Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter…if I did all of our favorite characters ( you know who they are) would still be alive…

A/N: I've written in the Siriously Mione, Remus/Hermione and George/Hermione fan worlds, so I thought, why not write another fic for my other favorite fandom? So as a result of this thought, here is the first part in a two-shot story that ended up being a little long for a one shot… hope you enjoy!

FYI: any questions you have about the relationship between Hermione and Draco look up my other story One Decision that Changed Everything! ^_^

On with the story!

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The Truth About Scars

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"Check mate," he said, a small smirk pulling at the corners of this lips.

Hermione frowned and stared at the pieces, "No way!" she exclaimed, "I didn't play for two and half hours just so you could beat me again!" Hermione looked up from the wizarding chess board in the Hogwarts staff room to stare suspiciously at the potion's professor, "You cheated," she stated petulantly.

Severus Snape didn't bother hiding his smirk this time, "I may be a lot of things, Professor, but a cheater is not one of them. If you lost this game, one game in a losing streak I assure you must be a world record, it is because of your own strategic inadequacies."

Hermione shook her head, inwardly beaming; it had taken a long time for her to get the snarky professor to speak to her in such a relaxed tone. She studied him closely for a moment, he had changed after the war, not that many people would know it. Years ago Hermione couldn't even imagine him playing a friendly, yet still violent, game of wizarding chess with anyone, let alone the one know-it-all student he claimed to detest.

But now, after nearly a full year of her constant badgering, he was almost always up to a game with her, if for nothing else than the chance to deflate her ego a bit. Hermione was one among only six of the Hogwarts professors that truly respected Severus Snape and the things he had done for the war; but the only staff member with which he would ever consider relaxing around while in their presence.

The rest of the staff was less than enthused to find Professor Snape was once again a professor at Hogwarts, and many of them were quite outspoken in their disappointment that he had not died during the war.

"I want a rematch," Hermione stated firmly, after a couple moments of companionable silence, again, something Hermione had to work at for nearly a year before he felt comfortable enough to simply sit near one another quietly, no obligations, no necessary conversation topics, just pure relaxed silence.

Severus shook his head with a smirk and went about repairing his pieces, "If you are sure you can withstand yet another slaughter, who am I to-," Severus' voice cut off abruptly as he looked up towards the entrance to the staff room. His eyes darkened, and a dark frown pulled heavily on his lips, "I'm afraid not Professor," he suddenly changed his mind, his voice stiff, "I just remembered some papers I have to grade," he stood up and nodded stiffly at her, "I bit you good night, Professor," he stated and with a billow of his robes he was gone.

Hermione watched him go in startled confusion until she caught sight of the three female professors that just entered the room who were grinning maliciously at Severus as he attempted to stride by arrogantly. Those three had been the bane of her existence from the moment she arrived at this school as a professor nearly a year ago. Sure, they had been kind to her, friendly even, but it was the way that they treated Severus that quickly made her want to hex him.

They made jokes about him at the staff table, just loud enough that he could hear them, but soft enough the Headmistress, Professor McGonagall, couldn't. They spread horrendous rumors about the wizard, and even gave house points to the students whenever they caught them mouthing off about the 'greasy bat of the dungeons', something Hermione did not tolerate in her own transfiguration classes.

Today they had been particularly horrible, vanishing most of his clothes while he sat at the staff table, leaving him open for everyone in the Great Hall to laugh at, which they all had done, all except those six professors who were the only people in the school who considered him a friend, whether he returned the sentiment or not.

Upon Severus' grimly embarrassed exit from the hall, thank Merlin for the staff entrance, Hermione had heard the three witches (with a b) begin to make up horrible stories about the various scars that had been revealed to all and sundry just moments ago, making them seem like frivolous things that were funny.

Irritation and anger had blinded Hermione, and she had strode over to the three and demanded that they go and apologize that instant or she would report them to the Headmistress, something she intended to do whether or not they actually apologized. But the three had simply stared smugly at her with unconvinced eyes and the leader of the group, Mildora Bothrop the current head of Hufflepuff, had arrogantly rose to her feet and sneeringly said, "You can't prove anything," and with that, she and her two lackey-like friends strode proudly from the Great Hall.

