Chapter 5 – Oceans Frozen

They managed to keep out of each other's sight quite well, he thought. For a month, he had kept to his rooms, mostly, and taken to visiting the library only by night. He supposed she visited it by day, leaving it as soon as she could. He had his food served wherever he was occupied, studying or making potions. The house elf seemed more subdued now, as if it sensed the tension that hung in the house.

He made his way towards the library. It was well past midnight, so he would be sure the girl wasn't there any more. She kept mostly to the usual Hogwarts bedtimes. He entered and walked towards the Herbology section. He took the book he wanted and made to leave, but then discovered a tiny figure in one of the chairs by the fire. So she had forgotten the time. He continued towards the door when he heard a strange sound. The girl was crying. Just great. Well, she probably wouldn't want him to comfort her anyway, but maybe she could do with some anger to distract her.

"Miss Granger?" he asked softly while approaching her. 'Are you all right' seemed stupid. He settled for: "What is the matter?" She didn't look up and he noticed she was holding two letters. With a 'may I?' he took them from her hand. He noticed the Ministry of Magic crest on one of them, which usually didn't mean anything good. The other one was blank, but he recognised Albus' handwriting.

Hermione,

Please accept my deepest condolences for the loss of your parents. I will myself act as your legal attendant for the time being, taking care of the formalities involving the Ministry of Magic.

I am sorry to tell you that safety does not allow you to be present at their funeral services on your own. However, I consider it a way of proving their death, and thence an important step towards accepting it. I shall write to Severus, separately, to entreat him into accompanying you.

Yours sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

He folded the letter again and opened the other one, though he already knew what would be there. Indeed, it read:

Dear Miss Granger,

We regret to have to inform you Mr. E. Granger and Mrs. R. Granger have been involved in a Death Eater attack. To our deepest repentance, neither has survived.

We understand that you are the nearest living relative of Mr. and Mrs. Granger. Consequently, there are some formalities that must be taken care of. We will be expecting you or your legal attendant to deal with this in due time.

Hoping to have you informed adequately, I remain,

Yours faithfully

Antigone Dunhard,

Office of Muggle Relations

Her parents killed, and both of them. No wonder she cried. And they were killed because of her, he was sure of that. The Dark Lord had probably gone to her parents to get her killed, after he had heard she was not at Hogwarts any longer, and when she had turned out to be somewhere else, he had killed the Muggles just for the fun of it. Not that the Dark Lord would not have killed them, had the girl been there. Severus had seen enough of him to know that much. And, what was worse, he knew she knew that as well.

He now looked for the letter that would be addressed to him. He had to know what Albus was expecting of him before he could deal with the crying girl in front of him. Besides, he sought for an excuse to postpone that. Crying was a reasonable way of showing grief. Not that he himself would indulge in showing his emotions, but with Gryffindors, it was different.

The letter was lying on the table, probably where Fawkes had left it. The envelope was as plain as the one addressed to the girl. The message contained not only the entreat to accompany her to the funeral, but also was meant to persuade him to help her say a few words. There had to be some sort of acknowledgement from her as to her parents' death. Of course, Albus kindly reminded him, these were Muggles, so he had to dress like one as well.

Just great, he thought. A Muggle funeral was something he always had wanted to attend. Sarcasm even in his thoughts. Having finished the letter, he ran out of excuses for not comforting the girl. So he'd better get it over and done with.

"I am sorry for your loss, Miss Granger," he ventured. "Truly sorry."

The girl looked up at him, face wetted with tears. She looked, apart from the grief, incredulous at hearing him condole her. Then her face hardened.

"You should be," she said. "This is all your fault." He sighed in relief. Unlike crying, irrational anger was something he could deal with. She took his sigh the wrong way, though.

"Yes, your fault," she repeated. "Sigh as much as you like, Professor, it doesn't change a thing. My parents have been murdered by your friends. You should be glad, you know. Two Muggles less in the whole wide world. Does it feel different to you, now? Why don't you kill their Mudblood daughter at once? No one will miss me now, you know," she almost shouted the last sentences, still sounding hoarse with tears.

"Miss Granger," he tried to intervene. "I by no means wish to kill you, nor did I wish for your parents to die." She shook her head in disbelief.

"Oh no, of course you didn't. A Death Eater who doesn't want to kill Muggles and Mudbloods. Don't try to make me laugh, now, you never did that before. I have no reason to laugh, now. My parents are dead. Dead. Unlike some people," glaring at him malevolently, "I have feelings. I love my parents… loved," she corrected herself. "Now they're dead. Dead. And it's all. Your. Fault." At the last sentence, she had jumped up and leapt towards him. Now she was battering her fists against his chest. He suspected she'd rather want to beat his head, but just couldn't reach it. He was after all still one head taller than she. He let her channel her rage against him, as there would be no reasoning with her before she had done that.

