The Granger Dilemma

The Granger Dilemma

Hermione yawned and stretched as she woke up in her colossal four poster bed. She was glad that her parents could afford such a comfortable bed for her because she couldn't imagine what life would be like without a comfy place to sleep in. Hermione threw her legs off the side of the bed and stretched again. She just felt so relaxed, a feeling she hadn't felt for a long time. The whole of the fifth year had been extremely exhausting, especially because of the O.W.L's, and not to mention Voldemort returning. Everyone had been told to be on guard all the time because you could never be too vigilant when Voldemort was at full power.

Nevertheless, Hermione loved the holidays because she could sleep as long as she liked, sometimes even until midday. Life seemed luscious and relaxing. She had spoken to Harry and Ron a few times, and Hermione was planning on leaving tomorrow to spend the month of August at Ron's house. Harry was going to come as well. She just couldn't wait to see them again! It had only been half a month since she'd left them and she missed them more than she could imagine.

By the letters that Harry had written her, she could tell that he missed Sirius more than he could imagine. As one of his best friends, there was nothing she wanted to do more than comfort him but she knew she couldn't. Harry had to let Sirius go because Sirius was not going to come back. At least that was what Dumbledore had told him at the end of the school year.

"Wow, I've slept right through breakfast!" Hermione said to herself in shock as she looked at her alarm clock. She always used her muggle alarm clock when she was at home, and it tended to go astray most of the time. Just as she thought that, the alarm clock started to ring. Hermione chuckled as she turned it off. She had set it to ring at 9:30 A.M, and it had just rung at midday. There was definitely something wrong with her alarm clock. Getting off her bed, she walked across the lush, cream carpeted floor to her bathroom in which she did her morning washing-up ritual. After getting dressed, she went downstairs to get something to eat, never expecting to be shocked out of her mind by who she saw sitting at the kitchen table.

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Felicia stepped out of the Porsche that her foster parents owned. Her foster parents had made an agreement with her real parents to drop Felicia off around 10:30 A.M, and hence Felicia was standing in front of the house that her real parents owned. As soon as she got off with her suitcase, they drove off without even looking back to see whether she was all right, which she definitely wasn't. Felicia's foster parents hadn't been too keen on returning her to her foster parents. This was mainly because they wouldn't be getting the monthly sum of money from the adoption centre. However, Felicia thought that they were quite happy to get rid of her. They had never wanted to cope with the trouble of sending her to magic school.

Felicia's foster parents had never shown her much affection. They had only taken Felicia into their home because of the monthly stipend they would receive from the adoption centre. Even though Felicia had lived with them for sixteen years, she felt that she had never really felt at home with them. Felicia's foster parents had given her the basic needs of life; food, water, shelter, warmth. However, they had never given her the most important thing in life. They had never given her love.

Opening the gate, she walked down the path and climbed the three small steps to the porch. Felicia put her hand on the doorbell and was about to ring when a strong impulse of awkwardness made her hesitate in her action. A part of her felt worried sick that they wouldn't want her, that they wouldn't care about her as much as they cared about her sister. She couldn't exactly remember her sister's name. She faintly remembered thinking it was a beautiful name when her foster parents had mentioned it to her. Something beginning with H.

She reached for the doorbell again and for a second time, she hesitated and let her hand fall back down. The impulses kept coming and going. The impulse to ring the bell and the impulse to not ring the bell. The latter being stronger than the other. Felicia ran a hand through her mane of strawberry blonde curls in frustration, making it all go astray and her lips formed into a pout. She really wanted to ring the bell, but the fear of being rejected by her own parents was too powerful.

All of a sudden, the door opened and there stood Felicia's real mother, holding a black garbage sack in her left hand. When she saw Felicia, she dropped the sack and some of the contents spilled on the floor.

"Felicia, is that really y-you?" her mother inquired. Felicia could plainly see the tears of joy forming in her eyes. "You've grown so much, so beautiful, so tall, so..." Felicia's mother couldn't find the words to continue. She threw her arms around a tearful and shocked Felicia, who hugged her mother back warmly.

"Mother," Felicia murmured with tears trickling down her face, "I've always wanted to say that, I've always wanted to know you, to know what you're like, to be loved by you."

