Hey guys, I hope you enjoy this chapter :)
Chapter 36: Complications
The beast backed off from the man and moved across the room under the cover of shadows, it transformed back into a human figure. "Where is she?" The dark figured snarled angrily. Severus took a breath, glad his throat wasn't ripped out by the beast before struggling to stand up, the alcohol still pumping freshly through his veins.
"Who?"
The man looked back at him angrily, stepping into the light so the dark haired man could finally see who he was addressing. Severus gulped and stumbled back. Where he was looking stood a brown haired man with golden eyes very similar to Hermione's. He had heavy bags under his eyes, and rippled clothing as though he had not rested for a very long time.
"Hermione, you said Hermione! Where is she?"
"She's not here"
The man stared at him agitated before pointing at Severus. "But you know. You know exactly where my daughter is now hand her over"
Severus shook his head in disbelief, he was suppose to be dead or on the run. Not standing here. The dark haired man slid himself up against the wall as quickly as possible before looking over to Aberforth who had managed to finally stumble up away from the unconscious, beaten body of a one, Mr Jack Granger.
"You ain't touching that girl" Aberforth practically spat at the man as he clutched his bleeding arm.
John Granger shook his head before moving forward. "She's suppose to be with our next door neighbours. Not with him...or you" He glared at the three of them full of nothing but anger and pain.
"You're the one that abandoned her"
"I would never abandon my only child. I was intending to take her home after I knew it was safe"
"Safe? The girl was barely alive when we found her"
"We? Whose we?"
Severus grit his teeth trying to refrain from saying anything further to the older man in front of him. "Surely you don't mean you two!" He laughed, a laugh which aggrevated the dark man further. Did he truely believe him not capable of taking care of a child. "I suppose it doesn't matter. As you can see, I'm slowly going through the list of people who have wronged me" He waved his hand over to the direction of his brother who looked like he was barely alive looking at the large amount of claw marks, bruises and bite marks on him. Severus took another step back. Whoever this man was, he was not friendly. He was a scorned man with barely anything to lose. He had lost: his home; his possessions and of course his family. Hermione. She was probably the only family member he likely had left and Severus did not trust him one bit to be near her.
"And you two are on there, however, seeing as you know where my daughter is; I'll make you a deal" His glasses glinted in the artifical light. The blood of his brother and perhaps other victims drenched his tattered clothing.
"You tell me where my daughter is and I'll let you live. Sound fair?"
Severus shook his head. He heard Aberforth sneer at the man, "not bloody likely!"
The brown haired man frowned. His golden eyes death glaring the two of them. The same gold that resembled the small girls eyes everytime she transformed and came out of it. "Perhaps I'm not making myself clear enough" He adjusted his glasses on his nose. "If you don't tell me where Hermione is, I'm going to tear you both limb from limb. I'm going to torture you, slowly, until you tell me what I want to know"
"You think we'd give her up to a lying-fuckin'-murderer" Aberforth spat. "Who thinks he can intimidate us by turning into a bloody-cat. Well you gotta notha' thing coming" the older man removed his wand and slashed a curse towards the brunette. He immediately dodged the spell turning into a...
Severus blood went cold when he saw the large statured cat. Golden eyes glowing at him, orange and black fur; sharp, deadly claws dripping with blood and large fans for teeth. Severus hesitantly waved his wand trying to block out the resemblance to his god-daughter, his family, his sister. He fired a stunner. The large cat dodged it, ducking under and charging at Severus who immediately through a force-field in front of him but it broke on impact. He screamed as it's large claws scraped down his side, the shield holding most of the impact of the heavy animal back.
It roared out as it bit at the shield, desperate to rip him to shreds. Aberforth launched a baray of stunners at the creature hoping to throw it off the younger man. Several landed, singing at the tigers fur and making it turn it's attention to the white bearded man who steadily prepared himself for the assault.
