Declaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it.

Hermione's POV

I could feel the shock setting in but it was not the shock of nearly dying, no I still wanted that. It was the shock that I was dragging him into another potentially very dangerous situation. The couch dipped beside me and I turned to face him, I took in the sight of him, no-one would have guessed that he could posses so much compassion behind his stiff exterior, not even me, which is why I need to do what I don't want to do. I must hurt him, so much so that he cannot even stand to look at me nor be in the same room that I am in.

He is finally free of his Masters and I will not drag him into any situation where the possibility of him getting hurt is too great. I care too much for him to see him physically hurt again. I would put him in too much danger. He needs to be safe and I will make sure that that happens by any means necessary if it comes down to it.

General POV

She raised an arm to his face and traced some of the lines that were etched there, his eyes fluttered closed and a smile adorned her lips as he sighed.

"I cannot tell you."

That simple statement made his heart stop beating and his eyes nearly pop out of his skull.

"Why? I can help you, you know my mother had the same thing, please let me help you!"

Her heart was heavy, it would be so easy to allow him to help her and help to take the pain away but she knew, that in the long run, it would only make things worse. She would be dammed if she let him jeopardise his position in school or risk his life to help save her miserable life.

"No, I won't and you can't make me."

"But I can, I will if it comes down to it."

"No you can't, while I was on the run with the two boys I taught myself Occlumency, well the theory behind it. I trained my mind with the tools necessary for it and when I was taken to...Malfoy Manor I put everything I had into making the theoretical walls strong enough to withstand any attack on them. The Headmaster also helped, he was shocked at first then understood my need for privacy."

He was not a man who was shocked easily but this had shocked him, she knew Occlumency...What else did she know?

"And do you, do you know Legilimency?"

"The theory behind it, but I'm sure with a little practice that I could do it."

Everyone knew that she was the brightest witch of her age, hell, her generation but this; learning Occlumency and Legilimency was something else. It had taken him years to master just one of the crafts and she had learned both of them in less than a year. She truly was brilliant which was just one more reason that he lov- wanted to help her.

"And you would throw all of this away? This knowledge that could possible help someone in the future?"

When it all came down to it she that now was the time to get him to push her out of his rooms, she had to hurt him. Something that she loathed to do as he had told her of his past and he – to some extent – trusted her.

"Yes and you need to accept that, you say that you didn't help your mother but you did Severus, you did. You...you didn't stop her."

His faced which normally looked like crisp snow was now filled with the rage of ten lions.

"I. Didn't. Stop. Her?"

"Yes, that was how you helped her."

She saw it coming but it still hurt nonetheless. Her jaw started to ache from where he had hit her but she made no move to try and lessen the dull ache, after all, she had hurt him.

"Get. Out."

Before the last word had even left his lips she had leapt out of her seat and into the air, the door shut behind her and she didn't stop running until she reached her portrait. While she ran she knew he would have done a lot worse to her had he not given her a chance to escape and for that she was thankful.

Breathlessly she mumbled the password and collapsed on the floor once the portrait had swung shut.

The clock chimed the twelfth hour and she felt the days events catching up with her. Without moving from her spot on the floor she drifted once more into the land slumber, albeit restless slumber.

Down in the Dungeons – 1 am.

The tables were overturned and everything that was made of glass except the decanter and on tumble now looked like tiny diamonds. A man in the armchair snored softly with his head lolled over to the side, arm dangling limply by his side and his breath reeking of alcohol. That was how Draco Malfoy found his godfather.

Wordlessly he repaired all of the glass objects and righted his desk, and then went into his private lab to try and find a hangover potion. Thankfully he found one, it had a little dust on it but at the moment he didn't think that the potions master cared for the appearance of the bottle. Re-entering the rooms he found the man in the exact same position that he had left him in and made his way over to him. The room was a bit cold and before administering the potion he re-lit the fire that must have gone out a while ago, once the room was bathed in an orange glow woke the sleeping man.

"Draco?" He mumbled, looking disorientated.

"Drink."

Severus drank without complaint and that alone showed how bad he was. He waited a few minutes, making sure that the man's eyes became focused once more before sitting down on the the chair opposite him. He took notice of how his godfather was sitting, head bowed, arms crossed and frowned, not many things could drive him to the bottle with his past.

"Want to tell me what happened?"

"No." He looked miserable but he had no pity for him if he refused to tell him.

"All right then, do you want to know why I am here at 1am in the morning?"

That made him jerk, his face was priceless and had it not being for his gut telling him not to he would have made some remark. The man across from him sighed and ran a hand across his weary face.

"It's 1am?" Draco waited for that to set in before answering his questions, "only if the news if somewhat pleasant Draco."

"Then I must disappoint you Severus, and I would gladly not tell you because I know your...connection to her but something needs to be done right away."

That got his attention, there were very few females that he associated himself with and even fewer that he actually cared for.

"Who is it Draco, I have no patience tonight or could you not tell from the tumble beside me?"

"Hermione Granger Severus, both her and her parents are in trouble."

Hermione Granger's rooms.

Had she been awake she would have heard the tapping on the window, she would have seen the owl with a letter and had she read the letter she would have blamed herself.

But alas, she was not awake and she lay on the floor where she had crumbled just a few hours earlier, oblivious to the fact that she was now an orphan.

*Ducks behind the screen but reaches over to play the haunting beautiful piano music with a panto twist for MidnightSun.x*

I have decided to put any A/N's down here for now and see how it goes. So first things first, I must apologise for how long I left this story for and how fast chapter is moving. I want to get opinions, does anybody think that this story is moving too fast? I have been reading some really long 100 chapter fics at the moment and I am amazed at how well they are written and how the action/drama and everything else is.

New chapter will be up when I have finished telling myself off for leaving it here, believe me I really didn't want to but my brain doesn't want to co-operate with me. But I needed to get a chapter of this up and this has to be one of the longest A/N's I have done so I am stopping now,

Until next time, LooneyLovey