5th Year Part Two: Chapter 20

"Just because you bury something doesn't mean it stops existing. Those feelings, they've been there all along. I just had to face it. He was part of my DNA."

~.O.~

"I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore." Hermione looked suitably chastened when the Headmaster was finished scolding her for going to Little Whinging when he had expressly forbidden anyone being in contact with Harry.

Little liar…

After all summer he had kept them apart from Harry, or told them to stay away at the very least, but the fact of the matter was all dependent if they listened to him or not. Like Ron did. She just chose to be a good friend and not leave him to deal with Cedric's death alone, granted she had a means to get to him through the muggle world in the first place.

"How did you get rid of the Dementors Miss. Granger?" His blue eyes were darker than they usually were, the twinkle not at all present. "You have not received an expulsion notice as of yet."

"I doubt I will be getting one anytime soon, sir." She said, face blank, "At least I was there when they came for Harry, or else he would be getting a notice. Wouldn't that have caused more problems than necessary? Besides, due to my Time- Turner use in third year, I have just turned of age and the Trae has been lifted from my wand."

He said nothing, glancing only to where her flowered wand was disillusioned and strapped to her forearm. "Good day, Miss. Granger."

She smiled charmingly, "Good day, Headmaster."

..

Harry ranted about not being in the loop as he waves the Daily Prophet featuring him and Dumbledore under the word LIES or TRUTHS?around, not even jumping as Fred and George apparated on either side of him as everyone else had the first time they had appeared near them. Hermione was beginning to get a pounding headache at his yelling that had been going on for twenty minutes. Ron sat on the other side of the bed from her and, in vain, tried to dispel the other boy's unnecessary anger but was having great difficulty. He only took a break to catch his breath once as Ginny came in and informed them she couldn't eavesdrop on the Order meeting, dropping in between the twins as they each wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Harry opens his mouth to start up once again at Hermione this time as he looked to her, but she had enough with the pounding in her head.

"Enough," she said, knowing he was going to say something about her not telling him anything while she was in Little Whinging. She put her fingers in either side of her nose, and everyone blinked at how much she looked like Snape in that moment. "As I'm sure you remember, we didn't have much time to talk when I came to visit, Harry."

Harry looked suitably put down, finally taking a seat next to Hermione and resting his head in her lap as Ron then asked, "When did you go and see him? Dumbledore told us not to. I didn't get to see him."

"A few days ago," Hermione threaded her fingers through his already messy hair, watching in her peripheral as Ginny's face became shadowed slightly by jealousy at her easy touch of the boy, "I didn't plan on it, Ron, and Dumbledore never would have known if the Dementors hadn't of shown up."

"You went against Dumbledore's orders," Ron looked aghast and was starting to sound like his mother who thought the Headmaster had hung the moon and stars.

"Our little-"

"- rule breaker." The twins grinned at her from their corner.

Ginny looked at her with a confused expression, a frown appearing, "But how did you banish them? You couldn't have used your wand, the trace is still on it."

Hermione sighed as Harry murmured, "The question of the week." She yanked on the hair she still had a hold of, ignoring his yelp.

They would find out eventually from Harry, so she lifted her dress to the side, causing eyebrows to raise and Ron's ears to turn red. She lay her swirled wand in the middle of the bed.

"That's not your-"

"-normal wand. Why didn't- "

"-we think of that?"

Hermione grinned at Fred and George's large smiles, "Because it is extremely difficult to procure a second wand that is a good fit for you."

Ginny's eyes lit up as she saw the untraceable wand, previous jealousy forgotten, "Where did you get it?"

Hermione was saved from answering by the door swinging open, causing everyone to jump as their black clad Professor was revealed on the other side. He eyed everyone, then the wand on the bed in which Hermione casually grabbed and holstered, and finally to the boy in her lap who eyed him back. She met his black eyes with a raised eyebrow, "I would like you in the lab, Miss Granger."

She nodded and he swept back down the hall, leaving the door open wide. Ron scowls, "You spent all summer locked up in the Potions lab with that git, why does he have to keep you in there days before school?"

Hermione grinned a little bit, her curls hiding it as she looked down. Ginny puts on a mock concerned look, "He's not doing anything untoward is he, love? Blink three times if he is."

Ron and the twins all gag at the same time as the girls laugh, but neither of them see Harry looking up to see Hermione's reaction. She slides out from underneath him while tucking a pillow beneath his head, smoothing down her dress as she stands.

"Well then, I'm off to get ravaged on top the potion ingredients, so try not to get into trouble while I'm gone." She said to the disgust of all the boys, Ginny looking far too happy with herself as Hermione that the gods the topic of her wand had been discarded.

"Wait, she was joking, right? Hermione!" Ron yelled at her with a disgusted expression marring his handsome face as she closed the door, a grin upon her face.

"You weren't joking were you?" A voice came up behind her, the owner's large hands grabbing her around the waist to pull her to his chest.

