A/N: So, remember last week when I said that the next couple of chapters would be shorter? Well, when I read back through this chapter, something just felt off, so I rewrote part of it. Now, it's the third longest chapter in the whole story so far... So, it's not a short one!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I'm just borrowing J.K. Rowling's characters, and they will (eventually) be returned how I found them. Well, most of them...

Hermione's injuries healed quickly, but she had fought off emotional damage during the remainder of the summer. Professor Snape had made sure that she wouldn't go back to the alley, although it really hadn't been necessary. She wasn't sure if she'd ever feel safe in her hometown again. It was an unpleasant feeling, but she decided that she wouldn't return unless it was necessary or she was visiting Emmie.

So far, her panic attacks had been kept (mostly) at bay; many of the ones she had were minor, and her professor was usually able to stop them quickly. The few major ones she'd endured had been rough, but she hadn't had one since early August, and those were nearly impossible to stop. Once they started, they just had to be waited out.

She could remember the first one she'd had perfectly- it had been two days after, and it had been the longest so far.

It was dark, and Hermione could hear her father moving through the house. He'd been out drinking again, and she knew he was going to the library for more. Sure enough, it wasn't long before she heard him pouring himself a scotch in the next room.

Things had been awful since Emmie's death almost a year ago, but they were still getting worse. There was no longer a time during the day when her father wasn't inebriated, and he was becoming more violent every day. Just yesterday he had broken her nose, which was unusual; he usually avoided her face and other hard-to-cover areas. On top of the broken nose were the marks on her arms from where he'd grabbed her, the now-ever-present soreness between her legs, a broken toe, and the near-complete bruising of her torso that made it hurt to breathe.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed since her father had come home, but Hermione heard him muttering to himself as he left the library. Unable to help it, she kept chanting 'Let him go downstairs' in her mind, but to no avail. Just when it sounded like he might go to bed, Hermione heard his heavy footsteps approaching her door.

"Wake up, 'Mione!"

Lying still, Hermione hoped that he would give up and leave her alone- not that it mattered; he'd just be angrier about it when he had his way with her in the morning. Unfortunately, her father was unconvinced.

"Get up, you stupid girl. Come on, move."

Seeing that there wasn't really a way out of it, Hermione rolled over and sat up. As her eyes adjusted to the light streaming in from the hallway, a fist connected with her jaw, knocking her head back. She tasted blood where she'd bitten the inside of her cheek.

Then she was cold. Looking down, she saw that her father had thrown the blankets from the bed and was moving so he stood next to her rather than at the foot of her bed.

"Hurry up, we haven't got all night. I want to go to bed sometime tonight, you know. Don't make me do it for you."

With a sigh, Hermione stripped and laid on her back, waiting for her father to do as he wished. She heard his pants fall to the ground and felt the mattress dip as he sat on the edge of her bed.

"Sit up, 'Mione."

She did as he told her, only for him to grab her arm and place her hand on his flaccid member. This was new, and Hermione had to fight the urge to pull away. Her father must have sensed her fear because his length hardened almost immediately. He moved her hand so she was stroking him, and she felt nauseous. It wasn't long before he pushed her hand away and forced her onto her back. He pushed roughly into her, and she wanted to cry out. Even though he did this on a near-daily basis, it never hurt any less.

Like always, she held her tears back until he was finished, only letting them fall when she was alone. She pulled her pajamas back on and found the covers on the floor. As she brought them up to her chest and flopped back down, everything changed.

She wasn't nine years old anymore, and this wasn't her house. She was no longer in her bed. The air was warm, but the ground was still cool. Rough hands were running up and down her body, but there were four of them. Unless her father had come back to life and grown two extra hands, this wasn't him. Daring to open her eyes, she saw the tall man and the one that looked like a toad, and she remembered. Memories of her father and the attack in the alley all hit her at once.

She'd somehow been having a panic attack within a panic attack, and she felt much worse afterwards than she usually did. Coming to in Professor Snape's arms, she took stock. She was sweating and still shaking a bit, her heart was racing, she felt faint, and her stomach was also unsettled. That wasn't one of her usual symptoms, but it was the strongest. Pulling quickly away from her professor and moving as far as she could from him, she was violently ill. She didn't even notice the long, pale hand holding her hair back until it was gone and her curls hung down in her face. Drained, Hermione collapsed on the floor of the Defense classroom, reveling in how the cool stone felt on her skin. She heard the murmured cleaning spell before she was being gently lifted from the ground. Exhausted, Hermione wrapped her arms around the professor's neck as he carried her back to her bed.

