It was a relief the next morning when Hermione awoke only to the sound of purring and the slight vibration from the small beast laying strung out next to her. So used to was she, to hearing the loud chatter until the wee hours of the night and some times she would hear the loud laughter and squeals of class cancellations in the early morning and now it was peace. As long the students were in the common room, she couldn't yell at anyone for being up so late or early in the morning, she had tried many times. Sitting up and stretching, her movements caused her cat to wake irritably and to pounce of the bed in search of a more pleasant and undisturbed place to fall back to sleep. Hermione, paying no mind to her orange familiar, slipped out of bed with a wide grin on her face as she walked into her large bathroom to prepare herself for the day. She was really happy, or as happy as one could be after burying ones parents only two weeks ago. Her rooms were most definitely to her taste and she marveled over the fact that it felt more like an apartment then a set of small chambers in a large enchanted castel.

"If this is what the Headmaster calls small, I wonder what Severus' and Minerva's rooms look like?" She wondered as she filled her large tub up with hot water for a quick soak. Her personal bathroom held black marble flooring, bathtub and a dark stone shower next to it. The vanity was a mocha coloring and a stark white sink and matching toilet seemed to lighten the dark mood. It was much larger then she had anticipated and found the coloring of the room to be more Slytherin then ever, Hermione also found it quite amusing that the guest bathroom was decorated in the same fashion only smaller. Her Bedroom was most likely the size of her Head Girl's chambers off of Gryffindor tower, but was painted in more of a rusty red, earthy brown and greens tone. She was happy though to find that her sheets, instead of the plain scratchy white linen all students received, she had a dark evergreen satin set, that always felt cool yet delicate to the touch. Almost like liquid. The guest bedroom was exactly the same but half the size and reminded her too much of her old Head Girl room. The hallway that led to the rooms opened up into the living room, but not before another door was stationed. It was a large dark wood kind, that reminded her of a classroom door, but behind it was her absolute favorite. This room was Hermione's small private study, like all the rooms it held a large fireplace, but this held a floo connection, which connected to her home network. The room held ceiling to floor length bookshelves, two leather armchairs and grey wall-to-wall carpet. There was a medium sized desk that looked like a smaller version of a professor's desk and file cupboards behind it that she could use to file notes, and homework in. She liked that all her books were already overflowing from the shelves, already organized in the order she liked best, Winky had seen to that for her.

The Living room was a light blue that held the old Victorian weathered look and had a grey fabric sofa set. There was a record player in the corner that played both muggle and Wizarding records and the coffee tabled matched the side end tables with rich mocha coloring, which also held two lavishing lamps upon them. The floors were stonewashed yet clean and charmed to be warm at the touch. She had shelves that held some books but mostly porcelain mementos and photo albums. She had photos of her and her parents on the mantel as well as motion photos of her and her friends. A doorway from the opposite side of where the entrance door, was a doorway leading into the dinning room that opened up into a mini kitchen. The room was painted in a sunset orange and the dinning room table sat 6 people. There was a teacart off to the side and small cabinets and stove with an even smaller icebox, since everything came from the kitchens there was really no need for the room. All the furniture was in a mocha color and Hermione couldn't have been more pleased.

Grabbing her back and out cloak off the cloak rack, Hermione headed down to the Great Hall, with a great many things floating through her mind. She needed a course of action, a plan, but she needed to find the answers to questions she had not even formulated just yet. First thing to address was vanquishing Voldemort, once and for all; the second was to avenge her parents. She knew she was going to take great care in that, 'if they only knew karma was such a bitch, they would have thought twice before ever crossing Hermione Jean Granger.' She had to admit she was never a violent person, but then again no one had really went as far as to kill those closest to her. 'They simply have no clue who I am.' She thought confidently.

Hermione thought on Voldemort a great many days and numbers of nights for the past two weeks, more than the last 6 years. 'Something allowed him to resurrect over and over again, but some how he was connected to Harry as well. They have a piece of each other that they carry in them, but what could it possibly be? Could a piece of someone's essence be the cause? Yet after time that should weaken to the point of nonexistence, shouldn't it?' This was quite the start that Hermione was hoping for yet at the same time, she could not believe she never thought of this theory sooner. Hermione was so caught up in her theory that when her feet that seemed to be on autopilot, rounded the corridor that led to the main one to the Great Hall, she knocked into a sturdy object. A blush crept up her neck, splashing her checks in a deep rose color as she believed that she had accidentally walked into the wall, like she was prone to doing. She was about to side step, not daring to look up and face the fear that she actually just did that, when she noted dark clothing as she started at the ground.

"Miss. Granger, an apology or acknowledgement that you have run into my person would be the proper and respectable manner and not the one you are currently conducting now." Came Severus' playful drawl that he saved for Minerva and Hermione only.

