Chapter 24- Return to Hogwarts

A/N- Sorry for the long wait, this is still a bit unpolished, but it will have to do. Currently working on the next chapter, so don't worry, I will eventually finish this :)

She found herself staring at her master. He was standing impatiently, his weight slightly shifted to his left foot. His arms were folded tightly against his chest, with a slight curving of his upper lip that formed a disgusted sneer. She had never seen a more welcome sight in her life. It took all of her strength not to jump up and hug the man, but she managed. Unfortunately, she couldn't seem to hold back her smile. "Hello, Master Snape."

His eyes seemed to bore holes into her skin, the way he stared. "Miss Granger." He spoke slowly, cautiously. He raised a brow. "I do hope your stay was beneficial."

She felt her smile fade. A small chill echoed throughout her body and her stomach dropped. Did he have any idea what had happened? "Of course." Probably not. Git.

He narrowed his eyes. For a moment he did not say a word as his unfaltering gaze lay on her, making her feel uneasy. Suddenly he averted his eyes. "I believe you have forgotten something, Miss Granger, as you are rather empty-handed."

The potion! "Oh.. Well, I… You see, what happened was," Just before she could try to explain herself, Wretch appeared.

"Wretch apologizes, Master Snape, she is so very forgetful lately. Miss Hermione's potion is in her bag." Wretch handed the bag to him, placed her long grayish hands on her embroidered skirt, and then curtsied.

Snape's features seemed to soften slightly, then nodded. "Thank you, Wretch."

Hermione found herself watching them dumbfounded. He almost was… civil… with the elf. It was simply odd to see him be nice like that to anyone, especially with the way he looked at it. He didn't seem to be annoyed or disgusted, but pleased. Yet another piece to her mystery to solve.

"It is Wretch's duty to do as you ask, Master Snape. He knows this, does he not?"

"Need you ask?" He brought out his wand.

"Perhaps." The creature's mouth turned upwards into a grimacing smile. "Wretch doesn't always know what Master Snape thinks."

He quickly shrank the bag with a silent swish of his wand, placed it in his pocket and brought his eyes back to the elf. "You should feel blessed for that fact." His eyes briefly passed by Hermione. "I believe we must go, if we are to arrive before dinner." He pulled something suspiciously familiar from his pocket. "Just remember that I may call you whenever I desire, which may now be more frequent than in past years."

"Of course." Wretch gave Snape a creepy looking smile, then a slight nod in Hermione's direction, gave another curtsy, then was gone.

"Peculiar creature, isn't it?"

"She, Miss Granger."

She moved her head to him. She hadn't realized she said it loud enough for him to hear. "Oh, sorry, sir." She eyed the small trinket in his hands. Please, for once let my intuition be wrong.

His only response was a slight grunt, and he flicked his wand at the object in his hand. As soon as it started to grow, her stomach dropped. No, she was right after all. Damn.

He simply had to be joking. There was simply no way that he would even think that… Just… no… "Um… Sir?"

He didn't seem to notice, or rather, he simply seemed to ignore her. "It seems to be a decently nice night out, don't you think, Miss Granger?"

Uh-oh, he was speaking to her nicely. "Well, yes, its just-"

He interrupted her. "You really wouldn't want to miss out on such a wonderful evening, would you, Miss Granger?"

"Actually I would, because… We're not going to go back to the school-" She took a deep breathe before continuing, "On that, are we?"

"Of course we are." A quick and sudden smirk fell his lips, and he raised his brow. "Is there a problem, Miss Granger?"

She spoke slowly. "Well, no…"

He mounted the large black broom, and motioned for her to follow suit. "We do not have all night, Miss Granger, I suggest that we leave immediately."

She managed to stammer out a 'yes, sir', then quickly mounted the broom. She grabbed hold of his shoulders as the ground seemed to fall from beneath her feet. She gave a small squeak when she looked down. How did they get so high so fast? She suddenly had the urge to throw up.