Hermione hadn't been sick from any of her other attacks- thank Merlin for that- and they gradually lessened in their severity. She found herself with her professor after nearly every attack, due to the fact that he seemed reluctant to leave her on her own for very long.

The minor attacks would occur at the most random times, and she'd found blood trickling down her arm on more than a few occasions. When Professor Snape was nearby, he could help her get control fairly quickly, but most of them seemed to hit her when he was nowhere to be found. She'd felt one coming on when she was having tea with the Deputy Headmistress, and had needed to excuse herself as the older witch was mid-sentence. Hermione had rushed out of the room before McGonagall could protest, and had made it down the corridor and around the corner before she was snapping the rubber band against her skin.

She was grateful for her professor's help. After each attack she had when he was with her, he called Tinky for tea and they would sit and talk about anything until she was calm again. Hermione found herself surprised by how- well, not kind, but nearly, and patient he could be. There had been a few times when she'd dared to wonder if he returned her feelings, but quickly talked herself out of it before she could make a fool of herself.

Now, there was about left week until the new school year, and Hermione and Professor Snape had lots of work to do. They had recently started working on a potion that could protect against all three Unforgivables at once for a period of time. It was hard work, but immersing herself in the project was bringing Hermione back to herself.

It had started when she had been lost in a major attack:

"Crucio!"

The psychotic witch that was Bellatrix Lestrange had been torturing Hermione for Merlin-knew-how-long, and she wasn't showing any signs of letting up soon. She didn't know where the boys were; all she was sure of was that they were at Malfoy Manor and she was being cursed as she lie writhing and crying on the drawing room floor.

Hermione wouldn't break; she couldn't. It would end the lives of so many, and she kept this in mind as she held what little ground she had. She couldn't really keep her thoughts straight when she was under the Cruciatus, but she otherwise had full control of her mind.

She was lifted from the curse again, and Hermione was panting hard. Small tremors struck her in random places, and she was still too sore to be mortified that she'd lost control of her bladder in the last bout of cursing.

Preparing herself for the next round, Hermione was surprised when it didn't come. She hesitantly opened her eyes, only to find Bellatrix standing over her with a malicious smile.

Suddenly very scared, she tried to move away from the older witch, but was stopped when Bellatrix reached out and grabbed her arm.

From behind her back, she produced a knife. This was it, Hermione thought. I'm going to die.

She flinched when the cool blade first touched her skin, and screamed when the first cut was made. The cuts were small, and Hermione realized that she wasn't dying. She was being marked.

When the deranged woman moved off of her, Hermione risked a glance at her arm and was unsurprised to see the word 'Mudblood' carved into her flesh.

Hermione vividly remembered what the Cruciatus had felt like, and she had no desire to feel it again anytime in the near or distant future. After she had recovered, she'd had the sudden idea of the potion. She brought it up to Professor Snape a few days later and, after coming up with numerous possibilities, they began their work.

Currently, they had figured out how to counteract the effects of all three curses- which was remarkable in and of itself- and were trying to figure out how to put the effects together in one potion. While they could stop each curse individually, Hermione still wanted to find a way to do it all at once. It was taking a lot of time and research, but she knew that it could always go towards her research requirement for her apprenticeship. She had to have a project and invent her own potion. Since most of the plans had been made by her, she'd basically created three.

Hermione would be taking on first, second, and third year classes this year, and it was when she was making a lesson plan that she had the sudden realization. She was in her rooms, and she knew Professor Snape would be in staff meetings all day, but it couldn't wait.

It was exactly what the potion needed. There were ingredients between the three potions that reacted badly when combined, but they'd been unable to find anything to neutralize all of the negative effects. But, if they found a way to blend all three neutralizers into a separate potion, it should balance everything out. By combining them, they would share the preventative properties, stopping the negative reactions from the other three.

With this in mind, Hermione ran all the way from her room to the Headmaster's office, notes in hand. Professor Snape had given her the password in the event she ever needed him while he was here, so she let herself into the staircase; she was practically bouncing up and down as the stairs rotated slowly. Hermione hadn't even knocked when she heard the Headmaster's voice call out to her.

"Enter, Miss Granger."

Taking a steadying breath- which had no effects on her growing excitement- she all but threw the door open. Her eyes found her professor's almost immediately, and she was sure that she was grinning like an idiot, but she didn't care.

"What do you need, Hermione?" he asked before he could take in her expression. Once he saw her beaming at him, he raised an eyebrow curiously.

