Here's the second one for today (make sure you've read chapter six first), and another will follow shortly.

P.S.: If you're interested, I'm also going to be going back and making minor grammatical and style changes to my earlier chapters, but nothing about the plot is changing.


Hermione had several minor visits over the next few months of Severus Snape's life. Most were innocuous—listening to the radio, talking about magic, listening to Severus play all the songs he was learning on his guitar—but a few were close-calls.

Tobias Snape had come home for the Christmas holiday, and was once again three sheets to the wind. Hermione had managed to discreetly send another stunner while both his and Eileen's backs were turned, and he had left the next day after nursing a terrible hang-over for several hours.

Severus had taken a 'short-cut' home from school to avoid a group of bullies in January of 1969, shortly after school was back in after the holidays. He had tried to cross a stream that had appeared to be frozen over, and Hermione had shown up just in time to levitate him out of the freezing water and get him warm. He narrowly avoided hypothermia.

At the end of March, Severus had raced down the stairs as soon as his mother left the house, eager to go out to play in the snow, and had nearly cracked his head open when he'd fallen. Luckily, Hermione had appeared on the stairs a moment before he slipped and was able to stop him from rolling all the way down. She had healed his bruises and done what she could for his strained wrist, grateful that no more serious damage had been done.

More than once during that time, Hermione could remember thinking, Do all little boys have this many serious accidents? Maybe I should rethink having kids.

Of course, then Severus would do something completely endearing, and she'd change her mind right back.


That April, Hermione found herself standing on the edge of a playground near what looked to be a Muggle primary school. The sun was too low in the sky for class to have just let out for the day, but Severus was sitting on a swing by himself, clearly stalling for time before heading home.

Checking that no Muggles were looking her way, Hermione removed the Cloak and approached Severus slowly. She was only about fifteen feet away when the boy finally looked up at her.

"Hermione!" he cried, slipping off of the seat of the swing and running to her, flinging his arms around her waist. She hugged him back, laughing happily at his enthusiasm. Instead of talking right away, Hermione led Severus back to the swings, and they sat side by side for a time, swinging and enjoying the companionable silence.

As they walked toward the Snape home later on, Severus said, "There's a new girl in my class this year."

Hermione smiled, guessing that Lily Evans had moved into the neighborhood. "What's her name?"

"Lily," he said with a smile, confirming Hermione's suspicions. While it made Hermione happy to know that Severus would soon have a friend his own age and in his own time, she couldn't help but grieve for the falling out that she knew they would have, the pain her friend would suffer when Harry's parents died at Voldemort's hands.

"Is she nice?"

Severus shrugged. "I think so. We don't sit near each other in class, and I haven't talked to her yet. She seems nice, though."

Hermione smiled. "Tell me about her."

Another shrug. "She has a sister named Petunia. She's a year older than us."

"Is that all you know about Lily?"

Severus thought for a moment. "I heard one of the other girls in class say that she's really smart, but odd. I thought maybe… I dunno. I was hoping that she might be a witch, but… I'll just have to wait and see, I guess."

Nodding, Hermione said, "I think it would be good for you to make another friend, whether she's a witch or not. You should talk to her."

As Severus acknowledged her advice, Hermione felt the tell-tale warning in the ring. "Oh," she sighed disappointedly. "I guess I was just supposed to walk you home today, Severus. It's almost time for me to go already."

The pair hugged tightly as they neared the Snape home, Hermione reminding Severus to practice with Jeanie and study well for his class. Severus reminded Hermione to let him know when she appeared again. With a kiss to Severus's forehead, Hermione pulled on the Invisibility Cloak and felt the world swirl around her again.