Upon re-editing this chapter, I can see I was a bit brutal to Ron :D He definitely isn't my favorite character. Can you tell? H.x  

The next few days had passed with a mixture of boredom and awkwardness. Hermione was sick to death of staring at the same four walls of her hiding place. Each day, students would return with tales of the Carrows and Snape. Some of them would be cradling fresh bruises and adorning new cuts. Little had occurred. It was obvious that Snape hadn't been discovered yet and no one had leaked the secret, that in fact, the missing and presumed dead Hermione Granger was stowed away safely within the walls of the castle. 

That was until the day The Lady In The Portrait had appeared and the door had opened. Hermione was content sticking to the rear end of the crowd, as two familiar figures appeared. One with red hair and the other with black. There had been even more of an uproar than when Hermione had returned, and she had been the one that everyone thought dead. Hermione felt a presence next to her and looked up to see it was Draco. He looked as uneasy as she felt. 

Harry and Ron remained at the front of the crowd, basking in the glory of their return. Ron, whose hair covered his eyes, was holding a large branch and had a limp. Harry looked dirty but otherwise uninjured. Hermione was glad that they were okay, but she knew that their arrival would only spark trouble. 

"Stop. QUIET. Shut it!" Harry was trying to call everyone to attention. Hermione had blinked and Ginny had attached herself to his side at the front of the crowd. She couldn't help but wonder whom Ron was scanning the crowd for. 

"I know that its all very exciting that we're back, but we need to know, what has been happening here?" Harry asked. "DON'T all shout out. One person at a time." His forehead creased as his patience wore dangerously thin. 

Draco caught Hermione's gaze again. She stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to her ear. "I don't care what they say, I'm sticking by your side, Draco." 

The young man blushed as though she had been whispering sweet nothings into his ear. He stuffed his hands deep into his pockets and nodded at Hermione. Meanwhile, the crowd were shouting out to Harry and Ron about the atrocities that had happened while they had been away. 

"The Carrow's torture us."

"They broke my nose."

"McGonagall is Powerless."

"Snape is back." 

"I haven't been able to sleep for weeks."

The moaning continued and Hermione wondered if she could slip away, unnoticed, to somewhere else. The astronomy tower? Snape's office? A broom closet? Draco seemed to be having similar thoughts, judging by how stiff he stood. 

"Hermione's back!" Screamed a voice. 

There it was, her cover was blown. 

"And Malfoy." 

Apparently she was dragging Draco down with her.

She tried not to hang her head in shame. She tried not to shy away out of the spotlight. But perhaps it was because she had been living with a recluse this entire time, she couldn't help herself. 

Her cheeks burned as the crowds parted, allowing Hermione and Draco to come into full view of the two men on the stage. Of course, Ron was the first one to act, leaping off of the stage and pelting towards her like there was no tomorrow. "MIONE." He shouted, gleefully. 

He smelt of firewood, must and body odor. It was not a flattering combination of scents by anyone's standards. Hermione held her breath as Ron embraced her. The wool of his worn jumper was scratchy and uncomfortable against her face. She felt guilty, but all she wanted to do was escape. What if Severus saw her like this? what would he think?

Professor Snape had hated Ron for good reason. Bill and Charlie Weasley were excellent students. But unfortunately, the same academic excellence did not bless all of the members of the Weasley brood. Percy was highly intelligent, but his arrogance and pompousness had gotten the better of him. He had betrayed his family name. He was considered a blood traitor in a family of blood traitors. He no longer associated with the rest of the family. Fred and George had thought that their abilities were far above the academic specifications. They experimented in their classes and frequently misbehaved, but were famous in Hogwarts for their cunning pranks and devilish sense of humor. Next came Ron, his only significance being that he was Harry Potter's best friend. Severus had told Hermione that to her face. He was the least academically inclined out of the bunch, probably due to his own laziness. Ginny had managed to bring some redemption and had began to take after her older brothers. She could only be described as a force of nature. 

Hermione was unaware that Severus was jealous of the Weasley family unit. Loving parents who supported their children in their magical education and in achieving their dreams of becoming curse breakers and chasers and dragon keepers. Severus had none of those things growing up. Instead of being loved and treated kindly, his bastard muggle father had attempted to beat the magic out of him. His father had killed his mother, his only friend left in the world. 

