"Can you tell me who took you Miss Rose, please?"
She looked into Severus's eyes, before turning to stare at Kingsley as she answered.
"Riffraff"
oOo
"RiffRaff?" Kingsley questioned, the confusion very clear in his tone. He looked to the Auror Green beside him, as though his fatherhood status would give him enough insight to translate the toddler's statement for the confused Minister of Magic but he just shrugged. Severus went stiff, the effort of holding back his emotions in front of the other two men, taking away from his ability to do little else than hold Rose to him and occlude heavily.
Rose broke away from Severus's hold and toddled over to a book pile, she brought over a small children's book which she opened and placed in Kingsley's hand, Hermione who had returned with Scorpius was certain the toddler rolled her eyes a she did so at the seeming obliviousness of the Aurors.
Opening the book further, Kingsley read aloud the page that Rose had indicated, as Green narrated her actions for the record.
'You're not my real dad'
The little girl laughed at the rat
Who was wearing daddy's hat.
'Daddies keep you safe when you're scared,
And you can count on daddy, he's always there'.
'Daddies are playtime, stories and laughs,
and you're just a rat, you silly riffraff!'
'That's what real daddies are made of!'
Returning to Severus's lap, Rose stated with a pout, "My Daddy" putting a hand on Severus's chest (the "you dunderhead" went unsaid). The look on her face was so aggravated, as though she found both the men before her were so emphatically stupid to think otherwise.
Ronald Weasley is not my daddy, Severus is my real daddy, you Imbeciles. Was clear in the scowl she offered them. Her mannerisms and scowl were just so….Severus, Hermione almost laughed, and had to cover her mouth to hide her grin.
Kingsley arched his eyebrow before turning and addressing Hermione. "Miss Granger, did I just get sassed by your toddler?"
"Little bit, yeah" She confirmed with a small smile.
Green smiled at the girl and she offered him a small smile back.
"I think…" Severus began when he was able. "You should rephrase your question, Minister Shacklebolt"
"Quite" The man chuckled. "The man who grabbed you today, and tried to take you away, was it Ronald Weasley, the man who…umm…used to be your daddy?"
She frowned again, at any reference to a Daddy who was not Severus, but thinking about it for a moment, it was clear that she decided to concede him this point at least, as he seemed rather dense in the toddler's opinion. "Yes" She answered and nodded. Though she moved closer to Severus in emphasis of his status, Severus stroked her hair gently, before kissing the crown of her head.
The Auror and Minister shared a look with Severus, then nodded to each other.
"We have everything we need. Rose has confirmed that it was Ronald Weasley who attempted to abduct her, with the abundance of evidence we had against him already, this is all we need to add another charge of kidnap and reckless endangerment."
Severus looked contemplative for a moment, as though he was warring with himself, before he asked "A word please, Minister?" Severus questioned quietly.
"Of course" The man acquiesced, and they moved to the hallway speaking in hushed tones for a few moments before Kingsley departed with the Auror Green, Severus waited alone for a few minutes before Kingsley returned, looking somber, and speaking to Severus in a low voice, before saying his goodbyes and apparating away, leaving the small family finally and blessedly alone.
Rose, for her part, now she was home in the cottage seemed little affected by the days tumultus events and was more interested in playing with cottage's living room was airy and light, the large bay windows flooded the room with warmth from the sun and the opened windows let in the sounds and smells from the garden. The honeybees that buzzed from plant to plant, the birdsong from the trees and the faint sound of the water from the nearby stream.
It should have been dusty and claustrophobic, the four of them in the living room, surrounded by the remaining boxes from the old house at Spinners end. Even the walls and floors were bare, the old wallpapers and carpets having been stripped ready for redecorating, and they'd simply laid a few old worn rugs down to walk on until they decided what to do, the dusty old rugs had been in storage and they planned on throwing them away once they laid new floors but despite everything, the aura of the house itself seemed to wrap them in familiar comfort. It wasn't worn, dusty and oppressing like Spinners end had been, it was comfortable and homey…it was theirs.
It was as though for the first time in their lives, they had all truly found home. Whereas Spinner's end had housed them, sheltered them , the cottage embraced them, claimed them and was seemingly happy whenever they were home.
She didn't know how long she was watching the children playing, resting a gentle hand on the bump below her shirt, when Severus's arms entwined around her waist from behind. Cupping underneath her own hands, to take some of the weight of her belly and she moaned gently at the relief it gave her lower back. Thankfully, it was one of Severus's favourite pastimes now she had a real bump, and her aching back thanked him for it.
"I sold Spinner's end"
It wasn't the words she was expecting, and she turned to him with an arched brow.
"When?" She exclaimed, not angry but simply shocked.
"Just now. Apologies for not discussing it with you first but-" She cut him off before he could continue down that rabbit hole.
"Severus, Spinner's end is your family home, we no longer live there and I had no claim to it in the first place, you do not need to ask my permission to sell it, I'm just curious how… and why?" They certainly didn't need the money after all.
Pulling her closer he rested his chin on her head, as he tucked her under his arm. She wrapped her arms around his waist and his free hand came down to absently stroke the swell of her belly.
