Albus Dumbledore walked into the dungeon, wanting to talk with Snape. He spotted him, head in his hands, sitting behind his desk.

"Severus." His voice was gentle and filled with concern.

"Albus." Severus looked up. Albus looked out of place in the potion's master's quarters.

"I heard what happened." Albus took a step inside the office. He shivered, for it was a bit chillier than he was used to. Severus leaned back into his chair, before standing up.

"Are they o.k.?" Severus seemed embarrassed to ask. Albus nodded.

"They're all out of the hospital wing and doing fine. They are a little bit confused on why you took off so fast."

"I would have stayed, Albus." He paused, Albus looked into his eyes and nodded to urge him on.

"But those eyes. I couldn't stay knowing that I was looking into the eyes of--" They were interrupted by a scream echoing through the hallway outside Snape's classroom.

"What was that?" Severus asked, changing the subject. Albus didn't hang around, he quickly exited and it took a few seconds for Snape's feet to get moving. Once he joined Albus in the hall, he noticed a heap in the middle of the hallway.

"What the--Good Merlin!" Severus exclaimed. He hurried over to the lump and turned it over. Albus stepped up behind him and they both gasped in horror. They were looking at a very un-conscious Harry Potter lying at their feet. As Severus looked up, he spotted someone running around the corner.

"Hey!" He screamed and got up to run after, Albus stayed behind with Harry and touched him, apparating both of them to the hospital wing. Severus listened for sound and ran, trying to see who that was. When he caught up with the kid, he knew it was a kid by how small it was compared to him, he grabbed a shoulder and turned him around with a jolt.

"Draco?" Snape gaped. Draco put his head down.

"What happened?" Snape ordered. Draco looked away.

"Boy, answer me!" Snape grabbed both of his shoulders and gave him a gentle, but firm shake.

"Speak, what happened?" Draco looked like he was about to cry when he shook Snape's hands off of him and rolled up his sleeve. He hesitated before turning it over and showing it to his potion's master.

"It was-It was me." He stuttered before pulling his sleeve down in a short quick motion then looking away from Snape's glare.

"Why?" Snape calmly said, there was no point in frightening the boy more than he already was.

"I-I don't know. He gave me something."

"Voldermort?" Draco nodded, sharply.

"What? What did he give you?" It was a few seconds before Draco spoke again.

"It was a vile of something, I was to…I was to throw it at the ground at Harry's feet…if…if…" Draco stopped talking.

"If what, Draco? Don't start a sentence and expect not to finish it." Snape twisted his head to look into Draco's eyes.

"If Voldermort disappeared." He said as he breathed out. Snape backed away a few steps backwards.

"When did you get the mark?" Snape said after massaging his temples.

"A f-few months ago." Draco's voice was barely above a whisper.

"Why didn't you tell me about it?" Draco shrugged.

"I was scarred, I guess."

"Hmmm." Snape stood up and sighed.

"Well, come on." Draco looked down once more before standing up.

"Where are we going?" Draco asked, almost at a run to keep up with Snape.

"Do you know what happened?"

"No, not exactly." Snape looked back at Draco.

"We're going to find out what happened."

****************************************

Ron and Hermione sat in the Gryffindor common room, talking about the day.

"Well, at least I know why Snape didn't follow me."

"What do you mean?"

"Remember when Snape said he needed to talk with me?" Ron nodded.

"He started telling me something, but I wasn't paying that much attention, truthfully, I don't remember what he was talking about." Hermione looked around the room.

"The only thing going through my mind was to keep from showing that my mark hurt. When I couldn't handle it any longer, I turned around and took off running. When he didn't follow me, I though he went back to have another drink with the rest of the faculty, but I guess he went to get his Death Eater wardrobe." Ron nodded. They sat in silence for a little bit, until Hermione looked at Ron.

"What? You have that questioning look in your eyes again."

"What happened to Voldermort?"

"When Snape left, he told me to stay behind to watch incase something went wrong. When I saw all the flashes I guess I kind of panicked and hid behind one of the trees."

"Well, don't just stop there, what happened?"

"I held my wand out and said the first curse that came to my mind."

"Ron! Quit ending your sentences too soon! What did you say?"

"Avada Kedavra" He whispered, looking at the ground afraid that if he looked at anyone, they'd disappear.

"RON!" Hermione screamed.

"What? Don't yell my name like that!"

"Do you know what this means?"

"What?"

"You killed Voldermort!" Ron blushed. He had never thought of it like that. They were startled by hearing a throat being cleared. Hermione turned around and saw two people step out of the shadows by the portrait hole. Ron and Hermione stood up when they saw Snape and Draco.

"How long were you standing there?" Ron asked.

"Long enough Mr. Weasley." Snape said. He tried looking at Hermione, but couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes, he looked at her feet instead.

"Well, it looks like we'll have a new hero. Potter won't be alone once the news gets out." Snape looked back at Ron. Ron couldn't help holding back his smile. Quickly, he sat down, trying to stop his smiling.

"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked.

"You haven't heard?" Draco smirked, stepping forward. Snape put a hand on his shoulder to keep him from making a fool of his self.

"Heard what? Snape, what's wrong?" Hermione walked up to Draco.

"What's wrong, Draco?" When Draco didn't answer, Snape stepped forward, pushing Draco behind him.

"Hermione, Harry's hurt." There was a gasp from the two boy's in the room, hearing Snape say Hermione's name, out loud. They watched as Hermione stumbled backwards, Ron put a hand on her back, and before they knew it, they were rushing past Snape and Draco, to the hospital wing.

