Chapter 28: A Question of Loyalty

{A/N: Went to my cousin Mimi's funeral yesterday...Didn't feel much like typing...so here is the chapter that was finished today.}

My Thanks to all my readers and reviewers Enjoy-S.S.

Snape's Bedroom, Dumbledore Manor, Wizarding World...

Both Severus and Hermione had been lying awake in the dead of night. She had been contented to lay there with the dour wizard in companionable silence but the sudden sound of his rich baritone drawl shattered the quiet. She had barely surfaced from the sea of her thoughts when his voice entered her ears. The witch reached for his hand in the darkness and looped her small delicate fingers around his calloused long pale ones. The single word had come from his lips before she had time to process their apparent closeness.

"Why?" he asked softly looking up at the darkened ceiling as well.

"Why?" asked Hermione unsure that she heard him right.

"Yes." he replied.

Hermione sight suddenly knowing what it had been that he was asking.

"Because you deserve so much more." she replied.

"How do you know that?" he asked. "You've no idea about the things I've done."

Hermione sat up resting her back against the headboard.

"Severus." she said not liking where this conversation was going. "You did the best you could...with what little guidance you've had."

Snape looked at her. She really had no concept of the kind of life he lived as The Dark Lord's most trusted servant.

"I killed people in various and brutal ways...sometimes whole families...women, children." he said. "I was never a good man...that is just Dumbledore's irritating tendency to make me sound like some kind of tragic hero."

Hermione did not want to hear any more but listened anyway.

"Some nights I can still hear them screaming." continued Snape. "Their eyes seem to haunt me even now."

Hermione sighed and let him continue.

"I watched countless others die and never once did I lift a finger to help, even when they were decent people, like Charity Burbage." said Snape.

The bushy haired witch's eye widened.

"Professor Burbage?" she asked.

Snape nodded watching her. He had not known what he expected telling her that he watched the woman he considered to be a friend die. Perhaps it was because he knew it was a teacher Hermione liked. He thought of using his most despicable acts to try and drive the young witch away but she didn't seem all that put out by it.

"Severus, I'm sure that if you could have saved Professor Burbage you would have." she said.

"Why are you so intent on believing that I would have?" he asked. "What makes you such an expert on anything about me?"

"Severus...wither you chose to believe it or not, you are a good man." said Hermione. "I think it's utterly shameful that you think so little of yourself and that you were treated like less than a human being by everyone."

Snape sat up and looked at her.

"Before you go into detail about how much of a git you are...I already know that and it has no standing on how I feel about you." said The bushy haired witch.

Before Snape could utter another word Hermione put a finger to his lips and kissed him passionately.

"It's much too late for you to try and scare me away." she said. "I'm already in your bed."

Snape scoffed.

"Insufferable know-it-all." he said.

Hermione kissed him again.

"You never answered my question." said Snape.

"I did." she replied. "I told you before that you deserve so much more than all the pain and suffering you've had to endure."

Snape sighed.

"A nice Gryffindor sentiment." he grumbled.

Hermione smiled at him.

"Did you expect anything less?" she asked.

Although the truth had been a bit more complicated than that. She didn't feel it was wise to let him know how she truly felt about him. Not this soon in what was starting to become a sort of personal relationship.

Snape shook his head.

"Cheeky witch." he said stifling a grin.

He caught her in his arms and pulled her into yet another kiss.

Hermione found herself with her back pressed against the mattress as Snape towered above her kissing her in that familiar spot on her neck. She fought back the urge to tell him that she loved him. Instead resolving herself to wrapping her legs around his waist and pulling him close to her.

"Why do you care?" asked Snape between kisses. "Why is my life so important to you?"

Hermione gripped him tight.

"Who's asking the incessant questions now?" she asked.

"A beautiful and intelligent witch such as yourself could have any wizard or muggle she wishes." said Snape looking down at her.

"That's the point I could have any wizard or muggle that I wish." she replied. "I have a wizard that just so happens to be born with half muggle blood."

Snape scoffed.

"Why is it so hard to believe that I want you and only you Severus?" she asked.

"Do you need a list?" he asked.

"Get over yourself Git." said Hermione. "You're mine and you know it."

Snape smirked.

"You are a very peculiar witch Hermione Granger." he said.

"And you are positively insufferable." she replied.

"Takes one to know one it seems." he said.

He was further silenced by another deeply passionate kiss from the young bushy haired witch. As far as Hermione had been concerned she would be more than willing to prove to a certain git that she had no intention of abandoning him.

Later...

Hermione had been struggling to catch her breath as Severus towered above her. He was weakening and his own breaths were ragged. Both his lank raven hair and her sandy brown bushy hair had been soaked with sweat and sticking to their respective foreheads. She could feel the lingering effects of his release as well as her own while he stared down at. She had not been aware of the flicker behind his obsidian eyes as he whispered the spell that barely registered in her ears. before she could protest the spell had already been activated.

"legilimens." he had said still looking down at her.

In an instant Hermione felt the not so subtle intrusion of her mind. She had been livid about the intrusion but allowed him if this was what it took to make him see that she meant him no harm then she would do it. She wouldn't be happy but she had nothing to hide from the un-trusting git. But there were going to be repercussions for this act. He could bet his former salary at Hogwarts on that.

{ Snape saw himself inside Hermione's mind. It took some time for him to get his bearings as she had a million thoughts a minute coursing through her brain like a super computer. The Potions Master had to find a way to flow with her constant thinking in a bid to access her memories. He stumbled upon one. A Primary School memory when Hermione was but seven years old.

The small bushy haired girl spent a lot of time reading various fascinating books about medical science, world travel, and numerous encyclopedias, while her classmates were into picture books and finger painting.

