an unlikely match...

When the mist finally cleared and Hermione was standing upright in the room, she was acutely aware of Snape standing, waiting for her with his arms across her chest.

She was aware at how tall he was, and how awkward that air was around the two of them. All that was bouncing around in her mind were the memory that was now a constant loop in her head, slowly down at the most tantalizing and in her current view repugnant parts.

She couldn\'t take her widened eyes off of Snape as he raised an eyebrow at her, not in question but in surprise. He had fully expected the woman to come back, blushing, stammering and yelping as she tried to make her way out of the room.

Instead she looked frightened as if he\'s stride over and strike her. Her dark eyes were also glassy as she stared at him, blinking slowly as she teetered a bit. Instinctively he moved to catch her and she swiped his hands away, steadying herself. It was then in her eyes that he saw anger. True, livid almost blinding anger.

\"I don\'t believe it. \" she was firm, \"We never...\" she trailed off, not even able to say the words in front of the former faculty. Sleeping with Snape? In her seventh year? She was supposed to believe this bollocks?

She felt the Earth tilting in front of her and blurrily viewed his lips firmly set in a thin line of displeasure. She looked to the thinning lips and held in a whimper, she had kissed those lips. Those lips had kissed....oh God.

She then felt her face burning and ced ced as his cheeks reddened slightly before he gave an awkward cough and reluctantly started, that familiar mumbling of his voice making his humiliated words slightly incomprehensible, but Hermione caught them.

\"Well, we did.\"

\"You\'re a liar.\" she was furious now, nearly trembling from her exaltations. \"I would never...be that way with you. We would never...\" she couldn\'t even say the words with him staring at her like that. \"This is some perverse little book of fantasies...algh Ggh God knows why I\'m in it. You hate me.\" she seemed to want to convince herself, \"You\'ve always hated me, ever since school and-\"

He tilted his head slightly, pursing his lips together in thought as his eyes narrowed slightly and she felt her voice halting.

\"I never hated you Hermione.\"

Hermione didn\'t know what to say to that, especially since he had used her first name again, and instead decided that standing in uneasy silence would be easier than if she did speak and open another topic of discussion.

\"Well then...why were you so mean to me?\"

\"Honestly.\" Obviously this must have been a boring subject, as they had already been through it once, although Hermione of course didn\'t remember. Snape rolled his eyes, taking a deep breath as he prepared into his speech.

\"First of all, you were a know-it-all in classes, from the first day. You were the bane of my existence, every time I had a question there you were with your bloody hand up in the air.\"

Hermione tried to hide a shy smile from that comment, for it was all too true. Snape gave her a small sort of smirk before continuing as they both sat at the nearby table.

\"...I knew I needed to challenge you or you wouldn\'t reach your potential in my class of dunderheads. In essence Miss Granger, I never made it easy for you because you were capable of so much more. \"

Hermione was puzzled, \"So, you were cruel to me because I wanted to learn more?\"

Snape was momentarily askance a moment as he glanced at her darkly a moment, knowing that his answer was horribly mundane and really quite pathetic. \"I knew no other way to get through to students.\"

Hermione nodded, her heart hammering suddenly as she looked to him with bleary eyes. It was late, and as well as being physically exhausted, emotional exhaustion was catching up, but she was compelled to know more.

\"Well...I just don\'t see how we could have ever had a relationship.\" he moved to the seat next to her as she continued, \"I mean..we were always fighting.\"

\"We did argue, often.\" He was stiffly sitting now, looking at her on occasion as he punctuated his hypnotizing words with emphasis. \"But beyond that was indescribable passion.\"

My oh my...indescribable passion?

Hermione felt her heart fluttering and tingles starting all over as she snuck a peek at his face to see if he was blushing. He wasn\'t. Her eyes again surveyed the floor listening to him speak.

\"I know it\'s probably far fetched, you don\'t believe it and why should you?\" Hermione looked curiously to him as he went on with his rehearsed speech. \"And I completely understand if you want to put this out of your mind forever. I can do that.\"

\"Like you did the last time?\"

Her words were cutting, and he didn\'t see how he deserved it. He had been nothing but forthright and he felt his temper rising.

