Hermione Granger sat with her latest letter from home trying to figure out what she felt. At the end of September, her parents' house had gotten broken into, but nothing had been taken. All of the family's personal papers as well as General Granger's private journal had been found out of place. When the Police arrived in response to the burglar alarm, they had reported hearing a loud pop that sounded very much like a gunshot. When they entered the house fearing that one of her parents (who were out at the time) had been injured, they found the house empty.

All of the signs pointed to a wizard having broken into her home, but why would one do so? What was so interesting about her old report cards? Why would her birth certificate, her parents' marriage license, and several other papers pertaining to her family interest a wizard? What did Great-Grandpa Granger write that was so important?

Deciding to do the one thing that always helped her when she couldn't find answers for her questions, she headed to the Library.

Lucius Malfoy carefully studied the information that his agent had copied for him. The grading reports from the muggle school proved that the girl was a prodigy as "young" Thomas Black had hinted. The teachers had constantly begged the Grangers to advance the girl to a grade that matched her abilities, apparently to no avail. A passage in the ancestor's journal had been as Black had reported. Granger's mother's maiden name was somewhat familiar as well. There had been a half-blood in his year with that surname if he remembered correctly.

Taking the blood sample he had another agent collect while the girl was asleep, he did the spell that would give him a complete list of her ancestors going back ten generations. He recognized the surname Black right away. The others he would have to research.

Taking the blood collected from the "muggleborn" in Slytherin, he ended up confirming the results of Flint's investigation. Dean Thomas' father was in fact a pureblood wizard he himself had killed.

The boy with the unlikely surname of Finch-Fletchley turned out to be the descendant of the now defunct Fletcher family.

Every last one of the Muggleborns he tested were descendants of a wizarding family. Some were descendants of families that were currently prominent, such as the grandson of the Parkinson squib that had been dumped in Whitechapel in 1885. Others were descendants of families long thought to have died out like the Fletchers who apparently became the Fletchleys and married into a wealthy muggle family called Finch if his grasp of the meaning behind hyphenated names was correct. Some weren't even muggleborn, but were the half-blood offspring of wandering wizards and muggles who weren't told about magic until their children got invited to attend Hogwarts instead.

It would seem that Tom's theory that all "Muggleborns" had magical ancestors was true. The idea of Muggles stealing magic was just as preposterous as it sounded.

Alexander Nott looked at the missive Lucius Malfoy had sent him. It would seem that the Mudblood who was constantly outshining his son in the realm of academics was the product of several of the more brilliant families coming together by accident. Intelligence was in the girl's blood as well as the magic that had waited for so long to find a vessel worthy enough for it. He would have to find a way to get the girl for his own family before one of the other families took notice of her and snatched her up.

Perhaps an offer of Patronage...

Tom watched in bemusement as Theodore Nott approached Hermione Granger in a completely non-threatening manner.

"I wonder what's going on there?" he murmured as he watched Nott hold a civil conversation with the girl.

"My father think's Nott's jumping the gun. We're waiting a few years to see if her grades consistently remain in the top five before making any offers." Flint said, gesturing to the conversation between Nott and Granger.

Tom was taken aback for a moment until he realized that someone as talented as Hermione could be quite valuable to whichever family she allied herself with. She'd been wasted on Ron anyways. The idiot didn't bother proposing until after she told him she was pregnant, causing one hell of a scandal and ruining her reputation in the wizarding world which still cared about such things. If they had been betrothed at the time, the damage would have been far less due to an ancient custom that had mostly fallen out of practice in which the family into which the girl was marrying would make sure she was fertile before completing the marriage contract. As it was, Hermione had lost her job and had been forced to become a housewife, which didn't suit her at all. All of that wasted potential in the few years before she was killed had been a damn shame.

"I think there's a good chance of that happening. She was able to do about half of the first-year spells about a month after being informed she was a witch." Tom said. He wasn't exaggerating either.

Flint's eyes widened at this. He then turned and looked over at Granger, looking her over as if seeing her for the first time.

"Pity she wasn't prettier." he muttered, obviously considering snatching her up for the glory of the Flint family.

"She could be one of those "Ugly Duckling" cases." Tom said. Whatever family got Hermione wouldn't hurt her as they wouldn't want to risk the source of future heirs. Heirs that would hopefully be born with her brains and talent.

"Ugly duckling?" Flint asked bemusedly.

"It's a muggle story about a pair of ducks who hatch a bunch of eggs. One of the ducklings was rather ugly and awkward compared to their other offspring, and they never let it forget it. It turns out later that the odd duckling was actually a swan." Tom said.

"Ah." Flint said as he straightened his hair and robes and checked his teeth before walking over to Granger.

Tom had a feeling that Granger's parents would be sorting through several marriage contracts by the end of the year.

Lucius Malfoy looked down at the letter that Parkinson had sent him. Apparently the Parkinsons were forced to honor the centuries old agreement that they had with the Fletchers now that a surviving Magical heir had been found. He had hoped to arrange a marriage between their daughter and his son, but that couldn't be helped now. He would just have to find another family of similar stature. The fact that his son was in a house that was traditionally considered to be allied with the "Light" may have expanded the pool of candidates exponentially. Families that had been barred to his family for generations due to house association would now be available to his son and the future of the Malfoy family. As Thomas had said, Draco's sorting had been fortunate.

He would have to compile a list of potentail candidates soon. It was a good thing Thomas had given him that cryptic warning about the Fletcher heir before he made any agreements he would be forced to break, or rather that Magic would break for him at a cost to his family.