The Heiress

Chapter 5

Hermione was having a wonderful dream about wonderful things that young ladies usually dream about, when something very unpleasant and loud reached her ears…

"All alone on a Sunday morning, outside I see the rain is falling, whoa…" Groggily she deduced that the loud unpleasant voice was Ron's, and as she listened closer she realized that Harry was also joining in, doing the echoes when appropriate, and the male verse of the duet. She cringed at the particularly powerful burst of emotion on the line, "Apology not accepted add me to the broken hearts you've collected." It disturbed Hermione to know that since she had not clued Ron to the fact that the song existed, Harry did, and apparently he took a liking to Lisa-Lisa and Cult Jam enough to memorize the lyrics.

Neither of them were in her room, which told Hermione that they were using a voice magnifying charm…but why?

She searched their bedrooms, and not finding them, she went to the next most obvious choice…the kitchen.

Sure enough, Harry and Ron sat on one end of the table, singing at the top of their lungs, and Neville was trying very hard not to break into hysterics.

"What is the meaning of this?" Hermione inquired. Suddenly there was a barrage of footsteps hurrying down the stairs.

"That singing is driving me CRAZY!"

"Honestly, can't we get some sleep around here?"

"Lisa-Lisa SUCKS!"

"The only thing worse than the pain in my mouth is the excrement spewing from yours!"

Harry, Ron, and Neville grinned maliciously at the enraged suitors, and ignored Hermione's question completely.

"Since you are going to be living with us, and dating our best friend, we've all decided that you have to do everything we say, and listen to every song that comes from our mouth, or the lot of you are going to sleep in the cupboard under the stairs," Harry explained, proud of the plan he had thought up.

"That's utter crap!" Nicholas complained.

"Then leave," Ron replied.

Nicholas narrowed his eyes, and made a beeline for the door, everyone watched out the window as he made for the edge of The Grange's property line. Once he reached that invisible line, there was a sound like electricity generating, and with a fantastic explosion, Nicholas was sent back about ten feet, where he landed on his backside.

"Ron, that's horrible! What did you do?"

"Nothing, once you've invited them, they can't leave until you become engaged, I TOLD you that already."

"I didn't know that it was so literal!"

Nicholas stormed back into the kitchen.

"I didn't think it was going to work, I thought I could leave and be done with this hell-hole!"

"Why wouldn't it work?" Hermione asked.

"Because I'm already engaged."

There was an audible gasp from everyone.

"Y-you're already engaged?"

"Well, married, I should say."

The gasp was even more audible this time.

"You bastard!" Ron growled, lunging for him, Hermione attempted to hold him back.

"My wife says that I'm not attractive to other people anymore, I wanted to prove her wrong to see if you'd say yes, the engagement wouldn't have gone through of course, since it would be illegal, but still…I would've proved her wrong."

"You bastard!" It was Harry who tried to have a go at Nicholas, Neville was the one who held him back.

"You were going to play with my feelings like that…to prove you were still attractive to your wife?" Hermione asked, horrified, but not quite angry.

"Well…yes."

"And now you're stuck here…and I'm sorry everyone, but I don't think I will be getting engaged any time soon."

"You could just say yes to me, and then the spell would be off and you wouldn't even have to get married."

"That's true…"

"It's worth a try," Neville stated.

"Alright, I'll marry you, now all of you leave."

There was a cheer from the inhabitants, and with that all the suitors but Neville made a beeline for the outside world. Once again, the force field kicked in, and they were thrown back. At that moment, an owl swooped in with a letter what appeared to be the Wizardry Marriage Department.

"What's it say?" Harry asked.

"Basically it says nice try, and if I try it again the consequences will be dire for all."

Four suitors re-entered the kitchen looking quite miserable.

"Why do I get to go as I please though?" Hermione asked.

"Well, a girl has to have options," Atticus offered.

"So the only reason I can leave the property is the fact that I have the right to 'shop around'?"

"Of course."

"Good for me, because I've got a job looking after Professor Snape's daughter."

Harry, Ron, and Neville were floored.

"Snape has a daughter?"

"We have to deal with him AND his spawn?"

Hermione rolled her eyes at their responses and nodded.

"Yes, and don't be surprised if she shows up here once in a while, I told her she could."

"Whatever, don't expect me to fawn all over the little brat," Ron replied.

