Several things started happening very quickly, then. Hermione was moved out of the room she shared with Ginny Weasley, the headmaster fearing for the safety of the young woman after the volatile reactions of her former friends. She was moved into a private set of quarters, complete with, oddly enough, three different bedrooms, a kitchenette, and a sitting room. She quickly discovered that the other two bedrooms were there for her protection. Dumbledore had felt that if things went south, it was better for Hermione to not be faced with danger alone, knowing that the anti apparition wards meant nothing to these creatures.

Hermione was shocked to find that there was a rotating schedule of who would be staying with her. She was shocked even more to discover that almost every single day, had either Minerva's name, or Draco's written on it. While the older woman's name surprised her, it was nothing compared to the complete shock at seeing Malfoy's name on the list so often. It made her wonder if there were things that she should know about going on in his head. Was he attracted to her? Was he still looking to make her life hell, even though he had said that he would help her? Was he actually genuine in his offer to assist her and help keep her safe? She had known that her life would get much more confusing once her secret came out, but she had never anticipated this level of confusion.

She was currently sitting in front of the fire in her rooms, on the floor with her knees pulled into her chest and her arms around her legs. The cold from everything, her secret being known, Minerva defending her, Harry and Ron betrayal, the desertion of her closest friends, had seeped into her bones and the searing heat from the fire on her skin seemed to be the only warmth to be found. It didn't burn her. She had never been able to feel burns, being what she was. She knew of the damage they could cause, but had never had reason to fear the experience. When she had been a child, a neighbor that lived up the road from her family had survived a house fire. Their family dog had been caught in the blaze and Hermione had run in after it, much to her mother's horror and her father's grim fear. He had known that she was in no real danger, but he still worried for her as any parent would.

She looked up when the door opened and Minerva walked in. The older woman was carrying what appeared to be an overnight bag. She smiled up at the older woman, who dropped her bag in the middle of the floor and sat next to her. Hermione leaned her head over onto the shoulder next to her.

"You know I would have told you about all of this if I could have, right?"

"Of course I know that, Hermione." She put her arm around the brunette's waist. "You know that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe, right?"

"I never doubted it. You know that you are going to see things that you probably won't understand, right?"

Minerva snorted. "Hermione, in the eight years that I have known you, I have seen quite a few things that I didn't understand. I have also worried far more than I have ever done, save for when Harry's father was here with his friends. Don't worry about that. You know that you are my friend, no matter what, right?"

"I know. Just like I am your friend." She paused and looked down at her knees,drawn up to her chest. "I'm scared."

Minerva felt a shudder roll through her young friend and turned, pulling her close. "I won't let him hurt you." She felt Hermione burrow closer and tightened her arms. "I promise."

"I know you won't. But I'm still scared. I don't want anyone to get hurt, especially you. I wanted to tell you about everything, my parents, my genetics, my abilities, but at the same time I wanted to keep it secret. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you involved. I didn't want to put you in danger and in the middle of another war."

"Hermione, listen to me." She pulled the young woman away from her and crouched on her knees in front of the brunette, holding her face cradled in the palms of her hands. "There is nothing in this world that could stop me from being here. Being a part of another war, in danger, involved in all of this, none of it matters. You are my friend, a very dear friend, and I would rather be here, keeping you safe, than anywhere else in the world."

Hermione was breathless. Minerva's eyes were mesmerizing and she felt herself falling further in love with the older woman. Brown eyes fell on the lips of the older woman and wished. Wished that things were different. Wished that she wasn't likely to die in this war. Wished that she was older, more mature. But she knew that it was useless. There was no way that Minerva, the most gorgeous woman on the planet in Hermione's eyes, would ever look twice at someone who was so much younger. She turned her face away, tears welling in her eyes and her heart aching.

