All the way

It was Wednesday, and tonight was the meeting of parents and Professors.

Lucius was worried; he had not told his father about the wedding. He was preoccupied all day and could hardly breathe as the first years were led to the Great Hall to be united with their parents.

Lucius spotted his father standing with some other parent of children in his own house; it wasn\'t a coincidence that they were also pure bloods.

\"Lucius,\" His father drawled, \"Did you get a late time?\"

\"The latest,\" Lucius said, feeling happy that he could please his father.

Draco sneered, \"Good.\"

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"

As the door to her office closed, Hermione ticked off another name, until only one remained: Draco Malfoy.

Hermione sighed; she was ready for this. She would just pretend that she nothing about his... feelings for her and get on with telling him about what a great son he had.

When there was a knock at the door, Hermione stood up from the chair behind her desk.

\"Come in.\" She called.

Draco strode in and Hermione thought he was almost as graceful as his father had been... almost. He swept up to her desk, Lucius in tow, and held out his hand.

\"Professor Granger.\" He smirked.

Hermione shook her head, \"No.\"

\"Excuse me?\" He frowned, his hand dropping to his side.

\"I\'m not Professor Granger.\" Hermione told him.

\"If you are not Hermione Granger, then who are you?\" Draco demanded.

\"Hermione Snape.\" She held out her hand this time.

Draco looked stunned and shock, but slowly, he drew his wand from what looked like his fathers old snake-headed cane. Hermione searched her pockets desperately for her wand, thinking he was going to hex her, but stopped as he whirled around on his son.

\"You!\" He accused, \"You didn\'t tell me that she married him!\"

Lucius, wide eyed, backed away from the crazed man and pulled his own wand from his pocket.

\"Don\'t you dare point that thing at me!\" Draco bellowed, \"Expelliarmus!\"

Appalled that a Father would do that to his own son, Hermione made the split second decision to run...

... Right into the spell. As she had no wand that the spell could take from her, the force was harder on her body and it slammed her into the wall some feet behind her.

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"

Severus entered, just in time to hear the thud of Hermiones head on the stone. All three males watched as she slid down the wall and slumped to the floor.

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"

Lucius stared; in a fit of rage, Snape grabbed his father by the throat and crushed him into the wall, grabbing Draco\'s wand and throwing it across the room.

Lucius was torn. Snape could do his father serious damage, but Hermione needed help. Glancing to his right, he could see Snape whispering something to his spluttering father and looking to his left he could see the red oozing from Hermiones temple.

Seeing the blood made him think; that could have been him. She had taken that flash of light so that he would not be hurt. If his father could have hurt him, then he was on his own.

Lucius knelt down by his Professor. Seeing that she was conscious and trying to sit up, he helped by pulling her up to lean against the wall. She blinked a couple of times and looked around. When she saw the two men fighting, she seemed to come back to her senses.

\"Help me up.\" She held out her hand to him as he stood.

Lucius pulled her up and she put her arm around him, leading him through a door to her rooms. She pushed him quickly through her living room to a bedroom and shoved him in.

\"I\'ll come and get you when every things ok, alright?\" With that, she shut the door.

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"

Hermione put heavy wards on her bedroom door and a silencing charm. She grimaced as her temple throbbed and hurried back to her office. Severus still had Draco against the wall. The blonde was kicking violently.

\"Stop it!\" She ordered, \"Both of you, stop it!\"

Severus dropped Draco and swept over to her, but she ignored him and picked up Draco\'s wand from the corner.

\"You\'re both idiots, you know that!\" She seethed, \"You,\" She pointed at Draco, \"You should be ashamed with yourself! You could have hurt him! Your own son! You\'re disgusting! And you,\" She rounded on Severus, \"I\'ll deal with you later!\" Hermione stalked over to the door and flung it open, then she threw Draco\'s wand down the corridor.

\"Now if you don\'t mind, I have an eleven year old kid to see to!\" She held the door open as Draco exited the room, snarling.

Hermione shut the door and rubbed her eyes. She turned to her husband.