After a few lessons, Hermione deduced that Justine was like any normal four year old, she didn't have much of an attention span for academics, but was clever enough to comprehend what Hermione was trying to tell her. The lessons were most effective outdoors, otherwise Justine would stare outside the schoolroom window the whole time. Hermione taught Justine the charms that was allowed for a child who was not school-age, and Justine performed them as well as any young child would, which was not very. It was soothing for Hermione to find out that Justine wasn't one of those intimidating precocious children.

"You are particularly restless today, Justine," Hermione remarked one day. She had been instructing Justine for two weeks, and had barely seen Professor Snape more than twice. He was always working in his laboratory, and it was almost always just Hermione and Justine at the table for luncheon.

"Yes…Aunt Hélène is coming to visit, and she always brings me presents."

"Oh really, is she very nice?"

"Yes, not like Papa at all, she give me hugs and kisses and calls me 'Jussie', which Papa doesn't like."

"Is Hélène your mama's sister?"

"No, she's Papa's sister, she looks a lot like him, only a girl."

"Ah, I see."

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"May I come over and see your house now, I've been really good and did my studying and tried to pay attention."

"I don't see why not, come along then."

Justine appeared somewhat impressed by Hermione's home, and the grounds surrounding it. When they came across Harry, Ron, Neville, and the suitors, Justine gave the most attention to Ron, who seemed to captivate her.

"You're lovely," she complimented, as she stood in front of Ron, giving her best sweetheart smile to him. He found himself smiling back, despite his intentions to ignore her.

"Justine!" Hermione chided.

"Oh but he is…what's your name?" She asked brazenly.

"Ron Weasley."

"Hello, Ronald."

"And I'm Harry, and this is Neville." Justine ignored them, not tearing her eyes away from Ron. He was beginning to feel a tad uncomfortable, as he did not know how to deal with his five year old admirer, since it did not happen very often.

"Hello, Justine…Snape's daughter."

Ron decided that Snape's Spawn was not so horrible, that she was in fact, a little adorable, and not nasty like her father. He rather liked her, and was flattered by her attention towards him.

Soon after Justine's visit, Hermione walked her home. House-elves were hauling it what looked like a substantial amount of luggage, following behind them was a tall, lithe woman with long black hair. Justine squealed with delight.

"Aunt Hélène!"

Justine let go of Hermione's hand, and ran top speed towards her aunt, who greeted her with open arms. She did look a lot like Snape, although she seemed to take more care of her hair and teeth.

"Is this the uptight wench governess that has designs on my brother?" Hélène asked Justine, giving Hermione a once over.

"No, Miss Pritchard is gone. This is Hermione Granger, and she says I don't have to call her Miss Granger, and I can call her Hermione. She's nice to me and doesn't make me do all that studying all day, and she never yells." Hélène smiled fondly at her niece and set her down.

"I'm glad to hear it. I never met her, but Justine told me how she threw herself at Severus and how she really buckled down on Justine, nothing to specific, but I had my suspicions."

"You're suspicions were correct. Miss Pritchard was entirely too cruel, and I intervened."

"Bravo, it takes something to bring issues like that to my brother, it seems like he doesn't care for anything anymore."

"Sometimes it appears like that."

"But where are my manners? I'm Hélène Snape. I don't usually visit but I have an announcement for my brother that I'm sure he will just hate, and I don't pack light, as you can see," she said, motioning to the house elf hefting the last bit of luggage into the house.

"I realize it will be some time before I actually get to speak with him, since he's imprisoned himself in his laboratory once again, but I expected nothing less of course. Jussie go inside and get ready for supper, and find out from that nasty little elf if you're father plans on coming up for air anytime soon." Justine obeyed, and Hermione found herself alone with Hélène.

"You seem to care for Justine quite a lot," Hélène remarked.

"I do, she's very sweet."

"Yes she is."

"Her father doesn't deserve her."

Hélène raised a snape-ish eyebrow at Hermione.

"You don't know anything, do you?"

"About?"

"About why Severus does not care to get close to his daughter."

End of Chapter.

Well, I hope this answered some questions. Also, if you would like to get a better idea of what Hélène looks like, I suggest you look at a picture of Silvia Colloca from "Van Helsing". If you do not have a picture handy here is where to find one: http :www. imdb. com/gallery/hh/1278926/HH/1278926/collocasilvia3.jpg?path=pgallery&pathkey=Colloca,%20Silvia

I can't link directly, but just copy and past and fix the spaces…

"All Cried Out" belongs to Lisa-Lisa and Cult Jam…at least I think it still does. Wonderful song, but I hope you can imagine how Ron and Harry would butcher it. Oh, and try to catch the "Family Guy" reference. I don't know id it's verbatim, but it's something like that