Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Still not mine... and never will be.

As always, thanks to LadySunflower for betaing this.

Thanks to anyone who bothers to review this, but in particular to DeathSong who reviewed this story the most: 10 chapters so far.

Chapter 11

Severus kept an eye on Hermione whenever he could, occasionally checking on her using a crystal ball when she was out of his eyesight. Not all tools used for Divination were useless, although a crystal ball was only useful for scrying in his experience. He'd already been on the way to the prefect's bathroom when Weasley had almost run into him with Minerva in tow.

He observed her storming off after an argument with Potter, apparently over a book. The misty, soundless view provided by the glass ball in his hands didn't allow him to know exactly what the book was, although it did look familiar.

As the light given by the torches flickered around her, Severus realised that it was inadvisable to allow a Necromancer to get this angry and ended the spell, slipping the globe into his pocket.

"What's your hurry, Miss Granger?" It had taken him several minutes to intercept her, by which time the torches had been extinguished and the temperature was dropping rapidly. Severus took a step back as Hermione looked up, her eyes dark with suppressed fury. Her fists clenched until they were white knuckled, and it looked for a second as if she might lash out at him.

He had the presence of mind to pull her into an empty classroom and cast an Imperturbable Charm before she could vent her anger.

"None of your business. Let me out." Hermione turned her back on him, holding herself stiffly.

"You are my business, girl. In case you haven't noticed, you are a little too volatile in your current state for me to allow you out. Sit down, calm yourself and then you will tell me what's bothering you."

Hermione let out a strangled sound that had quite a lot in common with a growl. "Let me out right now, Professor, or I won't be responsible for my actions." She reached for her wand.

Severus had been holding his own wand hidden up his sleeve, so he was prepared. 'Petrificus Totalus!' Hermione's limbs locked together, snapping to the sides of her body. She toppled towards the floor to be caught by Severus, who flipped her around in his arms so that her enraged eyes could meet his own.

"The day you catch me unawares is a long way off, Hermione. Do I really have to use Legilimency on you? I thought that you felt that you could tell me anything. What could have changed that?" Severus could feel his spell giving way already, enough for Hermione to free her head from the grip of the Body-Bind Curse.

"Don't you dare!" she yelled, trying to bite at his hand where it gripped her chin.

"Regard it as practice. The Dark Lord will want to see you eventually, and you'll need to have built up sufficient mental defences to keep him out." Severus confiscated her wand, realizing that at this rate she could be freed within seconds. He had no wish to be interrupted from his task by whatever hexes Hermione could think of.

'Legilimens.' Hermione's anger worked against her to some extent, in that it opened her mind to his, but the sensation of feeling that incandescent rage (especially when some of it was directed at him) was far from pleasant. It was Potter she was truly angry with, and an image of the book in question surfaced before him. A rather scruffy copy of the N.E.W.T. level Potions textbook. Before he could 'open' it, another book replaced it, a sense of menace emanating from within the green leather cover, silver claps snapping open. Cold embraced his senses as the book opened, the black ink on the pages swirling around him until it swallowed him whole.

"... Severus, wake up! Come on, you have to be alright. I'm sorry; I didn't know that would happen. I just... Please be alright. I'll tell you what you want to know, just wake up." Hermione's pleading voice was laced with panic. Severus drifted awake, opening his eyes to find himself supported on Hermione's lap, her hands holding his head, fingers buried in his admittedly greasy locks.

"I'm alright." He sat up, searching in his robes for a clean handkerchief. He found two, passed one to Hermione and used the other to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead. Hermione stared blankly at the scrap of cloth in her hands, then used it to wipe her tears away. She hadn't even noticed that she'd been crying. As Head of Slytherin, it seemed part of the job description to have an everlasting supply of handkerchiefs (usually green with his monogram embroidered in the corner). He strongly suspected that Pomona Sprout's plump frame was largely due to the number of handkerchiefs she carried for the average snivelling Hufflepuff first year.

"What was that book? The second one, I mean. Was it a memory, or did you manage to manipulate it?"

