Disclaimer: Not mine.

Hermione's Son

Twelve Years Later

Hermione pulled off the main road into a parking lot, not yet slowing down as she dug through a pile of papers on the passenger's seat. Later she would claim she was almost to a complete stop when the other vehicle cut in front of her before the squealing of brakes and the sudden grinding of metal against metal occurred, but at the time, she knew she was at fault.

Her head whipped forward, slamming back against the headrest as the airbag exploded in her face and the seat belt snapped across her chest, soliciting a groan of pain. It was over so quickly that she barely had time to register the fact that she was not seriously injured before someone was attempting to yank her door open and telling her not to move.

"I'm fine," she grimaced, squeezing her eyes shut, trying to pull the seatbelt away. "Fuck, it hurts."

Opening her eyes she saw a hand hovering in front of her and heard a quiet Alohomora as the belt released and fell away. Another flick of the thin wrist and she felt the pain in her chest recede. Pushing her hair from her face she squinted into the sun, trying to see who had come to her rescue, sure that she had seen wrongly in a moment of confusion from the accident.

"You are fine now. Careful, there are Muggles coming."

Still resting on the back of the seat, she rotated her head to look at the wizard that had been in the other auto. "Snape?"

"Not now. I am the stranger who you just ran into," he said quietly. "I need to get away from this without alerting their authorities."

The loud hiss of white steam curling from under the bonnet brought Hermione's attention back to the front of the auto. "Fuck! What about me you arse? My car's smashed."

"Obviously," Snape said with a smirk. "I am afraid, however, that the radiator is the least of your problems."

"How bad is the rest of it?" She asked, batting down the white plastic of the airbag and craning her neck to see over the broken windscreen.

"It appears to be an older model."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You need a new one."

She tried to push the door open as people came running to her and Severus, shouting at her not to move and that help was on the way. She looked at Severus, hissing for him to open the door quickly before the police showed up. He raised his eyebrow and smirked, tugging on the door, finally grabbing the handle with both hands while one of the Muggles grabbed the window frame and with Hermione pushing from the inside they were able to pull it open. Gathering up her papers that were now strewn all over the seat and floor, she climbed out, looking down at her ripped nylons.

"Shite," she muttered.

"You okay lady?"

"I'm fine."She walked to the front of the bonnet and looked at the damage done before inspecting Snape's auto. She turned to him with a glare when she realized he had already repaired it. As she listened to him explaining to the bystanders that it was a stroke of luck that he had received so little damage, only a few still visible scratches, she wanted to throttle him.

He then put his arm tenderly around her shoulders and led her to the passenger side of his auto, opening the door and waiting until she had swung her legs inside to close the door. Despite the observers continued warnings that they should not leave before the authorities arrived, he said something under his breath about taking the lady to the hospital and that he would return. As they pulled out of the parking lot, Hermione saw him again wave his hand in a precise motion and his lips moving in an incantation.

"Now what are you doing?"

"Changing the identifying numbers and wiping their surveillance camera clean. We do not need them finding either one of us."

"I need them to! I have to put it on my insurance!"

"Miss Granger, do you have a drivers licence? I only ask because of your willingness to leave so quickly."

"Of course I…well…it's expired here but I have one from the States, but it's my parents' insurance. I could have said someone nicked the blasted car and left it here after the accident. Now you've ruined it!"

"I see. Tell me, Miss Granger, will their insurance pay if you do not have a valid licence here?"

"I'll take that risk," Hermione said uncertainly. "Anyway…why aren't you dead?"

"I will pay what you would have recovered. Rather Hogwarts will since I am here on business," he said, looking at her strangely, ignoring her question. "A most generous offer since you were clearly at fault."

"You don't know how to drive," Hermione pushed back against the seat at the same time she pressed her feet against the floor. "Before you get us both killed…again for some of us…pull over. I'll drive. And it was worth…at least a thousand pounds."

Snape turned his head slowly and looked at her incredulously.

"Fine, but it was worth at least seven hundred," she muttered.

"Five." He intoned.

"Pull over…you are running off the road. I…"

"Yes, it appears you do so much better. I will remind you that it was you that hit me."

"Shut up," she said, her eyes large as he darted around the lorry she had only moments before thought he was about to run into. "What are you doing here?"

"I may ask the…"

"I asked you first," she snipped.

Severus sighed heavily and slowed down, pulling off the main road onto a small feeder before applying the brake and coming to a halt. "If you insist on acting like a child I will leave you here."

She grew quiet and looked out the side window. "I am signing papers …or was before all this. My parents died and I'm selling the house to pay off the rest of the bills and taxes. I still have to get there. It took me two months to get this bloody appointment."

