Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or anyone else you may recognize in this story, I make no money off this fanfiction whatsoever, and honestly hope you enjoy it.

Deaths Voice

Summary: Death comes to Hogwarts in one form or other, Tom Riddle lives, and through all of this Hermione Granger and Severus Snape get pushed together . . .

A Quick Authors Note: Okay, there is a lagidament reason this story has not progressed much in the last chapter. This story is an experiment, someone told me in "If you had just one chance" that it was moving to fast, and Hermione barely mourned. I am trying to see what I can do with an almost pure angst story. Anyway, if you were wondering, romance will indeed bloom, but later. Anywho, to the story!

Chapter Three

Goodbye Midnight

Hermione put the cloak back in her trunk. She turned to her bedside cabinet and rummaged for a dreamless sleep potion she knew to be residing there.

She was about to down it when she remembered the big Transfiguration test. She had always made it a memorial before a test because it was Harry and Ron's favorite study time.

She sighed. Time to get to work!

When she next opened her eyes it was to Parvati Patil shaking her awake in time for breakfast.

She stood up and knocked Crookshanks from her lap where he had resided sometime early that morning.

She pushed her food around her plate, vaguely remembering her fourth year, when Ron had been trying to get her to eat at the welcoming feast:

"Treacle tart, Hermione! Spotted dick, look! Chocolate gateau!"

She laughed bitterly.

The next few hours flew by without happenings. Hermione was bored for the first time in her seven years at Hogwarts. Bored, for the first time, because she had no friends to speak with, bored, because she had already finished all the essays for her teachers, she had also finished the extra credit essays, so there was absolutely nothing for her to do.

Monday rolled around and she was finally capable of throwing herself back into her studies.

During double potions she sat at her normal desk, and noticed things about it that she had neglected to notice before.

Burn spots where Harry had tipped over a small cup of the Polyjuice Potion.

A crack in the edge where Ron had missed a flobberworm.

Before she knew it, she was crying over her beetle eyes.

"Professor! Hermione needs some help!" She heard Parvati yell.

"Then help her you stupid girl!" Professor Snape said calmly.

"Come on Hermione." Parvati said, helping her out of her chair.

"And where, exactly, do you think, you're going?" Snape said acidly.

"No where Sir." Parvati said, sitting Hermione back in her chair.

"Than sit down, Miss Patil."

"Leave her alone." Hermione whispered.

"What?" Snape snapped.

"Leave her alone." Hermione said, louder this time, though tears were still pouring down her face.

"Hermione . . ." Parvati started.

"No. Leave her alone!" Hermione yelled.

"That is enough! Twenty points from Gryffindor, another week of detention, and a trip to the Headmasters office!" Snape practically yelled.

"Fine!" Hermione actually shouted and stomped out of the room in a spitting image of one Divinations class.

The only difference was that the Professor went after her.

Authors Note.

Should I leave it here? Yeah, well . . . maybe not . . . what do you think? Yeah, I think you're right. Back to the story cuz I'm gonna keep going. J

End Authors Note. ;)

"Miss Granger!"

"What?" Hermione snapped completely out of control.

"Where do you think you're going?" Snape asked, acid dripping off his voice.

"To the Headmasters Office, like you told me too." She responded.

"I said nothing of the sort!"

Hermione was about to yell that indeed he had, but all that came out was, "I'm sorry Sir."

What the Hell? She asked herself.

"Good. Now come back to class."

"No."

"Miss Granger . . ." The warning growl was in place.

"No." Hermione repeated.

"Miss Granger! Come back to class now!" Snape almost yelled, but held himself in check.

"I said no!" Hermione said somewhat calmly.

"If you won't come of your own accord, then I will make you." Snape said, forgetting, in his anger, that he was a wizard.

He grabbed her upper arm in an attempt to pull her back into the dungeon, but all he got was air.

Hermione was gone.

"Oh shit." Were the only words that came to Snape's mind.

A/N: Now? Nah . . .

Hermione sighed. Wandless Magic . . . Again. She had to learn to control those urges just to get away. She'd been having them since she was three, and Hermione still cold not control them.

She walked back towards the castle. She had found herself somewhere out in the grounds.

"Oh no." She said out loud. She was going to have to go back to potions.

Or not?

Hermione decided in a split second that she would go to Dumbledore instead.

When she reached the large gargoyle in front of the entrance, she knew that for once, her logic would fail her for the password.

She started naming off sweets. "Blood Pops. Fizzing Wizzbees. Cockroach Clusters. No, that's not it. Sherbert Lemon? Umm . . . Err, I have no idea. Mars Bar?"

"Liquorice." She heard the silky voice whisper and she turned around.

~!#!~

Hermione turned around slowly, and ran straight into Snape.

The gargoyle suddenly jumped out of the way and Hermione jumped.

"Holy Shit!" She yelped.

"Excuse me?" Snape said, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, Merlin's, err, Beard." She said, obviously more used to her childhood mannerisms.

"Come." Snape said, dragging her up the spiraling steps.

"Albus!" Snape roared at the door at the top of the stairs.

"Severus?" They heard the Headmasters strained voice through the thick wood.

Strained? Hermione thought, Why strained – Oh no! She thought as she figured it out.

Being Head Girl meant that she and Dumbledore were on equal terms, which meant he would be worried. Which meant Hermione now felt guilty for all the trouble she'd caused.

The door opened and a sleep-deprived looking Albus Dumbledore stepped out.

"Albus, may we discuss something inside your office please?" Snape said pointedly.

"Of course Severus." Dumbledore replied, the twinkle that normally infested his eyes, gone for a vacation.

"Professors. I -." Hermione was interrupted.

"Miss Granger, shut your trap for once in your life girl!" Snape snapped.

"Of course, I'm sorry Sir."

" 'Sorry' does not begin to cut it Miss Granger."

"Severus, that is enough!" The Headmaster cut in with unusual anger.

Snape bowed his head.

"Hermione, I know you are going through a rough time, dealing with your friends deaths. But wandering around at night trying to break into the very classroom you fled today, will not help you any."

"I know Professor! I – I just, hell, I dunno what I need anymore!" Hermione cried, before finally breaking down right there in front of the two people she respected most.

Snape surprised all of them, including himself, by suggesting that Hermione take the rest of the classes off, and that she be relieved of her Head Girl duties during that time.

He also added, for reputations sake, that if she was caught sneaking around at night, he would see to it that her life was indeed, a living hell.

After the stressful meeting, she trouped back to Gryffindor Tower, and said goodbye to midnight for quite some time.