A/N: Thank you for all your reviews!

She jerked from her sleep. The bedframe too narrow. Cool. No body beside her. Then she remembered. She was at Severus`. The pale morning light streaming gently through the North-facing window, stil wet from a light drizzle. Cosy, if not a little austere. It all seemed so unreal. And Jack would wonder where she was, if he hadn't fallen asleep somewhere before making it back home. She had to tell Severus of her plan. Set it in motion. Today.

She ran her hand through her hair. Remebered Severus's kindness - holding it for her as she threw up just hours before. While Lorna enjoyed the food a lot and the explanation of who Molly was even more - Severus had been so good at explaining it to her, Hermione had felt too teary - Hermione hadn't coped well with the sudden change in diet. Better stick to something lighter for a while, work your way up.

The clock read 6.10am. As she put on the nightgown that lay on the rickety chair next to the window she couldn't help but feel a twinge of... was it jealousy?

Why would Severus Snape keep a muggle-made nightgown in his home? He'd shortened the hem to fit her size the night before, but the spell couldn't hide the 'M&S' labeling in the back. Snape shopping at Marks & Spencer? Unthinkable. So it had to have been left by someone? That twinge of jealousy again.

Don't be silly, he's just being kind to you, nothing more to it. But oh, she was so straved for affection. His affectionate touches so kind. But that's all it was, kindness, surely. And surely too, he has a right to a life, and he wasn't that bad to look at, now that the war was over. She quickly roused herself from her ruminations.

After forgoing looking in the mirror in the bathroom while washing her face, she looked in the bedroom her daughter slept in. Careful not to wake her she sat on her bed lightly stroking her hair.

And, a little while later, she found Severus sitting on a step out the backdoor of the kitchen and wondered, waiting with baited breath, what he would reveal next. Why was he telling her this?

"Much as yourself, Miss Granger, my mother sought shelter from a wizarding world that was cruel, dangerous and unkind. She was fleeing from her parents. They wanted, as was Pureblood custom, to force her into an arranged marriage.

However, Eileen ran, met a man called Tobias Snape, fell in love, or what she perceived to be love, married, and stayed. Outlived him, even. Hah", he laughed gruffly, "and this is something only Molly knows. And she found out by accident. The nightgown you're wearing? That was her idea: 'a suitable present'..."

"Yes, I did wonder why it said "M&S" on the label... I didn't think you were the type to shop for nighgowns at Marks & Spencer. I thought maybe one of your fomer lovers- former lovers had," she fell silent out of embarrassment. He smiled at her wryly.

"A flattering guess, Miss Granger, but no. My - ah," here it was his turn to be embarrassed, he stroked his neck, "paramours wouldn't leave anything behind, no matter how insistent on their part.

No, one Eileen Snape is still alive and, more or less, kicking. She's in a care home in Ireland and the care staff are on my back about me not visiting 'nough. May the present placate them in their desires to see me perform filial duties..." Here he sighed again and ran a hand across his face.

"She moved back to Ireland after my father shot himself when I was 17, somehow surivied the war without my knowing or caring. And then, one morning, I get a letter in the post from O'Loughlin's Care Home, Cork - my mother in a care home," another gruff laugh, "when she never cared for me." Pause. At the look on her face he could have kicked himself "Sorry for getting upset, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"No, it's understandable. No parent should allow bad things to happen to their child."

"Her- Miss Granger, you didn't have a chioice. You cared for Lorna best as you could, body and soul. My mother did neither. My mother's situation was different to your's. As much as it pains me to say, you were right in being cautious about returning for help to the magical world. It was a bad situation and you made the best of it. You are loving and kind to Lorna, and she knows that she is loved. My mother wasn't even that. You mustn't feel guilty."

The 'if anything, I should feel guilty for missing your presence all those years in this neighbourhood' hung unsaid between them. Hermione was still too moved by his previous words to argue. And he slipped up on her name. Did that mean anything?

A/N: I shall thank you for your reviews.