Severus Snape stared at the ceiling in his quarters. It had been the same usual night for him. He had been out prowling the corridors for any students up past curfew. He had caught only two Ravenclaws who seemed to think they were clever enough to be out so late. But Snape had found them and they would each be serving detention the next night. He had caught the two in the library edging towards the Restricted Section. It wasn't the first time he had caught students over there, it was just the first time the students seemed so intent on getting there, like they had some kind of right or purpose to be there.

Snape scoffed. Students had no reason to be in such places. Not where there was so much information on Dark Magic. . .Snape narrowed his eyes. It had been such a long time since he had been in the section himself, though there were few times where he pure intentions for being there.

"Dark Magic," He muttered. "Students shouldn't be learning it," He closed his eyes. "No more should throw away their lives so young," He drifted to sleep without tossing or turning, or thinking about the past events of his life. No, he had grown much to use to his memories for that. Instead he slept quietly through the night with a soft, vulnerable expression on his face.

__________

Albus Dumbledore peered into a tall, gold-trimmed mirror. The mirror showed him what he needed to know. But it only showed him the present, nothing more, nothing less. Dumbledore gazed into its depths and calmed himself. Some things would never change, including what haunts a person.

"Severus," His voice was controlled and his face depicted nothing less than what he wanted it to. "Your nightmares, you have learned not to cry out in them. Though you learned to do so so long ago."

Dumbledore seemed to peer deeper before speaking to himself again. "The same nightmares, perhaps there will be day when they don't torment you anymore and when your own scar ceases to burn."

__________

"Cis Tarnan!" Professor Dasper said. And, quickly after he said the phrase, Lavender Brown's wand came shooting out of her hand and into Professor Dasper's.

He held up the wand. "And that is a version of the Summoning Charm. It is specifically made to summon your opponent's wand. However," He paused briefly. "To use this charm and have it work, you must be stronger than your opponent or be completely concentrated on a thought to make it work."

Professor Dasper looked at his class, waiting for a response. The tall man with neatly placed brown hair and chocolate eyes sighed inwardly. Ever since he had begun teaching at Hogwarts there had seemed to be few students interested in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Even though that statement only held true for the N.E.W.T.s classes, the younger and more inexperienced pupils were eager to learn about curses and duels and the such, Professor Dasper still did not like not having the attention of all his students.

Professor Dasper strode over to Lavender and returned her wand. He walked back to the front of the classroom and assessed the students. Yes, he would definitely be able to use the charm on most of the students of the class, but would someone be able to use it on him? He normally would have doubted it, but he knew the history, like everyone else, of one certain student. Harry Potter.

He looked at Harry Potter and thought that it would be an easy matter for the still-growing wizard to perform the charm on him. He shifted his gaze to another student, he didn't want to make a mockery of himself and lose the little respect from his class that he had. Dasper looked to another wizard on the left side of Harry. The two seemed to be playing some sort of game. . .Dasper was mildly irritated for moment before he remembered that he used to do the same thing. . .

The wizard beside Harry was a red-headed one, one that came from the memorable Weasley family. Dasper looked at the wizard that was finally filling out after years of being scraggly. He also looked formidable. He would expect no less from a friend of the great Harry Potter's. Dasper shook his head and moved his gaze once more to the left and saw a young woman with bushy hair sitting beside the Weasley.

Dasper looked at her slightly amused, he knew she was also a close friend of Harry's, but she looked rather frail. She looked like a weak witch.

A weak witch. .Perfect. Dasper thought and pointed to Hermione Granger.

"You, please come up here." The witch looked slightly startled but obliged.

She stood before him slightly confused. "What?"

"Miss Granger, I have decided to see if a student can counteract the variation of the Summoning Charm. Would you like to try?"

"I guess." Her voice was despondent. Yes, she definitely seemed weak enough so Dasper could provide an example to the class.

"Good. Now all you have to do is concentrate on keeping your wand, and I will concentrate on the opposite. If the charm works then I will have your wand," He stated as if there was no alternative. He had no doubt in his mind that he was a stronger wizard than she was a witch.