Hermione continued walking to the door at the end of the hall, holding onto the hands resting on her stomach. Pausing just long enough to throw a familiar smirk at Severus, "Of course I was."

She squealed slightly as he tickled her ribs and nipped at her neck before slamming the door behind them.

~.O.~

The ballroom was a sea of black, filled with Death Eaters ready for the new Marking ceremony.

"The Ministry will need to be ours," Tom had said to Hermione and his two lutienents, taking a sip of his drink. "They will make things much more difficult once they know I am alive unless we begin to act now."

Dolores Umbridge stepped up, shaking in front of the Dark Lord as she uncovered her left forearm and baring it to the man who touched it gently with his wand. Hermione was at least glad the foul woman would have some of the pain she had inflicted upon others directed towards her, if any of the rumors were true. Hermione's eyes focused on the pink beads at her wrist, sneering at them slightly.

"Umbridge is a liability," she had told him once he brought up her name, "She is very outspoken on her views towards half- bloods, and muggle- borns. She has made several laws trying to ban werewolves from Britain, our allies, my Lord!"

Tom had only tugged on one of her curls with an indulgent smile, "Yes she is love and she has, but if the Aurors were to open their eyes to a mole in their midst, she would be the scapegoat. She will also be your new defense professor this year the Minister has decided, so you will have to learn to tolerate her for the time being."

She grumbled, "I don't want to speak to her outside of class." She was amazed sometimes at how much she could get away with talking to this evil man, and he only laughed at the girl who brought him back to life.

"As you wish," was his answer, then it was onto the business of a new Minister when the time came.

She screamed when the mark was seared into her flesh, the snake slowly taking form into the skull.

"When will you give me my mark, my lord?" Hermione's eyes flicked to Severus before they went back to Tom.

"Soon, when the time is right."

~.O.~

The inhabitants of Grimmauld Place continued to wage war on the house, and in that process Hermione found a very interesting piece of jewelry. Sirius had thrown it into the pile of things he no longer wanted, but something of an aura surrounded it that Hermione had become accustomed to.

Levitating it from where it was buried from beneath Walburga Black's tangle of necklaces, she was given a vicious look from Kreacher that she ignored. The golden locket was a gaudy thing with it's green enlaid 'S' right in the center, and it's clasp would not become undone. After casting diagnostic spells for curses she grabbed it out of the air, and it seemed the longer she held the large locket, a whispering went through her head that sounded like nothing at all and yet something.

"Sirius? Do you mind if I keep this?"

He took it from her, casting the same spells and shrugs as he gave it back to her, "Might as well, going to get thrown out anyway."

Looping it around her neck to show to Severus later, she continued stunning doxies whenever someone would open a dark drawer.

..

A black clad man stood in front of the kitchen sink, staring out into the darkness of night. Slipping her arms around his lean waist, Hermione rests her cheek on his back and feels it rumble as he says hello.

"You haven't been in all day, I missed you. Now it's the middle of the night, and you didn't even feel the need to come see me." She tickled him on his surprisingly sensitive ribcage, her hands then going up to his neck to undo the snake embossed buttons that he had already started on.

She feels his snort vibrate her cheek, "You didn't give me a chance to."

They continued to stand that way until Hermione finished with his buttons all the way down to the bottom of his frock, her hands splaying on his stomach where she could feel his warmth through the thin shirt. "What is Dumbledore doing, Severus? Harry is getting upset, he thinks he is ignoring him."

"He doesn't tell me everything, girl. He barely trusts me with the information I pull out of him now." He turns around, putting the wand he had apparently been holding down on the dining table. Wrapping her arms around his neck after he lifts her up to the counter in front of him, his arms taking their place around her waist. "He suspects something between us."

Hermione took a moment of silence, asking a question she very well knew the answer to, "Do you trust him?"

His eyes glitter in the little light from the moon outside the window behind her, he pushes back one of her curls from her forehead, "The only one I trust in this madness we live in, is you."

She smiles cheekily at him, showing her fangs, "Is that so?"

He growls lightly, his lips bruising her's as they laugh into one another's mouths and their hands go into each other's hair. The golden locket sitting quietly in Hermione's beaded bag goes forgotten until the time comes for it to begin whispering it's seductiveness once more.

~.O.~

Hermione ran her thumb over the P embossed upon her red and gold prefects badge that had come with her new class schedule, looking at Harry. He didn't show anything on his face as the twins teased Ron about his new status, only looking on with an overly polite expression.

Dumbledore is trying to seperate us even more from Harry...

Wrapping an arm around the dark headed boy, he wraps an arm around her shoulders in response as they hear music start downstairs for the party Mrs. Weasley had put together.

"Are you alright Harry?" she squeezes his side.

He smiles down at her weakly, kissing her temple, "I'm fine, 'Mione."

