Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling et al. Any characters or locations you recognise are the intellectual property of these individuals and corporations. I make no money from the writing of this story.

Thanks to Kallanit and LadyStiff for cheerleading this story for me.

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Chapter 3 – I Believe You Are the Soul-Bound Couple

The first rays of the sun broke through the darkness of the Hospital Wing just after 7:00am. Hermione stirred as the light dawned and began to wake. Her first thought was about how comfortable and warm her pillow was. Usually during the freezing nights all of the pillow, bar the little space her face took up, would be cold and unusable come morning. It was a great way to wake up she had discovered during her years at the school. Just move your face to a cold corner and instant alertness. Not this morning though. She attempted to bury her face a little bit, but her pillow would not yield. Suddenly several realisations came upon her all at once. She was not lying on her normal pillow, which probably meant she was not in her normal bed but she felt safe... and warm so there did not appear to be a need to be alarmed. She sniffed in the early morning light and got a distinct whiff of sandalwood, spice and male. She stiffened as she realised there were arms about her—arms which had tightened when she moved.

'Oh my God! I'm lying in a bed with a man!' Her brain flooded with sudden understanding of the situation and in her panic, found only one way to react. She screamed… loudly.

Severus Snape had been having a lovely dream. Visions of naked, female flesh accompanied by the sounds of sensual, throaty moans had been flitting across his subconscious mind when he was all of a sudden woken by the scream of a Banshee. Startled from his sleep, he was suddenly aware that he was in fact not alone as was his normal state of a morning. With the screams of whoever was occupying the bed still ringing in his ears and the tussle as they fought to extricate themselves from each other, he found himself in short order on the floor. The sudden cold assaulting bits of him he preferred to keep warm—very warm—alerted him to the little detail that he was in fact naked.

He had the fleeting thought to grab a sheet before the more pressing need to dodge a hex became apparent.

"WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN MY BED?!"

Hex.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!"

Hex.

"WHY AM I NAKED?!"

Hex.

"WHY ARE YOU NAKED?!"

Hex.

For a few minutes he listened to the female screaming and dodging what he recognised as stinging hexes before a loud, authoritative "EXPELLIARMUS!" boomed through the room. Snape had not even been able to identify the screaming harridan; he was too busy ensuring she did not hit him with her strong hexes. A few of them had been too close for comfort.

In the silence that followed, Snape quickly pulled the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around himself. Standing erect, he finally was able to take stock of the situation. He found himself in the Hospital Wing, and standing in the room were Albus Dumbledore, Poppy Pomfrey, Minerva McGonagall and Hermione Granger. Given the fact that Miss Granger was wrapped in a sheet as he was and she was currently the only female in the room without a wand in her hand, Snape quickly deduced that it was she he had woken up with. He closed his eyes and turned his head. 'This is not going to end well.'

Focusing on the other three occupants of the room, he sneered at the daggers coming from the eyes of Minerva and scoffed at the look of disapproval from Madam Pomfrey. He finally turned eyes on his employer and was surprised to see amusement in the twinkling eyes of the old man. 'That's it; he's finally gone around the twist.'

"Miss Granger, may I have your word you will refrain from hexing Professor Snape if I give you your wand back?" the Headmaster asked with a smile. Hermione nodded tightly and the aging wizard handed her the length of vine. She did not make a move to hex him, but Snape kept an eye on the hand now tightly gripping the wand. "Well, now that we are all sorted, how about we try and ascertain what happened. Severus, Miss Granger, what is the last thing you remember?"

Hermione and Snape both stared at him as though he had lost his mind. Minerva also pursed her lips in disapproval. 'Surely the fact I woke up in bed, naked, with Professor Snape is something we should explore first!' Hermione thought. Having spent much time with the man during the preceding summer holiday as well as the recent Christmas holidays, she knew the best way to move forward with the Headmaster was to play his game.

With a slightly exasperated shake of her head, she replied, "I remember Ronald saying some sort of spell and then being hit with a light. That's it until I woke up with him."

"I, too, remember the same thing, Albus," Snape agreed.

"Nothing about how you ended up in the same bed?" Albus prompted. Both shook their heads negatively. "Or what might have happened once you were there?" Again they both shook their heads in the negative although a blush quickly rose on Hermione's face as she did so. "Well, from what we have ascertained, Mr Weasley did in fact cast a spell although he neither remembers what he said, nor which book he found the spell in." Albus paused as Hermione and Snape both scoffed in unison. "Witnesses report the light being absorbed by you both and then exiting your bodies, swirling around and vanishing in and out of you until you fell unconscious. Despite several attempts, no one was able to touch you and so we brought you here for the night. Minerva was watching over you but I am guessing she fell asleep."

Minerva blushed guiltily. Perhaps if she had managed to stay awake, her daughter would not have found herself in the predicament she now did. She was hoping beyond hope that this situation had occurred somehow due to the magic at play here. Knowing Snape's character as she did, she took some comfort from the fact that she knew he would not consciously engage in immoral acts with one of his students. Indeed if any other male had been standing before her right now he would already be under the care of Madam Pomfrey—Minerva would not have confined herself to stinging hexes in the defence of her daughter's honour. Plus the fact that they had woken in his bed and not Hermione's also meant he could not be held entirely to blame.

"Something was protecting the two of you," Dumbledore continued. "Something very powerful. Now that the two of you are conscious, Poppy, perhaps you could try your diagnostics again."

Madam Pomfrey raised her wand and scanned it over Hermione. With a puzzled frown, she then turned to Snape and, despite his fierce scowl, performed the same spell on him. "That is perplexing," she said before scanning Hermione, then Snape again. She was about to scan them for a third time when they both vocally protested.

