~ Chapter 14 ~

Severus watched the ginger cat prance around his childhood home as if he owned the place. It was getting close to seven o'clock in the morning, and he was yet to get any sleep. Persuading Minerva to let the cat return with him had been a difficult task, which meant Severus had to remind her how idiotic her plan was. Granger's classmates have known of her absence since she stopped turning up to her lessons, deviating from her normal routine.

She'd long stopped being Miss Granger in his mind, but he could never say her first name in his head. This is already too weird for me. To this very day, he cannot figure out why it upset her when he rejected her friendship; he understood what it was like to be lonely, but they were around another all the time so she was hardly alone.

If we're friends, then I guess I have to tell her the truth. He wasn't lying to hurt her feelings, he wished to protect her from the unfortunate truth. He's known for two weeks that Draco was released to Malfoy Manor and put under house arrest. The bloody bastard! He deserved to have his neck wrung, not lounge in the luxuries of his namesakes home.

Vic Sniderfield provided him with the dreadful news, and his assurances that he had it all handled didn't ease his anger. The man was in too deep, and he had enough going on since he would rather be balls-deep in Harry-bloody-Potter. Severus wanted to gouge his own eyes out to rid himself of the scene he'd walked in on. I will never be able to forget the sight of the pair going at it on Sniderfield's desk.

Severus moved around the kitchen preparing breakfast. He'd noticed about a week ago that her eating habits were bad. She hardly fills up her plate, so she needs to eat more under my discreet supervision.

"You're being too loud," Penny sauntered into the room.

"How so?" he muttered back, just as he slammed some of the pots together. "Do you have to be so smug?"

"I'm just stating the obvious, master."

"Stop calling me that," he grumbled. "I'm not your Master."

"Yet, somehow you are."

He carried on making breakfast, choosing to ignore her.

"Are you going to be kind to her today?" she asked and he glanced back at her.

"I'm always nice," the words tasted sour on his tongue.

"Are you going to tell her the truth?"

"I will, eventually," he said. "She claims to be getting better, but I can see her slowly getting worse."

"Then talk to her about it," she jumped up onto the counter. "You're friends after all."

Friends...since when do friends deliver bad news that could push their friend over the edge? There was something about her that made him feel uncomfortable, and crossing the boundary between their teacher-student relationship was difficult enough for him.

"Severus?" his back straightened at the sound of Vic's voice.

"I'm in the kitchen."

Severus leant against the counter and watched as a solemn-faced Sniderfield sat down at the table. His heart felt heavy in his chest; he could only be bringing bad news with an expression like that.

Vic buried his face in his hand, then violently pounded the table with his fists. Severus worried about Granger waking up, so he quickly made some tea so he could put his hands to better use.

"Thank you," Vic said with a sigh. "I'm...sorry, Severus, I couldn't stop it from happening."

"What happened?"

"There's be an uprising within the Ministry. Kingsley is no longer Minister, and his replacement is someone called David Cole. The rest of the parliament has been overthrown and replaced with people I've never heard of. The first thing Minister Cole has decided to do as Minister is dismiss Draco's case."

Severus grunted in response and started to pace around the kitchen. His fingers curled into fists, then without thinking, he slammed his hand down onto the empty teacup. It shattered beneath his palm and a whine of pain escaped his lips.

"Smart move," Penny muttered with a tap of her tail.

He stared at his bloody hand in anger. What the fuck was he supposed to do now? Tell her that the government didn't give a damn about her wellbeing? It's clear that something evil has taken over the Ministry, and I'm not sure who I can trust around Granger.

Vic appeared at his side and waved his wand to fix his hand. The shattered cup couldn't be salvaged, but nothing had sentimental value in his house so it didn't matter to him. They returned to the table and Severus tapped an irregular rhythm on the wood.

"I've told Harry to not come into work at the moment," Vic explained. "I'm guessing these people are distant followers of Voldemort; it will be harder to pin on them if that's true because they kept away from any involvement in the war."

"Lucius is behind this-"

"That's the other thing," he rubbed his tired eyes. "The second thing Minister Cole did was release certain people from Azkaban, including Lucius Malfoy."

Severus closed his eyes for a few seconds to compose his boiling anger. He needed to talk to Minerva about what to do with Granger, because Lucius has made it clear that she's on his hit-list. The sod knows where I live, so I need to take her somewhere else. He glanced at the kitchen door. I shouldn't wake her up to such bad news.

"I'm going to inform Minerva about the situation and see what she has to say," Severus could see he was exhausted. "The world just became a lot more unstable once again," he got to his feet with a sigh. "Tell her what's going on, Severus, hiding it from her will only make things worse."

Severus glared at him as he left, then returned to making breakfast. A million things rushed through his mind as he tried to accumulate a plan. Where will she be safe? The end of the war was meant to signal peace, not trigger another uprising.

He cleared up the evidence of his company and placed the cooked breakfast on the table. The ginger cat had left a long time ago to seek out his mistress, and he eventually heard Granger scream Crookshank's name so he made his way upstairs.

The sight of her disheveled self in bed had taken time for him to grow accustomed too, and it still took him off guard sometimes. He felt bad for upsetting her last night, but he knew the truth could be hard to handle — he'd had his fair share of brutally honest truths.

"Breakfast is ready," he walked back downstairs, and moments later she arrived in the kitchen snuggling her cat.

"I'm almost jealous," Penny jumped onto the table, and Severus rolled his eyes. He watched her pick at the food on her plate with a sigh. I have to tell her.

"Miss Granger?" she looked at him with an innocent look on her face. Her calm expression caused an odd tightness to lace around his heart, and he realised he couldn't break the news to her. "How did you sleep last night?"

AN:/ And here we have a little insight into Severus' mind - I know it's not much, but they'll be a few other glimpses soon enough! Thank you to everyone who favourited, followed and reviewed the last chapter, let me know what you think of this one!