Chapter 11: Months Flying By

"Hermione we need to talk," Charlie Weasley said, it was their final morning at the Burrow after the end of the Christmas holidays, and time to return back to school.

"Sure Charlie what's up?"

She had no idea what he might want to talk about, but she wasn't going to alienate any of the Weasleys. Besides out of all of his brother's Charlie was the most harmless towards her, he had no history with her really so she was less likely to slip around him and say something she shouldn't.

"Not here. You're packed already, so let's go for a walk on the grounds."

Now that was a little odd. She couldn't imagine what Charlie would have to say to her that he couldn't in the comfort of the Burrow. But she followed him anyway. Fred had been roped into helping George pack after an experiment gone wrong this morning, so Hermione didn't really have anything better to do. Besides Charlie had been giving her odd looks for a while she wanted to get to the bottom of this, so that she could be on friendly terms with the second eldest Weasley brother.

As she followed him she was a little shocked when she found Bill waiting outside for them, a serious expression on his face. Whatever they had to say to her she doubted she would like it.

"Mom and dad don't think we should get involved, but what they don't know can't hurt them. Hermione what do you know about wizarding traditions?"

Staring at Bill Hermione wanted to laugh. That was the reason they had dragged her out here, they had wanted to talk to her about Fred's betrothal. She was little hurt that Molly and Arthur didn't want her to know, but figured they were letting Fred decide when to tell her. Which was quite shocking. With how proper Molly was, Hermione had expected her to tell Hermione about Fred's betrothal the moment she had entered their home and her closeness to Fred became known. Instead they were leaving her in the dark. Did they not realize how she felt about Fred? Or was there a chance they had figured her out? Did Molly and Arthur known she was Mia Prince, but had just decided not to confront her with the information?

"It's alright Bill, Charlie, I already know about Fred's betrothal. We are just friends."

The boys gave each other a look clearly not believing her, but they let it slide. Allowing her to walk back to the house without another word. After that it was time to catch the train anyway, so they couldn't really hold her any longer. She wondered if they had talked to Fred about how he might be leading her on, and hadn't gotten a satisfactory response so had come to her instead.

Either way at least they had decided she deserved to know.

Severus was a little surprised when Hermione had stayed behind for a moment after class, he hadn't been expecting getting her alone to be so easy, but he knew he needed to talk to her. The Grangers, and a young girl named Alexis probably a muggle friend, had owled the school wondering why their mail to Hermione hadn't been going through. Apparently she hadn't been living with them since the previous summer, and hadn't returned to her home like everyone had assumed during the holidays.

With his mark darkening slowly he couldn't risk her being on her own. She needed to at least be with a wizarding family during the holidays if for some reason she didn't wish to return to her muggle relatives. He wondered if it had something to do with her abilities as a seer? Had they convinced her to abandon the family who had raised her?

"Ms. Granger I believe we need to talk about where you were staying last summer and during these holidays," he stated it rather then requested it and didn't give her a choice as he maneuvered her to his office. He wasn't going to allow his daughter to run off.

He still couldn't believe the young witch was his and Marlene's daughter.

He had been brewing potions for the hospital wing pondering on how young Ms. Granger had awoken from her petrification early when the owl dropped the letter for him before flying off to the owlery. He felt annoyed, since he had long since asked Albus to ward his lab to keep any other being out while he was brewing. It was just too risky for the brewing process to be interrupted, especially if he had been working on a trickier potion.

Growling at the owl he grabbed it and blanched as he noticed the crest upon it. He hadn't seen the crest in eleven long years, since he had lost the witch who had been able to boot Lily out of his affections. Not that he had ever been able to tell her, she had only wanted it to be a one off and hadn't known how deeply he felt for her. But it was impossible for him to be receiving mail from her since she had died only a few months before Lily. Her entire family had been slaughtered, so there should be no one left to send him mail with the McKinnon family crest.