Not even a man as dour as Snape could ignore the pretty young bushy haired girl's cuteness. He had been rather impressed with her developing intellect. It did not seem to go over well with her teachers and the other students. The lessons seemed to bore the young girl. Snape noted that Hermione read while everyone else gathered on the colorful mat for story time.

He watched as a plump boy with red hair and dark eyes made his way over toward her at play time. She continued to read while everyone whispered about her behind her back. He appeared the nice sort but it took Snape a matter of seconds to decipher what he was going to do. On a dare the red haired imp decided to take it upon himself to pull Hermione's bushy hair and run back to his friends as they laughed at her tears. Of course the teacher conveniently had not seen it and simply scolded Hermione for disrupting the class. The girl had been pained and humiliated as she forced herself to stifle her sniffles and turn her attention back to her book.

"See I told you she was weird." said one of the kids.

"Yeah all she does is stare at gown up books all day." a little boy with blond hair.

"What a freak." said a little girl with dark hair.

Snape noted that it had been clear that Hermione heard everything that was being said about her. Still she valiantly continued reading. Little did they know that little girl would go on to be a treasured war hero and save their miserable little lives. Snape felt himself become slightly annoyed at their ignorance. }

Snape had not seen the small tear that rolled down the cheek of Hermione Granger as she lay with her back pressed against the mattress.

{The memories swirled around until he found himself a couple years into her Primary Schooling. Hermione had been ten years old and one of the most gifted and talented students in her school. Sadly her growing thirst for knowledge did not make her any more popular with neither her teacher nor the students at that time.

Snape found himself treated to a scene where Hermione had gone off to a quiet part of the school and cried her eyes out in a corner with her back pressed against a wall. Feeling the scene had been all too familiar Snape quickly left the memory.}

More tears streamed down Hermione's cheeks. But she had still been unable to break the connection. Not that she had tried. If he wanted to see what life was like for her then...so be it.

{Snape fished around until he came across the memory of his speech to the first year students that included her and Harry Potter. She seemed to have been as mesmerized by his words as Draco Malfoy had been. Her eyes never left his face as he spoke. Snape had quickly by passed the memory. He had his own to draw from. He continued on until he came across a memory of her running into him during their respective patrol duties.

"Hello Professor Snape." said Hermione with a small smile as she watched him slink up in a way that reminded her of a big cat.

Snape smirked as he registered her thought about him. She found out later how right she truly had been that night. He watched himself berate and belittle the witch and stalk back to his room. Hermione didn't seem to mind what he had said to her. She was more interested in fact that he had paid any attention to her at all.

The memory shifted and Snape found himself once again watching another exchange between himself and Hermione Granger. She seemed to have a thing for getting him to talk to her. Every time he belittled or berated her for her intellect she smiled when he wasn't looking. She had been a strange witch indeed.}

Snape continued to shift through her memories as if he had been looking at a catalog. Hermione did not fight and gave him free access. She knew he would not rest until he was convinced that she had no ulterior motives for being with him.

{It wasn't long before Snape found a memory he had not quite recognized even thought he had been apart of it. He was a nearly lifeless heap on the floor of 12 Grimmauld Place. He had been too weak from suffering the effects of repeated exposure to The Cruciatus Curse. Tremors ran rampant through his body as he whimpered silently in the dark. No one knew the agony he had been suffering. Nor the humiliation of not being able to get to his appointed bedroom.

The last thing he needed was for his students or any of the other order members happening upon him. He knew he would never live it down or get them to stop fawning over him. He tried to move but it was no use. He didn't have the strength. The obsidian eyes of the wizard watching the ordeal fell on a certain bushy haired witch as she made her way down from the stairs. She had been watching him for several minutes wrestling with the idea of wither or not to help him. It wasn't because of who he was or how he treated her. It was because of his reaction. She didn't want to anger him and make him stop talking to her.

In her eyes he had been the only one that didn't want or expect anything from her other than her best when it came to her studies. Outside of the classroom she was just a face in the crowd but a familiar one. Hermione loved that Severus Snape had not been one of the many people she came across that took to using her. To others she was either the one to save Harry Potter from his stupidity or a machine to help everyone with their studies. But not to Snape, she was just the bushy haired insufferable know-it-all Gryffindor with an impressive intellect.

Her amber eyes filled with concern when she noticed that he had not the strength to neither get to his feet nor to crawl his way to his room. She came down the steps as quiet as a mouse and immediately cast a levitation spell. Snape had hardly noticed when she had gotten him into his room. The bushy haired witch warded the door and cast a few silencing charms.

She lifted her wand and checked him for bruising after casting off his frock coat. Snape let out a soft moan as she let her soft warm hands run along his chest. He had still been in his white shirt but the contact had been welcome for a man as affection starved as he even in his current state.

Snape noted the effect she seemed to have on him. He was desperate from more contact with her but she pulled away. Snape drowsily called out to her.

"D-Don't go." he managed despite the pain.

"I'm sorry Professor." said Hermione sadly. "I-I have to go..."

He drifted off to sleep as Hermione reluctantly made her way back to her own room.}

Snape pulled out of Hermione's mind and looked at her for what seemed like the longest time.

"I apologize." he said pulling away from her.

Hermione said nothing as they layed there staring up at the ceiling. She had been glad that he stopped when he did. Otherwise he would have found out why that she had fallen in love with him and with his current state of mind she didn't believe that it would go over well. He still had a hard time accepting her interest in him.

"Those Muggles at your primary school were imbeciles." said Snape suddenly.

Hermione smiled a small smile. She had no doubt in her mind that Snape would hex them all if given the chance. There was still the matter of paying him back for his intrusion of her mind though and Hermione vowed that he wouldn't see it coming. Still the sweetness he showed about wanting to hex those Muggles that made her almost reconsider paying him back for his rudeness. Almost.