Disclaimer: Not mine, don't own it — I wish! Unfortunately, Harry Potter belongs to JKR and not to me; I'm just playing in her sandbox.

Author's Notes:

» Hermione changes her name during the story. However, to make it easier to understand, I'll continue to refer to Hermione by the name we all know. The only times her new name will be used is when she introduces herself to new people, or when someone is speaking to her and calls her by name.

» This story is has been written in full and will be posted at the rate of approximately one chapter a week.

» Thank you to atokkota for her support and feedback.

.o.O.o.

CHAPTER 6

When Phoebe turned eleven, she went off to Sauveterre⁶ Academy of Magical Studies, where Justin and Melissa's son, Felix, was already a student. For all that Penelope and Hermione jokingly referred to themselves as almost sisters-in-law, Phoebe and Aimée were more like sisters than cousins, having been brought up as such, and Aimée missed Phoebe terribly. Penelope had never even considered sending Phoebe to Hogwarts, since she was completely committed to her life in Canada and now even had a boyfriend who she cared for very much: Olivier Paquet, Justin's partner in the Canadian Auror Corps.

Aimée, on the other hand was torn. After hearing so many stories from Hermione about Hogwarts and now from Phoebe about Sauveterre, she really was not sure which school she wanted to attend, as the idea of going to the same school where her mother had experienced so many adventures was very appealing. Of course, Hermione had been very careful which stories she told Aimée as she had not yet admitted to her daughter that she was really the long-lost Hermione Granger, but there were still plenty of stories for her to tell even without making that particular confession.

Another reason why Aimée was considering going to Hogwarts was the fact that her father had also gone there. Aimée and Hermione had not discussed Ron in detail. Aimée did not even know his name as of yet. Hermione had explained that her father had been a school friend but even though they had not parted on good terms, that was solely a matter between them and not something that Aimée should allow to influence her. If Aimée wanted to meet her father, then Hermione would arrange it. Although Aimée was curious about her father, she also adored her mother and she was sensitive enough to have picked up that 'not parting on good terms' was somewhat of an understatement. Concluding that something very bad had happened between her parents, she refrained from asking any more about him, even though her curiosity remained. 'If I go to Hogwarts, perhaps I could meet him then,' she thought.

The fact that Phoebe did not know her father either, and indeed had no real desire to meet him, helped to minimise the importance of her father to Aimée at this time. Phoebe had not even shown any interest in knowing his name. Penelope had explained to Phoebe that her father was essentially a good man but that he was too literal at times, taking too much at face value, and that he tended to put his ambition ahead of his family, not out of maliciousness but because he simply did not see the big picture and therefore had problems judging which was more important. Phoebe did not hold Percy's faults against him but she had come to regard Olivier as her father figure and he more than adequately filled the hole that Percy's absence may have left in her life.

In fact, between Olivier, Justin and Sage's husband, Mathieu, the girls had no shortage of father figures. Even Xavier and Constance's son, Marc, on his visits to his parents treated the two girls as nieces and usually took them out for a treat to the movies or a concert or sports game. Not only were the Bellamys non-magical but the Clearwaters had blended both magical and non-magical seamlessly into their day-to-day lives and the two girls, indeed all the next generation of Clearwaters, were growing up equally at home in both worlds.

When Aimée turned eleven in November, she received her invitation to Sauveterre, however, since like her mother, her birthday was after the start of the academic year, she had to wait impatiently for the next year before she would be able to begin her magical studies. The International Confederation of Wizards had declared many generations previously that magical education should not begin before the age of eleven, as there was too great a risk of burning out a child's core if they used magic regularly at too young an age, therefore, all magical children began school only after they turned eleven. However, to appease Aimée, Hermione started teaching her Potions, and the basics of Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, since these subjects did not actually require the use of magic. Aimée was already an impressive chef despite her young age and easily took to Potions.

