Chapter Five
Hermione had returned that night to her dorm and found Harry and Ron waiting up for her, she chuckled as she noticed that they had fallen asleep and quickly woke them up to tell them that it was time for them to go up to their dorm room.
She'd managed to avoid any questions that night and, luckily, the boys hadn't asked her the next day.
It had been almost two months since that night and Hermione had been ignoring her father ever since then, at first she was upset that he hadn't told her any thing but now that she'd had time to reflect on it she realised that she didn't need to be upset, instead she focused all of her sadness into anger. Granted, she still got lethargic on occasions and she knew that she wasn't eating properly but the worst part of it all was when she had time to think. She couldn't sleep because everything would just flood into her brain the minute she stopped to go to sleep.
It was driving her crazy.
Today was the 31st October. The day that Harrys parents had died. The day that her aunt and uncle died. Hermione knew how Harry was feeling so let him be that morning, she herself was mourning but not as much as Harry. She could tell that he was trying to keep it all in and not let anyone see how much he was really hurting but Hermione could read him well.
He was devastated, she could see it in his eyes and the way he moved. She couldn't do anything to help him so left him alone with his thoughts and feelings.
Her day wasn't going well so far and the thing that made it even worse was the looming shadow approaching her in the hallway, when she finally realised who it was she tried to turn around and escape the figure but she knew that it was too late.
"Hermione," Severus called, picking up his pace so that he could try and talk to his daughter.
"Stop trying to talk to me," Hermione told him calmly, trying to reign in her anger.
"Why? I'm your father, I'll always want to talk to you, you've completely ignored me for almost 2 months and I accepted that because I thought you needed some time to process every thing that has happened. Such as finding out you were a witch and how I was your father, but now it's getting ridiculous," Severus retorted, she could see the sadness in his eyes and she tried to bite back the regret she felt in her stomach.
He doesn't deserve your pity, stop feeling regretful, she mentally scolded herself.
"You're not my father, my father wouldn't lie to me, my father wouldn't betray me the way you've betrayed me," Hermione hissed, trying her best to not burst out into tears at the thought of what he'd hidden from her.
Hermione couldn't miss the hurt that crossed her fathers face and instantly regretted her words, she didn't want to hurt him. She still loved him but right now her anger and grief were overshadowing her love and it felt like they were the only two emotions she could feel ever since she discovered the truth about her mother.
"Don't say that poppet," Severus choked, trying not to show how crushed he was at her declaration. Although he could see that she regretted it straight afterwards, it still hurt.
"Why not? How about you tell me the truth about Olivia?" Hermione snapped, wanting to see if her father would tell her the truth or lie to her once again.
"She's your mother! Don't call her Olivia!" He snapped, eye twitching as Hermione flinched at his tone.
"Your mum," He stressed, "Is an amazing woman and you will not go around being disrespectful to her," Severus told her, trying to keep his anger under wrap.
"That's it? That's all you're going to tell me? How about the fact that her last name was Potter, or that she tortured the Longbottoms? How about the fact that she is nothing but a good for nothing criminal who cost Neville his parents, or that she is now in Azkaban for life?" Hermione screamed at him, her voice getting louder and louder as she pointed out all the things that Severus had been lying to her about.
"It's not what you think," Severus replied weakly knowing that Hermione had the wrong idea in her head but not wanting to shout at her for the insinuation.
"STOP LYING TO ME!" Hermione screamed, fed up of all the lies and just wanting her father to be truthful. The tears she'd been trying to hold back since she began talking dripped unwillingly down her face.
"Hermione, please calm down. It's not like that, I haven't lied," Severus pleaded with her, he could feel his heart tearing at her tears. He didn't want his little girl to be upset, especially when it seemed it was his fault.
