Thanks for all the reviews! I still don't own Harry Potter; he belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Thanks Severus' Malfoy Maiden for her excellent beta skills

Last Time

She felt the squishing feeling of Apparition until, finally; she felt them enter an eerie outside area. She peeked out of Snape's pocket and saw the evilest man on Earth staring at them.

"Severus," he hissed.

"My Lord," Hermione felt Snape bow down.

"Look me in the eye, tell me what you know."

"They are still trying to find ways to defeat you, but they have not been very successful thus far; most of their hope relies on the boy, which basically condemns them for defeat. The Order still refuses to work with the Ministry; I believe they are aware of your influence there, my Lord."

"What of Dumbledore?"

Hermione flinched when she heard the hatred in Snape's voice, she knew he was acting, but he sounded so sincere that it was hard for her to distinguish the lie from the reality, "The old codger? He has all of his plans, but he doesn't always share them with me. At the moment, he's more concerned with torturing everyone at Hogwarts with plans for festivities."

She could tell that Voldemort was performing Legilimency on Snape, but she trusted Snape's Occlumency.

"Very well, I can see you speak the truth. So, now, would you like to tell me why Hermione Granger, Potter's mudblood friend, suspects you of working for me? I thought you said you had her in your confidence and the boy listened to her. Is your acting slipping?"

Hermione saw Snape's face twitch as he obviously fought to display confusion. She felt horrible thinking he would believe she was just pretending to trust him. Hermione wondered what Voldemort could possibly be talking about until she remembered the conversations she'd had with Harry when she knew Voldemort could see what she told him.

"My Lord, I had previously been assured of her trust, she is not a skilled Occlumens and I believed her to be honest. Something must have recently changed her trust in me, but I promise I will regain it. You are always right, my Lord, and the chit must believe in me if Potter is not to lose faith."

"Of course I am right, Lord Voldemort is never wrong. Now, you will suffer the consequences for failing me."

Hermione felt Snape's muscles tense and she knew what was coming. She gripped tightly to the inside of his pocket with her tiny claws to keep from falling out as he collapsed to the ground, trembling as Voldemort repeatedly performed the Cruciatus on him. It took every inch of her willpower to keep herself from changing to her human form and throwing every curse she knew at Voldemort, and Dumbledore for that matter, for putting Snape through this torture.

Eventually, Voldemort was satisfied and felt that he'd had his fill of torment for the night. Snape rose, bowed, and then walked upright to the door. Only Hermione knew the pain he was hiding as she felt his muscles clenching and shivering. He Apparated to the gates of Hogwarts and managed to walk to his rooms, though Hermione couldn't imagine how, and crashed onto his couch, unable to carry himself even to his bed.

"Master, do you need help?"

"If I just, ughhh, lie here for a while, I should be alright… promptly."

"You don't look well if you ask me."

"Well I didn't ask you, now did I?"

Hermione sat in his lap, swishing her tail over his body, hoping to at least give some comfort since she couldn't offer healing at the moment. Eventually, he fell asleep, and after checking to make sure he wasn't just shutting his eyes, Hermione transformed into herself and quickly cast a disillusionment charm on herself. Disillusionments weren't perfect forms of invisibility, but it would give her enough time, should Snape wake up, to transform back into Suplina without being noticed.

She began muttering healing charms over his body, thankful for the training she'd gotten from Madame Pomfrey. Last year, she had asked for some instruction; considering she would be following the boys into a war, she figured it was a handy skill to have in her pocket, so to speak.

After Hermione had done everything she could for him, she slipped a bit of sleeping draught down his throat to guarantee he wouldn't wake up. She cast Wingardium Leviosa to get him into his bed. Pulling off his shoes and removing his outer robes, she laid him on his bed; she felt that doing anything more would be a violation of his person. Instead, she pulled his sheets around him and hoped he was as comfortable as possible. This done, she removed the disillusionment charm and transformed back into Suplina.

She curled up next to Snape's leg, trying to draw comfort from his warmth. Facing Voldemort in his full power and cruelty had frightened her; suddenly it wasn't just some childhood adventure, she could see the evil emanating from the man they needed to destroy.

For now, though, Hermione could sleep.

XXX

She woke up slowly the next morning, only to see sunlight streaming in through the windows of Snape's room. She looked away from the sunlight to Snape's eyes which were on her, "how did I get into my bed last night, partially clothed?"

"You sleep-walked".

"Really? Because, I've never been known to sleep-walk before. I think you're lying to me."

"You're accusing me when really you should just be happy that you got in bed and slept comfortably."

Snape looked at her silently for a few moments before apparently deciding to drop it as he got out of bed and began to get ready. Hermione sighed an internal sigh of relief, she didn't know what she would've done if he hadn't accepted her explanation. Suddenly, she connected the dots from the sun shining in the window to Snape getting dressed, and it all added up to one thing: she was extremely late and people were probably wondering where Hermione Granger was.

XXX

Harry, Ron, and Ginny were at this point all eating breakfast in the Great Hall.

"Where's Hermione?" Ron asked.

"She probably fell asleep studying again and forgot to set her alarm," Ginny suggested.

"I have Potions with her first, I'll grab some toast and give it to her before class," Harry offered.

They all got up to go to class, but Harry pulled Ginny to the side, "Ginny, could I have a word?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"Well, I know you don't think we should be more than friends, and I'm glad you told me, I'd prefer knowing the truth. The thing is, well, I'm not quite at that point yet, I liked you a lot more than a friend. I think I'm just going to need some time to recover, if you know what I mean?"

"Harry, I totally understand. Take as much time as you need. In the meantime, I'll try and get closer to the girls in my grade, I need to have someone to hang out with once you guys all graduate."

"Gin, I don't want you to have to just leave, I can always try and hang out with other people."

"And separate the golden trio? I don't think so. It's cool Harry, just let me know when you'll be okay with just being friends and then I'll hang out with you guys again."

"I still feel bad, like you're getting the raw deal."

"Nah, you're the one that's suffering more."

"Ok, well thanks for understanding."

"Thanks for telling me, I really appreciate that you told me the truth."

"Yeah, well, I shouldn't get all the credit. Hermione's the one that told me to."

"She isn't called the brains of the trio for nothing."

"Yeah, I guess so. Well, I'll see you around I guess."

"Sure thing," and with that, Ginny bounced off and struck up a conversation with Luna.

Harry gave a sigh of relief, he'd been nervous about how that would go. He should've known it'd be fine though, anything Hermione told him to do always seemed to work out.

XXX

Through this whole interaction, Hermione was making excuses about finding birds to catch so that she could sneak out of Snape's quarters. She eventually found herself sprinting towards her rooms, weaving in between the wave of students' legs.

When she reached her room, she quickly changed into robes and sprinted, in human form this time, towards Potions. She arrived right as everyone was filing in, out of breath and panting.

"Five points from Gryffindor for distracting fellow students with that obnoxious racket, Miss Granger."

Hermione glared at him briefly before deciding she didn't have energy to do anything more. Harry whispered to her that he had a piece of toast for her and briefly mentioned that he'd taken her advice and talked to Ginny.

I know this is shorter than usual, but I wanted to give you guys an update as a reward for so many reviews! Plus, I didn't end on a cliffy this time, which is nice I'm sure!

Please review!