Hermione barley dragged herself to breakfast that next morning; she was so tired. It was a surprise that she had gotten any sleep at all, for she was sure that if she hadn't snapped at Lily when she did, Lily would have kept her up all night. But then again, Hermione couldn't blame her; she was just trying to look out for her. Besides it seems that James had been out for the night too, so Lily had deemed it necessary to have a 'Girls Night'.

She plopped down in her normal seat and dragged over an apple, from what she could remember, they were supposed to provide some sort of natural sugar and be just as effective as coffee to wake you up in the morning. She began to chomp on it, her mouth almost too exhausted to chew.

She felt the normal nudge to her left that said that Lily and James had shown up, and of course, Peter and Sirius behind them. Remus would normally arrive with them, but she knew he wouldn't be there this morning. He would have to spend one more day in the infirmary until his bruises became less visible and his scratches and marks went away.

Breakfast went by painfully slow. Sirius and Lily tried to talk to Hermione, but she would only answer yes or no, if they were lucky they got a two syllable answer. But thankfully they had given up. Hermione walked into Transfiguration a few minutes early, as usual, and settled in to her normal seat. She got out her books and organized all of her supplies that she might need on her desk. She looked back down at her watch, ten minutes till class, people would be arriving soon, but for now she was alone in the room. Yawning, she placed her head on the desk, using her arms as pillows. She had a while until class, so she figured a quick nap would be fine.

Hermione groaned as someone slammed down a pile of books next to her head, catching some of her hair and waking her up in the process. She slowly raised her head, only to see a very agitated looking Severus sitting down next to her. Confused, she asked, "Severus, why are you sitting by me?"

He looked down at her, a sneer planted over his face. "If you hadn't been sleeping, you would have heard McGonagall say that we are supposed to be working on our project this period."

Hermione looked down at her lap, color slightly rising in her cheeks, "Oh, sorry."

She watched as Severus shoved one of the few remaining books her way, "Why do you always have to do that?"

"Do what?"

"Blush, every single time you make even the slightest fool of yourself you start blushing. It is quite an annoying habit and it is not in the least bit flattering."

"No one else seems to mind one bit."

Even though Hermione wasn't looking at him, she could hear the taunting sneer in his voice, "Well then, I guess you only do it around me. I wonder why that would be."

Hermione suppressed the urge to slap him across the face as she began scribbling down notes at a furious pace. The rest of the period passed by silent and slow, much to her dismay. She couldn't believe that Severus had even begun to insinuate that about her. Oh how she wanted to hex him, especially now that she wouldn't get in trouble for hexing a teacher! She started to gather up her books and she looked over at Severus, telling him that they still had to meet in the library to finish up the research that night. Hermione sighed as she met up with Lily and the rest of the group, this would be a long day.

Severus had just dismissed his first morning class when he felt that familiar burning on his arm. Running toward into his office, he stopped by the fireplace for a mere moment, throwing in some floo powder and calling Albus. Within a moment, Severus could hear the old wizard as he ran around, putting on his robes and grabbing his mask, "What is wrong Severus?"

"He called Albus, something is wrong. I have no idea when I will be back, get someone to cover my classes."

Severus didn't wait for an answer as he ran out of his office, down thorough the halls and outside into the grounds where he apparated out of sight.

"CRUCIO!"

Severus fell to his knees as he felt the curse flow thorough every part of his body. His every nerve tingled painfully in part's he didn't remember he had. His mind became mush as he waited for the curse to lift. He prayed that the curse would ware off soon, but no one seemed to be looking out for him then. The curse stayed on for a total of three minutes, and when it was finally lifted, Severus could do nothing. His nerves were still on fire, and he felt as though one more moment and he would be rooming with the Longbottom's in St. Mungos. He tried not to cringe as he heard a cackle of laughter from behind the spot where he was currently laying.

"Severus, I am surprised at you. For twenty years I thought that you were one of my most faithful followers, and now I find out, that for most of those years you have been spying on me."

Severus' heart began to beat so fast, it felt as thought it would fly out of his chest at any moment. He knew, he knew, but how?

"I do wish the others were here to see this, I would love to use you as an example for the others. I'm surprised that you have kept your secret so well, even during those years when I was, well, incapacitated. But then again, in hindsight, I see now that there were one or two instances when I should have known, like when Lucius brought news of that Mudblood's disappearance, when you were 'congratulating' Lucius, for a moment I saw disgust and hatred flicker through your eyes, and I mistook it as jealousy. But that is beside the point. You may be wondering how it was I found out. Well, it seems that our newest recruit knew about you and you're spying. I am aware that the fool Dumbledore thinks that Malfoy Jr. is the newest, but he is mistaken. No, he is someone that will help me more than all of my other Death Eaters combined, he is someone on the inside of your secret organization."

Severus could feel the pain slowly subside and now put his mind to the task of getting out alive and back to Dumbledore so that he could be warned. He knew that the Dark Lord wouldn't wait much longer to kill him, he never waited to long before he killed the traitors, then it hit him. Severus moved his fingers ever so slightly; they were still clutched on his wand from when he had apparated. He looked around the area; the Dark Lord was a few paces away from Severus now, his back turned away from him. Severus listened to him drone on a bit longer until he felt that he had enough strength back in him. Quickly and as silently as he could, he brought up his wand and apparated away from there and back to Hogwarts, thankfully the Dark Lord had forgotten his anti-apparition wards. Severus got up as fast as he could and ran back down the passage and into his chamber, throwing floo powder and walking into Dumbledore's office as quickly as possible. He took off his mask, thankful that no one besides the Headmaster was currently occupying the office. Not waiting for a greeting, he quickly stalked up to the desk, "He knows."