Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, it is the property of the brilliant J.K Rowling. This story is the product of her marvellous characters and world and my imagination.

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Occlumency

Dumbledore had decided that they would introduce the different lessons to control Hermione's gifts one by one over time to give her a chance to get used to them and ensure she wasn't overwhelmed. He had informed her during breakfast that she would be starting occlumency with Professor Snape that day and she was counting down the hours to her lesson, though hoping she wouldn't find it as difficult as it appeared Harry had.

Harry and Ron for their parts were shocked she would allow Snape to go through her personal memories and even Sirius and Remus had expressed some worry. She'd had to stop Sirius when he'd suggested it might be a good idea for him to have 'words' with "Snivellus" about what would happen if he messed too much with Hermione's head.

They all knew of the friendship that had been struck up, but none of them knew she was mostly comfortable with him going through her head, they had been working together quite regularly and were fairly comfortable around each other. Another thing was that she, unlike Harry, wasn't likely to end up in a pensieve full of Snape's memories that he didn't want anyone seeing.

The only memories she was worried about relieving were those she had after Sirius had gone through the veil, she had never felt such sadness and she didn't really fancy Snape seeing how helpless she had been, especially with how much he disliked Sirius. But she would deal with that once it came to it, hopefully without too much drama.

Severus had given her some books on the subject in her last potions lesson, he hadn't told her to read them and complete the mind exercises, knowing she would do it anyway. The only thing he'd said on the subject was that he sincerely hoped she'd be more adept at occlumency than "Potter" had been.

She certainly hoped so too, she did not enjoy the idea of Voldemort being able to invade her mind and see her every thought at will, especially since it featured confirmation of Severus truly being loyal to the Order. That would have severe consequences for not only Severus, but the entire Order and their work.

So she had been studying the books unfailingly each night, always clearing her mind before sleep and even practicing whenever she had some quiet time during the day, however uncommon that was for her. If this was anything else she would have felt more than adequately prepared, but this was Severus Snape. He had always pushed her the hardest of all her teachers and once they became closer during their potions work he had told her why.

He'd had to appear to hate all Gryffindors and that was true for the majority of them, she knew he saw most of them as reckless, arrogant dunderheads. But he said she'd been different, intelligent and not so reckless as her friends. He'd pushed her to keep up impressions and because he knew that she produced better work because of it. Once he'd told her she'd been pleasantly surprised, teasing him about actually having the good side Harry and Ron swore he didn't possess.

She only just managed to concentrate through the days classes, it was lucky she already knew the spells they were being taught and that there was no defence or attack class today because she would be unconscious already. Finally, after dinner, she got up to head down to the dungeon only to find Harry, Sirius, Remus and Ron all get up, Remus giving her an apologetic smile.

"What are you four doing?" she asked, her eyes flashing with anger. Remus looked sheepish, "don't worry Mione, I'm not joining them on this little escapade, if you'll excuse me I have some work to do in my quarters." He kissed her on the cheek and hurried away, clearly not wanting to see what she did to the other three if she didn't like what they were up to.

Ron went red and Harry mumbled a bit under her glare, but Sirius looked resolute. "We're coming with you to check you'll be ok with Snivellus and that he doesn't try anything." Hermione wanted to scream in aggravation, "you will be doing no such thing Sirius Black and neither will Harry or Ronald. Severus is not going to hurt me and I will not have your petty school boy prejudices jeopardising my chance to learn occlumency."

Harry and Ron looked suitably chastised, but Sirius still looked annoyed and she knew she had to resort to drastic measures, especially with the looks he'd given her when she'd called Snape 'Severus'. "Look Sirius, I am going to head down to the dungeons and you aren't going to follow me. If you try such a thing then so help me I will make sure the Black name ends with you."

Sirius winced, as did Harry and Ron, the former deciding it was best to pull his godfather away to leave Hermione alone. Satisfied her warning had been delivered effectively she finally headed down to her occlumency lesson, glancing at the clock and glad she wasn't late, Severus would never tolerate that.

She made it to the dungeons with one minute to spare and knocked on the door. Snape opened it and glared at her, "you are nearly late Hermione," he said with a frown. She gave a small shrug, "well Severus if I'd have known you were so desperate to see me I would have come earlier. As it was Sirius was being difficult at the thought of you going through my head and I had to use a little threatening to get him to back off."

