Hi lovelies,
I know it's been a hot minute (a year since I wrote the epilogue for this story and a month and change since I updated one of my current stories) but I am so glad you're here! Also, a massive apology if you're here from The Power He Knows Not or All Enduring, but I haven't forgotten you guys and I have two weeks set aside to finish those stories after May 12th so keep an eye out for updates on those soon.
Long ANs suck but PLEASE read all the way through this one before starting (or restarting) this story. It's the only real AN this story will have, the rest of them will basically just be disclaimers.
If you're a returning reader, you're probably wondering where the rest of the old chapters are. Well, they're a bit mashed together/rewritten/expanded on in my Google Drive currently and I'll be reposting them all over the next week. The Chapters 1-6 go up today, Chapters 7-12 go up April 26, Chapters 13-18 go up on April 29, and the Epilogue will go up on April 30. That might make it seem like this version will be smaller than the last one but I promise the chapters are A LOT longer than the ones you'll remember and the story in general is a lot more cohesive than the last version of it.
If you're a new reader (or an older reader who needs a refresher on important things to know before reading this story), these are a few things you need to know:
1. There will be SA in this story. Its description was minimal in the original draft and it's even less descriptive now but it is still in this story. There will be trigger warnings both at the beginning of the chapter it is in as well as right above the actual scene in the chapter so you can skip over that section if necessary.
One thing I want to make clear because it was mentioned in a review: this is not being used as a sort of throw away plot device to move my story forward. When I first started writing this story, I knew it was some that was going to happen and that these characters would have to live with. Domestic violence and child abuse come in so many forms. No one's experience is the same. That's what the characters show in this story. They show what I've been through, what people I care about have been through, and what more of my students than I can even fathom anymore have been through. But more importantly, this story is about showing that you can move forward from that. You can break the cycle. It's about the fact that perfection doesn't exist in any form but that doesn't limit our happiness.
2. As mentioned in #1 child abuse is a big part of this story; however, it is rarely shown and the few times it is show, it will not be intensely described. There will also be trigger warnings placed at the beginning of the chapters and above the sections where those scenes occur.
3. This story takes place in Goblet of Fire but Prisoner of Azkaban never happened in my universe. Sirius DID escape and the papers went wild with his escape but shit happened that kept him from reaching Harry. (I don't want to go to into what exactly kept him away here because it's in the actual story.)
4. Because no one fount out about Remus (besides Hermione), he did not quit and will be teaching at Hogwarts for their fourth year. (We're going to ignore the DADA Curse for this story and despite the fact that this Snape is much closer to cannon than my usual Snapes, we're going to assume that him not attacking students at the end of the year kept Snape from revealing him/made Snape keep following Dumbledore's rules.)
Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own the sandbox the is the Harry Potter Universe. (If I did, I definitely wouldn't have student debt.) Said sandbox belongs to J. K. Rowling. I just building little castles in it.
Chapter One: Every Photograph Has a Negative
June: There's No Place Like Home
Hermione
Glass shatters downstairs and a sigh escapes Hermione's lips as her parent's loud voices shatter the peaceful silence she had managed to surround herself with as she slowly unpacked her trunk.
"I'm not even home an hour and they're already at it." Her voice is barely a whisper as her eyes slide cautiously to the door, silently wishing he hadn't taken away the doorknob with the lock the first time she had attempted to keep him away from her.
Softly stroking the H of the chunky sweater Mrs. Weasley had sent her this year, she sets the top back into her half unpacked trunk and moves to her open window. Carefully popping out the screen and balancing it against one of the many bookshelves that line her walls, she slips out onto the roof outside her window that covers the garage of her parent's two story farmhouse. Hermione pulls her knees to her chest in an attempt to close the hole in her chest that opened every time she was forced to leave her safe haven.
A truck flies down her quiet street and a sickening thump snaps her chocolate gaze to the normally safe street. The truck's taillights fade into the distance but Hermione barely notices, her normally warm gaze filling with worry for the dark lump the car had hit without a care to whether whatever it was had been hurt or not. Springing to her feet, Hermione quickly runs to the edge of her little roof and climbs down the grate her mother had had her father put up as a backdrop for the garden that lines the right side of their garage before sprinting toward the mass lying motionless in the street.
Tears well in her eyes as she takes in the large dog, struggling for breath as she kneels down beside him. "Don't worry buddy, I'm going to make sure you're ok."
