So here's a new chapter. I hope you like it.

Again, thank you for your reviews.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

When Hermione got to her dorm later that day, she was surprised to find on her bed a letter and a small package. She opened the letter and let out a sigh when Harry's writing was visible. She missed him.

Hermione,

I'm sure Ginny told you that due to my training in Ireland, I can't come to see you for the next couple of weeks, but after that, I might go to Hogsmeade, or I will probably come to Hogwarts and we will meet. I miss that old castle anyway.

Nevertheless, I received your last letter and I must say that I was surprised by your request. Surely the new Head Girl isn't thinking about breaking some rules, is she? By the way, congratulations on your new position. I am sure that you will be the best Head Girl ever. Especially with your new possessions...

Please tell Ginny that I love her. And I love you too.

Love, Harry.

Hermione sat on her bed, reading the letter slowly. When she finished, she opened the package and got hold of her two "new possessions". She tried on the cloak and watched on the mirror as she disappeared. "Yes, this could come in handy" she thought. She folded neatly the cloak and then opened the map whispering slowly: "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good" and watched as the Map unfolded its secrets.

There, she saw all the quarters, the classrooms, the hallway, everything of Hogwarts. She searched the Map for a couple of seconds until she found what she was looking for. In another side of the castle, Hermione could see Ginny's footsteps heading towards the Gryffindor Tower. In the room next to her, she could see Malfoy pacing back and forth and she couldn't help but wondering what was wrong with him. He was acting a bit strange even for him. Far away, in another side of the castle, Hermione could see that Headmaster Dumbledore was also pacing in his office and near by, in McGonagall's private chambers, the Witch was having company. Snape was with her and they were probably chatting over tea again. She decided that it was enough and closed the Map whispering "Mischief Managed".

"Would you care for more tea?" McGonagall asked Snape as she raised the tea kettle.

"No, thank you" he replied in a low voice.

"As you wish." She said lowering the tea-pot. "Tell me, Severus, how was your first day back at school?"

He let out an almost imperceptible sigh "You should have just let me die." He replied "At least in that state I didn't have to deal with all those dunderheads".

Minerva let out a small chuckle "Oh, Severus... I am so glad that we haven't lost you. And you know that it's because of Miss Granger that you are still alive... have you thanked her yet for saving your life?"

Snape let out a snort. "Ah, yes. Miss Granger. The new Head Girl. I must say, Minerva, she is not as I expected her to be in this position. I think that she lacks the qualities that a Head Girl must have..."

"What on Earth are you talking about, Severus? Surely you can't say that just because you found her after curfew on holiday. No. She is a perfectly good example for a Head Girl. Today for example, she did her duties very well when she accompanied a lost first year to my class and doing so, she was probably late for her own class. I hope she didn't get into trouble for I didn't have the time to write a note for her before she ran to class." The woman said thoughtfully.

Snape listened to Minerva's speech. Was it possible that the girl was late for his class because of what the woman had said? She didn't say anything about that. "What's wrong with her?" he thought irritated.

Minerva waited for him to say something, but it was clear that he wasn't going to answer and then she inquired slowly "You haven't thanked her, isn't it?"

He raised his head from his cup to look directly in the woman's eyes as he answered "No, I have not and I do not intent to. I have nothing to thank her about. She had no right in doing what she did. It was my turn to die."

"Do not ever say that! If it would have been your turn to die, then you would have died, but no, we were able to bring you back, therefore you were not supposed to die that day, Severus." The woman told him concerned.

"But my duty is over. I have served two masters; I was going to die by the hand of one of them after I thought I had killed the other. I helped as much as I could have and I did everything in my power for the boy to live. I did it all for Her. Now everything is over. He is safe and I have no purpose anymore". He told her.

She listened to his speech and then placed a hand on his own as she replied:"Dear boy, not everything is over. Hogwarts is still standing, you are still very much-needed here and you just have to let go, let her go. It belongs to the past, now. You are here, now. You say that you have no purpose anymore. Then make one, find one…"

Snape listened to her. Let her go? No. He wasn't capable of doing that, he didn't want to, even though she did belong to the past. "And what if I decide to leave Hogwarts?" he asked her.

