"Trunk?"

"Check."

"Books?"

"Check."

"Wand?"

"Double-check."

Hermione Granger sat on her window seat looking up at the woman who had raised her for seventeen years. Unlike so many summers in the past spent quietly, blissfully ignorant of war, this summer had been filled with nothing but arguments and a flurry of owls. Headquarters had been deemed secure and while the Order had their backs turned what with the resuming of their meetings, Harry was urging her and Ron to get him. Ron, thinking this a wonderful idea, hadn't left her alone for days, appealing to the affection she'd developed for him over the years. It had been, in her mind, his first mistake. His second, she decided, was dropping affection and becoming just plain demanding. Leading her to this predicament with her parents.

"Hermione dear, that pig is back."

Her mother held the letter from Ron demanding a response, but let it go as it started to burn in her hand. She yelped, glaring at her daughter as it continued to burst into flames.

"I may not convince you to come home, but I suggest you get whatever it is off your chest. Is it your first row with Ron?"

"This is hardly our first row" Hermione huffed.

Her mother smiled gently. "I meant as a couple."

Whatever Hermione had been expecting it wasn't that. Her and Ron a couple? Hardly. He'd been snogging Lavender Brown all year just to get a rise out of her. Yes at the time it worked and yes she had a rising affection for the red-head, but…

"We're not couple Mum. He hasn't asked to be and…"

"You're not sure you should say yes." She interrupted.

Hermione began straightening the remnants of her room ignoring the look she was being given. Jane Granger had this fascinating talent of telling you what you were thinking before you could express it yourself. This case was no different.

"You know mum, if I didn't know any better I would say you were using Legilimency."

"Hermione, every woman has her own brand of magic, its called woman's intuition. In this case however," she said softly, "magic was not needed. It's written all over you."

Hermione allowed herself to be drawn down beside her mother on the only remaining piece of furniture in her room. Tomorrow she was leaving her childhood home, asserting her independence, and yet found that she still needed her mother's advice desperately. Some things she supposed would never change.

"I don't understand it mum. He's a good boy, loyal, brave, and he would never do anything to hurt me. Not really" She amended after thinking about Lavender. "What's wrong with me?"

Jane Granger was quiet, gazing about the empty room she had spent so much time preparing as a young mother. They said her daughter was gifted at her old school, if only they had known how true it was, and how far she would go just to pursue that gift. Hermione was smart, very well read, but sometimes she lacked the insight that came with relationships. Probably because she had spent so much time reading that there hadn't really been any time for one. It wasn't as if her parents had encouraged anything else. The beauty of life, Jane thought, was that there was always time to learn. Except with a mad-man running about in that world of hers who knew how much time she truly had.

"You my darling are my pride and joy. They said you were brilliant you know, and you are," Jane squeezed her close, "but sometimes you are just as clueless as the rest of us."

Hermione looked at her with a mixture of indignation and confusion.

"Hermione, this boy is not for you. Yes, he is kind and loyal, but that is all he is. A boy. You who have never really been young will always be yearning for more than that. You need someone just as well-read as you, just as mature, and just as intelligent. You're a good person, Ron is a good person, but maybe just maybe you're not good for each other."

Hermione stared in awe at the woman who birthed her. Brilliance, she thought, must run in their family tree. She hadn't been able to describe it before, but her mother hit it right on the head. Now all she had to do was to explain it to Ron, before he started planning out the next line of Weasleys.

"Mum, what would I ever do without you."

For Hermione, the day couldn't have disappeared any faster than if she had cast Nox over the entire world. Having shrunk all her furniture, she had been relegated to the guest room for her last night in her parent's house. They had been understanding when she said that if the school did not open she would need a place of residence in the Wizarding World, and more than willing to pay after being told that the alternative was to live with Ron or Harry. Until she found a job of course. Truthfully, Hermione was looking forward to neither of these options, nor was she looking forward to telling the boys that she had moved out into a one room flat across the post office in Hogsmeade. Plans had yet to be finalized, but she had the sneaking suspicion that Ron didn't want to just accompany Harry to Godric's Hollow, he wanted to follow Harry all over the world. Something that Hermione while loyal to the Order and its mission, did not want to do.
Nor did she want to break Harry out of his prison earlier than the Order had planned. It was Dumbledore's wish that he find shelter there. Dumbledore. Hermione hoped he knew what he was doing when he ordered Harry to stay there. The Boy Who Lived was not so reckless as before, but he certainly wasn't the epitome of patience either. And this year he would be turning seventeen.
A tear slipped down her face as she thought of the celebration Ginny had been planning before IT happened. A surprise party with all the Order members. Harry would have been so pleased, and she could just imagine what a gift it would have been, the normalcy of such an event. Except she just couldn't see it happening with Dumbledore gone. The man had been like a father to them all, a very old, wise. twinkling father. One who could see the best in everyone, no matter how evil or selfish.

"Hermione?"

Her father slipped into the room, holding some sugar-free treats, they were still dentists after all.

"Sweetheart your mother and I, we know that your world is kept secret from us. That you hide the danger to protect us, and that you're only sending us away for our own good. You don't have to cry about it."

Hermione accepted the treat he was holding out to her, the tears slowing down.

"I wasn't crying about that. I knew that you would understand eventually. I just…I'm so torn. Over Hogwarts, Dumbledore, Snape, everything."

