Disclaimer: Don't own it, God, the world is so cruel.

This Chapter is dedicated to FarmerLiz for being a wonderful reviewer and for giving me a very good suggestion.

Of all pains, the greatest pain, is to love, and to love in vain. –George Granville

I've noticed, over the years, there has been a drastic change for Hermione. In her first six months of teaching, she would receive one or two letters a week. After that, she would receive a letter every fortnight or so. Now, she receives letters only on special occasions. The holidays she usually has one from Potter, but it's rare that she has one from Weasley now. Perhaps they had some falling out.

This year it seems her friends who had once gravitated toward her for many things have forgotten her birthday altogether. The morning post has come and gone, and yet she has received nothing. She must be used to the reclusive life of a teacher now, but still, to go from two friends who had once sat by her bedside as she lay petrified, to not even getting a letter on her birthday must be quite disheartening.

One would not notice, unless of course they were staring at her, as I am now, that her smile faltered at the astonishing lack of acknowledgement of her twenty-third birthday. The slip in her mask was brief and I saw her hide behind her façade of cool disinterest. Another of the things that has changed about her is her ability to mask her feelings. As a student, she wore her heart on her sleeve, which made her an easy target for a few of my more sadistic Slytherins. Now apparently she has seen the good in hiding how she feels.

I sigh, admonishing myself for my foolish thoughts. Am I truly so masochistic that I have to stare at what I will never have? Am I so twisted that I know the exact movements of her hands as she reaches up to brush back the untameable curls of auburn hair? I am a man possessed.

How can I not be in love with her? When she first came to teach, freshly graduated I might add, I expected her to be like the same insufferable chit she was in her years at Hogwarts. She once again proved me wrong; I believe that she merely spouted facts from the textbook like some intolerable fountain. Not a week passed before I realised that I was wrong, and she was much more intelligent than I had previously given her credit for her. Now that she was finally away from those fatuous fools she called her friends, she was able to blossom intellectually in a spectacular way.

She became my equal over the years and I admit that though I didn't see it coming I should have. There has only been one other teacher besides her who had been asked back to teach the first semester immediately following their graduation: me.

HGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSSHGSS

Happy Birthday to me. It may as well have been just another day. It hurts to see that a friendship that endured death and a battlefield could come to this. There is not a single note of acknowledgement of my twenty-third birthday.

Truth be told, I expected this from Ronald, who never got over the fact that I'd rather stay and teach than become Hermione Weasley. I shudder at the thought now. How I could have ever considered Ron as a romantic option amazes me. I do believe that after a month of him blathering on about the Chudley Cannons, or whatever they were called, I would have strangled someone—preferably him.

Ah, to be young and horribly naïve.

Now, to the matter at hand, how am I to show Severus how I feel about him? I suppose I could always just tell him, but I would obviously make a muck of it with my less than non-existent social skills. If I were going to just tell him how I feel, I may as well just push him against the wall of the dungeons and kiss him.

Hmmm, I suppose the idea has some merit. Perhaps that should be plan 'B.'

Maybe if I had spent less time pouring over every book the library has to offer and more time doing whatever it was that the other girls my age did I wouldn't be such a social degenerate.

What were the other girls my age doing? As far as I could tell they spent most of their time mooning around the boys they had a crush on that week and giggling whenever Harry strode past. How on earth is that supposed to help me? Am I supposed to make sheep's eyes at Severus and giggle whenever he's anywhere near me?

Merlin, I hope not.

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews everyone! I've never received so many for one chapter, and they were all positive. All but one person said I should continue with this story, so here I am! Review?