Disclaimer: Oh look. I'm still here. And it still isn't mine. Pity.
A/N: I hope you can all forgive my absence, or ignore the many mentions of it if you're new here. Suffice it to say life has a mind of its own and I haven't been able to write in some time. But words are pouring out of me now. I've been waiting to post this next installment while I tighten up the errors in the rest of the story, correcting spelling mistakes, and continuity errors. If I missed something let me know! I want to thank each and every one of you who's taken the time to review over the years! The site stopped sending me notices so I had missed many of them, but I am reading them now and am so grateful for them all! I hope you enjoy! Thank you!
-Lily
Harry felt like the dunderheaded imbecile Severus always accused him of being. Of course he was Heir to the Black Family Vaults. He worked tirelessly to make a small dent in their overflowing coffers. He had simply never considered the implications of his inheriting them. He had always just written it off as a stipulation of his Godfathers will. Now he wondered if somehow it meant more.
"Did you never actually look at the blasted tapestry in Grimmauld while you were living there? Certainly a simple look into your family tree would have made it painfully clear. If not the fact that you currently are in possession of their Vaults and properties." Severus honestly couldn't fathom how the obvious had failed to enter his overly inflated head.
Harry was feeling like he should really have spent more time looking at the Tapestry before destroying it in the renovations. He hated so many of the faces staring back at him. Hated Bellatrix. He hadn't wanted Hermione, who had been living there with him and Ron that first year, to ever have to see her face. His confusion was obviously evident in his face. "Sirius left me his family's money. I frankly wish he hadn't. It doesn't grant me rights to his seat," he said, somewhat pained. He still missed his Godfather desperately.
"He didn't need to leave them to you. They are yours by right. You are the last living member of an ancient family line. Son of James Potter, who was son to Fleamont Potter and Euphemia Black." The knut finally dropped and Harry stood stunned staring at an exasperated Severus Snape. "Did your Godfather teach you nothing of import?"
"Taught me to unhook a bra with one hand," he wasn't sure why that was what came to mind and slipped from his mouth but it made him smile to remember that day. His godfather had deemed it time to impart the important lessons they had missed out on while he rotted away in Azkaban. And while Harry couldn't claim that the days lessons would be deemed important to most anyone else he had certainly used that move a time or two with his wife, and the memory of that carefree afternoon carried him through moments of grief.
"Idiot mutt. Why am I not surprised. The issue remains. You are the last of the Black line. If you weren't there are Vaults the Goblins wouldn't have been able to grant you access to, no matter if they had been left to you in a will," Severus explained. "So you will be taking up your family's seat. It is long past time that you did. For all your pontificating and prevaricating on the virtues of charity and philanthropy you still haven't been able to affect true change. In that seat you finally can. And you can damn well start by helping your friend." Severus looked to Hermione, who was sitting at his side quietly taking in the news.
She too had never bothered to learn more of the histories of the Wizarding elite and Pure Blooded lines. Even as they had pertained to her best friends. "You have to Harry," she pleaded. "You should. And not just for me."
"Of course I will. Not that I know shite about politics or how one actually goes about petitioning for their rightful seat. We have little more than twelve hours now though. So besides that little detail what's next on the agenda?" he asked.
"Severus, you mentioned that there was a squib Doctor involved in Hermione's care. I think we need to talk to him. If he could help us find someone, maybe a squib Psycho Therapist, or even just attest to how this, Post Trauma and Stress Disorder is treated in the muggle world, and how it affects those who have it, perhaps we can help sway some opinions on what Hermione has done," she had heard the story and still had a hard time understanding how any witch or wizard could cast such spells on themselves. "It's still early. We have much more to discuss before any work can be done outside this room," she told them.
"No. There is more Potter, Harry, here can do. He can figure out some way to allow the damn idiots in charge of this farce to see reason and get Hermione her pump. Certainly under Auror guard, a simple plastic muggle contraption cannot be truly seen as a threat. Get the allowance and I will retrieve what is needed. Certainly it can be quickly looked over and then she can find some relief." It was becoming more and more evident that if she didn't pump soon the pain in her milk ducts would become unbearable and she needed a clear head.
"Thank you Severus," she said quietly. Not all that excited to express breast milk under Auror guard but knowing she truly needed to soon. Her manual expression hadn't relieved enough and that still had been hours ago. "Please Harry, do what you can. You're not Chosen-One Savior of the World for nothing. Use it damn it. It hurts." A quiver in her voice belayed the fact that the pain on her face was more than just the emotional stress of the situation.
"Okay. Plastic Muggley pumping thing. It's got electric components? A battery or plugs?" he asked.
"It gets plugged in to charge at home. I won't need the cords here," she explained.
