Code Red

A/N: my new little ficlet. It shall have chapters, though I don't know how long the entire story will be. It's been fun to write, except it's really weird, because I normally focus ion Lily and James, and this is an era that makes them grandparents, so sorry if it's a little weird for me at times! Hope that you like it! PLEASE REVIEW!

Disclaimer: None of this is mine. Harry Potter isn't mine.

Jessie WHO?

"Mum!" Hermione Grangers daughter Jessie cried at her, running through the house excitedly, waving something in the air, her vivid orange hair dancing behind her happily.

"Mum I got a letter! I hardly ever get letters! Wait-" she slowed down as she reached the kitchen, and Hermione turned from the coffee machine she had been using to face Jessie, her face white with fear. It had come.

"Wait mum, it's not to me after all. They have the wrong last name. It must have been to someone else." She said slowly, her face falling, handing the letter to her mum.

Hermione took it, quickly, ashen faced, and read the name that was printed so delicately in Professor McGonagal's hand,

To Miss Jessie Weasley

Hermione groaned, and looked at the Hogwarts crest on the back on the envelope, in a reminiscent daze. She needed to talk to Harry.

Harry Potter stoped short, mid sentence.

"Excuse me." He said to Kinsley Shacklebolt. The Muggle cell phone in his pocket was vibrating ceaselessly. He had learnt from experience that it was best not to produce things such as his cell phone or his muggle laptop in the middle of the Ministry of Magic, as it caused much excitement among his colleagues, so much in fact that the last time Hermione had called he hadn't been able to hear a word over shouts of 'Would you look at that?" and "Ingenious!"

Harry slunk quickly around to his cubicle in the auror office, pictures of Ron, James, Ginny and Jade all staring down at him happily. Hermione never would give him a picture of her. She was terrified that Ron would find it, for she liked how she looked now, and didn't want him to find her new identity. A pretty picture of Harry and Ginny together, smiling, her in a white dress and he in new dress robes took pride of place on a photo frame by the in tray. A large poster of a Quidditch team in bright red also zipped arouses his walls, as did the one of the Chuddley Cannons, which Ron had crudely stuck over the top of his notice board on his first visit to Harry at work, saying that the place needed some brightening up.

"Hermione." Harry said, sitting down on the comfortable armchair that sat in front of his desk. "How are you?"

A squeak was all that could be heard from the other end of the line.

"Hermione? Are you alright?"

"Er, hi Harry." She said, her voice sounding quiet and hoarse. "I need to talk to Ginny…"

"I'm at work. But it's nice to feel needed." Harry joked. Hermione gave a small, invisible smile through the phone.

"Sorry," she said. Harry heard a sniff, and tried awkwardly and quickly to comfort his old friend.

"Well, I'm here, what's wrong?" he said in a forced cheerful voice. Hermione hesitated for a moment.

"It's about Jessie." She said finally. Harry managed a laugh.

"Ah yes, the infamous goddaughter that I have never met."

"Harry, it's not like you live around the corner…"

"Hermione, I could apparate to Australia when ever I want, and it's not as though you haven't come to visit…"

"I know Harry, just…" she trailed off.

"Harry, Jessie got a letter." Harry froze. His daughter, Jade had gotten her Hogwarts letter that morning to, amid much celebration, and little James screaming that he wanted to go too. Harry was confused. It had been so unlikely that Hermione's daughter would be a witch.

"But…but her fathers a muggle, and you're…well you're…"

"I'm a muggle now Harry! And don't talk like I'm ashamed of it, I made my chose." She said wearily, having had this conversation with James many times.

"Yes, well, it seems unlikely that there would be another muggleborn witch just one generation on…" he trailed off.

"Er, Harry." Hermione's voice was very small now, and hoarse. "Harry, Jessie's father, he's not a muggle…" she said slowly, beginning to cry again.

"Hermione?" Harry asked, more confused than ever.

