Hermione decided that the best time to break the news about the evening Harry would have to spend with Draco, would be when Harry was completely slaughtered. Which was why Harry was already slurring, and they'd only been in the Three Broomsticks for an hour.

"Drink up," Hermione said cheerfully, as she nursed her glass of pumpkin juice. "I've bought you another round."

"Are you trying to get me drunk, so you can take me home and have your wicked way with me?" Harry asked, with a drunken grin.

"Yep," Hermione answered, smiling at her friend. "Now drink up."

"Much more and I won't be able to walk back, let alone be sober enough to be seduced," he slurred, pushing his drink away.

"Honestly, whoever thought the great Harry Potter would be a lightweight," Hermione said, tutting. "I'll let you off after that glass anyway, because I want you to be able to hold your own when Draco joins us for drinks tomorrow night."

"Oh, right," Harry said, smiling and taking a handful of peanuts from the bowl in the middle of the table. "That's nice."

Hermione beamed at him and took a large swig of her juice. Actually, the juice, like everything else, was starting to make her feel sick. Luckily, however, her breasts had stopped hurting – for the last week or so, she hadn't been able to get comfortable at all during the night because of them.

She actually felt unusually well. Harry had taken her to a restaurant before they had headed off for a drink, and Hermione had enjoyed herself immensely. It had been the first time she had been to a restaurant without her parents, well, ever. And Harry was enjoying playing the romantic side up for all it was worth – he'd even greeted her at the door to her rooms with a single rose, which she had hugged him tightly for. It was nice to be made to feel special.

"Hang on," Harry said, his brow wrinkling, making his glasses slip down his nose. "What did you just say?"

"I'm really glad you're okay with it, Harry," Hermione said, brightly. "Cos it's a really good idea for us to be nicer to Draco. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer and all that. And he has really been behaving himself lately."

"I don't want to have Draco close…" Harry said, looking horrified.

"But you've already agreed," Hermione said, pouting. Her acting abilities were far better than this, but why waste them on a man who could barely focus on you, let alone really think for himself. In fact, she'd probably end up having to explain this all to him in the morning, through his hangover.

"You're confusing me," Harry said, sounding disgruntled. "Stop that."

Hermione laughed. "Come on Harry, let's get you back. We've only got an hour before we have to be back at Hogwarts and it might take you that long to stagger home."

"I think I'm going to need a hangover potion in the morning," Harry slurred, knocking his chair over as he got to his feet.

"Sorry," he apologised to the chair as he walked out of the The Three Broomsticks and into the cold air. "Arse. I didn't plan on getting this drunk."

"It's funny," Hermione said, linking her arm through his in an effort to keep him walking in a straight line.

"I don't want to be funny, I want to be morantic," he muttered to his feet, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other.

"You mean romantic," Hermione laughed. "But you can be morantic if you like."

"No, no, no," Harry said, looking down at her, his face sporting a disgruntled look. "This is going all wrong."

Hermione looked at Harry in confusion.

"I've had more fun tonight than I've had in months. What can possibly have gone wrong?"

"I wanted to do this properly, but I was so nervous…" Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, velvet box.

Oh God, no.

"Harry, I don't think you want to do this," Hermione said, immediately understanding and wishing she didn't.

"No, hear me out, Mione," Harry said, putting his hand on her arm to stop her from walking on without him. "Don't say no yet."

"Harry, we're friends," Hermione said, looking helplessly at the ring box in Harry's hand. "We can't get married. We're not in love."

"No, but I do love you," Harry said, firmly. "And I could probably fall in love with you."

"Very romantic," Hermione said, with a nervous laugh.

Now why couldn't Severus have done this instead? Hermione thought, miserably.

"You'll get Wizarding benefits this way, and you'll have every right to any money I have," Harry explained, thankfully at least mostly oblivious to Hermione's misery. "We can live together and you can Floo to Hogwarts to apprentice, or I can Floo to wherever I'll be doing my Auror training."

"I'm not taking your money, and I'm certainly not marrying you so I can have whatever small amount of benefits we'd get from the Wizarding community," Hermione said. "I want to marry for love, not convenience."

Except she still loved Severus, even now she knew she'd never get to tell him. Would she ever really and truly fall in love with anyone again?

"And you've got to marry someone you truly love," Hermione said, suddenly thinking of that important point. "Someone like Ginny. I know you care about her, Harry."

Harry stared at Hermione, a miserable look on his face.

"How long have you been planning this?" Hermione asked gently, taking the unopened ring box from Harry's hand and dropping it back into his cloak pocket.

"Since the night you told me about Snape and the baby," Harry said, looking at his feet again.

"We need to find you a sobering potion, and then talk about this properly," Hermione said, taking his arm again. "Come on, let's head back."

"Pomfrey doesn't give them out anymore," Harry said quietly, walking beside her. "Said it encourages the children to drink and we're not meant to be allowed to yet anyway."

"Actually, Harry," Hermione said, smiling at the memory. "What she said was, 'this is getting ridiculous. Let go of my leg and go and have a lie down. I never want to see you after you've been drinking ever again.'"

"Same thing," Harry said, suddenly grinning.

"It's alright, I've got access to Severus' rooms. I'm sure I can find you some," Hermione said, the idea suddenly coming to her. She could also have a look for that book on protection charms while she was there. And maybe mope a little.

She only half admitted to herself that she wanted to be in his quarters again, and was finally glad to have the excuse. God, she missed him.

"Will never get used to hearing you call him that," Harry muttered. "Just weird."

