Disclaimer: I own nothing but the mistakes.
Chapter 2: Growing Pains
Sirius walked through the chilly morning air; the sun was still low enough to paint the world in soft tones. In his opinion it was far too early to be up. But his son had asked and he wasn't about to let Harry down. The fact that he considered Harry a pranking prodigy and feared reprisal had little to do with it.
It had only taken a day to track down the information eh needed, the information that led him towards the little brick house. He knocked on the door and waited. A moment later a man opened it. "Hello, can I help you?"
"Good morning Mr. Granger. My name is Sirius Black. My son is a friend of your daughters at Wandwood." Sirius said politely.
"You're Harry's father? Come in, Hermione has told us a good deal about him. I'm Dan Granger." Dan opened the door and stepped back.
"Thank you, Dan, Harry's mentioned your daughter several times as well. In fact, it was one of those conversations that brought me here today. I hope I'm not interrupting anything." Sirius followed Dan into a well-kept kitchen. A woman sat at the table reading the paper.
"Not at all. Emma this is Sirius Black, Harry's father. Sirius my wife Emma Granger." Dan introduced them.
"A pleasure madam." Sirius said with an exaggerated bow.
"So, what brought you all the way out here?" Emma asked.
"Well, a few nights ago your daughter told Harry what had happened back in England." Sirius started.
"Wait she told him everything? Even the troll?" Dan asked surprised with a bit of suspicion thrown in for good measure. Neither Granger was very trusting towards magical people anymore and Hermione had barely talked to them about it.
"Yes, it came about because harry looks a great deal like Daniel Potter." Harry said.
"How alike?" Emma asked.
"Well exactly actually. They're twins." Sirius said and prepared for the fireworks. He needed to get this out of the way and hadn't been able to think of a less violent method.
"You're that bastard's father?!" Dan jumped to his feet ready to deck Sirius and throw him out.
Sirius stood and matched Dans aggressive stance. "I adopted Harry when his parents threw him out because they thought he had no magic."
That brought the grangers up short. Sirius almost smiled. The worst part, for him at least was out of the way. "So, you're not Daniel Potters father."
"No. I was Harry's godfather and adopted him before he turned two. We moved to America shortly after and he has had no more contact with the Potters." Sirius said.
"Sorry, it's just…" Emma began.
Sirius held up his hand to stop them. "I understand. if something like that had happened to harry… Hermione doesn't know they are related and told Harry what happened to explain her own attitude towards him. He immediately contacted me, at bloody three in the morning, and told me what happened. He says that despite having no memory of the Potters it is his responsibility as Daniels brother and Hermione's friend to do what he can to help."
"What can he do?" Asked Dan.
"Personally? Not much, but that's where I come in. I spoke to a healer I know, my cousin. and while she can't be sure without examining Hermione, she is fairly confident that your daughter can be completely healed." Sirius informed the shocked couple.
"But those magical doctors said." Emma began. She couldn't even remember how many times she'd prayed for something that could help Hermione. It had reached the point where it seemed impossible.
"Unfortunately, in England magical children born to non-magical parents are looked down upon. If the healer was one such person, he might have thought leaving your daughter with a limp was fair." Sirius explained.
"That's horrible! Don't they have any kind of oath against that?" Dan shouted. His daughter had suffered, possibly needlessly just because of some mental deficient doctor. If he ever got his hands on those fools.
"Actually no, they did away with such oaths almost a hundred years ago. But as I was saying. Without examining Hermione, she can't be sure but from the description of the injury it should have been easily treatable. Trolls are not very magical, and the only real way for magic to not be able to heal such an injury is if strong foreign magic was introduced. What I would suggest is this weekend take Hermione to see my cousin and have her do a full checkup." Sirius said. he provided the Grangers with the needed information and agreed to help make the arrangements for the overwhelmed couple.
0-Q-0
After everything was settled Sirius left the grangers, but instead of returning home he continued walking. It was a lovely little town, not too far from where he and Harry lived. Maybe next time he'd ride his motorbike out here.
When Harry had first contacted him, Sirius had trouble believing that James hadn't done everything he could to make things right. Yes, he was disappointed in them for the way they treated Harry but he could almost understand it. not wanting Harry to grow up resenting them because he couldn't do magic. He thought that they made the wrong choice even if Harry had lost his magic. But this. No. The Lily he knew would never have stood for it.
