A/N: Sorry about my unhealthy number of cliff hangers! I promise this ends much better. This is just another of those 'in between' chapters, so not much action. Anyway, I'm babbling, so:
WickedMoonie: Sorry! I didn't realise quite how many cliff hangers I have. But this is better.
Mysticalfairy-05: I think you might have got a bit of my evil idea…
Trust
"Sorry I got a bit held up."
"Don't worry, I forgive you. But where have you been? I was so worried. I went straight to Dumbledore of course but he was being particularly elusive."
"What? Why did you go to Dumbledore? I'm fine," he snapped,
"OK, I'm sorry, I was just worried that's all; you stopped in mid-sentence. Does it really matter anyway? How are you? Where are you?" she whispered,
"I'm fine, the reason I broke off was because someone was watching me, I couldn't let them see this wonderful gift could I?" she smiled at her,
"True," she smiled back, "Sorry Severus, it's just been a hard day."
"On Potter?" he asked,
"I don't know I was in the library all day, but he did go to see Dumbledore about his uncle. Why do you ask?"
"Nothing, just wondered, so what did Dumbledore tell him?" Snape asked eagerly,
"Don't you already know? I'd have thought that being in the house with the Dursleys they might tell you something."
"Nothing; that's how much Dumbledore values me,"
"Don't put it like that, look I'd rather Dumbledore told you himself, it would be safer."
"What!" he snapped, "Don't you trust me?"
"Severus? Of course I trust you, I love you, and does anything else matter? Are you sure you're OK? You sound a bit uneasy." She said concernedly,
"What does it matter? Look sorry I snapped, I'm fine really just stressed. So you're not going to tell me anything about Potter?"
"I told you, ask Dumbledore."
"OK then," he sighed, annoyed, "bye,"
"Goodnight."
"Honestly," she spoke aloud to herself, "What's got into him? He was really weird, as if he didn't care about me at all; he just wanted to know about Harry."
She snuggled back under her duvet and was soon asleep. When she woke early on the next morning; Monday, the storm had cleared and the frost on the grounds was beginning to melt. A robin stood perched on her window sill, she quietly opened the window and let his sweet melody consume her as she sat beside it, soaking in the first rays of sunshine on the chilly January morning. Soon the other girls in her dormitory were awake and made their way down to breakfast. After breakfast she was walking with Harry and Ron to Charms when again she heard a voice calling her name, she left the crowds to go into a bathroom and there inspected her watch.
"Severus! I'm supposed to go to Charms, I haven't got time for this, Severus?" she looked at him, his face was pale and dirty, and his hair was all over his face.
"Hermione," he whispered, "tell Dumbledore – Macnair took house, being used, position unknown – I have to go Hermione, please tell Dumbledore, don't trust me if I appear,"
"What? Don't trust you?"
"It's not me; I'm –"he disappeared.
"No! Please, come back! I don't understand." She sighed and hurried off to Charms. The lesson was just theory so she wrote a note Dumbledore explaining what had just happened, she sealed it so that only the true recipient could open it and she gave to Flitwick at the end of the lesson.
"Excuse me Sir, could you give this to Professor Dumbledore, it's important," she bent down to look at Flitwick and put emphasis on the word important. He nodded and winked,
"Yes of course Miss Granger, I'll do it right away."
The next of the morning continued as normal until lunchtime when Dumbledore pulled Hermione out of the crowd into a small unused classroom.
"Sir?"
"Miss Granger, thank you for your message, it seems we have a problem, nothing for you to worry about though. Apart from what he said at the end; 'don't trust me if I appear', I think this must mean something is going on that involves you. Just be calm; don't breathe a word of anything that we have talked about to anyone, I don't know the full extent of this myself." He opened the door and walked out swiftly, she ran to the door but he was already gone.
The rest of the day was normal; they still got large amounts of homework and spent most of the evening doing this in silence in the common room. Many students, primarily fifth- and seventh-years were very snappy and most of the younger students went to their rooms earlier than usual. When they'd finally finished Harry, Ron and Hermione sat beside the fire and talked for half-an-hour, until Hermione announced she'd had enough and was going to bed; the common room was slowly emptying so they left Ginny drawing charts of Jupiter's moons.
Hermione climbed into bed but did not go to sleep; she lay on her back looking up at the ceiling through the opening of the curtains on her bed, waiting to hear her name being called. It did not take long.
"Hermione?" it whispered,
"Hello again lovely, twice in a day I am lucky,"
"What do you mean?" he demanded, "Twice?"
"Yes, don't you remember? This morning before lessons, you gave me that message for Dumbledore. Remember?" there was a silence; she looked at him, "Severus?"
"Yes! I remember now," he said finally,
"Oh good, so are you feeling better now?"
"Fine. How was everything today?"
"Oh normal, you know, homework in mountains of course. But I couldn't stop thinking about you,"
"Spare me the sentiment girl, for god's sake. How was Potter?" she rolled his eyes at her,
"What? Are you calling me 'girl' again?" she raged, "you can't talk about sentiment; you are all over me sometimes. And why do you care so much about Harry? It's me you love isn't it?"
"Yes of course, but I just like to know what's going on."
"Well Harry's fine then if that's what you want."
"Right then, bye."
"Charming…"
"Well want do you want me to do?"
"Be nice to me perhaps" she muttered, "night."
Again she noticed his peculiar manner, but she was too tired to care, she fell asleep and recuperated for the next day.
A/N: See; no cliff hanger! So anyone guessed yet, like I said, someone getting it last time. This was much more obvious though. Sorry this is very short but just realised I really should practise my guitar sometime before midnight. Anyway, hope you liked that little 'in between chapter'.
