She doesn't even care if she lives or dies. How could I have hurt her so badly?
Severus stroked his unconscious daughter's hair, sitting beside her on the hospital bed.
The night was a blur. He caught Sirius Black only to discover the man he murdered was still alive, Lupin transformed and Hermione-then the dementors came.
He shuddered remember how wholly he froze. He hadn't ever-not like that. To say the despair and guilt were crushing failed to describe it. Lily's voice, his mother's voice, Hermione's voice all rang in his ears. Images of memories better off forgotten flashed before his eyes. The beatings endured by his father, his mother's waspish comments and cruel laugh, the torment he endured as a student, a sixteen-year-old werewolf Lupin read to tear out his throat, a sick bluish baby Hermione fading in his arms...
You did this to her! Lily's voice hissed. If you hadn't so much guilt for the dementors to feast on you could have saved her. If you were a better father she never would have risked her life. Did you ever consider her martyr complex has more to do with a death wish than heroics?
I didn't want to...he squeezed her hand.
And you! Lily's voice cackled bitterly. You've done everything in your power to ensure that girl never leaves your side, and when you were right there you did nothing and she nearly died. Has it occurred to you that every time you try to save her you make things worse?
Severus tried to ignore it. The voice was a manifestation of his own guilt, nothing more...but perhaps it was true. Hermione was the reason he got up in the morning. She was everything and she thought she was expendable. She could have-he was right there and he couldn't protect her.
"You captured Black," Magic Minister Cornelius Fudge stopped making excuses to Dumbledore and turned to him with a broad, fake smile.
"Yes, I suppose I did," he replied automatically.
Dad, I know you're better than this...
The image of Hermione staring up at him desperately, those large doe-like eyes staring into his very soul. He wasn't going to let that faith be misplaced again.
"Though that isn't the entirety of the matter, Minister," he said.
"Dad?" Hermione stirred, looking around confused.
Potter stirred at the same moment, he might have assumed they coordinated had he not been there the whole time.
"Hermione, thank God, you're alright," Severus cupped her face in his hands. "Do you-?"
"Ah, Harry!" Fudge cut him off with a shit-eating grin. "Your luck never ends! Dementors, Sirius Black, you truly are the boy who lived."
"Erm," Potter recoiled from the approaching stout man. "Thanks...?"
"I suppose you know see why I didn't want dementors anywhere near here!" Dumbledore snapped.
Fudge wrung his hat nervously, shrinking beneath Dumbledore's withering gaze. "Well I didn't expect them to attack a group of children!"
"Again," Dumbledore reminded him.
"I beg your pardon?" Fudge shrank.
"He said again," Severus spat. "They attacked children, specifically these children, before so why, I must wonder, did you not expect them to do it again?"
Now it was both Severus and Dumbledore that Fudge shrank from. The man's cowardice was on par with Pettigrew's.
Fudge smiled nervously at Potter. "You three must be so relieved to be back safely after a run in with a man like Black!"
"But, Minister-" Potter started.
"And you, young lady, must be so proud of your father! Capturing our most wanted criminal!" he exclaimed happily.
Hermione opened her mouth to speak but was cut off before the first sounds escaped her.
"I must commend you, Snape, for bringing him in alive. If a fiend like that had abducted my daughter I don't think I could restrain myself!"
If a mass murderer abducted your daughter she'd be dead if she had to rely on you for the rescue! He was reminded why he didn't vote for this minister everytime they were in the same room. A fucking prat who cared far more about approval and accolades than the citizenry.
"We weren't abducted!" Potter shouted.
Hermione spoke the same words, but instead in a lower, seething tone. She glared at Severus, a profound angry disappointment palpable. Hermione clasped her hands, digging her nails into her flesh, but instead of averting her gaze as she usually did, she locked eyes with him. Not two hours ago she had been desperate to believe he was a better man, and now, with angry tears pooling in her large brown eyes, it was as if any hope of that was shattered. Along with a piece of her.
"I never said they were abducted, Minister," Severus turned back to Fudge. "And as I was saying there was a bit more to the story than you assumed."
Potter leapt to his feet and shouted. Clearly not one to wait for the adults to speak. "Sirius Black didn't do it! He's innocent!"
"Oh, my dear boy," Fudge said. "You've been through quite the ordeal. You must be very confused."
"I'm not confused!" Potter roared.
Severus opened his mouth to speak when Hermione approached Potter, imploring him. "Harry, I've got this."
"Hermione!" Potter shook his head. "He thinks Sirius did it. He'll have his soul sucked out by dementors!"
Pomfrey entered the room with a comically large chocolate bar and a scowl that usually silenced the wing; today she relied on screaming. "My patients need rest! Upsetting them is doing no good! Out! Out! All of you!"
"Madam Pomfrey," Hermione pleaded. "If I could only have a moment of the minister's time? I'm calm, I swear. Please?"
Pomfrey pursed her lips and folded her arms over her chest. "I'll allow it if you remain calm."
