A.N.: A big thank you to Multilingualism for betaing another chapter!

Chapter 11: Everything I do for you

"Oi, where's Hermione?" Fred couldn't help but ask when he sighted his brother and Harry together on one of the sofas in the Common Room. Hermione was nowhere in sight though, which was quite atypical at this time of the day. It wasn't rare that the girl spent her afternoons in the library, but after dinner, she could usually be found with her friends doing homework, but not so today. Fred had seen her during dinner in the Great Hall but in stark contrast to yesterday evening, when her face glowed with excitement and happiness, she almost looked grey and depressed while she pushed her food around on her plate without eating it. It didn't take a genius to figure out that there was something wrong with his witch and he was determined to find out what it was.

"She's in detention with Snape," Ron replied sourly from his spot on the sofa, where he scribbled on one of the essays that were most likely due tomorrow.

"Detention? What did she do?" George asked next to him in a curious tone.

Ron and Harry looked at each other for a moment, but finally, Harry shrugged nonchalantly and Ron said: "She brewed a potion as you might know. Snape asked her which place she used for it, as he was convinced that one would need a fully equipped lab for getting a drinkable result. Hermione refused to answer him, though."

Fred snorted, even though his insides warmed at the realization that Hermione rather went into detention than betraying their trust. Not that he had expected anything else from his favourite witch, but it was nice to see his trust confirmed. "Oh my, I can see how the old bat didn't like that at all," he finally said with an amused grin. But his little brother didn't seem to find it funny at all.

"He wasn't. He gave her detention for two weeks, can you imagine?" Ron complained and Harry only nodded, before he continued brooding on the sofa. What was it with those boys today?

"That's hard," George replied almost solemnly. "But Hermione 's a big girl. She will be fine. And it's not like he can do much worse with her then letting her scrub cauldrons and slice flobberworms, right?"

They all nodded in unison, totally oblivious to the fact that Snape could indeed do much more to Hermione than just that.

sssssssss

It was a reckless plan to teach the girl Occlumency in two weeks, but it was all Severus had for now. He couldn't have justified more detention in front of Minerva and Albus and as it was in his interest that his doings remained a secret, for now, he'd make do with what he had. But it would be a close call, even if he brought the girl to her limits, which he already decided would be necessary. She'd probably hate him afterwards if she didn't already do so anyway, but Severus had never particularly cared about what others thought of him. He would do what was necessary to protect the girl and Potter if the boy could even be protected from his fate. That remained to be seen.

Well, Miss Granger was at least motivated and possessed a certain degree of intelligence, which was a blessing in their situation. She followed his instruction to a tee and after she had positioned herself in the armchair he provided for her, she didn't say a word until she finished reading through the book around midnight. He wondered if she would give up halfway through, as he could see that she was hungry and tired after having sat with him for three hours. But Hermione Granger didn't complain and just shifted her position before she kept reading on. When she finally slipped away from his office, she did so with wishing him a good night politely but without making a big fuss. Hell, if the girl was this silent and disciplined in class, he could have almost started to like her.

It was seven on the dot the next day when the knock sounded at his office door and without many words he invited her in. She looked a bit better than yesterday, even though there were dark circles under her eyes and she was obviously nervous, as she kept gnawing on her bottom lip while she looked at him with big brown eyes. "Good evening, Professor Snape," she greeted him with a neutral voice and followed him into his office. There he could see her eyes travel towards his book collection before she forced them back on his person. Well, at least he tried to reign her curiosity in.

"Sit," he invited her and motioned towards the armchair that was still left from their last session. He hadn't taken the effort to transfigure it back, as he already knew that they would need it again today. "Well, Miss Granger, tell me how much you understood from reading the book I provided for you."

The girl nodded enthusiastically and straightened in front of him before she said: "From what I gathered, Occlumency is more about mental discipline than about magical potential. It somehow reminds me of meditation, combined with different visualisation techniques that can be used, to store knowledge or memories within the mind."

He nodded mutely and gave her a sign to go on and she did so without complaint. "I once read about a similar technique that is used to enhance the capacity of your memory and I found this approach quite fascinating. What I don't understand is, how best to protect the memories, once they are stored in the mind accordingly. Is this about distraction? Or is there an effective way to improve one's mental defences that makes the invasion of the mind difficult, in the first place?"

