First and foremost, I would like to apologize to anyone who has been checking back for updates for about two years now, no? I don't have a very good excuse. Things happen, people grow and lose lives, . . . It's a very uninterestingly interesting world. I'm not going to promise daily, or even weekly updates, but I will finish this story even if it kills me (no, really, it might.)

I would also like to THANK everyone that read AND reviewed. It is very much appreciated and finally rewarded.

RECAP!!!!!

Draco stiffly walked into Transfiguration class the next morning. He held his head to the ground and did not give his usual snide remarks to the Griffindors. He sat down in his seat and buried his face into his crossed arms on the desk. Hermione did not show up for class. He couldn't help but think about her more and more as the day went by. He did not see her at all that day. Come back Hermione...please...

RECAP OVER!!! :)

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Hermione sat on the roof of her old home. Why has everything fallen apart? Why did they have to die? There was a little girl and a teenager playing in the front yard. She kind of reminds me of me when I was about her age. Suddenly, there was a brief, but noticeable thud behind her. Hermione jerked around and stand before her was Professor Snape. Hermione gasped slightly in confusion.

"Pr-Professor. I-I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't be skipping class, or even be off school grounds, but I was..um," Hermione tried to think of some sort of excuse but had none. She couldn't talk her way out of this.

"Ms. Granger, although there will be reprimanding, it is very important that you come with me. Now."

Hermione was a little confused that he wasn't grabbing her by the scruff of the neck and throwing her back into the wizarding world. "You aren't being very..um, hostile, professor."

"Ms. Granger, if you would like this to go more forcefully, it can. Do not underestimate any situation. Stand up, and allow me to apparate us, or we can manage with more aggressive tactics." Hermione stood up and took Snape's outstretched hand, and he pulled her close, and within seconds they were standing in front of St. Mongo's Hospital.

"Professor Snape, why are we.."

"Do you not recall your visit here yesterday late afternoon?"

"What? No, I went for a walk last night and left the school grounds to see the muggle world. I don't believe I have ever even been inside this hospital before."

"Ms. Granger, Yesterday, you escaped the hospitals care. They've been searching for you since you left. No one could track you down, and luckily I was the one landed as the last resort tracker. I'm bringing you back in. You have suffered some severe physical abuse, and memory trauma. You're going to be fine, but you need to stay in here for a while. You can't be trusted alone until you remember everything and can cope with it."

Hermione froze there in her steps. She looked at her professor. He wasn't known to be one for jokes, but oddly enough, she couldn't stop herself from laughing. It started as one small chuckle and then grew into more hefty, continuous sounds. "Right, so, this is the part where the other teachers pop out from no where and tell me how they assumed I needed a good joke because I've been working too hard. Haha! Thanks, guys! Come on out. Yoooo Hoooo. Haha." Hermione looked around and the only person she could see was an old man sitting on a bench at the bus stop. A few birds flew down and pecked at some abandoned food on the ground, and the wind blew lightly. Nothing else. "Professor, really, what's going on?" Hermione started to feel goose bumps filtering up her arms and neck.

"Hermione, just come inside and the doctors will explain everything."

"What? No. Tell me now! I want to know. This isn't funny anymore!" She was stepping back.

"Hermione. Calm down, and come inside." His voice was calm but uninviting. The Snape voice. The dark, lonely, hateful man who tormented her intellect since she arrived at Hogwarts. There was something she admired in him, though. There was a silent understanding between them, and she didn't know what it was, but it was there.

"Professor, is it bad?" Hermione's throat went dry. She couldn't swallow. Air scratched her esophagus.

Snape said nothing more. He placed his hand on her upper back and led her into the hospital.

Once inside, Hermione was led to a room with a bed, window, and cart with candy on atop. Everything felt fuzzy. She was wracking her brain for the answers, but nothing seemed to surface. She sat on the bed, closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. Nothing.

She opened her eyes to see Snape watching her from across the room. His eyes didn't flicker at all. She faced the other way. It seemed as if forever passed, when a doctor walked in. "Ms. Hermione Granger. You caused a bit of an uproar, now didn't you?" He sort of gave a half-hearted, yet friendly laugh. What a pathetic gesture. His long medical cloak was covered in vile-colored stains. His face was smooth, but his top lip was disfigured from what appeared to be a scar. Long side burns, oval glasses, a receding hair line, and a beer belly forming around his waist: This guy can't love his life.

Hermione was tired, irritable, and wanting to go back to school. "Could you just tell me why I'm here? I haven't done anything, and I don't know what's going on."

"Well, of course you don't. You sort of obliviated yourself."

"Excuse me?"

"Don't worry, we're going to give you back all your memories. The potion your dear professor made is still in the experimenting stage, but you'll be fine. Severus, would you be so kind as to give me the vial?"

Snape pulled a tiny crystal from his dark robe, "I believe we should wait for Albus."

"Oh, yes, of course. We should." The doctor brushed his fingers through his dirty hair to push the short strands behind his ears. He checked his watch, and after a few seconds said, "Well, we've waited long enough. The vial, please?"

