What Are You Thinking?

Chapter 9: What Are You Thinking?

Disclaimer: see previous chapters.

They repeated themselves three times, and Hermione felt the wind pick up her hair, whipping it around her face. She felt overcome by emotion. She had the urge to laugh and weep at the same time, but also felt a strange peace come over her. It was indescribable. Hermione thought of what Dumbledore had always said, and she wondered if they were feeling Love in its truest and most raw form. It was truly powerful and she could understand what Dumbledore had meant......

It was silent. Even the wind whirling around them was quiet as the girls stood within their shining protective bubble. Hermione didn't know how long they'd been standing there in silence; it was as if they were waiting for something. Instinctively, she knew they were supposed to remain standing there, silent and unmoving.

All of a sudden the world became brighter; she looked up to notice that their bubble was changing colours. From violet to red to a blinding orange, and she heard something like a drumbeat in her head. It began rhythmic and slow but increased in frequency and became louder and louder. She knew it was still silent in their clearing in the forest. She watched as the bright bubble seemed to be throbbing in time with the drumbeat in her head; every girl had her head thrown back as they watched it. It increased, faster and faster, louder and louder. Pounding over and over. It was primal and beautiful. Hermione felt as if she was being embraced; warm air blew around her, and she felt safe, secure, and loved.

One more whoosh of air around them and the drumbeat, which had increased to a frenzied beat, stopped. Their bubble burst. Each girl, including herself, crumpled to the ground.

As Hermione sat up, she blinked and looked around. She felt overwhelmed by emotion. Their ritual had been the most beautiful thing she had ever experienced. She hoped she would never forget a moment of it for the rest of her life. She didn't feel up to talking yet, so she was surprised when she heard the voices of every other girl in their circle. They all seemed to start talking at once, and she couldn't distinguish between who was saying what.

Hermione couldn't believe they had the capacity to talk so soon after their experience. She looked around confusedly at the other girls, and then she realized something.

Nobody's lips were moving.

Hermione's mouth dropped open as she tried to puzzle out what was happening to them. Each girl was now looking around confused. Nobody had spoken yet. Hermione gasped as she slowly realized what was happening. This must be the special gift. Could they communicate through each other's minds? Morgaine had mentioned that their bonding would bring them something special, and this might be it. Hermione heard a voice in her head rise above the rest.

'Hermione, can you hear me?' It was Pansy, and she had managed to force her 'voice' to the forefront of Hermione's mind.

'Pansy?' Hermione thought as she concentrated on the Slytherin girl.

'This is amazing! I'm communicating with you and I don't have to look at you or cast Legilimens!' Pansy thought to her, and Hermione could feel a sense of glee and something a bit more calculating.

'I can feel what you are feeling too!' she thought to Pansy. 'When you think something towards me, I can hear you and feel what you are feeling.'

'So can the rest of us!' A new voice entered her head, and she recognized it as Padma's.

'I wonder if we can turn it off and on or if we will always hear each other's thoughts and feelings,' Hermione wondered. Her mind was racing, and she felt a myriad of questions overwhelm her. Is it selective? Can they control their new power? How far does it reach? Will they be able to communicate while they are home over the holidays? Could they influence each others feelings? I need to research this.

'HERMIONE! You're thinking too fast and too loud!' She heard Millicent 'shout' into her head. She felt amusement and laughter from each of the girls in reaction. It felt so weird to feel so much at the same time.

'We are going to need to figure out how this gift works for us,' Hermione said aloud, and her voice sounded rusty and unused. She felt the startled reactions from each girl as the silence was broken. The girls began then to take in their surroundings. They were sitting in their clearing in the forest, still forming their initial circle. Hermione still felt warm from the spell, even if the December night air was freezing.

One by one, each girl stood up and looked around. The sky was a bit lighter than it had been when they had started their spell. Hermione realized with a start that it was almost dawn. How long have we been out here? she wondered. How long they had stood there, listening to the drum beat as the spell completed itself?

'Well, I guess we should go in. Some of us have to leave this afternoon on the train,' Daphne said as she stifled a yawn.