Hermione had not told them much about Dumbledore's death, partly because she didn't want to relive the horrible details, and partly because she didn't want to believe that Professor Snape had really killed him. The man was enshrouded in death and misery wherever he went. And yet, she couldn't find it in herself to hate him like Harry did. He could have killed her that day, could have killed Professor Flitwick, he knew he was going to join the Death Eaters after all, but he hadn't. Yes he had stunned her professor, but he had told her to stay with him, kept her from the fighting, kept her safe. Some minute part of her was grateful, and it made the rest of her feel guilty. Like she was betraying the cause somehow.

"So what are your plans then? After you move in?" her father asked quietly.

"Well, there is a hearing among the school governors to see whether Hogwarts will be reopened. Harry isn't going back to school no matter what, but…" she shrugged, "I want to take my N.E.W.T.S. If I survive all this I'd like to have a career. Then there is Bill and Fleur's wedding that I'm supposed to be going to, before…"

"Yes?" her father intoned.

"Well. We're going to Godric's Hollow, to see about the Horcruxes, and I suspect then we go after Professor Snape."

Her father raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. It reminded her slightly of the potions master, and she wanted more than anything for her father to just nod and leave her.

"Now, I thought that this Lord Voldemort was the bad guy. Wouldn't it make sense to go after him?"

"Snape killed Dumbledore." She replied emotionlessly. "Harry is so bent on killing him, I think him more than Voldemort."

"But I thought this man was a spy. What if Dumbledore ordered him to do it? Or there is something you don't know at work. Not everything is as it seems Hermione. You of all people should know that."

Hermione stayed quiet for a moment absorbing her father's comments on a situation that he knew nothing about. He was an impartial observer, and had said aloud the traitorous thoughts floating about her head. Snape had made the Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa Malfoy. If he had allowed Dumbledore to live, their spy would be dead, and they would have lost Draco forever.

"But there is only one problem with your theory. Snape had to have intent, otherwise the killing curse wouldn't have worked."

Her father frowned, thinking how to get around that particular fact. He too wanted to believe the best in everybody. Or at least to understand the motivation behind the actions. Any help in explaining Professor Snape's actions would ease her mind, give her hope that while crumbling her entire world had yet to fall apart. That she had not allowed a murderer con her into letting him go.

"Hermione. This Snape character is a bitter fellow. No one likes him. It would be too easy to believe that he is entirely evil, except for one thing. The headmaster loved him, kept him safe, and guided him onto a better path. Like a father figure, the headmaster was the one person in the world who cared what he was about. If the only person in the world who cared about you told you that you needed to take their life and become even more of an outcast, wouldn't you hate them too?"

Hermione nodded slowly, it was a good theory one she could cling to for now before even more evidence stacked against him. The way her father told it, she almost felt sorry for Professor Snape….almost.

"I wish…I mean…If it's the way you tell it, do you really think anyone will forgive him? He's been a complete arse his entire life from what I'm told, and have witnessed."

Her father smiled understandingly. According to Hermione, Severus Snape, Potions Master, was the only professor she had ever failed to impress. It irked her more than anything he really said, the words she could learn to take, but the failure she could not.

"Well I don't know where you've got your information from, but I suppose there is really no way to verify it. He may have been an arse his whole life, be as evil as evil can be, but I'm sure he didn't start out that way. Where is the spark? The thing that set him off, that's what I'd be looking for."

The morning found Hermione awake with dark bags under her eyes. After her father had left her to sleep on it, she found herself both angry at his defense of a murderer and slightly grateful for his unbiased opinion. He didn't have all the information needed to form a reliable theory of what Snape was about, neither did she, but she decided she was going to find out. If anything, knowing about Professor Snape's life might give them the chance they needed to survive.

"Darling, we'll meet you on the other side, right?" her mother asked worriedly.

The question in Hermione's mind, was horribly wrong, but she nodded not wishing to upset her mother. Floo power was the only way they'd all make it to Hogsmeade. From there she had arranged a portkey to send her parents to a safe house. There they would be kept, out of the country and hopefully out of Voldemort's reach. She doubted her efficiency to research Horcruxes when she had to worry about her parents being tortured.

"Three Broomsticks."

The whirling effect made her dizzy, but Professor McGonagall met her at the grate. A little unexpected perhaps, but a welcome face nonetheless. Apparently she had caught both of her parents as well.

"Miss Granger, I heard you would not be immediately joining us at Headquarters? Mr. Weasley made sure to apparate right away to complain. Is there something wrong?"

"Only with Ronald" she muttered angrily. "I've rented a flat near the post office."

"Oh, well, come by once you are set up. I need to talk to you."

-?-

Hermione took a good look around the room after inserting what little furniture she had. The flat was more than acceptable for a young woman beginning life on her own. The walls were a dull shade of white, something she would soon fix, but she had a living room, and a bedroom, and a kitchen that had more than enough space for just one person. Once she was happy with the arrangement of her bookcases and the single couch she'd been allowed to borrow from her parents house, she extracted the port key and held it out to them.

"Goodbye mum, dad. I probably won't be able to visit until this is over but I'll owl you often." She hugged them both tightly before being forced to let go.

"Hermione, we both love you very much." Her mother said softly, a tear slipping from her eye, "Just…just be careful. And if in this crazy time you find him, don't let him go. War is a crazy thing, you never know when…"

Jane began crying hard onto her husband's shoulder, but Hermione understood. In times of war people could die at any moment. Ron was decidedly not for her, but Jane Granger did not want her daughter to die never knowing what it was to love and be loved. Her father smiled at her comfortingly. She would miss his logic most of all.

"And don't forget what I said. Motivation is the key to the universe. Understand it and the rest will fall into place. Be safe kitten."

They both touched the port key at the same time and were whisked away, leaving a torn Hermione in their wake. Today was the first day of the rest of her life. And she was already miserable.