Chapter 2

"It was odd enough when she married him that she didn't take his last name but now I hear that she's divorced him, what is she doing here and if there was a divorce which I don't find surprising but I do find hard to believe, why is the child here with her?" Severus said as he paced in front of the Headmistress in her office.

The headmistress sighed what worried her was why he was so interested in Miss Grangers life all of a sudden. "It's true Severus Hermione got a divorce from Mister Weasley, he was cheating on her. Miss Granger got custody of little Rosie and took the job that I offered her earlier this summer to take over for me when I finally took on my full Headmistress duties." She leaned back in her chair and looked over her shoulder at the portrait of her late husband not even pretending to sleep in his frame the twinkle shining twice as brightly in his eyes.

"I just don't understand, I mean I understand why she left him now, who wouldn't leave the sod. No what I don't understand why he would do that, he had a loving wife, a good home and a kid. I knew the boy was stupid but I didn't know he was that stupid. She was too good for him anyway far too smart to be settled down with someone who only ever appreciated it when he thought it could help him get better marks in class. He just didn't realize that he had something good I guess." Severus went right on pacing before turning back to Minerva.

"That Severus is where it indeed gets complicated; the problem was is that they wanted completely different things in life, for her at least. Ronald…." Snape sneered at the name. "Fine, Mr. Weasley wanted to have a Molly like figure for a wife, he wanted Miss Granger to be a stay at home wife and mother and have more than a couple of kids with her, whereas, Miss Granger wanted a career a couple of kids and a life of her own to lead with a husband who supported those decisions. Mr. Weasley didn't support Hermione and when I called to ask her about the job and he answered he told me she wasn't interested even though she'd been apprenticing with me for the last 3 years. After that he realized what he was up against and used that twit Miss Brown to get back at her and when she found out his plan backfired and she left him. In the process he was stuck with Miss Brown who he can luckily easily mold into the wife he wanted in Hermione. Although it's not my place to tell you any of this so you didn't hear it from me understand Severus?" the Potions Master simply nodded in understanding before sweeping out to go back to his quarters and think about what he'd just learned.

Back in her rooms Hermione was just waking up from her nap and discovered that dinner would be ready in about an hour which is when Minerva would be telling the rest of the staff that Hermione was taking over Transfiguration and her daughter would be joining them for the rest of the three weeks before the year started full swing and the students began arriving. "Hey there sleepy…" Came a small voice from the end of her bed

"Hey baby girl how was the library?" she asked her small daughter picking her up and putting her on the bed next to her and wiping the sleep out of her eyes.

"It was good I got in a lot of reading and studying for when school starts." Rose said tucking her hair behind her ear before the wild mess decided to just fall forward again. Hermione gestured her to sit on the floor in front of her and summoned a hair tie from the bathroom they'd be sharing until term. "I saw a tall man there it was funny because at first he thought I might be you. Why do people keep doing that? Confusing us I mean, I know we look alike but for my eyes but you're hair is much flatter than mine and you're thinner and don't have so much baby fat as me in the face, not to mention you're taller."

"A tall man huh? Well I don't know what to say about that other than it was a professor or some member of the staff. But sweetie before mommy got taller and thinner and all of those things you said, I had hair so wild as yours and lots of baby fat and yes mommy was once as short as you. But when you're sitting like I assume you were in the library hunched over a book we're about the same height if people don't look at the floor to see that your feet don't quite reach like mine do. So people like the man who saw you would confuse us from behind like that." Hermione finished brushing her daughters wild and tangled locks before setting to braid it before they went down to the evening meal.

"Well that does make a lot of sense I do suppose. Thank you for clearing that up for me mum. Oh I have to tell you something by the way. The tall man I might have said too much in the library, you know how I cant help it but to give information auntie Minnie says I get it from you, when I told him you were sleeping but I could get you if he wanted to talk to you." Hermione put the tie at the end of the intricate French braid and turned her daughter around.

"What did you tell him Rosie?" Hermione asked sternly.

"Oh mama don't over dramatize you know I wouldn't spout out so much as to seriously embarrass you unless to family. I just may have mentioned the divorce, papa would deserve the world to know and no doubt they will when the prophet eventually gets a hold of the story the Rita Lady you aren't fond of does keep sending out for interviews." Rose said with a matter-of-fact tone rolling her eye when she called her mother dramatic.

"Rosie, you can't just tell everyone though I suppose I should give Rita that interview if it's just going to get out anyway. Oh well it's almost time for dinner so up you get, I fixed your hair." Hermione helped her daughter up off of the floor and warded the rooms before they left to the Great Hall.

All the way down Hermione was trying to make a quick inventory of all of the male faculty members at the school who were technically considered tall who might talk to her if they stumbled across her in the library by herself that Rose might be comfortable enough with to spill the beans about her divorce? She had told Rosie about the entire faculty a couple of years before but unless she had met them before some might still be intimidating to her and she wouldn't know their names. Hagrid was off the list because Rose had met him several times before when she came with Hermione when she was apprenticing with Minerva. She didn't know Remus yet and some especially an 11 year old would consider him tall but it was a full moon tonight so Remus would be nowhere to be found for the next couple of days. Filius Flitwick was out because of his VERY small stature. That left Severus and Filch neither the most likely prospect but Rose would be more intimidated by…. Oh shit she'd told Severus of all people Severus ran into her in the library, of course Filch didn't go near the library during the summer Holidays unless it was a necessity which for the most part it never was. Why of all people did he no have to know?

Hermione knew she'd never hear the end of it she could hear him now, "What did Mr. Weasley finally get tired of having a swotty little know it all for a wife? I'm surprised it took him so long." Or, "he had no brains to be with you in the first place who in thier right mind would want t marry a walking dictionary." Or worse, "Let me guess he couldn't stand how average you were so he wised up and decided to move on to something more appealing. Lord knows being the best friend of the Chosen One and one of the major War Heroes on top of it he could have any girl he chose, now he left you with a swotty little snot nosed kid because he realized he could do so much better. I wouldn't blame him poor guy, got saddled with you"

Little did she know these things were far from his mind and he took her side…?