better to reign in hell (Harry Potter OC)
A stranger knocks on the door of the Granger household a week before Hermione is to enter Hogwarts.
Hermione hears him before she sees him, her parents are questioning his presence on their doorway. His voice is deep and measured. He sounds... posh. She hears steps coming towards her, sign that her parents have found the man’s reason for interrupting their morning sufficient enough.
The stranger is a young man of short stature sporting a grave expression. Riotous curls kiss at his temples and his eyes are a strangely deep amber colour. Hermione watches curiously from the armchair she is reading in as her parents lead him to the living room and sit down on the couch, inviting him to take the remaining armchair.
“Hermione,” her mother says, “this is Priam Dagworth, a distant relative of your father.” She pauses then, and adds, her voice lowered, “and he is a wizard.”
Hermione straightens.
“Well met, Hermione,” says the man, his eyes softening once they rest upon her.
“Hello,” she murmurs shyly.
She looks over at her dad who looks shell-shocked. Hermione knows that the circumstances of his birth were a bit murky, though she hadn’t ever been told how exactly. She only knew that her grandmother died before Hermione was born, and the woman had taken to the grave the identity of her grandfather despite her son’s pleading for answers.
“How are we related, exactly?” she asks the young man carefully.
He exchanges a look with Hermione’s father, who nods slowly.
“Your paternal grandfather is my first cousin,” he says, then elaborates. “My father Jason Dagworth is your father’s grandmother, Constance Dagworth-Granger's younger brother. They have quite a significant age gap, which explains the skipped generation.”
He blinks and turns to Lewis, Hermione’s father.
“His name is Hector Dagworth-Granger,” he adds belatedly, looking embarrassed to have forgotten such an important detail.
“He’s still alive?” gasps her father. “You didn’t say that.”
Marilyn Granger, Hermione’s mother places a a hand on her husband’s forearm.
“He is,” confirms Priam. “Hector is attending an important conference in Greece at the moment – he is the founder of the Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers, and is often invited to this type of events. He will be back in a month. We thought it better to inform him in person, but the matter felt to us quite urgent considering your daughter will be entering Hogwarts in a week.”
“What does it have to do with anything?” wonders her mother.
At the same time, Hermione asks. “How did you find out about us? Did you use spells to track us?”
Priam smiles at the young girl, and after sending an apologetic smile at her mother, he answers her question first. “House Dagworth’s Main House is in the possession of an artefact that tracks the condition of the wands belonging to the family. It’s a way to know which one needs a polish or a repair, since providing magical foci is the responsibility of the main branch – and it accounts for underage use of magic too, which is a nice way to monitor children,” he adds with a self-deprecating chuckle. “I got in trouble once or twice for casting spells during the summer.”
“So you found out because I bought a wand,” realises Hermione.
“Yes, we were quite surprised when we saw your name on the Wand Star, but we were able to use your name and our blood connexion to track you. And to answer your question, Mrs Granger, informing you in advance matters because of the political climate Albion currently finds itself in. We are recovering from a blood war--”
“I read about it!” interrupts Hermione. “You-Know-Who wanted to rule Magical Britain, er, Albion? And he didn’t like muggle-borns like me, but Harry Potter somehow defeated him despite being a baby.”
“Exactly,” confirms Priam, glancing at her with amusement. Hermione flushes. “You-Know-Who might have been defeated but his ideology predates him by centuries and Hermione might want to benefit from the Dagworth name and resources. Sorry as I am to say it, it will make her life... much easier. And since the rights she is entitled to are not contingent on Hector’s reaction – though I doubt my cousin will be anything but thrilled to find himself a father and grandfather – we decided that there was no harm offering them to you before his return.”
His lips twitch then, and Hermione wonders distantly what he finds so funny about this before her mind is entirely caught up in the implications of what her distant cousin is saying.
“What is Hermione entitled to?” asks her father, leaning forward.
“The protection of our House, mainly. If anything should happen at school, you as muggles would not be allowed to step into the premises, but we would, and we could keep you informed of anything amiss. She would also have access to the Dagworth grimoires containing spells and potions recipes invented by the family, and the Dagworth name would grant her connexions that would be very useful when it comes time for her to find employment. We would also forward the owl address of Daphne Greengrass, who will be entering Hogwarts at the same time. Daphne is a rather distant cousin, our grandmother,” he says, tilting his chin towards Lewis Granger, “Harmonia was her great-grandfather's sister, but our Houses are partnered in politics and in business, so we maintain very close bonds.”
Hermione perks up at the mention of grimoires, though she privately laments how unfair it is for other muggle-borns to not have access to the things Priam is talking about. She supposes the muggle world is similar, the rich have more things than the poor, but still. It’s not just.
She is also cautiously hopeful that she might find a friend in Daphne, though she knows better than to think it a guarantee. She gets along very poorly with her maternal cousins.
Her father asks a few more questions about the Dagworth family’s standing in the magical world, and it paints a clearer picture of what they are getting into. The Dagworth family is old but they are progressive. They are also very rich. Absurdly rich.
It is only after several minutes that Lewis dares to ask.
“Do you know why my father...?”
He falters then. Hermione watches him anxiously. She doesn’t know how to help, and it grates her.
Priam grimaces. “You have to understand, Mr Granger--”
“Call me Lewis,” he interrupts.
Priam nods.
“Lewis, then. You must understand that my cousin had you at the young age of fifteen and was not informed of your birth by your mother, who disappeared on him after he told her about magic.” He steeples his fingers. “I was given to understand that the Obliviators’ Headquarters had to get involved when my aunt reported the incident. Your mother likely was made to forget about magic and therefore could only remember the name of Hector Granger -- Dagworth being a pureblood name of some influence in the magical world, it would have been judged better for her to forget it.”
Hermione bites her lip. The professor who had come to tell her about Hogwarts had explained why Obliviators were necessary, but it still didn’t sit well with her. Knowing that her grandmother had been made to forget why she had left the father of her child explains a lot about her refusal to expand upon the man’s identity. It must have been disconcerting for her. But knowing that the Obliviators had been needed in the first place because her grandmother could not accept her grandfather was also... difficult.
She wonders what it means to her father to find out he is in fact a squib born from a – presumably – half-blood wizard and a muggle.
How different her life would have been if he had had magic.
Priam stays for lunch. By the time he leaves, it is quite obvious that Hermione will enter Hogwarts as a Dagworth-Granger. They learn a bit more about their guest too; the man is in his twenties, and he was recently appointed as the Heir to the family, which explains why the responsibility fell on him to explain it rather than to Constance Dagworth-Granger and her husband, who are Hermione’s great-grandparents and still alive to this day.
He is rather busy between his responsibilities managing the different branches of the family, representing their House at the Wizengamot and managing their primary businesses. When they ask what he does in his free time, he smiles mysteriously and murmurs that he likes hunting when he gets the chance.
“And what do you hunt?” asks Hermione apprehensively.
She’s not sure if she likes the idea of her cousin killing animals.
“I hunt down old artefacts,” he says with a smirk. “Anything that belongs to Hogwarts’ Founders is a guilty pleasure of mine, for example. See, a few months ago, I got my hands on an interesting locket that was said to have belonged to Salazar Slytherin.”