AN: Hello, fanfiction and Harry Potter fans. I do not own Harry Potter, but feel free to enjoy this or hate it. If you enjoy it, please leave a lovely comment, if you hate it, then leave some constructive criticism, thanks!

Can You Take the Jump?

Chapter 48

Severus sat in suffocating silence as the scarlet train took all the students to Hogwarts on September 1st, 1976. Although some would say silence was just silence, Severus disagreed. He enjoyed most silences. He liked the quiet to read, think, learn, and concentrate, but this silence was different. It was oppressive and thick, lingering heavily around him. He was scared to breathe properly, flip a page in his book that he wasn't even reading, or gulp down the questions that burned in the back of his throat because it might turn the simmering darkness around Hermione into a violent rage.

She'd been this way since the moment he saw her on King's Cross Station, so he wasn't sure what had caused it, but he guessed it had something to do with Lily since she wasn't there when he met up with Hermione at the station.

Although he would never usually do this, he felt like he was under the gaze of one of his stern and severe professors, so he properly excused himself to the loo rather than simply walk out the door. With his momentary escape, he made his way down the train to see Lily, finally excited to get out of Hermione's stifling silence and get some of his burning questions answered.

He knocked on the Gryffindors' compartment, only to feel the same burdening silence that he'd just escaped. However, this silence was more depressing while Hermione's felt furious. He'd never seen the Gryffindors so quiet before, which in turn started answering some of the burning questions that had been circulating in Severus's head as he watched the Gryffindors tiptoed around Sirius Black.

They seemed to be in a similar situation as himself, fearing Black's outburst of either rage or tears if one of them set him off.

"Uh, Lily? I think one of your dormmates was looking for you. Lyana, I think?" An absolute lie.

The look she gave him was of utter gratitude, even Potter looked jealous that she got to leave.

The two closed the compartment door behind them as softly as they could and quickly walk away, practically running away from the heavy air.

"What the fuck happened?" Severus demanded when they were a few meters away. "I thought having to watch them being a couple was bad, but this?" He waved his arms around. "What the fuck is this?"

"She hasn't told you either?" Lily leaned against the wall in defeat. "I have no clue. She went to a friend's wedding and came back all…"

"Dark and gloomy?"

"Yeah, dark and gloomy."

"You didn't ask?" He gasped with disbelief. There was no way a nosey person like Lily would have not asked.

"I tried, all right? But how the hell do you talk to her when she's like that? Or Sirius for the matter? She's unapproachable on a normal day, but this?! This is a whole new level of 'don't-fucking-talk-to-me'. Even Tuny and my parents tried, they got nowhere."

"It's hard to believe that talkative Sally over there wouldn't have blabbed by now? Have you gotten anything from him?"

She smacked him. "Sirius can be…serious. But all he keeps saying is that it's his fault. That he's an idiot, he doesn't deserve someone like Hermione, how terrible he is, etc. etc. He spirals if you ask him, going down a depression rabbit hole. He won't even talk about Quidditch!"

"Shit."

Severus sighed, rubbing his temples. He'd been out of touch with Hermione after the Initiation because he thought he'd give her space to reconnect with her almost-died boyfriend, but obviously, that had been a mistake. This was not the reunion between two friends that he'd imagined. He'd been excited to tell her about the research he'd done over the summer about their fake Avada Kedavra and the progress he made with his Occlumency.

"I should get back," he muttered reluctantly. "She's in the compartment alone. If I prolong it longer, she's going to think I ran away to avoid her. For some reason, that feels like it will end up worse than just sitting in that…torture space…for the rest of the trip. Do you want to come?"

"Oh, hell no." Lily rejected. "I dealt with that for nearly two weeks. I want to interact with people now, not that bloody angry stone you're going to sit with, and not that stormy rain cloud that I just left. I need some time with my girls. Hopefully, they'll give me some more vitality with some summer gossip."

"Lily," Severus stopped her before she walked away. "Should we be worried about this?"

