Rising Powers

Chapter Five: Parentbirth

On September 19^th, Hermione woke up to a room filled with flowers of all kinds and colors. Every inch of her room was at least one flower deep and if she looked close enough, she could see some new ones growing.

"Happy birthday, Herm--" Hermione's mother came into her room and was immediately speechless at the sight of the room. "Oh my God! Hermione, what is this?"

"It looks like flowers, Mum."

"Thanks. Where did they come from?" She continued to look around in wonder.

"I'm not sure, but..." She trailed off.

"But?" Emma encouraged.

"Well, I think Harry might have sent them to me," she said uncertainly, and looked around. "Here, there's a card."

Hermione picked up a card that was stuck to the top of a huge candy bar, and opened it.

"Well?" Emma asked.

"Yep. From Harry."

"What's the card say?"

"It says, 'Have some 100% genuine, sugar-filled chocolate. Happy Birthday from Harry.'"

"Okay, but did he send you the flowers, too?"

"I don't know who else would have."

"But how could he afford all of this? It must have cost a fortune!"

"Well..." Hermione was unsure if she should continue. "I think he grows them."

"His family has this big of a garden?" Emma wasn't sure what to think. Harry obviously didn't buy them. He was always dressed in rags and didn't seem to have a TV in his house. Emma had assumed that he came from a very poor background, but to have a garden that could support the amount and variety of flowers here, only to give them away to a nine-year-old girl? That meant they had money. And that Harry Potter was closer to her daughter than she had thought.

"Er--No..." Hermione bit her lip. "Well, actually yes. That is--"

"Hermione, what is going on? I thought that Harry was...well...very poor," Emma said, feeling a bit ashamed of herself.

"I'm not really sure I should..." Hermione trailed off in thought. "Will you promise not to do anything about it if I tell you?"

"Unless it puts someone in danger, I won't do anything," she stipulated.

Hermione stared at her for a moment, as if trying to tell if she was trustworthy or not. "Harry's guardians are the Dursleys," she said, as if that explained how Harry sent her a small field of flowers.

"Dursleys?" Emma paused to think. "You mean those horrible fake-nice people?"

"Yes. But Harry--"

"But they aren't poor at all. They seemed like they had quite a bit of money. In fact, they were bragging about it! In church! I know that a lot of people seem to miss the point of going to church these days, but those people were just there to look important to the neighborhood. And they have Harry walking around in rags?" Hermione frowned at that. "I'm sorry Hermione, but what else would you call them?"

"Anyway, he ran away," Hermione said quietly, feeling like she just betrayed her only friend's secret.

"He ran away?" Emma sat down on Hermione's bed and sighed. "Well, they certainly don't seem to mind. How does Harry feel about that?"

"Like it's the best thing that's happened to him, and I think he's right."

"Where does he stay now?"

Hermione again thought of what story she should give her mother, and decided on 'true but vague.' "With some friends. He gets everything he needs, and the...owner of the place treats him like a son, he says."

Emma smiled for the first time in that conversation. "Well, that's good. Tell him if he ever needs to stay here, he's always welcome."

"Thanks Mum." Hermione hugged her mother in relief and happiness, realizing for the first time how lucky she was.

"You're welcome, dear. Now, that still doesn't explain how Harry got all these flowers and somehow got them into your room in the middle of the night," she demanded, not letting Hermione distract her again.

"Well, he has a sort of a garden there. I don't know how he grew so many so fast," Hermione said truthfully. "Or how he got them into my room...I'll have to have a talk with him about that," she said, embarrassed and a bit angry.

Emma couldn't sense any lies from her this time, even though it was much more suspicious. "Alright, then. Make sure you thank him."

"Yes, Mum," she droned in response.

"And happy birthday, dear."

* * *

Hermione spent most of her birthday with her family, but as soon as Hermione went to the tree that night, she tackled Harry with a hug.

"I can't believe you gave me a present! That's the first time anyone's ever done that that isn't family. I never even told you when my birthday was! Did my parents tell you?" She watched as Harry's brain deciphered her machine-gun speech.

"Er...no. I just felt that you needed me to surprise you, and so I did. Happy birthday, Hermione."

"Thanks Harry. It means more to me than you know," she said, trying not to cry. "Although I had a lot of explaining to do when my mum came in."

Harry winced. "What did you tell her?"

"That they were from you. I kind of told her that you ran away from the Dursleys, though. I said that you were living at a friend's place, the owner thought of you as a son, and you have everything you need. She said she wouldn't tell anyone."

"Oh. Okay," he said, unknowingly relieving Hermione's fears that he would think she betrayed him.