Snape smirked, "how very Slytherin of you Hermione, I heartily support you and I suppose I'm rubbing off on you." She grinned back, "yes I guess you are Severus, but away from your love of seeing Sirius threatened in any way, my lesson awaits."

He nodded and led her through to a little sitting room past the potions lab they did their brewing in. He offered her the seat and she took it, though she gave the green and silver design a look of distaste. "So," he began, "I presume you read the books I gave you and practiced the mental exercises." She nodded, "of course Severus, when have you ever known be to not to work." A small smile quirked in the corner of his mouth, "never of course and so we shall begin immediately."

It was hard going to start with, his legilimency hurt her head and seemed to make her replay all the bad scenes in her life and none of the good. He watched as she sobbed in the bathroom, confronted a troll and saw Ron knocked unconscious by the giant chess set in first year. He saw the moments before her petrification in second year and running from Remus as a werewolf in third year. There were streams of memories from during the Triwizard Tournament in fourth year and Umbridge's reign of terror in her fifth year.

The came the worst memories; the panic she felt at being unsure of Sirius' safety, the battle at the department of mysteries and the realisation when she had woken up in the hospital wing that he was gone. She could see the tears and sobs that had come once she was alone so clearly. Scene after scene of her sobbing played out before her eyes and the pain kept building until it came to a head.

She screamed and suddenly felt a shield surround her memories and the presence invading her mind was gone. She opened her eyes to find herself on the floor, Severus' hand sticking out for her to take. Both were silent for a few moments when Snape spoke, "a reasonable attempt, at least you managed to repel me in the end which was more than Potter ever did."

Hermione nodded, tears glistening on her cheeks from the tears that had fallen without her realising as she relived the memories. He looked gently at her, an expression unusual for him, "I'm sorry for what you had to go through Hermione, I may not like the man but I understand the pain of losing someone close to me." She nodded, he was talking of Lily, he had told her a few weeks prior of his friendship with, and love of, Harry's mother and the sad circumstances ending it.

He handed her a bar of chocolate to eat before her next attempt, telling her he didn't want Madame Pomfrey to have his head. "Does chocolate cure everything," she asked, thinking of Remus giving it to them all after they'd experienced the dementors for the first time. Snape laughed, "I do believe it does Hermione."

She polished off the bar of chocolate and they tried again for another half hour. By the time their lesson was over she'd gotten through another two bars of chocolate and managed to repel his entry into her mind for five whole minutes. They were both pleased with the progress, as was Dumbledore, who had come to see how it had gone just as they were finishing up.

Snape escorted her back up to Gryffindor Tower, ignoring the Fat Lady's scowl in his direction. She smiled and said goodbye before entering the common room to find a group of six people waiting for her. Harry, Ron, Ginny, Sirius, Remus and Kingsley were all eager to see how her lesson had gone, though Hermione suspected a few of them just wanted an excuse to get angry with, and hex, Severus.

They were pleased that it had gone well, but Harry protested when she told him of the chocolate Severus had given her at different intervals. "Hey," he cried with indignation, "Snape never gave me any chocolate when I had to learn occlumency, it could have helped me. Why do you get it?" Hermione rolled her eyes, "perhaps because I do not take the opportunity to annoy him at every possible moment and I actually try to learn what he is teaching me."

Harry looked slightly mollified at her words as they said goodbye to Kingsley, Remus and Sirius. Still, she did hear him continue to harp on about Snape's unfairness to Ron as she and Ginny headed down to the library to do some charms work. She did wonder if they'd ever get on with Severus, she somehow doubted it.

As usual, the next chapter will be up in a few days. A preview is below:

Dumbledore stood and the smile Hermione had on her face from one of Ginny's jokes faded as she saw there was no twinkle in his startling blue eyes. "This meeting has been called due to my receipt of some news that will distress certain members of the Order, one in particular more than most. Just half an hour ago I received a report of the murder of two muggles in Oxford. They appear to have been tortured for some time with the cruciatus and various other curses before being killed with Avada Kedavra. A message was found written in blood on their wall."