Minerva thought for a second before answering, tears almost welling up in her eyes "That would make me very sad and Hogwarts would lose a brilliant Potions Master, but if that is what you wish, then we can't stand in your way. It is your decision, but please do remember Hogwarts would not be the same without you!"

"It is just an option" he said as he noticed the tears forming in her eyes. He didn't want to see her cry. He despised that kind of emotion. "But I don't think that I could bring myself to leave this castle. " He continued and Minerva's expression lit up at that. It really was an option, but the thought of leaving the castle, the thought of not teaching anymore made him cringe. No. As long as he had Hogwarts, he realized he had a purpose. He would not take that away from himself.

"I hope you stay, Severus…" Minerva said kindly.

"It seems that I can't bring myself to leave and let those dunderheads of yours bring down the castle." He said with a smirk.

The woman let out a small laugh at that and replied amused."Severus!"

The following morning, Hermione woke up a bit late so when she got to the Great Hall, accompanied by Malfoy again, everybody was already at the tables. As she took her place next to Ginny at the table, she noticed that everybody was staring at her. She turned her head to Ginny who was being extremely quiet. "Ginny? What's the matter? Why is everybody staring at me?"

The redheaded girl put down the newspaper she was holding and answered:"It's nothing, Hermione, don't worry…"

Hermione glanced over to Neville. He was keeping his eyes on his plate, avoiding her gaze. She then glanced to the newspaper Ginny was holding earlier and questioned:"What's in the paper?" and she reached to take the Daily Prophet from Ginny, but the redhead was quicker and pushed it away. Hermione raised her eyebrow at that.

"It's nothing, Hermione, just the normal rubbish I'm sure…" the other girl assured.

"Well can I see today's rubbish then?" Hermione questioned, starting to get irritated by her friend's behavior and everyone else's.

Ginny shot a quick glance to the tabloid and sighed before finally handing her the paper in question.

Hermione took the rag from her, leaned back in her chair to get comfortable and then unfolded it. Then she saw it. Ron was everywhere on that first page. And he wasn't alone. In a picture, he was accompanied by a tall beautiful blonde. "Maybe they are just friends" she thought, but then she laid her eyes on another picture. In that one, they were kissing. Hermione sighed slowly, closed the paper and then put it calmly on the table. She looked around. Everyone was waiting for her reaction. She saw amusement or compassion in their eyes. She hated how they looked at her. Even at the Teacher's Table she could see sympathy in McGonagall's and the rest of the teacher's eyes. Everyone except Snape's. His expression was blank and it was invigorating to see that not everyone felt sorry for her.

When she turned her head towards Ginny, she wasn't surprised to see anger in her eyes. She felt sorry for Ronald in that moment and then realization hit her. She didn't care about whereabouts and about his… companion. Everyone probably expected her to scream, to cry or something, but she felt nothing. On contrary, she actually felt a bit… relieved. "Is this normal? My boyfriend is cheating on me and I don't feel anything about it." She thought.

"Hermione," Ginny started."I am so sorry for that idiot of my brother. I don't know what he was thinking. It is probably a mistake, I will owl him and…"

She was interrupted by Hermione who reassured her "Ginny! Don't worry about it, ok? It is not your fault and you don't have to do anything about it. This is between Ron and me. I will deal with him later, ok?"

Ginny sighed and only nodded.

Hermione glanced again at the paper and saw the look on Ron's face. She couldn't remember the last time she saw him that happy. She let that thought go away and turned her attention towards the plate in front of her. Suddenly she wasn't hungry anymore and she was relieved when the other students got up from their seats and headed towards their classes. She pushed back the plate and rose to her feet. She had a free hour before her classes began and she decided to spend her time in the library, finishing a paper for the following day.

When she got out from the library, she ran up into her roommate, Malfoy.

"Are you heading to Potions?" he asked.

"Yes." She replied curt.

"I'll go with you, then" he offered with a smile.

She watched him for a second before answering "Ok…"

They walked in silence a couple of minutes before he broke the silence:"I've read the Daily

Prophet… I'm sorry…" he said awkwardly. It was clear that he was making an effort by saying those words.

She smiled "It's ok, but I don't want to talk about it…"

"I understand" he assured her. He was relieved. He didn't want to talk about Weasley and his… conquests either.

