AUTHOR'S NOTE: I am not quite sure about the genre of this story. What is it? Mystery? Humour? Suspense? What? Please, tell me!

Review Responses:

Lykairo: Here's your update, though, not soon, sorry for that.

Desert-Rose6: I changed that now.

Droxy: Thank-you!

MoonAssassin13: Thanks. Sorry the update has come slower than was supposed to be.

SusanPW: Thank-you! I was aiming for something different.

Artemis MoonClaw: Certainly!

Makalani Astral: Here ends your wait.

HERMIONE'S NEW PET

CHAPTER 1

Hermione returned to her apartment quite early that evening. She had some more research to do on the new spell to make it effective over a larger area.

However, just as she took off her robes, a bright phoenix feather appeared in front of her.

An emergency Order meeting...

"Now that we are all here," said Dumbledore, looking around the gathering, "there is something critical I would like to bring to your notice."

"Er... professor," said Hermione, looking pointedly at the empty chair next to Remus'.

"Yes, Miss Granger," said Dumbledore, his voice quite grave, "that is just what I was referring to."

Hermione took in a sharp breath. Snape was missing? And Dumbledore thought it was critical.

It seemed that many of the people had not noticed Snape's absence. That was probably because he usually didn't attend all the Order meetings. But Hermione had observed that he was there in all the emergency ones.

"What's wrong with Snape, then?" asked Remus. Hermione could trace signs of worry in his voice.

"Severus, I am afraid, is missing – since his last spying mission."

"WHAT?"

Hermione turned towards Harry, as did the majority present. Harry's eyes were livid with rage.

"That disgusting traitor!"

"Harry," Hermione began, but Dumbledore cut her off.

"Harry, if Snape is missing it does not necessarily mean that he has turned into a traitor."

"Yes, for all we know, he might have been found out," remarked Luna, in a very off-handed manner.

All eyes turned to her – all eyes, bright with panic. However, she seemed strangely oblivious of all the attention.

"And I fear," said Dumbledore, getting all attention back to himself, "that is more plausible. Last time he reported that the Dark Lord was rather restless about discovering how he spied."

"But, sir," said Hermione, "won't you know the way he spied? I mean you could find out why he isn't back and...well?"

Dumbledore sighed and shook his head. "I am afraid that secret was in Severus' heart alone, my dear."

There was a tension-filled uneasy silence following this revelation.

"So what now?" asked Ron, who didn't seem to be doing much thinking about the whole thing. Ron, as he had grown-up, had turned out more of the "action" type than the "think-and-act" one.

"Yes, the most important question that, Mr. Weasley. Since my presence is required more in Hogwarts and for its protection, I am afraid I cannot actively participate in this. Hence, I have chalked out a plan.

"Miss Granger, you will find out the last whereabouts of Severus and see how far you can follow that up. Remus, Bill, you two will shadow the Malfoys. If Severus is captured, then they will surely know something about it. From what I know, Draco Malfoy has quite gone up in the Death-Eater ranks."

There was a terse silence.

"But what if he is a traitor?" persisted Harry.

"I have considered that option, too, Harry," said Dumbledore. "For that, I would ask you and Mr. Weasley along with all of you others to keep a sharp look out for him. Severus cannot tell anybody about the Headquarters as I am the Secret-Keeper. However, he can reveal the names of the Order members, and of those who have turned from Darkness to help us. Hence, I would ask you all to keep a sharp lookout for yourselves. Here is a list of families who particularly need protection. There are some of your names against it. You are responsible for that particular family. Alastor will be in-charge. Alastor?"

Moody, still the same as ever with his magical eye and wooden leg, took the list.

"Well, I wish you luck in your endeavours."

Hermione glanced through her application for leave and then beckoned her eagle owl (a present from Harry on her eighteenth birthday).

Well, she thought, at least that is settled. Percy will see to it that I never ever allowed in the office if he finds out that I have dragon-pox.

Hermione was one of the 'Ministry spies' for the Order. Due to her high academic achievements, the new Minister for Magic, Susan Bones, had given her an important place in the Department of Mysteries. Owing to the managerial part of her job, she was in constant contact with Percy, Susan Bones' personal assistant. Hence, she could, while making "small talk" weasel out some bits of information from him. Ministry was keeping some secrets of its own, but Hermione was not involved in a major part of it. But all that 'talkativeness' did pay off.

