Chapter Seven: Secret Admirer?

When she reached his office, she walked behind the desk where he was sitting. Nobody else was in the room with him so she was wondering why he was talking to himself. As she gotten closer, she realized he was holding a picture. She wasn't sure who it was so she inched forward some more. Then…she saw who was in the picture…

Now…

"ME!? Why would Professor Snape have a picture of me?" She asked herself stunned at her findings. It was a moving picture of her sitting underneath the tree by the lake writing, silently singing to herself.

"I remember that day, I actually finished my song. But why would he have a picture of me? I thought he loved Lily Potter. She stayed behind him, wondering if he would continue to say anything.

"Oh Hermione…where are you? Everybody is worried, and frankly, so am I. Please come back to us…to me. I know you hate me. I've done a good job to keep you from thinking differently; I just want to keep you safe wherever you are. I promise you when this war is over, I'll do whatever it takes to make amends with you. I have no doubt that we'll never have a romantic relationship, but I would like us to be friends. If you would allow that." Professor Snape confessed.

'I didn't know he had feelings for me, I guess now I know why he was always so mean to me.' Hermione thought to herself.

"Woof Woof!" Hermione barked to get his attention. He dropped the picture on his desk and turned around to Hermione.

"Oh Shiloh…it's you… come up here girl." Severus said patting his knee in indication. She jumped up on his lap and she licked his face.

"You probably heard what I said didn't you? Well…as long as it's you and no one else. Can you keep a secret?" Severus asked Hermione. Hermione knew he would hate her if she knew who Shiloh really was. She nodded of course.

"For all my life, I've always been in love with Lily Evans. But now…call me perverted I guess…but this past year looking over the seventh years, mainly the golden trio, one in particular I've grown an attachment towards. She's smart, kind, beautiful that Weasley or Potter don't deserve her sweet nature…what I'm trying to say Shiloh…is that…I think…I love her. I know this is farfetched and so unruly for a teacher to fall in love with a student, and the age difference…oh gods, the age difference…I don't know if I have the nerve to actually show her how I truly feel, when we find her…I know we will…after the war, I want to make amends with her. I've been so cruel to her to make sure she doesn't know that I feel something for her, to keep her safe because Shiloh, I am a deatheater, and she a muggleborn. If you-know-who finds out, she'll be in more danger than she already is…I want to protect her, not hurt her." Severus went on and on about her, what he liked about her, how he would do anything to make amends and apologize after the war for being a complete ass of himself. Hermione just listened carefully. She honestly doesn't know how to feel about this new revelation. All she knew was that she has to get back to her old self but how?

Later on that day, Hermione wanted to take a walk around the castle, she scratched the door in indication that she wanted to get out. Severus noticed this and opened the door for her.

"Be back before dinner." Severus said. She had three hours that should give her enough time. She ran from the room to stretch her legs. As she walked around the castle she noticed something strange climbing on wall that looked oddly familiar. But she couldn't figure it out. Call it her sixth sense, but she decided to follow this cockroach to see where it goes. Apparently, the cockroach had no idea that she was following it as she stayed about five-ten feet away to keep from suspicion. She followed it up to the Gryffindor tower, the bug waited until a student opened it and quickly came in behind the young boy. She came from behind before the door shut and noticed this bug wasn't just a normal bug. Could this be who destroyed the Slytherin common room and killed that first year? She now had a hunch on who it could be. The cockroach suddenly transformed and quickly Disillusionment Charm to make her invisible. She couldn't believe who it was. Hermione witnessed the whole thing as she did the same thing in the Slytherin common room. This person…poured something in a drink that was left on a nightstand by the couch in the common room. She then transformed herself back into a cockroach quickly and tried to exit…but for Hermione, there would be no exit for this evil little cockroach. She pounced on it, and in trying to capture it, she captured it in her mouth, careful not to swallow, or bite down on the bug, she ran as fast as she could to the nearest thing she could reach, was a paper zip lock baggy, spit the bug out and quickly sealed it with her paws, grabbed the drink with the poison, so that no student could drink from it, and with the best of her abilities as a dog, carried it to the bathroom and poured it down the sink. She ran out and back to the common room to grab the zip lock bag and exited from the common room and ran to Severus as fast as she could.

She finally reached his quarters, which the portrait knew it was his dog, letting her in, and found him on the couch. She stood in front of him, dropping the bag and growled at it.

"Whoa, hold it there Shiloh, its just a bug, let it go." Severus said. She looked up at him and growled at him, seeing his wand on the table next to him she pointed at it with his nose. She did the best impression she could to show him it was an animagus. She stood up on her hind legs and tried to walk as a human, then crawled on the floor to impersonate the bug, and jumped up again as a human and tried to walk. She did this repeatedly, until it finally clicked for Severus.

"Are you saying it's an animagus?" Severus asked as he grabbed his wand and pointed it at the bug.

"Woof!" Hermione barked in conformation. She couldn't unseal the zip lock bag that contained the bug. He pointed the wand at the bug and revealed the person behind this animagus. They couldn't believe their eyes.

"Skeeter? Rita Skeeter?" Severus asked in disbelief.

"Yes…take a picture why don't you?" Rita barked back. Hermione growled at her ready to attack. Before anything else happened, Severus binded her so that she couldn't escape.

"Before anything else happens, I'll be taking you to Headmaster Dumbledore. You are not allowed to be here, since the competition three years ago." Severus said as he took her to see Dumbledore, Hermione followed behind making sure nothing happens on the way.

"You know Shiloh, the way you handled things, almost makes you human." Severus commented as her ears perked up at his statement.

Once they made it to Dumbledore's office, they found him sitting at his desk. He looked up and was shocked by the sight by which was upon him.

"Rita, what are you doing here!" Dumbledore asked getting up, making sure he grabbed his wand as he approached her.

"None of your damn business!" Rita seethed. Dumbledore stared at her…apparently reading her mind.

"You were the one who killed that first year and destroyed two house's common room's! You'll be sentenced to Azkaban Prison if it's the last thing I do. Good Job Severus…how'd you find her?" Albus said, keeping his wand pointing towards her.

"I didn't find her, Shiloh did. Remember the cockroach incident in the Potter boy's fourth year? Granger found this same cockroach and locked her up in a jar." Severus actually remembered the incident.

"Ah, yes, I remember now. Very good Shiloh, you're more human than you think." Albus said.

"That's what I said." Severus mentioned both men looking at the puppy.

"I have some business to take care off at the ministry, if you can hand her over, I'd gladly take her off your hands. Severus gladly handed her over. Hermione, all of a sudden felt very ill and felt like she was going to pass out. She couldn't let Severus or Albus find out who she really was, not like this…she ran out of the room before anything else happened.

"SHILOH!" Severus yelled after her, but she didn't hear anything he said as she ran as fast as she could outside of the castle before collapsing by the lake. She couldn't believe she managed to get that far without collapsing…the last thought she had in her mind was this could be it. Pain ripped through her body like a thousand knives stabbing her at the same time. Her head was pounding like someone smashing a great big bolder to her head, crushing her skull. She looked over across the lake, and closed her eyes. How did she get so ill so fast? She felt just fine not thirty minutes ago. She closed her eyes….and everything went black.

A/N: Yeah! Another chapter! At least she managed to catch the killer of that first year! I wonder what happened to her?! lol..R&R please!