"It was the manual on Necromancy that the Room of Requirement provided. It didn't do anything like that to me, but I didn't make it do that to you. I wouldn't; you have to believe me." Hermione nervously nibbled on her lower lip. Severus reached out to stop her, gripping her jaw with his long fingers, placing his thumb on her lip before she could draw blood.

"I know, just be careful," he murmured, absently outlining her lips with a stroke of his thumb. At her shuddering intake of breath, he snatched his hand away. 'September nineteenth cannot come soon enough.'

"What were you arguing with Potter about?"

Hermione blinked at his question, a suspicious look coming into her eyes. "How did you know that I'd argued with Harry? That wasn't revealed during your intrusion into my mind."

Severus bit his tongue. He really needed to watch his words around this witch; she was far too observant not to pick up on inconsistencies like that.

"Have you been spying on me?" Now she was getting angry again, her voice sharper.

"No! I've been keeping a watchful eye on you. There is a difference. I spy on the Dark Lord; I watch you. The motive is entirely different."

Hermione's eyes narrowed, then she leapt at him. The abrupt move startled him enough for her to knock him over. She straddled him, hands running over him. Severus's breath hissed out, struggling to contain his reaction to her closeness. He reached up, grabbing her wrists as he twisted to the side, dumping her on the floor and reversing their positions. Her hands pinned above her head, cheeks flushed and chest heaving, Hermione looked as though she was half-way to being ravished. His position straddling her waist was only contributed to that, although it could have been worse; at least he wasn't lying between her legs.

"I think... is that your heartbeat I can hear?" Hermione fixed her eyes on the pulse point pounding away in the hollow of his throat, although she seemed to be having difficulty because of his collar. She gave an exasperated sigh and twisted her hand to grip his wrist, feeling for his pulse. "It is! Contrary to popular belief, you do have a heart. I didn't need to hear it to know, though."

Severus found himself leaning closer, inhaling the scent of her hair. Just as he was close enough to feel her exhalations against his face, he scrambled off her. Hermione swore under her breath, too quietly for him to hear the word, but he was sufficiently practiced in lip reading to get the gist.

"My apologies. I stand firm by my decision to wait. Do not tempt me further, or you'll regret it come your birthday."

"Me, tempt you? You're the tease around here, Severus. If I couldn't hear your heart racing, then I'd assume it was frozen," Hermione snarled then stomped over to the door, wand in hand. Severus blinked, delving into his pocket to find that she had somehow managed to extract it without him noticing.

"If I can appropriate ingredients from your Potions cupboard in my second year without your notice, then I can get my wand back from your person. I don't know why you had what felt like a small crystal ball in another of your pockets, though."

Severus breathed a sigh of relief. It appeared that Hermione didn't know that crystal balls could be used for scrying, thanks to her dropping Divination before fully covering them.

"Don't think that I've forgiven you for prying and spying on me." Another inaudible swear word slipped from her as the door failed to open. "Severus Snape, open the door if you wish to be able to pursue me after my birthday."

"Tell me what you promised to and I will."

"I said I'd tell you what you wanted to know. I did; you asked about The Book." Hermione gave him a calculating look, her lips tucking into a smirk. "Give me what I desire and I'll tell you."

"Fine!" Severus gestured with his wand, lifting his personal locking charm. A puzzled frown crossed his face as Hermione stalked up to him.

"I didn't say that I desired the door to be unlocked." Hermione's smirk grew wider, and a throaty chuckle escaped her. She reached up, entwining her arms around his neck and slipping a leg between his. Severus swallowed hard. For someone as inexperienced as he knew her to be, Hermione seemed to be fairly well versed in seduction.

"Hermione, stop it. Not now, damn you! Insufferable girl, desist from the siren act this instant, or..."

The temptress refused to listen, pulling his head down to hers. Severus held firm, refusing to kiss her back as she cut him off with the contact of her lips against his. Not even the teasing flicker of her tongue against his firmly closed mouth could persuade him to reciprocate. He thrust her away from him, hands tight on her shoulders as she attempted to grind her hips against him. He opened his mouth to deliver a sharp rebuke, only for Hermione to cut him off before he could start.

