Dear Readers,

Before we begin this book I would like to include a forword so everyone knows what they will be reading. Please be aware this work contains graphic depictions of violence, mental and physical abuse, mental illness (PTSD) and non-consensual acts.

I completely understand if that is not for you and I will try and leave trigger warnings at the beginning of chapters that contain such things. Feel free to skip as necessary. I'm open to your questions or PM's to discuss things in the work in more details, or to answer questions. I always appreciate feedback!

As always, thanks for reading!

Sarah

Chapter 1

Rain slammed heavy and unyielding against the heavy brick that lined the castle and despite the magic wards that kept the rain from penetrating the inside of the high tower where Hermione had come to watch the storm that raged over the castle grounds she still felt a shiver of cold run through her.

It was nights like this that she often found her way to the highest tower in the old stone fortress that she had called home since she was 11 years old. Home even after the devastating events of the war that had claimed her youth. Some part of her had never managed to leave the grounds that had been a sanctuary even when the idea of a battle had been nothing more than a child's play fantasy of heroes and villains that could never hurt her. So even when she had left to apprentice in transfiguration she had always intended to come home. Come back to the place where childhood fantasy protected her from the stark reality of how wrong she and all her playmates had been.

No, it was nights like this that matched her true mood, dark and tumultuous in a strangely beautiful way that left her aching with a sense of isolation. For most of wizarding society, the war seemed like forever ago and they had moved on and past it. For her, the five years since she had returned to Hogwarts as a student felt like yesterday. Leaving her walking on the edges of the past as if they were eggshells that constantly splintered under her feet. As hard as she tried to move on from all the death she had witnessed, something kept pulling her back just like the English storms that always returned to rain their power over the country and remind the folk who lived there that nature despite the power they had could never really be tamed.

Perhaps that was the way it simply was, memories came like storms in the night, hot and wild and terrible only to fade again the next morning. Hermione didn't know anymore, but the memories that she lived with, while they kept her from sleeping on nights like this, storm or no, would never be the cause of her downfall. She had decided that far too long ago in the dark days when she was still picking up the pieces of her being and her sense of self.

The wind picked up whipping her cloak and hair around her and despite the wards that held back the wetness she could feel again the fury of the storm and welcomed it. Something about the primal wildness of it soothing her soul and she tossed her head back to the feeling, lowering her own magical inhibition and letting the golden strands of her own power dance out to fly on the wind. It was a parlor trick really, although a dangerous one, there was nothing solid in the spell just a piece of showy wandless magic; but it let her feel the wind, the power in it the elements that powered her own earthbound magic at its core. She could have lost everything to it and it made her feel alive. In the distance, she could hear as the thunder rippled through the clouds followed almost instantly by another flash of lightning and she felt it as if the storm was a part of her own being wild and powerful and free.

That was how he found her. Magic extended to the sky wind tangling in her hair and robes in a way that made him blink and for the first time in his life question if he was looking at a Goddess of wind and storms instead of a woman. For a heartbeat, he was frozen one hand in his pocket as he stared at the vision illuminated in the lighting in such an unearthly way that he was mesmerized by it. Obsidian eyes flicking back the wild magics that flared around her not letting him draw breath into his aching lungs.

And then the spell ended, her magic pulling back into itself leaving her panting audible in the silence, her body arched as if to the sky itself in prayer. He let it happen although he had never let anything continue after curfew in this castle before. Something in the raw power he had just witnessed seeming to shift an aching in his stomach, pawing at feelings he hadn't felt in a long long time. It was natural then that a scowl etched itself onto the lines of his face. Drawing his brows together. Protecting him from whatever emotional impact this impertinent chit of a girl had had on him. Distantly his mind corrected him that she was a woman now, and a member of the Hogwarts staff but the girl was easier to contend with than a woman who could throw her power at the sky for all to see and not lose herself to the ebb and flow of the waves of energy.
"What are you doing here Miss Granger?" he almost barked it, his voice harsher than he had ever meant it to be. "It is late, and you have class in the morning." they all did, it was the start of a new semester.

He expected her to flinch, or to challenge him at least, everyone did when he used a voice like that and yet, strangely, she didn't. Instead, she slowly turned around, eyes still alight from her use of magic and faced him a small half smile on the edges of her lips as she looked over her dark new colleague. When she said nothing just looked at him in a way that was entirely unsettling he tried again his frown deepening further. "And as for whatever the hell you think you are accomplishing with that spell it's utterly moronic. You will end up insane or a squib. Is that your desire?"

Hermione tilted her head to him gently as if she was seriously considering an answer to his question. For the first time since he had known her, however, she didn't feel compelled to speak. Not in the way he expected her to, instead she answered softly "Goodnight Professor Snape." and turned from the Astronomy tower to walk down the steps and disappear into the night.

Severus blinked, for a moment dumbfounded as he looked after her and then back towards the storm that was starting to die down as if she had drawn the very power from the clouds themselves and into her being. It wasn't possible, at least he didn't think it was. Muggles had tales of mythical beings witches and warlocks who drew their power from the elements, but the wizarding world knew better. They knew that elements were dangerous and untamed, and those who had claimed to harness them before soon found that such things only resulted in death. Hermione couldn't be…

His own thoughts trailed off with a shake of his head. No, the girl was certainly not stupid. Whatever it was that she was playing at tonight he could console himself with that and look into it no further. When his brain corrected him to woman again he once more pushed it aside. He had no business with the new Transfiguration Professor and he intended to keep it that way.