A/N: Eaargh!!!!! Prolonged silence……..

(Thanks for all the reviews!)

Chapter 18: Hearing is Believing

"Well, I believe we have enough information to make our decision," Fudge said pompously. Severus and Hermione looked at each other.

"We'll get through this no matter what," Severus whispered, and took her hand.

"All right. The decision is yay, or nay, that this inappropriate relationship is serious enough to take to the higher courts to be held as a court trial for the offenses of which Miss Granger and Mr. Snape have been accused." Fudge paused for effect. Hermione looked desperately at each jury face, praying that it would not be a majority vote against them. They all avoided her gaze, either embarrassed or annoyed. There must be someone in that jury who thinks this is wrong! She thought furiously. Severus only looked at Lucius Malfoy, who had a smug look on his face that worried Severus, but he didn't show it; not over his dead body would he give that man any satisfaction.

"Those in favor, raise their hands," Fudge said. The jury members looked around nervously, and finally, one by one, the hands came up. Severus counted each one. There were twenty on the jury; five, six, seven, nine…ten. He closed his eyes, wishing his hearing to fail him right at this moment. Fifteen people had raised their hands, but did not include Lucius. Puzzling.

"Now, all those against," Fudge said wickedly, acting as if he wanted to rub this in their faces, especially Dumbledore's. He openly disliked the man for first ruining the order he had restored in their world, and then for his involvement with the Order of the Phoenix, reborn. Hermione glared with all the hatred she could muster, she wanted to slap him silly. The five left, including Lucius (why he voting against, Severus did not know, probably some sick joke of his), raised their hands tiredly, for they knew their vote really didn't matter.

"The high court officials and jury will be awaiting you to begin the trial on June 22nd, and you have until then to prepare your defense. Court is adjourned," and Fudge pounded down the gavel, and the sound seemed to have a ringing permanency about it.

%%%

Dumbledore ushered Severus and Hermione out of the courtroom, for they seemed unable to walk themselves in the right direction. They had acted as if they knew they would lose the hearing, with the trial already scheduled! Severus thought angrily.

"I'll kill that, that, bastard!" Severus muttered angrily, staring after Lucius with utmost hatred.

"Severus, you need to calm down." Dumbledore steered Severus away from Lucius to avoid any confrontation. Hermione was still in somewhat of a trance, repeating over and over in her head: This is wrong. This is wrong. This is wrong! The windows next to her in the hallway shattered; broken shards of glass descended on everyone. People panicked, one woman screamed. Hermione stood transfixed, staring at the shard of glass working its way into her palm. She started walking away, and she bumped into someone and tried to shove them out of the way. Her forearm suddenly became enclosed in the vise-like grip of Lucius Malfoy.

"I only voted because I felt sorry for poor Severus. Didn't get his way this time, did he?" Hermione struggled in his grip, the glass shard causing blood to trickle down her palm onto Lucius's hand. He hissed at her and shirked his hand away. "Get your disgusting blood away from me, Mudblood!" And Hermione took all the rage boiling inside her and mustered it together into strength and slapped him as hard as she could across the face. Lucius glared venomously at her and took hold of her arm again and smacked her across the face. She fell, and Severus came out of nowhere and seeing Hermione being struck by Lucius, aimed a well-timed punch at Lucius's face and then grabbed him as he fell and slammed him against the wall.

"Get your hands off of her Lucius!" He snarled, shaking with rage.

"Didn't know you had such deep feelings for the filthy little whore. What will Master say?" Lucius whispered so only Severus could hear.

"Get away from her," he said again, his voice dangerously low.

"What ever you say, Severus. Just know that this will not be brushed under the rug," and he walked away, people looking at him as he went by, and more importantly, the red welt on his cheek from Hermione and the just-beginning-to-form black eye from Severus Snape.

Severus, now rid of Lucius, rushed to Hermione's aid shortly after Dumbledore had. She took his hand and he helped her up. He saw the finger marks on her arm, distinct bruises of where Lucius had grabbed her. Then his eyes traveled to her face, which was brimming with tears. The tears could not hide the long black bruise along her cheekbone. He pulled her close and held her tightly, Hermione now quietly sobbing. Luckily, mostly everyone had left, so only the workers would see the beat-up Lucius Malfoy leave the Ministry leaving, wondering how on earth that had happened. No one had seen what had taken place between Hermione and Severus and Lucius. All had already left or ran when Hermione had shattered the windows. Severus looked around at the windows in awe and surprise.

"You did that?" Hermione nodded slightly. He kissed her forehead. Dumbledore coughed.