"Don't try to tell me that you didn't want that, that you don't want me. Your heart is beating so fast I can barely tell where the gaps between beats are. I may not be officially of age, but that is not the restriction on fraternisation between teachers and students given in the rules. The age of consent is, which is the same in the Wizarding world as it is in the Muggle one: sixteen years old. I've been that age even without the Time Turner for almost a year. Please, Severus. Don't deny me."

"I gave both of my masters my word that I would not begin seducing you until you came of age in this world. I fully intend to keep that promise. Leave and keep your stupid secret about the Potions book, Miss Granger. I will not allow any further contact between us until you are of age." Severus opened the door and shoved her out into the corridor, slamming the door shut behind her with an impressive crash.

'Infernal girl! She will follow my lead on this matter and that is final.' Before he could leave the room, he needed to be sure that Hermione was no longer in the corridor. He pulled out the crystal ball, focusing his mind on the question of where Hermione was. The murky image granted showed that she was still outside, eyes fixed on the door. On closer observation as the picture sharpened, he could see that she was shaking. She slumped against the wall, her legs no longer supporting her.

'She knows I'm watching. She's faking it, wanting my attention.' He watched her struggle to her feet, only to collapse entirely, falling against a suit of armour and sliding down the polished metal onto the floor. It swayed on the spot then fell to pieces on top of her. She didn't move, even when the helmet hit her on the head. 'She's not that good at acting!'

Severus burst out of the classroom, diving down beside Hermione, picking the various parts of armour off her. Her forehead was bleeding slightly from contact with the helmet, which he staunched and healed within seconds. After lifting one of her eyelids, he used Legilimency to ascertain the reason for her collapse and subsequent loss of consciousness. It appeared that when he had slammed the door, the sound had triggered a flashback of the car crash, causing her to faint. She stirred, eyes blinking open within a minute of her collapse.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't take you to the hospital wing and have Madam Pomfrey keep you there."

"She won't have me, she's already sick of me. I think she only wants to keep me from winning the award for 'Most Time Spent in Hospital Wing'. You were inside my head again; desist in future."

Severus winced. So she was not happy with his rejection. He only hoped that she wouldn't hold the grudge on her birthday.

"Then I will ask the Headmaster to instruct you in Occlumency, Miss Granger. Good evening." He made to sweep off, his robes billowing around him, only to be brought up short by Hermione snatching his ankle.

"If you'll let me into your mind as well, I'm happy for you to teach me. I've already fought with Harry, I don't want to argue with you as well."

"As you wish. Meet me after dinner, but behave yourself. Occlumency does not require physical contact, so please respect my wishes. You were willing to wait until you had graduated, so surely you can manage ten days." Severus reached down, freeing his ankle and helping Hermione to her feet in the same move.

"Fine. I'll keep my hands off if you do the same."

'Ah. This may be more difficult than I thought. Perhaps I should review my knowledge of wards; there must be one to deter any physical contact. A shock charm, perhaps.'

Having finished her dinner, Hermione said her excuses to Ginny (both Harry and Ron were sitting away from her, obviously as ticked off with her as she was with them) and had almost reached the Potions classroom before her mind caught up with her feet. 'Great, now I'll be late.' She turned on her heel, walking as fast as she could without running in the direction of Severus's new base in the Defence classroom.

Severus made no comment on her late arrival; he just pulled his wand out ready for use after warding the room. Hermione mirrored his movement, only for him to shake his head.

"You won't be able to repel the Dark Lord from your mind using your wand, Hermione. In fact, it would be best if you didn't repel him at all. To that effect, we will be working on the ability you showed earlier; false images."

Hermione nodded, returning her wand to her pocket. She glanced around the room. "Is the Pensieve in your office?" She asked, noting its absence.

"No. I agreed to your earlier condition. While I am in no hurry to share many of the events from my dark past, you know that I trust you to keep my secrets... Legilimens!" Severus struck without giving a warning, his eyes locked with her own.

Snippets of her own past swirled around her. Severus began to test her defences, bringing the more embarrassing and painful memories to the forefront of her mind where he could examine them.

She was doubled over, the Polyjuice Potion twisting her insides. Black fur appeared on her hands, a sharp tingle at the base of her spine...

