Disclaimer:- I neither own nor earn anything from this story. The only part I can claim is my plot and I make no money from it. Harry Potter and his wonderful world is the property of JK Rowling and Associates.

sSs

A/N:- This is only a short chapter, but I wanted a whole chapter for the next section. Thank you everyone who reviewed, is following and has made this story a favourite. I appreciate you all. Now on with the story…

hHh

From last time:- …After about an hour she found exactly what she was looking for, and after memorising the spell and the swish, flick, counter-clockwise half circle, swish movements of her wand, she hurried back to her quarters.

oOo

Chapter Four – The Search Starts

When Hermione arrived back at her quarters, she was certain she had the answer, and it was making her almost giddy with anticipation. Whirling around on the spot, her eyes scanned every vertical surface, wondering where to start. Finally, reason overtook excitement and she headed for the private lab.

She crowed internally, thinking she hadn't had a brainwave of this magnitude for a long time. Standing as close to the centre of the room as she could, Hermione reasoned out where each wall was situation in relation to the others, and what was likely to be on the other side.

Obviously the wall with the door partitioned the lab from the study. She was fairly certain that the next one around, backed onto her bathroom, especially seeing that was where the water fixtures for the lab were situated, and that left two possibilities. Where does the hallway connect up with all this? "I wish I had the Marauder's map," she grumbled, "that would help."

Even though, it had occurred to her that Severus may be on another plane, and not physically here, she reasoned that his belongings and mortal body were still close by, and further, considering her recent dreamscape, that they were very close to where she was currently standing.

Her main evidence for this was Saffie's appearance after the explosion, and she thought back to previous dreams of never ending corners and turns, and reasoned that this may have been partially her subconscious feeling frustrated by not being able to solve the problem. Although, the fact remained the dreams—while not as dramatic as this afternoons—had been so vivid there had to have been some fact to them.

All the time she was puzzling out her conundrum, Saffie was following her. After a while, Hermione got the idea that the bird was shaking her head sometimes. She started discretely watching the raven as she moved around the walls. There was one wall where the silky black head stayed still while Hermione stood in front of it. "So, this one, ay, Saff?" she asked cagily after watching the bird for some time.

It made sense too, the work bench was closest to this wall, if there had been an explosion, and it would have been this wall that was damaged. Hermione raised her wand and uttered the spell she had rehearsed in the library.

What she had been looking for in the library, was a spell that worked a little like Muggle Sonar. The spell caused the stream of magic to bounce of the first thing it encountered in an unseen space and return to Hermione's wand, where she could measure the time it took.

She tested it on something that she knew, the width of the lab. Hermione figured if she took a lot of measurements along the length of the wall that she suspected the explosion to have fractured, she couldn't go wrong, after all, that was the benchmark for good experimenting. The more repetitions you did, the more reliable the results, so she set to work.

Two depressing hours later, Hermione realised that she had forgotten something very important in her excitement, it was a hidden room, and the castle was unlikely to show it to her just like that, and even if she had managed to find it she couldn't get in.

What was the key to finding her well-hidden wizard? She scrambled up off the floor and brushing off her jeans Hermione finally yawned and sighed. "Perhaps this was not such a brainwave after all?" she told the still watching raven.

Tired and slightly depressed she headed for the shower, leaving her wand on the bedside table as she passed through the bedroom. It wasn't until she was naked and stepping under the steaming water that her traitorous brain kindly informed her that at some point in the past, Severus had stood in exactly the same position with the same lack of clothing. "Great," she scoffed, "that's all I need."

It was one thing to tell people that sex was only for procreation and that you didn't need it. It was another thing entirely to admit that the only truly decent sex you have ever had was in your fantasies involving the wizard your brain had just reminded you of, and the only orgasms you had experienced had come by your own hand in that very situation. Not to mention that it had been quite some time since you had allowed yourself that pleasure as well, and she didn't give in this time either.

So it was a very up-tight Hermione Granger, who wondered as she slipped between the sheets, if Severus had slept on this mattress as well. Of course, none of this helped her predicament, and she tossed and turned for some time before she finally found sleep.

xox

Ever since she had been torn away from him that afternoon, there had been a wizard in black, in an unknown state of being, some place no one was sure of, who had been pacing and muttering to himself. "Things have been getting stranger and stranger since that…" he glared at the wall that had recently had the slight, for want of a better word, leak in it. "Friggin' bird, abandoning me like that." He stopped and glowered at the vacant perch. "Bloody turncoat," he told the empty piece of wood.