The dog whines, his wolf pain filled eyes connecting with her gaze as she lifts the heavy dog into her arms.
"I know it hurts bud but I've got to get you somewhere safe." Her breath is labored as she struggles under the dog's weight.
The dog's head lifts as they approach her house, her parents' voices leaking out of the open window near the kitchen. He glances at the house and then back to her, a question seeming to radiate from his intelligent gaze as he opens his mouth as though he wants to make a noise.
"No." The young girl cuts off the dog before he can make a sound and her eyebrows shoot to her hairline when the dog immediately shuts his mouth as though he actually understands her. "We can't have them hearing you, they'd have you put down faster than you could bark and I don't particularly want that, do you?"
The dog snorts and shakes his head before resting it in the crook of Hermione's neck.
Her strained chuckle escapes the young girl's lips as she creeps along the side of the house by her window and into the shed next to the garage. She quietly pushes the door open with her foot and slips into the small building before gently setting the dog onto the old tarp lying in the far corner of the room. Hermione quickly moves away from the dog who watches her cautiously as she walks purposefully toward the other corner of the shed and pries up a corner of the metal wall no one would have known was anymore loose than any other one of the walls unless they were the ones who created the hidden safe space.
The dog snorts, drawing Hermione's attention back to him as she pulls a small white box from the space behind the metal wall.
"You know, since you keep snuffling at me like that, I'm going to call you Snuffles."
The dog seems to shoot her an incredulous look and the young girl laughs softly as she pulls the disinfectant from the small box and kneels down next the hurt creature once again.
"It's your own fault, I probably would have given you a better name. If you hadn't kept looking at me so oddly... Now please try to keep quiet, this is going to sting."
The dog whines softly as Hermione carefully cleans out his wounds and bandages him up.
"I'll come back out after my parents go to work to check on your wounds and bring you into the house so I can take better care of you but you'll have to sleep here tonight buddy." Hermione tells him before carefully rising to her feet and placing the first aid kit back behind the shed's metal wall before coming back to the animal watching her from the tarp. "I'll see you tomorrow, Snuffles."
She softly scratches his head one more time before leaving the small building and closing the door behind her.
Sirius
Tap. Tap. Tap. Hermione groans and Sirius isn't sure if the sound comes from the pain of the bruises he can already see forming on her light skin or being woken up by the awful sound coming from her window pane.
Hermione stretches, her shirt riding up to reveal bruises of various colorings that now coat her body in a sick sort of mural as she does so, and worry wars with his quickly building fury. He hadn't felt anger like this since the day he'd found Lily and James's bodies and he'd wanted so badly to kill the sick fuck she called her father the first time he'd heard him hit Hermione but seeing the girl come up to her room hours later with barely contained tears had kept him from racing downstairs. She had needed his comfort more than he needed to hurt the man who had hurt her. It was the first time he'd ever actually put someone else before himself.
A soft whine escapes Sirius's lips as he scoots closer to Hermione and presses his nose to her cheek, closely following the action with a slobbery kiss in the same place.
A small smile stretches across Hermione's face despite the pain and she sits up to pull him into a gentle hug. "It's alright, buddy. Getting to keep you was worth it" she tells Sirius softly so that no one else in the house will hear her. "I'll have to get special permission to have you come to school with me but I'm sure that won't be an issue, my head of house always tries to accommodate her student and I don't trust my father not to hurt you while I'm away."
A growl escapes Sirius lips and Hermione laughs softly, "Or maybe you'd be the one to hurt him? Thank you for not going after him when you saw him hurting me, by the way, I'm not sure what I would do if he hurt you. You've really helped me this summer buddy. Maybe once I'm able to transform into my animagus form, we can go for runs. My form's a wolf with the same shade of hair as you."
Tap. Tap. Tap. The noise interrupts any reaction Sirius could have given her and Hermione's head snaps toward, the widest smile Sirius had ever seen stretching across her face as she scrambles out of bed as quickly as possible, her gate slightly tilted from the soreness he's sure she feels with every step. She flings the window open and a beautiful snowy owl flutters in, landing softly on Hermione's shoulder and giving her ear a loving nip once Hermione takes the letter from her claws.
"Hello to you too, beautiful," Hermione murmurs in the same tone she uses to talk to him.
