A/N: A little Hermione/Snape exchange for those who asked!

Thanks for all of the lovely reviews - I so love reading them. I heart tennis14321432, Glitter Poisoned My Blood, McNasty4Slytherins, cinnamin, Glykera, HERMIONE SNAPE, librarianmum, Sisterhood, Kayleigh-FanfictionAddict-21, 83annak, BellasBeingBad, Lover of Fantasy, padfootsgrl79, Neqa'elis, LK-HoGwArTs-hEaDgIrL, circular-illumination, sweet-tang-honney, SeverussSillyGirl, ultimanoapte, and sezao1.

Bound to Him

Chapter 14

"Focus, Granger!" Snape articulated forcefully as he abruptly pulled out from her memories.

Hermione bit back the urge to cry, and sent a burning glare towards the dark-robed wizard.

They were already half way through their third session, and she felt as though she were showing no signs of improvement. The previous day's lesson had ended better than the first one, thought. She had been able to make it through the twelve-hour period without a major emotional breakdown and had only imagined the boorish professor being trampled by a hippogriff a half-dozen times.

McGonagall, on the other hand, had not fared quite so well with controlling her rage towards the Potions Master. Several verbal sparring matches had transpired between the two Heads of Houses, and the animosity came to a full boil shortly after the deputy headmistress had demanded another mid-afternoon break for the girl. When the two witches had later returned to his dungeon office, Severus had allowed Hermione to re-enter the room and had then slammed the door shut with a sneer, leaving Minerva in the hallway to curse the day he had ever been born. Spell after spell and hex after hex bounced off Snape's strong wards, and it was only after Hermione pleaded with the man did he sigh and woefully grant her re-admittance.

Nearly twenty-four hours had passed, and the elder witch had yet to stop glowering at the tall wizard.

"What the bleeding devil do you think she's attempting to do!" she shouted at him with a frown.

An icy expression appeared in Snape's eyes as he refused to even turn his head in her direction. Hermione, on the other hand, attempted half a smile as she sent an appreciative glance towards her favorite instructor.

"You need to focus, Miss Granger," Severus stated calmly, as if Minerva's outburst had never occurred. He raised his hands in warning, hissing, "Again!"

Hermione sighed, biting her lip and closing her eyes as she felt him penetrate her mental barriers once more. She had tried sweeping her emotions away - he had blown them right back in her face. She had tried building walls - he walked right through them as though he were Nearly Headless Nick or The Bloody Baron. She had tried turning off the flow of memories, but he had grabbed hold of the small trickle and expanded it into a raging flood. Everything she could think of doing had failed against his probing wand.

Focus, focus, focus - it's all he says to do. That's all I've been doing! Focus on what? It doesn't bloody work!

"Miss Granger, stop complaining and concentrate!"

"I AM!" she shouted without opening her eyes, her face fully flushed. All of the day's frustration that had welled up inside her was now pushing furiously to the top, striving madly to escape. Angrily, she sought out every inkling of his presence in her thoughts, enveloping them in the redness of her ire. With hardly a split second's pause, she felt herself mentally giving him a vigorous shove.

The sound of something heavy crashing against the wall filled the air, followed immediately by the tinkling of glass and a loud gasp.

Throwing her eyelids open, Hermione frantically glanced about the room. McGonagall had risen from her seat and now stood with a hand to her lips, a worried expression residing in her eyes. The girl narrowed her eyes in confusion as she followed the elder woman's gaze. When her eyes discovered the sight before her, she jumped and sucked in a shocked breath of air.

"Professor, are you a-alright?" she asked, taking a timid step out of her chair.

Snape, currently sporting a wide-eyed stare, was laying rather awkwardly against the wall of his office. A small shelving unit that had been filled with empty vials and flasks had cracked in half with the force of his body, and its contents had shattered all about the stunned professor. Quickly, his expression turned into a snarl, and he attempted to pull himself into a sitting position. Small shards of glass slipped off his robes, hitting the ground with a delicate crinkling sound, and Severus grimaced slightly as he touched the back of his head.

"That is exactly why you need to control your emotions, Miss Granger," he stated in a tone surprisingly devoid of sarcasm. He calmly rose to his feet, brushed the remaining pieces of glass from his clothing, and met her eyes with a warning glance. "Try that with the Dark Lord, and it will be the last thing either of us do."

Astonished, Hermione stared at him with her mouth hanging open. "Y-you mean I did that?"

