"What's the deal with Parkinson and Granger?" Minerva asked Severus one morning as they sat eating breakfast in the hall.

His wide shoulders shrugged high and he only let out a grunt before realising that was presumably rude and he should use words instead of sounds.

"No idea. Rumour has it they are friends now, but it doesn't sit well with me. They have always loathed one another and now, well now they may as well be sharing a bloody bed, they spend so much time with one another. Every corner you turn, they are side by side and whispering amongst themselves," he practically spat. Jealousy gnawing deep in the pit of his stomach.

"Do you think Parkinson is up to something?" Minerva asked in a curious upward inflection, glancing sideways at Severus with mild surprise on her face. She knew the girl wasn't the upstanding pillar of the school, but she wasn't that awful.

"Well, do you think Parkinson is hanging around with her for the sake of being her friend? She is a Slytherin and Slytherins are cunning and it wouldn't surprise me if she has plans to lure Hermione into an alcove and into the waiting clutches of a Death Eater."

Minerva waved a hand lazily. "You are so dramatic, Severus. If I need to bring it to your attention. Perhaps Hermione was really pining for a friend. You pushed her so far from her two best friends that there is half a chance that they will never talk to her again. And then you pushed her even further away when she had some feelings for you, but Merlin knows why because you are the most self-centred Wizard I have ever had the misery of meeting."

"So harsh," He growled low in his throat. His attention now focused on the door as he watched Hermione walk in with Pansy flanked by her side. The two broke off and ended up at their respective tables.

Something didn't bore right with him and he felt it when he first saw the girls sitting together on their own accord in the potions classroom that day weeks prior. Pansy loathed Hermione with the fire of a thousand suns and would never throw away her reputation she had amassed within the Slytherin ranks. And she wouldn't do that now amid a mounting war that was so close to going off, so much so he could almost taste it.

Pansy would do nothing to disappoint her parents and befriend Hermione or someone of Hermione's kind. Whatever was going to happen, then Hermione would have to deal with it on her own because he would not help. He needed to cut her loose and not allow her to use him as a crutch when she felt things were overwhelming and she couldn't do them on her own. He was trying to be cruel, to be kind and totally squash any feelings she had for him, and it was all for her own safety and wellbeing. If only she could realise that.

He wanted her. Obviously, he wanted to hold her tight and tell her everything was all right. It was obvious he wanted to press his lips to hers again and taste her sweet lips against his own and tangle his hands in her hair. He wanted to make love to her, Merlin didn't he ever. But not now. Maybe if they came out of this unscathed and she didn't hate him for everything he had done to her.

He missed her lying beside her in bed each night. He yearned for the chats they had daily. Hell, he pined for her visits to his office every evening after classes.

He sucked in a deep breath and composed himself. Tearing his gaze from the girl he had grown so fond of and had spent many a night lying next to willing himself to make a move but not doing so because he didn't want her to have that giant target on her back that she was now more than likely putting on her own back hanging around Pansy.

Fuck, he missed her.

o-o-o-o-o-o

Severus spent the next week arguing with himself violently in his head. Something still wasn't sitting right, and the more he saw Hermione and Pansy together, the more he worried. He knew he had to distance himself, but he didn't want to see her hurt. He cared for her deeply, and she didn't deserve whatever trap Pansy was luring her into.

He had no evidence of that, so he couldn't exactly pull her aside and accuse her of what he thought she might do. No. It didn't work like that.

He lay awake at night as thoughts swirled in his head and he argued with himself over and over. What is Pansy really was Hermione's friend? But then again, what if she was playing Hermione like a finely tuned piano?

Did pansy really have it in her to act the best friend? She could manipulate people well, but this would have to be the longest he had ever seen her carry on with the charade of this measure before. Maybe she was genuine? Maybe she wasn't. He was going insane trying to work it out in his head.

He groaned low in his throat, rolled over, punched his pillow and closed his eyes. The side of the bed she once occupied a cold, desolate void he tried to keep his distance from. You know… Just in case she ever came back. He snorted. As if that would happen.

His gut told him to leave her to her own devices, but his heart told him to intervene somehow and help her along the way. He didn't want to see her hurt, and he never meant for any of this to drag out for as long as it had. He never meant to drag her to the school and put her in the predicament he did.

