Thanks again for all your awesome input! Hope you enjoy reading the next chapters as much as I enjoyed writing them! New updates very soon! I promise.

-smiles-

boots!


Severus Snape sat in the Great Hall brooding in his usual manner and stabbing sporadically at his food. Dumbledore eyed him carefully. Severus had always been quiet and moody but as a boy, the old wizard had seen something of a spark in him. He was ferociously intelligent and on more than one occasion, Albus was quite sure he had seen Severus' eyes dance with joy at the prospect of learning of some new spell or potion. True, the dark eyed wizard had been through his share of disappointment and adversity, but couldn't he see there could be so much to be joyful about once again? Perhaps, he hoped, Snape would realize just how much he could truly achieve if he softened his exterior a little. He smiled inwardly and continued to observe Severus poking at his plate.

"Severus- I hardly think that roast duck has done anything to warrant such blatant abuse!" Albus chuckled.

Snape growled but said nothing in response. He was far too busy to engage in such trite dinner banter with a doddering old fool tonight. His coal black eyes scanned the dining hall. Potter was in disgustingly high spirits, laughing and carrying on with that pathetically dull-witted Weasley. But where was that insufferable little mud blood? He scowled as Potter looked up at him with that proud glare; that same smug Gryffindor stare that James Potter had perfected so many years before. Severus cringed a little every time he thought about Potter's offspring living in such close proximity to him. The dealings of James and "the Marauders" were well over two decades old but to Severus Snape the memories were still very fresh and Harry was his constant reminder.

"Ginny, have you seen Hermione this evening? I knocked on her door but she wasn't there" Harry inquired, blowing on his potato leek soup.

"No…I haven't seen her since this morning at breakfast"

"I looked for her in the library when we got back from Hogsmeade but…"Ron shrugged.

Harry sipped his soup and thought about Hermione's letter again. It wasn't like her to avoid her friends and it certainly wasn't like her to be so secretive. He was quite sure now that something was wrong…something that had to do with that mysterious letter.

"Maybe she's got a secret boyfriend!" Ginny giggled.

"She most certainly does not!" Ron yelped.

"What are you getting so defensive about! I thought you fancied Sarah McMummers" the little ginger teased.

"Don't you have some sort of Harry Potter fan club meeting to get to!"

Ginny's face glowed as red as her hair and she promptly got up to sit at the opposite end of the table with some other sixth year girls. Harry was in such deep thought over the letter that he barely noticed the silly quarrel playing out in front of him.

"Can you believe that! Secret boyfriend…ha! Not a chance- right Harry?" Ron huffed.

"I'm sorry- what?"

"Oh come on…you don't think…I mean, she'd tell us…right?"

Harry adjusted his glasses and looked at Ron for a long time. "No…I don't think it's a secret boyfriend…but I do think that there's something she's not telling us".

Severus paced up and down the aisle of his classroom. He glared at the small clock on his desk; 7:15. It was one thing to keep her friends guessing at dinner, but this was perfectly unacceptable. Severus sat at his desk finally, deciding he did not want to appear too eager or worse, concerned, when she finally showed up. He began grading some unspeakably revolting first year papers and resigned to the fact that he would be taking twenty house points for tardiness as well as adding one detention for deliberate disrespect. The right corner of his mouth curled in arrogant self approval.

After another ten minutes the door pushed open and Hermione's hair entered, followed by the rest of her. She had been crying; he was very sure of that. Her tear streaked face was pale and painfully disengaged. In fact, Hermione Granger looked so very unlike herself that Severus almost suspected poly juice potion had something to do with it. She walked carefully up the aisle of the classroom; stepping lightly, as if she was afraid of the floor caving in beneath her.

"Miss Granger you are late"

She looked up at him wearily. "I know".

"What? That's it? No excuses, no noble reasons?"

She was perfectly silent and continued to look at him with a lost expression.

"Very well, twenty points from Gryffindor for tardiness, ten points for brazenness and it seems you'll be serving another detention for intentional impertinence."

"Yes sir" was all she said as she took her seat.

Severus was in a mild state of shock. She had never been so complacent in the seven years that he had taught her. He circled her like a salivating vulture.

"You will be preparing several bottles of murtlap essence. You will find your murtlap tentacles and utensils on the second shelf below the memory potions…I trust you are very familiar with that shelf?"

"Yes sir". She slowly rose from her chair and collected what she needed. Severus watched her closely. She turned on her Bunsen burner and began the task of cutting the pickled tentacles into several fine slices.

"You are cutting them too closely Miss Granger."

"I'm sorry"

"What did you just say?"

"I'm sorry Professor"

They stared at each other for a good five minutes in silence. He hated this compliance. He hated not knowing her next "move". He hated her empty stare. Hermione, herself, was so lost in her own musings that she didn't even notice when her professor broke their stare and returned to his desk. Had it all been lies? She thought about crying when Grandma Ellen passed away last year- she wasn't even her real grandmother. All of her fondest memories seemed so false to her now.

"Miss Granger! Unless you are looking to garner yet another detention in the dungeons, I suggest you keep your mind on your task".

Hermione was so startled by Snape's voice that she accidentally pushed a bottle of flobberworm mucus off the table. It crashed to the floor.

"You impertinent little rat!" Severus' eyes flashed in front of her face with great urgency. "You will clean up this mess and you will return to Gryffindor tower."

"But sir…my…detention…I'm sorry- I…"

"Twenty more points from Gryffindor for spoiling a perfectly good supply of flobberworm mucus, thirty points for talking back to a teacher, ten points for daydreaming and another twenty for being so disgustingly obliging!"

As Severus turned towards his desk he heard an all too familiar sound. She was crying. He didn't turn to look at her, preferring to listen with an intentional ear. He had grown to expect tears from his students, particularly Hufflepuff girls, and had become quite the master at discerning a student's true emotional state through the sounds and consistency of their blubbering. He listened to Hermione cry as she stooped to clean up the slimy mess. These were soft cries, full of hurt and frustration; definitely not the sort of cries that are motivated by fear or trauma. How very Gryffindor of her, he thought with a smirk.

"Really Miss Granger" he said turning to look at her, "stop your sniveling, I hardly think it –"

"Why are you doing this to me!" she finally shouted, " Why can't you ever just punish me like everyone else! Make me wash cauldrons, make me write lines, make me gut frogs! I don't care! Just stop berating me!" She pushed her face into her hands and let out a large sob. Professor Snape's eyes narrowed with rage at her outburst.

"I will see tomorrow at seven Miss Granger".