Hermione kept replaying the conversation she had with Snape over in her head. He wanted to have a relationship with her- a proper one at that too!

She frowned a bit. It hardly seemed like his character to willingly let himself be vulnerable and open, especially with a student. Did he really mean all of that? How can I even be sure?

It seemed that it was time for Hermione Granger to do what she did best- research. She had to find out more about this bird. There's no way it could just prance around bonding with people and granting wishes at another person's expense!

What if her deepest desire was him, but his wasn't hers? Did the bird's magic cause him to act like that? There was so much that she needed to find out before she drove herself insane. She needed a quiet place where she wouldn't be bothered, not just because she worked best alone, but because today was also her birthday.

She sighed at that thought. She would normally look forward to this occasion, but that was when she actually had a family to celebrate it with. After the war, Hermione had returned to her parents, anxious to reverse her Obliviate, but was faced with an empty house. Sometime during those months, her parents decided to move- probably because of the unrest in England and the inability to control the Dark events affecting the Muggle world. At that point, she didn't attempt to locate them- it hurt too much and she considered it to be her own punishment for her selfish involvement. If she hadn't cared so much about the world that her parents didn't even belong to, then maybe she'd be celebrating with mum's lemon cake tonight.

A silent tear slid down her cheek at the thought of those memories. She missed her parents dearly, but she figured they were safe and happy now.

It was best if she just forgot about her birthday. Besides, it's not as if people would remember it anyway- she never considered it a huge deal. She made a mental note to treat herself to something nice the next time she was able to take a trip into Hogsmeade.

Casting a quick Tempus, she noted that if she hurried she could get in a good two hours of restricted section research before it closed for the night. She grabbed her bag and headed in that direction.

SLAM!

After thirty minutes of browsing, Hermione dropped five large books on the table she found in the back of the section marked "Creatures". She prayed that at least one of them contained some more information on her bird. She knew quite a lot about it already, but there were still so many important and unanswered questions.

'Aves cupios, aves cupios, aves cupios…,' Hermione chanted silently to herself as she flipped hurriedly through one of the books. Nothing. She sighed and picked up the second one in the pile. She had a feeling that she might have to come back another day in order to properly research.

She had already spent a good hour and a half finding nothing and was seriously contemplating tossing each and every one of the good for nothing books out the castle window, when she looked down at the last book in her pile. She smiled devilishly.

'Happy Birthday to me,' she mumbled. 'I wish this book had everything I need to know about aves cupios.'

Normally she would have severely frowned against using magic for research, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Within seconds, the book in front of her started flipping pages automatically until it reached the chapter on her bird. She smiled excitedly and ravenously dug into the chapter.

She had only been reading for about five minutes, when she got to the section that she sought the most: Bonding.

'The bond between this creature and a human is one of most desired of all magical creatures because it dictates the character of the human. The aves cupios only bonds to those whose desires are pure of heart and of mind. These bonds are extremely rare due to the fact that the bird seeks to find a human whose desires match those of another. The magical qualities of the bird are strong enough to seek out a bond such as this one, but being the rarest type of bond, most of the birds find only humans with a pure heart.

The bird never bonds with a human whose wishes would never be received by another, for it serves a purpose of happiness and not one of hurt. The bond is broken once the deepest desire of the bonded human has been satisfied. The human is then left with a token to remember the bond and the happiness granted to him or her. In the case of the double human bond, where the unbonded human is merely affected due to his or her matching desires to the bonded, he or she will also receive a token of the bond.

To date, tokens have included pendants, feather headpieces, and rings of gold. Only two cases of double human bonding have been recorded and the tokens were not able to be retrieved by researchers.'

Well, Hermione thought, that explains a lot. At least she knew that Snape hadn't been talking under the influence of the bird, and now his feelings for her were confirmed. Snape really did want her. That knowledge was probably the best birthday present she had ever received, she smiled to herself.

So, she was bonded to the bird, most likely because Snape's desires matched her own. Were his feelings always like that? They've only been talking recently- in fact, it was really only since the arrival of the bird. How could he have possibly had these feelings before? She found herself growing weary at the new string of questions that began plaguing her mind. Eventually she was going to have to ask him, but she figured it was best to wait until they grew more accustomed to one another.

She quickly and effortlessly placed her selections back onto their appropriate shelves, and walked back to her dormitory completely lost in thought.

She wasn't surprised when she found the common room empty aside from the crackling fire, and sighing, she made her way up to her private rooms. She opened the door and froze without having taken a step through the corridor.

Floating delicately above her bed was a banner that read 'Happy Birthday, Hermione!' and balloons that sparkled as they floated gracefully around the room. She silently closed her door and wiped away the tears that were starting to form in her eyes. On her bureau was a card and two presents, one wrapped carefully- clearly Ginny's work- and the other not so much. Oh Harry, Hermione chuckled to herself. She opened the card,

Happy Birthday, 'Mione!

I know you'd never think we would forget! We know that it's not something you like to share, but we'd never miss the day to let you know how much you mean to us! Ron worked on the décor- impressive, eh?! Ginny and I wanted to get you a little something special.

You'll always be a best friend and sister to us!

Love,

Harry, Ron, and Ginny

Hermione couldn't believe it. How could she have thought that her best friends would forget her birthday? She carefully unwrapped Ginny's present first- handmade perfume composed of her favorite scents that changed depending on her mood. Harry gifted her a quill that would never run out of ink. She laughed, he knows me so well. She was so elated that despite the fact that she no longer had her parents, she still had the best family she could ever ask for.

She happily changed into her night-clothes, and was climbing into bed when she saw a small package sitting on her windowsill. She couldn't think of anyone else who would have known it was her birthday, so she picked up the package carefully. She cast a quick revealing spell to check for any dark magic, and watched the brown paper change into dark green. Taking that as a sign to continue, she opened the package and pulled out a small card,

Happy Birthday.

She pulled out the most exquisite dragon skin notebook that she had ever seen, and flipped through it gently. It was absolutely perfect for her new apprenticeship. She went to put it carefully back into the box when she noticed a smaller box. She lifted it up and opened it excitedly, peering inside.

Lemon cake.

She was so stunned that she almost dropped the sweet. Wh- who could have possibly known? That secret wasn't even something that she had shared with her friends. She closed her eyes, unwilling to cry anymore, and sampled the cake. It was perfect. It was just what she needed.

But who would have done such a thing? She was confused and picked up the small card once more. How could she have missed the elegant script! The green wrapping, the notebook- Snape. He didn't even know today was her birthday, or at least she didn't think he did, but yet he knew exactly what it was she needed.

There was no denying before that he cared about her, but this just showed how deeply his feelings ran. Hermione made a silent promise to herself that she would treat him just the same, glided into bed with a smile on her face, and gave a tiny thought of appreciation to the bird that had made this all possible.