"GO AWAY!" Hermione Granger cried.

"Hermione, please, listen to me! Please. . ." Severus Snape pleaded.

"No! I saw you with her!" Hermione whirled around and faced the once seemingly invincible man with hurt and tearing eyes. "I SAW you!"

"Hermione, please! You don't understand! Just let me explain!" Severus tried to move closer to Hermione but she backed away. His shoulders drooped and the sky began to darken. Night was beginning to set in and the two were standing outside before the Forbidden Forest with the winter chilling the air around them.

"Severus, I can't believe you! You hurt me! Don't you understand? You hurt me! I don't want to be around you! I trusted you. . ." Hermione cried before running into the Forbidden Forest.

"Hermione!" Severus yelled and chased after her.

Hermione heard him yell her name and come running after her. She ran faster.

No! I won't let him catch me! Not after what he did!

Hermione ran faster as she heard twigs cracking underneath Severus's feet as he started getting closer. She kept on running until she could no longer hear him. Until she could no longer hear herself think. Until the only thing she could hear was her heart pounding in her chest.

She sucked in shallow breaths of air and leaned against a large tree. Minutes slowly passed as regret and sadness once again took over her heart.

"Severus," She whispered and sank to the ground, covering her face in her hands. "How could you do this to me. . ." She sobbed as her heart remained broken and her insides still twisted because of the woman in his arms. The way he had held her while she had rested her head on his shoulder. . .

That woman was the new Charms teacher. Professor Flitwick had finally retired and in had come Jasmine Lasia. Professor Lasia, the new Charms professor. And after several months of teaching, with Christmas growing near, the new professor had thrown herself at the Potions Master and Hermione had walked in on it. . .

Hermione had become a professor the previous year and taught the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. She was the first one in years to succeed in staying a second year. Dumbledore hadn't been able to succeed in hiring a teacher to stay more than one year before he had retired and Mcgonagall had taken over. However, she was also unable to find a steadfast teacher. She had asked Harry Potter to fill the position but he was too busy with his work; he was an Auror. Ron Weasley was also an Auror and also too busy.

So Mcgonagall had asked Hermione since she, Harry, and Ron knew quite a bit about defense against the dark arts. Furthermore, Mcgonagall was sure that they could each handle the job - given their vast experience in dealing with users of the Dark Arts and incompetent professors of the subject.

So Hermione had taken the job at twenty-five years old - one of the youngest teachers ever. Just last year she had joined the faculty and had begun to get to know her former teachers in a new light. Particularly one.

Severus Snape. Her old Potions professor. When she had been re-introduced to the staff, he had looked at her differently. Like he had been caught off guard by something of that sort. Either way, she had also looked at him differently. He was no longer the sneering Potions professor whose demeanor was cold and cruel. No, she had learned that he hid behind the caustic comments and the cold glares. He had hid, but she had found him.

She had soon grown fond of him, enjoying their time together. He had also grown to like her, enjoying her presence. And soon the feelings had turned into love throughout the year. They had spent more and more time together until it became noticeable to the rest of the staff and even some of the more observant students.

And then it had all come crashing down. Just a short length of time ago she had seen Severus - her Severus - holding another woman in his arms. The sight had shocked her. All the time it had taken her to grow close to him, it had taken Jasmine only a few months. All Hermione's hard work, all her feelings had been torn apart in that instant.

And she had fled. Her footsteps pounding away at the hard stone beneath them, she supposed, had given Severus a clue as to what she had seen. What she wasn't supposed to see. . .

Hermione stifled another sob. There was only so much one should be allowed to cry for a lost loved one. She couldn't give that power to him. It had too much control over her but no more. No longer would she allow what she had mistakenly called love control her. He wasn't true to her. She didn't need him. She never did need him and never would. It was a mistake to ever be with him. . .

Hermione pushed herself up and began walking to the school. Her tears were drying and her eyes beginning to lose their puffiness. But her heart was still pounding. It was pounding fiercely in her chest as she walked at a slow pace back to the ancient castle.

"Severus, I will never forgive you. . ." She whispered and kept walking. She walked for over ten minutes before realizing she had ran farther away from the castle than she had realized. She picked up her pace. It was dangerous in the forest at night, that much she had learned from her days at Hogwarts.

But then her walk back was cut short. A vicious growl was heard somewhere around her. Hermione stood still and willed herself not to scream. A second later a large form leapt from the shadows. Hermione could no longer stop herself; she screamed. A huge ogre stood just ten feet before her. She turned and fled.

Her heart still pounding from earlier, it did double time. She sprinted through the forest; over fallen tree limbs and roots bursting from the ground, and through bushes that cut her skin. But she still ran. She ran as quickly as she could. But her pace was slowing, she was out of shape and still tired from her run into the forest. But she kept going. Even as she heard branches and trees alike snap behind.

"No!" She yelled as she tripped over a large root and fell into the dirt. She struggled to push herself up as she felt a wave of coldness passed over her. The mammoth ogre stood close behind her. She felt its hungry eyes gleam down at her and she pushed herself to a standing position and faced it.

She gasped. The moonlight that filtered through the large trees illuminated the ogre in a frightening appearance. It stood an easy twenty feet tall and brandished what looked like a rudimentary sword. The monster swung the sword down at her and she just barely dodged it, but it still nicked her left arm. However, that "nick" left a deep gash that was slowly soaking her robes with blood.

Hermione only had a moment to evade another attack as the sword smashed through a tree. The sword came crashing at her in a vertical swipe. She moved to her right and once again it missed her. The monster grunted and struggled to pull the enormous sword out of the ground. Hermione seized her opportunity and yanked her wand from her robes.