"Oh I've always loved you darling, I'm so sorry I had to let you go," her mother replied, crying freely now. "But your father and I hardly had enough money to raise one daughter, not to mention two and that's why we gave you...away," she said. The word 'away' was enunciated with a fresh waterfall of teardrops. "We only wanted the best for you honey, and we couldn't afford to give you the best in life."

"It's all right mum," Felicia said, wiping her eyes, although she was not completely all right. Why did they have to give her away? Couldn't they have somehow survived with her as well? Felicia had heard of poor people surviving with more than two children. How could they have just given her away like she was an object? She certainly was not all right about that but that was the past, which she wanted to forget and move on. Felicia wanted to know her parents, to feel the parental love that only real parents can provide.

"No it's not all right love, we felt so guilty and terrible about giving you up. All these years, we've been wondering how you were, what kind of woman you'd grow up to become, how the foster parents were treating you," Felicia's mother sobbed. "Oh darling, not a day went by in which we didn't have you on our minds, only a mother can understand the pain of giving away her child." Her mother sighed and wiped her eyes, "I know I have Hermione, but you are my daughter too, and giving you up was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life."

"Honey, is everything all right?" Felicia's real father came through the kitchen door into the corridor and on seeing his wife at the door continued on to say, "You said you'd be back in a minute and I was wondering..." He suddenly spotted Felicia and abruptly stopped speaking. The silence was deafening.

Felicia broke the silence with, "Father? It's me-" she couldn't go on, her lip was trembling and tears were welling up in her eyes. Felicia hated being weak but at moments like these, she couldn't help herself.

"F-Felicia?" Felicia's father bit his lip, trying to stop himself from weeping with a mixture of happiness and sorrow. "When I last saw you, you were just a baby, this tiny," he stated, portraying the size of a baby with his hands. "But now, you're so much older, with an acute resemblance to your mother." He smiled and made a quick glance at his wife. They both; his wife and his daughter Felicia had a pair of striking blue eyes and the same strawberry blonde hair although one had curly and the other had straight.

Daniel Granger had no clue how to act towards his daughter Felicia, who he had given away at such a tender age. He really had no idea what kind of a person his daughter was and knew nothing about her. All he knew was that he wanted to change that. He wanted to know Felicia just as well as he knew Hermione.

"I'll just drop this off," Felicia's mother grabbed the garbage bag and headed outside to dump the contents into the garbage can.

"In the meantime, why don't you and I get to know each other a little better," Felicia's father suggested and nodded towards the kitchen, "Let's go to the kitchen." Felicia followed her father. "Would you like something to eat?" he asked her on the way.

"Um, no thanks. I had something before I came," Felicia informed her father, smiling politely.

When Felicia's mother entered the kitchen, she saw her husband cooking scrambled eggs while Felicia told him all about her school. She already knew that Felicia was a witch like Hermione. How she had produced two daughters connected to the wizarding world was still a wonder to her. She was still trying to understand all the different aspects of Hermione's magical education. She could still remember how stunned she had been the day Hermione's letter had arrived and wondered how Felicia's foster parents, who were non-magical folk, like themselves, had coped with magic school for five years.

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Hermione slid down the banister of the carpeted staircase and landed on her feet at the bottom with a soft thud. Leisurely, she walked down the corridor and entered the kitchen. "Morning mum, dad, or should I say, good after noon," she chuckled. All of a sudden, she noticed the stranger in the room and when Felicia turned to see who had just entered the kitchen, Hermione screamed. "Oh my God! Mum, dad, who is that? Who's that sitting at our kitchen table?" Hermione asked in a stunned state, looking like she could hardly believe her eyes. Sitting there at the table was a girl who had almost the exact same features that Hermione herself saw in the mirror everyday. The only thing different about the girl and Hermione, which Hermione noticed in an instant was that the girl's hair was curlier and reddish blonde. Other than that, this girl looked exactly the same as Hermione.

"Sweetheart, this girl is your twin sister," Hermione's mother answered, maybe a little too nonchalantly.

Hermione had to lean against the kitchen counter for support. She felt like she was about to faint from shock. "What?!?" she asked raising an eyebrow incredulously, "What are you talking about? How can I have a twin sister? I've always been an only child!"

Daniel Granger looked at his two daughters and knew that it was going to be a long afternoon, full of explaining. "Darling, your twin sister Felicia has been living with foster parents all this time."

"But, but why?" Hermione inquired, looking quite pale with surprise.