The owl coos gently, nuzzling her face into Hermione's cheek.
"I'm surprised to see you so soon. Harry never writes this early."
Sirius's ears perk up at that. Harry is a common name even in both the magical and muggle world. He couldn't be that lucky…but…it was very clear that this sweet girl who had saved him was clearly a witch. He knew enough about muggle culture from before Azkaban to know that they didn't use owl mail. And what are the chances of that happening…
Hermione's eyebrows pull together in concern as she makes her way back to the bed, sitting down close to the end where Sirius continues to watch her.
Sirius's curiosity is quickly converted to concern at the look on Hermione's face as she carefully flips the letter open and takes a deep breath before opening it:
Dear Hermione,
I know I don't usually write you this early in the summer but I'm worried about you. Something didn't seem right when I saw you with your parents yesterday and I wanted to make sure that you were ok. You are ok right?
With Love,
Harry
P.S. Can you make sure to feed Hedwig when she gets to you? Uncle Vernon took anything edible I had (including her food) at the same time he took my trunk this year because apparently I drew too much attention to myself when they picked me up at the station. I'll probably be sending her to you a lot for food because you know Ron never feeds her when she goes over to his house. I hope that's ok, I promise I'll pay you back for all the owl food. Maybe I can buy Crookshanks some food when we go shopping in Diagon Alley with Ron?
A frown tugs at Hermione's lips as she sets the letter down on her bed and makes her way to her closet where she squats down and runs her fingers along the bottom of the back wall until she finds the spot she is looking for and a small piece of walling pops out. Reaching into the small whole, she pulls out a bag of feed before turning back toward the nightstand that Hedwig is currently perched on.
If he were in his human form Sirius's eyebrows would have shot up but he notices that Hedwig isn't at all surprised by the small hole in her wall but Snuffles is staring at her in surprise.
"You have to be prepared for anything," she tells Sirius with a cheeky smile and spot of darkness in her kind eyes, pouring a little bit of the feed into the seemingly decorative bowl on her nightstand before replacing both the bag and the piece of wall. "You two stay up here, I'm going to go downstairs and get some food to send over to Harry."
Sirius watches Hermione shuffle out of the room, a look of concentration on her face as she mumbles to herself. What she's mumbling exactly, even his canine senses can't quite pick up but he assumes she's thinking through what she can send her friend without her family (or at least her disgrace of a father figure) noticing its absence that also won't spoil too quickly for him to eat and won't be too heavy for her feathery friend to carry.
It's less than ten minutes before she's back upstairs with a small hoard of food and a worn out bedsheet in her hands. She sets the half folded sheet onto her bed then places the food in the center before opening the trunk Sirius had assumed was decorative until this moment, after all how many muggles used old fashioned trunks like that when they went away to school (if they went away to school).
Sirius lumbers over to her, stretching his neck so he can see her response, as she grabs a piece of parchment from her still half packed trunk, she quickly scrawls a letter to Harry.
Dear Harry,
Everything's fine. I promise, nothing out of the ordinary here.
I fed Hedwig like you asked but I'm also sending some food for you back with her. It's not much but I didn't want to overload your poor bird. I don't actually have Crookshanks anymore. He didn't like my Father at all so my parents told me he had to go. I did get a new dog though! His name is Snuffles and he's a big sweetheart, I'm sure you'll like him.
Write back soon.
With Love,
Hermione
Sirius had told enough half truths in his life to know one when he saw one. And Hermione's response was a peak example of half truth. Her home life was in no way fine (without even taking into account the sneaking suspicion Sirius had that her bastard of a father had done something to the Crookshanks she mentioned in her letter if the freshly turned ground where she'd taken him to go to the bathroom was anything to go by). Sirius just wished she wasn't making the same mistakes he had. Finally telling James and Remus about his homelife was one of the only decent decisions he had ever made in his life and Hermione's Harry clearly cared about her just as much as James and Remus had him.
Hermione hesitated as she began folding the letter, her gaze flicking toward the ballpoint pen she'd used to scrawl her notes.
Sirius presses his nose to her wrist and gives her his widest puppy dog eyes, begging her the only way he can to tell her friend.
Hermione gives him a sad smile and a soft scratch to his head, "I can't tell him, bud…He'd do everything in his power to save me and I…I can't add a weight like that onto his shoulders…especially when he already carries the weight of wizarding…"
The young witch lets out a soft sigh as her sentence trails and quickly folds her letter.