Finally, she seemed to reach her limits. Breathing heavily with both grief and exhaustion, she was once again reduced to a crying figure in one of the armchairs. He drew the other one nearer and put a hand on one of her shoulders.

"Miss Granger," he tried again, softly. "As I have not tried to kill you, maybe you will believe me now if I say I am truly sorry for your loss." She looked up, then nodded briefly through her tears

"Albus wrote me to accompany you to the funeral, to make sure you are safe." Again, she nodded.

"Besides, he wrote something should be said on your parents' behalf. Are you up to that?"  She nodded and opened her mouth to say something, but thought the better of it.

"What is it, Miss Granger?" he asked in as kind a tone as he could muster.

"Well, my parents were Muggles. Dentists. So all people attending the funeral will be Muggles too. Can you… will you…" she trailed off, seemingly afraid to ask her question.

"Are you asking me whether I will be wearing Muggle clothes?" She nodded. "Then rest assured, Miss Granger. Hard to imagine as it might be, I do wear Muggle clothes sometimes." Then, despite himself, he added: "Fortunately it is a funeral, so I won't stand out wearing black." Despite herself, the girl smiled.

-^-^-

Four days later, Severus and Hermione walked up to the church. They had Apparated into the house of the girl's – late – parents, where nobody would see it. She had explained the route to the church and changed her speech once more. Severus drew his black Muggle raincoat closer round his body. Next to him, he felt the girl do the same. As fit at a funeral, rain was pouring down and it was cold, being the end of November. He regretted having to wear this rag, instead of his warm cloak, but that would stand out too much. Safety did not allow anything unusual.

In the small village church two coffins were standing near the altar, both closed but with a framed picture standing on top of each. He shivered; he knew the bodies inside would indeed not be fit to be shown, considering their death cause. Certainly not if said cause was to be concealed for Muggles. He remembered the excuse that had been given to Muggle media – a gas leak. There had been far too many gas leaks in Britain during the last two years, he thought cynically.

He took a seat at the right side of the front row, leaving one seat open for the girl. There was no danger of anyone coming near her this way, as everybody always steered clear of him. Indeed, the row filled, but the two seats to his left were kept free. As there were not many direct relatives, only some uncles and aunts of the girl and a few distant relatives, the public mainly sought to sit as much to the back of the church as possible without being impolite.

The pictures seemed to be staring at him. Of course, they were Muggle pictures. Severus made an effort not to imagine how the public would react if the faces suddenly disappeared, or started waving at their daughter. He received a nudge in his left side. Apparently the priest had finished saying appropriate words and it was time for her speech. When she rose, he did the same. He would go standing a little behind her, to be able to intervene if necessary.

Getting behind the stand, he wondered what the black thing was meant for. Then he realised the voice of the priest had sound strange, as if he had used a Sonorus Charm. Probably, this was the Muggle equivalent, a microphone, he remembered.

"We are here," she started softly, but her voice wasn't amplified like the priest's. Then, she had to do without. The acoustics of a church were similar to his dungeons' acoustics. She started again, this time loud enough for the whole church to hear, but without raising her voice. She would make a good teacher, he thought.

"We are here to take leave of Robert and Elizabeth Granger." The Ministry of Magic, secure as it was in dealing with times and other things they detected themselves, had mixed up the initials of the girl's parents. It was not unusual for them to be imprecise in their dealings with Muggles, but that didn't make the mistakes less painful.

"Their untimely death has, of course, caused me a great shock, as I was at school at the time." A murmur of consent from the audience. "As things are, my presence here does put my own life in serious danger." Some gasps. "Nevertheless, I would like to say some words on their behalf." And with that, she lapsed into some facts and remembrances about two people she hadn't even seen for the last two years.

After her speech, the priest took over again. First, with only half a smirk in Hermione's direction, he fumbled at the microphone. Then, with amplified voice, he invited the guests to go to the graveyard, to pay the last respects to Mr. and Mrs. Granger. Eight gloomy-looking men, clad in black, came in through a side door and made for the coffins. They positioned around them, four to each body, and perfectly synchronous they lifted the coffins and bore them out of the church. Severus followed, directly after the relatives. Without looking, he felt the presence of the girl next to him.

The pouring rain had now become an icy drizzle. They walked to a rather distant part of the graveyard, where a great hole already had been dug. Wooden boards were lying around the edges. Without much of a ceremony, but still perfectly synchronous, ropes with hooks were attached to the handles of the coffins and they were lowered into the grave. When the ropes were loosened and the men had gone away, the priest said some words again.

"Let us now, as a last goodbye, walk along the grave and hold a moment of silence in honour to the dead." This time, Severus took back, standing next to the grave, his head bowed in silence, knowing that the girl would wish to remain here as long as possible. At last, when everybody had departed, the priest shot them a strange look and left as well.

Now Severus and Hermione took off as well, she trailing a little behind him. When they were gone, two roses, a red so dark it was nearly black, were lying on the coffins.

-^-^-

Author's Note: Thanks for all the lovely reviews!