"Well dear, your dad and I couldn't afford to bring up two children, we had enough trouble feeding three mouths, four mouths would have been impossible," Hermione's mother explained, "You see, back then we weren't as prosperous as we are now. We didn't have such good jobs with lucrative salaries."

"You mean that all this time you've been lying to me?" Hermione shook with anger. "All along while I was wishing miserably to have a sister, you lied to me and told me that I didn't when really, I did have a sister, a twin sister?" Hermione folded her arms and frowned at her parents. "How could you do this to me?" Hermione said, her voice rising with all the fury she felt. She turned around and stormed off.

Hermione couldn't believe her ears. Her parents had been lying to her all her life! She could remember so clearly that day when she was nine years old. Hermione had had a dream, and she had woken up so sure that she had a twin sister out there. Hermione had been positive about it and had gone running into her parent's bedroom to tell her mum, who had quickly dismissed the idea, saying that it was impossible. From that day on, Hermione's hope of having a sister had died.

Was it all a dream? Was it really possible for her to have a twin sister? Hermione felt like crying with disbelief. How could her parents not have told her this? Even if they were poor, they could have let Hermione visit her sister and let her get to know Felicia. Hermione felt furious, so furious that she slammed her bedroom door hard enough to send a vibration which could be felt throughout the whole house.

She let herself fall on the bed and ran her hands through her curly brown hair, trying to take this whole thing in. Living a whole sixteen years without having clue that she had a sister out there and suddenly finding out she had a twin sister was extremely hard to take in. Lying there on her duvet, she wondered what life would be like with a twin sister. How would everyone at Hogwarts take it? She assumed that Felicia would be going to Hogwarts now. Was Felicia even a witch? It irritated Hermione that she didn't know a single thing about her own twin sister.

All of a sudden, there were two pops and Hermione sat up on her bed to see the grinning faces of her two best friends, Harry and Ron. Seeing her best friends always made her smile but at that particular moment, Hermione had to force herself to smile as she looked at them. She also figured that they had had their apparition tests.

"Hey Hermione," Ron was the first to speak, "Dumbledore let Harry and I do our apparition tests early and both of us passed!"

"Yeah," Harry added while smiling again, "and you can do yours when you come over to the Burrow tomorrow."

Hermione hadn't seen Harry smile like this ever since the end of the school year, and she had to admit that she loved seeing Harry smile. She hated it when he was unhappy and wanted nothing more than to ease him of his pain after Sirius's death.

"Congratulations guys, but this is really not a good time," Hermione remarked half-heartedly, "We can talk when I come over tomorrow all right?"

"But why not now?" Ron asked, whilst raising his eyebrow inquisitively.

"Yeah, is everything all right Hermione?" Harry chipped in, looking concerned for her.

"No, not really, I just found out that I-" Hermione was interrupted by the doorknob of her bedroom turning.

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The whole kitchen was in a pin-dropping silence after Hermione had stormed off. Felicia could actually feel Hermione's pain. Maybe it was some kind of twin connection or bond forming between them, but she could definitely feel the longing Hermione had had for a sister.

"Well, that didn't go down too well," Felicia's mother remarked, biting her bottom lip anxiously.

"Why don't I go and have a talk with her?" Felicia's father suggested and started making his way towards the kitchen door.

"No, I'll go," Felicia stated and got up from the chair she was sitting in.

"Honey, are you sure? I mean you don't have to," her mother ensured Felicia.

"No I want to, it's all right, I want to get to know my sister," Felicia replied and headed out of the kitchen.

"Hermione is probably in her room, which is the third door on the right in the corridor, once you're at the top of the stairs," Daniel Granger informed his daughter helpfully.

"Thanks," Felicia responded and started making her way up the steps to the second floor.

Once she got to the door of Hermione's room, Felicia hesitated. "This is it," she thought, "I'm finally going to talk to my twin sister, who I never knew I had until yesterday morning."

Slowly, she turned the doorknob and entered the room. Felicia was quite surprised to see that Hermione was not alone in her room. In fact, she had two boys standing there. One of them had black hair and bright green eyes while the other had brown eyes and bright red hair.

Upon seeing Felicia, the red haired boy shouted in shock and stumbled to the floor while the other one looked back and forth from Hermione to herself with mixture of confusion and shock written across his face.

