She turned and fled with her daughter, her brain stuck on one focus 'somewhere safe'
Flew down the stairs two at a time 'somewhere safe'
Ran through the hall and to the living room 'somewhere safe'
Reached the living room and threw the powder into the floo.
'somewhere safe'
"Severus Snape's House, Spinner's End"
Severus released the mental connection with a gasp.
His mind was swirling as Fury and regret were warring within him equally as he took in her once more tear stained eyes.
Fury at the cretin's actions towards his own daughter and regret that he'd been the first place she'd thought of when she wanted 'somewhere safe' and she'd been rebuffed.
Had she sent him a patronus, he would have gladly opened the floo for her no questions asked, but he always kept his floo locked and warded to prevent any unannounced guests, as they may have less than honourable intentions...the wards on him home rivalled Hogwarts.
Also his mind kept swirling around Hermione's thought's. Almost four, she's not even four yet. The sick bastard.
He pulled the memory from his mind , expertly stopping it when she fled the room , with skill born from years of subterfuge.
With a quick glance to Kingsley, who was familiar with Severus's legillimency skills, he handed him the vial whilst looking in the mans eyes pointedly.
Seeing what Severus intended, he dropped his occlumency , weak though it was, to allow Severus to push the remainder of the memory towards him.
A slight incline of his head was Severus's answer. Message received.
There would be no questions about the rest of the memory , as they had a sealed statement that she apparated to Mungos after fleeing her husband.
The minister's deep voice was somewhat softened as he spoke to the shaking woman.
"Now for the difficult part , we need Rose's memory Hermione... it could seriously affect the charges we can press against him , the difference between 10 to 25 years or life, maybe even the kiss"
Hermione had yet to let go of the girl in her arms , and Rose seemed to be under no inclination to part from her mother.
Sniffling Hermione wiped her eyes, feeling guilt and pain eating at her inside as she spoke.
"I-I don't know how...S-she doesn't like men...I always thought she was j-just shy but..." Here her voice broke and she once more wiped her eyes, grateful for the charm still holding around Rose. "...She doesn't like men...I-I don't know how to do this without upsetting her."
Surprisingly it was Block , the Auror stationed at the door that spoke.
"Pardon me Miss Granger , I don't think there's a way we can do this without upsetting the mite at all, but I think there's such a thing in the law as extenuating circumstances for cases such as these , as we don't have a female auror to hand, myself and the Minister could wait in the hall and leave you two in peace with Master Snape, I think it might be better for the little Miss Rose than having two more strange men in the room , I'm pretty sure that as long as we witness Mr. Snape extracting the memory , we don't necessarily have to be here for this part"
Hermione nodded gratefully and Severus inclined his head in thanks to the Auror.
"We will leave you to it , retrieve us when you are ready Severus , take as long as Rose needs, we shall not return to the room without your permission"
Then the three of them were alone.
Hermione exhaled deeply when the two men left , and a little more tension dropped from her frame as she leaned a little further into Severus who was sat by her side.
Rose's arms and legs were still wrapped around Hermione and when she leaned closer to Severus, he could feel the small limb pressing into his ribs.
God's she's so tiny... it was only just over a year since I had her in my arms...a toddler.
He noticed Hermione shivering once more, and realised they were both just sat in their thin pyjamas , so he took off his coat and put it around her shoulders gently , making sure it covered as much of both of them as he could , before replacing his arm around her waist.
He could feel a small foot on his arm.
She offered him a sad smile and dropped her head onto his shoulder.
After a few minutes of quiet she spoke softly.
"I thought she was autistic"
She admitted, knowing that growing up muggle, Severus would understand.
"I didn't tell him but I was going to take her for tests, I was worried because of so many different things...how she is with people, how she won't talk and hates being touched " Her voice broke on the word "...what a fool I was"
Her words were self deprecating, and Severus was to quick to reassure her.
"You weren't to know, he made sure of it. That's what cowardly predators do...cover their tracks"
She nodded but he could see she wasn't convinced.
"He knew damn well what he was doing was wrong on every level, so he did everything he could to make sure you didn't suspect him...people like them are good at hiding what they really are"
There was venom in his words , and there was something in his tone that made her think he wasn't just speaking about Ronald. It made her look at him questioningly , but he dropped his eyes and looked away. She didn't question it any further.
"She doesn't like to meet your eyes, she will with me, but never with any men, not even Arthur...I don't know how we're going to do this"
Hermione admitted.
"We will just have to take things as they come, I shall not push her any more than necessary but we need to get this out of the way, so I can take you both away from here "
Hermione nodded, as she saw the truth in his words, and as she dropped the sound dampening charm around Rose she spoke softly.
"I trust you Severus"
"Rose, baby?"
Hermione brushed a lock of hair behind the girls ear to try and look at her face , but it only caused the girl to whimper and bury her face further into her mothers chest.
