AN: For disclaimer please see previous chapter.
Except for minor lapses of judgement Hermione Granger had always thought of herself as rational and sensible. So how she managed to get captured by snatchers remained a mystery to her to this day.
She lived a plain life, so far removed from the safe comforts of her upper middle class upbringing - but safe from discovery by the wizarding community. She had been happy with Jack at first but as the years went by... Should she have known better? Had she been too young? Or was it naivety? Looking back she remembered the feeling of relief of having found a life no one would have expected if they searched for her. But now she thought if only she could do magic, then she could confound Jack into signing divorce papers and realising his dream of moving south with his best mate and the latter's wife, looking for a new life. But she couldn't and so she had to be careful. With her magic lost and defenceless she didn't dare return to the magical world. Except for occasional visits here and there that left her shaking with suppressed fear when she came home, hoping no one had followed her and Lorna. But even these small visits took time. After her her ordeal with the snatchers she just wanted out and away.
She found a reprieve in muggle Manchester - possibly the last place anyone from her past would look for her - and finding a plain man, she married Jack, thinking herself secure from coming to the attention of the wizarding world. No one would suspect her here, married, with a different first and surname. She was used to living her life as a muggle and kept telling herself she didn't mind - so long as she and Lorna were safe from snatchers and Death Eaters. "Even if it meant putting up with Jack's?", her mind whispered.
What would happen once Lorna started showing more signs of accidental magic that couldn't be explained away? She didn't know and feared the day Lorna would turn 11. So far she'd been able to come up with convincing lies to calm Jack but it was getting more and more difficult. Not only to hide Lorna's magic but to put up with Jack's verbal and physical getting worse by the month. If only she could find a solution...
It had been years, surely the wizarding world wasn't a worse place to be than her and her increasingly belligerent husband's home? She felt sick and wracked with guilt for leaving Lorna in this situation. But the fear of being found out and her Lorna being tortured by Death Eaters left her helpless. "Why she didn't divorce dad?", Lorna had asked her recently - but Hermione could only lie to her and say that daddy had a hard time at work recently and that she should be patient, things would improve, she'd only had to wait and see. So she knelt down on the carpet to hug her daughter tight and chased away the images of Lorna screaming in pain as a mad voice shouted "crucio" in her head, over and over again. These were the thoughts that occupied her as she stood in the cramped kitchen staring unseeingly at her hands and mechanically drying the dishes.
In the distance thunder sounded. Startled out of her musings, she fearfully and furiously realised that it was 6.30pm and Lorna wasn't home. She hastily pulled on her shoes and jacket and to go outside to meet Lorna who would surely be on her way back home.
She did find Lorna. But not on Lorna's usual way back home. She found her more streets away than she would have liked and, with fear and anger, saw that Lorna wasn't alone. And, as she approached them and the man turned, she felt her face drain - for she found herself staring into Hogwarts' former Potions Masters' eyes.
He could only stare in shock. He had found her... After years of successfully not wanting to be found, he found her here, of all places, in dismal Cokeworth.
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