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Chapter 18: Shopping Day

For the last three hours, the trio had been walking around shop after shop to buy Hermione some decent attire other than transfigured school clothes. In the first hour, Hermione was practically head over heels excited as her new mother and her walked through the isles, Severus finding the nearest dad seat he could and reading from a small notebook.

"How about...something green" Minerva took a light green, long sleeved shirt from the rack and placed it in front of Hermione. Hermione's smile dropped slightly as Minerva compared the sickly colour to Hermione's extremely pale skin. It seemed to remind Minerva of Hermione's illness and she placed it back before picking up a yellow short sleeved shirt.

"Much better" Minerva smiled happily making Hermione smile back. The girl was head over heels about her mothers smile. It always brightened her up. Hermione spent the next hour following her mothers every wish.

By the second hour, she was practically exhausted. She didn't even realise she was stumbling until she ran into the Minerva's shins and knee caps.

"Oof" Hermione winced, earning a concerned look from her mother. Hermione rubbed her eyes wanting to continue shopping and not disappoint her mother. The eye contact didn't last long though, as Hermione felt a pair of hands wrap around her waist and pull her up into someones muscular chest.

"You're about to trip over your own feet you silly girl" Hermione rested her head on Severus' chest as Minerva brushed the girl's small face.

"We've still got a bit more shopping to go dear, do you think you'll be okay?" She asked the poor girl. Hermione couldn't only nod as she sucked her thumb earning a roll of his eyes.

By the third hour, Severus had resided to allowing the girl to sit upon his shoulders and rest her head head on his. Hermione couldn't help but rest her head on Severus' as she struggled to remain awake.

He tried to look up and check on her, asking her if she was hungry or thirsty for anything.

"Sev-er-wus can I have some orwange dooce pweeze?"

"Orange juice"

"Orange J-u-ce"

He rolled his eyes, "Yes, you may have some"

"Sev-wus what does duce mean?"

"It's something you'd say if you got fired for illicit writing" He thought, continuing to walk through the shops and aiding Minerva and the girl who he'd come to eventually know as his new family.

Hermione yawned, earning a worried look from Minerva.

"Ooch," She came back over to the two of them, Severus noting that she obviously wanted to cuddle the girl, knelt down and took the girl off his shoulders before passing her to her. Minerva smiled gratefully as they found a small cafe to sit down at and enjoy some tea.

"Tired deary?" Minerva asked as Hermione yawned in her mothers arms again before shaking her head. She didn't want to stop shopping with her mother despite her tiredness. She was trying so desperately to stay awake. When she was at home with her parents, she was never this tired before.

Hermione could only assume that with everything that had happened, it had left her pretty spent and considering the fact that she was on some sort of medication it only made her confirm her theory. Minerva pulled the girl as she snuggled up tighter to her.

"One more shop and we'll go home so you can get some rest"

Hermione sighed, she really wanted to run around at the park for an hour. She hadn't been able to play on one since she was homeless. Although, it hadn't been a great experience.

When she had rocked up at the park, there was a few children there with their mothers who basically just stared at Hermione as she dragged herself over to the swing and sat down before removing a half eaten sandwich. She didn't know why at the time everyone was staring at her but she narrowed it down to her depraved state. Hermione, by this stage, had lost her shoes and was currently running around in bare feet with a disgusting grey shirt and trousers. She still had her backpack at least and had found some great food in the trash bins earlier that day, including a half eaten hamburger for breakfast outside of McDonalds and a somewhat fresh sandwich someone had given her on the streets as they passed her by on their way to work.

She had tried washing the blood and dirt away at a local water fountain but that only made people want to try and grab her. She remembered gulping down the rest of the sandwich right before she was approached by a mother and her eight year old son.

She had dark, brown curly hair that just made it down past her earlobes. She was wearing a summers dress and appeared quite serious. Hermione stared down at the woman's feet in fear as the rather chubby child approached her.

