Work Text:
"No," Hermione looks at her sister, in all but name, in horror. They had been together constantly for nine months now. The Magical world likes to focus on Seven. Most magical - seven. Personally, Hermione thinks that is the Roman Christian influence on magic. Nine is the most magical. Nine months to become a human, between three and five the formation of memory in children four and a half, half of nine. Nine months with Hadriana at her side. Nine months of becoming Women, no longer adhering to the name child .
"You aren't going, not alone. I forbid it, Hades. You're my family ."
"Mione –"Hades is the only person who can call Hermione that. She's lit into Ron more times than any of them can count about doing so. Hades gets the privilege of a familiar familial name, not Ronald.
"No," her hand cuts through the air between them. "I promised you, I swore, that I am your sister, water of oaths. We're finishing it. Blood –"
"Hermione, no. Are you insane? If we share blood –"
"Then we share the burden. I'm not stupid, Hadriana. Dumbledore wanted you alone. He wanted you to walk from the doors and meet your death happy as you please. Well, fuck that for a joke!" Hermione's eyes sting. "I won't let him win. Leader of the light – he was just as bad as that snake-faced monster who wants to kill a pure heart."
Hadriana looks at her with wide hazel eyes. Her eyes are Potter's eyes, the crimson of her hair Evans red. They'd learned that in their second year when Hades had been tired of being called Lily by her Professors. Hermione can still hear Hadrian's irritated declaration. 'Just because my middle name is bloody Hosta, the plantation Lily doesn't mean I'm some miniature of my mother reborn! Even Petunia does it, the cow.'
"Hadriana Hosta, I ask you to be my sister in Blood, Magic, and Oath." Hermione won't let anyone stop this and won't let Hadriana's savior complex fuck them over today. Hades doesn't die here. Her hand is extended between them, palm up, fingers spread, the hand tilted just so her veins are visible, made to plump up as the circulation is impeded.
"Hermione Adaeze," Hades' voice shakes as she steps forward, hand lifting, her arm held parallel to the other Witch's. Palm up, fingers spread, the tilt exact. They'd found this the summer of their fourth year when Sirius had begged Hadriana to quit Quidditch for the sake of their line. Last of the Potters, last adopted Black of the mainline. Alone no longer. "I ask you to be my sister in Blood, Magic, and Oath. I swear my fidelity to our sisterhood, my magic to your magic, our families forever entwined, until the last breath of time."
Smiling as she feels the magic of the school surge around them, no doubt alerting everyone to a ritual being performed, Hermione works quickly. Carefully, but quickly. They can't be stopped now. "I swear my fidelity to our sisterhood, my magic to your magic, our families forever entwined until the last breath of time, souls forever walking side by side."
She hasn't her proper wand, and so she transfigures her fingernails into talon-like sharpness. Magic her thrice great grandmother had hidden in her estate, a journal that is a grimoire, entailed to the first Spirit Child of her line. "I cut so my blood will flow. Nine months we've walked the path, as we would if our mothers bore us together. I offer this rebirth to my sister, my twin."
Hadriana swallows harshly. Her eyes burn with tears. Alone, she'd been so alone without Sirius, without parents or cousins – cousins that wanted her. Now she'd have a sister. A sister. "I cut so my blood will flow. Nine months we've walked the path of sibling together, as we would have, had our mothers bore us as one. I accept the rebirth you offer my sister, my twin. I offer you the same."
Her wand makes the cut neat, just as neat as Hermione's is. Without prompting, they turn their palms toward one another and grasp the other's arm. Magic could do one of two things now, Hermione bore the weight of the Eze family magic – robust, she has hundreds of cousins, Hadriana bears the weight of Black and Potter, with the Potter magic relying solely on her to survive. The magic would either mix and grant sanction – bless – their union as sisters, or it would not, and the ritual would take, but their bond meaningless in magic, legally sound, but nothing more. The pair of them wait with bated breath.
Golden brown eyes stay locked with hazel verging on green. They are a pleasant study in opposites when it comes to their physical traits. Hermione has a far more pronounced chin, the barest heart shape to her predominantly ovular face, while Hadriana has a slightly stronger jaw to her rectangular face. Hermione's brow is gentler, with Hadriana's far bolder. The bridge of Hadriana's nose is wider, Hermione's slimmer, her nose slightly upturned. Hermione's near-black curls were pencil tight and carefully pinned each and every day of their lives. Hades' red waves only stayed put when her hair was tightly braided and coiled into style.