"One question, though," Hermione began.

"What?"

"How did you get that many flowers into my bedroom in the middle of the night without waking anyone up?"

"Flowers?" he asked. "Hermione, I didn't send you any flowers. I bought you a piece of chocolate. Flowers would have been a good idea, though."

"But--but my room was filled with flowers today," she exclaimed.

Harry looked off to the side and seemed to be having a conversation. "No, those were from the tree apparently. I guess it didn't think that a piece of candy was good enough," he said dejectedly.

"Harry, it was good. It was my first present ever from someone that wasn't my parents. Or...er...a tree," she reassured him. "But please tell me you didn't buy it using conjured money."

"No, I went by sewers and summoned any loose change that fell down. You'd be surprised how much of it there is."

"You went through sewers for me?" she asked.

"Well...yeah. I know it's kind of gross, but it was the only way I could--"

Hermione cut him off by attempting to hug him to death. "Thank you, Harry." She gave him a peck on the forehead. "So you were saying something about feeling it? You mean like telepathy?"

"No, but that's something we should definitely try." He wrote down something on a slip of paper that was on the table next to him. "This is my list of spells to learn. Anyway, it's more like feeling the emotions that a life form gives off and understanding them instinctually. From what Nathair says, it's practically impossible to teach."

Hermione looked depressed at hearing about another thing that Harry could not teach her. "Another thing?"

"Yes, but I think that you can learn it if you do it accidentally, so you might be able to learn it eventually."

Hermione brightened again. "Good. So what else is new?" she asked.

"Well, that thing in the tree has gotten a lot bigger. It's the size of a large dog now," he said as he pointed to it. Indeed, it had grown significantly in the past two days, and was now more than ten times the size it was when they first talked about it. "Whatever is growing, it's big and I don't think it's more furniture. Hey, what if it's a tree egg?" he asked, excited.

"Harry, those are called seeds. Or acorns," she explained in slight annoyance. "Honestly, how is it that you're so smart when it comes to magic, but something like this and your brain goes right out the front door?"

"But I don't have a door," he replied slowly so that Hermione could understand the simple concept.

"Why don't we just start working on that telepathy thing?" she suggested.

* * *

Harry and Hermione continued to make progress in all the spells they were working on, and Hermione eventually reached Harry's level, except for a couple of things, such as the gates and conjuring food. No matter how simply Harry tried to explain it to her, she could not make a gate. Harry suspected that she still didn't believe it was possible, even though she had seen him do it on many occasions. No matter how small the food, she could not conjure so much as a crumb. Hermione was beginning to get frustrated.

Halloween came before Harry knew it, and he was worried. For Harry, Halloween was traditionally a day where something either very good or very bad happened (though usually bad with the Dursleys), which made him worried. He spent the night before thinking he would never see Hermione again, and he would be forced to move back in with the Dursleys. Or maybe it would be the day he found out that there was no such thing as magic and it was all just a dream. Or what if the thing that the tree was growing really was a disease and the tree wasn't thinking properly? He was getting even more worried about that, because he could now hear something moving inside. So much was right with Harry's life that he did not think that it could last forever.

Hermione was still trying to figure out how to make gates (she had given up conjuring food, thinking it was another one of the things that only Harry could do), but after a point she couldn't take it anymore.

"Harry, let's go down to the park for a little bit. I need to take my mind off of making the gate," she sighed.

"Alright. Want to try making the one down there?" he offered.

"Well...I suppose it can't hurt." She took out her chalk and drew an oval on the wall, and wrote 'park' in Japanese.

"Remember that you're about to unzip a door. There will be something on the other side, just like turning a doorknob," Harry suggested. Hermione closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and drew the line down the middle. Harry silently smiled, and she looked in front of her.

"I did it!" she screamed.

"I noticed. What do you think you did differently this time?" he asked.

Hermione thought for a moment. "I think the difference was, this time I actually wanted to go somewhere, not just make a portal," she said happily.

"Well, there you go," Harry said. "I think you've got it. Now let's walk around the park to celebrate."

They didn't walk very far when they saw Dudley and his gang chasing some younger kids around. Harry sighed.

"So how should we deal with him," Hermione asked.

"He's a bully. He's really weak, but he makes himself feel stronger by outnumbering people and fighting people that are even weaker than him. Or people that will get punished for fighting him," Harry muttered. "So you know the obvious solution, right?"

"You want him or should I?" she asked.

"Try not to use any obvious magic. Make it seem like he's pathetic, get one hit in, and he'll run away screaming. Ready?" She nodded. They both advanced until they were close to Dudley. "Hey Dinky Diddums. Does your mum know her precious, well-behaved young gentleman is at the park chasing little kids around while they're outnumbered three-to-one?"

