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SIYE Time:15:44 on 29th March 2024
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Harry Potter/Granger And The Philosopher's Stone
By Marcus S Lazarus

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Category: Alternate Universe
Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger
Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama
Warnings: Violence
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 82
Summary: Harry is badly beaten by the Dursleys and is sent to an orphanage, where he befriends a girl who shall become his sister in every way that matters... Hermione Granger. How would things change from this one moment?
Hitcount: Story Total: 44170; Chapter Total: 2612







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As Christmas began to approach, the castle became increasingly more strange and remarkable- something that Harry and Hermione would have been prepared to claim was impossible only a month ago. It was becoming commonplace to see snowballs following various teachers- commonly Snape and Quirrell- around after classes until they had the chance to hit the teachers at a particularly embarrassing moment, commonly when they were about to start a lesson. The temperature was so cold that the lake was now covered with ice thick enough to apparently support an elephant, and any owl that made it through the blizzard had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid.

It was on days like these, more than anything, that made Harry wish Hogwarts included central heating. The stone castle may have been warm enough in the summer, but these days, apart from the fires in the Great Hall and common rooms, the classrooms were so cold that it was sometimes hard to hear the teachers over the chattering of teeth, and Potions in particular proved a nightmare, down in the dungeons that seemed as though nobody had improved them since the day the castle had been constructed. Admittedly, this last was for two reasons; the temperature was so cold that their breath rose before them in a mist and everyone huddled around their cauldrons regardless of the potential risks of the potion they were making, and Malfoy was once again taunting Harry and Hermione despite their best efforts to ignore him.

"I really don't know who to feel sorrier for, really," the 'grease-haired ferret wannabe', as Harry was beginning to think of him, said in one such Potions class. "Those people who have to stay here because they're not wanted at home, or those people who have such terrible guardians waiting for them at their houses…"

Glancing over at each other from where they were measuring out powdered lionfish spine, Harry and Hermione just rolled their eyes in frustration. Malfoy's initial comments about how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as Seeker may have been annoying for the first few days after the Quidditch match, but at least they were vaguely original. His repetitiveness about claiming that Harry had terrible guardians simply because he grew up with muggles had been tedious since the second day in Hogwarts, and they weren't getting more original any time soon…

Still, Harry and Hermione typically distracted themselves by thinking about being home for Christmas in the next few days. Ron had signed up to remain at Hogwarts, along with his brothers- apparently his parents and sister were going to Romania to visit his brother Charlie, who cared for dragons. Harry and Hermione had assured him he was welcome to come back with them, but Ron had declined; Harry wasn't sure whether Ron genuinely wanted to spend time with his brothers this holiday, or if he was still just feeling a bit uncertain about treating 'The Boy Who Lived' like an ordinary person. In any case, he was staying in school, and Harry and Hermione were going back to their parents.

On reflection, Hermione had decided it was probably a good thing until they could give Ron a better grounding in the ways of the muggle world; she'd rather not have him accidentally blow up her computer or something stupid like that…

As they left the Potions classroom and began to walk up towards the main hall, the three friends were surprised to find a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. For a moment, Harry wondered if they had encountered a dryad or other similar creature, but then he saw the large boots below it, as well as a loud puffing sound, and realised that it was just Hagrid.

"Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, poking his head through the branches; the two of them had bonded rather well since Harry and Hermione had become friends with Ron, mainly due to Hagrid's earlier friendship with Ron's older brother Charlie.

"Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ron," the gamekeeper replied, grinning slightly at Ron's face through the gap in the tree.

"Want to earn some extra money, Weasley?" Malfoy's grating voice said from behind them. "Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you graduate, I'll bet- that dump of Hagrid's must be like a palace compared to what your family's used to."