At this point Sirius knows her Harry is the Harry he had broken out of Azkaban to find before she finishes sealing the letter and address the front…After all there can't be more than one Harry who carries the weights of the wizarding world…Sirius had never expected to have to worry about a child…He thought he'd be the fun godfather for the rest of his life…but somehow he'd ended up with two pups to worry about: his best friend's boy and the sweet girl who had risked her well being to help him.
Hermione rises from her desk and makes quick work of placing her letter on top of the small stack of food before tying the ends of the sheet together and holding the small parcel out for Hedwig to take. "Come on, girl. We've got to have you away from here before my parents get home."
The bird swoops by Hermione's head, nipping her ear gently and brushing her cheek softly before grabbing the small parcel in her claws and exiting the room.
Hermione stares longingly after the beautiful bird until Hedwig's shape fades into the distance.
There's another beat after even Sirius can't see the bird before Hermione physically shakes herself and shuts the window.
"Time for another bath before I get ready for the day, bud. Can't give them anymore reason to take you away," Hermione states, running her fingers gently through her fur as she passes before holding the door open for him.
Sirius quickly makes his way to the door, rubbing his side against her leg as he passes in an attempt to show his growing affection for the girl who saved him.
He trots down the hall in a path that was quickly becoming familiar to him, his eyes skimming every perfectly placed picture of a perfectly posed family. This house is the opposite of the one he'd grown up in. For every light furnishing and airy window this house had, Grimmauld Place had the dark furnishings and troll heads to match. Both houses presented the perfection that their societal circles required. But Sirius knew this house was about as perfect as the one he had grown up in.
Nudging the door to the bathroom open, Sirius willingly jumps into the tub and wait patiently for Hermione. He knew he was probably showing her too much intelligence but he didn't have the heart to give her any sort of trouble when all he really wanted was to see her smile again.
They're halfway through his bath and he's covered in suds when he gets the idea.
His gaze meets hers and she pauses in her task, her eyes narrowing slightly. After all, he'd already pulled a couple stunts to get the little witch to laugh.
And then he shakes.
"Snuffles!" Hermione shrieks, laughter spilling from her lips and melting away the stress that had no business being on her young face.
Sirius grins down at her, glad to make her happy even if it is just for a moment. It's in that moment that he decides to stay with her until she goes back to Hogwarts. She's friends with his godson after all and he would rather stay with her, making sure she's alright, and have to wait to see Harry then risk either getting caught again or just not making it to Little Whinging fast enough to get to Harry before the school year starts.
"Just let me rinse you off and then we can be done buddy," there is still laughter in Hermione's voice as she finishes giving him a bath and drying him off.
July: Snuffles Meets The Weasleys
Hermione
"Hermione!" Molly pulls the young girl into a hug the moment she steps foot into the Burrow.
"It's good to see you, Mrs. Weasley. Thank you for inviting me over." Hermione smiles at the older woman, hiding her wince as Snuffles leans into her leg in an attempt to comfort her. She usually enjoyed the older woman's brand of bear hugs but bear hugs and bruises had never gone together well.
"It's no trouble dear, we love having you." Molly doesn't have time to say anything else as her four youngest children come barreling down the stairs.
"HERMIONE!" All four surround her, crushing her in between their bodies and causing a muffled groan of pain to escape the young witch's lips.
Snuffles growls in warning at the four children crushing her and they immediately jump back, watching the dog with wary eyes.
"Sorry guys, he's just a little protective of me. He's actually a big softy." Hermione gives her friends a reassuring smile as Snuffles nuzzles her hand and Hermione scratches the dog's head. "This is Snuffles. I found him outside of my house at the beginning of summer and Professor McGonagall gave me permission to bring him to school since I wasn't able to bring Crookshanks."
"Good riddance, if you ask me," Ron grumbles under his breath and Hermione shoots him a harsh glare as Snuffles growls in support.
Before Hermione can snap at the prat, the twins are stepping in between them and scooping up Hermione's trunk.
"Why don't I show you what we did to my room? The twins helped me build a sort of shelf so that we can still get into our trunks when they're stacked and they'll be easier to pack when we're getting our things together at the end of summer. I also cleared out some drawers and part of the top of my dresser since you'll be here for a good bit," Ginny rambles as she leads Hermione and Snuffles upstairs, the twins a bit behind them with Hermione's trunk.
