Wayward Child

After filing the proper paperwork at the British Embassy, Hermione removed the paper map from her beaded bag. While she could apparate, apparating in an unknown environment was risky at the best of times. So, renting a car was the next best choice, it would also allow her to avoid answering any awkward questions when she did find her family.

Hermione had agonized over whether she wanted to tell her biological family about her magic. On one hand, perhaps they were a wizarding family, and they would accept her magic unquestioningly. On the other hand, Hermione had learned the hard way more than once about sharing too much about oneself too fast and too soon. It not only carried the risk of Hermione ending up arrested or sectioned in a psych ward. It could also put her birth family in danger, knowing about the wizarding world, tended to put a large target on ones back. So, Hermione had eventually decided that her family would never need to know that she was a witch. She would be Hermione Granger, an accountant that had two normal dentists for adoptive parents and had never done anything even remotely magical in her life.

A car rental place was not far from the embassy and within an hour she was both armed with a car and a GPS. Silently thanking her adoptive parents who had insisted she get her license at 18 she imputed her brother’s address in the GPS system and started her trek across town to find Samuel Winchester.

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After white knuckling and cursing her way through multiple traffic jams and freeways, Hermione found herself in front of the address listed for Samuel Winchester. It was a tiny and ramshackle-looking place that looked like it had originally been a large house converted into flats for student accommodations.

As she parked the car on the street, she took a steadying breath and checked to make sure her wand was secure and hidden in her leg holster. While she had no intention of revealing her magic, it would have been unwise to leave her wand behind. Hermione grabbed the manilla folder which held her adoption paperwork and climbed out of the car, she crossed the street and started walking up the sidewalk leading to the house.

Samuel Winchester’s flat number was on the side of the building and up some creaky stairs. As Hermione rang the doorbell, she could hear a distant crash and what sounded like footsteps approaching the door. A young man in his 20s opened the door the crack. While their hair colors matched and they had the same eyes, Hermione saw their family resemblance most in the way he held himself. He had a friendly smile but, the man stood with the type of tension that indicated that he was probably holding some kind of weapon behind the door. She’d bet a million galleons that she was standing face to face with Samuel Winchester.

“ Are you Samuel Winchester, related to John Winchester?” asked Hermione nervously as she shifted from foot to foot.

The bodily response was immediate, the man scowled “ I don’t know who you are but don’t come looking for John Winchester here ever again” he snapped and started to shut the door.
Hermione froze for a second, while she had not known what response she’d get, she hadn’t expected outright hostility with her question.

“Wait!” Hermione cried frantically, fighting to get her words out “ John Winchester is my biological father, and I am trying to find him.”

This had caught the man, Samuel Winchester’s attention. He turned pale and started reaching for something behind the door, Hermione cringed as she prepared for him to wave around a gun or start chasing her with a baseball bat. Instead, he pulled out a small glass bottle holding a clear liquid.

Looking intently at her, Samuel enunciated “Christo” and splashed the bottle's contents in her face. It felt like plain water, but Hermione suspected that she had just been doused in holy water for some bizarre reason. Perhaps her biological family was devout Catholics? Whatever the reason, Samuel seemed to relax at the result of his “test”.

After a painful second where both Samuel and Hermione stared at each other, he silently widened the door and stepped to the side to let her in. Sensing that this would likely be an offer that he’d take back if she stared too long Hermione pushed her way past and entered into her half-brother’s home.

Samuel Winchester’s home was small yet tidy. It was clearly the home of a studious and poor university student. The living room was filled with bookshelves and a pair of lumpy gray couches, the fireplace mantle was covered with a bunch of framed pictures, some with Samuel and a smiling blonde woman, perhaps his girlfriend?

Samuel gestured for Hermione to take a seat and then sat down in the couch opposite to her. Hermione sat, and after nervously rearranging her clothes and wordlessly handed him the manilla folder that held every single piece of proof of her biological family.

Samuel opening the file began flipping and reading all of the papers. After reading through them all he learnt back on the couch

“What do you want to know?”

Sam and Dean’s childhood had been fairly normal until their mother, Mary Winchester, had died in a house fire. After that, they had grown up on the road, travelling all over the United States. John, their father, had not coped well with the loss and when he wasn’t drinking his issues, he was distant and focused much of his attention on his work as a travelling salesman.