A brief glimmer of rage flashed in Snape's eyes before he exhaled loudly. "As difficult as it is to believe, I do not make a habit of flinging myself headfirst into stone walls."

A snort emanated from the far corner of the office, and the two turned to see a trace of mirth dancing upon Minerva's features. After examining both of their expressions, she gave a small nod and began gathering up her items. When she had everything bundled together in the crook of her arm, she turned to her student.

"Well, Hermione - it seems you have no further need of my presence. You appear to have a good handle on things."

"About bloody time."

Hermione blinked in surprise, ignoring Snape's mental comment. "Erm, okay?"

"I shall leave you to it, then. Good luck." McGonagall stepped towards the door. She paused briefly in the doorway before adding, "Oh, and Severus - should you be in need of assistance, you only need to ask."

Snape scowled and, with a wave of his wand, sent the door slamming violently shut behind the witch's backside.

"If I may, Professor," Hermione cautiously began speaking, wisely choosing not to comment on the small bout of laughter that had sounded beyond the door. "But exactly how did I do that?"

Severus sighed, lightly touching his forehead as he stepped in the direction of his desk. "The mind is a complex organ and is exceptionally connected to one's magic. This is the reason why things can unwittingly occur when underage wizards are emotionally-stressed. Older, supposedly more experienced wizards can incur similar situations when they lose control of their emotions, as you just demonstrated. You wished desperately to extract me from your consciousness and failed to curb your anger. Naturally, your magic obliged."

Her eyes glazed over in fascination as he explained it to her. But I don't even have my wand! How have I never read about this?

Snape rolled his eyes. "As you well know, a wand is not necessary for producing magic, Miss Granger - it is merely a vessel for concentrating and directing its power. As to your other question, I personally have found that the majority of people who take it upon themselves to write books are blithering idiots who either grossly misconstrue the information presented to them or simply resort to making it up."

Hermione had to shake away the image of Gilderoy Lockhart that appeared in her head. How she could have ever fallen for a fraud as big as he had been was still a mystery to her. I can't believe I actually sent him a valentine.

A sneer exuding violent disgust immediately appeared upon Severus's face. "If you're quite done wasting my time with your reminiscence, Miss Granger, we have work to do. You are nowhere near ready to utilize Occlumency and will not be so until you can learn to properly focus!"

Her eyes narrowed as she expelled an irritated breath. "I'm trying!"

"Yes, well, there comes a time when trying is simply not good enough. You need to do, not try."

"Well, maybe I can't!" she shouted, crossing her arms against her chest.

Severus straightened to his full height and stepped menacingly towards her. "Can't? The infamous Gryffindor know-it-all is admitting to failure? And here I thought I would never live to see the day."

Hermione frowned, her hands beginning to shake. "Perhaps you should just go ahead and take the credit for my failures, then, Professor! Merlin knows you've been waiting to do so since I first walked in to your classroom!"

"What is that supposed to mean?" he jeered, quickly removing all space between them and towering over her.

She shivered slightly at his sudden closeness, but did not try to pull away. Instead, she threw her head back so she could glare pointedly at his face. "Don't insult me by pretending to deny it, sir! You've wasted no effort in criticizing everything I've ever done!"

A nasty smirk spread upon his face. "Miss Granger, you have me at a loss. I'm not sure which is more obnoxious - your insolence or your ignorance."

"My ignorance!" Her eyes burned with a fiery light as she scoffed, "I'm the ignorant one?"

Without giving him time to fire off a retort, Hermione audaciously donned a tone of voice similar to his. "I can see your thoughts and feelings. I can manipulate your very expressions. You will be unable to speak or act against me."

His smirk had all but vanished as he recognized his own words coming from her mouth.

"Or had you forgotten, Professor?" she asked accusingly, her voice returning to a normal, if somewhat elevated state. "Because I certainly remember! I'm bound to you - as Voldemort so merrily stated, my mind bears your mark. Explain to me, sir, just exactly how I am to resist your intrusions if I am incapable of acting against you!"

Snape blinked rapidly several times before stepping away from her. As he neared his desk, he nervously ran a hand through his greasy hair. After a few moments of what she surmised was deep thought, he turned back to her. He met her eyes only briefly and then dropped his gaze to the floor.