"You didn't have to do that, I could have gotten my things from my trunk," Hermione murmurs to the girl beside her so the twins wouldn't hear her, she didn't want to inconvenience anyone.
"I wanted to. Everyone deserves their own space," Ginny dismisses Hermione with an easy smile that has any leftover tension leaving Hermione's shoulders.
"Thank you," Hermione replies, smiling at her best female friend.
Ginny and Hermione were polar opposites. Where Ginny loved the spotlight, Hermione tried to avoid it. Where Hermione could be completely content in silence, Ginny was in a constant state of motion. Where Ginny didn't see her ever really settling down, what Hermione wanted more than anything was somewhere she could put roots down. They had every reason to clash but somehow, they balanced eachother out. Ginny told Hermione she was beautiful until she began to believe it and Hermione gave the feisty redhead the shoulder no one else realized she needed.
A loud thump breaks Hermione away from her thoughts and cuts off any response from Ginny as the twins heave her trunk onto the shelf above Ginny's with as much flourish as you can with no magic and a trunk more than halfway full of books.
"Now that you two lovely ladies are set," Fred starts.
"We've got another guest to get," and George finishes.
Both girls roll their eyes as the twins give them their usual mischievous grins with synced deeps bows and whirlwind their way out of the room in a way that only they could.
"Thank you!" Hermione calls after them, laughter tinging her voice. She may give them a hard time for breaking rules but they never held it against her and they had always been there in their own surprisingly quiet way, making her smile when she felt like everything was too much.
"Finally! Girl time!" Ginny squeals in a very un-Ginny-like way as soon as she shuts her bedroom door, nearly vibrating with excitement as she makes her way over to Hermione's trunk in what had sort of become tradition whenever Ginny beat Hermione to a place they were both staying.
Hermione smiles at the feisty redhead as she settles on her bed with her back against the wall, her fingers slipping into Snuffles's fur the moment he jumped up beside her and settled his head in her lap.
It had started when Hermione had stayed here for a few days at the end of last summer. They hadn't known each other well, it isn't easy to get to know someone at school when they're possessed or petrified afterall, but the boys had gotten into a fight almost as soon as Hermione had walked through the door and neither girl had any interest in dealing with that…but Ginny, being Molly Weasley's daughter, also wasn't comfortable sitting back and watching while Hermione unpacked…and Hermione, well, she hated unpacking (she was actually pretty notorious in her dorm for leaving everything, except her books, packed until she absolutely needed it) so she was more than happy for the help. Eventually the two of them started chatting then it evolved into Ginny completely taking over while Hermione relaxed (because Hermione didn't do that nearly enough according to the feisty redhead) and then it became their tradition for every visit home, every shopping trip, and random odds and ends in between. They used the time to talk about anything and everything away from the boys that took up the majority of their time (because as much as they both loved their boys, sometimes a bit of girl time could give you a new perspective).
Hermione's clothes and toiletries were neatly unpacked and put in their place while Ginny lounged upside down on her bed, their conversation still flowing easily over an hour later, when a loud crash and yelling had the girls racing down the staircase with Snuffles at their heels.
A familiar head of raven hair made everything else fade away for Hermione.
"Harry!" she yelled, nearly tackling her best friend in a hug.
Sirius
Sirius didn't like the youngest male Weasley. Molly and Arthur were as lovely as ever, though a little overbearing and a little distracted respectively, and they treated his pups as their own. The twin terrors reminded him of himself and Remus when they were that age, with George constantly reigning his twin in while Fred convinced his to let loose (and they slipped him human food whenever Hermione and Molly weren't looking which earned them extra brownie points). Ginny got both her fierceness and protectiveness from her mom with an independence all her own and she spoke nothing but love to Hermione every moment of everyday but wasn't afraid to call anyone, and everyone, on their bullshit (including both of his pups)...She reminded Sirius so much of his brother in every way but blood that it made him sad sometimes, she took care of those she considered hers in her own way. And Sirius just couldn't understand how the youngest male Weasley was so different from them.