Ron seemed about to dive for Malfoy in a fit of rage (Not that Harry could blame him; that last comment of Malfoy's was really 'below the belt', in an almost literal manner) but Hermione grabbed his arm and stopped him; a good thing too, given that Snape had just come up the steps from the dungeon. Malfoy briefly looked disappointed, as though he'd been hoping to get Ron into trouble with the Potions Master (Which he obviously had been; the twit was incapable of doing anything else) but seemed to have enough sense not to continue trying to provoke anything. Instead he just glared briefly at Hermione and walked off, in the opposite direction, following Snape.

"I'll get him…" Ron fumed as he stared after the retreating Slytherin, who still seemed to be chuckling slightly at his 'joke'. "One of these days I'll get him…"

"Cheer up, it's nearly Christmas," Hagrid smiled at them, sticking his head out from one side of the tree so he could see them better. "Tell yer what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."

So the three of them followed Hagrid and his tree off to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations.

"Ah, Hagrid," McGonagall said, glancing over at the gamekeeper as he entered, "the last tree- put it in the far corner, would you?"

The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, at heights that not even the highest ladders could have reached without taking up a stupid amount of space, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles. For a moment, Harry regretted that he wouldn't be able to see more of the castle in this state, but shook it off; he always enjoyed Christmas with his family, and he wasn't about to stop just because an alternative was now available. Besides, he was still looking forward to seeing Alan and Jane again, even if he was slightly concerned about what they'd think of his and Hermione's recent near-death experiences with the troll invasion and his broomstick turning into a wild horse…

"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.

"Just one," said Hermione, a slightly wistful expression on her face; she evidently felt the same way that Harry did about being home. "And that reminds me," she added, her expression becoming more serious as she looked at her brother and her friend, "Harry, Ron, we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."

"Oh yeah, you're right," said Ron, tearing his eyes away from the fascinating-yet-bizarre sight of Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.

"The library?" said Hagrid, following them out of the hall, looking at Harry and Hermione with a small smile visible under his beard. "Just before the holidays? Even fer you two, that's a bit keen, isn't it?"

"Oh, we're not working," Harry told his friend brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is, and we're just having a bit of trouble finding the right book at the moment."

"You what?" Hagrid said, looking as though someone had just given him an electric shock. "Look, I told yeh, drop it; it's nothin' ter ye what that dog's guardin'!"

"We're just trying to find out who Flamel is; we're not doing anything regarding finding out what the dog's guarding," Hermione pointed out, with that casual smile that had so often won over their parents when they were at home. "Couldn't you give up even a little hint; we've been over pretty much the entire library already…"

"I'm sayin' nothin'," Hagrid replied simply.

"Well, looks like it's back to work," Harry said, shrugging casually as they turned around and headed for the library.

He just wished he was as confident as he sounded; so far, finding Flamel had been the equivalent of looking for a needle in a haystack. Harry had tried checking every book he'd ever consulted from the library, based on this nagging feeling he had that he'd read Flamel's name somewhere before, but so far he'd found nothing. Hermione was consulting every book possible on recent developments in wizardry, such as Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century (Taking time out to tease Harry slightly about his entry in the book, as always), while Ron just walked around the library and picked books off the shelves at random. Harry had thought about trying to get into the Restricted Section, but he knew that was only an exercise in futility; none of the teachers would give a first-year a permission slip to read anything in there

After a search of yet another couple of hours had achieved nothing, the three of them made their way back to the common room, annoyed that, once again, they'd failed to find anything worthwhile about Flamel; not even his name had appeared in anything they'd read.

"Look, you're sure you'll remember to look for anything you can find about him again while we're away?" Hermione said to Ron as the three of them walked back to their dorm.

"Yeah, I'll remember," Ron said, nodding listlessly in a manner that told Harry Ron would look, but he probably wouldn't put that much effort into his search. In all fairness, Ron was a good friend to have in a tight spot, but if you wanted prolonged research into something that wasn't quidditch you were lucky if you could get him to focus for longer than a few minutes at a time…


As they got on the Hogwarts Express, however, Harry and Hermione felt free to banish all thoughts of their failed attempt at detective work and focus on the matter at hand; celebrating with their assorted cousins, aunts and uncles.

