Ronald had left her.

He left her as she cried after him, begging him to come back.

He accused her of being with Harry Potter and turned his back on her, leaving his two best friends to fend for themselves in the wilderness.

It didn't matter that it was the Horcrux that had influenced him. It didn't even matter that he came back to redeem himself. The damage was done. The pain of that particular betrayal curled around her heart and crushed it.

Even once the war was done, and Ron had kissed her in celebration, her heart was no longer filled with unconditional warmth. She had celebrated with everyone, flashing smiles to the survivors and her friends, but in reality she felt betrayed. She would never truly trust him again. She would never trust him to stand by her when his insecurities wrapped around him. She could never trust him because he could not fully trust her when it had mattered the most to her tortured heart. And just like the scars left by her physical torture, the wounds on her heart had left scars.

So when Ronald had stood there on the bridge overlooking Hogwart's asking to be in a real relationship now that she had graduated, her warmth had run out. What remained was emptiness and the coldness that came every time she looked upon the face of Ronald Weasley.

She no longer had what he wanted her to give.

He could be her brother. He could be her friend. He would never be anything else.


Hermione woke from her dreams unsettled. She lifted her head from the table and saw Severus looking at her curiously with his dark unfathomable eyes. He inclined his head to the table where a cup of tea waited for her. Smiling slightly, she claimed the tea and cradled it in her hands before sipping it.

"We seem to be ahead of schedule on our end," Snape commented as he flipped a page in his book. "Miracles. Can. Happen." He made the last words extend as if no one was more surprised that he was.

"Such a relief," Hermione confessed. "I haven't really had time to think with all the tests, potion orders, and … whatever all this is we're doing."

"Organized chaos," Severus responded wryly.

Hermione snickered into her teacup. "Quite." Something flickered across her eyes that hovered between cold and warmth. "I didn't even tell him about the apprenticeships. I think I was too hard on Ron the past few days."

Snape met her eyes with his own, his face somber. "He is a Weasley. He will rebound as oblivious as ever; of this I am certain. I think Minerva has been running interference for you in her own way."

"She is so good to me," Hermione let out her breath in a sigh. "He's still terrified of you."

The corner of his mouth twitched upward, "Mission accomplished."

Hermione almost choked on the last of her tea and then vanished the cup and saucer.

Severus closed his book and tucked it into his robes. "You are due for a fitting for your teaching robes anytime this week. If you wish, you can mix business with seeing off your," he paused as if pondering which word would either be more insulting or less, "friend."

Hermione cracked a small smile, impressed with Snape's control over himself to not use yet one more opening to reinforce his true opinion of Ronald Weasley. "Thank you. I think I will do that."

"Hermione," Severus called to her as she had turned to leave.

Hermione turned back and looked at him expectantly.

"Your apprenticeship sigils," he said, holding out his hand to her. Two ornate medallions made of goblin silver shone in his hand. One had the form of a snake wrapped around Severus' personal mark. One had the form of a lion curled around Minerva's mark. The snake had deep emerald eyes. The lion had deep red rubies for eyes.

Hermione closed her hand around them. A warmth seemed to pass into her from Severus' palm. "Thank you, Severus."

"You are welcome," the Potion Master said as he closed her hand over the medallions with his. He stared into her face a moment before he turned from her and walked out of the hall towards the rest of the construction crews, his black robes swished behind him to mark his silent passage.