His hatred towards the Weasleys was completely justified, in his opinion. Hermione vaguely understood where he was coming from. She was suddenly afraid that Severus was rubbing off on her a little too much. 

The next to envelope her in his arms was Harry. Hermione has missed him greatly. Her best friend. She felt guilty for being unable to send him word of her survival. He too smelt of smoke and dirt. His glasses were mucky and his clothes were filthy. He had clearly not shaven nor cut his hair since Hermione had been there. She smiled sheepishly at him. 

Harry's eyes were fixed on Draco though. "What are you doing here?" He said bitterly. Ron was clearly trying to intimidate the Slytherin as well, broadening his shoulders and holding his head high.

"That's a very philosophical question Potter. Do any of us really know what we are doing? Are we even real?" He raised and eyebrow and Hermione repressed her snort.

Ron swung for Draco, who ducked, causing Ron to topple over into the crowd of people surrounding they. They were barely able to hold back the snarling Weasley.

"Cut the crap, Malfoy. What's going on?" Harry pressed, his temper was splitting at the seams. 

Hermione stood up in-front of Harry, blocking his view of Draco. "Harry, can we do this in private? Really, it's not what you think." She tried to bring calm.

Draco smirked at the sight of Hermione standing up for him. Even he never thought he'd see the day that a Muggle-born would stand up for a Pureblood. His eyes ran over Granger's curves and up to her curls in a way that would make Weasley rage. 

If only he was inclined that way. Hermione would have definitely been his type. 

"No! Whatever shoddy excuse the bastard has, he can say it in front of everyone." Ron growled.

"Really Ronald?" Hermione shrieked.

Draco folded his arms. "Don't worry about it Hermione. For me to appreciate his insult, i'd first have to value his opinion." 

Ron launched for Draco again, Harry had stepped between the pair now, alongside Hermione. "Right! just calm down. The both of you." Harry spoke with authority. "How about we step into the bathroom, away from prying eyes, and discuss this like adults?" 

Hermione smiled a little. "Lets go." 

_____

It was an odd scene. Hermione was sat on one of the sinks, trying not to fall in rear first. It was un-comfortable but it worked. Ron and Harry were perched on a window sill. The glass was fogged with a staining of a whale, that was happily splashing around in the sea. Draco was sat on the lid of the toilet, at the furthest point away from Ronald. 

Hermione twiddled her thumbs. "Draco, would you care to explain everything that you have told me?" 

Ron looked as though he began to pipe up, right before Harry jabbed his wand at him in warning. No words came out. 

"I'm assuming that you are un-aware of the true allegiance of Snape. He is a devoted member of The Order of the Phoenix, and has been acting under Dumbledore's orders the entire time. Before you say anything, Dumbledore was dying of a curse. He would have died before the final battle of this war, regardless of whether Snape killed him or not. He asked Snape to put him out of his misery." 

"My Father was aware of Snape's allegiance and sought out the same pardon from Dumbledore. That was back in our fifth year, when he discovered The Dark Lord's plans to have me indoctrinated into the Death Eaters. Of course, the Malfoy name is synonymous with The Dark Lord. There wasn't a chance in the fiery pits of hell of us going public. We would have been massacred by both sides." 

"In fact, my mother and father played a huge part in concealing Granger when everyone thought she was dead." Draco shrugged. Hermione smiled into her lap. 

She could tell that Harry had a million questions in his mind right now, while Ron probably had a brick wall between his thoughts and the truth. "What happened to you Hermione?" Harry asked. 

"Harry it was awful." Hermione sobbed, fixating on her lap. 

"When you left, Bellatrix decided that she had had enough fun torturing me and so she gave me to the men, who forced themselves on me. It went on for hours until Snape managed to get me out of there." 

"Snape!" Ron was clearly seething. 

"Seriously Ron, I will petrify you if you cant keep it together!" Hermione shouted and Draco chuckled. 

