Sins of the Past

Chapter 7

Papers with scribbled notes and hastily sketched family trees were strewn across every available surface in the tiny study, with a relatively clear path that lead from the door to the centre of the room currently occupied by a certain brown eyed witch. The brunette had gone into research several days ago and refused to surface except for meals, which Minerva had to blackmail her into, or when she had the occasional question to grill said Animagus about.


Minerva knew Hermione had her bouts of almost manic zeal when it came to research so it really was no surprise to her, despite the ludicrousness of the whole affair. 'I dare say I would know if I had been related to Morgana of all people.' The Animagus huffed to herself idly as she made tea.

She secretly relished these past few days as she got to spend so much time with Rose. It was the deal she made with her lover. If she was willing to come out of her cave to eat and sleep properly she'd completely take over caring for Rose, including getting up at all hours of the night so the younger witch could sleep. The Scottish witch snickered to herself as a memory of the brunette grudgingly agreeing to Minerva's terms came to her mind. Little did Hermione know that Minerva would have done the same even if she refused to eat and sleep properly. Being Headmistress meant that the ebony haired witch was expected back at Hogwarts in a few days and she'd have very little time to spend with her family for the next nine months.

'Family...' The word warmed Minerva's heart and soul and she smiled fondly as she poured just the right amount of honey into Hermione's tea. After Elph had died about two decades ago she all but gave up on having a family of her own, sating her motherly instincts by caring for her cubs as Head of House instead. And then came Hermione, brightest witch of her age. Her relationship with the stunning siren came completely out of the blue some five years ago. The younger witch had the guts to ask her out on a date and much to both of their surprise, she said yes.

The older woman expected perhaps a few pleasant evenings in the company of the startlingly intelligent witch before they realized that their lives were headed in the opposite direction, but to her pleasure, she got the last five years out of it instead. 'And what five years they've been... sure, there were the occasional fights, mostly about inconsequential annoyances that rubbed us the wrong way but other than that...' Minerva mused.

She was jolted from her musings by the rapping sound of a hard object repeatedly colliding with glass. Glancing in the direction of the nearest window, she saw that it was an owl. As recognition hit her a moment later, her heart suddenly skipped a beat. It was no ordinary delivery owl, but the tawny they had left at the muggle doctor's office several days ago, now carrying a distinctly muggle-looking envelope in its beak.

Tea completely forgotten, the Animagus went to the window to retrieve the letter she presumed would shed light on the curious hair colour of their child. The owl let go of the letter as soon as Minerva touched it and the dark haired witch felt that it was quite heavy, as if more than a single sheet of paper was stuffed inside. Automatically summoning refreshments for the animal she left the the kitchen, leaving tea and window untouched.


Hermione was so deep in thought that she had not heard her lover enter the room at first. She was poring over a massive volume of magical history in an attempt to cross-check the validity of several leads she found in an annotated bibliography of medieval witches and wizards. Her hair was tied back in a loose and messy ponytail, which not only had the added benefit of garnering Minerva's approval, but also proved to be quite useful when the brunette needed to focus.

"Hermione", Minerva said, the second time a bit louder than the first. Her voice finally penetrated the younger woman's concentration and she jumped slightly, not expecting the sound.

As the brunette's eyes fell on the Animagus standing in the doorway, all thoughts of tea and medieval witches were wiped from her mind. The older witch looked positively ashen, her eyes wide and her posture exuded anxiety. Hermione noticed that she had a death grip on the doorknob and she appeared to be clutching a muggle envelope in the other hand. Her eyes visibly widened in response, then snapped up to meet emerald orbs in search of answers to questions she had not yet asked.

"I think it's the test results. I haven't opened it yet. Arthur and Molly will be here any minute." Minerva answered before Hermione could take a breath to speak.


The pair sat on the sofa anxiously, waiting for the Weasleys to arrive. Minerva had fire called them before telling Hermione, requesting them to come a few minutes later so they could have a moment to themselves.

The younger witch wanted to tear into the envelope the moment she jumped up from her cross-legged sitting position, but Minerva talked her into waiting. Even though Hermione's argument that she'll be the one to have to translate it to them was sound she wanted to wait for them. For all intents and purposes they might be welcoming not one but at least three people into their family.

The fireplace finally roared to life and two sooty heads emerged from green flames not a moment later. Arthur and Molly all but dropped everything they were occupied with when Minerva's news reached them but tactfully agreed to waiting for a while before coming. Although the implications of these muggle test results might be astronomical for them they understood that it would be twice so for either witch.

"Hello, Minerva, Hermione", they both said as they banished the soot from themselves. Having known each other for decades they knew there was no need for pleasantries at this moment. "So, have you opened it? What does it say?" Molly asked, halfway between anxious and excited.

