A Most Unexpected Love
Chapter 1: Unexpected News
Hermione laid in her bed awake with her eyes shut. She could hear the breeze blowing in to her room from her open window. She could hear the soft thud of her cat, Crookshanks, landing on the floor from its favorite spot on her bookshelf. The soft clicking of the clock on her nightstand was like a rhythmic beat to the song of time. Everything was so quiet, yet so full of noise... and this was just the way she liked it.
It was morning time. Hermione's favorite part of the day. Every morning before her mother would rise from her slumber to wake her, she would lay with her eyes shut, just listening to the sounds of the morning world.
A sneeze coming from down the hall signaled the awakening of her mother. Her mother was dreadfully allergic to cats, but she saw how much Hermione loved that cat when she brought it home at the end of her third year at Hogwarts. Her mother had no choice but to allow the mangy cat to stay.
Hermione knew the routine. Every morning, her mother would trudge down the stairs to make breakfast (she, unlike Hermione, was not a morning person), set the table for her and her father, then walk back upstairs to wake the rest of her sleeping family. But this morning, she did not hear the sound of her mother thumping down the stairs, instead, they seemed to be coming toward her.
"Hermione dear. Wake up. I have some...erm... important news to tell you."
Hermione opened her eyes. "Yes mother?"
Her mother looked rather hesitant, but decided to continue any way.
"Well dear... as you know it is you father's and I's 20th anniversary tomorrow." Her mother was speaking rather quickly, as if she thought that the faster she spoke, the less angry Hermione's reaction would be. "And seeing how we see you so infrequently during the school year, we always try to spend as much time with you during the summer as possible. But, obviously, you are growing up and your father and I believe that you're old enough to understand why this is so important to us..."
Hermione was confused. "Wait. Why what is so important to you?"
"Oh....right." Her mother seemed a bit disappointed that her speech she had practiced to the point of memorization didn't go quite as the planned. Never-the- less, she carried on in her hurried tone of voice. "Hermione, your father and I want to make this anniversary special. So he arranged for us to take a once in a life time safari through the jungles of Africa."
"Wow mother!! That's great!! You have got to bring me back something. What about -."
"Wait Hermione. But what you don't know... is that... well..."
"Yes mother...? Go on." Hermione was quite impatient to know what her mother was so nervous about telling her."
After a short pause, her mother hurried on in a tone that was even faster than before. "Although we have led you to believe we were quite ignorant about the wizarding world all of these years, we were really a bit more informed than you think. In act, up until about 18 years ago, we were actually completely different people...you see Hermione dear... well... you... you aren't really a Granger."
Chapter 1: Unexpected News
Hermione laid in her bed awake with her eyes shut. She could hear the breeze blowing in to her room from her open window. She could hear the soft thud of her cat, Crookshanks, landing on the floor from its favorite spot on her bookshelf. The soft clicking of the clock on her nightstand was like a rhythmic beat to the song of time. Everything was so quiet, yet so full of noise... and this was just the way she liked it.
It was morning time. Hermione's favorite part of the day. Every morning before her mother would rise from her slumber to wake her, she would lay with her eyes shut, just listening to the sounds of the morning world.
A sneeze coming from down the hall signaled the awakening of her mother. Her mother was dreadfully allergic to cats, but she saw how much Hermione loved that cat when she brought it home at the end of her third year at Hogwarts. Her mother had no choice but to allow the mangy cat to stay.
Hermione knew the routine. Every morning, her mother would trudge down the stairs to make breakfast (she, unlike Hermione, was not a morning person), set the table for her and her father, then walk back upstairs to wake the rest of her sleeping family. But this morning, she did not hear the sound of her mother thumping down the stairs, instead, they seemed to be coming toward her.
"Hermione dear. Wake up. I have some...erm... important news to tell you."
Hermione opened her eyes. "Yes mother?"
Her mother looked rather hesitant, but decided to continue any way.
"Well dear... as you know it is you father's and I's 20th anniversary tomorrow." Her mother was speaking rather quickly, as if she thought that the faster she spoke, the less angry Hermione's reaction would be. "And seeing how we see you so infrequently during the school year, we always try to spend as much time with you during the summer as possible. But, obviously, you are growing up and your father and I believe that you're old enough to understand why this is so important to us..."
Hermione was confused. "Wait. Why what is so important to you?"
"Oh....right." Her mother seemed a bit disappointed that her speech she had practiced to the point of memorization didn't go quite as the planned. Never-the- less, she carried on in her hurried tone of voice. "Hermione, your father and I want to make this anniversary special. So he arranged for us to take a once in a life time safari through the jungles of Africa."
"Wow mother!! That's great!! You have got to bring me back something. What about -."
"Wait Hermione. But what you don't know... is that... well..."
"Yes mother...? Go on." Hermione was quite impatient to know what her mother was so nervous about telling her."
After a short pause, her mother hurried on in a tone that was even faster than before. "Although we have led you to believe we were quite ignorant about the wizarding world all of these years, we were really a bit more informed than you think. In act, up until about 18 years ago, we were actually completely different people...you see Hermione dear... well... you... you aren't really a Granger."