I am very cross with myself and that little Severus that resides in my head wont shut up. I'm sure my fellow authors know the feeling. As I took so long to get out my last chapter out, I forgot some details and parts of the story that I wanted to get into the last chapter. I shall have to improvise because I refuse to remove the last chapter. It happens. I will also try harder to watch out for my spelling. Maybe I should watch the computer screen instead of my anime while I type. (grins and ducks away from items that my altar ego throws at me.) Here I go. Watch out for more complications.

Charmed as a Bleeding Rose

Chapter 9

By: Allore NightShadow

As Severus Snape walked, not stalked, from the meeting, Minerva ran to catch up with him.

"Severus!" She called, and he slowed his pace so that she could catch up. "Her parents refuse to speak to us. They know something, but short of magic, there is really nothing we can do. This has happened before as well. Once, she never arrived home for Christmas break, though she left the grounds. At another time, she left her house for school a week before it began. She always returns, but I'm worried. I never would have mentioned it, but in these times, it is not wise to go somewhere that is not protected. Hermione is well known as a friend of Harry Potter and I want people watching out for her. I would appreciate it if you would stay with her if you cant get her to return right away."

There was something nagging at Severus' mind. Something about a teacher being sent after Hermione didn't add up. If she had wanted someone to keep an eye on Hermione, she never would have announced to the entire staff that she had gone missing.

"You are making excuses, Minerva. There is something you are not telling me?" It was a question as much as it was a probe for more information.

"I went to her parents' home. She had not returned my owls. You see, I was going to request that she come back to Hogwarts early because of…" She paused a moment and gave Severus a pointed look. "…because of something you said."

Severus nodded. At the last Order meeting, he had reported that Voldemort was planning to start attacking the students. There had been extra spells placed on the students' homes, they were told that it would be dangerous to travel and it was highly recommended that they stay at school during the holidays if it was possible. He understood why she was worried now more than she had been when Hermione had supposedly gone missing before.

Minerva continued. "When I got there, the father answered the door. Told me that Hermione was wasn't there and slammed the door in my face. I heard shouting from the other side of the door. Hermione's father yelled 'You let that man in my house?' and her mother replied 'What was I supposed to do? He came in here, waving that magic stick in my face and demanded that Hermione come with him or else. I couldn't very well tell him to get out.' It makes me worried for Hermione."

Severus nodded and began to walk away again. Where to start? The first question was who that man was, why he wanted Hermione, and where he took her. The parents' house would likely be the best place to get answers.

He walked to the edge of Hogwarts grounds and apparated to the center of the Granger's living room. Who cared if they were muggles and it was more than likely that he would scare the shit out of them.

As it turned out, the Grangers were not home at the moment. He did not have to wait long though. Not a minute after Severus apparated into the room, a set of keys was put into the front door lock from the outside and the door opened. Severus would never understand why muggles used keys. It couldn't be very hard for another person to get inside the house.

"Who are you?" Mr. Granger yelled once he spotted the black clad man in his living room. He went silent when he noticed the wand in the man's hand.

"I am Professor Snape from Hermione's school. I would like to know where she is." Best not to let them know that their conversation had been overheard.

"She's not here, now get out of my house." Mr. Granger said bravely. A moment later he shrunk back, nearly hiding behind his wife, when Severus rounded on him.

"You misunderstand me." He growled. "You will tell me where Hermione is or who she is with. There is no other option."

Mr. Granger refused to speak, but his wife answered instead. "She was taken by a man who you might find on the grounds of Salem school. Now will you please leave? You are upsetting my husband."

Severus glared at the woman disapperated. They didn't seem to care that their daughter was taken to… it took a moment before he realized that they had mentioned that this man (and as he had taken Hermione, her too) was to be found in America. America! He didn't want to go there. No choice but to go anyway, he apparated to Salem School of Witchcraft. At least she probably was not hurt if she was on the school grounds.

He apparated into an area not far from the buildings that made up the school. Americans must not be very intelligent. How were the supposed to defend their school if the school consisted of so many separate buildings. They would be invaded in moments.

He stopped the first person he came across with a deadly glare. "Where is Hermione Granger?"

"Who?" The man asked, but then Severus's English registered. "Oh, her. That large house on the far right." He had the worst accent Severus had ever heard.

He stalked to the house mentioned and with a quick spell to disable the ward on the house, entered.

