She took a moment to marvel at the fact that all she had been through had happened between midnight and sunrise. She muttered some simple cleaning spells on herself, to try not to look too pathetic when she arrived, then took the knife/portkey in her hands and uttered the word that activated it. 'Home.'

She stumbled when the portkey took her to her destination. She was not worried about getting in, for she would always be welcome at her old school. She stumbled through gates that opened for her, clutching her knife. It was again a regular knife, no longer the portkey. She half-ran/half-stumbled up to the front steps of the school, and it took her almost fifteen minutes. She was exhausted, lightheaded, and frightened so terribly now that it was over, and she was safe. She just hoped that it didn't take to long to find someone.

*~*~*~*~*POV Shift*~*~*~*~*

Severus was lurking. Now, this was a perfectly normal thing for him. What seemed so off was that he was lurking in the main hall in front of the entrance to the school he'd taught at for nearly twenty years. Severus Snape lurked in his dungeons. Most certainly NOT in the main hall. But this morning he was subject to a horrible feeling that he only got when there was danger. It woke him with the sun, and drew him here. The opening of the main doors into Hogwarts startled him out of his thoughts. It was summer, who was coming in? The few professors who had stayed were still asleep, save himself of course. The heart he lead everyone to believe he didn't have pounded in his chest. A woman was slowly making her way through the door. The pounding of his heart accelerated when he recognized her.

"Ms. Granger! You, girl," Severus repeated the mantra 'must maintain cruel facade' to himself. "look like you've been through Hades! What has happened to you?" She shot him this incredibly scathing look, one he himself would have been proud of, that said 'got it in one, Professor' and passed out. Severus leaped forward and caught her in his arms. he did realize that something was terribly wrong for the woman in his arms to have just fainted. Severus picked up her slight body, and she curled into him, as if trying to make herself smaller. He ran to the infirmary, yelling for Dumbledore.

He was halfway to the infirmary when Dumbledore caught up with him. He didn't say a word, and ran with Severus. Had Severus been able, he would have wondered how a man of Albus' age could keep up with a 40 year old. However, at the moment, all Severus' worries and thoughts were focused on the woman in his own arms. He was taking in her torn clothing, half healed wounds, bruises, and the bloody knife she had yet to let go of. Severus put this all together and it clicked just as he stepped into the infirmary.

"POPPY!" He bellowed out the call in the voice that made his seventh years cower. Poppy Pomfry burst out of her office with a look on her face that clearly said 'how is the world ending.' Severus gently put Hermione on the nearest bed. Poppy came over to look and gasped.

"W-what happened?" Severus shot a glare at her.

"Don't stutter woman! She was raped!" She returned a glare and went to work on the wounds that weren't covered by the rags hanging on her frame. She closed the curtain with a wave of her wand, effectively blocking Albus and he out. Severus found himself trying to stare through the curtain when Albus cleared his throat.

"What happened Severus?" He asked in his damnable gentle voice. Understandable though, as Severus was practically blowing flames from his nostrils. He turned to the Headmaster and his shoulders sagged. It was as though Hermione's rape affected him personally. And indeed it did, because he knew what she would go through. Severus knew that her friends wouldn't be able to help her, and he knew that the love he had harbored for her since her sixth year wouldn't allow him to abandon her when he knew he could help. Damn.

"A feeling of danger woke me this morning with the sun. It lured me to the main entrance. It was luring me farther, but I wouldn't go. Ms. Granger pushed through the door looking like that. I asked her what happened, she glared at me, then she fainted."

"How did you come to the conclusion that she was raped, Severus." Severus knew Albus wasn't accusing him of anything. Albus Dumbledore was probably the only one alive who wouldn't.

"I've seen enough rape victims to know, Albus" Albus knew what he meant. He knew that Severus was actually saying that he had raped a sufficient number of women to know what a fresh victim looked like. He also knew that Severus was penitent. Severus suspected that Albus also knew, or at least suspected, of his carefully hidden feelings for said victim. Of course, Albus had to go and say the words that Severus knew were true, but did not want to hear.