His cousin Andromeda still had a few friends at St. Mungo and they were able to confirm that Hermione was admitted on Halloween and she blamed Daniel Potter and Ronald Weasley for being there. Honestly, he was surprised they made it out of England with their memories intact.
Sirius wanted to believe there was more to the story, that his old friends wouldn't act like that but he really didn't see what he could be missing. Maybe he'd be able to understand things better after Andromeda spoke with the girl.
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"I am not pleased with you Harry." Wendy said as soon as she had stepped into the Ash common room. Her arms were crossed and she tapped her foot. "You might be fine getting up to all sorts of trouble but I don't want you dragging Hermione into it."
"I haven't done anything, that can be pinned on me. And I haven't involved Hermione in any pranks." Harry rubbed the back of his head. Eh had tried to get her to help him with a prank once. She'd hit him, with a book! One of those heavy ones she always carried around. They were worse than bricks.
"Am I in trouble?" Hermione asked hesitantly.
"I don't know. But both of you are supposed to go see the dean, and harry only gets called in when he's done something stupid." Wendy said. she really felt sorry for Hermione if she had gotten caught up in one of Harry's pranks.
Hermione spun around to face Harry; he involuntarily took a step back. She was frightening. "Harry Black! I swear if you've done something that I get blamed for I'll show you exactly what was in the book of curses I had last week."
Harry paled; from the few pictures he'd seen the curses were more embarrassing than painful but with Hermione's mind behind them. "I swear I haven't done anything. I think I know what this is about and trust me you'll be happy."
"If you're lying…" Hermione said.
The other students watched in amazement. Even the older years shivered a bit as the nice quiet girl let a bit of her temper show. Well maybe she'd be able to keep Harry from causing too much trouble.
Harry and Hermione made their way towards the Deans office. Hermione continued to shot him dirty looks. "Hermione honestly, it'll be fine. if this is what I think it is you'll be excited I promise."
Hermione frowned and gave him a disbelieving look. "It had better be, I'm not going to get in trouble if you decided to go through with that plan to change everyone's hair blue or something."
"You know very well I had to give that idea up after you refused to help me brew the potion." Harry said.
"As if that would stop you." Hermione said. She did not like Harry's habit of pulling pranks. Even if they were harmless, they reminded her to much of Daniel Potter. Though Daniel's were just plain mean.
They arrived at the Dean's office and were ushered in by her secretary. The Dean glanced up from her paperwork to acknowledge them. "Mr. Black, Miss Granger."
"Whatever Harry has done I had nothing to do with it." Hermione practically shouted at the Dean.
"I know, now if I could just find proof that Mr. Black was involved in any of the several incidents, I suspect him of. But that is for another time. Miss Granger your parents have requested that you return home for the weekend. Mr. Black will be escorting you as I believe you are new to using the floo network." The dean said crisply.
"I am." Hermione had read about the floo system used by wizards the world over but never used it herself.
"Mr. Black will explain. I have opened my connection for you. Mr. Black you know where to go. and do try not to land on Miss Granger when you come out." The Dean said.
"Land on me?" Hermione shot Harry a dirty look as though he planned to do just that.
"I'm not that bad." Harry said.
"You came out backwards and rolling." The Dean said with a twitch of her lips. "I did not believe that was even possible."
"Gezz, I can really feel the love in here." Harry said. He walked over to the Deans fireplace and took a handful of the floo powder. "Alright, it's pretty easy. Toss a handful of the powder into the fire, wait for it to turn green. Call out the floo address you're going to and step through. Try not to get dizzy along the way."
When Hermione hesitated Harry stuck out his hand. "It's really not that bad. Come on we'll just step through together."
"Alright." Hermione took Harry hand and stood next to him. She realized that she didn't actually know where they were going, as she was sure her home hadn't been connected to the floo network. Her parents surely would have told her. Harry threw the floo powder into the fire and called out their destination.
"Padfoot's Place." Harry pulled Hermione into the fire.
