The Lion's Return 1

“Hello professor.”Minerva McGonagall’s reply got stuck in her throat when Hermione Granger walked out of her office’s fire place followed by the three Black sisters. All four women having not been seen or heard from for 12 years. The last confirmed sighting of any of them being the day that Hermione herself cast the spell that killed Voldemort during the battle of Hogwarts. Hermione’s whereabouts being the greatest mystery in wizarding society as even those who claimed were her friends didn’t know anything. Little was known about the sisters either. The common thought being they went into hiding for fear of retribution from the Dark Lord’s followers and the public for their roles in the war. Even though proof of Narcissa and Bellatrix being spies had been released to the public many still thought they deserved some type of punishment for their roles as neither of their hands were completely clean. Seeing the four of them together in her office was not something Minerva had thought would happen when she received Hermione’s letter. A letter she had initially thought was a trick and didn’t believe it was from Hermione until she was provided further proof.

“Hello Ms. Granger. I’m surprised to see not only you but Mrs. Lestrange, Mrs. Malfoy and Mrs. Tonks with you.”Minerva jumped when she heard Bellatrix growl at her.

“Neither I or my sisters use the pitiful names of our former husbands.”Bellatrix told her.

“Bella calm down. She doesn’t know.”Hermione soothed.

Minerva watched in awe as Bellatrix immediately softened at Hermione’s touch.”I apologize I had not heard of any name changes.”

“It’s understandable. We have not been a part of your society for over a decade. You wouldn’t know our current marital status.”Narcissa said.

“How about we all take a seat and we can discuss that and why you have asked for this meeting.”Minerva suggested.

“Perfect.”Bellatrix grabbed Hermione’s arm and led her to one of the two arm chairs pulling Hermione on her lap after she sat down.

“Bella can you please act civilized in front of the headmistress.”Narcissa scolded.

Bellatrix smirked.“If I wasn’t acting civilized I would have already gotten Hermione naked and had her spread out in front of the fire with my tongue between her thighs.”

“Bella!”Hermione squeaked out.

“Oh come on pet. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had you in front of a fire with people watching.”Bellatrix said.

Minerva chose to ignore the comment and took a seat in the other chair leaving the love seat for Andromeda and Narcissa.”Can I offer you anything to eat or drink?”

"No thank you.”Andromeda declined.

Narcissa shook her head.”I’m fine.”

“We are as well.”Hermione spoke for both her and Bellatrix.

“Now then I assume that you aren’t here for a friendly visit.”Minerva would usually take the time to trade pleasantries but she was to curious about what Hermione and the sisters had wanted to talk to her about to waste the time with empty words.

“I guess we should start with the first time I spoke to Andromeda.”Hermione said.”Do you remember the first order meeting that myself, Harry and Ronald attended?”

“I do because I thought all three of you were too young to be there.”Minerva had fought with the others about including the trio and had been overruled.

“Well while you guys were arguing I decided to find somewhere to get a moment to catch my breath without anyone bothering me. Ironically the first room I found was the library. I was looking through the shelves when I reached out to grab a book but was interrupted by a voice warning me of the danger of touching it.”Hermione smiled at Andromeda.

“In return for that warning I received a very heated rant about the stupidity of blood purity and how the Black family were nothing more than inbred imbeciles who were a bunch of cowards that wouldn’t be able to hold their own against a properly trained muggleborn.”Andromeda finished for Hermione.

Hermione shrugged.”In my defense your family is a bunch of inbred imbeciles. I mean look at the rest of your family. Sirius being the perfect example.”

“Sirius Black was a hero who died fighting to protect people like you.”Minerva couldn’t believe that Hermione would say such a thing about the man.

Bellatrix laughed.”A hero?”

“Yes a hero. Who you killed.”Minerva had seen the memories of the people involved in the fight. It was Bellatrix who cast the spell that pushed Sirius into the void.

“Oh Minerva. You poor naive woman. The old man really did a number on you.”Bellatrix tutted.

“How dare you call me naive?!”Minerva was highly insulted that Bellatrix would say such a thing.

