Chapter fourteen
The sun had just started to rise in the early morning sky, but Hermione was awake anyhow despite her dramatic night. She had managed to fall asleep again after her nightmare, a result of emotional exhaustion, but she only got a couple of hours before her mind came alive again, still exhausted and unable to go back to sleep.
At first when she woke up, she was grabbed by a slight panic. She was disoriented and had no idea of where she was until the events of yesterday caught up with her and she remembered that this was her new rooms. She quiet liked them actually and they looked really beautiful in the early morning light.
Her new rooms… it still felt really strange to think that over the course of one night she now had a new home of sorts and a new, large family. It had all sunk in a bit more and everything felt more believable today, but her head was filled with more questions now that she had been able to process everything then she did yesterday when it was all up in the air. Sure, Snape had given her the gist of everything and what had happened yesterday, the problem was that that barley even began to cover all of the things she did want to know. She did not just want to hear about why they did what they did and why they didn't find another way, because in all honesty she would not be her if she did not ask about her family and their history as well. Hermione was smart enough to know that while her newly discovered heritage might change a few things she thought she had known, it did not change who she was. She had still been through everything that she had been through, she had still been raised in the same way she had been raised and she still liked the same things she had always liked.
Hermione pushed the covers off of her and slowly got up from the bed and buried her feet in the soft rug that covered the cold wooden floor. It was very early and she was pretty sure that she was the only one in the house, except for maybe one or two houseelves, that was awake. So why not get some of those answers right now? She walked over to the closet that Bianca had had filled with clothes and pulled on a comfortable knitted over-sized sweater with a pair of tights. All dressed and ready, she picked up her wand from the bedside table and walked out of the double doors. Now the question was where to go.
The manor was big, it was enormous, and during her grand tour yesterday not much had stuck. Most of the halls were the same. Long, light and filled with flower arrangements and different paintings. She had no idea of where she really was in relation to the dining room they had spent most of yesterday in, so she just started to walk aimlessly along the hallways until she arrived somewhere she recognised.
It was when she came to the second floor that she came to a halt in front of two beautiful, engraved doors. She could not remember seeing those during her tour yesterday and there was just something about them that drew her towards them, her curiosity and never-ending quest to know as much as possible really wanted to know what hid behind those doors. So, she found out. She pushed open one of the heavy doors and the treasure that hid behind that door stole her breath away.
The room was, like every other room in the enormous house, light with many large windows and a warm and inviting feel to it. But that is not why Hermione fell in love with it. No, she fell in love with it because of the books. Shelf after shelf, row after row were filled with books in every size, colour and subject you could possibly imagine. The selves were gathered around a collection of comfy looking sofas and armchairs that were set in the middle of the room. Not to mention the open hearth that was currently softly burning. It was beautiful and if she were to never see another room in her life, she would gladly have it be this room. She never wanted to leave the comfort of this room again.
She walked carefully and slowly around the room to take it all in, touching the spines of the books as she went. There were books in transfiguration and arithmancy she had only dreamt of reading. Never did she think she would actually encounter them in real life. She itched to read them all but she was also painfully aware that they were not hers and that she did not really have the permission to read them or to even be in this room. That notion might stop her from pulling out every book that caught her interest and putting them all in a pile to read, but it did not stop her from her perusal.
Several hours must have past when she was startled out of her euphoria by a clearing of the throat, because the room was so much brighter and she could clearly see the sun firmly placed in the sky. She spun around towards the sun and found Cassio leaning in the doorway she had entered through earlier.
"So I see you found the library at last. It's beautiful, isn't it?" his eyes glinted with something she had trouble putting her finger on.
"Yes." she sighed dreamily, still not able to get over how amazing the room was even though the man in the doorway made her slightly nervous.
Cassio was a big man and where ever he went an aura of power and brutal strength followed. It was clear that he, as so many others, had seen and been through a lot that left a dangerous glint in both his eyes and his stance. Deep down Hermione knew that she had nothing to fear from the man, he had showed her nothing but kindness since she showed up at his house yesterday, but he still made her feel nervous whenever he was in the vicinity.
"Have you found anything that's tickled your fancy?"
"Everything! There is so much I don't know where to start!" that drew out a laugh from Cassio.
"Ah yes, Severus told me about your love for books and learning. Is there one specific subject that you like more?" he left his post at the doorway and approached her over by the shelves.
"Not really, I enjoy most of them. There is really only one that I detest and that is Divination, I walked out in the middle of class once in third year and have not been back since. During the past year though I've gotten a new-found interest in potions and healing, for obvious reasons. For me it's not so much the subject itself, but the discovery of something new or solving a problem and finding answers. That is what I really enjoy."
"That's an admirable trait. May I ask why?"
"I'm not quite sure…" she pondered. "But I suspect that it has to do with the way I was brought up, outside of the magical world. I knew nothing about it when I went off to Hogwarts or what to except. And all the things I found where incredible and there is so much to find since the world is so old and rich with history. I guess I had a need to get on top of everything so I didn't feel left out or like I did not belong."
"Ah, history. That is one of my biggest vices. I fell in love with our worlds history, myths and other big events during my earlier years at Hogwarts and could not really be bothered with any of the other subjects. Luckily for me, I had two best friends whose passions laid elsewhere and who would not let me disregard them completely. Otherwise I fear that I would not have been able to graduate." he chuckled and turned towards the other side of the room. "In fact, that entire section there is completely dedicated to my first love."
