Chapter 3

'Explain it to me again.' Harry asked, sitting with Hermione in the Gryffindor Common Room, the sky dark outside as a storm rolled in.

Hermione sighed but turned to face Harry more directly. 'Malfoy approached me in the library. He said he knew what was happening to me, that he'd found my adoption records as well, and he said he could help.'

'I know that bit.' Harry cut in, his head hung.

'Malfoy had his mother send over everything we needed and we began casting tempering spells.' Hermione frowned slightly, noting the displeased look on Harry's face. 'They slowed the loss of my magic enough to prepare the potion we needed. I had to bathe in it to let it imbue itself with my magic and then keep it in a cold place until the ritual.'

'That's the bit I don't get.' Harry jumped in his seat and turned to face Hermione. 'If there's a whole ritual why do you need a bath? What's the point in sitting in a bunch of potion ingredients?'

Hermione smiled slightly, leaning a shoulder against the back of the sofa. 'The potion is one of the components for the ritual. It's so that the ritual can identify my family magic and supplement the magic I've lost. To do that, it needs something to draw that magic from. The ingredients over the course of the bath draw some magic from you, store it and propagate it, allowing it to build and grow. That magic is then held dormant until the final ingredient is added during the ritual.'

'When you put your blood in it?' Harry asked, his eyebrows raised.

'Yes.' Hermione nodded once. 'The blood is the reagent that releases the stored magic, the ritual holds it within the confines of its runes and then another spell draws the magic into me, using my blood as a sort of thread to guide it. The blood mixes with the magic and binds them together so that the magic won't begin to burn out again.'

Harry nodded to himself, running a hand through his hair. 'But why did it happen to you and no one else?'

'According to Malfoy the magic would have burnt out much sooner and more aggressively if I was around my birth parents. The stronger the family magic, the quicker it begins to pull itself back to its original source. The family magic is borrowed until you bind it to yourself.'

'So in theory you could give someone your gift if it wasn't yours by birth?' He asked, staring intently at Hermione.

'Yes, in theory, but I have no idea how the magic would react.' Hermione shook her head. 'It's very likely the magic would see the recipient as a thief and kill them.'

Harry frowned again, blowing out a deep, rugged breath. 'Then how am I a parselmouth?' He took another breath. 'How is Voldemort? His parents were a muggle and a squib.'

'Squibs aren't magicless Harry, their magic is blocked from them.' Hermione shook her head at him. 'It's completely likely that he got his gift as a Parselmouth from his mother and was helped in the same way I was.'

'But me?' He asked, worry on his face.

'I don't know.' Hermione shook her head. 'But I'll help you find out.'

...

After weeks in the library reading through the very extensive and very overwhelming documentation of Pureblood Families, they were almost at a loss. So many families intermarried that it was nearly impossible to find any lead for Harry. While they did find out that Harry and Draco were third cousins the lead didn't go anywhere because neither the Blacks nor Malfoys were parselmouths.

'There has to be a side branch of the Potter family that married into the talent and passed it down to you.' Draco announced one day, the group hidden in the back of the library.

'What is the Black family magic?' Hermione asked, looking up from volume seventeen.

'Metamorphmagi.' Draco replied nonchalantly, though his grip on his book tightened and his knuckles turned white.

'But you're not a metamorphmagus.' Harry exclaimed, having not seen Draco's reaction.

'You are correct.' Draco replied, his tone clipped. 'I came into the Malfoy family magic this summer.'

'Sirius isn't a metamorphmagus either.' Harry shook his head. 'Are you sure?'

'Yes Potter, I'm sure.' Draco snapped back, closing his book. He stood from the table and headed back over to the shelf to retrieve another dreaded volume. 'I won't be sharing intimate family secrets with you Potter, third cousins or not.'

'I think we can safely say Harry's family weren't parselmouths.' Hermione sighed, dropping her book onto the growing pile. They had half a shelf stacked on the table before them.