Hermione sensed that Sam’s childhood was a sensitive subject for him and so she didn’t pry as much as she had wanted to. Sam hadn’t spoken to Dean or John in about 4 years, Sam had chosen to go to college and John had seen this as a personal affront. John had told Sam not to bother calling or coming back so Sam had left and cut off all ties with his past.
Sam was now a senior at Stanford University, he was planning on attending law school after his bachelor degree. He’d be having an interview on Monday in order to get into law. He was living with his long term girlfriend Jessica Moore who was studying nursing. He was head over heels with her and had shown Hermione the ring he had bought to propose to her after his interview with law school.

In turn, Hermione told her story, well the abbreviated and family friendly version of her story. She had a normal childhood as the only child of two dentists, she had been particularly precocious and excelled in school winning several awards for her marks. She was single but worked a solid job as an accountant, she had taken an extended leave of absence so that she could find her biological family. She had never had any reason to doubt that she was the child of Emma and Daniel Granger, however, since her adoptive parent’s accidental death Hermione was anxious to find anyone that she might share a familial connection.

In some ways, Sam Winchester was the same, it was clear that he was desperately missing their older brother Dean and was willing to accept any familiar connection no matter how sketchy Hermione’s existence might seem. Hermione thanked whatever higher power that existed for Sam’s seemingly open acceptance of her and desire to get to know her better.

Later on, Jess joined them in the living room after her clinical rotation shift. She was tired but tried to be kind and welcoming. Hermione could see why Sam wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Jess had the type of smile that lit up the room and a personality that made everyone want to be around her. After discovering that Hermione hadn’t checked into a hotel yet, in reality she had been planning on sleeping inside of her car, Jess had offered her the couch to crash on so that she could have more time to spend with her brother.

Later that evening, as Hermione lay on the couch drifting off to sleep, she reflected on the day. The couch was lumpy and the room a little stuffy for her taste but, she had met her brother, and he wanted to know her and for that reason, she had never felt more comfortable or safe.

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Hermione opened her eyes suddenly, the light up hands on the clock told her it was 3:30 in the morning. Unsure of why she’d woken up she turned to get comfortable again when she heard some scuffling near the door. It was clear that someone was trying to get into the flat. Only Sam and Jess lived at the flat so there was no way a drunk roommate would be stumbling in.

Creeping off of the couch Hermione started searching for a weapon in the dark. She kept her wand in the holster, determined only to use it if it became necessary. She grabbed what looked like a vase and waited next to the door, as it creaked open, the intruder started to sneak into the flat. Once the intruder was in hitting range, Hermione screamed for Sam and Jess and brought the vase down on the intruders head. The glass shattered and the intruder fell to the floor with a crash. She’d knocked them out cold.

Hermione, groping along the wall clicked on the light and went to look at the intruder a little closer. He was young with light brown spiked hair. He wore a leather jacket and a pair of beat up blue jeans. He looked like any other American blue collar worker on his off hours. While he was unconscious, rather than looking like the threatening figure that broke into a random house at 3:00 am he looked more innocent and at peace.

Sam burst into the room with what looked like a sawed off shotgun while Jess rushing in behind him carried a baseball bat.

“ Dean?”

Well shit.
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After Dean was revived and apologetically given an icepack and a seat on the couch. Hermione shuffled forward, passing the manilla folder to Dean. This was absolutely not the way that she had wanted to tell Dean she was his half sister, but she needed to cut to the chase before Dean ran off, which would make him damn near impossible to find.

Dean accepted the folder with a furrowed brow, he seemed like he was far more suspicious that Sam. He started flipping though the papers. His frown increased with each paper. Finally, Dean leaped to his feet throwing the papers down on Sam and Jess’s coffee table.

“ Sam, other room. Now” Dean barked

Hermione winced and Sam shot her and Jess an apologetic look before standing and following Dean out of the room.

Hermione and Jess pretended like they couldn’t hear the whisper shouting happening in the other room, trying to give the brothers some semblance of privacy. It was far harder to ignore it than Hermione had hoped. It was clear that Dean was pissed beyond all belief, Sam took on a pleading tone as he begged Dean to give her a chance.
Then, Hermione heard the word “Dad” and was Sam’s turn to get angry and for Dean’s voice took on a pleading edge.

