A parent's worry

Dan Granger was worried for his little girl.

Well, that was nothing new since all fathers worry for their little girls, even when the girls are not so little anymore and are more than able to take care of themselves.

But Dan's little Hermione was still little and he was immensely worried about her.

And rightly so since only this morning, he heard that his little girl had been in a life threatening situation during her stay in the school.

In fact, she was attacked by a troll.

If Mrs Clearwater had not told them about it, then perhaps he and Emma would have never even known that such a thing had happened at all.

That their little precious daughter was almost taken away from them.

It was hard for him to believe such a thing. But the instance those words left Mrs Clearwater's mouth and the instance Hermione's gaze became fearful and guilty, he knew that what she had was the truth.

His next thought was to immediately take her out of the school.

A school which doesn't even have the decency to inform the parents when their children are almost murdered by a gods forsaken Mountain Troll.

He didn't even know how he was able to keep his anger to himself at that time.

Oh how he wanted to meet the sweet talking Professor Minerva and rip into her for lying to them that their girl would always be safe in Hogwarts.

And how she didn't even have the decency to at least tell them when their girl suffered a life threatening injury.

But he was in front of strangers so he and Emma had held each other's hands, forming a silent promise to talk with each other and with their daughter after getting back home and not a moment before that.

Hermione already looked rather apprehensive and he didn't want to scare her even more by demanding answers from her in a place where all her classmates could see.

So he had held his anger and Emma, his lovely wife had quietly inquired how such a thing had happened and Mrs Clearwater told them what had happened.

It pricked his heart that his daughter wouldn't trust them enough to tell them about such an important thing but he was a logical and reasonable man and knew that she was most likely afraid that he would pull her out of the school, which he would admit that he had thought about doing.

But he listened to Mrs Clearwater quietly with her daughter supplying words from the sides quietly and before long, he and Emma had the full picture.

How Hermione was bullied by her peers. (and hadn't the sweet talking Professor Minerva assured them that such a thing won't happen in Hogwarts)

How Hermione had left for the bathroom in order to cry.

How she had left the bathroom in order to join the feast in the great hall.

How instead of finding a door in front of her, she had found a 12ft tall mountain troll instead.

How that thing had almost bashed her brains in with it's club.

And how in the end, it was only the intervention of Harry, her friend that she talks about in every letter, that saved her life.

He would have felt relief at that bit of information if not for the fact that he felt that Mrs Clearwater and Miss Clearwater were hiding something from him and Emma.

Upon probing, it came out that instead of stalling the troll like how he had thought would happen, the young boy, no, the young man had flown into rage at the sight of his friend's body and brutally murdered the mountain troll with an enhanced handgun.

Good riddance, he said but despite all his gratefulness for the young man, he was even more apprehensive about his relationship with his daughter Hermione.

He had clearly seen how close the both of them were with how easily they were able to communicate with each other with their eyes and he wasn't sure he knew how he felt about that.

The boy had saved his girl's life. Yes. But he was also an eleven year old who carried a gun around his pocket with him all the time.

What kind of eleven year old carries a gun around with him. In a school.

He had certainly never met one and now that he thought about it.

Where were the Professors and the oh so vulnerable Headmaster when their daughter was in danger

Why was it that their daughter had to be saved by a little boy, who was even younger than her, then by the Hogwarts staff.

By now it was quite clear to him that the Hogwarts staff couldn't be trusted.

But he still had no idea what to make of the young man who had saved his daughter's life.

So while they were going out of the station, he had noticed the apparent lack of the boy's parents and had taken that as a means to gain more information about him.

And hadn't that been a cluster fuck of epic proportions (mind the language.)

He had once thought that their's daughter's life was hard, what with all the bullying she suffered from her peers in the school and the fact that her closest friends were books and not… well, real kids like it should have been.

After hearing about young Harry's life, he couldn't help but think how lucky Hermione had been her whole life.

She had parents who loved her immensely.

Neither he nor Emma had ever even thought about abusing their child.

Nor had they ever starved her or thrown her inside a cubbord.

He was still eleven years old for gods' sake and he had already gone through more hardships than his entire family.

He had never thought that Harry's life would be this difficult.

Hermione's letters had portrayed the picture of a person who was a genius that left behind even their own daughter in the dust.

A boy who was immensely caring of those around him even though he was distrustful of the adults around him. (And hadn't that been the clear sign of an abused childhood.)

When he had heard about him from her letters he had thought about how he would have to deal with him in a few years in the future. Tell him to stay away from his princess and all that duty.

He had never thought that the boy would be so different from what he had imagined him to be.

And he wondered if he had faced such hardships in his life, then would he have started to carry around a hand gun for his protections as well.

Probably not.

But then again, he had never been in that young man's shoes so he would not know what he would have done either.

For now, he was just grateful that the young man had put the handgun to good use and protected his daughter with it.

He looked at Hermione's sleeping form and clutched Emma's hand a bit tighter.

The day had gone far different the both of them could have thought and it had thrown them out off so much that they still didn't have any idea about where they should even start.

But they needed to sort this out. Whatever this mess was.

And then they needed to talk, if they would allow Hermione to return back to the same school where she almost died once the Christmas holiday's end or not.