Chapter Two – By Soul Bound

Disclaimer: We've borrowed these characters from JKR, but we will return them in the condition in which we found them . . . and we won't get a dime for babysitting either...****!

Thanks go to RobisonRocket for the beta! We appreciate it, mate!

This is the second chapter of a round robin, which is being brought to you by some of the Admins here at the Petulant Poetess (amsev, CocoaChristy, LadyintheCloak, Soul Bound, and Southern_Witch_69). I have more details listed in the author's note at the bottom.

Chapter Two – By Soul Bound

"I'll go first. Get behind me, Hermione."

Hermione obeyed Severus's instruction and stood behind him for a moment until her curiosity and the fact that she couldn't see got the better of her. As the man in front of her took a step into the room, she ducked under his raised wand-arm and stood beside him. In her peripheral vision, she saw him turn a glare to her, and she resisted rolling her eyes.

"I told you to stay behind me; it could be dangerous," he said.

Hermione heard him, but was now too entranced with the scene in front of her to think of a retort. She'd caught a glimpse of it before, but was now presented with an unobstructed view of the land before her.

It really was beautiful. She found herself unable to look away from the rolling, green hills and the sparkling lake, the high cliffs and the stone pillars and walkways. It was then that she realized that this couldn't be the grounds of Hogwarts. It didn't even look like Scotland. She took in the fresh scent as her eyes wandered, and she realized that while she could hear the sound of birds chirping, she couldn't see any wildlife...let alone any other humans.

"How is this possible?" she asked to the air. "This isn't Hogwarts."

"Obviously," the man next to her said with a snort. "Think, Miss Granger..."

"Hermione."

"...we've just been trapped in an obviously magical corridor in an ancient, magical castle. Is this really such a stretch?"

Well, no, it wasn't; it was just a surprise...to walk through a door in Scotland and find herself in what appeared to be the Mediterranean. Hermione hadn't been anywhere in the area save for the South of France when she was a young teenager. This looked similar to that, but she couldn't remember any stone archways where she'd been. This place looked almost like a fantasy. It had to be, considering the bright sunlight; it was evening in reality.

She took a step forward, wanting to do a bit of exploring. At the back of her mind was the knowledge that she'd just stepped through some sort of enchanted door into a world that couldn't be real, but the researcher in her was far more interested in the stone carvings of strange runes that she could see a ways down the path.

She didn't get far. An arm caught her around the waist and held her in place. "What do you think you're doing?" asked Snape, his voice sounding as if he was barely holding back his irritation.

"Having a look around," Hermione answered.

"Don't."

"What, why n..."

"This is a strange place, and we don't know what could be here waiting for us. Have you forgotten already...in the last thirty seconds...where we've come from?"

He had a point. Hermione wasn't usually the type to rush headlong into the unknown without a thought to danger, but there was something about this place...a sense of peace. She hadn't even realized it until now, but that was what it was. But she couldn't tell that to Snape; she knew he would think it silly. Instead, she pursed her lips and said, "Fine, then what do you propose we do? We can't go back," she gestured to the still-open door, through which she could still see the darkened corridor of Hogwarts, "so we of course must go forward."

She watched as Snape mirrored her stubborn expression, and she had an urge to smile.

"Indeed, we must," he said, his lips still tight, "but we can at the very least inspect the area for anything out of the ordinary."

Hermione gave him a pointed look and gestured around them.

"Anything more out of the ordinary . . . for this place, which is . . . out of the...you know what I meant!"

Hermione gave into her urge to smile and tossed her hands into the air. "Be my guest, Severus."

"That's Snape to you."

Hermione couldn't help the roll of her eyes. "No, it's Severus. We've known each other too long and been through too much to keep up the formality, as I've said before. I will continue to call you by your given name and will continue to insist that you do the same."

She didn't receive a response, but coming from this man, that could almost be considered making progress. She watched as he silently cast scanning spells around the area, smiling at how graceful he was with a wand. If only he could turn that magical grace into some social grace . . . She snorted. In all honestly, she wouldn't know what to make of a suave, pleasant Severus Snape. The man was prickly by nature, and she actually liked that about him. It made for good conversations...most of the time.

