Hermione laughed a little. "Surprising I know, for me especially."

"I suppose so," Ginny agreed, still reeling from the revelation.

"Now, I've told you everything you have asked to know. Please tell me you have something to tell me."

"I do, I do. I just need a minute here," Ginny said.

"Take your time. It's not every day your friend comes and asks for your help to divorce her abusive husband, keep her children and take up with Severus Snape."

"When you put it like that, yes you're right," Ginny smiled. "Right, now to the matter at hand."

Ginny stood up and wandered into the study, returning with two books.

"As you know, the laws are quite clear in this matter. If a wife divorces her husband, any children are forfeited to the father. That you know."

"Unfortunately, yes," Hermione agreed.

"It seems that it would be easiest if we simply got Ron to request the divorce but his agent is never going to let him do that -bad publicity and all. I have always believed that there are exceptions to every rule, it's the Gryffindor in me I guess, and I decided to do a bit more research. As it turns out, in 1214 there was a case brought to the Wizengamot where a woman wished to divorce her lout of a husband and keep her children. The woman's family happened to be well-connected and somehow the Wizengamot allowed her divorce and her to retain custody if she could get twelve of her husband's immediate relatives to support both her decision for divorce and petition for custody. The husband's family was exceptionally greedy and the wife's family was able to pay off enough members of her husband's family to make the petition pass."

"So, why don't more people know about this?" she asked.

"In this day and age, who has twelve immediate family members?"

"No one except-"

"Us," Ginny finished for her.

Hermione looked at her thoughtfully for a second. "Do you think it would work?"

"No reason it shouldn't. Technically, it is the only exception allowed by the law, it's in the books. Your case could be the last one. After that, they could reverse the ruling but they would have to review your petition as the law currently exists which allows for this exception."

"If Mum and Dad, Bill and Fleur, Charlie, Percy and Penelope, George and Katie, and me and Harry all agree, that's eleven," Ginny told her.

"We're one short," Hermione noted.

"No, we're not."

"Who would be the twelfth?" Hermione asked.

"You're not going to like it," Ginny told her.

Hermione waited for her to finish.

"Alexander would make twelve."

"No, absolutely not," Hermione told her.

"Hermione, see reason, this is the only way and it is the best thing for you, Emiline and Alexander."

"Ginny, I can't do that. I can't ask my son to do that. I can't tell him what I've told you. I can't ask him to sit in front of the Wizengamot, in front of his father and tell them he thinks his mother should be granted a divorce and allowed custody. He's just a boy," she argued.

"I know that, Hermione. Believe me, if it was Albus, I would have second thoughts too. You have to think about this Hermione. Alexander already knows something isn't right. Wouldn't it be better to tell him what's going on, to get him to petition for you, to give you all some peace?"

"Would you want to tell your son what I've told you? I can't do it. There has to be another way," she said shaking her head.

"This is the only way. Think about it, ok? Take some time to think this through. I will find out what exactly Alexander would have to do. Maybe we can do this in a way where he doesn't have to find out everything now. Alexander is my nephew, Hermione, I know him. He's bright and kind and you can't keep this from him forever. If you think you're protecting him from it, you're wrong. He knows that the situation between you and Ron isn't normal. Have you talked to him about it?"

"No, I think I hoped if I didn't address it… I guess I still think of him as my baby boy," she admitted.

"I know you do. But I want you to think about this in the long term. He's living with knowing that there is something wrong. When he would stay with us when Ron was in town, he worried, the whole time. He would watch the clock until it was time to go home. It's not healthy. Any other time he would stay with us, he was cheerful and happy but on those weekends, he was a wreck. I thought it was because he missed his dad but now I know that he was worried for you. He needs some peace, Hermione. You all need some peace."

"I need to think about this," Hermione told her.

"I know. Go home, think about it, talk about it. I'll find out more," she reassured her friend.

"How am I going to tell your parents? Your brothers?" Hermione put her face in her hands. "This is humiliating."

"Hermione Granger, you stop that right now. My family loves you. If you want me to, I will tell them but I think it would be better coming from you."

"It would. Give me some time. I'll think about it and then if I decide to go forward, I'll tell them. I'd like you to be there though, in case I've misjudged their response."

"Naturally. But I would be willing to bet that you haven't. In the meantime, it is critical that your friendship with Snape remain just that. Understand?"

"Yes," Hermione blushed.

"I'm serious. If you want a sure way to jeopardize all of this, it's for you to become the adulteress," Ginny told her sternly. "We will have no chance of success if that happens."

"Of course," Hermione said.

"Good. After this is all over, then we talk about your taste in suitors. You've been out of the game so long, you've lost all good sense in the man department it seems," Ginny told her, eliciting a laugh from them both.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

When Hermione returned home, she found Severus in her kitchen, cooking dinner.

"Welcome back," he greeted.

"Thank you. What's all this?" she asked.

"Well, my assistant and I decided to make you dinner," he told her just as Emiline rounded the corner wearing an apron, flour on her nose and cheek.

"Mummy!" she yelled, running into her arms.

Hermione scooped her up and kissed her. "What have you done today?"

"'Fessor Snay made clouds for me. And we had ice cream. And read a book. And went for a walk. I got you somefin," she told her, "be right back."

Hermione laughed as the little girl ran off to her room.

"Seems that you had a big day. I hope she was well-behaved for you," she told him.

"She was a pearl. After dinner, we should talk though. I want to hear about your meeting and I need to tell you about mine."

"I could use a drink after dinner and we should have that chat. There's a lot to talk about."

Emiline walked carefully back into the room with a small vase of flowers.

"We got these for you. I pick them and 'Fessor Snay help me put them in here for you."

Hermione took the flowers from the proud child. "They are very beautiful, just like you," she said, emphasizing the last word with a poke on the nose.

"Funny, that what 'Fessor Snay say too," she smiled.