"Um, I think that it's time that you met your god daughter Harry…" she said gradually.

"Who is her father the Hermione? I don't understand…"

"Um, we never told you everything that happened that night Harry…" Hermione started, and realisation dawned on Harry like a bolt of lightning. He had been pacing the short length of his cubical for the last few minutes, but when Hermione said this, his knees became weak, and he settled himself down in his chair.

"Harry?"

Harry said nothing.

"Harry? Harry please say something!" Hermione said, crying steadily, hoping that it didn't show in her voice. Harry found his voice.

"Hermione, Jessie is going to Hogwarts." He said definitely. "You're not stopping Ron's daughter from going to Hogwarts. I don't care, her godfathers making this decision for her, seeing as she doesn't know who her real father is." He said, and pressed the button on his phone firmly, and resting his head in his hands on his desk, his eyes wide.

Picking up his cloak from the back of his chair, Harry ran down to the atrium, and flooed back home as quickly as he could. It was Ron's day off, he and Ginny would be there, and so would the kids…

Hey, this means that you have a niece… Harry thought to himself vaguely as the flames licked at his heels and he spun quickly, through the warm fire, and landed dishevelled in the empty fire grate of his home, in the outskirts of London.

A picture of his and Ginny's wedding day sat on the mantle piece proudly, and one of the two of them, Ron and Hermione, smiling. Both these pictures had been taken on the same day, and the last day that Ron had ever seen Hermione.

A simple misunderstanding had turned into the worst mistake of his life, and the vision of Hermione running form the apartment in a teary heap still made him shake today. That's why Ron didn't like to think of Hermione Granger and what she had become. He didn't know where she was now. Harry and Ginny must still be in contact with her, and though he tried to apologise for years after that, the letters that he had written saying sorry had slowly dwindled down, so that they made no contact at all, through Ginny and Harry or otherwise.

He didn't even know if she was in the country anymore.

"Harry!" exclaimed Ginny, from her place at the table. "Is everything alright? It's not lunch yet?"

"I know, I had to talk to you." He said quickly. They gave a pointed look at Ron, who was watching carefully as James floated around on his tiny broomstick, his toes skimming the floor of the kitchen as he yelled "Higher! Higher!"

"What? What is there that the two of you cant say in front of me?" Ron asked.

"Fine we'll go upstairs." Harry said, giving his friend a grimace, and looking at Ginny. She groaned.

"I don't feel like moving! Please, please just say what ever it is in front of Ron! He's right, it's not like we're hiding anything from him."

Harry groaned. "It's about your goddaughter." He said to her. Ginny's eyes became round.

"Or should I say, it's about your niece." Ron looked bewildered, and Ginny gave Harry a strange look of confusion, and sighed, curious. She would have to find out now…

"Bill made you godmother? That's no fair! You're everyone's godmother, I swear, it sucks that you're the only girl in the family! Hey!"

Ron looked away form James, and back to where Ginny was dragging Harry up the stairs.

"Fine then! I come over for a bloody cup of tea and end up baby sitting!"

"Higher!" cried James. Ron sighed, and shook his head at the boy.

"Please uncle won won!" James whined, getting off the broom with a sulky look on his face.

"HARRY!" Ron roared, directing his voice up the stairway, "HARRY HAVE YOU BEEN TEACHING HIM TO SAY THAT!"

There was no reply. Harry and Ginny were locked safely in their room, and Harry was looking grim, as Ginny's hand clapped to her mouth in understanding.

"Wow." She said, after about a minute. "Wow wow wow."

Harry nodded blankly, and slowly took a seat beside her.

"Um, so, what's she going to do? Are we going to tell Ron or…?"

"I don't know. I sort of, well, hung up on her…she should tell him herself. Stupid prat."

"Harry! Don't you see what this means? All this time Hermione's led us to believe that she has a family, and a happy life, but she's really been bringing up a child all on her own! Don't you know how hard that would be? And not being able to use magic-"

"She could use magic if she wanted to…" Harry growled.

