A;n. Because this is an AU (Ignoring the DH epilogue) for Hermione, It seemed to make sense that the first few chapters focus on Hermione's time line, and from her perspective.

I tried writing a brief back story, and filler, to bring Hermione's story to the present. It, err, Really didn't work. So I played with it a bit, and found that writing it as diary entries just..worked!

Thanks for your reviews.

Don't own. Making no money. Just having fun.


Dear Diary 3/4/98

Lucius and Draco have left. They slipped away this morning while I was sleeping. And Gods help me, but I think I'm going to miss them!

Draco is...well, 'Damaged' doesn't really come close. And yet, over the last few months, of hellish uncertainty, he's proven himself to be reliable, dependable, and selfless.

Severus, still suffering some lingering side effects of Nagini's venom, had been of little physical use for well over a month. And Lucius, poor sod, had been a shell, little more than an automaton, after Narsissa's death. So naturally I thought the bulk of work (keeping the Four of us fed, hidden, and warm) would fall on my shoulders. I expected to carry the lions share, but was pleasantly surprised by Draco's willingness to get stuck in.

He never grumbled or moaned (Ron), Or had to be told what to do (Harry). He just got on with it. Even ordered me out from under foot more than once.

In fact, now that I think about it, we are...disturbingly alike.

Okay, yes, he IS still an arrogant, sarcastic, obnoxious git, but...But...He's the loving son, who spent week's washing, dressing, and hand feeding his father, ignoring his own grief, his own pain, untill his father was present enough to look after himself.

He's the man that sat with me through two hopeless, sleepless nights, distracting me with a steady stream of inane chatter, bad jokes, and good coco, while Severus hovered some where between life and death after relapsing.

He's the friend who spent hours massaging the agony out of me, when the 'Staggers' (a lasting side effect of prolonged exposure to the Cruciatus Curse) hit. I find it hard to remember a time when we were Ever enemies. Who's going to feed my coco addiction now?

And Lucius...The delightfully perverse fallen angel...I don't just like him. I find, (Much to my consternation) that I Adore Him! I know I shouldn't, I just can't seem to help it.

Lucius, with his gargantuan ego, his overblown grandiosity, his shockingly FILTHY sense of humor, is the closest thing to a True Friend, Severus has ever had. For that alone I could have learned to like him. And yet,It is for all the small, silent gestures, that I have learned to love him; The way he would bully Severus into eating, or for always being the first to catch him when he stumbled, or for carrying him when his legs failed, and his muscles atrophied, for standing unflinching as Draco, took swing after swing at him, for helping his son bathe his knuckles even as his own face began to bruise.

Family means Everything to Lucius. Severus, is his brother, in all but blood, his Family. And as I am Severus' daughter...

...Yes, I'll miss them, my quiet, helpful, sarcastic friend, and my devastatingly handsome, lecherous uncle.

Dear Diary 26/6/98

Severus thinks we've spent long enough looking over our shoulders. I'm not sure if that's blind faith talking, or the anti venom he still has to take twice a day. We break camp in the morning, and head for Manchester.

Oh joy.

Dear Diary 27/6/98

I don't know what I was expecting, but Spinners End, is most definitely Not It!

I had visions of a grim, shabby, Victorian tenement, in some old run down industrial town, and...well, yes, it's all of the above, but...the Potins Lab in the basement! The attic that's been converted into an Observatory! The Book's! Good Gods The BOOKS! Now I understand Draco's jibe about needing a bib if were ever lucky enough to see the library. He wasn't wrong.

It's almost worth the skittish tension between Severus and I. I've yet to find any commonality between us beyond our aptitude for magic, and our tempers.

Although, having seen the neat rows of tins in the kitchen cupboard, all sorted alphabetically and by sell-by-date, it's likely that we can add OCD to the short list of things we have in common.

Dear Diary 5/8/98

It's. Not. Fair!

We were making progress...Geniune Progress. We'd found our 'Common Ground', so to speak. Alright, so I hadn't expected our commonality to be a shared love of all things Star Trek, and comic book related. But we were 'Talking!' sharing something other than silent meals, stilted conversation, and furious mock duels to,"Prepare" me for the "Real world." like the last seven years hadn't been preparation enough.

Severus has even shared his guilty pleasure-Football-and was over the moon when he discovered that I'v been a Man City fan from the cradle.

I don't know how Severus got those tickets, and I didn't care. I wasn't going to risk the silly smiles we'd been sharing at breakfast, or the game of "Sooo, who would be in your dream line up?" we had begun playing at dinner time, or the quiet evenings full of equally quiet dreams of the future.

We walked into that stadium, beaming like idiots. A father taking his daughter to see a match. We were NOT expecting to see Dawlish and a team of Aurors.

We legged it!

Everything we own is now crammed inside two magically extended rucksack, and Spinners end is a pile of smoldering ash, miles away from this shitty little Bnb.

Dear Diary 12/10/98

We're on the move again tomorrow. "This Time," Dad said. ''Will be the last."

I'm for Oxford, with a foolproof fake Id, (One of Dad's less than savoury friends) and a completely bogus history of epic proportion; So sad...Mother died infancy..Home schooled by the Father...Tested of the chart...Quite the Prodigy...(liberally applied memory charms)

Dad, under extreme duress, and after many threats (Lucius), bribes (Lucius again), and emotional blackmail ("Please Dad, you've got to go, I can't stand the thought of what will happen if they find you. You're all I've got left." I'm not ashamed) has agreed to join the Mlfoys in Paris.

I'm feeling a bit...fragile, at the moment. Imagine that, Hermione G...SNAPE. Hermione Snape, scared of school?!