Lily set the frustration and annoyance aside as she glanced down the halls to where the individuals in question sat in their respective compartments with equal 'dark and gloominess'. While Hermione was always stoic and serious, this felt different. It felt sadder and hurt.

"Honestly, Sev?" Lily nodded. "I think so. Something happened. Something big but seeing how neither of them is willing to let anyone in, I don't think they're ready to fix the problem yet. I think we're going to have to sit and wait."

…

The grand doors of the Great Hall opened and the second batch of students started to walk in for the Welcome Feast. Regulus had been one of the first ones into the castle, watching and waiting for certain people to enter, people he hadn't been in contact with for over a month as his parents tried to enforce their beliefs into his mind so that he wouldn't become yet another failure.

Several miscreants walked in, useless, nameless, and unimportant. He rolled his eyes at their unaware and frivolous lives. The naïve idiots had no idea that war was on the horizon, that will-be murderers were in their midst, and that if they were unlucky enough, some would not make it to their 20s.

He unknowingly perked up when he saw Sirius, the first person he'd so desperately wished to see, but something was very wrong. Despite the Initiation being a month ago, his brother looked no better than the last time Regulus had seen him imprisoned. He looked at the people that surrounded his brother, expecting to see his beautiful redheaded girlfriend, only to find that she was nowhere in sight.

His brother's ridiculous friends, especially the spectacled one, had to nearly guide Sirius to the Gryffindor table, as though he was too weak to reach it on his own. The freakishly tall one and the short one glanced at each other with concern as they took their normal seats.

Other students were quick to notice Sirius's odd and concerning behaviour. They glanced at him with questioning eyes. It was September 1st, there was no way that Sirius was sickly, quiet, and gloomy, at least not on September 1st. No, on this day, Sirius was full of energy, boisterous, and practically bouncing off the walls with joy. He was away from his parents, reunited with his beloved friends, and learning magic at Hogwarts. This was Sirius's home, where he bloomed as a person.

Regulus gripped the edge of the Slytherin table to stop himself from walking over to his brother. He couldn't be seen fraternizing with 'rotten goods' as his mother so eloquently put it. Since Sirius was burned off the family tree, Regulus could not be seen speaking to him, but the urge to demand why he was so fucking depressed after everything that he'd worked and sacrificed for him made him dig his nails into the long oak table. After all that work, he should be so happy that it leaves Regulus with bitterness in his mouth, but this? What the fuck was this? His eyes searched the Great Hall for Hermione, but she'd yet to arrive. He looked around trying to look for someone who could have the answers when his eyes zeroed in on another redhead. Lily Evans.

He grit his teeth with frustration, but there was no way he could get away with talking to her if he couldn't even talk to his own brother.

Several students greeted Regulus, attempting to start a conversation and get closer to him. It was expected, he had lower-class purebloods cling to him since he was a child due to his family name. Perhaps it was because of those fake offerings of friendship, but Regulus never had anyone to call his true friends. He wasn't close with any of his classmates, he didn't like how the girls batted their lashes at him because of his looks, wealth, and social standing, and he cringed at older students who tried to include him in their upperclassmen groups because he was "cool". He's only ever had Sirius.

A group of Slytherins walked into the Great Hall with boisterous laughs. At the front of the group were the 7th-years, Rosier, Jugson, and Snyde. Closely following behind them were Travers and Mulciber with their arms around Avery. The boys who'd been at the Initiation, the future of the Death Eaters. As some of the oldest students in the school and one of the few who'd been Initiated to the revolution of their Dark Lord, they walked with a strut, arrogance and boldness, a stark contrast to how Malfoy and his group used to walk around. Regulus was no fan of the past 'Elites' of Slytherin, including Lucius, Dolohov, Bella, and the Carrows, but at least they knew how to give off the air of arrogance without being so upfront about it.

"Nice to see you alive, Black!" Rosier shouted across the hall. Regulus looked around wondering why Rosier thought he was allowed to address him so casually when he realized he was talking to Sirius. "Where's your girlfriend?"

