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Thank you once again to those who reviewed, favourited and story alerted my story. Made an old lady smile (i'm 21 but sometimes I feel older.) Drop me a line with any questions, complaints or anything you want in the story.

Severus looked towards Hermione, a look of uncertainty flashed across his features before he quickly pushed it away.

He thought of the weeks that had passed and how it could have affected Hermione. It seemed like the world had been piling its' trouble's on the girl's shoulders since that night almost a month ago.

He had promised to protect her, for her mother and Rob. This was the only way he could think to do that, it had been too close a call this afternoon in Diagon alley. He had down played the danger she was in, how much the Dark Lord was interested in her.

He was just relieved that they would soon be in Hogwarts and she would be away from any temptations or danger.

He looked at the shaken girl in front of him and sighed, his shoulders relaxed and the side of his mouth tilted upwards, "Miss Granger, I wondered if you could come with me upstairs. There is a…gift…I wish to give to you."

He turned a full circle and walked out of the kitchen, Hermione quick on his heels with a confused expression on her face. They walked side by side up the creaking stairs, the dullness seemed to enclose around them with dust motes swirling in their wake as they walked through them.

Severus moved his hand up the banister of the stairs, enjoying the feeling of the worn wood beneath his palms. The cold smoothness of the wood always felt nice as he walked up and down the stairs day after day, the feeling seemed to send calmness through him.

Severus only hoped that Sirius stayed in his room after his night on the Fire whiskey, he was always more temperamental when he was nursing a hangover. He mentally shook himself as he felt his thoughts move towards the mutt again. He knew that Sirius was the one who whispered the spiteful things into potter's ear the night he had returned from the Muggles.

He was just shocked that Harry had blindly believed his Godfather. The boy's need for a loving family had caused the boys loyalty to his long-time friend to disappear, if only for a few minutes. This thought caused Severus to have a niggling fear at the back of his mind, he wondered what the boy would do in the name of his Godfather.

He looked up to see his bedroom door in front of him; his feet had instinctively known where to go while he was in deep thought. He pressed his hand against the door, the wards falling instantly at the Snape blood that ran through his veins.

He turned to see Hermione looking at him, eyes looking into his with confusion as she tried to work out why he brought her to his room.

"I have a gift to bestow you." He said as he walked into his room with confidence.

Hermione however followed with more timidly as she looked around the brightly lit room. The sun streamed through the room, showing the large four poster bed that was sat against the deep blue wall. Thick woollen rugs were dotted randomly around the room to give the tenants toes some respite against the cold, worn wooden floors, showing their heavy usage over the years.

Severus watched as she studied the room that had been his over the summer. Nosey little child though it was hardly a surprise, she always had been.

He managed not to laugh when she realised what she was doing and turned towards him with a start. "Nice of you to remember your manners Miss Granger. Any other person's room you were staring so intently around would have been considered rude, however due to being your guardian I suppose it's similar to being in your parent's room." He paused; shuddering then continued "Just don't make a habit of it."

Her eyes scrunched together and she stuck her tongue out at him in defiance. Severus sent a quick glare towards Hermione before opening a drawer of a desk and took something out of it.

She smiled slightly when she saw how uncomfortable Russ was as he walked towards her with a small black box in his hand. "I don't often give presents to my Godchildren. We wouldn't want you to turn into a spoiled brat but considering recent events I feel it's probably best to give you this now."

Hermione frowned as she studied the closed box in his outstretched hand. She looked up into his eyes, "you have other godchildren?"

Severus nodded minutely and he said with sarcasm "You might know him. It's Mr Malfoy."

His eyes flickered across her face, waiting for an outburst of some kind and his shoulder tensed, readying himself the verbal attack. He was shocked however when she stopped breathing for a moment and briefly looked down at her feet. She simply whispered, "oh." Before looking back into his eyes.

Severus frowned when he saw a darkness dancing across her eyes and he couldn't work out what it could mean.

