Chapter 3

Severus walked into the hospital wing and saw Hermione sitting up on the farthest bed from the door, reading a book. 'Go figure' he thought, smiling on the inside but never allowing his emotions to be betrayed by his face.

"Miss Granger" he called causing her to look up and smile "Why hello Professor Snape", she was surprised to see him,

"What are you doing here?" she asked him, softly coughing as he walked towards her.

"Well Miss Granger I thought Albus would appreciate it if I went ahead and talked to you about what happened last night… you know for the Order." He replied quietly, she looked crestfallen,

" oh ok…, but there isn't a lot to tell." She replied softly, but secretly pleased to have a reason to talk to him. In reality she liked him a lot but there was sure as hell no way she would ever even consider possibly admitting that to anyone; especially Harry or God forbid Ronald. She loved the boys like they were her brothers but they were often a bit over protective of her and very irrational. For all she knew the boys might try and kill Severus (as she had called him for the last few years in her own head,) thinking she was under an evil spell.

"Well…?" Severus asked pulling her out of her thoughts,

"well I heard a loud crack and went down stairs to find my parents dead and Lucius, Bellatrix, the LeStrange brothers Avery, and Devolho all down there. I shot Lucius then Bellatrix then killed the others. But my parents were already dead." The poor young woman answered tearfully.

"Hermione," he said quietly causing her to look up at the use of her first name. "It wasn't your fault, you did what you could; you had to save your own life as well. Because of you Lucius Malfoy can finally be sent back to Azkaban."

Hermione looked up in surprise and said "I'm confused; I thought Lucius Malfoy was your friend."

"Well the old Lucius was my friend, before he changed, before he became a mass murderer." He replied

"I guess you're right." She sighed

Severus felt so terrible and guilty for not getting to Albus in time to save the whole Granger Family; "I know it hurts but… If you ever feel the need to talk to someone, I know Minerva would be more than happy if you felt like you could go to her for comfort… as would I." the said mumbling the last part.

"Thank you sir" she said quietly

"Severus" he said thoroughly surprising Hermione, but also himself. "You may call me Severus, as long as we are not in class or around the other students."

She smiled at him and said "then you may call me Hermione… at any time." She replied softly

To her great surprise Severus smiled back at her (the corner of his mouth twitched), then out of nowhere he busted up laughing causing Hermione to be infected by his contagious laughter. Finally once their composer had been regained Hermione smiled at him and said "you should smile more often… it makes you look twenty years younger."

He rolled his eyes and said "don't hold your breath."

"Aww come on!"

"nope sorry, hey I got to go." He said and stood up

"oh," she said sounding disappointed "Okay"

"I'll talk to you later" he said ruffling her hair. That is when he noticed it. The unruly bush she had called hair for… well as long as he had known her at least was gone, and in its place was smooth, still thick but straight and shiny. She looked older also about seventeen instead of fifteen, also her Dark chocolate brown hair was now a dirty dish water blonde… that didn't make since; yesterday it had been the color of chocolate. 'Why is her appearance changing?' he thought

He recalled a potion from a very long time ago that allowed the mother of a child to ingest the potion and with just a few drops of a chosen man blood and the child would be born looking like the man, it was usually used to hide an affair and the effects lasted until the child was 17 or close to 17. Unfortunately he could not remember a lot about the potion and would have to look it up, but he did remember the name... "blood adoption."

Muh hahahahahhahahahhahahahaha hate me yet?