Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and I left to pursue the Horcruxes. There were four left, because your Father destroyed one back when he was twelve, the diary that had possesed Ginny, and Dumbledore had destroyed one. We managed to destroy three before the Battle of Hogwarts at the end of that year. Only one was left, the snake that was Voldemort's pet. We hadn't managed to kill it in our time away.

"During the battle, when things were looking grim, Harry went to Voldemort. No one knows what happened in the forest except that Harry had said to us, me and Ron, 'You both need to go into hiding, Voldemort's gone, but the Death Eaters are on a rampage. They think I'm on their side. Im going to have Neville evacuate the castle and take Ginny into hiding with me. We need to split up.' And that was it. Despite our questions and wonderings, he ran off, leaving me and Ron by ourselves. We followed his orders and went into hiding together. Several months later we recieved word from Harry that he and Ginny were fine. I replied telling him of our safety and that was the last we heard of him in a long time.

"It wasn't until almost a year later that we recieved a letter saying that they had you. Of course, by now, we had recieved reports of the wizarding world restoring order now that Voldemort had gone. We also recieved reports of Harry's alleged betrayal, which was taking the world by storm. It had been reported that me, Ron and Ginny were missing, which would have worried our relatives greatly. Me and Ron decided to go back and live quietly. Ginny had also slipped back into the wizarding world but kept her marriage and you quiet. She got a job on a professional Quidditch team, which is the wizarding sport. Ron and I were married several months after and had children soon after. Weve been living like this for about thirteen years now and are still in touch with the wizarding world."

"So how do you know what happened to my parents?" I asked, my head swarming with thoughts of Horcruxes, Voldemort, and fake betrayal.

"Well, we heard from Harry shortly after our daughter Rose was born that Ginny had been attacked by Death Eaters. She had slipped into a coma. I went over to their hiding place with Ron and saw him for the first time in years. He was so lost without her, and had no idea what to do with you. You were such a cute little girl. Ron and I stayed and helped take care of you, but it was hard and we could only do so much. We continued to visit and help take care of you for about five years until one day, you were gone and so was Harry.

"Ron and I searched everywhere for you and Harry, and eventually accepted that the Death Eaters got him. We finally found you recently found you at that orphanage and it says you were put there by an old friend of Ginny's who had been babysitting you for Harry when he didn't come back. So I had to work through the muggle government system to recieve the papers for adoption. That leads me to today, and here." She took a big breath, relieved to have finished the story. I had about a million questions but I decided to let them wait. I sat, thinking about how my father had not betrayed the wizarding world but that they had betrayed him because of some of Voldemort's stupid followers.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

That night as I lay on the couch that Hermione had set up for me in their cozy sitting room, I fell asleep to dreams of my father, my mother, Horcruxes, and a man with ghostly red eyes, laughing at me, saying, "The daughter of the Boy-Who-Lived? I only see failure." I didn't know where these words came from, but they made me wonder how it could be possible to live up to my father.