A/N. Okay, so for those of you who read Prisoner (hopefully most of you), you probably know I got a lot of questions as to how Hermione and Snape could have gone from being very close father-daughter-ish to getting married. I often told you that in the story's timeline, obviously, we weren't there to see how their feelings changed, but that apparently things DID change.

So this story is the change. It is set prior to the epilogue and will most likely be a lot like a series of one-shots. That way all of you can see what I mean by "things change".

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter.

...~oOo~...

It was about three days later that Pamela Baumgardner lingered in potion's class after dismissal. The girl had long light brown hair that she kept in two pig tails that laid on her shoulders and often dipped into her cauldron, much to Snape's frustration.

"Miss Baumgardner," Snape said from his desk, sneering. "I would thank you to stop dallying and leave my classroom."

"I actually wanted to ask you a question, Professor," she said in that friendly, happy voice of hers. The voice of someone whose never seen death or war.

Snape sighed. "Make it quick."

"Did you break up with Professor Granger?" she asked, her head cocking to the side in curiosity and her pigtails shifting.

Severus Snape froze. A bold one, she was. "Excuse me?" he intoned, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, you two were together, weren't you -"

"We were not," he quickly sliced into her sentence. "Even more than your insufficient observations, has it occured to you that your inquiry is inappropriate and none of your business?"

Pamela looked at her feet shyly for a moment before saying, "It might be inappropriate...but I do think it's my business if my favorite professor is so sad now."

Snape considered this. "Professor Granger is... 'sad'?"

Pamela nodded. "She's just not the same. She's been pacing a lot. And muttering to herself more than usual. And she doesn't smile as much. It's really...depressing. And the other day she had the chance to take points from Slytherin and...well, she didn't."

Snape supressed a wry smile at this. If she denied the chance to take points from Slytherin, there was something wrong indeed.

"So, did you two break up?" Pamela went on.

"I told you, we were not -"

"Yeah, you said that," Pamela said, "but I don't think I believe you. And the fact that you aren't berating at me and kicking me out of the classroom indicates that you're not quite yourself either. So...could you at least talk to her? Even if you broke up with her -"

"Why exactly do you assume I would be the one to 'break up' with her?" Snape asked curiously.

"Because," Pamela said, "the way she looks at you...she loves you too much." Pamela gave her professor a small smile. "I hope you at least consider going to talk to her. I think she'd really appreciate it. Good day, Professor Snape." And she strolled out of the classroom, a spring in her step.

And Severus was left in his classroom to think. But he didn't have long to think because next thing he knew an owl was swooping in a dropping a letter on his desk.

...~oOo~...

Hermione played a game when she was grading papers. Every time a student got a C, she ate a jelly bean. Every time someone received a B, she took a bite of pudding. And every time someone got an A, she opened a chocolate frog and a perfect score called for licorice wand and a swig of butterbeer. It was a system she was using for more than two years, right when her apprenticeship started.

She was just about to award herself with a spoonful of pudding when her door flew open with a bang and she jumped, the spoon jostling and the pudding landing on her shirt. "Oh no!" she grumbled down at her blouse with a sigh.

"Yes, 'oh no'," a very low, irritated voice growled from the doorway. The heavy footsteps drew closer. "You are in so much trouble."

"What did I do now?" Hermione asked with a grimace at Severus. She went back to rubbing at her shirt with a napkin. It was only making it worse, but then she remembered that that was what magic was for. She picked up her wand and prepared to scourgify it.

"I just received a very interesting letter from Potter."

"It's Malfoy now," Hermione reminded him with a roll of her eyes. "It's only been two and a half years now, yeesh."

"That is irrelevent. Apparently Draco told him that a certain someone has been having hallucinations again." His glare was deadly.

"Draco," Hermione hissed under her breath as if his name was an expletive. "That snake."

"Don't blame him," Snape cut in with venom so strong it filled the air. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to need an update," Hermione with with mock-confusion. "Are we currently talking, or aren't we?"

"I don't have time for your petty spite right now, Hermione, I'm trying to understand why it is that you don't tell me when you start seeing things."

The brunette with the frizzy hair blinked owlishly. Then she visibly tried stopping a smile from coming to her face, but she couldn't manage it.

"What are you smiling about?" Snape growled, losing his patience.

"You just called me Hermione," she said with a wide smile, now. "For the first time in a year."

Did I? he thought, thinking back. Hm. I suppose I did. "That is off-point."

"I think it's really on-point."