"I knew it!" Hermione said as they walked.

"Knew what?" Ron asked.

"Draco's one of them too, I knew something was going to happen."

"Draco has the mark?"

"Sure, he acted scared, but it was just a cover up. I knew it. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!" Hermione kept rambling on as they walked, soon they busted through the hospital doors, never minding Ms. Pomfrey's outrage and found Harry. He lied there, motionless on the bed, a few new scrapes over the ones he received the day before. Snape and Draco came in right after them, followed by a mad medi-witch. They all stopped when they saw Harry and stood there in silence.

*******************************

Later in the night Albus had dropped by, excusing Hermione and Snape from the room. Hermione left hesitantly and followed the headmaster and Snape to Dumbledore's office.

When they got to the cozy room, Hermione noticed her mother and father sitting in the chairs by the window.

"Mum? Dad?" Hermione walked over to them and gave them a hug. Her mother had tear's in her eyes.

"Mum? What's wrong?" Albus walked behind his desk and put a lemon drop in his mouth.

"Hermione, there's something we need to talk about." Her father said as they all sat down. Hermione was confused. She looked at everyone in the room and wondered why Dumbledore had asked Snape to come along.

"Wha-What's going on?" Hermione looked back at her father.

"There's something that we haven't been totally honest with you about." Her father had said.

"What's that?"

"Hermione, we love you, you know that….we will always love you…" Her mother was trying not to break out into sobs.

"What are you trying to tell me?" Her father took in a breath.

"You're…adopted Hermione." Finally the truth was out. Hermione sat there with her mouth open.

"No, I can't be." Hermione slowly shook her head, scrunching her eyebrows together. She looked at Snape and he was staring at the floor, his breathing was rapid as his chest was moving up and down faster than she'd ever seen it go. She started to feel sick.

"I can't be adopted." She looked at Dumbledore and he nodded, sympathetically.

"We found you on our bed one night when we came home from dinner. We were sitting downstairs and we heard baby cries, just to run upstairs to find you."

"No, it's not true!" Hermione started crying again. She looked over at Snape and saw him looking back at her.

"What are you looking at?" She said, going to stand up. She ran to the door but was stopped by Snape. She fell into his chest and he put his arms around her.

"Shhhhh." He said as she cried. He started walking and guiding her back to her chair. She let go of his arm and sat down, Dumbledore passed a Kleenex over to her, she took it and blew her nose. The eerie quietness of the room was broken when Snape started talking.

"Fifteen years ago, my sister had a baby." He looked at Hermione, she was in a almost shock-like state, sitting in the chair, slightly shaking and staring at the Kleenex she was tearing in her hands.

"She had dropped it off at our parents house when I was taking a vacation there one summer." She started looking slowly at Snape. 'No,' she mouthed, Snape kept talking.

"My mother and father left yo- the baby in my care one night when they decided to leave, unexpectedly. I never knew the name of the baby, but one thing I could never forget that night were the baby's eyes. They were brown, just like yours." Snape paused for a second, Albus nodded him on, Hermione's mother quietly cried, starring at her daughter.

"When I returned to Hogwarts a few weeks later, I received an owl. The letter it carried told me about my family's death…" He reached into his robe pocket and drew out a small piece of parchment, crumpled from the many times it had been opened and read. He held it out for Hermione to take, she took it, waiting for him to start speaking again before she opened it with shaky hands.

"Most of the words were hard to read. But the words I could read, I figured that the baby, who's name I didn't know, had been adopted." Hermione sat back in the chair, the letter on her lap and she looked up at the ceiling, then at Snape. He could tell she got where he was going with this. Her sobs had quieted, but her shakes were still going strong.

"I did some research and saw that the disappearance of my family lead to your mother and father." Snape looked at the couple by the window, they looked about as heart broken as Hermione did. He hated to say it, but he forced himself to.

"Hermione, yesterday when I rushed off it's because I saw your eyes, the same eyes I had looked at fifteen years ago."

"How do you know? There are a lot of brown eyes in the world that look the same." Hermione shot out, looking at Snape.

"Hermione-" Her father spoke and Hermione looked at him.

"We found this on the bed with you that night." He leaned forward and handed Hermione a piece of paper.

"My birth certificate." Hermione whispered. As she looked at it, she read the two names that stuck out the most. Sadria Snape and Garren Gardner. So it was true. She was indeed Snape's niece. How could her parents not have told her before? She stood up and handed the birth certificate back to her father before running out of the office before Snape had a chance to stop her this time. The room fell quiet once again and Albus stood up.

"Well, that went well." He said in almost a sing-song voice.

"Sometimes you surprise me Albus." Snape said before standing up. He looked at Hermione's parents and nodded. They stared back at him.

"Well, now she knows, are you happy? See what happened? You just couldn't leave it alone, could you? Could you, you son of a Bit-" Albus held a hand up.

"Mr. Granger, please, be seated." He sat down. Snape looked at him.

"She'd find out sooner or later. Do you think you could have hid this all this time? Hermione is a very smart girl, believe me, you can't hide anything, ANYTHING, from her." He sneered before he turned and left the room. Once the door closed, Albus held up a dish filled with lemon drops.

"Lemon drop?" He asked, unsure of what to say.

*Hey guys! I hope you liked this chapter. It's the longest one yet! Guess what! My roomies and I went up to Crested Butte, the big skiing area near Gunny, and it was snowing! That's Colorado for ya! This isn't the last chapter, but I would like to thank all of you who reviewed and gave me ideas. They helped a lot. Keep it up!*