When Franklin escorted Hermione out of the Hospital Wing, he shut the door behind him and placed a spell so no one would hear Asher screaming in pain as Skylar punished him for what he was about to do. When he turned around, he found Lily Evans walking in his direction. "Is something wrong?" she asked wondering why Franklin, Hermione, Benicio and the children were waiting outside.

Franklin looked from Lily to Hermione who were interested in his response. "Sky just wanted to talk to Ash privately." He answered simply, but he doubted that answer was enough for Hermione. She did see Skylar throw a sharp punch to Asher's side. So Franklin turned to Hermione and said, "Don't worry, Miss Granger, Ash will be fine. He's still alive after fighting two Trolls. Sky will be out shortly."

"How is it that your sons can fight Trolls without magic?" Lily asked fairly interested in the events of the previous night.

Franklin turned to face Lily and could not help but smile when he looked into her emerald green eyes. "Care for a walk?" Franklin offered as he walked up to the Potion Master. When she agree, he began to explain, "As you know, a Dark wizard commanded legions of dark wizards and witches, Inferti, Trolls, Giants, Dementors and many other dark creatures."

"The war against Voldemort?" It surprised Franklin that Lily used the name so casually. He remembered when every wizard and witch would cringe upon hearing the name and insisted to use 'He-who-must-not-be-named' or 'you-know-who'.

"Yes, the war against Voldemort. Ben lost his parents in the war when he was six while Asher's parents were killed shortly after his birth. I took them in as my children since their parents were good friends of mine. The war ended shortly afterwards, but there was always the possibility of the rise of a new Dark Lord. So I trained both in the arts of hand to hand combat, weapon mastery and magic."

"Magic? I thought Asher is a squib."

"He is, but I found some artifacts that gave him some magical abilities."

"But training them does not make up for the lack of experience."

"After they received the basic training for weapon mastery, I put both children into the Forbidden Forrest. Ben went first, then Ash joined later."

Lily let out a gasp before asking, "How did they survive? Did you help them?"

"I watched over them, but did not help them. Hands on experience is the best way to achieve mastery in hand, weapon and magic combat as well as survival. They ran when they could, and fought when victory was within their grasp."

"Isn't that too cruel?"

"Not really. They had help from the centaurs. And their weapons are forged with magic, so if there was ever a time where their life was being threatened, it would instantly apparate them into the closest ally camp which usually was the centaur camp. It was their idea of training the children, not mine. But both Ben and Ash turned out well."

"Were you ever worried?" Lily asked, but Franklin just turned to face her and smiled in response. "I take that as a yes?"

"Although the three of us are not bound by blood, we are still a family. You might not be able to tell by how we treat one another or how we talk to one another or admit it to one another, but we all care for one another."

"I wonder how Harry's doing..." Lily murmured, but Franklin heard.

"Your son?"

"Yes. My only child. But I've never spoken to him as a mother since James and I divorced fourteen years ago. I wonder if he knows I'm his mother."

"He probably does. He has your eyes after all." Lily turned to look at Franklin wondering how he knew. "Harry's the ringleader of Gryffindor's trouble making quintet right?"

Lily turned back around and lowered her head. "Unfortunately, he is. Not many people notice our matching eyes nor do most people know that he is the child of my marriage to James."

Franklin walked in front of Lily and place both his hands on her shoulder and said to her, "You want to talk to Harry, don't you?" Lily nodded, but still kept her head down. Franklin smiled as he pulled Lily close. "Go ahead and cry. No one's here and you'll feel better afterwards. Then I'll take you to Harry."

"But... but..." Lily protested through her sobs, but Franklin just brushed one hand through her hair to comfort her.

"It's not good to keep everything inside, Lily. A good friend of mine always said that to me, but she's gone now."

Benicio stood from the second floor window looking down at his father. "The old man's pretty good with women," he commented before turning back to the children. "Amber, Emily, it's not good to pick on James and Michael," he said as he knelt down to pat James and Michael on the head. "There, there, stop being angry at Amber and Emily. You'll never get better then the twins if you keep on moping around. And Amber, Emily, help them when they need help. You're the eldest and should be helping them, not discouraging them."

When the children finally were able to get along again, Benicio turned to see Hermione who sat alone in the corner. "You shouldn't be so worried about Asher," he said as he walked over to Hermione. She just lowered her head and remained quite. "You know, if you keep quite all the time, you'll never make friends."

"I don't need any friends," Hermione replied as she opened her potions book and began studying.

Benicio chuckled before replying, "You know, there was a time when I thought the same way you do." He took a seat next to Hermione, but she just moved over. "I thought that I could survive in this world alone, but the loneliness sometimes was too hard to bear. It was in my darkest hour that I met Sky. We didn't get along at first, because we came from different backgrounds. But the more time I spent with her, the more I came to realize that I needed her. Before I knew it, I had fallen in love with her."

"Love?" Hermione scoffed. "Love is just an illusion. Some people chase after it all their lives while others claim they have it. But the truth of the matter is, love is never the within their grasp."

"That's true. Even though Sky and I are married, I doubt she loves me the way I love her. She doesn't even know how much I love her."

Hermione jerked her head up to look at Benicio. "Then how did you get her to marry you?"

Benicio just smiled. "You probably noticed that her eyes have dulled in color. That was because she lost her previous husband due to a plague that spread through the wizarding community. During the time after her husband died, she lived with her parents and took care of all seven of these children. She was a strong woman once, and she still is, but no longer as strong as she once was. Her parents were murdered before her eyes and it just deepened the scar in her heart."

"I don't need you to lecture me on how to live. I can get by just fine by myself. And why are you telling me all this?"

Benicio could tell Hermione was angry. Some people just never change. "Because in many ways, you are like Sky. And also I can tell you look up to her. Horrible events leave deep scars, but if you never stand up after you fallen, then the scars will never go away."

Hermione looked down at her book again. "But I'm not like her. I'm not as strong as her."

"Then lean on Asher," Benicio said with a smile. "Lean on him and he will give you the strength you need. Let him be your friend and let him help you stand. He may be an idiot and a prankster, but he cares for his family and friends. You can learn a lot from him."

Benicio nearly laughed when Hermione got up from her seat and stalked off stating, "I don't even know why I came here."

"But you do know why you came here," he said to her as he grabbed her arm stopping her from walking away. "Sky will be out soon and then you can talk to Ash alone if you want." Hermione turned back to face Benicio and shock off his hand. Then the doors to the Medical Wing opened and Skylar walked out with a smile across her face.

"He's all yours, Hermione," Skylar said to Hermione. Hermione looked into the woman's eyes and wondered if some life had returned. But before she could get a good glance, Skylar walked passed Hermione and gave her a slight nudge saying, "Go, Hermione. He's waiting for you."

"So, you agree to this?" Benicio asked Skylar as Hermione stepped through the doorway. "It's not like you to give in so easily."

"Yeah, well things are different in this world. I can't expect everything to be the same, can I?"

"You can always dream."

Skylar smiled to that response. "Yeah, I suppose I can."