"Mother how come she looks weird" He pointed at her, his short blonde hair waving in the wind.

"Dudley, it's rude to point" Petunia scolded the boy as she slapped his arm away before bending down to the girls level.

"Dear, where is your parents?" She asked at least somewhat concerned. Hermione bit her bottom slip lip before lifting her head up to answer the woman.

"They're...They're in Heaven" Hermione gulped, her body shaking no longer enjoying the encounter she was having with the woman.

"Ooh you poor dear" Petunia bent down hesitating to touch the girl as there were practically fleas jumping off of her wild mangy hair. Hermione shivered, frightened of the woman's touch. Dudley could see the worried look in her mothers eyes. He really didn't want another child in the house, having Harry there was far from wanted and he knew his mother had secretly wanted a girl.

He gulped in fear needing to say something, anything.

"We already have one horror living under the stairs; we don't need another, mother. Should we call the police?" Dudley asked her mother earning a terrified look from the girl. She instantly got up and bolted for it no longer caring if she couldn't enjoy the park.

Petunia turned to Dudley, placing her hands on her hips before grabbing his ear and pulling him away. She wondered if she should call the police though, the girl looked absolutely feral and likely needed to be taken to a home. She was covered head to toe in dirt, and was extremely pale and skinny. She looked extremely ill and needed to go to hospital as soon as possible.

Petunia pondered on the finders keepers rule for children. The girl may have looked completely horrid but her golden flecked eyes were absolutely stunning. She could instantly tell there was an innocent, beautiful face under the heavy lining of muck, dirt and blood.

Hermione sprinted on her bare feet for what felt like 100's of metres but was in actuality only 100m. She was already exhausted and breathing heavily as she leaned over the side of a bin and vomited. Her body shuddered in pain as she cried, spitting out the rest of the saliva and sandwich from her mouth.

She sobbed wiping her face with her hand wondering where her next meal would come from. Not that trash bin for sure. She'd need to find another one. She stopped in her tracks as she found a small boy with shaggy black hair staring at her. He had broken glasses, taped up wearing clothes that were two sizes too big for him. She wiped her mouth again as he held a rather big cookie in his hands. Her pathetic, puppy dog eyes stared at him, wanting nothing more than to have the cookie herself. She could steal it from him, be a thief everyone else did the same to her. Her thoughts changed when he broke the cookie in half. She wanted to scream at him for being so careless.

She wracked her hands through her hair gripping it in pain as he broke the cookie...and then extended his hand. He...he was giving her some. Like lightning, she instantly swatted his out of his hand and backed a few feet away from him before eating it rather slowly. He could only stare at her, hoping the girl wasn't the violent type. She watched his as she ate it hungry before he extended his hand near her.

"I'm, I'm Harry" He said flinching as the girl backed away from his hand in fear. She hesitated, scratching her arm as she stared at him in shock. No ones ever nice to her.

"W-why did you g-give me the c-cookie?" She asked, wanting to know what he was thinking. Shamefully, she wasn't a mind reader and was reliant on him to tell her.

He stared in shock at her quivering voice before answering, "you looked hungry". She scratched her arm again but nodded, wandering if he was another child who had ran away from home.

"What's your name?"

She licked her dry lips hoping he had some water on him but she was nothing but disappointed in the end.

"I'm Her-Herm-Hermio" She froze, hearing the sounds of clicking heels and a boy complaining.

"Harry!" She called to him rather shocked to see him with the small girl. She stared between the both of them before realising that they may of in fact been of similar age. Maybe the girl a little older.

Thank god! She had caught up to her. At least she was somewhat safe. It was all in vein though as the girls body shook in fear and she turned to hide behind the black haired boy.

"It's alright my dear. We'll get you help" Petunia extended her arm but it was met with fraught. Not only did the girl not trust the woman but so didn't the boy she was hiding in front of. That only meant further dread for the small girl as she hid further into the small boys back.