He nudged the box towards her, "go on. Open it Miss Granger. We haven't got all day."

Hermione slowly reached out and gingerly took the box out of his hand.

She opened the box and couldn't resist gasping at the necklace that was huddled within the black material. She studied the beautiful necklace in question. She guessed it to be white gold and she marvelled the way it glistened in the sunlight that streamed through the room. The pendant was a small star, no bigger than a five pence piece with a pale purple Amethyst nestled in the centre. She grinned broadly, "its beautiful Russ." She looked him in the eye and saw the self-doubt disappear from his eyes. "But how will this help with recent events?"

"That necklace is one of a pair." He said, pulling up his left sleeve where a white gold chain was wrapped around his wrist. "Whenever you are in danger, this will warn me by warming up."

He resisted laughing when he saw the curiosity written over her face and he sighed heavily "Just so the curiosity won't eat you alive Miss Granger…The pair have been on my mother's side for generations. It is normally passed on from Father to daughter or mother to son but seeing as I have no children I have decided to pass it onto you. No point arguing Miss Granger." He said giving Hermione a glare.

"It is a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because whenever you are in danger, which I hope will never happen again Feathers" he said with a frown, not realising what he had called her. "It will burn and when I press my hand to the bracelet, it will know where to apparate to. However there is a story my mother told me of a father who's 13 year old daughter had disappeared. It was burning constantly but when he appeared to the building, it suddenly stopped. He had walked in to see the last breathes of his child at the hand of an evil man. Do not put me in that situation Hermione." He said with a stern look.

Hermione's mouth was hung open at the story, 'how barbaric!' she thought with a grimace. She moved her hair off her shoulders and latched the necklace around her neck. "I'll try not to." She said with a small smile. "its lovely Russ. Thank you."

She moved forward, hugging Severus tightly before grinning at his shocked expression. "Get used to it Sev." She said sticking her tongue out, "I'm a huggy person."

She moved out the room, not before her hearing the laugh from Severus's bedroom as she left, However she never heard the softly spoken, "Just like your mother."

The morning of September 1st was a stressful one as six students ran around Grimmauld Place collecting their final processions to be packed before going to Hogwarts.

Hermione had finally finished packing her trunk and it lay on her bed, locked with a disgruntled Crookshanks in a carry basket beside it.

Her eyes looked upwards as she listened to what sounded like a herd of elephants running around upstairs, wincing when she heard a loud thud. She demurely wiped the dust from the table which had fallen from the ceiling; she briefly wondered what had caused the bump.

She poured herself a cup of tea, sipping it as she heard Mrs Weasley shouting to everyone upstairs that there was half an hour before they had to leave. She smiled slightly when she heard the running becoming more panicky.

She lifted her eyes and looked down the table to see Sirius staring at her. She quickly looked away, frowning at the emotion she had glimpsed in his eyes. There seemed to be such loathing, she couldn't understand what she had done to deserve that.

He seemed alright with her last year while he was on the run, but when she thought about it, he did seem to be bored being locked in the house.

Sirius was causing more arguments with those who lived in the house. If it wasn't the one she was sure he caused between her and Harry then he was constantly picking at Russ, which would cause him to explode when he reached his limit.

She thoughtful ate her piece of toast, chewing slowly as she thought of the last couple of weeks. He did seem more unstable than she had remembered him in the previous year.

Then there was that argument at the table where Russ had called him a coward, causing them to almost start a duel.

He couldn't be that unstable because he was missing out on the 'action' was it?

She looked towards Sirius once more through the thick curtains of her hair and frowned, he was still glaring at her.

'At least I'm back at Hogwarts soon' she thought with a grimace as she looked back at her breakfast, continuing to eat.

It wasn't long before she was joined by her fellow students who quickly started stuffing porridge and toast in their mouths in a rush. Mrs Weasley followed, admonishing their lack of manners but in the same breathe telling them to hurry up.

