A/N: Hello again! Another week, another chapter, can you believe it? I certainly can't. It's been such a long time since I have managed to write regularly. Hopefully you will be reassured to know that I have managed to continue writing ahead, so it looks like I'll be able to keep up this update schedule, at least for now.

Thank you to all of you who are still reading (or have recently started reading) this story! Special thanks to NatRambles and Lucyole for their encouragement via review it means the world to me.

I know we are kind of in a transitiony period in this story, but fear not our two heroes will be together before too long. In the mean time there are some things that need to happen as the plot thickens (so to speak). Enjoy and please let me know what you think, I love hearing from you guys! ~ Note xxx

The days passed slowly as Hermione waited for her plan, if you could even call it that, to begin moving. There had been no word from Draco yet. Harry had written back within a day to let them know that he was completely swamped at work and didn't know how soon he would be free to come to Hogwarts. There had been several more Death Eater attacks recently and all auror trainees were needed to pick up the slack as the fully qualified aurors worked overtime to track down the rogues.

However, given her growing certainty that she was correct in her guess at what Cruz was doing, they were in desperate need for more information and she didn't know where else to get it. Her anxiety was getting worse day by day, and she was barely sleeping once again. On the rare occasions when she did fall asleep she usually awoke screaming, not that anyone could hear her through the silencing charms covering her room.

To make up for this, she had taken to extensively meditating at night. It thickened the walls in her mind and seemed to keep her reasonably well rested at the same time. Despite this, and much to her own displeasure, slipping into the routine designed by Cruz was easier than she wanted to admit. She had always been a stickler for plans so it really wasn't a problem.

Hermione had also found that she quite enjoyed early morning runs on the grounds, although she needed to buy some warmer running clothes once she was allowed to Hogsmeade again. The temperature was steadily dropping and the grass was covered in frost most mornings now. It was after all getting close to the end of November.

Ginny and Luna spent almost all of their free time in the library or in her room with her. They had wanted to take her to Gryffindor Tower, but as Ginny had predicted, the hostility towards her had gone up another notch, even from the other Gryffindors. Hermione wasn't welcome in their common room any more. It hurt, but at the same time, she had stopped feeling at home in the cozy seats in front of the fireplace at the start of the year. Sometimes she barely felt as though she was part of Gryffindor house anymore. Instead she yearned for evenings spent sipping tea on conjured armchairs in the potions lab.

In the grand scheme of things however, or so Hermione thought, things could be much worse. She had even managed to finish up the Veritaserum. It was locked securely in a sparkling glass bottle inside her bedside table, covered in notice-me-not and obscuring charms. She hadn't dared to sneak into the potions lab since the day she had finished it, but at least it had not gone to waste. Still, she was itching to brew something and she wished that they would bring in someone to teach potions. As much as she hated the thought of seeing anyone other than Severus in the dungeon classroom, at least it would be an excuse for her to be near a cauldron. So far, potions class had been entirely reading based since the hearing, supervised by whichever professor had the time.

oxoxoxoxo

Days of waiting for Harry became a week and then two in which Hermione slowly began to retreat behind the walls in her mind in order to keep her wits together. At least, the details of her hearing were not splashed across the Daily Prophet anymore. That had died down after about a week, not that that stopped her fellow students speculating widely about her mental state and her love life. Cruz kept an excruciatingly close eye on her. Hermione put on glamour after glamour to hide the rings under her eyes or the fact that she was now lean and wiry from her morning runs and plenty of the break times on her schedule were spent training in the Room of Requirement for her DADA mastery exam. Cruz seemed to approve of her eagerness to exercise (not that she knew about the training) and at least if she tired herself out she was able to eat most of her meals. Sometimes she even caught an hour or so of restful sleep.

Overall, she thought she was doing a pretty good job of deceiving everyone into thinking she was improving (bar maybe Ginny and Luna). Until one night she appeared in Cruz' office for her usual evening meeting. The Professor looked her up and down and raised her wand.

"Finite incantatem.", the older witch hissed.

Magic rippled over her, making Hermione's skin crawl. It felt cold and almost… slimy. The spell had cancelled the charms she used to keep her hair contained and so her curls suddenly fell wildly onto her shoulders and back.

Looking up out of tired and flat golden eyes she found her guardian with an expression of pure rage on her face.

"Are you really trying to tell me that covering yourself in charms is considered taking care of yourself? Have you looked at yourself?"

She hadn't, not until Cruz conjured a full length mirror right in front of her. Her skin was pale, her face gaunt. Her clothes were hanging on her lank frame and her hair vaguely resembled a birds nest. There were black circles under her eyes. Her posture was ramrod straight and she looked more toned than she ever had, but in a sinewy, wiry kind of way. In other words, she looked worse than she had after a year on the run.

With a flick of her finger she made the mirror disappear. "So?"

"Do you have nothing to say for yourself, Hermione?"

