Happy Saturday, everyone! I'm so excited to have you here for this story. I started writing this at the same time as I started writing For the Love of a Daughter (which was I don't even remember how long before I even thought about posting that story here). This story was a bit of a release for that one. Where For the Love of a Daughter was pretty dark in places and even more sad than dark in other places, this story centers around growing/healthy love and the strength we can draw from positive relationships.
A few things to know before reading this story because it is a bit different from my usual FFs:
-This story will have some steamy scene, borderline smut (maybe more than borderline in some parts honestly XD). It very much taps into the part of my brain that I used when I was ghost writing erotic novels. But it isn't in every chapter and I will put warnings before the chapters with those scenes.
-There are also some very fun original characters in this story that I am very much looking forward to having you read!
-This first chapter is very much based off of the first chapter of "The Darkness Inside" by Satan'sPixie but after the first chapter (really just the first chunk of this first chapter), we take a hard left where that story takes a hard right.
-I don't plan on having any dark themes in this one. If that changes, I'll be sure to let you know. :o)
-Updates will be every Saturday from now on since posting on Fridays has become hard with my new schedule.
-This story is mapped out to the end and looks like it will also be around nineteen chapters. :o)
Thank you so much for being here, I hope you like this first chapter (even if it is very sadly lacking our main man).
Love,
Adrien
P.S. The oneshot Always on my profile ties in with story if you'd like to check it out! It's all about Sev, Lily, and Petunia. 3
Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own the potterverse. I just love building sandcastles in J. K. Rowling's sandbox.
Chapter One: The Breaking Point
"I'M BEING CHILDISH?!" Hermione screams, finally snapping after listening to Dumbledore spin his wheels in front of the rest of the Order of the Chickens about how there was nothing they could have done to prevent the death of her parents while simultaneously placing the blame on her because she refused to be the little puppet he wanted her to be. Because she refused to let them use the boy who she had come to see as a brother, because she refused to become the little house wife Molly Weasley had tried to mold her into from the moment she had met the red-haired woman, because she could never actually be friends with a boy who constantly belittled her let alone love him the way they all seemed to expect her to be.
A strong, reassuring hand on her shoulder makes her pause before she can continue screaming and brings her attention to the potion master whom she had never show any sign of comfort to anyone aside from his Slytherins. That hand gives her enough pause to collect herself before turning back to the rest of the so-called adults around her with a look so cold that it makes many of them flinch away, her voice piercing them like daggers as she begins speaking again, "I'll tell you what's childish. Hiding behind a child, claiming him to be your savior when he's too young to even remember what he saved you from let alone how he actually saved you. What's childish is putting that same boy and all the people he cares about at risk year after year, leaving them to survive off of sheer luck, instead of protecting them like adults are supposed to protect children. Like headmasters are supposed to protect their students. And what's really childish, Professor, is not being able to own up to your mistakes. Especially when your mistakes are what have ended with a child being orphaned not once but twice by the same man."
None of the adults present, aside from Professor Snape whose grip on her shoulder is the only thing keeping her together right now, can meet her eyes as she scans the room. Hermione scoffs, shaking her head, "I can't be a part of this, I refuse to be a part of something so corrupt. I won't be another sheep following their sheep herder, not caring who gets killed along the way. I was raised better than that. Don't expect to see me again."
Hermione begins striding out of the room, only pausing for a moment when Dumbledore calls out to her, "And where exactly will you go? You're a minor with no family left to take you in." His words are meant to sound concerned but all she hears is a condescending challenge.
She doesn't even give him the benefit of turning around to face him, "I think you'll find, sir, that my use of a time turner in my third year has raised my age from 16 to 17, making me of age in the wizarding world. As for where I'll go, I'll be going anywhere that isn't under British control where you can't reach me even if you find some legal loop hole. I've got nothing to lose now."
Hermione exits the room, chaos breaking out behind her, and quickly makes her way up the stairs to the room she and Ginny have shared whenever they stayed in Grimmauld Place.
"Miss Granger?" Professor Snape's voice makes her jump, she hadn't heard him come in over all of her things flying from their places in the room, shrinking as they made their way into her trunk. Had it not been such an awful time, she would have laughed over the similarities between this moment and the scene in Disney's The Sword and the Stone when Merlin packs away all his stuff to go and help Arthur.
"If you're here to tell me I overreacted and Dumbledore is just trying to help me then you can leave because there's no way I'm staying."
"Quite the opposite actually," Professor Snape's voice is softer than she's ever heard before and a warmth is present in his gaze that she has never seen before. "I'm here to offer you a safe place to stay until we can figure out a way to get you out of the country, somewhere that Dumbledore has no idea exists and that he wouldn't be able to get into even if he did know it exists."
"Why?" She doesn't doubt his sincerity, she had always known he was someone she could trust even though her boys and everyone else seemed to doubt him.
"Because I couldn't protect one muggleborn witch who was the brightest of her age and I sure as hell am not going to make the same mistake twice. Last time I trusted Dumbledore with my best friend's life, it lost me not only the life of my best friend but the life of my unborn godchild as well and he just brushed my losses aside. Fifteen years later, he's doing the same thing with the deaths of your parents."
Fifteen years... Brightest witch of her age... "Was your best friend Lilly Potter, Professor?" Hermione's voice shakes, tears pooling behind her eyelids over the sibling Harry should have had and the people this seemingly cold man had lost.
A sorrowful smile tugs at his lips, "That she was, my dear girl... You remind me a lot of her, you know."
Hermione stares at the older man a moment longer before asking, "When do we leave?"