Their grandparents, as always, were unavailable- all four of them commonly went abroad for Christmas, although they were always back home in time for New Year's- and apparently Jeff and Anne Murray- Jane's brother and sister-in-law- had been called to New York on business with their children, but Philip Granger, as well as Tim and Kathryn MacDonald- Alan's brother, sister and brother-in-law- were all still available, along with Tim and Kathryn's three children, Natalie, Peter and Janet.

In some ways, Harry and Hermione were glad that it was going to be a fairly small Christmas this year; it limited the amount of people they'd have to lie to about their new school. On her own, Hermione wouldn't really have been all that concerned- she'd never really managed to get on with her cousins, to be honest- but Harry had always made a more conscious effort to fit in with the family, ever since that first Christmas at Anne and Jeff's in Glasgow shortly after his adoption, and he generally got along well with them all.

Natalie in particular- the oldest one of the three, at around eight- had bonded with Harry considerably from the moment they met, although she and Hermione typically 'ignored' each other; indeed, Harry sometimes doubted that the two girls would interact at all if it weren't for him. For all that Harry had helped her become more emotionally available, Hermione was still more inclined to read books rather than play games with her younger relatives at Christmas.

Peter and Janet were generally neutral when it came to relations with their cousins and their older sister; they participated in the games, but since they were both only about six, they sometimes fell behind when playing with the older children, and conversations were generally problematic due to a lack of topics.

As they reached the station, however, neither Harry or Hermione were thinking much about the family reunion at Christmas; they were more focused on the immediate benefits of being away from Hogwarts.

Specifically, seeing their parents again.

"Hi Mum, hi Dad!" Hermione smiled, waving to where Alan and Jane were standing at the barrier as she and Harry walked through the barrier that separated the rest of King's Cross from Platform Nine and Three Quarters; Hermione had been the first off the train due to Harry having the added complication of needing to carry Hedwig's cage out of the compartment.

"Hello there, you two," Alan said, smiling briefly at his children before the smile faded slightly as he looked critically at Hermione. "Now, what's this I hear about you wandering off and running into a troll?"

"Uh…" Hermione said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck as she looked up at her father. "Look, if it helps, I assure you that anything you've received about that troll thing is more than slightly exaggerated? It really wasn't quite as bad as it sounds when you put it like that…"

"Would it make any difference if I pointed out that it was my idea to split up in the first place?" Harry put in, looking over at Alan with an almost critical expression; it may be his father rather than a teacher, but he was still going to protect Hermione if he could. "And, if you're worried we did it just because we felt like it, we weren't looking for the troll; we were looking for another student who'd gone missing earlier, and Hermione just ran into the troll by accident."

Jane and Alan looked critically at Harry for a few moments, and then Jane smiled slightly at Harry.

"And you just dived in to save her when you heard her scream," she said, a small teasing grin on her face; she and Harry often had an affectionately bantering relationship. "You always have to be the knight in shining armour for your sister, don't you, Harry?"

"Once again, Hermione, I'd just want to be the Dark Knight Detective, if I'm any kind of knight; the armour for the classic versions would be too uncomfortable," Harry replied, giving his usual variation on his default answer. Ever since he'd started reading comics, he'd invariably favoured Batman and Spider-Man over most of the other heroes out there, although he thought Batman had the cooler costume; when asked, he simply said that the characters reminded him slightly of himself, and people generally left him alone after that.

"And a massive bullet-proof cape over equally bullet-proof body armour wouldn't be awkward to move about in?" Hermione asked teasingly as the four of them headed over to the car, Alan dragging Harry's trunk as his adopted son carried Hedwig's cage.

