The next few days passed with a fleeting normality that was usually reserved for people who didn't meddle with the fabric of normality. But now that Hermione had figured out Draco's problems, reconciled him with his godfather, and successfully not ripped reality apart, life seemed a whole lot easier.

They did have the most bizzare meetings, whenever she, Draco, and Severus got together to chat. Severus was included in most of their planning, nowadays, even if some of it revolved around the Yule Ball and Christmas presents.

"Merlin, Hermione, I'd forgotten how shell-shocked the entire school was when you walked in on Krum's arm. That was brilliant." Draco chuckled over his cup of Jasmine tea (he refused to drink Earl Grey).

She smirked. "Oh, it will be again, that's for sure. I just want to avoid Ron being a total arse about it."

"What did he say? Oh, I bet he was nasty. He'd always had a crush on you."

"Oh, something about me associating with the enemy and giving away Harry's secrets. Total shite, if you ask me. But I can take a little insulting from Ronald Weasley. I'll be just fine. Now what I'm worried about is Hagrid, the poor man. Do you remember the article that came out about him?"

Snape, who had been looking extremely tired by all this gossip, suddenly leaned forward. "What article?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about this. A professor named Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank took over for Hagrid after Rita Skeeter outed him as a half-giant." She said quickly. "But I've dealt with Skeeter- or at least, the Heroine of Sussex has."

"I still can't believe you used that face again." Draco sniggered. "I thought you hated it?"

Snape was looking very intrigued at this point.

"It doesn't matter if I hate it, it was useful. It's the quickest way to conceal my identity, and it's the only full disguise I ever paired with the finite blocker." She sniffed. "Anyway, it doesn't really matter. I've dealt with Skeeter and can stop her from writing whatever I want."

"I would watch your actions with Skeeter." Severus drawled. "She was a few years below me in Slytherin. The girl was too nosy for her own good, and people learned not to mess with her. She had all the gossip, and could be quite cruel. What did you do to her?"

"Oh, a little bit of blackmail, a little bit of chatting. That's all. I convinced her to write a bit more… naturally."

"You destroyed her quill, didn't you?" Draco grinned. "That's her most prized possession. But what blackmail do you have on her?"

Hermione had a glint in her eye that neither Slytherin got to see very often. It wasn't so much of a smile as a leer, and she looked downright dangerous. "She's an illegal animagus. A beetle. She wouldn't dare cross me. Last time around, I kept her in an impervious jar for three weeks."

Draco's eyes bulged. "You didn't!" He said, laughing. "Damn, Hermione, you're a piece of work!"

They chuckled a bit, Hermione remembering the woman's face when she finally let her out of the jar. But a glance at Severus showed that he wasn't joining in the festivities. In fact, he looked more worried than anything else. "I would watch your step, Miss Granger."

Hermione glanced at him oddly. She was starting to associate him using her surname when he disapproved of her actions, a habit she definitely did not like.

"You're toying with a very powerful woman. She would happily dig you a literary grave and allow the public to bury you in it, blackmail or no blackmail."

She scowled. "I'm a very powerful woman. All she's got is that quill and a job at the prophet, and I've already gotten rid of one of them."

"A job at the prophet has plenty of influence, as you very well know. Don't trivialize the threat she could make," he hissed at her.

Hermione gave him a reluctant nod. She saw his point, but she didn't have to like it. "Very well. I will take more careful steps in future, does that make you happy?"

"What would make me happy," Snape's mouth curled around the word like it was a dead slug he would rather avoid. "Is you time traveling meddlers to stop causing unnecessary stress to our plan, and focus on what's important. Instead of discussing balls and media outlets, we should be planning our attack of the Horcruxes."

"He's got a bit of a point," Draco said to Hermione, dramatically leaning to the side to exclude Severus. "But he could be less of a dick about it." She snorted.

"You're right, of course, Severus." Hermione said, trying her best to conceal one more eye-roll from the boys. "We do need to talk about the cup. And the ring, for that matter." She added idly, "we're waiting until after the ball, though, right?"

Draco shook his head, "if what you told us was true about how the Horcruxes reacted, it might be a better idea to give them a wide berth between destroying them."

She remembered the bizarre reaction of the two horcruxes when she destroyed them the first time. With a shudder, she imagined destroying the ring, the second-strongest horcrux, along with the cup. What a disaster that could be! She barely destroyed the last two, when they merged together and fought against her. "I think that's a good idea. Let's get this damn cup over with. But Draco, you know you can't help, right? It's too much of a liability to have someone with the Trace." Draco was still a minor, technically, without having the benefit of the time turner. As for Hermione, she had a few scant days before becoming a magical adult.

"Hold on a second," he said, "You and Severus are going, without me?"

Snape scowled. "Neither of you should go."

"You're being ridiculous." Hermione said, glaring at Snape. "I wanted to go alone, but someone insisted that he'd be useful."

"You're not seventeen yet either, Hermione. It would be much more logical for me to go alone than for you to accompany me, especially since I'm the one who knows where it is, how its protected, and how to destroy it."

Hermione groaned. "This is ridiculous. I'm coming with you! I'll be seventeen in three days, and who is the one who destroyed all the other horcruxes?"

"Fine," Snape spat.

"Fine," Hermione said, much more mildly.

"Not fine! I want to go too!" Whined Draco.

As one, Severus and Hermione replied, "No!"

Draco leaned back in his chair, looking for all the world like he was sulking. "Fine," he threw his arms in the air, exasperated. "Fine, I won't come to retrieve the horcrux. But I do want to be there when we destroy it."

"That can be arranged," Snape said, giving Hermione a look. She nodded in agreement, holding Severus's gaze.