"We should get back to Hogwarts as quickly as possible, so rumors don't begin to spread," said Dumbledore, and without another word, they returned to Hogwarts. Hermione gave a parting kiss, not caring who saw them, and then climbed to the Gryffindor Tower. She entered, and was overjoyed when no one was there, but then she remembered: there was a Quidditch game, Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. She prayed they would win; then they could play Slytherin for the Quidditch Cup. She wanted to go down and watch, but she did not feel like facing her friends, let alone the whole school. She dragged herself into bed and fell into a nightmare-ridden sleep.

She dreamed. In her dream, she was standing in front of Voldemort and his Death Eaters. It was somewhat blurry and hazed, but she could still make out what was happening. Severus was standing protectively in front of her. She sneaked a glance at Voldemort's face, besides it stark whiteness, lipless mouth, red snake eyes, his face contained only rage that was smoothed over by placidity.

"Severus. I see that your loyalty does not lie with me, and has not for many years. Did you think I was blind? That I did not know you were being a spy for my enemies? And the girl, I believed that you were only befriending the girl to get closer to what the enemy was doing and more importantly, to lead me to Potter. I was wrong." He looked around at his Death Eaters. "Looks like dear Severus has fallen in love with a Mudblood!" and the Dark Lord laughed, and his followers laughed cruelly with him. Severus had his wand in front of him, ready to defend her. Hermione began fumbling within her robes, and grasped her wand tightly under them. She knew some defense; she would not be helpless.

"Expelliarmus!" Voldemort said lazily, but his carelessness left Snape enough time to duck the spell and pull Hermione to one side. Voldemort only laughed. "Crucio!" he yelled, pointing his wand directly at Severus. Hermione shoved him out of the way. The spell hit her and stumbled and let out a scream. The Death Eaters stood watching the torture. Severus stood up to help her, but one Death Eater bound Severus with cord that shot of their wand. Hermione buckled as another overwhelming explosion of pain hit her, she screamed and screamed, falling to her knees. Then the pain let off, but Hermione could not move.

"Severus, I could keep her under the curse until she either goes insane or dies." He waved his wand again, Hermione let out another piercing scream; her lungs feeling trapped as her voice rasped from screaming. Severus stood helpless, bound by a Death eater's wand rope, could only watch Hermione, shivering in pain on the ground.

"Stop. You don't want her. Let her go. You want me. I'm the one who betrayed you. Just let her go…"

"Oh no. That would be too easy Severus…Too easy…too easy…too easy…" His words seemed to trail off. Hermione screamed as she saw a flash of green light and Severus fall to the ground, and then everything went black. She sat bolt upright in bed, in a cold sweat and shaking.

%%%

Hermione did not tell anyone about it. It was too hard to talk about. However, she could not hide the dark circles appearing under her eyes as she lost sleep. She had that same nightmare, every night. Every single night. But she could not even tell Severus about it. The Dark lord had stayed quiet the entire year, so Harry was beginning to feel extremely edgy and nervous. She couldn't tell him, or Ron or any of her friends. She thought Severus was too distracted about gathering research for their trial, and Dumbledore was too busy with the Order. She desperately hoped it was just a dream, nothing more. But the nightmare slowly became more vivid and clear as each week went by.

When Harry and Ron had seen the bruises the Sunday morning after they got back, they went ballistic. First Ron thought it was Severus, but then she explained what had happened at the hearing. Draco threatened her on the way to breakfast, obviously he had seen his father's state when he got home. Then, when everyone had sat down to eat breakfast, Harry and Ron had both walked over to Malfoy and immediately dragged him out his seat and began pummeling him. By the time any teachers could stop them, Draco had a broken and bleeding nose, a sprained ankle, a black eye, and other numerous bruises. Ron sported several broken fingers from punching Malfoy so hard, and Harry's mouth and lip were bleeding. They were docked fifty points each and given a week's of detention with Filch. They took it without complaint. Hermione wished her friends weren't so protective; it got them in trouble. However, she was glad that they were so supportive, and they had certainly made Malfoy pay for everything he had said to her.

Hermione was glad when exams came; it could take her mind off things. At least they would not have to worry about N.E.W.T.S this year, which was in seventh year. On the outside she just looked tired from studying for the exams, everyone knew how she was. On the contrary, it was because of the dream, but she had resolved to wait after the trial was all over before to tell Severus and everybody else. By then it might go away. Maybe her anxiety for the trial was causing the dream; she heard that that was possible.

Unfortunately, the dream did not go away. June 22nd was only less than a week away. It became so vivid; she began wandering to Severus's chambers to peek in on him while he was sleeping to see if he really was still alive.

Hermione woke up again from the nightmare, the clearest it had ever been. After she had calmed herself down, she glanced at her clock. 5:00am, on the morning of June Twenty-second. She got out of bed and began brushing her hair in front of the mirror. Then she suddenly dropped her brush with a clatter.

The twenty-second.

The dream.

Severus?!

The trial.

A/N: Hard to write, really hard…Emotionally draining. Sorry for another cliffhanger.