Ch. 14
Severus Snape came back from his nightly run; which he had sent his Patronus to Potter, who would be able to find the Gryffindor sword. He had seen from a distance that Potter was able to get to the sword.
Severus had looked around his office and noticed that his wife had not left their rooms, since he had left the castle. He gave a big sigh; he knew he would not be able to go to sleep, not after the fight that they had.
He went over and sat down in his chair and started looking through some paperwork that Lord Voldemort had given him that afternoon. He saw that all the spells, potions, and other classes were going to be centered on the Dark Arts and how to make powerful wards against all things living from finding them. Then he looked down on the list and then he saw the history lessons that the Dark Lord wanted them to teach the students; which happened to be the history of the school, witch hunts of the country, and the history of Merlin.
"That's all I need, teaching the students the nightmares of the age; when we were hunting down, because we were able to do magic. Does he truly want an all-out war against the muggles?"
Albus Dumbledore groaned from his painting, "You know Severus; sometimes teaching history like that could lead to more than just a war you know, the students may end up showing the muggles about us again and might end up having a war anyway. But I know that at least one student; who may not have done so, and you're married to her. She knew about the witch hunting, her parents were dependents of such people. Did you know that Minerva McGonagal had a hard time talking to them in the beginning, thinking that she was nothing but a demon, or something like that?"
Severus had heard stories like these before; even from the time that he was a student, from his first love. Her own sister had said similar things to her. He was close to killing Lily's sister more than once. Severus had hated growing up in the muggle world, all because of the taunt that he had gotten because the neighbors had heard his father saying that his mother was a witch and the neighborhood kids had thrown stones at him or the house.
Severus growled, "I didn't know that the Grangers were like that."
The painting chuckled, "You should see her file. I have gotten letters from her parents every week; asking if we were teaching the children any safe spells and if so, what are they? They had gotten angry when I told them some spells within the Defence Against the Dark Arts class; I had a very long debate with them for months, it was enough that Miss Granger had to come back to school sooner from winter break. But once she met the Weasley family; she was able to go to their house before school started again, I would hate to see how miserable if she had to stay in that house, more than a mere week."
Severus glared at the Headmaster before him, "You mean to tell me that her parents were treating her bad, all because she was a witch? Why haven't I been told about this? You have sent me to watch over Potter for so long, why haven't anyone been sent to watch over the Granger house?"
Albus sighed, "To our world; Harry was more important in protecting than any of his friends. Miss Granger was expandable; even in the eyes of the many, if something ever happened to her, than we would have found some other way to help Harry with the knowledge that he would need. It was only a bit of luck for Harry to have her as a friend."
"A bit of luck?!" Severus was not happy about hearing any of this, "It was QUILL, who sent a troll into the castle, who went after Hermione. So don't tell me it was a bit of luck! She is even lucky to be alive right now."
The long bearded man was stroking his beard, "That may be so, but Quill was under the orders of Voldemort, who was attached to his own head. This kind of bothers me; why hasn't Voldemort not have gone after Miss Granger from the start? He could have used her in order to get Harry." Albus saw Severus giving him a dark look, "Look Severus; she has been living in the muggle world, and would have been an easy target to get to. Why hasn't Voldemort haven't used that opportunity to get to her, in order to get to Harry?"
Severus had then looked within himself to find that answer; his mind went through all the meetings and gatherings with other Death Eaters, his mind was going through flashings and his hearing had gone through every sound recording that his brain had downloaded. It was then he found the answer; no one has ever said anything about her, except for Draco Malfoy, who everyone had thought that he was being outdone and was using the Death Eaters to get his revenge against her. Severus had wished for the past twenty years that he had not joined the Death Eaters; it was causing him a world of living nightmares.
"Draco has told the Death Eaters about them going after Hermione, but since he was complaining about her besting him; they had all thought that he was nothing but a sore loser. Voldemort was not pleased about hearing anything that had not been Harry Potter. That is Hermione's only saving grace, was that the Dark Lord had not really thought about her in such a way to get to the boy wonder."
Dumbledore was giving a dark look to Severus; who almost believed that Ablus was a Dark Lord in another life, "So; it is a good thing that she was under the radar for so long. But I must warn you Severus; she is no longer under his radar, for you are married to her and he will use her against you to get you to do what he wants you to do."
Severus had enough with his old friend and silenced the painting, "That is enough out of you." The young Headmaster then gotten up and headed for his rooms for a good night sleep; for he would not be sleeping much, once the school had opened its doors soon.