"I am sorry for your loss," he said automatically. "However, this is a further reason that your insurance claim would be denied. If they are no longer with us, their policy may not be valid. I have no idea about Muggle legalities any longer. However, you may want to check on that before notifying the authorities and causing me more problems."

"We lost Dad last year and Mum this spring. She just gave up I think," Hermione said softly. "If you could drop me at the train station I can still make it. Look away a minute, I have to get these off."

She waited until he turned his head and pushed her shoulders back against the seat, raising her hips as she pulled off her hose. "Okay, done."

Snape turned around and pulled back into traffic, heading back the way they had come. "Where is the solicitor?"

"Reading, right off the A-4. He used to have his offices in London but moved a couple of years back. Why?"

"As you may be aware, I am not familiar with…driving."

"Gee," she sniggered, smoothing down her skirt. "I never would have…Watch out…that's it. Pull over. That was a stop you just blew through! You've been in one accident already."

"Miss Granger, must I remind you once again who was at fault? I assure you…"

"Assure your own arse, pull over. What are you doing out here anyway? You should hire a driver…or walk if you forgot how to apparate."

Pulling to a stop, he got out, slamming the door and walked around to the passenger's side as Hermione tried to slide under the wheel, climbing inelegantly over the gearshift and dropping into the driver's seat.

"I am meeting with the Muggle parents of our new students." He sat stiffly, tugging on the cuffs of his suit jacket, looking more uncomfortable by the second as he watched her skirt ride up and expose her thighs in her efforts to adjust the seat.

"Whose idea was this?" Hermione snorted out a bark of laugher. "Filch could have done better. Bloody hell, Mrs. Norris could have done better. When was the last time you drove?"

"Nothing has changed, I am sure."

"Other than the roads, traffic…at least you could have rented an automatic. What is it with men and sticks? Do you think shifting makes you more virile? And since when do you have to drive to see them?"

"I have a Muggle background and since many students live in urban areas the chance of detection is much smaller if I drive. Things have changed greatly in this world since your own parents were notified. I will have you know…"

"Muggle…ancient Muggle background…how long have you been out of this world? And how could your diving not attract attention? Bloody hell, you've been in one accident already."

"Miss Granger, if you expect me to accommodate you I will insist upon your silence. Furthermore, and I will only say this one more time, if you remember correctly it was not my fault."

"Back to my original question," she said, not missing a beat. "You died."

"I was gravely injured. I am surprised you do not remember."

"Remember?"

"It was I that found you and bought you back to…"

"Oh, you know…I thought most of that was a dream. They only told me that…you know…that I had been away a while. I take it you are still at Hogwarts. Who else is still there?" She quickly changed the topic, keeping her eyes on the road or the mirrors, avoiding looking directly at him.

She drove to the solicitors, exchanging small banter with Snape and explaining that for the past few years she had been in school, mostly out of the country, only recently having come home when her mother had died.

"You look well," Snape said to fill in the silence that had descended on them.

"As do you, I must say you look better than I remember." She swallowed hard and tried to cover what she had insinuated hearing his snort. "I didn't mean it like that. I only meant…bloody hell, I don't know what I meant. Not as haggard. The lack of stress perhaps. Not older but that must be due to the whole Wizard ageing thing."

"I return the…compliment."

"Compliment? What was wrong with the way I looked? I was in what? Sixth year?" She took her eyes off the road long enough to look at him.

"You were in St. Mungo's."

She turned back to the road, gripping the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were white and clenched her jaw. Continuing on, in what was now an uncomfortable silence she finally pulled into the solicitor's lot and killed the engine.

"I can get to the train and back home from here," she said, gathering up her papers again. "You should do the same. Someone is going to get killed…for good this time."

When she finally arrived home that night, she was hungry and exhausted, wanting nothing more than to eat and crawl in bed. Stepping into the entry, she heard the pounding of feet on the stairs and a woman's voice call out from the kitchen.

"Tea's ready. I held it over." Mary came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a flannel. "These things always take longer than they say."

"Sis!" A small boy dressed for bed tugged on her sleeve. "Can I stay up?"

"Have you eaten?"

"Yeah, but there's no school tomorrow. Remember?"

"An hour, no more," she said, sighing as she saw her quiet night slip away.

"So how did it go?" Mary asked, sliding a plate on the table.

"Leaches. How they can charge so much is beyond me. He even charged for the time it took him to read the papers to me. I could have hired a bloody…"

"I tried to tell you," Mary said, holding up her hand to silence Hermione. "I didn't hear you pull up."

"Yeah, well, about that. You have to take the train home." Hermione smiled weakly. "Someone pulled out in front of me."

"Are you okay?" Mary asked, her eyes quickly scanning over Hermione.

"I'm fine. I can't say as much for that money pit."

