These characters are not mine. I gain nothing but personal satisfaction from writing this.
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Feathers in Time
Chapter Eleven
Hermione watched his face carefully. If he truly wished to press the issue of Harry's mother, she would tell him. She had no reason to hold back her honesty. If this man wanted to know her in any capacity, as she has known him, then this was going to be the first hurdle. Hermione played with the thought of showing him the memory of telling Harry exactly what she thought of his mother. Severus pursed his lips before giving a short nod.
"Very well, we will come back to that." He pressed his hands to his knees. "Why did you not feel pity, Hermione?"
Hermione gathered herself together with a breath. "Well, It would perhaps be better to show you, Severus." He nodded and faced her once more. "This will be when I was in primary school, I believe I was six."
Severus looked into the brown eyes of the woman before him, steadying himself before diving in. He stood on a playground, surrounded by children. Before him was a mass of curly fluff atop a stick figure of a six year old. She was walking over to a crying girl under the slide.
"Are you okay?" Little Hermione's voice was sweet. "Do you need to go to the Nurse?" The other little girl looked up to see Hermione's outstretched hand. Blond curls bounced as the little girl shook her head. The little blond took Hermione's hand with a sniffling smile. "I'm Hermione Granger, and you are?"
"Rose."
The scene changed, and Severus was squinting with the brightness of the sun. Hermione was running after Rose with a grin, laughter trailing down the street they were running home on. Severus watched with a half-smile and let this moment of happiness wash over him. A voice broke the reverie with a loud bark. "Rose!"
Severus stiffened, much like the young blond chit that was now stock still in the middle of the sidewalk. Severus took a closer look at the girls face, not wanting to guess at why Hermione started to grab Rose's shoulders. Hermione was telling her to come over, instead of going home. The six year old's jumped as another bark echoed down the street. Rose shook off Hermione's hands and booked her little legs as fast as she could. Hermione watched her friend go, tears already forming.
The scene changed and Hermione is at the table with her parents. The table was clear and all three had serious faces, not unlike Hermione's during her time in the Order. Her father gave her an encouraging nod. "Alright Hermione, what do you need to say?"
"I think Rose's daddy hurts her." The little girl sat and waited after her plain statement, Severus scoffed.
"Rose? The new friend you made last month. Why would you think that, love?" Severus sneered at the father, they never listen. He had begged Lily not to tell a soul about his treatment.
"I saw bruises on her tummy and back a couple weeks ago. We were just playing and her shirt came up..." Little Hermione trailed off, her parents looking at eachother with grim expressions.
"Why did you wait so long to tell us, Hermione?" Her mothers tone was strict, but not unkind.
"She made me pinky promise not to tell, but I keep having bad dreams." The two adults looked at their child, casting glances at eachother.
The scene changes and Hermione seems to be shuffling her feet at school, swaying on the swing set. Her head snapped up as she hear a cry from under the slide, Rose always played there. She ran over and saw her friend curled on her side, crying and trying to pull a large sticky wad of gum from her locks. Hermione rushed over to the two girls standing over her. Instead of stopping as Severus expected,
Hermione tackled the two girls, knocking them into eachother and scratching at their clothes and hair, throwing the occasional right hook.
The scene changes and Hermione is with her friend in the bathroom trying to remove the hair from the still crying girl. As little Hermione works, She gently pulls up her shirt as her friend leans over the sink to get her hair in the water. A large purple and yellow bruise is covering a rib and Hermione pulls her shirt down again, face determined.
The scene changes and Hermione and her father are approaching a house. Severus can only assume it's Rose, and his lips thin. They will only make things worse for the girl.
They walked up the steps and Hermione pressed the doorbell. A slip of a blond woman answered the door. She looked well enough, though Severus could see clear signs of stress. Hermione didn't pay attention to the adults talking about Rose coming over for a play date. Hermione had a feeling it wasn't going to happen. She looked past the woman into the clean house.
"Hermione, do you want to say hello to Rose while we're here?" Her father asked her, snapping her attention back to the grownups.
"Huh?" Her father chuckled, though it wasn't reaching his eyes.
"We are going to go sit inside while I talk with Rose's mum. Why don't you go find your friend, and make sure she has everything on the list we made." Hermione sped past the blond lady and began to call for Rose in the halls.
The scene changes and Hermione is standing in front of Rose in the park. The blonds face is angry, and a little lost. "You're not my friend, you told my secret."
Hermione sniffled and held herself. "You needed help Rose. That's not how daddy's as supposed to act."
"Well, now he's gone with the yard and mum's in the Hospital. You ruined my whole life."
"I'm sorry. I just could stand to see you that way."
"I got this for your birthday. I don't want to be friends anymore."
The little blond threw something at Hermione and stomped off. A little gold chain with a dark red rose. Severus blinked back into focus as the memory lane came to a dead end. Hermione was looking nostalgic. "I saw her again, two years later. We forgave and forgot. She had moved in with her grandparents and she thanked me."
