So it begins...
Hermione felt the weight of the world crushing her as she contemplated this choice for weeks on end. She knew her parents would never be safe if they remained her parents. She knew she had to erase every part of herself from their memories, so they could live a healthier muggle life, without having to worry about them being used against her by Death Eaters. She's been spending what little time she could simply spending time with them, as she racked her brain on how to finally let them go.
The thoughts weighed so heavily on her mind. She hated that this seemed to be the only way she could protect her family. Her heart was being torn asunder as she sat in her bed crying her eyes out. Today was the day. The Granger family had spent a few weeks just relaxing, enjoying muggle television and discussing Quantum Physics. It was a mild summer vacation compared to the last few: going to France, Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria for Dental Conventions, but it was a nice change of pace to be able to spend quality time with her parents. It was a fitting end to their relationship.
Hermione stared at the ceiling, tears streaming down her face as she laid in her bed. She was geared up and ready to go, wearing jeans, white tennis shoes and a periwinkle hoodie. Can I really do this? Erase myself, change my parents' identities, and force them to move away to Australia? She wiped away her tears on the backs of her hands, as she sat up. I have to do this, it's life or death. I'd rather have them alive, then their death's on my conscience.
"I wouldn't do that, if I were you, Lil Miss." a masculine voice she never heard reverberated in a soft echo around her. Where is he coming from?
"Who are you?" Hermione said softly. What are you doing here?
"Don't make such hasty decisions!" His voice was soft as a whisper and sounded like it came from behind her, which caused her to jump up and look back. But no one was by the headboard. I don't understand.
"Where are you?" Hermione says as she looks around her room, examining her closet, her bathroom, but finding no one there. Have I gone mad?
"I'm over here, Lil Miss, can't you see me?" She felt her heart jump in her chest when she heard his voice from outside her door. She approached the door cautiously and yanked it open hard, and looked down the empty hall towards her parents bedroom, then looked towards the stairs that descended into the living room. It sounded like he was just at my door, where is he really? How is he doing this?
"What are you playing at?" she nearly shouts, as she had made way for her parent's bedroom.
"No no, over here, Lil Miss. This way!" his voice whispered from behind her, she turned towards the voice and headed down the stairs and into the living room where a well dressed bald man in a strange hovering wheelchair without wheels was waiting for her, along with a woman in a purple pants suit with dark skin and platinum hair.
"Who are you?" Hermione asks as she flips out her wand from the holster attached to her forearm. If he tries anything, he'll regret it.
"It's been many years since I've last seen you, Lil Miss, but don't tell me you have forgotten all about me?" The man spoke clearly without moving his lips, directly into her mind and this caused Hermione's jaw to drop. You were projecting your voice into my head? She did somehow recognize him but not, like something was familiar about him. Only a blurred memory from her past she couldn't yet grasp into her mind's eye.
Hermione blinked a few times before she examined both the man and the woman who were acting like they've been to the Granger's home before. Have I met them before? Hermione racked her brain, as the man smirked and that sparked a memory straight from her childhood, from a time long before Hogwarts when another school came to assess her for her gifts and was swiftly rejected for not having an active mutant gene. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.
"What are you doing here, Professor Xavier?" Hermione spoke softly, "I clearly remember being rejected by your school for the gifted."
The man tilted his head to the side, as he watched the woman exit the living room to go into the kitchen. Hermione's eyes soon followed his gaze and when the woman was out of sight she returned her gaze back to Xavier.
"It's been quite some time, Lil Miss," Xavier spoke softly, this time using his lips. "I came because I felt your distress while I was seeking another gifted child in the area, I thought I would come to oblige your call."
"You're lying, Professor." Hermione could just feel the lies radiate from him. "There is no other…gifted. Yet you still came here, why?" she gripped her wand in her fist tightly as she thought of numerous spells that she could use to make him leave.
"It was wrong of me to reject you, just because you don't share the mutant gene." Xavier looked directly into her eyes, raised a hand as if it could stop her from casting a spell. "Please, hear me out before you cast your curse. I promise you will like hearing what I have to say, lil miss."
Hermione flipped her wand back into its holster before she crossed her arms over her chest, and stood back when the women walked past her with a full tray of tea, cucumber sandwiches and cakes. "So you know?"
"Yes, I know now and I'm truly sorry." Xavier raised his hand as the tray floated out of the woman's arms and down onto the coffee table, Xavier served the tea, exactly the way Hermione liked hers without even touching a thing as Hermione just acted like it was an everyday occurrence, which was a refreshing change for Xavier. "I've only come because your mind reached out to me, Lil Miss."
