Hello all of you wonderful people! For the first time in a long time, I finally updated on time! With...sixteen minutes to spare!

Hope you all take time to review :) Lets me know that people are still out there and enjoying this story.

ENJOY!

For the rest of the day, Harry sent letters to people, asking them for their memories in order to aid Severus Snape. Hermione planned on how she would sneak into the courtroom. Percy Weasley snuck into her thoughts, and she immediately wrote him a letter. She hoped that he could set aside the drama between her and Ron in order to help her. He responded, telling her he would aid her effort and to meet him near the fountain an hour before Severus' sentencing was to occur. Currently, they had not set a date – he was still being tried.

Slowly the vials of memories trickled in, even memories from people Harry and Hermione had never met before. The word spread quickly, but much to Hermione's relief, stayed out of the Daily Prophet. Unfortunately, they did not have access to a Pensive, they would have to travel to Hogwarts once they had collected all of the memories they needed.

As Harry worked on collecting memories, Hermione turned her focus to school. She had lost a massive amount of study time, not to mention her mind was going a mile a minute as the trial drew closer and closer to an end. Minerva sent her all of the material covered in the last year of schooling. Even Hermione struggled through most of the work, but she pushed through it none the less. The day of the test was drawing closer and Hermione barely allowed her eyes to stray from the work that was spread out across her bed.

Minerva arrived at Grimmauld Place at eight in the morning, the day of the test, to transport Hermione to Hogwarts where her exams would be administered by a Ministry official. Hermione was nervous, but Minerva chatted on about the school and how quick the rebuilding was going. She couldn't even care when Minerva bought up Severus.

"I'm sure he wishes you well," Minerva said with a smile as the carriage began winding up the trail of the school.

"Did he say anything else to you?"

"No, but he always asks me how your studying is going. He's very interested in how you do, that much is clear,"

Hermione fell silent as the carriage stopped. The two women stepped out and immediately headed to the front doors.

"Your testing will take place in the Transfiguration room,"

Hermione numbly nodded and followed the emerald robes through the corridors. All too soon, they reached the room, and she instantly saw the stern looking man seated at the front desk.

"Miss Granger, you are her for testing to complete your seventh year at Hogwarts, are you not?"

"I am," Hermione answered, finding it odd to be addressed by her maiden name.

"Take a seat here," the man said, pointing to a desk directly in front of his own.

Hermione did as she was told and was presented a quill. The first test was administered, she was read the requirements and rules, and was given a time limit. She repeated the process several times, losing track of time and the number of tests she had taken. Her hand was cramped, her head ached, and her lip hurt from her nearly constantly chewing. Finally, the man collected her test and slipped the bundle into his briefcase.

"Thank you Miss Granger and I wish you luck. You should have your results within the week,"

"Thank you," she replied as he left the room.

She sat slouched in her chair, physically and mentally exhausted. After a few moments, Hermione stood, and entered the cool night air. She took her time wandering the grounds, seeing parts of the school that had not yet been touched since that night. Eventually, Hermione set her path to the dungeons. Of course no one was there, most people tried to avoid the dreariness that the dungeons presented. Hermione welcomed the feeling of the cool air against her skin as she headed straight to the painting of the knight.

"Hello fair maiden!" the knight cried.

"Hi," she replied with a smile, finding the nail on the back of the frame.

She stepped into the dark room, inhaling deeply. The room smelt like old books and Firewhiskey, causing a smile to form on her face as her muscles instantly relaxed. Hermione lit a few candles, seeing the room in the same pristine condition she always saw it in. She missed this room, but her feet wandered to the bedroom. She couldn't bring herself to enter the room. The four walls locked in his scent, reminding her once again of where he would be spending the night. Turning around, Hermione saw his desk and immediately moved towards it. She saw the framed marriage license with her untidy scrawl and his neat and controlled script. Then, she opened the right hand drawer and found those blasted divorce papers. Without hesitation she tossed the papers into the garbage beside the desk and took the license with her as she left.

