19 September 1999

"Hermione? Are you okay?"

A vigorous head shake was the only response Molly Weasley's question received.

The brunette witch's eyes widened as what had started as a mild tingling sensation around her mouth was quickly morphing into a severe itch.

Molly quickly stood up. "Oh dear, let's get you to St. Mungo's."

By the time the Weasley matriarch reached Hermione, large red hives were spreading down the younger witch's neck.

"Everyone else, stay here and enjoy the party, Hermione and I will be back later."

Molly quickly lead Hermione inside of the Burrow, but before they even took a few steps, Harry's voice rang out.

"Molly, you stay here. Let me take Hermione."

"Nonsense, Harry, you stay."

Molly didn't wait around any longer, she spirited Hermione into her home. As they walked, Molly looked at her adoptive daughter out of the corner of her eye. "Are you having any problems breathing?"

Another negative response.

"Good." Molly breathed a sigh of relief. "If you start to, tell me immediately."

Hermione nodded her head in understanding.

Molly sent them both through the floo network and into the main lobby of St. Mungo's Hospital.

Less than thirty minutes later, the partygoers looked up surprised as Hermione and Molly joined them again.

Ginny asked one of the questions on everyone's mind, "You're back already?"

Hermione just looked as surprised as everyone else. "Yes. They hurried me through to one of the emergency rooms since I was having an allergic reaction and they were worried about me suddenly having problems breathing. The weird thing is that by the time the healer stepped in to see me," she looked at Molly, "what not even ten minutes after we got there?"

"It was barely five minutes after we got there."

"Yes, that's probably more accurate." She turned back to everyone else. "By the time the healer was there, most of my symptoms were gone. And with the exception of a couple canker sores, all of my symptoms were gone before we left the exam room to come back here."

"Do they know what caused your symptoms?"

Hermione shook her head at Ginny's question. "No, they don't."

"And that's what bothers me." Molly frowned. "What if it happens again and you're by yourself?"

"Mum, Hermione can Apparate—"

"And what if she's in a Muggle area?"

Hermione smiled at the older witch. "Molly, if it happens again, I'll deal with at that time. In the meantime, I have an appointment to see an allergy healer on Friday."

"And before then, you might want to eat your birthday tart before Ronniekins decides you've taken long enough to get back to it and eat it."

"Oi!" Ron pulled his hand back from where it had been about to snag the lemon tart Molly had made Hermione for her birthday. He glared at George.

Hermione laughed at her friend, but quickly took her seat, reaching for her spoon.

"Hermione, don't eat another bite of that."

She frowned. "Why would I do that, Luna? Molly made this for me?"

"Come with me and I'll explain." The blonde witch stood up from the table and made her way towards the Burrow. When Hermione made no move to follow her, she turned back around. "Do you want to know what is going on with you or are you okay with not knowing the cause of the strange incidences happening to you?"

"How?"

Luna sighed. "Hurry up then. And Ron, you can have the rest of Hermione's dessert, she won't be eating it."

As Hermione stood up and followed Luna into the Burrow, both witches heard the confusion of their friends behind them.

Once they were in the quite of the Burrow, Hermione turned to Luna. "I have to agree with everyone. What's going on? And how do you know I've had other strange occurrences like this?"

Sitting across from each other at the kitchen table, Luna gazed at her, a serious look on her normally dreamy face. "You're allergic to lemons."

Hermione's eyes widened. "I've never had a problem with lemons in any form before. Where in the world did you get that idea?"

"What about the night at Angelina's hen party a month ago?"

"How do you know what happened, you weren't there, were you?"

Luna shook her head. "No, I wasn't, but I heard about what happened with your normal drink of choice."

"I take it Ginny told you that my Limoncello martini didn't agree with me?"

"Well, that's one way to put it."

Hermione shrugged. "I thought it was rancid lemon juice in the drink, but at least I didn't have as severe a reaction as I did tonight."

"Yes, that's definitely a good thing."

"You really think I'm allergic to lemons though?"

Luna sighed. "I really do, Hermione. Hold on a moment." The blonde witch stood up and made her way over to the counter where the extra lemons Molly didn't use were sitting in a bowl. Taking out one of the lemons, she used her wand to peel of a small slice of the zest, and after placing the lemon back in the bowl, she turned around and returned to the table. Resuming her seat, she placed the zest, slice side down, onto Hermione's arm.

It was just a few seconds later, when Hermione hissed and jerked her arm, knocking the lemon peel off her arm. Looking down, both witches saw a large hive blossoming where the peel had once been.

"This reaction can happen to anyone."

Luna nodded. "Well, yes, but not in seconds. Plus, you now have the ability to heal at a rapid pace. Look at what happened earlier."

"That was rather odd."

Luna nodded towards Hermione's arm. "Look."

Hermione looked down and indeed, the hive that had just spread across her forearm was already starting to disappear.

"This doesn't make any sense to me. What's going on, Luna?"

"You're a faerie. Actually, you are part faerie rather than full blooded, I think."

"I'm a what? You must be mistaken! I can't be a..."

Luna raised an eyebrow, cutting Hermione off. "And why not?"

Hermione snorted. "I'm a Muggleborn, remember?"

"You might be Muggleborn by wizarding standards, but that means nothing in regards to the fae world."

"You know quite a bit about the fae, are you part fae?"

Luna shook my head. "No, I'm not."

"Then how do you know that I am part fae?"

"As I said earlier, from the problems you've had come up in the past few weeks. Also, there is something else that I noticed when we were in school--your affinity for magical creatures."

Hermione laughed. "I'm not sure that's how house-elves would look at it."

"At the beginning, no, but once you had the chance to really get to know the elves then you changed how you wanted to help them. You have also had a rather good connection with other magical beings. The centaurs at Hogwarts, even the merpeople there, and let's not forget the werewolves, specifically Remus, to name a few."

"Huh, I never really thought anything about any of that."

Luna reached across the table and grasped Hermione's hand. "I know we haven't always seen eye to eye on things, so if you'd like to talk with someone else, I understand. I want you to know that I recently met the world-renowned magizoologist, Rolf Scamander."

Hermione's eyes lit up. "You've met him?"

Luna nodded. "Yes, I met him earlier this year at a conference and we've kept in touch since then. He's completed quite a bit of study on the fae, so if you would like, I'd be happy to set up a meeting with him for you."

"That would be wonderful, thank you." Hermione barely heard the rest of Luna said as she immediately started thinking about all the questions she would like to ask of the third generation magizoologist.

"You're welcome." She stood up. "Now, let's go back outside."

Luna moving out of her line of sight brought Hermione back to the present. Still smiling at the thought of meeting Rolf Scamander, she followed her friend back out to the party thrown in her honour.