He was faced with a wand pointed towards him and look so cold that Severus felt for a moment he was looking in a mirror. In a moment, his wand was pointed at the other man and the infamous Severus Snape glare was put in place.

"What do you want?" The other man demanded. He was as tall as Severus himself and almost as thin, though where Severus' hair was black, this man's hair was dark auburn and where Severus had black eyes, this man had blue.

"Where is Hermione?"

The other man grew more fierce. "What do you want with her?"

Severus didn't say anything. They glared at each other, wands raised at each other, still as statues. Anyone who came upon them would have ducked for cover, that is, anyone who happened to come upon them except the one person who did come upon them.

"Who are you threatening now, Alex?" The person who walked in was Hermione.

It was a very self sure man who could lower his wand while faced down with another. The man called Alex did just this. His eyes lightened and completely turned his attention away from Severus as if he were no threat at all. He placed his arm around Hermione's shoulders with an ease that Severus almost felt a pang of jealousy for. Almost, but not quite.

"Oh! Professor Snape!" She seemed surprised.

"You know this man?" The man Hermione had called Alex asked.

Hermione nodded. "He is one of my Professors."

The man lost his defensive stance and walked from the room.

"You must forgive Alexandros." Said another older man. This man was probably ten years Severus' senior. "He is very protective of Hermione. You must be the mad English man that the Transfiguration teacher said was stalking the grounds, looking for Hermione." He smiled warmly in a way that would make most overlook the wand firmly grasped in his hand. Severus Snape was not most.

"Severus Snape?" He questioned and Severus nodded in response.

Instead of waiting for Severus to ask how he knew, the man told. "I've read your articles." He then directed his speech to Hermione. "He's your potions teacher?" She nodded.

"My name is Helios. I'm Hermione's father."

That was a shock Severus didn't see coming. He had been under the impression that Hermione's parents were the Granger's and that she was a muggleborn. Apparently that was not so. Curious.

"Let me show you to a room you can stay in." He said, and put his wand away, still smiling brightly. He walked past Severus and in a voice that was just load enough that Severus could hear he said, "If you make Hermione cry again, I'll kill you." Helios was still smiling.

For a moment Severus didn't know what the man was referring to. "I see no difference." Severus almost regretted saying those words as he followed after this man.

Helios walked further into the house and up a set of steps.

"That door at the end of the hall is a room that you may stay in should you wish, but first I should wish to speak with you." He opened the first door at the top of the steps and stood in such a way as to give Severus no choice but to enter the room.

He was reminded of the headmasters office. The place was large enough, but so cluttered with magical objects that you wouldn't call the room large. Sitting on the center of the desk was a large black cat, the size of a German Shepherd, with a split tail. As the creature cleaned itself, fire jumped from its mouth to its fur. When it looked up, Severus saw that its eyes shifted colors between red, blue and yellow.

"They call it a sun spot." Helios said, noticing Severus' attention on the feline. "It is named that way because of the way the fire licks its fur when it gets angry. Vicious creatures, nasty tempered too." Severus was sure there was a well concealed threat in that statement.

"Please take a seat." He said to Severus, and then to the cat he said, "Raissa, off the table." The feline gave him that bored look that all felines have mastered and moved off the table at a leisurely pace. It jumped to the floor and sat behind Severus.

The cat behind him, actually anything behind him, made him nervous, but Severus refused to show it.

"Now tell me why you are here, Potions Master, and you had better make it good."

(o)

Hogwarts had been oddly subdued over the holidays. The staircases didn't switch as often as the usually did and there was no sudden appearances (or disappearances) of places. There were no cleverly disguised traps, nobody got lost, and even the trick steps that everyone knew about didn't catch the unfortunate student who happened to step on it.

It wasn't the focus of everyone's attention, but nearly everyone commented on it, even Albus Dumbledore. "And the staircase had been right where I left it!" He had exclaimed, arms waving extravagantly.

Nobody knew why this was except for Hogwarts himself.

"See me." He commanded to some passerby. "See me." He concentrated on becoming corporeal, or at least corporeal enough to be seen, but the passerby, a Hufflepuff third year who had stayed at the school over Winter break, continued by unknowingly. "Damn it!" He yelled to the air, frustrated. He then disappeared.

Alistar never noticed the Hufflepuff student look around for the person who had yelled out and then shake his head as if he were imagining things.

As the days went by, more and more people heard a strange little boy talking and one or two even saw a strange little boy running through the halls. Alistar never knew.