Five minutes later, they were standing in their places in the Potions classroom. He took his place next to Pansy, as Hermione took hers next to Neville. Everyone waited in silence for the Potions Master to make his appearance and he did just so a couple of minutes later. The door opened widely, and he came in, his robes billowing behind him.

"Turn to page 359 and begin preparing the ingredients and brewing that potion." He said as he leaned back on his desk, arms crossed at his chest.

Hermione opened her book at the demanded page and read the description of the potion "Alihotsy Draught. It is a potion made from the Alihotsy plant. Drinking it or inhaling its fumes induces hysteria."

After she read the description, she headed along with other students to the cupboard to gather her ingredients. When she finished, she headed back to her table and began cutting and slicing and she saw Neville doing the same.

Ten minutes later, as she was stirring the potion, she heard someone on the other side of the class broke into laughter. She turned her head and she was surprised to see Malfoy hysterical. He was a very capable brewer and she wondered how he managed to inhale the fumes when even Neville was not affected. She turned her attention to her potion. She didn't want that to happen to her as well, so she concentrated on her brewing. In the background, she could still hear Malfoy's laughing and others would join him as well. In the end, only she, Neville, and a couple other students were not laughing.

Everyone bottled their potion and took it to the professor. Hermione was still bottling her draught when Snape distracted her "Miss Granger, if you could stay a minute after class, I would like to have a word with you." As she listened to him, she inhaled some of the fumes of her potion, but nothing happened. She hoped that it would take a lot more to make her burst out into laughing.

She remained in her seat as the other students were being dismissed. When the last student exited the room, Snape motioned her to take the seat in front of his desk. She got up from her chair, feeling a little dizzy as she did so and then took her place on the chair in front of him.

He watched her in silence as she did what he said and then started with a scowl on his face: "Miss Granger, yesterday, I attracted your attention for not being an example as a Head Girl, but I found out that you were late just because you were being a Head Girl for another student. Care to enlighten me as to why you didn't tell me? What is it that you are playing, Miss Granger?"

She watched him as he finished his speech and then opened her mouth to explain herself, but she was surprised when laughter came out instead of words. His frown deepened as she laughed out.

"I… I am s…sorry, p… pr… professor" she managed to say between laughs. "I… It's the d… draught…I… I inhaled t…the fumes b…by mistake earlier."

He watched her as she laughed and he rose from his seat and went to the cupboard. He searched for a second and then returned with a vial of brown liquid in his hand. He handed it to her, but she was too busy laughing and cringing as she felt the pain in her back and stomach get stronger from the laugh. "M…make it s…stop, p…please" she pleaded with tears in her eyes.

He sighed and rolled his eyes before opening the vial. He stopped for a second and then took hold of the back of her neck, forcing it to stay put as he emptied the vial down her throat with his other hand. He stayed like that as her expression became peaceful. She was still sobbing from the hysteria, but it was clearly over.

"Thank you, professor" she managed to say after it was finally over and he took away his hand, returning to his seat.

"Yes, well I didn't expect you to get affected by it. Even Longbottom managed to stay away from the fumes somehow." He said as he raised his eyebrow.

"I was distracted." She defended herself.

"Yes, I heard about your dunderhead of a boyfriend's… conquests" he replied with a smirk.

She narrowed her eyes at him "It has nothing to do with Ron" she said.

He let that go, not wanting to discuss that dunderhead "And?" he started "Would you tell me what game are you playing" he inquired impatiently.

She made an effort to remember what he was talking about before answering "I'm not playing any game! I simply didn't want to find excuses. I was late."

He let out a snort "As you wish, Miss Granger, but next time please let the professor write a note about why you were late. If you do not do it for you, at least make an effort and think about your House. You could have lost points for that."

"You are right, I should have stayed and let the professor write the note, but I thought that it wouldn't be necessary if I got to the class in time. And I DO think about my House!" she said and raised her voice a little in the end.

"Careful, Miss Granger, raising your voice to a teacher does not put you in a nice spot." He pointed out.

"Sorry…" she said a bit ashamed.

He sighed as he leaned back in his chair "You are dismissed, Miss Granger."

She rose from her chair and bade him goodbye before exiting the room. After that class, she just wanted to go and sleep, but she had to wait until her other classes were over.