An Unlikely Savior ~ (Edit) COMPLETED

Chapter 11 ~ Facing Ron

Hermione didn’t return to work, but instead went home and set about cooking Ron’s dinner. She made a small beef roast, small roasted potatoes, gravy and cabbage. Simple fare for what had up to this point had been a simple, happy life.

Until Eileen.

She was dressed in jeans and a short-sleeved t-shirt, her hair twisted into a bun that rested on the back of her neck. A little bandage covered the area where the needle had been inserted into her arm for the transfusion. She sat down at the table to wait for Ron—if he came home at all. He was so hurt when he left the hospital.

Damn Severus. Just damn him. She saw his viewpoint, but it was skewed, truly. How could he expect anyone to want to rescue him when he apparently had turned on Dumbledore and killed him? How could he expect anyone to care when he accepted the post as Headmaster, placed in power by Voldemort and brazenly disregarding his crime. He was the enemy. One more Death Eater down.

True, they had found out his true role through the memories he gave Harry, but that was too little, too late. He might have spent his time protecting Harry, but he did nothing, nothing to indicate that he hadn’t double-crossed Dumbledore and the Order. Voldemort’s attempt to murder him had seemed like divine justice.

Snape’s treatment of all three Gryffindors had been less than stellar from the time they first arrived at Hogwarts.

Hermione’s brow furled. There had been one or two times he had stuck up for them once during their second year, when he said he believed Harry had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time when Filch’s cat and Sir Nicholas had been petrified, and once when Remus Lupin turned into a werewolf and tried to attack them. He had thrown himself in front of them. He could have been ripped to shreds, and after they had blasted the hell out of him in order to let Sirius Black escape. Still it didn’t make up for the bad things he’d done. He was forever trying to get Harry expelled, and embarrassing them in class. When Malfoy hit her with a spell that made her teeth grow, Snape had been dismissive and said he didn’t see any difference when they had grown past Hermione’s chin. And there was that time he read that awful article Rita Skeeter had written out loud to the class, accusing Hermione of playing with the affections of both Harry and Victor Krum. So, he wasn’t their favorite teacher.

When he held her to the Life Debt, Hermione was led to believe he truly wanted her to help him collect an ingredient, particularly when they went to the Forbidden Forest. All kinds of herbs grew there. When they drank the potion, it could have been something protective—

Hermione sighed.

Going over the past wasn’t going to help the present at all. Things were as they were and she had to find a way to deal with it, and to keep her marriage intact. The facts were out now. What was hidden in the dark had come to light. Maybe she should have told Ron about Snape—but Ron was so hot-headed back then. He would have done something stupid, she was sure. And Snape was the kind of wizard who would take great delight in sending him to St. Mungo’s or worse.

Hermione heard the door opened and stood up nervously. She could hear Ron hanging up his traveling cloak. She stood in the kitchen, rubbing her hands together anxiously as her husband walked in. Ron looked at her.

“I’ve—I’ve made dinner,” she said to him softly, indicating he should sit down. Ron hesitated, then took his seat, staring straight ahead as Hermione made their plates and two glasses of pumpkin juice. She served Ron, and then herself, sitting down across from him and picking at her food as he ate.

Ron didn’t say anything to her during the meal, and was silent when she took the dishes away and washed them. Hermione sat back down and looked at him. His eyes were rather wet-looking as he looked back at her. His blue eyes shifted to the small bandage on her arm.

”What’s that?” he asked her.

”What?” Hermione replied, her forehead wrinkling.

”That,” he said, pointing to the bandage.

”Oh. That’s a bandage covering where the healers inserted an IV. I gave Eileen a blood transfusion. It saved her life.”

Ron stared at the bandage for a moment, then met Hermione’s eyes.

”I wish you would have told me about the Life Debt, Hermione,” Ron said softly. “And about what happened between you and Snape.”

Hermione’s eyes welled up.

”Now I wish I had too, Ronald,” she replied. “But—I was afraid you’d do something that could get you hurt—or—or that you’d break up with me if you knew.”

Ron blinked at her.

”I would have been upset, Hermione, but—at least I would have known. It was a Life Debt though. If not for Snape, you wouldn’t have survived. I understand that. It’s just that he was the kind of bastard that would take advantage of the situation. I wouldn’t have blamed you once I thought about it. Now, tell me what happened that night,” Ron said.

He listened quietly as Hermione told him how months had passed and Snape said absolutely nothing about the Life Debt at all, not until it was nearly Spring. He had told her they were going to collect an ingredient and taken her to the Forbidden Forest. Ron could see her going, because that’s where students used to harvest herbs for Potions class on occasion. Then he gave her a potion to drink, and the next thing she knew, she was waking up on his couch in his private rooms the next day.

”The only way I knew he had—had been intimate with me, Ron, was because I could feel the—the aftereffects. I was sore. Then, he just put me out and that was the end of it.”

”You should have gotten more details, Hermione,” Ron said, shaking his head. “What were you thinking? That was Snape. Snape could never be trusted.”

Hermione sighed.

”He had just been exonerated of wrong-doing, Ron. We found out he was on the side of Light all along. He had saved my life. Fenrir was going to rape and kill me and would have done it if Snape hadn’t killed him. I owed him, and had already misjudged him once. I didn’t want to do it again,” she said in a tremulous voice.

”Snape might have been on the side of Good, Hermione, but just barely,” Ron replied, staring at his wife. She looked absolutely miserable. As miserable as he felt.