She looks back at him worriedly as she is pulled into a hug by a crying Molly, telling her how proud she was of her and her youngest son. Harry goes on to talk to Remus and Kingsley at the edge of the living room. Mingling around for an hour or so, studying all the Order members who were gathered, she deigns to see Severus who had been cooped up in his room all day.

Harry had perked up much after talking to Remus and Sirius about his father, so she gave Crookshanks her attention as she stood with their little group. Picking up the cat who had been circling her legs as she listened to their conversation.

She kissed his furry head before holding out her badge to him, "Watch over Mummy's badge, Crooks." She kissed him once more between the ears before letting him down to trot about the house, showing off his pilfered goods.

The boys, who she hadn't noticed watching her and her familiar, all stared at her as she watched him walk through the crowd, making sure he wouldn't get stepped on. Blushing as she finally did, they all grinned at her, "What?"

Remus pulled her to his side, "Do you think that's a good idea, Hermione? Giving your cat your badge?"

She pinched his side smiling brilliantly, hugging him briefly before letting go, "Of course it's a good idea, Remus. He'll give it back."

Although Severus still did not particularly like what was left of the men who had called themselves the Marauders, he had found a certain calm and indirect form of loathing within him as he eventually had to come to terms that Remus at least was not the same man he was during their school years. Sirius though, was something altogether different as he seemed to find interest in Hermione and Severus whenever they were within the same room together. Severus continued to steadfastly ignore the animagus who at times did try his best to push all of Severus' snake embossed nerve buttons.

Escaping up the stairs to find Sev, a knocking inside an open doorway draws Hermione's attention. A dark mahogany dresser was rocking from side to side, something inside of it trying it's best to get out of the finely made cage. Going against her quietly disagreeing conscience, she pulled it open, only to find a boggart materialized in front of her as she backed out of the room once she saw which shape it had decided was the most fitting for tormenting her with.

It seemed confused at first, switching between person shapes, but eventually settled on one the longest. Severus stood in front of her, in his thin unbuttoned shirtsleeves, his Dark Mark writhing on his arm as Hermione's eyes were glued to his face. His skin was a dusky grey, as if soot had been blown everywhere there was taunt skin. As if all the blood had been drained from him, causing his skin to grow leathery and tight against his bones much like what an inferni must look like, giving him the appearance of a walking skeleton with pale lips and colorless cloudy eyes.

She stepped back from the mirage with her wand raised, but she was paralyzed as he backed her against a wall, his face coming within an inch of her own. He smiled cruelly, made even more grotesque by the Boggart's chosen death like facade. His skeletal hand raised, mimicking Severus' actions from days ago by sliding one of her curls behind one ear. Hermione squeezed her eyes shut, tears sliding from underneath her lids as he whispered in her ear.

"It's all your fault," his breath slid across her neck like a frigid wind, causing chills to rack her body along with her suppressed sobs. "You let this happen. You let the Dark Lord drain me of my life, just as you are doing to your best- friend." His lips twisted into a seer, not that Hermione saw. "You brought him back, you signed my life back to him just as you are doing to your precious Potter."

She falls to the ground, a loud thump sounding through the hallway. Her hand covers her mouth to suppress the sobs, not doing anything to block the whimpers that escaped as he continues to say the same words in her ear. Over and over, again and again. Her wand lays abandoned next to her on the floor until finally, his words stop, but she does not open her eyes as it is banished.

Large familiar hands pick her up slightly, placing her in his lap as he strokes her hair to calm her. She wraps her arms around his neck, burying her head in his hair as her sobs subside with his platitudes whispering so much different than his dead copy. As several footsteps sounded on the stairs, male voices echoing just around the corner, Severus slid Hermione to the floor beside him instead of draped over him.

Harry had seen many strange things concerning his friend, but the scene that greeted him, his godfather, Remus, and Moody on their way to banish a trapped Boggart had to be put at the top of the list. Severus Snape was sitting on the floor with his back to the wall. The Potions Professor was practically laying on the floor, with a curly haired girl curled up into his side in front of an open door. Hermione was curled into their Professor's side with his arm around her shoulder. Comforting her. The man who had made over fifteen years worth of whole Potions classes cringe, and cry, was comforting a girl who was best friends with the boy who he seemed full of contempt for.

"Hermione?" he whispered, not exactly comprehending what was going on in front of him. Based on the silence behind him, neither did the other three men.

"Snape!" Barked Moody, his wand held in his right hand with Sirius right behind him, walking towards the couple who stood. Snape's hand going down to help the smaller girl up. Harry's heart twinged as she looked at him with wet red eyes, a trembling smile on her lips. "What is the meaning of this?"

"The boggart is gone now," she said softly, wiping the tear tracks from her cheeks. "You can tell Molly we took care of it." She didn't make any more sound as she walks up to Harry, squeezing him tightly, then grabs Severus' hand and pulls him back towards his room.

No one says a word as they walk back down the stairs.