A/N: This chapter is going to be shorter, but I think it needs to stand on its own, rather than trying to force something in with it. Hopefully you'll see it, too, after reading it.

I wanted to thank everyone for their support of this story so far. It has meant a lot to me.

Hermione didn't emerge from her room until one minute before midnight, moving as silently as possible down the stairs. Severus was waiting in a pair of jeans and a hooded jacket.

"If you are coming, you will follow my rules," Severus said by way of greeting. "Most importantly that you will not question what I tell you to do, and you will do it. If you think you will fight me on any instruction I give you tonight do me a favor and stay here."

"I promise, I'll follow your lead," she replied with a nod.

"Good. I do not plan on being in the house very long. Once the fire is set we will retreat to a rooftop across the way, and stoke the thing so it looks like it has been burning for hours. I plan on making it appear as though some of the neighborhood teenagers broke in and started the fire, and so I will be destroying some things first."

She opened her mouth, but remembered his first demand, and quickly stopped herself.

"The police will not bother investigating," he answered her unspoken question confidently. "I have not lived there for over a year, and before I left permanently I had some rather unsavory looking characters coming and going. The police there are busy enough with real cases that they'll write the fire off unless I make an appearance to demand they do something. I'm more than happy to have my neighbors think I'm dead."

She nodded once.

"Your job will be to go upstairs and make it look as though someone went through and nicked whatever they wanted in case the fire department has an unusually quick response time and manages to get it out, though I feel that, when they show up, they'll do more work trying to keep it from spreading than stopping it from burning the place to the ground. I went to school with many of the firemen before I went to Hogwarts, and they know my home and won't be sad to see it gone. While the upper level is the least problematic area it will be furthest from where I'm setting the fire, so I want you to do a thorough job."

"I will," she promised.

"Keep an eye out the window. I don't think there will be many out at this time of nigh, but if there is try to keep from being seen, though you don't need to hide the sounds. If someone overhears you rummaging around it will help our cover."

"Okay."

"Let's go," he said, holding an arm out, and she grabbed it so he could take her directly into his house in Spinner's End. Upon landing she immediately set on her task, hurrying up the stairs while suppressing a visceral reaction to the run down house. It was in such stark contrast to her own, and it showed how little Severus cared for the place. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls if there was any in any particular place. The wood surfaces were cracked and showing signs of rot. The carpet was stained and had been worn through in several places. The whole house smelled musty and was covered in a layer of dust. It was disgusting, and she knew why Severus felt it unfit for human habitation. The first room she came to at the top of the stairs was the bathroom. Surprisingly it looked in better shape than most of the house, though she figured that made sense. No one wanted to use a disgusting shower. She waved her wand, and the medicine cabinet flew open and several toiletries fell into the sink, where she left them. She vanished a couple ancient bottles of pills, and knocked the back of the toilet off for good measure.

The room across from the bathroom was a bedroom, his parents if she would hazard a guess. No one had bothered to clean the old liquor bottles, the bed was completely disheveled, and there was a disturbing brown spot on the carpet that she took care to avoid as she moved through the room. Dresser drawers were emptied onto the floor and rummaged through, but there was nothing of value anywhere.

"Severus?" she called, standing at the top of the stairs. "It looks like someone already did my job in this room," she said when he appeared, nodding towards the bedroom.

"Wormtail stayed in there," Severus replied. "I'm not surprised that he went through things, he always was trying to find something to prove my loyalty to someone other than the Dark Lord. But he was too afraid and too idiotic to go anywhere but where he was told, and I severely limited where he could move in the house."

"I'll just leave it like that, then," she said with a face of disgust.

"Slash the mattress," he ordered.

"Excuse me?"

"I know enough of the youths and burglars around here to know no one would forget to slash the mattress. It's not uncommon around here to hide what little savings you have in there, as no one has enough to want to mess with a bank, and every thief that lives in twenty miles knows to check the mattress for hidden valuables. Slash it and pull enough of the filler out to make it convincing that you looked for something. The filler will probably help the place burn."

