A/N:A year or twolater and I am finally coming out with new fanfiction. Please, any thoughts or comments, send them my way. Enjoy.
Chapter One
Hogwarts, home of witches and wizards from all walks of life. The castle had once been her home as well. To enter the Great Hall once more brought back so many cherished memories, but it also brought back the pain. Many of her teachers were gone, gone on another journey the likes of which she could not follow. Death was not something to be feared, but to be welcomed. Even Voldemort had welcomed death in the end.
Still, Hermione often wished her return did not have to deal so much with death. Too many had died here, within the walls of her childhood home. She half expected the walls to still be stained with the blood of her enemies, her lovers, her friends.
At the Professor's table Hermione looked to the head chair. Dumbledore no longer occupied that seat. Professor McGonagall, the reason she had been summoned to this castle once more, had informed her that the headmaster spent less and less time among the children, and more time in his chambers. The deputy headmistress could not bear to say the words, but Hermione knew. Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of his age, was dying. The war for life barely over, he now sought the death, the eternal sleep, and the only thing which could heal his soul.
"Well, well, well. Miss Granger, I presume? I have not seen you since…"
"Since I was your pupil. Yes Professor."
From the shadows a dark figure disengaged himself. Hermione dared not look at him, the fear of her childhood threatening to return. She loathed Professor Snape. He had done nothing but berate her, albeit subtly, since the day she had arrived. But Hermione was no longer that foolish know-it-all. In the six years after she had abandoned Hogwarts Hermione Granger had become a woman. Voldemort had tested her strength, her intelligence, and her emotions, and she had not been found wanting.
"Where is Professor McGonagall? I was told she would meet me"
The all too familiar sneer which she had encountered during her days as a student, slithered its way into his face. There was a flutter of robes and Hermione found herself standing toe-to-toe with the man she had previously branded 'the greasy git'. She found herself in a state of shock for unlike her, the professor seemed to have gotten younger. Last she had seen him there were deep crinkles in his eyes, and his skin had gotten ever the more pale. Hermione took a step back doing her best to ignore the mint fragrance he seemed to permeate. This was not the professor she remembered.
The Snape she remembered was even more sickly. His arms had been long as they were now, but it seemed that since she had been gone he had become toned. His shoulders, always broad, had grown stronger. And his hair, always greasy, no longer looked so bad. Professor Snape had not only emerged from the war less scrawny, Hermione could visibly see a few of the crinkles and lines were no more. He had managed to look slightly younger, but Hermione searched his eyes, and there she found the familiar aged soul of Professor Snape.
"Professor…What have you done?"
Snape could have cackled at the appalled look in the eyes of his former pupil. Miss Granger, ever the know-it-all, was speechless. It took all of his matter to keep down the triumphant grin, after all he hadn't meant to achieve this on purpose.
"Professor McGonagall has taken ill I am afraid," his said softly, "like so many in the castle. I have the strictest instructions to accompany you to the Headmaster's chambers. It is unfortunate, but it appears that due to her illness your quarters have not been prepared. The Headmaster will place you somewhere until said time."
There. Snape had managed to avoid her question altogether. He was not accustomed to answering to anyone, let alone an impudent little girl like Miss Granger. 'Well, not so little anymore' he allowed gruffly. No, his former student was very much a woman. The look of astonishment had not been able to hide the way amber eyes skimmed over him in appraisal. 'Put that from your mind' he glowered. The transformation that had so startled Miss Granger had more side effects than the obvious, many of which (such as a painful and sudden awareness of the female species) startled him as well.