Hermione felt a moment of panic as her mind said not to step into fire. Then she did and it was a whirlwind of soot and flashes of light. It felt like she was standing still in the center of a storm as everything revolved around her to fast to see. The only steady thing was Harry's arm.
Then Hermione found herself in a well decorated living room. She had to hop twice to keep from falling over. Harry through tumbled past her and rolled into a sofa. He groaned from his place on the floor. A laugh Hermione knew well caught her attention. She turned to find her parents smirking at Harry's lack of grace.
"Mum! Dad!" Hermione threw her arms around her parents in a tight hug.
"No no, that's fine, don't bother checking on me." Harry said from the floor. "Only broke my neck, I'll walk it off."
"If you broke your neck, you'd be a lot quitter." Sirius said as he helped Harry up.
"What's going on?" Hermione asked her parents, completely ignoring Harry's antics.
"Come sit down and we'll explain." Emma said. Once they were all seated, she gestured towards Sirius. "Hermione, this is Sirius Black, Harry's father."
"It is a pleasure to meet you." Hermione said.
"It's good to meet you too. Harry hasn't shut up about you since you came to Wandwood." Sirius said with a teasing tone.
Harry went bright red and shoved Sirius. "Purple beard."
Sirius paled as he remembered that particular prank. He turned back to Hermione. "Please disregard my earlier comment."
Dan hid a smile. "It's good to meet you, Harry. I'm Dan and this is Emma. If you'd like to even things up, we have some wonderful baby pictures of Hermione and-"
Hermione slapped her hands over her father's mouth. "Ignore him."
Harry nodded; they'd both just pretend their fathers hadn't tried to embarrass them. Emma rolled her eyes but it was good to see her daughter behaving, well like a child. Or at least being more relaxed than she normally was. "Well shall we get to business?"
"Guess it's my show then." Sirius said. "Hermione, please don't be upset with Harry but after you told him what happened in England, he contacted me."
Hermione almost started yelling at Harry for betraying her trust but a stern look from her mother stopped her. Harry looked very regretful and seemed to shrink on the couch. "I'm sorry Hermione but what you said didn't make sense. My aunt is a healer and I learned a bit from her. Trolls aren't very magical, just magic resistant so there shouldn't be a reason why your leg couldn't have been fully healed."
"What?" Hermione asked, unsure what Harry was trying to say. Did he think she was faking?
Sirius leaned forward. "We think the healer you saw purposely left your leg unhealed because you are a muggle-born."
"But, but that's horrible!" Hermione shouted, she was pale at the very idea.
"It is." Sirius agreed. "Which is why Harry contacted me and I contacted your parents. They would like you to see my cousin. She is fairly certain that she can fully heal you."
Hermione looked down at her leg. She didn't have anything to lose by at least seeing another healer. She looked back at Harry who was giving her a hopeful look. "Alright, I'll go. But you owe me a book for telling your father."
"You got it." Harry replied, happy that Hermione wasn't going to hold a grudge against him.
The Grangers returned home via the floo network. Hermione discovered their fireplace had been connected but only to Harry's house. Before she left Hermione hugged harry. "Thank you for caring."
Sirius watched in amusement as his son staired after Hermione. Then shook his head. So young and so clueless.
0-Q-0
Hermione sat on the table in the examination room. Her parents were still in the office talking to healer Tonks. The Grangers had floo'd to the Black's and meet with Andromeda Tonks before they'd come to St. Bishops for her examination. Hermione liked healer Tonks. She was friendly and had that same carefree feeling that Sirius and Harry had.
The door opened and healer Tonks entered the room. "Alright Hermione, just lay back and we'll see what we need to do to get you walking normally again. My, your hair is as bad as mine, isn't it?"
The comment about her hair caught Hermione off guard. She looked at Healer Tonks, her hair was hardly wild or bushy.
Apparently, Healer Tonks knew what she was thinking. "I have to brew a special potion to deal with it. I'll give you the recipe later, it's not difficult to make and from what Harry says you'll have no trouble with it."
A slight blush appeared on Hermione's cheeks. She was used to adults praising her skills but to be complimented by someone her age was still a new experience. As Healer Tonks waved her wand above her, she asked Hermione questions about how she had been injured. First her fall from the broom then the troll.