Hermione honestly didn't think that there had ever been more points deducted and detentions handed out in all the history of Hogwarts then there had been today, and not just from Severus. In fact, Severus seemed like a fluffy bunny compared to Professors Granger, Longbottom, Lupin, and Hooch. The point deduction didn't stop after classes either, Madame Pomfrey and Madame Pince, from the library, as well as the headmistress herself were constantly deducting points and handing out detentions.

Starting tomorrow morning, even though it was a Saturday, Hermione was certain Hogwarts would eventually, and quite easily be cleaned from top to bottom, without magic; that's how many students had been caught spreading malicious rumors about their potion's professor. Some of them had even had the gall to attempt to hex him themselves; something they were quickly disillusioned about when whichever professor happened to be around at the time caught them.

All in all the day had been absolutely dreadful. Hermione could honestly not blame Severus for retreating to the dungeons, as far away from these three witches as he could, as quickly as he had. Hermione stood, determined that even if they couldn't prove the three were responsible for this morning's actions that they would pay.

Subtly she pointed her wand at the three, who were now laughing amongst themselves about Severus' hasty retreat. The word liar was suddenly appearing on each of their foreheads, slowly fading from one color to the next. She flicked her wand and they found their skin also changing from one color to the next, though each change brought about the most horribly contrasting color with the words on their foreheads.

Their clothes suddenly disappeared, leaving them in their undergarments, much as they had done to Severus that morning, and immediately all three women began screeching, their voices several octaves higher than normal.

Hermione smirked and walked closer to the women, intent to follow Severus out of the room in distain, but she soon found herself clutched in the grasp of the astronomy professor, Arora. "You did this to us!" she wailed, and suddenly Hermione realized that their voices had been altered to actually be several octaves higher. She looked around the room and her eyes immediately landed on Remus, sitting nonchalantly in the corner, reaching a book, a small mischievous smirk on his own face.

Hermione turned back to Aurora, who was still clutching her arm painfully, "You can't prove anything," she responded sweetly, before glaring at them and throwing Aurora off of her arm, " Whoever did it though must know that the coloring charms won't come off for another three months, so I suggest you get used to it," she stated primly before whirling around and striding arrogantly out the door.

And straight into Severus Snape's chest. Hermione smiled weakly as she stared up at him, trying to decipher the look on his face; was he mad, frustrated, happy, pleased? She couldn't tell.

"You hexed them," his deep voice commented finally, no inflection to give away his emotions.

Hermione narrowed her eyes mischievously, "You can't prove anything," she told him, slightly worried that he could; he was Severus Snape after all.

"Why?" he asked, as if she hadn't said anything at all.

Hermione sighed and shrugged, "You're my friend, that's what friends do for each other," she eventually stated, as if it made complete sense.

The look on Severus' face said that it didn't, not at all, not to him. He frowned, but not in irritation, more like confusion, before taking one last look over her shoulder at the now closed door. His dark eyes dropped back to Hermione's for a split second, but before she could find herself getting lost in them, like she had noticed she was prone to do, he whirled around and strode away, his robes billowing behind him.

Hermione wrinkled her nose in irritation, "You're welcome!" she shouted after him, pausing before quietly murmuring to herself, "You have got to teach me how to do that robe thing," Hermione looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling, before grabbing the edge of her own robe and spinning around, in an attempt to mimic his billowing.

"What on earth are you doing Hermione?" the headmistress's voice demanded, surprising Hermione.

Hermione felt a small blush spread across her cheeks, "I was just…" Hermione shook her head, "You can't tell me you've never tried to make your robes billow like his do," she gave up on trying to explain, and simply became defensive.

McGonagall couldn't refrain from smiling at the younger witches antics, "No, actually, that is something that only Severus can pull off I'm afraid," she said with a wink, making Hermione smile resignedly, "Now, would you happen to know anything about what happened to 'poor' professors Sinstra, Bothrop, and Cavenshire?" she asked mocking the names.

Hermione widened her eyes innocently and shook her head, "No, whatever happened?" she breathed.

McGonagall obviously knew it was her, but played along, "Someone seemed to have place a jinx on them that makes their skin change color to mesh with the lovely word Liar that had been written on their forehead, and their voices are even more annoying now than they were before," she explained.

Hermione pretended to be surprised, "How is it even possible for their voices to be any more annoying than they already were?" she exclaimed, telling McGonagall without actually saying anything that the voices weren't done by her.

"Are you saying a certain moon friend of ours might have done this?" McGonagall asked, referring to Remus.

