Severus Snape reluctantly walked towards a small house on one of the streets in the suburbs of London. For the first time in many years, he decided to help notify Muggle-born families of their children's admission to Hogwarts. He wasn't doing it for any altruistic reasons, he was doing it to avoid the task Dumbledore gave him.
The area in front of the house looked like it was shown in old American houses. He started to wonder who cared about such order. Only after a while did he notice a sign announcing that two dentists live in this house. He sighed, thinking that he could probably use their services right away. Medical care in the magical world could do a lot, but not everything.
He flinched as he heard the sound of the door opening. He was surprised when a child ran out of them. An unattended child. A petite brunette with big brown hair. She surprised him by standing right next to him and staring at him.
After a moment of embarrassing, probably only for him, silence, she asked with firmness in her voice - "Who are you? I haven't seen you in this area before."
"Severus Snape. I came to talk to your parents. Didn't anyone teach you that you shouldn't talk to strangers?" - he asked faster than he thought about how it would sound.
The girl grabbed the sleeve of his robes and, a little irritated, said - "I can defend myself. I am the one to be defended against."
The dark-haired wizard was intrigued by the girl's answer. Before he could ask anything, the girl's mother appeared in the doorway. Of course, if the resemblance between a girl and a woman as strong as he had seen in pure-blood families could be a clue.
"Are you here about that letter we got just after our daughter's eleventh birthday?"
He didn't have to say anything. He nodded his head and a small smile appeared on her lips. She stood so as to show the interior of the house with her hand. - "Please come in. We won't talk about it outside."
Without a word, he walked inside, trying to stealthily look around. The house was as neat as its surroundings. A huge bookshelf with books arranged alphabetically like in a library. White walls and beige accessories. What surprised him and made him smile was a gray sofa standing under the windows. The couch itself was not unusual. What was a nice touch for him was the presence of pillows in various shades of green. A hand-crocheted Slytherin green blanket hung over one side of the couch.
"Please sit down." - her voice caught him off-balance. - "The conversation will be more pleasant."
"Aren't we waiting for your husband?"
The brunette shuddered almost at the same time she heard his question. After a while, her body looked as if she had lost strength, and her eyes fell on one of the photos standing on the fireplace. Severus looked in the same direction. A black ribbon was attached to the photo of a smiling man in a plaid shirt.
The woman was a widow, he thought before saying - "I'm sorry… I didn't know."
"You had no way of knowing that. My husband died nine months ago in a car accident involving a drunk driver." -she sighed, looking as if she regretted what she had just said, as if she had said too much. - "But you didn't come to talk about my private life."
He saw an emptiness in Jean Granger's eyes comparable to the one he had seen in only one wizard. He grunted, broke eye contact to look at the girl now sitting at the dining room table, and said. - "As you have rightly guessed, I came from Hogwarts to discuss the details of the start of the school year."
"You're late. My husband and I have decided not to take advantage of your facility's offer." - Severus Snape could swear that for a moment, as she was fixing her hair, he saw sparks emanating from her fingers. - "This was the last decision Richard and I made about Hermione, and I have no intention of breaking my word to him."
"What institution will Miss Granger go to? I need this data for documentation. It is customary that magical children go to the school closest to place where they live."
As Mrs. Granger stood up and silently began to pace the living room, Severus allowed himself to look at her. She was taller than most women he knew. Nor were they very thin women. She had the so-called feminine shapes. Every move she made showed that she felt comfortable in her body. What he couldn't take his eyes off of was her straight, almost mirror-like, dark brown hair. She was insanely attractive.
"Unfortunately, I don't think it would be in my daughter's best interests for me to tell you where she will be studying. I can write you a statement about your visit today. So that you don't have problems at work because of work not done."
"I would be grateful, Mrs. Granger."
"You haven't really introduced yourself to me." - she claimed while she was busy looking for something to write with. To his surprise, she pulled out a calligraphy kit. - "Don't be so surprised. When I am about to write you something, I will do it so that no one will try to decipher my handwriting as it was done with the Rosseta Stone."
"Thank you, that's very impressive. I am Severus Snape." - It would be hard to miss the blush that appeared on her face. Evidently, her fondness for what was clearly her hobby was rarely praised. He would appreciate it every day.
"Make you some tea?" - Hermione Granger's voice echoed in the kitchen. - "It may take a while. Mom is rather a perfectionist."
He smiled and asked for a cup of strong black tea. After a hour, he was able to go back to Hogwarts. As he left, he looked at the two women one last time. It was easy for him to imagine staying with them. He pushed those thoughts away, realizing that they simply resulted from the fact that he had been feeling more and more lonely lately.
He hoped he'd get a chance to see them again.
He managed to see the girl explaining something to her mother with a smile on her face. Neither of them noticed that the cup he was drinking from began to levitate.
What he failed to notice were the curtains that covered the window with a slight flick of Jean Granger's wrist.
xxx
August at Hogwarts was one of the busiest times of the year. Which in itself was a paradox, considering that at that time there were no students at Hogwarts and the teachers worked on curricula unchanged for years. Severus Snape suspected that the amount of work was closely related to the number of new students and the need to hire another Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.
It was the position he dreamed of. It wasn't that he didn't like potions. he loved them. However, he would rather deal with them in the privacy of his private laboratory without worrying about students who inadvertently destroy cauldron after cauldron. There was also the issue that he simply wasn't cut out to teach Potions. He had no patience.
