Sorry for the long wait but I have been so busy and I had a small bit of writer's block, but I'm cured now thanks to watching Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince.

Enjoy :D

Chapter Seven – The Newly Weds

Hermione shivered and pulled her dressing gown around her. She was sat in the Gryffindor common room, curled into the armchair closest to the fire. Hermione was watching the orange, red and blue flames dance over the logs and lick at the metal grate. It had been a hectic and stressful few days. She had got married less than three days ago and today the marriage law had come in. Somehow the whole school had found out about her and Ron's marriage and she had been receiving angry letters from parents all day. She was beginning to realise that she wasn't exactly thinking clearly when she had...proposed to Ron, Hermione had been caught up in the stress of the new marriage law and jumped into the first solution she had thought of. Hermione didn't feel as if she had recently married, her so called husband was her best-friend but all he did was drawl over her.

The ancient grandfather clock chimed, letting Hermione know that it was 11:30. She was the only person in the common room even Seamus, who tried to stay up the latest every night in a strange kind of competition the boys had going, had gone to bed hours ago. Hermione had tried going to sleep but the half-awake state she had fallen into had been haunted with images of howlers and Ron's leering smile. So instead she decided to try completing the homework she had piling up, but unusually that couldn't keep her attention. That was how she ended up in the armchair, in the Gryffindor common room, all alone.

Her peace was shattered when Ron, bleary eyed and half asleep, stumbled down the spiral stone staircase and flopped into the armchair opposite her. Ron smiled at her.

"Hello wife." Ron said yawning. Hermione grimaced.

"Hello Ronald." Hermione replied, watching him closely.

"What cha doin' down here?" Ron asked.

"I couldn't sleep." Hermione said shortly.

Ron grunted in reply and fixed his gaze on the fire in the grate. Silence descended upon the newly-weds. Ron eventually broke the silence.

"You know we are married now..." Ron told Hermione, a smirk stretched across his face.

"I am aware." Hermione replied cautiously, she didn't like the way Ron was looking at her.

"Well, what do regular married couples do a lot?" Ron asked standing up. Hermione knew exactly what he was hinting at. She stood up.

"Umm...cook together?" Hermione asked, playing dumb.

"No silly." Ron said as he lunged towards Hermione. He grabbed her face in his hands and began to kiss her. First on her nose and then on her chin and finally Ron's lips came into contact with hers. Hermione shoved Ron as hard as she could, he landed on his backside inches away from the fire.

"Wh...what?" Ron asked, looking up at a furious Hermione with a bewildered look on his face.

"Don't touch me." Hermione spat, a little harsher than she meant to sound but her tone of voice let Ron know she wasn't to be messed with. Ron stood up. His confusion began to change to anger as he realised what was going on.

"You never married me for love did you?" Ron asked angrily.

"Love." Hermione laughed humourlessly.

"Harry told me you were using me, but I couldn't believe. I never thought you could be so cold Hermione Granger. You know I love you with all my heart and to hurt me like this, I thought you were above that. It appears I was wrong." Ron shouted. Hermione's blank face gave away no emotions.

"I'm not being cold. I'm being sensible. I did what I did so that I wouldn't have to marry a stranger chosen by the Ministry. Surely you of all people wouldn't want me married to anyone. I did what I did to survive, something I have learnt to do very well since I've been friends with you and Harry."

"Don't blame this on Harry and you-know-who. This is down to you. You are selfish and I had chosen not to notice it before, but you have shown me your true self Hermione. I just didn't know you could be so cold towards me, Ron, your best friend. And the boy who loved you." Ron told her quietly. He glanced at Hermione who had her back to him. She was staring at the fire as if it was the most interesting thing she had ever seen. Ron turned away from her and walked slowly up the stairs. He stopped and glanced back. Hermione turned around to face him.

"You said surely I wouldn't want you marrying anyone. You're right, like always. I didn't want you marrying just anyone, I wanted you to marry me." Ron whispered and walked away, back up the spiral staircase and into the boys dormitory.

"Ron." Hermione whispered at his retreating form. A single tear trickled down her face. She hadn't wanted to hurt him like that. Hermione roughly swiped the tear away and pulled her dressing gown around her tighter. She needed some fresh air.

Hermione walked out portrait hole and, as quietly as possible, tip-toed down the various staircases and out into Hogwarts ground. The frigid air nipped at her bare legs. She looked down and realised she was still wearing her skimpy nighty her aunty had given her for her sixteenth birthday. Her red and gold slippers were covered in snow and mud and her dressing gown was too short and thin for her to be stood outside on a winter night in the Scottish mountains.

Hermione decided to return to the cosy warmth of her bedroom and turned around when she reached the front gates of the school. She glanced out at the free world and sometimes wished she could be out there rather than cooped up inside a school. A loud moan made her jump. Her eyes darted all around her in panic. Surely Voldemort wouldn't try to attack the school at this hour. Would he? She glanced once again out the gates and saw a crumpled black figure trying to sit up.