Harry looked to be contemplating something. "Dad, uh Arthur, still doesn't know how to say telephone but I've spent some time clearing up some of his other misconceptions over the years, and he finally got a few actual Muggle-borns working in the office with him. I don't think the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office would be open at this hour, practically no one but D.M.L.E. works odd hours." He took a minute to plan in his head. "Yup. Dad's our best shot. I'll stop by the Burrow and bring him back with me. Maybe he can help explain that it isn't some unknown danger," he explained.
"Indeed Po..Harry. It may actually be one of your more intelligent suggestions so far. Know when you know nothing and find the person who knows what you need," Severus said as Harry was rising from his seat.
Harry made his way around the table and dropped a kiss on his pseudo-sisters head. "I won't be long."
Severus quickly followed his lead and began to rise. "I shall see if Healer Plackett is in St. Mungos this morning and able to assist. We will need him listed as a witness for the defense anyhow so he had better clear his schedule today if he can. I will then stop by the house and gather what is needed. Along with a change of clothes," he told them as he placed his hands reassuringly on Hermione's shoulders.
"Be quick. Both of you," Hermione said, looking behind her at the two men who were now working together for her freedom, despite the lifetime of animosity that had only grown these past two some months since her world had tilted on its axis.
Severus quickly dropped a kiss to the top of her head and swept from the room leaving Harry holding the door and explaining to the guard placed just outside that he was leaving and the young Auror was now expected to be extra vigilant in his watch over the holding cell that was currently base of operations for the defense.
When the door closed behind the two wizards Chastity slowly moved her hands, sliding them across the table and holding the small hands of the woman across from her. "Listen to me Hermione," she started as Hermione lifted her eyes and broke out of her thoughts. "I will do everything in my power to get you the outcome you deserve. Severus certainly wouldn't have risked transcontinental apparation if he wasn't confident in my abilities. You and I have a lot to discuss before the men return, I think some will be easier said without them here," she told her.
"Okay," Hermione said simply. She supposed that made some sense. Frankly she didn't want to talk about everything with Harry there. Not just yet anyhow.
Chastity looked to the young woman across from her. So different from the one she had met three years prior as she worked to drop the charges against the young Malfoy Heir. Hermione was many things Chastity could never be, soft and feminine, where Chastity was long sharp lines that cut deep. She couldn't remember thinking of her as especially soft or womanly when she had met her before. She had still been walking on a near skeletal frame, sunken and broken from a year living on the run and fighting a war. Now though, if she saw through the haunted look in her eyes to really see the woman she could be if it weren't for the weight and exhaustion pressing on her that day, Chastity could almost see what Severus saw in a woman twenty years his junior.
Of course Chastity was no stranger to what witches saw in Severus Snape. The reality of the attraction hadn't lived up to the fantasy of it for Chastity, or Severus she was sure. They were too different and at the same time too alike. It was never destined to be a great love affair for them, but somehow this broken creature across from her had found a true partner hiding behind the brooding façade of the austere Potions Master.
"Hermione," she said finally. "Tonight, when you take that stand and face the inquisition, you will have to be prepared to bare your soul. Even if we can manage to help the Wizengamot see clear to not only understand what and why you did what you did, there is more to be done. The defense, whoever they are, will do everything in their power to break you. They will ruin your credibility if they can and ours is not a world that takes infidelity lightly. Marriage Bonds mean so much more in the Wizarding World than a Muggle Marriage. They are truly binding and connect your magic in ways the Unspeakables have been studying for centuries. To break those bonds is viewed harshly, especially when it is a Witch who steps out on her Wizard," she was explaining.
"I didn't!" Hermione practically shouted. Tired of having to explain. "And men like Lucius Malfoy were known to have their affairs. Even if I had been married, which I wasn't, why is it fair for them and not for me to find love?" she pleaded.
Chastity smiled at the young woman across from her. Happy to have woken some of the fire she had once been known for. "Exactly. It isn't fair. Narcissa Malfoy can tell you as much. She could tell you how her magic darkened and lessened to a degree with every new tramp her husband brought into their home. She wouldn't be the only one. His magic too would have been affected. Though his allegiance to the damned 'Dark Lord' would have been affecting it anyways. In America young witches and wizards, regardless of parentage, are taught a great number of things about magical bonds and rites and Marriage Bonds most certainly are part of their learning before they are shoved into the world and expected to be a part of it," she told her. "It is my understanding that your schooling here is a little lax on those subjects. So while many of your peers may not be aware of the ramifications of an extra-marital affair, you can guarantee that many of the witches and wizards holding seats on the Wizengamot will be more than aware. They will have been bonded themselves and felt the power. They will have been taught by their parents and grandparents about bonds as all, as certainly most Pure Blooded children are." Chastity was again glad to be an American witch, and have had the opportunity to grow in a world that was both more excepting of witches and wizards of non-magical birth, and also less influenced by the cultures that truly were worlds away from their own. It was one thing to adopt their fashions or sneak away to watch a movie once in a while, and entirely another to discount the way magic made everything different . When an affair could damage your magical core and that of your spouse, or a broken promise could literally end in death, the stakes were so much higher. She had understood easily how Severus had been pulled into the Death Eaters, or how the dark army had amassed in the first place. Preserving the integrity of the Magical World was important, but somewhere early on, that mission had been lost to madness.