"How are you going to make it now?"

"The guy that I…that ran into me said he would pay if I didn't turn it into the insurance."

"Even if he pays twice what it is worth you aren't going to find something."

"I know," Hermione sighed, poking her dinner with her fork. "I may need you to tend Hugh again. I have to look around for something closer to the train now and …I am so bloody tired. I just want some good luck for a change."

"Sure," Mary said, lifting her jacket from a hook near the back door. "Let me know in advance next time."

Hermione rested her head in her hand as she slowly chewed, wondering how Mary had managed to turn good piece of meat into such a dry unpalatable mess.

"Sis?" Hugh said softly from the doorway. "I'm hungry."

"I can't eat it either," Hermione sighed. "What do you want?"

"Biscuits and hot chocolate?"

"Soup you said?"

"Yeah," he muttered sitting down at the table. "Mum let me have hot chocolate before I went to bed."

"Bet you ate your dinner first."

Hugh shrugged and sat quietly, watching her open the tin and start heating the soup. "When do we get to go shopping?"

"We have all summer. Your letter hasn't come yet, and we need the list of supplies."

"We could look."

"When it is time, now eat."

"Mum said you went too."

"That was a long time ago. Things change and I'm not going to buy you things that may not be on your list."

"I'll need a wand. We could get that."

"When it is time," she said sharply.

"What happened to yours?"

Hermione shrugged and started to sort out the kitchen, avoiding looking at him. "As I said, it was a long time ago. I don't really remember. I've moved so much I may have lost it along the way."

"Harry could take me."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"Not this summer, the one before. Before Dad died. They had a row and he hasn't been back."

"Do you know what it was about?" Hermione stopped what she was doing, waiting for him to answer.

"No, but Dad's face got all purple and Mum told Harry to leave."

"I'll take you, only you wait for the letter," she said, sitting down opposite him. "I've got bad news about the car."

"She break down again?"

"You could say that." She tried to grin but knew she fell short. "Let's just say I have to find an apartment closer to the train."

"Not the one we wanted?"

"Too far. It was only a twenty-minute drive to work but to take the train it would take over an hour each way. Don't worry, we'll find something else."

"Yeah," he shrugged. "Is Brian coming over tonight?"

Hermione shook her head and worried her lip. She had never been sure how Hugh felt about Brian, and now that they were no longer seeing each other, she hoped he had not formed an attachment. It was hard to tell, having only been home a few short months she was still struggling to understand him. Everyday it seemed something else came up that she was unprepared for, and she could not find any answers in the many books she had read on raising children and helping them cope with loss

"I told him that we were moving and it will make it nearly impossible to keep in touch."

"He dumped you?" Hugh looked up grinning.

"That to," she muttered, not surprised at his quick assessment.

"I didn't l like him," Hugh said, happily slurping his soup with much more gusto.

"Thanks," she sighed, standing up to make his hot chocolate. "You never said anything about him before."

"Yeah, well…he used to look at your…never mind."

"My what?" She turned and levelled him with a look she had learned worked well.

"Your…you know." He waved a hand in front of his chest and waggled his eyebrows at her.

"Oh," she said, reddening. "I guess that isn't a problem anymore."

"What happened to the guy before him? I only saw him once."

Hermione clenched her jaw and slammed a pan on the cooker. . "Thanks. Just what I need today. Could you drop it?"

"What'd I say? It ain't my fault you scare 'em off. Mum used to say it was cuz you were smarter than they were."

"Mum talked about…let it go kid. If you are trying to cheer me up it's not working."

"Yeah. Mary and Mum would try to get you to meet someone they knew. Dad once said it was because of your accident but someday you would meet someone who didn't care. What shouldn't someone care about? An old accident don't matter none. I fell down the stairs and …"

"That's enough," she cut him off, sliding a glass of milk in front of him. "Drink this up, I'll make the hot chocolate tomorrow, and get to bed. We have a long day ahead of us."

Hermione waited until he had climbed the stairs and shut his bedroom door before she enjoyed the luxury of sitting in a hot bath. Trying to keep her mind from returning to Brian, she made a mental list of what she would pack and what she would let go, only to find he kept creeping back into her thoughts. She had met him the first day she had returned to England, literally running into him with her trolley as she went through customs. He had later slid into the seat next to her on the ride to London. Not only had they kept in touch, it had been Brian that helped with the many legal issues she'd had to face. He'd listened as she had poured out her grief of loosing her parents and helped her face the fear of raising a child. Then, one night he was gone.

She again heard his voice telling her he would call as he closed the taxi door, and she remembered seeing in his face that he was lying. Raising her hand to wave goodbye she had smiled at him, playing her part, knowing she would not see him again and feeling pain clutch at her chest.