For the first time since he entered the Great Hall, Sirius did something that wasn't just slumping over the table. His friends held him down as he fought the three of them to run towards them to pick a fight.

Unaware of how close Rosier had been to start a fight he could not win, he laughed evoking the rest of the Slytherin group to laugh along with him.

"Regulus!" Dante Snyde greeted friendly, even though they had never exchanged a word with each other since Regulus started school.

The Slytherins that sat in Regulus's vicinity wisely stood up and sat further away, making room for the large group of boys that came to the table.

"How was your summer?" He smirked, "I heard that your family finally got rid of some trash."

Regulus didn't respond immediately, he blinked slowly, letting his eyes give the real response before putting on a political smile.

"Even if we trashed it, it belonged to the Black family at one point, so I suggest you choose your words wisely."

Tension rose at the Slytherin table, but everyone knew who'd win in the end. Snyde and his friends may have seniority over Regulus, but he had the family. If they were a different House with different customs it would have been Regulus who lost the unspoken fight, but they were Slytherins. Family and blood meant power, and power would always win here.

Snyde's face grimaced out a smile before sitting down, but everyone noticed how Regulus remained in the center.

The Great Hall doors opened, revealing a crowd of small children. The newest addition to the school: first years.

The Sorting Hat started singing its annual song, but Regulus looked down the Slytherin table, looking for two students that seemed to be missing.

Avery caught his eye, giving him a discreet shake of his head, telling him he didn't know where the two students he was looking for were.

Near the song's end, the Great Hall's doors creaked slightly to reveal a tentative Severus Snape walking in.

Over the month that Regulus hadn't seen him, Severus had significantly changed, and he wasn't the only one who noticed. A murmur travelled through the Great Hall at the late appearance of the school's outcast. The previously slim, pale, and emo boy with greasy, stringy black hair looked like he'd gotten a makeover during the summer. His hair was slicked back, to reveal his slightly tanned skin. Severus's skin wasn't the type to take on colour easily, but after spending hours on the property that Alphard had left behind his mother, his skin took on some warmth. Although the school uniform covered his body, he was taller and everyone could tell how much healthy weight and muscle he put on.

"Is that Severus Snape?!" Josephine Zabini's jaw dropped.

If his late arrival didn't attract enough attention, the school's biggest gossip's loud and clear voice carried over the Sorting Hat's croaks.

Severus froze at all the eyes that were directed at him. He nodded an apology to displeased Deputy Headmistress who stood near the front of the Hall with the list of names in her hand. He made his way to sit on the edge of the Slytherin table closest to him, but Regulus couldn't allow that.

"Snape," he called to him. At the second interruption, even the Sorting Hat stopped with an offended huff. "Come sit here."

Everyone knew that the center of the table was where the Elites sat, the people with the best families, largest inheritances, and with great connections. Severus had none of those, but he had something that most Slytherins didn't have, and that was genuine talent. If Severus was born into a good family, he would have easily been an Elite, but who knows, maybe he wouldn't be as hardworking and talented if he was.

All of Slytherin House looked at Regulus was interrogating eyes, some glanced at the other students who also sat in the center to challenge Regulus's actions, but no one did. No one could—well, someone might, but only if they were dumb enough to try. He wasn't just a Black, the was the Black. After Sirius's official disownment, Regulus was to be the heir to the main Black family. It wasn't that there were no other Purebloods in Slytherin, but there was no name and no one amongst the Slytherin sitting currently that had more power than Regulus this year and in the years to come until he graduated.

It made him wonder if Hermione Evans had calculated this two years ago and approached him in advance knowing this.

Severus wasn't the most confident, but he was quick-witted enough to recognize the acknowledgement that Regulus was giving him. Without dawdling, Severus walked towards the center of the long table.

In a way, it was a historic moment, not only for Severus but for Slytherin House. It was probably the first time in decades that a half-blood was invited to the center of the table. With one look, everyone sitting across from Regulus shifted aside to make room for Severus.

