"Bleeding hell woman are you trying to dislodge my brain!?"

"No , just wanted to slap that idiotic notion right out of your.."

What she was saying was cut off as she was forcibly propelled away from him and slammed into the wall behind as he felt strong shields go up around him, he and poppy quickly turned to see a furious looking Hermione , hair crackling and hand out infront of her as she wandlessly fed her magic to maintain the formidable shield around him.

Poppy was frozen in terror , tea cup half way to her mouth and he would have found it hilarious were he not in more or less the same situation of abject terror .

Minerva seemed unharmed, just winded but was still wide eyed at being held to the wall by the force of Hermione's magic.

His body thrummed as that strange sensation washed over and through him again , that pleasant tingling feeling like pins and needles on the surface of his skin and he realised it was her magic surrounding and merging with his as she shielded him from his 'attacker' ...odd that his magic would accept hers so easily.

The witch herself was Hecate incarnate , all fire, brimstone and righteous protective anger... her hair was writhing like snakes and her amber eyes were molten and more alive than he'd seen her since her return, her stance more confident than he thought possible as she effortlessly fuelled her formidable shields around him without a word or a wand.

She took a few steps forward until she was by his side, still holding the shield , shooting him a concerned look and placing herself between him and Minerva. It was obvious he should be stopping her , but he couldn't help but wait, for just a moment, because he'd never in his life felt so wanted or cared for by anyone. Right here in this room , mediwitch frozen on the sofa , colleague pinned against the wall... and this little lioness , battered, bruised and broken, putting herself between him and his would-be 'attacker' , purely because she wanted to protect him. No one had ever cared enough about him to fight for him , to defend him, to put themselves between him and danger to shield him from it... and it took his breath away, made his throat tighten and his eyes itch, and he would not cry dammit.

"Hermione"

She shot him another concerned look but he could see the initial angry haze, born of her need to protect him, was receding and she was biting her lip and looking from Minerva to him. She obviously felt torn and guilty about attacking the gryffindor matriarch , but at the same time she was not letting go of her protective shields around him.

Poppy and Minerva were wisely keeping to themselves, while he attempted to diffuse the volatile situation.

Her control of her wandless and nonverbal magic was astounding, easily on par with his own , but in her emotional state without a wand this type of unfocused magic could easily break free of her control and cause insurmountable damage.

"Hermione, release Minerva, I'm fine..."

Her hand was trembling as she fought to hold back her mixed emotions, tears were threatening to spill from her eyes as she still looked from Mcgonnagol to him, it obviously was upsetting her a great deal to have attacked Minerva, but when she stepped a bit closer to him and lightly touched the side of his face in concern , he understood what he had to do.

He grabbed her hand and rose to his feet , to show her that he was indeed fine.

"It's alright Hermione, it's just a misunderstanding , Minerva didn't hurt me , she was just trying to knock some sense into me when I said something moronic, nothing untoward, please can you let her down for me... I'm sure Minerva will understand , she won't be upset at you"

He locked his eyes with hers and pushed the memory of the interaction to the surface so she could see for herself what had happened.

With a whimper she buried her face in his arm and dropped her shields suddenly. Minerva took a deep relieved breath, and moved towards them from the wall , only to stop as the girl, now shaking as the adrenaline wore off, cried out in dismay and once more moved behind him... previous confidence forgotten.

It seemed she was more than willing to fight to the death to protect him , but her confidence faltered at the thought of protecting herself, either that or she was afraid of being punished for her actions.

"It's alright Hermione, I'm very sorry to have scared you, it was all just a misunderstanding like Severus said, I had no intentions of harming him and I apologise if I upset you , but you did not hurt me, or anger met there's no harm done"

She had both hands fisted in his coat, tears slipping down her cheeks and was stood half behind him, biting her lip and staring at Minerva.

Poppy was sitting quietly on the sofa, looking helplessly between the three of them.

He could practically feel her heartbeat as Minerva worked her way closer slowly.

When she was stood in front of them , she gently reached her hand out to place it on Hermione's , which was still holding onto him.

"Hermione ? "

Another soft whimper and he heard her breath hitching.

"Och, come her bairn"

The witch gently pulled on Hermione's hand , and the girl went willingly into her arms , accepting a hug from the older witch.

"I'm so sorry, I know what he means to you and I didn't mean to upset either of ye , I'm sorry"

Hermione didn't reply , but just nodded gently against the witches shoulder.

Minerva pulled back a moment later, holding the girl at arms length with a hand on each arm, letting go to grab her hanky to wipe the girls teary face, she got a soft smile for that .

"And I'm so sorry about your parents lass...they don't deserve you"

The smile dropped from her face at that , and she her eyes fell to the floor even as she nodded.

It pained him to see her hurt, he knew she wasn't close to her parents, never had been, but it must still have hurt her on some level to feel so rejected by them.

He placed a hand on the small of her back to offer his support, and he felt her lean gratefully into him.

Minerva tipped the girls chin up with her knuckle and looked into her sad eyes.

"You've always been one of my cubs bairn , this just means I get to keep you now, you ever need a mam you've got one"

Minerva cupped her cheeks gently with her hands, and Tears slipped down hermione's face at that and she gave a watery smile and nodded to the witch covering one of her hands with hers.

Poppy cleared her throat from the sofa.

"I'm not exactly mother material, and I don't think you could get better than what you've got... but if the position of crazy aunt is open , I'm pretty sure I could fill that"

Another soft smile and grateful nod.

Both women turned to him then , followed by the girl.

Minerva arched an eyebrow as she looked him over "This one ? Hell there's no accounting for taste, you picked him, you can have him for free"

Hermione looked up at him questioningly and he smirked as he spoke

"No Refunds"

She finally laughed at that, the last few tears squeezing out of the corner of her eyes as she wrapped her arms round him in a hug.

Then Poppy interjected and he froze at her words

"By the way Hermione, you were in the bedroom...just how did you know what happened to Severus ?"

AN / Sorry for the delay in updates , I've been on holiday a few days

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