"That kind of armour clanks less than the alternative; plus, I'd be able to glide with the cape if the need arose," Harry said casually as he helped Alan haul his trunk into the boot of the car, smiling teasingly over at Hermione. "Anyway, what do you know about cool superheroes? Every Halloween you could, you went trick-or-treating as the Scarlet Witch!"

"So I always found something about her history appealingly tragic and thought that her costume was cool; what's wrong with that?" Hermione retorted, grinning at her brother. "Aren't those things the same reason you liked Batman?"

Harry sighed. "Actually, I've always felt that the most appealing thing about Batman was that he reflected a slightly darker side of the superhero 'coin', as well as the fact that he represents what anyone could be if we were that driven to make a difference in the world," he explained, as Alan and Jane got into the front seat. Smiling slightly at each other as their children continued to talk about the benefits of Batman versus the Scarlet Witch, the Grangers began to drive back to their house, grateful that there were at least some things about their children that they could still relate to.

The next few days between the end of term and Christmas were composed of mixed activities; purchasing Christmas presents, preparing the house for the Christmas party- and, of course, a quick trip down to Diagon Alley to allow Harry and Hermione the chance to purchase a couple of present for Ron. Hermione had sent Ron a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans (Harry couldn't understand the appeal of something that might taste like vomit, but Ron seemed to like them) and Harry, based on Ron's constant talks about them, had sent him a book about a quidditch team called the Chudley Cannons that he'd mentioned was his favourite team.

As he woke up the next morning (At around six o'clock, he noted casually; he always got up stupidly early at Christmas), Harry glanced down at the foot of his bed, and was surprised to see a small pile of presents at the foot of his bed. At first he thought it was just the typical stocking presents- even after learning the truth about Santa Claus he and Hermione still enjoyed the secret thrill presented by their stockings- but no; the stocking was hanging by the bed, just as full as it always was.

Of course, recent events did seem to indicate that there was another option for what the presents were doing there.

His Hogwarts friends must have sent these by owl…

"Harry?" a voice whispered from the door.

"Hermione?" he said, sitting up in bed to look at the door, his sister's head peeking in through the door. He noticed a bundle of presents in her arms, and smiled slightly. "So, you got some presents too, huh?"

"Yeah, I know; nice of them, isn't it?" she replied, grinning at her brother as she came into the room. Harry noted that the two of them seemed to have received the same number of 'wizarding' presents- three, to be precise. Each of them had a large one that seemed to contain an item of clothing, one smaller parcel in brown paper with a note on it that had apparently been written by Hagrid, and what looked like a box of some kind.

"I mean," Hermione continued, as she sat down on the edge of Harry's bed, passing his presents up to him as she placed hers on her lap, "we've only known these people for a few months, and they're already sending us gifts? It was… nice of them to go to all the trouble, really."

"Mmm," Harry nodded, as he unwrapped Hagrid's pleasant, smiling slightly as it was revealed to be a wooden flute, evidently hand-carved. As Hermione unwrapped hers, they noted that she had a similar one, but they both still smiled in gratitude at the presents. If nothing else, given how fine the detail on the flutes seemed to be, Hagrid must have gone to a lot of trouble to make them, the thought and care were truly touching.

Putting the flutes off to the side, Harry picked up the clothing present and studied it curiously. "Who do you think this is from?"

"Well, I do recall Ron mentioning to me once that his mother often knits jumpers for him and his brothers- and Ginny, of course- at Christmas; maybe she sent us one each?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked at her brother. "After all, she seemed nice enough at the platform, and what could it hurt if she just sent us an extra present, right?"

Nodding thoughtfully at that, the two of them opened the presents, and smiled at each other as they revealed the thick woollen jumpers within the wrapping; Harry's was in a vibrant shade of emerald green while Hermione's was a deep, rich reddish-brown.

"Wow…" Hermione muttered, smiling as she shrugged the jumper over her head and looked at Harry. "We must have made a good impression on somebody!"

A sudden thought occurred to her, and she grinned teasingly at Harry. "Maybe a certain female Weasley…?"

