A/N: Once again thank you all! I hope you have all had a fantastic Easter and I hope you all enjoy this next chapter. This is where it all begins to change, I will probably only have about ten chapters left for this story. I'm not sure yet, if I will do a sequel but I will leave this story with room to do one if I want to. Many Thanks, I hope you enjoy!

A/N: Chapter Warnings – Potential mentions of sexual assault, violence, bad language.

Chapter 47 – Grimmauld Place, Bedrooms and Lupin

The first week of April came, and it was the beginning of the Easter holiday, and Hermione was excited but very nervous. She had been given permission to stay with her Severus for the holiday and she had been told, by Severus, that it was going to be a relaxing holiday and that they were going to do normal things, and leave the nightmare of wizarding life behind them for a couple of weeks, with the exception of any Death Eater and Order meetings of course.

Hermione was truly excited; she wanted nothing more than to have her Severus whisk her off to a secret location that only they knew about. But first, Hermione had promised to go and see the rest of the Order members to tell her story, and so that they could see that she was truly alright. Hermione was extremely nervous about doing this, but Severus had promised that he would stand by her side and assist in the telling of her story should she become too overwhelmed. So she begrudgingly agreed that the best thing to do was see the Order on the first day of the holidays so that she could get it out of the way and enjoy the rest of her time with Severus.

"Are you ready?" Severus asked her.

She looked up at him and nodded, she grabbed the bag that she had packed in preparation for the two weeks ahead, and she headed towards the apparition point that was just outside of the school grounds.

The two of them were leaving in the early hours of the morning, as they were less likely to be seen leaving. It had been decided, by McGonagall, that Hermione and Severus would go to Grimmauld Place for the night and then speak to the Order in the morning. Harry and the other Weasley children wouldn't arrive from Hogwarts until that afternoon. So Hermione had all day to deal with the Order before anyone else arrived. Hermione and Severus would then spend one more evening at headquarters as an official Order meeting was due to take place after Hermione had spoken to the Order.

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Severus held onto Hermione and the two apparated to the spot near to Grimmauld Place. They walked in silence as they got closer and closer to the house and, once outside, Hermione stopped and drank in the place that had become her personal hell all those months ago. She took a deep, unsteady, breath and exhaled loudly.

Severus noticed her distress, he had been expecting it, and so he pulled her close to him and held her.

"Just say the word and I promise we will never come back here again" he said as she buried her head into his chest.

Hermione shook her head.

"No, I need to do this, I think it will help" she told him.

He nodded and after another moment, Hermione indicated that she was ready and the two made their way to the front door.

They entered the house and Hermione was almost surprised at how ordinary the place still looked. Nothing has changed, it was still exactly the same and she was unsure why she had thought that it would've changed since she had last been here.

As Severus made his way down the hall towards the kitchen, Hermione could hear some small noises. Curious, and slightly nervous, she caught up with Severus and grabbed onto his hand.

The noise was coming from the kitchen and as the two entered, they came face to face with Molly and Remus. Upon hearing movement, the mother and the wolf halted mid-conversation and their eyes jumped to the kitchen doorway to see the fearsome Severus Snape protectively holding the hand of Hermione Granger. All adults had their wands pointed at one another.

"Severus! Hermione! Hello! We were not expecting you until the morning" Molly exclaimed as she went over to greet the two of them.

"We thought it would be less suspicious if we left in the middle of the night as there is no one around to see, or question, us leave" Severus replied.

Hermione nodded in agreement.

Molly's eyes moved from Severus to Hermione and she took in the girl's appearance. She was pale and she was thin, Molly almost reprimanded the girl on her health but managed to hold her tongue. There was no need to upset the girl.

"Are you two hungry? I can make you something to eat" Molly offered them but Severus quickly declined.

"The offer is kind Madame however, it is two in the morning and we do not expect you to cook for us now. We can wait until breakfast. I think the two of us are exhausted from travel, we really want to just go to our rooms and sleep" Severus said.

"Are you sure? Because I don't mind, Hermione dear you look a bit pale, do you want something to eat? I really think you ought to have something" Molly asked her gently.

Hermione knew that Molly was just doing her natural mothering and she felt a small smile creep onto her face.

"No thank you, I'm alright, besides my stomach is a little unsettled from the apparition. I still haven't got used to that yet" Hermione admitted.

"Very well, I will not cook you anything but I request that you eat this, it will help settle your stomach" Molly ordered as she handed Hermione the biggest bread roll she had ever seen in her life.

"Thank you" Hermione said as she took the bread from Molly and split it in half, offering the other half to Severus.

Severus was about to decline when he noticed Hermione's 'I dare you to argue with me face' which promised hell if he refused her.

He sighed and took the half she was offering and the two of them sat at the kitchen table and ate. Molly also poured them a drink each and set them down on the table in front of them. The pair thanked her.

