A/N: So this story is not a new one from me. It is merely a rewrite of The Need To Protect. As I tried to edit the story, I just felt that the first chapter was too in your face & didn't really ease you into what happened. I also felt that the original progression of the story was too juvenile in the writing. I felt like I was reading something that I had written when I was fourteen or fifteen. So hopefully you all enjoy this version better. Not much will change in this version. So far the only change is Hermione's attacker, when Severus finds out something isn't right with her, also when her friends find out about what has been happening to her. I will also be taking out the bit about the potion and his need for revenge due to the War. This is more a man-child that feels slighted by Hermione and his ego can't allow a "lesser" being aka a woman, do that to him. Since I'll be using the original story as more of a guideline/suggestion box, chapters and updates will not be on top of each other as they were with the editing of Professor's Pet so please bear with me on this rewriting journey.
Disclaimer: This story contains mentions/suggestions of sexual assault and mentions/views of physical abuse. Please, if this is not something you prefer to read, or will bring something from your past/present to the fore front, don't read. I don't want anyone to have flash backs or a hard time with this story.
Copyrights of characters, places, & any other recognizable themes from Harry Potter all belong to JK Rowling.

Chapter 1

She stood there in the middle of the hallway as student after student passed by her. Not one asking what was wrong. Not one stopping to figure out why the brains of the Golden Trio was standing in the middle of the hallway outside potions with a vacant look. Not even her best friends noticed her paler skin, her smaller frame that seemed to be shrinking everyday, not even her teachers noticed anything strange about her. She kept up in her classes, whether it was class work or homework. But if she was honest with herself it wasn't up to par with what her usual schoolwork entailed.

"Stop trying to draw attention to yourself. Get your arse in class now before Snape realizes you're missing." She barely flinched at the tight grasp on her arm. He'd grabbed her so many times in the last month that it was as if her nerves had died. She felt nothing. "I suggest you do as I say the first time, or I will drag you to the heads dorm and give you a reminder of what happens when you aren't a good little girl and listen."

With that Hermione made the short distance to Potions with a few minutes to spare. She never thought she would be one to allow a man-child to treat her the way he did. She always believed that she was strong enough to fight back. After all she survived Bellatrix Lestrange's torture, survived the final war against He-Whose-Ego-Cost-Him-His-Life, helped keep Severus Snape, double agent, alive by calling on Fawkes to cry upon the wound at the mans neck.

But I guess when your innocence is ripped from you so forcibly and brutally, you stop fighting, you stop caring. You give up on all the bullshit of how people perceive you. Especially when your friends don't even notice that something is obviously terribly wrong with you, she thought. But than again, the boys finally get to be, well, boys for the first time since starting Hogwarts. Ginny was just happy that Hermione finally had a boyfriend but after finding out about the relationship, she stopped asking Hermione about it. The older girl wasn't sure if that was because Ginny was wrapped up in her ménage relationship with Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy or because she was scared of what was really going on with Hermione's relationship.

Neither Hermione nor her controller noticed a set of dark brown, almost black eyes watching them from across the hall as he made his way to his classroom. He made a mental note to figure out why his Potions Apprentice was man handling the Gryffindor Princess and why said Princess was not skinning him alive for it. Something was not right and being the ever-observant spy, Severus Tobias Snape was going to find out what was going on and put an end to it. First, he needed to find out why her friends weren't doing anything to keep her safe. Something is definitely not right here, he thought as he walked into his classroom.

As Severus watched over his class he noticed that Hermione no longer sat in her usual spot between Weasley and Potter, or as he thought of them, the red-headed idiot and the-boy-who-lives-to-irritate. He had noticed at times she would sit with Draco, but that was when the idiot said something to piss her off, but now that he sat back and thought on it, her feisty anger was no longer apparent. It was as if it had shrunk like…like her frame! Severus was finally seeing all the things that the once overly excited know-it-all was trying to hide. Like the fact that she had deep bags under her eyes, glamours on her wrist, a frame that was becoming too small for the witches height.

He also became aware that though she sat alone, she wasn't really alone. His apprentice, Cormac McLaggen, the only Gryffindor he'd ever taken on, was sitting and watching the Gryffindor Princess. He watched as Cormac sent a note to Hermione that caused what little light that was left in her eyes to disappear. If he hadn't been looking for it, he would have missed it. Yes, it's time to have a little chat with her friends, he thought, if being tortured by that crazy bitch, Bellatrix, didn't bring her down like this, than something is seriously amiss with her relationship with McLaggen.