AN: Chapter 20! and 187 reviews! Thanks for everyone who is still sticking with me- your reviews feed my bunnies! Sorry about the wait -This one was so tough to write, so i would really appreciate your thoughts!

Chapter 20: Surprises and Shocks

*"Well, I don't think it's Quidditch, but I think there's a connection between the attacks," said Hermione quietly.

"How d'you work that out?" asked Fred.

"Well, for one thing, they both ought to have been fatal and weren't, although that was pure luck. And for another, neither the poison nor the necklace seems to have reached the person who was supposed to be killed.

Of course," she added broodingly, "that makes the person behind this even more dangerous in a way, because they don't seem to care how many people they finish off before they actually reach their victim."*

Hermione slowly moved her wand through a complicated sequence… making special note of the tiny flick of her wand which she had missed in her previous attempt. Once she finished, she released a loud breath and watched as Snape's desk flickered once before disappearing from her sight. She didn't say anything at first, just watched the area in which the desk had been… waiting a few minutes to see if it would reappear. When it seemed as if the wards were stable, she looked up into Snape's eyes and let herself smile. She had finally done it! They had begun working on wards just a few weeks ago and this was the most complicated one so far.

Snape's face remained blank, but he nodded once.

'Good.' He said, while flicking a finite at his desk, making it visible again. He then walked towards it and sat in his desk chair.

'Do it again.'

Hermione took a breath and moved through the sequence again. These wards were incredibly strong, and she knew it would be vital to know them in the near future. This time, as she raised the wards, her professor disappeared along with the desk.

'Did it work, Granger?'

'Er, yes sir, I can't see you or the desk.'

His face abruptly appeared, hovering several feet above the desk. She watched as he walked away from it, his whole form showing up after he had left the field of her ward.

'Now, you will take a seat and raise the wards around you.' He said, gesturing to the chair in front of her desk.

'As long as you remain within the parameters of your wards, you will be invisible to anyone outside of them. Someone could still blindly walk into your wards, the object you ward will still be there, but it is an effective way to conceal your presence. Do it 3 times so that we can be sure you will remember.'

Hermione nodded, sat in the chair and started again.

Snape watched his student slump down in her chair with a large sigh. She was clearly tired. Wards were powerful magic -taking a lot out of the caster each time, he knew.

'As you get used to performing warding magic, you will build up your stamina.' He said, letting himself smirk slightly at her. They had accomplished a lot tonight and it was almost curfew, so he began to gather together a few loose stacks of papers on his desk, usually a clear signal to the girl that their lesson was over for now.

Granger nodded and gathered her satchel up, standing in front of him.

'Sir, I was thinking about my parents… you promised to help me with the enchantment… to alter their memories. Do you remember?'

He nodded, it would be a complicated piece of magic, with both of them using legilimency at the same time in order to manipulate her parents' memories.

'Sir, would you join my family for Easter?'

He blinked, letting her see his surprise at this apparent non-sequitur. She rushed her speech in an attempt to explain.

'My parents already know you from Christmas and I could use some help, convincing them of this course, and explaining what I need to do. They like you. You could join us for supper perhaps and then you and I could explain what we intend to do. I think they need to agree.'

He knew he should say no, he didn't need to spend a holiday with his student and her family. It was inappropriate. His feelings for this student were so mixed up… yet, he found himself nodding once, accepting her invitation, regardless of his misgivings.

She shot him a bright smile in her gratitude.

'Oh, thank you, sir, I appreciate your help so much…it will be nice to have you there for supper... I'll leave you alone now. Have a good night!' She said before turning on her heel and leaving his office.

With her gone, Severus sat heavily in his chair, thinking of their recent conversation. That bright smile she had given him before leaving had felt intimate, as if it were just for him alone. He would help her to keep her parents safe and hidden… It occurred to him that there was yet one more thing he was doing that he wouldn't be telling Dumbledore about. Last year it wouldn't have crossed his mind to keep things from the headmaster. He had vowed to serve him and serve him he would, but this girl had changed things. He was apparently unable to resist her requests. Now he was joining her family for Easter supper. How did she have this ability to discomfit him so much? He was beginning to feel like every interaction with her was like navigating a minefield.

