(AN) Hello! Sorry for the delay in chapter 4! Thanks to all for being so patient. I did this chapter in a rush, so if there are any grammatical errors, please feel free to let me know. I would also like to thank all of my reviewers for their helpful and insightful reviews. To the reviewer DRACOSBALLDUSTER, your review is the exception to this comment. If you do not like Snape and Hermione fanfictions DO NOT READ! It is posted in my story summary what this fiction was. As for the comment that Hermione would rather do Wormtail than Snape, I think you will find that most disagree. As for Snape being an obsessive bully with no balls, what exactly is the wormtail you so obviously admire? There is also not one racists remark in my story. And last, you spelled abandon incorrectly. If you must write such profane and perverted things, I prefer that you spell them without error. For those of you who judged and regarded my story fairly, I thank you. However, if I receive any more reviews that tell me to "Eat shit and die" simply because the reviewer does not agree with the casting of the two main characters, I will pull the anonymous review feature off of my fanfiction. There is a way to critique a story without so much cruelty! Also, just for clarification, Hermione is nearly 27 in this story. So, it could hardly be considered rape!

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CHAPTER 4

I wake with a start, bathed in sweat and thrashing wildly in my bed. No, wait, not my bed. I dart up, taking in my surroundings. This is Snape's bed….This is….and there was….Bloody hell, Severus was in the room. I have to get out of here, before he wakes up in that overstuffed chair of his and finds me.

I gulp in a breath, and throw the covers off of my sweating body. With a slight groan, I try to push myself out of bed, but I only succeed in taking two steps before I collaps on the floor.

"Why dearest, do you need help?" A calm, cold voice drawls from the shadows.

"How long have you been awake?" I ask him putting my head down on the cold floor in defeat.

"Who said I was asleep?" In the darkness, I can just make out his pearly sharp teeth in a grin.

"Fucker." I groan, shaking my head.

He chuckles and comes behind me to pick me up and put me on the bed.

"Dearest, dearest. Whenever will you learn to speak as a lady should.?"

I eye him strangely, for a moment realizing that we sound like old friends caught up in some sort of playful banter. Damn, I hate moments like this, where the world just comes full circle in front of you, and you realize something that you were better off not knowing. It's nice to be in the dark for some things.

"When I become a lady." Smirking at this comment, I tentively take in my surroundings. "Why am I here?" I breath, barely able to think with the unexpected haze of emotions rushing through my body. What the hell, girl….Get a grip.

"Because you passed out." is his simple reply.

"Really….Now how in the hell did I know that that was what I had done?" I cock my head at him. "Why…Why….did I pass out Einstein?"

He shrugs his shoulders. "It almost looks like something a new witch would have done."

I shoot him what I only hope he will only take as a fuck-off look.

"Brilliant, really, but I'm not new. What was wrong with that place? There was something there. It was like it was weighing on my mind, suffocating me."

"Wards." He answers simply. "The wards around the building were not going to be broken without someone knowing they were, so I put a spell on you that allowed for safe passage." He wraps his long pale fingers around one another. "What did you dream about?"

I swing my head to look at him, somewhat startled at the question. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you were just mumbling something in your sleep and tossing and turning." A moment of pregnant silence stretches out between us.

"And, Severus?"

"Well, you kept crying for Harry."

I cast my eyes down for a moment, willing the tears to stay put. "I don't remember." I tell him, looking away from his intense stare.

I hear him get up and leave the room.

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Harry is in love. In all the years I have known him, that he proclaimed feelings beyond measure for me, I have never known him to be this happy. I smile at him as he tells me about the girl Anne, an American member of the order that we have yet to give our lives for, and somehow, I just cannot feel as joyful as he does. For starters, my heart is breaking. He will marry another woman in two weeks, and his heart will never be mine again.

"Hermione? Is everything okay?" He asks, and I turn my attention away from the sounds reverberating through my chest to look at him, the fake smile back and more brilliant than ever.

"Of course, darling. Why wouldn't I be?"

"You just look…like you're upset." He tells me with a line creasing his brow.

The smile widens and becomes more dazzling.

"Well, I am not. I am perfectly happy that you are so happy. If you see any hint of worry in my face, it is because I am concerned of what Ron will think. He was quite taken with her also."

Harry grins and looks around at the swirl of people rushing about, his handsome profile catching the sun. My breathe catches in my throat, a rush of emotions coming at me. How could I have left him. Why did I not hold on to him as he was so fond of trying to hold on to me?

I hear him make an excuse to go, but I hardly care. He is gone to me. The one thing that I thought I could always have is gone to me, and that loss alone is heart wrenching. I think of Anne, her petite blonde frame melding into Harry's as she leads him from me. I am overcome with jealousy, so much so that my eyes are clouded. I think back to the meetings. Harry never talked with her. They never made eye contact. They hadn't even been on a date before three days ago. It was in Harry's nature to be rash and impulsive at times but this? It is a little much. Something must be wrong with her, something off. I do not know if it is pure instinct or jealousy pushing me to these conclusions, but I strongly suspect the ladder, so I take a deep breathe and decide to just calm down.

What in the world could be wrong with Anne?

The answer: very much.