"Afraid of heights are we?" She couldn't see his face but from his bemused tone, she was sure he was smiling in some form or another.

"No." Liar.

"I see." Suddenly the broom lurched forward and they fell full speed towards the ground.

She screamed. For a moment she felt like she was going to fall off the broom, so she grabbed hold of the only thing she could for leverage. Snape. She found her arms, entirely of their own volition darn them, snaked their way around his midsection, her hands clasped together. She clang to him for dear life. Slowly they came to a halt midair, and she could hear his deep chuckle from in front of her. "Pray tell, what happens to be so funny?"

"I thought you just said you weren't afraid of heights?"

"Obviously, sir, I was lying." They lurched forward then stopped again.

"Do you mind loosening your grip?"

She looked down at her hands, and felt her cheeks grow hot. Oops. "Sorry." She unclasped her hands, then respectfully moved them back to his shoulders.

"Contrary to popular belief, I do actually need to breathe in order to survive."

She muffled a laugh. She closed her eyes and simply focused on her own breathing. She had finally escaped the house, and yet… All she could do was think of poor Ell… She forced the thought out of her head. This she could handle, this she had chosen for herself. The man in front of her would be a mainstay in her life for the next four years, whether she liked it or not, and she had only herself to blame. She did her best to clear her thoughts and just simply enjoy the ride to the best of her ability. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the cool air that tickled her face. For the twenty minutes of the ride, there was no other sounds, except for those of nature itself. She found herself relaxing, a little too much. Thanks to the atmosphere and a very comfy cushioning charm, the last thing she could remember for the trip, was her forehead falling against her Master's back.

The following thing she noticed was the pain of her bottom hitting the ground. "Ouch!" Had she really fallen asleep? Flying no less?

"Perhaps then, you will think twice about falling sound asleep during a forty minute broom ride, Miss Granger. In the meantime, I desire you to get up and deposit yourself, as well as your things, into your room." He carelessly tossed her now fully-sized bag in her direction.

She gave an attempt to catch the bag, but she was caught off guard when he threw it. She winced as she heard glass shatter from within the bag. "My potion!" She quickly opened it, hoping to salvage her clothing from the remnants of the potion, but they were dry. "What in the…"

"It's soaked in, obviously. Perhaps you should pay more attention to your studies, which, as it seems, you have some work to do." He harshly turned and walked away from her, his robes billowing behind his silent form.

She turned back to the broken bottle, partially in her hand. "Why must you be so uncooperative?" She quickly cleaned out the remaining glass, picked up her bag and stalked into the school. Though she was seething at her Master for once again ruining her perfectly good potion, at least her feet were on the ground.

When she reached her room she dropped her things and her mouth dropped open in horror. He didn't… She flew to the closet, then the bookshelves, then the drawers next to the bed. Gone. All of it gone… From parcels of clothing to books to pictures, everything that she used to study or could call her own was just… gone. She suddenly remembered why she hated Snape. Damnable bastard. To hell with being happy to see him, though a welcome sight he might have been to Constance Monroe. She would throttle him if she saw him anytime soon. She groaned and fell face first on the bed--the only thing still fully furnished in the room--and screamed into the pillow.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

There was something wrong. He didn't know what it was, but there was something definitely wrong. She was far too comfortable around him, far too happy to see him. He could tell that she was trying to hide it, but there was a definite smile there when she first appeared. She was relieved, but from what? Had it really been so horrible to be around Constance? He fell heavily into his chair and pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose. Her trip was supposed to be a break from all this. She had nearly died twice in his care already, and he also needed the week to try and recompose himself. Though, he didn't last a whole week, now did he? He grunted at his own thought process, and returned to his musings. What did Constance say to her that made her want to return so eagerly? How much of his sordid past did she reveal? Considering that the girl didn't give him that look when she had seen him. Pity, he hated that wretched look. Anytime anyone took a glimpse into his childhood he would see that look or hear something like 'poor Severus, no wonder he ended up the way he is…' He snorted. Fools, all of them. It was his own damnable fault how he ended up, though he could never seem to convince anyone of that fact, especially Albus.