\"What were you thinking?\" She asked exasperatedly, \"Actually, I don\'t want to know. I\'m not really angry, just... never do that again. He may be younger than you, but I didn\'t like that look in his eye. Even with out his wand, you could have been hurt!\"

\"It\'s over with,\" Severus assured her, seating her on her desk and dipping his finger in the blood that ran from the side of her head, \"It\'s just when I saw you were hurt...\" He kissed her forehead, \"What on earth happened?\"

\"He didn\'t know that we were married.\" Hermione sighed \"He accused Lucius of hiding it from him. Lucius took his wand out and Draco flipped. He tried to disarm Lucius, but he\'s only a kid and I could stand by and watch while he was hurt, so... I kind of jumped in front of Lucius. But, as my wand is my living room, the spell couldn\'t disarm me so it had more force than it usually would.\"

\"You silly girl.\" He hugged her, \"You should have come and found me, not put yourself in danger like that.\"

\"He had already cast the spell; it was a split second decision.\" Hermione explained, \"Come on, I need to go and get that poor kid.\"

Hermione and Severus unwarded the door to Hermiones bedroom and slipped in. It was dark, apart from one small torch on the wall. Lucius was lying on the bed, obviously asleep. Hermione sighed and covered him.

They backed quietly out of the room. Severus pulled Hermione into him and she held onto him tight; it had been one hell of a night.

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"

The Blonde had opened the door before the red head had knocked. He gestured for his guest to go into his large living room. Once they were settled in black leather chair, the Blonde spoke.

\"This has gone too far.\"

The red head sneered, \"My words exactly.\"

____________________________________________________

Lucius opened his eyes. Something was different; this wasn\'t his bed! Where was he?

\"Awake then.\" Said a familiar voice. Hermione was sitting on the edge of the bed.

\"Why am I -? Oh.\" He started to remember what had happened the night before. Lucius glanced at Hermiones temple, it was healed completely.

\"You fell asleep.\" She smiled kindly.

\"I hate him.\" Hermione seemed to understand who \'him\' was.

\"No you don\'t.\" She stated, \"He\'s your father, of course you don\'t hate him.\"

\"I do. He could have killed us both.\" Lucius sneered.

\"Come on,\" She said, \"That’s going a bit far -\"

\"No its not, and you know it.\" He scowled.

Hermione looked like she was about to speak when the fire place opposite the bed roared. Frowning, Hermione went over and picked up a folded letter floating in the flames.

She read it quickly and smiled. Pulling her coat off the back of the door, she stuffed the letter in the pocket and flung it on the bed next to him.

\"I have to go out. I\'m going to say good bye Severus and then I’ll come back and get my coat when check on you, before I leave. Ok?\" She beamed.

\"Alright.\" He said, wriggling back down in the bed as he watched her leave.

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Hermione hurried to Severus\' class room. The sixth years were brewing something and Severus was sitting behind his desk.

\"I\'m going out.\" She told him as she perched on the edge of his desk.

\"Where?\" He frowned.

Great, Hermione hated lying, but she couldn\'t tell him she was going to meet Ron; he would want to come too and that was out of the question.

\"Um... Ginny asked me to go and have a day out with her. You know, shopping, that sort of stuff.\" She shrugged.

\"Fine, do you know when you\'ll be back?\" Severus rested his hand on her knee.

\"No, I won\'t be long though, I don\'t think.\" Hermione reassured him.

\"Alright then. See you later.\"

Hermione leaned down and gave him a quick peck before leaving his classroom and hurrying out of the castle.

She couldn\'t believe it when she had looked at the letter from Ron this morning. He had said that he wanted to make friends properly and to meet him in the Hogs Head.

Excited, Hermione rushed out of the gates of the school and apperated.

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"

Lucius slipped out of bed; Hermione had left him 15 minutes ago and was not back yet. He wanted to see what was in that letter -it was still in the pocket of her coat that she had left on the bed- but he didn\'t, because he knew it would be wrong.