"Hermione…" Harry said, glaring over at his sister critically, only to be met by the wrapping of the third present in his face as Hermione tore the wrapping off the box of chocolate frogs Ron had sent, chuckling slightly at her brother. Removing the paper from his face, Harry opened his present from Ron, and wasn't all that surprised to find it was the same as Hermione's. After all, Ron was limited in how he could purchase presents, given that he was confined to Hogwarts, and he'd only known the two of them for a couple of months anyway; how was he expected to know what kind of present would interest them?

Just as Hermione was getting up to gather the discarded wrapping-paper, she noticed, much to her surprise, that there was a fourth present, just under Harry's bed, wrapped in simple paper and with a note attached to it.

"Uh… Harry?" Hermione said, taking the parcel out from under the bed and passing it to her brother. "Any idea who might have sent you this?"

"No…" Harry said, confusion evident on his face as he took the note that was on the parcel and opened it.

"'Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you'?" he read, looking up at Hermione with a mixture of confusion and sudden eagerness on his face. "This… this belonged to my dad, Hermione…"

"But what is it?" Hermione asked, trying to conceal the familiar pang of jealousy whenever Harry's biological parents were mentioned in her presence. She knew that he would always think of her as a sister despite their lack of a genetic link, of course, but whenever Lily and James Potter came up in conversation, she just couldn't stop herself feeling slightly resentful of two people who had such a hold on Harry's heart even though he'd never even met them…

However, any thoughts of jealously over people who'd been dead for over a decade left her mind as Harry opened the parcel before him, revealing a silvery-grey cloak that shimmered slightly as it fell to the ground.

Both their jaws dropped as they realised what Harry held in his hands; at least three of the books they'd read had described this kind of thing in very great detail.

"An invisibility cloak…" Harry breathed, staring up in awe at Hermione as he got out of bed. Shrugging the cloak on over his shoulders, Harry glanced down and smiled broadly as he realised that the cloak was working just as it should; his body had vanished, leaving him looking as though he was just a head floating in mid-air.

"Wow…" Hermione whispered, as Harry experimentally pulled the cloak over his head and waiting a few seconds before shrugging it off, now standing in front of the window in his room; he'd evidently been looking at his new lack of a reflection.

"I know," Harry said, smiling as he looked over at his sister, folding the cloak up and laying it on the bed. "No two ways about it; that is going to be useful when we get back to Hogwarts."

"I know," Hermione said, smiling at him before she glanced at her watch. "We'd better get going; Mum and Dad will be awake by now."


A few hours later, Harry and Hermione were sitting around the kitchen table, their cousin Natalie sitting opposite them with a small grin on her face as she studied the cards she held in her hands. After unwrapping their stocking presents with their parents, Harry and Hermione had helped Alan and Jane arrange things for the arrival of the MacDonalds and Philip, who'd shown up at around two o'clock. It was now five, and, with presents unwrapped and everyone just waiting for the turkey to finish cooking, Alan, Jane, Tim, Kathryn and Philip were currently all talking in the front room while Peter and Janet played Hide-and-Seek with each other, leaving Harry, Hermione and Natalie- a small blonde-haired girl with brown eyes and an expression of perpetual eagerness- to play various games of Trumps with assorted cards they'd acquired in their stockings. Currently they were using the Marvel Superheroes 'Top Trumps' Card deck, with Harry playing against Natalie while Hermione sat off to one side to play the winner.

"So, what's been happening to you two since summer?" Natalie asked, smiling casually at Harry; having won the last 'hand' of trumps (Professor X's intellect had, naturally, been more than a match for the Blade card Harry had been holding at the time), to say nothing of the six or seven 'hands' she'd won before that one, she apparently felt perfectly comfortable in taking a brief break to quiz her cousins, particularly since Harry only had one card left. "Mum told me Aunt Jane said the two of you had gone off to some boarding school up in Scotland; what's it like?"