The large cat charging forward, it's teeth biting into the man who screamed in agony before he threw him to the otherside of the room. Aberforth landed heavily next to Severus of whom was still clutching at his side. He saw the man go unconscious from the pain and knew he couldn't fight the animal alone. He winced, trying as much as possible to watch the tiger as it licked his lips back at them. It was playing with them and enjoying it.
He needed to get out there. They needed to leave ASAP.
But he needed time, he needed time to get them out of there.
"H-Hermione" Severus gulped knowing that the other man was desperate to see his daughter and would listen to any information he had to offer. The tiger roared at the name. The dark haired man took at as a sign that he was listening.
"Hermione, w-we found her on the streets of London. She was extremely mal-nourished, had severe injuries and infections affecting her internal organs" The tiger's eyes widened in fear. "She would not of lived without our help. She was perhaps days, if not, hours away from death"
"We took her back home. She went under surgery to fix many broken bones. She had been severely tortured and a Healer had to remove the infected tissue on her back and legs which had been caused by burns and whip marks" Severus couldn't help but look over to the man dying in the corner. The tiger followed his eyes, distracted for the second. Severus immediately leant over casting healing charms over Aberforth to heal him as quickly as possible. He hadn't realised the tiger had transformed back into his old self until he heard the gurgling sounds and whimpering of a man being beaten to death.
"I TRUSTED YOU! I TRUSTED YOU TO CARE FOR HER" The brunettes' fist swung back bludgeoning his younger brother's face. Severus took the chance, stopping the bleeding from his side with a quick charm before grabbing Aberforth and re-innervating the man. Aberforth groaned in pain before he felt himself being hauled up to his feet, his arm swung over the potions master. He raised his wand ready to send one last curse at the man but he turned back to them, his teeth bared. Severus could see the fangs beginning to grow again from the man's mouth. "What happened next? She's alive right? Hermione's okay?" He needed to know, he needed to know she was okay, that she is safe.
"Indeed" Severus took a breath, seeing he could somehow reason with the man. He watched at the brunette let out a breathe in relief before he clutched his heart. The desperate man looked like he couldn't take another heart-break. "However," The potions master began, "she cannot function without the proper medication"
"W-What do you mean? You said she was okay?"
"She requires a minimum of three potions a day just to keep her kidneys and liver from failing, she requires two potions to fight off the infection in her lungs; she takes another three for the severe mal-nutrition she had suffered, two to promote bone and muscle growth, four to promote overall brain, digestion and overall development and another four for her mental health. That is not including the amount of dreamless sleep she is given so that she may be able to properly rest at night time" Severus could practically list them off of his tongue as he had, in-fact, been the one brewing them in any case.
"S-She's on all that?"
Severus nodded, "she won't survive without her medication. She would be rendered in a vegetative state otherwise"
The brunette ran a hand through his hair before leaning back to sit on the broken and flipped couch. Aberforth was about to hex the man but Severus quickly stopped him from doing so. He could feel the glare from the blue-eyed man but his attention was focussed on the seated man, who now had his face covered in his hands, crying.
Severus licked his parched lips before continuing, "she is safe and happy where she is now. She has a family, she is well taken care of and will be attending one of the finest witchcraft and wizarding schools once she is of age" That caught the man's attention. He rubbed his eyes before looking up at the two men who now had there wands lowered. "Witch-craft and Wizardry? My baby-girl can produce magic?" He smiled excitedly at the two of them before standing up. "I didn't know she could, my wife and I always thought she was special but magic" He smiled, his teeth no longer bearing the usual fangs Severus and Aberforth had grown accustomed too.
"She's amazing, such a smart girl. Just like her mother"
"Indeed"
He looked up at Severus and smiled, "Do you have a picture of her? I-I need to see her" Severus shuffled in his pocket before removing his wallet and finding a picture of their family. In it, Hermione was sitting on Minerva's lap with Severus standing to her right, Albus behind her, Isobel sitting beside Minerva and Poppy standing at the back. He smiled before he silently burnt away their faces and passed the photo of Hermione over to the desperate man who clutched at the photo.
