I hope everyone liked the last chapter, this chapter was originally part of the last but it got rather long so this will probably be a shorter chapter. FYI

Disclaimer: I wish I owned Harry Potter

Minerva laid in bed, in the dark of the night when she woke up. She groaned at the clock that said 2 AM. Why did I wake up this late she thought? She was soon answered when she heard a moan coming from down the hall. Oh no, she thought, she grabbed her dressing gown, and walked down the hall. She walked up to Hermione's door and knocked.

"Hermione?" no answer "Hermione?" She said a little louder. She went in.

Hermione was tossing and turning. She was moaning and a cold sweat had broken out over her body. Minerva ran over, and tried to shake Hermione awake.

"Hermione sweetie wake up, wake up." She tried to will Hermione up. The girl wasn't responding.

"I'm sorry… I won't do it again, please stop it… I'll be good." Hermione mumbled. Minerva couldn't take it anymore.

"Hermione!" and the girl awoke with a start. Her breathing was ragged, her eyes darted back and forth trying to figure out where she was. It slowly dawned on her where she was. She turned to her teacher and started to cry. Minerva got onto the bed and pulled Hermione to her chest. "Shh its ok darling, I've got you, its ok." Minerva rocked the poor girl back and forth. Minerva had no idea what Hermione's nightmare was about but she thought it was about her parents. If she didn't need to be here for Hermione she would have apparated to France and done some thing that would have put her in Azkaban.

Minerva felt for Hermione, she never would have guessed that Hermione would have family problems. The girl had been so confident at school. There had been a couple times where she had seen the girl uncomfortable. Once only a month into the first school year Miss Granger had come to her asking to talk. The girl had wanted to go back home because she had not made any friends and was being teased and picked on again. Minerva had just talked Hermione though it and sent her off, Minerva hadn't thought any more about it. Now she realized how badly Hermione must have been feeling to want to go back to her parents.

Hermione rubbed her eyes and stopped crying. She tried to pull away from Minerva but the older witch wouldn't let her.

"Are you okay?" Minerva asked her softly. Hermione shook her head. "Do you want to talk?" Hermione shook her head. Minerva paused. "You know," she continued after a few minutes "sometimes when I have a bad dream it helps me seem less real when I talk to someone." Hermione didn't answer for a few minutes and then nodded.

"It was my parents." She took a deep breath. "They had come back to my house and I was still there, and they got mad because I had my shoes on and it would scup up the floor. At first it was all right because it was just that, but then they started getting bigger and dad pulled off his belt and …" Hermione couldn't finish she started crying again. Minerva held the girl tighter and stroked her hair. When Hermione finally calmed down, Minerva had to ask.

"Can you tell me completely about how I found you Hermione? We can wait if you're still upset." She said softly. She felt Hermione shake her head.

"No I'm tried of carrying it alone I'm sick of it hanging over my head." She still looked upset but she had the determined face that Minerva had seen so many times before in class. She felt proud of her Gryffindor and waited for the girl to start. "Can you just ask questions and I'll answer I think that will be easier." Hermione told her. Minerva nodded.

"Why were you barefoot?"

"Mom and Dad didn't like it if their floor got messed up, and they never let you wear socks either, I don't know why."

"The freezing house?" Hermione paused thinking about how to answer this.

"They left me a note when I got home from Hogwarts; they said under no circumstance was anyone supposed to know I was home. They said only turn on the heat if the neighbors were asleep or gone because they can hear the furnace. That's also the reason why the lights were off when you came, I didn't hear you knock and the lights would have let someone know I was there." Minerva felt her hatred grow towards Hermione's parents.

"Why did you lie to me?" Minerva knew it would take Hermione some time to think about how to answer this. The girl put her head down and mumbled something. Minerva made Hermione look at her.

"Because I like you and I didn't want you to know." Hermione said weakly

"You could have told me. I would have liked that better than how I did find out." Minerva said softly and made showed Hermione she wasn't mad either way.

"I just didn't want you to know, I didn't want to look like I wasn't a Gryffindor." This last part she mumbled so softly that Minerva just barely heard her.

"Don't you ever say that Hermione." Minerva put her hands on Hermione's shoulders. "Just by going through this you are braver than most people. You carried this alone for so long, that is brave, but it doesn't make you weak to have parents that don't care about you. And you're not going to left alone like that anytime soon I promise." Hermione nodded and for the first time hugged Minerva before Minerva could hug her. The professor held Hermione for a long time till she pulled back and kissed Hermione on her forehead.

"I think it's time for bed sweetie." Hermione nodded sleepily.

"I don't want to have another nightmare though." Minerva mentioned for Hermione to stay and went out of the room. She returned with a small bottle of a green liquid.

"This is dreamless sleep potion, once you take it you will sleep through the night without any nightmares. You can use this when ever but you must get me, if you take too much it could hurt you." Hermione nodded again and Minerva gave her the potion.

"Good night." Minerva told her and stood to leave when Hermione grabbed her hand.

"Can you stay with me till I fall asleep?" She still sounded nervous. Minerva smiled at her and tucked her in. She stroked Hermione's hair until the girl finally fell into a peaceful sleep. Minerva stayed a little while longer and finally decided she needed sleep to. She turned back to look at Hermione and despite everything gave a slight laugh.

"You were right about earlier Albus," She talked to herself. "I am completely lost." And with that she walked back to her room.

Yea another chapter it's not as long but I think it covers more. I hope everyone likes it I had planned for it to take longer for this to come but it worked this way. If I keep getting snow days from school I get to update more. Gotta love the cold front coming on the east coast.