"Go Away!" Hermione shouted at the knock on her door. She looked behind her at the door that faced her back, only beginning to write on the school in front of her when she was sure that the unwelcome visitor was gone. As she placed quill to paper, the door opened, uninvited.

"Ms. Granger, I am not one of your ruddy school mates that you can just shout at whenever you please." Snape entered the room and glance around, quickly assessing his surroundings and finding Hermione at the desk, her back still to him.

"Professor I'd much rather not have company at the moment. As you well know—considering you assigned it—I've got a three foot parchment due tomorrow. Besides, you shouldn't be in the Head Girls' room. The other students, gossips that they are, will talk."

"Let them talk, Ms. Granger. I am a professor, you are Head Girl. I am here to discuss your duties as such, nothing more."

"My duties?" Hermione turned from the desk, quill still in hand, "My duties were explained to me very clearly by Professor McGonagall. I think I know my duties."

"You think. Ms. Granger, I never thought I'd say this, but you think too much. You're so busy thinking that common sense has left you for other, more spacious minds. If you were to welcome common sense as you welcome thought you would realize that your duties as Head Girl are in jeopardy from a recent law that was passed. How do you suggest you be Head Girl when you're banished to the muggle world? In the many centuries Hogwarts has existed, there has never been a replacement Head Girl and there has never been one banished from this world."

"I've read Hog …"

"Hogwarts: A History. Yes, I know you've read it. This entire bloody school knows you've read it. Do you mind answering me? How do you suggest you maintain your status as Head Girl when you're in a muggle school, you're wand broken in the rubbish bin?"

"You know very well I couldn't do anything if I'm banished!" Hermione's voice rose, anger flooding her face.

"Then why are you considering abandoning the school when you're supposed to be the highest level of role model here?" Snape had been pacing in front of Hermione's chair, but stopped suddenly to pull a chair up to hers. "Why?"

"How can I be a good role model when I subject myself to a law I don't believe should be? How can I be a good role model if I'm married and forced to have children—both of which will require me to leave Hogwarts? How can I perform my duties if I'm at some wizard's manor? You tell me that."

"You find a wizard that will allow you to stay in school." Snape said it as though it were the simplest thing in the world.

"Do you think any of these would let me stay in school? Do you?" She pulled open a drawer in the desk and pulled petition scrolls out, tossing them at Snape as she did. "Lessee, Malfoy, Avery, Knott, Crabbe, Goyle … honestly, most of them must have killed their wives the second they found they could get someone younger through legal force. But you tell me, in your expert opinion, which of these suitors would allow me to stay in school, not spend every waking minute either by their side or locked in some small room, only let out when I can do something for them?"
"They wouldn't. You must have others. The Weasleys would certainly …"

"Professor," she interrupted, siging, "Bill is married, Charlie is engaged, the twins each petitioned their girlfriends and Percy lives in America now, he's not subject to the law anymore. And I won't get anymore petitions, before you try to throw that option at me. I have a week before I have to decide, and most petitions have been sent out. So it is either one of these buffoons or banishment. Now if you wish to say anything more, tell me what to do. Otherwise please leave."

Snape had tossed all but one petition in the trash. He picked the remaining one up off of his lap and laid it on Hermione's desk. "Here's your choice Ms. Granger." He walked to the door and heard Hermione gasp in shock as she turned the scroll, so that the name on it faced her. "Let me know you're decision, it may just be mine, too."