"Want to take a picture Lupin? It will last longer" Severus finally snapped when Remus would not stop staring at them.

Remus had been silent since the two had entered the kitchen. He didn't really know what to say, he still felt guilty and wanted to apologise to Hermione but at the same time, the Order members had been told that Hermione would be willing to talk about things the following morning and so Remus did not want to upset her by bringing anything up now. So he took to just staring at the two of them and he noticed that Severus was very tame around Hermione.

Remus and Molly had watched, astonished, as Hermione had glared at the fearsome Potions Master to take some food and he had given in immediately, instead of rebuked her for her insolence.

"Sorry" Remus murmured and averted his eyes back to Molly.

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After Severus and Hermione had finished eating, Severus asked about their rooms. Molly looked uncomfortable for a second.

"You will both be staying on the third floor with Arthur and I, the twins and Ginny will be in the rooms on the first floor. However, Bill is coming to spend Easter with us this year and he might be bringing his new girlfriend, Fleur, with him. We are not sure yet" here Molly hesitated.

Hermione and Severus stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

"We are not sure how deep the relationship is between Bill and Fleur. If they are comfortable sharing a room then Hermione can share a room with Ginny and Severus can have the third floor room to himself. However, if Fleur decides to share with Ginny then Severus can share with Bill. Or...the two of you can share the third floor twin room. As much as I disapprove the third option, it will only be for two nights, the decision is yours" Molly finished.

Severus and Hermione shared a look and Hermione nodded.

"I'm sure we can cope with sharing for a couple of evenings Molly" Severus said.

Molly looked like she wanted to protest and Remus' eyebrows had shot up to his hairline. Hermione tried to hide her grin.

Remus recovered first.

"And you're alright with that Hermione?" Remus spoke for the first time.

"Yes thank you Remus, I'd feel more comfortable sharing with the Professor than I am with staying on the first floor at all. I'd also feel safer if he was close by" Hermione said confidently.

"Well in that case your room is on the third floor right at the end of the corridor. There is an old partition folded up in the wardrobe of the room so that you can partition the room in half." Molly said, she was aware that Severus had been helping Hermione and although she disapproved, if Hermione felt safer with Severus being in the same room, then so be it.

Severus and Hermione thanked Molly for the food and the room arrangement and the two made their way up to their room.

Once they got to their room, they saw that there were two single beds on either side of the room and thankfully they had their own bathroom. Hermione picked the bed she wanted and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and get ready for bed. Severus got ready for bed in the room and waited for Hermione.

When Hermione came out of the bathroom, Severus took his turn. Whilst he was in there, Hermione turned and pushed the two beds together to make one big bed, she locked the bedroom door and climbed into the bed.

Severus walked out the bathroom and paused when he saw that his Hermione had moved the beds together. He chuckled and made his way to the bed.

"We best get some sleep darling, it's going to be an exhausting day for you" Severus said.

She agreed and the two snuggled up and quickly fell asleep.

Severus was glad that he decided to bring Hermione here in the middle of the night; he knew that she would be tired and would fall asleep quickly and she would not have much energy to think about where she was.

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There was a knocking on the door that woke him up, he yawned and went to get up to answer the door. Before he could, the person on the other side had clearly grown impatient and had used a simple unlocking charm to open the door. Severus cursed himself for forgetting to cast the wards around the door.

Remus walked into the room and promptly froze. He set eyes on a near naked Severus Snape in bed with his equally near naked student.

Remus gasped and immediately went to run out the room. Severus was quicker and he had grabbed his wand and locked, silenced, and warded the room to stop Remus getting out.

"What the hell Severus?" Remus spat out angrily.

Hermione startled awake and yelled in surprise at the unexpected guest.

"Hermione! Are you alright?" Remus asked her.

"Of course I'm alright! What are you doing entering unannounced?" Hermione asked, whilst trying to modestly cover herself up with the duvet as she was only in her undies.

"I knocked but you didn't answer, the rest of the Order is here and Molly has made breakfast. She sent me up here to get you. What the hell are you two doing sharing a bed? I thought this was a twin room? Also, there is a sofa there Severus, what do you think you are playing at?" Remus yelled looking at the two.

"I assure you, there is nothing sinister going on here Lupin and thank you for the wakeup call, if you would kindly leave, Hermione and I will be down shortly. And keep your damn mouth shut if you know what is good for you" Severus was losing his patience.

Remus looked stunned and saw Hermione modestly wriggling her way into Severus' shirt, Remus then looked angry.

"You can't expect me to leave here knowing that you two are like this. Can't you see how wrong this is! What you're doing is no different to what Sirius did!" Remus shouted.

Severus' patience snapped, but Hermione exploded in anger.

