Chapter 13: A day with Narcissa
Hogsmeade weekend had finally come and Hermione couldn't wait to go out with her mother. She was standing with the boys in the entrance hall waiting for Professor Dumbledore to lead the students to the small town.
"This blows Hermione; we were supposed to go as a group and go see Fred and George's friend in the bookshop." Ron whined.
"I know Ron, but I broke the rules."
"Snape is such a git."
"Ronald." Ginny said, "What would Mum say if she heard you talking like that?"
"Same thing you just said." Ron smirked.
"Alright students shall we go?" Dumbledore asked from the doors, the students started to file out and he saw Hermione with her friends, "Miss Granger, I do believe that you have a detention to attend to."
"Yes sir. I'll talk to you all tonight, have fun and tell the twin's friend hi for me."
"We will," Harry said. And she turned and headed down toward the dungeons.
She rounded the corner to the classroom and knocked waiting for a reply, when it came, she entered and noticed that her professor was brewing, "What are you brewing Professor?"
"Wolfsbane."
"Oh, then I should let you concentrate, I'll just wait outside."
"Miss Granger, you may stay, I trust you to know the importance of this potion."
"Yes sir."
"Good please take a seat, Minerva should be down momentarily." Hermione took a seat upon one of the desks and watched him brew in silence. "Miss Granger, I need you to do something for me."
"Yes?"
"Grab a knife out of the cabinet and cut the mint clovers into small pieces." Hermione nodded and did as requested.
"Sir won't this have a negative effect on the potion?"
"No, I only do this for Lupin's potion, he complained too much about the taste and so I spent some time researching what different flavors wouldn't react with the potion."
"That was brilliant sir."
"I thought so," He looked at her with a small smile. "Hermione, while we are away from students, minus Draco of course, I believe that it would be ok if you called me Severus."
"Ok."
Minerva arrived five minutes later and saw the two working diligently on the potion, "Hermione, your mother is waiting for us."
"Ok thank you Professor for allowing me to help."
"Anytime Miss Granger."
She nodded and she and Minerva left the classroom toward the Headmasters office where they flooed to the Leaky Cauldron. They saw Narcissa sitting in one of the side booths, they approached her and their day began.
"Hermione Darling, how are you?"
"I'm good Mother," Hermione smiled.
"Good, Minerva, I wasn't aware that you were joining us today."
"Yes well Narcissa, I decided with the certain events, it would be better if I tagged along. I hope that's alright."
"Oh how rude of me, of course you can join us, it will be a girls day." And the three women left for Diagon Alley. They entered numerous shops filled with cloths and accessories. Hermione was amazed at how much Minerva and her mother were born shoppers. The three giggled as they walked down the streets with armfuls of bags.
"Mother, I am a bit hungry, can we get something to eat?"
"Of course, what are you feeling?"
"This might come as a bit of a shock, but I am feeling like chicken."
"Ok well there is this new place just down the street; shall we go give it a try?"
"Yes." And with that the three women walked to the new place and ordered their drinks and food once seated.
"Mother, can I ask you something?"
"Of course dear," Just as Naricssa said this, the waitress brought their drinks, Hermione ordered a Shirley Temple and Narcissa and Minerva both ordered a taste of wine with a glass of water each. They waited for the waitress to leave them before Hermione continued.
"Is Professor Snape my Godfather?"
Narcissa froze at her daughter's question, "Um, well, I don't know how to answer this. No."
"No? Mother that doesn't' make sense, he is Draco's Godfather so shouldn't he be mine?"
"Hermione you have to understand, at the time it seemed like a good idea, Minerva is your Godmother on my insistence but your Godfather is not Severus."
"Then who is my godfather?"
"Your godfather was Blaise's Father."
"Mr. Zambini?"
"Yes, there are three students that were very close in our school days, Malfoy, McZare, and Zambini. These families entered a pack that they would each have two children and each child would have a godparent with one of the other two men."
"So then how does Professor Snape come into play in this pact?"
Narcissa hesitated and Minerva hit motherly mode and placed a comforting hand on hers and encouraged her to go on, "She needs to hear this to understand why you took the actions you did"
"You are right Minerva. Hermione your father and I were married first so we decided that it would be in the best interest if we waited until you were born to decide who you and Draco would have a godparents." Narcissa looked to see if her daughter understood and she continued. "I am glad we did, unfortunate my relief comes at a cost, James McZare was killed three months before you were born and Mitchell fought us to stick with the pact to remember him, it only seemed right in his eyes. I fought your father every step of the way, he told me that Zambini wasn't one to be crossed so we went ahead with it, but that is when I made the condition that if we had a daughter, her godmother would be Minerva, so for your father to stay on Zambini's good side he agreed."
