Hermione felt as if a one-tonne weight had been lifted off her shoulders. He got it. Someone actually understood how she felt and she wanted to cry and sob her anger, hurt and frustrations out right here and right now, but she opted to hold herself together for the interim and hear him out.

"I know what it is like, Miss Granger. The feeling of loneliness, the feeling of failure, and the feeling of defeat, but most of all, that horrible feeling of not being wanted. That is the feeling that will cut you deep and scar you the most. The sheer terror of being alone and rejected is what eats at your very soul, making you second-guess yourself, it makes you hate yourself. Knowing no one wants you and you are destined to walk the earth as a lone entity for the rest of your life. That is what truly scares me and I am sure that is what scares everyone. Not even death scares me; I would welcome death with open arms over loneliness."

He sighed deeply. To be lonely was one this, but to be alone was a totally different game of Quidditch.

"To be alone, to have no one is just unfathomable. Sure, we may surround ourselves with others on a daily basis but they aren't with us on another level, a romantic level, a spiritual level, the level of all that is love and desire. No one truly cares except that one person in life, that soul mate you seek and can often not find. They are the ones who really care and understand. The missing piece to our puzzle, the second half of us that is missing." His hand still resting on her shoulder in a comforting manner, giving it a light squeeze he retracted his arm.

Pulling out a stool from behind one of the desks, he sat on it, facing Hermione who was still sitting on his desk. If it had have been any other time, he would have told her to move, but because this was such a delicate situation he let it slide. Just this once.

"The tight feeling you get in your chest where you feel the breath is being squeezed out of you ever so slowly like a tightening ring around your ribcage. The constant lump in your throat and the headaches that just don't go away. I understand it all," He said simply, watching the girl in a hope the gauge her reaction.

"The way your heart hammers in your chest with worry as bile threatens to rise and spill forth as your thoughts swirl around your head non-stop merging together and creating even bigger, darker thoughts."

Hermione let out a relieved sigh. He really did get it. Everything he was explaining was everything she was feeling. The chest tightening and the constant thoughts swirling like the memories in a pensive, the lump in the throat, it was all there.

"And why do you care so much that you should want to single me out to talk about this, to help me?"

"That's easy, a young, intelligent witch such as yourself shouldn't have the weight of the world placed solely on her shoulders for actions that were not caused or could not be fixed by your hands and your hands only. You can't just burden the responsibility solely on yourself, Miss Granger. You were merely a victim of circumstances. Had you not befriended Potter, it would have been some other unfortunate soul who was shouldered with the responsibility that you took on. You have a life to live and you aren't doing much living at the moment, at the moment you are merely existing."

"And you aren't worthy of redemption? You aren't worthy of being helped?" She cocked her head to the side watching him intently as he put the answer together in his mind.

"I am old, Miss Granger. It matters not what happens to me. But you, you are young, you can pick up the pieces, put them all together again and walk away from here with a purpose." Wearily he ran the palms of his hands over his eyes, rubbing them for a few brief moments in frustration and sadness.

"And you are how old?" She questioned.

"Thirty-Eight, Miss Granger," he reply was forced and dry.

"Ancient. So passed your used by date, may as well dig a hole now," She said with a roll of her eyes and sarcasm laced in her tone.

Severus looked offended until it dawned on him that she was merely antagonizing him to get a reaction from him.

"You see, Miss Granger. I can see a lot of myself in you. The self-loathing, the pity party for one, the way the joy has left your eyes, replaced only by doubt and hatred for yourself. I know we may not have seen eye to eye in the past, and we have exchanged some pretty sharp words but if you want to talk, any time of the day or night because Merlin knows I don't sleep anyway, I am always here," His voice full of sincerity as she tried to gauge if he really had an ulterior motive or if he was being genuine.

"Thank you, Sir." She smiled meekly getting to her feet and stretching her back, her ass was screaming out in pain, being numbed by the hardened wood it had been sitting on.

"Leaving so soon?" He asked the girl, a hint of disappointment almost evident in his voice.

"Well, no, I mean, if you want me to stay… I can. It's not like I have anywhere to be, tomorrow being Saturday and I don't sleep anyway. I just thought maybe you had grown tired of me being here and all…" She trailed off, watching him get to his feet he strode over to the door to his office, pulling it open. It was much more comfortable in there than out here and they had some semblance of privacy in case there should an unwanted student finding their way into his classroom at this late hour.

She scurried behind him quickly, entering his office, she couldn't think of a time she had actually ever been in here. Not even the time she pilfered ingredients for the Poly Juice Potion, they all came from his storeroom.

She looked around the office it was small, a desk set in the middle, a fireplace, and a few shelves held vials of potion ingredients she couldn't actually put her finger on. She had never seen anything like them before.

"Expensive ingredients. Hard to source, limited supplies, not for students so they are kept in here at all times. More of a talking point than anything else, I rarely use them. And no, you wouldn't have ever been in here, because even during the many times you have tried and succeeded in stealing potions ingredients, the door has always been heavily warded with magic that not even your brilliant mind could crack." He folded his arms tightly over his chest, sitting down in the leather winged-back chair, gesturing towards the other identical chair on the opposite side of the desk.

