Severus sat in the lounge drinking some very strong coffee in which he had doctored on himself by adding various other potions to it in an attempt to make it very strong. Since he had gotten very little sleep last night due to bad dreams, he needed something ten times stronger than just your average Muggle coffee. A moment later, the door of the lounge flew open and in walked Minerva looking quite pleased with herself.

"I take it the sleeping drought worked wonders for you," he stated dryly.

"Why yes it did Severus. Thank you."

"No need to thank me," he muttered. "I'll do anything to keep you off my back." Minerva shot him a look before grinning from ear to ear. "What's got you feeling so…pleased with yourself?" he asked curiously. Normally he wouldn't be concerned with such things but the grin she was sporting was almost scary in its own way.

"Well Severus, as you know my Transfiguration class met earlier this morning."

"Yes…"

"Well I couldn't help but notice a slight change in Ms. Granger. There was a certain calmness about her this morning. Even Harry and Ron noticed it too."

"Oh joy."

"Oh come now Severus. I'm sure it was because she slept like a baby last night."

"And if so, that's partly due to the fact that she whiffed just a bit too much of your drought. When I finally entered my sleeping quarters, I fell out onto the bed as well. But unlike Ms. Granger, I did not fair so well in the sleep department."

"Awe Severus…"

"I'd furthermore appreciate it if you not ask me about it."

"Oh," she replied looking slightly taken back. "As you wish." She grabbed a cup and starting fixing her a drink. "You know Severus, Ms. Granger said something in class today that made me wonder."

"Minerva I assure you that I'd rather fling myself over a cliff or devote my services to Hagrid rather than molest one of your students, especially that one."

"No, no…I wasn't going there. I was just going to tell you something funny."

"If it's funny to you then I am sure it's probably funny at my displeasure." Minerva let out a chuckle.

"I asked Ms. Granger about last night. Not that I didn't trust you but she had such a glow about her that I could not help but to wonder."

"Lovely." Ignoring the extreme sarcasm in his voice, Minerva continued on with her story.

"Well, you see Ms. Granger told me that it was the best sleep that she's had in weeks. And then she proceeded to tell me that she could have sworn that maybe you tucked her in last night." Severus showed no reaction to this statement. In fact, he continued to sip on his drink as if he hadn't heard a word. Minerva shook her head as she headed to the recliner next to Snape's. She sat down and cast Severus an annoyed look.

"What? Am I supposed to be thrilled that the child thought she saw me tucking her in? If you must know, I placed that girl on a couch in the common room, summoned a blanket since the fire had long gone out, and then headed to my tower to sleep."

"Yes, I'm aware that you did nothing of the sort. After all, that's not your style…helping others whom you don't really care too much for." Severus just shrugged his shoulders before picking up the morning's Prophet to glance the headlines. "She had a dream about you last night Severus." At this, Snape lowered the newspaper and cast Minerva a concerned look.

"Did she say what the dream was about?" he asked his eyes darting back to the morning's headlines.

"No…not really."

"Which one is it? Yes…or no?"

"She said that in her dream she saw you standing with her under a tree."

"O…kay."

"Don't you find that odd Severus?"

"Not really."

"I think you should ask her about it."

"And I think not." Severus folded up his paper and started toward the door. "See you on the pitch Minerva. I'm sure Potter won't disappoint today in his match against my House. After all, I can't depend on Malfoy to get anything right, especially since he's…calling himself a man now." Minerva shook her head as Snape headed out leaving her behind.

SS--SS--SS--SS

Hermione sat in the common room doing everything she could to concentrate on her homework but it was no use. All thoughts kept reverting back to the dream she had about Snape. Of course, it wasn't like the dream made any sense. It's just that in the dream, Snape had such a frightened look about him. It was as though he were about to face death. She knew that was such a grim thought but she couldn't shake the feeling.

Finally claiming defeat, Hermione stretched her arms and stood to her feet. Harry and the others had already left for the Quidditch field. Hermione had to stay behind to make sure all was in order. She stuck her wand in her pocket then proceeded out of the portrait hole. As she walked by the paintings, they all greeted her merrily with how-do-you-do's. She had made it to the end of the hall when the staircases decided to change again. Oh bother. She was being forced to go a different route; a route that led past the hall the Slytherins lived on. She was pretty certain all of the Slytherins were outside waiting to see if Harry would choke under the foul presence of the dementors if they in fact decided to show. Hermione shook her head at the thought. Those Slytherins could be such foul beings at times.

