A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, people who were a little confused should find this easier to understand. But I can't believe people are reading without having read HBP, go back and read it now! This will make little sense to you and will ruin the book. It was interesting to see how many of you didn't think the book was that good, personally I thought it was a lot better than most of the others, it also had lots of lovely Latin to translate :D btw Filius Flitwick? Why name your son 'Son'? Feel sorry for him.

- CHAPTER TWO -

Grave Matters

His birthday was always the worst, Hermione contemplated as she bent down infront of the grave. It was in the corner of the small village cemetery, no-one was buried here anymore; most were buried in the larger churchyard in a nearby village. She pulled away a few tendrils of ivy, that unattended, had begun to crawl up the headstone. She glanced up at the holly tree behind the grave that Ginny had planted at the funeral, it was flourishing, growing tall and strong in the sunlight. Its spiny dark leaves shining beneath the winking sun. She looked down at the inscription and found tears pricking the corners of her eyes.

In fond memory of

James and Lily Potter

Beloved of many,

But most of all of their son Harry,

Who also lies here.

More than anything he wished to have had more time with them,

Now his wish is granted;

He has eternity with all those he loved.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you." said a voice softly, tears swimming in her eyes she looked up to see a tall dark blur standing behind her. She brushed her tears aside and the blur came into focus. The same sallow-faced man she had avoided at Hogwarts was standing looking at her, to her surprise his eyes too seemed a little damp at the edges, and his usually pale faced was lightly flushed.

"Snape," her voice remained steady as she stood up shakily, "what do you want?"

"Just the same as you –"

"How do you know what I'm doing?" she asked him pointedly,

"Well I assumed you've been paying your respects to Potter seeing as it was the beginning and the end for him today." His tone had become snider,

"Nobody comes here anymore, a few came the first year but no-one after that, but I haven't forgotten him. And why do you still have to call him Potter? I'm sure he'd prefer it if you use his first name." She stared at him,

"Tenses Granger, surely grammar is not beneath you, Potter is dead, and you don't use the present tense when speaking about dead people." Snape sneered,

"What do you understand about death? Apart from how to kill!"

She thought she saw him drop his gaze for a moment, but if he had, it had taken him no time to glower back at her, "That has nothing to do with it, I've made some big mistakes in my cursed life, but I do know what it feels like to be left behind by people I loved."

"Mistakes Snape? You are still calling them mistakes? People won't fall for your old stories of redemption anymore; you've used them too many times." She put her hand protectively over the top of the headstone.

"Dumbledore believed them, don't you trust Dumbledore?"

"Didn't I, you mean. Perhaps Dumbledore was mistaken."

"You will never understand trust Granger, I know you only value solid facts than can be proven. But sometimes certain… ah circumstances lead to things happening that may not seem so good when they happen but are for the better. Dumbledore trusted me when he lay slumped against the wall of the Astronomy Tower, he trusted my decision."

"What? Dumbledore trusted you to kill him!" She looked around nervously as her voice raised,

"I've said enough on this subject." He looked away, her insides stung with anger.

"What I don't understand," she growled, "was how they let you go back to Hogwarts, I mean what with you just murdering their previous Headmaster."

"It wasn't murder," he muttered,

"Assassination then, cold-blooded killing! Whatever you want to call it."

"You know everything was resolved once Potter defeated the Dark Lord."

"Oh yes, great wasn't it, Harry pops up has a bit of a chat with old Voldemort, they both…" her lip quivered, "they both die, and suddenly you appear again and tell everybody that you were still on our side! Except Dumbledore wasn't there for you to suck up to anymore."

Snape acted like had not heard her last comment, "all the events of that time were unfortunate, and we all regret people's stupidity in that turbulent period. But I would remind you that without me there would only be a handful of Death Eaters in Azkaban,"

"You managed to escape Azkaban, even though you'd murdered the greatest wizard ever born." She scanned his face for a glimmer of emotion. He hung his head,

"No Hermione, the greatest wizard ever born lies beneath us." Hermione had only just registered the use of her first-name, but had Snape really just told her that he thought Harry was a greater wizard than Dumbledore? Before she could reply to him she saw the black of his robes disappearing between knee-high grasses. "I'll see you in September," she shouted, but he did not reply, or even look back.

The first of September came sooner than she had anticipated. August seemed like a blur as she rediscovered her old textbooks and trunk. The flat had been sold to a filthy old Muggle who had made persistent comments about Hermione as they showed him around, but he could pay them in cash. Hermione had handled the money, getting it exchanged at Gringott's and dividing it between their accounts. They had moved back to the Burrow where Ginny had also come back to for the summer. Ron could easily Apparate to the Ministry with Mr Weasley from there.

He had hardly spoken to her since she announced that she was going, perhaps he knew that she was convinced and that nothing he could say would change her mind, perhaps he thought that when she'd said that they would never get married she meant that she didn't want to be involved with him anymore, or perhaps she just hadn't noticed the more subtle signs he was making in her rush to get ready for the start of term.

Mealtimes at the Burrow were a much more subdued affair than they had even been. They were generally eaten in silence, with Ron or Mr Weasley occasionally recounting something that had happened at work. Nothing unusual happened, no excitement as there used to be in the summer.

Hermione and Ginny sat in the garden one afternoon, Mr Weasley and Ron at work, Mrs Weasley visiting an elderly relative. "I went to see Harry on his birthday," Hermione said suddenly, Ginny looked up, her eyes ablaze,

"Really? When?" Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, Ginny was usually OK with her talking about Harry, but sometimes she got unhappy.

"In the morning, about ten. Why?"

"I went in the evening, I thought it looked like someone else had been there, the grass had been flattened a little, and the ivy had been pulled away."

"Yes, that was me."

"It looked like two people had been there, were you with Ron?" Ginny asked anxiously,

"No, he hasn't been for years. I met Snape there."

"What was he doing there?" Ginny spluttered, covering herself in wine, she quickly soaked it up with her wand and looked at Hermione.

"He said he'd come to pay his respects. And then we had a bit of an argument. Then he said something about Harry being the greatest wizard ever born, and then he disappeared."

"What?" Ginny stared at her incredulously, "Snape said that? Snape hates…hated Harry."

"He said lots of strange things; come to think of it he was being really weird,"

"What do you mean," Ginny put her glass down and now had her full attention on Hermione,

"Oh I don't know, he just seemed kind of sad, which is weird for Snape. But it doesn't matter. Your holly tree's blooming."

"I know, I go down as often as I can, to look after it, and talk to Harry." They fell silent again; Hermione's eyes lingered to Ginny's neck where a heavy gold locket hung. It was plain and undecorated; to anybody else it looked worthless, by Hermione knew what it was. The fake horcrux that had cost Dumbledore his life and had been around Harry's neck when they found him.

A few days later Hermione was standing on Platform nine and three-quarters, amidst the steam of the familiar scarlet engine and the hordes of students trying to get onto the train. She and Ron stood looking at each other for a few minutes and then she let her trunk drop to the floor as she kissed him hard on the lips, "I'll be back," she said and she left Ron standing dumb-struck on the platform as she walked through a door and sat down in the nearest empty compartment, watching him out of the window as the train began to move away from the platform and he gradually became engulfed by steam.

A/N: Hope you liked that, bit shorter than the first chapter. I'd like to know what you thought of Snape, is he more in character than I've had him before?