A/N: Hey everyone, I'm so sorry about the time between posting the first chapter and this one but things have just gotten so busy with work lately *groans in frustration* Anyway I will try to post more regularly. A huge thank you to everyone that read the first chapter, it means a lot really Massive thanks to DutchGirl01 and LK-HoGwArTs-hEaDgIrL for you reviews :D

Also just a little note; In this story Severus hadn't been run out of the order, Dumbledore gave hermione enough reasons to prove that Severus is acting on his wishes but the order is still iffy about him until the final battle is over and harry reveals what he saw in the pensive. (Really just so Hermione and Severus have a reason to have had spent time together before the war, *sheepish grin*)

At five in the morning Hermione figured she may as well start her day. She gathered her things and headed out to the prefects bathroom. Both the common room and the halls were empty, which she was immensely grateful for. She reached the bathroom and disrobed. Heading over to the giant tub, her eyes drifted shut as she slipped into the warm water, the faint scent of lilac calming her strained nerves. After a twenty minute soak she finally allowed herself to think of what was to come this morning. The idea that by lunch today all the seventh and eighth years would be engaged was something Hermione was still having difficulty wrapping her mind around. What was the chance she would be matched with someone that she knew? Or better yet someone her age? She pondered these questions, balking at the thought of walking down the aisle to mad-eye moody. She hastily cleaned up and made her way back to Gryffindor tower.

She wasn't aware anyone else was in the corridor until he spoke.

"10 points from Gryffindor for wandering the halls at inappropriate times." His voice was low but sharp as ever. She was struck again at the wonders of magic. His neck, which was covered by his frock coat, had not been able to heal without scars due to the magical properties of nagini, but his voice had healed surprisingly well given the circumstances. When her eyes rose to his face she realised what he had said.

"Y-you can't be serio-" She cleared her throat, "I mean, with all due respect, there is no actual rule on what time students can start preparing for the day. Although it is obviously preferred to be at a later time so that more teachers are awake too, there is no rule prohibiting it….sir" She had reminded herself to add the sir at the last second.

He smirked. "Is that so, Miss Granger?" He raised an eyebrow at her, the simple movement making her feel as if she had said something stupid like 'Do you like bunnies professor?' instead. "Well I'm sure you would be all too happy to inform me as to why you decided to 'start preparing for your day' at," he wordlessly cast the tempus spell, "5:45 in the morning?" A slight sneer came over his face as he looked down at her.

Forcing herself to count to ten she replied in a calm tone, "Well Professorif you must know, I didn't manage to get any sleep last night so I thought I could get ready early and do some extra study." She didn't mention that she was only studying this early to try and keep her mind off this whole bloody law business, he didn't need to know that.

His sneer and morphed into a full blown smirk once again. "How…studious of you. Class hasn't even started and you're already planning to have your nose stuck in a book." The 'little miss know-it-all' hung in the air even if he hadn't actually said it. Hermione's hands closed into fists in an attempt to control herself. How can he act like this? After everything I've done for him and he is still being a right bastard! I fully expected it in front of everyone else but why does he have to such a...a prat even when we're alone?

She couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't deal with this as well as the ruddy law in the same morning. She steeled herself and said in a cool voice, "Thank you professor, I find my studies to be rather important to me and due to…unforeseen circumstances I feel as though I won't have as much time to study as I would like this year." The subtle allusion to the law did not go un-noticed by Severus. "Then if you don't mind sir I would like to be on my way." Even in the mood she was in hermione wasn't stupid enough to just leave without being dismissed by her strict professor.

He conceded after a moment, his face darkening before he spoke. "You may leave, however it will do you well to remember that not everyone in this castle is overjoyed by your victory. Your need to wander alone may end up harming you eventually." And without another word he turned and swept down the corridor, leaving a slightly stunned Hermione in his wake.