Hermione listened as she explained about bonds and rites and magical cores. It certainly made more sense why everyone was so incredibly shocked that she had found love outside her supposed marriage, even if she had never truly acted on it. She frankly wished anyone had taken time to tell her sooner. Though she wondered if she would have let herself fall so irrevocably in love with Severus had she known there were deeper dangers than being labeled a harlot. Would she have had the strength to push on, dreaming of a life she had never hoped to actually attain? "But he broke those bonds before they took," she cried out frustratedly.
"I know. I do. But the fact remains that you didn't and most of the damned country thinks you were sleeping with Severus while you believed yourself still married. It will be our job to prove you weren't," she told her. "And without the aid of pensieve memories or Veritaserum to prove your words true. We need witnesses, and you will both have to testify to much more of your story before the trial concludes. I don't expect that tonight will wrap up this show. I'd expect to spend another night on that poor excuse for a sofa there in the corner." She knew it wasn't what she wanted to hear, but it was the truth.
Draco's trial had taken almost a week before they had exhausted all witnesses and testimonies. Hopefully this wouldn't take quite that long, the world wasn't looking to punish another Death Eater to soothe the pain of their losses anymore. But the fact remained that someone high enough up in the D.M.L.E. was looking to make an example of her, and Chastity would wager it went further than this Mickey fellow that seemed to be stirring trouble.
The two women sat there, across from each other at the table, plotting each detail of testimony Hermione might have to give. Chastity slipped into the role of Prosecutor and asked outlandish questions of Hermione in the hopes of preparing her to answer the ones that she was more likely to be asked.
"So tell me Miss Granger, when you were nothing more than a Hogwarts student did you find yourself polishing more than just cauldrons in the potions classroom? I wonder, did you also find yourself polishing your Professors cock?" Chastity smirked as she watched the anger and indignation color the young woman's features.
"How dare you! I would, he would! Never. No. Absolutely and disgustingly no! What right do you even have to make such abhorrent accusations?" Hermione was well and truly mad, having momentarily forgotten this was simply an exercise.
"Good, good! There is that famous fire," Chastity exclaimed, happy to be pulling Hermione further out of her meek and broken shell. "Now take that feeling and use it. Make them understand. You were a victim practically since the day you found out you were a witch. Do not continue to be one. You were broken by war, and again by Weasley. You were abandoned by nearly everyone and left to believe yourself worth nothing more than what you got. Pain and anguish. Is it any wonder you fell for the man offering you a life line? Or that in your darkest moments alone you sought to punish yourself for what you saw as your own failures? Make them understand Hermione. Severus saved you when all of them left you to die. None of them is free of guilt and by the end of this they will owe you more than just their apologies."
"There is going to be ample proof that you were battered. Weasley is going down. And after everything I have heard in the last twelve hours I'm damned tempted to stay and play for the other team and prosecute his pathetic ass myself," she told Hermione honestly. Chastity had no pity for drug addicted, weak wizards, who used their witches to take out their frustrations. She was willing to defend murderers and give them their due rights to a fair trial but she always turned away men who abused their wives and children.
"It isn't fair," Hermione cried. "That bastard came home drunk and gods knows what else, reeking of her disgusting perfume, and I'm the gods damned scarlet woman! I wish now I'd been able to tell Severus sooner how I felt. I wish so fervently that the daughter I lost had been his. Had been created in a moment of honest love and not drunken desperation and hatred. She was his in all but blood. In the ways that matter. Ronald cared not for her more than some trophy to hold up to the world. A gleaming example of his power and prowess. Where even the great Harry Potter had failed to give Molly a grandchild born from her blood Ronald would succeed. He would bring home the trophy to lord over anyone who told him he wasn't man enough or powerful enough. But Severus, he loved me enough to risk everything just to give me what I so desperately wanted. He felt her move within me and he may never have said so but I could see and feel the depth of his awe and his love, for both of us. He performed the Father's Rites as we laid her to rest. He earned that right no matter what any small mind might say." By the time Hermione finished, fresh tears glistening in her eyes, Chastity found herself smiling.
"And you will get the chance to tell them so. It may be more than Severus or you want laid bare but it's vital to make them all see," she told her calmly.