Dear Sev,

This must be coming as a shock to you, but something has changed. I don't know what, but I do know it's become more dangerous for you not to know. She'll be receiving a letter from me this summer... I know I'm not making much sense, but this is sort of hard to write down, for some reason my plans aren't working. I was informed that she had reached her majority, but she's not even thirteen yet. Yet they informed me she would be receiving her inheritance this summer. Our daughter.

Yes you read that right. We have a daughter, I left her in the muggle world because our world was too dangerous. Especially for the child of an order member and a spy. Lily told me everything in a letter, but I only received it this morning, you were a spy for the Death Eaters for Lily from the very beginning. It shocked me to find out, but the news made it so I no longer had a reason not to tell you. Our world is still dangerous, but our daughter might need you. Something bad must have happened to her for her to have reached her magical maturity already. Please watch out for her.

Her name is Hermione Granger and she is a second year at Hogwarts, so I know you've met her. Protect our baby girl Sev. I'm sorry I let you believe I was dead, but I had to protect them.

Marlene

It was a rambling mess, but it was better then nothing. Now he knew Hermione was his daughter and figured the them she referred to was their daughter and the Potter brat. He wished he knew where Marlene was and could bring her home, but alas it wasn't meant to be.

"Ms. Granger," he drawled once they were seated in his office, "can you explain to me why your parents owled the school wondering why they haven't seen you or heard from you since early last summer?"

The girl blanched causing a pain in his chest, he didn't like seeing that look on his daughter's face. "It's not safe sir. They need to forget about me, all of them. So I stayed in the Leaky Cauldron most of last summer and spent the Christmas holidays at the Weasley house."

"I see. If you truly have reason to believe it's not safe, I must make you swear something to me, if you won't return to your parents you must stay with adults in our world. It is much too dangerous for a girl your age to roam around Diagon Alley on her own and considering who your best friend is it's even more important you remain safe. Do you understand? If you don't agree I will have to force you to return home and I will make sure you do not leave again."

"I promise sir."

"You may leave then."

When she left he noticed she had left a piece of parchment on her chair and he cursed allowed when he read what she had left. An old latin recipe that if he was reading it right could possibly cure side effects from the cruciatuis if this was true he could return Alice and Frank to their proper mind frames, something not even legimancy had been able to achieve.

For Hermione things seemed to go almost too quickly after she had found the Phoenix Tears in her new potions kit and destroyed Hufflepuff's cup. No one seemed to realize what monumental thing had happened while they had been completely unaware. Life just seemed to continue on as usual other then her father having cornered her about her living arrangements. School was something that seemed to go by to quickly for Hermione now that she had her biggest obstacle dealt with, although she was helping Fred study for his OWLs it shocked her with how serious he was now being about his grades.

George had also informed Hermione about the reason that Bill and Charlie had ended up coming home for the holidays. Both older Weasleys were suspicious over their younger brother's betrothed, and had returned to England hoping to find something out about her. Luckily for George they never bothered questioning him about it because he was afraid he might have let out that he had met her. Apparently Bill and Charlie had kept it on the down low why they really came home, so as to not upset their parents.

When they had first come back to school after Christmas Oliver had fainted when he had been shown Fred, George, and Harry's new brooms, then after he woke up he had almost cracked Hermione's ribs with the bear hug he gave her. He had also wrote an extremely sappy letter to Sirius thanking him for his Seeker's new broom, and inviting him to the games for the rest of the season. With three Firebolts on the Gryffindor team and the Dementors staying far away the other houses didn't have a chance, and it was shown when Gryffindor won the Quidditch cup. Although if it had been Slytherin with the superior brooms Hermione was certain that Gryffindor still would have won because Harry and the twins were superior flyers.

Her classes had been ridiculously easy for Hermione and she was certain that she had even broken her old third year scores. Not that that was much of a surprise considering that this time around she wasn't as majorly stressed out. It seemed Sirius being free legally, less classes, and more time with her friends did better for her academics then overboard studying ever had.

Luckily however it seemed that the gossipers had given up on her and Fred being top gossip, and seemed to think now that Fred only flirted with her playfully so that she would help him study. Who knew that actively studying with Fred in full view of the common room would kill the rumors instead of make them even worse. It was just too bad that she would have to wait ages to see how may OWLs Fred had gotten this time around with her help.