No, he simply took too much pleasure in harming or frightening others, but at least he was better about it than he used to be. He gave a small shudder at the barrage of images that pressed through his memory, then forced himself to focus on something else. Speaking of frightening others… He took the broom out of his coat pocket and put it back into its proper place in the desk in front of him. It was a brilliant idea, really. Not only was he able to retrieve the annoying girl early, but he had also found a way to coax out of her the fact she was devilishly afraid of heights. His lips twitched upwards, dangerously tempting him into a smile as he remembered her scream. Yes, definitely worth that short bit of her clinging to him. He was actually quite pleased with himself in that respect, considering that he was extremely tempted to throw her off the broom for it, or hex her for it. Perhaps even both.

"It's about time that you came back, thought you would never return."

Severus nearly fell out of his chair. He quickly grabbed hold of the desk to keep himself from picking up his wand and throwing an Unforgivable towards the canvas. Damnable portraits, they never made a sound when they entered a room. "I don't recall uncovering your painting, Malfoy."

The annoying sod in the oil portrait leaned against the stippled table, a cocky smirk adorning his face. "You didn't. I asked Dobby to, and the stupid creature was more than willing to comply." He paused a moment, "Had I known that I could startle you as a painting, I might have considered dying sooner." He gave a half laugh.

"Not funny, Mr. Malfoy, I hardly recall your death being a pleasant matter." Suddenly he realized something was a bit off.

"I suppose that depends on certain opinions."

He chose not to respond as he began to look through his papers. Everything seemed to be accountable, his lists of books and ingredients that he would soon send to his students, and the new student roster as well as his lesson plans. Malfoy said something else, but he didn't pay close enough attention to catch what. Soon he found himself sorting through drawers and files. He had that odd, nagging feeling that he was forgetting something again.

"Professor Snape?"

He heard him that time. Irritably he turned his gaze back to the portrait. "What?"

The boy pointed to a shelf on a nearby armoire. "Is that plant meant to look so brown? It simply looks pathetic."

He frowned. "I don't believe it is." He examined the poor thing carefully, turned it this way and that way to get a better view of it. Yes, it was completely and utterly dead. There wasn't even the slightest hint of green to it. When was the last time he'd watered it anyway? Considering he couldn't remember, he chalked it up to the thing he was forgetting to do, and tossed the poor dead chia pet in the trash. It was too bad really, he had grown attached to the stupid Muggle thing.

He did his best to clear the loss of it from his mind and focused on something else. It was almost time for dinner, so he could go fetch the girl. Quickly he went to her room, ignoring the portrait, if it actually did say something, or he, or… whatever one could consider the thing. He smirked, her room was so close to his own now. All that separated them really, was his personal library and one other room. Thankfully the hall was rounded, so it wouldn't seem to be part of his own rooms. It would be so much easier to keep an eye on her that way. He gave a knock. Silence. He waited for a moment longer, sighed and knocked again. When he again received no answer he began to get a little irritated. Arrogant little… Without another thought he threw open the door. "MISS Granger, if you would like to keep yourself fully intact I would suggest that in the future you answer your door." He had his wand ready just in case of some odd reaction from said girl. She was after all, acting quite strangely, and he was not about to take chances. He advanced into the room, his wand ready in case she pop out from around a corner. Just before he entered the attached lab, he heard a familiar voice, though not the one he was anticipating.

"Miss Granger? You mean the bloody know-it-all that was always glued to Potter?" The last word sounded as if it were spit out as if it were poison. "You were actually telling me the truth?"

Of course, Draco. "Must you annoy me by following me everywhere, you insolent sod?" He followed the voice into the lab from the small entertaining room.

"What do you expect? I died for you, my dearest Professor." His words were spoken far too sweetly for the person they were coming from.

