AN: Warning – discussions of kidnapping and family trauma.

Thanks for your awesome comments cheering me on and letting me know what the story makes you wonder about!

Dispelling the Silence: a Harry Potter AU

By Indygodusk

Chapter 10: Gabrielle visits Hermione

Several hours later a tentative knock sounded on her door. Hermione considered ignoring it, but she'd never been a coward. "Come in," she called, carefully closing the book in front of her and renewing the protective preservation spells. She braced herself for a coworker, but got a surprise when her cousin Gabrielle's hesitant face appeared in the doorway.

"Hermione, are you busy? The secretary, Mr. Mawhinney, said I could find you here. I was hoping we could go to lunch together, since it's my first day here at the Ministry." Gabrielle tucked a silver-blond strand of hair behind one ear and bit her lip anxiously.

"Oh," Hermione hesitated for a moment, but in the end she couldn't bear to hurt Gabrielle's feelings, no matter how much she wanted to just hole up in her office for the rest of the day. "Sure, just let me put away my notes."

Standing up, Hermione turned and surreptitiously double-checked the glamour on her scarred arm. The skin still looked smooth and unblemished. Good. Then she began tidying her desk.

Gabrielle hovered in the doorway for another moment before taking a deep breath and shutting the door behind her. She came in and sank down into the chair in front of Hermione's desk. Then she sniffed and looked around quizzically. "Why does it smell like hay in here?"

Before Hermione could answer, she said quickly, "I do want to have lunch with you, but before we go I'd hoped to clear the air between us."

Hermione felt her fingers slow down. Bracing herself for whatever her cousin had to say, Hermione sealed her inkwell. Then she walked around the front of the desk.

Leaning back against the wall, she crossed her arms and waited for Gabrielle to say what she needed to say. Hermione wasn't sure how many more shocks she could take right now. Hopefully this would be an easy conversation.

Twisting her robes tight against her legs with the force of her grip, Gabrielle looked up at Hermione with a complicated mix of emotions moving across her beautiful young features. "I know we aren't as close as we used to be before we visited the garden that day, but I meant what I said last night when I told you I wanted to be friends again. I don't know why Fleur thinks I should be careful around you, or why Père ordered me to not spend too much time with you, but I'm done being told what to do by the family. I'm done acting like a helpless victim and letting past tragedies dictate my life. I'm not a child anymore. I want us to be close again, like family should be."

"I also want, no," Gabrielle paused and swallowed before sticking her chin out bravely, "I need to know why, after I got kidnapped from that garden six years ago, you just packed up and left us all behind, why you left me behind when I needed you."

Hermine straightened up from her desk abruptly. "I didn't choose to leave you, I would never have left you when you needed me," she defended hotly, doing her best to carefully chose the words bubbling up from her churning gut, "not as long as I had a choice."

"Then why? Did you leave because you got in an argument with Grandpère?" her cousin asked desperately. "I just don't understand."

"I left because your grandfather imprisoned me in a mental hospital," Hermione stated bluntly, hoping this conversation didn't lead to Gabrielle pushing her away instead of trying to pull her close. But she didn't have a choice about telling her. With the rumors flying in the Ministry, Gabrielle was bound to hear it at some point. Better that it come from Hermione herself.

Gabrielle's mouth dropped open. "Oh la vache, c'est vrai?!" she gasped in French. "No one told me that. What happened? Why didn't anyone ever tell me that?"

Pained, Hermione looked away. "It was a bad time for everyone," she said carefully. "We were all worried about your recovery after the kidnapping. They probably thought you were too fragile. I don't blame them for not telling you."

"Why did Grandpère put you in a mental hospital?" Gabrielle asked, biting her lower lip as she leaned forward in her chair.

Hermione mouth hung open for a moment in silence, the tip of her tongue pressed against her teeth. Then she shifted on her feet and grimaced. "I can't say."

She took a moment to wet her throat before continuing. "Your Grandfather had legal guardianship of me in the French magical world, but you know he never liked me, his distant British cousin. He only accepted me in the first place because my parents paid to research our magical ancestry after my Hogwarts letter and we found out about our tenuous connection to the famous potioneer Hector Dagworth-Granger. We used that connection to blunt his prejudice against someone he considered one step away from a muggle. He agreed to legal guardianship in magical France, but his honor didn't demand one jot more. When I was hospitalized right after your kidnapping and wasn't able to explain why to his satisfaction, he decided to wash his hands of me. He did what he thought was best for you and the family and shipped me off to an institution while you recovered."