With Fred's OWLs and everything else going on however Hermione wasn't able to complete her flying lessons with Fred although he had promised that they would finish them this summer. It seemed that he was now starting to worry about her reputation because he was more careful on how he talked to her and everything. Actually it had sent her to George wondering if someone had slipped Fred a potion or something because he wasn't acting much like himself. George had just told her that Fred didn't want to give her any trouble and that everything was fine, but he did look a little confused as well.

Mia Prince still was unknown to most people luckily for Hermione, even if her status would become known soon. There was no way Hermione was going to allow the Ministry to sweep Voldemort's return under the rug this time, playing it off as a distraught boy's delusions after witnessing the death of a schoolmate. She also knew how she was going to make sure Cedric didn't die this time around, but she knew that it would involve quite a few people getting very mad at her.

It was still odd going to potions classes and knowing that the Professor who had used to scare her, despite the fact that she respected him, was her father. She spent the rest of the year avoided his eyes and tried to avoid answering his questions, unless if she was directly asked, afraid of him accidentally seeing her thoughts thinking of him as her father. Despite all of that she had become his top potion's student, a title that used to belong to Draco Malfoy because of her need to show her father her skills. It shocked her just how much she craved his approval even though she had no plans to telling him that he was her father.

Surprisingly the year had also ended without her father outing Remus as a werewolf, although he was still leaving Hogwarts not risking being found out. Actually Hermione had even overheard a conversation between Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick about how strangely her father had been acting since the incident with the Basilisk. How he wasn't sending as many students in tears to complain to them as he usually did, although both of them seemed to think that maybe her father had gotten bit by the love bug and was changing for his mystery witch. It had taken all of Hermione's self control not to burst out into laughter and show that she had been eavesdropping though she did wonder herself at why her father had changed so much from the bitter professor she remembered.

Then again his behavior towards Remus could just be because he was distracted with trying to keep his class schedules up as well as try and make the potion she had found. One day after class he had told her not to get her hopes up just yet, and had also told her that he was glad she hadn't tried making the potion on her own because most of the ingredients were way too volatile and could end up hurting someone if they were misused in anyway. Sometimes he had come to class with burn marks on his arms or clothing showing her that he had been working on the potion with any free time he had. Hopefully with having the summer off and not needing to deal with students he might end up having a break through with the potion.

Even the end of the year train ride went by without anything really strange happening. Although Hermione found it a little weird that Malfoy hadn't really bugged them much the second half of the year, actually he had been acting quite peculiar the last little bit not that the boys had noticed. No those two were just starting to notice girls making it so they didn't really observe much out of the ordinary at all.

Once again Hermione was going to spend the holidays with the Weasleys, although she wished there was somewhere else she could spend them. Yet she knew her father would stay true to his word if she didn't stay with adults, so she sucked it up. Even though she wanted sometime away from Fred for a while, not long just a week or two would have been perfect. Actually Hermione was trying to figure out a way to ditch going to the Quidditch Cup as Hermione Granger, wanting to go instead as Mia Prince. This way once the Death Eaters attacked she could help fend them off, without her friends wondering where Hermione Granger had disappeared off to.

Of course the problem with that was her promise to her father. She couldn't lie to the Weasleys telling them she was with the other parent, and risk them wondering where she had actually been during that time. Yet if it got back to her father that she had disappeared off the grid for a couple of days she was afraid of him bringing the fact that she no longer lived with her parents up to the Headmaster. So she was hoping that maybe George would have a way for her to do this without her being caught, and that didn't involve her telling her father that she was his daughter.

When they arrived at the Burrow Hermione was shocked to find Charlie and Bill were once again home for the holidays. Especially considering that the two of them were supposed to be at work, and that Charlie surely had to be needed to prepare the dragons for the Triwizard tournament. Unfortunately Hermione couldn't really voice her questions to Bill and Charlie without being asked how she knew about the tournament. Her father had still been watching her like a hawk expecting her to have more 'vision's since he still believed her to be a seer.