The day of the sentencing was drawing closer, the whole magical community knew it, but as the days slipped by, some wondered what the holdup was. Hermione spent her free time avoiding the news and trying to find career choices that would suit her. She originally would have thought becoming a Healer was the right choice for her, but the idea that Death Eaters were still around and hostile made her decision waver. Harry spoke to her for hours on becoming and Auror, and how his training was going.

"It's difficult, you get banged up a lot, but in the end I think it's worth it,"

He mentioned the intense logic needed – something Harry admitted he needed help with. Ron was also heading into the same line of work.

"We don't really start training for a few more weeks; this is all sort of a test,"

Hermione was still on the fence for quite some time, until her results came in. She had passed all of her exams with flying colors, opening up a wide range of careers to choose from. Though Hermione was trying to avoid choosing too quickly, she knew in her heart where she was going. The next day, Harry took Hermione's paper work in with him when he went to train in the evening. He returned that night, a grin stretched across his face.

"You got in!"

"Really?!" she cried, jumping up from her chair.

"Yeah!" he replied showing her an envelope.

The two celebrated into the early morning, thinking of how they became friends and grew up together. Hermione then revealed the Death Eater attack when looking for her parents. Harry was shocked, revealing that he had been being followed lately.

"I don't know who he is, or if he changes his facial features, but every time I'm out, I see him,"

"How do you know it's him if he changes his feature?"

"Something about his eyes, I recognize them from the first man I found following me,"

"Do you think they're still active? The Death Eaters?"

"Yeah, I do. They're not ones to go out without a fight,"

Five days later, Hermione began her training as an Auror. The training was intense, but Hermione kept reminding herself that in the end, she would be helping someone, even perhaps saving someone's life. The weeks slipped by, the Golden Trio returning home each night bruised and bloodied, but satisfied. The trainers had refused to heal them, trying to build a resistance to pain in case they were injured on the job, they could still function through the distraction.

Eventually, they passed the basic training and moved on to shadowing other Aurors on jobs. More than once, they had been hurt on the job for stupid mistakes, causing their trainer to scold them severely. Regardless, the three were advancing at an impressive pace. Their simulations became more intense and the missions they were allowed on were more dangerous.

Severus' trial was basically at a standstill. His lawyer was very obviously stalling the proceedings in order to try and get Severus to attempt to save himself. Hermione knew he would remain silent until the very end. More and more days slipped by, eventually turning into a month. Hermione eventually stopped counting the days, only keeping track of important occurrences during the duration of the trial.

She occupied most of her days helping Harry and Ron with their training being that they were struggling with the logic portions. Their lives were consumed with their jobs, and often, the three instantly went to bed when they returned home. Hermione enjoyed those days, she was too exhausted even to dream, which helped keep away her nightmares. Mostly, in her dreams, she saw Severus, lying in a pool of blood on the Boathouse floor. No matter how fast she ran down the stairs, she was always too late. Her mind screamed at her to move faster, and she knew that she wouldn't make it. She saw his dark and empty eyes before seeing Voldemort laugh at her. Her dream ended when she looked into Severus' dead eyes, being drawn into them. For days the emptiness would linger in her, distracting her from her training and mentally wearing her down. Hermione only wished that she never experienced that feeling for real.

The Daily Prophet began to run Severus on the front page every day, his face plastered across the paper along with a bold headline claiming that he was guilty and was wasting everyone's time while trying to make a cover story for himself. Hermione knew that if he could have his sentence tomorrow, he would ask for it. His lawyer was trying to give him a fighting chance. Hermione wished that he applied himself to his own trial, the same way he applied himself to his work in his lab or his job protecting them all. How could he give up now? After all these years, how could he just call it quits?

It was around this time that Harry and Hermione began receiving threats at work. The threats were written on scraps of paper with violent scrawl. Hermione received the first one, threatening her to destroy Severus memories or someone would do it for her. She instantly consulted Harry, Remus, and Mr. Weasley, but none of them had any answers.

"If we bring it to the Ministry, we would have to explain ourselves," Hermione mentioned as they sat around the table at Grimmauld Place.

