"And the person who did this to her? Is he being punished as well?" asked her father, his anger a nearly visible aura around him.
"No," answered Severus bluntly. "To be quite frank with you Dr. Granger, this only happened because no one was willing to step in and stop your daughter from doing what she was doing. No one was willing to see how she was doing wrong to Mr. Potter because your daughter has been steadily lying to us and pinning her own bad acts on him. We all believed he was the bad seed in the school and wouldn't have given him the time of day had he tried to tell us otherwise. Consequently, she never received the punishment she should've when she knowingly broke the rules."
"But let's be very clear here. What she was doing was not only breaking school rules but the laws of the land. Did you know your daughter set me afire back in her first year in a crowded stadium? She could have killed me if the flames had gotten out of control.
"They were bluebell flames? Those can't burn flesh, Professor. So stop lying," Hermione shouted.
"On the contrary, Ms. Granger. The grease I place in my hair is a special formula I developed to prevent serious injury to myself in the school lab. My robes are also specially treated for all different mixtures I may come into contact with during the course of a day. A lab where children age eleven to seventeen brew all sorts of dangerous concoctions isn't exactly the safest place on the earth you know. Who knows what kind of new disaster you children will brew up in your cauldrons? But it's my duty to see that you live through whatever you dream up to brew." Mrs Dr Granger snickered.
"My point here is; normally bluebell flames are quite safe to use around people but they aren't safe to be used around me because of the treatment I use on my robes and hair. You, I realize, didn't know that but the fact remains you could have killed me that day from the chemicals changing the nature of the flames. If that had happened you would have lost control of your fire and I and several other people around me would have died or been seriously injured."
Hermione glared at him mulishly. "You shouldn't have been cursing Harry's broom. You were trying to kill him. That justified me doing whatever I could to stop you," she snapped defiantly.
Minerva had heard enough and snapped, "Again you lie, Ms. Granger."
"I'm not lying. He was cursing Harry's broom in that game. As soon as my flames distracted him, Harry regained control over his broom and was able to win the game for us. So that proves he was trying to kill Harry."
Minerva calmly said, "You are lying because if Severus had been cursing that broom, he'd be dead for having broken his oath."
Hermione blinked. In a small voice she questioned, "What oath?"
Severus spared a glare for Minerva but turned to answer the question. "When Mr. Potter was due to come to Hogwarts the Ministry felt he needed an adult watching out for him and guarding his back. I was the person they chose."
To her parents he explained, "Mr. Potter is very well known and he has a lot of enemies due to what happened when he was a mere babe. Since he grew up in your society, the Ministry felt he wouldn't know friend from foe so they chose to appoint him a Guardian Protector when he is in this world. I am that person. It is my job to watch his back and keep him alive. If I fail in this duty when I know he is in danger, such as when someone was jinxing the broom he was flying on, I will die."
He turned back to Hermione and said, "Therefore, Ms. Granger, I was not in fact cursing his broom. I was muttering the counter curse trying to break the stream of magic making his broom go out of control. So in an effort to repay your life debt to him, you nearly killed him. Congratulations."
"It still stopped," Hermione muttered wriggling on the hard seated chair she was sitting on.
Mrs Granger was frowning at Hermione. "Hermione, is there something you need to tell the Professor?" she asked. Hermione turned her nose up and her head away refusing to acknowledge either her Mother or the Professor.
To her parents, Severus explained, "As you well know, if she'd have done this in your world not only would she have been immediately expelled but she'd be facing a judge for her actions. Most likely she'd be on her way to a juvenile detention facility. In our world, it'd be Azkaban only if the courts decided to let her live at all. Because with her blood status and age working against her, they might just decide she isn't worth saving. It's unfortunate but it is reality in this society."
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