When she finished, she had Hermione follow her into her office. Hermione took a seat between her parents. Healer Tonks checked the file she had received from England. "Well first off yes I can completely heal your leg Hermione."
She had to pause as the Granger's hugged their daughter with relief. Once they had regained their composure she continued. "There are a few problems. The bones were not properly set so we will vanish them and give you skele-grow. That will regrow the bones in the proper shape. Your muscles have also been messed up a little so while your bones regrow, we will be using charms to move them back into their proper place. I want to do this slow so it will take three days."
"Three days, is that all?" Dan asked in disbelief. Yes, he knew magic could heal things quickly but he had still expected weeks of work.
"Yes, well and a few more days for Hermione to get used to her leg working properly again. There are a few other issues, scar tissue and such but that shows no trace of magic and can be set right easily. You'll need to take a week off of school for the procedure but I doubt that will be a problem for you. Unfortunately, it won't be comfortable as skele-grow means we can't give you any potions to help you rest." Healer Tonks said.
"That's fine." Hermione quickly said. It'd be worth it to be able to walk normally again without pain.
"If you'd like we can start Monday, you'll be out by Thursday and have the weekend to get used to walking again." Healer Tonks offered.
"We'll clear it with your school." Emma said at Hermione's pleading look. Then turned back to Healer Tonks. "How much will it cost?"
"Sirius is covering it." She said.
"We can't let him do that." Dan said uncomfortably. His mind trying to find Sirius's angle. What was he expecting in return?
"Actually, you can. You see the Blacks were among the richest wizards in England. However, they were all right bastards too. They didn't consider Muggles any better than animals. Only Sirius and I thought differently and we are now the last Blacks. He sees it as a way to help make amends for our family's crimes. He's made arrangements to cover the cost for any muggle born who needs treatment because of something that happened in England." She didn't mention that Sirius had only just made those arrangements and Hermione would be the first to benefit from it.
"We'll discuss it with him." Emma said diplomatically.
0-Q-0
That evening Harry and Sirius arrived at the Grangers, having been invited over for dinner. Afterward Dan and Emma asked to speak with Sirius in private. While the adults were gone Hermione and Harry moved to the sitting room. Harry looked around nervously. "Hermione, er, there's something I need to tell you."
"What's that?" she asked, still over the moon at the prospect of being able to walk normally again.
"Sirius, well he's my dad but not my birth father. He was my godfather and then adopted me when my parents wanted to get rid of me because they thought I was a squib." At her look he elaborated. "A person born to magical parents without any magic themselves. Kind of the opposite of you."
"That's horrible, just because they thought you couldn't do magic, they abandoned you?" Hermione asked in disbelief. How could a parent do that?
"Yeah, Sirius thought so to so he adopted me and we moved out here. I can't even remember my birth family, which is probably good. But Hermione. Daniel Potter is my twin brother." Harry said.
0-Q-0
Sirius followed the Grangers into their home office. "What did you want to talk about?"
"Andromeda told us how you were offering to pay for Hermione's treatment, thank you but we wouldn't feel right about it. Especially after you've already done so much." Emma began.
"It's not just Harry that feels responsible. Daniel might be his brother but James Potter was my brother in all but blood. When I ran away from home, I lived with him and his parents. Lilly was like a sister to all of us. I can't believe he didn't offer to make things right himself." Sirius began to ramble.
Dan put a hand on his arm. "It's alright. You're no more responsible for what happened than Harry is. We'll pay for her treatment, but if you really want to do something get her some good books on magic, we haven't got much of a clue which ones are the best."
"That I can do." Sirius said feeling better about the whole situation. Until the sound of a door slamming reverberated throughout the house. They left the office and found a depressed Harry sitting on the couch, the red mark on his cheek showed he'd just been punched. "What happened."
"I told Hermione that Daniel was my brother." Harry said in a flat tone. He stood up a bit shakily. "Thank you for the wonderful dinner, Mrs. and Mr. Granger."
Harry took a handful of floo powder and returned home.
Sirius ran a hand through his hair. "He just couldn't keep quiet. Can't even remember them. I need to go check on Harry. I'm sorry about this."
"I'll go check on Hermione." Emma offered. She could hear her daughter sobbing before she even opened her door. "Hermione?"