She swallowed the questions threatening to spill from her lips and returned to the bedroom, using her wand to slash around the outside of the mattress, filler flying to the floor. As she did so she heard something clank to the floor. Curious, she sifted through the filler with her foot, and saw a glint of silver. She bent over and picked up the item, finding a tarnished silver locket on a flimsy sterling-silver chain. For a moment she debated opening it, but the curious streak Harry instilled in her won, and she pried it open. On one side there was a picture of a couple she immediately knew to be Severus' parents, he was the perfect mix of the two. The man had the same distinctive nose, the woman the same dark eyes. Her gaze shifted to the other picture, which was obviously a photo of a younger Severus, who looked to be about nine or ten in the photo. But there was something different about him, like there was still a bit of life and hope in his eyes. But even then he showed distinct signs of a hard life, shoulders slumped in a perpetual sign of submission, dark circles under his eyes betraying a lack of sleep, an unnaturally pallid color that wasn't as sickly looking as his current state. Part of her wondered if that hope in his eyes was because of Lily.

"Five minutes!" he called from somewhere beneath her, probably because she hadn't moved in several minutes. She swore lightly and snapped the locket shut, shoving it into a pocket before moving to the final room. Part of her was excited to see Severus' room, to try to gain a little more insight, but the room was nearly as barrren as a hospital room. A small bed with a well-worn matress took dominated the space. There was a closet that Severus had already cleaned out, leaving a few threadbare items behind, and a chest of drawers that was more the size of one reserved for children. The most unsettling thing sat on a beaten side-table next to the bed; a shallow basin with several brown-stained bandages and towels around it, a thick needle and thread tucked beneath, a few potion bottles as well as a plastic bottle of antiseptic in arm's reach, and several brown drops around the area and on the bed. Her stomach churned as she realized she had come across equipment Severus used to heal himself without magic. A shudder overcame her as she thought of how injured he must have been to be unable to perform magic to help himself, and how painful it must have been for him to force himself to stay awake long enough to patch himself back together.

A loud thump below her coaxed her into action, and she pulled the drawers out, but found nothing of interest as most had already been emptied. After slashing Severus' mattress she found the filler to be a hard, compressed block, and she left it in place.

"Are you done?" Severus called from the stairs.

"I'm vanishing some of your... medical equipment," she replied, vanishing the basin and bandages. "If the police were to see this much blood they'd think there had been a murder here, and I'd rather them not come knocking, thank you." She finished up and started coming down the stairs. He strode up three stairs to her, grabbing her around the waist and Apparating them to the roof-top of an abandoned building across the street.

"Set it already, have you?" she asked, but she could see the faint flicker of flames in the basement and didn't need a reply. A minute later the first tendrils of smoke started to escape the cracks around the opaque window. Carefully Severus moved to the edge of the roof, checked to make sure no one was on the street below, and aimed his wand at the the window. Almost immediately the fire blossomed, and she could see it through a couple windows on the main level now as well. Severus, seemingly satisfied, stowed his wand and stared at the house, as if his glare were enough to fuel the flames.

"What if no one spots it?" Hermione asked softly.

"The house next door is vacant, however I'll do my best not to let it get there," he replied.

They watched in silence for a few minutes, until the first lick of flame could be seen on the outside of the house through a weak spot in the wall. At nearly the same time a woman wearing a skin-tight dress and stumbling slightly on her heels came into view. It didn't take her long to realize what was going on, and she pulled out a mobile to call the fire department. She started calling towards the upper windows in case someone was home, and down the street Hermione saw a few lights turning on.

"Severus?" she asked.

He grunted, eyes not leaving the scene.

"May I ask why you felt the need to do this tonight? Feel free not to answer."

He didn't reply for several minutes as they watched a small crowd start to form below. Police arrived, and started shepherding the watchers back so the fire truck that arrived seconds later had room to park. Severus leaned forward, gripping the ledge as he leaned over, flames reflected in his dark eyes. "I visited my father today," he finally said, so softly she almost missed it.

Her face registered her surprise, and she couldn't stop herself from asking, "You father is alive?"

"Yes," he replied shortly.

She bit her lip and studied him, but when she saw him starting to tense she looked back at the house.

"It didn't go well, I take it?" she asked in a whisper that invited him to pretend he hadn't heard.