If he was honest with himself, if it hadn't been for the agreement made between him and Dumbledore during one of the worst periods of his life, he would never have become a teacher. He wasn't up to it. He knew that if his students were placed before a boggart, the boggart of many would take the form of the hated dungeon professor.
He sighed as he thought about yesterday's conversation with the headmaster of Hogwarts. Dumbledore was so unhappy with Miss Granger not showing up at his school that he wondered what was behind it. This twinkle in the old man's eye appeared only when he was trying to convince someone to do something that this person was not very willing to do, and when the implementation of one of his plans did not go as he assumed.
"Lucius Malfoy!" - he shouted, annoyed with himself for not thinking about this, irritating and prejudiced against anything that isn't Malfoy, wizard. Being on the Board of Governors, he should know more than what he himself had access to.
Severus put on his robes and headed straight for the fireplace in his chambers. He hoped Lucius would have some time for him.
xxx
He had never liked Malfoy Manor. It was too big, too stuffy, too… Impersonal. But he never said that to the wizard, whom he had come to see as his friend over the years. He knew that for Lucius he was a friend almost from the very beginning of their acquaintance, but he himself... Especially after the fiasco of friendship with Lily Potter, he had trouble determining where friendship begins and ends.
"Lucius..." - he said entering the office where, according to Dobby, the master of the house was supposed to be - "...I need to talk to you."
"About what, Severus?"
As soon as he heard the chill in his voice, he understood that he and Narcissa were having one of those so-called quiet days that came between them in connection with Draco's impending departure to Hogwarts. Narcissa was very attached to her son, especially since Draco was the last of the four children they fathered together. And the only one who was born alive.
"I was curious about Albus' reaction to the news that one of the Muggles wouldn't be going to Hogwarts. I was wondering if as Governor you'd have access to more information than I would as a rank-and-file professor."
The blond finally looked up from the papers he was looking through. There was interest on his face. - "I'm not likely to have more access than you, but I'll try to get it. Anything is better than listening to Narcissa in recent days. She figured sending our son to Hogwarts while Harry Potter was also at Hogwarts was putting Draco in danger. When I suggested we could send him to Durmstrang, she said she wasn't crazy enough to send her beloved little boy so far from home."
"What's about France?"
"After what Abraxas I during the French Revolution?" - Lucius shook his head as if he remembered something he didn't want to. - "Is there something special about this girl? Do you know anything else?"
"I was the one to talk to her parents. I preferred that, than seeing Petunia Evans again. Hagrid went to Lily's son instead of me. Never mind… Hermione Granger, a year older than my godson. Petite, short, with tightly braided hair. You can tell from the ends of her braids that her hair is curly, so she'll look pretty funny with her hair down. You yourself know that curly hair is difficult to manage without proper skills."
"I remember what Bella looked like in freshman year. Everyone laughed at her that she should be in Gryffindor because her hair looked like a lion's mane. We all know you have a hair fetish. But could you get to the heart of the matter?"
"I haven't talked much with Mrs. Granger. She was firm with her refusal. So firm that I didn't even think of trying to get her to change her mind. I should at least try to do that…"
"Severus, admit it... Are you interested in what is so special about this girl or are you interested in getting to know her mother better?"
He saw no reason to lie to him. - "Her mother is attractive, so yes, I'd love to get to know her better. But right now, I'm talking about a girl. I don't want another child to become a pawn on this old man's chessboard."
xxx
She took one last look around the empty walls of their house. She hoped they would live here longer. She hoped they'd finally found a refuge after all that had happened to them. All she left was a picture of her husband. Or rather, the man she always introduced as her husband.
"Mum, what is this photo?" - Hermione pointed at the frame.
"We're not taking the photo this time." - she said. Jean knew it was time to finally stop lying. - "We won't need it anymore."
"But he's my dad." - The girl sighed before reaching out to the object, before calling it to her hand. - "I know he's not really my dad, but I like to imagine him that way. It's much better than what you said about my biological dad."
She didn't know what to tell her about it. Ever since her daughter was growing up, she'd been telling her about touches she didn't have to accept. She told her that a woman doesn't have to agree to everything. She also told her that although the circumstances in which she got pregnant were not her choice... It was her choice to give birth to her. - "All right, put it in your bag. And don't look at me like that because I know you've managed to recreate the spell I have on my bag."
She closed her eyes trying to remember the smile of the man for whom their relationship was a lie. The smile of the man who had hunted her down like prey. And why?
Just to strengthen his bloodline.
She gave up living in the magical world after seeing what her grandfather's actions had done to her family's reputation. Her father was lynched simply because he was the son of Gellert Grindelwald. His body was torn apart so that she and her mother had nothing to bury.
What would be done to her daughter if it came to light that not only Grindelwald's blood flows in her veins, but also Riddle's? Riddle, who took advantage of her ignorance of who he really was and the current balance of power in magical Britain and made her love him.
"Where are we going now, mum?"
"We're going home." - The smile on her child's face made her smile. She thought they could go back to where she had spent her childhood. It turned out to be too early. Much too early. - "Let's go, darling."
After they left the house, she closed his door for the last time. She had closed that house as she had closed another chapter of their tumultuous life.
xxx
Oneshot – result of my insomnia. Regards, Katie Krum