\"Listen here,\" her eyes were upon him, \"I\'ve offered nothing but answers and explanations. I\'ve been more than obliging.\"

She was off though, lost in thought as she mulled over her predicament. \"Why wouldn\'t I remember it? Why wouldn\'t I even have a clue about being obliviated? That..it just doesn\'t sound like me. I\'m usually so logical.\"

He was sullen, like a spoiled child. Or, an embarrassed ex. Professor. \"I cast a spell on you. One that would ensure you wouldn\'t even want to remember.\"

Hermione looked ready to punch him right in that hooked nose of his as he said this, \"One that didn\'t work obviously.\"

\"I am a Potions Master.\" He stood from his seat, glaring down at her. \"Its not my fault you\'re a little bloody spy. You think I wanted you to find that book? Is that why I had it hidden in my room? Hmmm? You think I wanted any of this to happen? I wanted nothing but for you to be happy-\"

He stopped, seeing that he had confessed far too much. Instead he returned to the prior topic.

\"You asked me to obliviate you.\" the words tore at him, she could tell, she saw the shadowy look of displeasure crossing his features. \"And I had no choice but to oblige.\"

Hermione felt anger welling in her stomach, quickening the pulsing blood in her veins as she stared up at the piteous face of Severus Snape. Hermione felt her eyes welling with tears and she wanted nothing more than to understand.

\"Professor?\"

He looked over to her casually, his face set in a cold, stoic _expression.

\"Well, why did we...have a falling out to begin with?\"

He obviously didn\'t want to go on, and she could tell with the way he was shifting from foot to foot, something he only did when vexed, showed he truly didn\'t want to delve deeper into this Freudian nightmare.

\"You don\'t want to know Miss Granger. For once just listen to me.\" he was solemn as she looked to him curiously. \"If show you more memories than your ready for, there\'s no guarantee I can ever effectively obliviate you forever.\"

\"I don\'t care.\" Hermione barely paused to think, \"I want to know what happened.\"

Finally with a resigned sense of duty he offered a nod, and grasped the book in his hands, opening it on the bed and flipping the pages until they reached the last page, and the last swirling gray box. It was then that he looked up to her in question, offering her one last chance to forget everything.

\"You\'re sure?\"

\"Yes, quite sure.\"

He nodded silently, and motioned for her to step nearer to him. She hesitated, not really trusting him. Finally and dejectedly she strolled uneasily to him, seeing as he held out a hand.

\"Why do I have to hold your hand?\"

She saw a grimace pass over him as his hand dropped to his side in a rushed movement of humiliation, the same cold voice was back, laced with cutting sarcasm.

\"We have to be touching for this charade to work. I assumed holding hands would be most convenient.\"

Hermione blushed, embarrassed for him and for her impertinence as she nodded. \"Right. Sorry.\" She grasped his hand, feeling it slide into his own as if it were normal. He nodded, squeezing her hand a bit before placing his own hand into the swirling gray boxes.

They were back at the tunnel and the light shone brilliantly from the end, shooting one final look of worry at Snape, Hermione and he surged forward towards the light, not even noticing that she and Snape were still holding hands.

* * *

Ginny and Harry stared at the smirking prick in front of them, resisting the urge to throttle him. Ginny was the first to speak as her husband glared at Austere, who looked entirely too comfortable.

\"Why Hermione?\"

Austere gave a shrug, \"She was brilliant, charming, powerful witch, not bad in the sack and...\" he drawled, leering at them before answering, \"...She was in love with Severus.\"

The spy felt thier eyes widen at the latest discovery and leaned closer, holding their glowing wand closer to the chattering group. Ginny and Harry were momentarily agape, surely they had expected as much, but still how did Austere know?

\"How did you know that?\" Ginny ventured, \"You never speak with Severus.\"

Austere smirked, looking a bit like his brother as he did so. \"But Mother did.\"

There was a collective pause before Harry had to quietly question this seeming conundrum. \"I thought he hated her.\"

\"He did.\"

Ginny and Harry glanced at each other in confusion. \"Why would he write her then?\"

\"To tell Mother that he was going to propose.\"

Ginny felt her heart stop, poor Hermione and Snape. For a strange moment she really felt truly sorry for Snape, for he and Hermione\'s one chance at happiness. She was furious, dots of red clouding her vision of the smug bastard in front of them who looked all too at ease.

