Chapter Six
"Harry, we shouldn't be out here," Hermione whispered, trying to keep her voice as quiet as possible so that they wouldn't get caught.
"Hermione we'll be fine," Harry assured her.
"Yeah, all we've got to do is meet Malfoy and his cronies. Have a little dual and then we'll be gone," said Ron, opening the door to the trophy room - where they were meeting for the dual.
"What if it's a trick? What if he just goes and tells a teacher?" Hermione asked them, knowing that this was the most likely to happen.
"Don't be ridiculous 'Mione, Malfoy has too much pride to go against his word," Ron told her.
"Very well, whatever you say, but when we get caught don't look to me for help," Hermione concluded, knowing that this was never going to end well.
After the school had found out that Harry and Ron had managed to defeat the troll that got into Hogwarts, Malfoy and his little gang approached the three of them and challenged Harry to a wizard dual to see who the better wizard really was.
At first Hermione had refused to go with them, she wasn't about to get caught out of hours because of a stupid little dual between two groups of 11 year old boys. However, eventually Harry and Ron persuaded her to go and, to be honest, she just wanted to be there to witness it when everything went to shit around them.
The boys were guaranteed to be caught and something funny was bound to happen, plus, if the dual got too out of hand then Hermione would be there to make sure nobody got hurt and to break it up if needs be; just as they were about to enter the trophy room Hermione cast a quick disillusionment charm on herself so that they couldn't see her, after all the rules stated that each duelist was to only have one friend as back up.
"Well, well, well, look who finally turned up," Draco taunted as the three of them stepped into the trophy room, only to be met with 5 Slytherins.
"What happened to only one friends as back up Malfoy?" Harry spat as he glared at Dracos entourage.
"Yeah, that's cheating!" Ron bellowed, shaking his fist in fury.
"Who said they were all dueling?" Draco drawled. Hermione didn't like his attitude and seen as how Draco brought 4 of his friends it wouldn't hurt for her to reveal herself as Harrys extra backup as well.
Hermione quickly took the charm off of herself and ignored the sounds of disbelief from the Slytherins at her ability to cast such a charm.
"That's against the rules Malfoy and you know it," Hermione growled at him.
"When have Slytherins ever played to the rules mudblood?" Draco sneered at her, whipping out his wand and pointing it in her direction, ignoring the fact that Harry had also cheated.
"Try me Malfoy," Hermione dared him, raising her wand in preparation, she knew what she was going to do.
"Locomotor Mortis," Draco shouted, Hermione held in the laughter at such a juvenile jinx.
Hermione quickly flicked it away with a quick protego, before mocking Malfoys skills to get him worked up, "Is that all you've got Malfoy? Surely the heir to a noble pureblood house knows more complex jinxes that that."
"I'll show you, mudblood," Draco spat, a nasty curse on the end of his tongue. Before he could say it a clattering was heard from the back of the trophy room. Everyone turned to see where the noise came from, everyone except Hermione who kept her wand and eyes trained on Malfoy. Hermione also noticed that one of Malfoys cronies, she thought she remembered his name being Theo, still had his eyes trained on her and hadn't even flinched at the noise.
"IT'S FILCH'S CAT!" Ron shrieked, rushing off into the direction of the door, away from the noise. Harry followed after him, rushing out of the room. Draco ran in the opposite direction, with Crabbe, Goyle and Blaise Zabini trailing after him.
"That way," Both Hermione and Theo said at the same time, running out the same way as Harry and Ron.
They ran as fast as they could and just as they were about to get away the staircase they were on moved and they ended up in a corridor.
"Hermione, in here," Theo called as they reached a large, ancient looking door.
"We can't go in there!" Hermione insisted, "That's the third floor corridor, it's out of bounds."
"Which scenario would you rather? Being caught by filch and his cat or experience a slow and painful death?" Theo asked mockingly as he quoted Dumbledore from the start of term banquet.