The following May, towards the end of the academic year, Hermione received an offer to participate in an extensive restoration project in Britain. She had consulted on overseas projects before but had always avoided the UK. She had not stepped foot back in the country of her birth since the day she found out that she was expecting Aimée. Hermione was itching to get her hands on the collection of tomes that she would be assessing and restoring but the fact that she would need to relocate to Britain for the duration of the project, which was expected to take six months to a year, was a definite drawback and had her hesitating to accept the offer to lead this project.

"You know that if you take the job, I'll look after Aimée for you while you're away, don't you?" asked Penny, when she and Hermione were sitting discussing the project late one night. The pyjama-clad women were curled up in comfortable armchairs and Hermione held a mug of tea in her hands, staring down into its depths as though the answer as to what she should do lay there.

"Aimée has hinted that she might like to attend Hogwarts," Hermione said, in a seeming non-sequiteur.

"She hasn't been invited, has she?" asked Penny, puzzled.

"No, she was born in Canada. Hogwarts' book of magical births only records the names of those born in Britain and Ireland, as far as I'm aware. Children of those who attended Hogwarts have the right to attend, though," Hermione replied.

"That right could be a problem for Nonie Gale to invoke," observed Penny meaningfully.

"I know," Hermione sighed. "Would you do me a favour?" she asked hesitantly.

"Probably. What is it?" asked Penny.

"Do you think you could write to the Headmistress and explain that your sister-in-law might be moving to Britain in the next few months and ask if there might be a place for your eleven year old niece next year? That could be a way around it, if Professor McGonagall agrees."

"You do realise that anyone who knew you in your Hogwarts years will take one look at Aimée and see an eleven year old Hermione Granger standing in front of them, don't you?" asked Penny dryly.

Hermione snorted. "She really is a mini-me, isn't she?"

"Oh, yes," said Penny. "There is absolutely nothing of her father in her whatsoever."

"Isn't magic great?" asked Hermione impishly. She still had no idea if magic had in some way responded to her wish during her pregnancy for a mini-me but she and Penny liked to joke that under the circumstances, it was a definite possibility. Phoebe was a mixture of both her parents but Aimée was pure Hermione.

Penny sent off the letter with an international post owl and within a week had received a reply. "The gist of it is that it's an unorthodox request but the Headmistress is willing to make an exception since I'm a former student, and one who was deemed worthy of being appointed Head Girl, no less," she announced sardonically.

"I guess it's time to make a decision, then," Hermione conceded, sharing an amused look with her friend. "I'm going to go and have a chat with Aimée."

Penelope nodded and Hermione made her way to her daughter's bedroom.

"Aimée?" she called, knocking gently on the door.

"Hi, Mum. Is everything okay?" Aimée asked, answering the door to her pensive mother.

"Of course, baby. Everything's fine. I just need to talk to you about school."

Drawing Aimée over to the window seat, they sat down together. Hermione drew Aimée into her arms and gave her a hug.

"What's up, Mum?"

Hermione smiled into her daughter's chocolate brown eyes, so like her own, and carded her fingers through her daughter's curly hair. Hermione had learned from her own mistakes and Aimée maintained her hair in a mass of corkscrew curls, instead of brushing it out into a bushy frizziness.

"I know that you've been thinking about what school you want to go to next year. Do you want to tell me your thoughts, beloved Aimée?"

"Muuum! When are you going to stop calling me that?"

"Never!" Hermione tapped her daughter's nose. "You will always be my beloved Aimée."

Aimée huffed in frustration but cuddled into her mother's embrace nonetheless. She may huff and puff about it being embarrassing, as any eleven year old would do, but a warmth spread through her every time her mother called her that. Hermione loved her daughter very much and Aimée knew it.

"So," said Hermione. "Which school is winning at the moment? Hogwarts or Sauveterre?"

"I don't know," Aimée whined. "I really want to go to school with Phoebe and Felix but Hogwarts sounds amazing!"

