Obligatory: All characters and such belong to JKR. I just like to take them out for a little drive, but I always bring them back before bed time (except for Severus; he gets to stay out a bit later. Ahem.).
"Mum, why haven't I got a daddy?" The young girl's dark eyes shone up at her with causal curiosity.
"What do you mean, darling?" Her mother turned to her with surprise.
"Well, everyone's got a mum and dad, haven't they"
"Yes, of course, but"
"Like James. Aunt Ginny is his mum, and Uncle Harry is his dad. And you have Grandma and Grandpa. Everyone else I know has got a mummy and a daddy, but I haven't." The girl looked at her mother with accusatory eyes.
"It's true, dear, everyone has got a mum and dad, but it's sort of, well, complicated for you." The mother shifted in her seat, trying to buy some time.
"What am I going to tell everyone at school this year about why I haven't got a dad? All my classmates will have dads, and they'll know that you're my mum because you're a teacher, so what am I supposed to tell them"
"The same thing I've told you for eleven years: your father is gone." The mother looked away from her daughter's intense eyes and looked with shame into her hands.
"Is my dad dead, Mummy?" The girl frowned.
"No, your father isn't dead, sweetheart, he's just sort of missing"
"Missing? Do you even know who he is?" Her voice got louder and her eyes less forgiving.
"Zoe! What would make you say such a thing?" The mother was suddenly shocked by her daughter's boldness.
"I am eleven years old, Mum. I am about to start at Hogwarts. Still, after all this time, you have never said a word about who my dad is, so I am starting to think that maybe you don't know. All I know is that everyone else has one, and I haven't"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Hermione moaned into the darkness of her room, shaking herself from the dream, a dream similar to so many she had been having for the last year. "I have got to get some Dreamless Sleep potion from Poppy," she muttered, shrugging herself into her dressing gown and going to her daughter's room.
Zoe was peacefully sleeping in her crib, getting bigger almost every day; even now, when Hermione was pretending a spoon was an airplane to get her daughter to eat, she still worried about that day when she would be forced to answer that question that had been haunting her dreams.
And what would she tell her? Of course she knew who the father was, as there was only one possible candidate. But would she ever be able to speak the words aloud? It was true: he was missing, missing to her. There had not been a word from him in almost two years, and she knew others knew where he was, but after all this time and so many unanswered owls, she refused to ask.
No one else but Hermione knew who Zoe's father was, and he didn't know that he had a daughter. No one ever asked; not even her best friends Ron, Harry, and Ginny asked, somehow sensing that the truth was too painful for Hermione. When she first started to show, her colleagues at Hogwarts, where she now taught Transfiguration, looked her over curiously, but they all knew better than to ask. Even Minerva McGonagall, Hermione's confidant in so many things, remained silent.
Hermione never felt badly about keeping the secret, save for when Zoe's older self confronted her in her dreams. Surely, Hermione would have to tell her one day, she knew, but what would she say? Sure, it had been a one night stand of sorts, but for Hermione it had been so much more than the phrase usually implied. She knew it had not been for him because if it had he would not have stayed so carefully out of contact for so long. Hermione had owled him a few times after, never mentioning the growing pregnancy, but still she had tried to express some urgency in her communications. After two months, she gave up, and all that she had left was a fatherless child and the question she would one day have to answer.
With little chance of returning to sleep, Hermione quietly turned from her daughter's room and gently pushed the door closed. She sat down at her desk to work on her lesson plans for the year. Three years ago, she had taken over the position of Transfiguration professor from Minerva who had tried and failed to balance serving as Headmistress and professor for three years after Professor Dumbledore's death. Hermione had done intensive Potions and Transfiguration training at a university in France for a year after graduating from Hogwarts, and then worked for the Ministry during the long trials that took place in the years following the war to bring all the remaining dark witches and wizards to justice. When Minerva asked her to take over the position, she didn't think twice about saying yes.
The work had been a comfort to Hermione, as it had served as an anchor to normalcy after the end of the war, which had taken place in the summer following her seventh year at Hogwarts. So many lives had been lost and so much destruction had been wrought that to return to life as she had known it for seven years in school was a comfort. Of course, the students weren't always easy to deal with, and the work was always hard, but she knew that her place was in teaching future generations to stand up for good magic, and she took it very seriously.
Still, her daughter and the girl's father haunted her dreams, and she wondered how long she could keep silent about the truth. Sometimes she wanted to scream it from the rooftops if she thought it would bring the man to her. She knew it wouldn't.