"That muggle developer, who's buying up the houses on the estate. After this afternoon, I realised that Spinner's End, though it brought you and Rose and even Scorpius to me, it brought me far more hate and horror than I would like to hold onto. After Weasley's actions today, I realised that I never again wanted to be there. I don't ever want to step through its doors again, not even to sell it. So I went to the developer, took the first offer and handed over the paper then and there. It will be demolished along with the rest of the street and I am glad of it…I…I had thought of donating the money to the women's shelter, though I wished to speak with you first. It was a spontaneous act to sell the house, but any other financial transactions of that magnitude should be discussed together"
There was a touch of pink on his cheeks at his last confession, and his idea for the money of the house and she held him closer. "I think that's a lovely idea". He didn't need to embellish, she'd already heard about how the local women's shelter had clothed and fed both a young Severus and his mother, when his drunken father had spent all of their grocery money on alcohol…more than once. If it wasn't for the local shelter, there were times when a young Severus would have had no clean underthings, socks or even basic essentials like toothpaste.
He relaxed then, the last of the tension dropping from his frame.
"Perhaps we could set up a similar trust fund, for Hogwarts, with some of the Prince money? No student should have to wear hand me down robes, or hand me down wands. School Children can be ghastly to each other as it is, without giving them another reason to single people out" She could tell he approved of the idea, by the way he pulled her closer to him and planted a kiss to the crown of her head.
" I have something from today I need to speak with you about, something serious, shall we wait until the children are in bed?"
Looking into his eyes, she searched for an answer there, but finding them shuttered she simply nodded, he didn't seem tense so she agreed.
oOo
She was somewhat apprehensive, not enough to make her worry but enough for her pregnancy hormones to decide to give her heartburn that was making her grumpy by the time they went to bed.
Pulling her into his arms, he made her turn her back to him, and he pressed his face into the crook of her neck, as his hands supported her belly.
"I didn't hurt him".
It wasn't what she expected, and she was surprised that the first feeling she felt wasn't disappointment but was in fact relief. Though she didn't know if it was relief for Severus's sake, her fear that he would kill him or worse and end up in Azkaban, or if it was the broken childish part of her that still couldn't shake off some degree of concern for Ron's welfare, even after everything he'd done and not matter how much she tried to deny it to herself.
"I… warded him, I suppose would be the correct term. You managed to lop off one of his testicles by the way with your Sectumsempra, but with the 'ward' I put on him… he's physically unable to rise to the occasion with an unwilling or underage partner. In fact, he can't even relieve himself, if he's thinking of someone in those terms"
There was more to be said, she knew from the guarded tone of his voice, though she just waited for him to find the words in his own way. Talking, opening up, was still so difficult for him, that she just let him do it in whatever roundabout way he found easiest. They would get there in the end, and she would be patient until then.
"After what my…my father did. I was always afraid I would become a monster like him. I looked in the mirror and loathed myself, and denied myself because I was terrified I would become like him"
"You're not like him though Severus, yes you're stern and you're as grumpy as a bear with a sore tooth, but to those of us who know you, who love you, you're kind and gentle and thoughtful, you would never hurt us…never. And you'd never touch a child"
" I know, but still I was afraid. I was afraid because…"
He stopped, was quiet for a long time, but still there was more, she knew it.
So she waited.
"I was afraid… because it's believed around 80% of child sex offenders, were once victims themselves"
And there it was.
Her eyes closed but she covered them with her hands anyway as her breath came out in a shaky exhale. She refused to cry for him, she couldn't cry for him after what he'd done to Rose , but it didn't stop the conflicting mass of emotions in her stomach that made her want to weep and vomit in equal measure.
"Who?" The words hurt as they came out, she was so tired. "And how?"
"His uncle, Billius, the one he's named for." Severus sounded as tired and heartsick as she felt. "I wanted to kill him, Hermoine. I wanted to tear him apart with my bare hands for what he did… but there was a look of fear on his face when I rounded on him that was so fucking familiar that… I skimmed his mind. Enough to confirm the fear I saw what the fear I thought it was, and it was…after that…I just… lost the will to cause more pain in the world. So I cast the ward on him, muzzed the dog rather than killing it, but I would not enter his mind, I refused to do anything that would compromise his memories being used as testimony and so I asked Kingsley to do it. He confirmed it and told me who it was…I…I told him I wanted to know it wasn't…"
He didn't finish his sentence, and she could hear the shame in his voice. He'd wanted to know it wasn't Arthur. The man they trusted to be alone with Rose. Hermione held his hand in hers.A silent message, It's alright, I would've wanted to know too.
"It doesn't excuse him. A part of me feels awful for saying that, but I cannot forgive him Severus, I won't"
"And you shouldn't, nor do I. So what if 80% of Offenders were victims themselves? That still means only perhaps 1 in 1000 victims at some point become offenders, somewhere at some point he chose this Hermione. I was hurt, just like him, and the thought of what he did sickens me, but I just couldn't summon the will to do more than ward him. I'm sorry, I should have hurt him for what he did to your family"
"No." Hermione shook her head, and turned so she was facing him. "It wouldn't have fixed anything Severus, wouldn't have changed anything…He's captured, it's over, and I just want to put this all behind us and move on with our life, with our family"
Placing a kiss on the swell of her belly, he allowed her to weave her hands gently through his hair as he pillowed his face on her bump. "That sounds wonderful"