Fuck. He was only meant to gain her trust, turn her against her friends, fuck her a few times, rope her into falling in love with him and then drop her like a tonne of bricks. No feelings. No strings. And now he was here, unable to sleep every night whilst he battled with head and heart on what he should do.

He needed her.

o-o-o-o-o

It was odd yet endearing that Pansy was a great friend. She was the female friend Hermione always yearned for but never had. She was smart. She could hold a conversation longer than Ron or Harry ever could, and she was engaging. She never spoke ill of Hermione and never made her to feel less than a best friend.

The two girls would walk the halls together, they took most of their classes together and they spent their weekends together huddled up in the hall chatting or helping one another with homework. She really was the distraction Hermione needed.

There had been a handful of occasions where Draco had made a few snide passing comments that were quashed by Pansy. Draco seemed intimidated by Pansy, and she wondered why. Perhaps she was too strong of a female and that scared Draco slightly. Or perhaps she held something over him, and he knew better than to push his luck.

They would talk about anything and everything, and Hermione's only regret was she never befriended the girl sooner. She was fun. She was kind despite the tough exterior, and she was Hermione's best and only friend right now and that counted for everything.

They confided in one another and they would often talk about Snape and how he was letting a good thing go when he wiped his hands clean of her. They came up with varying theories about why he was such a douche and why he had treated her the way he had. It mostly came back to abandonment issues as a child and fear of intimacy that stemmed from that.

Every morning without fail Hermione would make her way to the hall and Pansy would wait for her at the foot of the stairs. But this morning she hadn't even made it down the stairs. She did not even make it two steps from the portrait before he had rounded on her. She noticed his eyes tired and heavy, and perhaps he had been lacking sleep.

"My office. Now." He was short with her and the anger in his tone had her wondering exactly what she had done wrong? She was minding her own business lately, and she liked it. It was for the better, and she didn't need him in her life. She could quite look after herself, thank you very much. The Carrow's hadn't even looked at her sideways since Snape had distanced himself from her, and she was thankful for that.

She followed him begrudgingly, trotting behind him, taking two steps to his one. Breathless, she was glad when they finally made it.

She folded her arms tightly across her chest and glared at him with contempt in her eyes. She hated him. She hated him for everything he had done, but she hated him mostly for pushing her away, and that sour taste still sat in her mouth.

"Well?" She snapped; a single brow raised in question.

"Drop the attitude, Hermione." He almost glided across the room and sat behind his desk, steepling his fingers.

She noticed the bags under his eyes were more so worse than they had been of late and she wondered if she was getting any sleep at all.

"I don't have an attitude Severus; I just have a low tolerance for you."

"I've noticed you and Pansy getting closer as the weeks draw on." His face was stoic. Eyes trained on her and her only.

"And that's a problem?" She sniffed indignantly.

"It is when I know where she comes from and what she is like. It would be privy of you to not keep the company of such a person because of the possibility of ulterior motives."

She closed the distance between them, her eyes never leaving his own gaze. She slammed her open palms down on his desk, never breaking eye contact.

"Do you want to take her away from me too, Severus?" Her voice whisper quiet and almost emotionless. "Do you want me to be alone with no one? Is that your plan? Or are you jealous of her?"

"Hermione." He tried to level with her. "I'm just telling you to use caution. Sometimes the devil could be in plain sight."

She sniffed. "Yeah. I'm looking at him. I trusted him, and maybe even I had feelings for him. So, take your higher than thou complex and leave me alone. I want nothing to do with you anymore and I don't need your help. I no longer want to be the pawn in whatever sick little game you are playing in your head, and I no longer wish to be part of your life any longer."

She turned on her heel, threw her wild curls over her shoulder and left without even a second glance back at him.

He stood and did nothing. He stood and watched as she left. He stood and let him loathe himself just that little more. He pulled back his arm, angling his hand, and with all his force he punched the hard-wooden table with all his might and certain he had broken his hand. He didn't care. He wanted to feed something.

He fucked up.

A/N: Just a little filler chapter so I can get to where I need to get in the quickest time possible without dragging this on longer than it needs to. Hope you are enjoying my story so far.

-Aliasmel