\"What could go wrong then?\"

Austere gave an impressed chuckle to himself, \"You see Severus is very big on privacy. He didn\'t want me to know of anything. When he wrote mother explaining he had found someone he could consider really being committed to, he broke the old grudges against Mother, I\'m sure due to Hermione\'s eternal nagging. As a naturally curious young man I read the letters Mother was getting almost daily, I couldn\'t have Severus\' swooping back and having his big nose in everything over here. Everything I had worked so hard for.\"

Ginny watched as Austere\'s face went into a twisted, maniacal grin, giving his face an almost unearthly effect, and in turn Ginny actually felt her stomach lurch in fear. She clung to Harry\'s arm as they watched the sickness unfolding in the man before them as he continued calmly speaking.

\"When I wrote Severus explaining to him that Mother had slipped up and told me everything he was furious. He was always convinced that I was trying to foul things up, but he was angrier at Mother for betraying him. So of course he severed ties with her and reluctantly began to correspond with me. In turn of course I heard of Hermione and he, and...\"

\"You decided to take away their one chance at happiness, you sick son of-\"

\"Watch it.\" he gave a withering look at the outspoken Ginny as Harry clamped a hand over her mouth, \"As I was saying...soon my all consuming thought was how to make them miserable.\"

\"What are you getting at?\"

Austere gave a small smirk, \"Who do you think broke the two of them up?\"

\"What?\"

Austere gave a mighty snort, \"You think those sickening love birds would have really broken up if it weren\'t for me? Gads, Severus probably would have proposed to the mudblood. Its sickening really, marriage. The whole ordeal.\"

\"So you broke them up? How?\"

\"I simply wrote a small letter to Snape, laced with a certain \'suspicion spell\', that had him doubting if his feelings for Hermione were true. The stupid git never suspected that I may have read up on the subject. But I saw the way he looked when I caly mly mentioned I had been using magic with Muggles and decided to keep a lid on it. A few days later I got a letter from Snape explaining that he had broken it off with Hermione and oblivated her.\"

\"Why, why would you do that?\" Harry ventured, trying to understand the motivations of the twisted creature in front of him. \"Your own brother...\"

\"Because I loathe him.\"

\"Why?\" Harry\'s eyes flashed. He had never cared for Snape, not one ounce. But to hear of such blatant hatred one needed a reason, and Austere wasn\'t really offering. The older man\'s eyes dimmed as he spoke next, coldly and lowly.

\"Because I was born into a trap. Because Severus was the bastard son who marched off and joined the dark army whilst I had to stay behind, the good, perfect son. You don\'t think I ever WANTED to be a wizard?\"

His voice was cutting, saliva globs flew from his mouth, \"YOU think I WANTED to be a muggle? Go into boring bloody Muggle medicine? My parent\'s wouldn\'t LET me go to Hogwarts because my bastard of a brother. I had to stay behind because my parents were worried that I\'d turn out like him. Because of his selfishness, my life was ruined.\"

\"And so you\'re taking Hermione down with you?\"

Austere gave a shrug, \"Why should I care? She was supposed to be my leverage. The money was the one stupid thing that was going to make this bloody life bearable. I was going to retire with Hermione to some small, little wizarding community since she was a witch. We would be rich. Life would finally be just.\"

The spy at the end of the hall gave their wand a small shake, the light dimming as the spy rushed off in the direction of their room, a plan firmly hatched in their mind. No one even heard their steps clomping off down the hall.

Austere had a crazed look in his eyes as that speech stopped, and Ginny felt herself tremoring at the eerie calmness about his sickening face now. Suddenly Harry\'s deep voice sounded out from the darkness of the hallway.