"You are the only one here who can help her Severus." Severus glared at Albus, spun around, and stomped back to his dungeons. Severus did not need to tell him that he'd be back. He was just going to brew Poppy some potions to give Hermione. Severus would be there when she woke up.

*~*~*~*~*POV Shift*~*~*~*~*

She woke up in a familiar place, and thanked Merlin profusely. At first, she thought that she was back at her parents' house, getting ready for her research trip to Scotland. Then she remembered that her bedroom ceiling wasn't whitewashed stone. Her second thought had been that the past year had all been a weird dream she'd had during that terrible fever she'd had in seventh year. She was trying to convince herself of that fact when Snape came in. Carrying clean cloths that looked to be hers, and a potion that looked like an advanced healing potion. She didn't know if was that or the caring and worried, almost loving, look he had on his face confused her more. That was not the potions professor she knew and had fallen in lo- um…

Unfortunately, she had come to the conclusion – aided along by the horrible pain between her legs – that last night had happened, and that she had made it to the infirmary. It was too perfect in her mind that the last thing she saw before passing out was the shocked look on Snape's face. She snickered. That determined that she was still in shock, not quite letting last night sink in. Snape looked up at her snicker and smiled – SMILED – before he remembered to frown. That made a frown of her own crease her brow. Snape smiling? Surely he didn't even know how. She thought is was such a wonderful smile.

"Why don't you smile more often?" Her words came out sounding hoarse and dry. Snape smiled again and helped her sit up so that she could drink the water in his hand.

"I have a reputation to uphold, Ms. Granger. What would the Slytherins think about their Deatheater Head of House smiling?" An involuntary gasp escaped her throat. She knew Snape was a spy, that he had the dark mark, but she'd never really heard it out loud. Snape chuckled.

"You know, Professor, you really should do that more. Smile and laugh, I mean. And call me Hermione please." She added the last, a light blush coloring her cheeks. She didn't want him to think she was referring to him holding her, no matter that it was for the sake of getting a potion down her throat. She thought that after last night she wouldn't be able to let any man touch her again, but she felt safe with Severus Snape. Imagine that. The know-it-all Hermione Granger feeling safe with her worst hated and most lo- damn it there she went again.

"Its not often I have something to smile for Hermione." Snape's expression suddenly turned serious. "Hermione." He said her name in a serious, concerned voice as he brushed a bit of hair from her face. "Hermione, what happened to you?" Normal people would have gone on in an effort to smooth the question, and would have only succeeded in making it worse. But not Severus Snape. That was something else she lo-

She bowed her head, all her previous good humor seeming to have just left her body. She felt her heart stop when he asked that question. Oh, she knew it would come, but she wanted to bask in her denial a little longer, if not forever. Every emotion she had ever felt came up into her throat and lodged there. She grabbed the water from her professor's hands and gulped it down until he took it away from her.

"Not so fast Hermione." Snape took her chin and tilted her head up. "You answer that question only when you are ready, but Do Not stay in denial. That is more dangerous to you than just wallowing in despair." While he said this, the Potion's Master looked into her eyes. Her eyes swelled with tears. She had not expected that. She also did not expect the tenderness she saw in her professor's eyes. That was something she'd never expected to see in the almost-black eyes she lo- Damn it!

When she could speak, it was in a tear filled voice though nary a tear had fallen that morning. "They were muggles." That's all she would say for the rest of the morning. She then curled up into a ball and let the tears fall. The flood just started anew when Severus Snape, fear Potions Master, sat on the bed and pulled the distraught woman into his arms. She allowed herself to curl into his chest, burying her face in the crook of his neck. She cried silently for hours before falling asleep from emotional and physical exhaustion. That is how the headmaster, nurse, and headmistress found them. The sleeping woman curled in the arms of the also snoozing Potions Master. All three decided to let them sleep, since they knew that Severus had not slept in the two days the young woman had fallen into his arms – literally – and the young woman's ordeal none of them could imagine.