"Sarcasm doesn't suit the dead, Mr. Malfoy."

The image of him gave a small 'humph'. "Well, did you realize that the brains of the golden trio actually is not here?"

Oh. "Do you realize that unwanted portraits should mind their own business, unless turpentine sounds appealing to you, of course." So that was the important thing that he had forgotten. He quickly turned on his heel and left the girl's quarters. He turned and went to her old room. He took a deep breath, considering what he had been up to, she would probably have noticed the room was rather… lacking… a few things. In other words, she would more than likely be seething. He set his jaw, donned as bored an expression he could muster, raised his hand and knocked.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

It had only been about half an hour since she found her room in ruins when she heard a knock at the door. Lazily, she stood up from the bed and shuffled to the door. She was happy to be back to Hogwarts, though she was also depressed because of the state of her room and infuriated because Snape would stoop so low just to make her miserable. All in all, it wasn't a very pleasant mixture of emotions. So when she opened the door and found the very man who had sent her away and stole her things, in that precise order, she found herself a little more than overwhelmed.

He was just standing there looking bored, boredof all illogical things to be. Her fists clenched at her sides as she felt something inside of her snap. All the emotions of the past few days rose in her and she couldn't seem to control them. Her mind told her it wasn't wise to yell at her Master, but it seemed to make no difference in the slightest. She felt her face get hot and she took a step towards him, feeling angrier than she had ever remembered being before. "Do you honestly feel happier now that you've taken my things?" Every word she spoke grew louder, more firm, yet she felt her eyes starting to water. "I can't believe that you would-" She was stopped short.

Snape lowered his wand and raised his brow, still looking overly bored with the whole situation. "Are you quite finished? I believe we have a dinner to attend." He stood back from the door and motioned his arm in the traditional 'after you' fashion, looking at her in a way that almost made it seem as if he were daring her to decline.

She was tempted to, but chose not to in the end. She hastily swept past him, silently grumbling horrible things under her breath as she did so. Perhaps Ron was right from the very beginning after all. She was sure if that man had any say in the matter, she would end her first year being admitted to St. Mungo's.

She walked as silently as she could, nearly wincing with every step as her shoes hit the floor. It was almost painful to hear. She clenched her hands in a quick pulsing movement and took in a deep breath, she was fine. Wretch had put the salve in her ears, and she was fine. She tried to believe it. Soon she entered for dinner and was annoyingly bombarded by hugs. The first she didn't mind so much. "Oh, Miss Granger, lovely to see you've returned! We must get together sometime for tea, hm?"

She gave a polite nod. "Of course, Professor."

It was the next hug that put her in a bad mood. Trelawney, the horrible, hated and most rude Divinations teacher she had ever had the displeasure of ever meeting. The annoying, disheveled woman grabbed hold of her and clasped her shoulders with a deep squeeze. "Oh! I'm so happy to see you, I thought you'd never return!" She stood back slightly and gave her a large toothy grin.

Hermione was surprised, disgusted, horrified and unnerved, but mostly disgusted. She did her best to give a smile back to the woman when a dark figure came from behind her shoulder.

"The girl's just returned from a long trip, I'm sure she would be more than happy to catch up with you later, Sybil."

The woman gave Snape an odd look. "Oh, that isn't necessary, not necessary at all." She gave a strange unreadable look, turned from them and took her seat at the opposite end of the table.

He leaned into her ear, and though the words hurt in the literal sense, she nearly found herself laughing at him. "She happens to be loopier than an over-wound clock, you know. She'll never remember hugging you."

Before another word was spoken she quickly seated herself so that her Master would be seated between her and her old Transfiguration teacher. She did this because as glad as she was to be back from that horrible place, she was hardly in the mood for idle conversation. Besides, it was beginning to give her a rather nasty headache. She was sure that if Snape had not intervened, she would surely have ended up hexing the seer just to see the look on her face when she did so. Her lips curved up into a small malicious smile as she stared at the plate in front of her.