"I woke up in Snape's house. He was surprisingly gentle with me. He told me of his allegiance to Dumbledore and The Order and he clothed and fed me. Considering I was thought to be dead, I couldn't go out, so Snape arranged for Mr and Mrs Malfoy to bring clothes. He looked after me, until it was decided that he should take the post of Headmaster. That is how I ended up here." Hermione trailed off. 

Harry searched Hermione's face, which was shadowed by her hair. "You couldn't have written to us? Not even to let us know you were alive?" He accused. 

Draco answered for her. "And risk the letter being intercepted and have her cover blown? May I remind you that it was you two who left Granger in the first place." 

Ron stuttered. "We had no choice. Hermione was on the floor on the other side of the room. We were surrounded by spell fire. There was no way we could have gotten to her without killing ourselves."

Draco gritted his teeth. "You do understand how completely selfish that sounds, Weasley? Perhaps your father should have wiped you on the sheets, rather than created such a self-centered bastard." 

"OKAY FINE!" Harry's voice silenced any further hostility. "We shouldn't have left you Hermione. Believe me. I have felt guilty about that since the second we apparated out of the manor. Your death was on our hands because we made the wrong judgement. But you're alive, 'mione. I know we don't deserve it, but I hope that you can give Ron and I a second chance." 

Draco scowled. Hermione took a deep breath. Ron was staring outside the window. Harry looked at his hands.

Hermione didn't need legilimency to know what everyone was thinking. Draco thought Harry and Ron were idiots. He had done so for years and his opinion had not changed. But he was currently seething about how they had treated Hermione, who had been nothing but accepting of him since she had arrived at Hogwarts these past couple of days. He had secretly hoped that Harry too, would invite him in with open arms, but nothing of the such had happened yet. 

Harry was clearly beating himself up. Hermione had been there since the start. He had probably just ruined a 7 year long friendship. He stressed, the poor bloke. People were out there, literally looking to impale his head on a spike. 

Ron, she suspected, was worried about how he might have affected his chances of being with Hermione. Molly had told Hermione plenty of times that she was right girl for her Ron. Ginny was already gearing up to be maid of honor at their wedding. there might have been a time that Hermione would have been delighted to  accept such an offer. But now she was horrified. There was only man she wanted, and in comparison, Ron was a child. Naturally, Hermione suspected that Ron was likely blaming Malfoy for everything that had ever gone wrong in his life. Wizarding blood rivalries were the worst. 

Hermione cleared your throat. "I forgive you. But I can't promise that this wont change our relationship." 

Harry jumped. "Hermione, all we ask is that you try and look past this. We can work on our relationship later? Right Ron?" 

Ron seemed to forget he was in the room. "What? oh yeah?" He grumbled. 

_______

Severus was 5 minutes away from the staff meeting that he had called. He felt nauseous. He felt like his secret was written all over his face. He paced the staff room and grumbled to himself. "Damned witch!". 

Being apart from her was already proving a difficult task. His mood had lowered significantly since the sun had left his life. He was grumpy and mean, a side of himself that he hadn't been in touch with for a few months. Now he couldn't escape it. 

They had ended on a bad note. It wasn't like he could go crawling back to her and profess his undying love. She'd probably slap him if she ever saw him again. No. He had dug his own grave. Judging by The Dark Lord's impatience, he would soon be tucking himself in and settling down for the rest of eternity. 

His colleagues had began to let themselves into the staff room, silently taking their seats. Severus continued to pace. His mind unable to focus on anything other than the girl who haunted his mind like a ghost. What a perfect metaphor. They did have unfinished business after all. Snape decided that he would never be finished with her. 

He wanted her to be a part of his life until the day he passed. Even if she wanted to remain platonic, he would happily befriend her just to have her influence in his life again. Merlin.  He would gladly share a cup of tea with her every morning, if she would let him. Although, he thought he would be pushing his luck to ask her to let him tuck her in every night, too. 

He couldn't tell her any of this. It was a tragedy. 

The Carrow twins had entered with a large enough amount of noise and animosity to pull Severus out of his day dream and glare at them. 

"SIT down!" He banged his hand on the table. "It is bad enough that I have to deal with the students rowdy behavior. I do NOT expect that type of behavior from my staff."