"Oh, it is. To use a cliché, Hogwarts is absolutely magical. But that doesn't mean it's perfect, Aimée. Britain is still quite prejudiced and you might find it hard to fit in. You're used to a much more egalitarian magical society."

"Why are you asking, Mum? I know I was excited about the idea of going to Hogwarts but I don't really expect to. Aren't I going to Sauveterre?" Aimée bit her lip in puzzlement and Hermione smothered a laugh at just how like herself her daughter was.

"Well, I've been invited to lead a restoration project in Britain. The project is estimated to take approximately six months to a year. If I decide to accept the offer — and I haven't actually decided that yet — you have two choices. You could stay here and go to Sauveterre with Phoebe and Felix. You know that you can always come home during holidays and home weekends. Aunt Penny will be here even if I'm not. Alternatively, you could go to Hogwarts."

"Really? I could go to Hogwarts like you and Aunt Penny?" Aimée's eyes lit up with excitement. "But what would I do the next year, when your project is finished?"

"Again, you have choices. You could stay at Hogwarts, even if I don't stay in Britain. I'd either organise international portkeys for you so that you can come home for holidays or I'd make sure you have somewhere to stay in Britain over the shorter holidays, if you prefer. Once you start making friends, I'm sure they'd invite you home with them. Or you can transfer back to Sauveterre after your first year. Directrice Leclair assures me that won't be a problem."

"Do I have to decide right now?" Aimée asked in a small voice.

"Of course not. You can take time to think, but I'll need to inform both Hogwarts and my prospective employer either way by the end of July, so you'll need to make a decision by about the middle of the month. I'll let you think about it and you know you can talk to me more about it if you want. You can talk to Aunt Penny and Phoebe, too."

"Isn't this the sort of decision the parent is supposed to make?" Aimée asked cheekily.

"Minx!" Hermione laughed. "The final decision will indeed be mine but I don't want you to be unhappy, so you need to be part of the decision. My parents let me choose if I should go to Hogwarts or not when we were told I was magical. They trusted me to decide what felt right for me and I trust you."

"Thanks, Mum," Aimée said, giving her a hug.

The upshot of it all was that at the beginning of July, Hermione accepted the position on the restoration project and Nonie Gale wrote to accept the offer of a place at Hogwarts for her daughter, Aimée. However, Hermione had a bad feeling about returning to Britain (although, if she was being truly honest with herself, she could admit that this was most likely because she had magnified in her mind everything that had happened to her during the war and after, so that now when she thought of Britain, it appeared to her as dark, gloomy and full of nothing but misery) and she made sure she would have a get-out clause in her contract, in case she needed to leave before the end of the contract. This meant that if Ron should discover he had a daughter with Hermione and start to make trouble, Aimée could return home where Penny would look after her, and Hermione would not be stuck in Britain for too long without her daughter.

Upon reading the letter from Nonie Gale, Minerva frowned in confusion, as there was something quite familiar in the handwriting. She was not certain since it had been many years since she last saw it but from what she could recall, it looked almost looked like Hermione Granger's handwriting. Or was that wishful thinking on her part? After all these years, she did not dare get her hopes up that Hermione might come back. Hoping against hope that Nonie Gale was in fact Hermione Granger, Minerva immediately wrote to confirm her acceptance of Aimée Gale as a first year in the coming academic year.

Hermione bought Aimée's books, telescope, cauldron and potions ingredients in the Quartier Magique, thus negating a need to enter Diagon Alley in London. She also had a magical tailor in Montréal liaise with Madam Malkin to provide Aimée's school robes. As for Aimée's wand, while there was a perfectly good wandmaker in Montréal, Hermione wanted Aimée to get her wand from the wandmaker in Toronto who had provided her own custom wand. Hermione's wand was widely regarded as a work of art and even the Montréal wandmaker had admitted that it was far superior to anything he could produce. Aimée was very excited to think she might also be able to get a beautiful wand like her mother's.

