Disclaimer - I don't own anything you recognize from the Harry Potter-verse.
Kindling
Neutral Ground
The Grangers and Severus Snape settled into a table overlooking the reservoir. The atmosphere of the restaurant was pleasantly comfortable without being overly casual. After the server scuttled away from the tense table with drink and food orders in hand, Hermione broke the quiet. "Mum, Dad, I don't want you to be mad at me any more. Now that everything has settled down. I want you to know that I made the most of my education. I graduated top of my class, with additional honours. I hoped to make you proud. I want to happy together again."
"Hermione, we know all of that already; it was all in your letters." Mrs. Granger looked sad.
"You...read them?" Hermione had no idea her parents had paid any attention to them at all, she had never received a single reply. "I figured you just binned them as soon as they came." Studying her napkin she said very quietly, "you never wrote back. I thought you didn't love me any more." Actually she figured no one loved her.
After the incident; the only strand of familiarity and stability had been Severus Snape. He had owled her regularly. Their letters were conversational and necessarily neutral. During her university years, Hermione was too far away to hope for anything beyond simple concern and friendship. As a result, Severus and Hermione corresponded religiously.
Mrs. Granger unfroze long enough to retrieve a stack of letters from her bag. "Since you never came home to visit, there was no way to rectify the problem." The stack contained some two hundred letters tied with postal-grade twine. Her Mum gave her the letters, each marked. 'Return to Sender.' "After a while, the letters became something of a journal." Hermione couldn't see any more, as her eyes fogged with emotion. Severus and Mr. Granger had silently decided to ask the server to prepare their food 'to go'.
The quartet ended up taking the food back to the Granger home after a long car ride full of explanation, questions and tension on all sides. Ultimately Hermione skirted the rape issue in favour of an itinerary of plans for the future. "Mum, that was in the past. I can't change the past. I do, however have some control over the future. I'll teach Charms for the foreseeable future, I have a research project I'm trying to get the Ministry of Magic to fund. Now that I've returned for good I wish to fill my life back up with family," squeezing Severus' hand tightly, "and friends."
Hermione hadn't wanted to part from her parents, however her tension headache wasn't receding. Setting a date to come back on Sunday when the Dental Practice was closed, they left.
~*~
Curled up in bed after headache relieving sex, Hermione's hand was roaming free-range. "My Dad thinks you're Jack the Ripper." Petals of laughter unfurled from the petite woman.
Clenching his jaw in defiance. "Good thing I've never let public opinion stop me from doing precisely what I wanted."