A/N: Thank you for the 15 and some reviews! Compared to what the prequel got for the first chapter, it is a good start!

Wood-n-snape-When was the angst ever there? … I'm glad I made you cry already, its good to know there are some souls out there who show emotion all the time (you getting this, Sev? Hmm?)

Ninde Annare-Elementary, my dear Watson… smirks Heehee, someone you is just as excited as I am… Kudos!

Marissa-If you think that this is crazy, you 1) did not read the prequel and 2) should not be reading HGSS if you think this! (Funny, eh? Bah!)

Lady Heather-Wow, that is so cool that you spent the five hours needed to read the previous story! And congrats on your new fic! I would help you, but you do not have "a" email for me to see, so I cannot give you help in my author notes, as much as it would be amusing…

Romancer 4-ever-Henceforward your babbling is forgiven, and I'm sorry you have to hate me, but what can a person with a life do?

Momsangel-No, you're not the first to review, I'm sorry, but I love you anyway! Grumble all you want, little child pats on the head

Wiily-Great review thus far…

Flamethrowerqueen-Oh, I am so glad the concept of the angstness was discovered! Yay! I am also glad that you think that this will be good.

Irina Derevko-Drawing up blanks, eh? Isn't that the POINT?! You really need to register, girl…Thank you for being an ever-present reviewer!

Jub-Jub19-And I will go stark raving mad if anyone thinks that! (Rest assured, she is not.)

Elena-Enthusiasm imposes great rewards…Thank you for reviewing!

Wacko The Sane-My dear, dear, friend, I will try to uphold your expectations… looks left to right in panic JK!

Charmed piper-Poor you for writing so few words! It's okay, really…

Angie Chick-Um, the treats go to me…not to you, but I suppose I can share… not anyway, this is angst, just so you know. smiles

Aindel S. Druida-And why would it be better than the original? Come on; that was a one of a kind effort, even I'm amazed I accomplished such a fic!

I will not do this every time, just so you know. Oh yeah, and I suppose a disclaimer is needed.

Disclaimer: I don't own such ingenious properties of the female mind of J.K. Rowling; otherwise I would have stolen them beforehand… sigh

Chapter 2: The Weeds of Suspicion

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The next days following made Hermione even more ill than the fact that her parents' remains were being desecrated into the ground by Death Eaters. The whole pity act that everyone put on was disgusting, not comforting, as they were trying to be. The constant questions of 'Are you all right?' 'Do you need anything?' 'Will there be a funeral?' 'Do you need funding for it?' 'It will be okay. You know that, right?' Day in and day out, all the uncomforting words and the pity looks and the shaking of heads and sighing, she wanted to scream! Everyone did this, this unrelenting pity parade following her all day, everyone.

Everyone except Severus and Harry. They understood. They knew more than anyone else, even the Weasleys, who had lost their Ron. Their supporting arms and understanding were much more welcoming. Frequently they sought her out to simply sit or stand next to her, simply being there, not saying anything. That is how she liked it, and it's what she wanted. They had gone through what she had, either similarly or within the range of it.

I surprise even myself, this feeling of calm on the outside. No one seems to really notice. This is good. If I keep this up, they will leave me alone… She had to admit she was glad that there was another distraction of her parent's death to steer them away from their usual questions about how the university and the lectures were going. Their questions were getting harder and harder to overlook and glaze over.

Later that night she was sprawled on the window seat, buried behind a book, as was customary. And then Severus came into their bedroom, his presence drifting towards her until he was standing in front of her. She pushed her nose closer to the book until the words blurred in her vision to convince him she did not want to talk. He gave in, and there was some graceful movement, and he stood in front of her once more. She looked up. He had changed into his sleepwear. God, he is sexy, she found herself thinking wildly, as she gazed almost hungrily at his lean and muscular frame that was disappointedly covered by silk black pants and a faded black cutoff shirt. He allowed the faintest twitch of his lips upward before sitting next to her, taking the book gently out of her hands and gazing at the cover.

"Shakespeare, is it?" he mused, flipping through the pages.

"Yes," she answered, snuggling up next to him as she watched his gaze rest upon one of her favorites, Romeo and Juliet. "They're kind of the complete opposites of us, aren't they?" Severus said nothing, drawing up his comprehensions of the sad tale.

"It seems so," he said after a moment, but did not supply anything else. "How is your work at the university?" Damn, I thought no one would ask. Maybe Harry is right, that he is a mind reader.