"Potter! I was hoping to see you. Dad said I could hurt you as much as I want next time I saw you." As Dudley was boasting, his former targets ran away. The rest of his gang came closer, expecting to see Harry and Hermione get crushed.

"Well, everybody makes mistakes. What he meant was that you could try."

"You think you could beat me, Potter?" Dudley laughed. "As if a shrimp like you could even touch me."

"Oh, there's no doubt in my mind that I could. But my apprentice here might go easy on you, and if she does, you might get a lucky hit in." With that, Harry sat down on the closest bench to watch. "Oh, and don't use your entire gang of blockheads on her. I'm sure you could beat one little girl on your own, right?"

Dudley's gang all backed up several feet to make space. "Of course, Potter. What's the hamster your apprentice in? Not having any friends? She already knows everything else."

Harry grinned. Any chance that Hermione would not want to hurt him instantly disappeared. "Magic, actually. And forget about what I said about her going easy on you. You just lost your fight, Dudley. I hope Aunt Petunia can stuff your face with food and make you forget about this."

"We'll see," Dudley replied, a little less certain than he was a second ago. He brought up his fists clumsily and looked at Hermione.

"Come on, then," Hermione said. She stood in the same position she was in before--calm and carefree, with her hands hanging limply at her sides. She looked very bored.

"Get her!" Dudley shouted, and pointed at Hermione. His gang didn't move, and just stared at him.

"She's just a girl! Get her yourself!" somebody shouted. Hermione started laughing, and that set Dudley off.

"I'll give you something to laugh at!" He brought up a fist and started running in her direction, and tripped over his own feet. Hermione started laughing harder, and Harry joined in, as Dudley turned as purple as Harry's uncle.

"Thanks, Dudley, that was very funny," Hermione said, still laughing. Dudley got up and ran at her again. He then inexplicably punched himself in the face.

"Ow! That hurt!" he said to his hand as if it betrayed him. The members of Dudley's gang began to shake their heads in disgust and left for something less pathetic. Dudley tried to punch Hermione, but she calmly walked out of his fists path. It was as if he was trying to punch through water.

"That wasn't fast enough, Dudders," she taunted.

"I'll get you for this! I swear!"

"Well, come on, then. I'm right here." Hermione started laughing again. "If you're not too distracted, of course."

"Distracted by wh--Ah! I'm on fire!" Dudley began patting his sleeves furiously, and ran out of the park screaming.

"Hermione? What did you do?" Harry was mildly worried.

"I just gave him an illusion that he's on fire. It won't hurt him, and it will disappear as soon as he tells someone what happened here." Hermione smiled, and waited for Harry to realize the best part of her spell.

"He'll tell his parents! He'll tell his parents that you started him on fire with magic, and he'll be punished for talking about magic. That's one of the only things they will punish him for! You're brilliant, Hermione!" Harry hugged her, and Hermione rejoiced inside. That was the first time Harry had initiated a hug with her.

* * *

After they took a quick walk around the park, Hermione opened a gate into the tree and they walked in to see the growth in the tree completely gone, and a woman sitting at the table and smiling at them.

She had red hair and green eyes that matched Harry's exactly. She looked vaguely like Harry's Aunt Petunia, only when she saw Harry she looked happy instead of poisoned. She stood up as they stared at her. She was completely unclothed except for vines of ivy that seemed to grow right out of her body and covered the essential parts.

"Who is she, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Mum?" Harry asked desperately.

The woman smiled, nodded, and opened her arms, beckoning Harry to her. As Harry started to run towards her, Hermione grabbed onto him.

"Harry, that's not her. You know that!" she reasoned.

"No! It is her! I can feel it!" Harry struggled to break free of Hermione's grasp.

"Harry, I know that magic can do a lot of things, but one thing that all of our sources agree on is that the dead can't just come back to life out of nowhere. And she certainly wouldn't be waiting in your secret house that only two people know about. It's a trick, Harry," she whispered.

"She's right, Harry," the woman said. Harry went limp in Hermione's arms. "But she's also wrong. Please let me explain. I don't have much time.

"Thank you for watching out for my son, Hermione. A few months with you has mostly undone the years that my sister and her vile husband spent ruining him." Hermione looked suspiciously at her. "My name is Lily Potter. But this is not my body. Well, it's...inspired by mine, and is almost exactly the same. But I can only be in this body until sunrise, and then I'm going back to where I came from. After that, you can get the full explanation from the owner of my body since I don't really know what happened myself. I just know that it is the seventh Halloween since Harry was born. That's a magical number on a magical day. Inexplicable things are bound to happen, especially to you, Harry."