(o)

The conversation between Helios and Severus grew beyond the scope of the first question until Severus was telling him about the private lessons he had given Hermione. Helios would have made and excellent interrogator.

"I had thought that wouldn't happen for another year or so." At Severus's questioning look, Helios decided to elaborate. "Perhaps I should start from the beginning."

"You see, Hermione's mother is a non-magical product of a muggle born and a muggle. I suppose the non-magical genes were too strong for the magic to carry into their child. I married her and we had our children. They were very magically gifted, moving things around and making things appear. We stopped getting along after an affair her mother had and we got divorced. Hermione went with her mother.

"The problem was, this time was the height of That Voldmort's reign. We had moved here because he hadn't yet set his sights on America, but Hermione's mother was going to take her back to England.

"They had magic detectors than, to scope out potential enemies. If the child's family were sympathetic to the dark lord, the child was pledged to their cause from the cradle, it they were against the dark lord, the child was either killed or, if it was too dangerous to kill the child, placed under a powerful binding spell. I emulated those binding spells for Hermione."

Severus looked at this man before him with concealed suspicion. How could he know about the dark lord using magic detectors?

"With this binding in place," he continued, "these spells would overlook her. An unfortunate consequence is that any un-channeled magic is largely unstable and channeled magic is limited to the small. It was designed to be overcome when Hermione came of age."

Severus eyed the cat that had come to sit in front of him instead. The feline gave him a lazy look before falling into a light sleep.

"Would it not have been more practical to create a binding that was less permanent? Something you could have removed when the threat of the dark lord passed?" Severus asked, ever practical and slightly intrigued. That someone could have come up with such a simple way to stay out of Voldemort's views.

"Perhaps more practical, but it would not have worked. My family produces Wizards with greatly varying power specialties, often very concentrated abilities, if not always abnormally powerful. In all likelihood, Hermione would have broken a lesser binding, and I'm sure you are aware that a forceful breaking of a binding is often deadly. Either the power discharge would be great enough to attract every Death Eater for miles or the snap back of the power would have killed her. As it is, I'm surprised that she had already started to force it, abate unknowingly. I am slightly put off that someone would have removed this binding. Well, perhaps if you didn't poison her, she wouldn't have started the struggle so early." The man shrugged, clearly not meaning to insult the other man.

"What is this power that she has?" Severus asked. He didn't like to be surprised.

The older man shrugged. "I'm sure you'll find out in the next month or so."

(o)

Yay! Two days! Only two days! Well, it was two days, but I didn't get to posting last night. This is to make up for the long, long, long wait for my last chapter. I hope you like this. This chapter was more information than story line and I almost left more questions than those answered… even if you didn't recognize the questions. I have the next chapter planned out, so it shouldn't be too long.

You will soon meet the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Athan, and the newest student, Artemis Athan. Don't worry, they won't overshadow the main characters, they will just help to carry this story along.

Thank you to all my reviewers, and all those who didn't review.

Zenni- That man was her father. You'll find out soon why the Grangers reacted that way.

GinnyGin- It is a derivative from a Greek name meaning Avenger. Most of my own characters names are Greek to fit in with Rowling's World where many of the characters represent the god they are named after (i.e. Minerva). If you would like to know the meanings of the other names in the story once the characters are introduced (I think all but one are already introduced) just tell me. Thanks also for being so faithful to this story and not giving up on me after that long wait.

Fiwoo- You don't think Dumbledore might have had to be harsh in order to get through the last war? What is it, do you think, that makes him one of the most feared wizards? His Lemon Drops?

Lily of the Shadow- The teasers I give at the end of the chapter (or the beginning) are not necessarily to give you hints, but to keep me on track. I tend to try and do too many things and loose track of myself. I will try to cut back, though.

Natsuyori- I have downloaded them off of bitorrent. I'm on episode 133. I just wanted to buy it (I got it cheap) so that I could be able to watch it over and over and over again. I only have so much space on my computer and CDs tend to get lost or scratched (or my sister eats them.

Meenyrocks- I'm really sorry for the mistakes, I'm trying to watch that. And Neville was running after his frog.

Thanks also to:

Chantal J

BlackRoseGirl

Tiger witch

40/16

F75

Weardpeopleandthepickle

Papu

Bookxluver

Watergoddesskasey

Anorake

Severus-Fan

Ayla3baby

Winter Fae

USAFroggie87

Azura14

Pureangel86

ILoveBillyJoe

Please comment or critique.