Daddy Dearest - (No Update, Edit)

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 21 ~ Clearing the Air

The next day at work, Hermione walked through the Ministry Building heading for the cafeteria, when she saw Justice on security duty by the entrance doors. He looked terrible, his face badly bruised, especially around his chin. He looked like he had been in a fight.

A fight?

Hermione hesitated. She knew she was the last person the Auror wanted to see. If she walked up to him, she was risking being publicly embarrassed or humiliated. He had spoken very nastily to her before he left. She hadn't known the wizard could be so nasty.

Justice's brown eyes flicked toward the witch, went hard for a moment and flicked away, the Auror turning his head and pretending to look out the door. Hermione stood there a moment, then resolutely walked toward him.

She stopped in front of the Auror.

"What happened to you, Justice?" she asked him softly.

He frowned down at her.

"What do you care, Hermione?" he shot back at her.

Hermione scowled at him.

"Fine, I was just asking," she said turning to walk away.

"I tangled with your new boyfriend," the Auror said.

Hermione spun around, her eyes wide with shock

"You what?" she asked him

"I fought Professor Snape," Justice said, looking at her for a reaction.

Hermione shook her head.

"Oh Justice, you don't understand anything!" she said, looking at the Auror, "Professor Snape isn't my boyfriend or even my lover. I swear to you."

Justice looked at her incredulously.

"I know what I saw in that pensieve, Hermione. How can you expect me to believe that?" the wizard asked her. "Clearly he fucked you that night."

Hermione looked at Justice. He had spent five years courting her, loving her…she just didn't love him enough to be what he wanted her to be…but he deserved to know the real truth. She didn't want him thinking she had betrayed him. She made a decision.

"Justice, come to my office on your break, and if you are willing to take a Wizard's Oath, I will explain everything to you. Everything," Hermione said to the Auror.

"A Wizard's Oath?" he repeated.

"Yes. It is a great secret. Anyone who knows has taken an oath to keep quiet about it. It's the only way I can comfortably tell you the truth," Hermione said.

Justice stared at the witch. Did he want to know the truth? She had hurt him so badly, he didn't even think it would matter. But she was offering an explanation. This would eat him up if he didn't know the truth.

"And you will tell me the complete truth, Hermione? No holding back or lying?" he asked her.

"Yes. Then you'll see what a terrible mistake you've made," Hermione said.

The Auror considered this.

"All right. I'll be there in an hour," he said, his voice hoarse. "I just hope I'm not wasting my time."

"You won't be," Hermione said, turning and leaving.

Justice watched her go with mixed emotions. He didn't see any way she could convince him she'd done nothing wrong. He had seen the pensieve and seen the same room they were in. Professor Snape had booked it on the same night. Hermione obviously was up there with him. What other reason could she have for being there if she wasn't fucking the wizard.

Justice sighed. Either way he knew they were finished, but deep inside he would rather it be for the reason Hermione gave him, that she wasn't ready for a committed relationship, rather than because another wizard was a better lover than he was and stole her away from him.

Well, in an hour he'd find out what was what.

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An hour later, Justice sat in Hermione's office, facing the witch as she sat behind her desk. She pulled out her wand and warded the door, placing a silencing spell on it as well. She looked at Justice for a moment.

"Do you solemnly swear that you will not reveal anything I tell you in this room to anyone, ever?" she asked him somberly.

Justice nodded.

"I do," he said.

Immediately powerful magic swirled around him, setting the Wizard's Oath in place.

"Professor Snape is Mathias' father, Justice," Hermione said.

"What?" Justice said, his eyebrows rising so high they almost disappeared into his hairline. "He's the one who…who abandoned you both?"

"Yes, he is. Mathias was sorted into Slytherin House, and Severus is now in a position of influence over him. I went to the Three Broomsticks to talk to him, tell him not to reveal who he was to my son. But we came to an agreement that Mathias has a right to know, and we planned to tell him in his fourth or fifth year," she said.

Justice looked at her.

"But, the pensieve…" he began.