\"Well Austere, evidently you didn\'t learn enough.\"

\"Excuse me?\"

\"We know about your moronic plan.\" Harry said darkly, \"And you can be sure we\'re going to tell Hermione. You can act smug about her being stupid and that she won\'t catch on. But you know what> There\'s a failing to your little plan.\"

Austere\'s smile momentarily faltered as he regained composure, \"Is that so?\"

Ginny tugged at Harry, and tried to silence him but he was going red as he tried to say everything that came to his mind to verbally beat down Austere, \"Hermione\'s fallen for Snape all over again.\"

Suddenly as if he had been expecting their follies, Austere whipped out the want from his pocket and leered at the wand-less fools. \"Hmmm, I suppose I\'ll just have to take care of that then won\'t I?\"

Ginny and Harry narrowed their eyes on the wand, their hearts thumping. Running was futile, as was screaming. Austere was almost laughing at their idiotic slip up, and moved forward with ever step they took back, basking in his deceit.

\"As you\'re about to discover, I\'ve learned some things from my dear brother.\" he sneered, pointing the wand at the two of them and with a flick of his wrist he hissed the immediate spell that came to mind.

\"Obliviate.\"

* * *

Hermione and Snape walked into the Potions classroom, the lack of light making it easy to decipher that it was night. Suddenly at the same time, noticing that they were both holding hands they quickly dropped the offending appendages.

Snape of the past sat at the desk, writing something hurriedly with his quill scratching against the parchment. Hermione was no longer pensive of being heard and quietly sat down on a nearby stool, looking back to the real Snape.

\"Why here?\"

A small knock at the door jarred Hermione\'s attention, and Snape needn\'t speak. She saw Snape\'s eyes fall reluctantly on the door before he sighed heavily.

\"Enter.\"

Hermione boistrously walked in chatting away, \"I went to Hogsmeade last week....\" she wa making her way over to Snape\'s desk after closing the door behind her. He didn\'t look up until she was standing next to him expectantly.

\"I\'ve brought something for you.\" she gushed as she kissed his cheek gently, looking to him with admiration shining clearly in her dark eyes, \"A sort of engagement present if you will.\"

\"How come I can\'t see the ring?\" Hermione asked, looking to her former image\'s ring finger and seeing it black. Snape walked over, whispering although they really needn\'t bother.

\"You were still in school. Our engagement was a secret.\"

\"Oh, makes sense.\"

The former Hermione didn\'t seem to notice her lover\'s distance because she quickly grasped the large black memory book from her bag and lay in next to him. Hermione of course from the side, immediately recognized it and held her breath. Finally, things were begging to fall into place.

\"I\'ve had our initials engraved into it.\" She traced her fingers along the cover, \"It\'s a book of our memories. Took me forever to fine and put together.\"

She suddenly registered her fiancée’s lack of interest and peered at him, seeing he was busily writing. \"Severus?\"

\"I\'ll make this short for both our benefit.\" His words were low and cutting, \"I think its about time we called this charade off, Miss Granger.\"

Hermione didn\'t speak at first, a small smirk on her face as if she assumed this was one of Snape\'s twisted jokes. When she saw he was past jesting she felt the real twinge of anxiety cut at her.

\"Excuse me?\"

Hermione felt her own heart breaking as she viewed her younger\'s self\'s face falling, her hands dropping to her sides and cheeks burning.

\"You heard me.\" he didn\'t bother to look up, and went back to writing. \"You may leave now Miss Granger. Forget any of this happened.\"

\"I can\'t do that.\" she was trembling, \"I\'m in love with you Severus Snape, and you\'re in love with me whether you want to believe it or not. I want to continue loving you until I die. You wanted that too. What changed that?\"

\"My opinions.\" was the crass reply, \"Someone merely shed the light on my prior faults. I don\'t know what I could have been thinking...relations with a student.\"

Hermione was shaking, from anger or anxiety it was hard to tell. She grasped the side of his desk and looked to him in hopeless confusion.

