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

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Disclaimer: I do not own the characters and the world of Harry Potter.

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

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 come 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 in the mirror as she disappeared. She then neatly folded the cloak and 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, even the secret passages the Marauders were aware of. She searched the map for a couple of seconds until she found what she was looking for. On 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 wonder what he was doing. He was acting a bit strange even for him.

Far away, on another side of the castle, Hermione could see that Headmaster Dumbledore was also pacing in his office and nearby, 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 puffed. "And then having to possibly deal with your ghost all the time? No thank you." she joked, but he did not seem amused. The witch 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?" she asked while taking a careful sip of the steaming hot tea.

Snape let out a snort. "Ah, yes, the saviour. 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 because I didn't have the time to write a note for her before she ran away." The woman said thoughtfully.

Snape listened to Minerva's lecture. 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, haven't you?"

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 intend 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!" she smacked her friend on the back. "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; it was always clear to me I was going to die as a consequence, one way or another. I helped as much as I could 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. You are here, now. You say that you have no purpose anymore. If teaching the next generations of bright witches and wizards is not enough, 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, although he knew Hogwarts was his home, there was no place in the world he felt more at peace at. But he did enjoy making his colleague suffer a bit by thinking he would actually leave her alone.

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 might have gone too far, he didn't want to see her cry. He despised that kind of emotion. "But I don't think 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 some kind of purpose. It was enough to wake up in the morning. 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 after one of her tiresome nightmares of running from the Death Eaters. So when she got to the Great Hall, accompanied by Malfoy again, everybody was already at the tables, not paying as much attention to them as the day before.

As she took her place next to Ginny at the table, she noticed that everybody was starting to stare at her. She turned her head to Ginny who was being extremely quiet. "Ginny? What's the matter? Is it just me or 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 at 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 suspiciously.

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

"Well can I see today's rubbish then?" Hermione questioned, starting to get irritated by her friend's behavior and everyone else's. As she looked around, she noticed everyone turn their head away from her, nobody seemed to want to make eye contact.

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

Hermione took the rag away from her, leaned back in her chair to get comfortable and then unfolded it. She immediately saw it. Ron was everywhere on that first page. And he wasn't alone. In the pictures, he was accompanied by a tall beautiful blonde. She thought, maybe that they were just friends, but then she laid her eyes on another picture. In that one, they were caught in a passionate kiss. 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, not even looking at her 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 at that moment and then realization hit her. She didn't seem to care about his new companion. Everyone probably expected her to scream, to cry or something, but she felt nothing. On the contrary, she actually felt a bit… relieved. It felt wrong to even feel that way, to find out your boyfriend for one year is cheating on you and to not feel anything about it. Had she really not felt anything for him during this time? She was sure she did, that he had some kind of feelings for him practically from the start and they only both accepted their feelings during that horrible time of torment.

She was hurt, yes, and disappointed to find his behaviour in a newspaper, she preferred he had talked to her right away, but other than that, she could not find inside of her the feelings of love and betrayal she must have been feeling.

Hermione was too stunned to speak. To everyone else, she might have looked like she just got her heart broken, but that was far from the truth. That was, however, exactly what stunned her. She was sure Ronald was the man for her, she saw herself getting married, even having kids with him. But apparently, she didn't stop to think if she actually loved him.

When their relationship started, during those uncertain times, it all felt natural, but thinking about it she knew they unconsciously probably thought they would not have much time left and acted on those childish feelings only to now discover that it was never more than that.

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

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, okay?"

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 Severus took his seat at the teacher's table in front of the Great hall that morning, he didn't expect the day to take such an unexpected turn just from the start. As soon as he sat down, Minerva threw the new edition of the Daily Prophet in front of him, disgust smeared all over her face.

He didn't even have to read the article to figure out what was going on. The new Head Girl just got unceremoniously dumped. Oh, what fun, he thought, a small smirk forming on his lips. It seemed there was something she was not excelling at. He snorted at the thought. He never did understand how on earth the two of them got together anyway. It was clear as day they did not have a lot in common except for being part of the famous Golden Trio.

As he glanced at the Gryffindor table, where Granger usually sat, he saw the empty seat and hoped that maybe he would not see her today at all. He knew she had Potions with him in a couple of hours, but he secretly hoped she would need a few days to recuperate after the current… affair.

He knew she had stepped inside the Great Hall by the silence that had fallen upon the whispering students. As he shot a quick glance in her direction, she saw her accompanied by his godson again. He made a mental note to observe this new relationship further and possibly inquire after Draco to make sure he was not back at his old ways of torturing his fellow students. Who knew what was going through the blonde boys' mind. Knowing him and his father, he knew there could not be anything good. Yes, their attitude after the fall of the Dark Lord had changed, but they were still a couple of Slytherins. And nobody understood Slytherins more than himself.

As he observed the brightest witch of her age, and he almost rolled his eyes at the thought, he was somewhat shocked to see her unconcerned attitude. He was immediately irritated, as his dreams of having a few classes without her presence slowly dissipated. It did seem, however, that she was no longer so keen on showing off her ability to recount the written information she found in books. He remembered the previous day when he had to make her answer his question. Past Granger would not have missed the opportunity to wave her hand in the air. Her interfering in Longbottom's potion was still uncalled for, but he knew he shouldn't expect so much from the Gryffindor girl.