"Upon my world, Se-Professor, I did not see you. I'm afraid I thought I had walked into the wall and did not wish to make a show of acknowledging the fact that I had gone and done such a thing again." Hermione smiled up to him, she could tell he was trying to smile too, but his posture seemed to change to one of authority and intimidation and a dark scowl replaced his new calm mood.

"You will do well to watch where you are going Miss. Granger. I deal with you enough. One point from Gryffindor." He turned on his heel, his robes being throw out from behind him and thrown in her face, she huffed in anger in order to hide her laughter. He was making a show of himself right now, and a good one at that, but it also meant that they were no longer alone in the corridor and she needed to pretend that she was livid with the tall dark imposing man.

She gave him a 20-foot lead gap between them before following him into the Great Hall. The hall was more or so empty when she entered, but a large group of chatty Hufflepuffs where entering just behind her. She took her normal seat at the middle of the large Gryffindor table, taking her time to throw a slice of toast on her plate and a large mug of strong tea. The toast was more of a showpiece, to make everyone believe she was eating something, but Hermione had lost all appetite since her parent's death. She was always like that. When she was young and had lost the only living grandmother she had, she didn't eat. It was her grieving process, she would cry yes, but she never really had those heart shattering breakdowns. Those were rare and even though she had her first two after the burial, she began to do what she always did after a funeral. Stop eating. Some possibly called it an eating disorder, but to her, it was the quick diet that got her thinner without even meaning to.

Her mind began to wander down to her theory, this time becoming so engrossed with her thoughts, Hermione did not even notice when the hall filled up to its maximum capacity. Nor did she noticed that at some time during her thought process, Harry and Ron had taken a seat on either side of her, already half way done eating and talking to her as if she was listening.

"Hey, 'Mione, you gonna finish that piece of toast? Ron ate the whole platter here and I'm in no mood to have a handful of people pass some down from the other platter." Harry spoke softly, trying to gain her attention, but it was Ron who finally brought her back down to earth.

"Oi', 'Mione! 'A'y w'nt yer t'st!" His mouth had ballooned out with the fourth continues bite of his eggs and bacon and had nudged her in the side a little to hard.

"OW! Yuck Ronald! That is so gross!" Hermione squealed trying to turn away from the train wreck he called a mouth.

"Ron how many times has mum told you to not talk with a full mouth?" Ginny groaned, taking a girly sip from her goblet. "Where were you?" this time directing her gaze at the Burnett. The group was used to Hermione's lapse of reality, she mostly never told them what she was thinking about, never out right, but she told them the places she was in her mind and they could pick up where her thoughts were headed.

"I was wondering about the history of linking of dark magic and white magic. I'm going to-head to the library." The three chorused in together.

"We know." Harry laughed. "We'll see you in double potions in an hour."

Hermione smiled and collected her bag from under the table and made her way down the aisle to exit the hall. Mail had not arrived yet, for when Hermione was almost out of the doorway the screeches of owls echoed and bounced off the walls and she turned to see if an owl would make her way to her. Instantly she berated herself for thinking such a thing, the only people she ever received mail from was her parents and that was no long something that would happen. The only people she had left in her world were here at school and saw her everyday. So as she made to turn and leave, an owl flew in front of her, dropping a scroll from its beak and flew away, too busy it seemed to stay and beg for a treat. Her eyebrows knitted together with curiosity, but simply place the scroll into her bag since she had someplace to be before classes started.

After she had arrived to the library and checking as many books out as she was allowed, Hermione returned to her rooms to put them down and make way to her first class of the day. She was out the door and down the corridor when she recalled the scroll she had received during the mail drop and fished for it from her bag. Closing the clasps and continuing her trek down to the dungeons, she began to unravel it, instantly noticing the scratchy handwriting.

H.

Are you still interested in helping clean and set up everything tonight?

S.

Hermione smiled at the note, knowing exactly who 'S' was, but instantly her heart fluttered. She should have read it sooner, and sent him a reply when she first received it. Severus was one of those when it came to opening up, it took a lot of him to do it, and she wondered that by not having responded instantly, would this send him into one of his moods. With classes back to back, she would not be able to send a reply until lunch and by then she feared he would send a note telling her to disregard the request completely. 'Maybe I'm over reacting?' She thought as she sat in her aisle seat next to a nervous Neville, Harry and Ron seated on the other side of the boy.

The room was quiet as they awaited the arrival of their Potions Professor and they watched in horror and a sick awe as the man himself threw the closed door open and strode in like he was a king, a scowl deeply engraved in his face and anger blazing through his eyes. Hermione instantly regretted her initial thought of over reacting. The man seemed to be in the worst possible mood ever since she saw him before breakfast. He was grumpy and his eyes seemed to narrow in on her.