"T-That's her, that's my baby-girl" the photo moved to show her smiling happily and laughing. "She's grown up so much" He laughed, rubbing his eyes from the tears. "She has my eyes but her mother's curly hair. It used to take me ages in the morning just to tame it"
Severus nodded knowing all the trouble the whole family had of dealing with the wild, messy locks of hair that not only Isobel and Minerva seemed to be able to manage. It was considering everyone else seemed to have inherited long, straight hair and were not used to dealing with the wild mane that was Hermione's hair.
"My wife always needed to buy unfizzing solutions and hair-detangle products from the shops to get through her hair. It used to cost her a small fortune to manage it. She used to groan when Hermione had the exact same problem. We hoped she'd take after me" He caressed the picture of his daughter.
"Does she still like her sandwiches cut into triangles with the crust off? She get's really pedantic about that!"
Severus could only nod at Dr Granger in response as he fussed over his daughter. "Oh and her books? She's still reading correct?"
Again, Severus nodded. "We were reading Alice in Wonderland before..." He paused and licked his dry lips. "Before everything happened" He clutched the picture. Severus shifted uncomfortably before feeling like he should say something. "We finished the book off months ago" He paused his deep eye contact with the man trying to convey the double meaning before he thought, "however, she still indulges in reading it when she is bored" Dr Granger smiled.
"I-I want to see her, please! I just want to hold her again; she's the only family I have left"
"Seems you had one last person. You decided to maul him to death" Aberforth spat not buying the father's desperate pleas. The man looked gutted but he couldn't blame either of them. Hermione's biological father had bought a lot of pain and suffering to the girl, whether it was indirectly. His debts had led to them fleeing America to England and being hunted down like sheep. He had also not planned for anything in his will, so his daughter did not inherit anything and was sent to the wrong man to live with. Now he wanted the girl who wouldn't be able to live with him, even if he or she wanted to because of her condition. She would be in danger of not having the correct medication and being on the run. So Aberforth didn't trust him to even glance the girl's way.
On the other hand, the father really had no other reason to believe them other than the picture of the healthy, smiling girl. He needed actual proof, evidence that the girl was happy and perhaps for her to even know that he was still in her life, still loved her, still wanted to be with her. But, he complicated matters. He could easily take her if he wanted too. He could not believe them about the potions and then just leave with her, likely killing the girl. He could confused her, make her hate them for 'stealing' her from her father and lying to them. Merlin, knows how that would go after the whole incident with the house-elves. She could not stand being lied too. He could also put the whole family in a sticky situation. He could ask them to live with them, harboring a hunted man and putting all of them in danger. And then what, he takes Hermione once she's better which would never happen anyway.
He gulped, there were too many possibilities of something going wrong. Severus faltered, he didn't know what to do but for some reason Aberforth did.
"Un-fuckin' likely" He swore at the man whose heart ripped in two. "No? She's not yours. She doesn't belong to you"
"And she does you? You're the one who got his wife killed, beat his brother to death and now you want Hermione? You don't care about that girl's safety at all!" He snarled at the man who was quivering with anger.
"H-How dare you?"
"HOW DARE YOU! You should bloody-well leave that girl alone. She's safe, protected and happy without YOU!" He flicked his wand at Dr Granger sending him flying into the wall.
"Aberforth!" Severus glared at the man he was supporting before he heard the sounds of bones clicking out of joints. He turned to see the large paw of the orange cat duck out from behind the up-turned couch. It's claws ripping the fabric as it pulled itself up. A low frequency growl escaped the animals lips before it lept up and over the couch pouncing at Aberforth.
Aberforth immediately reacted sending Fiendfyre back at the animal, singing it's fur and forcing it to duck and run as the shape of a ram hurtled towards him. "Severus, let's go!" Aberforth grabbed Severus' collar pulling him towards the door. The cat howled in pain as it's tail caught on fire but that didn't matter. The two wizards were getting away. He launched at them dragging Severus to the ground as they made it outside of the porch.