Harry spoke up for the first time. "So, you're like a ghost?"

"Sort of. But the particulars don't matter. The point is, I will be here until sunrise, and then someone else will come. Harry, you must remember that she is not me, even though we may look the same. But Harry, you can trust her with your life. Now come give me a hug." she begged Hermione with her eyes to let Harry go.

"If you hurt him, you'll regret it." She stopped holding Harry back and he shot into his mother's arms.

"I've missed you, my little boy," she said as she kissed his forehead repeatedly. "We've been watching every day, but it's been horrible to not be able to hold you, to guide you, to tell you that I love you."

"Nobody's ever said that before," he cried.

"Harry, listen to me." He stopped crying and looked into his mother's eyes. "If you choose to, you will be one of the most loved people in the world, and eventually there will be nothing you want that you don't already have. My sister and her husband have confused love with something else, and they've raised their son to do the same. That is something that too many people do. They don't love people. They love themselves, and their images.

"All you need to do is trust your instinct. I'm not allowed to tell you much, but everything will be alright. Just listen to your heart; it cannot be wrong. If something feels right for you, it is, no matter how...unusual." She looked at Hermione. "That goes for you too.

"Now, listen carefully, both of you. You both have very pure souls, and you will help a lot of people in your lives. You will have the best of friends, but you will also make enemies. These people will do their best to make you miserable and hurt. They will do that because they are jealous or afraid of you. Remember that, and you won't have as much of a problem with them.

"Now, I'm allowed to answer three questions you have about anything I know about, and then we can spend the rest of the night talking about family, and what happened during the time I was alive. Choose your questions wisely. Only ask it if you think it is important. I can tell you about anyone you are related to by blood at any time, so leave questions like that for later."

"I'm going to head home so that you two can have some privacy," Hermione said she stood.

"No, stay. It's alright," Lily said. "You two have already accepted each other as siblings. Unless you object, Harry?"

"No, of course not. And I really do think of you as a sister, Hermione." Harry gave her a hug.

"Oh, thanks Harry. And I think of you as a brother."

"Good. So stay a while," Harry said. Hermione sat down next to Harry. "Well, I guess my first question is, how come we can do magic but others can't? Are there others that can?"

"Well, there are people across the world that can use magic. As far as I know, none of them use magic the same way you two do. Most witches and wizards can't perform magic without a wand, and if they can, it's only specialized types, like how you teleport, which is called apparating, and your telepathy, which is called legilimency. You should learn occlumency, which is basically visualizing a wall that protects your mind so that others cannot use legilimency on you." Harry and Hermione had both gotten good at reading thoughts from each others' minds, but they never even considered a way to defend them. They trusted each other absolutely so weren't worried about it, but if there were other wizards, it was a skill they should learn.

"Most people, who we call muggles, don't have any magic at all. Hermione's parents and the rest of my side of the family are all muggles. Some people have had magic in their family for hundreds of years, and they are quite proud of it, and look down on muggles and muggle-born witches like Hermione and me. You will both have to be careful around them. They will make up a large amount of the people that will be jealous of you." She looked like she wanted to say more, but couldn't.

"There are magical neighborhoods and shopping districts, but someone will take you there when the time comes."

Harry and Hermione took a second to process the information before asking the next question. "Who killed you, and why?"

Lily sighed. He had to pick the hardest question possible. "How did you know someone killed us?"

"Just a feeling I got," he replied.

"A dark wizard named Voldemort killed us. The magical world was at war when we died, and he was the leader. He was one of the blood-purists that I warned you about. Most people were afraid to even say his name back then. However, a few people fought against his forces, the Death Eaters. Your father and I were two of those people, and we even fought Voldemort himself three times. We never beat him, of course. Nobody did. Well, almost nobody, but I'll get to that in a bit. We were some of the best fighters for our age, and Voldemort decided that we needed to be stopped. So he came to our house." She looked like she wanted to say something even more than the first time. "Your father held him off while I tried to take you and escape. You were just over a year old. I tried to get away, but they had put up a ward to stop us from apparating away. He killed your father and came upstairs where I was trying to escape. I tried to save you. I said he could kill me if he let you go, but he wouldn't do that. He killed me, and then the only good thing that night happened.