Petunia couldn't help but look over to Harry in slight annoyance. Why hadn't he bothered to grab the girl she was obviously injured.

"Harry grab her," She yelled at him.

His eyes widened in shock, he didn't want too do it really. He turned to the girl and quickly turned back round to his aunt.

"Um," He turned back round again before attempting to gently grab her arm, however as soon as he touched her she reacted violently. Almost as if his fingers were like fire. She yelped, jumping back before speeding off down a nearby alley.

The boy had attempted to run after her but Hermione turned back into her cat form and ran for it.

Hermione had never seen the family again, although she had no interest in wanting to know them. By all accounts, the only person who had been nice to her had been the black haired boy although he had tried to grab her and she didn't much appreciated that. No, not one bit.

She remembered spending the rest of the day rummaging through bins upon bins until she found a medium sized cardboard box to sleep in for the night.

She rubbed her eyes before looking up to her mother as she set a cup of tea down in front of her before pulling a small vial out of her robes and adding a few drops to Hermione's drink. Hermione didn't question it in the least considering how many vials of potions she was on. She had three in the morning with her breakfast, three at lunch and two before dinner and two after dinner. She assumed most were nutritional ones, some anti-biotics others calming droughts, hunger droughts, sleeping potions etc.

She sipped slowly on the tea as she stared over to a nearby park wanting to go on the slide and climb the monkey bars. Hermione was pretty much a sedentary child but she missed the things she took for granted in her old life.

"Hermione!"

Her memories faded back to the time her father brought her down to the park after her mother was working late. He spent over half an hour pushing her on the swings before chasing after.

"Hermione!"

After which, they had both gone down to the local Tesco's and brought dinner with Hermione able to pick out one sugar free candy which didn't always taste the greatest. Her eyelids closed as she felt a gentle hand run through her hair and rest on her shoulders and neck.

"Maybe she's been overstimulated today?" She zoned back in to Minerva's concerned words. Hermione shook her head and rubbed her eyes trying to stay awake.

"Perhaps you are worrying too much. The girl's fine. She likely needs something to eat" Severus sipped his coffee before grabbing the waiters attention for a slice of cake. Some sugar should do the trick. They still had one more store to visit and he refused to have the girl asleep on his shoulders, drooling on his head.

As soon as the cake arrived, Severus shoved it down in front of the girl before telling her to eat the whole thing. She was still a skinny little girl and had yet to put on a decent amount of weight and since Minerva had only had her for a fortnight it was more about getting her to put on a steady amount of weight. Right now Hermione only sat on the scales of just under 12kg. She needed to put on at least another eight kilos at least before she turned six.

She glanced at them noticing that they weren't eating at all. Instead, they watched her like something at a zoo. Minerva noticed her hesitation and gave her daughter a slight bump, "come dear, you need to eat something".

Hermione couldn't help but agree as she picked up the fork. She'd really prefer to eat with them rather than be stared at. Being stared at wasn't great. She slowly ate the slice of chocolate cake as Severus and Minerva continued to chat to each other.

When she finished, Minerva checked that Hermione had eaten and drunken everything before kissing her forehead. The small girl had to smile, she felt so much better for getting something into her and definitely didn't feel as tired as she did. However, she still wanted to be carried by her new uncle despite his agitation. They quietly walked to the last shop. It was a small clothing shop. They had decided against buying her anything formal wizard related as they didn't feel comfortable taking her out into the spot light as of yet. No, she would be better off being babysat if required. Minerva had instantly pulled Hermione down as soon as they entered the shop and began looking at all the different winter gear including snow coats and shoes.

Minerva had ended up picking out a red one with black outlining before picking up some black waterproof pants and black boots for the winter holidays. Although it was only September, Minerva thought it was appropriate especially considering the girls there lack of body fat.

Severus had found a nearby seat to sit down in and read from a tiny notebook as the two females walked around the store allowing them to have their small bonding moment. God knows they needed it.