After several minutes, he lowered his wand and pronounced that the area was secure. She noticed he still kept his wand in his hand, though.

"Great, let's have a look around then, shall we?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, and he gestured toward the path, telling her without words to lead the way. She set off at a leisurely pace with Severus a few steps behind her. She took in everything she could, from the smells to the lovely landscape, and when she stopped in under a stone archway to examine the carvings there, Snape caught up to her.

She traced her finger long the first set of runes, a perplexed frown on her face. "That's strange," she murmured.

"What is it?" she heard Snape ask from behind her, his voice quiet.

"I took several years of Ancient Runes, but I don't recognize these. Well, no, I recognize a few of them. This one means . . . 'dream', and this one means . . . Actually, there isn't really an English word for it, but it sort of means 'location' or 'place'. And this one here," she said, moving aside so that he could clearly see where she was pointing, "means 'desire'."

"May I?" he asked, putting light pressure on her shoulder to move her aside.

She met his eyes as he brushed past, and the skin under her robe tingled inexplicably. She quickly gazed at the ground, and the moment was gone. When she looked at him again, he was focused entirely on the carvings, his eyes narrowed slightly. She moved next to him and said, "I didn't know you could read runes."

"I can't."

Hermione frowned, not understanding.

"Then why are you . . .?"

"These aren't runes...most of them. Look." He pointed at the first set of symbols and cocked his head toward her. "Notice anything interesting?"

She moved in closer to get a better look and gasped, then laughed. Sure enough, they weren't ancient runes at all...except for the three she recognized; they were letters . . . upside-down. "Hogwarts has a strange sense of humor," she said, still smiling.

Severus quirked his lips and said, "I believe it's actually you who has the strange sense of humor."

"What?" she asked, wondering if she should be offended.

"Take a closer look at what this spells out."

Hermione was hooked now. She loved this type of thing...solving puzzles, using her intellect. She peered down at the symbols that she now realized were upside-down words, and it didn't take her long to figure out what they, combined with the three runes, spelled out.

T H I S M A Y L O O K L I K E Y O U R DREAMS

B U T I S N O T W H A T I T S E E M S

T H I S PLACE G I V E S N O T W H A T Y O U R E Q U I R E

B U T W H A T Y O U DESIRE

Hermione chuckled. "Simple, but to the point. So this 'room' is like the Room of Requirement, but it gives one a place they dream of, puts things in it he or she enjoys and desires."

"Yes, it seems that way," Severus said with the same almost smile he'd worn a minute earlier.

Hermione was growing excited. A new magical room in Hogwarts, how wonderful!

"And it knew that this is my favorite place, or something like it, and that I enjoy solving puzzles! Severus, this is fantastic!" And she was off . . . . "I wonder how it knows. I always wondered that about the Room of Requirement, but this seems to be similar yet different because . . . But why did it mix letters with runes?" she mused. "That seems strange."

"That was what I meant about your sense of humor. I believe this room came from you, from inside you. It read that you favor this type of landscape. It gave itself the scents you enjoy. It used the runes you knew and combined the letters to make a simple puzzle for you."

"Oh . . ." She laughed again, seeing what he meant. She looked at his expression and was warmed to know that instead of being irritated and mocking, he seemed to be amused. She wanted nothing more at that moment than to launch into a discussion on magical theory with him, but another thought struck her. "Severus, we both found the room at the same time. Why didn't it read you?"

"It did."

"What?" she asked, looking around for something that seemed to come from him, but everything she saw reminded her of something she found beautiful. She looked back at Severus and found him straring at her with a strange expression in his eyes.

She wondered what it was about, but her thoughts were drawn again to the magic of the room and what else it held in store. She smiled brightly and took his hand in hers, not noticing the way his body froze minutely for a moment. "Come on," she said, pulling him gently to walk with her. "We have a room to explore."