"Ready?" She nodded. "On the count of three."

"One." He readied himself into position, as she watched him dully. Too easy, I should have gone with a stronger student, he thought.

"Two." He put his wand out and she tensed slightly, her grip on her wand tightening.

"Three!" The tension could be felt to see if a student could be more possible than a professor. Dasper felt it and felt it his time to gain a little more respect from the class. Hermione watched him with her eyes clouded, concentrating on something else. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to be anywhere near here, doing this. She wanted to be in her dormitory, sleeping. . .

"Cis Tarnan!" He shouted put his energy into his own wand. He felt the power flow from his finger tips and into his wand, spreading to the very tip. He watched as he felt his own power tried to take the wand from Hermione, but she held on tightly. Both Hermione and Dasper watched as nothing happened.

Absolutely nothing.

The wand remained in Hermione's hand as her eyes widened. She had just resisted an attack performed by her professor. She was more powerful than her professor. . .

Harry and Ron had looked up from their game and watched Hermione. They had seen the effort their professor had put into the attack, more than enough to take away a normal student's wand. But Hermione's remained. She held on tightly to her wand and the two wizards resumed playing their game. They had known all along that Hermione would keep her wand. After all, why wouldn't they? They had certainly seen her fight beside them enough times.

Professor Dasper looked at Hermione filled with a mixture of shock and awe. A student had just shown him that he was weaker than her. A mere witch that was still coming into her powers, and she had defeated him, a full-grown wizard.

"Professor Dasper? Is it all right if I sit down now?" Hermione felt the eyes of everyone in the classroom on her. Oh would she hear this from everyone later. All the gossip. All the rumors. All the attention. She never did like having a lot of attention from her peers. They always seemed so. . .caught up in their own world. They never seemed to realize what was going on in the real world. That any second Lord Voldemort could attack. That Death Eaters could easily attack their families. Her classmates never seemed to realize how short and demanding life could really be.

"Y-Yes, Miss Granger, please have a seat." Professor Dasper straightened the cuff of his shirt before addressing the class again.

"As you can see, class, Miss Granger has demonstrated how you can resist the charm when you focus completely on a special thought. Miss Granger, you were obviously very focused on how you counteracted, would you please tell us what you were concentrating on?" Dasper asked in hopes of saving some of his dignity.

Hermione blushed slightly. "I don't think that matters." She looked at her desk.

Dasper hid a grin. Perfect, she must have been concentrating on something extremely strongly to have beaten him. After all, she was only a weak child playing with magic, now wasn't she?

"If you please, Miss Granger, it will help the class to understand the way to better counteract the charm."

Harry and Ron each covered snickers with a cough. They had both seen how much Hermione hadn't been paying attention when their professor had performed the charm.

"I was. . ."

"Now, now, don't be shy."

"I wasn't really concentrating. I was thinking of being back in the dormitory, sleeping." She said shyly casting a quick glare at Harry and Ron that seemed to be coughing an awful lot. . .

Professor Dasper looked dumbstruck for a moment.

One little witch. . .one weak little witch. . . Thoughts spurred through the professor's mind as he tried to recover his dignity.

"So class, as you can see, Miss Granger demonstrated that if you have your mind thoroughly set on something like sleeping when you are fatigued, you can accomplish the impossible." Dasper gave Hermione a smile which seemed slightly jealous to her.

Hermione looked at the teacher fighting to glare at him. According to her, professors weren't supposed to lie. Lucky for her temper and her professor's nervousness that the class ended soon.

As soon as the trio made their way outside the classroom, Harry and Ron began laughing.

"Did you see the look on his face?"

"Did you see how embarrassed he was?"

"What about how surprised he looked!"

The two continued on to their next class with their laughter slowly dying down. Hermione looked at them only a little disgruntled; after all, she was used to them. They had always enjoyed mocking any teachers they saw fit. They particularly enjoyed mocking all the DADA teachers (except Lupin, of course) and the Potions Master. Hermione had never approved and rarely joined in except for when they had had Professor Umbridge as their DADA professor. She remembered how chaotic that had been. . .

