It's a crappy chapter, but chapter twenty-eight.. THE QUIDDITCH GAME!!!!!!!!

Chapter # 27

Hermione stared, shocked at what she saw. It was James, she knew that for sure, but he was, well, he was drunk. Very drunk. He swayed and stared nervously at her, his eyes drooping slightly. Finally he spoke to her.

"Hey, whatthefuckinhellsgoninonhereman?" He slurred. Hermione caught only the middle of what he was babbling.

"James, what are you doing here?" she asked softly. He regarded her with the calmness of a drunken fool.
"Good question. What are you doing here?"

"James, I'm serious!"

"Really? I was under the impression you were Hermione." James answered with a sly, plastered grin. Hermione bit her lip. She had never been around drunk men before, and it made her rather nervous.

"James, Dumbledore has this wacky idea for dances and I thought maybe."

"Ahh, I already know that. Snapey told me."

"Snape knows that you're."

"POTTER!!!!!"
Severus stormed into the kitchens, his face livid with rage. He was shocked to find Hermione there, but he ignored her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"If you have failed to notice, I'm trying to neck out with my lover." James replied, smirking up at Severus.

"Don't you ever listen? I told you to stay in my office!" Snape snarled angrily. Hermione flinched and watched as James got up off the floor, a determined look in his eyes.

"Listen here, you big greasy git, I was hungry, you were sleeping, so I left. I came to the kitchens, had dinner, and was offered a drink. After couple of drinks I was feeling good. After a dozen I'm fuckin' drunk, alright? Got a problem with that?"

"Be reasonable, you fool. You are drunk, I hardly think this is a good time for your wittiness." Snape replied scathingly. Hermione winced at Snapes' cruel voice. James just slurred and stumbled as he sat down on the floor once more.

"Professor, I can explain it." she stumbled over her words as though she too had been drinking too much. "it's not what it seems, me and Mr. Potter, oh, please don't tell anyone, oh no, what'll I do if someone finds out?" she mumbled to herself.

"Miss Granger, be silent." Snape demanded, turning to James. "James, stay here with me. And you, to your common room, don't let me catch you here again." He glared at her fiercely and Hermione scurried towards the door, glancing back at her drunken lover in uncertainty and confusion.

"You idiot!" Severus groaned. "What in bloody hells' name are you doing, trying to get caught? I thought I explained to you, Voldemort wants you, alive! You have to be careful! Do you want to get Harry and Hermione killed? Is that what you're trying to do?" his voice rose steadily louder, until he was shouting. "What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't!" James screamed in frustration, tears forming in his eyes. Severus backed away, shocked. Never, had he thought he would see James Potter cry again. There had been once, when James' father had died, again when his step mother died, and again when Harry was born. Severus thought he would never see the man cry again. He was wrong.

"I wasn't thinking, and I'm sorry, I just wasn't!" he sounded like a helpless child now. "I want to see my son, but I can't, I want to marry Hermione, I lover her so much, but I can't, because I need her parents permission, and they're fucking dead! I want to see my friends, but I can't, because if Voldemort learns that they know, he'll want them dead too! Fuck it, why the hell did I even come back?" he broke down right on the kitchen floor, sobbing, one hand covering his face in humiliation.

"James, I. I don't know what to say, I never realized you were this close to the edge. I'm sorry, really, I am, and don't say you have no reason to live, because you do. I'm sorry, James. I'll forgive you if you forgive me." Severus murmured, bending down and gently touching the mans' shaking shoulder. "Alright?"

James sobbed in reply.

{ common room}

"Hermione, where were you?" Ron asked as a puffing, exhausted Hermione slid into the common room at an absurd time of three in the morning.

"I was going for a walk." She lied quickly, then eyed Harry and Ron suspiciously. "What are you two doing out of bed?"

"Waiting for you." Ron replied, yawning. Harry looked up at her and smiled wearily.

"Dream."

"You had a dream? Oh Harry, what was it about?" Hermione asked anxiously. Harry smiled.

"It's alright, Hermione. It was just something about Voldemort, that's all. Nothing important." Hermione studied the boys' tired eyes, those brilliant greens eyes that said so much without saying anything at all. She could tell. Harry always looked like this after dreams.

Especially when he lied.