I do not own Harry Potter, in fact I own nothing not even myself. That honor belongs to my cat who graciously allows me to type between feeding and petting him. And of course J.K.R. owns Harry Potter.
Snape was seated at his desk in his office when the parchment from Poppy flew out of the fireplace and hit him in the forehead. He picked it up from the desk where it landed and read it. Two words, "She's awake." *Hmmm…. Poppy is still overly melodramatic. One would have thought she'd have gotten over it at her age.* he thought ignoring his own tendencies towards melodrama. He stood up and with elaborate casualness walked toward his door. *Might as well go to Albus and see what he has planned for Miss Granger* he told himself as he walked a touch faster than normal towards the Headmaster's office.
After gaining entrance, he sat himself in his favorite chair and greeted the twinkling man seated behind the desk "Albus" he inclined his head.
"Severus" Dumbledore replied amused at the dignity his Potions Master was trying to cloak himself in to hide the reason he had arrived here so soon after receiving his note.
After waiting for a few minutes it became obvious to Snape that Dumbledore wasn't going to say anything else. He intensely disliked being forced to show any more interest in this matter but he knew that Albus would be perfectly content to sit there smiling at him till he brought the subject of Miss Granger up himself. "I presume you received the same sort of note I did from Poppy this morning?" Snape asked. At Dumbledore's nod he continued," When do you plan on questioning her, now that she is awake?" Snape asked adding "You do know I expect to be there when you do question the girl, if only to hear the reasoning behind her decision not to say anything to any member of the staff about her situation at home." Snape sat forward in his chair at the end of his statement looking towards Dumbledore for his response.
"I plan on visiting Miss Granger shortly Severus. I have no problem with you being present but I expect you to hold your temper while I speak with her. You know she's most likely terrified of you or at least of the persona you put on for your students." Dumbledore almost chuckled at the look on his Potions Masters face at the suggestion however veiled that he wasn't as bad as he appeared to be, but opted for discretion. He stood up "Well Severus, I believe we have an appointment in the infirmary." With those words he started down the narrow stairwell out of his office knowing that Severus would follow.
Hermione was feeling much calmer when Dumbledore and Professor Snape entered the part of the infirmary where her bed was at. She watched numbly as Dumbledore took a seat by her bed and Professor Snape leaned against the wall, arms folded across his chest, and glared at her. She jumped when Dumbledore patted her hand, not expecting the contact. She immediately turned bright red when faced with his startled expression and began to stammer an apology "I, I'm sor..."
"Its quite all right dear, I didn't mean to startle you" Dumbledore said kindly "now that you're awake we need to find out what happened at your house the night I sent Professor Snape to bring you to Hogwarts. I thought you would prefer talking to me instead of the authorities and they've agreed to use my penseive as evidence instead of questioning you directly. Is that all right with you Hermione?" Dumbledore asked in his gentlest voice, looking in her eyes for any sense of apprehension.
Hermione looked back at Dumbledore still feeling that false sense of calm Madam Pomfrey's potion had given her. "You're right sir, I do feel more comfortable speaking with you, but why is Professor Snape here?" she asked in a hesitant questioning voice clearly conveying her surprise at his inclusion.
"I'm here because I would like to know precisely why I was forced to walk into the scene I saw when I came for you." Snape said in his silkiest voice. "Now if you're quite ready, tell Professor Dumbledore your story." He waved a hand at Dumbledore acknowledging the look that man sent his way. "Well Miss Granger?" conveying through his tone that she was wasting his time.
Hermione contented herself with a quick glare towards the corner that Snape had placed himself in and turned her attention to Dumbledore. "Sir, I was in my room and I heard a gunshot from my parent's rooms, then my father leaving. I went into their bedroom and saw my mother's body." She stopped here and fought to compose herself. She would not cry in front of Professor Snape. The last thing she needed was one of his famous comments on Gryffindor sentimentality. After taking several deep breaths she continued in the same emotionless voice "I must have blanked out for a bit, the next thing I knew was my father coming in and beating me. He then…" she paused and rephrased what she was about to say. She didn't want anyone knowing what had happened next. "He then left and I went to my room to get things together so I could leave. Then professor Snape was there. That's all I remember." She looked into the headmaster's eyes willing him to believe her.
Dumbledore didn't press her, knowing that was all he was going to get out of Hermione for the time being. He sent a warning look to Severus, silently telling him not to push the issue.
"Sir?" Hermione said having a question that she needed answered.
He turned back to Hermione wondering what she had to say. "Yes Hermione?" Dumbledore said
"Where do I go now?" she asked praying that she wouldn't have to return to her parent's world or leave Hogwarts. "Why was professor Snape sent to fetch me?"
"Ah my child those are good questions. The answer to your first is fairly simple. You will be staying at Hogwarts for the remainder of the summer. In order to have this happen we had to appoint you a guardian from the wizarding world as the muggle's wanted to put you into something called foster care." He looked puzzled at this idea, Snape merely snorted from his corner. "The Weasley's have agreed to be your guardians until the end of your seventh year, unless you have an objection?" He smiled at hermione's quick shake of her head. "The answer to your second question will have to wait until you are well again and Poppy releases from the hospital wing, which I hear will be within the week." He patted her hand once again and rose from his seat. "I look forward to seeing you up and about as usual Hermione; now try to get some rest." He went to the door and gesturing for Snape to precede him left.
Snape waited until they were back in Albus's study before exploding "You know that she wasn't telling you everything. Why did you allow that stupid child to get away with it!" Snape shouted at Dumbledore whom merely looked at him calmly.
"Calm down Severus, of course I know this. However I feel that whatever Miss Granger is hiding, she's doing it for a good reason in her own mind and eventually she will be willing to talk about it." Dumbledore said in a reasoning tone of voice like he was talking to small child. "Let it go Severus."
Snape just looked disbelievingly at Dumbledore "Let it go? What happened to that child doesn't get easier to talk about with time. What makes you believe that she will ever talk about what happened to her willingly? Isn't it obvious that she has had years to tell someone and still no-one would know if I hadn't been forced to go to her house that night? This isn't one of your problems than can be solved by lemon drops and kindness." With those parting words Snape swirled his robes around him and stormed down to the dungeons, too disgusted with what he perceived as the Headmasters deliberate blindness to stay there any longer.
A/N: Sorry this took me so long to get out. I've been having problems with storms and power outages. Anyway, I'm not completely happy with this so anything you have to say is welcome. I thought I'd throw it out there while I still have power. Thank you everyone who had reviewed me, I might have quit by now except I know people are actually reading this. And of course thank you my Girl Blonder.