Before she realised it, she was caught in the whirlwind of people rushing out of the door, in a ministry car and on their way to kings cross.

Hermione sat down with a sigh as the door was closed of their compartment on the train.

She smiled as Crookshanks looked around the compartment, content in ignoring Hermione after she had the nerve to lock him the cage.

'He really does think he's royalty,' Hermione thought with an internal snigger as she saw Crookshank's arrogant facial expression. That's how she deciphered his glaring eyes and nose in the air anyway.

She looked up when she heard Ron ask with a broad grin, "Who do you think the DADA teacher will be this year?"

"I don't care as long as it's the real bloke. Not a Pixie in disguise or anything." Harry said with a snort.

"There were no clues in the book list this year. No Lockhart at least." Hermione said with a full smile.

She turned her head to face Ron as he snorted, "bet you would love another Lockhart. I still remember the puppy dog eyes you gave him…Hermione Lockhart I bet you used to think in your head."

Hermione couldn't help the blush that coloured her cheeks, she was 12 for goodness sake, she will never live it down. Childish Hormones!

"Shut up Ron!" she hissed.

Ron didn't look too chastised as both him and Harry burst out laughing, not helping her flaming cheeks.

If they were going to be immature she would get one of her books out, read for a few hours. 'Boys!' She hissed in her thoughts as she grabbed a book out of her bag with as much dignity as she could muster and started to read the muggle book, pride and prejudice. She could still hear the laughing as the boys tried to rein it under control.

Hermione softly smiled as she felt the peace and warmth flow through her body. You really couldn't beat a good romance like Pride and Prejudice. She paused as she thought over the character of Mr Darcy.

His description is very similar to Russ, she thought with a furrowed brow. Silent, arrogant, can be spiteful but loyal. She gagged as she saw the similarities between the two characters.

Well that's ruined pride and prejudice for her, she thought with a frown as she closed the book and put it on the seat beside her.

Harry looked up and softly smiled at Hermione, "So what do you think they were on about in the order's meeting then?"

Hermione looked between Ron and Harry, they had obviously been talking while she was reading and she hadn't been listening to anything they had said. She chewed on her lower lip as she went, "what's been said?" She said with a lowered voice.

"Crikey Hermione, have you not listened to anything we're been saying the last half an hour?" Ron said with exasperation. He sighed as Hermione shook her head.

Harry smiled slightly, his eyes sparkling for the first time Hermione had seen in a while. She was glad he was feeling a little bit happier, but I suppose it was because he was going back to the place he felt was home.

Harry looked towards Hermione and said in a loud whisper "Apparently the Twins were listening to a meeting a couple of days ago and there was a big fight between Snape-"

"Professor Snape Harry." Hermione said with irritation.

Harry rolled his eyes as he continued, "Professor Snape and Sirius."

Hermione frowned as she looked at her old friend. She brought her thumb up to her mouth and started chewing it. It was a recent habit she had managed to develop over the last couple of weeks, it seemed to appear when she was nervous or thinking. Over the last couple of weeks that was quite often so the skin around her thumb nail was red raw.

"What happened?" She said, nibbling on her thumb.

Harry looked at her, his eyes seeming to gleam and his lips turned downwards when he watched Hermione. He didn't know if anyone else had noticed but something had changed in her, more nervous and darkness surrounded her.

"Well they said it was strange." He said, his eyebrows coming together. "They had never heard Sna- Professor Snape so angry before. He kept shouting that the light shouldn't be given up so easily. He wasn't going to choose. He apparently was almost spitting when Sirius shouted something about protecting his Godson and he needed to do it. Snape apparently stormed out of the kitchen, only pausing for a second when he saw the Twins before storming out of the house. That was the last time he's been at Grimmauld apparently."

Hermione's frown deepened, her eyes shadowing with worry as she thought over what had been said. Were they trying to make Russ become a permanent Death Eater? So he was able to get more information? But surely Voldemort needed Russ to be at the school, talking and getting information from the Headmaster.