The potions master screamed in pain as large claws pierced and tore down his back. "Aber-" Severus attempted to call out for the stumbling man who only just caught himself after being shoved forward. Severus tried to reach out for his wand which had fallen only a few inches from his fingertips. He reached out attempting to grab hold of it only for the large paw of the beast to land on his forearm. He screamed in pain as he felt the steel claws dig into his skin and attempted to pull his left wrist back causing a rip in both his sleeve and his wrist.
FUCK!
He screamed internally, his blood oozing and spewing from the artery in his wrist. He attempted to grab his wrist trying to stop the bleeding but the animal forced it down and stared at the tattoo on his wrist.
Oh no!
He could tell that the wild angry look in the animals eyes was not a great sign. He knew Hermione's family was attacked by a Death Eater but surely her dad wouldn't blame every member who held the sign. Surely?
"I'm not one of them; it was a AHHHH" The tiger bit at his tendon in his wrist, ribbing the skin where the dark mark was. He attempted to pull at the animals fur in a last ditch attempt to remove him.
"STOP!" Severus screamed in agony on the verge of fainting. His head finally collapsed back onto the wooden floorboards of the porch. He could feel the droplets of blood on his face now. He opened his eyes to find the large mouth of the beast opening up, ready to bite into his neck and end the pain but it never came.
No, instead he saw a green light flash across his view and hitting the now burning house. He watched as the tiger whimpered at the green flash of light and turned it's large head towards the caster. Severus groaned in pain feeling the shifted weight on his chest before he heard Aberforth's voice, "next one's aimed at ya, if you don't get the hell off of my nephew now!" The beast growled in disdain and removed himself from the younger man before roaring at both of them.
The potions master attempted to look up only to find a crow now taking flight overhead as the building collapsed in onto itself.
"It's alright ma-boy" He felt himself being pulled forward and dragged from the wooden floor boards and into the dirt. To his left, Severus could hear a dog barking in the distance. It was getting closer and closer. He coughed, feeling a warm, sticky substance escape from his lips as he felt something begin to lick his face.
"Down you stupid mutt, come on Severus you lazy lump" in an instance he felt the pull of his naval and felt himself squeezing through a thin tube before he passed out.
Severus didn't really know what happened next. It was all one giant blur. He had seen red and white for a while. Someone hovering over him and a woman yelling at him of what a buffoon he had been for even being out with Aberforth, drinking and...he couldn't remember the rest. He was scolded and patched up and that's all he knew. Against his better judgement he opened his eyes to find himself in his own room at McGonagall Manor with Poppy dozing quietly beside him. His eyes quickly glanced over to his alarm clock just off to the side. It read 11:05AM. He groaned trying to move his body but finding he couldn't. He couldn't help but wonder what happened to Aberforth, Dr Granger or his brother.
Merlin!
How could last night could of gone anymore bad! Fucking Aberforth! Fucking Narcissa!
He tried to move his left hand up to rub his tired however, a large amount of pain flared up in his wrist. "Gah!" He hissed in agony before he lowered his wrist back onto the pillow it rested on. It woke Poppy out of her sleep who immediately set to fussing over him.
"Enough! I do not require your help woman" He growled. He had had enough of people for a lifetime.
"Severus Tobias Snape. You came to me on death's door, my friend. I will not be leaving a patient in need" She fussed over him casting several monitoring spells before she sat back down. "You'll need to be on a dosage of anti-biotics for several weeks to ensure you retain use of your arm and hand. Cat's tend to have quite a terrible of bacteria under their claws and in their mouths. Your lucky to still be alive"
"My hand?"
"Will heal, however it will take time. The animal bit right over the dark mark and threw a large chunk of your flexor tendons in your wrist. It will take a decent amount of scar management and rehabilitation to allow for proper usage of your left hand" He nodded before attempting to roll over onto his side but was stopped again by the woman.
"It's only just freshly healed, Severus. You need to take it easy"
"Aberforth?"