With an indignant grunt, the Sorting hat resumed its shitty song about school unity, but no one in Slytherin was bothering to listen.

"Where is she?" Regulus asked Severus.

Everyone's ears perked up. No one needed to ask whom he was referring to, as much as everyone hated to admit it, Hermione Evans was the most infamous student at Hogwarts. Her invisible and forgettable existence that she somehow managed to maintain up until 5th year vanished after the Dueling championships and Uncle Alphard's funeral and now, everyone who was anyone knew what happened at the Initiation this summer. Quite a few of them were anticipating Hermione's return to Hogwarts. On the train, Regulus heard some outrageous rumours, that she'd be half-beast, that her skin would be literally black with scales with red glowing eyes, her hair was made of snakes, just like Medusa, or on fire. The only commonality amongst all the talk was that everyone was in equal awe and fear of the girl they had all watched get bullied in her earlier years.

"She said she wanted a change, so she went to the loo."

"She didn't change on the train?" Travers laughed, "Is it her first time on the Hogwarts Express or something?"

"No," Severus looked perplexed. "That's the thing, she was already in her uniform. And she said a change, not to change."

"Boyle, Charles!" McGonagall's voice called out a short first year with the giddiest of expressions on his face. He had red cheeks from smiling so hard as he sat on the stool. (AN: Nine-Nine!)

"Hufflepuff!"

Loud applause exploded from the yellow and black table as they welcomed their newest Housemate, so Severus had to shout over their claps. "She should be here soon, she said she wouldn't miss the Welcome Feast!"

"Bauer, Bethany!"

"Ravenclaw!"

"Brown, August!"

"Gryffindor!"

"Bulstrode, Gavin!"

All the Slytherins got prepared to clap as a familiar name rang in everyone's ears. In the past, people used to clap before the sorting was even completed because certain names were Slytherins without fail, generation after generation. That was until Sirius had broken that rule. Now, people waited until the Sorting Hat made its official announcement before clapping appropriately.

"Slytherin!"

Regulus could see Violetta Bulstrode let out a sigh of relief as she clapped and cheered her cousin on, waving her towards her.

Five more itty bitty first years were sorted, three in Hufflepuff, one in Ravenclaw, and one more in Slytherin when the Great Hall doors swung open. Unlike the first interruption which was hesitant, this one was assured, as if there was absolutely nothing wrong with entering the Great Hall in the middle of the Sorting ceremony.

For a moment, no one recognized the girl that walked in. She had long pitch-black hair that cascaded down her back freely. It shined against the candlelight, a stark contrast against her fair skin. She didn't wear her outer uniform robes, just the dress shirt and skirt, impervious to the cold, with a green and silver tie that hung loosely around her neck. She was beautiful, confidently walking towards the Slytherin table, not even bothering to look apologetic for interrupting one of Hogwarts' oldest traditions.

"Hermione?" Lily Evans's voice gasped in the silent Hall.

Upon closer inspection, the girl was right. It was Hermione Evans.

Loud whispers immediately awakened the Great Hall, gasps and small exclamations bouncing off the walls as everyone started recognizing the girl.

Regulus blinked. He hadn't been aware of how defining her red hair had been to her features. He was genuinely wondering who the new Slytherin had been. Now that she was named, it was funny how the pieces started fitting together in his mind to recognize her familiar facial features. However, even so, the change was jarring. His eyes flickered to his brother who watched his girlfriend with an indescribable expression.

So, Sirius hadn't known either.

He turned back to Severus who had the most muted reaction out of all of them. He just nodded, as if the change was somehow fitting.

"She changed her hair in the loo?" Rosier sounded confused.

"Oh my god," Josephine Zabini gasped. "She broke up with Sirius Black, didn't she?"

Everyone turned to Severus once more, knowing his close relationship with Hermione Evans than anyone else in the House. Their eyes were hounding him for answers.

