Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Harry Potter. I DO however own the Shadou cousins and Chloe, who I have allowed a reprieve from their own world to come play in this one.

A/N: In case you are not aware...this story is already on chapter 4 on my LJ, feel free to go there to read and comment if you don't want to wait!

Chapter One

Creep

When she stepped into the room, she was not initially aware of the sudden silence that accompanied her entrance. She moved swiftly through the room, the satin material of her dress flowing behind her in her haste. She began frantically moving cushions around on the sofa until a victorious smile spread across her face. She pulled a small deep red purse from behind the cushion. It matched her dress perfectly. She stood up straight, tendrils of hair brushing her shoulder and looked up at her silent audience.

"What?" She asked looking down at her dress worried something didn't look right. She just knew she should have changed the color. Anyone who saw her as nothing but a bookworm would not see that in this dress. She was aware of that. In fact, the very thought made her smile, but Harry and Ron's silence concerned her. Even Snape stood there in silence, his dark eyes boring into her.

"Hermione! You're a girl!"

Her worried face shifted, became tight and her cheeks sucked in as her mouth puckered in anger.

"Well spotted, Ronald," she spat out at him.

Snape rolled his eyes. Weasley always was an idiot.

"Wow, Hermione. You have grown up quite well." Remus entered the room with a smile on his face and Tonks following behind nodding in agreement of Remus' assessment of Hermione's appearance. She blushed the color of her dress and looked down. Snape sneered and looked away.

He waited until Remus and Tonks had taken their charges away to apparate to the wedding before he turned to look at Hermione again. She had proven to be quite irritating in the discovery of his innocence of Dumbledore's murder. He honestly had no clue how Harry and Ron put up with the chit. If he came back from a Death Eater meeting injured in any shape form or fashion there she was with an irritating crease of worry on her brow and insistence on his remaining for the night and in the mornings he woke with her infuriating face hovering above him.

She simply would not go away. And Remus seemed to either know or at least sense Snape's dislike or discomfort for this girl's attentions when Remus announced who would be escorting who to the wedding. Remus knew there was information, information to be discussed in that night's late Order meeting, that meant Hermione could not be allowed to apparate on her own. Snape would have no choice but to touch her to do side-along-apparation.

"Well come on," he snapped, sweeping from the room in agitation. Hermione followed, having quickly learned in her time caring for him to help Mrs. Weasley out, to not take his dour moods so personally. He didn't really hate her…he hated everyone or so he would have one believe. Hermione had her doubts, but she kept those to herself.

They stood awkwardly in the square outside of Grimmauld Place. The early evening sun was hanging in the sky with a reminder of how hot the day had been and a slight breeze promised a possibly cool evening for once. As usual, the occupants of the surrounding houses were inside, in their own worlds oblivious to the witch and wizard standing outside in formal wear. Snape let out an irritated huff of air and looked down at Hermione.

"Miss Granger, we do not have all day," he said. "We have no choice but to use side-along-apparation, so if you don't mind." He held out his arm as if that were the only place she was allowed to touch and even that bothered him.

Hermione looked at his arm and then up at him.

"I'm old enough to apparate myself," Hermione stated firmly.

"However, that privilege is being revoked until further notice," he said, grabbing her arm firmly above her elbow and apparating before she could argue any further.

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He watched from the combined shadows of the trees and the night. His eyes followed her luminescent form dancing in the moonlight. The soft sound of her giggles when her dance partner twirled her around reached his ears with a whispered promise of what was to come. Her very scent was in the air around him, unnoticed by any ordinary man, but he was anything but. If he closed his eyes he could hear her heart pound, pumping that ever flowing life through her veins.

His mouth watered.

His tongue ran slowly over his slightly elongated eye-teeth. His dark eyes gleamed with hunger and longing as he watched her.

He could feel her.

Feel her false happiness flowing over the deep torment, the fear and the sadness. Oh how he could make it all better.

"She's the one," the man next to him whispered. "She's the Mudblood that cursed me. A book worm…feisty little thing." The man's eyes danced with a gleam of desire.

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Snape pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Put the girl down, Weasley," he said in stilted words.

George looked at Hermione flung over his shoulder and shrugged, plopping her down onto her healed feet and laughing as she stumbled back only to be caught by Snape whose agitation was growing. He already had a headache and that girl's wretched squeal of surprise and cries for release did not improve matters. He righted the girl with furrowed brow and displeased growls. In the mayhem, Fred and George scurried off.