By the time they had returned to school all three of them were exhausted. They resided to spent the evening down eating together as a family. All four of them ate a small roast for dinner within Albus and Minerva's rooms.

Hermione was almost asleep by the time dinner appeared on the table. Minerva made a point of sitting next to her and holding her up to stop her head from falling into her food. She apologised after the first couple of times her eyes struggling to stay open. Minerva more thought on the idea of putting Hermione to bed early, although it was only 6:30pm and she'd likely be awake for the early hours. After dinner, Severus left deciding to finish up on some of his research whilst Minerva had a cuddle session on the couch with her daughter wrapped up in a warm navy blue blanket. Albus finished up his paperwork for the evening before joining the two by the fire. Minerva running her fingers through her daughters hair as she slept peacefully in her mothers arms. He noticed the way, Minerva's hand gently soothed the girls back earning little squeaks escaping the girls lips.

Albus sat down with the two finally noticing that Minerva was massaging the girl's scars so that they would be a lot smoother.

He sighed noticing the severe scarring that laced her back. Curse that man. He still needed to have a chat with his wife in regards to what he had found out about the Grangers. Minerva's eyes focused on the 'O' in traitor. It seemed to be the worse of the writing. Hermione mewled again in her sleep as Minerva continued to massage the girls back.

Albus wrapped an arm around his wife kissing her cheek. Minerva smiled as they sat in front of the fire.

They finally felt like a family.


It wasn't for a few days that they began to notice the girl tiredness begin to grow. Surely, she would be getting better. Minerva had assumed at first that Hermione was just exhausted from the shopping trip and learning to sleep in her own bed.

That was not the case when the girl had practically dragged herself out of bed on Wednesday after Minerva had told her three times to get up. Needless to say, Hermione wasn't impressed about being woken up. Large purple and blue rings laid under her eyes. It made Minerva stop in her tracks after attempting to rush about and get everything ready for the day. Their day. Hermione was being forced to go to Minerva's morning classes this week until they thought Hermione was ready to attend to her school.

Minerva sighed, taking the small girls hand and having to take her back into her room before helping her with dressing herself. She wrapped her arms around her body before lifting her up and into the bathroom as Hermione slept on her shoulder.

"Come now dear, you cannot sleep all day"

Hermione groaned as she scrunched her face wanting to sleep. She had almost gotten away with it until her mother shoved a toothbrush into her mouth and began brushing her teeth for her.

Minerva had practically cuddled the girl as she walked to class with Hermione on her side. She got some strange looks from the children who walked down the halls, not used to the stoic woman taking care of a child.

Once she got to her classroom, she placed the girl down on her desk before pulling Hermione's chin up and inspecting her.

"You are looking very under the weather today dear?"

Hermione groaned, "where's teddy?".

Minerva wanted to slam her head against her palm. That was probably the first rule for Hermione; she never left anywhere without her bear.

"Teddy's still in your rooms dear. We will return to recover him after the first class"

She could see the tears threatening to spill down her small face and Minerva shushed her by pulling her into her arms, "I promise dear".

Hermione spent the rest of the morning under Minerva's desk sleeping on a soft, cushioned floor covered with a blanket.

By lunch time Minerva was still trying to coax Hermione out from her slumber. The older woman felt awful dragging the girl around all morning especially when she was barely awake. She sighed, needing to make a detour to the infirmary. She really thought the girl was sick.

It was a slow walk down to the infirmary as the empty corridors held Minerva voice as she quietly tried to sing to the girl in her sleep. It took less than 7minutes to get from her classroom to the infirmary to see Poppy who completed several tests on the girl who told them that Hermione had basically only been getting around three hours sleep for the last couple of nights. Minerva scratched her face, that was basically all the nights Hermione had successfully slept in her quarters rather than theirs.

Oh no!

Hermione's likely experiencing nightmares and terrors as a result of weaning off of the dreamless sleep.