"STUPEFY!" She yelled and sent the attack soaring towards the ogre. It hit its chest. The ogre looked up from its sword and glared at her. She had forgotten, Stunning Spells don't work well against large monsters. She backed away slowly. Its glare followed her. She turned and ran, clutching her left arm. The monster stomped after her.

She screamed as the monster sent its fist at her and knocked her into a tree. She choked on her air aas stars exploded in her eyes. She fought not to close her eyes and slip into unconsciousness. She raised her head painfully and saw the monster towering over her, ready to finish her off.

"No. . ." Hermione choked and instantly remembered her harshness to Severus earlier. Maybe she should have let him explain. . . You never know, he might have had an acceptable reason to be in that position, you never know. . .

Hermione grimaced at the thought of never seeing him again. No matter which way she thought of it, she had loved him - and still did - and she still needed him.

Hermione saw the fist coming at her in slow motion. She struggled once more to move. A searing pain shot through her body. A blinding white light appeared before her eyes before fading. She became motionless once more and watched the ogre. Watching it swing its curled hand down at her. Watching an acid green light shoot from the forest. Watching the light hit the monster and having it stop in mid swing. Hermione watched as the ogre fell over and shake the ground with the impact. It shook the ground so hard that it jerked her body and she cried out in pain.

Bones. . . She wondered how many bones were broken. Hermione looked at the motionless ogre. Then it clicked. It was dead. She was safe. She could see Severus again. Whether or not he wanted to see her. And she closed her eyes.

__________

"POPPY! GET OVER HERE! SHE NEEDS MEDICINE!" A voice roared.

Hermione squeezed her eyes shut tightly, not wanting to open then.

"CALM DOWN OR YOU WILL WAKE HER UP!" A different voice yelled back.

"THEN GIVE HER MEDICINE!" The first voice roared again.

Hermione begrudgingly opened her eyes and the blurry world with bright lights began to come into focus. She blinked twice and could see more clearly. She saw Severus and Poppy Pomfrey yelling back and forth. Poppy seemed to think that Severus should leave her to tend to her own patients. Severus seemed to think otherwise.

Hermione blinked again. She was in the Hospital Ward. She sat up quicker than she expected and felt no pain. She watched Severus as he continued to argue with Poppy. A deep urge swelled within her. Hermione swung her legs over the bed and took off running towards him.

"SEVERUS!" She cried into his shirt as she just short of tackled him in a hug.

"Hermione!" He said, startled. She hugged him tighter.

"Hermione," Poppy began but stopped herself and walked away. She didn't need to interrupt the two, they needed to be with each other. Her duties to tend to Hermione could wait a little longer.

"Hermione. . . Are you okay?" Severus asked while he stroked her hair.

"Y-Yes. .I'm fine. Severus, what happened between you two? Jasmine. . ." She asked softly and almost wished for him to not answer as she felt a pang in her heart.

"Nothing happened between us. You saw me holding her because she just found out her mother died. She was sad and had come to me," Snape explained gently.

Hermione drew in a weak breath. "That's all?" She whispered as a hope began to fill her.

Severus separated himself from her, placed his hands on her shoulders and looked her square in the eyes.

"Yes, nothing happened between us. I love only you," He said in the same gentle voice.

Hermione's eyes lit up with happiness and threw arms around his neck and kissed him. It was a small kiss, just enough to reinstate their relationship.

"We should get out of here," He murmured. Hermione let him lead her with his arm around her shoulders and hers around his waist. They kept walking until they were in his private quarters. The place was a mess because just the previous week Hermione had begun to move in. Severus led them to the couch before the hearth in which a fire had just flickered to life at the wave of his wand. The two settled onto the comfortable couch.

Hermione leaned into him and sighed happily. This was what she wanted. This was what she had always wanted. The sheer happiness of their love. She moved even closer to him before pulling away abruptly.

"Severus, how did I end up in the infirmary?"

"I brought you there," He said as if it explained everything.

"How did you find me?" Her inquisitive nature surfaced from her childhood.

"I followed you. Actually, I thought I had lost you for a while because I couldn't find you anywhere. Then I saw you laying on the ground and that ogre attacking you. So I did the only thing I could, I killed it," He whispered the last past as if afraid of what she would say. He had always been nervous of his past and certain actions around her. Around others it didn't really matter to him because they didn't matter to him. But Hermione was different. . . He worried that she might leave him because of his past. . . But she had always stayed despite what she learned of it. And he had loved her only more.

Though even he could find himself difficult to deal with sometimes. But Hermione had been different, even during the later years of her schooling career. She had begun to bud and blossom into the beautiful woman she had become. Severus had always been blinded by Hermione; partly because of her natural beauty and partly because of her optimism. Yes, that must be what he admired most about her, optimism. She lit up his soul with her smile and purity of which he could only dream of. He would never have the innocent traits she had, that much he had come to accept. However, he had also learnt to accept that he could still be loved, be loved by the most wonderous woman he had ever laid eyes on. That was what she had taught him and never stopped teaching him it.

Hermione looked at him with her eyes sparkling and leaned towards his ear.

She smiled briefly before saying, "Thank you."

Then she crushed her lips upon his and they became one with each other deep into the night.

_________

AN:

Just a short and sweet cookie. It isn't my favorite work, but I still think it is decently good. I especially like the ending. I kept on changing those last few paragraphs. But I finished them^_^ *yay* Now tell me what you think! Thanks for reading!