Hermione shook her head, "Oh no, Minerva, Remus would never change people colors and write mean things on their foreheads."

McGonagall shook her head with a smirk and waved her hand in dismissal, "To bed with you Miss Granger," she said in the professor tone that she only used when teasing Hermione and her other former students.

Hermione smiled and turned away, intending to do just that. Along the way she allowed her mind to wander, remember things from both the past and present.

The war had been difficult, and it had taken many lives, but miraculously not as many as they had thought originally, for it turned out that there had been a particularly dark curse being shot around that looked like the Avada curse, but was really a spell that made the recipient appear dead for several days, hopefully long enough to get the person buried, technically still alive.

If Draco hadn't been on their side, thank Merlin for that one night years ago in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, they would have never known to wait a few days before burying their dead. This had potentially saved several people from a death more horrible than the one they were presumed to have had.

Remus, his wife Tonks, and Fred Weasley were among the most predominant recipients of this dark spell, leading to much joy and happiness from the Weasley's, Harry and herself.

Severus Snape had survived thanks to the quick thinking of both Draco and Hermione. Hermione, after she, Ron, and Harry had left the Shrieking Shack had quickly used her occlumency and legilimency abilities to tell Draco where to find his dying godfather and what he needed to bring so that he could save him.

Draco had, after finally calming himself from the near death experience in the Room of Requirement, immediately rushed to his godfather's side, effectively saving his life. The second he had been able to, he handed his godfather off to another member of the First Class DA, as most people still thought him to be simply a Death Eater, and not the actual spy that he was.

Severus had awoken nearly two weeks after the war was over, his neck still brutally scared, but otherwise completely intact. Embarrassed and outraged didn't even begin to cover the range of emotions Severus had portrayed when he found out that everyone that was in the immediate area when Voldemort and Harry had begun to duel now knew of his affections for Lily.

However, with much string pulling and the occasional obliviate, the Order and DA members had managed to keep most of the words spoken between Harry and Voldemort a secret, making sure that Snape wasn't publicly embarrassed for what Harry had said simply to anger Voldemort.

The repairs to the castle had been undertaken immediately following the death of Voldemort, and the students were sent home. The school was reopened that fall on September first, and many of the seventh year students from the previous year had decided to return to try and actually learn something this year. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco had been among this group of returning 'eighth year' students, as had many other members of the First Class DA.

It had been a surprise to many to find that Professor Snape had returned as potions master and head of Slytherin, as well as Professor Lupin, a favorite among students who remembered him, had also returned to Hogwarts with his family in tow as the new DADA professor and newly appointed Head of Gryffindor.

Hermione had been pleased to see that Severus had made a quick and seemingly effortless return to being Potions Master at Hogwarts, as she had harbored a crush on the man since the beginning of her second year. Even when she, along with everyone else, had doubted his loyalty she could not deny that there was something about the man that drew her to him. At first it had been his obvious intelligence, then she had seen him dueling Lockhart, and immediately that little school-girl crush that she had had for Lockhart was transferred to a more worthy recipient, though she didn't tell anyone else that.

Third year it was his bravery, and his determination, it took a lot to try and capture a supposed mass murderer and his werewolf friend. Thus began a cycle of sorts of things Hermione found herself attracted to in the dark man, intelligence, power, bravery, determination, and then when the Final battle had come around, courage, love, loyalty, steadfastness, brilliance, protectiveness…there just weren't enough words to describe the incredibleness of the wizard.

The day before she and the rest of the seventh and eighth years had graduated, McGonagall had pulled Hermione aside and asked for a meeting in her office. Upon attending the meeting Hermione soon found herself in delightful ownership of the position of transfiguration Professor.

Harry, Ron, and Draco all went on to become aurors, they started their training a month after graduation and finished it in two, three, and two and a half months respectively, breaking records, as it was supposed to take up to two to three years to complete everything that they simply breezed through. Though, Hermione supposed, living on the run, in Harry and Ron's case, simultaneously hunting and hiding things, would definitely give you a head start on the other trainees. Draco, having played spy well, knowing occlumency and legilimency, having a back ground in dark arts as well as dark wizards, and the ability to disguise himself, also wasn't far behind in the requirements that Harry and Ron so easily fulfilled.

Upon her arrival to Hogwarts in August, a month before her first year as professor, Hermione was surprised and pleased to find that McGonagall had instated Severus as Deputy Headmaster, something that Hermione was certain didn't help his standing with several of his disrespectful peers. But it was because of this position of deputy headmaster that Hermione had found herself being taught various things every professor ought to know to command respect in the classroom from the man who, in her opinion, knew the most about it.