"WELL YOU HAVEN'T TOLD THE TRUTH HAVE YOU? HOW COULD YOU DO THIS? I ONLY JUST REALISED TWO MONTHS AGO THAT MY REAL DAD WAS ALIVE AND I WAS SO EXCITED TO MEET MUM BUT NOW I'M NEVER GOING TO SEE HER BECAUSE SHE'S A BLOODY CRIMINAL! HOW AM I EVER GOING TO LOOK NEVILLE IN THE EYE AGAIN, KNOWING THAT HE WAS COST A CHILDHOOD WITH HIS PARENTS BECAUSE OF MY MOTHER ... do you know how this has been affecting me that last couple of months?" Hermione finished weakly, the fight leaving her eyes. All she wanted to do now was curl up into a ball and cry her eyes out, she was done with this.
Severus knew what this was doing to her, he'd watched as she slowly went of her meals over the last couple of months, he could see how thin she'd gotten in this time and how the fire in her eyes slowly faded as she allowed her anger and sadness to simmer. At first he thought it was just all the new information about her parentage but after a while he realised that it was something else, it was only today that he'd mustered up the courage to actually confront her.
He knew it was silly, being afraid of your own daughter but in all honesty he was new to the whole father thing. Sure, he'd been a dad since she was born but he's never had to deal with her temper tantrums and he didn't really know her that much at all, he didn't know how she coped with her feelings, if she liked to be left alone or if she liked talking about it. He really had no idea what to do with an 11 year old daughter, especially an 11 year old daughter with his and Olivia's personality combined. Olivia scared the shit out of him and he was certain Hermione would be just the same as her mother.
No only that, though. He was scared of losing her again. He'd already lost Olivia and he thought he'd lost Hermione too, he didn't want to go back to the place he was in before she arrived at Hogwarts because that was a horrible place to be.
"I'm sorry Hermione, I know how you feel but ..." Severus began gravely, not wanting to cause his daughter any more irrelevant pain by his hand.
"No daddy, you don't know," Hermione whispered dejectedly, turning around and running away from Severus, who was left to watch as his daughter ran away, tears streaming down her face. The worst part about it was that he knew why she was so devastated, and he also knew that it was his fault for not telling her in the first place. The realisation that he'd done this to her, to his own daughter, was tearing him apart.
...
"Have you seen Hermione?" Harry asked Ron from across the table. They were sitting at the Halloween feast and Dumbledore had just finished his speech, meaning that the food had just appeared on the table and everyone around them were digging in.
"No," Ron replied, spitting food at Harry as he talked. Harry looked over at Ron, whose mouth was full while his plate was heaped with mountains of food and had to suppress a chuckle at his friends gluttony.
"Do you think she's alright? I haven't seen her since this morning," Harry said in concern, he was worried about Hermione and wanted to make sure that she was safe. It wasn't like her to not turn up for dinner, when she'd missed lunch he just assumed that she was in the library and would join them later.
"Dunno, she hasn't really been right since after she came out of the hospital wing," Ron admitted, swallowing his food and pushing the rest away as he began to think of how weird Hermione had been in comparison to when they'd met her.
"You're right, she was fine when we came out of our first charms class," Harry pondered.
"But then she was late to the common room, when she woke us up it looked like she had been crying," Ron observed.
"do you remember what the time was Ron?" Harry asked rhetorically, "It was at least 11.30, she was definitely out after curfew."
"Recently she hasn't been eating much, I noticed that the other week," Ron told him, looking at his plate of food and picking up a potato, stuffing it in his mouth. He knew that now was not the time to be eating but he really was hungry.
"And don't you think she's been looking a bit worn out, her eyes have bags under them and I even noticed her nodding off in Potions the other day, I had to wake her up before Snape noticed," Harry admitted.
"We need to talk to her mate," Ron told him, grabbing another potato off his plate.
"Perhaps we can catch her in the common room this evening," Harry suggested, looking at the food in front of him but feeling too concerned to actually eat.
"Good idea," Ron agreed, before turning to Neville who was sat next to them, "Have you seen Hermione today Nev?" Ron asked.