"Perhaps I should have chosen my words more carefully, Miss Granger." A few seconds passed in silence before he spoke again. "You are only unable to say or do things if I do not want you to say or do them. Seeing as I do not wish to die because you cannot shield your thoughts from the Dark Lord, it would be reasonable to assume I want you to be successful in your attempts at Occlumency. As such, it would seem the responsibility for your inadequacies lies solely with you."

Hermione exhaled loudly in irritation as she threw her hands up in the air. "But your connection to my mind -"

"As I mentioned earlier, Miss Granger," Severus cut her off in a disturbingly calm voice, "the mind is extraordinarily complex. There are an astronomical number of layers within your head - only a few of which did I claim during the binding process. I have only allowed myself to see your current mental status and I am only able to influence your present actions. Without using Legilimency, I am thus unable to witness anything more than your infuriating, trivial, and incessant mental monologues."

Her nostrils flared as she shifted her weight. Re-crossing her arms, she angrily spat, "Well if you're so bloody brilliant at Occlumency, why don't you just shut me out?"

His eyebrows gathered together in exasperation. "The connection between our minds is highly intricate - I cannot merely 'shut you out.' If I could, believe me, I would have done so by now."

Hermione had to quickly bite back the urge to scream in his face. Within a matter of seconds, however, a wicked smile slowly spread upon her face. "Well, seeing as I had absolutely no say in the matter, you were the only one to establish the link between my consciousness and yours. As such, it would seem the responsibility for your inadequacies lies solely with you."

A warm satisfaction swelled through her body as she watched his jaws immediately slam together. His hands had clenched into tight fists, and his eyes were darker than she had ever remembered them being. She could see his lips quivering with all the angry, hateful things he desperately wished to shout at her, though, for now, he remained silent.

While she watched him presumably struggling to conquer his fury, she found her mind was suddenly reeling. ' The mind is a complex organ and is exceptionally connected to one's magic...You wished desperately to extract me from your consciousness and failed to curb your anger. Naturally, your magic obliged.'

Her mouth opened slightly as she considered a new line of thinking. What if I've been going about this the wrong way? What if I don't need to clear away my emotion, but instead need to concentrate and direct them? I just need to focus them. Like a wand almost.

As though the proverbial light bulb had gone off over her head, Hermione could not even attempt to hide the smile that exploded onto her countenance.

Severus watched her cautiously, glancing apprehensively at the clock. "Perhaps we should retire until after supper."

"No!" Hermione shouted excitedly. She determinedly stepped back to the chair and plopped into it. "We keep going."

"Miss Granger -" he began, but was quickly interrupted.

"Unless you require a moment to compose yourself, sir," she challenged.

Snape dropped his head to the side in an attempt to hide the grin he was now wearing. He cleared his throat loudly and then raised his wand.

X

Nearly an hour later, Severus watched Hermione fail to stifle a laugh as he withdrew from her mind. In order to prove it was not a fluke occurrence, he wordlessly plunged back into her consciousness. Again, he found himself standing in the midst of a vast expanse of darkness. There was nothing for him to grasp onto, nothing for him to see. Not a whisper of sound could be heard, nor was there even a hint of wind to flutter his hair or the edges of his robes. It was simply empty.

As he cancelled the Legilimens incantation and spiraled back to his dungeon office, he realized the girl was watching him expectantly. He shrugged as he returned his verdict.

"Well, Miss Granger - it does appear that you have been successful at last."

Hermione was beaming as she let out a huge sigh of content. As she began to wiggle excitedly in the chair, Snape rolled his eyes.

"Before you begin a celebratory dance, bear in mind that this is only the first step. We still have a long journey ahead of us, and only a week of privacy left."

A week. She grimaced as reality came crashing down upon her. There was only a week left until she would have to put everything out of mind long enough to sit her classes and execute her duties as a Hogwarts prefect. In a week, she would once again be surrounded by her friends. Oh, Merlin! Harry and Ron - how am I going to explain all of this?

Severus cleared his throat, interrupting her thoughts. "You shall not speak of anything that has occurred within these last two weeks with anyone outside of those who already know."

"But they're my friends," Hermione pleaded. "I can't lie to them."

"You can, and you will, Miss Granger," he countered. "We cannot trust the connection between Potter's mind and the Dark Lord. He cannot know."

After a few moments, she gave a resigned sigh and painfully nodded.

"Good," he stated as he made his way to his desk chair. After sitting down and pulling out a weathered notebook, he glanced back at her. His eyes narrowed, and he then opened a drawer. Pulling out a sleek vial of dark purple liquid, he rolled it twice in his fingers before handing it across the desk.