It hadn't taken Hermione long to figure out that despite the fact that Severus had simply been acting as a good little soldier, doing as he was told by the man who knew and trusted him most, there were very few people on the Hogwarts staff that actually trusted him.

As soon as he could Remus had pulled her aside to make sure that she wasn't going to be one of those distrustful members of the staff, he told her that Severus deserved respect and that he just wasn't getting it. Hermione had quickly reassured her friend that she had no intention now, or ever, of distrusting Severus Snape again. It had nearly broken her heart to do so last time, though she didn't tell him this.

When classes had started Hermione had swept into the room in her best no-nonsense way, a slight twist of Severus' first day entrance, Hermione wouldn't deny that, and she had quickly and with surprising ease, commanded the respect of the students.

She had been uncertain whether she would be able to actually do this as she had been in school with several of the students just months before. However, whether it was because of her status as a war hero or because she had helped many of them pass their final exams last year, they respected her. They asked questions when the time was right and took notes when they should, Hermione thought they were absolute angels.

Until one class, a month into her teaching; up until this point Hermione had only given points, and she had never assigned detentions, but upon walking around her classroom to make sure her students truly understood the task they were set, she came across a set of Gryffindors, four of them, that were snickering over some piece of parchment they were passing back and forth. Without further ado Hermione had confiscated the parchment, fully expecting to find them talking about girls or the latest quidditch match, instead she found a list entiltled 'The Top Ten Best Ways For Professor S. Snape To Die'.

Let us just say that the boys had been incredibly repentant by the time Hermione was finished with them, and leave it at that.

It was following this instance that Hermione began to take more notice of Severus Snape than she ever had before. She noticed how the students alternated between sneering and mocking him behind his back, they pranked him whenever possible, and they did whatever they could to make his life miserable. To her surprise, it was the same from the other professors, and not just Bothrop and her small gang of idiotic professors either.

Harry had one night reluctantly told Hermione about what he had seen in the pensive on that one disastrous evening when Snape threw him out of his chambers. Hermione had been distraught when she finally figured out that Severus Snape had never had a friendly year at Hogwarts in his life. There had always been someone there to pick on him, prank him, make it so he always had to be cautious and could never let his guard down.

Following this revelation Hermione had determined both in her mind and to Remus and Minerva, that she would not give up until Severus Snape realized that he had at least one person in the world he never had to have his guard up against, and that person was her.

Remus and Minerva had been pleased with her determination, but saddened to know that no matter how hard they tried, they had both lost the opportunity to convince Severus that he could do the same around them, what with Remus having been a part of the group of boys that picked on Severus the most when they were in school together, and Minerva threatening to kill him.

And so Hermione's plan had begun. It started with simply saying hello in the mornings and at every meal. Then in the hallways she would smile her brightest smile at him, often resulting in a dark scowl in return, but that never stopped her.

Eventually she moved to actually sit in one of the chairs that seemed to be permanently unoccupied on either side of him. She had said nothing, but had simply sat next to him in what to her was a peaceful silence. The first couple of times she had done this Severus had removed himself from the Great Hall as quickly as possible. But several weeks of doing so, and her never even saying a word about it, lead to him staying for longer and longer periods of time.

Hermione would make sure to be in the staff room on the rare occasions that he would be, and she sat next to him at each and every meeting he was required to attend. Christmas had rolled around soon enough, and Hermione had gone out of her way to make sure that he had at least one present come Christmas morning. Her gift had been a case full of various rare and hard to find potion ingredients that she hoped he would enjoy. Two days following the gift Severus had sent her a small letter, with two words, Thank you.

That's when Hermione knew she wasn't failing in her endeavor; Severus Snape never thanked anyone for anything. And yet he had, just for her. He had thanked her.

Upon reaching his birthday, Hermione had struggled to come up with another present, and had ultimately settled on a potion's book she had found in the newly remodeled Grimmauld Place. It had been delivered to him on the morning of his birthday by a house elf.

He had shown up to breakfast spectacularly early that morning, wanting to be alone Hermione suspected, but she had made sure to be there when he arrived, wanting to be there to make sure he got the cake the house elves all assured her was his favorite. His surprise, irritation, joy, and pleasure, had all been on his face in a quick series of emotions when he had seen the cake appear before he finally managed to clamp down on them, leaving his face blank and unreadable.

