"I can't believe this!" Hermione ranted. She was now pacing around Minerva McGonagall's office. She had immediately started ranting on and on since Minerva had spoken what they both were thinking.

"He doesn't even know what potions are? How could he conjure up something so complex? What in merlin's name was he thinking? I can't be-" Hermione's rant was interrupted by Minerva, who had up until this point stayed rather calm and speechless in her chair behind her desk.

"Hermione," She said quietly, waiting for the girl to calm down. "Maybe he wasn't working alone." She finished quietly.

Hermione's eyes traveled from the floor, straight to Minerva's. "What do you mean? Who would he know to contact?" Hermione said, very confused.

"I don't know." Minerva said.

Both women were quiet for a moment, then Minerva spoke again, "I will talk to Severus." She said as she twisted the bottle in her fingers.

Hermione sat back down in the chair she had occupied before. With a sigh her eyes traveled from around the floor, to along Minerva's desk and then to Minerva McGonagall's eyes.

"This may give me some answers that I have been looking for I suppose." Hermione said.

"Hmmph." Minerva grunted under her breath really while her mind continued to wander. "Would you like some tea?" She asked. Hermione nodded and Minerva pulled out her wand to conjure up some tea for the pair of them.

"I can't really believe this." Hermione whispered to herself.

"Well, dear," Minerva began, "I do believe that it may be best for you to not mention it right now." Hermione almost spilled her tea. "Surely you are not serious!" She exclaimed. "How can I keep quiet about this?!" She said. "My father basically drugged my mum to make her fall back in love with him." She ranted. "This is not right it is morally wrong!" She spat.

"I know dear," Minerva responded, "However, how are they?" She questioned.

Puzzled, Hermione looked towards Minerva. "Excuse me?" She asked as politely as she could considering the circumstance and her current frustration raging inside of her.

"I mean, How are they together? Are they happy, you know, with the way things are." Minerva clarified.

Hermione was silent a moment, trying to consider her response.

"Yes." She said, "and no." She added. Minerva just quirked an eyebrow in question and Hermione continued.

"I just think that they could be happier. They have just simply seemed to have fallen into this rut of a pattern. They act as if they've grown old together when in actuality they aren't even that old really."

"Well," Minerva responded with a sigh, "That tends to happen as we get comfortable with the ones we love. We settle into a routine and sometimes we lose a certain amount of excitement or enthusiasm for each other." Minerva paused before continuing, as she saw the younger girl slowly nodding in agreement.

"Hermione?" Minerva continued, "What do you think may come of this if it were brought out into the open?"

"I don't know." Hermione said. "It just makes me think-" But she stopped before finishing her sentence and just looked at Minerva.

Minerva nodded in understanding, as she knew exactly where Hermione was going with that thought. Leaning forward in her chair, Minerva chose her words carefully.

"You know, I am in a relationship also."

Hermione's eyes lowered to the floor. "I know." She mumbled. Minerva continued,

"I would have liked to continue as we had been but it just wasn't the right thing. I hope one day that we all may resolve things, but I don't know if that will be possible." Minerva paused again, seeing the young woman in front of her begin to sniffle and tear up a bit.

"We felt like family." Hermione terribly softly, "To me, we felt like family."

"I know." Minerva said softly also. "Perhaps we could stay in touch hmm?" Minerva asked quietly.

Hermione looked up from her now fidgeting fingers, a small smile tried to appear on her face. "I would like that." She said.

"I would as well." Minerva said.

"Well, I should be going. My parents will be expecting my return home soon." Hermione said as she began to get up from her chair. In doing so, Minerva rose from her chair also. Moving around the desk she reached out to Hermione "Come here." She said as she pulled Hermione into an embrace.

After a moment and a bidding of goodbye Hermione was off to return to her house.

