Family Ties

Hermione Granger smiled at her husband. "Well, Honey, I guess we should get started on the family tree."

"Yes, Sugarlumps."

Harry Potter smiled back at his wife. When he looked into her face, he could still see the radiant beautiful woman of their Hogwarts days. Wow! How long ago was that? Though Harry, It must be forty or fifty years. How could it be that long?

Now, fifty-one, Harry and Hermione have settled down and decided to research their family. Of course, they have four grown up children with families of their own, and now they have settled down.

Harry smiled back on the memories. His best friend Ron had married their classmate, Pavati Patil, and moved of to the United States. Often, they owled each other.

"Harry! Stop daydreaming! I swear, you haven't changed at all since school! Now where should we start?"

Ha Ha. Hermione. Still hard working, the same as always. She hasn't changed one bit, except for a few gray hairs and wrinkles around the eyes. "Well, Hermione, why don't we start with us and work our way backwards. Really, you are supposed to be the smart one." Then Harry lightly kissed her nose.

"Okay then, let's get to work!"

So Harry and Hermione got hard to work, searching through all birth records and letters and clues to their past generations. After about an hour's work, Hermione discovered something.

"Harry! Guess what? Here it says that at least one of my family's past generations lived in the United States!"

"Really? Ah, yes, I guess it does. Well, let's see how many generations back it goes."

So after another three hours of rough research and digging through old records, they came to the end of Hermione's American generations.

"Hermione, it looks like your ancestors came over to America on the Susan Constant to Jamestown in 1607. They were some of America's first settlers! What an interesting family you have."

"Hmmm, Harry, it says that all of my ancestors immigrated back to England over a certain amount of time... the last, leaving in 1925. I wonder what they did, other than be some of America's first settlers."

"If, they were half as great as you are, then who knows what they did." Then Harry pulled his wife into a deep and passionate kiss.

Jacob Granger looked at the Virginia newspaper. "Well Mary, Virginia has seceded from the Union. I guess with that man Lincoln in office, there's a war coming around."

"Honey, I don't understand, these are supposed to be grown men. Why can't the settle this without a war?"

"It's more complicated than that. They've tried to avoid war, but I guess it's impossible. I don't understand really either. I'm just a simple farmer. My ancestors settled Jamestown, and fought in the Revolution. I know that they wouldn't want this to happen, but some things just happen, I guess."

"How can you be so nonchalant about it? War is awful, and now it's going to come to us. The wives and children of the men who fight, and the families with men who don't fight."

"I don't know, I don't know, but I think it's a damn shame to see my country torn over this."

"Harry, look at this. I've had ancestors fight in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, that was when they first came back here, forced of course. Also, the American Civil War, and World War I."

"I see your family has quite a war record. According to my notes, way back before the War of 1812, you had wizards and witches in your family," Harry paused and studied his notes," But it looks like there were a few generations of Squibs. I guess that they just decided to forget about their wizarding ancestors," Harry said with a shrug.

"Wow... so I guess I'm not really a Mudblood, just a descendant of a bunch of Squibs who decided to bury their past."

"Hermione, don't think about it that way--"

"God! This makes being a Mudblood look great!"

"Hermione, you might have Squib ancestors, but that's not your fault. You're a beautiful witch who gave herself, the world, and I a bunch of wonderful, wizarding children."

"You're right Harry. Let's keep going."

"Bye Father!" Jacob Junior and Sean shouted to their father.

"Goodbye my sons! Take care of your mother," Jacob Granger yelled back. He had been called up to fight the Union, for the Confederacy's 'independence'.

Why in hell am I going to fight this? It's about slavery, right? I don't have slaves, an' probably never will. Why don't the rich plantation owners with their hundreds of slaves come and fight? They're rich. I'm not. I have a family support. I somehow don't think that fighting in this war will get that done. Jacob thought, anger grabbing his heart.

He knew that he probably wasn't coming back, and if he didn't, how would his family get by? Soon enough, his sons would be enlisted, or would sign up. Jacob Junior was already sixteenH, almost old enough to fight. Luckily, Jacob Junior had no desire to fight.

But Sean was another story. He wanted to ride along with his father. Kill his one hundred Yankees.