"Oh he was mad at you Narcissa."
"Tell me about it, Hermione your father was so upset with my proposition that he didn't talk to me until I went into labor." The two older women laughed at the memory, "Your father came in to the bedroom looking very upset pleading for me to forgive him for his stupid behavior; I smiled at him and said that I would forgive him for his behavior. It worked as I anticipated and he came closer to hug me I took the moment to grab his collar and say that while I forgave him for the past three months, I would never forgive him for the pain of childbirth."
"I don't believe that I had ever seen that man look so uneasy in all my years of knowing him." Minerva recollected.
"So wait backtrack, how did Severus come into this?"
"Your father had heard rumors that Sev was so upset about Lily's death that he retreated to Albus' protection, your father had been Severus' mentor through the ways of the Dark Lord so he felt that if those rumors were true, he needed to save the man that he thought of as a younger brother. So he approached him with the proposition of being Draco's Godfather, He was hesitant at first but he did agree, I believe that that is what saved his life."
"The Dark Lord was going to kill Severus?"
"No one goes back on their promise to the Dark Lord Hermione," Minerva said solemnly.
"I don't know why Lucius made him Draco's Godfather but that is just how it worked out, so you became Ohmare's Goddaughter."
"Wait, Blaise's father isn't named Ohmare."
"How would you know that?" Narcissa asked.
Hermione looked like a deer caught in the headlights, "I… um… well… I was out past curfew a year ago. I was trying to help Harry survive the Cup so I was doing some research in the library where I knew that I wouldn't be disturbed by Victor and so I was walking back when I almost ran into Draco and Blaise and I ducked into the shadows and I couldn't help but overhear their conversation." She looked at her mother and she saw that her explanation wasn't good enough, "Blaise said that he hated his father that he wasn't going to give in to the abuse. Draco put a hand on his shoulder and said that Gabriel wasn't going to get away with it that his father was going to do something."
"Oh I remember that."
"What?" Minerva asked her basically daughter.
"Draco had written a letter to Lucius about Blaise's abuse and when Lucius heard that his Godson was being abused he lost it, I almost thought he was going to destroy the house. He left that night and didn't return until afternoon the next day. He told me that Blaise hopefully wouldn't have anything to worry about anymore and if he did, he hoped he heard about it. He said nothing more but I can only assume that he threatened the man, personally, Lucius isn't the person that I would cross."
"Agreed," the other two women agreed.
"So Blaise's father isn't named Gabriel?"
"No it is."
"Then who was beating Blaise?"
"His step father that had adopted him when he was seven."
"Where is my godfather then?"
"I wish we knew."
"What do you mean Mother?"
"Ohmare disappeared two months after you were born, no one has heard from him since."
"Ok, Minerva said that this story would explain you actions, what did she mean by that."
Narcissa looked at her and her daughter's mentor pondering how to phrase her next statement. "When we ran into trouble when you were three, we didn't have anyone to turn to, we didn't have a choice."
"A choice in what?"
"With your Godfather gone, we had to hide you in a muggle orphanage."
"WHAT?!"
"Hermione dear not so loud."
"Why couldn't you give me to Minerva?"
"Because you would have been in danger still if not more."
"So then what did you do with Draco?"
"He went with Severus at the school while we got things figured out."
"Oh." Hermione said it so calmly that it honestly scared the other two but they let it go, just in time for their meal to come.
Their conversations drifted to more pleasant topics like what Narcissa had planned for the holidays and how she and Minerva got so close during Narcissa's school days. When they were done eating, they shopped for some different things, like books and a sketchpad that Hermione requested. They also bought some sweets and then they realized the time, Hermione would have to beat her friends back if her detention was going to be believable, they said goodbye to Narcissa and they apperated to the gates and hastily walked up to the castle and put their things in Minerva's quarters before Hermione returned to Severus's classroom to walk out of it to complete her story.
She waited fifteen minutes for them before giving up, they would come find her later. She made her way up to her room in Gryffindor Tower.