Hermione wasn't sure what she was doing when she undressed from her school robes and put on something more casual. The thought of the idea that had passed through her mind made her visibly shudder.

The years had drew on and she was no longer what Snape might once have referenced her as; a bushy haired, buck-toothed know-it-all. No, he would not refer to her as this. She had filled out nicely, arms nicely toned, and her hair which was once as unruley as the day was long had straightened slightly. Her face had turned angelic as the rays of sun from her window filtered through from between shear red curtains of her private dorm. She was a young woman close to the end of her seventh year, close to graduation and close to leaving the place she loved so dearly almost as much as the individual who had stolen her heart long ago.

Her legs had a mind of their own as she strode down the halls to a portrait of a rather old woman.

"Ginger Newt." She whispered looking in both directions, as the portrait swung open then closed as she stepped inside the private quarters of her favorite professor. Minerva looked up immediately from the table where she sat far at the end of the room. She let a smile genuinely appear on her features.

"Hermione, would you like some tea..." She was abruptly cut off by the young woman.

"Minerva, there are matters which I'd like to discuss." Her hands began to sweat and Minerva's brow furrowed in confusion. At his point it was now or never, and oh how she had fought with herself many a time over the past few weeks. These year coming to a close within days she knew if she didn't say it now, she would never. She looked into those deep green eyes and saw confusion and worry, she sighed while beginning to pace.

"I'm going to have to ask you to please not interrupt me," Once the ebony haired beauty nodded her agreement she began. "Minerva, for quite sometime now I have been battling, battling with myself with coming here to you and expressing what I thought at first were misplaced feelings of gratitude and kindness with those of love and desire, I have realized that I'm saddly mistaken..." She paused a moment to collect her thought unnoticing that Minerva was watching her with a numb expression. "I do love you, more than I thought possible, and now I must tell you I have never loved someone like this and I thought..." She looked up and brown met green which forced Hermione to end her explaination. There was nothing, she had hit it; the brick wall. She saw no expression whatsoever within the eyes of her love. The silence was deafening and finally Minerva placed her hands on the table and stood keeping direct eye contact with Hermione.

"I must ask you to leave Miss. Granger." Hermione stood rooted to the spot. She couldn't believe her ears but she snapped back to reality when she saw Minerva's retreating form.

"Minerva... please let me fin..."

"Enough," Came her thunderous reply as she turned swiftly around. "You must leave." The brunette's eyes shone with unshed tears as she nodded and quickly made her exit leaving Minerva to all but run into her bedroom, closing the door and fall to the floor in a heap of sobs. How dare that girl come in and express those feelings she had been suspecting just as her herself felt. That kind of love could never be, Hermione young and bright and herself old and weathered. How dare she break her heart that had suffered far too much at the hands of the young woman...

Hermione swiftled walked down the hall. Her heart quickly turning to stone. The pain, too much to bear she felt lifeless. It was a disaster, something she should have never done... Damn her heart.

Little did she know... this was both a mistake... and a blessing.