A/N: I love being able to see the hits for this story, it's somewhat satisfying. I also realised that there must be quite a few more of you reading this than I'd thought, so hello everyone! waves and grins manically 3 guesses at what I was listening to when I wrote this ;)

A Rush of Blood to the Head

"I'll see you tomorrow then," Severus whispered as Hermione came out of the bedroom after sending Spiritus to sleep.

"I'm going to Hogsmeade tomorrow, sorry; I might pop in later on." She closed the door quietly behind her.

"Hermione!"

"Shh! You'll wake him again!"

"Hermione! It's time you took responsibility for your son. You can have a fourth-month-old baby and still have a social life. What do you think I have to do? I can't entertain any of my friends; I can leave him here on his own. I have to illegally use my time-turner so I can come back and look after him, I'm always meeting myself because I'm too tired to concentrate on it. That alone is dangerous enough."

"Severus, I'm trying!"

"Well you still have time to go off with your friends. You're a mother now, put things into perspective." He sighed; his face was growing older and paler by the day, and Hermione could see a few silver streaks lacing his hair.

"Look, I won't go to Hogsmeade tomorrow. Why don't you? Go to the Three Broomsticks with your 'friends' and have a good time, I'll stay here and look after Spiritus for the whole day." She could feel her eyes welling with tears and snakes writhed under her skin as she tried desperately not to let them go.

"Today can be the beginning Hermione, I want you to make more effort. Goodnight."

Hermione gulped her tears down and let herself out, only to crumble on the other side of the door. It was at times like these that she remembered the fine line between teacher and lover. But was lover the right word? Certainly the father of her child, but they hadn't had an intimate moment for months; he also argued with her. She hoped it was just the stress, perhaps now she was going to help him more he might become more affectionate. And she hadn't stopped hearing rumours about him meeting a young woman. This would be Spiritus's first Christmas, he deserved a good one.

Sometimes she didn't know whether she loved or hated that child. Sometimes when he was just screaming until his face went purple she would be on the brink of bringing out her wand and cursing him. Of course she could remove the sound, but she wouldn't be able to hear if he suddenly stopped breathing. But she knew Severus must have it so many times worse; at least she didn't have to live with him. And then at other times Spiritus was so lovely, he would sit on her lap and play for hours, gurgling away to himself happily. And she would bring him close to her body and breathe in his sweet clean smell which was almost soporific.

Another thing that was troubling her at the moment was Parthenope, or rather as she was now referred to, Mistress Grob. Not only was she extremely adept at her job, she also made herself very popular among the other members of staff, and Hermione was sure she'd seen them muttering in corridors and then staring at her when she came past. But whatever was being said it either hadn't reached Dumbledore or he hadn't been bothered.

Nobody saw much of Dumbledore at the moment, he rarely came to any meals and even Hagrid had been wondering where he was. They deduced this when they last went to visit him.

"Have you seen Dumbledore recently Hagrid?" Ron had inquired,

"Not in a while Ron, if I didn't know better I'd say something very big was up,"

"Like what?" Harry had asked eagerly,

"Doesn't matter, forget I said that, yeh too nosy for yeh own goods." Hagrid had then offered them some mince pies that seemed to have the addition of Fang's hair to the mixture.

Hermione wandered back to the common room, only a few students were still up, Harry and Ron had obviously gone to bed, and so she climbed up to her dormitory and fell into another tormented sleep.

ZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZ

She was standing in a derelict house, sheltering behind the only wall with any height; outside in the dark of the garden there was a high pitched shriek and an explosion of deep menacing laughter that made her nerves go numb.

Indecipherable voices were whispering urgently, her stomach lurched as the shriek sounded again.

She heard someone running down the hallway, pursued by a dark shape that made no sound; she gasped, and slumped against the wall. They passed into a room further down the house. She shifted herself so she could just see the doorway.

"NO!" she heard a voice scream, a voice she knew.

A voice bellowed words that she was too afraid to hear and there was a flash of brilliant green light. A body fell slumped across the doorway, a body she knew.

ZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZzZ

Her eyes sprang open and she sat bolt upright, shivering in her sweat. "It was just a dream, it was just a dream, it was just a dream…" She repeated to herself in a quavering tone.

She pulled her sheets around her shaking body and tried to get back to sleep. But she was too terrified to let her eyelids drop and send herself back into her dream.

A/N: Can't be bothered to write anymore; I can completely sympathise with having a fourth-month-old baby in the room next you is like – one of my cousins. So I'm a little tired, I've also had much more important things to do (my Latin project for which I'm building a Roman bath house from Lego :D) I'm sure you can understand ;) Just don't complain that it's too short, there are better things I'd appreciate comments on in this chapter.