Severus' gaze turned to the spot where the woman had disappeared earlier, and he inhaled deeply before turning away and starting to pace some more. Severus became increasingly agitated as he strode the small length from wall to wall, and then whipped around to do it once more. "What did she mean, I am that girl… she seemed to start to disappear after she said it, looking exasperated and yelling something about having just found him."

Then Severus stoped his pacing so abruptly that his voluminous robes wrapped around his legs from the inertia. "Did she mean me?" he pondered suddenly. Then something else trickled into his brain. "Is someone trying to find me?" His heart gave a lurch that could only be described as hope. "What else did she say? Oh yes, I have so many questions." A slow smile started to spread across his face, and before he knew where he was, Severus was actually laughing. "That sounds like Hermione."

He thought a moment longer. "In fact the woman who appear earlier very much resembled the feisty young witch I saved that awful night, but how she disappeared… could it be possible that I'm not merely a prisoner, but that I'm in limbo somewhere… some astral plane maybe?"

Then he looked at the perch again. "Saffie! Could there be a real world somewhere closer than I think?" Severus leaned on the window of his prison. Time seemed to have no meaning where he existed, it passed; he knew that. The sky reflected this fact, there was day and night, although he never seemed to sleep, and it was very much like being in an indeterminate state.

Severus was uncertain how much time had passed. After having his throat opened up by that snake, he did remember the moment the pain stopped, and there seemed to be nothing wrong with his throat at the moment, but that moment of numbness was a vague amount of time ago.

He never felt hungry or needed to go to the loo, and he hadn't had a shower in all this time, nor did he feel the need to. His beard never grew, and none of his clothing ever changed. He had reasoned to begin with that he may have been a ghost, but he didn't fit all the criteria, so he had dismissed that idea. To tell the truth, he didn't know exactly what he was, he simply existed, although he knew one thing, whatever he was, he was certain that his so called mentor, the great windbag, Albus Dumbledore was responsible for his predicament.

There was only one room that he seemed to be able to occupy. There was another door, but he was unable to open it, it was warded tightly and his magic didn't seem to work here. Severus remembered what seemed like some time back, finding Hermione and trying to lead her to that door. He somehow knew that what was behind it was very important, he still thought so. However, she hadn't appeared like the woman this afternoon, at the time she had been not quite substantial—like he was dreaming it—and had always seemed out of his reach, and sad when she came to him.

To a greater extend he felt like he had been trapped with her in a dream and he couldn't make her understand what he wanted. Then suddenly she didn't come looking for him anymore, and he had often wondered what had happened to her.

During their time together before the war, he had grown very fond of the young witch, and she was the only person he had seen in all this time. As he had been trapped here that fondness had developed into something deeper, and he would forever regret not telling her how special she was before he had set her free that last day.

Of course the reason was that he had known he was headed for his death that day, and he had not wanted her to be anymore attached to him than she was already. That was why he had merely promised her he would do his best to survive, hoping she wouldn't be too upset with him when he didn't.

A sudden gasp brought him back from his thoughts, and he found himself face to face with the woman again, and she was dressed in what was obviously nightwear.

His eyes raked over her form, while the nightie was not revealing in anyway, it certainly hugged her curves, and what lovely curves they were. Severus felt a tiny twitch from an area of his anatomy that had remained silent all this time.

It was enough to convince him that he was indeed still a living human, and that he had progressed far beyond 'something deeper' in his opinion of Hermione Granger, if she was the same woman. The Hermione of ages ago was always dressed in nightwear as well, but this same woman this afternoon had been clothed in jeans and a button up blouse.

Quite overjoyed to see her, and off kilter because of his body's reaction to her, he blurted before he could stop himself, "Are you Hermione Granger?"

She gave him a beautiful smile and nodded. "Yes," she finally managed, but her smile soon flickered out and her face became serious. "Oh Severus, I'm so sorry you've been waiting here all this time… and I…" she turned away unable to face what she perceived would be his wrath.

Hermione felt him come up behind her, and his beautiful voice sounded closer to her ear. "Hermione, how old are you?"

Once she had finished shivering at the timbre of his voice, she swallowed hard. "Thirtyseven," she mumbled quickly.

She heard his intake of breath and prepared for the worst. "Twenty years have passed?" he gasped. This seemed to shock him profoundly, and when she didn't move, he walked around to face her. "Then please explain to me, why I haven't seen you for twenty years?"

"I thought you were dead," she managed, swallowing convulsively again. "We all did."

"That doesn't explain your absence. You suddenly just stopped coming, and I couldn't work out why."

