It had been the way Silas had treated his mother that had invoked this feeling within Hermione. How he gently spoke to her, telling her of his day and how his work was going while acting as though he were completely oblivious to his mother's unseeing eyes focused on him. He reminded her of Neville Longbottom so heart-wrenchingly that Hermione's emotions swelled to an almost unmanageable level as they took the ferry back to the city.