Feeling a little more cheerful she headed towards her next class.

__________

Hermione sat through her next class in utter boredom. Muggle Studies. She had dropped it after her third year and then picked it back up again in her fifth year. She had thought she could have catch up easily enough; and she did, and she also went soaring past what they taught in the N.E.W.T. levels. Maybe being a Muggle-born witch did come in handy. . .

Either way, she knew far more than what the class taught. The only reason that she was taking it was to have the class at N.E.W.T. level on her record so that she may have any job she pleases that deals with Muggles and wizards.

But no matter which way you sliced it, she still thought the class was boring. No longer did she consider everything a professor said complete and absolute. Her eagerness to earn her professors' phrases had died down quite a bit and Hermione acted just like every other student except she stayed awake during class and still had the highest marks in her year.

As she looked at her professor with polite interest sketched on her face, she allowed her mind to travel - but not too far.

There were certain places that her mind never traveled even if her heart did. . .

Hermione knew this and drew out a piece of parchment with a poem on it. Hermione knew that there were many odd things in the wizarding world. Such as the parchment in front of her. She had come across the parchment one day and it had immediately began writing words on itself. Since then it had added a line or two to the poem when it saw fit. But even after having had it since in the beginning of the school year, it still seemed unfinished. Hermione read the poem once more and noticed there was a new line at the very bottom. The beginning of a new verse.

Secrets of the Forbidden

Moonlight spreading through the night sky

Lighting the quiet ground

Spreading to and fro

Setting upon the silent seas

Shedding its brightness to the earth

And into the eyes of two onlookers

With admiration in their depths

Of darkness

That clouds their mind

And hearts

Allowing themselves to only see the light

Never touching its goodness

Letting only dark come near them

If for the best of all

They sacrifice themselves

To see others

Live in happiness

And with innocence

That they think they can only dream of

Not believing

That it can be more than a desire

Until they see each other.

___________

AN:

Wow, this fic has the most reviews out of all my other ones. And, actually, I'm kinda surprised that all you great reviewers review so quickly. It kinda surprises me because I was just looking at the publish date and I published the fic on the 13th. I'm really quite pleased that so many people are enjoying my work. Thank you everyone.

And now I also have an option for you peoples. Would you like more short chapters (1500-2000 words) or would you prefer longer chapters (5000+ words) that you don't get as often as the short ones. I would say you would get a chapter of that length every week or maybe every other week, it depends on my muses - sometimes I forget to put my batteries in them. And when I say 5000+ words, it can go rather high, I guess. Perhaps over 10,000? I dunno. It depends on where there is a good place to leave off.

So what do you think?

momma-dar: Don't worry, Graham will get what he deserves soon enough^_^

Queen of Farfarello: Of course. I will try to upload at least one chapter a week.

Rowa Dreams: Aww. . .Thankies!

Potions Mistress: First off, I love your name! lol. Second, despite how much *ahem* joy I'm sure Hermione and others would take in that, any type of castration probably wouldn't be best (though highly satisfying)

dying-star: Ah ha! Constructive criticism! Thanks you so much! Now, all that I ask is that you elaborate. By 'sketchy and confusing' do you mean the plotline? Setting? Something else?

prantis: Yup, I try to reserve more than enough time to get each chapter written. Bet you're happy to see this chapter out so soon to, lol.

Anarane Anwamane: Thanks.

Maddie: All updated :D

dude: I'm glad you like Snape. I'm trying to portray him simiarly to the way J.K. Rowling did while still showing he has a life, feelings, etc.

lady: It is going to be some time before this story is completed. However, I will try to work harder to complete it before school starts.

Mia: Thanks. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Angelus Griffin: 'Great mistress of the quill'? I like that! You are forgiven. lol. You don't have to worry about me incurring my wrath upon you. ;D