She took it and was thankful at how much softer it was than the edge of his desk. And was that a challenge? She didn't take challenges lightly.

"First of all, stay out of my head, please. And second, I reckon I could crack the wards in here in under five minutes." She smiled sweetly, batting her eyelashes at him as if begging him to allow her to try.

"I'm not letting you try, Miss Granger, to do so would be redundant and a waste of time."

"Please?" She pouted. "I need a challenge. What, are you scared I am going to out-do your wards and make you question yourself, leaving you with self-doubt that deep down you aren't the all-powerful Severus Snape like you seem to think you are?"

"Fine." He sighed haughtily, setting the wards from the inside. "Go on," he muttered, an evil smirk twisting on his lips. There was no way she could do this. She may be smart, and powerful, but she wasn't that smart or that powerful to outwit the wards that he could conjure.

Hermione took in a deep breath and stood, walking to the door she could feel the wards buzzing already right through her, they were stronger than anything she had ever felt, and a tinge of dark magic could be felt within them, she could sense they were incredibly strong and complex. Throwing a worried look over her shoulder at him, she got to work. Within three minutes she had the wards disabled and didn't get hexed in the process.

He almost had to pick his jaw up off the floor and eat his own words. "Impressive" he muttered dryly under his breath, none too amused that a student could outwit and tear down his wards with such simplicity. He would have to see to making them Granger proof.

"Thank you," she replied in a light, airy almost singsong tone, sitting back in the chair. Silence engulfed them for a few minutes.

"You obviously are a very capable witch, Miss Granger, have you given thought to what you will be doing after you leave here?" Tenting his fingers and resting his elbows on the desk.

She shrugged. "Not really. I mean I like magical creatures so maybe something in that field might be interesting," her tone bored and flat. The truth was, she hadn't really given it much thought at all. Her affinity for good grades and care for her education had all but flown by the wayside after the war. All of a sudden, those things didn't matter as much, and as such, she lacked effort and care for her future.

"What happened to the little bushy-haired know-it-all from a few years ago who had her whole life mapped out and her entire education planned?" A rise of a single brow accompanied the question. She really had changed.

"Things change, people change." She shrugged.

"Perhaps its time that you thought about these avenues again, Miss Granger. In the blink of an eye, you will be leaving here and then where will you go, what will you do? Where are your parents, are they still around?" He knew very well they weren't but at the same time, he didn't want to alert her to the fact he knew more than he probably ought to.

"I had to send them away and altered their memories. Maybe I will track them down and try to fix it but at the time I performed it, I wasn't planning on going back and undoing it. The truth was, I was hoping for the best but I was preparing for the worst," Sadness ebbed into both her voice and her eyes, her voice uneven as she spoke.

"You obliviated their memory?" He asked in a surprised upwards inflection.

She shook her head, brown curls waving around wildly. "Just a charm, a complex one. I was never much good at obliviation if I am honest."

"Wow, something the great Hermione Granger hasn't quite mastered."

Her top lip curled up in response before a sneer crossed her face, almost mimicking his trademark sneer perfectly.

For the first time in a long time, Hermione found herself enjoying conversation, she found the tight invisible band around her chest was slowly starting to loosen and she could breathe a little easier. The lump in her throat was fading and the headache was lessening. Could talking to her Potions Master really be what she needed? She shook her head, no, that was preposterous. This was intriguing.

"And what about Potter and Weasley, what were their plans for life? Or were they just planning on riding the giant wave of success well into adulthood and beyond?"

"Well," she began matter of factly, "Harry wanted to be an Auror, Ron wanted to try out for a Quidditch team. Right now they are riding that wave of success, yes," She snorted loudly. She was never one to stand in the spotlight so couldn't understand why they took to it so well.

"I think it may have gone to their head a little more than they had planned. I mean, none of us planned to get fame or fortune out of this, and then, before we are even in our twenties we are given a Hero's reception and a large fortune to live off for the rest of our days, and for what? Bloodshed? Loss of life?" She sighed sadly, looking at him with tear-filled eyes.

She wiped the tears away with the back of her hands, forcing a wry smile. She didn't want to be seen as weak, not in his presence.

"So anyway, obviously Ron had never had much money, much of anything, you know. So he went a little crazy. Asked me to marry him a month after the war. Bought me a ridiculously sized ring to try to prove his love for me." She rolled her eyes.

"And of course I declined. It didn't feel right, you know. To celebrate something after so many people met their demise. I explained to him I wanted to wait, wanted to come back to school and he told me I was stupid, said we didn't need an education because we had enough money to live out our days. Two days after that I saw him with his tongue down Lavender Brown's throat and that' the last time I have uttered a word to him." She coughed just at the right time to cover up a giant sob that tore through her body.