Narcissa glared at Bellatrix.”There is no need for insults. It’s obvious that she doesn’t know everything.”

“She was supposed to be Dumbledore’s right hand. She should know everything.”Bellatrix pointed out.

“What are you talking about?”Minerva had a bad feeling about what was going to be reviled.

“Sirius was a spy for Voldemort. He’s the one who broke him out of Azkaban.”Andromeda told her.

Minerva didn’t believe that for a second.”That is not true.”

“It’s very true and Dumbledore knew all about it.”Hermione said.

“What proof do you have of this?”Minerva asked.

“I will gladly give you my memories of overhearing conversations of Dumbledore talking to Moody about it.”Hermione offered.

“And I will give you some of my memories of being in the room when Sirius spoke to Voldemort and gave reports on what the Order was up to.”Bellatrix added.

Minerva stared at the two women in shock. She desperately wanted to believe they were lying but in her heart she knew they spoke the truth.”Why didn’t he tell me?”

“Dumbledore kept most things to himself. You didn’t even know that Bella and Cissa were spies until the war was over and the only reason you found out was because of the memories that they left for you to find.”Hermione reminded her.

“Why didn’t you come forward with this?”Minerva asked.

“I was afraid if I said anything that Dumbledore would deny the allegations and turn the rest of you against me. I did eventually tell Andy.”Hermione said.

“You could have said something after the war was over. Why did you let everyone think he was a hero?”Minerva couldn’t figure that part out.

“Honestly once the battle ended none of us really cared about any of it. We just wanted to forget about all the hardships we went through and live our life in peace. Something that would have never happened if we stuck around.”Hermione explained.

Minerva couldn’t argue with that. If Hermione had stayed she would have been hounded night and day by the public and the ministry. She was still mentioned in the press regularly.”I agree it would have been hard on you but why are you revealing yourself now?”

“Because our triplets have decided that they want to attend Hogwarts like their mothers did.”Narcissa told her.

“Triplets?”Minerva was positive that she hadn’t heard Narcissa correctly.

“Is that a problem?”Bellatrix asked.

Minerva shook her head.”No I just don’t understand what is going on. Who are the mothers of these triplets?”

“The four of us are.”Andromeda said.

“How is that possible?”Minerva had never heard of children with four parents.

“Well when one witch loves another witch the pair of them get naked and…”Bellatrix grunted in pain and rubbed her arm.”What was that for?”

Hermione glared at her.“You promised that you would let us handle this.”

“Hermione is the one who gave birth to all three girls but the myself and my sisters each sired one of them.”Narcissa explained.

“All four of you are in a relationship?”Minerva asked.

“Not in the way you are thinking. Each of us is with Hermione but we are not with each other.”Andromeda told her.

“How did this come about?”Minerva had never seen Hermione interact with Narcissa and Bellatrix and had only seen her talk to Andromeda a couple times.

“I know it’s a cliche and Hermione refuses to accept it but it was love at first sight for me. I had seen her walk into the house with her hair crackling with magic, wearing muggle clothes not caring one bit that everyone was obviously judging her. When I looked into her eyes I knew that she was my future and I was willing to do anything to have her. After the meeting in the library we began exchanging letters and met up a couple times in secret. We didn’t tell anyone because we knew that not a lot of people would approve of our relationship.”Andromeda explained.

Minerva was ashamed to admit that she would have been one of those people.”That’s understandable but how did you get together with Narcissa and Bellatrix?”

“Andromeda had told me all about her sisters and from her stories their behavior didn’t add up to me. I didn’t believe for a second that two people who would risk their parents wrath to go to muggle bars and had relationships with muggle women were happily married to men and dedicated to a cause they found so disgusting. Plus both of them were involved in the original Dumbledore’s Army during their school years.”Hermione told her.

“You both were involved in the illegal dueling club?”Minerva knew all about that club as it had gotten a lot of attention once it was found out that students were teaching each other dangerous spells that children shouldn’t have been learning.

Bellatrix smirked again.”Who do you think started it?”

“How did knowing this lead to you getting together with Bellatrix and Narcissa?”Minerva would think about the dueling club another time. It was more important to find out how this relationship came about.