"No, we were waiting for you", Hermione said, glancing in Minerva's direction. "Although if I had had my way I would have opened it already... I expect I shall have to explain what most of what it means anyway. I wanted to get a head start."

"Dearest, you're babbling", the Animagus said gently, not holding the brunette's annoyance against her in the least. "Why don't we just open it? Molly, Arthur, come sit with us."


Most of the papers crammed into the envelope were diagrams and tables with numbers and only a single sheet of paper contained words that at least one of the room's occupants could understand. One side of the paper appeared to be a description of how to decipher the attached data, which Hermione vaguely scanned over before turning the piece of paper over. Only half of it was covered in print and a single sentence scribbled under it in cursive. Come to the laboratory any time today or tomorrow if you need help with this.

Hermione gave each of them a paper to look at just so they would occupy themselves for a few minutes instead of asking her three times a minute if she'd found the important bits yet.

"Bloody hell..." She muttered unconsciously when she finally finished reading the summary.

"What?" "What is it", came the questions instantaneously. All three abandoned the indecipherable tables of numbers and trained their eyes on the young witch who stared at the sheet of paper, jaw slack, eyes unblinking.

Hermione was jolted from her racing thoughts for the second time that day, this time by a hand gently laid on her shoulder. The startled witch raised her eyes to look into concerned greens but was unable to utter a single word. Her throat worked convulsively as she tried to swallow the lump that suddenly formed in her throat but it would not budge.

Seeing how shock had frozen her lover the dark haired witch gently pried the piece of paper out of her hands and after adjusting her reading glasses peered at the printed words. She'd been making an effort to read more muggle material to practice reading their tiny printed letters. It was quite arduous work at first but it paid off quite well as Minerva developed a taste for muggle literature, particularly the genre muggles referred to as detective stories.

"What does it say, Minerva?" Molly asked, her voice anxious and frustrated.

"It says that Arthur and I are most likely second cousins, once removed", Hermione said, finally finding her voice.

"WHAT?" came from both Weasleys whose facial expressions now mirrored that of Hermione's from moments before.

"Apparently we share 1.5% of longer strings of DNA which Dr. Peterson said is long enough to establish a familial relationship. And she guessed that we are most likely second cousins, once removed but she would need samples from more relatives to validate this guess." Hermione explained and felt the shock slowly wearing off as she spoke the words aloud.

"So that would make Rose..." Arthur said, trailing off as he tried to work out the complex familial relationship.

"Our second cousin, twice removed!" Molly said, her voice cheering with obvious delight. Minerva smiled at Molly's choice of words which clearly indicated that she already considers Rose a part of her family, even if she's only related to her by marriage.


Next evening...

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Hermione roared in anger, frustrated that Minerva so persistently pressed the issue despite her clear indication that she was not ready for it. They'd been arguing about this on and off for the better part of the day and she had finally reached a breaking point.

"Hermione, this is insane!" Minerva ground out, pushing each word through her teeth which were clenched in an effort to contain her own rising temper. "They're your parents! Don't you want them to know their grandchild?"

The Animagus was dismayed at the younger witch's steadfast rejection of the idea to look for her parents. This had been one of the more serious sources of conflict throughout their relationship but after the first few attempts Minerva resolved not to press it. For years she respected Hermione's uncharacteristically cowardly decision to hide from the fact that eventually she'd have to face her parents but when she got pregnant with Rose she brought it up again. That night was not one of Minerva's favourite memories.

"Yes, they're MY parents", Hermione snapped. "I think that means that I ought to decide when it's time to bring them home." Fear coiled nastily inside the pit of her stomach at the mere suggestion of tracking her parents and attempting to restore their memories. The normally brave young woman was simply petrified of the possibility that she might fail and permanently mangle her parents' psyches. The very notion that her parents might end up in an asylum due to her machinations was enough to send her into a frenzy whenever the topic was broached. 'Not that the alternative is much more appealing... I don't expect they'll be very pleased when they learn that their one and only daughter messed with their minds...'

"And when do you expect that should be? When Rose is already an adult? What do you think your parents will say if they find they have a grandchild whose life they've all but missed?" Minerva asked, still attempting to reason with the brunette.

"I said, NO!" Hermione countered, to all appearances without really listening to what Minerva was saying. In reality she had listened all right, but Minerva's words stung far too much for her to be able to address them.

"Dearest, I know you are scared, I kn..." Minerva tried to soothe the younger witch but nothing she said seemed to be working.

"No you don't", Hermione cut in. "How could you know? YOU'VE never had to wipe your parents memories of you! You've never had to send them away for their own safety!" Hermione ranted.

The younger witch rarely gave way to such temper tantrums but when she did it was hell for Minerva. Having a fiendish temper of her own, she was not used to being the more reasonable party in a fight. Obviously it was entirely different with students, they were so much removed from her peerage and she was so deeply aware of her responsibility towards them that even their worst antics barely stirred her temper. 'Although that one time Longbottom lost the passwords...' Minerva thought as she fought to regain some measure of control over both her own temper as well as the situation. Hermione's words stung as they hit painful memories she had yet to share with the much younger witch.