"Harry is that bastard's brother." Hermione said between sobs. "Brothers, no wonder they look so much alike."
Emma sat down next to Hermione and rubbed her back. "I know dear. Sirius told us."
Hermione spun on her mother. "And you didn't tell me?! After everything those bastards did?"
"Harry doesn't even remember them. I didn't want to see Daniel Potter cause you any more pain." She smoothed Hermione's hair. "He did so much to hurt you. Your letters from Hogwarts were painful to read, we could see how unhappy you were. Then the night when McGonigal showed up and told us what happened. It was horrible. But your letters from Wandwood were better. You began to talk about people more and sounded happy. You wrote about Harry quite a bit. When Sirius explained everything to us, we decided not to tell you because we were afraid you would push Harry away for something out of his control."
"But he's Daniel's brother, he lied to me." Hermione said. She wasn't ready to admit it wasn't Harrys fault.
"Did he ever tell you he wasn't related to Daniel? Or did you just want to believe that? He never had a choice to be born to the Potters. He did choose to be your friend. To tell his father and try to help you." Emma hugged her daughter. "Please don't let Daniel Potter hurt you again by costing you a good friend."
0-Q-0
An hour later Hermione stumbled out of her room and towards the fireplace. "I'm going to apologize to Harry."
Before her parents could say anything, she had stepped into the flames and disappeared. Dan and Emma traded and look before they hurried to follow. Thankfully even muggles could use the floo.
0-Q-0
Hermione stepped out of the fire. Sirius was sitting on the couch sipping a cup of tea. He watched her expectantly. Hermione fidgeted under his gaze. "I, I want to apologize to Harry."
"Last room on the left." Sirius jerked his finger down the hall.
Hermione hurried away. A moment later her parents stepped out of the fire. "Hermione?"
"Went to apologize to Harry. I haven't heard any explosions yet which is probably a good thing. Guess it's something they'll have to work through if they want to stay friends. Tea?" Sirius offered. He wondered if this was something other parents had to go through.
0-Q-0
Hermione knocked on Harry's door. When he didn't answer she pushed it open and found him curled up by his window. "Harry?"
His head jerked up in surprise. "Hemione?"
She hesitated for a moment. It was a surprise to her to see how upset Harry looked. "I'm, I'm sorry about how I acted."
"It's fine, I figured something like that would happen but it wouldn't have been fair not to tell you." Harry said dejectedly.
"It most certainly is not fine!" Hermione stamped her foot and marched over to Harry. "I'm not going to let that bastard cost me the best friend I've ever had."
"So, we're still friends then?" Harry asked. He had been surprised how much it hurt when he had thought they weren't anymore.
"Definitely."
0-Q-0
Hermione's procedure went perfectly. She was released on Thursday and by Saturday she could walk as if nothing had ever happened. Sirius had not let Harry remain home from school during the week but made arrangements for him to come home over the weekend. Hermione was looking forward to seeing him again.
When she stepped out of the floo she was surprised to find a girl a few years younger on the floor coloring with Harry. She looked up and scrutinized Hermione. Harry smiled and stood up. "Hey Hermione. How are you feeling?"
"Wonderful. It's amazing to be able to walk normally again." Hermione said. "so, are you going to introduce me to your friend?"
"Oh right. Hermione this is Sharra. Sharra this is Hermione." Harry said.
Hermione crouched down. "Hello Sharra. Harry has told me a bit about you. Something to do with you trying to steal his broom?" she said teasingly.
Sharra puffed up her cheeks. "I just wanted to borrow it."
Harry held back a snort. "Except you snuck over here to borrow my broom when you have one of your own at your house."
Instead of answered Sharra was suddenly focused on her drawing. Harry motioned Hermione into the kitchen. "Sorry about her. Since her cousin and my dad started dating, she'd kind of adopted me as a big brother."
"It's alright, you two are cute." Hermione said with a meaningful glance at Harry.
"I'm not cute." Harry mumbled. "I'm manly."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Sure, you are macho."
0-Q-0
The end of the school year was quickly approaching and the students of Wandwood had settled into review for their final exams and B.A.T.s. Hermione though had taken it to a level that worried some of the other students in Ash as she began working on schedules for them and trying to enforce those schedules.
