They had told him as they entered the room that she'd apparated to St. Mungo's in distress, running on pure instinct. There was a private room set aside just for that purpose. For the golden trio , the minister and other high ranking officials to be able to gain treatment without a media circus.
They'd managed to gather from her tearful ramblings that something had happened with Rose and Ronald, and had sent for the Minister, as was protocol with any surviving order members.
Just as the Minister arrived, the mediwitch and nurse had attempted to take Rose from her to treat her , seeing blood on the pair and fearing the worse.
It had been the wrong thing to do.
As they'd reached for the girl , Hermione had reacted on instinct , throwing up a shield and stunner in quick succession that knocked the mediwitch out of the room.
Kinglsey had been unable to placate her , or get much sense out of her , but what he had heard had made his blood run cold.
It was then he'd summoned Severus.
Though as he looked at the woman now , he knew that legilimency wasn't the only reason he'd called Severus, he'd been hoping that Severus could disarm the ticking time bomb in front of him , before she hurt someone or did something that required she be arrested.
It was rather obvious that the woman was distraught , she was shaking with pent up adrenaline as she held the small girl too tightly to her.
Though she was only one small and clearly upset witch clad in pyjamas, no-one could deny the sheer ferocity and strength she exuded in this moment , that made all the other people take an assessing step backwards from her.
Severus could see that her wand was clutched tightly in her hand , holding back the nurse... the other holding rose tightly to her chest .
The nurse he had first assumed was talking to Hermione , now on second glance appeared to be trying to nervously calm and placate her , if the hex marks on the wall behind her, and the magic buzzing in the air were any indication.
There was blood on Hermione's clothes and a fire in her eyes that belayed her inner strength.
Rose was quiet in her arms , holding just as tightly to her mother as Hermione was holding on to her.
Rose was a small girl and always had been. She was clearly looking like she was going to end up taking after her petite mother, rather than the lumbering ox of her father. In fact, if it wasn't for the slight strawberry hint to her blonde curls, and the bright blue eyes of course, one could have assumed she was Hermione Granger in miniature.
Hermione was breathing heavily , tears in her eyes as she kept her wand focused on the witch.
It was clear to Severus that the woman was running on pure instinct , and would later be mortified when she realised she'd threatened the well meaning nurse.
Severus stepped closer until he was in her line of sight, and she snapped her wand at him, allowing the nurse to back up and exit the room with a relieved look at him.
"D-don't" She snapped, as she focused her wand on him , and pulled Rose even closer.
He didn't take her warning to heart, and wasn't the least bit offended by her actions...he knew it was not personal.
This was a mother, protecting her young. A lioness guarding her cub.
Severus was in awe of it , and a tiny part of him, buried beneath many layers , was jealous.
Jealous of the pure unadulterated maternal love, and fury that Hermione was radiating over her daughter, wondering how different his life would have turned out , would that he'd had a mother like her .
"Miss Granger"
Instead of panicking or running about like a headless chicken, as both the aurors and mungos staff had done, he spoke evenly and clearly, and her eyes snapped to his.
"Hermione , would you be so kind as to lower your wand for me?"
The recognition flared in her eyes and her bottom lip trembled. She lowered her wand , but still held rose close.
"S-severus ?"
She was one of the select few with permission to use his first name , after the war she'd been the first to apologise to him, and actually mean it.
In point of fact she'd actually flung her arms around him in a hug and kissed his cheek.
"I'm so glad you're alive , I'm so sorry for everything sir , but I always knew you were a good man , I always told everyone that I trusted you but no one would take me seriously"
He'd been so shocked to receive a hug for the first time since his childhood , along with her sincere apology, that he'd not even had to think about reciprocating , and had just tightened his arms around her and returned the hug.
When she'd released him , she'd stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek , causing his face to flame.
"Now that the war is over Sir , and you don't have to keep up appearances , I would love for you to keep in touch and to speak to you more freely if ever you have the time or inclination, I've always admired your intellect and there's so much I'd love to speak with you about"
"I daresay that would be acceptable Miss Granger"
She beamed at him.
"Hermione, Please. All my friends call me Hermione"
Friends.
She wanted to be his friend.
Not because she wanted anything from him , or because she was trying to persuade him to join her cause.
Because she trusted him. She thought he was a good man , and admired his intellect.
He refused to allow the tears to build up in his eyes.
Instead he offered her a curt nod.
"Hermione. I will await your owl"
She'd offered him that brilliant smile once more , and he couldn't help but offer a small hesitant smile in return.
They'd spoke frequently for the first year after the war , and even met up on at least weekly occasions to discuss academia or recent publications over tea, sometimes twice weekly.
He was one of the first people she told that she was pregnant.
It had been an accident of course , a bad batch of her contraceptive potion, which led to to her forgoing all apothecaries in favour of going directly to him.
She'd not wanted to be a mother so young, but she also couldn't bare the thought of terminating the pregnancy.
When Rose was born she was besotted, and a caring and doting mother.
Rose had always been a very quiet baby. She'd never really fussed or colicked ,her terrible twos were not so terrible and she was never one for tantrums or meltdowns, though didn't like it when people other than her family held her.
She'd been the first baby he'd held since Draco , and even then he'd done that under duress as the boy had been just as spoilt and temperamental then as he was a young adult.