"It never goes well," he muttered. "I may not be a pleasant man, but I am nothing compared to him. And don't apologize, as you are about to do, you didn't even know the man existed until a moment ago."

She held her tongue because she had been about to say "I'm sorry". The sound of hoses turning on drew their attention back to the house, but Hermione could see Severus lazily pointing his wand, and burst of flame broke through a window on the top floor Hermione knew belonged to Severus' room.

"Is there anything you need?" she asked.

"Why are you always asking that?" he snapped.

"Because I know if you want to talk about something you'll start talking. I know if you want solitude you'll leave. You have spent so long taking care of yourself you don't know how to hand any of that responsibility over to someone else. I ask because I hope to eventually teach you that you have someone here who will leave you in solitude if that's what you want so you don't have to be the one to leave. Or I'll listen even if you think I don't need to hear what you have to say because sometimes it helps to have someone to listen to your bloody bullshit for once without responding. Or if you need me to cause a distraction so you can cause one more flame-up I'll go cause one. I'm here for you, it's neither here nor there to me if that house burns to the ground, so I'll ask again, Severus: Is there something you need right now?"

He looked at her blankly for a long moment. Very slowly, as if he were unsure of himself and didn't want to go through with the motion he held an arm out and wrapped it around her shoulders, drawing her in to him. Though her face didn't show it the gesture shocked her, and she stepped into him so their bodies were touching, reaching her hand up to rub his in support.

The crowd below had peaked, several people arriving in their night clothes, gathering in small clusters and murmuring to themselves as the fire fighters did their best to keep the fire contained. A few people took pictures, and a tired reporter wandered through the crowd trying to get information that no one seemed willing to give. The clock moved past one thirty in the morning and Hermione's feet started to grow tired and she shifted from foot to foot, and was considering asking if she could leave when it happened. There was a loud creaking noise, and the firefighters immediately backed up. A couple seconds later there was a sharp crack, and the house collapsed in on itself, leaving a burning pile of blackened rubble. A couple teenagers below let off a whoop of excitement, and Hermione looked up at Severus to see his reaction.

At first she was sure he wasn't going to show any emotion, but he took a deep breath, pulled his arm back to himself so he could lean on the ledge, and his face broke out in a wide smile. She stayed cautiously back as he started chuckling, then laughing. He had a curious laugh, she realized, not very loud, as though he felt the need to hide his happiness, and there was an almost malicious edge to it that might send a shiver of fear up the spine of anyone who didn't know he wasn't dangerous in that second.

"It's gone!" he announced to the air, which started another round of laughing. "It's fucking gone!" he said again as he controlled himself. He suddenly spun to her, wrapping her in a tight hug. "It's fucking gone," he repeated into her hair. She cautiously returned the hug, but quickly let go when he broke away from her.

"You didn't beat me!" he hissed at the pile of rubble. "It's all gone, and I'm fucking here!"

Hermione knew he wasn't talking to the house.

"Let's go," he said suddenly. "I'm done with this bloody town, and I won't darken these streets again."

"Do you want me to take you back?" she asked, offering an arm.

"No, I have something I have to do. You can go back if you wish."

"I'll go with you, if that's alright," she replied.

"It's nothing interesting. I left your car a mile or so away, and I should probably bring it back."

"I'll come with," she said with a yawn.

"Your choice," he shrugged, striding to the door to the stairs. "I'm going to walk there."

"Good. Maybe if I get a little bit of walking in my body will catch up with my brain in the exhaustion category," she said, following him down the stairs. They quietly exited the building into the dwindling crowd of people, and she took his hand. They waited a moment, until a group started down a nearby street, and started following, passing a police officer who nodded but said nothing. They got away with no one fingering Severus as the owner of the now-destroyed home. As they walked Severus occasionally inhaled deeply every so often, and Hermione realized that he was trying to find the point where he could no longer smell the smoke, when the whole thing was literally behind him. She started inhaling discretely as well, and about a half mile away found the air consumed with the smell of fried food from a late-night eatery, and the distant sound of a siren drowned by revelers in the pub next door, but she couldn't find a hint of the scent of smoke. Severus must have noticed as well, because she felt his shoulders shake a few times in a silent chuckle, and there was a smile playing across his lips.