Hermione sighed as she sat down on the couch across from him, he turned his chair to face her as the woman walked over to the window. "That's what I don't understand. How could I have reached New York, from London?"
"Imagine my surprise when you had," Xavier said as he looked at the woman standing by, "Ororo, would you mind showing Lil Miss how well you can brew a storm?"
Hermione watched in awe as the woman raised her hand, and her eyes flooded with bright white light that reminded her of lightning. Simultaneously, the skies outside started forming a heavy storm, complete with ghastly winds, heavy rain and several distinct lightning strikes that hit all the nearby rooftop antennas in the area.
"Whoa…that's brilliant." Hermione stood up, still holding her tea cup as she walked over to the woman, and stared out the window. Hermione watched as the woman beside her controlled the storm, making it grow and condense into just a few blocks above the Granger's home.
"It seems we almost arrived too late," Xavier rolled over to Hermione, and placed a hand on her arm. "We are here to collect you and help send your parents to safety."
"Collect me? But, I'm supposed to help Harry!" Hermione pushed his hand away from her arm and glared at him. "If I don't help him, no one will."
"Hermione," Xavier's voice was stern, "You can't help Harry, if you don't learn to control your mind. Right now, you could be in danger if you go near that boy."
"You never called me by my name before," Hermione turned her head to look at him with curiosity.
"Do you remember why I call you: Lil Miss?" Xavier sighed before he drank a sip of his tea.
"Because we are somehow related." Hermione stated with confidence.
"In a way, we are Hermione." Xavier said as he looked her in the eyes. "Your grandfather and I were the best of friends."
"But we're not gifted–"
"That is not true, your grandfather was one of the most gifted I have come across and even if he wasn't, I would still come to assist you, Hermione. Did you not wonder, how I came to assess you for my school?"
Hermione gripped the bridge of her nose, "If you hadn't known my grandfather, my parents would have never known to contact you…when I had my first bouts of accidental magic, is that right?"
"At least your parents learned not to fear you, Lil Miss." Xavier sighed, as he took a sip of his tea. "They contacted me after you cursed that boy in school. Not that we knew it was a curse at the time, nor how you accomplished such a feat during your time as a preschooler."
"If all gifts are special, why did you reject me? You knew I did something to that boy!"
"It was something we couldn't explain, and you denied doing it. Which, at the time when I didn't find the mutant gene inside of you, I decided you couldn't have done it." Xavier said, shaking his head. "For that, I did you a great disservice."
"I don't want to hear your apologies nor excuses, Professor Xavier." Hermione sighed as she placed her tea down on the coffee table. "What I want..is for you to leave, I need to get going. I have to send my parents away, go to a wedding, and have a quest to fulfill."
"Lil Miss, you are not going to send your parents without memories of you, I cannot allow you to do that kind of damage to them." Xavier said as he forced her to sit with his mind. "I will help you, explain to them the dangers of staying in London, and I will help them relocate to Downtown New York. I've already set up the proper paperwork for them to immigrate to the United States, complete with passports and visas. I also have friends, who have elected to take over the Granger's practice and properties while they are away and another friend who will open their doors to the Granger's to allow them practice at their Dental Clinic while they are in New York. Your family will be well protected, there is no need to lose them. Everything will be as it should, Lil Miss."
Three days was all it took for the Grangers to leave London, and two weeks was all it took to get their family to settle in New York. Professor Xavier was true to his word, and sent several of his friends to take care of the Granger Properties in London, France and Germany. A family took over their residence, two dentists from the states took over their practice, and a two families took care of the vineyard in France that had been left to Hermione's mother, and four families took over the shoe factory ran by mutants in Germany that her grandfather took over many years ago after World War II had ended, providing a safe place to work for those who were different.
Hermione couldn't believe how a single man, who had the ability to corrupt the minds of everyone around him could change her life so drastically. She had made plans, many well thought out plans to help Harry on his journey to find and destroy the objects that kept Voldemort tethered to this world, but somehow…she was now in New York, enrolled at Xavier's school, the one that originally rejected her as a child. All because her mind had reached out to Xavier without her express permission.
Hermione found herself sitting in the nook of the window, curled against the wall with a book on Quantum Physics in her lap. She had always found comfort in a library surrounding herself with knowledge. Everything she could possibly want to know, was always found within the confines of a library.
"I should have known you would find your solace in the library, Lil Miss." Xavier's voice echoed in her mind, as she didn't bother to look up.