"Ooof. Ms. Granger, will it be a problem for you to watch where you're going?" She had not been paying attention and had run into Professor Snape. Since he was a lot bigger than her, she bounced right off of him and onto the floor.

"Oh…I…I'm sorry professor," she stammered. "I wasn't looking…"

"I'm well aware of that." He stuck out his hand helping her to her feet.

"Thank you professor."

"Don't mention it." He brushed on by her without another word. That was…interesting. She proceeded down the hall when she spotted something that made her want to vomit. Malfoy was currently occupying himself with Pansy. She couldn't really see anything of Pansy except for her hair yet she had a clear view of Malfoy. He had Pansy pressed against the side wall and he was feeling her up, drawing out moans that echoed up the hall. Malfoy's face was buried deep in her neck and she could see his hands sliding up her sides and under her shirt. Malfoy must have sensed her presence for he looked up but only briefly.

He winked his eye at her before pressing his body closer to Pansy's. She watched as Malfoy ran his tongue on the side of her neck and then up to her ear. He whispered something in it before pulling away from her. Pansy gathered her things then headed back inside their common room. Malfoy waited until she was gone then he headed towards Hermione.

"Did you enjoy the show Mudblood?" he asked with a smirk.

"That was hardly a show and I could care less what you do with Pansy in your spare time. Besides, shouldn't you be at the Quidditch field?" She started down the stairs with Malfoy close on her tail.

"I still have a few minutes. You know me; I needed a quick snack before the match."

"Wonderful," she muttered.

"I couldn't help but notice the intrigued look about you when I was playing with Pansy just a second ago."

"Intrigued in the sense that I can't believe you were making out with her."

"Why not? I'm a guy and I have needs. Since you won't give me what I want from you I got to get it from somewhere. Besides, she approached me. It's not like I went looking for people to make out with. I am way past that now."

"Earlier this term you didn't seem to have a problem with it."

"That's because at the time, I wasn't trying to land a date with you."

"Why the change of heart?" she scoffed. They were almost to the double doors that led to the outside. He turned to her and grabbed her, pinning her against the doors.

"Because I want you," he muttered, lowering his mouth to hers. The kiss lasted only a second as they could hear people heading down the stairs. "See you around Granger."

HP--HP--HP--HP--HP

The rest of the day was very much a blur to Harry. Everything happened so quickly that he wasn't sure it happened at all. They managed to beat Slytherin and win the Quidditch Cup. Malfoy did not look too happy about losing but his father didn't seem to care. In fact, he looked almost un-phased but as Harry knew, the Malfoy's had their way of hiding said emotions so it was hard to pinpoint what exactly was going on in their minds.

But that wasn't the thing that was bothering Harry the most. Earlier that day, before his match against Slytherin, he was sent to the Divination Tower to give Trelawney a note from McGonagall. While he was there, Trelawney went all spooky and started taking out of her head. She said something about the dark lord's servant returning to his master tonight but seriously, he had no idea what to think. On one hand, she seemed to have been making a real prediction because she was weirder than usual but on the other hand, you had to take what she said with a grain of salt since most saw her as a right old fraud anyway.

"Hey Harry?"

"Hmm?" He looked up to see Hermione glooming over him. "What's up?"

"I think we need to go and check on Hagrid. You know what today is…don't you?"

"Oh…oh yeah. Where's Ron?"

"He's waiting for us downstairs. Let's get going before someone sees us. I'm sure the professors may not like that we're about to witness…well…you know."

"Alright." He followed Hermione out the portrait hole to go and witness something that he was sure was going to lead to looming days ahead.

AN: I'm skipping a lot of things and adding a lot of things to fit my story. I haven't decided how Voldy is coming back yet. I may follow the GoF but I'm not sure yet. The next chapter or so will deal mainly with Hermione...I think. There will, of course, be lots of Severus and Lucius/Molly are taking a break...for now. Unless I make really REALLY long chapters then there's no way I can include everyone. If you don't mind really long chapters, let me know and I'll make them longer. If I do that though then that will mean that the updates will be reduced tremendously until the summer. R&R