"I know, but she doesn't. We cant blame Hermione Harry, as much as I don't want to believe it, Ron must have done something for her to cut him out like this, if he had a daughter."

"But what? I didn't even know that they were together back then!"

"Oh Harry, yes you did! It was so obvious, you just didn't want to say anything because that would be awkward." Ginny said.

"How did you know that?" Harry asked, slightly offended at the extent of her insight. Ginny giggled.

"You're not that hard to work out Harry." She said, pulling him into a hug.

"It's just weird, you know? All these times that we've seen her, all the times that we've talked, why didn't she ever say?" He whispered, inhaling the sweet scent of her ginger hair and pressing his face into her neck, feeling the warmth of her arms wrapped comfortingly around him.

"I don't know. I guess she was ashamed of running away." Ginny suggested.

"Wow! I'm an aunty!" She added at last, breaking apart.

"You're already an aunty! What about the twins? Giselle? Mark?"

"I know, I guess it's different…it's Ron and Hermione's kid, you know? I guess that I always thought I'd be there to see that one grow up!"

"Mmmmm. I know what you mean."

"We need to talk to Ron." Harry said. Ginny shook her head.

"No, I think that we have to talk to Hermione. I don't care what she says, we are going to Australia, and we are going to find her."

"Find her? How are we going to do that?"

Ginny gave him a small smile.

"When she left, she left a note. She left an address Harry; I just wasn't allowed to use it unless it was an absolute emergency. As in someone dies. Except for Ron. She said that he could go to hell if he wanted to."

"Ok then! Lets go!" Harry said, and ran down the stairs. Ginny followed, a crumpled piece of paper, yellowing with age curled up in her balled fist.

"What are you two doing?" Rona asked, when they came rocketing down the stairs and threw fistfuls of floo powder into the fire.

"Nine Arncliffe Avenue, Sydney Australia!" Ginny said, stepping into the fire, which had turned blue, inviting her in. Harry followed quickly behind, giving a small wave to Ron.

"We could be a while! Take care of the kids!" He called, before disappearing in a shoot of flames. Ron stared at the empty grate, gob smacked.

"What did he say?" asked Ginny, when they were kneeling by the fire place in a strange house, full of muggle appliances. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Started to yell out for an explanation. God, what's wrong with saying take care of the kids? I'm taking care of his!" he laughed, and even Ginny grinned. They looked at the dark, star scattered sky peeking through the window; it must be around midnight here. There was a noise on the staircase.

Ginny and Harry whipped around, and stared for a moment at the terrified figure on the staircase. She was a delicate build, though fairly tall for the age of ten, and had flaming orange hair and deep brown eyes, Ginny gave a little yelp of surprise, and even made a move to hug the girl, before the girl gave out an ear-splitting scream. Harry and Ginny were startled, as Jessie started throwing things at them, ornaments bouncing painfully off their heads as she screamed her lungs out, her eyes wide on fear.

"MUM!MUM THERE'S PEOPLE IN THE HOUSE! MUUUUUUUUM!" There were frenzied footsteps pounding down the stairs, before Hermione jumped around the corner brandishing a baseball bat, and swung it around wildly.

"MUUUUUM!"

"I'm here! I'm- Oh my god!" she said, falling silent at the sight of Harry and Ginny, and putting a comforting hand on Jessie shoulder, quietening the girls down.

"Stop throwing things sweetie, I know them! I know them, calm down; they must have…" she silenced herself. She was about to say flooed here, but she corrected herself in time, "They have a key…"

Jessie raised her eyebrows.

"Wow." She said, staring at Ginny. Her eyes lingered curiously on the all too familiar hair.

"Go back to bed sweetie, I'm sorry that they scared you. Go back to sleep." Hermione said quietly.

"But-"

"Jessie!"

"Ok, ok, I'm going, I'm going." The ten year old said, and slinked back up the stairs to her bedroom.