'Snow!' It was Luna who thought this, as they began to make their way to the castle, and Hermione looked up to watch the first flakes fall from the sky. Hermione felt a mixture of emotions: surprise, delight, and wonder from the other girls as they looked up. She smiled as she tried to distinguish between each girl's emotions. It was still disconcerting to feel eleven different sets of emotions, but she was starting to recognize which emotion matched its owner. She wanted to spend a few days researching telepathy and testing the bounds of their gift. She wanted to research.

'I'm not going home. I need to stay here and research our gift,' she thought to the other girls.

'Will your parents be okay with you changing plans so late?' Susan asked.

'I'll send them an owl. They won't be happy about it, but I'll tell them I have some important research to do for school. They understand stuff like that,' Hermione said. Ginny nodded, remembering that Hermione had used that excuse in the past to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays.

'I'm staying too, Hermione. I can help you with the research,' Tracey said. Hermione felt some delight and anticipation coming from Tracey at the thought of having company over the holidays. Tracey was one of the only Slytherin students staying over for Christmas.

Millicent stopped at the edge of the forest and addressed the other girls.

'We don't know anything about our gift, but it is going to take practice to get control over it. We need to know how to be selective about who we are communicating with, and we need to know if someone can sense it if they use Legilimency.'

'Since you are staying Hermione,' Anjali said, 'can you look into this? You can teach the rest of us how to control it when we get back, but you and Tracey can practice while we are gone.'

Hermione nodded, already making mental notes to herself to owl her parents to send her Muggle books about the theory of telepathy. I wonder if I could get to Diagon Alley, she thought to herself, imagining Mr. Yosh's dusty little book shop. Maybe I could owl Mr. Yosh...

'HEY, PAY ATTENTION!' Ginny's thought forced itself into Hermione's head. 'Pansy has been talking for a while, and you were too busy thinking of bookstores to hear what she had to say!'

'Oops. Do you think she noticed?' Hermione looked over at Pansy with a sheepish look on her face.

'Of course I did! I can hear your thoughts too, and when you are thinking of research, they get louder! Pansy said. 'We can all hear what you are thinking!'

'Who's Mr. Yosh and why did you think of Snape when you imagined his bookstore?' Daphne asked.

Hermione felt herself turning red as the other girls looked at her speculatively when Daphne mentioned Snape. 'It's just that I found this great bookstore this summer on Diagon Alley, and I happened to run into Professor Snape when I was there.' She tried to shrug nonchalantly.

'And you just happened to notice that he smelled like chocolate?' Daphne asked with humor in her voice. 'I knew you couldn't help but notice how sexy he is! It's not just me!'

Hermione was sure she was a full blown Gryffindor red when Daphne mentioned Snape smelling like chocolate.

'Urrgh! Get out of my head! We need to learn how to control this gift!' Hermione said in frustration. The other girls laughed at her tone of voice. Instinctively, Hermione put up her Occlumency barriers, imagining a brick wall being erected behind her forehead.

'Hey!' Hermione heard Pansy's voice but it was faint, as if it was coming from very far away. 'I can just barely get through, but your Occlumency wall made a big difference.'

Hermione dropped her wall, wanting to keep herself open to the other girls for now. She smiled at Pansy. 'Well, that's our first bit of research done. We know that Occlumency does make a difference!'

Before Pansy could reply to Hermione, Susan interrupted the conversation. 'Girls, we need to get going. The sun is coming up.' Most of the girls tilted their heads up to the sky, noticing the slight pink tint from the sun peeking through the cloudy sky.

'We need to get going. I need to finish what I was saying before Hermione started dreaming about Snape,' Pansy said in a mocking voice as some of the girls chuckled quietly. 'I think that we need to continue to communicate with each other all morning, keep our minds open to each other. We can test how far it will reach, like when we go to Hogsmeade to catch the train. We need to know if our gift extends beyond the barriers of the school.'

The other girls nodded in agreement as they quietly made their way from the forest to the castle. Once in the entrance hall, they stopped once more to hug each other goodbye for the holidays. Hermione smiled as she realized they had managed to do so in complete silence while using their minds to say their farewells. This gift was going to be very useful.