"Bill! Charlie!" Ron and Ginny practically screamed throwing themselves into their older brothers arms. It was really odd how much they were around nowadays, and if Hermione wasn't a hundred percent certain that it was impossible she might have believed that they had come back as well.
"Hey kiddos it's only been a few months," Charlie said rolling his eyes after he got rid of his siblings even sending Hermione a wink. "Besides Bill and I wanted to go to the World Cup with you guys this year, we'll be heading back to work afterwards."

"Wait World Cup, you're joking right?!" Ron asked looking at his brother in amazement. Charlie's eyes going wide as his father glared at him for ruining the surprise.

"Whoops wasn't supposed to say that, sorry dad, uh I need to uh go somewhere," Charlie stammered before apparating away. Sure Molly was scary when she was angry, but because of how calm Arthur usually was he was much scarier when you actually had the misfortune of seeing him angry.

It left the twins and Bill laughing in his wake however as Arthur just looked around wondering why his second eldest had fled like that. It seemed like he was still unaware of the power his anger tended to have over his family and whoever he was angry at. The rareness of his anger was also the reason why Ron never gave any Malfoy's any chance believing his father when he said they were all bad news. Really if Hermione didn't know that in the future other versions of Draco and his mother would risk their lives for them and each other she would believe it as well. Yet she knew there was good in Draco and his mother, as long as they were kept away from Lucius.

"Now that Charlie has ruined the surprise I was going to talk to you all about the World Cup once I saw if Harry was interested in coming as well, but I guess we should discuss it now. I know that you all want to come, but what about you Hermione Molly is staying home so don't feel like you have to come with us?"

"Um I'm not really that into Quidditch if it isn't the boys playing. Thank you for the offer though Mr. Weasley, actually I think I'm going to visit my Aunt for a bit this summer. I'll just arrange my visit to be around then," she said. It wasn't a lie easily disproved, and she just hoped her father wouldn't look into it.
The Weasleys seemed to buy it easily enough though, and their conversations all turned to Quidditch. Hermione slipping away to her room since she still needed to get the ring Horcrux, and she figured she should do it around the time of the World Cup. That way no one would notice her tired from going against those spells, and George wouldn't be worried about her since she still hadn't brought him up to speed with what she was doing to stop Voldemort. Of course this meant that Hermione had a lot of research about the types of wards Voldemort might have used around the ring.

The locket she was still planning to get next summer, unless if Mia Prince could find a way of getting it earlier. Actually if she could somehow convince Sirius to go with her to the Cave just before or just after the World Cup, since she needed someone to force her to drink that vile potion, he would notice what R.A.B meant from the start. Then she wouldn't have to worry about stealing it in front of Sirius and everyone else.

Deciding that was best Hermione spelled a quill to write in extremely fancy writing. She didn't need someone to show Sirius her writing and him realize it was the same as Mia Prince's after all. The letter was brief informing Sirius that she had found the location for another dangerous artifact, but that she needed a second person as well as a house elf to get to it. The house elf part because she didn't want to have to fight through the Inferi when she began to go delirious for water.

Using her ring as her seal in the wax to show who it was from since she wasn't going to sign it in fake writing. Then muttering a spell once she was done writing it she made it so that the letter would just appear right in Sirius's house. The spell she used was an old one that worked to send the letter anywhere as long as the person personally knew who they were sending it to and didn't have any dark intentions towards that person. Most people didn't use it anymore, but as a Pureblood Sirius should recognize the spell and realize why she had used it.

Hermione was just happy to finally have a plan to get two more Horcruxes as long as Sirius hadn't already thrown the locket out. Besides it would seriously make Kreacher more than happy to serve Sirius once he unknowingly fulfilled his brother's dying wish. The summer had barely started, but Hermione was happy that she was finally getting somewhere with her mission! Now she just had to make sure not to alert George that something was going to happen soon. She didn't need him worrying until everything was over and done with.

AN: Fixed a major plothole/mistake in this chapter, hope you enjoyed it.