"We blend all the neutralizers together! Make them into their own potion, and blend it with the others!"

He seemed to think this over before both his eyebrows raised, almost meeting his hairline. "That is absolutely brilliant. By balancing the negative reactions, the final potion will be harmless while maintaining the desired effects. Hermione, do you realize what you've just done?"

She could only nod, vaguely aware that they were the only two- well, maybe Dumbledore knew- who had any idea what was going on. "I've found a way to protect one from all three Unforgivables at once for twenty-four hours."

Professor Snape rose at this, and several staff members gasped. "Twenty-four?! I thought the original plans said it would last for ten?"

"Yes, but look at this," she said as she levitated her notes to him. "When the neutralizers combine, not only does it make the final potion safe, but it also prolongs the result."

He read through her notes quickly, but she knew he was reading everything on the parchment. When he finished, he looked up at her, and a small smile graced his usually cruel face. She could see the excitement in his eyes from across the room.

Their moment was interrupted by Professor McGonagall. "What exactly is going on?"

"Professors, Headmaster," Hermione began, looking around the room, "Professor Snape and I have been working on a potion that has the ability to render the Unforgivables useless for a then-unknown period of time. After drawing up plans, it was expected to last about ten hours before wearing off, but it looks as if it will be stronger than we anticipated. After taking this potion, the consumer would be immune to any of the three curses for a full day."

There was a moment of shocked silence before commotion erupted in the office. Dumbledore looked pleased, but unsurprised; so he had been in on it. She and Professor Snape were bombarded with questions, and they answered what they could; as they hadn't tested it yet, there were still some unknowns, but it looked promising.

It was a couple of hours before the meeting ended, and Hermione and her professor made their way back to their rooms quietly, each lost in their thoughts.

"Professor Snape?"

"Yes, Hermione?"

"I hope I didn't interrupt anything terribly important. It just hit me, and I ran as fast as I could."

"No worries; it was just last-minute plans for the coming year. What on earth led you to such a brilliant conclusion?"

She noted the proud tone in his voice and flushed lightly. "I'm not sure. I was just writing out my lesson plan for the third years."

Professor Snape nodded as he continued thinking things through. Hermione couldn't stop smiling as she returned to her own thoughts. Neither of them spoke when they reached their rooms; they grabbed their books and ordered tea from Tinky as they settled down to read.

After reading the same sentence what must have been twenty times, Hermione closed her book and leaned against the arm of the couch, a soft sigh escaping her. She was elated; she couldn't believe that they were actually going to do it!

Knowing that all their hard work was going to pay off, Hermione laughed. It was soft at first, but she laughed harder and it was such an incredible feeling; she didn't remember the last time she'd felt so free. Eventually, tears began making their way down her face, but she didn't even care. She wasn't sure if she'd ever cried because she was happy, but it felt amazing to let it all out.

As her laughter slowly subsided, she noticed that Professor Snape was watching her over the top of his book. Smiling sheepishly, she couldn't help but blush.

"Sorry, Professor. I didn't mean to disturb you."

"It is quite alright, Hermione. It's good to see you happy."

"I am. For the first time in a very, very long time, I'm happy."

When Hermione had come rushing into the staff meeting that afternoon, his first thought was that she'd had a panic attack. But then, he'd looked at her face. It was the brightest smile he'd ever seen. Severus found himself wanting to be the one to make her smile that way.

Her brilliance knew no bounds. That was all that was running through his mind when she made her announcement. She'd looked right at him and he knew that, despite there being plenty of others present, she was only speaking to him. Severus couldn't help but be proud of her. She was the most intelligent student he'd ever had, and today she had made a monumental discovery.

Yes, he was helping her with it, but it was her idea, her plan, and most of the work was hers. He'd helped when asked, and there had been many a discussion on the properties of the ingredients able to do what they needed, but this was her project.

They would start testing her hypothesis immediately. He'd told Dumbledore of her idea, and he'd been surprised; nobody had ever thought to create such a thing for one of the Unforgivables, let alone all three. The focus was always on healing them, not protecting against them. As they'd progressed, Severus hadn't been able to hide his pride in Hermione as he explained their work to Albus.

The Headmaster was rather impressed by the young woman. She was innovative and her mind was exceptionally sharp; if anybody was capable of doing this, it was Hermione Granger.

After the initial shock, everybody had had questions, and she'd taken it upon herself to explain. Hermione had sounded more confident than she had in a long time; it was good to see her acting more like herself.

The walk back to their rooms was pleasant. They'd both needed a little time to collect their thoughts after that afternoon.

