Prologue - Visiting hours.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything there of.

I was tired all I wanted to do was sleep. I had just written long letters to my best friends Harry and Ron. My adoptive parents were sleeping so I made my way to my room as quietly as I could. I have never told anyone that they weren't my real parents, not even Harry and Ron. The exposure of my real father would devastate, well, everyone I suppose. It was the same for my mother, I never could I tell them who my mother is. Yet, I didn't hide my mother's identity I didn't even know who she was, Tom had never mentioned her.

I had apparently done very well at being quiet because when I entered my room my real father and a young man I could tell was his son were there. When I walked into the room Tom looked surprised and the young boy jumped, the poor boy looked as if he had been scared out of his skin.

"Well apparently you are full of surprises Hermione, quiet as a mouse. Matthew this is Gabriel" Tom said in a light tone pointing from Matthew to myself and back again, "Gabriel this is Matthew."

"One, what are you doing here? Every time you come here I tell you to never come again, just to leave me alone. Two, I have told you a million times' my name is Hermione not Gabriel, and three, why on earth would you think that this boy would be of any relevance to me?"

I had known that Tom Riddle was my father since my second year at school. While helping Harry discover what creature was petrifying the other kids at school. I had looked to the time when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened before fifty years earlier and Tom Riddle's picture had been the person credited for helping nail down the person responsible. He had wrongly accused a fellow student of the crimes. When in reality he had the guilty one. I had taken a copy of the picture because I had could have sworn I had seen that face before. That night I took the picture I had been looking at it intensely trying to remember where I had seen it. Finally I had given up and went to take a shower. When I looked into the mirror I finally realized where I had seen that face. It was my own face I had been remembering, the eyes, the cheeks; even the lips matched his. I never told anyone.

In June the man who had fathered me, the man I had also hoped would never be reunited with his body, did just that. He became somewhat human again. He didn't look human but he was and I knew he could not be killed by just anyone. Harry was the only person who had ever survived my father. I have been cheering him on even though I knew I was in no danger from Tom and his wicked ways of killing people, which had started long, before I was born. That fact alone was why I didn't try to stop Harry. It was also why I had never come over to Tom's side of the war.

Since Tom has regained his body he has been a regular visitor at my home after my muggle parents had gone to sleep. He had come to ask me to join to him almost every night since June. I have always given him a simple no in response. He had been surprised that I had figured out that he was my father two years previous to his first visit and was proud of my smarts, my strength and my incredible stubbornness, which he commented on far more often than I would have liked. I was everything he could have ever wanted in a daughter. He was disappointed however that I preferred to stay in my muggle home knowing that I could live in a house much grander than this one and have all the things in the world. I am a modest girl, but he liked that most of all because no one would ever be looking at his little girl and think about getting laid.

" I will not just leave you alone. You are my daughter whether you like it or not and you will live with the fact that I refuse to leave you here with these muggle's. Matthew is very important to you, or he should be." Quietly as he stood and said this both children froze. The man never smiles. Only his eyes show any emotion and this in its self is very rare. He looked from one child to the next, neither of them moved.

"Oh really. And why, pray tell, would he be of any importance?"

"Because he's your twin brother." He said. He was mildly surprised that she showed any emotion in his presence, something that had never been done before. She had always treated him with cold indifference. But the boy was different, he was the sibling she had never had and longed for all her life. "It took some time locating him. You were the easy one. After all you are the menacing muggle friend of the troublesome Harry Potter. But your mother took extra care with Matthew because he is my only son, my heir. And a lot of people would want him dead and you as well if you weren't as careful as you are. I take it, by the way, you still haven't told your friends that you are my daughter?" at this he looked down on her 'I will not be intimidated by him' she told herself.

"No I haven't because I am not, nor will I ever be, stupid enough to do so. I know exactly what will happen if I do."

"Ah, what good friends you have. If they would disown you simply because of your father, why would you bother with them anyway? From what father has told me you are supposed to be a very smart person and that doesn't sound very smart at all."

