I know that it has been FOREVER! I'm sorry. But here we go!
August 31, 1997
The late afternoon sun glittered along the surface of the pond by the Burrow. Hermione and Ginny were sitting on the edge of the small pier with their feet dangling down in the cool water below.
Harry and Ron were over on the opposite side of the pond, skidding rocks along the surface.
"Are you sure that you're okay, Mione?" Ginny asked quietly with a glance to her left.
The brunette had left the Granger household a week earlier and arrived at the Burrow with an obvious heavy burden weighing down on her. Everyone had noticed that she was quieter and more reserved than usual. It concerned them and Ginny hadn't let up on asking Hermione what was going on.
Sighing, Hermione looked to her right, and nodded, "I've told you about a million times, Ginny…I'm fine."
Ginny nodded, "I know that's what you've told me. I'm just waiting for an honest response." The younger witch replied politely but with purpose.
There was no response and Ginny sighed, "Is it about a bloke?"
Upon hearing that question, Hermione let out a laugh, "Gin, I'm fine."
"You are not fine, Hermione Jean Granger!"
"Please do not call me that!" Hermione snapped.
Ginny furrowed her brow, "What? It's your name." She said. "What's going on Mione?"
Hermione swallowed and shook her head before standing up, grabbing her shoes and going back inside the house.
Ginny huffed, shaking her head, "Yeah…nothing's wrong at all." She muttered to herself sarcastically.
Hermione went straight up to Ginny's bedroom and sat down on the spare cot Molly Weasley had always set up for her. She inhaled deeply before turning toward her school trunk. Opening it, she dug down into the very bottom and pulled out the folder that she had found almost two weeks earlier.
The brunette swallowed as she looked over the documents for what had to be the hundredth time. She knew of at least four members of the Nott family that were currently enrolled at Hogwarts. As for the Fallbrook family, she only knew of one, but had heard that it was a rather large family. That had been all the information that she could safely extract from conversations with Molly Weasley without being asked questions about her random curiosity of the prominent pure blood families.
She wondered who knew that the adopted baby was her, or if any of them even knew she existed.
She was still staring at the documents when Ginny entered the room. The redhead didn't bother speaking as she grabbed her toiletry bag and a maroon towel from her wardrobe and left to take a shower.
Hermione sighed. She knew that she couldn't and shouldn't keep it all a secret…at least not from everyone. She should talk to someone. She just wasn't sure who.
She could hear Harry and Ron walking by the door before going up the next flight of stairs, and up to Ron's bedroom.
With a sigh, Hermione laid back on the cot and thought about which one of her friends she ought to tell.
When Ginny re-entered the room fifteen minutes later, she was wrapped in the maroon towel she had taken with her. The younger witch didn't speak as she got changed into her pajamas.
"Gin…" Hermione whispered.
Ginny looked over at her, "Yeah?" she said while combing her hair.
"There is something going on with me. Can we talk after dinner?"
Ginny nodded, "Absolutely." She replied in a relieved tone.
Both witches went down to the kitchen for dinner about half an hour later. Dinner was full of conversation about the upcoming school term.
"We'll be leaving here around nine o'clock in the morning." Molly told the four teenagers as they ate. "Harry, Hermione, your mothers and fathers plan on meeting us there to see you off."
Harry nodded while Hermione bit her bottom lip.
"Your brother said that he would try to come as well, dear." Molly added in hopes of getting some sort of normal response from the brunette.
Hermione had always had a close relationship with her older brother, Henry. However, since he was a muggle and five years older, she could only assume that he knew about her adoption. The sting of betrayal returned with vengeance.
She nodded, "That's nice."
Molly frowned with concern but didn't speak. She glanced at her daughter, who nodded subtly.
After dinner, Hermione and Ginny went back up to Ginny's bedroom while the boys stayed downstairs in the family room.
Ginny walked over and sat cross-legged on her bed, waiting. Hermione paced the room a bit in silence before nodding, ready to talk, and walked over to her school trunk. She grabbed the folder and sat on Ginny's bed, swallowing.
"Mione…"
"My parents kept a secret from me…more than one really." She said.
Ginny furrowed her brow, "What sort of secret?"
"When I was gathering my school things in the loft at home…" She paused and shook her head at the word 'home'. Swallowing, she continued, "I found a box that had fallen over, spilling paperwork everywhere. It was all important paperwork and when I was putting everything that had fallen out of it back in, I found this."
Ginny looked down at the folder, seeing Hermione's name written on its label.
"What is it?"
"My adoption paperwork." Hermione said, feeling emotional, "And my birth certificate."
Ginny's eyes widened, "You're adopted!"
The brunette nodded, "Apparently. And that's not even the most shocking part." she added, pulling out her birth certificate.
Ginny's eyes widened, seeing that it was from St. Mungo's, "Wait, your birth parents are magical?"
"I'm a pureblood." Hermione whispered. "My last name, had I taken my birthfather's name, would be Nott."
Ginny's eyes bulged, "Nott?!"
"Yeah. If I had taken my birthmother's name, it would have been Fallbrook."
"Bloody fuck." Ginny breathed.
"That's about what I thought." Hermione muttered, letting Ginny look over all the paperwork.
"So, what are you going to do?" the younger witch asked after several minutes of looking over the documents.
Hermione huffed and fell back on the on the bed, shaking her head, "Well, I'm going to do research on the genealogy of both families once we get to Hogwarts."
"Hermione…" Ginny droned exasperatedly, "I mean, are you going to contact these people? You birth parents! Thatcher Nott and Cora Fallbrook…"
She swallowed and covered her face with her hands, thinking before shaking her head, "I don't know. They obviously didn't want me."
"There must have been a reason behind it all, you know. A reason behind putting you up for adoption." Ginny pointed out.
"But to Muggles?" Hermione asked, looking over at the redhead.
Ginny shrugged, "Maybe they didn't know. Maybe the Adoption Department at the Ministry was completely in charge of it."
The brunette nodded, "I suppose that's possible." She sighed. "I just…I have so many questions. I don't know how to face them tomorrow at the Station. Your mum said that they're coming, and that Henry may be there as well."
"Hermione, they're still your parents." Ginny said. "They love you."
"But Ginny they've been lying to me my entire bloody life!" Hermione hissed.
Nodding, Ginny sighed, "I know. I'm sorry."
"Were they ever going to tell?" Hermione muttered rhetorically into the air.
Ginny frowned worriedly.
That night, Hermione didn't sleep much. Her mind weaved through the possibilities of why her birth parents hadn't kept her, why her adoptive parents hadn't told her, and trying to figure out who the hell she was.
She couldn't state that she was a Nott or a Fallbrook, but she knew she also not a Granger. What did that mean for her?
"Who am I?" She whispered into the dark as Ginny slept in the bed across the room.
There were so many questions but if Hermione was good at anything, it was researching and solving problems. She sure as hell was going to figure it out. Before the end of the school year, Hermione would know who she was and what that meant for her future.