"You alright, Hermione?" Harry asked as soon as Hermione had her bearings. She nodded, but was unable to say anything more. Mrs. Weasley approached them, looking around the small gathering of friends and irate professor.

"We are just going to have the meeting here, Severus," she said. "Everyone is here. No sense in moving it to later. The charm has already been cast," she added setting each of the Golden Trio and her daughter with a stern look of warning. Severus cast them all glances of dislike and malice as he swept past them all entering the Weasley household with caution as if expecting it to be some grand joke on his part.

"A total nutter," Ron mumbled just loud enough for their small little circle to hear as they watched Snape enter the house.

"Ronald Weasley," Hermione admonished with her hands on her rather noticeable hips in that dress. Not that the dress made her hips look huge it just made one notice she had hips in the first place, hips of the actual girly kind. The satin material of the dress hung on her so perfectly every curve was softly emphasized. But Ron couldn't really think about that with Hermione reprimanding him rather loudly about respecting professors and especially Professor Snape. Harry was paying them little to no attention, staring at the back door to the Burrow.

"What do you think is so important the meeting couldn't wait until tomorrow?" He asked turning around, his words thoroughly halting Hermione's tirade to Ron. They all exchanged looks. No one had really thought of that question. There was simply too much excitement happening in one night to wander off into dark thoughts of possible doom looming in the short distance ahead of them.

"I don't know," Hermione said, becoming more somber as she looked toward the door as well. "It must be important though."

"Wonder if they will tell us," Ron mused aloud. Hermione shot him a look. Honestly, he should know by now they told them as little as possible. Most of their information came from more…sneaky tactics. "Yea, I guess not," Ron said noticing Hermione's look.

Ron shrugged and wandered off; the table of food was calling to him apparently. Ginny scurried off as close to the house as she could get without some Order member stationed outside the door shooing her off and Harry followed Ron toward the food. Hermione stood there beneath the moonlight for a moment perfectly still. She was alone. Her mind swirled into a hundred different directions. Her worry for Snape running through it all, her worry for Harry and not to mention her friends and the over all dark gloom that seemed to hover around them since Dumbledore's death, though they all desperately tried to act as if it wasn't there. Even her dark secrets she kept pushed deep down inside, refusing to taint Harry or Ron with.

Hermione held her arms out, twirling around in that dress, feeling the soft smooth silky fabric wrap around her legs as she stopped and plopped herself on the grass, falling back with her arms stretched out at her sides. She stared up at the moon, seemingly stationary in the sky, looking down upon them with a haunting promise of the dark nights to come.

Ron paused in his chewing, his eyes on Hermione throwing herself back against the grass and shook his head turning back toward the food on the table.

"Talk about nutters," he mumbled causing Harry to snort into his glass of pumpkin juice.

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They were having meetings so often now that Harry, Ron and Hermione all knew something was up, something they were clearly working hard to keep from them.

"The meeting may go long," Mrs. Weasley said as she sat a plate of sandwiches down on the table in the drawing room. "Nibble on these in the mean time."

"We still can't be a part of the meetings? Even after everything Dumbledore left behind?" Harry stepped forward. Indignant anger was flashing in his eyes, but he was trying his best not to take that out on Mrs. Weasley even though he was fairly certain she would put her foot down if any one mentioned allowing them to join.

Mrs. Weasley looked at him with that empathetic motherly look she often gave him when things were not going as he had hoped and shook her head.

"I'm afraid not, Harry. Just give it time. You have one year of school left."

Mrs. Weasley scurried from the room the moment she heard the door below open and several pairs of feet trudge in. Hermione sat in one of the windows, head turned around watching Harry warily. She could see the anger building in him, anger he was not releasing and that always ended badly, usually with him taking it out on her or Ron or both. She stood up.

"Harry, we all want to be a part of that meeting," she assured him, hoping to ease his anger, his self inflicted isolation so that he knew he was not alone in this, knew that his friends understood his anger and perhaps shared in it a bit. She saw his anger deflate in a long breath as he ran his hand through his ever messy hair.

"Come on, Mate," Ron said patting him on the shoulder. "Don't think on it right now. How about some chess while we wait?"

Harry looked at his best friend, thankful he talked to him on the train his first trip to Hogwarts, and thankful he had him to offer distractions when he needed them. He smiled and nodded, following Ron to the chess table. Hermione sighed in relief. Another episode headed off.

She heard the clunk of his booted feet on the old hard wood floors of Grimmauld Place. They grew louder and she knew who was coming. Her eyes looked up into the doorway of the drawing room and the moment she saw his billowing robes she called out.

