Author's Note: First let me thank everyone who had reviewed, alerted, or put this story on their favorites it means a lot to me and keeps me writing.

Enjoy!


On Tuesday of the next week Hermione was sitting in the Headmistress' office waiting for her to return from whatever had called her away when she looked up to see Dumbledore looking down at her. She had avoided speaking with the former headmaster in the times she had been here, but today she was in a mood. One that she didn't want to display to Severus, but she knew if she didn't speak up soon she would being having a row with him over nothing.

"Good day Miss… Mrs. Snape."

"Professor."

"How are you doing today?"

"I've honestly been better, I've had to leave my home because someone thought it would be great to break into my house and kill our owl."

"I have heard."

Hermione didn't say anything else, she hoped the man would ask what was on her mind. Finally she got her wish.

"I sense something else troubles you."

"You got that right."

"Would you care to talk about it, though I have a feeling that I am the cause."

"You really are on a roll today."

"So speak your mind Mis Mrs. Snape."

Hermione stood pacing,

"Fine you want to know, you took someone who made a mistake and made them spend the next almost twenty years in servitude to you."

"Severus…."

"Oh, I'm not done. Not by a long shot."

"Then please."

"Flash forward twenty years, said man is sitting in Azakban for doing what you ordered him to do. The wizemont was a breath away from keeping him there all for following your orders and doing what he was told to do. At the same time they pass some asinine marriage law that his defender, if we can even call him that, found a way to use to sway them. He approaches me to bond myself to him, well of course I agree but only if Severus does also. All along the defender is lying to everyone, telling Severus that I filed the intent when I had not, telling me he agreed when he had not."

She took a breath before continuing.

"Then we are bonded, and I start my five years of hell with him. Not because he doesn't like his freedom no, because he was lied to by his defender, thinking that I did all of this behind his back to become you. To lord over him like you did, I have to deal with the brunt of his anger over this. I spend the first two years being belittled and degraded all to show me that I was not going to control him like you did. Do you think he ever stopped to ask me why. Oh no, he didn't he just painted me with the same brush he did you."

She felt tears burn her eyes but she was not about to start crying,

"But at the same time I also have to listen to his nightmares, his inner dialog. I get a front row seat to how frightened he was when Nagini bit him, oh but that's not all. I get to listen to how much he anguished over having to kill you, how much he didn't want to do it. I'm the one who got to listen night after night to a frightened little boy who was bound to do something that went against everything he was."

She turned looking into the portraits eyes,

"Because you bound him to kill someone that he looked up to and held in the regard of a parent."

Hermione turned to leave then stopped when she saw Severus standing there at the door staring at her looking shocked. She ran past him, when he tried to grab her arm she pulled away saying,

"No, not right now." She ran down the stairs past the gargoyle then down the hall to the dungeon steps.

Minerva saw Hermione run from the steps to her office in the other direction, when she reached her office to find Severus standing in the door way she asked,

"Did you and Hermione have words Severus?"

"No, it wasn't me she had words with." He gave a pointed look at the portrait of Albus before turning, sweeping out of the office.

Minerva walked up to her desk asking,

"What did you do?"

"Oh Mini, I committed more sins than I even want to admit."

~~^~~SSHG~~^~~

Severus found her on the astronomy tower, when he walked up toward her she asked.

"Do you remember the last time we were up here together?"

"Yes."

"That was when I knew, no doubts."

"Knew what Hermione?"

"That we were going to be okay, when you went to your knees telling me that you understood…. Showed me that you understood me. No one has ever understood me before, until you."

She turned to him saying,

"We are both so broken, for a long time I thought that nothing would fix me. Sure I'm brave, face everything head on so no one will know I have any weakness. But under all of that I'm really just a scared child who only ever wanted to be accepted for who I am. You have no idea how alike we are Severus."

"I'm beginning to understand." He said quietly.

"Yes, I know you are. As am I also."

"Hermione, I didn't know you knew or heard any…."

She waved her hand saying,

"It's an inner dialog, that is something no one is meant to hear. I feel like I intruded on yours and I should apologize for it."

"No, don't."

"I said feel like, I'm not going to because it wasn't my fault I heard it. Everything in that room was amplified as you know it was."

"Wait, what?"

"Everything from your room was amplified in mine, I found a spell that would…."

"Son of a bitch." Severus said suddenly when it dawned on him.

Hermione stopped talking when he. Finally she said,

"What?"

"I gave you my mother's room."

"I still don't….. oh."

"I never even checked for charms knowing how he was about them I just assumed that there would never be any."

"So you mean that all of that I thought you did on purpose to hurt me was an accident?"

"Yes."

Hermione reached up rubbing her temples trying to ward off the beginning of a headache.

"Okay, so you never did it to spite me telling me to silence my room so my breathing wouldn't keep you awake but make yours louder to hurt me."

"No, I told you to silence your room because when you had nightmares, it tore me apart."

"Severus."

"Angry, remember."

"Yes." She sighed. "Though to be honest I am getting a little tire of hearing that."

"I'm sorry, but half the things I told you the first couple of years I don't or didn't remember until I read that journal."

"I know, it's…. it just takes time."

"Yes, you keep saying."

"Severus."

"No, I'm not mad I just am stating a fact. Come on, let's go find you a headache potion."

She took Severus' hand as they descended the steps toward the hospital wing.


Author's Note: Comments really do make me smile and brighten my day.

Also I wanted to let you know that I have a couple of Severus/Hermione videos on youtube, the link is in my profile.

On another note for anyone who doesn't know, there is a link in my profile to a video that I made for this story. The song is Far Away by Nickleback and when I heard it I knew it was meant for this story, if you listen to the lyrics it's almost as if they go together. It was unintentional, I hadn't heard the song in a while and if I had this story would have a different title;)