Minerva looked down at the younger woman and ran her fingers through the slightly tangled, wildly curled, hair. She loved the brilliant brunette more than anything in the world, but also knew that anything that happened between them had to come from the younger woman in order to avoid accusations of using her position to manipulate her. She couldn't start this, but the need she felt for her young love was crippling, and pulled at her insides. Gently, she took Hermione's chin in her hand, and turned her face back, pressing their foreheads together. "Trust me." she whispered. "I won't let you fight this alone." She threaded her fingers into the soft strands of hair at the base of Hermione's skull.

Damn it, Hermione thought. The older woman was temptation wrapped in silken sin. Her voice, thick accented and deep, thrummed through her veins like fine whiskey, and Hermione found herself getting drunk on the sound. "I do trust you, Minerva. I always have." she barely recognized her own voice as it dropped to a husky murmur. "But-"

"But nothing. I'm not going anywhere." She felt Hermione's hands wrap around her elbows and run slowly up her arms and sighed. "Hermione-"

"Don't," The brunette whispered. "Please, just let me have this moment, for just a little while longer. Then I swear I will walk away. I'll never speak of this to anyone."

Minerva hummed. "Is that what you want? To walk away and forget anything that happens tonight?" Minerva wasn't sure she could handle it if Hermione was looking to find comfort with her and nothing else. "Tell me the truth Hermione, is that all you want from me?"

Hermione felt Minerva's warm breath ghost over her face, and shivered. She wrapped her arms around the older woman's back. She wasn't sure what was happening between them, but she knew that she was struggling to find her tongue and form words. She wanted Minerva, craved her as a parched man craves water. She dropped her head to the older woman's shoulder and sucked in air, clinging to Minerva's robes.

"I want more with you than just tonight, Minerva. I have wanted this for years," she didn't look up, knowing that this admission would have the older woman running for the hills, that the love of her life would walk away from her and not come back, but willing to bear the consequence if it meant that Minerva was safe. "I'm sorry."

Minerva latched onto the younger woman when she felt her start to move away and pulled her into a tight hug. "Don't." She growled. "Don't you dare walk away from me."

Hermione's eyes widened when Minerva's arms wrapped tightly around her and held her in place. "Minerva?"

The older woman didn't answer, instead choosing to simply hold on and bury her nose in the fragrant fall of brunette curls. She breathed in Hermione's scent and felt herself relax when a pair of arms curled around her back to cling to her.

Hermione buried her face in Minerva's neck and cried. Whether they were tears of happiness, stress, frustration, or fear, she didn't know. All she knew was the Minerva was holding her and she never wanted her to let go.

Minerva felt the body she held begin to shake with sobs and spoke gentle reassurances into the young woman's ear, stroking her hair and letting her cry.

Neither woman was sure how long they knelt on the floor, hermione crying and Minerva comforting her. It could have been minutes, or hours. Minerva began to notice the ache in her knees becoming more and more prominent as Hermione started to settle and her sobs slowed to the occasional hiccup. "Hermione, Darling, we need to move. I'm not as young as I used to be and the floor is doing a terrible number on my knees."

"You're hardly old, Minerva." Hermione chuckled, wiping her eyes on her sleeve as they stood and took seats on the couch instead.

Minerva tutted softly and pulled a handkerchief from her pocket. Dampening it with a muttered spell she gently wiped the tears from Hermione's face. "Perhaps not as old as I could be, but I am still not a young woman anymore."

"You are older than me, yes."

"Many years older than you."

"Minerva, can we not fight about this now? I've just spent the last half hour crying all over you, I'm freezing, and I am beginning to get a headache from far too many emotions and stress. I want to talk to you about this, all of it, but can we save it for a later time?" Hermione looked into Minerva's eyes and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw nothing but understanding and something else, something she wasn't entirely prepared to process at that moment.