"Who were your best friends, sir?" she asked as she watched him walk over to the history section.
"Why Severus and Lucius of course. Can you imagine having a future charms master and the world's greatest potion master as your tutors? I got better grades than most of our peers thanks to them."
"Were you in Slytherin too, then?" Hermione couldn't help herself, she had so many questions she wanted answers to and the man seemed more than open to give them to her.
"Yes, I was. So was Narcissa as I suspect you already know. Your mother on the other hand, she was too innocent back than for Slytherin and was a proud member of Ravenclaw. Now though, she is as cunning as the rest of us. I suppose you have to if you want to stand up to three stubborn men who all think that they know best."
He chuckled and Hermione was floored by the apparent admiration in Cassio's voice as he spoke of his wife. It might be judgemental and prejudiced, but she had always imagined pureblood marriages to be cold since most of them seemed to have been more like business mergers than anything else. It was quite obvious though that so had not been the case with her parents. They seemed to love each other very much and it was rather nice to know that she and her brother was a product of actual love and not some contract.
Cassio smiled at her like he knew exactly what she was thinking and waved her over to a wall that was filled with various frames. He pointed towards one of the frames in the middle and when she looked closely she could see that it was a picture of a young Cassio and Bianca. They were smiling and laughing together in the courtyard of Hogwarts, dressed in their school robes.
"I met your mother when I was attending my fifth year at Hogwarts and she was in her fourth year. She was assigned as Narcissa's partner in potions and they quickly became good friends. Since Narcissa and Lucius were already an item back then, the girls often joined us in the library or came to spend time with us on the grounds. The next year I gathered up my courage and asked her out. And luckily for me she did not grow tired of our antics and stuck with me ever since."
There was another picture next to the one Cassio pointed to of the three boys with their arms around each other. In the next second they were all smirking and shoving each other gently. The comradeship between them was clearly visible and it was very comfortable and playful.
"You came up with a lot of mischief? You, a professor and a stiff aristocrat?" she blurted out in disbelief, not at all aware of the subtle, innocent insults that came out of her mouth. Cassio only laughed at her tone of disbelief.
"Believe it or not my girl, we weren't always like that. Now Severus might have some dark skeletons in his closet from his early childhood that has tainted his choices at one time or another and Lucius might have played the part of a spoilt pureblood a little too well, but we have all been young and carefree once. I believe the three of us managed to give the professors a run for their money, so to speak." then he turned towards her with a pointed look, a smirk growing on his face. "A trait I believe you are familiar with."
"What?!"
"Don't try that with me! Severus told me about all of the things you and those boys got up to. Fighting a troll in the dungeon…"
"That was an accident! It found me in the bathroom and attacked me, not the other way around." she protested.
"Then how about chasing an escaped criminal while facing off with a werewolf? While only being thirteen might I add. Does that ring any bell?"
"Oh… that!" she smiled bashfully and took a seat in one of the armchairs. "Yeah, that was not so much an accident. Neither were the terrors that Umbridge had to face during our fifth year."
Cassio let out a belly laugh so loud it almost made her ears ring and looked at her with something that resembled pure affection and a touch of pride. But she could also detect a hint of worry in his eyes.
"From what I know of the woman, she probably deserved just that and more. Severus didn't care for her much, he said her methods of education was medieval." Hermione snorted.
"She's medieval period. The way she talked to people and enjoyed herself way too much during her muggleborn trials during the war."
"How would you know?" Cassio asked surprised.
Hermione stopped for a second and contemplated what she should say. Should she tell him about her time during Voldemort's terror? There was this one part of her that was screaming at her to shut down that stupid thought, it kept reminding her that she could barely think about that time so why would she want to share it with the rest of the world. Then there was this other part of her that knew that the man probably already knew some of what had happened to her and that he was aware of her nightmares, so why not get telling him about it out of the way and avoid any mishaps?
"During the war, we might have broken into the ministry with the help of a polyjuice potion and the person I transformed into was her assistance of sort. I got to witness the terror she caused first hand for about an hour, but that hour was more than enough."
"May I ask why on earth you felt the urge to break into the ministry, the centre of all the corrupt souls in Brittan, while your faces were on every wanted poster in the country?"
"We were looking for something that Umbridge had taken and that we needed to weaken Voldemort." she faltered a little in her storytelling as the scenes replayed inside her head. "We found it, but just barely made it out of there. Harry lost his temper with Umbridge just as his polyjuice was starting to wear off and got recognised."
"Is that what you were doing all that time?" he inquired. "Looking for things that could weaken Voldemort."
By the strained tone of voice Cassio was using, Hermione realised that he knew exactly what sort of things she and her two friends had been looking for. She shouldn't be surprised really, a very detailed story about The Golden Trio's so-called adventure had been published in the Daily Prophet soon after the wizarding world had started to rebuild itself. How the reporter had actually found out about the horrocruxes Hermione had no idea since no one outside of Voldemort's inner circle and Dumbledore knew about it in the first place.
Hermione only nodded to answer the man's question and started to wander around the room again. It was a preservation instinct. She knew what was coming next, she could feel it. Any question about their year out on the run inevitably led to an inquiry about her time at the mercy of the mad woman Bellatrix Lestrange. And while she was prepared, had told the story before and the fact that Cassio had watched the result of that time, she was not willing or able to look into his eyes as she told it again.