"As you know I had no memory of what happened that night. I was of the mind that he had seduced me and ravished me when I was under the influence. He gave me that pensieve to show me what actually happened that night," Hermione said, reddening, "If you had watched it in its entirety, you would have seen him taking my virginity. I was blacked out, but clearly I was very willing for it to happen. Then the next morning when I woke up, I was horrified. I didn't remember what happened between us, and I accused him of taking advantage of me and cursed him. He left without a word. He had no way of knowing I wasn't completely lucid that night, because I still functioned as if I was."

"You must not have entered the pensieve at the beginning, or you would have seen how I ended up in the room with him. I used to have a crush on him, a very bad one, and I told him about the fantasies I used to have about him. One thing led to another. But I wasn't myself when I told him those things or when I went to the room with him. I guess I still had those feelings for him and wanted to be with him the way I fantasized about. But it happened eleven years ago, Justice. Not the other night. But it was the same room."

"When I entered the pensieve, you were walking up the stairs in the Three Broomsticks to the room," Justice said, his brown eyes studying the witch.

Hermione nodded. Perhaps he entered in the middle of the pensieve scene because he hadn't used the levels command. Level one was normal viewing. He probably just dropped into the memory randomly.

Now everything made sense to Justice. He had fought a wizard over an incident that happened long before he'd ever met Hermione. The Auror considered Mathias. Same dark hair, dark eyes and skin complexion. Yes, the boy looked very much like the Potions Master. He imagined the boy acted like him too in some ways. The Professor was down in the dungeons most of the time, and Mathias had liked to be in the basement, doing whatever it was he did. So now Mathias was with his father, and didn't know it.

The boy would be livid when he found out his mother had lied to him about his father being dead. Hermione had a lot of complicated problems ahead of her. Maybe it was better that they weren't together. There was too much baggage attached to the witch, now that Severus was back in the picture. Mathias most likely would turn into an angry, surly teenager with a grudge against the entire world when he found out the truth.

No, the Auror wanted no parts of that. Stepfathers always caught the bad end of those kinds of situations. Justice thought he loved Hermione, but his unwillingness to become involved in the entanglements of her life showed him maybe he didn't love her as much as he thought he did. Maybe it was just possessiveness that kept him with her all these years.

As of now, Justice was extremely glad Hermione had repeatedly turned down his offers of marriage, particularly if this was what was in the witch's future. Their lives would have been a mess. No, he wanted an entanglement-free relationship, not one full of drama and angst. He looked at the witch.

"I wish you had told me this yesterday when I viewed the pensieve," he said.

"I should have, but the situation was so emotional, Justice. I was in shock when I saw you with your finger in the pensieve. You invaded my privacy. I was furious. And you were angry and hurt. Neither of us was thinking clearly. But I really did want to tell you I wanted to end our relationship…I just did it wrong. I'm sorry. I'm really very sorry, Justice," Hermione said.

Justice looked at her.

"And I'm sorry about accusing you, and the things I said to you, Hermione. But I think you're right. We do need to go our separate ways. Things are too…complicated," he said evenly, standing up as the witch nodded in agreement.

The wizard looked at her.

"I suppose I owe Professor Snape an apology, but he won't be getting one from me. He still abandoned you and Mathias. He deserved something for that. If I had met you eleven years ago and knew what he'd done, I still would have broken his nose for it. My timing was off, that's all," the Auror said, his brown eyes drinking the witch in.

"It was good while it lasted, Hermione," the wizard said softly. "I've good memories about you. I'll always have those."

Hermione nodded, her eyes glistening a little. Justice had been there for her, a comforting presence…she wasn't alone. Now, she was again.

"I have good memories too, Justice. Thank you," she said softly as the Auror headed for the door. Hermione unwarded it, and he opened it, looking back at her.

"Have a good life, Hermione Granger," he said, giving her a small smile.

"And you too, Justice Forall," she answered him, smiling as she remembered the first time she ever heard that ridiculous name.

The Auror left, walking away from Hermione and the last five years of his life, relieved.

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A/N: Had to do this chapter. So we find that Justice, though he loved Hermione in his way, would not have been willing to go through the upcoming trials she would face with her son. More than likely if they had married, there would have been very unhappy times. So this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as far as the couple was concerned. They actually were unsuited for each other. But it was interesting that Justice felt Severus deserved what happened anyway. Please review.