In the middle of July, Hermione and Aimée went to Toronto for a long mother-daughter weekend. When they walked into the wand shop, the owner came to greet them. "Ms Gale, it's good to see you again. And this is your daughter? Of course."

At this strange greeting, Aimée looked at her mother in puzzlement. "I was pregnant with you when I got my wand. I rather think that affected the choice of materials," Hermione explained. Aimée immediately looked worried, as though this may not be a positive thing and she were somehow to blame, and Hermione hastened to reassure her. "I can't think of anything better than my beloved daughter being the primary influence in the creation of my wand," she said, tilting Aimée's chin upwards with a finger and kissing her nose. Aimée rolled her eyes and Hermione smothered a laugh at the familiar gesture.

Turning back to the wandmaker, who was grinning at their antics, Hermione addressed the wandmaker. "The wand you made for me is so beautiful that I simply couldn't imagine getting Aimée's wand anywhere else."

"Another custom wand, I presume?" he asked. At Hermione's nod, he continued, "Good! Your wand is most definitely unique and I'm very curious indeed to know if your daughter will also select such an interesting mix of materials."

Aimée went through the same process that Hermione had all those years before and also ended up choosing two wand woods and two cores. In Aimée's case, not one but both cores were as unusual as Hermione's griffin hair core — in Aimée's case, a caladrius feather and a kitsune whisker. The woods were more conventional, however: beech and pear.

"Do you still have the book about wand-making that I recommended for you when you bought your own wand, Miss Gale?" the wandmaker asked.

"Indeed I do, Mr Curran. Yes, Aimée, when we get home you can look up your wand woods and core. It's good to understand your wand, especially when it's so unusual."

"As is yours," the wandmaker remarked.

"What is your wand, Mum?" Aimée asked, not able to remember if she actually knew this. Her mother's wand had just always been there, a part of Hermione, and Aimée had never thought to ask about it until now.

"My wand is cedar, rowan, dragon heartstring and a hair from the tail of a griffin. Dragon heartstring, phoenix feather and unicorn tail hair are the most common wand cores. Anything else is quite rare, although I used to know a girl who had a Veela hair core. I know Ollivander, Britain's main wandmaker, thinks Veela hair makes for very temperamental wands but I believe the hair was from her grandmother. The family bond probably balanced that out and gave her more control over her wand," replied Hermione thoughtfully.

"Yes, I agree with Ollivander that Veela hair makes quite a temperamental wand, much like Veela themselves," commented the wandmaker and Hermione laughed in agreement, remembering the fiery Fleur Weasley, whose wand she had been referring to. "Your mother's wand should be much more stable, however, even though it's an extremely powerful defensive and duelling wand."

"Really?" asked Aimée in astonishment. "Mum's not a fighter. She fixes books!"

Hermione laughed again. "I may not have reason to fight now but that doesn't mean I can't, beloved Aimée. Remember, I went through a war. I was a witch born to non-magical parents, in a place and time where people like me weren't deemed worthy of even being allowed to live, let alone have magic. Hopefully, things have improved since the war but I had to fight for acceptance and respect from the day I first boarded the Hogwarts Express. As the war developed, I was fighting for my very life."

"Will I have to go through that, too?" asked Aimée, wide-eyed.

"I hope not but if people do ask about your blood status, tell them you're a Half-blood. You have a Pureblood father and Muggleborn mother. Half-bloods don't have as much trouble as Muggleborns," answered Hermione sombrely.

"What are Purebloods, Half-bloods and Muggleborn?" asked Aimée in confusion.

"When I was growing up in Britain, so-called blood status was very important. A Muggleborn is a witch or wizard born to non-magical parents. A Pureblood is someone who supposedly only has magical ancestry, although I doubt that's really the case. Pureblood society is very inbred and a lot of the Purebloods I knew weren't very magically strong, or even very intelligent, as a result. I suspect there must have been some less than pure blood mixed into most of the family lines or things would have been a lot worse. Many of the Pureblood families would probably have died out by now without injections of some fresh blood every now and again. Half-bloods are those who come from a mixed heritage, like yourself. Here in Canada, witches and wizards are referred to as having a non-magical, mixed or magical heritage, but I'm sure that in Britain they still use those prejudiced terms."