"It's the only place I feel...normal." Hermione said softly, knowing she didn't need to say the words out loud. "It's not like I am like the rest of your students, they all have powers and abilities they can share with the rest of the class."
"We will be speaking to MACUSA next week, to discuss our situation. It will just take some time for them to approve mutants to have clearance to the Statute of Secrecy." Xavier's voice said softly as she felt a hand on her shoulder caress her that wasn't there.
"I understand these things take time, Professor." Hermione said as she tapped her shoulder where she had felt an invisible hand.
"At least we managed to obtain an appointment for next week with their Creature Department, and your permit to use your wand should be arriving tomorrow by owl." Xavier's voice spoke directly into her ear.
"Have you figured out how I managed to reach out to you?" Hermione placed her quill that was laying next to her inside her book, marking the page as she closed it.
"You have a strange subconscious, it's compartmentalized, just as much as your conscious mind, which is something I have never seen before.." Xavier's voice echoed around her. "I am still learning the depths of your mind and it is far grander than I could have ever imagined...Your mind almost works like Cerebro, when I'm inside of it, I can feel more than just you. I feel the entire world and then some, which is beyond Cerebro's capabilities. It's like your mind is layered into every plane of existence within the multiverse. Meaning that every single version of you has somehow found itself connected to your subconscious mind."
"Perhaps that is why, I didn't know I reached out to you, Professor. What if another version of me did?" Hermione rested her gaze out the window. "If we are all connected, perhaps she learned how to reach out to other dimensions and help other versions of herself, by exploring the subconscious' of her other versions. Does this make sense?"
"If all versions of you are connected to the same subconscious, maybe that's why I feel it as compartmentalized. Because each version of you is sharing it, but you all have your own thoughts separated based on which version of you the thoughts belong to, each feels a bit differently, however you are all you."
"I think…thinking too hard about it has given me a headache, Professor." Hermione said as she stood up, gripping her hand against the wall as she felt faint. She took three big deep breaths before she left the library to go into the elevator, the button to go down to the sublevel already pressed by the invisible force.
"Go visit Hank in the Med bay, he will give you something for the headache. Then go take a nap." Xavier's voice whispered in her ear, as she felt a gentle hand's caress her cheek. "Jean and I are heading to DC, we will return in the evening."
Hermione leaned her head back against the wall of the elevator as she felt the lift head downwards. Jolting up when the doors slid open, and Hank was standing before her. He was a big blue beast in a lab coat, with a suit underneath it. Even with the warning, it's hard to get used to seeing Hank wearing ordinary clothes. Considering the first time I met him, I thought he was a mythological creature. He just laughed at me for my imagination. Not realizing that it could be true as only Professor Xavier knows my secret.
"Hermione, Charles told me, you needed something for a headache, I figured I'd offer my arm and lead you to the medical bay." Hank smiled as he offered his arm out.
Hermione nodded, as she stood up and hooked her arm on Hanks. "Thanks, Hank. I appreciate the escort. I wasn't sure if I could walk it myself."
"I'm glad I could oblige." Hank said as he walked down the hall, leading them to the medical bay, sitting her in a chair as he bent down to look into her eyes. "Blink if you have to, but I'm about to shine a bright light in your eyes, just to see if its something more than a headache." He spoke softly as he tucked a finger under her chin, and with his other hand reached for his ophthalmoscope that was resting against his forehead, flipping the switch on.
Hermione closed her eyes, trying to adjust herself to the brightness before opening them. Hank pointed to his ears, making her look to one side then the other, as he looked into her eyes, looking for any signs that this headache could be anything else. "So what's the verdict, doc?"
Hank laughed as he turned the light back off, and shook his head. "You have some debris in your eyes, tiny little particles tore your lenses, I will order you some drops for that. Other than that, you seem fine. I'll get you some aspirin."
"Thanks Doc." Hermione watched him walk over the cabinet and pour two pills into his hand, and grabbed a small plastic cup, and filled it from the water cooler and handed both to her.
"Here you are Hermione, take that, then head up to your room and take a nap. If you need me I'll be in the lab, and if it's around 6 o'clock I'll be helping in the kitchen. It's student cooking night, so the younger ones will be setting the table, and cleaning up, the older kids will be cooking."
Hermione took the aspirin as prescribed and sat for a few moments as she closed her eyes. She knew it was best if she went to her room. But she suddenly felt so tired she leaned back in her seat and fell asleep. The next thing she knew, she was laying in her own bed and it was 540pm. Did Hank carry me to my bed? That was nice of him. He could have left me on the uncomfortable medical slab with a pillow and a thin sheet.