A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Sorry that this chapter is so short! I'm hoping to make the next one longer and have it posted by Tuesday night! I start my college classes back on Wednesday! So by then I will probably only get one chapter posted a week, which makes me depressed, because I am so enjoying writing this!
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEVERUS SNAPE!
The Christmas holidays went by quickly for Severus and Hermione. They spent Christmas morning alone is Severus's quarters opening presents and making love. For Christmas, Hermione managed to acquire a very rare potions book that was five hundred years old to give to Severus. Severus had shopped around and still couldn't find anything to gibe to Hermione that he felt would be special. Eventually, once the holidays started, Severus managed to go to his Prince vault at Gringotts. There he retrieved a stunning ruby teardrop necklace that had belonged to his great-great grandmother. It was goblin-made so it was of the finest quality. Along with the necklace, Severus bought Hermione some white peacock quills. Hermione was stunned at the beauty of both and gladly accepted them.
After opening presents they had ate breakfast in bed and then made love until it was time to shower and make an appearance in the Great Hall. Over the past few days they had become used to the small amount of people in the school. There was only two younger students from Slytherin, one from Hufflepuff, and Hermione was the only Gryffindor to stay. Then of the professor's there was Severus, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Pince, Trelawney, and Flitwick, along with Madame Pomfrey.
While the other students staying behind for the holidays gave the couple funny looks when they saw Hermione and the Potions Master together, all of the teachers were welcoming and happy for the couple. It was easy to see that they were in love and so all of the teachers who were at first skeptical about the relationship, were now their supporters.
They made their appearance in the Great Hall for Christmas lunch and were barely seen again until it was time for all the other students to return for the new term. Instead of spending their time with other people, they spent it alone, mostly ordering food from the house elves. In their time alone, they realized just how precious they were to one another.
When the students came back in January, the two new couples from the Yule Ball were the talk of the school. The day that they arrived back to Hogwarts, everyone wondered where Hermione had been on the Hogwarts Express. They seemed to answer their own question when dinner came and the couple arrived hand-in-hand and Severus walked Hermione to her seat beside Ginny at the Gryffindor table. No one had said a word or made a noise when the couple came in and still remained quiet until Severus had taken his seat at the teachers table beside the Headmaster. Conversations started to pop up around the hall and Hermione, Ron, and Draco heard their names more than they liked within the first ten minutes. Draco had decided to forgo sitting with his Slytherin House, instead sitting with his boyfriend, who was more than happy to show him off.
For days on end after term started, the two couples were the talk of the school, until Pansy Parkinson and the Daily Prophet let it be known that she was engaged to the best seeker in the world, Victor Krum. No one had known that they were even dating, let alone engaged. After that, even though they were still talked about, Pansy had given everyone something better to talk about.
Since the news of Pansy's engagement, the months went by quickly and without much hassle, other than a few rude students who made sure to let everyone know their horrid opinions. The "eighth" years and seventh years were getting ready to sit their N.E.W.T.'s in June, so by the time Easter holidays came around, the students were already freaking out. Hermione had been studying as much as possible the past month and Severus decided it was time that she have a break and enjoy herself a little.
During the Easter holiday, Hermione once again stayed at Hogwarts with Severus. Like Christmas, they spent a lot of time alone in his room, in bed. But most days, Severus planned small day trips. By the time the week was almost over, they had been to Muggle London to visit the Tower of London and do some shopping, went to France to see the Eiffel Tower, and hiking in the hills of Scotland for rare potion ingredients and a picnic. The couple were enjoying themselves immensely.
On Saturday they decided to travel into Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. The next days the students would be back to school and it would be time to once again to become serious about school. It was three o'clock in the afternoon when they finally left Diagon Alley for Hogsmeade. They had been to most of the shops in Diagon Alley, buying books at Flourish and Blotts, visiting the Apothecary to put in a potion ingredient order for the school, and even spent a good amount of time in Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. Hermione was somehow able to talk Severus into going in and visiting Fred and George to see what new products they had come out with. (A/N: In my version, Fred does not die! He was always one of my favorite characters, so I kept him along with Dumbledore.)
When they first entered the shop, Severus was not expecting to actually like the place. Fred and George saw the two enter and gave them a grand welcome. They tried to annoy Severus but he was too occupied with all of the products he was seeing around him. He had saw some of that they made at school, but it was mostly the annoying stuff that they created to help students get out class or make a mess. So the twins' moved on to annoying Hermione, mostly about her relationship with Severus and their broken hearts over the fact that she never gave them a chance. By the time they left the store, Hermione was completely annoyed at the male species and Severus was completely baffled that the twins' were truly geniuses.
They left from the twins' shop and made their way to Hogsmeade. Their first stop was Tomes and Scrolls to look for more books. After leaving there, the couple separated so Hermione could go to Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop and Severus could head to Ceridwen's Cauldrons. They planned on meeting thirty minutes later at Honeydukes.
Hermione went to the quill shop and purchased more quills since it was time for some new ones. She was waiting until her N.E.W.T. exams to use the special ones Severus got her for Christmas. This time, Hermione decided to splurge a little and get some nicer and more expensive quills that were supposed to last longer than regular ones. After she bought them she headed to meet Severus.
As she passed an alley way, she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings and before she knew what was happening a hand came over her mouth and she was dragged into the alley and behind one of the buildings. Hermione had no chance to scream because the person- clearly a man by the voice- cast a Silencing Charm on her. He pushed her up against the back of the building face first. She turned her head enough to see a man with a pock-marked face and ugly, unclean hair. She had never seen him before and had no idea who he was.
He hit her upside the head when he noticed her turned to look at him. Hermione groaned in pain.
"Stupid Mudblood. I'm going to teach him what happens to traitors of the Dark Lord. You are his whore and you will pay for his mistakes. You will also pay for Harry Potter being alive as well," the man said harshly in her ear. He started rubbing up and down Hermione's sides to her bottom. Sadly, Hermione was wearing a skirt and he found easy access to her bare skin. He pinched her bottom and Hermione fought against him as hard as she could. Quickly he turned her all the way around and punched her across her face.
"Bitch, I will teach you. You are nothing but scum to people like me!"
Hermione raised her foot up to kick him, but he caught it and twisted her ankle. She heard a small snap and almost fainted at the pain she felt. Falling to the ground, she just wanted the pain to stop. The man started kicking her in her ribs and quickly Hermione saw white and lost consciousness.
