Severus woke up with his lap covered by a thick tome. His neck screeched with pain as he lifted it up from the back of the leather chair he was sitting on. The candle he had been reading by had extinguished itself but not before dripping wax all over the top of the desk. He looked over to the clock on the mantle and wondered why Hermione's monster hadn't woken him up yet. A few puzzling moments later, he remembered that the beast was no longer residing in his rooms and neither was its owner. He stretched leisurely as he reveled in that thought. He considered the time, seven o'clock, thanked the gods for no longer being a teacher and decided that it was the perfect time to take a nap.

He woke up in the same chair, with the same leather book covering him. This time, however, his neck yielded more violent protests. He got up from the armchair and drifted to the bookshelf to replace the volume he had used as a blanket. A slightly open cabinet caught his eye. He shut the door. Paused. Then opened the door to study the contents of the cabinet. Parchment, Muggle-styled notebooks, and a large quantity of unopened ink jars were precariously stacked on top of each other. There, at the very bottom, something shone in a smooth stone fashion. Severus reached through the contents and closed his hand over the object and pulled it out.

It was a Pensieve, a lovely polished malachite Pensieve. He set the object down on the desk and examined it. It wasn't his, process of elimination led him to believe that it belonged to his ex-wife. But better make sure, right? He drew his wand from his sleeve and stirred the gelatinous silver substance.

He was no longer in the study but in the room outside the study. It was dark and the fireplace was lit. A few candles were alight around the room. He saw himself sitting on a sofa by the fire. He was smiling. Not smirking or sneering, smiling. He looked at the other end of the sofa. His ex-wife was also smiling as she gestured animatedly about something. He remembered now. They had come back from an Order dinner at the Burrow. The Weasley twins had provided entertainment in the form of fireworks at tea time. In the teacups. Mad-eye Moody had been the first victim. Hermione and Severus had come back after the event and started laughing about the energy with which the aged Auror had leaped out of his chair and hexed the life out of the flowered teacup.

Severus withdrew his wand. He should give the Pensieve back to Hermione. He would, tomorrow.