“I knew how much Andy missed her sisters and how much she regretted leaving them behind for her sham of a marriage.”Hermione opened her mouth to continue but was cut off by Minerva.

“What do you sham of a marriage?”From what Minerva understood Andromeda and Ted had been madly in love.

“I found out when I was pregnant with Nymphadora that Ted had been using a love potion on me.”Andromeda smiled sadly.”You don’t have to feel bad. You didn’t know.”

“I should have though.”Minerva couldn’t believe that she hadn’t caught on that one of her students was drugging another.”When you figured it out why did you stay with him?”

“No one would have believed me and I had no place to go or gold to support myself. At the time I was young, pregnant with no skills to get a job and couldn’t reach out to my family for help. I was stuck and Ted knew it. After I confronted him he used my weaknesses to make me stay. He told me that he targeted me because he wanted to be able to brag that he was such an exceptional wizard that a pureblood woman would give up her entire life just to be with him.”Andromeda told her.

“What a bastard.”Minerva wished the man was alive so she could give him a peace of her mind.

“He left me and Nymphadora without a second thought once the news that Voldemort was back came out. Never even told us he was leaving. Just one day I went home and all his stuff was gone. No note or anything.”Andromeda said.

“No wonder you never seemed upset when you learned the news of his death.”Minerva had thought it was odd that Andromeda had acted almost happy when news of her husband’s death was revealed.

“Nymphadora was just as happy as I was.”Andromeda told her.

“Let’s get back to the other two.”Minerva wanted to get back to the original topic.”How did you even begin talking?”

“Our resident genius of a witch worked out a way for us to receive messages so that no one but the one it was addressed to would see it. If someone else tried they would have seen a receipt for various goods that were ordered.”Bellatrix looked at Hermione proudly.

Hermione waved away the compliment.”It was a simple spell that anyone could have come up with if they actually tried.

“You know that’s not true because many had tried to come up with similar spells and all could easily be broken. Yours was full proof and even Voldemort couldn’t see past it when he started to read everyone’s mail personally.”Narcissa said.

“Your spell fooled the Dark Lord?”Minerva was very surprised to hear that.

Bellatrix nodded.”Numerous times it tricked him.”

“Something we are forever grateful for because not only did we get to speak to Hermione that way we were able to rekindle our relationship with our sister.”Narcissa told her.

“We are all grateful for that.”Andromeda agreed.

“Especially because our pet was able to give us a heads up on what was going on in the Order after Dumbledore died and we were able to give her information on what was going on in Voldemort’s camp as Narcissa and I lost our only contact with the Order when the old man died.”Bellatrix said.

“That’s how you were able to predict so many of the Dark Lord’s movements.”Minerva had always wondered how Hermione had been able to outsmart her opponents during the war when others could barley keep themselves safe let alone the people they were supposed to be protecting.

“Well it wasn’t all the sisters influence that helped me outsmart people. I did a ton of research and taught myself to do advanced spell work with the books that Narcissa and Bellatrix sent me from the Malfoy and Black family libraries. Including the one that permanently killed Voldemort making it so he could never be resurrected again. I also figured out on my own how to remove the horcrux from Harry without killing him. That being something that Dumbledore was planning on letting happen.”Hermione told her.

“I never did know how Harry was able to survive that.”Minerva had personally tried to find a way to save Harry but never came up with anything. She had been over joyed when the war had ended and found out that Harry was free of Voldemort’s influence but had never found out the reason why and Harry never mentioned anything.

“It definitely wasn’t because of anything he or that idiot Weasel did.”Bellatrix said.

Andromeda huffed.“Of course not. Those two boys were nothing but dead weight throughout the years. More of a hindrance than anything to the missions. It’s a miracle they didn’t get Hermione or themselves killed many times over before the final battle.”

“The event at the Ministry and them being brought to Malfoy manor just being two of those incidents.”Narcissa added.

“Speaking of the manor. There are many witnesses to the torture you put Ms. Granger through. If you were working together why did you do it?”Minerva was very confused by Bellatrix and Andromeda’s laughter and Hermione’s blush. Even Narcissa sported a small smile.