Finally, after what felt like a century of waiting Sam and Dean emerged from the other room. They both wore matching faces of exhaustion which aged them far beyond their years. With increasingly dread, Hermione noted they looked like some of the shell shocked and careworn survivors from the war.

Sam spoke first, “ Our dad went on a hunting trip and hasn’t called home in a few days, Dean and I are going to drive out and check to make sure he’s okay.”

Hermione leapt to her feet, joining her brothers, “ I want to come help, do you know what he was hunting?”

Dean scoffed, “Don’t get so excited, we are not bringing you with us”

“What do you mean? John Winchester is my father too” Hermione exclaimed hotly.

“No, you aren’t. As far as I’m concerned, even if you are related, Dad didn’t want you around and you’re not my sister. You aren’t coming”

Hermione felt the pang of rejection in her chest and rapidly blinked her eyes to avoid crying in front of her brothers and Jess.

Sam ran his fingers through his hair, he looked so frustrated that Hermione was a little worried he’d rip out his hair.

“Dean, Hermione is my sister, and you don’t need to be such a jerk about this. It’s not her fault that John Winchester is her dad” Sam said emphatically moving to stand next to Hermione and Jess. He then turned to face her, Hermione knew that whatever he said next, there was no way she’d like it.

“Hermione, I’m sure Dad’s going to be fine, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to come along for this one. Why don’t you wait here with Jess, and we can bring him back with us or organize a time for the two of you to meet?”

Hermione, sensing that there was no way that she was going to win this fight, nodded. And with that, Sam packed up an old green army duffle bag, gave a lingering kiss to Jessica and a tight hug to Hermione and left with Dean.
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It was the drive back from the hunt and Dean and Sam were both more frustrated then when they started off. They’d dealt with a woman in white but now they were forced to reckon with the fact that not only had they not found Dad, they also had yet to come to an agreement what to do with Hermione.

Sam was not an idiot, he knew that Hermione was not telling him everything. But he figured they were lying to her too, so it was wiser just to play dumb about it all. Dean on the other hand, was pissed that Dad had a kid with someone who wasn’t Mom and didn’t want anything to do with her.

Dean lowered the blaring rock to speak “ Sam, we need to find Dad. He’s left us a message and he’d want us to keep following him”.

Sam shifted uncomfortably in his seat, “ Dean, this was a one-time thing. I am done with hunting, I’ve been done for years. I’m going back to school and studying law” he finally said.

Dean’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, but to Sam’s relief he didn’t say anything more about hunting for the rest of the drive.

Finally, after another 8 hours of driving in near silence, Dean pulled the Impala up to the front of his apartment. The lights inside were off but the porch light was on, likely left on by Jess and Hermione so that Sam would be able to get in safely.

“You want to stay the night on the couch before starting off for Dad again?”

Dean shrugged, “Nah, I need to get going or by the time I get there I am going to lose the scent on Dad. Besides, I don’t want to see that girl right now”.

Sam grabbed his bag and stepped out of the car, he hoped that Hermione and Jess would be asleep so that he didn’t need to tell them how unsuccessful they had been at finding John Winchester. Stepping into his and Jess’s apartment, he took a big breath, everything was quiet and the way he’d left it. There was a lump on the couch that looked like Hermione sleeping so he didn’t bother her. Walking past the kitchen, he snagged a cookie off a plate that had been left out for him by Jess.

Creeping into the bedroom, he climbed into bed, Jess was probably in the bathroom or something and would come out soon. Lying on his back he relished the feeling of being back in his own bed. He kept his eyes closed savoring the feeling.

Sam was almost asleep when the sensation of something dripping on his face shocked him awake. He opened his eyes expecting to see a leak in the ceiling. When he looked up, he was greeted by the most horrible sight. Jess was pinned to the ceiling, bleeding from her stomach, her face was twisted in pain and she almost looked pleadingly at Sam.

Sam froze, his brain couldn’t compute what he was seeing. Then, Jessica’s body burst into flames and smoke and fire engulfed the room. Sam rolled to the side, screaming Jessica’s name, that’s when he saw Hermione collapsed on the floor next to Jess’s side of the bed. Scooping her up in his arms, Sam tried desperately to get through the smoke to leave the house.

That’s when Dean burst in and grabbing Sam and Hermione, he dragged them out of the home, away from the flames, away from Jessica and away from everything Sam had built in the last couple years went up in smoke.