The Gryffindor witch shrugged trying to hide her displeasure. "I did what I could to do as you asked. But I cannot sleep and there is nothing you can do about that."

Cruz fumed in her chair. "Never try to deceive me about how you are doing again. You will be given food that I chose from the house elves from now on. If you do not finish this food you will not be allowed to leave the Great Hall. If you miss classes due to this, you will not be excused. I will make sure that it is seen as the violation of school rules that it is."

Hermione nodded, internally raging for getting herself caught and turned to leave.

"If you try to circumvent my orders any more there will be consequences."

"Like I said, Professor, I'm doing my best. Goodnight.", she sighed and walked out. She thought she heard Cruz mutter 'it's for your own good' as the door closed behind her.

oxoxoxoxo

As Hermione stormed away from Cruz' office she could feel the iron grip she had on her magic and her mind begin to slip for the first time in weeks. Thoughts of Severus flooded her mind, thoughts she had not permitted herself to have. What she would give just to be able to talk to him or to have him hold her. To make her feel save.

Ducking into an alcove about halfway to her rooms she leant against the wall and slowly sank down, her hands shaking. She needed to get it together, before someone found her. It didn't matter that Cruz found out she was using glamours. It didn't matter that she wasn't doing well. There wasn't much Cruz could do to make her life any more miserable than it already was.

Her scar was itching again but she barely noticed it anymore. The itch was as constant as the ache of missing Severus.

"Miss Granger.", a voice said out of nowhere.

Hermione jumped, her wand snapping into her hand without a second thought, not sure how long she had been sitting there. She looked up and saw Professor McGonagall standing over her with a frown on her face.

"Come with me, Granger.", the Headmistress snapped and turned without waiting to see whether she had gotten up. Hermione hurried to scramble after her, her heart hammering in her chest. Could it be? Had Harry finally managed to find the time to come see her? Or was this about something else?

As expected they made their way to the gargoyle that guarded the entrance to the Headmistress' office.

"Pincushion.", stated the older witch after glancing up and down the hallway to make sure there was no-one nearby. The gargoyle sprang aside and the two of them ascended the staircase in silence.

Once the door closed behind them, McGonagall directed her to a chair in front of her desk and sat down on the other side. A tea set appeared and she gestured at Hermione. "Would you like a drink?"

Her first instinct was to react with suspicion, but then she nodded. She could do with something warm to hold on to. Plus, at least she could trust her former Head of House not to spike her tea.

They sipped for a moment until finally McGonagall spoke. "Don't take this the wrong way, Hermione, but you look awful. And a lot more so than the last time I saw you. Are you alright?"

Hermione sighed and placed her cup back onto its saucer. "I was using glamour charms to get Cruz to back off about my insomnia. She seems to be taking it personally that she has been unable to cure me."

McGonagall's lips pressed together into a thin line. "I was afraid something like that was the case. I received a message from Potter earlier in the week, he is worried about you. He also tells me that you were trying to set up a meeting with him. Is there anything I can help with in the mean time?"

Hermione hesitated for a moment and leaned back in her chair. "Maybe. I still want to see Harry, but I think maybe you could help with some research?"

The headmistress gestured for her to go on. "As you can imagine I'm trying to find a way to get myself out of this guardianship arrangement with Cruz. I was hoping that Harry might be able to do some research for me at the Ministry and find out what the legal situation is. I would like to do some similar research in the library here but I'm worried that Cruz might find out what books I'm looking at."

McGonagall took a sip of tea. "I can assure you that while she has a lot of power over you at the moment, accessing the library record is something that only Madame Pince can do and I doubt that she would share any information with Professor Cruz, but I understand your concern. I will let Potter know to look into it for you, and will do some of my own research, although I'm afraid there likely won't be much to go on. Whatever her goal is, it seems that she has planned very carefully to ensure you end up in her… care. We will need to proceed carefully if we have any hope of stopping whatever she is planning." The headmistress looked down at the cup of tea in her hands and Hermione was surprised to see what she thought was remorse on the older witches face.

"Hermione, I must apologise again for all that is happening to you. I'm not sure we could have stopped this from happening altogether but the more I think about it the more I wonder what came over me when I decided to hire her."

Hermione looked at McGonagall for a long minute. "I appreciate your apology, Professor. It seems that all of us became a little too complacent after the war." Her lips pulled into a crooked smile. "Moody would be very disappointed in our lack of vigilance I'm sure." McGonagall snorted, but the humour on her face was quickly overtaken by sadness. Yet, she didn't say anything more.

Hermione scratched her scar absentmindedly while looking around at the different portraits on the walls. Most of the former Heads of Hogwarts appeared to be asleep but she noticed that Professor Dumbledore was watching her from behind the current Headmistress. Hesitantly she looked between him and McGonagall. "Professor, do you know anything much about curse scars?"