"Slow and painful death it is," Hermione said cheekily, she liked Theo already, even if he was a Slytherin and one of Malfoys cronies. Hermione opened the door with a quick 'alohomora' and ran in with Theo hot on her tail.
"There's a door down here, we can hide in it, it's probably just a cupboard," Hermione called.
The two of them ran towards the door, shoving themselves in, just in time. Filch had just come through the first door and was searching for any students that were out of their beds.
"I think he's gone," Hermione whispered, peering out of the door at the retreating figure of Filch.
"Hermione," Theo whimpered, staring in the opposite direction of the door, his face pallor and eyes wide in fear.
"What is it? Have you seen a spider or something?" Hermione asked jokingly, not understanding what had gotten Theo so worked up. She turned around to see what he was looking at and quickly froze at the sight before her.
What she assumed was going to be a tiny spider crawling up a wall turned out to be a massive three headed dog, all three of its mouths open and teeth bared, drool dripping out the corners of its mouth, Hermione could feel it's breath on her face.
"RUN!" Hermione called, taking note of the small trap door under it's left back foot as she turned around to flee.
Theo didn't hesitate in listening to Hermiones command and soon enough the two of them were wrestling to shut the door, with the three headed monster trying to pry it open with its many paws.
"Why the hell would that stupid old fool keep a massive three headed dog in a school?" Hermione shrieked, waving her hands around in astonishment.
"Hermione?" A voice called from down the corridor. Hermione turned around to see Ron and Harry peering into the corridor, a confused expression on their faces. Hermione walked towards them and noticed that their faces were bright red from running away from Mrs Norris and Filch.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked.
"We heard you shouting something and came to find you," Harry told her, his eyes narrowing as he caught sight of Theo behind her.
"What's he doing here?" Ron snapped viciously, as he too caught sight of Theo.
"Don't be so rude," Hermione scolded him, "We ran in the same direction and came here to hide from Filch and Mrs Norris."
"He's still a Slytherin," Ron muttered under his breath,hoping Hermione wouldn't here. He was wrong.
"Don't be ridiculous Ron, who cares if he's a Slytherin. He hasn't done anything mean so I have no reason to not like him," Hermione retorted, turning around to face Theo, giving him a little smile which he hesitantly returned.
"Whatever," He once again muttered.
"So what were you shouting for?" Harry asked quickly, trying to change the subject.
"The great and magnificent Dumbledore is keeping a three headed dog in the school," Hermione told him, the sarcasm practically dripping from her mouth when speaking Dumbledore's name and her chosen title for him.
"A three headed dog?" Harry asked unbelievably.
"Bloody hell, you can't be serious," said Ron.
"Do you think I'm lying Ronald?" Hermione asked him, raising a pointed eyebrow at him just daring him to disagree with her.
"No, of course not Mione," he spluttered in return, wondering how she could be so scary. He had to admit that at that very moment she looked just like Snape and it scared the crap out of him.
"Good, now I'm going to bed before either of you get us expelled. If you want to see the dog for yourself then it's on the door to the left. Oh and be careful because me and Theo may have aggravated it just a tad," Hermione warned them, sending them a wink before turning on her heels and heading down the stairs with Theo going after her.
"You didn't have to stand up for me," Theo told her as they walked back in the direction of the trophy room.
"I know I didn't," Hermione replied.
"Then why did you? I'm just a Slytherin and you're a mudblood, you shouldn't have," Theo said, watching her to see if his use of the word mudblood had affected her. He was surprised when she didn't even flinch and simply answered back in a heartbeat as if the word had meant nothing to her.
"I don't want to judge people on what house they were sorted into, I'll let you know I was almost a Slytherin myself," Hermione told him, not quite sure why she told him that but feeling as if she could trust him for some insane reason. Just as Theo was about to answer they reached the trophy room and Hermione turned around and began making her way back to the Gryffindor common room.
"Oh and by the way Theo, I know you called me a mudblood just to see how I'd react and I just thought I should let you know that I don't care. Have a good night, see you soon," Hermione called over shoulder, sniggering at the look of shock on Theos' face as she turned the corner.