"Oh, about what you'd expect, really," Harry replied, grateful for the temporary reprieve in his defeat; he really wasn't sure what factor on Natalie's next card could be played that would allow a Cyclops card to win it. "You know, a bit dull at times mixed in with the general interest of the lessons."

"Harry even ended up on our school house sports team," Hermione put in, smiling slightly at her brother; she knew she couldn't reveal what sport Harry played, but that didn't stop her having a little fun, right? "Turns out that he's got a naturally talent for the game- all it really requires him to do is stay on the move and avoid getting hit by the other side until everything's over."

"So, in other words, the game basically involves you doing what you've been doing whenever one of the school bullies gets a bit aggressive because you proved them wrong again?" Natalie asked, smiling over at her cousin. "I knew that you being smart would have another benefit!"

"Oh, knock it off, will you?" Harry retorted, glaring back at Natalie with a fake frown on his face as he looked at the young blonde girl who was looking back at him with a grin on her face. "Honestly, you'd think you'd have gotten over that old 'joke' of yours by now…"

"Don't think you can change the subject like that; I'll get back to it later!" Natalie retorted in a mock-warning tone, grinning as she picked a card out of her hand and laid it on the table. "I'll be using Strength this time around," she said, grinning broadly.

Glancing at the card his cousin had just played, Harry sighed; it was the Incredible Hulk.

"You win again," he said, tossing the Cyclops card onto the table with a resigned expression; that had been the last card in his hand.

"YES!" Natalie smiled, grinning broadly as she punched the air in victory…

And at the same time, much to Harry and Hermione's surprise, the cards in Harry and Natalie's hands suddenly leapt into the air, floating in the air for a few seconds before falling back onto the table.

Harry and Hermione blinked in surprise at what they'd just seen before them.

That was unexpected, Harry thought to himself, as he looked up at Natalie's confused face. And there was me thinking we'd not have anyone else with magic in the family…

However, looking at Natalie right now, he knew that this wasn't the time and place to reveal the truth about what had just happened to her; if nothing else, how would Tim and Kathryn react to being told about magic on such short notice? They'd barely have any time to go into the kind of explanation that would be needed, particularly since Natalie couldn't get into Hogwarts yet...

No, better to break it to Natalie gently, and then explain the full truth to Tim and Kathryn when she got her Hogwarts letter…

"Sorry about that; I think I jostled Harry's arm when you jumped up like that," Hermione said, smiling apologetically at her cousin; evidently she'd come to the same decision Harry had. "Just one of those freaky coincidences, I guess; you must have lost your grip when you leapt up like that."

"Uh… yeah… sure…" Natalie said, looking slightly sheepishly at her older cousins. "Sorry; guess I got a bit overexcited."

"Perfectly understandable; after all, this is the first time you've beaten me at anything," Harry said, smiling in a joking manner back at Natalie; he'd quickly learned after meeting her that the best way to distract Natalie from anything was to give her something to be 'mad' at.

"Hey!" Natalie retorted, glaring back at Harry with a wide grin on her face. "That's totally untrue!"

As the 'argument' began once more, the three children arguing back and forth about whether or not Natalie had ever beaten Harry at anything in the past, Harry smiled in relief at managing to avoid the more awkward line of questioning for the moment…

But, at the same time, he knew it would have to be addressed one day.


AN: Just to confirm for anyone reading, Natalie MacDonald was a Gryffindor first-year mentioned briefly in the Sorting scene of 'Goblet of Fire'. I acknowledge that no reference was ever made to a link between her and Hermione in the books, but I wanted to add a new character to the series, and I've tried to explain my reasoning why a relationship wasn't mentioned in the original series above; in actual continuity, Hermione and Natalie weren't especially close, so they probably rarely spoke much to each other, but in this timeline Harry's presence provided a balance (Much like he did for Hermione and Ron in the books), so the two of them found it easier to relate to each other
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