Parallels

AN- This chapter contains a lot of plot points, I hope you enjoy it!

Miari- You find out more in this chapter about the girl’s home life, hopefully that should resolve the outstanding questions on why Laura has such a skewed view of things.

Anon- Well, he shows up eventually, but the story really isn’t about him.

Mswigglesworth- Well, why would I write if not to show other people? After all, I know what’s going to happen, why should I go to the trouble of writing it down if nobody likes it?

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Hermione’s head hurt. She needed Severus to come home; she wanted him to hold her. The stupid diary was twisting things around. Hermione got up and abruptly walked into their room. The cozy bed, with its blue sheets, the bookshelves lining the walls, and the other personal touches she had added. Hermione remembered when she first saw his room- it had been mostly green, with some black. He had actually capitulated fairly quickly in the argument to redo his chambers. She had wanted red, but he had refused. Eventually, they had settled on blue together.

Hermione knew she needed to keep reading the diary, though. Putting it off would only make things worse. She needed to just get it over with.

September 20
Gully acted weird today. He yelled at me when I went to meet him. He said it was all my fault that I made him feel this way, and that he would lose his job. Then he hit me. It HURT. I CAN’T BELIEVE Gully did that. Then he healed me and he said if I ever told, nobody would believe me.


September 21
It’s ok, diary. Gully explained why he hit me. He said he was scared because it’s against the law for a teacher to love his student. Gully is so wonderful, to apologize and explain things to me. Davy never apologized. When he hit me, he never said he was sorry, except for the one time he dropped me off the second story window. He said he didn’t know I was a Squib or else he wouldn’t have done it. But it was a good thing because I got to go to the hospital for “head trauma.” I don’t really know what head trauma is, but I got to see Mama when I was there.

Well. That explained some things. The girl had plainly suffered brain damage at her brother’s hands, which was why her diary seemingly reflected the mind of an 8 year old, rather than a girl twice that age.

Hermione had graded some of Laura’s essays for Severus, though, and from what she remembered, the essays were boring and rather short, they didn’t seem to be as bad as the diary. Hermione supposed that it was because Laura was so stunted emotionally that the diary was so bad, it brought two bad things together.

There! That was why Hermione’s relationship with Severus was different; it was because she and Severus were intellectual equals. They read each other’s papers, they conducted experiments together, and they recommended books to each one and other.

Despite this logic, Hermione still felt sick. She wanted Severus to come home. When she saw him, her fears would be assuaged. She was just in a bad frame of mind from that diary.

September 23
Tonight I visited Gully. I got scared because of what happened with Stuart but Gully said I had to do this to get past my fears. He took his thing out and told me to touch it, so I would see it wouldn’t hurt me. I didn’t want to, but Gully took my wrist and made my hand touch it. My hand thought it was gross, sticky and bad. My hand didn’t like it very much. But after my hand touched it, Gully told me I was brave and he loved me.

Hermione was seething. She had half a mind to go down there now and hex Gully six ways from Sunday. This poor girl had been abused practically since she was born, and nobody noticed, including Hermione, but now it was time to change that.

Hermione got up, and made her way to the file room. As she walked through the halls, she couldn’t help but hold her wand in her hand, and if her step was a bit quicker than normal, no one commented on it.

By the time she got to the room where they kept the records of the students, Hermione was almost sweating. ‘ What is your problem? ’ she mentally admonished herself, ‘ You’ve faced down Voldemort with Harry, you tackled Malfoy on your own, you’ve taken out countless Death Eaters, why are you so freaked about an abusive teacher and a perverted student? ’

But deep down, Hermione knew what her problem was. She had put herself in Laura’s shoes, and she had tried to get into Laura’s mind. But it was the same as actors who start to believe they are the part they play; Hermione was feeling Laura’s paranoia even outside of the time when she was reading the diary. Or, was it paranoia when the fear was justified? With a mental slap, Hermione pulled herself off the tangent, and noted, with a rueful smile, that she was still in there. Everything was going to be fine, as soon as they got Laura some help.

Hermione walked over to the correct section, and started looking through the records for Laura’s file. Finally she found it, after barely being able to suppress the desire to look through Draco Malfoy’s record. After Hermione located the record, she went over to the small desk, and opened it. What she found didn’t exactly surprise her.

Laura’s mother was listed as having been put into St. Mungos for mental delusions when Laura was 3. Her older brother, Davy, had been a Slytherin, as Hermione remembered. He didn’t have any record of misconduct, but, then, Hermione didn’t think she did either. So it didn’t mean that much.

Laura had been checked into St Mungos for external injuries including bleeding, avulsions, broken bones, and head trauma when she was 8. Apparently she had stayed there for 3 days, before her father had her removed. It was noted, however, that the doctor in charge of her was very reluctant to discharge her, because she had not been sufficiently healed. There were no other records of doctor visits, not even routine check-ups.

Finally, Hermione figured she’d learned all she was going to from the diary, and she hastened back to her chambers, her head abuzz with information.

AN2- Hopefully that clears up some questions. The next chapter should be out soon, hopefully.