* * *

It was 8:30 in the morning, there was still no sign of Hermione or Snape, and Neville was getting frantic. When she hadn't shown up for their . . . meeting the night before, he'd been worried, had searched the castle, and had finally given up and sent an owl to Harry in the early hours of the morning before going to bed. He hadn't received a reply yet, but that was the least of his worries.

Aside from his fears about what could have happened to Hermione, what Snape could have done to Hermione, there was a bigger problem. Three days . . . he had three days until the big night. If Hermione was missing . . . if something serious had happened to her, Neville would been stuck in the middle of Loch Shite with no oar and no wand to conjure one.

He'd been planning to coming night for months . . . . He looked around the Great Hall in desperation, his gaze resting briefly on each of the other staff members. The time was ticking away, and if Hermione didn't show up at all for breakfast, he didn't know what he'd do. If she didn't show up to teach her class . . . But unfortunately, he knew he had his own class to teach; he was pointedly reminded of this fact as a group of his NEWT students walked by and waved to him. He couldn't exactly wait by her classroom door.

Several minutes later, the bell rang, and he jumped out of his chair and left the Hall quickly, deciding that he would run by her classroom on the way out to the greenhouses.

He arrived there shortly and found that she was indeed not there. He held onto the hope that she was just running late after being out until the early morning, and he ran the rest of the way to his greenhouse. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't wait for her; it wouldn't go ever well with Headmistress McGonagall to miss his first class of the year.

But as soon as he was free, he would check again, he told himself.

The next hour and a half passed too slowly, and his mind wasn't entirely on what it should have been. When the bell rang to move to the next class, he dismissed his students without even giving them homework and took off for the castle. He had ten minutes to be there and back to his own classroom in time for the next class. If she still wasn't there, he knew he would have to go to McGonagall.

When he arrived at Hermione's door, he was surprised to find the aging Headmistress already there. "Headmistress, thank Merlin. I can't find Hermione anywhere," he began.

"Yes, I know," McGonagall said briskly. "She didn't show up to teach her class, nor did Professor Snape. I've been asking around, and no one seems to know where they are. I was headed to find you next, Professor Longbottom. Have you seen either of them since last night?"

"Yes," Neville said, still out of breath. "I saw Hermione leave the Hall last night with Snape, and I haven't seen either of them since. She was supposed to meet me last night . . . I mean, we've been meeting . . . because I, well, anyway . . ." He blushed but went on. 'I looked everywhere for her last night, and I sent an owl to Harry . . . " Neville realized he was rambling and closed his mouth.

"You sent an owl to Potter?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, yes, I was worried, you know. Maybe Snape . . ."

"Professor Longbottom, this is a troubling situation, two of our professors going missing, but I sincerely doubt that Severus had anything to do with whatever has happened to them."

Neville had his own doubts about that, but it was clear they would be unwelcome with the Headmistress. He sighed as she went on.

"Now, you said you owled Harry."

"Yes, I told him that I couldn't find either of them, that I last saw them leaving dinner together, and I asked him to come to Hogwarts and bring his m..." His eyes widened, and his mouth snapped shut as he realized what he'd almost said. The map was Harry's secret, and he knew he shouldn't have even mentioned it. But Hermione . . .

He looked at McGonagall and realized he wasn't getting out of it now. She had that look in her eyes, the sharp one he knew all-too-well, the one that said he was cornered.

"Bring his what, Professor?"

Neville swallowed. He hoped Harry would forgive him, that this would help find Hermione.

"Harry has a map of Hogwarts that shows where every person inside it is located. I asked him to bring it here so that if they are in the castle, we can find them."

McGonagall's expression didn't change in the slightest. "I see," she said and, after a long moment during which he could almost see the cogs in her brain moving, added, "Yes, that is an excellent idea. Has he responded?"

"No," Neville said. "I was going to owl him again and tell him we still haven't found Hermione."

"You have a class to teach. I'll fire-call him from my office; that will be the fastest way."

Neville breathed a sigh of relief. "Right then. I'll be going. Please let me know as soon as Harry's here. I want to help..."

"Of course," she said. "Have a productive class, Professor."