"Oh! Professor!"

Snape stopped mid-step in the corridor, eyes turning toward the doorway and looking into the drawing room at the Gryffindor girl with a raised eyebrow and irritation etched on his brow. Hermione turned, grabbing a book off the table and scurried hurriedly across the room and out into the corridor.

"Thank you for the use of your book!"

Harry and Ron watched her go. Ron shook his head with a look of disgust.

"I'm telling you," he said leaning across the table and lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "It is not right for her to be so…friendly with Snape."

Harry made his move and looked up across the board at Ron and smiled with a teasing glint in his eyes.

"Are you jealous of Snape?"

Ron looked beyond horrified. His mouth dropped open and his eyes grew wide.

"Why would I be jealous of that great bat?"

Hermione's laughter floated into the room and Harry smiled wider, his previous anger totally forgotten. Ron shifted in his seat uncomfortably.

"What does he say to her to make her laugh like…like…"

"Like a girl, Ron?" Harry finished for Ron.

Ron closed his mouth and could say nothing but nodded his head. Harry continued smiling.

"I don't think he says anything in particular to her," Harry said, fighting his enlarged smile at Ron's discomfort and irritation.

"I don't think it's very funny, Harry," Ron said, a pouting ring to his voice as he made his move annihilating one of Harry's pawns.

They both looked up as Hermione re-entered the room a large smile on her face and sat back down in the window, her focus shifting out the window into the night for a moment. Harry had to agree with Ron on one count at least. It was strange to see Hermione seeking Snape out when he stayed at Grimmauld Place. He had seen the look on her face when he announced that Snape killed Dumbledore and saw the relief on it when they found the memories of Dumbledore's that relinquished all blame. For days after Hermione was on cloud nine, reminding them over and over that Dumbledore trusted Snape and therefore they should have from the start. And then she did everything she could to seek him out when he was there; she was even the one to find him after one Death Eater meeting that ended badly. And despite Ron all but kicking and screaming over Hermione's active participation in caring for the injured man, he still said nothing to Hermione about actually liking her.

But still, Ron was jealous over Hermione's respect for Snape and her desire for what he had to teach her. It was no different than the jealousy Ron felt over Harry's time spent alone with Hermione.

Harry smiled ever so slightly to himself as he looked across the room at Hermione.

Snape didn't exactly discourage her attention of him, so maybe Ron had reason to be jealous. But then, Snape didn't encourage it either.

Hermione turned from the window.

"Shouldn't you two get your holiday work done?"

Ron looked from Hermione to Harry like a deer caught in the headlights. Hermione looked up at Ron standing in front of the table, shoving sandwich after sandwich into his mouth.

"You haven't even done a rough draft for any of the papers, have you?"

Her eyes darted between the two. Harry swallowed his sandwich and nodded his head.

"Did mine," Harry said.

Hermione smiled. Of course Harry had. He usually did do his own work. It was Ron that didn't. It was Ron that would wait to the last possible moment and then cheat to get it done.

"I won't do it for you this time," Hermione said narrowing her eyes on Ron and then turned to Harry. "Leave yours out before you go to bed tonight, Harry. I'll give it a look over for you."

Harry smiled softly.

"Thanks, Hermione."

Ron shot him an uneasy glance, one that spoke of his worry and concern over the seemingly growing friendship of Hermione and Harry's. He grudgingly went to his room and got his books. When Mrs. Weasley stepped back into the room to announce dinner was about ready, she found Hermione still sitting in the window, uncharacteristically in another world, Harry sitting at the table going over what he had already done and Ron on the sofa, just starting his work. She shook her head as she left the room.

Dinner was at it often was at Grimmauld Place, such a warm affair. Snape snarled as the Golden Trio walked in. Even with the horrors going on in the world they maintained that warm atmosphere, giving some modicum of normalcy during a time of unpredictability.

"Can't we just go to Diagon Alley for a bit?" Ginny held her fork and knife lightly in her hands as she looked down the table pleading with her mother. "Being trapped in this house day in and day out is driving me mad and I'm sure Hermione would love to go to Flourish and Blotts."

Ginny turned to look at Hermione, a slight apologetic look on her face for bringing Hermione into her argument. Hermione noticed how Mrs. Weasley looked not at Ginny, but at her before her eyes wandered around the table to the other Order members, her hands twitching by her plate, unsure what to do or say and yet there was understanding in her eyes.