Her hand came up to her star necklace subconsciously as she began to play with it. "Do you think they want him to become completely dark?" She said with a frown. "That's why he doesn't want to give up the light because of some of the things he might see as a full time death eater?"

"I dunno 'Mione" Ron Said with a small frown, he might not like the man but Hermione seemed to like him. He was her guardian so Ron tried to swallow some of the bile and smiled, though it did look sickly. "It's alright though. It didn't sound like he was giving up on it. He's still a teacher so he isn't 'giving up the light'"

Hermione nodded, unaware once more she was chewing on her thumb. "How long til we get to Hogwarts?"

"About an hour I think" Harry said with a small smile. "Fancy playing snap?"

Hermione looked at Harry with a small, sad smile. She could see he was trying to distract her from her worries and she was thankful for it, even if he was having troubles of his own.

Harry and Hermione enjoyed playing muggle cards once in a while. It was something someone from their backgrounds could understand. It allowed Hermione to have a piece of home and it allowed Harry to have a piece of his childhood back.

She nodded and held her hand out as Harry started dealing the deck.

Ron seemed content just to watch, chewing on his chocolate frogs.

The compartment fell silent, the only noises were the shouts of "SNAP!" from either Harry or Hermione and laughter as the game became more ferocious.

Soon the express came to a stop in Hogsmeade and the trio walked to the carriages.

Sharing their carriage was Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley.

Luna turned to Harry, her voice was dreamy and distracted as she spoke "I can see them to you know?"

Hermione looked over to Harry with a frown, "this is Loony…" Her face became contorted with embarrassment; turning red she gulped and looked to the floor. "This is Luna Lovegood."

Hermione punched Ron in the leg causing him to yelp as she heard him laugh, "Bloody Brilliant Hermione. You're on a roll." Tears filled his eyes, which she wasn't sure if it was caused by the dead leg she had given him or him laughing at her Embarrassment.

The trio sat down in the great hall, greeting the friends they hadn't seen over the summer.

She was so happy to be back in Hogwarts, the place where she could learn and read to her hearts content she didn't even notice some of the cold glares Harry got as he sat down.

Harry did.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts everyone. I have a few notices before we can start the feast. First of all the Forbidden Forest is still forbidden to students of all years and Mr Flich has put up a notice outside of his office of all the items forbidden in the school. I believe it's up to 350 items so I recommend you look it over." Headmaster Dumbledore said with a genial smile, the twinkle present in his eye. "I will also like to welcome our new defence against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Umbridge. So-"

"Thank you Headmaster" Said a sickly voice as she stepped forward, students looked intently at the woman in pink as the Headmaster's eyebrows move downwards, a small frown appearing under his beard. They all wondered what this woman was like is she dared intervene at the headmaster's speech.

"Its lovely to be given the opportunity to work at a school as prestigious as Hogwarts. It has always been in the Ministry's heart and aims to give children such as yourselves the best education one can get to allow you to get future careers. I will encourage you to work hard, follow the rules and to get the best grades you can." She paused, a small giggle which caused many of the students to gag quietly floated through the air as she smiled sweetly, "And punishment will be given to those who will not follow the rules." Her eyes looked down the Gryffindor table, stopping to look at the trio. She giggled once more before going back to her seat.

The silence was deafening in the hall before the Headmaster smiled softly at his students, "May the feast begin!" He said raising his hands in the air and food filled all the tables.

Hermione sat at the table, nervously chewing on her thumb while those around her filled their plates.

Harry looked up towards her, a frown on his face before he began filling her plate up with roast potatoes and chicken. He hadn't realised how distracted she had become when it came to eating until he had witnessed the professor making her eat. He was saddened to realise he didn't know if it was a recently developed occurrence or just the absentmindedness that occurred while she was studying.

"You know what this means don't you?" Hermione said with a frown, her eyes glistening with worry. "The ministry are now at Hogwarts."