Hades has freckles like her mother did, causing no end of teasing when she was out with the Weasleys through her complexion is golden, where theirs is pink. Hermione is. Hermione is like freshly turned soil, Gaia's cradle of creation turned to flesh. She hasn't a freckle to her name. When the magic takes hold of them, burning from their wrists up their arms, sinking into their hearts and lungs before zinging up the length of their spines and settling in their minds, there is a scream, somewhere. Neither girl could pinpoint where the sound came from.
"Lily, take Hades and go. "
" Aedan, make sure Hermione's booster seat is properly secured. "
Green light, the squeal of tires, and scream of metal.
" Take me instead."
" Her father died on impact, ma'am. It's a miracle her mother's alive at all, and the girl was behind the father, it doesn't make any sense…."
Hermione watches at Hades' hair goes from waves to barreled ringlets. She feels her own hair loosen in her makeshift bun. Her eyes burn, and she blinks wildly.
Hadriana sees Hermione's eyes shift from the nearly unnatural golden brown to have shocks of green and deeper brown in them. Hadriana notes that her own tonality is shifting, a late harvest gold overtaking her. She feels joy as her usual swarthy complexion from her forced gardening is no longer damaged from the sun, but connection, no doubt her freckles shift deeper as well. Hermione doesn't shift at all. Hades finds herself glad as instead, constellations of freckles, stark like beauty marks, become visible all over her face, concentrated at her nose, along her collarbones.
Her core heaves as the Potter magic goes wild. Hermione goes to her knees, and Hades has no choice but to follow her. She feels foreign magic slipping into her and watches, watches the Black magic shoot for Hermione like a lance. Silver and Blood-stained gold slip past a copper green. She's worried for her sister. Would this new magic harm her?
"Hello, my name is Hermione Adaeze Granger-Eze of the Noble Eze Tribe of Nigeria!"
" O-oh, um, I'm Hades, Hadriana Hosta Potter, of. Of Surrey."
"I'm ever so excited to be going to Hogwarts, Grandpapa didn't want me to come, but Mama insisted, so I could honor the birthplace of my father."
"I – didn't know I was a Witch until Hagrid came to get me."
"That's all right, I didn't know until. Until magic herself saved me."
Hermione feels like she's being frozen from the inside out. The Black family magic is – it's not what she'd been expecting. Not at all. It is so pure, it finds a home in her easily, curling around her protective nature, mingling with her slow boil rage. She can almost feel Sirius there with her, his joy at every prank, the soul aching lonesomeness, knows that when her patience is lost now, there will be a colder crueler edge to it if the situation is untenable. The Potter family – they were a boisterous lot, all emotion and magic, she can feel it, the heat of it nipping at the toes of the isolated Black. Flashfire with a bone-deep loyalty, a guard around her heart.
Her family magic tasted of salt and sun, smelled of Nganda flowers and Ube fruit. It is warm but not burning. Potters are like Dragons, the Blacks too, simply distinct species.
"Oh, Hades, look at you." The words are whisper-soft but have the Witches snapping up their heads. A young woman with hair piled high on her head is kneeling between them. Her smile is soft, eyes sharp, freckles stark on her skin. "You grew up to be so beautiful, and you made such good friends. I'm proud of you."
"Mum?"
The young woman hums, nodding her head, reaching out, and flicking the pins in Hadriana's hair out. "Curls suit you. Your father never figured out if he grew his out, it wouldn't stick out all over the place. Potter family trait. Green eyes will be my contribution, the red hair is best left to the Prewetts and –"
"No, mum. The red too." Hades gasps out, leans into the ghostly hand.
"Bossy. Is that something you had before or is my second daughter to blame?" Sorrowful yet joyous eyes settle on Hermione. "You're saving her life, and I owe you a debt for that."
"She – she's, my sister. I couldn't let her die, and if she must, it won't be alone." Hermione gasps out, the draw on her magic becoming pronounced. The scarring of her arm is turning silver, her eyes dart to Hadriana, and her curse scar is barely visible. Something is happening. Why is this taking so much magic?
