A/N: Some guest readers have guessed correctly. Unfortunately, as I cannot reply to guest reviews, I could not tell you that you were right.

Also: The Granggob is back!

Chapter 9

The room had the stale air of an abandoned house, its gloomy atmosphere reinforced by furniture that was covered with thick drapes of fabric. As the door was opened, dust motes swirled in the air and danced about the room in graceful twirls before settling down again.

Severus Snape walked inside, closing the door slowly and carefully as not to disturb any more of the dust. He walked a couple of steps towards the center of the room where the largest bulk resided, also covered in fabric. His fingers toyed with the heavy cloth, but he was reluctant to reveal the large frame beneath it.

It had been several years since he had last looked into the Mirror of Erised. It had proven to be too much of a temptation, its allure too strong. Every time he had looked into it, he had seen the same thing – his Lily, finally coming to her senses and realizing who she really loved – him. Only him. Forever.

Conflicting emotions were swirling in his stomach, and he could not make sense of them. Indeed, he had not been able to ever since that Traggob stepped out of the wardrobe wearing Granger's body. But that was exactly why he was here.

Taking a deep breath, he grabbed hold of the fabric and pulled it off the mirror in one fluent move to finally look at his reflection.

His heart sped up in his chest when the mirror shimmered to reveal…

Lily. She was as beautiful as ever as she stepped up to his reflection, her eyes shining with emotion. "Severus," she whispered "forgive me, for I have been a fool. I should have seen it long before now, but somehow I convinced myself it wasn't true. But now I know – I love you, Severus, I always have and I always will."

His heart constricted painfully at the sight as usual, but this time, something was different. The painful longing he felt in his heart was not for Lily, but for the loss of the illusion he had held on to – that he might have been granted another chance at love. As it seemed, his destiny was as it always had been: forever in love with a woman who could never love him back.

He watched the familiar loop in the mirror, and he knew the words that would fall from her lips by heart: "Please, Severus, will you give me another chance?" He watched as tears glistened in her eyes as she spoke, her lower lip quivering delicately.

Slowly, she moved her hand to brush a strand of hair out of his face, but before her fingertips could make contact, they were slapped away by a slender but firm hand.

"Get your hands off my man!" Hermione Granger declared, stepping into view next to Severus' reflection.

"What?!"

Lily and the real Snape spoke at the same time, confusion etched on both of their faces. The Snape reflected in the mirror, however, displayed a smile that might even have looked a little smug to the keen observer.

Severus was dumbstruck as he watched the alternate scene unfold in the mirror.

"Severus," Lily whispered, "Please!"

"I'm sorry, Lily." Severus' reflection replied. "I did not want to string you along. I really do love you, but not in that way. I had not realized this for the longest time, but in the last years, it has become clear to me…" at this point, he took Granger's hand in his, linking their fingers "… that my concept of true love has been a misconception."

"Severus, no," Lily pleaded, "what we had was something special, you cannot deny that!"

"I agree, it was something special. Something very special to me. You were my best friend, my only friend. It meant the world to me. You were all I had. It was only natural that, during puberty, I saw you as a potential partner. The only potential partner. I never really knew other girls or other women, for that matter. I never discovered that there was more. More than we had."

At this point, Severus' reflection turned to Hermione, giving her a look of undiluted love. "I'm sorry, but my heart belongs to another." He slid his hands into her wild curls and pulled her in for a kiss. When their lips met, Lily faded away, leaving the two of them alone.

Hermione broke the kiss to lean her forehead against his chest before raising her head to gaze into his eyes. "You know that I love you, right?" Cupping his cheek with her hand, she continued, "I love you with your light sides and your dark sides and all the shades in between. You are the one I want."

As he leaned down to kiss her again, he whispered: "I know."

Severus was standing in front of the mirror, his eyes wide with shock, staring unfocused at the silvery surface where the loop started to play again. This time, he did not even watch it again. All his attention was taken up by the fact that it had changed. For the first time in his life, the scene he had watched had taken a different turn. He could not deny it any longer. He wanted Hermione Granger.

As the reality of the situation set in, he was first flooded with blissful excitement before a deep panic set in.

For one, he had never been in a relationship before and had no clue as what was expected of him. Plus, he realized, Hermione had voiced some doubts about her feelings for him, too. What if she woke up realizing that she had scratched an itch she had had for years and was finally free to move on?

The panic in his stomach wanted to turn into a full-blown attack. He tried to quell his reaction as best as he could, but still, his hands turned sweaty. What had he gotten himself into?

There was only one place he wanted to go now.

The Traggob stepped out of the wardrobe, and as it saw who it was, it shouted: "You hare-brained idiot!"

Severus winced at its angry expression. Advancing on him, poking its finger into his chest, the Granggob seethed: "What-have-you-done?!"

The finger poked deeper into his chest. "Why are you not with her? How could you have messed this up?!"

The Granggob straightened up to take a deep breath, for the first time noticing that Severus looked like a picture of misery.

It frowned. "This is no fun when you're already repentant. What happened?"

It walked to the couch, sitting down and patting the space next to it, motioning for him to sit down. He released a deep sigh as he settled himself down. He rested his head on the back of the couch and slung one arm up to cover his eyes.

The Granggob watched him with a bemused expression. It pulled up its legs and stretched them out across the couch, resting its calves on Severus' thighs. When he did not immediately push them away, its eyes widened. He must really be out of it.

"Oh my God, Severus! I did finally sink in. You understand now!"

"I don't understand anything," he growled. "But now I know you were right."

The Granggob sighed, smiling wistfully. "Say that again."

"I don't understand anything."

"Well, I've heard it once. I shall never forget it."

He pushed its legs off his lap. "You're a terrible nuisance."

The Granggob quirked its eyebrow at that, pointedly looking at the gold watch on its slender wrist. "And that is why you came back looking for my company no mere four hours after you have left?"

"A terrible nuisance that in rare instances offers some astounding insights. Now do your thing."

"Excuuuuse me?" the Granggob exclaimed. "Do my thing?!"

"Yes," he grumbled. "That thing where you take such joy in rubbing in my face what a terrible idiot I've been but somehow help me along in the process."

"Well," the Granggob drawled out, tapping its index finger against its lips, "I think I might be inclined to do just that."

A/N: By the way, the Granggob had decided not to charge anything for its sessions with Severus as they are so much fun. Reviews though, it would appreciate very much.