"Oh, it's doing okay. We've been learning all about the magical properties of certain goods, tradable or non-tradable. It's quite fascinating," she said quickly with as much enthusiasm she could muster while averting her eyes. Severus smiled. Trying real hard, aren't you?

"Hermione," he said, with just a trace of firmness. She stiffened, for she knew that he was serious when he said her name like that.

"What?"

"What is going on?"

"I don't understand." Of course you know what I mean, woman, stop trying to pretend you don't, he thought forcefully.

"You know perfectly well what I mean. Do I even need to waste my breath, what little I have left, explaining it to you?" Hermione smiled. He was like his old self, the sarcasm about his age shining through, but it did not necessarily mean she was off the hook.

"I really don't, Severus." She suppressed the hint of a smile, this was all too like their years at Hogwarts. He was just playing. Wasn't he?

"All right then. Why don't I tell you? You have not been taking any classes of any sort at the university. There are no records of you even registered there at any time in the past year. What is it, Hermione?" Hermione fought her internal annoyance that he was so damn observant, and a spy. How was she going to play this out without telling him?

"I know I haven't been taking classes there. I've only been keeping up that story because that's what my parents and Arthur and Molly wanted me to do, so it makes sense that I have to keep the story up with everyone, right?" Well, that was part of the truth; he'll just have to accept that. Severus caught her eyes and held them instantly, she became lost in them; the ebony depths creating a window to the soul that no one thought he had until their relationship began those three some years ago. He said nothing for a few moments, most likely trying to wait her out until she broke down and confessed. But she was Hermione Granger, now Hermione Snape, and she was the queen of stubbornness.

"That was not my question." Suddenly Harry burst into the room and announced loudly that supper was ready, and Hermione took the excuse with utmost relief and dashed out the door.

Severus sat on the window seat contemplating what had just passed between them. She had admitted she was not attending the university, which he knew already. But she was definitely hiding something; he knew for a fact that when she was still in school, her parents had wanted her to go to a muggle university. But once he proposed, everything changed. He smiled sadly. Her parents sat through that wedding with their eyes darting around, afraid they would get cursed or something. They never did approve, and now they were dead. He had never had the chance to make amends. He was too late. Hermione had desperately wanted them to get along, but they had regarded him like he was invisible half the time and a serial killer the other half. He, in turn, had ignored them dutifully after this discovery. He felt responsible for their death, because if he had gone to the last Death Eater meeting, (the one in which the Dark Lord was not present) he would have known of their plans, and could have saved or at least warned her parents. But fate had played a nasty trick on him, and he was sick of it. Tired of the pain, tired of the killing, tired of everything.

And now his wife was keeping secrets from him. He resolved to follow her the next day, to see where she went, and maybe find out what the hell she was doing.

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Severus watched Hermione at breakfast very carefully. She had not spoken to him at all since their conversation, only making his suspicions more valid. After she excused herself, he waited until she left the kitchen and went out the door of the Grimmauld Place. Shortly thereafter, he closed the door silently behind him and muttered an invisibility charm and stole after her.

Hermione walked quickly down the street, wanting to keep as much distance as possible from the Order headquarters and its occupants prying questions. She wished she and Severus could go back to his, their, mansion, where she could have privacy. But the threats of Voldemort were even worse and the danger to the entire community, muggle and wizard alike, was in the red zone. She supposed that Dumbledore had one to two people tag along with her, but she always managed to shake them off in time. But surprisingly, today no one was accompanying her. The idea that she would not have any delays for just one day made her walk all the more faster to her destination, where she would be able to Apparate.

Severus found himself running as stealthily and as quietly as he could after her, for she was walking so briskly he would lose her almost immediately if he did not run. Gasping, he finally saw her stop at a street corner. Realizing suddenly that she would apparate and disappear, he ran faster, still covered with his invisibility charm. He arrived at her side, practically holding his breath completely to keep him from being heard, and just a moment before he heard a faint pop, he latched on to the lower folds of her burgundy robes.

He instantly jumped away the minute he heard another pop, and backed himself away while his eyes checked his surroundings. It was London, in an alleyway that was a popular site for wizards to apparate without being noticed by Muggles who might be passing by. Suddenly Hermione brushed past him, just barely missing his still invisible form. She dug a hand into her pocket and pulled out a crumpled ripped off piece of parchment and read its contents. Before he could react, she deftly threw it into the air, said a spell, and it burst into flames and then cindered into gray ashes that fell to the ground to mix with the dirt and grime.