\"Where did all of this come from Severus?\"

\"It\'s Professor Snape now,\" Snape was boredly writing as he spoke, \"I received a letter from an acquaintance, outlining that this entire engagement was a farce. That were were merely acting on lust, not love. Not only that, this consultant also told me to stop being selfish.\"

\"Selfish?\" her voice was barely above a whisper, \"How were you selfish?\"

Hermione was very aware of Snape\'s past, and it was hard for her to comprehend how someone like Snape - who had devoted a large portion of of his life to preserving lives - could ever be considered selfish.

\"Yes. Selfish. He informed me to think of your benefit.\" he began counting off on his fingers as he listed the points, \"You\'re young, bright, and it would be selfish of me to hold you back from your potential. And I was more than inclined to agree.\"

There was a moment of silence. \"You coward.\"

\"Excuse me?\" he hissed, glaring at her impertinence.

\"You heard me.\" the sobs were coming out in her words now as she struggled to maintain composure, \"You. Are. A. Coward. Being loved is just so foreign to you that you can\'t comprehend it. You\'re afraid of it.\"

\"Get out NOW Granger.\" He pointed to the door, bellowing at her furiously.

\"We were so right together.\" he glanced up at her, their eyes locking a moment and flooding with emotion. \"I don\'t know why you\'re doing this but its not fair. To either of us.\"

He obviously wasn\'t moved and quickly moved to interrupt her as he looked away, back at his parchment.

\"Miss Granger you\'re a young woman with a bright future. This is really for the best. If anything now you have no ties to the school, to your past. You can leave and further your education at a magical university. You know that\'s important.\"

Hermione grasped his arm, \"You\'re lying. You can\'t mean any of this. Why are you doing this? I don-\"

He whipped his arm from her grasp, glaring at her openly now as she recoiled in shock. Those glares were never meant for her. She had shared so much with him.

\"We\'ve been together a mere seven months Miss Granger. Did you really think this was going to continue? Honestly? We were just so caught up in the intimacy that we got carried away.\"

Hermione was trembling, her eyes squinting at him as she held in a sob, \"But I love-\"

\"Enough.\" he held up a pale hand, \"Enough. We\'ve both said it enough for it to have lost all true meaning.\"

Hermione suddenly stood, looking at the dejected young girl. She felt her body shaking and suddenly launched herself off of the stool towards the cold prick that wrote on wordlessly as Hermione stood, holding in tears.

\"You bastard!\" Hermione screamed, rushing at the image Snape and preparing to smash his face in. She was halfway there when she felt the current Snape\'s arms around her.

\"Miss Granger, I told you they can\'t hear you. You can\'t touch them.\"

Hermione was shaking, the tears falling down her face. In reliving this she felt her every heartbreak all over again, the pain, the tears, the feeling of total worthlessness. She sobbed into his chest as he held her, \"Why? What did I do to make you hate me?\"

\"I\'m sorry.\" he muttered softly into her hair, sure she couldn\'t hear. He guided her over to the hole, waiting for it to grow wider so they could go through, but that would only happen when this horrible memory wver.ver.

\"I don\'t understand,\" Hermione was still standing beside Snape as Severus, still holding the shaking woman gazed at the girl he had fallen for so easily. She was determined, calm. \"But if that\'s the way you feel.\" Hermione said dimly, tears slipping down her cheeks, \"That\'s going to have to be fine. I don\'t deserve to be treated like this.\"

Snape didn\'t answer, only glanced down at his paper, busying himself with whatever he could fine. Hermione turned, then her eyes searching the room as if waiting for an answer she turned around and looked at him with pain in her eyes.

\"I\'ll never bother you again Professor. But in return you have to do something for me.\"

Snape finally raised his eyes darkly at her, sneering. \"What would that be Miss Granger?\"

She was quick in speaking, and when the words did hit the air they both looked equally taken aback. \"I\'d like you to obliviate me.\"

Snape looked interested indeed, and across the room Severus and Hermione, still clinging to each other looked over at the unfolding. Although Snape had witnessed it a thousand times he never was able to draw his eyes away.