Aimée nodded, deep in thought, as she ponded what her mother had just said. The wandmaker, however, was curious. "Is Aimée going to Hogwarts?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm going to be working in Britain for the next year, so Aimée thought she'd like to try the school I went to. It wasn't all bad and she's heard a lot of stories from me about Hogwarts. If things actually are as bad as they ever were, she can always come back to Canada. We have family here now, who will look after her while I'm away, if need be."

"Hogwarts may not take kindly to a student using a wand that wasn't made by Ollivander," Mr Curran observed and Aimée looked at her mother in alarm. Her wand had not even been made yet but she was already very attached to it.

"In which case, Aimée will be going to Hogwarts with two wands," said Hermione firmly. "However, the Headmistress knows that Aimée is Canadian, so I'm sure she won't mind that we came to a Canadian wandmaker for Aimée's wand. Headmaster Dumbledore would probably have objected, since Ollivander used to give him the details of the students' wands and Dumbledore used that information to help him form opinions of his students. Professor McGonagall isn't that manipulative and, as long as none of the students go around casting curses at people, she won't care what anyone's wand is."

"You realise that I can't put the British Ministry's Trace on Aimée's wand, don't you?" asked the wandmaker.

"And if the Headmistress wants to put it on Aimée's wand after she arrives in Hogwarts, I have no objection," said Hermione with a wink and the wandmaker grinned appreciatively in response.

"What's the Trace?" asked Aimée. Buying her wand had turned into an even bigger experience than she had expected. Of course, nothing beat getting a wand, but she was learning so much!

"In Britain, underage magicals aren't allowed to do magic outside school, so the Trace is applied to monitor underage magic. The drawback to the Trace is that it only shows that underage magic is being performed in a particular location, not who is actually doing it. So those of magical and mixed backgrounds can still do magic at home because it could be of-age family members performing the magic and so no one will investigate. The Ministry relies on parents to police their children but very few actually do. In essence, the law was designed to make it harder for witches and wizards of non-magical backgrounds," her mother explained.

"That's not fair!" snapped Aimée. "Phoebe can do magic outside school!"

"No, it's not fair," agreed Hermione sadly. "But if Headmistress McGonagall wants to put the Trace on your wand, then allow her to do so. If you remain at Hogwarts for your entire schooling, it will fade automatically on your seventeenth birthday. Otherwise, if you decide to go to Sauveterre from your second year on, the Trace can be cancelled. In Canada, you're allowed to do magic when you're underage under the supervision of an adult witch or wizard, in the case of those of magical and mixed heritage, or in your own home in front of only those family members who know about magic, if you're of non-magical heritage."

"Sauveterre is sounding better and better all the time," observed Aimée.

"There's still time for you to change your mind," Hermione assured her. "Directrice Leclair will offer you a place at Sauveterre at any time."

"No, I want to try Hogwarts," Aimée declared staunchly. "But I'm glad to know I have the option of Sauveterre in the background."

"Well, I think we've taken up enough of Mr Curran's time for today. Let's go and get some lunch, then we can decide what we want to do this afternoon," said Hermione, guiding her daughter out of the shop.

Aimée's wand turned out to be as much a piece of art as Hermione's. Both wands had the two woods twined together in concentric spirals, meaning that it would be impossible to separate them. In fact, one would have thought it would be impossible to join them together in such a way! The way the woods were intertwined ensured that they would work in harmony with each other. Aimée was delighted with her wand and kept stroking it, as though it was the silky pelt of the kitsune or the soft feathers of the caladrius who had provided the core.

.o.O.o.

⁶ I speak very little French but apparently the name Sauveterre means "safe haven." It seemed an appropriate name for a secret school of magical studies. surnames dot behindthename dot com / name / sauveterre