Severus had taken the knife the elves had placed with the cake, which Hermione now knew to be a rum cake, and carefully sliced two pieces, one for himself, and to her surprise, one for her. Without saying anything he had handed the plate to her, and together they had shared his birthday cake in silence.

They had separated to go to their various classes with nothing further said, and, in fact, there had been nothing said between them at lunch either, though she still sat in that ever vacant seat next to him. It was at dinner that the quietly murmured words, "Thank you for the book," had reached her ears, so softly she hadn't even been sure that she had even heard them.

But with a kind smile she had cautiously placed her hand on his for a quick moment and replied with a "You're welcome," before easily removing her hand and returning to their comfortable silence.

From that moment on Severus had begun to respond to her greetings. Her smiles in the hallways were no longer scowled at but simply ignored, and she found him relaxing once she sat next to him at the various meetings and meal times, as if he expected her to decide she suddenly didn't want to sit next to him anymore.

One morning she had sat down next to him and found him reading a potions magazine, recalling a question she had come up with a couple of days ago upon reading the same magazine, she nervously asked him if he had had the same question, and if not, did he know the answer.

To her great surprise he had actually responded, stiffly, and a little exasperated, but a response nonetheless. After that she made sure to begin to ask him various questions she had, though only over lunch, so as to allow him the silence he seemed to enjoy both at breakfast and dinner. To be honest, Hermione thought Severus only seemed to answer several of her questions sometimes simply out of surprise that she had known to ask them.

After a particular and surprisingly long discussion about the latest controversial article in yet another potions magazine one afternoon, Severus had lurched to his feet and demanded that she follow him so that he could prove to her that the supposed 'dunderhead' that had written the article, and with whom she was pretending to agree with, was just that, a dunderhead. In a state of shock Hermione had done so, inevitably leading to her becoming a frequent visitor in his privet potions lab.

One morning Hermione was surprised by Severus when he began a conversation about some book that he wanted to know if she had read. This quickly lead to many more discussions at various other mealtimes in which Hermione felt herself being challenged both intellectually and verbally to be able to keep up with some of the things he was saying.

Eventually she found herself seeking out his company, even when it seemed he didn't exactly want her around, sometimes it was just for quiet brewing, other times for a companionable atmosphere in which to read. The times when she had shown up intending to read with him in his office, were interrupted by him one day standing up sneeringly and grumbling something about how if she was going to continue to force him to read with her, he was at least going to do it where he felt comfortable. And so he had brought her back into his living quarters.

Hermione was completely pleased with this invitation, knowing full well that the only people Severus had ever let back into his privet living area were Albus and Minerva. The room was dark, like she had expected it to be, but not overbearingly so; in the center of the room sat a nice overstuffed black dark gray couch, with dark green, comfortable looking armchairs on either side of it.

On the far wall rested a dark black wood desk with a nice chair Hermione suspected Severus did all of his own writing at. Bookshelves covered the rest of the wall, along with the other three walls, with the exception of the small space for a fireplace.

Without further words, Severus had taken one arm chair and she, the other; and they read.

However, in the days following his invitation into his living quarters, Severus seemed to come to a conclusion that that had been too far too fast, and began pushing Hermione away, snapping at and ignoring just about everything she said.

Eventually Hermione snapped, she yelled and she ranted, and she went on about how she was just trying to be nice, and how if he didn't want any friends then that was too bad because no matter what he did, even if he killed her, she would haunt him until he accepted their friendship.

Two weeks following this announcement a short letter had arrived on her desk, "I'm sorry. Thank you." And things went back to the way they were.

Hermione had started her eighth year with a relatively secure knowledge of her own crazy crush on the potions professor, but by the end of her first year teaching she was pretty sure that 'crush' wasn't a crush anymore. It may even be considered love, something she found herself not at all objecting to.

Hermione sighed as she finally reached the portrait of a beautiful woman reading that was her room entrance, the only problem with loving a sarcastic potions master, was loving one that was in love with someone else.

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So I thought I would try my hand at separating my stories out into multi chapter fics. So here is part one in a two part story! I think you know the ransom I require for an update (which is ready to go whenever I get enough reviews…just say'n…)

So review review review! Much Severus/Hermione cuteness will be headed your way if you do!

REVIEW!

MMG