...
"So you boys finally decided to wake up did you?" Hermione asked as Harry and Ron sat down on either side of her, wiping their eyes lazily and yawning before both reaching for some English breakfast.
"You were right," Harry admitted, stuffing some bacon into his mouth.
"Oh, I was?" Hermione asked in mock surprise.
"Yeah you were," Ron said grudgingly, "there really was a three headed dog in that room."
"I told you so," Hermione sang, doing a little jig in her chair, earning some weird looks from her fellow housemates and a chuckle from Harry and Ron.
"Hand it over," Harry said, reaching his hand over towards Ron, who handed him a sickle with a huff.
"You bet on me? How very rude," Hermione replied, reaching up to clutch her heart, a mock hurt expression gracing her features.
"At least I got a sickle out of it," Harry said cheekily, earning himself a slap on the arm from Hermione.
"So inconsiderate," Hermione muttered under her breath, smirking up at Harry so he knew she was only joking.
"Whatever you say 'Mione," Harry replied.
"So back to the dog, what are we going to do about it?" Hermione asked, watching as Ron almost spat out the toast in his mouth.
"What are you on about? I don't want to go near that thing again," Ron nearly screamed.
"Come on Ron, you can't tell me you're not at least a teensy bit curious as to why that thing is there," Harry said to him, taking a bite of toast himself.
"Maybe just a bit," Ron admitted sheepishly.
"Exactly, also did either of you notice the trap door in the floor?" Hermione asked, excited that all three of them could now figure it out together.
"Trap door?" They both asked in unison.
"Yeah, the trap door underneath its left back foot," Hermione told them.
"So you were face to face with a three headed dog and you still managed to spot a trap door on the floor?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Bloody mad, that's what you are," Ron retorted.
"Thanks Ron, I'll take that as a compliment," Hermione said sarcastically, rolling her eyes at him in exasperation, "and, yes, I saw a trap door but I have no idea what's down there. It must be something important if Dumbledore is using a three headed dog to guard it."
"Perhaps it's the thing that Hagrid got out of the vault in Gringotts, he said it was for Dumbledore and that it was really important," Harry thought out loud.
"That must be it," Hermione replied, "Do you know what he took out?"
"No idea, he just said it was important Hogwarts business when I asked him," Harry told her, his eyes darting from Hermiones face to the staff table.
Hermione followed his eyes and almost gasped at the sight before her, on his way to the staff table was Severus, and he was limping.
"What happened to Snape?" Harry asked.
"I have no idea," Hermione replied, trying her best to hide the concern in her voice.
but I'm going to find out, she added in her head.
...
"Dad?" Hermione called, as she opened the door to his private quarters.
Earlier that week Severus had modified the wards so that she could enter, he also added her to his floo in Hogwarts and the floo back at Spinners End, so that, if needs be, she could get to him in an emergency or if she just wanted to see him.
Hermione hadn't been able to see him since he limped into the Great Hall earlier that week, she was worried about him and needed to know what was wrong. During potions class yesterday she realised that the limping hadn't ceased.
When she didn't hear a response she got a bit worried, he was usually marking at this time in the evening and he usually answered her when she called, perhaps he just hadn't heard her. Hermione began to walk towards the living room when she heard a hiss of pain coming from the other side of the living room door.
"Dad?" Hermione called in concern, opening the door in a flurry and stopping dead in her tracks when she took in the room before her.
In her rush to see if Severus was alright she didn't notice the other occupant in the room, but as soon as she opened the door and called out for Severus the damage had been done.
There, standing over Severus was Professor McGonagall. As soon as she heard the word leave Hermiones mouth her head snapped up and she gasped in shock at the sight of Hermione standing at the door, frozen in place and staring at Severus in both horror and fear.
"Miss Granger?" McGonagall asked in disbelief, her head turning to look at both Severus and Hermione consecutively.
"Minerva," Severus warned quietly, hoping that she wasn't about to go into one of her famous rants and scare Hermione even more than she already seemed to be.