Severus had watched Hermione receive the scroll that he had sent her, but he felt taken aback when she shoved it into her bag as if it were nothing. It had taken him a long time to write to here, even if it was one sentence, but that one sentence meant that he could see her, spend time with her as if they were back at her house. It only took him 6 hours of tossing and turning last night to finally break down and inquire if she still wanted to help clean the green house and set up her things in his lab. Yet at the same time, he wondered when he would tell her about the Dark Lord's desire to make her a pawn for his team as well. Though he dwelled on that most of the night, he pushed it aside in hopes to not have to worry about it, at least for a little while.

Now here Severus was, stalking into his classroom with an angry expression that he simply could not shake off. He wanted to be one of her most important priorities yet at the same time he had no clue what as going on with him internally. So when he had waited for an hour for a reply he was quite disappointed and his hopes seem to be crushed without even realizing it.

"The instructions are on the board, get to work." He waited for them to scramble around but no one seemed to move a muscle. "Now!" He barked and it sent everyone into a frenzy. He knew he was being childish, especially when he threw Hermione a livid look before taking a seat behind his desk. He just couldn't shake, 'is it jealousy the want and need to be important to her?'

Hermione instantly noticed the look and felt taken aback, until a sly smile graced her features. 'He was upset' she realized, and she called upon her Slytherin subtleties to make it up to him. Hanging back a little before retrieving the ingredients she needed and her potions equipment, she waited for the storeroom to clear out before going. Grabbing all that she needed, she made sure to retrieve inexpensive and rarely used ingredients from the selves. Hermione also made sure to grab two glass vials, even though the instructions clearly requested one. She set her self to work of dicing and organizing when she felt the tall dark brooding man stalk about the classroom. As he neared her workstation, she made a show of almost jumping out of her skin.

"Miss. Granger I understand that you have recently lost your parent and that you have been receiving special treatment in your other classes. As unfortunate as that is, I will not allow you such a luxury nor cater to your emotions. 5 points from Gryffindor for taking ingredients out that are not called for in this potion." All of the student's eyebrows raised to the top of their hairline at the beginning of his mini speech, at first caught off guard in the thought that he was sympathizing with her. Then many turned dark glares on the man as he continued. The Slytherins simply snickered audibly until Severus threw them a dark look that shut them up fast.

Hermione was quick to anger when she caught herself, this was a game between them, and it was for show and for survival if they ever wanted to make it out of this war alive. She faked hurt until he returned to making his rounds and started to bagger another student. The boys next to her gave her a sympatric look, for they still did not know how to treat her and believed that at any chance she might break. She watched as Harry returned his gaze to Severus and gave him the most enraged look possible.

A few more moment past and Hermione did her best to bite the inside of her cheek as she deliberately pushed one of the glass vials off the edge of her work station, enjoying the sick beauty of the sound as it smashed on the stone floor. It seemed to set her nerves on fire with a certain type of release.

As soon as the smash rung through the classroom, everything seemed to still around Severus. His back was rigged straight and stiff with anger, slowly in a predatory like motion, he turned to see who dared even think about breaking something in his class.

Severus turned onyx eyes and found the culprit easily.

It took a lot of effort on Hermione's part not to laugh, and even more so with the comical way he seemed to turn on her. What she enjoyed most though, was the few seconds it took him to finally understand what she was trying to do. Understanding flickered across his eyes and an acceptance to the apology that was floating across hers.

"Miss Granger, detention with me after your last class. Tonight." He growled out after taking a quick second to school his features into the angry expression it once was. "Clean it up!"

Hermione went to do just that when she heard a mumble to the side and dread began to pile high with in her.

"Was their something you wished to say, Potter?" Severus barked.

"Yes, You're an unfeeling foul git." The room stared in shock at the boy wonder.

"Well, Potter, you will have detention tonight with Filch right after your final class today. Speak once more and you will have it for a week and you with receive a zero for the rest of the term." Harry seemed to shut up at this and did not speak to anyone for the rest of the class. It was after they were out of class and on their way to Charms that Harry went on a venting spree of death. Every other word that transpired from his mouth was, 'git this' and 'git that'. Hermione tried her best not to rip him a new one if he didn't shut his mouth.

"At least the git could have given me detention with you, git went and separated us." Harry grumbled a final time before charms began.

Down in the dungeons Severus couldn't help but smile at the empty classroom.

"You, clever witch."

A/N: When i get back there better be a lot of reviews on how much you like it, or some ideas you think would make the story more smashing! xoxox to the lot of you! Have a great summer!