When Hermione got out from the library, she ran into her roommate, who seemed to have been pacing back and forth in the library corridor. Had he been waiting for her? But that was ridiculous, she thought, he could have just gone inside and talked to her.

"Are you heading to Potions?" he asked.

"Yes." She replied curt as she eyed him suspiciously. She was still not used to him talking to her.

"I'll go with you, then, today's class is mixed after all." he offered with a smile.

She watched him suspiciously for a second before answering "Okay…"

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 to say those words. Hermione was sure she had never heard him say anything remotely similar to those words.

She smiled "Thanks. But if it's ok, I don't want to talk about it." She really did not want to explain to anyone how she really wasn't affected by her boyfriend's cheating.

"I understand," he assured her and he seemed genuinely relieved.

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 the 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." She stared at the page in front of her. She just couldn't think of a case in which this particular potion was even useful. She was also sure by now that the potion they were about to brew was not a N.E.W.T level potion which meant professor Snape was testing them again.

After she read the description, she headed along with other students to the cupboard to gather her ingredients. When she was finished, she headed back to her table and began cutting and slicing and she noticed Neville doing the same, discreetly mirroring her moves, exactly as she instructed him to do.

Ten minutes later, as she was carefully stirring the potion so as to not damage the Alihotsy leaves, she heard someone on the other side of the class break into laughter. She turned her head and she was surprised to see Malfoy laughing uncontrollably. He was a very capable brewer and she wondered how he managed to inhale the fumes when even Neville was not affected.

The look on the professor's face told her he was extremely displeased with his godson. She was sure he was expecting Neville to be the first one to mess up.

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 laughter and others would join him as well. In the end, only she, Neville, and a couple other students were not affected by the fumes.

At the end of the class, everyone bottled their potion and took it to the professor. Hermione was still carefully 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." He did not sound pleased and 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 laughing.

She remained in her seat as the other students were being dismissed. When the last hysterical 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 helping another student. Care to enlighten me as to why you didn't tell me? What is it that you are playing here, Miss Granger?" He seemed genuinely irritated.

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 it out.

"I… I am so…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 when I… was b… bo… bottling it!" She made a real effort to explain between fits of laughter.

She thought she heard him mutter something under his breath, and he was definitely not amused. Hermione was embarrassed. "P… please, professor!" she hurried, "make it s… stop!" she was actually uncomfortable and her sides and back hurt from all the effort. She had tears in her eyes. She could only imagine how the other students were feeling, some of them had laughed the entire class!

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 her hands were trembling, not being able to control herself. Severus admonished himself for teaching them such an unstable potion. It was clear none of them were prepared to be around the more volatile potions. Merlin, he would surely hex the next person who dared laugh in his presence!

The girl went through another fit of laughter and he saw her shakily press her fingers into her sides. He knew she was in pain so he sighed and rolled his eyes before opening the vial. He stopped for a second and then gently took hold of the back of her neck, forcing her head to stay still as he emptied the vial down her throat with his other hand. He stayed like that as her expression became peaceful.

"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 an eyebrow.

"I was distracted." She defended herself.

"I would expect you to keep your private life from interfering in class, Miss Granger." he replied with a smirk. It was unfortunate that he had to even think about the Weasley boy's love life. The thought made him sick to his stomach.

She narrowed her eyes as she realized what he was implying. "It has nothing to do with Ron, sir!" she said. "Besides, professor, what's the usage for this kind of potion anyway?" She was genuinely curious.

"Are you really questioning my reasons for teaching such a simple potion?" he dared her.

"No, sir!" She quickly defended herself. "I'm merely curious about its use case."

"Well, Miss Granger, if you must know, this particular potion is widely used in the treatment of Cruciatus victims. As well as an effective… torture device." he explained.

Hermione just blinked. Did he just say torture? "Torture, sir? You mean all those students out through the halls who still feel the effect of the potion, they are being tortured?" she was horrified.

The professor scoffed. "Don't be absurd, Miss Granger! That is not how torture works. In this case, the potion is not potent enough to even be considered a torture device, and even if it were, neither of you were forced to drink or inhale its fumes. And it might have escaped your notice, Miss Granger, but nobody had anything to gain by watching you make fools out of yourselves!"

Hermione's cheeks turned a few shades of pink as the professor admonished her. So much for not irritating him she thought. Merlin, how she hated looking stupid in front of him. She had always looked up to him, searched for his approval in one way or another, but it all seemed to be in vain. The man was set on hating her.

"Of course, I'm sorry, sir!" she lowered her gaze. She did not dare look him in the eyes anymore.

"Now, Granger, care to tell me what game you were playing?" he inquired impatiently. He felt a headache coming in.

She made an effort to remember what he was talking about before answering "I'm not playing any games, sir! 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 even more points for that."

"You are right, sir. 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.

"I apologise, sir!." she said, 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.