She asked Poppy for a dose for tonight to allow the girl to get some sleep. Tomorrow they would have to have a chat with Hermione about her night terrors. As Minerva strolled down the hallway towards the dungeons to drop Hermione off for Severus' afternoon watch she contemplated on the fact of whether Hermione had remained awake the whole time during the night to stop herself from screaming her lungs out from the night terrors or she had managed to cast a spell to stop them from hearing her. Minerva was quite concerned on the latter as Hermione was very young to be performing magic let alone controlled magic. It was extremely irregular. She kissed her daughters head as she sucked her thumb before tapping on Severus' office door.

He greeted them with a less then flattering sneer before allowing Minerva to place Hermione gently on the couch before waking her up to tell her that Severus was going to take care of her for a few hours while she taught the first and seventh years. Needless to say, both years were very much a handful. Hermione didn't argue at all, simply asking for her teddy, which Minerva had forgotten yet again. The girl kicked up a tired fuss before her head hit the pillow and she was fast asleep too tired to change into her cat form to get some proper sleep for the evening.

Severus didn't bother trying to wake her up, as far as he was concerned, the more the girl slept the more work he could get done.

It was until 4pm that he felt a shift in the air. An invisible bubble surrounding the couch. Severus arched his eyebrow curiously and got up noticing the girl tossing and turning on the couch desperately wrestling with her covers.

"Hermione" He called out to her before hearing a knock on his door. He rolled his eyes, frustrated at the two events and walked to the door, knowing it was Minerva who would more then likely be capable of comforting the girl in her state. He opened the door and Minerva immediately caught eyes with her only daughter screaming silently on the couch.

"What on Earth" She shoved him out of the way before penetrating the sound resistant invisible bubble and hearing Hermione shrieks of terror. She immediately grabbed the girl forcing her to stop screaming and wake her up. She cried into her mothers arms before she turned on Severus asking what had happened.

He simply shrugged informing Tabby that Hermione had only began this less than a minute ago.

"Why didn't you wake her up?"

"You arrived and I felt that she needed her mother rather than me"

"You're her uncle" She scoffed holding the crying girl closer to her chest.

He scowled at her, that word reminding him of every atrosity her real uncle had committed. Minerva could see the hatred burning in Severus' eyes and didn't push it any further. Severus' had not told her everything about what had occurred between Hermione and her uncle. Rather Albus had shown her a few of her uncle's memories...and they were utterly awful. She couldn't watch any more than three before she felt sick to her stomach.

She pulled Hermione closely, shushing her, rocking her back and forward before singing to her. Anything to calm her down. It took over 20 minutes to finally get some of Hermione's sobbing down and even then it wasn't enough to get Hermione's proper attention.

Minerva should have known better than to think Hermione wasn't otherwise torturing herself at the expense of her new family. They needed to have a family meeting tonight to discuss this. As soon as Hermione had calmed down of course.

The evenings meal was held back in their rooms with it only being Albus, Minerva and Hermione. They ate quietly needing to address the elephant in the room which Hermione was really not looking forward too.

Albus put his fork down at the end of dinner and turned to his daughter who was sniffling at the table. They had just found out her secret and she knew her mother had told her father.

"Hermione" He called to her, tears streamed down her face as she rubbed her eyes.

"Dear, no more Silencing yourself so you don't wake us up Hermione. If you're experiencing nightmares then we will work through them together. Alright?" Albus had told her simply wanting to end his daughters pain. She wanted to sleep back in their bedroom both Albus and Minerva could see it and they were more than happy to comply. At least for the mean time.

Hermione nodded, tears rolling down her face as she ran to her mother and father and held onto the two of them, sobbing.

Minerva sighed, turning to her husband. They needed to get a Psychologist, or Psychiatrist for Hermione.

She really wasn't coping.


Next chapter will be a Weasley one, then onto Hermione's birthday and Christmas.