"Don't go there, Hermione. You have not known me long enough to say that so confidently", Minerva said as evenly as she could. She took deep, calming breaths, something similar to what they had learned when they were preparing for Rose's birth.

The brunette witch had the grace to not verbally lash out again. Instead she started pacing up and down the length of the den, gesticulating wildly as she repeated her lack of intention to find her parents just yet.

"Hermione, they've a right to know their family. For Merlin's sake, one of them is related to one of the most prominent wizarding families in Britain!" Minerva tried to reason with Hermione. In truth, she only had vague guesses as to why the brains of the golden trio refused to bring her parents home but none of it truly made sense.

"So? Why is all this suddenly so important?" Hermione asked, uncharacteristically refusing to meet Minerva's arguments with a proper reply.

"It's always been important, Hermione, but I've chosen to back off for a while, hoping that you'll eventually find your courage..." Minerva replied matter-of-factly. She'd found that sometimes it helped if she jabbed at Hermione's pride because it propelled the younger witch into action.

"So why can't you back off now?"

"Because we've a daughter! Who has only ONE set of grandparents! But they're out there somewhere and I'll damned if I'll let her grow up without knowing them!" Minerva snapped back. She was losing the fight with her temper. The brunette witch was not normally this difficult but something about her parents was hitting a nerve she could not fathom.

"Well then damned you are, because I'LL be damned too if I'll bring something down on my parents they won't be able to face!" Hermione screamed, fear flooding her senses at the notion that Minerva would somehow force her to do it.

"Well if you won't, then I will" the Animagus countered, taking a step in Hermione's direction. Her intention was to approach the younger witch and plead with her in a last effort to somehow find her way around the maze Hermione had constructed around her issues. However, before she could take another step the brunette witch did the unthinkable and whipped her wand out.

"You will do no such thing, Minerva McGonagall!" Hermione yelled.

Minerva, relying on her animal instincts to know that the fight just escalated to an unmanageably dangerous level, froze in place. The whites of the brunette's eyes were showing too much for her comfort level, indicating that Hermione was about to snap. She'd later thank her fortune that she was a seasoned war veteran from the front lines, for it enabled her to not only react instinctively but to react well. She morphed into her Animagus form and bolted, jumping behind the arm chair farthest from Hermione's current position. When she morphed back into her human form she too had her wand out. But unlike Hermione's, hers was not trained on her partner, but merely held in her hand in case she needed protection.

However, when her human eyes focused back on the younger witch she saw that there would be no need to defend herself as her reaction cause Hermione to realize what she'd done. The brunette witch stared at her wand in shock, as if she did not understand how it materialized in her hand.

While Minerva was astonished at the turn of events, the adrenaline rush was enough to strip her of her own escalating anger. She rounded the furniture with uncanny calmness, her wand safely tucked back into the sleeve of her robe.

The movement caused Hermione to look up, disbelief and fear mingling in regretful brown orbs. "Minerva... I am so sor..", she tried to apologise but this time it was Minerva who cut in.

"Save it, Hermione", she said in her strictest no-nonsense tone. "I cannot believe that you have actually raised your wand against me", the Animagus whispered, stopping about two feet away from the brunette.

"I... I didn't...want this", Hermione stumbled over her words.

"Neither did I. Hermione... I am not sure why the question of your parents is hitting such a nerve with you, but what you did... this cannot be the answer", Minerva said evenly. If the younger witch had it in her to raise her wand against a loved one in anger she knew she had to make a precedent of not allowing it. "I shall remove myself to Hogwarts and I suggest that you revisit both your issues and your principles."

"Minerva, please... I didn't mean for this to happen! Don't, don't leave...me", Hermione whispered the last words, tears welling up in her eyes as the Animagus turned away from her. Her words fell on deaf ears and the older witch exited the den without so much a glance in her direction.

The Scottish witch returned but a few minutes later, apparently empty handed. She approached the brunette who had not moved from her spot since the jolting revelation that she had pulled her wand on her lover. "I love you, Hermione, but I will not raise a child in a home where it is commonplace for parents to pull their wands on one another", she said. "School starts in a few days and I need to prepare for the students' arrival. I'd suggest you use that time to think. And to decide how you want this to play out. I meant what I said Hermione. Neither your parents nor Rose deserves to be cut from each other's lives."


TBC

Please review! 270 people have visited this story in the last two weeks but so few reviews... I'm dying to know what you all are thinking!

A/N: I know this last scene sounds quite rash and somewhat OOC for Hermione, but the reason I chose to go with it was because she did display quite a fiery temper in DH when Ron finally returned and she would have pulled her wand at him if she had it.