Finally Severus aimed them at a gray brick building that was sandwiched between a factory that looked as though it had been closed for a long time, and a run-down medical clinic. Hermione could see her car in the car park and looked at Severus.

"How long has he lived here?" she asked.

"Seven years," he replied. "Since he was released from prison."

"Prison?"

"He beat my mother to death."

Her step faltered, but she quickly recovered. He waited until they were in the car and he had pulled onto the road before elaborating.

"He always beat us," he said softly. "Her more than me, but that's because I started fighting back, and with my magic he knew I had the upper hand, though he also knew I was limited in what I could do without getting kicked out of school. The night before I was returning from my sixth year, so when I was finally seventeen and didn't need them to collect me from the station my mother stayed out late with a man I knew helped at a nearby church. I believe she was starting to make plans to leave. Father thought she was sleeping with another man, and beat her several times over the next few hours. When I arrived back that evening I found her barely clinging to life in their room, and he was nowhere to be found. I called the police, and tried to talk to her to keep her awake. She told me my father was the one who beat her, even though it was obvious, and for some reason told me she wanted me to visit him for his birthday every year."

Her brain immediately formed several theories, but she refrained from saying anything. "I am sorry you had to go through that," she said. "And don't tell me not to say anything like that, what happened was horrible, and no one, especially not a child, should have to go through with that."

"I know," he murmured. "Though one could argue no one should have to go through what you have at your age."

"True, but at least my threat didn't raise me," she yawned.

Silence fell over the car again. Hermione adjusted herself in her seat and immediately her eyelids began to droop. Within five minutes her head started to loll to one side, and she started to slouch. Her head came to rest on his shoulder, and she didn't move. He looked at her in surprise, no one since Lily had felt comfortable enough around him to do such a thing. She didn't move as he drove, save for one point where she adjusted herself, moving closer to his neck. He could smell her then, a combination of her shampoo and the smoke from the fire, and he realized just how much she had done for him that night. As he sped down dark roads back to their home he had time to think about everything he had gone through that day, and he decided that, even though their relationship was forced and there was a time limit on it, that it would be nice to have someone on his side during that time. Hermione had proven herself nowhere near the know-it-all annoyance of her school days, and he was starting to enjoy their time together. They would be around each other for the next fifteen years, and perhaps they may actually be enjoyable.

XXXXXXXX

The next day Hermione woke up on her couch, a pillow under her head and a blanket tucked around her. As she sat up and stretched she noticed a sheet of paper on her coffee table and, after rolling her neck a few times to try to relieve the stiffness, she picked it up.

Thank you. For everything.

-S

"You're welcome, you old prat," she murmured before standing up and heading to the kitchen to start breakfast. Severus came down a few minutes later, and she noticed his face looked a little brighter as he retrieved the paper and sat down.

She waited until she had finished eating and could make a quick escape before saying, "I have something for you."

He looked up at her, raising an eyebrow.

Cautiously she pulled the locket from her pocket. "I found this in the mattress in your parents room," she said quietly before holding it out to him.

He stared at it in surprise, trembling fingers wrapping around the chain as he cradled the locket in his palm. She had started to walk from the room when he started talking.

"When I was thirteen my father had gotten sacked, and spent about six months out of work. He started selling everything that would fetch a price. This is goblin made, and had been in my family for generations, but because there's nothing distinctly magical about it Tobias wanted mother to sell it. She spent a month doing odd jobs to make enough money to prevent the sale, but it wasn't much. I spent every free moment of that month nicking whatever I could, money when I could get it, selling what I could, until I had scraped up what would have been an extremely modest price. I gave mother the money, who hid the locket and told Tobias she had sold it. He beat her because it wasn't enough. I didn't know what mother had done with the thing, I was to afraid if Tobias found out she hadn't sold it he'd take it and sell it himself, and punish her for not doing as he said, and me if he found out what I had done."

"I'm glad you have it," she replied in a murmur.

"Thank you," he looked at her, holding the locket in both hands.

"You're welcome," she smiled, nodded, and left him to his thoughts.