"Um, Harry, Ron, this is my twin sister, Felicia," Hermione explained while helping Ron off the floor.

"What?" Ron gasped. "B-b-but how?"

"Your twin sister?" Harry uttered, still in shock, "Hermione, you never told us you had a twin sister."

"I didn't know myself, until today," Hermione stated looking straight at Felicia.

"Wow, this is unbelievable," Ron remarked, "Am I dreaming or something?" Ron pinched himself to check and cried out, "Ouch! Nope I don't think I'm dreaming."

"So let me get this straight, for all this time you've had a twin sister whom you never knew existed?" Harry questioned in disbelief.

"Yeah, I guess so," Hermione stated.

Harry scrutinized Felicia in wonder. Apart from the hair and eyes, Hermione and Felicia both had the same dainty nose, the same lips, the same high cheekbones, the same thick eyelashes, even the same brows. They looked identical apart from the fact that Hermione had brown curly hair and brown eyes while Felicia had strawberry blonde curly hair and blue eyes.

The silence of the room was broken by Ron saying, "Um, Hermione maybe we should leave you two to talk and get to know each other."

"Yeah, we'll see you tomorrow Hermione," Harry stated and together with Ron, they disapparated before Hermione could say anything.

"You know I never dreamed that I had a sister out there," Felicia spoke softly, "I'm still getting used to it," her lips forming a light smile.

"This is too good to be true and it's also too hard to accept," Hermione said.

Felicia didn't know what to say to this, so she walked over to the window and looked outside. The afternoon sun was bright, making the pavement look hot enough to fry eggs on.

"So, I presume you are witch, am I right?" Hermione asked.

Felicia turned around and leaned against the window ledge, "Yeah, I used to go to Wilkinson School of Witchcraft and Wizardry but now I guess I'll be transferring to whichever one you're going to."

"I go to Hogwarts, I'm sure you've heard of it right?" Hermione inquired.

"Yes of course, Hogwarts is a well known school of witchcraft and wizardry," Felicia replied. "Do those two guys that were here before, what were their names, um....Harry and Ron was it? Well, do they go to Hogwarts too?"

"Yeah," Hermione remarked. "Why do you ask?"

"They are cute, especially the one with the green eyes," Felicia stated.

"Ah, that's Harry," Hermione informed her twin sister while smiling in agreement. "I've known both Harry and Ron ever since my first year at Hogwarts," Hermione paused and lifted herself off the bed. "Don't know what I'd do without them."

"Wow, that's quite a long time," Felicia said as she browsed through Hermione's CD collection. "I had a best friend ever since I was 6 but last year he wanted more than friendship and it ruined everything," she told a concerned looking Hermione. "Now we hardly talk anymore, which is such a shame because our friendship could have lasted much longer."

"Awww, that is a shame, didn't you even try to save your friendship?" Hermione asked gently.

"I did, but he said that he loved me so much that he couldn't bear to be only friends with me," Felicia explained. "But, I just didn't feel the same way about him, I love him but only as a best friend and nothing more."

Hermione listened intently to her twin sister's story and wondered whether something like that could happen with herself and Harry. She knew that she wanted more than friendship but did Harry want that? Could Harry handle that? Hermione was brought back from her thoughts by Felicia saying, "The truth is, I miss him so much, I miss the wonderful friendship we had, all the fun we had and all the fun we could have had if we were still friends."

"Maybe one day you'll be able to retrieve your friendship with this guy again, I mean-" Hermione started to say but she was interrupted by Felicia saying, "Lets not talk about this anymore, it hurts too much to reminisce."

"Oh, um...all right," Hermione said, "But it's good to talk about it."

"So, are you a GreenFlame fan?" Felicia questioned, changing the subject rapidly.

"Um, no, I haven't even listened to that CD, I got it for Christmas last year but I never got a chance to listen to it," Hermione answered.

"Well, it's high time then, that you listen to it," Felicia stated and put the CD into the stereo. A song started playing and Felicia started dancing. She came over and pulled Hermione over and said, "C'mon, let's dance."

Hermione had never really danced the way Felicia was dancing at the moment. She tried to copy her moves and found out that it was actually fun. Hermione recognized that her twin sister Felicia was a great dancer; she knew how to move with the music.

Hermione realized that she was actually having a lot of fun. What surprised her most was the fact that she was having fun with her twin sister who she hardly knew.