That first day, Ronald Weasley had almost instantly pulled Harry and Hermione upstairs once Harry had gotten there, despite the other Weasleys being excited to see him, and the three of them hadn't come downstairs until Molly called them down for dinner. Sirius had given him leeway that first day, thinking he was just excited to see his best friends and not thinking about everyone else…but then it had happened again…and again…and again. Always separating his pups from the rest of the people who clearly cared about them.
Then came the day when that damned red menace had grabbed Hermione's arm and nearly dragged the little witch upstairs after she had made him wait until she finished her quiet discussion with Fred about one of his Weasley Wizarding Wheezes products.
Hermione had flinched, whether it was because she was still bruised or because the boy's grip was that tight Sirius didn't care, and Sirius had growled more deeply than he can ever remember doing in his life. If he hadn't had the small amount of restraint he possessed, he would have taken a snap at the redheaded menace.
Ronald Weasley's treatment of his pups worried him greatly. (If he acted like this with parental supervision, how did he act without it?) And, if he were being entirely honest, the redheaded menace reminded him entirely too much of Peter Pettigrew.
August - Never Would Have Bet the World Cup Would End Like This
Hermione
Crowds weren't usually either Harry or Hermione's thing, it had actually become a normal thing for Hermione to act as a sort of buffer for her famous friend and get the two of them away from overwhelming situations, but today was different. This was a kind of crowd she didn't think either of them had experienced before. It radiated an excitement that was palpable, an instant and consistent boost of serotonin from the moment their stepped foot into the area.
Harry and Hermione also weren't usually the type to let loose, though the twins and Ginny did everything in their power to change that. But when Harry offered Hermione his hand, the widest smile she thinks she had ever seen on his face, in the Weasley's main tent, she is more than willing to take it. When he uses her hand to spin her around in a stumbling, clumsy sort of dance, her laughter joins the myriad of noise surrounding them. In that moment, she feels completely free.
And then the screams shatter the idyllic scene.
But Harry's hand never leaves hers.
Not when Mr. Weasley orders his oldest children to come with him while the youngest of their group is split into two groups of three.
Not when she slows them down because she'd never been the fittest of their friends, leaving Ron to lead the way.
Not when she stumbles at the sight of the friendly muggle family she'd met earlier that day spinning in the air and Ron leaves them behind.
Not while they find a place to hide, pressed tightly together in a tiny alcove with their wands at the ready as they wait for their sign that it is safe.
Sirius
"Mione?" The soft voice has Sirius jumping to his feet, a growl building in his throat before he realizes it's his Godson kneeling beside his pup's bed. Emerald eyes connect with his own and he lays back down at his pup's feet.
"Harry?" Hermione's voice is groggy with sleep and coated in confusion as she sits up to see her best friend. "What're you doing here?"
"I wanted to make sure you were alright. Every time I try to go to sleep, I just keep seeing the Death Eaters capturing you and hurting you the way they did the others. That could have been you Mione." Harry's voice cracks and tears pool in his eyes. "And I wasn't there to protect you."
Hermione pulls her best friend into an awkward hug, rubbing his back as his tears fall onto her neck. "I'm fine Harry and I will always be here for you. It will take more than a few Death Eaters to take me down. I'm not the brightest witch of our age for nothing."
A broken chuckle escapes Harry's throat but he keeps his face buried in her neck, "I guess you're right."
A moment of silence passes before Harry pulls away and Sirius's pups' eyes lock.
"Can I stay with you tonight?" Harry asks and Sirius immediately wants to say no, that it's not appropriate. That platonic best friends don't look at eachother like that if people their age shouldn't be sharing beds unless they are platonic best friend (despite how hypocritical Sirius knows that makes her). But Sirius is a dog right now and he really has no say in what will happen especially considering Ginny had decided to stay the night with Bill and Charlie after everything that had happened.
Hermione's eyes widen but after her gaze searches his for a moment, Sirius can see any objection she might have had completely melting away.
"Sure," Hermione whispers then smiles at Harry and scoots over, forcing Sirius to move even closer to the end of the bed as she did so.
"Thanks." Harry grins back, sliding in next to her and wrapping his arms around the young witch. "Good night, Mione."
"Goodnight, Harry," Hermione whispers back before resting her head on Harry's chest and closing her eyes.
Sirius waits for Hermione's breath to even out before laying his head back down and closing his eyes only for them to snap back open when a whisper reaches his ears:
"I'll always protect you, Hermione. I promise."