Neville took off at a slower pace back down to the greenhouses with his worry lessened slightly. She was bound to show up on the map.

She just had to . . . .

* * *

"Oh, God, that was good . . ." Harry moaned as he lowered the legs belonging to the body beneath him from his arms and flopped down on the bed. He breathed heavily for several moments, finding his bearings, then turned to the magnificent creature beside him and grinned. He pulled his lover close and began to nibble on those swollen lips, run his fingers over that still-overheated skin.

What a way to start a morning, he thought.

"I like your hair like this," his lover said between kisses. "It suits you."

"What, the just-shagged look?"

A smirk. "Mmhmm."

"It suits you, too."

A grimace.

They went on kissing and fondling unhurriedly until Harry heard the whoosh of his fireplace coming from the living room. He had a Floo visitor.

"Oh, bloody hell, not again! What is it this time?"

He untangled himself from his partner and stood, stretching as he donned a robe and tied it loosely. He glanced at the bed and saw eyes following his movements as he went to the door. He couldn't help but grin again. "Be right back," he said and closed the door behind him as he left.

Several minutes later, when he returned to his bedroom, he was decidedly less cheerful.

He dropped his robe and began dressing himself not hastily, but certainly more quickly than he would have if he were going to spend the day the way he'd been hoping for...more snogging, a nice, shared shower, going to lunch together, and then heading to Auror Headquarters for the afternoon. What good was his morning off if he wasn't around to enjoy it?

Still, he had to admit that he was beginning to worry about Hermione. The Headmistress had said she and Snape were still missing, and while he didn't think Snape would bring her into harm, he didn't like that she had just disappeared.

"What is it?" his still husky-voiced lover asked as Harry pulled his robe on over his head.

"Hermione's gone missing. Snape too. I'm going to take my map to Hogwarts and see if I can find them on it."

His lover sighed. "Do you want me to come . . . again?"

"Ha ha. No, I'm sure they just had too much to drink or something. They're probably still out cold somewhere."

"Damn, was looking forward to more time with you."

"Sorry, love," Harry said. "You know what I had planned for today." Scenes from his imagination brought a wistful smile to his lips.

"Yes," a wicked smirk, "I certainly do. It's fine, though. Just come home as soon as you can tonight, and we can make it up to each other."

That sounded lovely to Harry. He crossed to room and planted a final kiss on those lips he was so fond of. "Sleep in," he whispered.

"Love you."

"You too," he said, and he headed for the living room, casting a glance over his shoulder at the tufts of messy, blond hair that were now burrowing under the bed covers.

I can't wait for tonight, he thought as he threw a pinch of powder into his fireplace and stepped in.

* * *

Severus glanced down at the hand clasped in his and knew he was in over his head. He was glad Hermione hadn't pursued to issue of why the room hadn't stocked itself with things he desired. He certainly had no intention of explaining that he had taken what he desired into the room with him . . . . He cringed at that thought.

Only the first day of the school year, and he was already having this battle with himself. It had only been in the latter half of the last year that he'd even had this problem, and after a summer that had been too short by his standards, he had promised himself that he would keep his distance from her.

That resolution had lasted all of ten minutes. At dinner, he'd noticed her staring at him and hadn't been able to help himself. He'd wished immediately thereafter that he'd stuck to his promise...because in practically the next breath, he'd agreed to go waltzing about the castle with her . . . alone.

At least he'd managed to have a decent conversation with her...until the conversation had taken a turn for the worse. On the bright side, he was sure that she still had no idea that his feelings toward her were anything other than that of a completely professional nature.

He glanced at their joined hands again, wondering how long she'd remain preoccupied with their surroundings before she realized what she'd done and dropped his hand like a hot coal. Surely she would...because surely she didn't mean it like that. It was just her natural Gryffindor instinct to be friendly. He was certain that that instinct would be overridden once she realized she was holding hands with Severus Snape.

He thought back to the conversation in the corridor. He'd been doing fine until she'd stuck her nose where it didn't belong. Why had she gone and brought up his personal life? It was none of her business! Why would she even want to know? Severus knew that no good could come from examining his life too closely. That was a door best kept closed.