Hermione smiled sadly, apologetically at Harry and Ginny, who were standing amid a mess of broken glass and plaster, from things thrown at them. There was blood trickling down Ginny's forehead, and Harry had a large cut ion his right cheek.

"At least we know that you'll be safe if anyone breaks in.," said Ginny, giggling, "Not that they're be anything left to rob, I think Jessie's thrown the entire contents of your house at us!"

It was as though her mild jokes had broken through the eleven years of tension that guarded the three of them, and Hermione took them to the kitchen, hugging each of her old friends in turn, and made them a coffee.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked, when they were sitting around a small kitchen table. Ginny scoffed.

"Visiting my niece." She said, aloof. Hermione looked nervous.

"Hermione, what even happened? What could Ron have possibly done to make you not tell him that he had a daughter?" Ginny asked. Hermione deflated under there gaze, and took a deep sip of her coffee before continuing, not removing her eyes once from their expectant faces.

"Ok." She said, sitting back in her chair. "You mean that he's never even told you? Ron has never once slipped up and confessed? Never confided in you when he'd had too much fire whisky? Never, maybe, left a post it note on the fridge, 'by the way, I cheated on Hermione!'?" Hermione asked, sounding slightly hysterical. Ginny and Harry's moths hung open, and they shook their heads in amazement.

"Well, I thought that you knew. I apologise for the way that I sprung the fact he had a daughter on you today Harry, you must have spent all day thinking that I was an inconsiderate witch!"

She put her head in her hands on the table, before looking up quickly, "And when I said witch, I didn't mean it in an offensive way Ginny. I know that you're a witch and all, I didn't mean it like that." They exchanged worried looks over Hermione's garbling, and looked at her to tell the story.

"Ok, well, there's not much too it, really. The night of your wedding, Ron and I…well we…well, you know what happened. And then we stayed up the rest of the night talking, about everything. It was amazing. I've never seen that side of him before! I was sure that we were…I mean, we never said, but we were together." She sighed, before continuing. Ginny reached out and grabbed her hand.

"And then the next day, when you two went off on your honeymoon and we were all still staying at that hotel in Paris for a week? Well, I went to his room to talk to him, about what had happened I guess, to ask him if he wanted to go out to dinner, and I open the door and find him snogging Lavender Brown, lying there, on the couch, where we had stayed up the last night talking, where I'd fallen in love with him! Where…"

She trailed off, and started to cry.

"Well, I couldn't do anything. I stood in the doorway, shocked, and he looked up and saw me, and began to splutter, you know, as he does, and then I just turned, and I ran. I don't know, I could never stop running. I ran all the way here."

"I was just going to stay for a holiday here, at the start. It seemed like a long way away, he would never be able to find me here. And then I found out that I was pregnant with Jessie. And I love Jessie, don't get me wrong, but I just knew that if I went back then Ron would use her as a way to get me to talk to him, and I never wanted to see him again, let alone talk to him, so I stayed. I changed what I looked like, just in case anyone recognised me, and snapped my wand in half, so that I couldn't do magic. I do see it though, in a way that most muggles cant. It's strange, something weird will happen, and everyone will blame it on the weather, or that they're having a bad day, or they were having a hallucination, but I know what's going on."

She looked sad for a moment, knowing the question that was coming.

"And you raised her…all on your own…without magic?" Hermione nodded. And the other two looked at her amazed.

"God Hermione. You must be…"Harry cast around to find the right word, "Exhausted. Ginny and I can barely hardly James, and that's with magic, and there's two of us!"

"I'd love to meet them." Hermione said wistfully. "Ginny? Are you alright?" she asked. Ginny stood abruptly from her seat, and drew a tiny silk bag from inside her coat, walking back to the fire, which she sent flaming in the empty grate.

"Ginny? Er, where are you going?" Harry asked, the woman standing, her ears red with anger, blending magnificently with her hair and it swished around her shoulders madly.