Upon returning to their rooms, they had sat and read for a few hours, as was their routine. Severus was reading a tome about how all magic was connected in one way or another when he'd heard it.

Her laugh was beautiful. It resounded through the sitting room like a bell; soft at first, but then loud and melodious. She was freeing herself. Hermione's face had been a sight that he would never forget. There was so much light in her dark brown eyes, and the smile on her face was so open and innocent. In that moment, she was perfection personified.

The days seemed to fly by, and then students were flooding the Great Hall for the Welcoming Feast. Hermione sat next to Professor Snape, and she was excited for the new school year. Professor Slughorn was relieved to be rid of almost half his classes; he was planning on going back into retirement once Hermione's apprenticeship was complete, and she would take his place.

She couldn't believe that her apprenticeship was already a quarter of the way through. It had gone by so very quickly. It had been difficult in the past few months, but Professor Snape had been wonderful to her. She was feeling much more like herself, and she was much happier than she'd been at this time last year.

Hermione had learned so much in her time studying under her professor. Their potion was coming along perfectly; her idea had been successful so far, but they still needed more test subjects before it could be patented. She'd hated testing it, but it was necessary. She'd only been able to Imperio the subjects; Cruciatus was out of the question for her, and she just couldn't bring herself to use the Killing Curse. Severus had taken up testing it so she didn't have to. They were tested in that order; there was yet to be failure.

Somehow, they made time for other brewing while they focused on their potion. Hermione was now brewing almost all the potions for the Hospital Wing, and Professor Snape was still teaching her more complex potions, some of which she'd never even heard of before.

But there was that part of her that hurt when she was with him. Hermione's feelings for the dark professor hadn't gone away, they'd just grown in their intensity. She had fallen in love him.

It was difficult, but she was doing her best to push her feelings out of the way. Hermione knew how big this opportunity was, and she wasn't going to ruin it. She had to be professional. But she knew that this was only part of the reason. She was scared.

With all that she'd grown up with, Hermione had never truly allowed herself to feel anything for anybody. Compared to what she felt for Professor Snape, her feelings for Viktor and Ron were nothing. This was real and she knew it, and this absolutely terrified her. Nobody could want her. He was one of the best people she'd ever had the honor to know; he deserved so much more than a broken witch.

Well, she was slightly less broken now than she had been. He was slowly but surely fixing the mess that was Hermione Granger. She didn't know how he'd done it, but he had stepped into her life as more than just a professor and turned her life upside down- or maybe right side up.

As disappointed as the part of her that loved him was, her need for him was far greater. Professor Snape made her feel like the intelligent witch she was. Despite her baggage, he did what he could to help her, and she was happy to call him one of her best friends.

Speaking of best friends, it had been months since she'd written Harry and Ginny. Hermione felt bad that she was just now thinking about this, but she'd been so busy. She knew they'd understand; Hermione always put her education first, and they'd know that from the beginning.

Filing the thought away for later, she returned her attention to the Sorting. She'd always found it fascinating. The hat had had a hard time placing her; Hermione had an affinity for all four houses. It had placed her in Gryffindor, but just barely. It was an even tie between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, but it had sensed her strength and the underlying courage that she hid from the world.

When it was over, Hermione and Professor Snape went back to their rooms; there was a nice stack of tomes that were just asking to be read and absorbed by their sharp minds.

They were from her professor's private library, and she thought back to when he'd first shown it to her. It was in his room rather than the shared quarters, so she'd had yet to satisfy her burning curiosity. He'd simply told her he needed help grabbing a few books, and asked her to accompany him; Hermione had seen past this quickly, but didn't say anything. She followed him, and when he moved so she could see it, she had been astounded.

His library was one of the most beautiful collections she'd ever laid eyes on, and she could have stared at it all night if he hadn't cleared his throat and teased her before they got what they'd come for.

Now she had access whenever she wanted. The castle had accommodated by providing a door straight from her room to his. They had both been surprised by this, but neither protested. Hermione was to knock first, of course, and the library was all she had access to; that suited her just fine, as she'd never have expected otherwise. But that was one of the things she loved about him. He always seemed to know exactly what was on her mind, and he gave no more and no less. She knew that he'd never actually entered her mind; she trusted him enough to know that he would never do so without permission, and maybe not even then.

After poring through the books until nearly one in the morning, the two said their goodnights and went to bed, ready for the new school year awaiting them.

A/N II: All feedback is greatly appreciated; please let me know what you thought! See y'all next Wednesday!