One day a flustered Hermione had snapped the handle of her bag, whilst they were out having tea , and unable to use her wand in a muggle cafe. She had passed the baby Rose for Severus to hold whilst she retrieved the belongings that had spilled out across the floor.
The small baby had laid serenely in his arms , blue eyes sparkling up at him curiously. He'd raised an eyebrow at the curious look she was giving him , and that had earned him a smile. Chuckling softly he'd raised his other eyebrow to match and the baby had giggled in his arms , reaching for him to pick her up and kicking her legs out playfully.
He'd lifted her gingery into his arms, where the barely mobile baby had rested her arms onto his chest, and leaned back to look at his face. He continued to waggle his eyebrows at the young girl, making funny faces and causing her to laugh out loud at his antics before slinging her hands around his neck, planting a sloppy kiss on his cheek and grabbing a handful of his hair as she began to sleep on his shoulder.
The tears were much harder to hold back than when her mother had kissed his cheek, as he held the innocent girl to him and took in the smell of her, milk and baby powder.
Hermione had raised her eyebrow at him with a smile when she saw his behaviour, it was clear what she was thinking and he answered her unsaid question, quietly so as not to wake the baby.
"Nobody would believe you anyway"
She'd snorted and conceded the point.
From that day on , every time they met for tea, Hermione would always find an excuse for him to hold Rose, and Rose would always end up with a handful of his hair, and asleep with her face pressed into his neck.
"She only does that for you , you know ?" Hermione had said to him one day.
"What do you mean ?"
"She'll laugh and play with other people if they play with her, but that..." She gestured to the chubby hand with a handful of his hair and the way the girl was snuggled into his neck.
"That's all you , you're the only person that she'll sleep on other than Ron and I , and she never holds us like that"
He'd had trouble holding his smirk , and had simply answered that it was clearly because the girl had good taste, which had caused Hermione to snort in laughter and slap his thigh.
However it was not long before Rose was in the terrible twos , and Hermione was itching to be back at work.
Ronald , the ever the supportive father, had encouraged her to do so.
She'd told him over tea, the first they'd had alone since she gave birth to Rose, that Ronald had quit his Auror job and instead taken a part time job at WWW with his brother, in order to be a stay at home father.
"You had the first couple of years , but you make more money that I do anyway 'mione , you want to work and I don't really , it's perfect"
Whenever they met after that , it had been much more infrequent and just the two of them. And Severus had to hide his disappointment, as he'd grown quite attached to the young girl.
Which he would vehemently deny if questioned.
Eventually their tea meetings had fizzled out , and they were corresponding by owl every other day.
Then weekly.
Then monthly.
Then it was the odd owl here and there.
Hermione was working hard at the Ministry , and Ronald encouraged whatever spare time she had to stay at home with them
She worked such long hours, it was only fair that she spent what little spare time she had with her family, besides Ron had never liked her seeing Severus and he especially didn't like it when she took Rose.
They'd hit a rocky patch in their marriage, Severus had known that much , they'd been flung together by circumstance, in a whirlwind of near death experiences and stress and their relationship was built on a friendship that at times had very rocky foundations.
It all boiled down to , they simply weren't compatible, though both had tried to make it work for Rose.
It was nothing personal when she fell out of his life , Severus knew that , she was up and coming in her career with a sinking marriage and a young family to boot , whereas he had 20 years of hard-work behind him and was enjoying his retirement, with no-one but himself for company.
Still he felt the loss of their companionship keenly.
It had been a year or more since he'd seen her last.
"It's me" He spoke softly "You're both safe"
He saw her finally drop her defences, her shoulders drooped and she dropped her wand, where it landed on the floor forgotten with a clatter as she sucked in great lungful of air and wrapped her other arm around Rose , burying her head in the girls hair as her body shook with silent sobs.
Picking up her wand , he took another step closer to her.
"May I sit by you ?" He asked and waited for her to nod in affirmation.
She was still shaking, and holding tightly on to Rose.
Severus's own anger was a seething, writhing thing in the pit of his stomach, it took the full force of his occlumency to hold it back.
He could hear her taking deep breaths and trying to calm herself down.
Kingsley was stood in the doorway, along with the mediwitch both met his gaze as he slowly seated himself beside her.
"Kingsley called me...legillimency"
He said by way of explanation. She nodded , without looking at him.
"But first , are you...either of you, hurt ?"
She tensed then, but didn't answer. Pulling rose closer and the girl whimpered in her mother's arms and he was once more drawn to the blood all over Hermione.
Severus's stomach lurched, and he looked once more to the figures in the door.
"The blood..."
"It's not mine" She answered , but still he was concerned.
"Hermione, would you let the mediwitch run diagnostics over the two of you, please ?"
"Will you stay" She whispered , and he hated the broken tone in her voice.
"Wild thestrals couldn't move me" He answered and he placed a hand on the bottom or her back carefully, in case she reacted.
She did react , but thankfully it was by leaning into his side and allowing him to wrap his hand around her waist.
Rose was still held onto her mother's front, arms and legs wrapped around her, and Severus's heart shattered when he was sure that he saw one teary blue eye sneak a look at him through the curtain of curly hair.