Despite his warnings Hermione spent the remainder of her walk to Gryffindor pondering the dark man. During the months leading up to the war she had spent whatever free time she had brewing for the order, brewing health potions and striving to find other potions that could in anyway help the order in their fight. Due to this she also spent a lot of time with Severus Snape. Both worked together over the months in what she had seen as a blossoming friendship. He had allowed her to ask him questions about potions he was creating and had even engaged in in-depth discussion with her on occasion. She had known that this somewhat peaceful world she had created for them would come crashing down eventually, they had been in the middle of a war for Petes sake! But there had been this small fraction of hope that wished they could return to that easy comradeship if they both survived, no matter how many times she had told herself it was highly unlikely.

She entered the common room and walked up to her room on auto-pilot. Settling on her bed, not even noticing the books and clothes there, she drifted off further into her memories. Her mind wandering towards the final battle, the memories so fresh and detailed she knew they would stay with her forever.

There had been harsh skirmishes for the weeks leading up, but when Voldemort had finally attacked it was chaos. On the first of May, the order had been tipped of that Hogwarts was going to be attacked the next day. This is what everyone had been waiting for. People scrambled into action, students were sent to their common rooms under the notion that peeves had set up nasty tricks in the hallways that needed to be fixed with the students out of the way. The common rooms were heavily warded and guarded. The house elves had been informed that students would need to be served in their common rooms until told otherwise. No one was happy with this plan but to move the students from the castle would tip off any spies that they knew of the attack. The D.A. and some of the order spent the rest of the day training in the room of requirement under the pretence of helping the professors clear up the lesser of peeves tricks.

It was in the early hours of the morning that Voldemort attacked.

Hermione couldn't remember much of what had happened other than there were spells flying in every direction and wherever she turned there seemed to be yet another dark creature enlisted to wreck havoc on their side. Her primary goal was to protect Harry long enough for him to face off Voldemort. Harry had protested of course but she and Ron would have nothing of it.

It was well into the battle when Hermione felt a call of distress coming from the shrieking shack. Caught off guard she was knocked down with a slicing hex across her torso from Avery. Kingsley, who was nearby, stupefied Avery and then did his best to heal her wound. She pushed herself up, groaning, but the pain was manageable. She shot off more spells before she felt the call again, it was much weaker now. The three of them huddled behind a fallen bit of a column, grateful for the protection, and she told them they needed to get to the shrieking shack. It took a bit to convince them to get out of the firing line but she did it. They fought their way down to the wimping willow and headed down the tunnel while disillusioned. The sight that greeted them brought Hermione to tears.

Severus Snape was collapsed against the far wall, his arms hanging lifelessly at his sides. The blood was still spilling from his neck so it seemed he hadn't been attacked that long ago. Hermione scanned the room for a split second before she ran to his side. She pressed her hands to his throat, trying to stem the blood. Whipping her head back to the two boys standing at the door, her eyes blazed, "What are you waiting for, a bloody invitation?! Get over here and help me!" This set them into motion, Ron put his hands where Hermione's were and harry conjured a piece of cloth to wrap around his neck. Looking back Hermione was immensely glad that she had been able to convince the two boys that Severus was truly on their side. The rest of the order however was still doubtful but agree not to kill him if they came across him in battle, which seemed to be asking for quite a lot where some people were concerned. While this was going on Hermione was shifting through Severus' robes, muttering to herself. The two boys had enough sense not to ask her what she was doing. With a cry of joy she pulled a vile of clear liquid from his robes. Working around the boys hands, she opened his mouth and made him swallow the liquid followed by several vials she had pulled from her own robes. When he had swallowed all of them she fell back and took several deep breaths, relived that they had come in enough time. She gestured to the boys that they could remove their hands. Harry turned to her first and asked "Um, Mione, could you possibly explain what just happened? And how snape isn't dead?"

Running her hand over her face, which left red blood stains over her cheeks, she sighed and then began. "While we were brewing together he discussed the inevitability of his death during this war and how no matter what precautions I suggested it wouldn't matter. Anyway, I had notice the amount of times he had mentioned that nagini was hanging around more often than not and being used as a means of punishment. So I convinced Professor Snape to get a vial of nagini's venom."

"How in the bloody hell did you convince him to do that?!" Ron blurted out before he could stop himself.

