Hermione sighed as she stepped out of the shower. She dressed quickly, excited to write Harry back. She had gotten an owl from Harry a few hours ago and hadn't been able to write him back because of the studying she had decided to do. Harry's note had invited her to spend the last two weeks of their summer over at Ron's. She picked up the one piece of jewelry that was sitting on the sink and studied it. It was a pretty ring, plain. It had a gold band with an opal set between two small diamonds. She didn't have time to put it on, however, because of the loud crashing noise she heard coming from downstairs.

She quickly stuffed the ring in her pocket and went quietly to the top of the stairs where she could see the most part of her living room. In there, she saw her parents standing in horror at the black figure that was toppling over chairs and tables, breaking lights and searching through desk drawers before throwing it's contents all over the ground. She quickly ran into her bedroom when she saw a bright light flash and heard her parents scream and ran over to Hedwig, who was sitting, wide-eyed on her desk.

"Don't make a fuss, Hedwig, not now, not this minuet." She coaxed the bird. Quickly, she grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill and scribbled a quick note to Harry before tying the note on Hedwig's leg and sending her on her way.

"Be quick!" She begged. She gasped as she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Her bedroom was the first door, so the chances were, the black figure would search her room first. She quickly thought of places to hide, she started to run under the bed, but decided that her closet might be a bit safer. Boy was she right. As soon as the black figure entered her room, he jabbed a long sword into her bed mattress, every few inches until her whole mattress was a mess of holes. Hermione dug herself deeper into a corner of her closet, wishing he would go away.

She tried not to think because she didn't know if this thing could read minds. As he neared the closet, going through everything along the way, she held her breath and wondered how far Hedwig was. Her heart stopped as soon as he opened the closet and searched through it. She closed her eyes and got ready for any thing to be thrown her way, but before she had a chance to think, she heard a noise, similar to that of thunder, and felt something heavy, fall ontop of her, knocking her out. She started shaking, she couldn't stop it, she tried screaming, but nothing came out, she shook even more violently and opened her eyes only to find it wasn't her shaking, but a pair of strong, yet gentle, hands. She noticed she was sitting in a car…it was the same black Mercedes she had been picked up in. She looked at the person shaking her and shrank back into the car door in fear.

"Hermione! Calm down, will you?" Hermione stared at that black hair, those black eyes, the black clothes. She snuck her hand behind her, flinching as his hand came nearer. She found the door handle to the car, opened it and took off running. Snape sat in the car, stunned. 'What the heck was that?' he thought as he jumped out of the car and started chasing the girl. She was crying as she ran, Snape could tell that.

'Oh well.' He thought once again. 'At least we're still away from civilization.' He quickly caught up with her and caught her by her shoulder.

"Let go of me." She squealed, but he held on tighter. The girl's squirming stopped a little bit as he stood there, holding her. He waited. He wouldn't say a thing, nor would he let her go, until she was calm.

"Let me go." Her voice was sharp.

"Not until you calm down."

"You're hurting me." He winced as her voiced cracked.

"If you calm down, I'll let you go." Hermione stared coldly at him before finally giving in.

"Now there's a good girl…what, Ms. Granger, did you think you'd get away with?"

"I told you, that's not my name!" She was practically screaming.

"Then what is, huh? What is your name?" Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but closed it. She couldn't remember. Snape had to hide a smile.

"That's what I thought." He let go of her. Without warning, she bounded off again. Snape cursed himself for letting go that easily, but shook the thought from his mind, quickly and followed Hermione into the mass of trees. He stopped for a second, because he had lost sight of her, and listened. He couldn't hear a damned thing.

"Hermione?" He yelled. There was no answer.

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

She crouched, low, behind some bushes. She could see him, but he couldn't see her. He scared her, he was dark, too dark for comfort. Why did he keep calling her Hermione and Ms. Granger? Something burned in her pocket, she moved, ever so slowly to not make noise, and pulled the burning thing out of her pocket. The ring, oh yes. She remembered that, but why couldn't she remember anything else? She put the ring on one of her fingers and looked back at the dark man. He was gone. 'Oh no,' she thought as she looked around the clearing for the dark man, she couldn't see him. She was startled when she felt the same, hard, yet gentle, grip on her forearm.

"Gotcha." She squirmed as she tried to get away.

"You aren't getting away this time." He said. She screamed and cried. The more she struggled, the tighter, yet still gentle, his grip got. She struggled until she felt arms wrapped around her.

Snape hugged her, letting her cry and scream, hey, the kid probably needed to. He felt her loosen up and that's when he guided her back out of the trees. As soon as he got her in the car, he locked her door before he shut it. He got into his drivers seat and turned towards her.

"Will you tell me what's wrong?" He tried to make his voice as soft as he knew how. Hermione looked at him with red eyes.

"Please?" She stared into his eyes before turning her gaze to the road before them.

"Hermione, how am I supposed to help you if you don't talk to me…you…do want to be helped, don't you?" Hermione nodded and sniffed. Snape grabbed her a Kleenex out of the glove department. She took it and balled it up before taking a deep breath.

"You're dark." She said.

"I'm dark?"

"Just like him." Snape was confused.

"Who's him?" He asked. Hermione looked back at her.

"Him!" She cried, before blowing her nose and looking out her window. Snape sighed. This was going to be hard.