'Have you figured out what your family magic is meant to be?' Harry asked her, also shutting his own tome. 'Is it possible that she doesn't have any special talent aside from the extra magic?'

'No.' Draco shook his head, narrowing his eyes at Hermione. 'The withdrawal was very violent, whatever her skill, it's dangerously powerful.'

'Aside from the fact that I've never shown any signs of it.' Hermione rolled her eyes, dropping her head to the table.

'Maybe some family magic isn't as innate as metamorphmagi or parselmouths.' Harry suggested, placing a hand on her shoulder.

'Intent.' Draco muttered to himself, rushing back into the shelves of the library to bring back a tome on documented family magic. 'My family magic requires conscious intent to use. We just have to go through every single expression of family magic and note down the ones that require the same.'

'That could be dozens.' Hermione countered, lifting her head up. 'And potentially dangerous.'

'It will definitely be dangerous.' Draco smiled, apparently very excited at the prospect. 'But we need to figure out what your magic is and then we can find your family line from there.'

'I don't suppose that family names accompany those expressions.' Hermione sighed, flicking the book open.

'Magic has swapped in and out of family lines for centuries and even then some talents require an enormous amount of power to wield.' Draco shook his head. 'Take the Blacks. It's rare for anyone to actually be able to use the family magic. None of the Blacks had done it for centuries.'

'Had?' Harry asked, narrowing his eyes.

'Apparently my estranged cousin has the ability.' Draco's eyebrows raised slightly. 'I've never met her though.'

'Tonks is your cousin?' Harry asked, his eyes widening. 'How many people do I know that you're related to?'

'We don't tend to keep track outside of immediate family. The only time anyone bothers checking is when it comes to marriage.' Draco shrugged. 'So long as I'm not marrying too close, nobody cares if you share an ancestor here and there.'

'I don't mean to press into something you're sore about...' Hermione began, her tone hesitant. 'But why don't you have the Black family magic?'

Draco glared at Hermione, a sneer on his face.

'It's not just Malfoy. Family magic passing from father to son must happen all the time.' Harry cut in diplomatically.

'He's right, it wasn't rare within the sacred twenty-eight.' Draco admitted, looking down at the table. 'It was a regular practise to keep your daughters from passing their family magic into a different line. They wait for the magic to burn out of them and then marry them off once it's done.'

'That's awful.' Hermione reached a hand out to Draco's, though he pulled his hands back from her and tried his best to compose himself.

Draco shook his head a little, his posture returning to its usual impeccable state. 'The practise has largely been abandoned since some magics went extinct, but there are still a small few who still guard their family magic fiercely, even if it's the only expression in a dozen generations.'

'If that's the practise, why do women hold the family grimoire with the information about claiming it?' Hermione asked, trying not to notice the anger burning in Draco's eyes.

'Supposedly it's because the mother is tasked with the rearing and upbringing of her children.' Draco answered. 'I think it's just a cruel reminder to them of what they could have had.'

'Do you think someone knew about Hermione?' Harry asked, diverting the conversation away from an obviously uncomfortable topic. 'If someone manipulated her parents to cover up an adoption, it's plausible that they were placing her somewhere that she couldn't preserve her magic.'

'It's impossible to know if a baby has the family magic. It's like accidental magic, it takes a few years to really know.' Draco shook his head. 'According to the paperwork Hermione was barely born when she was adopted.'

'And if I was adopted older I wouldn't be in our year, the date of birth lines up too well.' Hermione added, resting her head on her hand. 'You can trick muggle paperwork but it would take a lot of work to trick the Ministry and Hogwarts. Not impossible but Dumbledore himself would have had to do it. No one else has access to the school's records room.'

'I guess we'd best find out who your family is then Hermione.' Harry sighed, pulling the book over. 'Then we can find out who left you with your parents.'

The group threw their attention to the tome, totally unaware of the onlooker watching them. They pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill, penning a quick note.

She knows. The plan didn't work. Our next move is up to you. - M