"Of course we can, Darling. We can wait as long as you need. I will never pressure you for anything. We will, however, need to talk in the near future. This thing, whatever it is that is going on between us, will need to be discussed soon." Minerva tucked a curl back behind Hermione's ear. "But right now, I would suggest you get some rest things-"

Hermione heard the noise before either of them saw it. It started out as a low humming which quickly became a deafening roar as the fireplace erupted with flames. The younger woman spun, up off the couch, and placed herself between her darling professor and the growing inferno. She could feel the flames licking against her back as her clothes burned and her body transformed. She knew that she looked entirely different now, her body the color of coal and a red glow shining through the cracks. Her hair swirled around her in the wind given off by the extreme heat.

Minerva scrambled for her wand, desperate to fight off the flames before Hermione was burned alive. She didn't feel Hermione's hand whip around behind her and didn't realize that the young witch was slowly beginning to gain control of the flames until she opened her eyes and saw the brunette, skin black and cracked, eyes glowing red, her hand extended behind her.

"No you won't!" she screamed. "This is MY home. MY world." she spun, climbing off Minerva's lap and facing the flames. "I WON'T LET YOU HURT HER!" She clapped and slowly pulled her hands apart, and the inferno that was bursting through the room seemed to get sucked back into the fireplace. "Go BACK where you came from!" She seemed to yank on whatever power she was fighting against and and the fire died in an explosion of air.

Hermione heard the snarl through the flames as they died and the wind erupted around them. Her body sagged and she sank to the floor, panting from the exertion and the drain on her energy that controlling the fire had been. She heard Minerva move towards her. "Don't," she whispered. "Don't touch me."

"Hermione-"

"Don't!" She snapped. "You'll burn yourself. No one can touch me like this. Just- just give me a minute." Hermione focussed, hard, concentrating on changing her body, cooling down, and returning to her normal form.

She knew she had succeeded when she felt a robe drape over her and settle gently against her shoulders. "I'm sorry." she whispered.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Mo Gradh." Minerva whispered. "You saved me from whatever that was, whatever was trying to- to do whatever that was."

"That was my father. He was trying to use his tie to me to break through to this world. I stopped him, this time."

Minerva smiled softly at her love. "Come with me." She pulled her to her feet and into one of the bedrooms, the one that Hermione had claimed as her own. She kept her eyes on the brown ones that held her heart, making sure not to even glance down, and she pulled the robe from the young woman's body. With a flick of her wrist, her robe became a nightgown, which she handed back to Hermione.

Hermione kept her eyes glued to the green pools that ruled her dreams, her desires, and her mind as she slid into the night gown that Minerva had created for her. "Thank you."

"Come." The older witch whispered, pulling her by the hand towards the bed.

"Minerva, this is a bad idea. I don't know whether or not I can control the transformations yet."

"You put yourself between myself and an inferno only a few minutes ago. I trust you, Hermione. We are only going to sleep."

Hermione climbed in next to her professor. Hers. She promised herself then and there that if Minerva ever decided that there could be a relationship between them, that she, Hermione Granger, would never let her go. They laid next to each other, not touching, but close enough that they could feel each other breathing. "You know if I have a nightmare that I could set this bed on fire, right?"

Minerva smiled. "Yes. You know that I will do my very best to make sure that you only have good dreams, right?"

Hermione smiled as they seamlessly slid back into their whispered game from before everything that happened. "Yes I know. We should tell Dumbledore about what happened, right?"

"We'll tell him in the morning."

Hermione realised that Minerva was finished with their game when she ran her hand over Hermione's hair. "Hold me, please?" She whispered.

"Of course, Mo Gradh."

Hermione sighed in relief as Minerva's arms twined around her. Her last thought as she drifted to sleep was that they should probably have taken a look at the damage to the rooms that the fire had caused.

A/N- Sorry for the long delay. I have been sitting on this chapter for a long time with it unfinished, I just got around to finishing it about 20 minutes before posting it. I also apologize for this being unbetaed and for any language mistakes that I made. I don't speak Gaelic. Drop me a review or a PM and let me know what you think.