"I-I don't—"

"Yes, Zabini," Hermione placed her hand on his shoulder. She produced an easy smile, "If only you were as smart in your studies as you were in smelling out gossip, you'd be runner up for Head Girl. Behind my sister, of course."

Zabini managed to look offended, but there was a twinkle in her eyes that begged Hermione for the whole story.

"Sirius and I are not on speaking terms at the moment, no further questions." Hermione held up her hand, stopping the unlimited number of questions right at her throat. "Now," she looked down at Slytherin's elite. "Move."

The Slytherins went silent with shock at the command. They glanced at each other, unsure of how to react.

The Slytherins were well known for having a hierarchy, and a chain of command among the students, and Hermione had consistently remained in the bottom tier for all of her Hogwarts life, but this summer had changed things. The Initiation had changed everything. Even after witnessing the Dueling Championships and her magical outburst during Alphard's funeral, it didn't convince some of them of her true power, but the Initiation did. In a matter of seconds, Hermione Evans, an underage Mudblood girl, managed to bring down some of their society's most powerful, magically prominent members and the newly rising Dark Lord. She had broken their scale of power, and power was everything here. It determined who got the first slice of roasted pork, who got the best linen, who showered first, who deserved the respect, and who received the admiration.

She was not just a girl who was powerful but overwhelmingly so. Through the Initiation, she showed them that she'd been fighting with both hands tied behind her back, and now that she felt comfortable enough fighting properly, she could potentially kill them if she snapped.

Their self-preserving nature did not allow them to ignore it.

"You heard her, Mulciber," Regulus turned to the older boy. "Move."

"No. Travers, you move."

Eyes widened down the table.

While Travers had less magical and physical power, his position as a member of the Sacred Twenty Nine gave him political power that overpowered Mulciber. Regulus glanced up at Hermione's evil smirk. She knew this as well, but she purposely changed her target because she was testing her effect. She was testing for weak links, figuring out how far could she poke up the hierarchy that ruled Slytherin for centuries without facing opposition.

"You heard her," Regulus's face cracked with a smile. "Move."

Mulciber, realizing that he's finally cleared as her target after the embarrassment he faced by her hands last year, was smiling from ear to ear. He turned to his so-called 'friend' that abandoned him last year, "There's a free seat over there." He pointed towards the other end of the Slytherin table.

Like an invisible tennis match, everyone at the table looked back and forth between the 6th years and the 4th year, then at Hermione.

Travers's face turned red, the vein in his forehead bulging. His knuckles turned white, gripping the side of the table.

"You're making the entire Hall wait, and your constipated face is lowering everyone's appetite," Hermione sighed, cleaning nonexistent dirt beneath her nails.

He looked around at his friends, hoping one of them would stand up for him, too frightened to stand up for himself. Perhaps he would have had the stubborn idiocy to stand up for himself if he hadn't witnessed Hermione's true power, but he was there when it happened; he'd seen the destruction and felt the unimaginable fear that she unleashed.

Travers gulped, everyone could feel the reluctance dripping off of him, but slowly, he stood and walked to the empty seat at the far end of the table.

Everyone watched as yet another historic event in the recent Slytherin House was being created.

The entire Hall was silent when Travers sat down next to the younger year half-bloods close to the end of the long table, somewhere he didn't sit even when he was a first year.

"Apologies, Professor McGonagall." Hermione sat in Travers's seat, leaning back with easy arrogance. "Please, proceed."

…

Sirius knew the rest of the Marauders were looking at him, trying to gauge his reaction, but he didn't know how to react. She looked so…fine. She looked good, even. Like nothing was bothering her, that their fight and their unspoken breakup were not killing her like it was him.

He knew that she hadn't told anyone when he walked into his compartment on the train and Lily didn't chew him out with her ability to viciously tear people down with just her words. Also, if Lily knew, she would have told James, and James and the rest of the Marauders, no, the rest of Gryffindor, would also be glaring at him like the pathetic piece of shit he was.