Hermione didn't know what to do. Her caring side was telling her to help the person crumpled on the floor but her intelligent side was telling her to get the hell out of there and that the person might just be a trap. She watched the figure slump over again in an attempt to stand, her caring side came into play and she rushed to the gates. She realised that the person was indeed a man. The man looked familiar but in the darkness she couldn't tell if she knew him or not.

"Hello." Hermione called in a hushed voice, still wary of any lurking threats. When the figure didn't move she called out to him again. Finally the figure turned over to face his rescuer. Hermione gasped, through the blood on his face she could clearly make out the large nose and the pale skin of Professor Snape.

"Professor." Hermione said pressing up against the gates. She didn't know how to open them, so all she could do was watch her potions professor die in front of her.

"Granger." Snape gasped.

"Sir?" Hermione asked trying to reach through the gates to touch him.

"Get...Dumbledore." Snape hissed at her as he gasped in pain.

"Now?" Hermione asked stupidly. Snape shot her an icy glare and went back to grasping at his chest where a pool of blood had collected.

Hermione realised she had asked a stupid question. She used her wand to cast her patronus and watched as the small otter leapt into the air and off towards the castle.

"Quick." She whispered at the animal and turned her attentions back to her professor.

"Sir?" Hermione asked, his body had seemed to have stopped moving and Hermione was worried he was going to die.

"What?" Snape hissed.

"I thought you were dead." Hermione told him as she slumped down against the gates in relief. She had seen too much death for her seventeen years and she didn't wish to be the only one to witness Snape's death.

"Not yet. Don't worry you will still get your potions homework." Snape hissed.

Hermione smiled. It seemed as if even on his death bed Snape could still keep up his sarcastic and hateful façade. Hermione drew her wand out of her dressing gown pocket and attempted to stop the bleeding.

"Keep still." Hermione muttered as she drew her wand over the worst of Snape's wounds. She watched the tissue and skin knit itself back together until all that was left were huge slits in his black robes where the spells had sliced him. Snape seemed to still be in pain so Hermione cast a pain-dulling spell over him. He sat up against the gates as Hermione was doing. An awkward silence descended upon them.

"Can you tell me what happened?" Hermione asked him quietly. Severus glanced at her with a thoughtful look on his face. Finally he shook his head.

"No." Snape told her.

"I understand." Hermione had had to hide plenty from Harry to stop him from worrying and she was pretty sure Harry had to keep things from her and Ron.

Severus and Hermione watched as three figures tiredly stumbled over the rough ground towards them. Dumbledore, McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey fussed around the pair. Dumbledore opened the large gates with a flick of his wand and closed them quickly afterwards. Madame Pomfrey checked over Snape whilst McGonagall talked to Hermione.

"What happened?" McGonagall asked sternly.

"I found Professor Snape on the floor outside the gates, he told me to get Dumbledore, so I did and then I used my wand to heal some of his wounds." Hermione told her.

"What are you doing out of bed so late?"

"I couldn't sleep." Hermione watched Professor McGonagall give her a disapproving glare but was relieved when she realised she wasn't going to be punished.

"Hmmm...Well if it wasn't for your inability to sleep Severus may not have survived." Professor McGonagall told her. Hermione nodded, she was tired now. Her eyelids began to feel heavy and every movement seemed to take up all her energy.

Dumbledore and McGonagall supported Snape as they walked back up to the school. Hermione walked behind them with Madame Pomfrey.

"You did a very good job, he wouldn't have survived if you hadn't found and healed him." Pomfrey told her.

"I'm just happy to help." Hermione said tiredly but smiled at the matron. Madame Pomfrey smiled back and wrapped her thick cloak around Hermione's shivering body. Pomfrey tutted disapprovingly at Hermione's attire but didn't say anything.

Hermione followed Dumbledore, McGonagall and Pomfrey into the hospital wing where Dumbledore led Snape to a bed.

"Really, I do not need to be here. Let me return to my quarters. I have all I need there." Snape protested as Pomfrey brought him over three vials full of a sickly green potion.

Hermione smiled to herself as she watched Pomfrey try to force feed Snape the potion.

Dumbledore and McGonagall were whispering to each other in the corner of the ward and Madame Pomfrey was checking her potions store.

Hermione walked over to the bed where Snape was sat upright, refusing to lie down. She sat next to him on the bed and looked at his face. Really looked. The pale skin was scarred with faint pale lines that Hermione was sure had come from attacks similar to the one he had suffered tonight. There was dried blood still stuck to the side of his face. Hermione licked her thumb and moved it to hover over the blood. Severus nodded his consent and closed his eyes as Hermione's soft hand caressed his cheek and wiped away his blood. Suddenly Hermione realised what she was doing.

Abruptly she stood up and turned to face Snape.

"Sorry." She muttered, embarassed, and walked out of the hospital ward.

"Don't be." Snape whispered at her retreating form.

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