"He's fine. He rushed you over to my home first. Gave Rolanda quite the shock of her life. I managed to heal you up at my home before moving you back here" She stated dully before deciding to add, "had some dog in toe with him as well. Tried to pass it off to Rolanda"
"When?"
"Earlier this morning"
"No, when did I get here?"
"Oh! About twenty minutes ago, perhaps. I was wanting to send a message to Minerva to inform her of your injuries however, he stopped me. Aberforth's only just left to speak to Albus" Severus groaned with annoyance. "That man was almost the death of me this morning"
"I couldn't have agreed more. What on Earth possessed you to start a fight with a bloody tiger?" Severus shook his head before gently closing his eyes. She felt Poppy move from his side before placing a pain potion and a dreamless sleep down on his chest. "Drink before you decide to wake up again. It'll make you feel better next time round"
He could only agree downing the potions immediately before resting back.
Albus hummed gently to himself as he began to pack away the outside equipment they had used. He had had a great morning so far with getting the children ready for the morning before his wife took over with feeding the girl her potions and packing away the inside of the tent. He didn't really think his day could be spoiled today. It was severely unlikely until-
"Albus you pig-headed, idiot of a-" He swung his fist back punching his brother in the nose. "man!" Albus stumbled back clutching his bleeding nose and tensing in pain.
"How could you?" Aberforth roared at him. "How could I what?" The older brother took several paces back creating distance between the two of them before Aberforth took another opportunity to swing at him.
"Take her. Her father's still alive and you-" He glared at him. "You knew didn't you. You knew and you took her anyway!" He attempted to swing at his brother again, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and throwing his fist back.
"PAPA!"
Immediately both men turned around to find the stern woman outside next to the two frightened children still dressed in the pajamas.
"Let us discuss this somewhere private"
Aberforth relaxed his grip on his brothers shirt before staring at Minerva and the children.
"What is going on out here?" the woman glared at the two men acting like children. "You two are acting like a rampant-bundle-of-baboons" She moved in front of the two young children about to reprimand the two men.
"Apologies dear"
"Sorry Min. How 'bout we take the children inside" Aberforth's eyes wandered to Hermione's as he took a step forward. "Come on Hermione" He extended his hand for the girl to grab however she wouldn't take it. Rather, Draco, noticing the girl's fear, removed his wand from his coat jacket and pointed it at the man. "Don't come any closer or I'll- I'll turn you into dust"
Aberforth stumbled back seeing the small boy pointing the Malfoy's wand at him. "Where'd you get that from boy?" He gritted his teeth, angry that a Malfoy would dare raise a wand at him. Minerva turned around feeling Hermione clutching onto the back of her robes. She immediately plucked the wand from the boy's hand and pocketed the weapon.
"Hey!" He was about to argue back but stopped when he saw the stern woman glaring at him in a do-not-back-chat-me look. "We will discuss this later. Now as for you two-" She glared at the two men and crossed her arms disappointed in both their behaviour. "You can discuss whatever you are arguing about over tea"
They nodded their heads knowing better than to argue with Minerva and moved towards the manor. Hermione stepped out wanting to chase after them and see what their were discussing however she was immediately grabbed by the back of her collar and pulled towards Draco.
"You two are going to help pack away everything and whilst you are at it you are going to tell me where you got this wand" She glared at the two of them her grip still firmly on her daughter.
"It's not mine" She immediately argued back pulling herself out of her mother's formidable grip. "And yet you seem to know an awful lot about it" Hermione gulped earning a glare from the woman. "You will both be punished"
"WHAT?"
"You for lying and not informing me that Draco had a wand in the first place. And you, for taking something that was not yours" She directed the latter at the boy who was now cowering.
"Please don't tell my parents"
"Draco I will need to inform your mother. As for you dear" Hermione attempted to move away only to be grabbed again except this time she was grabbed by her earlobe. "Ah, maither!" She grabbed Draco's earlobe and dragged them back to the tent to pack up.