She smirked, "I told him I had found a potion that I couldn't reveal to him that needed her venom, so of course he was suspicious, but he admitted it would be helpful for him to also have some of the venom on hand for testing. So he got the venom for me and once I had done heaps of arithmancy calculations I had worked out a cure that would work specifically on nagini's venom. Although I couldn't actually test it so I wasn't sure if it would even work and I couldn't live with myself if I ended up killing pro-"

"Hermione!" Harry interrupted; "you were getting a bit of topic" he smiled sheepishly at her.

"Thanks Harry." She smiled at him. "So once I had made it I gave it to him and told him he needed to keep it on his person at all times because it could save his life. You know how he is about being told to do something so I was kind of worried if he would actually do it or not." They both nodded their heads in agreement. "The other potions were a blood replenishing potion, one to stop any internal bleeding, another to stem the flow at his neck and one to speed up the healing process. Although he really should be brought back to the hospital befo-" She was interrupted by a gurgling sound from Professor Snape. All eyes flew to him as he strived to say something.

"Po-p-potter" Harry shifted closer. "Ta-ke…. 'em" Harry looked at Hermione confusedly until blue tinged tears began to fall from the professors eyes. Hermione conjured a flask and handed it to Harry who captured the tears. He managed to get out a strained "Pe…nnn...ive" before falling into unconsciousness again. Harry looked grave and Ron looked confused and concerned, which would have been funny if not given the situation.

"You have to go Harry," Hermione said in a no nonsense tone, "use the pensive in dumbl- the headmistresses office." She turned to Ron. "Go with him, you have to protect him no matter what, he needs to see what's in there I can tell." She glanced down at the man lying between them. "I have to take him to the infirmary, my potions can only do so much, I will come up to you as soon as I can. We need to go; we've spent too much time here as it is." She muttered mobicorpus and they continued out the tunnel defending themselves as they made their way up to the castle. Most of the fighting had been in the courtyard so they only came across one person in the castle on their path to the infirmary, who was luckily an auror. The infirmary had been heavily warded and guarded as well to protect the injured fighters. An auror she didn't know stopped them at the doors, cast a truth spell and asked "Names and intentions."

"Hermione Jane Granger, bringing injured Severus Snape to be healed."

"Harry James Potter, accompanying Hermione Jane Granger."

"Ronald Billius Weasley, accompanying Hermione Jane Granger."

The auror was displeased to see Professor Snape but released the spell and nodded them in. It felt as though they were still out on the battle field. People lay everywhere, there were twice as many cots conjured to accommodate the injured. The stench of blood and death was heavy in the air. Hermione quickly found an empty cot to her left and lowered Professor Snape onto it. Leaving the boys there she headed over to Madam Pomfrey, the older witch seemed run off her feet. She noticed Hermione out of the corner of her eye.

"What is it Miss Granger, I'm really busy right now, out with it." She never once took her eyes off her patient.

"I can't explain right now but Professor Snape is here and I've partially cared for him but he needs more attention." Madam Pomfrey's lips tightened at the mentions of Professor Snape but said nothing. "What I'm asking is if I can care for Professor Snape while helping with other patients as well, it's just you look as if you could use some help." She tried to soften the last sentence with a small smile.

A deep sigh from the matron was all she got for a while. Then when she had finished with her patient she turned to Hermione. "I won't ask any questions now but yes your help would be much appreciated." Her smile in return lifted a great weight of Hermione's chest.

"Thank you Madam Pomfrey." She said earnestly and rushed back to Harry and Ron who looked curious at the conflict on her face. "Madam Pomfrey really needs help here but I need to help out there, I need to help you Harry…" She explained to them, her voice strained. The two boys looked at each other before turning back to her.

"Hermione, we both love you, but we would both feel a heap better if you stayed here and helped rather than fought out there." Ron said quietly while looking into her eyes.

"It's not that you aren't a great fighter," Harry rushed to say, "It's just that no one else could possibly help here as much as you can. And no matter how much I hate him right now, snape doesn't look all that good and he does need help from you. Even I can admit that. Ron and I can fight well, even if we don't have the brightest witch of our age at our side." He flashed Hermione a bright smile.