'Hermione!' Hermione jerked awake with a start when she heard her name, looking around her room with blurry eyes. Lavender and Parvati had already packed their trunks and left the room. Hermione blinked a few times, trying to wake up. What time is it? she wondered, looking out the window to see snow falling from an overcast sky.

'Yes, it's me. I have been trying to get your attention. We are leaving right now for the Burrow.' Another 'voice' popped into Hermione's head after Ginny said this. 'You can't be leaving right now. The carriages haven't left yet for Hogsmeade Station.'

Hermione identified that as Pansy.

'I guess we are still all hearing each other when we communicate this way,' she thought wryly.

Pansy chuckled a bit in her mind, and she thought she felt amusement from some of the other girls.

'We are leaving by Floo through Professor McGonagall's office. It was decided that it would be safer for 'the chosen one,'' Ginny thought, emphasizing Harry's latest title. 'The boys still think you are going home and are probably already in the entrance hall getting ready to leave on the carriages. I decided it would be easiest if they didn't know you changed your plans.'

'That makes sense; I don't need them asking questions about this. Thanks, Gin.' Hermione imagined herself smiling thankfully at Ginny.

'Hey, I caught that smile. Wicked. You need to teach me... Oh, we are leaving now. BYE GIRLS!'

There was a cacophony of 'bye, Gin!' in Hermione's head as Ginny stepped through the fireplace and left.

Dressed and wide awake, Hermione grabbed a book from her trunk and headed towards the Great Hall. She had slept through breakfast and now that she was awake, she was ready to eat lunch. Hermione sighed as she looked around the almost empty Great Hall. Everything at Hogwarts seemed so quiet now that the carriages had left, taking most of the students with them.

She sat by herself at the end of the Gryffindor table, noticing that Tracey was also seating alone at the Slytherin table. She smiled, hearing Tracey's voice in her head as she filled her plate.

'Yeah, good. So, what are you pretending to read?' Hermione turned over her book to look at the cover; she had just grabbed whatever was available.

'Speaking of that... don't look, but Snape is staring at you.'

Hermione felt herself stiffen as she resisted the urge to look up at the head table. She casually reached for the pumpkin juice and glanced up towards the head table, just in time to see the Defense professor glance down at his plate.

Hermione stifled a giggle as the mental image of Snape excitedly ripping open a package flitted across her mind.

Hermione felt herself flush. 'I don't know what it is, but every time I have been around him, I smell chocolate and sandalwood.' She took a large bite of her sandwich to cover her embarrassment.

Hermione smiled at that. ' Well, I have to try. It would only be a quick question, and we need as much research material as possible. Hey, are you done eating? Want to meet me in the library to start researching?'

'Isn't it too soon for us be seen together?' Tracy asked apprehensively. They had never decided with the other girls when they would make their friendship more apparent. It was hard to decide because it had to be enough to please Voldemort, but not enough for him to order Pansy to move forward with the spell.

'I doubt anyone would be in the library today and besides, there aren't any other Slytherins around to report it.'

Hermione could feel that Tracey was pleased with the idea that they could spend time together. Otherwise it may have proved to be a very lonely Christmas for them both.

'I'm going to grab some stuff from my room and I will meet you in the library,' Hermione said as she stood up from the table. She flashed Tracey a smile across the room and headed out towards her dormitory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Snape took a deep sip of his hot chocolate as he looked out over the Great Hall. He felt himself relax as he took in the almost empty hall and felt the warm chocolate slide down into his belly. It was finally quiet, most of the students were gone, and with any luck he could enjoy a few weeks of peace. He frowned when he noticed the Gryffindor table. There were only two occupants: a first year and Granger. Minerva had mentioned over breakfast that Granger had come to her first thing in the morning and let her know that she would be changing her plans and staying for the holidays. Why had Granger changed her plans?

He idly traced his lips with his fingers as he watched the Gryffindor witch eat her lunch. She had a book open in front of her, but hadn't once turned the pages and he wondered why she would bother to pretend she was reading. She blushed and then smiled as he watched her, and he found himself feeling puzzled. She wasn't reading and she was sitting alone, so what was making her blush? Damned girl. He had spent entirely too much time thinking about her lately. He was worried. She seemed to defy him at every turn, no matter what he did to try and warn her.