"You're doing more than you know, jitterbug." Her father's voice makes her eyes go wide, flying to the side. He's there, sun-kissed, hair combed to the side, beard on full display, amber-brown eyes smiling, full of tears. "You're beautiful, little Witch. I wish I'd been there to see you take hold of your first wand and use your magic the first time."
"Daddy – I'm sorry. My – My magic didn't save you."
"Oh, bug, no. Children aren't meant to save their parents. It's our job to save you. It is my honor to have helped give you life and to keep that heart beating." His hand settles on her cheek, and she feels her hair come loose. "I wish you didn't have to go into battle."
"I wear war on my waist, Daddy." Hadriana smiles at Hermione's words. Her eyes settle on the famed Mr. Granger she would never meet again.
"She truly does. And so do I."
"I'm afraid that's my fault, at least in Hades here. I went to war against people who never wanted me." Lily is fading, her hand lifting, pressing to the place where evil scarred her daughter, where she bleeds now only for Lily to heal it, before her fingers wiggle, and a new style is started on the redhead."It dragged my daughter into this, for that, I am sorry, Hades, Hermione. If we'd –"
"Mrs. P – Lily," Hermione grins, notes her hair is glowing, twisting into braids and piling onto her head. Hadriana's is glowing now too. Darkening, violent blood shifting darker to rust. Is hers going red? "We were fast friends because we never suffer idiots, and we rage together."
"Isn't that the truth," Hadriana gasps, tears leaking from her eyes. "We're going to make you both proud."
"We already are."
The magic of their families, the Evans magic swirling into being, settling into the depths of their cores, surge again. Hades feels as if her head might split apart, and Hermione swears she's about to feel her heart stop. Her hair is twisting and curling into place, almost mimicking the feeling in her chest. The pressure settles hard on them, ever-increasing until like a rubber band stretched too far, it snaps.
The magic washes away from them, and the pair sag forward, foreheads on shoulders. Tears wet the other's shirt, and silence reigns until thunderous footsteps have them jerking upright. Golden-Jade-Hazel meets Hazel–Golden-Jade. They have the same ferocious smile on their face. Even if they die today, they'll walk the earth again, side by side. Their hands unclasp, their blood is gone, scars non-existent. They walked together, side by side, for nine months. Today they were reborn.
"Shall we go to war?"
"It would be my honor, sister."
"Bloody hell, you two!" Ron gasps as he skids to a halt, Fred and George just a pace behind him, more people coming yet. "What the hell did you do?"
Standing up, Hermione laughs, Hades shrugs, and they dust off their knees. "Well, you see, Ronald-"
"- We had to make a few things –"
"-official, and it just happened mother magic –"
"-blessed our purpose. We're sisters -"
" twins, now. And it's high time we get downstairs –"
"– that's right, Tom's waiting."
Smiling at one another, Hades grabs Hermione's hand and leads her away from the growing crowd. The hour was almost up. They had to plan still. They're almost to a secret passageway when they hear hushed words.
"Blimey, hey Forge –"
"Yeah, Gred?"
"Think they'll entertain a courting offer from us?"
"Twins with Twins, that's the sort of magic people don't mess with."
"Exactly. Think of the pranks."
"Think of the mayhem ."
"We have to live to tomorrow now, no two ways about it."
"Agreed."
"The hell you two are going to court my best friends! They deserve better than you two tossers!!"
Hermione shoves her face against Hadriana's shoulder.
"I don't know," Hades whispers as they duck behind a suit of armor. "Hermione Adaeze Weasley isn't bad."
"Hadriana Jaiyeola Potter has a fairer tone to it." Hermione's Potter heart has no interest in the pranksters. They could wage war, bring a host to their knees, but Hermione knows the potent combination of family magics and gifts will want someone to temper her.
"Jaiyeloa?"
"Welcoming a wealthy life. Hosta is, lovely, friendship and devotion but, well, take it as I'm claiming my family."
"Hadriana Jaiyelola Potter-Black or Potter-Eze?"
"Hadriana Jaiyeola Eze-Potter, the kings are older by several centuries."
"Someone's territorial."
"How can I not be with those ginger troublemakers already making plans?"