"HOW DARE YOU! What the hell gives you the right to say what is wrong in my life? Why do you get to dictate who I can and cannot have in my life? Furthermore, don't you EVER let me hear you compare Severus to Sirius Black again. There is a complete difference between them and do you know why? Severus can take no for an answer, Severus believed me enough to help me when I needed help most. It was Severus who healed me, it was Severus who helped get rid of my nightmares, it was all Severus! What did the rest of you do? Fuck all!" She screamed.

Severus didn't know what to do, he needed to calm her down, her magic was vibrating quite violently through the room.

Remus was terrified, he had never seen Hermione like this before, and he hadn't meant to upset her. He had just been angry that Severus was taking advantage of her and had clearly got the wrong end of the stick.

"I told Dumbledore, Remus, and he did nothing. I told you, and you told Dumbledore, and I got punished for it. I told Severus and do you know what he said to me? He said 'is there anything I can do for you?' And he has been doing everything that I have asked of him for nearly a year! So don't you come in here and make Severus out to be the bad guy, don't you dare think about telling anyone else your twisted fucking lies because I am sick of it all! I just want support; I just want you to be on my side for once. Is that too much to ask? Because if it is, I will ask Severus to relieve you of some of your memories from this morning, and we will be finding somewhere else to stay" Hermione finished, her throat aching from shouting so much.

Severus had stood behind her a while ago and tried to massage her shoulders in an attempt to calm her down and it had been working.

"Hermione, take a few deep breaths, are you alright?" Severus asked her.

Hermione immediately felt tears spring to her eyes, she was already emotionally exhausted and she had been awake less than 15 minutes.

Remus saw the tears and instantly felt guilty, he had been hoping to beg for Hermione's forgiveness at how he had treated her but he had blown it already.

"But Hermione, instead of sleeping in another room, or on the sofa, he slept in the same bed as you. A teacher who willingly gets into a bed with his student is seriously messed up" Remus tried to argue.

Hermione growled.

She walked to the bed and pulled the sheets back.

"Actually Remus, I pushed the two single beds together, making one big bed for the both of us. Do you think I would have done that if I thought Severus was going to do something inappropriate? Do you think I would have stripped almost naked if I felt uncomfortable? The bottom line is that I trust him more than I trust anyone else, and if you can't accept that then you can go fuck yourself!" She said to him.

Remus let out a deep breath and looked at Hermione. She was stood in the middle of a room, dressed in her Professor's shirt, whilst said Professor stood in just his underwear whilst trying to calm and comfort her.

Realisation set in and Remus calmed down and sat on the sofa and looked thoughtfully at the pair.

"You two no longer have just the standard professional relationship anymore I take it?" Remus asked although he didn't really need an answer.

Hermione chewed on her lip for a moment and decided to let Severus do the talking.

"Well done Lupin! Did you manage to observe that all on your own?" Severus muttered sarcastically.

Hermione tried not to grin at his sarcasm but failed miserably. Remus noticed and gritted his teeth for the sake of keeping the peace.

"You feel some sort of affection for each other then?" He asked.

Hermione nodded whilst Severus shook his head.

Hermione frowned at him.

"I don't just have affection for her Lupin; I love and adore her, unconditionally. I know it may seem wrong, and I know we would never be approved of, but I love her anyway. If there is one person who can understand the concept of loving someone they shouldn't, then it's you" Severus pointed out to him.

Remus relented and gave in.

"Alright, as long as you're sure Hermione?" Remus asked.

"I'm sure" she replied.

"And it's consensual?" He asked.

"Completely, from both sides" she agreed.

"And I can't tell anyone?" He asked.

"You won't if you want me to consider that you have any redeeming factors about yourself, and if you want my forgiveness. Because I assure you Remus, if you ruin the one, constant bit of happiness that I have had through the darkest period of my life, I will never forgive you" she warned him.

"Slytherin" Severus muttered.

Hermione grinned up at him.

"An honorary Slytherin" she agreed.

Severus chuckled.

Remus watched the two of them interacting and agreed that they did make a compatible pair.

"Alright, I won't say a thing; if that's what you want Hermione. However, if he does hurt you or you doubt him for a second, please come and tell me and I will help you" he said sincerely.

Hermione laughed, and she laughed, and she laughed, as if someone had told her the most hysterical joke she had ever heard.

Remus and Severus looked at each other and then looked back to the laughing girl in front of them.

"What's so funny?" Remus asked.

Hermione collected herself.

"I just wanted to say thank you Remus for not telling anyone and being sincere about being there for me. It's just funny that when it's doubt about Severus, you have my back. When it was your friend, you told me I needed professional help. It's funny, isn't it?" She murmured to herself.

Remus looked guilty once more and went to leave.

Severus nodded at him in acknowledgement and Remus nodded back. Severus un-warded the room and Remus left silently.