Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, the Lord of the Rings, their dialogues, and their characters. They belong to their respective owners. So on with the story!

Chapter 1: The Secret Ancestry

The battle of Hogwarts had just come to an end, and Hermione somehow felt only slightly relieved. Now that everything had ended, shouldn't she be happy? But she wasn't feeling like she wanted to do celebration with the others. Instead, she felt hollow inside. She had spent most of her life in the past years to help Harry in his adventures. Now that everything was over and Harry's final adventure was finished, she didn't exactly know what to do in her life. She felt purposeless. She wandered around the castle of Hogwarts and ended up in the Gryffindor common room. There, she sat and contemplated on anything that came to her mind.

She suddenly remembered a letter that suddenly appeared on her bed the night Dumbledore died. She hadn't read the letter yet. She actually wanted to read it right after her hand touched the letter, but the grief of Dumbledore's death was too deep and she was too "occupied" with her cry. She kept the letter in her bag and the letter just slipped out of her mind. Until now.

She ransacked her bag and after ten minutes of search, she finally found the letter. She carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the paper inside it.

Dear Ms. Hermione Jean Granger, it said. She recognised the writing as Dumbledore's. A slight tear almost appeared in her eyes upon reading those words. It had been a long time since the last time she saw his handwriting.

I am aware that by the moment you read this letter, I am no longer living in this world. I wrote this letter to you to reveal a secret about your ancestry.

... and so she read on, and on...

Gandalf was sitting alone, smoking on a balcony in Rivendell. Just an hour ago, Aragorn, Sam, Merry, and Pippin set their feet on the land of Imladris and almost rushed into the room where Frodo was being tended by Lord Elrond. Gandalf's mind travelled from Orthanc in Isengard to Barad-dûr in Mordor. Now that there was an alliance between Saruman and Sauron, the chance for them to win this war is getting thinner. He knows a meeting was about to be held in a near time, but he was afraid of the outcome of the meeting. A quest to destroy the One Ring was certain. But the big problem, the one thing that had been bothering his mind, was: Who would do this quest? And if the quest failed, what would happen?

Gandalf then remembered a friend of his. This friend had helped Bilbo, the Dwarfs, and himself when they were travelling to the Lonely Mountain. Merlin. He was so young when Gandalf first met him during his quest with Bilbo. He couldn't forget the expressions on Bilbo and the Dwarfs' faces when they witnessed a nineteen-year-old boy fell from the sky and then tried to defend his own self with a wooden stick, which turned out to be magical. He also remembered the night when Merlin was about to leave Middle Earth, back to a place he called Camelot.

Gandalf was sitting in the library in Rivendell, someday in T.A. 2953. He was not actually there to read books. He was just seeking for some rest. He had just come back from the last White Council meeting. He finished a book and was putting the book back to its shelf when suddenly he heard a thud behind him. He turned around to find his friend, Merlin, now thirty one years old, there with his baby son in his arm. His eyes were rolling wildly when he made sure that nobody was listening. He started speaking when he was sure that there was nobody around.

"Gandalf, they attacked my house, Gandalf. My house! And they killed her!" It was obvious in his voice that he was in real hurry, and in deep grief. Gandalf couldn't comprehend who had attacked his house, but he didn't need to ask him who those people killed. Merlin had just lost his wife.

"Who attacked you, my friend? Tell me,"

"The wraiths. Sauron is getting stronger again, my friend. His servants are now gathering, and he is secretly eliminating his enemies one by one. I must leave now. I must leave back to Camelot. I can risk myself into danger, but my son? I will not let him be in danger. I will take him with me. There, where no one knows about him, I can protect him better. I do not care if I have to tell people there that he was not my son, but I will make sure no one will hunt him just because he is my son. He will be safe. I will see to it." Merlin said, his voice sounded resolute.

"If that is you decision, my friend, I shall do nothing to stop you. But if something happen, and your presence is direly needed again in this place, what should I do?" Gandalf asked.