"There are enough of us," Remus stated, "that we might be able to swing a small outing. Nothing too long now."

Hermione didn't miss the nervous shift of Mrs. Weasley's eyes toward her as Remus spoke or the way her lips pursed with near disapproval. Hermione had to admit though, despite the tension this outing was causing, Hermione was ready to get out of the confines of the house as well.

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Diagon Alley was not quite the bustle of activity it had been for so many of Hermione's years at Hogwarts. With the re-rise of Voldemort and the Ministry having no choice but to announce it, people became afraid to leave their homes, afraid of returning to find that horrid mark hovering above their house, afraid of who they would run into and who they might inadvertently insult. It was safest at home.

"Might as well get your supplies while we are there," Mrs. Weasley had said that morning, handing out their lists as they left the house. Hermione stepped toward Flourish and Blotts gripping her book list in her hand, Severus Snape following close behind. He had become her dark shadow since leaving the house and it not only worried Hermione, but made her nervous.

"We'll be there in a minute," Harry said, a small smile on his face.

Hermione set him and Ron both with that warning look she often got, her lips pursed.

"I won't buy your books for you," she warned before they could get away, heading toward the one place to feed their Quidditch need.

She saw him the moment she stepped into the bookstore.

He stood in the first row of books, leaning lazily against the shelves with a book open in his hand. His hair was an ash color, not his natural color; it couldn't be, not with his clearly Japanese features. The front of his hair came to just below his cheekbones and the back to his chin, cutting across his vision as he looked down into the book.

When she entered the bookstore, he slowly looked up from his open book, a smile forming on his lips, his eyes roaming over her form. She scowled at his blatant perusal of her physical form and huffed off to another shelf farther into the bookstore. Snape remained silent, following her about the bookstore, enjoying the blessed silence she had afforded him at last.

Hermione passed the divination section of the bookstore, rolling her eyes at its mere existence and turned toward the section of the bookstore containing the Ancient Ruins texts. Her fingers caressed their spines as she looked for the right one, lingering over favorite books on occasion.

She was in the Potions section when she heard it. The haunting sounds of what she imagined to be a lullaby at some point in its existence, at least somewhere in the world. And it was a horrifying thought, that this morbidly chilling melody ever soothed a child. She turned toward Severus.

"Don't you hear that?"

He looked bored, looking down at her with a raised brow, silently questioning her sanity. She could hear it though. It wasn't loud, it was a lullaby after all, but it was soft and clear. Frustrated, Hermione turned and left the section, heading straight to that first row of books. She turned the corner and came to a halt.

That young man was there still. It was almost like he knew she was coming. His head turned calmly to look at her, a small crooked smile on his face as he blindly pulled a book down, eyes never leaving Hermione. Her eyes would not leave his, but she knew what book he grabbed, one she would need for classes as well. But his eyes bore into her in such a way that she was unable to look away, unable to move.

"Lost little girl? Or do you plan on blocking that shelf all day?"

Hermione started and turned to stare into the face of another Japanese boy, this one appearing older and staring down at her like she was dinner. A fearful chill ran through her body and that was when she heard it. There was the sound of the door opening and the noise of several pairs of feet shuffling in. Her eyes shifted toward the sound.

Several dark cloaked men entered, wands being drawn out of their hiding places and pointing directly at the young man she had noticed only feet away. She was never one to stand back and watch someone die. She wouldn't do that this time either.

It all happened so suddenly.

She dropped the books she held and turned, running for the seemingly unaffected, almost humored young man. Her body slammed into his, knocking him to the ground as the green lights flew just inches over Hermione's head. The young man instinctively wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist as he fell back, his body hitting the hard wood floor of the bookstore with a loud thud. He seemed to hold her there for a second. Hermione looked down at him, intent on checking his safety, but found that crooked smile had grown and his hard lean body shifted beneath her.

"My," he said. "All you had to do was say hello, Poppet."

She moved to get up, to angrily shove the ungrateful new student away, but curses were flying over her head. Death Eaters and Order members going head to head. She frantically searched for her wand, finding it lying just out of reach beyond this young man's head. Staying low she attempted to move forward, essentially up the young man's body to get a hold of her wand. She jumped when a curse almost got her upon her attempt and the young man smiled, a low moan shifting to a soft chuckle as she threw herself back down on him as if that would save her. She pulled back to glare at him with clear dislike and indignation at his atrocious behavior.

And then he was gone.

She didn't know how or why or even when really. Hands came out of the ongoing fight, pulling her from the young man and then it all simply faded away.