A week before their tests began the other students were feed up and asked Harry to do something. Harry walked to the corner table where Hermione had sequestered herself with a charms book, pages of notes spread out around her. Harry snatched the book from her. "Harry!"
Harry grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her out the back door. "Harry! Stop and give me back my book! I need to finish charms and review potions before dinner!"
"Hermione, this." He waved the charms book in front of her face. "Is not going to help you."
"Of course, it will. There's still a week before the tests and I can review at least twice more before then."
"No, I mean this is a second-year charms book. Nothing in here will be on our test. You've studied so far ahead you didn't even notice, did you?" Harry asked.
Spots of red appeared on Hermione's face. "No, I didn't. But you didn't need to take my book."
"Yes I did, listen Hermione you're diving everyone else crazy." Harry started.
"It's not my fault they don't want to study and are willing to risk their futures."
"Exactly. It's not your fault or your responsibility to make sure they study. That's up to them. you trying to force them to isn't helping anyone." Harry explained.
"But…"
"No, Hermione no buts. You can't make them study. If they ask for help that different but just telling them what to do is wrong." Harry said.
"But I want them to do well!" Hermione defended herself.
"I know you mean well but you can't force them to. It's up to them. Take a deep breath, go back and keep reviewing first year books. Help if they ask but don't force them, alright? It's upsetting them as much as me taking your book." Harry said gently.
"Alright." Hermione admitted defeat. Maybe she did need to focus more on her own review if she hadn't even been working in the correct book.
"Good. Come on I'll quiz you." Harry offered.
"Alright, but as your best friend I can force you to study. Especially since I have the free time now that I'm not trying to get the others to study." Hermione said, then before Harry could object. "And if you don't, I'll get your dads permission to."
"Damn, he'd probably give it just to get me back. Fine. but we will take break so you can practice flying." Harry said.
0-Q-0
Wind blew off the ocean and caught Hermione's hair. Thanks to Healer Tonks hair potion it was more manageable. Even if it still looked wild. Hermione tied it back as she stepped up for her flying exam. She stepped into the washtub and brought it up to five feet. Then at a running pace she covered the distance down the beach. She climbed out and sat on the flying carpet next, it was back down the beach to the start line on it.
The wind tugged at the edges of the carpet but she kept it under control. Finally, it was a broom back to the finish line. While Hermione had come to enjoy the tub and carpet, the broom still cause her problems with balance. As she crossed the finish line and dismounted Harry ran up and threw an arm around her. "Way to go Hermione!"
"Thank you." Hermione said happily.
"Congratulations Miss Granger. You passed." The instructor said.
0-Q-0
Dumbledore sighed as he sank into his seat. He was, disappointed. His plan to force a confrontation with Voldemort had not gone as he would have wished. Yes, Daniel had faced him, Neville and Ronald had done their parts and gotten him to the final room just as he planned, but Daniel had been unable to banish Voldemort again. Dumbledore had been forced to step in and save him.
This was disturbing because without Daniel being the one to defeat him, Dumbledore was sure he would return quicker this time. Also, Voldemort only had access to the weakened core of possessed host, who was a weak wizard to start with.
The Potters were not happy that Voldemort had been processing a professor all year but he had thought of that and hidden a special talisman in the DADA rooms that would hide the possession from the wards. Once that had been explained they were indebted to him again for saving their child. He knew just what to do as he had spent the last decade training them to obey him.
But Dumbledore felt it was all for not, Daniel should have been able to take care of Voldemort himself. There had to be a reason for his failure. Ture, he wasn't the best student but he was near the top of his year. Voldemort had little magic to work with. The odds had been stacked in favor of Daniel.
A strange idea filtered across his mind before he discarded it. But the idea returned again and again until he had no choice but to examine it. Could the problem stem from Harry? Had whatever Sirius had done somehow have weakened Daniel? It was farfetched but possible as they shared blood. He would need a way to examine Harry though to be sure. Well, the next year should be peaceful, he could devote his attention to the matter. Voldemort should not be a problem again until at least Daniel's third year.
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(A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed, and thank you to everyone who has read my story.)