Aberforth grabbed the nearest bottle of Fire-whiskey he could find and slammed it down in front of him. His brother paused on pouring a cup of tea for him knowing that his 'hospitality' (as one might say) was in vain.
"I know you've stuck a calming drought in there Albus. I'm not stupid" Aberforth removed the lid of the Fire-whiskey with his teeth and spat it to the other side of the kitchen.
"Very well" Albus calmly took his tea and began to sip it. "That girl's not a pet you know. You can't just take her off her family"
"I didn't take her Abefor-"
"Like hell you didn't. Her Daddy attacked us. He's a beast Albus a bloody shapeshifter a-"
"I believe the correct term is: Therianthropy"
Aberforth glared at the man. "He turned into a great big tiger. Tried to maul us to death He knows we have Hermione"
"I see" Albus stroked his beard in thought. "And he wants her back?"
"Obviously, the question is if you knew her daddy was alive and well; then why the bloody-hell did you not give her back in the first-GOD-DAMN-PLACE?" He spat at the older man. Albus raised his hand silencing the man before he wiped the spittle off his face.
"Minerva found her on the streets close to death's door"
"I KNOW THAT!"
"I only found out about him being alive a few weeks before her birth-parents funeral. His body was not recovered. I ran a test on Hermione's mother and she did not have any magical genes nor did she possess the Therianthropy trait. She was in fact a muggle"
"And the father?"
"Ran off after the family were attacked leaving his only child to be potentially raised by their next door neighbours. I do not in fact believe he had wanted to leave Hermione to his brother in the first place. It seemed that he returned to England to seek refuge from America after winding up heavily in-debt. I searched his records, his alias'. He is listed as a Therianthropist under the American Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. His records however, stated that he did not possess any magical ability to wield a wand"
"So, so Hermione's muggle born"
"Indeed"
"A muggle-born Therianthropist. Does she know that?" Aberforth wiped his hands over his face in thought.
"Mr Granger's records identified that he had indeed perished under his alias' name of Brandon Roaker. As the same as his wife. Muggle authorities were however, able to confirm that it was indeed the Grangers"
"How did her parents..." He paused. "Her mother die?"
"Murdered. They seemed to be both hunted down by the Mag Mafia in America. I believe that Mr Granger knew that they were indeed making an attempt on their life that night and left her with their next door neighbours to be safe. They then attempted to make an escape for it only to end up in a car crash brought on by the American's"
"Hermione's biological father escaped and hid. I believed that he had fled England believing his daughter to be in safe hands. I suppose he looked into it and, from what you have told me, he was not happy with what happened to his only child either"
Aberforth nodded his head. "Does Minerva know?"
Albus shook his head. "I meant to tell her however, I feel she would have an extremely difficult decision to make. I do not think she would cope with losing the nearest person she has had to calling a daughter. And Hermione, likely wouldn't cope with being without us to care for her. Her biological father would not be able to provide the high-level of care the girl needs. She has everything here"
"She should know though. Both of them should know that he's alive"
"It would only upset Hermione to know that she was truly abandoned by her father. As for Minerva I will consider it. Minerva would likely not forgive me for lying to her about the fact that we had 'as-you-say' kidnapped the girl, however they could both be in danger if they were to ever enter the streets together again with Dr Granger out there"
"And what if he comes back. What if he tries to take her when Minerva's there?"
Albus leaned back in his chair in thought, "I believe it will take some time to find Dr Granger and I do not believe in using my daughter as bait. I will speak to Minerva of Hermione potentially wearing a disguise if we are to ever bring her out in the public eye otherwise she will remain in under the protective wards of both Hogwarts and our home"
"And what happens if he does try and take her? You're going to oblivate him arent' ya?"
"It is indeed, better to be safe then sorry" Albus' eyes twinkled as he sipped his tea.
Minerva opened the back door and let the two children through before closing the door behind her. "You two go clean up. Your mother will be here soon. Draco" He gulped, nodding and looking rather guilty before he took off up the stairs to follow Hermione to her room.