They spent a while longer discussing and preparing before Harry and Severus returned together.
"How are you my darling?" Severus asked as soon as the door swung open. Before she even had a chance to answer he was pulling a shrunken pump from his robes and placing it on the table before her.
Hermione practically sagged with relief. "Exhausted and feeling more naked than I can remember feeling in some time. Chastity is relentless," her voice was almost teasing as she said the last. Leaning gratefully into Severus' side.
"That she most certainly is," Severus agrees as he pressed her closer to him.
"What all were you able to accomplish?" Chastity asked both returning men.
"Well I rounded up the entire Weasley clan. Dad took care of explaining the harmlessness of the muggle contraption and then took Mom along to level ten. The offices of the Wizengamot should be opening now and they are going to see about procuring several Familial Seat Acquisition Forms. Mom, er, Molly, will be petitioning for her Seat, and they will begin the preliminary paperwork for me to petition mine. I should just need to sign before they are submitted. George was reached via floo call and will be gathering Draco and a few others before heading here as well. He will make sure that Kingsley calls for an emergency session of the Wizengamot to hear the petitions before your hearing this evening," he explained, nearly running out of breath as he talked without slowing to breathe.
"Good it's a start," Chastity told them.
"Thank you Harry. It's, um, it's okay if I take care of this now?" she asked quietly gesturing both to her swollen and leaking breasts and the small black nylon bag holding her pump in front of her.
Harry looked more than just mildly uncomfortable. "Er well, yeah, I mean. Of course. I just, well I have to, uh, to ya' know, to watch " he winced. "That was their stipulation, Auror monitoring the entire time. I did get them to allow me to be the actual Auror, that, er, that watched. I'll uh, try not to really look ya' know, but I also have to… so," he stumbled over his words, more than a little embarrassed to tell his once best friend that he was going to sit and watch her suck milk from her damned big boobs into a little plastic contraption that even growing up in the Muggle world he'd certainly had no experience with. Gods when did I notice how big those things have gotten, I mean how could I not really? But, oh hell…Sna…er Severus is looking at me. He knows I was looking. Was I looking? Damn I was. So big…ahhhh! Stop it Harry! Focus! He thought.
Hermionewas past caring if anyone saw her naked chest. She was grateful for the small row of buttons on the bodice of her butter yellow dress that allowed her to more easily free each breast without having to completely strip. More quickly than she knew she could Hermione had freed her aching chest and grabbed for her pump. She looked to Severus, who was now sitting in the chair next to her. "I don't have my wand, could you uh, sticking charm please?" she asked, knowing he would understand what she needed.
Neither Chastity or Harry who had never had any reason, like most in the Magical World, to see anyone express milk that way, could quite seem to look away. Like everyone else Hermione had let in enough to see this private act they were intrigued at how it worked.
Severus was less enthralled with the two staring at her breasts and practically growled at them. "I am certain, Potter, that you could 'keep and eye on her' without having to oggle her chest right now." He wasn't about to call him Harry while his eyes were big as saucers as he stared intently at Hermione's weeping nipples.
"Oh er, sorry. I mean, my instructions were to keep an eye on the contraption, but uh, I don't, that is they uh, well yeah. I'll just keep my eyes on her face, yeah?" he stumbled.
"Fascinating," Chastity breathed. "What about you Severus? What did you find out?" she asked. Tearing her eyes away from Hermione's breasts and the quickly filling bottles hanging from them.
Severus placed a hand over Hermione's, stopping her from picking at her cuticles as he noticed she did when she was nervous and stressed. "Healer Plackett was in fact in, and was more helpful than I'd even hoped. He knows a fair number of Squib practitioners and will be visiting with them shortly to see what can be done. He also assured me he was happy to testify on her behalf and that he would not be the only one from his department to do so. Hermione's case left its mark on all who were involved. In fact, he informed me that in the months since she was there they have been working to institute some changes in prenatal and antenatal care. It is a well known fact that our community can ill afford to lose its children and therefor he has been working with other departments to make sure that any witch admitted to his department is able to receive the appropriate care not just for herself, but also for any child she may be carrying." He tried to be as delicate as he could, not wanting to dwell too much on the child they lost, but also wanting Hermione to know that her loss would not be in vain.
Hermione held back tears as she listened, and sent a silent promise to her daughter. Her death would mean something. Her life may have been cut short before it started but she was special and loved and would never be forgotten.
They four of them continued to prepare to fight for Hermione's life, and more. They worked tirelessly for hours, taking small breaks to eat and clean themselves up, before they felt ready.
Hermione would face the firing squad at seven that evening. But she would not be alone.
A/N: Thank you again my friends for sticking with it. I hope you enjoyed. The trial is underway ( and we'll into being written I swear!) So stick around, I swear I will.