Disclaimer: All J.K.R.'s, not mine.

Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who's been reading these! And a special thanks to everyone who's written reviews. Sorry it's been a while since the last update - my computer recently decided it hated me.

"And then he gave me a week's detention with Filch."

Ron's rather large forkfull of scrambled eggs was halfway to his mouth when Hermione said this; both hand and fork froze. "What?!" Ron asked incredulously.

"He said he was too busy to supervise it himself." Which wasn't quite what he said, but she reasoned the truth would only make Ron more worked up about the issue.

"Too busy?! Hermione, he probably clears his schedule to give kids detention. That's like what he lives and breathes for."

"Ronald!"

Harry jumped in, sensing the beginning of a full-blown argument and trying to head it off. "Okay, so Ron's probably exaggerating a bit - but Hermione, have you ever seen Snape pass up a chance to personally give a Gryffindor detention?"

"No," Hermione admitted.

"But with you, he did. Doesn't that seem a bit weird to you?"

"I guess."

"You guess?" cut in Ron, "Come on. I mean, right now," he glanced up at the staff table, "Snape looks like he wants to kill someone. And he's staring at - well, actually he's glaring at Dumbledore right now, but before, he was looking at you."

Hermione had made sure to sit facing away from the staff table for this very reason. "So?"

"So, when Snape's mad, he takes it out on students. By giving them detention and stuff. And then showing up at detention himself so he can gloat while he makes them do awful things. Like cleaning. And he's mad at you, so why didn't he want to come to your detention?"

Harry could see that Hermione was about to say something, but he cut her off because he knew that she and Ron weren't going to let this go. "Okay, so that's weird. But, you know, Snape's weird, so it sort of fits. Only why do you 'spose he's mad at Dumbledore?"

Hermione realized what harry was trying to do and answered quickly before Ron could say anything. "I bet by now Dumbledore has told him that he has to teach me occlumency."

"Aw, Hermione, that's awful, Dumbledore making you spend more time with Snape than you have to," said Ron.

"Yeah, that's pretty rough," agreed Harry. "I mean, when I had to learn occlumency from Snape, it was terrible. You probably want to look up how to do it beforehand, 'cause he wasn't very good at the whole giving instructions part."

"Wait - how come you need to learn occlumency?" asked Ron.

Hermione explained all about dream-walking and how occlumency was the only way to stop it. Harry looked like he had kept up, but Ron was obviously still trying to wrap his head around what she had just said. Suddenly, he brightened. "So you were in someone else's dream last night?"

"No, last night Dumbledore gave me some dreamless sleep."

"Aw, too bad."

"Ron! Did you listen to anything I just said? Dream-walking is incredibly dangerous!"

"What about the night before that?" asked Harry.

Hermione had to stop and think about that. She had obviously been dream-walking, but who had been in her dream? Snape. That was why she hadn't thought it was unusual - she dreamt about Snape all the time. "I think it was Snape's dream," she said. Ron choked on his drink. Harry thumped him on the back and asked, so what happened?"

Hermione honestly couldn't remember. But the fact that the dream hadn't seemed unusual to her at the time gave her a vague idea of what must have happened. And there was no way she was telling Harry and Ron about it. "I don't really remember..."

"Do you reckon Snape knows you were in his dream?" asked Ron.

Oh dear God, thought Hermione. He better not know, or I'm going to die this evening. "I don't think so. I mean, he probably just thought that he was dreaming about me."

"Do you think Dumbledore told Snape you can dream-walk?"

"I'm sure he's going to tell him if he didn't already. There's no way Snape's going to teach me occlumency without a really good reason."

"Well, do you think you did anything real flashy or obvious when you came into his dream?"

"I really can't remember what happened in the dream at all - I don't know."

"It was only a day ago - I bet you still have the memory and just can't get at it. But I think a pensive might help."

"Harry, I don't have a pensive."

"Dumbledore does. I'm sure he'd let you use it if you said it'd help with your occlumency lessons. And knowing whether or not Snape's going to want kill you for walking in on his dream when you go to your lesson tonight, I figure that would be helpful."