~A/N> Here's chapter 3. Thank you so much for all the great reviews you've been leaving! This is the
last pre-written chapter I have, so hopefully I'll have chapter 4 done shortly. I'll be working on it tomorrow.
The length of the chapters will be staying the same, I'm comfortable with it and I don't intend for this to be
a really, really long story. There's a little cliffy at the end, but I will work hard to get the next chapter
written asap so you won't be left hanging long. A big thank-you to poppywillow who helped me with this chapter, and
I hope you enjoy! :)
Hermione was near her wits end.
She'd been working for Mr. Potter for exactly one month, and in that entire time she had been unable to get through to James. The first day she was there, while she had been playing with Lily in her room, she had sensed someone watching her. She had looked up to see James standing in the doorway watching them play. When she had introduced herself and asked if he wanted to play with them, he had simply turned around and walked away. "He misses our Mum," Lily had said, "He's sad all the time, and Miss Weasley isn't very nice to him. She made our Daddy take down the pictures of our Mum because it's going to be her house now."
Hermione remembered the flash of anger she had experienced when she heard how Miss Weasley treated James. Before she could think on it more Lily had gone into one of her bureau drawers and pulled out a picture. When Lily had handed it to her to look at she knew it was the late Mrs. Potter just from the resemblence between the woman in the picture and the little girl. "Daddy gave me that picture and said I was to hide it so that no one else would find it. I don't want to hide it though...I want to keep it out so that I can still see Mummy every day. I miss her."
Hermione had hugged Lily, telling her that it was okay to miss her Mum and still want to see her every day, if only in a photograph. "I couldn't imagine how sad I would be if I couldn't see or speak with my Mum whenever I wanted to," she had told Lily, "But she'll always be with you as long as you keep her memory alive in your heart."
Lily had launched herself at Hermione, hugging her fiercely. "No one else will talk to me about Mum," she had said with tears in her eyes, "I'm afraid I'll forget her."
Hermione had lain awake in her room that night, trying to comprehend what kind of bloke would put a woman before his own children. She had no idea how long it had been since the late Mrs. Potter's passing, but it was obvious to her how much James and Lily were still hurting over the loss of their Mum, so why would Mr. Potter disregard their feelings just to be with Miss Weasley? That night she had made a decision that could, in the very least, cost her the Nanny position. But she found that she was willing to risk it, if it opened Mr. Potter's eyes to his son and daughter's grief.
It had taken four weeks to finally go through with her decision, but finally she was told that Cole couldn't take James to school one morning and that she was to drive him. After a silent ride, which made her wish she knew how to get through to the boy because he was obviously depressed, she stopped at a store and picked up two picture frames. One was a shiny gold frame that had intricate patterns engraved around it, all meeting at a heart that was on the bottom, in the middle and the other was black. When she arrived home she put her purchases, all except Lily's frame, in her room and made her way to Lily's room, where she found the little girl sitting on her bed weeping.
"Lily, what's wrong?" she asked as she made her way to sit on the bed next to her. Lily turned and buried her face in Hermione's chest, sobbing harder and mumbling incoherently. Hermione wrapped her arms around her and just held her while she cried, waiting until she was able to talk about what had upset her so.
"She's so mean!" Lily said with a hitch in her voice.
"Who is?" Hermione asked gently as she smoothed the hair from Lily's face, having a pretty good idea who she was referring to.
"Miss Ginny," Lily replied, looking at Hermione with such sadness in her eyes, "She came in a little while ago and said she was going to do my hair. When I told her that you usually do it she said I was not to talk back and she grabbed the brush and yanked it through my hair. It really hurt."
Hermione felt her jaw clench in anger as the sudden urge to give Miss Weasley a tongue lashing overtook her. She comforted the girl for quite a while and when she felt she was calmed down she picked up the bag that held the frame she had purchased for Lily and said, "I bought you a gift this morning Lily."
The little girl's green eyes took on such a light that Hermione silently congratulated herself on her idea. Handing the bag over, she watched as Lily opened it and pulled out the frame, giving her a confused look. "What's this for?"
"It's for your Mum's picture," she replied, "You can put it in the frame and it will sit on your nightstand so you can see your Mum every night before you go to sleep and every morning when you wake up."