Minerva rubbed her temples, exhausted with how the morning had turned out. She walked into the lounge room looking for her husband and his brother only to find her mother passed out on the couch, hugging a bottle of Firewhisky. Minerva sighed, thinking the whole world has gone crazy. She rolled her eyes, god knows what she had gotten up to last night. She waved her wand throwing a blanket over the top of her before moving into the next room.
"Albus?"
"In the kitchen dear," She turned the corner seeing the two men chatting casually. She was surprised they weren't yelling at each other. "Seems you two have settled your differences then" Aberforth nodded at the cross armed woman before looking down at her feet to see the small girl stepping into the room looking slightly nervous.
"Come here, Hermione" Aberforth patted his knee. She quickly looked at her mother who nodded for her to go to her uncle. She immediately ran up and attempted to hug his leg only to be grabbed and pulled into his bear-like arms.
"It's alright' girl, I didn't mean to scare ya off like that" He kissed her forehead and rocked her side to side. She could only nod at him before resting her head on his shoulder.
"Where's Severus?"
Severus heard the door creak a few hours later. He had been sleeping rather soundly since Poppy had left him in peace with a bottle of dreamless sleep and pain reliever. Now his head screamed in agony as the pounding of high heeled shoes clicked against the wooden floor before hitting the carpet. He felt the bed move downwards indicating someone was sitting beside him and stroking his hair. He groaned, not happy at being awoken before finally looking at the person who had made the poor choice of disrupting his sleep.
Minerva. His eyes trailed down her tired face noticing the rings of dark purple under her eyes. So it seemed she had just as much of a stressful day as he did...without being mauled by a maniac.
"Afternoon Severus, thought you might of wanted some dinner?" She asked gently, a hint of guilt in her voice. He tried to agree, his stomach rumbling at the thought of a nice roast with Yorkshire puddings, roasted potatoes and a chicken.
He felt a small movement just under his breast pocket and tilted the sheets to see golden eyes staring into his soul. He tensed for a second thinking it was the man back to tear his throat out before he noticed the innocent look on the small bats face. The way it's mouth opened and it's tongue poked out smiling happily back at him as if to say 'you're safe'. He smirked feeling the small creature lean back down and hug tight against his body. He lowered the sheet back down before looking up at Minerva who was looking at his breast pocket with one eyebrow raised.
"Dinner sounds delicious, Minerva" His voice parched. Minerva sat up and handed him a drink of water, helping him sip slowly before resting back down.
"I'll bring it up for you" She moved off the bed and was about to touch the door handle to leave before she looked back at him.
"Oh and, if you see my dear daughter anywhere, please inform her that she is grounded, beginning tomorrow morning she will begin assisting the elves in cleaning our home" Severus could only nod before he heard the whimpering squeak of the bat.
Minerva smiled, "I would also like you to tell her that she is to be downstairs for her bath by half past five. No excuse" Another squeak rang out from under Severus' covers making him role his eyes.
"If I see her Minerva, I will inform her" Minerva smirked before closing the door behind her. Severus breathed a sigh before lifting the covers up to once again see the large golden orbs of light staring at him. He tensed as the animal moved forward and wrapped around his neck. "Hermio-" He stopped himself, feeling the small head of her bat like figure cuddling just under the crook of his collar bone and stretching it's small wings across him. Her relaxed, feeling the bat's small breaths tickle his throat. He raised his non-broken hand and gently began to stroke his god-daughter's back in an attempt to send her to sleep. She was so soft and warm compared to the mangy beast that had attacked him. It made him wonder how she could ever be like that.
If she were to ever grow up, desperate, scared, alone and vicious enough to maul their own family member to death...close to death. He didn't know if Dr Granger's brother had survived the mauling and the fire.
It didn't seem likely but who knows.
He didn't expect to see her father this morning.
Spoiler alert: Hermione's back to Hogwarts in the next chapter ;)