\"Are you sure, Miss Granger?\"

\"I don\'t want to remember this pain.\" Hermione said dy, my, motioning to both of then abd the air around them. \"Nothing of us. I want my old life back. Before us. Before you.\"

Snape was silent, looking at his student uneasily, and Severus knew he had been wondering if he had done something so stupid that it was unmanageable. Snape was uneasy, just stewing about in his remorse. The grief evident in the way his eyes had nearly glazed over when he spoke to her. But it was too late, he had his pride and his letter. He was doing the right thing.

\"Goodbye Hermione.\"

Raising the wand that he had retrieved from his cloak Snape stood, looking to her severely. She was shaking a bit, the tears slipping down her cheeks as she sniffled and nodded, telling him this was the way it had to be. She didn\'t deserve to be treated so po.
.

Hermione suddenly leaned forward, placing a soft kiss on his lips that he soon leaned into, only to have her pull away and leave him with lips still parted

\"Goodbye Severus.\" her voice was choked, \"I loved you.\"

His words were barely heard next, but the green flashing lights surrounding her as he murmured, \"Obliviate.\" gave off clarity to what soon ensued. Hermione was knocked back a bit on her heels, her eyes shut and then opening as she blinked rapidly a moment, shaking her head and looking to Snape in curiosity. She was frightened, that much was clear.

\"Professor Snape? Why am I here?\"

Hermione didn\'t get a chance to hear the rest of that because the swirling hole had grown larger, and now more than ever she wanted nothing that to leave.

Her heart was broken.

* * *

\"Why would you have our fights in here?\" Hermione almost whimpered, rubbing the angry tears from her cheeks and motioning towards the closed book on the table as they stood in the room. They were back in this horribly twisted world, where nothing made sense anymore.

\"Why would you want to remember any of this? Why would I give you this at all?\"

She tried to break away from him then, suffocating in his presence. She was angry, confused and heartbroken. At this Severus could only give a loud sigh, not releasing her from his embrace.

\"I...\" he seemed to be searching for the right words, and finally decided on a, \"I wanted to remember all of you. The real you. Not just happy little moments in our time together, I wanted it all when I realized I made a mistake...\"

There was a reserved moment of contemplative silence as Hermione weighed his comments uneasily. This was all becoming so familiar, all the smells the feelings the emotions. She pushed away from him and now he released her, looking uncertainly to her as she spoke softly.

\"And I just went along with it.\"

Hermione couldn\'t believe that this was happening; surely she wouldn\'t have been so easily swayed. This didn\'t seem right at all. Snape was licking his lips darkly, looking to her in haste as they broke away even further.

\"You understood me.\"

Hermione could only nod, looking to him in surprise. Had she really connected with this man? Yes she had. She had been intimate with him; she had shared emotions and tribulations with him.

She had shared it all with him.

And for some reason, the mere fact that he had tried to hide it all, that she had gone along made her furious. Her hands were soon upon her hips and Snape knew what was coming as he braced himself and backed away.

\"So you just made that decision for me? Not caring that I may have wanted to stay with you?\"

\"Even if you had, it would have been a bad decision.\"

\"Are you daft?\" Hermione was incredulous, \"You saw what happened? Are you still as obstinate and stupid as three years ago? We were in love.\"

\"What would you suggest I do then Hermione? Hmm?\" he spat furiously, angry at everything. \"Get down on my knees and propose? Tell you I can live without you? Well I\'m sorry, but what\'s done is done, there’s no going back.\"

\"You\'re still scared.\" Hermione snapped, “You’re afraid of what we had. You were afraid to commit forever. Oh, it’s fine to shag me senseless, to say you love me as long as there’s no real commitment.”

“You don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh but I do. I’m starting to remember a lot more than you think.” Hermione gave a disgusted clearing of her throat not bothering to go on as Snape shook his head, trying to ignore her logic, waving his hand as if dismissing her inappropriate conversing.

\"Enough. What\'s done is done.\"

\"How typical. That\'s it.\" she said looking at him furiously and rushing from him to the door, \"I\'m going to be married in two days time, to your brother. I haven\'t time for this...I- I wish I hadn\'t ever gotten involved with you in the first place.\"

She had just finished her crushing shot at the enigmatic Professor who gave her a surly frown as she whipped open his door, glaring at him one last time before walking out.

Coming face to face with Austere