Disclaimer: It's not mine. It's all J. K. Rowling's.

A/N: My eternal gratitude to Annie Talbot and Machshefa for beta-reading this chapter. hugs

Chapter 2: Motives

The Muggle alarm woke Hermione up in the best of her sleep. She groaned and pressed the snooze button; another five minutes was all she needed. Of course, once awakened, there was no hope of getting back to sleep, but she could always slug in bed until the alarm went off again.

She would need the extra minutes of rest. Today she would be leaving for France to begin her tour of experience exchange with other Law Enforcement teams in Europe. She knew they would be expecting the great Harry Potter to arrive with her, and there would be some stress when his bookworm friend arrived alone instead.

Hermione knew she was the best Auror for the job, and if not the best, at least a better choice than Harry. It was not that Harry wasn't a good Auror – or a great one, even. It was just that he wasn't all that much for the techniques, or action analysis. He was more of a damn good fighter, and that was what had carried him throughout his war against Voldemort – that and a gigantic dose of motherly love.

Hermione, on the other hand, knew all the laws, all the techniques for approaching, every charm or spell procedure used for each and every occasion, and most importantly, Hermione knew how to learn and teach. She was certain that when she got back from this excursion, she would be able to transmit her new knowledge to her fellow Aurors and make Britain's Law Enforcement even more prepared to fight the evils of the magical world.

Reason enough to get out of the bed when the alarm went off again.

Her trunk was ready, Ginny had Crookshanks and would keep him until she was back, and the charms to water her pots of herbs were in place. Hermione had time for a quick shower and a fairly nice breakfast while skimming the Daily Prophet before she left. She was on the second part of her morning ritual when she got a most unexpected owl.

Miss Granger,

In our brief encounter at the Ministry, I noticed you wearing a magical artifact of great Dark power. I don't think you know how malignant it is, or you wouldn't be wearing the ring at all.

Ring? Hermione looked at the ring adorning her thumb and frowned before continuing to read…

I don't expect you to know of it, for although you've always been an annoying bookworm and have been studying the Dark Arts as of late, this ring is only mentioned in a very ancient text that I've only seen in the possession of the Dark Lord.

I don't know where you found it, but I must advise you to stop wearing it immediately and send it to me for study as soon as possible.

Hermione looked at the ring again. This time she slipped it off of her finger.

Don't be a Gryffindor about the matter.

Severus Snape

The Gryffindor comment almost made her put the ring back on. Why did Snape have to be so infuriating about House affiliation? Then Hermione remembered who she was accusing of being infuriating and rolled her eyes; infuriating was nothing less than a definition of the man.

Yet, he had gone out of his way to warn her that there was something Dark about a ring she had been wearing.

Hermione frowned again at the silver ring, looking attentively into its emerald green encrusted heart as if the stones would give away their evilness after all this time of seemingly harmless beauty.

She would run late if she continued to contemplate it now, so Hermione folded Snape's missive and went to a drawer in her bedroom where she had last seen a small coin bag not long ago. She couldn't wear the ring after such a warning from someone she knew to be an expert on the field of Dark Magic, but she wouldn't leave it behind, either. Hermione found the bag, put the ring in it, and slipped it inside a pocket of her robes; moments later, the letter followed.

She would think about it later. Now she had a Portkey to catch.

o0oOo0o

It'd been three days since her arrival in France, and Hermione finally had an afternoon for herself. She'd been received with more enthusiasm than she'd expected. It seemed that Auror Alain Molyneux had made an effort to learn more about her beforehand and was proving to be a nice, if demanding, host. Not even at meals had she had time alone. There hadn't been a lunch or a dinner that she hadn't spent with "Oficiales", M. Molyneux's operational team members, or a curious friend or two of the man. But she had to admit that they were mostly good company, and the food was exquisite.

Of course, all this meant she hadn't had time to examine the ring yet. Well, at least not to the extent she had hoped. She'd run some elementary tests on it, but a negative result could prove nothing conclusive if what Snape had mentioned in his letter was true. An artifact with barely a reference, and only in an obscure book, couldn't be that easily detected.

What intrigued Hermione the most, though, wasn't the fact that she hadn't heard about this ring and its magical properties before, or even that she couldn't detect anything unusual about it now, but how she hadn't felt any different all this time she'd been wearing it. Again, if Snape was right and this ring was all the danger he had professed, shouldn't she be dead or gravely injured by now?

Snape's advice to remove the ring immediately suggested as much. Hermione couldn't remember him ever being so adamant about something if he hadn't a solid motive to support it. That was why she wasn't wearing the ring any more. He must have had a good reason to tell her all of that, but was it good enough to make her send the ring to him as he'd asked? Snape might have his reasons, but he'd been wrong before. He'd been wrong about Sirius, wrong about Voldemort….

That line of thought sent Hermione back to the day she'd found the infamous ring. The day after Snape had died before her very wide eyes only to show up very much alive afterwards. That day she had gone back to the Shrieking Shack as soon as possible as part of the team designed to recover Snape's body for a subsequent respectful funeral. Of course, there hadn't been a body there, only blood, dust, a foul smell and the ring.

Maybe it had been in Voldemort's possession, and Snape had the entire basis for his urgency in dealing with it right there. Voldemort's ring….

Hermione shuddered while staring at the up-to-now inoffensive piece of jewelry. After a long time contemplating her options, Hermione decided what course of action she would take. Parchment and quill in hand, she worded an answer to Professor Snape's missive.

Coming next... Severus' mood darkens with Hermione's answer.