-1Author note: Short chapter. Felt like a good place to stop. Enjoy!

"Hermione, you alright?"

She had been standing in front of the potion classroom door for a few minutes when Ron finally nudged her. The Christmas holiday came and went in a flash. It had been six days since Hermione was Obliviated, but of course, she didn't know that.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I…I can't help but feel that I have forgotten something. I know I have my quills, ink, parchment, books; but I can't place it."

Harry glanced up from the floor where he was sitting waiting for the professor to show up and let them in. "It must not be worth much if you forgot. You don't forget anything."

"Yeah, must not have been important."

Hermione smiled as her two best friends tried to reassure her it was all in her head, but the sense of something misplaced loomed over her. It wasn't as if it was a feeling of dread either. It seemed to be a feeling of peace, as if the missing piece of her life's puzzle was lost to her. She had to have it in order to feel complete. But it remained elusive.

Everyone in the hall began to fidget. Class was supposed to have started over twenty minutes ago. Professor Snape was never late. Never.

"Students, if I could have your attention please?" Headmistress McGonagall walked the hall towards them, startling a few that had dozed off. "I just received word that Professor Snape had a family emergency and had to cancel his classes for the day." Joyous whoops could be heard echoing the dungeons. She held up her hands to silence them. "However, I feel it necessary to inform you that he has assigned an essay." Moans replaced the happy shouts. "Two feet on Veritaserum. Ingredients, processing, side effects, cause, etcetera. To be due at the beginning of your class on Monday. Today being Friday, that only gives you the weekend. I suggest you get started right away." She turned to leave as a few down hearted students trailed after her slowly.

Harry pushed himself from the floor and dusted his trousers. "Well, I suppose it's time to go to the library."

Ron groaned. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Just for an hour, Ron. We would be in class anyways, so we might as well learn something instead of wasting it." She grabbed them both by the arms of their shirts and marched them to the library.

They had been there for a while when Ron noticed.

"Hermione, what's wrong?"

She looked up from her book. "Nothing."

"Hermione, something is up. You haven't turned a page in ten minutes."

Hermione sat a little straighter and looked down at the book in front of her. Page three hundred ninety-eight was still open. She had been sitting there staring at the same page for well over fifteen minutes.

"I'm just rereading it so it can all soak in, Ron. You have more important things to attend to then watching me," she huffed. Gathering her books and parchment, she started for the library door. Once she was in the hall, the weight of her absentmindedness consumed her. "What is wrong with me? I can't believe I wasn't paying attention to the assignment. Maybe Ron's right. Maybe there is something wrong with me."

She decided to take a quick nap before lunch. Her mid morning schedule had been erased due to Headmistress McGonagall's incessant pleas for Hermione to get more rest. "You're simply taking on too much this year," was her argument. After several desperate attempts to get her schedule back, Hermione conceded and allowed her pre-lunch curriculum to be tossed to the wayside. It was a good idea to use that time for revision and checking her homework for any mistakes made at the wee hours of the morning after a late night with little to no sleep and much caffeine. It's N.E.W.T year, for crying out loud. There was studying to be done!

Hermione almost reached the staircase to the Gryffindor common room when she heard the voices approach from a nearby hallway.

"I sincerely pray you did not erase everything."

"There's no way of that. I simply took it from your cue and removed anything after the wreck."

"Good. I only hope that it holds. I know I hurt her somehow. I can feel it. Remorse for my actions. I don't remember, of course, but the emotion is there."

Hermione had molded herself to the opposite wall at some point. She knew the voices. She understood. Professor Snape had Remus remove his memory. But what for? What did he do? It hit her.

"We were in the wreck! Just me and him. He did something. He did something to me!"

Everything came flooding her mind at once. The weird puffy feeling of her lips when she woke up. The aching pain between her legs. What looked like a bite mark on her right breast she noticed when she showered this morning. She came to the only logical conclusion.

"He raped me!"

She slumped down the wall and cradled her legs in her arms pulling her knees into her face. "He Obliviated me. He removed my memory. Oh my god, how could he have done it? He's a teacher! I'm a student! He would never jeopardize all he worked so hard for. I helped clear his name! How could he do this to me?"

She sat on the cold stone floor and began to sob. Anger soon transformed her outlook. She realized that he had stolen her virginity from her. The one thing that kept her pure and innocent in world of evil and corruption was now gone.

"I will kill you, Severus Snape. You will regret the day you laid one finger on me."