Hermione stood from her chair and took it from him. She glanced at the label bearing his neat scrawl.

Dreamless Sleep

At her questioning glance, Snape sighed. "The remainder of your training shall be an exhausting process and you have yet to sleep through the night. While Occlumency will continue to mentally drain you, the rest of your lessons shall tax you physically. You will need to be well-rested if you are to make use of our time. The Dreamless Sleep potion should be treated with great caution, but I trust you know to use it sparingly?"

She nodded, wrapping her fingers protectively around the glass container. She tilted her head as she asked, "Rest of my lessons?"

Severus bit his lip briefly as he picked up a quill and started scratching words onto a clean page in the notebook. "The headmaster has asked that I see to improving your self-defense skills."

"Oh," Hermione wrinkled her brow. "Well Harry did have us working on that last year."

"Ah, yes," he grunted without so much as a pause in his quillwork. "The ill-planned Dumbledore's Army. I can only imagine the plethora of knowledge you had bestowed upon you. Potter wouldn't know how to fight his way out of a wet paper sack."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "He's a much better fighter than you give him credit for, and he was more than adequate as a teacher."

"More than adequate?" Snape snorted, halting his scrawl as he studied her face. She could tell a smirk was playing at the corners of his mouth. "Unfortunately I believe even your mediocre assessment of Potter's lessons is exceptionally high praise. We all saw where it ended up - you and your pathetic little army were captured by Death Eaters before you could even say Expecto Patronum. Merlin only knows what would have happened if the Order hadn't showed up to rescue your sorry lot."

"I knew it!" Hermione whispered, absent-mindedly rubbing her chest where she knew the thin, jagged scar began. She shuddered slightly, remembering the vile taste of all the potions she had to take because of it. "It was you, wasn't it? You were the one who alerted the Order, weren't you? You told them where we were."

Severus gave no verbal response, but gazed at her pointedly before returning to his notebook.

"I knew it," she said softly, glancing down at the vial in her hands. Suddenly she shifted nervously on her feet and chewed on her lip. "Erm, Professor?"

"Yes?" he questioned without lifting his head.

Hermione sighed, searching for the best way to phrase her question. "When do we have to - I mean, when do the bonds have to be renewed?"

The wizard stopped writing, but did not raise his eyes any higher than the edge of the desk. "That is not for me to say."

He paused, but before she could raise the next obvious question, he continued. "The...frequency of renewal is not an exact science. It relies on a number of factors - namely the gradual weakening of the curse, but it also takes into account my...sexual desires...as well as your own...arousal." He closed his eyes in obvious discomfort. "In any case, you will be the one to know when it is necessary."

"Oh." She was suddenly extremely grateful to not have to meet his gaze as she was quite sure she had turned pink with embarrassment from head to toe. After a few minutes of silence, she ventured to speak again. "Sir?"

This time he only gave a grunt of acknowledgement.

"I was just wondering - you see, I don't have my wand. I searched through all of my things that were placed in my room, but it's not there. Would you happen to know where it -" She trailed off as he fixed her with a scrutinizing stare.

As if somewhat satisfied with what he saw, Snape leaned back in his chair to pull out the middle drawer of his desk. He held out the slender vine wand, but surreptitiously pulled it back when she made to take it.

"You may have it back on one condition, Miss Granger."

"And that is?" she asked, impatience creeping into her tone.

He waited until she had locked eyes with him. "There will be no more suicidal thoughts or tendencies. I refuse to die just because you allow your teenage angst to run unchecked. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes," she whispered.

When he was sure she was genuine with her response, he pushed the wand into her outstretched hand.

"One more question, sir."

Severus gave a half-humored sigh. "You and I both know, Miss Granger, that it is never just one more question with you."

Hermione gave a sly smile and ducked her head.

"Go ahead," he instructed, waving his hand.

"Well, as you know, Professor - classes start in a week and I never made it to Diagon Alley before...before... anyway, the point is I don't have any of my books or supplies, so -"

He nodded, interrupting her. "It will be seen to."

"Thank you," she said while heaving a large sigh of relief. She made her way to the door, and looked back at him, dutifully scribbling in his book. "Good night, Professor."

As the door clicked shut behind her, Severus raised his eyes from his desk and sighed.

"Good night, Miss Granger."