“You want me to tell her pet or do you want to be the one to tell your Proffesor all about your kinks?”Bellatrix asked a very red faced Hermione.

“I gave my explicate permission for Bellatrix to torture me. It was the perfect way to keep her cover and not have her go after Ron and Harry who would have cracked right away and gave up the information. Also it was a chance for Bellatrix to forge a blood bond with myself, her and Narcissa by using a Black family artifact to perform the ritual. A ritual that was then performed with Andromeda later on sealing the unbreakable bonds between me and the three of them.”Hermione explained.

“You have a blood bond with each of them?”Minerva was very surprised to hear that as pureblood families only ever performed blood bonds on their wedding days as they couldn’t be undone unless the partner died. It just showed how serious the relationship with the women was.

“I know what you are thinking and you would be right. Myself and my sisters are each married to Hermione. The ceremony we did was both magical and muggle and legally binding. We filed our license with the Brazilian ministry so that no one thought twice about it.”Narcissa told her.

‘We each go by the sir name Granger-Black as do all of our children.”Andromeda said.

“How many children do you have?”Minerva asked.

Hermione smiled proudly.”We have five. The triplets are eleven and we have a 6 yr old and a 3 year old. All girls.”

“And mostly terrors.”Bellatrix mumbled.

“Your children are the terrors. My two are angels and are a perfect mix of Hermione and myself. Intelligent, polite and both with impeccable taste in clothing and decor. It’s your daughter and Andromeda’s two that have to constantly be reprimanded for their behavior and are known for destroying parts of our estates.”Narcissa pointed out.

“It’s also the reason I have put my foot down before we have another one because I need a break from all their craziness.”Hermione gave Minerva an apologetic look.”That craziness being the reason we are here. We have given the children the option to pick any magical school in the world they want to go to and the triplets have decided that they want to go to Hogwarts. I was wondering if that would be acceptable to you?”

Minerva could already imagine the headache of having not only another one of Andromeda’s children attend Hogwarts but Bellatrix’s as well. Narcissa’s wasn’t that much of a concern if they had truly forgone their prejudice than the worst they would be was stuck up like Draco. Then again they all had Hermione as a mother and Minerva had always wanted to be the one to teach her favorite student’s children. Something she had mentioned to the young girl many times.”That will be fine with me.”

“There is likely going to be some extra attention on them and we were hoping that you would be able to keep an extra eye on them so that no one gives them trouble.”Andromeda said.

“They will be starting the school year with Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley’s son, Neville Longbottom and Hannah Abbot’s daughter and Ron Weasel and Lavender Brown’s son so I’m sure they will have some people interested in being their friends.”Minerva could already see the group’s children getting along like their parents had.

“Our children are going to be proud Slytherin. I doubt they will be running around in those types of social circles.”Bellatrix groaned when she earned another slap.

“We will be proud of any house the girls get sorted into. Even if they are Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs.”Hermione told her.

“Nymphadora was a Puff so it wouldn’t be a surprise it Pyxis is one as well.”Andromeda said.

"Dora was a Puff due to her father’s influence. Pyxis has the blood of not only the Black family who pulled off the greatest deceit during the war but Hermione who was able to fight the war all on her own while no one even knew she was any kind of threat. All of those being Slytherin traits. The only reason she was a lion was because of her blood status. With Slytherin now taking in muggleborns and halfbloods it won’t be a problem for the girls to take a place in their rightful house.”Bellatrix assured her.

“Like Hermione said we will love them no matter what house they become a part of.”Narcissa told her.

“Well I’m sure whatever house they belong to will be lucky to have them.”Minerva was looking forward to finding out which house the children would be sorted into. The teaching staff already had a pool going for the other children with famous parents and Hermione’s triplets were going to cause quite the divide as nothing was known about them other than who their parents were. No one even knew what they looked like.

“Especially if it’s Slytherin.”Bellatrix said.

“How do you know they aren’t all going to be Gryffindors?”Hermione teased.

“No child of mine is going to be one of those cowardly lions!”Noticing the look Hermione was giving her Bellatrix quickly added.”You are not cowardly and as I said before you should have been a snake.”