"Minister Fudge," Hermione turned to him, digging her own nails deeper into her flesh. "On October 31, 1981 just outside Godric's Hollow witnesses claim they saw Black charging Pettigrew shouting 'you will pay for everything you've done', yes?"
Fudge nodded. "My dear, I don't understand what you're getting at."
"J-Just-erm-just stay with me?" Hermione's calm wavered, she inhaled sharply, waited three seconds and continued. "Later Auror Shirai and her team investigated the crime scene. No spells were mentioned by name as all surviving witnesses were muggles. When they scoured the scene for traces of Pettigrew, they found nothing. Shirai said not even ashes. Nothing at all, except one intact severed index finger."
"Yes," Fudge wrung his hat, flustered. "Where exactly is this going, young lady?"
Hermione inhaled sharply and drew herself to her full height with an uncharacteristic smile. "Where ever the fuck I please, Minister. Now shut up and listen."
Severus simply stared at Hermione at a loss for words. This was so completely out of character for her.
"Did you just-" Fudge's face turned pink. "Snape, can you not control your daughter?! Never have a met a more-you, young lady, are a piece of work!"
"I assure you, Minister," Severus placed a hand on Hermione's head. "This is very much out of character for her. As you've stated she's been through quite the ordeal tonight."
"She's clearly disturbed!"
"My daughter is not disturbed!" he shouted before collecting himself. "Perhaps we should continue this conversation elsewhere and leave this three to their treatment?"
"Wait!" Hermione squeaked, shrinking and clasping her hands before her. "I didn't-I just- you have to listen- I-erm-I didn't know how to make you! Pettigrew's finger was intact because cut off his own finger! If you had bothered to look at it, it'd be consistent with a knife. Peter Pettigrew took the shape of a rat and went into hiding for the past twelve years!"
"Peter Pettigrew alive? Is that the story Black told you three?" Fudge sighed.
"That's why Shirai didn't even find ash!" Hermione insisted at top speed. "Because there were no other body fragments! Black didn't do it! Pettigrew was the one who sold Lily and James Potter out! But when Pettigrew vanished it was an obvious solution with the witness accounts. If the ministry actually looked in-"
"Miss," Fudge stopped her. "I was in office that year. I assure you we did everything in our power and caught the true culprit. Poor girl must be confounded."
"Then why the hell didn't you follow up on what the forensic necromancers pulled? Many of the necromancers got reports of a rat, and you didn't-"
Where the hell did she get a hold of forensic necromancers' reports? Severus stared at his daughter knowing that she didn't get that from some old newspapers. He silenced his daughter. "That's quite enough, Hermione," he said.
"Dad!" she squeaked, looking up at him imploringly. "Please, you know-"
We have no real evidence, my testimony isn't enough...though I might be able to convince him with if ... "Silence, Hermione."
"But-" Hermione started.
Potter was the one to cut her off this time. "You saw Pettigrew! You know we're telling the truth! You just want Sirius caught because of some stupid school prank! You disgust me!"
"Listen, you little-" Severus started.
"Dad!" Hermione cried. "Please."
"You lot are clearly upsetting my patients!" Madam Pomfrey shouted above all them, her face turning pink. "If you are not currently being treated I suggest you leave!"
Arguments resumed between the lot of them, Weasley joining in, taking Potter's side claiming that Severus couldn't be trusted. Fudge, Dumbledore and Pomfrey argued in all directions. Severus himself was part of it until he turned back to look at Hermione.
Hermione pink, her tear-filled eyes darting from person to person as she drew blood from her own clasped hands, her tiny body shaking until she let out a shriek that silenced the lot of them.
"YOU GROWN UPS ARE ALL SO FUCKING USELESS!"
Useless... Severus stared at Hermione, who now stared at the floor. Everything he tried to hide from her, everything he'd ever done for her. Like any other parent, Severus just wanted what was best for his daughter. And she thought it was for nothing, that he, and every other adult in her life was useless. His heart fell and all he wanted to do was point out how gravely wrong she was. How could she say something so-
She nearly died. You were useless...she...she has a point.
"Well this useless grown up is telling you to get back to bed," Severus couldn't stop himself. Fuck. "Please, Hermione, we'll talk about this later."
At last, to the glares of Hermione, Potter and Weasley, Pomfrey got her way, and the adults in the wing filed out, Dumbledore paused at the door frame.
"Poppy," he peered over his half-moon glasses. "I would like to speak the three of them in private. I promise I won't agitate them."
Pomfrey narrowed her eyes at Dumbledore suspiciously, but shrugged. "You have ten minutes."
Severus watched Dumbledore re-enter the hospital wing, he wondered what angle he was working with. He shook his head and turned to Fudge. "Where is Black being held?"
"The Astronomy Tower," Fudge narrowed his grey eyes. "Why?"
"If you want answers we should go there," Severus explained. "But I must make a stop first."