He saw her flash a smile towards the Slytherin table's only occupant before leaving the Great Hall. Miss Davis was the only Slytherin who would be staying over the holidays. As a half-blood, her family was rarely invited to the regular round of balls and Yule parties that were so much a part of pureblood culture. Severus frowned when he saw the shared smile between the two girls. Was Miss Granger friends with another Slytherin? He had never even seen Miss Parkinson and Miss Davis together. When would Herm -- Ms. Granger have had a chance to meet Ms. Davis? He needed a way to watch the Gryffindor witch more closely.

There was a flash of lurid purple in Severus' peripheral vision, indicating to Severus that Dumbledore was leaving the table. He wiped his mouth on his napkin and stood to follow the older man up to his office. He needed to tell his employer about the conversation he had conducted with Draco last night.

'Headmaster, do you have a moment?'

'Of course, Severus, of course. Come up to my office with me.' Severus fell into step next to Dumbledore as they made their way to the headmaster's office.

'Severus, I trust you are feeling a bit more relaxed now that most of our students have gone home for the holidays.'

'If only it could be all the students, headmaster,' Severus murmured, causing Dumbledore to chuckle.

'Now, Severus, I'm sure you don't really feel that way. The students this year are a delight! I, for one, am glad to have such a wonderful group of students to remember Hogwarts by.'

Snape felt a lance of pain at Dumbledore's words, and he sucked in a deep breath trying to compose himself. When he spoke, his voice was rusty and low.

'Headmaster, really I think if I spent the holidays researching...'

'We've already had this conversation, Severus.' Dumbledore's voice had taken on a hard edge that brooked no argument. Snape sighed, feeling defeated. It made it even harder to accept in the face of his mentor's evident cheerfulness and acceptance.

After turning down a lemon drop and settling himself in a seat opposite Dumbledore, Severus began to describe the conversation he had had last night with Draco. Under the guise of trying to help him, he had tried to get Draco to talk to him about his plans.

'So, young Mr. Malfoy has some talent for Occlumency,' Dumbledore said in a voice muffled by the candy he had recently popped into his mouth.

'Before he put his shields up, I was able to determine that Bellatrix has been teaching both him and Miss Parkinson over their holiday breaks. His mental shields are crude but strong.'

'Miss Parkinson too? Has there been any indication that she will be successful in her particular endeavor anytime soon?' Dumbledore asked thoughtfully. Severus was quiet for a moment before answering.

'Albus, I believe that she still has a way to go on that, but I am getting worried.'

'Tell me.'

'Well, Miss Granger has consistently ignored all of my attempts to warn her away from Miss Parkinson. They seem to be becoming closer. I also have reason to believe that Miss Granger has begun to see a few of the other Slytherin girls as friends,' he said, thinking of the shared smile he witnessed between her and Miss Davis this morning.

Miss Granger has also been acting erratically lately; I believe it is due to Miss Parkinson's influence. I believe we will need to watch Miss Granger closely from now on.'

The headmaster was nodding his agreement.

'Too true, Severus. Miss Granger is powerful enough to make or break Voldemort's plans for Miss Parkinson... I think we will make arrangements to watch her more carefully.'

Severus noticed that Dumbledore had a small gleam in his eyes, and he felt his stomach tighten. Whatever the headmaster was about to suggest would not be good.

'I think, Severus, that you have too much on your plate and will need an assistant. Certainly, Miss Granger is accomplished enough to brew some of the basic medicinal potions?'

Snape stiffened in reaction. 'Surely, Albus, you can't mean for me to start babysitting the girl! Besides, I am no longer the Potions professor. Shouldn't Slughorn be brewing the potions for Poppy?'

'As Horace is teaching this year as a personal favor to me, I hate to ask him to do something we both know he views as a waste of his skills and time.' Severus snorted at this. In other words, Slughorn is too lazy to be bothered. 'Besides, you did say you wanted to watch Miss Granger more closely. Have her help you brew a couple nights each week; I am sure she would be more than willing.'

Gods help me; it was bad enough spending his evenings with Potter last year, and now this. 'Very well, Headmaster.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~