Snape sort of sighed, but passed the mixture over. "Ms. Granger, no matter what happens, you need to remain as calm as possible. Dumbledore will be arriving momentarily. You are going to be fine. This is the most prestigious hospital known. You will be well taken care of."

Hermione's face felt distorted with confusion. "Professor.. you're scaring me." Snape looked to the doctor and nodded.

"Here we go, Ms. Hermione Granger. Tilt your head back ever so slightly. Yes, that does it, thank-you." He tipped the crystal vial, pouring its contents into Hermione's mouth. She felt it drizzle, warmly down into the pit of her stomach. Her whole body seemed to relax, and her breathing slowed.

"What's... supposed to.. happen.. Professor?" She felt sleepy and everything just sort of floated around her.

Suddenly, the warm feeling she had turned to excruciating heat! Her slow breaths turned to gasps for air, her head was spinning, her body ached all over, like daggers pocketing themselves beneath her flesh. People were shouting incoherent words all around her but she couldn't see anyone besides the blurred figures of the doctor and Snape. She cried out and moaned. Her heart raced and pounded to the invisible lashes she felt across her skin, she clawed at the sheets around her!

Then it stopped. She laid there, motionless. Tears leaked down in a silent sob.

The professor was the first to speak. "Ms. Granger? How do you feel?"

Hermione's unsteady breaths felt choked by saliva, tears, and excess mucous from her agony. Her silent sobs turned into loud instrumental monotony. More tears flooded her eyes, and soaked her face and hair. "Why did you do this?! I could have gone without it all. You don't know what I've been through! What kind of sick person are you?!" She buried her face into the stiff, cotton pillow and wailed in grief. The doctor left the room, satisfied by a job well-done, but not wanting to cause any further discomfort.

Snape stood by Hermione's bed, not sure what to do. "Hermione, you can't just throw away memories. People get lost in those memories forgotten. If you can't learn to grow with them, you'll never escape the reality of them. Do you understand? Does that make any sense? Hermione?"

"GO AWAY!" Snape stood there, not planning to leave, but to just observe. Guilt slightly moved through his blood stream, and he wondered if maybe he should have let her forget.

With excellent timing, Albus Dumbledore walked right into the room. "Hello, Hermione. Severus. I take it the potion worked."

Hermione looked up to him with tear-stains streaking down, "I'm not going back to that barbaric school of yours! You gave me the option and I told you no and you just couldn't listen!!"

"Now, Hermione. I knew that once you started to cope, you would be able to follow through with the Order's plan. Let's calm down, and have some tea." Dumbledore remained calm as if there world was fine and dandy.

"I don't want your TEA. I want you to get out and leave me alone! Both of you! This is my life and you can't just use it as your little battle plan!" Her tears dried away and anger replaced the sobs. Her head started to pound and she shook it. Trying to focus.

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"Turn to page 788. The story keeper's potion." Professor Snape walked through the rows of desks in his classroom. Students fumbled through the pages trying to hurry so not to suffer the Snapely Wrath. "This potion is not one to be consumed. You inhale its aroma's and exhale your entire life's worth of memories and ideas. It holds everything. Once you are ready to look back, it's there for you to digest. Lovely brain food."

Hermione raised her hand, "Professor, don't you think this is a bit personal for a class assignment?"

"That's for me to decide, Ms. Granger. You're children. Nothing more than infantile romances and groundings for messy rooms could possibly be there. Begin."

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"Hermione, when Severus approached me about your Story Keeper's Potion, I knew this was our opportunity to get inside information from very high-up death eaters. We had to act fast, and if you can't remember everything we may risk not being able to defeat the Voldemort. You lived with these people. Your real parents have found a way to untie themselves, so they can live the lives of average muggles. They gave up magic in hopes to not be punished for the Voldemort's work. You remember some of those meetings, though, Hermione. The ones in your parents' house. You remember everything with Draco's family. We need all the information you have, and you somehow managed to with hold it from the potion. Are you willing, Hermione?"

"Never." Hermione didn't move. She sat there staring with intense eyes at the headmaster.

"We have ways, Hermione. We need you to help us, and you will. Severus has been–"

"Following me. I know."

"Oh?" The headmaster looked at Severus.

"Yes, what did you think? Because his parents did the same sick things to him, I would just open up and say, 'Oh, thanks Professor! You're the greatest! Gee!!' Well, you were wrong. I'm not an idiot. Why should I help you knowing that I could be seriously harmed for doing so? Why should I help YOU when all I want to do is forget it all? WHY? What about you Headmaster Dearest? What was growing up like for you? If you're so mighty and powerful why don't you just defeat the Dark Lord yourself? You've been letting Harry, 'The Boy Who Lived,' play a bit while you sit in your office in hopes that maybe this time will be the time he kills Voldie."

Severus spoke up, "Albus, let's let her rest. She's been through a lot."

"Very well. Sweet dreams, Hermione."

She almost caught the twinkle in his eyes as he turned around, but her bitterness dulled all evidence of it, and she tried to find sleep.

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Please R&R. It is very much appreciated. I hope this chapter was sufficient. Not many more to go. One? Two? I think two more.