For a brief second, Hermione felt the kind of kinship that Fred and George might feel, meeting Severus's eyes with the same exact thought running through their brains: they were not bringing the horcrux back to Hogwarts, no matter how much Draco wanted to be included.

The meeting ended quickly after that, no one really wanting to sit down and talk after that sort of argument. But she and Severus did settle on a time to meet on the twenty-fourth: the day before the ball, and Hermione's seventeenth "birthday."

Hermione stood at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, casting yet another warming charm to combat the freezing weather. It was midnight, and Severus was meant to arrive any second.

"What took you so long?" She said, shivering, as he finally appeared from behind a tree trunk.

Severus rolled his eyes. "As head of house, I am… occasionally tasked with assisting the Slytherin students, several of which were having issues this evening."

She took a good look at him, noticing a (slowly freezing) wet patch on his shoulder. "Let me guess, some girl was crying about not getting the date she wanted for the Yule Ball?"

"Quite the opposite, actually." Snape said drily. "She invited her long-distance beau, and despite being told multiple times that he wasn't allowed to attend the ball, she just received his owl telling her he was expelled by the wards."

Hermione chuckled. "Must've been a lot of drama, then." She wondered if this had happened last time, and she just hadn't heard of it because Slytherin kept it quiet. Either way, it was amusing to imagine a girl crying on Severus's shoulder. There was something just wrong about it.

"Well, lets get on with this." She took out her time turner and awkwardly draped it around both her and Snape's neck. Unlike with Harry, who was a comfortable 5'1 at this age, Severus was a very tall man, and he had to crouch to stay within range.

Quickly, Hermione spun the dial back four hours: eight o'clock. The world around them spun, and she felt Severus tense next to her. She barely noticed the jarring actions Fang and Hagrid moving backwards, an arrow flying back into a centaur's bow twenty feet away, and the sun slowly inching up the horizon to the west. It was second nature to her now.

And with a thought, they landed in the past. Severus looked like he was trying not to fall over from dizziness. "You do this every day?" He said incredulously.

"Sometimes twice," she grinned. "Pleasant, isn't it?" Without waiting for him, she brought out a dead rabbit from underneath her cloak, and laid it on the ground in front of them. "Diffindo!" She cried, and the rabbit was split in half. Blood started oozing out of it, and she looked away in disgust.

But soon enough, she heard the soft crunch of hooves on snow, and turned back to see two thestrals, attracted by the rabbit's blood. It was only the second time she had seen them, she realized, and never so close. They were pretty odd looking creatures, all skin and bone.

"Let them eat," Severus said quietly, "then we'll go."

She nodded, and they stood as the thestrals chose half a bunny each. It was quite gross, to be honest, but she knew the horses themselves were just trying to eat. Plus, thestrals were one of the best steeds for staying discreet: most people they passed wouldn't be able to see them, decreasing their chances of being seen.

"Hey boy," she said, letting the ghostly creature nuzzle her hand. "Can you take me to Hexayard Cemetery in London?"

The beast gave an eerie whinny and crouched to let her mount it. Next to her, Severus was already sitting comfortably on his thestral. "Well, that's it then," Hermione said. "We should-" but the thestrals were starting to trot onward, cutting her off. She held onto their thin hair, as they started speeding up. Faster and faster they went, across the grounds. And before she really realized it, they were airborne.

"Disillusionment charms!" She yelled to Severus. He nodded, waved his wand, and slowly disappeared from view. Too unsteady on her thestrals to pull out her own wand, she cast it wandlessly.

For a while, all Hermione could hear was whistling wind and the occasional neighing of the thestrals. They were passing over mountains draped in fog, beautiful valleys lit by the setting sun, and puffs of smoke from the villages they passed.

Finally, the mountains turned to hills, and the hills turned to houses. They were almost there. It was actually kind of peaceful, if she thought about it, flying over the tiny houses and streets. Cars drove down the winding roads, twisting about as they passed one another. From up here, it was too far to hear the honking of angry drivers, the bustle of pedestrians. It looked peaceful. For one forlorn moment she wished she was living a life as peaceful and simple as those on the ground.

But no, she would be bored out of her mind. And this needed to be done, she knew that. She would never be able to sit back and let the world burn around her. It wasn't in her nature.

Severus's voice, much closer than she thought, startled her from her musing. "We will be descending soon." He said.

"Shite Severus, you startled me!" She almost jumped off her thestral. "A little warning next time!"

"Lets get going." Was all he said in reply.

And as if on cue, the thestrals started diving. Their wings spread majestically, catching the wind as they descended. With a good thump, Hermione's thestral hit the ground running, on a small street. It didn't look like London, maybe a suburb. There were little houses lining the road, all looking rather drab and identical. It reminded her a bit of Little Whinging, if she was honest.

The thestrals brought them to the end of the street, which was seemingly bordered by a football field. As they trotted forward, however, Hermione saw the goal posts and white lines blur and disappear, replaced by a large iron gate.

The thestrals slowed to a stop at the gate, neighing and pawing the ground with their hooves. "Will you wait for us?" Hermione asked her thestral, which she had decided was a male. He whinnied and shook his head up and down, which she took as a yes. They were smart creatures, thestrals. And benevolent, despite the stigma around them.

"Let's get this over with." Snape said briskly and held up his wand to cast Alohamora at the locked gate.

AN: This chapter was originally supposed to cover the entire Horcrux adventure, but it was getting to be over double the length of my average chapter, so I cut it in half. Many people said they liked the banter with Snape, so I tried to work some more in this chapter :) Hope you enjoyed!

Did anyone catch the song reference in the title?