Nobody was suspicious if she chatted like there was no end to it. Nobody doubted why she should question so much. All they said was, "Oh, that's Hermione Granger."

Hmmm... and Professor Snape had called her an 'incessant chatter-box' during her seventh-year.

If only he could see me now! She thought, a bit acerbically. However, she soon realized what she was in for and wished that he could she her then. At least, then there won't be all these horrible suspicions against him.

She had not, for even a moment, believed that Snape was a traitor. She won't give reasons for her belief, for she had none. She just knew.

She knew how important he was for the Order. He was not only the best spy, but also a great asset because he was a Potions Master – the best in whole of Europe. She had spent some part of her seventh-year as an apprentice under him. Earlier, she had meant to follow up that path and become a Potions Mistress. Once, she had even joked that her skill would rival his own some day. Snape, with a small quirk of his lips, had said he would wait for that day.

But the letter from the Ministry asking her to join the Department of Mysteries was just too tempting. By Merlin, it was the Department of Mysteries! Ever since the disastrous visit to it in her fifth-year, she had wanted to go there. She wondered about the Veil. She had talked to Luna about it – well, tried to talk, at least, to see what she could make of it. Luna had been too vague about it all.

She had presently taken up the research which Luna's mother, Lynn Lovegood, had left unfinished. It was a very interesting piece of work concerning life after death – the world beyond.

Her last farewell from the Potions Master had been very cold. He had not taken well her sudden change of decision. She, too, felt sort of guilty at leaving him. But the salary, the opportunities, the mysteries appealed to her more than potion-brewing, potion-creating, potion-analyzing, etc. She admitted that it had been a very difficult decision to leave her apprenticeship. She had cried the night before she was to leave it. But her decision was made. And she had no regrets about it.

Well, none except that she couldn't keep up to her word of rivalling Severus Snape's status of the best Potions Master in Europe some day. Perhaps, she regretted leaving him, too. She had grown accustomed to the dungeons, the lab, the experiments, their short but enlightening discussions and the occasional cup of tea in his chambers. Though her loyalties would always lie with red and gold, her senses found the sophistication and serenity of silver and green very lovely, too – though Snape had scowled fiercely at her when she had used the term "lovely".

They had never had a proper conversation – or any conversation since then. Now Hermione was twenty and already quite a success at her job.

And such had been the turn of fate that most of her time would be spent concerning Potions Master, once again.

She changed into her pyjamas and lay down on the bed. But sleep was not to come to her that night. She turned to her side and lay staring out of the window at the crescent moon, wondering what had become of the Potions Master.

The Potions Master, meanwhile, was staring at the same crescent moon. The only difference was that he wasn't staring at it in his human form; hence it seemed larger and further to him than it normally would.

He was cold. He was thirsty. He was hungry. He was a squirrel.

Well, what could be worse than that?

As he heard footsteps coming towards this room, he thought that he was about to discover what could be worse than that.

"Yes, I am positive that he took this room, Mr. Malfoy."

That was Giuseppe – the new care-taker, supposedly, of Italian and British parentage. Though, if Severus was to give his opinion, he would say that he was fully British. He had the most perfect accent.

Suddenly, the door of his room burst open and Severus sprinted to the bureau and hid himself underneath.

It was Lucius Malfoy. He whipped out his wand and performed some charm.

"And you say that he has not left this room since yesterday?" asked Malfoy, clearly annoyed that his charms showed the result to be negative.

"No. I had this room spelled so as not to let any human-being leave this room as soon as I heard from Larry that a dark man had occupied this room. Then I asked Tom and he told me that it was Severus Snape from Hogwarts all right. He usually comes to stay here for the weekend so they couldn't suspect anything."

Lucius' scowl deepened. He had had high hopes of capturing the Potions Master. He knew that with Giuseppe's help he would be able to. But it seemed as if the cards had been turned against him.

"Is it not possible that he might not have been here when you were putting the spell on this place?"

"No. I checked to see if the man was inside. He had his back to me, but he was at that desk all right. He was wearing midnight black robes and had the blackest greasy hair. I was sure it had to be him."

"But you never saw his face, did you?"

"Well, even if it wasn't Severus Snape, which is only one in a thousand million chance, well, whoever it was should be here, shouldn't he?"

"He should, yes, but the fact remains, Giuseppe, he isn't."

"I know, and it is the strangest thing in the world. There seems no way that he could have gone out. And yet no one is here, no one at all!"

After puzzling over the mystery for some more minutes, Giuseppe and Lucius Malfoy, left the room.

