One Last Try [HP Jamione fanfic]

4. Enchanted

A/N: We get to meet another one of our faves this chapter :D Getting closer to Hermione finally going off to Hogwarts! We're time-skipping quite quickly over her time before Hogwarts haha!

The love for this fic so far is so overwhelming and lovely! You're all amazing people, and that's why I couldn't wait til Monday to post the next chapter hehe!

ALSO! If you're curious, any extra stuff that doesn't fit in this story will be posted to OLT appendices on here. LINK IN COMMENTS

19th September 1970

Hermione's birthday snuck up on her, suddenly she was turning eleven all over again. When her letter arrived with the morning post she cradled the precious parchment in her hands and had to inhale harshly to stop the tears welling in her eyes from spilling over. This was the beginning, again, and she was going to do it better this time. She was going to fix everything.

She handed the letter over to Iphemia, who took it from her daughter with a gentle smile. "This is your second time isn't it?" Hermione was briefly surprised, but knew she probably shouldn't be, her mother was a Slytherin after all. An intelligent and resourceful one at that.

"At Hogwarts?" Hermione clarified, wanting to be certain before she answered a potentially leading question.

"Of course, dear. You were eighteen before they deaged you after all. You must have done some kind of schooling?"

Hermione nodded. Her parents were the only two who knew she hadn't always been this young, and they had all agreed to keep it that way. She hadn't told even them about her time-travelling mishap. "I think I must have, yes. I don't remember it though." She hated lying to them, but it felt like another piece of the complex charade she had to keep up. It was the same reason she had found a recipe for a concealment potion as soon as she could, and brewed and took it religiously every week to keep her scars covered. She'd been fortunate when she first arrived that she'd been wearing clothes that covered the scars she'd accumulated throughout the years. Luckily no one had seen them before she'd been able to use her wand to perform a temporary glamour. Once she was able to get to Hogwarts and research a strong enough glamour to cover them, it would be much easier, but this was what she had for now.

They both smiled kindly at her, returning to the special birthday breakfast Twinky had made. Iphemia went through the list slowly, her lips pursed as she read the letter. Geraint had the Daily Prophet open in front of him, and every few minutes he would scoff in disbelief at something written in there. When he did, Hermione and Iphemia exchanged amused smiles. Hermione had never really considered before just how dangerous it was for the proper dispensation of information within their world that there was only one main serious newspaper - and one that was known for its bias, and falsifying and exaggerating stories for sensationalism at that.

The letter reminded her of something, "I've been meaning to ask," Hermione said as breakfast came to an end and Iphemia folded the letter and slid it back into the envelope. She made an encouraging gesture at Hermione to get her to go on. "How are we going to explain you suddenly having a daughter you didn't have before?"

Geraint rolled his eyes, folding the paper to pay proper attention to the conversation. "Well, once you have a male heir, people seem to stop caring, especially pure-bloods. And we have two." He shrugged. The Prewetts weren't a family that had ever cared too much about following most of the pure-blood rituals or customs, even though they did ensure their kids were trained in, and understood, them. "People won't even realise that they missed us having a fourth child."

Iphemia laughed, "So caught up in their own worries and trifles that they would be so ashamed if someone even suggested they had missed something important."