"I … She ... She's your … you're her … I need to sit down," McGonagall mumbled, clutching onto one of the arm chairs and slumping into it, her face pale and eyes wide.
"Yes," Severus confirmed, sinking into his chair and eyeing McGonagall with concern, "Hermione will you come and sit over here please," Severus asked, motioning to the place next to him on the sofa. Hermione did as she was told and walked shakily towards Severus.
"Daddy, I'm so sorry, I didn't know," Hermione apologised, sitting herself down and clutching onto her fathers arm for comfort. At the sound of Hermione calling Severus 'dad' again McGonagall snapped out of her momentary loss of concentration and her eyes snapped onto a frightened Hermione holding onto Severus' arm.
"Don't worry about it poppet," Severus replied, calming Hermione down by rubbing his thumb over her knuckles and smiling at her reassuringly.
McGonagall was shocked at what she'd just witnessed, she knew that Severus wasn't the emotionless dungeon bat that he portrayed in public but she'd never seen him act in such a caring manner before. In the past, no matter how hard she tried to get him out of his shell she never succeeded. In private we was less grumpy but still closed off and often spoke in a bored tone.
"What is going on?" McGonagall asked, regaining her composure enough to be able to talk.
"Minerva, I know it's unexpected but Hermione is my daughter," Severus told her evenly, trying not to let too much of his emotions show in front of the woman.
"Daughter? Why did you never say anything Severus?" McGonagall asked.
"I thought her to be dead, we only found each other after the sorting ceremony," Severus replied sadly, thinking back to how much emotional pain he had been in that day, just thinking about it now made him want to cringe and cry, but he couldn't think like that any more, he had his daughter back and that was the most important thing. All he needed now was to get Olivia out of Azkaban and everything could be just like it was before, they could be a happy family and Severus would finally feel whole again.
"Oh, Severus. I'm so sorry, why didn't you tell anyone? Who's her mothe – wait a second," McGonagall stopped mid sentence, staring at Hermione.
Her mind wandered back to the day of the sorting ceremony, when she had first laid eyes on Hermione.
*Flashback*
"Good Evening Students, I'm Professor McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House and -" McGonagall began but froze when her eyes landed on Hermione. All heads turned to where McGonagall was now staring and kept looking between the Professor and Hermione.
McGonagall didn't know what to do, her mind had gone into a panic. This girl was a spitting image of Olivia Potter, memories flooded McGonagalls vision. The last time she'd seen Olivia embedded in her thoughts, it couldn't be possible.
Surely if she'd had a daughter I would've known, she wouldn't keep that a secret would she? Perhaps her father was someone she thought we wouldn't approve of, she must've told James and Lily though. There is no doubt that this is Olivias daughter, but who's the father and why didn't she tell me?
"Professor, are you okay?" Hermione asked, worried for McGonagall, who'd now turned pale and was staring at her with blank eyes.
At the sound of Hermiones voice McGonagall snapped out of her daydream and shook her head violently.
"Of course, I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me," McGonagall apologised to the group and carried on with her speech.
*End of flashback*
" You and … and Olivia?" McGonagall stumbled.
"How did you know?" Hermione asked, speaking for the first time since McGonagall began talking.
"My dear, you look just like her," McGonagall replied, an unfamiliar kindness in her voice, "your mother was my favourite student while in school and once she graduated she became like a niece of sorts," McGonagall informed her. Hermione couldn't help but notice that McGonagalls eyes began to water and she quickly reached into her bag and pulled out a handkerchief.
"Thank you, dear," McGonagall said gratefully, taking the handkerchief and dabbing her eyes.
"Are you okay Professor?" Hermione asked.
"Perfectly fine, I just get a bit teary when I think of what an awful fate Olivia has been condemned to," McGonagall replied, dabbing away the last of her tears.
"I'm going to get her out," Hermione stated confidently. Severus' head snapped up at Hermiones comment.
"Hermione there is no way," Severus sighed sadly.
