Disclaimer: Not mine. If it were, Harmony shippers would be celebrating.
A/N: My response to the "Hermione's sister" challenge by Strawberry Nerd. You can find it here: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26786 . I hope you'll like the story, it will start from HBP, during sixth year, but hopefully this new character will help change things, uh? ;)
A Sister's Influence
Chapter One: Prologue
Ophelia Jane Granger sighed as she rubbed her hazel eyes. On the desk in front of her lay the last letter from her younger sister Hermione, currently enrolled in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Taking the sheet of parchment in her hands once more, she reread her sister's neat handwriting, shaking her head. She had sworn to help Hermione avoid her own mistakes, and it was time she started acting on that.
Knowing Hermione, Ophelia knew that a subtle approach would not work. At times, her brilliant sister needed the truth shoved in her face hard, so that she could admit her mistakes, and this was clearly the case.
But after all, what teenage girl didn't make mistakes when it came to boys? It was the duty of a older sister to warn about some pitfalls on that road. When she was sixteen years old, Ophelia had lived through a similar situation and it had been Hermione, only eleven years old at the time, that had helped her through the hurt and the tears, and the heartbreak.
Now it was time to pay back that debt. Taking a pen, and a blank sheet of paper, she pinched her slightly bent nose, result of a fall from a swing when she was just six, and started writing furiously. There were many things she needed to open Hermione's eyes about, and she hoped she could manage the difficult task. Her little sister was quite stubborn at times, which was a Granger family trait, and Ophelia would not give up until she had convinced Hermione to share her views.
She didn't fool herself thinking that at twenty-one she had all the answers, but she liked to think she had many. She also knew soon or later Hermione would have boy troubles, it was bound to happen. Which is why Ophelia had prepared adequately, taking the necessary steps to protect her from the likes of Jason.
God, the simple name of her ex-boyfriend still irked her, even after so long. The manipulative bastard who had once stepped all over Ophelia's heart had been the reason why Hermione had had to help her rebuild her self-confidence, which she had slowly managed. Not wanting Hermione to go through that, the older sister had taken lessons in martial arts, namely Judo, Karate and Ju-jitsu, so that she could kick Hermione's boyfriend miles away if she had the slightest feeling he was like Jason, although her official reason to take those lessons was self-defence. A good old, heavy shovel on his head would be good too, but nobody in the Granger household knew about where she had one hidden for "emergencies".
It took Ophelia a hour to write all what she wanted to, and rereading it she was quite satisfied with the outcome.
Hermione would surely have to think about what her older sister had written to her, that was the reason why she wrote Ophelia so often, at least once a week, and told her everything going on at Hogwarts.
Trolls, Basilisks, the taunting of the Slytherins about her origins, a convicted murdered escaped and then revealing to be her best friend's godfather, a deadly tournament with foreign schools, the first date with a celebrity, the return of a madman who wanted her best friend dead, and finally a trap in the Ministry of Magic where Hermione herself had almost died. And now, a mysterious Prince and his Potions book, Ophelia knew much more about what went on in the Wizarding world than their parents.
Terence and Natalie Granger would have surely withdrawn their daughter from the magical school if they knew, and Hermione had sworn Ophelia to secrecy.
The older girl couldn't understand why her sister wanted so badly to be part of an old, bigoted, dangerous world, but who was she to go against Hermione's wishes and possibly ruin her life? So she listened and gave advice as best as she could, being Muggle. Some things she couldn't understand, but her point of view had always been held in high regard by Hermione.
Ophelia hoped it would be the same this time.
Sighing, she put the letter inside an envelope and addressed it to her sister, then took another blank sheet. She had another letter to write, to a person who didn't even know she existed, from what she knew. She hoped she could have an effect, albeit little, on him too.
However, she was interrupted by her roommate Helen.
"Ophelia, we're going into town, will you come with us?"
The brown haired girl weighted her options. Being enrolled at Harvard to pursue a degree in biochemistry, Ophelia rarely went out to have fun. She wasn't as obsessed with study as Hermione, and had always been more social than her younger sister, but still she was one of the best students in her classes. She would have to decide exactly which field of medicine she would like to pursue, but for now, biochemistry would do.
Her coming to Harvard had been Hermione's idea. Ophelia was enrolled at Oxford when Voldemort resurrected, and her younger sister hotly recommended she leave the country to avoid being involved in the upcoming war. Trusting her judgement, Ophelia had transferred.
Finally making a decision, she sighed, left the pen on the table promising to write that second letter later, and joined her friends for a night out. A bit of fun would help her relax and maybe she could think about what to write to a boy she never met.
-->