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"Do you think we should go check on them?" Daniel Granger asked his wife.

"I don't know, maybe we shouldn't," his wife advised him. "I think we should give them some time to get used to each other, to get to know each other."

All of a sudden they heard thundering music coming from above them. "I changed my mind," Mrs. Granger stated, "Let's go see what our daughters are up to."

Mr. and Mrs. Granger went upstairs and Daniel Granger peeked through the crack in the door.

"Oh, our daughters are getting along just fine," he informed his wife and chuckled.

Mrs. Granger had to see this and so she peeked through the door crack as well and smiled to herself. Hermione and Felicia seemed to be having fun. They were both laughing and dancing which made such a beautiful picture than tears came to their mother's eyes.

"Let's leave them be," she said wiping tears from her eyes. Together, Mr. and Mrs. Granger retreated down the staircase.

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The next morning, Felicia woke up in the soft bed of the Granger's guest room. Since she had just arrived yesterday, they didn't have a room prepared for her. Felicia didn't mind about sleeping in the guest room, she really didn't have any preferences when it came to sleeping. If Felicia felt somnolent, she could sleep anywhere. She could sleep soundly even on a piece of hard wood.

Gingerly, she got off of the bed and made her way to Hermione's room. Upon arriving in front of Hermione's door, Felicia didn't know whether to knock or just go inside. She stood there for a few minutes, arguing with herself about whether she should knock or just go inside. Felicia just couldn't make up her mind. The two of them were sisters after all, so there wouldn't be a problem with Felicia just coming into Hermione's room right? However, Felicia wondered whether she would feel awkward if she didn't knock because the two of them hardly knew each other. Finally, she decided to knock and Felicia entered Hermione's room.

Upon seeing Hermione sprawled on her bed reading, Felicia went over and announced, "Good morning!"

"Good morning," Hermione replied smiling.

"What are you reading?" Felicia asked as she plopped herself down on the bed next to her twin sister.

"Oh, just a book I bought in Diagon Alley at the beginning of the vacation," said Hermione. "It's called 'Charms for Everyday Life' by Theresa Godwin."

"Hmm, interesting," Felicia remarked and examined the page that Hermione was looking at.

Colour-Shifting Charm

This charm can be effectively used to alter the colour of any object you desire. The charm is 'Alterocolora' and must be said followed by the name of the colour you wish to change the object into and a tap of the wand on the object that is to be changed.

The disadvantage of this charm is the fact that the original colour of an object can only be replaced by the person who changed the colour of that object. No one else is able to change the colour back to its original state.

"Colour-Shifting charm eh? That is a useful one to know sometimes," Felicia stated whilst grinning playfully. She took Hermione's wand which lay on the bedside table and muttered, "Alterocolora orange," then Felicia tapped Hermione's hair.

"Oh my God, what did you do?" Hermione shrieked and she ran to her vanity table and looked into the mirror. What she saw made her gasp and almost scream in anger, but she controlled herself with much intricacy. "Felicia, I demand you to take this horrid colour off my hair and change it back to normal."

Felicia, who was crying tears of laughter while clutching at her side and gasping for breath continued her laughter as if she didn't hear Hermione.

"Felicia please," Hermione begged, "We could get caught for underage use of magic outside of school!"

"Loosen up a bit Hermione!" Felicia groaned. "Firstly, we are sixteen years old, so that means we aren't underage anymore. Secondly, the Ministry of Magic won't put us in Azkaban for using a tiny colour-shifting charm!"

"Felicia, please take this revolting colour off my hair! Would you like it if I suddenly decided to change your hair colour to pink?" Hermione questioned, her hands placed firmly on her hips, an eyebrow raised and trying with great difficulty to control her temper.

"Oh c'mon Hermione!" Felicia heaved a sigh in exasperation. "It was only a joke. You know that I would take it off in the end, right?"

"How am I supposed to know that? I only met you yesterday, Felicia, you can't expect me to trust you so quickly!" Hermione remarked realising that maybe she had been a bit too harsh with that last statement.

"Fine, I thought you'd trust me because we're sisters," Felicia stated sullenly, "but I guess I was wrong." Felicia stormed out of Hermione's room after muttering an inaudible "Altercolora brown" and tapping a silent and guilty Hermione's hair with her wand.

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