"Oh Merlin." Minerva sighed as she sat back down. Just for a moment she allowed herself to think back to the time of when Jean had left. Things were definitely not clear to her. A lot can happen in 8 years. Minerva wasn't completely sure of her own feelings. Yes of course she was thrilled when she and Ro were back together. They had their family back together. However, it was clear after this short visit with Hermione, she had begun to love a different family. How can something so similar feel so different? She thought to herself. Well, she thought, I suppose I should retire to my quarters. Enough for one day. Ha, or maybe a week. She laughed to herself. Nothing like a huge fire cracker dropped at the end of the day, she thought. She then gathered her paper work she needed to complete and retreated to her quarters for the evening.

Minerva entered her quarters to find Caitlin sitting on the sofa reading yet another muggle book Minerva had gotten for the girl. So similar. Minerva thought to herself. With a small chuckle she head over to the kitchenette where she found Ro trying to conjure up some sort of supper for them.

"Well what do we have here?" Minerva asked.

"Oh, good, you're home. Hungry?" Ro asked.

"We aren't joining the rest of the school in the great hall this evening?" Minerva asked.

"I thought we could use a nice meal together, just us, as a family." Ro said.

Minerva walked over to Ro and put her hands lovingly on her shoulders. "Thank you." She said.

Ro just smiled and continued what she was doing. Soon their super was ready. Minerva found herself a bit surprised as she was feeling a bit torn inside. As the three of them sat there together at the table sharing this meal, they had done so many times before, for the past 8 years even, Minerva found herself thinking of what it might have been like if Jean and Hermione were at her table instead.

Meanwhile, that night, Hermione was seated on the sofa reading, as usual. Almost on cue, her dad came into the room offering dessert, her mum requesting tea.

"I'll make it!" Hermione chimed in.

Caught off guard Dan jumped at her, "No!" He said abruptly. Then, catching himself he coughed a bit. "I'm sorry, I don't want to trouble you." He added.

"No, no trouble at all." Hermione insisted as she jumped up from her seat and made her way to the kitchen. "I want some tea as well." She said.

"Well," Dan said, "Alright then, I'll just sit down I suppose." He said moving to sit next to Jean at the table. Hermione took note that her dad's hands began to tremble a bit.

"Something wrong?" Hermione asked?

"What? No, I don't want any tea, thank you anyway my dear." Dan responded, clearly not hearing the question that was asked of him. Hermione just raised an eyebrow.

After a while they had all retreated to bed for the evening but Hermione was now wide awake as she lay in bed. After the events of the day, she couldn't put her mind to rest. She had quickly returned home in just enough time to return the potions bottle and tea mug to their proper places before her parents returned from work.

Then, she heard a sound, coming from the hall. She sat up in bed and instinctively retrieved her wand. Gripping in tightly she soundlessly moved towards her bedroom door. She spotted a tall figure moving down the stairs. Her father was on the move. Hermione decided to creep down after him. Hermione watched her father move into the kitchen and open the cabinet where she knew the potion was kept. Dan then reached for the potion bottle, retrieving it, he turned around, in which Hermione made her way back towards the stairs. Making it up the stairs and hiding herself in a corner of the hallway behind a small table, she watched as her father came up the stairs and back into his bedroom. Hermione quietly tip toed to the edge of the door of her parent's bedroom, making herself unseen. Peering to see what was happening, she saw her father move to her mum's side. Jean was sound asleep, snoring, her mouth hanging slightly open. Hermione watched as her father uncorked the potions bottle and tipped it slightly just above Jean's open mouth. Slowly the potion moved to the opening of the bottle, dripping into Jean's mouth. Unconciously feeling the liquid touch her lips Jean stuck her tongue out and began to lick her lips. The potion being absorbed by Jean's mouth. Then, Dan stood quietly above Jean. Hermione watched as he seemed to relax with a big sigh of relief. Hermione decided she had seen enough and quickly moved back to her bedroom. Climbing under her covers, her eyes immediately began to tear up. What she and Minerva had thought was actually true. This was actually happening. Hermione began to cry and she buried her face in her pillow as she heard her father creep back down the stairs to return the potions bottle to its cabinet in the kitchen.