“When we say our goodbyes I expect you to tell each of them that we will love them no matter what house they are sorted into. I don’t want any of them thinking you are disappointed with them if they aren’t Slytherin.”Hermione told her.

Bellatrix huffed.”Fine but that doesn’t mean I won’t be celebrating when they all are put in Slytherin.”

“Anyway. We have gotten off topic. We apologize but house rivalries are very much alive in our household. Especially when Nymphadora and Draco bring their families around.”Andromeda said.

“That means that not only do Nymphadora, Draco and their spouses know about all of you but so do their children?”Minerva concluded.

“Yes they all stay two weeks every summer with us and visit often.”Narcissa told her.

“How is it that no one found out about any of this?”Minerva would have thought at least one of the children who interacted with the public and other members of Hermione’s former friend group would have let something slip. Hermione was brought up enough by others that it wouldn’t have been a random topic.

“We asked them not to say anything and the children are utterly devoted to Hermione.”Andromeda smiled softly at Hermione.”She has them wrapped around her finger and they will do anything she asks and keeping us a secret was something they promised to do for her.”

“She is the Pied Piper when it comes to children. Nymphadora moved in with us right after Remus Jr. was born because Hermione was the only one who could get him to calm down for the first three months of his life.”Bellatrix said.

“I didn’t think of Remus Jr. being a student here. That will give the triplets someone looking out for them.”Minerva knew that Remus would look out for his family.”I noticed that Draco and Astoria aren’t sending their child to Hogwarts.”

“He decided that he is done with England and has settled in France and will be sending all his children to Beauxbatons.”Narcissa explained.

“I see.”Minerva was a little hurt that Draco was abandoning Hogwarts all together but understood his choice.

“Now that you know the situation we should get going. We left the girls with Dora and Remus looking after them and the last time we did it took over a month to repair the damage to our villa and the grounds surrounding it.”Hermione said.

Narcissa stood from her seat.“Most of that damage done by Pyxis and Ursa.”

“Vela may not have cast the spells but she gave them the ideas because we all know there is no way the duo would have come up with half that stuff on their own and Nymphadora and Remus wouldn’t chance getting in trouble with you and Hermione.”Andromeda argued.

Hermione stood from Bellatrix’s lap and pulled the other woman up by the hand.“Please accept our apologizes now Headmistress because I have no doubt that the triplets are going to be keeping you on your toes and we expect to be visiting you often about their hijinks.”

“I think if I was able to deal with the three Black sisters and the Golden Trio and lived I will be able to handle anything your girls throw at me.”Minerva didn’t think the girls were as bad as the four women were making them out to be.

“Famous last words.”Bellatrix said.

Hermione pushed her towards the fire place.”Come on Bella let’s go see what kind of trouble your daughter has gotten into.”

“Thank you for seeing us Headmistress.”Narcissa said as she followed Hermione and Bellatrix through the fire.

“Will you please let us know right away if they are having any problems with anyone?”Andromeda asked.

Minerva nodded.”I promise.”

“Thank you.”Andromeda said before walking into the fire.

“Well this year is sure to be exciting.”Minerva mumbled to herself. Never in a million years had she expected that her meeting with Hermione would have gone the way it did. She had thought that Hermione was reaching out to her to speak about reintegrating with the wizarding world. Not that she was married to the three Black sisters and wanted their children to attend Hogwarts. That meant that three letters needed to be sent out as school was going to begin in a few days and the girls would need to get all their supplies. Minerva wondered it they would make a public appearance to buy everything they needed. If they did it would likely cause quite the stir. Hermione was the most respected war hero from both wars with Voldemort. There were many tributes to her all throughout England including in the Ministry and a statue at Hogwarts on the very spot she killed the Dark Lord. Once it was found out what she had been doing and who she was doing it with the public was going to react and not likely in a positive way. The Black sisters didn’t have the best reputation and Minerva doubted even Hermione would be able to make them respectable. Not that it mattered. What mattered was that Hermione had trusted her to protect her children and Minerva was going to do everything in her power to do that. After everything Hermione had done for the world it was an easy task.