A/N – So things are getting a bit hectic with moving back to California and everything else that is going on. Everything from going back to school to finding a job, planning a wedding, and looking for a house. Lots and lots of fun on my end. So anyways, completely sorry for the delay on this. At least it wasn't as long as the last wait.

-O-O-

Hermione slowly made her way towards Minerva's private rooms. A small smile played across her lips at the thought of the older woman. That smile turned into a grin when she realized that graduation was fast approaching and that Minerva would be the one to hand over her diploma. The grin quickly faded however when she realized that graduation evening could be the last time she ever saw the older woman. The horrifying realization crossed her mind and her eyes welled with unshed tears. She had come to rely on her conversations with Minerva just as much as she relied on her friendships with Ro and Draco and Ginny.

She unshed tears began to spill down her cheeks as she broke into a run. Her heart hammered in her chest with both the exertion and the fear of losing her friend. Her feet pounded roughly into the stone floor as she tore through the hallways. As she neared her mentor's rooms Godric Gryffindor's portrait noticed her coming and swung open.

Minerva looked up from her book when she heard the entrance to her chamber's open. Seeing the frantic young Gryffindor make a beeline towards her, she stood. Hermione's body collided with her own and both fell back onto the couch where the older witch had been previously sitting. Both arms wrapped around the panicked young woman in an attempt to calm her down. She gently brushed her fingers through Hermione's hair and whispered comforting nonsense in her ear.

As the younger woman cried herself out Minerva very gently maneuvered them so they were sitting next to each other, though Hermione's arms were still latched around her waist forcing the animagus to raise her arm and drape it around the brunette's shoulders.

"Do you want to tell me what that was about?" the ebony haired woman whispered as she continued to stroke the brown curls beneath her fingers.

"Graduation." Was her only reply.

"I thought you would be happy about that." Said the confused transfiguration professor.

"Not if it means I will never see you again." Hermione buried her face in her mentor's chest, breathing in the calming smell of parchment and ginger. She loved Minerva's scent. It always had this effect on her.

"What in the world are you talking about Hermione?" Minerva gripped the young woman's shoulders and pushed her away so that she could look into her face. "Just because you are graduating does not mean that you will never see me again. I don't think my old heart could take it if you decided that you didn't want me in your life."

"But I won't be a student anymore. You won't have any obligation to me at all. Why would you still want to be my friend?"

"Hermione, I don't spend time with you simply because you are my student, or out of any sense of obligation. You are my friend. You saved many lives in the war, quite possibly my own included. You, of all the people at this school, have earned my friendship and respect." The older witch wrapped both arms around the brunette and pulled her into a tight hug. "I will never abandon you."

Hermione buried her face in Minerva's chest. The panic she held felt upon entering her mentor's rooms quickly vanished to be replaced by the warmth in her chest that she normally felt around the older witch. She looked up from her position and peered into enchanting emerald green eyes, then shifted to press her nose into the woman's neck. Breathing her in once again Hermione moved as close as she could until both witches were lying down, their legs entwined, Minerva's arms around Hermione's shoulders, and Hermione's arms around Minerva's waist.

Minerva for her part was struggling to keep herself contained. Having the gorgeous brunette pressed to her in such an intimate way was wreaking havoc with her senses and her self-control. She wanted nothing more than to keep the young woman right where she was but knew that it was wrong. They shouldn't be in this position. She was so much older than the object of her desires. She was her professor. Though for all the reasons she came up with for why this shouldn't be happening, she couldn't bring herself to move or to move the young woman in her arms. It wasn't until she felt hot tears splashing onto her neck that she shifted their positions a second time, this time moving so that Hermione was lying next to her and she could look down into the girls face.

Hermione knew the older witch was waiting for her to explain the tears but couldn't bring herself to speak, so she simply cried and cried until finally she ran out of tears. Finally, after getting herself under control again, she rolled up her sleeve. The scars that she had put there herself hadn't had an effect on the ones put there by Bellatrix Lestrange. She bared her arms for Minerva to see.

The shock written all over her mentors face was enough to make her try to pull her sleeve down, but Minerva had grabbed her arm at both the elbow and the wrist. Very gently she released her elbow and began to run her fingers over the raised scars left there by the demented Death Eater.

"Hermione these scars in no way change my opinion of you. In fact I believe they make me hold you in a much higher esteem than before. You managed to go through this and you lived. You survived Hermione. So nothing you tell me or show me will ever change how I think of you, and believe me if I knew the identity of who did this to you I would repay them in kind." Minerva growled the last bit of her speech.

Hermione could only nod and burrow closer and deeper into the warmth that the older witch offered. Being honest with herself there was only one other place that she loved being just as much. She loved being with Ro, in her arms or in her presence. She knew that she was falling for both women and she was falling hard. She knew that eventually she was going to have to choose between them if she wanted a relationship with either, if either wanted her that was, but right now, in Minerva's embrace, lying on her couch with the smell of parchment and ginger surrounding her, she just couldn't bring herself to care all that much.

-O-O-

A/N – Too short? Sorry! I'm trying I really really am. I promise the next chapter will be up faster, so will the next chapter of Leukemia. I promise. Working on both I swear. Read and Review Please!