"I'm going to go back downstairs, it's unlikely any of them have noticed my leave considering how much your little speech riled them up. You finish packing then take the Knight Bus to this address, I'll meet you there and apparate us to my estate." He holds out a price of paper to the younger witch which she takes into her hand before pulling the older man into a hug.
"Thank you," she whispers in his black cloak as his arms slowly, almost mechanically, wrap around her petite form.
"Always," he murmurs back so quietly that she's sure she wasn't meant to hear it before he pulls away and exits the room, his cloak fluttering like bat wings with every step he takes.
Hermione's just turned back to her packing when another familiar voice interrupts her, "Mione?"
She whips around, surprised to see her best friend out of his room. The only times she'd seen him this summer were when she slipped into Sirius's room, where Harry had been staying since the death of his godfather, in the night to comfort him after his nightmares. The heartbroken look on his face told her that he had heard everything, that he knew she was leaving. Not knowing what to say, she opens her arms to her best friend and he immediately steps into her embrace.
"Are you really leaving?" Harry murmurs into her unruly curls. When had he gotten so tall that he could bury his face in her curls and not her neck?
"I have to," she whispers back, rubbing her hand in soothing circles on her back.
"Let me come with you," he replies, holding her body to his like she's his security blanket.
"You can't, love." Harry tried to jerk away but Hermione holds him firmly in place. "You're still under age and if I took you with me, he could have me arrested for kidnapping. Then who knows what would happen to us. But if I go on my own, I can find a safe place and we can come up with a plan to get you out as soon as you're of age."
"Promise?" He looks so broken, so hopeless, that it almost makes her stay but she can't. This is the safest way.
"Promise." She holds out her pinky to him and a smile quirks at the corner of his lips as he latches his bigger finger to her. Both teens kiss their fisted hands, a shock running through their bodies as sparks fly from their connected pinkies.
They both stare at each other with wide eyes before Hermione's trunk snaps shut, bringing them out of their daze.
"I want you to bring this with you." Harry pulls a familiar mirror out of his pocket and places it in her hand.
Hermione grips the mirror tightly and tries to hand it back to her best friend. "I can't take this, Harry, it's one of the only things you have left of..."
"You have to," Harry whispers, gripping her hand in both of his. "You're the only family I have left, Mione, and I'm not letting you leave without a way to keep in touch. One that can't be taken away from us or traced by people who might want to harm us."
Tears streak down Hermione's cheeks as she throws her arms around his neck. "I'll call as soon as I'm safe."
"You'd better." He gives her a soft smile, the first true smile Hermione had seen on his face since before Sirius had fallen through the veil.
"I love you, Harry." It's not something they've ever said before but it's something they've always known to be true. She just wanted to make sure he heard her say it before she left. Just in case.
"Love you, Mione," he replies, hugging her tightly one more time before pulling away completely. "Now get out of here, I'll cover for you and try to lead them away from you."
Hermione shrinks her trunk and places both it and the mirror in her pocket before gripping Harry's arm as she passes him. "Be careful who you trust," she whispers, her voice rough with concern she doesn't have time to verbalize.
"Only if you promise to do the same."
"Always," the word slips out of her mouth naturally, like she'd said it a thousand times to Harry even though she never had before.
She squeezes his arm one more time and kisses his cheek as she passes by before quietly creeping out the door and down the stairs. She barely manages to slip into a closet before a storm of people burst from the room they had been holding the makeshift Order of the Chickens meeting and race upstairs, likely trying to catch her before she left. If they hadn't spent so much time scrambling, they would have caught her.
Hermione waits until she hears the distinct pop of disapparation and the rest of the herd of chickens race past her hiding place and out the front door before she quietly opens the closet and leave through the front door, making sure to walk to opposite direction of the wizards whose labored breaths she can already hear from however far they'd managed to run.
She's barely been walking for five minutes when the Knight Bus pops into view, screeching to a stop beside her.
The ride was worse than she could have ever imagined and she felt awful for the shit she'd given Harry their third year. It felt like a lifetime as they race through the streets at an impossible space but when Hermione was able to check her watch as the bus lurched to a stop, it had barely been an hour and change.
As Hermione steps off of the bus, her eyes roaming the area where she'd been dropped off. At first it appears as nothing more than a place of overgrown grass and sad willow trees but the sound of running water tempts Hermione to wander through the weeds, revealing a rickety old park and a small slope that leads down to a creek. A partially hidden log resting on its side overlooks the water near what looks to have once been a small garden.
Easing herself into a creaky swing, she stares out at the creek as she waits for Professor Snape to arrive.
"What is this place?" Hermione asks the moment she feels his gaze on her from the tree line.
"It's the park I used to play at as a child with Lily and Petunia," Professor Snape replies, taking a seat on the swing next to her.
"You used to play with Harry's aunt? But she's awful."
A bitter smile tugs at his lips and Hermione feels like she's stepped into something she doesn't completely understand. "She wasn't always that way."
"I feel like there's a lot I don't know."
"There's a lot that has been kept from you but you changed the game tonight."
"Do you have a plan?"
"No but you do." He's not asking her a question.
"It's not a noble one."
"Look where nobility's gotten us so far."
"Are you willing to trust me?" She looks him straight in the eye when she asks him this question because she needs to know if he's certain, she can't afford to have a weak link. Not when her brother's life is on the line.
Professor Snape is quiet for a long time, his gaze searching hers. "Yes."
"Then let's get out of here." She stands and holds her hand out to the older man.
He takes it carefully in his, like it's a gesture he hadn't been familiar with in a long time, and apparates them away.