Aren't they the greatest fools?

So are you. You should have known that they were smarter than that.

But I am free – well, at least from being caught by Death-Eaters.

And that means so much considering that you have no magical powers, you cannot communicate with anyone and unless you want to risk exposure, you are doomed to remain here – as a squirrel, remember – for the windows and doors were closed by that bloody care-taker as soon as he felt that no human is here. It is beyond you to open them. You are nothing but an insignificant little squirrel.

Granger, Merlin save you when I am back.

If you are back.

I am being an idiot!

And with that Severus Snape, the Squirrel stopped his quarrel with self and decided to do something about the problem he was currently facing. But what, he knew not.

Yawning (he didn't know if squirrels truly yawned, but he was doing something to its equivalent), he crept out from under the bureau and leapt onto the bed. Curling, he decided that whether human or rodent, at least he could sleep.

Putting up the last of her glamour charms, Hermione went out.

It didn't take her long to decide from where she should start.

Search first the public places.

The teeny-weeny problem was Snape was not the kind to visit public places. Even if he did, it wasn't as if many people would notice him (no offence meant, of course, but facts were facts). Plus, he had gotten lost over the weekend. Okay, so where did Snape go over the weekend?

When she had been his apprentice, Snape had not gone anywhere except to the Snape Manor once to visit his mother. And that was during Christmas. Well, nope, no clue there. He had mentioned that it was a mere formality. It was no secret that there was little love lost between Severus Snape and his mother. So Snape had no reason to go to Snape Manor.

She wondered where the last meeting of Death-Eaters had been held. All Dumbledore knew was that it was a different placing after every two or three times. However, he had also mentioned that they had changed the place last time. So it was plausible that this time was the same as the last.

But he had left Hogwarts for the weekend, too.

That was what the problem was. He had felt the Dark Mark burn when he was on the weekend holiday. All he had done was owl Dumbledore a note with a single line "He has summoned them again".

Okay, Hermione, think – where would Snape go for the weekend?

Thinking. That was all she had been doing since morning. Thinking and more thinking and still more thinking – but it was all absolutely fruitless.

Weary, even though she had done nothing more than futile thinking, Hermione decided to go down to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink. She needed to get away from all this for a while. Though there were gossipers in the Leaky Cauldron, they usually talked about non-existence things (not that they would admit that). So there was absolutely no chance of her getting even a glimpse of anything about what she was thinking there. An hour of peace was all she wanted.

And yet, she was not to have it. As she waited for Tom to get her the drink, her eyes fell on the thick ledger kept on the side. She wasn't even consciously aware that she was going through it. And so, it was quite a shock for her when she saw the name "Severus Snape" there.

"Tom," she asked the bar-tender as he handed her the cocktail, "is Professor Snape still here?"

"No. His stay here was pre-paid, you see. He was to leave today. But he hasn't returned from wherever he has gone to. His bags are still in his room. I am not sure what to do. Professor Snape has been coming here regularly since last year, you see. So it would be rude to send back his bags to Hogwarts when he probably means to stay more. But the thing is I already have that room pre-booked for the week for some Giovanni chap. I am really in a fix about this thing."

Snape had been spending his weekends in the Leaky Cauldron for a year and nobody had had the slightest idea. If that wasn't weird, Hermione didn't know what was.

She put the Concealment Charm on herself and went towards Room 13. Snape was indeed far, far more mysterious than was good for his health. However, she was in a better mood now that she was on some trail.

Before she went in, she removed the Concealment Charm. If Professor Snape was there, by any remote chance, she did not want to appear there all of a sudden and killing him of heart-attack. It would make all her work useless. Though, if he had been spying and berating people for all these years, then he had to have a tough heart.

The first thing she saw, as she entered the room was a – squirrel?!? A white squirrel at that! Were there even supposed to be squirrels that had such silky white fur?

Whoever did that lovely thing sleeping on the bed belong to? Professor Snape?

"How cute!"

It was involuntarily said. But the idea of Professor Snape owing such an adorable animal did seem so cute.

Well, that was until he heard it. How he would react then was something she didn't want to think about. At least it won't be cutely.

However, she couldn't stop herself from giggling. "Don't worry, Professor, your deepest, darkest secret is safe with me."

Her giggle woke up the creature on the bed. It – yawned, did it? And then it fixed its lovely large liquid black eyes on Hermione – and blinked.

Okay, feedback time!