"Harry. Harry was another Quidditch game altogether from Ron. Being the Golden Child, having Hero status thrust upon him really went to his head. Shagged more women than he has had hot dinners now I reckon. Tried it on me after he saw how upset I was after I caught Ron and Lavender, punched him square in the nose for his efforts. He was my best friend and he tried to take advantage of me in my time of need. He's become a right foul Git too," she huffed, tossing her long wild curls over her shoulder and jutting her chin out in an act of defiance.

He couldn't help but let out a chuckle at her recollection of the story, she was a fiery little minx who didn't seem to take shit from anyone and to see Potter put in his place by Granger would have been all of his Birthday's and Christmases come at once.

"Interesting," He muttered, rearranging his features quickly to hide his clear amusement before he was on the receiving end of one of her tirades. "You will have to show me that memory one day, it would give me great pleasure to see Potter put back in his place."

"Of course," She chirped a little too happily.

"So basically, fame got to their head and turned them further into cunt's than they had already been?" He questioned simply.

She reeled a little at the word he had chosen. Was Severus Snape getting comfortable enough in her presence to let such words slip, or was the late hour impeding his train of thought?

Her eyes darted to his clock, her eyes fuzzy from tiredness she tried to focus, and she almost reeled at the time. Three a.m. She had been here since nine p.m and she had never once faltered or grew bored of his presence. Never once did he make a snide or crude remark towards here. Where was the real Severus Snape, she mused to herself.

Her eyes grew tired and heavy, something she wasn't accustomed to, but something deep within her felt relaxed, felt at ease.

Severus watched as the fiery little bitch went limp before his eyes. He knew he wasn't the most riveting person on terra firma but he didn't expect her to fall asleep mid-conversation.

He watched the rise and fall of her chest; her breathing became softer and more rhythmic as she was lulled deeper into a slumber. He couldn't very well leave her here flopped in the chair in his office, could he? The thought did cross his mind but he had more compassion than that, didn't he? He snorted to himself. Since when did he have compassion? Especially for Hermione Granger.

Getting to his feet he gently levitated the girl a few feet into the air; opening the door to his chambers he guided her onto one of his couches and laid her down gently. He had thought about ramming her head into the coffee table a few times and dropping her unceremoniously onto the couch, but for some stupid reason, his moral compass was calibrated correctly tonight and he hated it.

Accio'ing a blanket for her, he gently threw it over her lithe, unconscious form. He could have woken her up and sent her packing back to her dorm, but she looked so peaceful and he knew she was hardly afforded any sleep.

He turned on his heel and left the little witch to get some peace and quiet. Maybe he too might catch some sleep tonight.

-o-o-o-o-

Hermione's eyes fluttered open ever so slowly, under the groggy spell of sleep her head spun and her heart sank as an unfamiliar room came into view. It was dark and it was dank and whatever she was lying on felt like she was sleeping on a pile of stones.

Sitting up in a flash she looked down to see she was still in her school uniform and then it all came flooding back to her. The conversation with Snape, she must had fallen asleep, but it still didn't answer the question of where she was.

"My chambers, Miss Granger," came his cool and calm reply as he strode into view, robes billowing behind him.

"I told you to stop doing that," She protested. Embarrassed by the fact she had fallen asleep in front of him, and the fact she was now in his chamber and probably looked a right mess after a night of sleep.

Wait, a night of sleep? She actually slept? Sweet baby Merlin, she actually slept.
"Yes, Miss Granger, twelve hours straight, out like a light."

"It's three in the afternoon!?" She gasped.

"Indeed."

She looked around the small sitting room; his coffee table was littered with half-full liquor bottles, some empty coffee cups and weeks worth of the daily profits were piled on the corner precariously, threatening to fall to the floor with the next breeze that caught them. Watching him snatch up a bottle of gin, he poured a generous amount into his coffee cup and downed some of the contents easily.

"Do you have a drinking problem?" She eyed him sideways suspiciously.
"I don't view it as a problem, Miss Granger. I view it as a solution to my problems, so no, I do not have a drinking problem, I have a drinking solution." He took another sip, eyeing her over the coffee cup as he did so.

"You know, alcohol isn't always the answer."

He sneered at her, how did she know, she probably hadn't had a drop of liquor in her life to feel all that it could fix, and here she was condemning him.

"You just have to ask the right question, and it will always be the right answer." He took another sip, emptying his cup and slamming it down on the table.

"Now, are you going to go, or am I stuck with you down here for another twelve hours?"

"I'm going," she huffed. The strong smell of alcohol filled her nostrils and made her want to vomit slightly.

"Bye, Miss Granger."

"Bye, Professor," she bit with sarcasm before storming from his chambers, leaving him to uncork the bottle of gin once again. He looked at it calculating for a minute before pressing the bottle to his lips. That was interesting, to say the least, he thought to himself.

He didn't find her insufferable or annoying, he found that she not only piqued his interest but held it as well.

A/N: Here you all go. My muse was strong tonight and I had to get this written. I am really enjoying where this is going and I hope you are too.

Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed.

-Aliasmel1