Merlin sighed at Gandalf's question. "I already know you would ask me about that. I'm afraid I will not be coming back. This place reminds me of her. I can't bear looking upon this land again. The pain is too... too overwhelming. But take this horn. The sound of this horn will get past time and space. If such condition happens, blow this horn, and one of my heirs, one of my strongest and truest heirs, will come to aid, I promise you." Merlin then handed Gandalf a horn, coloured green and silver, but covered in red and gold fabric. (The colours of the horn are chosen because Merlin's a Slytherin, but about the red and gold fabric, there will be another story to explain that.)

"Thank you, my friend, for all you have done for Middle Earth," Gandalf said as he took the horn from Merlin's hand. He gave Merlin a smile, and for the first time since Merlin appeared in Elrond's library that day, Merlin smiled, and the worry in his eyes lessened.

"This place have given me Idhrenniel, and there is nothing I can give Middle Earth that can make us even," Merlin made to leave the place, but then he looked back at Gandalf again. "Gandalf, I trust you to keep the secret of my involvement in our last quest with our dear Bilbo. Should I ever change my mind, and return to this place with my son, I still want to live a peaceful, quest-free life. I don't think I would ever have that if the story of my involvement was spread," Merlin said with a smile, and then he winked his right eye. Now his voice sounded a little more relieved. Gandalf didn't know if he was just joking or not, but he wouldn't risk betraying his friend's trust, should he be serious.

"Then I will keep it a secret, and I will tell no one, except if it is really necessary," Gandalf said with a reassuring smile. Merlin smiled wider, and disappeared into thin air.

Gandalf stopped smoking and took out Merlin's horn from his robe. His frown disappeared from his face. Merlin, my friend, I think the time when you are direly needed has finally come. He hesitated for a moment before he blew the horn. There was no sound heard from the horn. He almost thought it was useless, but then he remembered that Merlin was not the kind of person who would break his promise. So now, he waited.

A few minutes later, he heard a woman's scream from below the balcony where he was smoking.

Hermione pondered over what was written in the letter. Her? The long-lost heiress of Merlin, the great sorcerer of the old time? This was definitely not what she expected when she read the letter.

She had just found out that Voldemort, about a year before the prophecy about Harry was made, had been doing some research to seek the long-lost heir of Merlin, for he was afraid that Merlin's heir could defeat him. Dumbledore thought that if he or she indeed existed, that heir must not be found by Voldemort. He also thought that this heir might be able to finish Voldemort, and thus he or she must be protected. When Harry's fate was prophesied, Voldemort stopped his search, thinking that whoever Merlin's heir is, he or she wouldn't finish Voldemort, because Voldemort believed that Harry would be the one destined to do it.

Although Voldemort stopped his search, Dumbledore didn't. Dumbledore thought that this heir might be able to assist Harry. So he went on with his search while keeping an eye on Harry. And he finally found him, Hermione's father. But Hermione's father, much to Dumbledore's surprise, didn't have magical powers. He, instead, had been living in the muggle world, and he even believed that he was just an ordinary muggle. Dumbledore theorised, that maybe the magical power in the family line had been dormant for so long, and finally, Merlin's descendants forgot about their lineage, and lived among muggles. And so Dumbledore stopped his search.

Years passed by and it's finally time for Dumbledore to admit Harry into Hogwarts. But he was surprised when he found Hermione Granger's name among the names of the to-be-students. The magic in the family had reawaken. Dumbledore decided to keep Hermione's ancestry a secret, leaving people believed that she was a Muggle-born. If people found out that she was Merlin's descendant, Voldemort's Death Eaters would hunt her down. When Voldemort returned, Dumbledore wrote the letter so when he died, Hermione would be informed about her ancestry.

For Hermione, this is a big shock. For years, she had been treated as a Mudblood, as they called her, but it turned out she was actually not one. Moreover, she was the heir of Merlin! She rose from the sofa, grabbed her magically enhanced bag, checked that her wand was still in place, and made to leave the empty common room to find his friends, Harry and Ron. But just as the common room's door opened, she heard a faint voice of a musical instrument. What instrument was that? It sounded like a horn. She decided to ignore the horn and stepped forward, getting out of the common room, but somehow, she just fell down into the floor. It was just as if there was a hole in the floor and she fell through it. She screamed and then felt something hard "embraced" her back as she touched the ground.