And then suddenly she was gone. He looked around wildly, an enigmatic frown forming upon his brow as his eyes and ears searched the alley. Nothing. He had lost her, and he mentally slapped himself for such clumsiness. He had no choice but to go back to Grimmauld Place, but he'd do it after he went to the Leaky Cauldron for a major shot of something alcoholic. Just as he was about to round the corner, his eyes caught a flash of burgundy. He whirled and cautiously peered around the corner. Within seconds he was invisible again and had used a spell to listen in on Hermione, who was visible again, and not alone anymore.

"Really, this is a completely stupid way of going about this," Hermione vented, her hands on her hips as her chocolate brown eyes beheld the visitor. Severus couldn't see the man's face, but he wouldn't have been able to anyway, for he was wearing a mask of some sort. Is it a Death-Eater? No. That's impossible. As he listened, he found his wild assumption to be false.

"What do you expect? It has to go with the more traditional methods that no one expects," he retorted, his voice deep and hollow, but his iron curtain of secrecy was very apparent. Severus clenched his fists angrily, they were talking in some code, but he wasn't sure if it even was a code, so he kept listening. He had to know what Hermione was doing in an alley meeting with a strange man.

"You know, it amazes me about how much you seem to like potions, everyone thought you'd go for charms or transfiguration," he continued.

"Wouldn't that make everyone happy? I really need help. Can you please help me?" The conversation had taken a weird turn and he bristled with a shameful jealousy as she took the man's hand. (A/N: She is NOT cheating, okay? Moving on now…) He jerked his hand away and shoved something into the palm of her hand and closed her fingers around it.

"This should help you for now, but I'm telling you, it will not be permanent," he said warningly. Hermione nodded, and then turned away from the mysterious man and walked down to the other side of the alley and out of sight. The man stood there for a moment before shuffling off in the other direction and disappeared. Severus stood there for a long moment, wondering what in Merlin's name he had just seen.

Not wanting to hang around any longer, he quickly apparated to the Leaky Cauldron. There, he was greeted by Tom, the bartender, and immediately ordered his usual draft of firewhiskey. Usually he just downed it in one go, but he was too distracted today and only sipped haphazardly from his drink.

"Ah, my dear friend Severus, how are things with you?" Severus choked on his firewhiskey and sent an extremely dark look towards his least favorite person in the world, one before Dumbledore: Lucius Malfoy. And today his little twerp of a son Draco accompanied him. Damn that fucking bastard. Leave me alone.

"Absolutely peachy, but my good mood has left me, now that lesser intelligent beings have invaded my space," he spat. Lucius bristled, but then quickly smoothed his complexion and brushed his hair back behind his ear. God is he a prat. Draco only smirked, the same way he had always done in school. He hated every minute of having to favor that little bastard, just to keep up appearances.

"Always a shining example to the community, aren't you?" He laughed, and Severus only downed his firewhiskey loudly in response. "Really, I would expect you to have better manners than that," he drawled, his voice dripping with smugness.

"What do you want, Lucius?" Get right to the point, and then he wouldn't have to be in their presence any longer than necessary. Draco made himself comfortable on Severus's right side and then Lucius placed himself like a swan on the bar stool to his left.

"I'm just so disappointed in you that you could miss such an important meeting," shaking his head, his voice in a hushed whisper, "It was Draco's first participation in our group activities," His choice of words made Severus's stomach do a gut-wrenching twist, "And he did very well, I might add. We allowed him the honor of disposing of the Mudblood's parents." The last sentence was breathed like a soft wind in his ear, so no one but he would hear. Severus began to shake with fury, but his face betrayed nothing.

"You know, there are a lot of Mudbloods around here, so I wouldn't be surprised you found the parents of one," he retorted.

"I'm talking about your wife," he spat the last word out like it was an offending parasite. "I did not think you would sink so low, and we thought your little puppet could use a little pain," he finished, his nails digging into Severus's shoulder.

"You stay away from her," he growled, his eyes boring into Lucius's gray ones, and he saw a brief flicker of fear flash through them, but it was replaced by a secretive mischievousness.

"Let's just say that Master thinks that the little Mudblood needs to be, exposed," he whispered silkily, and without another word, he walked off, with Draco right behind him, who gave Severus another knowing smirk.

Severus rubbed his shoulder where Lucius's nails had dug in and turned around to get another round. He would need it.

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A/N: Hope you like it! It's long, but I'm glad I got to update over the weekend in between the camp… Please review and make the author happy! One thing to say: This fic might or might not become R-rated; it depends on the content in the next chapter… Just to warn you, so you don't freak out or anything.