Hermione started to tear up and pulled the boys into a tight hug. "I love you so much, you know that right? Don't do anything stupid okay, know that if you get yourself killed I'll have to bring you back so I can yell at you right?" Her voice only broke a little but her smile was matched with two others. They nodded vigorously and dashed off to the headmistress's office.

Hermione worked non-stop for the next couple of hours, the patients who were conscious filled her in on the battle that was raging on just outside of the castle. It wasn't until many hours later that Pomona Sprout came running in, her cheeks red from exertion. She called Hermione and Poppy over and told them in a low voice that Harry had done it; he had defeated the Dark lord in the great hall not half an hour ago. Poppy nodded to Hermione and the younger witch set of a run for the great hall, in which she had pulled a slightly shaking harry into a fierce hug. They turned to the Weasley's, feeling a dark cloud come over them as they saw the grief plastered over all their faces as they huddled together all gazing down at something, no someone…

Hermione sat up with a gasp, tears streaming down her face. Shudders wracked her body and she had to wrap her arms around herself to still them. She ground her palms into her eyes. This was his fault, the bloody bastard! If he had just been a little nicer she wouldn't have had to relive that. She saved his life and he didn't even know it! She smirked to herself as she imagined his expression if she told him that little bit of information. She cast the tempus spell and gasped. It was 8:45! She only had half fifteen minutes to be down at the great hall and have finished breakfast before the Headmistress wanted to talk to them. Shoving her books into her bag with a little more force than strictly necessary she pulled her hair into a hasty bun and chucked on her robes. Racing down the stair she found no one else in the common room, so she ran as fast as she could, practically sprinting through the corridors.

She was once again brought up short by a voice behind her.

"10 points from Gryffindor for running in the corridor." He sounded positively gleeful, which was quite terrifying considering who it was. Hermione said nothing but waited until the annoying man had caught up with her. When they were walking together he leaned down and whispered to her, "I had thought you would be here earlier than now considering you were up at five this morning." The humour still evident in his voice.

Feeling particularly bold she replied in an even tone, "The same could be said for you sir."

He sneered but it didn't seem to be directed at her. "The less time I have to be around those halfwits the better." He grumbled. This caused her to stifle a laugh, though by his look she wasn't very successful.

"The students can't be that bad of a morning, I'm sure." She tried to reason between chuckles.

A faint smile twitched at the edge of his lips, "Who said I was talking about just the students?" If she had not spent all those months brewing with him she would have been shocked to the floor that he could posses a sense of humour, no matter how dark. As they approached the doors, she started to fall back knowing he wouldn't want to be seen escorting her to the great hall. His hand on her arm stoped her though. "Just know that whatever happens today is part of a much greater plan and if you want to yell at someone, I suggest albus' portrait." And with that he swept off, once again leaving her standing in a corridor in confusion.

She headed in to breakfast and ate her toast in the seven minutes she had left, pondering on his last words and still being left in confusion. Only the arrival of Harry and Ron at one minute to nine brought her out of her thoughts. "Cutting it a little late aren't we boys?" She asked with a lifted eyebrow and a smile. Ron grunted and reached for a stack of toast.
"Good to see you too Mione," Harry laughed, "I have to admit I was hesitant to come back." He looked down for a moment before looking up with a somewhat forced smile. "So we got a note from McGonagall saying she had an announcement after breakfast but she didn't say what, care to fill us in?" He had his puppy dog eyes on again she was amused to notice.

"I don't think either of you are going to particularly like it." She said warningly. This seemed to get Ron's attentions enough to drag him away from his food at least. She opened her mouth to continue but the headmistress cut her off.

"First lessons are beginning so I suggest all remaining students baring seventh and eighth years continue on if you don't wish to be late." McGonagall sat back down and waited for the hall to clear and the remaining students to come forwards towards the front of the hall.

Hermione whispered to the boys, "Well I guess it's going to have to be a surprise." Her tone was amused but she highly doubted anyone would want this kind of surprise. Surprise! We're forcing you to get married and pop out children before your ready too! She thought grimly. Hurrah Hurrah!