Disclaimer: All ownership of the Harry Potter world goes to J.K. Rowling. Happy?

A/N: First of all, I have to thank all my reviewers! I wouldn't be able to go on without your wonderful feedback.

And you all seem to have questions…don't worry, all will be revealed in due time.

Whatever This Is

Chapter 3

At Hermione's invitation, the man on her doorstep let out a small breath. Hermione's frown deepened as she stepped aside to let him walk into her house, not being able to stop the continued thought reeling in her head of 'what am I doing?'. She cleared her throat, composing herself and preparing something to say, something to mask her uncertainty.

"You can…sit down." She said quietly, gesturing to the couch. He nodded, looking at her curiously, before leaning his 'cane' up against the furniture and carefully lowering himself onto it. Hermione grimaced, noticing the tracks of mud he had brought in to her clean carpet. She sighed, casting a quick cleaning spell and glancing back towards Snape, who was looking at her blankly. She turned away quickly, clearing her throat again.

"Malfoy, could you come in here please?" She yelled into the kitchen, looking back at Snape to gauge his reaction to the name. The wizard's face was blank. Hermione's frown, already sunk to its deepest point, stretched even further down. His face had been so…emotional, just seconds before. And now it was as if he had fallen asleep with his eyes open. She bit her lip, something she hadn't done for years, having deemed it immature.

"Hermione, what's –" Malfoy entered the room, and stopped talking when he saw the figure on the couch. His grey eyes widened considerably and he took a step backwards, as if to walk out of the room. Snape finally lost his blank look to shoot a hate-filled glare towards Draco, who gulped. Hermione narrowed her eyes questioningly, and Malfoy shook his head slightly.

"You," she pointed to Draco, "stay here. I need to go talk to Wendy." She cast a quick look towards Snape. "I'll be right back." He didn't seem to hear her, still glaring at Malfoy, who looked at Hermione pleadingly. She jerked her head toward the couch, and he frowned at her, before walking over to it.

"So! Severus!" He started in a strained tone. "Haven't seen you in a few years!" Hermione heard the quiet murmur of a low voice, undoubtedly Snape, and tried to hear what he was saying. Her thoughts were brought out of this when she entered the kitchen and encountered Wendy, a bowl of macaroni in her hands, who looked behind Hermione, trying to see into the parlor.

"Do we have more company for tea?" She asked innocently. Hermione shook her head almost imperceptibly.

"You're going to have to go to your room, Wendy." Hermione spoke in her quiet, no nonsense tone. "You can eat that in there." Wendy looked curiously out into the hallway again before nodding and walking out the doorway. Hermione turned towards a cupboard to get teacups, glancing back to see Wendy back-tracking towards the parlor.

"Wendy!" She called out warningly. The girl turned back guiltily.

"I'll go to my room now."

Hermione kept her eyes on Wendy as she walked towards her room, finally turning back to magically heat the tea left over on the stove from earlier. She grabbed three differently patterned tea cups, pouring mint tea into each of them, before walking towards her potion cabinet, retrieving a headache potion. She poured a small amount into her cup, mentally measuring out the appropriate amount. She tested it, sighing at the already apparent relief to her growing headache. The witch walked back to put it away, glancing at the potion next to it, for miscellaneous pain relief.

With a small shrug, she picked up the pain relief potion and thought for a moment before pouring a few drips of the crystalline blue substance into a separate cup of the tea, where it mixed into the tea almost instantly. She impulsively put a drop of another substance into the tea. She contemplated which different teacups had the different potion in them before expertly floating them into the air wordlessly and walking back to the parlor with the 3 cups hovering serenely around her. Before making her entrance known, Hermione listened curiously to what her guests were saying.

"I was just –"she heard Malfoy say.

"You were just being a coward!"

"Yes, Severus. Maybe I was. Anyone sane, I believe, would fear going back to a place where he would almost certainly die." Malfoy's voice had its regular drawling, sarcastic tone, but Hermione could tell that he was worked up about something.

"You knew." Snape's voice was menacingly quiet. "You knew, and you didn't even risk it."

"I thought you were dead." Draco countered, sounding slightly guilty. Hermione had had enough of eaves-dropping, and entered the room with a small, hesitant smile.

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything," she announced herself, directing Draco and Snape's teacups to them with her wand. "There you are, Draco. And one for you, Prof…er, Mist…sir." She finished weakly, not knowing how to address this former professor/order member/death eater. She grasped her cup from its position beside her and sat on the chair facing the couch, continuing to smile hesitantly. She looked towards Draco, who was gazing at pictures on the mantelpiece distractedly. Her gaze switched to Snape, who was raising the tea to his thin lips.

"Oh! I put a pain relief potion in that, sir. You seemed like you needed it…not that I'm trying to be overbearing or presuming too much. I just thought it might help." She blew a breath out, glaring at Malfoy for his smirk. She wasn't usually this…well…flustered! Why I'm acting like a nervous Hogwarts student around a scary professor! She drew a deep, composed breath, looking at Snape to see his reaction. She was startled, and indignant, to see that he had put his cup down without taking a sip.

"If you're not in any pain it will just be plain tea, sir." He nodded slightly, still not taking a sip, but instead looking at the mantelpiece as Draco was doing.

"For Merlin's sake, I didn't poison it!" She said in only a bit of a shriek, exasperated at his behavior. He looked at her with a raised eyebrow, still not taking a sip.

"Whose child is that? Not yours and Weasley's?"

"No," she muttered, annoyed at his change of subject.

"I beg your pardon, Miss Granger?"

"No. She was born a month before the war ended and-"

"Her parents?"

"Killed. Bill and Fleur Weasley. Did you know?" She couldn't help but shoot him an accusing glance.

"I knew they had died. I did not know they had a child. How did she come to live with you and your…Weasley?"

Hermione smiled slightly, recalling what Dobby had used to call Ron: "Harry and his wheezy".

"Ron was there when Bill died. He asked him to protect Wendy, to take care of her. Others offered to take her in, but Ron took Bill's words to heart. Ron had been her favorite uncle, and…well, I was closer to her than Ginny or Charlie's wife at the time. So now we're her parents. Most people suspect that we are her parents. She has the Weasley hair."

Snape smirked slightly and nodded. He then took his teacup and sipped silently. Hermione rolled her eyes. He noticed of course, and raised an eyebrow at her.

"I was just waiting for it to cool, Miss Granger."

She felt the sudden impulse to either let out a frustrated scream or a crazed laugh. And fought the urge of both. She looked towards Draco, who was still purposefully avoiding anyone's glance. She wondered what was going on with him. Okay, let's get down to business. She took a sip of her tea and closed her eyes for a second before looking determinedly at Snape with a set mouth.

"Why did you come here?"

He looked toward her and answered abruptly. "I need your help." His eyes widened slightly. "Veritaserum, Miss Granger? I didn't know you had it in you."

"It's only one drop, and a modified version. We have about a half hour, and it's no use to fight it." She suddenly smirked, one to rival his own. "I'm going to need some answers, Professor. Let's get started."