I was surprised when Matthew spoke. He was eloquent and just as intelligent as I was. And much like our father his words seemed to roll of his tongue with the greatest of ease.

"These friends have been through a lot due to that man sitting there, and so have I." The hatred in her eyes startled both men, " I see that he hasn't told any of his little friends who I am because Draco Malfoy still insists on making my life hell and calling me a mudblood every chance he gets. So why should I bother to do what he will not do himself?"

"You know she has a good point. Why should she tell her friends when you won't tell yours?" Matthew looked from his sister to his father. The red of his eyes bore in to him but much like his sister, he would not be intimidated by the man.

At this Tom gave him the strangest look. You could tell by the look in his eyes that, with the exception of myself, he was not used to being argued with or contradicted. " I don't see how my telling my followers would help her. They would tell their children and their children would tell their friends and then every one, including those who would surely try to kill her, or use her as some sort of bait with the intention of luring me, would know about her and in turn find out about you. I would like to keep my children alive." A small giggle escaped me I couldn't hold it in. he was trying to sound like a parent. It didn't become him.

There was a long silence following his words. Both Matthew and I knew that what he said was true. Many people who would think they were doing a good job in trying to stop him from returning and those afraid that the terror he had cause would come again would say it was his children that the terror would come from.

"Well I think I'll go for a little while and let you two get to know each other. I will be back in an hour, that is unless, Gabriel would just leave with us and come home."

The look on my face was enough of an answer. I must have looked absolutely livid because he then left soon after. Matthew and I stood and starred at each other for a few moments as if we had both forgotten how to speak. It was Matthew who spoke first.

"Well. I'm Matthew."

"I know that."

"Okay. Do you want me to call you Hermione or Gabriel?"

"Honestly?"

"Yeah."

"You can call me Gabie, but don't tell Tom I told you that you could. He would be so furious. I always yell at him for it."

"Why do you hate him so much? I mean I know what he's done but he's still our father. He sent us away for our own safety. Surely you understand that?"

"That is the only thing I understand. I never thought he could be a caring person. And as for what he's done, his follower's have been making my life hell from the word go. One of his follower's is the reason I was petrified in my second year."

"So dad wasn't the one responsible for that." Matthew said in a matter of fact tone I knew all to well. I was surprised at how much he sounded like me.

"I don't care I just don't like people like him." Hermione said rather childishly.

Matthew just looked at me. In his eyes I saw understanding. But under that there was a sadness that I couldn't understand. He wanted me to give Tom an honest chance at being a father. After all he had been ripped from his body when were just infants. For the rest of our time together we dropped the sensitive subject. Instead we talked about our selves. I was glad to hear that he would be coming to Hogwarts for the rest of his schooling. That meant I was going to see a lot more of him. We agreed to meet in private when we did see each other because people would think it was weird that I had a twin brother I had never mentioned.

We enjoyed the time we spent together and both were glad that Tom gave us an extra hour to talk. When he walked through my bedroom door he had a look in his eyes that I knew no one had ever seen before. Probably for the first time in his life he was truly happy. Before he left he did something he had never done before; he gave me a kiss on the forehead. I had promised Matthew just a few moments ago that I would give him an honest chance to be a father. There was no doubt in my mind that he had heard me say so.

"Sweet angel, I hope to find you well when I return tomorrow. I am going to spend time with you outside of this place. I think it's time we began to understand each other. Who knows some day we may be just be like father and daughter, but for now I will settle for a little of your time here and there." he whispered in my ear before leaving with Matthew.

Matt gave me that 'told you so' look and then they were gone. I can honestly say that I was sorry to see them go. For a moment it was like we were a family. I hated Tom and his opinions of the world but Matthew was right. He was my father and he deserved a chance to be one. I was thinking about tomorrow as I drifted off to an easy sleep. It was the first night since his return that I had slept through the night.

A/N: please review. I really want to what you think. Matthew might seem like a weird name for a wizard, have any of you heard J.K. Rowling use the name Matthew, but it means a lot to me. Matthew is my little brother's name. Any way, leave a review telling me what you think.