"There's always a way," Hermione replied defiantly, she straightened her back and stared at her father with determination in her eyes.
"Poppet, I've tried everything I could think of and nothing worked, I can't even send her letters so how are you going to get her out?" He asked, stressing the word you. He didn't want to upset her but he also didn't want her to have false hope and then be crushed when her plans didn't work.
"Dad, you may have tried everything you could think of but I'm not you and I will find a way to get mum out even if I have to do it on my own," Hermione said determinedly.
Severus watched as his little girl stared at him in defiance, his heart went out to her. He knew that attempting to get Olivia out of Azkaban was futile, he'd tried himself and each time failed. He remembered how each time he failed his heart would break just a little more. He didn't want that for his little girl, he didn't want her to have to go through the same pain he had but looking into her eyes now he saw that she wasn't going to change her mind any time soon.
Before he could say anything more to Hermione he was interrupted by the woman sitting opposite him.
"If I had an doubts about who your mother was then I'm definitely convinced now. You have her sprint my dear," McGonagall chuckled. Hermione simply smiled at her professor and looked at Severus to see what his reaction would be.
"Now that that's all sorted out, what did you want Hermione?" Severus asked, relieved that McGonagall had taken to the news calmly, well as calmly as she could in such a situation. He purposely ignored the topic that Hermione had been adamantly ranting on before, they could talk about that at a later date but now was not the time.
Hermione looked at her father for a moment wondering what on earth he was talking about, it suddenly clicked that she was here for a reason. After everything that had just happened Hermione had forgotten all about her reason for coming to her fathers quarters in the first place.
"Oh, I need to know why you're limping," Hermione told him, her voice casual as if it weren't a big deal.
"Need to or want to?" Severus replied, trying to hold in a chuckle at how blunt she was.
"Need to," Hermione replied cheekily.
"I'm afraid I cannot tell you poppet," Severus said regretfully, he didn't want to keep secrets from her but this was one thing he could not reveal.
"Couldn't you at least show me your leg, you don't have to tell me what happened but I just want to make sure you're alright," she said.
Hermione had an idea of what had happened to him and if she were able to see his leg then her suspicions would either be confirmed or denied.
"It's not nice Hermione," Severus warned her.
"I can handle it," Hermione assured him.
Severus simply raised an eyebrow up sceptically but complied with her wishes and lifted up the fabric of his robes to reveal the nasty wound beneath it.
Hermione tried her best to compose her features but couldn't help the gasp that escaped her once she caught sight of how bad the wound really was. Hermione quickly regained her composure and looked up at her father in pity.
"Daddy, you've been bitten," Hermione said, it wasn't a question, it was a fact. There right in front of her eyes were teeth marks scattering Severus' calf, they were healed well but Hermione could still see that the skin surrounding the marks were red with agitation and that the wound was still causing her father quite a lot of pain, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.
"Yes, but that's all you're allowed to know," Severus informed her.
"I understand," Hermione said, smiling at him before standing up from where she had crouched down to look at the wound.
"I know that smile Hermione, your mother used to have the exact same one when she was up to something. I don't want you going off and getting into trouble, you're too inquisitive for your own good poppet and I can assure you that no matter how hard you try you'll not find out how this happened," Severus warned her lightly, not wanting her to become involved and getting hurt.
"Maybe I already know," Hermione smirked, walking over towards the door, "see you in class tomorrow," She said chirpily, looking back at the stunned faces of her father and professor before closing the door behind her and making her way back to Gryffindor tower.
"She's definitely your daughter Severus," McGonagall chuckled.
"Trust me I know, but what worries me is that she's also like Olivia and you know how much trouble she got into at school because she couldn't keep her nose out of everyone's business." Severus replied, staring at the door Hermione had just closed.
"Good luck," is all McGonagall said before she grabbed some floo powder and went back to her own quarters.
"I'm going to need it," Severus muttered, to a now empty room.
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed, reviews would be appreciated :)
Chapter Question: What house are you all in?
edited 31/08/2019