Ronald Weasley was no longer the hot-headed git of his younger years. Marriage and fatherhood had matured him. He was very much like his father, Arthur, family-oriented and devoted to his wife. He hadn’t turned out too bad at all. This was a terrible shock, Hermione having a daughter out of wedlock. But, although she hid what she’d done with Snape, it had been something that happened only one time, and something she really had no recollection of. If not for Eileen, in the end it would have been inconsequential. He had a few dalliances he hadn’t told her about either. Yes, it would have been nice for Hermione to have been a virgin, but he hadn’t been one either. She knew that much because of Lavender Brown, but didn’t know about the other witches.

Ron had been married to Hermione for nearly nineteen years. That was an entire lifetime. He had a daughter and a son by her, and Hermione had been a good wife and mother, balancing her love of knowledge and magical skills with raising a family. They had a good life together. Would he let Snape’s underhandedness ruin it? Destroy it?

Hermione dropped her head and tears began coursing down her cheeks miserably. Ron stared at his wife. Yes, she had hidden the truth about her Life Debt, but, she was innocent in the rest of it. She had no idea she had a daughter being raised by the dark wizard. If she had, she would have found a way to either retrieve her or be part of her life. What was she feeling after discovering she had a daughter she never had a chance to know?

“Hermione, stop crying,” Ron said softly. “I’m upset, but I’m not about to break up our family because of Snape. I love you and I love our children. We all go well together. We’re just going to have to suck it up and deal with this as best we can.”

Hermione looked up at him.

”Ron? Do you really mean it?” she asked him.

”Of course I mean it,” Ron told her staunchly. “Severus bloody Snape isn’t going to make our lives miserable. He did it enough when we attended Hogwarts. We’re not under his power now, Hermione. We have a good life together, and I’m not willing to give it up because of something that you knew nothing about. He was a cad to do this to you. I’m sure if you knew that was what he was up to, you wouldn’t have agreed to it.”

”No, I wouldn’t have,” Hermione said, love swelling in her heart for Ron.

She had made the right decision when she agreed to marry him. A lot of people believed it couldn’t work out, because they were so different. But it was those differences that helped make their marriage work. They were two individuals that maintained their own identities and gave each other space when it was needed. Sometimes Hermione went to Quidditch matches, sometimes Ron went to lectures with her—but they had no problem doing their own thing. They weren’t stuck together by the hip and each made concessions when necessary. They had discovered that Love wasn’t just about passion and wanting to be with a person day in and day out, or being a part of everything in their lives. Love was understanding, concessions, communication and appreciation of another human being for who and what he or she was. Love was having the confidence to let the one you loved be his or herself without fear. They were a very lucky couple to have found the secret, and that secret was just to let each other breathe.

”All right, then. That much is settled. We’re going to work through this,” Ron said, moving into strategizing mode. “Now, what do you want to do concerning Eileen? Do you want to start a relationship with her, Hermione? She is your daughter and to be honest, she could probably use a bit of female influence. The gods only know what Snape’s done to her psychologically.”

”Well, Severus doesn’t want me to crowd her. He said he’s going to tell her the truth about what happened—“

Ron snorted.

”Yes, his side of it,” the redhead said witheringly. “He’s going to find a way to justify what he’s done. Make it seem he was perfectly within his rights to take her.”

Hermione nodded.

”I’ve already received the short list on what he’s going to tell her. He believes that she’ll accept it because she’s been raised a Slytherin and understands the darker side of human nature. Not only understands it, but appreciates it.”

Ron shook his head.

”I bet she’s just as cold and snarky as he is,” Ron said, unable to even fathom what it would be like to be raised by Snape.

”I don’t know,” Hermione replied. “I only know he wants to leave it up to her whether or not she wants contact with me, and—and I think he’s right, Ron. She doesn’t know me after all.”

”She might want to stay with us, Hermione. She might be so angry at Snape that she doesn’t want anything more to do with him,” Ron suggested. “If that’s the case, we can enlarge Rose’s room and put her in there.”

Ron was thinking about how he might have reacted to learning he had a mother that he knew nothing about. He’d be packed in five minutes and leave in a blaze of glory. Hexes would fly.

Hermione’s belly did a flip at the possibility. Was she ready for this? An angry teenager in her household, one with a completely different set of values? Merlin. Then she thought about Rose and Hugo.

”Ron, we’re going to have to tell the children. They have a right to know, even if Eileen doesn’t want anything to do with us. I dread telling them,” Hermione said.

Ron reached across the table and placed his hand on top of hers, squeezing it supportively

”There’s been enough dishonesty, Hermione. We have to let them know. But, we can keep this to ourselves for a while—it’s an immediate family matter after all. We can let mum and everyone else know after it’s settled in a bit and we know how things are going to go. No need to get everyone in an uproar.”

Hermione nodded, grateful that Ron was willing to keep this quiet for just a little while longer, just until they got it sorted out.

”All right, Ron,” she said, giving him a small smile.

”It’ll be all right, Hermione. You’ll see,” he said, giving her a small smile in return.

Ron had accepted the situation admirably, love winning over anger. But, he didn’t like what Snape had done to Hermione, and he was going to make sure the bastard knew it.

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A/N: Good for Ron! You go boy! Don’t give up a good thing because of a bad situation! :::smiles::: It’s about time we see a supportive Ron, don’t you think? Anyway, thanks for reading.