He stood abruptly and left his office. It was late, and he needed to be done for the day. Tonight wasn't the time to examine his complicated feelings.

Hermione woke as the sun was coming up and only had to see the brightly wrapped package on her room-mates desk to be reminded that it was Ron's birthday. She rolled her eyes and hurried to the bathroom. Lately it had been in her best interest to get out before Lavender and Parvati were up and forced to engage in awkward small talk between the dorm-mates. She had already bought a birthday present for Ron but decided to save it. She was fairly certain they would be friends again eventually. Perhaps she could give him his present at Christmastime.

After eating her mostly solitary breakfast – a consequence of rising earlier than everybody else – she decided to get some extra time with some of her arithmancy equations. She was trying to track separate reactions after the convergence happened. So far, it was an exercise in futility. Everybody was predicted to react just as badly as one would expect. She grabbed her satchel and headed out of the Great Hall, her mind still turning over the reactionary equations she had already begun to work on. She was just hoping that perhaps she wouldn't be the only one who didn't believe the worst of her professor.

It was as if that thought had conjured up the man in question as she looked up to see him standing right in her path.

'Good Morning, Professor.' He nodded once and then darted a quick look around the hall before stepping closer to her.

'Miss Granger. It would be in your best interest to go to the hospital wing.'

She looked at him in alarm.

'wha-' he waved his wand and silently cast legilimens, pushing a memory into her mind.

It showed Ron laying on a hospital bed. Madame Pompfrey was casting charms over him and Snape was pouring a potion into his mouth. He was completely motionless.

'Ron!' She gasped. What had happened?

'I must brew some more potions, you should go.' He said curtly, before turning on his heel and walking away, his robes swirling behind him. Hermione ran.

As Hermione approached the hospital wing she saw Harry pacing outside of the closed doors, looking panicky.

'Harry!' She grasped his arms to keep herself from hurtling straight into him.

'What happened, is Ron Ok?'

Harry started babbling out a story about Professor Slughorn and mead and love potion. It wasn't until Ginny showed up in an equal panic that they got him to slow down and tell the whole story in its proper order.

Hermione felt stunned. She didn't know what to feel. She hadn't really interacted with Ron in so long, and now this had happened. He had come so close to death and she had been calmly eating her breakfast. She realized she had been silently crying for a while now, her face was wet. She felt guilty about not being there with Harry this morning and so afraid for Ron, it felt hard to breath.

The three students kept a vigil outside the hospital wing all day. Harry and Ginny were quietly talking about the incident and what it could all mean. Hermione couldn't bring herself to join the discussion. It was her job to keep Harry and Ron alive and she hadn't been there. The matrix involved all three of them working together as a unit and all of that had almost been turned on its head today. It was terrifying how easily one of them had almost been killed.

Occasionally, one or two of their professors would hurry by and enter the hospital wing, seemingly ignoring the worried students. Snape came once, carrying a box full of potions bottles, but he didn't acknowledge Hermione or the others. Finally, the Weasleys had arrived and been ushered in, an hour later, Dumbledore escorted them up to his office and Madame Pomfrey finally opened the doors to the waiting students. Hermione felt completely drained. It had been an anxious and nerve-wracking day. She wasn't sure if it was any better being in the hospital wing, Ron was apparently sleeping, but he was so still and so pale.

Once Fred and George arrived, they all started to speculate about what had happened. It had already occurred to Hermione that this was related to Katie Bells' accident. Harry had said that the mead had been intended for Dumbledore. It laid the blame for this securely at the feet of Draco Malfoy. She gritted her teeth in anger, feeling the rage welling up inside of her. She wanted to head to the Slytherin dorm and just start blasting. She couldn't say anything about that, of course, she couldn't even freely vent her anger at the Slytherin student who had almost killed her best friend. She felt isolated, as if she were separate from the rest of the group, knowing what she did and not being able to freely speak of it.