When she'd gone running off, he hadn't meant to follow her. He had found himself with his feet moving, wondering why they were doing so when he'd specifically ordered them to stay put. But he'd followed...to his great chagrin...and now he found himself trapped in a magical room, alone with Hermione Granger, with no apparent way out. He cursed silently. If only she hadn't asked him personal questions, and if only the subject of Lily had stayed completely buried!

Lily, Lily . . .

He loved Lily. He would always love Lily. But after the Battle of Hogwarts, after he'd almost died, after the war . . . It was different now. He'd spent so many years loving her in his heart, being faithful to her memory, protecting her son and keeping his promise to Dumbledore. Now that Potter was safe, free to live his life, now that Dumbledore was gone and Severus' promise was fulfilled, he felt he didn't have to cling to her memory any longer. He'd lived his first life for her. Now he had a new life, one that he could live for himself. He would always love her, but it no longer choked him, consumed him.

He didn't know if he could ever truly love someone else, but . . . He looked at the woman walking beside him and swallowed hard.

He really was in over his head.

* * *

It seemed to Hermione that they'd been walking for hours through this magical countryside. She wasn't sure exactly how long it had been, but her feet were getting tired. It was beautiful, and she had enjoyed for quite a while...the quiet company with the occasional conversation, the sounds of nature, all the green, the intermittent odd statue or archway...but now she was thirsty, and she was getting the feeling that she had seen all there was to see in the room. She stopped where she stood and ran her fingers through her hair, letting go of Snape's hand in the process. Again, she didn't notice the slight stiffening of his body.

"How long do you think we've been walking?" she asked.

Snape pulled out his want and muttered, "Tempus," then frowned when nothing happened. He tried it once more and again produced no results. "It would seem that the room's magic is interfering with the spell."

"Well, that's fantastic," Hermione said dryly, "but my feet are starting to ache, and I'm more than ready for this adventure to be over with . . . . Actually, this room is amazing, and I'd love to explore what it can create further, but it's got to be getting late, and I...oh shite! I've missed my meeting with Neville!

Severus' eyes darkened, and Hermione frowned back at him, remembering his earlier accusation. "Oh, please. It's nothing like that. He just . . ." Well, it really wasn't any of Severus' business; she wasn't going to give Neville's secret away, and Snape could think what he wanted. "Look, we need to find a way out of here, maybe another door or someth..."

She abruptly stopped talking when she noticed a glimmer over Snape's shoulder. A door! "Oh, thank Merlin!"

"What?" Snape asked, clearly irritated by her failure to stay on topic.

She pointed at the door, and he whirled around. "Thank Merlin indeed," he muttered, practically rushing out the door. Hermione followed and found herself back in the same corridor. Her heart fell as she realized that their way was still blocked. The door closed itself behind her before she could think about it, and she turned in time to see it seal itself, becoming part of the plain corridor wall again.

Great, she thought, throwing her hands into the air. Now they were stuck in a sealed corridor with only one door, which wouldn't open! Well, maybe . . . It hadn't opened before, but as Severus had pointed out earlier, this was a magical castle. Anything was possible.

She brushed past Snape and reached for the new door, hoping it would open so she could find a way out. She needed to find Neville and apologize for standing him up.

"Miss Granger, wait a moment. We need to be cer..."

He was cut off by Hermione's scream.

"Hermione!"

SB's Notes: Pretty strange room, eh? Is Hermione on her way to figuring out why Severus makes her skin tingle? Is Severus going to get it together? Was their stroll through the Mediterranean a colossal waste of time, or was it just what was needed to get things going? Just what is Neville planning, and who is Harry's blond bombshell?

LadyintheCloak is up next!

We can promise that this fiction will be updated quickly, as per our own rules upon getting together. The fun thing is that we aren't making outlines with each other, and whatever one of us writes is a surprise for the rest of us as well! This should be fun for everyone involved! Please let us know what you think! Thanks!