"Um, no" Neville replied nervously, although he was the trios friend now he still got a bit nervous around them from time to time. "but I heard Lavender tell Parvati that she saw Hermione crying in the first floor bathroom just before lunch."
Before Ron or Harry could reply the doors to the great hall flew open and Professor Quirrell ran through them, pale as a ghost.
"Troll. Troll. Troll in the castle ... Thought you ought to know," he screamed before fainting onto the floor. While the hall erupted into hoards of screaming children Harry and Ron both looked at eachother, there faces going white but not because of the troll.
"Hermione," They both said in unison.
"Prefects will you please escort your houses up to your common room, we will inform you when the problem has been dealt with," McGonagalls voice boomed around the hall.
Harry looked up, he found it weird that Dumbledore hadn't made the announcement. As he looked at the headmaster he noticed him glaring darkly at Quirrell, who was just waking up from his faint, only to meet eyes with Dumbledore and fainting again.
"We need to go and find her," Harry called to Ron over the noise that the other students were making.
"Let's go," Ron replied, grabbing Harry as they rushed out of the hall with all the other students before slipping off and racing towards the girls bathroom.
As they reached the end of the corridor they saw the troll enter a room to the right, they ran up to it as it made its way in and quickly locked the door behind it.
"At least that's the troll sorted," Ron sighed in relief. As he looked to Harry he noticed him staring at the door, his eyes wide with shock.
"Ron, that's the girls bathroom," Harry muttered, as he unlocked the door, he was greeted with the sound of Hermiones screams.
"Hermione!" Harry cried out.
"Harry!" Hermione shrieked.
"Leave her alone, you fat ugly brute!" Harry yelled as he jumped up onto the trolls back, sticking his wand in its nose by accident in the process. This seemed to distract him and while the troll was occupied Hermione reached for her wand and cast a stupefy.
"Why isn't it working?" Hermione yelled, watching in horror as Harry was lifted from the trolls shoulders.
As Harry was having the bat swung at him, while upside down, Hermione remembered a paragraph from one of her text books.
Species known to be naturally resistant to stupefy include dragons, trolls, giants and half-giants.
Hermione groaned in annoyance, how could she have been so stupid, she needed to use physical violence to bring down the troll.
"Wingardium Leviosa," Hermione cried, pointing her wand at the Trolls club just as it was about to wack Harry around the head. The troll dropped Harry when he noticed his club was no longer in his hand and turned to face the culprit.
Hermione could feel her knees shaking as the troll turned to face her, walking a few steps closer. She was face to face with the troll and was scared out of her mind, she didn't like to show fear, it made her feel weak so she did the only thing she could think of.
Harry watched as Hermione moved the club over the trolls head and dropped it carelessly onto its head. At first he thought that nothing had happened, that was until the troll fell backwards onto the bathroom floor with a massive thud.
"Wow, that was bloody brilliant," Ron exclaimed, watching Hermione in awe.
"Thanks Ron," Hermione said gratefully, trying to stop herself from shaking.
"Hermione!" Both boys shouted, as if the shock was too much and they only just realised who it was that was talking to them.
Hermione giggled as both her boys enveloped her in a massive group hug.
"Miss Granger, Mr Weasley, Mr Potter, what on earth is going on here?!" Someone shrieked, interrupting the trios special moment. The three of them turned around and were met with the astonished face of Professor McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore, all stood by the door. Their eyes were flickering between the troll and the three of them.
Hermione refused to make contact with Severus' eyes and walked a step or two away from the boys so that she was closer to the teachers.
"It was all my fault Professor, I heard about the troll and thought that I could take it on myself, the boys just came to stop me," Hermione lied, she could tell that McGonagall was sceptical but prayed that she would believe her. She flicked a quick silencing spell at the boys who frowned at her in annoyance, wanting to voice the fact that she did nothing wrong. Severus didn't fail to miss this, he also knew that Hermione was lying because she hadn't been at the feast so wouldn't know there was a troll, however, he let it go.