Hermione knew she would never forget the look on Lily's face as they put her Mum's picture in the frame and carefully set it on the nightstand, facing her bed. They had started playing games after that, Lily's spirits raised considerably, and both were laughing and having such a good time.
"If you're going to be so loud you need to close the door," Ginny said, suddenly standing in the doorway with a not-so-nice expression on her face.
"I'm sorry Miss Weasley," Hermione replied, trying to keep her anger out of her voice.
Ginny had grabbed the door handle so that she could pull the door shut on her way out and Hermione noticed that she suddenly froze in mid-swing. Opening the door up again, she looked toward Lily and asked, "What is that?"
Hermione felt a pool of dread gather in her stomach as Miss Weasley walked over to the nightstand and picked up the picture of Lily's Mum in the new frame. "Where did this come from?" she asked in a tight voice.
"That's mine!" Lily said, running over to grab it from her.
Ginny swiftly raised the frame into the air so that Lily couldn't reach it and asked, "Who gave it to you?"
Lily stopped trying to reach the frame and looked defiantly at her. When Ginny narrowed her gaze at her Lily said, "Hermy gave it to me, now give it back!"
"Oh really?" Ginny asked, turning angry eyes on Hermione while Lily desperately jumped and tried to reach her Mother's picture. "What do you mean by giving her this?! It's not your place to go out and buy things for her!"
Harry, who had been in his study trying to get some work done, had heard Lily yelling and decided to see what was going on. He walked down the corridor to Lily's bedroom door and when he looked inside his eyes widened. Ginny stood next to Lily's bed holding what looked to be a picture frame, almost shouting at Hermione who was sitting on Lily's bed, while Lily was jumping up and down trying to grab the frame out of Ginny's hand.
"What is going on in here?" he had asked in a raised voice so that he could be heard over the chaos.
"Daddy!" Lily said, relieved.
"Harry, thank goodness," Ginny said, stepping around Lily and making her way toward him. "Look what I found on Lily's nightstand," she said as she shoved the frame into his hands.
"Daddy, that's mine!" Lily said on the verge of tears as she ran to him and hugged his legs tightly.
Harry looked toward Hermione who sat quietly on the bed with a strange expression on her face and then looked down at the picture frame he held in his hand. His eyes softened as he saw the picture of Luna in it.
"Where did this picture come from?" Ginny asked him, clearly upset, "I thought we agreed to get rid of them."
"Lily and James should each get to keep a picture of their Mother," Harry replied quietly, not meeting her stare.
"That's not what you said when we discussed it," Ginny said with a very unladylike pout. "I told you how uncomfortable it makes me to have her pictures around what is soon-to-be my home."
"This isn't your home!" Lily had nearly shouted as she released Harry's legs, "And you're not my Mum!" Looking imploringly up at him she said, "Daddy, you gave it to me, tell her it's mine! Please don't take it away!"
Hermione's heart broke at the look of utter despair on Lily's face, along with fear...she was afraid that her Dad was going to take the picture away from her just to appease Ginny.
"Lily, shut it!" Ginny had hissed, causing both Harry and Hermione to look at her in surprise, and that was all Hermione could take.
"Mr. Potter, I bought Lily the frame for her Mother's picture," she admitted, looking at him and no one else. "I thought she would like to have it so that she could see her Mum everyday...she misses her so much."
"That's not your decision to make," Ginny said angrily as she glared at her.
Harry just looked at Hermione silently for a moment and then his gaze slid to his daughter. When he saw how sad and upset Lily looked he turned to Ginny and said, "I need to speak to Lily...alone...for a moment."
"B-But I...we agreed..." Ginny replied, and seeing that Harry wasn't going to change his mind, she turned and stalked past him into the hallway.
Looking up at Hermione he said, "You can go to your room for now, I'll come speak to you after Lily and I have a chat."
"Yes Sir," Hermione said dejectedly, sure she was about to lose her position.
"You'd better start packing your things," Ginny said as she walked past her in the corridor, "You're as good as sacked."
Hermione stopped and looked back at her, daring to look down her nose at the spiteful witch and replied, "That may be, but it was worth it if it made Mr. Potter finally see just how horribly you treat his children or make him realize how much they are hurting over the loss of their mother." Hermione had had all she could take, if she was going to lose her job then by Merlin, she would tell Miss Ginny Weasley just what she thought. Feeling very proud of herself, she turned to make her way to her room, missing the look of shock and anger that quickly passed over Miss Weasley's face.