"He tried to kill you too, but his killing curse just bounced right off of you and hit him. You are the only person that has survived that curse. That's what gave you that scar. And then he was gone. Not killed, but removed from his body and left to wander the earth as little more than a ghost. Harry, you will meet him again someday, and he will want revenge. He is very powerful. You are also extremely powerful, Harry. I have only seen one person as powerful than you, and that was Voldemort. But you have to promise me that you will not try to fight him until you are ready. He has fifty years of experience behind him. Be very careful." She started crying, and Harry joined her. He knew there was a lot she was not telling him, but he didn't want to pry and upset her even more.

When they both calmed down, Harry thought of his third question. He looked very hesitant to ask. "Go ahead, Harry. I'll answer whatever I can," his mother encouraged.

"Does...does it hurt to die?" he asked.

She sighed. "No, Harry. Not at all. It often hurts a lot, right until you die, and then the pain goes away." She started to cry again, and she held onto Harry tightly as he joined her in tears. Hermione felt more awkward than ever as she started crying too, until she was pulled into a hug by both Harry and his mother.

"So I'm out of questions, then?" Harry asked when they had all calmed down.

"Yes. But I'm not the only one who knows anything, and you will have plenty of people that will answer your questions. I may be the smartest person in my class, but there are other people who know more than me in certain things. Your father was brilliant at transfiguration. He could turn himself into a stag." She smiled again as she started talking about happy things. "He looks exactly like you, Harry. Like a mirror image, except for the eyes and the scar."

He flattened his hair down to cover it up. "Don't feel bad about it, Harry. Although you may hate it someday, just remember that it is...that it is a part of who you are. Anyway, we met at school. I hated him at first, because he was immature and annoying. Not everyone is as mature as you are Harry. You're very well-mannered for your age. Anyway, he eventually grew up, then we fell in love and got married, and a few years later, you came along." She smiled at Harry.

"How did you first find out about magic, Mrs. Potter?" Hermione asked. "You said that the rest of your family wasn't, right?"

"That's right. And please, call me Lily. Well, it's a bit of a funny story. In fact, it was almost the exact same way you found out, Hermione. One day, I jumped off of a swing and floated down, and a wizard that lived nearby saw me, and called me a witch." They all laughed. "He told me all about magic and we were best friends for years. He is one of the first people you will meet at school, and he will probably hate you. He is a very lonely, bitter man and he hated James. You look exactly like your father, and that will not endear you to him at all. But find a time to tell him that I forgive him, for everything, as long as he remembers two things when the time comes for him to choose: our last conversation and his deal with the headmaster. He'll know what I mean."

"Okay, Mum," Harry replied as he wrote it down. "Tell us about the school. What's it called?"

"Sorry, Harry," she started. "I can only tell you things that involve people that are related to you by blood, and cheat a little by giving you messages to tell certain people. I can't give you any names or tell you specific things, except for those three questions you got to ask me. I had to agree to that to come here. I think I made the right decision." She smiled at Harry.

"I think it was right too," Harry agreed.

"I can tell you, though, that the school was founded by an ancestor of yours, Godric Gryffindor. When you go to the bank to get the money we left you, make sure to get access to that vault too. And try to keep that information to yourself. He's quite famous, you know."

"He is?" they asked.

"Well, he was the first headmaster and one of the founders of Britain's best school of magic." Lily grinned at their expressions.

They began talking about less important, but still very interesting things, and eventually Hermione had to leave.

"It was nice to meet you, Mrs.--Lily. I hope we'll meet again."

"Oh, of course we will. But not for a long time," she said. She waved goodbye as Hermione left.

"Harry, there's one more thing that I have been permitted to tell you while I'm here," Lily started hesitantly.

"What is it?" Harry was nervous at her tone.

"I'm going to tell you where babies come from."

One embarrassing talk later (which Lily's state of dress did not help), Lily suddenly changed the subject.

"Harry, I know all about the history of your relatives, but I also know a little bit of the future. I was a seer when I was alive, and I saw some things that will help some of your future decisions. I left a book in the Gryffindor vault which will help ease your mind about some things. Look into that, and any doubts you have will be cast aside."

"If you were a seer, how come you didn't try to change anything about that night?" Harry asked. There was no need to clarify which night he meant.

"Often, seers are unable to make predictions about their own lives. True seers, that is. There are people that can make predictions, but that is usually about the weather or if a boy likes you." Lily blushed as she remembered the many times the girls in her year asked about that. She always saw some things she didn't want to, and it was almost always about someone they would not even meet for years.

"Oh," Harry said simply. "Tell me about Dad some more."

Lily told her son about the other most important man in her life, until she realized that he fell asleep on her arm. She looked at Harry's wooden clock and sighed. It was almost time for her to go. Oh, well. It was a night she knew neither of them would forget in the slightest detail.