"Who could have sent this?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"Anyone. We did send a bunch of people letters asking for memories that could help Snape," Harry murmured.

"The letters could have been intercepted, or someone could have said something about it to another person," Remus offered.

"Could it be someone pulling a prank?" Hermione added, knowing in her heart that it wasn't true.

They decided that they would sit on the note and wait to see what happened next. They didn't have to wait long because Harry received a note on his desk a few days later. This time, the threat was accompanied by a harsh sketch of the Dark Mark. Before they could absorb the latest blow, Remus arrived on their doorstep, carrying Teddy and holding Tonks hand. Before Harry and Hermione could react, the couple pushed into the house, looking disheveled and panicked.

"What happened?" Harry asked, shutting and locking the door.

"Our house was ransacked today, thankfully we were all out," Remus replied, looking at Tonks with thankful eyes.

By the time they all reached the kitchen, Remus was placing a piece of paper down.

"This was pinned to the front door,"

Three words were scratched into the parchment with thick, dark lettering: YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

"I've told Tonks about everything," Remus added, handing Teddy to Tonks who was pale and scared.

"No one's hurt?" Hermione asked, peering at their faces.

"No, I was at the Ministry and Tonks was thankfully out with Teddy. She told me to come home the moment she saw the mess,"

"I think we all know by now that Death Eaters are targeting all of us," Harry said quietly, studying the parchment closely.

"It seems so," Remus sighed.

"I'm so sorry," Hermione began. "I've dragged you all into this-"

"Hermione, we're happy to help you," Tonks said with a smile. "If I were in your position, and Remus in Severus', I would do the same,"

Hermione fell silent, but she couldn't help but feel slightly guilty over what had happened to the family.

"We were wondering if we could possibly stay here for a while," Remus asked, looking dejected.

"Of course," Hermione said, getting up to make everyone some tea.

"Very few people know about this place, and I'm not comfortable going back there so soon,"

"Stay as long as you like, we have a ton of empty rooms anyway," Harry added, finally pushing the parchment away from his eyes.

"Thank you, Harry," Tonks said with a smile.

Once the tea was made, the room fell silent. Hermione noted how exhausted the two appeared as they leaned over their steaming cups, shooting glances at one another and intertwining their hands on the table. Hermione felt a pang in her chest, wishing that Severus was beside her, safe and free.

"Tonks, have you told your mother? She may be in danger," Hermione mentioned as she thought about possible targets.

"Yes, she's staying with a friend for now,"

"I'll go and inform Arthur," Remus said quietly.

He stood, pressing his lips to Tonks head before doing the same to Teddy. Tonks eyes never left her husband as he moved around the table to reach the hallway, and eventually, the library.

"He's beating himself up," Tonks murmured quietly the second the door closed.

"He can't possibly think that it's his fault," Hermione replied.

"Remus supports you and Severus, but he thinks because of his support, he's put Teddy and I in danger,"

Harry and Hermione fell silent as they processed the information. Perhaps they should have left Remus more out of the loop when it came to Severus and his trial, then maybe he wouldn't have been targeted by the Death Eaters.

"I've heard that you both have had people following you," Tonks mentioned.

Harry and Hermione retold their stories to a solemn looking Tonks. She nodded, keeping her hands wrapped around her cup.

"A lot of us have been having that problem – anyone who was in the Order or an Auror. No doubt those of us who support Severus are also watched. Minerva told me the other day she thought she was being followed by someone,"

"Why do they want Severus convicted so badly?" Hermione blurted out.

"He'll be sent to Azkaban, with the other Death Eaters who have been caught. They'll hear of how he was a double spy, and they will no doubt kill him the moment the opportunity arises. You don't betray a Death Eater and get away with it,"

"Oh," Hermione nearly moaned, feeling the blood drain from her face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out so harshly," Tonks said, looking alarmed.

"No, you're right, I-I've never thought of that,"

Harry took her hand and she looked up at him.

"We will get him out, Hermione, don't worry. It'll all be fine in the end,"

Hermione wanted to believe him more than anything in the world.