After a couple of hours of going through her notes from the past years and settling on a schedule for her first and second year classes, she was jolted from her distraction by the distinct sound of someone's head popping into her fireplace through the Floo network. It startled her briefly before she saw Minerva's head appear in the flames.
"Hermione dear? I hope I haven't disturbed you"
"Not at all, Minerva. What can I do for you"
"Would you mind coming to my office for a moment? I have something I need to discuss with you"
"Of course not, just give me a moment!" Minerva's head disappeared from the fireplace, and Hermione ran to her bedroom to fetch some casual robes to put on in place of her sleepwear. "Dobby!" she called into the room.
"Yes, Mistress Hermione?" came the voice of the house elf with a loud crack of Apparation.
"Would you mind watching Zoe for me while I go speak with the Headmistress? She'll be waking up soon, and she'll need to be fed and have her nappy changed"
"Of course! Dobby is happy to take care of baby Zoe!" Dobby meandered off to the child's room. He had been placed in charge of being a nanny of sorts for Hermione and Zoe, and took great pride in caring for the baby of the friend of the great Harry Potter, defeater of He Who Must Not Be Named.
Stepping into the fireplace with a handful of Floo powder, Hermione called, "The Headmistress' office"
"Sorry I took so long, Minerva. I had to get Dobby to look after Zoe," Hermione said as she brushed off her robes.
"Not a problem, Hermione. How are you and Zoe doing this morning?" Minerva motioned for Hermione to sit down across from the desk and poured her a cup of tea.
"Just fine. I can't believe how much she's been growing. She'll be riding a broom before you know it! Now, what can I do for you, Minerva"
"Well, I have something of a mission for you, something that must be done quite soon. As you know, Slughorn has been talking about retiring for quite some time now, and I can't keep him from leaving any longer. Thus, we are in need of a new Potions master here"
"You'd like me to look into potential candidates?" Hermione cocked an eyepow at the Headmistress, as it seemed like a task Hermione was not likely to be capable of doing.
"Ah, no, I have actually got someone in mind, but he will take a lot of convincing, and I think you are the only person up to the challenge." Minerva slid an envelope across the desk to Hermione. "I need to you to go to this address and convince him that we need him to come to Hogwarts quickly to take up the position"
Hermione stared at the envelope with shock. "I...umm...I don't know that I can be of much..." she stammered, trying to get her bearings as she looked at the name written in Minerva's neat script. "Why him, Minerva"
"Hermione, you know that I care about you, and that I have felt like something of a second mother to you, but my job as Headmistress requires me to keep the excellence of this school as my primary concern. I know this will be upsetting and difficult for you, but I have very little choice." She stared through searching eyes at the younger witch.
"I don't know what you mean, Minerva." Hermione shot a guilty look at her mentor.
"We have all respected your privacy these last couple of years, dear, and no one has wanted to pry into your personal life, but certainly you know that Zoe's presence has not escaped any of us"
Hermione let out a little laugh. "Of course, everyone loves having Zoe around"
"I have honored your silent request never to ask questions, as has the rest of the staff, but I am not blind, Hermione. Perhaps everyone else is, but I am not. I look into her eyes, and I see only one person looking back at me"
Fear passed quickly over Hermione's features. "You know? Does everyone else know"
Minerva reached over and patted Hermione's hand comfortingly. "No, I do not believe so. If they ever suspected it, they have not said anything or really thought much on it"
"I don't know what to say, Minerva, except that I am sorry"
"Sorry for what, my dear? I am not only not blind to the resemblance your daughter bears to him, but also to your feelings for him. I cannot imagine how difficult this has been for you since she was born." Minerva poured Hermione another cup of tea.
"Is all of this your way of telling me that I should tell him about Zoe"
"That is for you to decide, Hermione, though I certainly think that for all three of your sakes you should. However, right now we need a Potions professor, and I need you to go to him today, the sooner the better." As if closing the situation for discussion, Minerva went about shuffling papers on her desk.
"I will do my best, Minerva, but if I haven't even been able to get him to respond to a simple owl, I don't know how I will get him to come back here"
"You will manage, my dear, I am sure of that. If you do manage to fetch him, bring him here immediately. And, if you don't...well, just see that you do manage to convince him to come." Minerva watched as Hermione turned to the fireplace. "Oh, and Hermione"
"Yes, Minerva"
"I have known him for many years, and I would wager that it has been pride rather than a lack of feelings for you that has kept him from you. Do not let that pride come between you any more." A smile passed over the Headmistress' face.
"And what of my own pride"
"Do not let that get in the way either, my dear"
With that, Hermione smiled and Flooed back her to rooms to prepare to face the one man she never thought that she would see again.