- Chapter 2 -

- The Granger Grievances -

Mr Granger had been sat next to Harry's hospital bed for just under an hour before Lucius Malfoy arrived. The pale blond aristocrat stalked into the ward, face twisted into a dark scowl. Dan had, whilst sat next to the sleeping child, been thinking on the letters his daughter had received from Draco Malfoy, extolling the virtues of his father, reassuring the family that his father would know if any harm came to Harry. An hour spent staring at the gaunt boy had wound up Daniel Granger's temper to the extent that, as soon as he found the target of his ire within arms reach, Lucius Malfoy was hoisted up by his collar by an irate dentist before he quite knew what was happening.

"Your son told us, you told us that if anything happened to that child, you would know." Dan growled. "Or wasn't he that important to you?"

Lucius took a firm hold of the other man's wrist, and pushed it downwards, breaking his grip as he stepped forwards, the light in his eyes causing Dan to step back hurriedly. He sliced his cane through the air to his immediate right, leaving a trail of blue sparks for a mere instant.

"The charm that acts on Harry activated an hour ago, only. The charm itself is designed to be difficult to ignore – the caster feels the pain. When it activated, I collapsed. I do not understand how it is that when I look at Harry now, I see damage that would have taken time. The charm should have activated days or weeks ago. I don't understand why it didn't work, but be assured that I will find out who is responsible for this, and I will make them regret it."

Mr Granger narrowed his eyes, once at the other man, then nodded sharply, the colour draining from his face.

"I apologise for that, it's just, imagining that you had ignored something like this..."

"There's no need to apologise. There is never a reason to leave a child in an abusive environment, never." Lucius' gaze softened as he turned to look at Harry. "Thank you, for what you did. He needs people to rely on."

"He'll have me, and my family when he needs us." Dan agreed.

"Do you know what will happen to him?" Lucius asked, taking a seat next to the bed. "I have some knowledge of your legal system, but this is..."

"It's a bit specialised, yeah." Dan took the other chair, and began to speak. "My wife and I had Hermione late in life. We didn't think we'd ever be able to have a child of our own, but we wanted children in our lives. So we fostered kids who needed it. Sometimes for a few nights, sometimes a few months. When we had Hermione, we always intended to keep it up, but when she was around five..."

"Accidental magic?" Lucius' eyebrows raised at Mr Granger's wearied nod. "That is very young, particularly for a Muggleborn child. I knew that your daughter was intelligent, of course, but this speaks volumes to her magical power."

"Always top of the class, Hermione." Dan smiled. "We didn't really know what was going on, back then, but strange things happened. When she got upset, or angry, or jealous – with other children in the house it was worse. So we stopped fostering. We kept ourselves on the emergency care list, kept ourselves in the system in case there was a desperate need for a night or two, but we decided against anything long-term until we knew what was happening with Hermione. Then that Professor turned up, told us she was a witch. Well, we were grateful to know that there was nothing wrong with her, of course, but she'd have to be away at school nine months of the year! We talked with Hermione about it, and Emma and I decided that we'd go back into normal fostering after Christmas, once we knew she was happy there. I've got friends in the Social Services, I'll be pulling a couple of favours to have Harry stay with us, temporarily at first."

"Why not make it permanent?" Lucius asked curiously.

"Well, we'd want to see – and the social workers would need to see - that Harry was happy with our family first, that he was fitting in, getting back to normal. Considering Harry would be away at school for so much of the year as well, it'd likely take a year, or more to confirm any details on making it permanent. We'd have custody for that though, assuming no problems on our side of things."

"And are there likely to be... problems?" Lucius asked, smiling as Mr Granger shook his head dismissively.

"As long as Harry has no strong objections, the temporary placement will probably go ahead."

"I am glad to hear that Harry will be well looked after. Might I suggest that we consider warding your home before Harry arrives there?"

"What's a warding when it's at home?" Dan frowned. Lucius smiled, and leant forwards.

HBP – HBP – HBP – HBP – HBP -

Draco

I hope you're happy now. You've probably heard from your father that Harry is in the hospital. Fat lot of good his fancy spells were! It's lucky I sent my Muggle father to rescue him, don't you think?

I don't know if Harry will want to speak with you, considering you've all but ignored his lack of response to anything. Personally, I'd be quite happy if you left us alone. It's obvious you don't care a bit for Harry, he'll be much happier in my Muggle family than he ever would have been with a proper Wizarding family like yours.

I hope you rot.

Hermione.

HBP – HBP – HBP – HBP – HBP -

"That wasn't a nice letter to send, Hermione." Mrs Granger frowned down at her daughter.

The girl in question sat eating toast, for breakfast, completely unconcerned with her mother's recriminations.

"He ignored Harry." Hermione responded, tone even. "And Harry nearly died. I think that he ought to feel bad, I bet it's not even half as bad as Harry feels andI shan't take it back."

Emma Granger reached for her handbag and pulled out a bottle of painkillers. This conversation was bound to leave her with a raging headache, and they did say that prevention was better than cure. Of course, the true prevention would be if her daughter wasn't so opinionated and didn't form such logical arguments, but she herself had been the same, if only when she was slightly older.

"Hermione, I'm not saying that what your friend did wasn't wrong," Emma watched the young girl's face darken at the f-word, and hastened to continue before she was interrupted. "But what I am saying is that sending a letter like that was also wrong. How do you think Harry will feel when he wakes up, to find his friends arguing over him?"

Hermione's brow furrowed at that, and Emma decided to push on with her advantage.

"I've talked to your father, and we've both been in touch with social services. Once Harry's out of the hospital, he'll be coming to stay with us. And, your Dad and I, we want to make sure that he's got all of the support he needs. Which means his friends, which means your friends. Those two other boys, Draco and Blaise, that you wrote to us about, they're going to be here tomorrow, when Harry comes to stay. That means that this – tiff – with Draco ends today."

"He ignored Harry!" Hermione spat out, eyes flashing with rage. "If I hadn't made Dad go to see Harry, he might have died!"

"And do you not think your friend feels bad about that as well?" Hermione's mother shot back, eyebrows raised. "At the very least, you have to speak to him, and you have to find out what happened, from his perspective. I know that what happened to Harry upsets you, and scares you, and probably makes you feel all kinds of things you've never felt before, but you can't put all of the blame on Draco. He's only a child, just like you are."

HBP – HBP – HBP – HBP – HBP -

Draco arrived an hour and a half later, accompanied by his father.

The two pre-teens sat, in silence, at the dining room table. Hermione broke first.

"Did you really not know?"

"If I'd have known, if father had known, we would have stopped it!" Draco hissed back. "Do you really think that we'd let those filthy Muggles do that to him?"

"I think you'd do anything to get him away from filthy Muggles. Guess you won't be a frequent visitor to my filthy Muggle house then, will you?"

"I didn't- You're not-" Draco sighed. "They're filthy Muggles. You aren't. Even if they weren't wizards, they'd be the lowest of the low, scum of the Earth..."

"That I can agree with." Hermione locked eyes with Draco, deep brown pools locking with silver. "I want in."

"In on what, exactly?" Draco looked up at the ceiling, away from the young witch in front of him. "I don't know what you-"

"Harry might not be ready to go after them yet, but when he is, he'll take you with him. And I want in."

"Granger, if anything were to happen to that filth, I doubt that it would meet with your morals." Draco spoke slowly, eyes tracing the determined line her jaw took.

"You didn't see him, what they'd done to him." Hermione drew a shuddering breath, pulling her cardigan across her chest. "They're monsters. Despicable, disgusting freaks!"

All Draco could do was slowly nod in agreement.