McGonagall frowned. "Not as much as Potter unfortunately. Albus might have a better idea though." She turned to look at Dumbledore's portrait. "I believe you did a not insignificant amount of research into this subject?" He nodded and fixed Hermione with twinkling eyes. "I did indeed. Why are you concerned with curse scars?"

Hermione hesitated again, not sure if she should bring this up at all. But really it was past time that she started trusting people and asking for help when she needed it. And she was definitely at her wits end with this particular matter. "Well you see… I have a scar on my arm and something strange happened with it…"

She pulled up her sleeve and showed them the 'mudblood' scar on her arm, now crossed out from the cut she obtained in her duel with Severus. Reluctantly she told them the story of what had happened and how her scar had began to itch pretty much constantly. Even though it had previously appeared mostly healed it was now red and angry looking and the skin around it was scratched raw. She hadn't even realised how bad it had gotten until she had to stop McGonagall from calling for Madam Pomfrey.

"And you say something similar happened to the remains of Severus' Dark Mark?", Dumbledore enquired, his expression pensieve. She nodded. "I'm not sure if his has also become irritated and there isn't a lot of useful material to be found in the library which is why I wanted to see if Harry had any experience with something similar. But I never remember his scar itching, it always hurt him."

"And has your scar been hurting, Miss Granger?", Dumbledore asked.

"It twinges occasionally.", she admitted. "More and more frequently now that I think about it. But it never lasts and the only time it was really painful was the night… the night after the hearing."

"Interesting. Leave it with me and I will get back to you, my dear."

"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore."

It was a relief to finally have told someone. Although her scar wasn't really related to the whole Cruz issue and although she had pretty much gotten used to the constant itch it was still pretty concerning. It also made her think of Severus and so she bit her lip and looked at McGonagall, trying to gage how she would react if she asked about him. The headmistress seemed deep in thought and was staring into her tea cup, making no move to ask Hermione to leave. Almost as if she knew there was one more thing she wanted to ask.

"Professor? I know my… relationship with Severus might be a somewhat sore topic, but… Do you know…" She swallowed, feeling unnecessarily nervous. "Have you heard anything from him? Will he be coming back?"

McGonagall took a long time to answer. "I'm not sure it is safe for Severus to come back to Hogwarts right now. It's entirely possible that being suspended is protecting him. I assume he shared what he knows about Cruz with you?" Hermione nodded. "If what we suspect is true and Cruz is in league with the rogue Death Eaters then it is likely that he is a target. I know we have prided ourselves on the protections of Hogwarts in the past but just think about all of the things that have happened since you, Potter and Weasley started here. Our enemies keep infiltrating us somehow and we were foolish to think that with Potter off at the Ministry there were no more targets here. I don't think I have to tell you that you should not be going anywhere on your own at the moment?"

Hermione shook her head. "Ginny and Luna have been escorting me everywhere."

"Good, I thought that might be the case and believe me when I say I am glad to know you are not alone."

"Professor, why didn't you just fire Cruz when you found out about her not being who she said she was?", Hermione asked after a moment.

McGonagall sighed and pressed her lips into a thin line. "I wish it were that easy. But in order to have a Hogwarts professor removed from their position there needs to be significant evidence to them breaking school rules and the Board of Governors have to approve it. It is why Albus couldn't fire Dolores Umbridge. We have nothing tangible on Cruz and we don't know what kind of network she has built. For all we know she could have people on the board. Corruption in the Ministry and those who would seek to influence the board of Hogwarts didn't just disappear with the end of the war. And at this point I would rather keep my enemy close. Even if I could fire her now, I would not, because she might take you with her and then who knows what she could do as your guardian?"

Hermione shuddered at the mere thought of being forced to go somewhere and be alone with Cruz for extended periods of time. After a moment, she looked into McGonagall's steely eyes with new-found conviction. "We will just have to do with her what we have done every time someone infiltrated Hogwarts - we beat them. And this time we are communicating and working together so we stand a much better chance than anytime I tried to help Harry to do this."

Both McGonagall and Dumbledore smiled at her proudly. "I'm so glad to see you willing to fight again, Miss Granger. Now, I believe it is getting late and I better escort you back to your rooms. I will let you know once I hear from Potter and we can meet again then."

Hermione nodded and followed McGonagall to the door with a quick wave to Dumbledore's portrait. It felt so strange to be on these kind of speaking terms with her professors, or anyone really. Only now did she begin to realise fully how much she had isolated herself from everyone. It was a miracle that Severus had managed to get through her shell at all considering she had refused to speak with anyone whom she had previously trusted.

McGonagall escorted her to her rooms in her animagus form, slinking from shadow to shadow so that she was nearly invisible, making it appear that Hermione was on her own to anyone who might be watching them. She wondered absently how she and Severus had ever felt safe enough that they could walk through the castle together at night without making precautions about being seen.