Sirius didn't know why Hermione didn't tell anyone.

"Maybe she's trying to protect you, help you keep your friends," a side of him comforted.

"Or maybe you weren't even worth mentioning to her sister." The other side chimed.

This was happening more and more these days. The opposing voices in his head. He wondered if other people had them too, the voice of their demons ringing in their minds so clearly and so loudly. He shifted his head on the table to sneak a peek at James who was politely clapping for a firstie who'd just been sorted. James was good. Very good. He wouldn't have such thoughts, not as he did.

"That because you can't deny who you are, Black." The voice taunted him. "You've been pushing down your heritage, your ancestors, and your upbringing for all these years, but now it's caught up to you, hasn't it? Why else would you do what you did to Hermione? I thought you loved her."

"Shut up." He gritted his teeth tightly, using his hands to hit himself in the head multiple times, growing stronger with every downward force.

"Sirius," Remus gripped his wrist. "Sirius!" His werewolf strength didn't let him move another centimetre. "What are you doing? Stop!"

Sirius ripped his wrist out of his friend's grasp and glared at him. If he'd been in his Animagi form, the hair on his back would have stood, and he would have bared his teeth.

Noticing this behaviour, James quickly tried to intervene, but Remus was quick to notice as well. While James was the unspoken leader of the troublemaking human Marauders, as their little Animagi pack, Remus was the alpha wolf, their undeniably obvious leader. The sandy blonde's green eyes flashed with gold, calming Sirius down immediately. His eyes fell back to the table, and he subtly moved back, pushing into James. A clear sign of submission.

"I don't know what's gotten into you," Remus spoke lowly, his voice rumbling deep in his chest. The Gryffindors around the Marauders felt the air chill at the absolute authority Remus held in his voice. "But don't take it out on us when you aren't even giving us a chance to help you by telling us what happened."

Sirius's pride versus his instincts as Padfoot clashed as he listened to his friend's warning words.

"Sorry."

He glanced up at his girlfriend who had somehow kicked Travers out of his seat and sat in the center of the Slytherin's long table. Sirius knew its significance but didn't know how he felt about her sitting at the center with those who'd wronged her for so many years.

They locked eyes for the first time since the Lovegood's wedding.

He instinctively wanted to look away, but she held him there. Neither of them attempted to communicate anything more than eye contact. He silently mourned the loss of her red hair. He loved its fiery presence like a siren enchanting him in the usual sea of browns, blacks, and the occasional blondes. Not that it looked bad on her, of course, it suited her well, but she felt different now. Hermione was never one of those approachable girls, but with her black hair contrasting so starkly against her alabaster skin, and the sharp lines of her facial bone structure, she felt unreal.

She was the first to break eye contact, as the sorting continued. She politely clapped whenever a new Slytherin was sorted but made no effort to meet his eyes again, despite the effort he made.

Unlike her, Sirius kept watching. He didn't know or care how many Gryffindors were sorted this year he found the loud rambunctious reactions of his house distracting from his observations of Hermione.

She looked thinner and paler. He couldn't tell from this distance, but her glamour charm didn't seem to hide the dark circles under her eyes, and the candlelight above them was not helping. She looked weaker, frail, and tired, trying to put on a façade to fool the Slytherins into thinking she was comfortable sitting in the center of attention, no doubt being questioned by the Slytherins about everything from her obscurial to their not-so-breakup.

Sirius couldn't admit to the fact that they were broken up. It gave him physical pain to think that their relationship had come to an end. He couldn't accept it. He couldn't believe it.

"It was your fault," that snobby voice told him.

Any form of an appetite he had disappeared.

"Why are you getting up?" James grabbed him. "You've barely touched your food."

No matter how much he looked like his father, at that moment, Sirius realized how much James took after his mother.

"I'm not that hungry."

"Oh, then let me just pack some food—" James tried to place some dinner rolls into a napkin to take upstairs when Sirius stopped him.

"No, have dinner with everyone. I'm just going to go up early and sleep."