She looked around her room as she walked through the door, realizing how much she enjoyed working for Mr. Potter and knowing how much she would miss Lily, and even James although she really hadn't gotten to know him any better. Closing the door as quietly as possible, she leaned back against it and slid slowly down until she was sitting on the floor. 'I can't believe I said all those things to her,' she thought, placing her head in her hands as the anger at herself flooded through her. How could she have gone off like that? What had she been thinking?
'You were thinking of Lily and James,' came the answer from her subconscious. Her head snapped up suddenly as the realization hit her...damn it, she did it for them, and that's all she needed to remember. If it meant that Mr. Potter paid more attention to them instead of concentrating on pleasing Miss Weasley so much, then it would definitely be worth losing her job over.
Feeling a little more at ease, she busied herself with straightening her room and when she was done she brought out the new book she had purchased that morning. Settling comfortably into a chair she tried to immerse herself in one of her guilty pleasures, a sappy romance novel, and soon all thoughts of what had happened just a short time before was overshadowed by pirates and fair maidens.
What seemed like thirty minutes later to her, someone rapped on her door, and the dread she felt before came back tenfold as she assumed it was Mr. Potter there to sack her. When she opened the door though, it wasn't Mr. Potter standing on the other side, it was...
"James?"
She hadn't even heard him come home, or realized just how late in the afternoon it was, so it was a surprise to see him there. Not knowing when she would have the chance again, Hermione walked over to her nightstand and took a bag out of its drawer. Walking back to the door where he stood, she took another picture frame out of the bag, this one black with gold trim, and showed it to him. "I bought this for you today. Lily showed me the picture of her Mum that your Dad gave her and I thought she might like a frame so that she could have the picture sitting out in her room... that way she can see it all the time. I assumed you had a picture too, but if you don't I can take Lily's into town and have a copy made for you." When James stood there looking back and forth between her face and the frame in her hands she said, "You don't have to take it now, I'll keep it in my room and whenever you want it, you just let me know okay?"
She watched as a flicker of sadness passed over his features and just as quickly was gone. He gave a slight nod and then watched her as she put the frame back into the drawer. He stood there after that, staring at her with his green eyes that were an exact match to his Dad and sister's, and after a moments hesitation he held out his hand to her. Walking over to him slowly, she gently took hold of his proffered hand and closed the door behind her. Silently, she let him guide her down the hall and was surprised when he stopped in front of Lily's open bedroom door. Inside, Lily and Mr. Potter were sitting side-by-side on the floor, obviously discussing something very serious by the looks on their faces. Lily looked up and when she saw her said, "Hi Hermy, Daddy and I are talking."
"That's good," Hermione said as she smiled at Lily affectionately.
"It's very good," Harry said, shifting her attention to him. Hermione had to stop herself from gasping aloud at the intensity in his stare and then breaking eye contact he looked at his son and added, "Thank you for bringing Hermione here James. Why don't you two come in and join us?"
Hermione went to take a step forward but stopped as she noticed that James was not moving. She turned her gaze back to Harry as he said, "It's okay James, I know you don't want to talk, but Lily and I would like it if you would just come sit with us and listen. It seems that she has a lot to say."
Hermione couldn't help but smile at the trace of humor she heard in his voice as he said the last part. She knew how much Lily loved to talk and ask questions, and sometimes the little girl could be downright unrelenting in her quest to learn everything she could in one day. Turning back to look at James, she watched as he stared at his Dad and sister and then started to walk into the room. The look of relief that was on Harry's face mirrored the way she felt as James let go of her hand, went to Harry's side and sat down.
"Close the door and come join us Miss Granger," Harry stated, "From what Lily has told me, it seems that you should be included in our discussion too. She's asked if it's okay to tell you all about her Mum, and it seems to mean a lot to her for you to know, so I've told her that it's okay with me."
Hermione was shocked. It seemed almost taboo to mention the late Mrs. Potter in this house, let alone have any pictures of her around, and here were the three people that loved Luna Potter the most in this world, ready to tell her all about their wife and Mum. Walking over to them, she sat next to Lily and smiled as the little girl crawled onto her lap and got comfortable. It seemed this was going to be a very interesting discussion indeed...