"I expected more from you Miss Granger," McGonagall told her in disappointment," 50 points will be taken from Gryffindor for your unbelievably poor judgement."
"Yes, Professor," Hermione replied dejectedly.
"As for you two," McGonagall carried on, looking at Ron and Harry pointedly, "30 points will be rewarded to Gryffindor each for your ... interesting rescue," McGonagall said, looking at the unconscious Troll on the floor in distaste. Hermione hastily removed the silencing charms on the boys so that they could reply.
"Thank You Professor," The boys replied, glaring at Hermione but not daring to correct the professor in fear of unleashing Hermiones wrath.
"Now, I suggest the three of you go back to your common room," McGonagall informed, leaving the bathroom hastily.
"Miss Granger, could I please speak to you in my office," Severus asked/
"Of course Sir," She replied, stopping herself from glaring at her father while in Dumbledore's presence, less he get suspicious. Following Severus silently down to the dungeons and into his office. Severus opened the door for her as they reached his quarters.
"I thought we were going to your office," Hermione remarked snidely.
"I lied, apparently I'm good at that," Severus replied, smiling when Hermione didn't talk back but walked into his quarters reluctantly, a scowl plastering her features.
"What do you want?" Hermione hissed, refusing to sit down anywhere.
"I want to tell you the truth," Severus told her.
"So you're finally going to tell me that my mother is nothing but a filthy criminal who deserves her lifetime sentence in Azkaban?" Hermione asked, not noticing the way that her father clenched onto the arm chair he was sat in so tightly that his knuckles her turning white. "Don't bother because I already know."
"SIT DOWN!" Severus shouted. Hermione froze. He'd never shouted at her in private before, in all honesty it terrified her.
"Never refer to your mother as that ever again and before you spout more rubbish let's get one thing straight." Severus hissed coldly, chilling Hermione to the bone.
"Your mum is not a criminal, she was framed. She would never do anything to hurt you, or anyone else, unless it was necessary. Alice and Frank were our best friends and she would do nothing to harm them. She didn't do it, okay? She. Didn't. Do. It." He said, getting worked up the longer he talked for. Afterwards he sunk into his chair, his hands reaching up to rest his face in.
"She didn't do it?" Hermione mumbled, more to herself than anyone else.
"No," Severus dead panned.
"But -"
"Hermione, listen to me. Your mum was framed, she's innocent."
"She is?" Hermione asked.
"She is."
"Daddy, I'm so sorry!" Hermione spluttered out, "I'm so sorry for how I behaved, I can't believe I reacted like that! I wasted 2 months that I could've been spending with you worrying about the fact that I thought mum was a criminal. Merlin, I'm such an idiot. I'm so sorry daddy, I'm sorry, I should've known" Hermione wailed. Severus got up from his arm chair and pulled his daughter into a tight embrace.
"It's alright poppet," he whispered soothingly into her ear, "Everyone makes mistakes."
"Will you tell me about her?" Hermione asked, looking into her dads' eyes.
"Of course I can," Severus replied happily.
For the rest of the evening Severus told Hermione all about the things Olivia got up to at Hogwarts and about how they met. He told her everything.
At about 11 Hermione fell asleep on his lap and Severus watched her sleep peacefully for a bit before he summoned a house elf to take her up to her room.
"At least everything's sorted," He mumbled to himself as he got into bed, sighing in relief, "For now."
Thank you so much for reading this chapter, I hope you liked it. Reviews are appreciated but not necessary. Have a nice day/evening wherever you are :)
Chapter Question: What did y'all think to Hermione dropping the club on the trolls head instead of Ron? Should I include Neville in more of their adventures? What about Severus? Is he acting too out of character or is it working for the story?!
edited on 30/08/2019