Instead, Lucius straightened his robes and headed out of the bedroom. Professor Snape looked up from the sofa.

\"You\'re still here then.\" He sneered.

\"Well, I would have gone, but Hermione, \" Snape only raised an eyebrow, \"said that she was going to come back and see me before she went out.\"

\"Well, she\'s gone, so you can go back to your lessons,\" He stood up and stalked over, until he was towering over Lucius, \"And I will ask you now, to keep domestic disputes between you and your father at home and no where near my wife. As much as some students like to think it\'s not true, I do have a heart, and I do not wish my wife to be hurt because you and your father have issues. Do you understand me?\"

Lucius was angry, but nodded and left shaking in rage. It wasn\'t like he had wanted his father to pull out his wand, and he hadn\'t asked Hermione to jump in front of him.

But Snape seemed to forget that!

\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"\"

Hermione pushed open the door to the Hogs Head. Immediately, she headed over to Ron, who was standing at the bar.

\"Hi Ron.\" She said nervously.

\"Oh,\" He turned to her looking strangely excited, \"You\'re here. We -I have got a room upstairs, so we can talk privately.\" He waved a key.

Hermione nodded and followed him up some stairs. She couldn\'t help but think of all those years ago when Dumbledore and Trelawney thought they could talk privately, and it gave her a bad feeling.

She thought about turning back when Ron unlocked a door, but he ushered her inside. Carefully, Hermione sat down on a moldy sofa.

She noticed what looked like a fur rug in the corner, dumped in a heap. It looked flea bitten and disgusting.

\"I heard you got married.\" Ron started.

\"Yeah, I wanted you there, but no one could get hold of you.\" Hermione smiled sadly.

\"And what about me?\" Sneered a voice from a corner by the fire.

Hermione jumped and looked around. Draco sauntered over to stand next to Ron.

Hermione frowned, \"What’s going on?\"

\"We don\'t like each other.\" Ron told her.

\"But we hate this situation.\" Draco smirked.

\"What situation?\" Hermione asked, getting up and moving to the door. Ron, however, got there first and barred it.

\"Don\'t play dumb,\" Draco moved up close to Hermione and played with a strand of her hair, \"You know what we\'re talking about.\" Hermione flinched as Draco pulled a couple of strands of hair out.

\"I don\'t know what you\'re talking about, but I’m going to leave now.\" Hermione said nervously, trying to get passed Draco. The blond motioned to Ron and the red head walked forward to restrain Hermione by holding her arms.

\"Ron!\" She squealed, \"What are you doing? Let me go!\" Hermione tried to struggle and kick, but he was to strong; finally, she gave up.

Hermione gasped as she saw Draco roll over what she thought was a rug; it was actually a dog. She thought it was dead until she saw its eyes moving frantically and she knew it was stunned.

\"Right, Goyle,\" Draco said, taking a vial from his pocket. He looked over to Hermione, \"Yes, this is Gregory Goyle.\" he placed one of Hermiones hairs into the vial and turned back to the \'dog\', \"You know what this will do.\"

Draco leaned down and pried the dogs jaw open, then dripped some purple liquid from the vial into its mouth. Gingerly, he stroked its throat so the potion was swallowed.

Hermione didn\'t know when Ron had placed a silencing charm on her, but she found out that he had when she tried to scream.

Smirking, Draco pointed his wand at her and her world went black.

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Severus was half way through his seventh year class. He was tired -the rushed wedding had taken the energy out of both him and Hermione- and he just wanted to be in his quiet rooms with his wife.

The whole class looked up as a thud sounded around the class room, coming from his living room. Perhaps Hermione was home. It sounded like the floo had gone too. But what would have cause the thud?

Every student was looking at him for his reaction. They obviously had the same bad feeling he had. Carefully, Severus Moved from behind his desk and to the door that went to his living room.

He pushed the door open slowly and started to cough; the whole room was filled with dust or some thing. Waving it out of his eyes, Severus moved towards the fire.

Finally, the dust cleared and Severus looked down...

... Into the lifeless eyes of his wife.