Dead. the boy is so dead.
"Rose, I need you to look at me"
Little blue eyes peeked up through a curtain of curly hair.
"We need to talk about what d-daddy did" She stumbled over the word, and he could tell it pained her to use it to describe him, but he had to force himself to remember that was all the girl knew him as.
The little girl shook her head and began to whimper as tears fell down her face.
Hermione looked to him lost.
"Severus...I don't..."
He made a gestured with his head and Hermione gently spoke to the girl.
"Rose , do you remember Severus ? He's mummy's best friend but she hasn't seen him for a while because she's been busy with work..."
Hermione looked at him then with an apologetic look and squeezed his knee. He covered her hand with his own.
"...but he knew you when you were little , do you remember ?"
A small blue eye looked over him then, It creeped up his chest taking in the buttons of his frock coat, before looking at his shoulder length hair and finally to his face , then quickly away when she met his black eyes.
He cocked his head and waited for a moment , and sure enough the eye came back and studied him curiously.
He offered a small smile and raised his eyebrow at her , which caused her to bury her face in her mother's side , but she she didn't stop looking at him curiously.
Severus spoke softly and evenly and there was something like recognition in the girls eyes, even if she steadfastly held onto her mother.
"Rose, my job is to help catch bad people and put them in prison , do you understand ?"
He got a very small nod and smiled at her once more.
"When your mother took you away from your Daddy today... it was because what Daddy was doing was wrong. He was very bad to do that, to touch you there and to make you touch him. It makes him a very bad man , do you understand?"
She shook her head once more starting to cry and Hermione looked to him lost once more. Though he had a sneaking suspicion why Rose was reacting as she was.
"Rose, do you know what a Lie is ?"
A tearful eye met him once more , and after a moment nodded.
"Your Daddy might have said something to you about why he was doing those things, he might have threatened you not to say anything..."
He looked at her before continuing.
"...or he might have said that you were being punished for something...or maybe playing a special game?"
Her eyes met his after his last statement and a sniffle was his answer.
"Rose you need to understand that Daddy was lying when he said those things , he lied so that your mummy wouldn't find out that he was being bad, so he wouldn't go to prison for doing bad things, do you understand what I am saying to you?"
A chubby fist came up and wiped tears from her eye and her runny nose and he reached into a pocket to offer her a handkerchief.
The girl froze for a moment, and so did her mother , but Severus just held quiet and still and then a shaky little hand reached out and took the handkerchief from him.
He heard Hermione's gasp , and guessed that for Rose , it was a very big gesture.
She rubbed her eyes with it and wiped her nose and then offered it back to Severus.
He chuckled at the girl's manners when the soiled hanky was offered back to him , and gently spoke.
"You can keep it"
The little hand pulled it back quickly to her chest and hugged it to her.
She now was resting the side of her face on Hermione's chest, and looking at him fully though had not let go of the death grip on her mother.
It was the first time she'd looked fully at him , and he took in the girl's features.
She really was a miniature Hermione. There was none of the boy in her at all, apart from the colour of his eyes and the tint to her hair.
"Do you understand Rose, that Daddy was lying ?"
A few seconds and then a soft nod.
"Now because Daddy was being bad, he needs to be punished , OK ? "
Severus spoke softly to the girl, then Hermione added to his words.
"Like when you took a cookie from the table when mummy said no , and I had to put you in time away , even grownups need to be punished when they do something bad OK?"
He could see the girl listening and taking in their words.
"But some bad things are worse than others , and what your daddy did was a very bad thing. Prison is like time away for grownups , and because Daddy did something very bad, much worse than stealing a cookie, he needs to go to time away for a very long time , do you understand ?"
He could practically see the wheels turning in the bright little girls head, before she nodded to his statement.
"A lot of what Daddy did , was when it was just the two of you right ?"
There was a long pause this time and the girl had to use the hanky once more before she nodded.
"So I need to see what he did , so that we can decide just how bad Daddy has been, and how long he needs to spend in time-away , this is where I need you to help me alright?"
She looked to her mother in confusion , and Hermione pressed a gentle kiss on her temple.
"Severus can do a special type of magic, that will let him see the bad things. You're going to have a staring contest with him ok? I want you to look into his eyes for as long as you can without blinking, and I want you to think about the times when Daddy was being a bad man, can you do that for me love, I promise you that I'll never ask you to do it again?"
She looked to Severus once more , then looked to her mother and after a short while, decisively nodded.
Hermione let out a deep breath of relief and looked to him , he offered her a small reassuring smile.
"OK little one , we're going to start the starting contest in three seconds ok , then you've got to look into my eyes and think about the times daddy was bad, to help me decide how much time away he needs, ok?"
The girl sniffled and nodded.
"Alright, 1...2...3..."