Hermione landed with a crash in the fireplace at her old apartment. She dusted herself off, and went looking for her suitcase. She remembered that her bags were still in the cupboard from when she moved into the apartment. She opened the cupboard door and reached for the light switch. Strangely enough, she couldn't find it. She instantly thought it must have moved, but equally as instantly dismissed that thought, because it was a Muggle apartment. She took a step inside the room and crashed through the floor with a loud 'Crunch!' of the collapsing floorboards.

'Help! Can anybody hear me?!' She reached into her left pocket for her wand. She looked around her. She was in some strange sort of room. She looked up at the gaping hole in the ceiling, and saw her wand, sitting on the edge of the hole.

'Oh well. I guess now is as good a time to practice wandless magic as any.' She extended her hand upward towards the wand. 'ACCIO WAND!'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, reading through the Daily Prophet, when there came a knock at the door. Without looking up, he called out, 'Come in, Severus.' The door swung open and in stalked the imposing Potions Master.

'Yes, Albus? You wished to speak with me?'

'I did. Please take a seat.' Snape sighed, and was tempted not to follow the instruction, but soon thought the better of it. Dumbledore saw the glimmer of irritation in his eyes.

'I take it you know why you are here, Severus. And furthermore I take it you do not like the reason why.'

'Need I even reply?' remarked Snape, as feisty as ever.

'So you do not want to have Miss Granger as an Assistant.'

'Obviously.'

'Why not? She is more than capable of doing the job.'

'I know why you have hired her. Assistant Potions Professor is just a fancy name for the job you really have her here for.'

'And what job is that, Severus?'

'Don't pretend you don't know, because I certainly know. You've hired her as my bloody caretaker! You don't think I'm capable of looking after myself after a summons.'

'You're wrong there, Severus. I know that you aren't capable of looking after yourself after a summons. And its getting to the stage where even Madam Pomfrey can't help you. But I think Miss Granger can.'

'Why her?'

'Because she has experience in this area, she's intelligent, she'd be able to cope with seeing you in a terrible condition -'

'Give me the real reason. I'm not a three-year-old. I can tell when you are keeping something from me. Why her?'

Dumbledore sighed. An uneasy silence rested in the air around them. Finally, as if much consideration had gone into the answer, Dumbledore spoke.

'Because I know, Severus.'