He apparated to the outside of a house located in a country suburb on the outskirts of London and entered from the back into the kitchen only to be greeted by silent darkness.
"Lumenos!"
His well trained eyes and ears searching for the slightest clue of how to proceed. They had been attacked in the earliest hours of the morning. This was no surprise as It was their way afterall and he should know better than most it had been the way of his life for as long as he could remember. Why Minerva had allowed her to come home was beyond him. He had warned her that of the three she was the most vulnerable.
Aggravated he moved quickly to the living room to find the remnants of a struggle. He found her wand in front of the fireplace and bending to pick it up noticed a hand sticking out from under the overturned bookcase behind the couch. It was attached to the grotesquely disfigured body crumpled in a fetal position on the floor beneath the pile of books, his face contorted to show the amount of pain he had suffered when he died. From the many pictures lining the walls and scattered about it was easy to see it was her father, reaching out to feel for a pulse but finding none he slowly closed the man's eyes and rose to stand.
"Who's there? Hermione? Richard?"
Turning to the sound of her voice he saw a woman struggling to stand as she clung to the entrance of the hallway moving her head from side to side listening, waiting for an answer her eyes sealed together from a blinding curse.
"I know someones here." Fear and frustration began to take over. "Answer me. What have you done with my husband and daughter?"
Walking towards her slowly so as not to add to her agitation. "Do not be afraid I am a friend of Miss Granger's. I am here to help."
She tried to move backwards but was too weak to do so as he stopped to stoop down beside her to get a closer look at her wounds. He could tell that she was having difficulty breathing and that much of her strength was coming from a mother's desire to protect her child. He'd seen enough death and destruction to know that her injuries were much more severe than they appeared and she didn't have much time left. It did not surprise him now as to why the girl had been placed in Gryffindor her first year as it seemed she came by her courage honestly.
"Just rest. Everything will be alright." His voice soft and gentle to prove he was a friend not a foe.
"My husband?"
"I'm sorry."
She nodded in understanding as a coughing spasm overtook her causing her to spit up blood from an internal wound within. "She tried to fight them. There was too many. The leader..the blond haired man just laughed at her. Her father and I tried to help but..."
"It's alright. You did everything you could. Your daughter is strong she would not have given up easily."
"Is she still alive do you think?"
"I believe so. Had they wanted it otherwise they would not have taken her."
"We always wondered if we had done right to allow her to go to that school when we learned about her abilities, but she was so miserable here so misunderstood by the other children. You should seen the excitement in her eyes at the thought that there were others like her and that she was not the odd one. All she'd ever wanted was to be accepted and not jeered."
"Children can be cruel." He replied remembering his own torments in his youth.
She was slowly becoming weaker with each breath and yet she seemed determined to speak and reached out to grasp his hand.
"You sound like an honorable and kind man. Can you promise me something?"
"Mrs. Granger...I..." His voice faltering.
"Please promise me?"
"As you wish." Wishing to offer her as much comfort as possible.
"If she is still alive promise me that you will find her, protect her and...," she grasped his hand tightly, "tell her that we loved her. Promise me?"
Feeling her grip loosening as her life ebbed away, Severus Snape made the promise that somehow knew would change his life forever.
"I promise."