As they reached the entrance to the dungeons, Hermione told Harry to wait for her while she went to collect the potion. She had an idea that Severus would come back from the dead to haunt her if she dared to take Harry into his private quarters. And besides, he'd probably break his neck trying to navigate the steps in the darkness, the state he was in.

As Hermione slipped past all Severus' wards, she tried desperately not to let depression set in again. She had Harry to worry about for tonight – she could mourn Severus some more later, once she was alone.

She slipped through his wards, noting that they were still sensitive to her and wondered why he'd never changed them back to keep her out. He wasn't the type of man to just forget something like that; had he trusted her enough to let her have total access to his quarters? Surely that meant something? It was so difficult coping with the fact that he was dead and never really cared about her.

She slipped into his storeroom and quickly found the vial of sobering potion – the same kind she had forced Severus to drink when he had been turning himself into an alcoholic prune in the bath. She slipped it into her pocket, then suddenly froze. She felt a prickling on the back of her neck. She was being watched.

She turned around slowly, knowing that there was no way this was Harry standing watching her – it just didn't feel right. As she finally took in the cloaked figure in the doorway of the storeroom, she gasped.

Her mouth opened to either let out a scream, or… well, probably just let out a scream. Quickly arms reached for her and she was pulled against a warm and familiar body. Her back was pressed against a hard chest and a hand was firmly clamped down over her mouth.

After a couple of seconds, once he was sure she was calm enough not to scream, he moved her away from him and pushed her behind the large wooden door of the store room.

Hermione opened her mouth to speak, but was silenced with a warning glower from Severus.

He's not a ghost, cos he touched me, Hermione thought, experiencing a curious sense of Deja vu. God, this man has nine lives.

She studied his face and took in the bruises all over his skin, and the way he couldn't put any weight on his left leg. Severus stared back at Hermione, his eyes hungry. Then he tensed. He slowly turned around, as if every bone in his body was aching as he moved.

"What're you dawdling for, Severus?" she heard a voice snap. "Get the stuff and get out."

Lucius…?

"I'm working out what I need," Severus replied, his throat sounding scratchy, like he had a really bad sore throat.

Hours of screaming, Hermione realized, staring at Severus from her vantage point from behind the door. She held her breath as Lucius made to step into the storeroom too.

"This room is small, Lucius," Severus said, sounding irritated. "I can barely move in here it as it is. It's not like I can escape from here, is it?"

"I don't trust you," Lucius said, his tone suspicious. But he sighed and moved out of the small room, walking away from the storeroom. Severus briefly let himself look at Hermione, before tearing his gaze away to turn and collect ingredients from the various bottles and jars from the shelves.

"Dragon Heart," he said clearly, as he dropped every jar from the shelf into the large pocket of his robe. "Powdered Graphorn, Mandrake root and some Salamander blood."

He was saying all this on purpose, Hermione realized as it took her a moment or two for it to sink in. He was taking the ingredients to make healing potions, presumably at Voldemort's, or at least Lucius' insistence. And he wanted her to know what he was doing.

"Are you sure you've got all the other basic ingredients at the Manor, Lucius?" Severus called from the storeroom, his eyes meeting Hermione's as he spoke.

"Do I have to keep repeating myself, Severus?" Lucius snarled from somewhere near the door. "Do you have to be reminded that I am the only thing that stands between you and your delightfully painful death? Do not irritate me."

Hermione looked at Severus, desperate to stop him leaving with Lucius. She had her wand, if she could catch Lucius unaware…

Severus almost imperceptibly shook his head.

"Are Knot, Avery and the others done sniffing around my personal possessions?" Severus asked, sounding bored. "Because I'm about done here."

Oh. Right. Too many for her to take alone, and presumably Severus didn't have his wand either.

As Severus took one last look at Hermione, he gave her a sad smile. He knew Hermione would do whatever she could to find him and would go straight to Albus, but he also knew that no one could find Lucius' house unless they were taken to it directly by one of the Malfoys. And if Albus forced a search of the Malfoy Manor, he would be dead and disposed of before they could even get through the front door.

Hermione reached up to her neck and pulled hard on the chain she wore there, breaking it easily. She took a quick look at the locket she had worn around her neck since her sixteenth birthday, and then quickly dropped it into Severus' hand. He stared at her for a moment, then mouthed something to her.

Her heart raced as she struggled to read his lips, scared that at any moment he would be dragged away, before she could hear what he was saying.

As he took another step towards the door, he dared to whisper.

"I have just over three weeks before I am no longer useful," he whispered urgently, so quietly she relied mostly on lip reading to understand him. "Go into hiding. Please don't let me die without knowing you are safe."

He reached for her face with his only free hand and touched her cheek gently and briefly.

"I love you," Hermione whispered, nodding to show him she would do as he said, while desperately trying to fight back the tears.

Severus stared at her, his eyes searching hers almost desperately.

"What are you doing in there?" Lucius asked, sounding hugely irritated. His voice made Hermione jump and Severus winced.

Severus tore his gaze from Hermione's, then limped out of the storeroom, pulling the door shut behind him.

Hermione waited for about five minutes before daring to open the door and creep back up the stairs to find Harry. As she reached the top step, her legs seemed to give way and she collapsed onto one of the cold, stone steps. There were no more tears left and Hermione buried her head in her arms and sobbed dry sobs, until strong, warm arms lifted her from her position on the step.

"You should have told her he was still alive," a female Scottish voice said from close by.

"What good would it have done?" Albus' voice came, next to her ear. "Let's just let her get some sleep, then we can talk to her in the morning."

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Sorry about the cliffhanger last time I posted. But see how quickly I updated. All proud ;o)

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