"Why do you insist on being infuriating?"

"Why do you insist on being an obstinate arse?" she said, her face a mask of cold fury. "Do you listen or do you just talk? Because, frankly, I'm getting sick of you and the way you treat me. Your mood towards me sways towards whether you find me convenient in that moment. Whether it's worth the time to scold me or not. I am tired of just being a silly child that seems to bother you. So, here is my final decision. I've realized that I don't want to be your friend anymore - because, honestly it really isn't a friendship at all! It's a bloody dictatorship! Farewell, Professor Snape, because I'm done! Now please leave my office. Wouldn't want a student seeing you here," she sniffed, leaning forward and lifting her quill again, putting on an air of indifference. "It would be bad for my reputation."

Snape stood there in shock for a long minute. He gave an incredulous scoff and said, "You can't dismiss me."

"I believe," Hermione said with a mere glance up from her paper, "I just did."

Something inside Severus Snape snapped. He marched right up to her desk and smacked his hands down onto it to lean forward and demand her attention.

"Now you listen to me, Hermione Granger," he growled. "Everything I've done in the last few years of my life I've done with you in my mind - mostly because you refused to get the hell out of it. Everything I've said and every time I demand to know what's happening in your head is out of concern for you. Concern that I obviously wasted because you, again, refuse to realize I am trying to bloody help you. I've dedicated three years of my life that I was supposed to be enjoying the only freedom I've had in more than two decades to you, mostly because you've held my attention captive. So, no, Miss Granger, you do not have any right to dismiss me."

Hermione looked up at Severus coldly. "Stop acting as if you care. Because if you did, you'd just..." Her voice trailed off and she shook her head.

"Just what?" he snarled.

"Actually, I don't know what you'd do if you cared because you don't care about anything, do you?" she snapped back, rising from her chair angrily. She threw down her quill and furiously shucked off her teacher robes to throw onto the chair. "You don't care about anyone but yourself."

Snape was face to face with her in a half-second. She hadn't even seen him move to around the desk. His face was wrathful. "You're accusing me of not caring? Are you saying that the days I spent at your bedside were because being there somehow benefitted me? How about when I allowed you to stay with me after to quit Gringotts and left Weasley's cottage? Or maybe you're forgetting that I continue to brew your potions for you because your Gryffindor courage isn't enough to get you back to the hospital for them?"

He was stalked closer and closer so much that Hermione had to take steps backward as he moved forward. "Therefore, despite your stupid and wrong observations, as it turns out," he snapped, "I do care."

Not in the way I want you to, she thought.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded.

That's when Hermione realized she'd said that out loud. She clapped a hand over her mouth in shock and then swallowed, clearing her throat. "Nothing, it means nothing."

Then her head started filling with whispers. Quiet words she couldn't make out yet, but it was starting. She was about to have a break. Oh, Merlin, she thought, rubbing her temples.

"Severus...please go," Hermione said.

"No," he sneered.

"Please. Please go, Severus." She was begging now and pressed both hands over her ears, trying to suffocate the voices, but it was no use. They were all on her head. She backed away from him further and suddenly she just wanted to be far away from him.

Then Severus realized what was happening. "Hermione -"

"JUST GO!" she erupted, her hands tightening over her head. She dropped her hands and then screamed, "CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I DON'T WANT YOU HERE?"

Something hit Severus in the chest right then. Not an actual thing, but a feeling. And it made him angrier. "Fine," he barked. And he marched out of the room.

When he was back in his chambers, Snape paced, trying to ease out all the anger that was taut through him. When the pacing didn't work, he lost it. Picked up a little orb he kept on a shelf in his room - a glass, non-magical item - and launched it into the wall. The thing didn't break.

He groaned loudly in frustration and threw himself down into his favorite arm chair. He tipped his head back into the cushion and closed his eyes. Letting out a deep breath, he realized how stupid he was.

Severus Snape wasn't like other men. When he felt something, he couldn't just reach for it. No. Whenever he felt something unrecognizable or strange, he pushed it away and locked it up. It's what he had to do as a spy.

And that feeling that hit his chest in Hermione's office. It had been hurt.

And the fact that Hermione held enough power over him to hurt him...was very telling. There was only one other person who ever managed to make him feel like that.

And that person had died a long time ago because she'd been unfortunate enough to mother the Chosen One.

"Oh, no," he said to himself, his eyes falling shut again. "Not this again."

...~oOo~...

~ So Long And Thanks For All The Fish ~