"You cannot escape yourself. You will become me, failure!" She ran screaming from the boggart to sputter out the first of the manifestations to Professor Lupin as an explanation...

Severus began to withdraw from her mind, but not before another memory surfaced.

Blood pooling above her on the interior of a battered surface, shards of glass sinking into it. Her own hand stretching up to dip two fingers into it. Her vision narrowed, shaking with jarring coughs as tears blurred it. Her throat burned, raw with her sobs, calls for her loved ones and choking coughs. Smoke blocked her fading view of the blood, filling her lungs as she gasped for air. She couldn't breathe, everything fading out, leaving only her awareness of an all encompassing chill seeping into her bones and grasping at her soul...

Hermione opened her eyes to find herself kneeling in an inch of solid ice. A glance around the room showed that it affected the whole room, keeping Severus from reaching her. The necessary knowledge to fix the slight problem with the cold snap surfaced in her mind, courtesy of The Book. She winced at the realisation that the ice extended across the floor of the entire castle as she forced it to melt, evaporating the water at the same time. Maybe the blame for this could be shifted onto Peeves the poltergeist. 'Come to think of it, I haven't seen any of the school ghosts.' Realisation dawned as yet more forgotten knowledge rose up in her mind. 'I can control them and they know it. Awfully tempting to set Peeves on some of the junior Death Eaters. Heaven knows Malfoy would deserve it.'

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring the last two memories up. They were memories, weren't they?" Severus pulled her up, settling her in a chair before stepping back.

Hermione's lips compressed into a tight line as she wiped her eyes before her threatening tears could fall. "Yes, they were. I've never mentioned the second form of that boggart to anyone. As you might have guessed, the last memory was the moments after the... it happened." She scowled at her inability to say 'crash' at that particular moment.

"You won't become her. Not if I have anything to say about it." Severus didn't need to elaborate. "Your mind is a little too raw for us to continue further tonight." He crossed over to his desk, extracting a small bottle from one of the drawers. "Judging by the events of today, I suggest you use this before going to sleep." He handed it over to her.

"If I take much more of this, I'll be a Dreamless Sleep addict." Hermione fidgeted. She could use a hug, but Severus would hardly give her one after their encounter earlier. 'Maybe Crooks will let me... oh, no. Crookshanks...' The bottle in her hand clattered to the desk in front of her as she buried her face in her hands as the tears started to flow. The loss of her familiar hadn't really hit her before now.

"Hermione...I'm really not any good at this." He pulled her into his arms, allowing her to bury her face against his shoulder, her tears soaking into his robes. "Perhaps a Calming Draught would have been a better idea," Severus muttered, otherwise silent as he waited for the storm of tears to stop.

"I'm sorry. I just hadn't, I mean, I didn't... You told me no physical contact, and I just needed a hug. I thought of Crookshanks; it hasn't really sunk in that he's gone," Hermione burbled, with the occasional dry sob interrupting her.

"I realise that a familiar cannot really be replaced, but perhaps another could assuage your grief a little?" He swallowed nervously, obviously hoping that she would not take offence.

"I'll think about it," she finally murmured, pulling away from him before she could be tempted to step over the line he'd set down. She dug out the handkerchief he'd given her earlier and used it to clean herself up a bit.

"If you feel up to it, I'll be available after breakfast for another Occluding session."

Hermione blinked at his words. "How? You must have a full schedule; there isn't time."

Severus smirked and used one finger to dig into the neck of his robes, exposing a thin gold chain.

"You have a Time Turner. Er, how old are you now?"

"Why, having second thoughts? I don't use it very much. Only when I really need to, like the rare occasions the Dark Lord summons me when I'm teaching." Severus slipped the chain back into his robes. "Give me a signal at breakfast tomorrow if you do want to meet; I'll be watching you."

Hermione scooped up the bottle from the desk while thanking Unbreakable Charms for existing. She paused before dispelling the privacy wards. "Severus? How have you been watching me when you were nowhere near? I know it can't have been with the Time Turner; I know the risks of being seen."

"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies. If you really want to know, you'll have to practice until your Legilimency can break through my Occlumency."

Hermione huffed at his dismissal and left the classroom. 'Maybe my old friend the library can tell me...'