After a moment or two of her old professors exchanging miscellaneous words, Snape snapped out an, "Obviously she has returned, Minerva," and coolly slid into the seat next to her just as the main meal was served. The rest of the meal went silently. She settled for poking at her food, and noticed that her Master was doing the same. She did her best not to stare at him, his dark hair covered up most of his face as he sat staring at his plate, fiddling with his fork. She averted her gaze and looked towards the door. "Sir, if you don't mind, I think I will head back to my room."

He gave a slight nod of his head and she rose from the table and trekked back to her room. Her nice, big, empty room. She gave a sigh as she entered.

"Missing something, Miss Granger?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin and turned abruptly to him. "Must you always sneak about?"

"I hardly was sneaking. Had you merely glanced behind you at any turn on the way here, you would more than likely spotted me, I'm afraid."

She tried to come up with something equally witty in reply, but nothing was making itself apparent. He had practically given her a heart attack to ask her if… Wait… "What did you do with my things?"

One corner of his lips turned slightly upwards. "I thought you'd never ask. Grab your bag, I've something to show you." He stood back against the doorjamb, his arms crossed and looking far too pleased with himself. What was he up to now? She quickly grabbed her bag and returned.

He gave a light push off the door and turned from her, walking further down the hall towards his personal library. "Follow me."

She obliged. It was not too horribly far from his library when he rounded the corner slightly and then stopped abruptly. She nearly ran into him, but thankfully stopped herself short by a few centimeters.

He turned and raised a brow. "Perhaps you will learn to stop running into me after all. It seems there may be hope yet." He turned to the door and opened it, and allowed her first entrance.

She hesitantly entered the room and gasped. Her things! The room was beautiful, small with a door to either side, as well as two small loveseats between them in a corner that peaked at the back of the room shaped like a diamond. "Is this…?" She turned her head to him.

He gave a short, shallow nod. "It is. To the right is your bedroom, to the left is a lab. It will be of more convenience to you to have your own lab for the duration of the school year."

She smiled and turned to her new treasures. She first checked out the lab and was surprised to find a wizard painting there. It was perfect, a scenic scene of a field with a lone tree in the background covered in ivy. It was simply beautiful the way it moved in the frame with the wind. She turned and gathered in her surroundings. She was simply ecstatic at the layout. Five thin long tables with a small multitude of supplies and three chairs, two chalkboards and a mini vent towards the top of the room. It was perfect! After a few minutes of inspecting the miscellaneous supplies and ingredients that were now provided her, she went to see her bedroom. She nearly gasped. Most of her bedroom was floor to ceiling bookshelves, leave a few spaces here and there. She stopped dead in her tracks. The frame. He put the frame in her room, the one that had intrigued her for so long. She stared at it a few moments when she noticed him watching her casually from the other room. His eyes were narrowed and his lips thin, there was something bothering him. She turned and walked to him when she noticed something next to the entrance door. A large immaculate clock made of marble and quartz.

She froze as she stared at the thing. It was beautiful, true, but something about it made her feel squeamish. It would definitely have to be removed when he was gone. She tore her gaze away from it, doing her best to compose herself. "I don't know what to say, its simply… wonderful. Thank you."

"It was nothing, it is merely to provide more convenience to the both of us. Good night, Miss Granger." He gave a curt nod of his head and turned from her.

She gave half a smile and turned to her room. Just before she could enter a sharp pain shot through her head. She felt herself scream as she grabbed for her ears. Had the effects worn off? She felt herself panic a moment before all she felt was the pain of it. She felt tears running down her face and her knees seemed to fold, though she barely noticed. A voice seemed to boom out but she couldn't tell what it was.

"HOW FUCKING LONG?" His voice was spoken in a whisper, but harsh and direct.

It was almost as if he had shouted in her opinion. He had figured it out, what had happened to her. "I don't know." She was looking at him at eye level and she noticed that she was being held up by him at her shirt.

His lips went thin, released her as if she were poison and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.