As they discussed the incident with Fred, George and Hagrid, Hermione started to doubt herself. Was she doing the right thing? Should she keep withholding what she knew about Draco from Harry? She realized that she had more information than anyone else in the room. She knew more about Dumbledore's plans and more about who was behind Ron's poisoning. Why was it that she had the means to discover what nobody else could? Even Professor Vector didn't have enough information to find what she had within the matrix. It was a unique combination; her arithmancy skills, her relationship with Harry and her relationship with Snape…nobody else was placed just as she was, but it didn't seem right. She was just a student. She wasn't sure if she was cut out to handle this sort of responsibility.

Before her thoughts could lead her into full-blown panic, she decided to re-join the conversation. It was the same thing they had been discussing all day…choosing her words carefully she told the group about the incidents being connected and dangerous. It wasn't much, but she consoled herself that in a way she was giving them a warning – maybe they would be more cautious. She couldn't say anything about Draco, but she had to tell them something, if only to ease her own conscience a bit. She was relieved when Mr. and Mrs. Weasley arrived, momentarily changing the focus of their discussion away from her dire pronouncement.

Severus finished wiping the countertop and double-checked that the lab was clean. He had been brewing for most of the afternoon – potions to counteract poison, potions to counteract some of the side effects of direct contact with a bezoar, even some nutritional potions to help aid the Weasley boy's recovery. He wondered for just a moment why it was he, rather than Slughorn who was responsible for this sort of thing, but it was an idle thought. He had retained use of his personal potions lab, despite being the defense professor. He supposed this was the pay-off. After the nutritional potions, the boy would just need large doses of essence of rue – something Pomfrey already had in abundance – for a complete recovery.

He was finished brewing, but his work for the night wasn't yet complete. He made his way to his quarters to fetch his mask and cloak. He would need to see Voldemort and tell him of this incident as soon as possible. He wondered how Granger was feeling. He had seen her momentarily when delivering potions, she had watched him walk by, her face white and her expression stricken. The rift between her and Weasley would most likely be patched up after these events. She would easily connect this incident with Draco, he knew. He wondered if she blamed him for his failure to reign in his Slytherin charge.

There was no doubt that Draco was getting out of control. Both the Bell girl and Weasley had survived through pure luck. The situation could be much worse than it was, hardly a comforting thought. Draco was looking thin and pinched- he had all but given up any pretense of studying or academic pursuits, and he was clearly feeling desperate. How many more of these desperate attempts would the boy make? Will the next time result in someone's death?

It would be easy to honestly convey his memories and thoughts to his Lord tonight. He felt frustrated and was irritated Draco's continued resistance. In essence, nothing had changed. Draco had made yet another failed attempt and a student had been caught in the crossfire. Voldemort would be happy it was a blood traitor Weasley but otherwise wouldn't care. Discussing the incident with Dumbledore would ironically be more difficult than Voldemort. The Dark Lord wouldn't blame him for allowing Draco to act so recklessly. He was still in place to take over when Draco failed- just as his master, both of his master's, intended.

He quickly made his way down the Hogwarts gate, raised his occlumency shields in preparation, and disapparated.

AN: My goal of this story was to have it run completely parallel to canon, however, this chapter made it difficult. Hermione has a couple of conversations in the HBP that definitely indicate that she is in the dark as much as Harry and the rest of them... I tried to blur the lines as much as possible but it took several re-writes. Let me know what you think - next chapter will involve the Easter Holidays- something JK Rowling mostly skipped over in the HBP - which leaves me a lot of freedom to do what i need to move the plot along!

AN: Nothing belongs to me, no money is made and the words between the * indicate JKRs words.