With the death of her parents tearing her apart, Hermione's not sure she can handle much more. But when love drags her into an unwanted war, she realizes lifes a game of chess with Severus and herself as the last pieces left on the board.

I believed I was smart... or special... or something... he promised me the world could someday be mine. I got caught up in his game, too far, too fast. It's ones you least expect to be the hardest to forget.

I loved everything about him, from his sleek back hair, always so placed, to his dark eyes hiding years of pain. To say that I was the cause of his death, although would be an understatement, isn't entirely true. He was only trying to protect me. Or perhaps, like I, he was just trying to finish what we all had started years before. We all became a casualty of war... and of love.

When hermione falls in love with a man she swore she never would and another whos love is impossible, she's forced to choose between betraying her friends to survive or be the cause of the death of her lover.