"What is perplexing, Madam Pomfrey?" Dumbledore asked politely.

"I do not believe either of you have returned such a healthy reading before. Severus, you certainly have not been anywhere near as healthy as this spell indicates since you were a student here." Her unspoken words said more—everyone in the room knew she meant since before he had joined the Death Eaters.

"What magic is this?" Snape demanded harshly. "Albus, I demand to examine Weasley's memory. We must know whatever it is he has done!"

Albus's mouth turned down slightly. "I have already examined the memory Mr Weasley was very eager to impart," he said. "Unfortunately I am only able to make out garbled words. It appears he does not remember very clearly himself."

"He got the spell from a book I gave him," Hermione suddenly remembered. "All we need to do is find it and we'll be able to counteract it."

"Which book was it, my dear?" Albus asked.

Hermione's eager face fell a little. "Oh, I checked out so many. I can't remember the exact one I gave him. But surely Madam Pince will have a record of the books I took from the library. We can just check all those."

"You have been a student here for six and a half years, Miss Granger. In all the time you have spent in the library surely you should have figured out by now that the books are not checked out in the same manner as a Muggle library," Snape said condescendingly. "The books all have charms on them to return them to the library should they pass their due date. Madam Pince does not keep records of what each individual student is checking out."

"Oh," Hermione said in a small voice, looking down at her feet. Being the conscientious soul she was, she was never late with returning a book and so had never had a reason to know that the scan Madam Pince ran over each book was a simple return-to-owner charm, rather than a record of what was leaving the library.

"Now as to the predicament we have found ourselves in this morning…" Dumbledore gestured to the two of them still only covered in sheets.

"Albus, I swear I know nothing…"

"I don't know—I woke up and he was in the bed with me…"

Both victims were earnest in their vehement denials. Dumbledore was at a loss with how to proceed here. Luckily for Snape, Hermione was well over age—at least he was safe on that moral front. The professor/student thing was a touch more problematic but it was not without precedent. Of course the last time it had been brought up was over two hundred years ago when this sort of thing was somewhat more common… well, a precedent was a precedent and they would simply deal with each problem as it came up. Like Minerva, Dumbledore knew that Snape's character was unimpeachable up to now in a matter such as this.

All of them were broken from their contemplations when an owl began pecking at the window. Dumbledore waved his wand to open the glass pane and allow the bird entry. It flew straight for Snape and hovered in front of him, allowing him to remove the letter tied to its leg. Once Snape had the letter in hand, the owl continued to hover in front of him, giving the dark man an anticipatory look. "I am standing here with a sheet wrapped around me, you addle-brained feather-duster. Where do you suppose I might be concealing an owl treat on my person?" he sneered at the bird. The owl let out an offended shriek and pecked Snape on the hand before flying off in an affronted manner. Hermione could not help laughing at the expression on her professor's face.

With a shake of his head at Hermione's reaction, Snape turned the envelope over to read the front—and promptly dropped it.

"Severus?" Dumbledore asked in concern.

Snape bent over to retrieve the envelope. "It is addressed to Mr and Mrs Severus Snape," he said tersely.

Hermione's eyes widened and a wave of anger washed over her. "Well, you're just a fine husband aren't you?" Hermione shrilled. "You're married, yet you slept naked with me! That is one lucky witch, let me tell you!" she continued sarcastically. She was still seething at the presumptuousness that had found him in bed with her that morning. She would reluctantly concede this was wildly out of character for him, no doubt a residual effect from the spell Ron had cast on them. He was obviously not acting from his conscious mind, but he had one of the most disciplined minds she had ever come across! Surely he, of anyone, would be able to control his sub-conscious enough to prevent an occurrence such as this. She felt she had every right to be angry with him, especially now that she knew he was married! 'He kept that pretty secret,' she thought.

"You are not married," Madam Pomfrey could not help but blurt.

"Thank you, Poppy, I am aware of that," Snape spat acerbically. Hermione looked quite startled at this revelation as he tore open the envelope and extracted the missive from inside. He read the letter quickly and handed it without a word to Dumbledore. The Headmaster adjusted his glasses before reading aloud:

"Dear Mr and Mrs Snape,

We at the Ministry of Magic wish to congratulate you on your binding. This type of binding is quite rare and as such you may not be aware of your responsibilities to the Ministry in relation to it.

You will both be required to submit your wands for registration and register your new magical signatures in accordance with both the Marriage Recognition Act of 1873 and the Magical Signature Registration Act of 1996.

While at the Ministry it is advised you both update your records and your wills held at the Magical Registrations Office.

With warmest regards and sincere congratulations,
Marigold Brown
Department of Relations
Ministry of Magic"

Snape looked at Dumbledore blankly when he had finished reading. "To whom do they think I am married?" he asked.

Dumbledore was still holding the missive in his hand. He looked again at Snape, then Hermione and suddenly everything became clear. "Oh dear," he said. 'Swapping magical lights, encasing magic, preventative magic, unconscious consummation… they are the soul bound couple!'

"Oh dear, what, Albus?" Minerva asked.

"Now, Severus, Hermione, I wish for you to remain calm." Dumbledore held a placating hand up to them. He watched as Snape's face turned to thunder, catching onto what the Headmaster was imminently going to impart. Hermione's expression turned fearful and her hand covered her mouth as she, too, guessed what he was about to say. "I believe you two are the soul bound couple mentioned in the letter."

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Reactions in the next chapter… and does Ron maybe pop his head in to see how his friend is? Wait and see…

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