The Man Returns (SS/HG)

We All Have Our Secrets

The morning light began to creep over a nearby hill by the time Severus had finished his run. The mist that was laying on the lake was began to make its way towards the shore, rolling onto the ground like silent waves. Severus began to slow his pace as he finished the final stretch; he bent over resting his hands on his thighs, he breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth as he mentally willed his heart to continue in a more regular beat. Severus looked up to see the morning light hitting the the castle bathing it in a pale golden glow. He began his walk back up towards the castle in a slow leisurely pace -taking in the beautiful scene before him as he went. The dew from the grass began to soak into his tattered muggle running shoes as he stopped for a minute and turned back to look towards the lake. What greeted his was the beauty that was Hogwarts in the morning. The hills that surrounded the castle were covered in green trees, but with hints of brown peaking through the foliage to announce that Autumn would come early this year. Across the lake lay the forbidden forest shrouded in mist and mystery as it ever was. Of course due to Potter and the rest of the trio keeping students out of the forest was an increasingly difficult venture. The problems was that due to Potter running off into the forest every five minutes during his years at Hogwarts gave the rest of the students the idea that the forest suddenly became a lot less forbidden all of a sudden. This of course led to Madam Pomfrey's sick bay becoming full to the brim with a variety of injuries form sprained ankle to nightmares about Acromantulars eating people's brains. Yes, it was a lovely image to go to sleep on...

Severus averted his eyes from the forest and instead sat down on the damp grass. He brought his knees up to his chin and rested his for arms on them. He sat there in the cold morning dew and reflected on what the day had in store. Coffee hopefully. But unfortunately one Miss Granger was bound to find her way down into his dungeons and irritate him at some point during the day.

Well better get it over and done with...
He though with a mental sigh of resignation after a few more minutes of quiet contemplation.

He got up and stared to walk his way up to the castle relishing in the cold morning air that he felt was it last breath of freedom.

  ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hermione had woken early that morning. The thought of being back at Hogwarts had crept up on her like the morning sun. She stretched her arms outward and slipped her feet over the side of the bed, the heavy covers, in part, coming with her. There were two things that she instantly had noticed upon waking. One: that the floor was particularly cold this morning, and two: that there was someone in her room... She looked around the bed to locate where she had thrown her wand the evening before. After rooting around the surprisingly large amount of books that she had on her bedside table (for only having been there for less than twenty four hours). Once she had found it she got up tucked a wayward curl behind her ear and shuffled forwards towards the possible assailant.

As she got closer to the noise she discovered it was some sort of humming... As humming was not usually the sort of thing Death Eaters (or even ex Death Eaters) did Hermione lowered her wand slightly. She continued to creep through her quarters towards the grand fireplace where she found a small tattered looking House Elf cleaning the grate of the fire. Hermione coughed to get the small creature's attention. It jumped at the sudden noise and span around holding a soot covered brush in front of it in defence.

"Hello there. Don't worry I won't hurt you." Hermione said, in what she hoped to be a calming voice. "I'm Hermione Granger. May I enquire who you are?"

The small elf looked up to Hermione with huge blue eyes, shuffled its feet and toyed with the brush that was still in its hand. "H-Hinky" the elf stammered at she (as Hermione assumed that Hinky was female) looked sheepishly at her feet. "I is called Hinky Miss Hermione Granger Miss."