Wide, aquamarine eyes met Hermione's. "I never knew," Gabrielle said emotionally, "but… I've always wondered if it was my fault, something I did that made you go away. Like you thought that if I'd just been smarter and not wandered away from you at the garden, if I'd just fought harder, then I wouldn't have been taken. Sometimes I think that there must be something wrong in the way I look, something that tells people I make a good victim. Who else gets taken and used not just once, but twice before they've even hit puberty? First in Fleur's tournament and then by that man. It's caused my family so much pain. I've wondered if you blamed me for that, if you thought I'd attracted that man and let him take me."

"No! Not even for a second," Hermione cried, stepping away from her desk to gesture with her hands as she spoke. "Don't ever think that, Gabrielle. You are beautiful, inside and out. You are not to blame for the sins of others. There is nothing wrong with you."

Gabrielle bunched her robes in her fists and looked away. "No one ever talks about that time. I still don't even know how they found me. I shut down for a while. I had to. When I finally felt strong enough to open back up and look around, you were gone. When I asked, they just told me you had to leave. I was afraid that it was somehow my fault, that you wanted to get away from me, so I didn't push."

Crouching down in front of Gabrielle, Hermione reached out and took her hands. "Never blame yourself for the actions of others. You were just a child and you did nothing wrong. I love you and I made my own choices, just like your grandfather did and just like the bastard who took you did. You had no control over any of that. Making sure you were okay was the most important thing for the family. I agreed with that. Of course you came first. I don't like what your grandfather did with me, but I love you and you did nothing wrong. You aren't at fault for what he did and it's not your job to fix what's past, so stop even thinking that."

Two tears dripped off Gabrielle's face and spattered onto their clasped hands. Hermione squeezed her hands supportively, willing her cousin to hear and believe. "I'll try," Gabrielle said through swimming aquamarine eyes. "Thank you. And if you ever do want to tell me more about what happened to you, I'm here. I care. I'll listen, but I'll try not to press."

She gave a watery laugh and sniffled, "My mind healer taught me those lines. She'll be disappointed that I've relapsed with the guilt. I probably need to do my positive affirmations again and send her an owl, but I'll try to be better about that."

Sliding off her chair, Gabrielle released Hermione's hands to kneel down and hug her tight around the neck. "Even though I got to see you only occasionally at family gatherings, I want you to know that I never stopped missing and loving you. I still have all of those books you gave me. You're the reason I want to work in Civil Rights and Creature legislation. I even wrote about you in my application essay for the Ministry."

Hermione sniffled and wrapped her arms around Gabrielle's waist, hugging her cousin fiercely. No amount of suffering could make Hermione regret what she'd done in the past because she had this moment now with this sweet and healthy girl in her arms. That was worth anything. "Thank you. I love you too, la cousine," Hermione whispered into her ear.

After a moment, they separated. Standing up shakily, Hermione grabbed her box of tissues and offered her cousin one. Then she then took one for herself. Sharing a smile, they both mopped up their faces and then used their wands to repair their appearance. No need to start more gossip, Hermione thought.

"We better get going to lunch before we run out of time," Hermione said, attempting to return to business and normality. "But let's have a chocolate to tide us over on the walk," she winked and pulled out two of her Violet Mint Morphos, handing one to Gabrielle.

As they walked down the hall together, Hermione's eyes level with Gabrielle's shoulders, her taller cousin rolled the chocolate around in her mouth and said, "These are good but strange. It tastes a bit like I'm eating perfume."

Hermione shrugged. "You don't have to like it. I won't be offended. A friend of mine introduced them to me. He told me that they remind him of comfort and beauty, like a mix between walking through a fragrant flower garden and getting a warm hug from someone who loves you. I feel the same thing when I eat them now, so I use them when I need a pick-me-up."

"Oh, I can taste that feeling now, too," Gabrielle said with youthful enthusiasm as she glided along at Hermione's side. "Thinking about that makes me like it more." They shared a smile.

AN: My cast suggestions are just for fun as I love looking up and posting pictures of pretty people to my tumblr. If that don't work for you, it's okay to ignore them. I don't mind. I also don't mind you suggesting your own favorite actors/actresses to play the roles. Depending on what part of Sirius we're tapping into, there are several people who could play the role. There's some amazing Ben Barnes photo manips of him as Sirius out there. He's just barely too young for my story or he would have won the role, I think.

Thanks again for your comments. I love them!