Hermione quickly grasped his train of thought, and the fact that he seemed more concerned that she hadn't come back. "You mean you remember… I thought they were just dreams, and after losing you…" Hermione stopped talking. There was no way that she was going to divulge out the reason for her melancholy during that time.

However, Severus wasn't giving up on that line of questions. "Why did you disappear, and why are you back now?"

Hermione considered him carefully, and her voice was devoid of emotion when she spoke. "I disappeared because I left school, and I'm back now because Minerva has asked me to teach Potions."

"You became a Potions mistress?" he actually sounded proud.

"Yes," Hermione looked at the floor a moment, and then cleared her throat. "But I want to ask you some questions before I wake up."

Something else clicked into place. "So, it's only your subconscious mind that can find me?"

"Apparently," she paused before asking, "Has anyone else ever found you?" Hermione wasn't certain that she wanted the answer to that question, but it seemed like the right thing to ask.

But when he said, "No, only you," she found the tight knot that had formed in her chest loosen again, it also added further evidence to her research, but his next question filled her with dread. "Why?"

Hermione tried not to show her happiness at his answer or panic at the 'why'. She also felt sorry for him that he had been alone so long, she swallowed and forged ahead. "S-severus, do you know where you are?"

Her tone brought him back from his contemplations of her. "I assume that I'm at Hogwarts, and that my place of being is in the dungeons."

He stopped talking and Hermione prompted, "And nothing else."

"I also assume that whatever… afflicts me was the product of the mind of one Albus Dumbledore," and his tone was hostile.

"Yes, I assume the same," Hermione nodded, "However, I think it is more complicated than that," she saw she had his full attention. "I believe that the castle is also protecting the secret of your existence." She took a deep breath, "But as to the why, well I have some research, but…" and then she thought of another urgent thing and it took her train of thought. "Harry said that horrid snake attacked you, so your mortal body must be in stasis somewhere or you would be a ghost by now." Hermione suddenly started looking around the room, as if searching for something. "Do you know where your body is?"

As she was saying the last word, Severus abruptly grabbed her hand. "This door," he gasped, almost dragging her across the room. "I think this door has something important behind it."

Hermione could feel ripples of magic rolling off the door like waves. They seemed to crash into her as they approached. "Can you feel the magic?" she asked Severus as they got closer.

"Yes," he answered, "but I can't do anything about it, my magic doesn't work."

Her hand instantly went for her wand, but then her face fell. "Damn, it's on the bedside table." However, it was looking down when she couldn't find her wand that Hermione realised how she was dressed.

At her mortified gasp Severus touched her forearm with his hand. "Please don't feel uncomfortable, Hermione."

This statement brought her eyes up to his, and she had never seen them looking so soft or open. "S-s-severus, I…" she stopped when she found he had stepped closer and that they were now in each other's personal space.

Of course as is the nature of sleep, her circadian rhythms choose that moment to bring her out of REM sleep and she started to feel herself being pulled away. The look of longing on her face started to be replaced with an expression of panic, "Oh no, I think I'm waking up," she said urgently, grabbing his forearms.

Severus wasn't prepared for what she said next, as his hands instinctively covered her elbows in support. "Please, I want to stay with you," he heard her plead, and unexpectedly there were tears forming in her eyes. "I promise I'll find a way to help you," she told him and despite their hold on each other, she was gone.

Hermione woke in her bed in her dungeon room and was surprised to see that the sun appeared to be rising. She wiped her eyes and shivered as the normal cold feeling of being alone washed over her, but today that emptiness was tempered with some hope. She had talked to her Severus and they had touched.

She bounded out of bed and floo called Harry. "We need to find Dumbledore. I've talked to Severus again, and I think Dumbledore is the only one who can tell us what he has done."

"I agree, finding that portrait would be the easiest way to solve this mystery."

"What will we need?"

"Has Minerva assigned you an elf?"

"Yes, why?"

"We will need a liaison. Have you read anywhere about what to expect in the bowels of Hogwarts?"

"No, but I will," Hermione assured him.

"Good, you do that, and Ferret boy and me will be there at… well I'll have to see what time his majesty can make it."

"Okay, I'll set up a meeting with Minerva and I'll floo you the time. She will need to know what we're up to."

Harry's head disappeared for a moment, when he returned he asked, "Gin wants to come too."

"Okay, I can't see why not. So I'll let you know later," Hermione said, and disconnected as she got up off the floor. She ordered her breakfast and headed for her desk and Hogwarts A History.