He got up from his seat and make his way to the professors' table. He could feel all of Hogwarts's eyes on him as he approached McGonagall for the new password.

"Hello Professor," Sirius gave her the cheery voice he could manage. "I'm really knackered tonight, so I was wondering if—"

"Lionheart."

He blinked, but then a small but genuine smile grew on his face when he realized that his professor had seen through his mask and given him the password without hesitation or questioning.

"Thank you."

"Tomorrow is a new day, Mr. Black. And new days bring new possibilities, so I expect to see you bright-eyed for my class tomorrow morning."

"Yes, ma'am."

…

No one knew how to react around Hermione. Everyone awkwardly ate their dinner in silence, unsure of what to do with the presence of this girl. It was entirely unintentional, but she grabbed everyone's attention through her presence, her attitude of absolute nonchalance, her look, and her underlying mood that no one could pinpoint, but felt regardless. Everyone in Slytherin had indigestion that night.

Once dinner ended, they all moved out of their seats, shifting awkwardly when Hermione followed them out. She did not join them in the Slytherin Common room. She's never slept in her dorm, she's never really been a Slytherin in the traditional sense either.

"Y-you're following us…" Severus's sentence ended like he wasn't sure whether to make it a question or a statement.

"I'm going to the common room."

"You're going to the common room?"

"Where else would I go?"

Severus frowned, then paused. "Uhhhhh, wherever you go after eating. Now that you mention it, where do you sleep? Where do you go after school or class?"

The Slytherins around her slowed their pace and quieted their light chatter.

"The seventh floor," she explained vaguely. The Slytherins only knew of one place on the 7th floor, which was Gryffindor tower.

Severus looked curiously at her plastic smile, but everyone accepted her response and moved on.

Once they were close to the entrance to the common room, everyone glanced at Hermione. She raised her brow, waiting for their Prefect to open the doors.

"Go on."

They looked uneasy and unsure if they should speak the password in front of her.

"Forgot the password, did you?" Hermione asked, knowing exactly why they were hesitating. "D'you want me to ask Slughorn for you?"

"No," Severus stepped forward, a Prefect himself. "You're a Slytherin, just like the rest of us. You eat at the same table, you wear our colours and you uphold our values of cunning, ambition, and resourcefulness."

"She's not pureblooded," Travers spoke up.

"Well," Regulus stepped forward. "The values of Slytherin haven't included blood purity since Salazar, leaving the other three founders to govern the school. What are our values again, Snyde?"

"I-I…"

"Are you telling me you don't know our noble traits, Snyde? A seventh year?"

"Ambition,"

"Yes, good." Regulus walked towards the door. "And?"

"And…cunning."

"Let's do some that Severus hasn't already said, yes?"

"Achievement oriented?"

"Good Rosier!"

"Self-preservation?" Someone else in the back suggested.

Hermione walked through the group and placed her hand on the hidden door. "Leadership." The stone rumbled and the door revealed itself. She pushed through the doors and was the first to enter the Slytherin common room. Of course, she'd been in the common room before, but the experience of walking in felt different. She didn't need to tiptoe around people and drop by during a time when everyone was busy. It was the first time she so boldly walked into her common room, she was the trespasser for Slytherins, and a guest at Gryffindor, but it felt like she was finally making Slytherin House her own.

She turned around to see all the Slytherins still standing outside the door. Hermione sat on the couch and leaned back, facing them. "Come in."

…

Hermione smelled the beautiful rose bouquet in her hands, held together by a silk blue ribbon. She walked down the dark empty cobble streets of Hogsmeade's main square, trying to not let her memories overwhelm her mind.

"I've been away for a while, haven't I?" She muttered into the flowers. "I'm sorry, mummy's been busy. You see, the world here is changing, turning darker. This time I'm going to stop it so that what happened…to us, will never happen. Ever again."

She stopped at the exact spot where her children had died to place her flowers only to freeze at the sight of flowers already there.

"I've been waiting for you."

…