"I'm going home. I need to give that stupid nose hair of a brother of mine what he deserves!"

"But Gin, I think I should-"

"Shut it Harry! This ones mine! I can handle it! I can be calm!" she said, disappearing into the fire.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DID YOU THINK THAT YOU WERE DOING?" Ginny roared, storming out of the fire and bearing down on her brother, who was sitting in the same spot, James sleeping up stairs.

"Um, I was drinking a butterbeer…it's not that strong! It's not like I'm drinking fire whisky while baby-sitting! Don't hold a grudge, Harry did it too!"

"THAT'S NOT BLOODY WELL WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT RONALD WEASLY! WHEN YOU'RE MADLY IN LOVE WITH A GIRL FOR EIGHT BLOODY YEARS YOU DO NOT CHEAT ON HER AFTER ONE NIGHT! THAT IS A SCUMMY-" she hit him once over the head, "LOW-LIFE-" she walloped him again, 'THING TO DO!" Ginny kicked Ron in the shins. He sat there, gazing at her, opened mouthed.

"Now, if you will excuse me, I have to get back. Harry's waiting for me."

"Did you…Are you in touch with…"Ron looked shocked, an amazed, and Ginny realised her mistake immediately.

"Lavender." She said promptly. Ron's eyes became almost as enraged as Ginny's had been a moment before hand. "I'm in touch with Lavender."

"SHE wants to talk about scummy things to do? I'll give her scum! I HATE HER! When someone offers you in because you're crying over another guy, it IS NOT an invitation to start snogging them-"

"Ron! I don't want to hear it! I DON'T want to hear about what ever the hell it was that you got up to with Lavender Brown, just stay there, I'll be back tonight, Harry too. Call Remus if you have any problems with the kids." Ginny said, wearily, before flooing back across the world again.

Ginny whipped her clothes down of soot, and stepped, dignified out of the fireplace.

They both looked up at her from the couch.

"He thinks that we're at Lavender Brown's house." She said, shrugging at them, and brushing her hands briskly, taking seat next to Harry.

"She's going to Hogwarts." Ginny said simply.

"She can't." Hermione said, practically pleading. "She just can't! She has no idea about any of it! About any of our world…"

Harry gave her a look. "Did you know about any of that when you got your letter? Did I?"

"She will be so mad at me when she finds out that I didn't tell her! She'll hate me." Hermione said miserably. Harry remembered how he had felt, knowing that the Dursleys had known all along that he was a wizard, and never telling him…

"Maybe she doesn't have to know." He suggested, slowly, the cogs of the plan falling smoothly into place, a pensive expression on his face. Hermione and Ginny looked at him quickly, Hermione's look of relief and Ginny's of outrage. He put up a hand to silence both of them, who had started talking at once, arguing and agreeing in loud whispers. He gave a nervous glance to the stairway, in case their voices were carrying.

"I'll modify her memory of tonight, you change the name on the envelope, contact McGonagal, get her to change her surname to Granger on all the documents. Then get the letter and act exactly as your parents did when you received yours." Harry said. Hermione's face brightened. Ginny looked sceptical.

"And you think hat that's going to work? Hermione pretending not to know?" she said. Harry nodded. Ginny shrugged, as though she gave up on the pair of them

"And we don't tell Ron?" Ginny asked Harry. He looked upset for a moment.

"Not for the meantime. I think that we'll have to some point down the track, but you always have Hermione." He said, before she could interrupt. "You always had to face him sometime, and this is just another way of postponing it, like you have been the rest of her life."

Hermione nodded and smiled. Her daughter at Hogwarts. It was a weird thought. But it could just work.

Please Review! Please! I don't know weather to continue to post what I have written on this! Please give me feedback! I promise that I will write back andf read ur fics! I always wb to reviews, I cant not! Pls pls press that little blue button, so that I don't become as blue as that button!

Thanks for reading!

Luv Ella xXx