"Hermione, do you feel the need to show me any more memories? I can imagine your reactions to my Death Eater days, but as it really just speaks to your character, I truly do believe you have a heart of gold."
Hermione was struck silent. He took in her wide brown eyes and the slight flush that came to her face. Then as the flush grew deeper, it traveled until it looked as if Hermione had exfoliated the whole of her upper chest, neck, and face, he rose and eyebrow with a knowing smirk. Still in need of compliments, Miss Granger?
"Thank you Severus, and not at all. If you are satisfied with that judgement, we may move forward. A clean slate, as it were." The woman dusted her hands, though nothing was there.
"Why do you dislike Harry's mother?" Hermione stilled.
Severus gave her a reassuring smirk. "Trust that nothing you could say will trump what I myself have called her."
Hermione stood and faced the door, walking toward it and pausing before she went to open it. "I think the only good thing that Lily Potter has ever done, is die." Her tone was soft, yet scathing, every ounce of viciousness collected in the last two words. She left the room in quick movements leaving a stunned, angry, and confused man.
Hermione pulled the cube again, flicking her wand with angry movements, sending it spinning in the sunlight. Lily fucking Potter. She grunted as the cube shot stunner after stunner, throwing up shields to protect its zipping form. Granted, James was a little prick, but at least he attempted to provide for Harry in consideration of their deaths.
Hermione knew her anger was unfounded. It was a small choice made by a woman who put all of her trust in her husband. Hermione ended the run, sweating and only a little less annoyed. She plopped down on the concrete steps of the back yard. How was she going to turn this around. The door opened and the woman made no signs of noticing until Alastor Moody sat next to her in the shade with a short grunt.
Hermione sat with her arms wrapped around her legs. Moody was at her side, smoking from a thin wooden pipe. Severus was sure to hate her now, Hermione was positive.
"What's wrong kitten?" Alastor's voice was a low grumble, as if her bad mood was a hinderance. "Is it something Snape said?"
"No, not at all." Hermione pressed her eyes with her fingertips, frustrated with herself and the situation she created. "I've just ruined the chances of completing the task with him on the team. I have no idea what to do about Alexandria now."
"Does he not wish to join our little band of misfits?" His voice was something that Hermione often heard in her head over the years. Constant vigilance pushing her out of sticky situations, his deep gravel roaring in her ear when the Beast of the Moor had nearly hypnotized her because of her distracted attention. Whispering soothing tones when she hid from the giant stone snake in Chile and needed to calm herself or she would make the wrong move. This man's voice, unlike Severus's, made her feel protected but in a fatherly way. After six months of peace Hermione had fixed her Mum and Dad, they had turned from her, happy to live the lives they had been placed in by her. Hermione understood and retook their memories. Alastor Moody's memories and journals had taken the spot in her heart while Minerva had comforted her as a mother.
"What happened?" Hermione looked over to the smoking man with a stern expression.
"I told him the truth. The only good that came out of that redheaded coward Lily Evans is Harry Potter and the fact that she died for him." Alastor's eyebrows shot up before his chuckling pulled a snicker out of Hermione.
"I didn't know you fancied the man, Granger." Hermione gaped at him, face flushing and shaking her head.
"What? No!" Alastor raised an eyebrow and huffed. Hermione blushed deeper, unable to tell if she was even telling the truth to herself. "I mean I respect him, but not... We are not talking about this. She was a Gryffindor, yet she turned against everything it means to be a Gryffindor. She turned her back on her friend, she-she was suppose to be brilliant- she didn't even bother to..." Hermione trailed off as Severus stepped out of the house, looking down at her with inky eyes. "She was warned of the danger, and she never bothered to write a Will. Sure, James did. Insuring his infant to a half-wit with a quick temper."
Chuckling, Moody stood with a grunt and moved past Severus with a sly grin. Severus settled next to Hermione, a sigh letting out in a huff of stress. "I understand."
"No you don't. Harry was in a horrid home because she couldn't think to write that under no uncertain circumstances was he to be put there. She knew her family would never treat him right." Severus looked at the woman who seemed very angry. "She should have had a separate plan in her own name, should James's not work."
"Are you upset on my behalf or Harry's?" Hermione clenched her teeth and had flashbacks to the rants and ravings that she had put Harry through when the Board of Governors had made the comparison between herself and the redhead. Even Minerva had to sit through a brief freak out when her offhanded comment about the two being similar sent Hermione's magic haywire. A lot of glass was repaired that week.
"Both! She keeps being put up on this perfect Gryffindor pedestal but she barely adhered to everything that makes us wonderful. I cannot tell you how many people compare us. It's like she was put there because she was bossy and brash." Severus hid a smile, his eyes dancing. Hermione glanced at him to find him looking at her with a pointed look. "Fuck you Severus Snape. So what if I'm bossy, and liked books, just like her. I have never, ever left my friends. Even at the worst of times. I have always forgiven. I sure as fuck would have made sure that my child was taken care of."
Severus looked at her considering. "No, Hermione. You are truly nothing like Lily Potter."