"A skilled Occlumens uses both ways to protect the memories important to him. My mind is regularly invaded by the Dark Lord himself, as he is not the most trusting of men. I am only still alive because I let him find memories and thoughts of me being his most loyal servant and hide all the others that say otherwise." Severus couldn't hide the small smile gracing his lips as he saw the expression of surprise on Miss Granger's face. "But if somebody else encounters a Legillimentic attack, a more upfront approach might serve him better. It always depends on the person's character and mental abilities."

The girl nodded and continued gnawing on her bottom lip. He could see that it was already bleeding in one place and he had to hold himself back to not scold her for it. If Miss Granger liked to hurt herself, it wasn't his business, after all.

"I see," she finally said and looked at him hesitantly. "What if I tried to build a huge place in my mind, where it is simply impossible to find the memories you are looking for. Could that work?"

He weighed his head in consideration. "It could. But it would need a lot of concentration and mental exercise to do so. It isn't just about building the place and storing the memories, Miss Granger. Could you still keep your mental image upright under torture or strong mental pressure?"

The little witch stared at him with wide, shocked eyes. "Torture? I… I am aware that these lessons aren't just about helping Harry, as I can also get a lot of use out of them. But do you really expect it to get that bad?"

Severus looked at her with a serious expression. "If what I think is true, then the Dark Lord is even more powerful than we so far expected. Killing him will be at least difficult if not almost impossible. Let me be frank with you: I think this war is going to get very ugly very soon. You are a muggle-born, Miss Granger and Harry Potter's friend at that. If the Death Eaters ever manage to get you into their fingers, then expect to be raped, tortured and finally killed. I have seen it countless times, Miss Granger. In the last war, there have been hundreds of Muggles and countless muggle-borns. It was always the same, none of them escaped."

For a moment he feared that he had broken her as she simply sat motionlessly on her armchair and stared into the distance. There wasn't a single muscle moving in her face, not even to torture her poor lip any further. But finally, she snapped out of her trance and looked at him with determination in her eyes. "Alright, thank you for being honest with me, Professor. I really do appreciate it." She nodded and looked at him with an almost shy smile. "I don't have any more questions, Sir. If there is nothing else you want to tell me then I am ready to start."

"Always so eager," he thought without saying it out aloud. Instead he just nodded and took out his wand from his sleeve. "As you wish. I advise you to stay seated for now as it is common to lose balance under a mental attack very easily. And I expect you don't want to find yourself on the floor." He smirked and fixed her brown eyes. "Brace yourself, girl."

He saw Miss Granger stiffen on the chair and grab the armrests with both hands. He granted her a moment to collect herself before he cast the spell to enter her mind. She made it easy for him, as she kept eye contact and so it didn't take much of his concentration to sink into the brown orbs and plunge into her mind. He had expected to find the chaos that was so common for hormonal teenagers, but instead, he found himself in a small muggle bedroom that was most likely her own. Interesting. He took his time to look around and noted the neatly-made bed and the delightful absence of pink and other optically insulting colours that could have been expected in a teenage girl's bedroom. There were no stuffed animals, no sappy posters or anything else he would have expected and instead there were neutral beige walls, a huge desk and several shelves that were filled to the brim with books. The desk was laden with scientific equipment, a computer and several notebooks. Huh. The girl had really managed to organize her mind in what? 12 hours? Or had she already started these mental exercises before? Before he knew what he was doing he strolled over to the desk and grabbed one of the notebooks, but when he opened them it was like staring into a muggle TV, as he was suddenly sucked into a whole different scene. There was the girl and the Weasley-twins. They were playing some sort of water ball-game and he could clearly feel the admiration the girl felt for the mischievous redheads. Really? Well, this was unexpected. He forced himself to watch the scene a moment longer and he caught a glimpse of what must have been the girl's parents, before he decided that it was enough and he retreated from her mind.

It was just in time, as she looked like had almost slid from her chair. Her whole body was sagged sideways before she recovered from his mental attack. "Ugh," she moaned and shook her head in confusion before she pulled herself upright again and looked at him in defeat. "Well, that wasn't very successful I guess."

But he just looked at her with a raised brow. "No? You kept your focus on your mental image under mental assault. That was more than I expected on the first attempt. You just made it too easy for me to find something interesting. Do you want to try again?"

The bushy-haired witch nodded with determination. "Of course, Sir. We only have two weeks, after all, and I am determined to use them to learn as much as I can. And I'm sure if it gets too much, you have a headache potion hidden somewhere in your desk."

He snorted at her cheek. Was this really the same girl that had grated on his nerves for years? "Probably. I'm sure I'll need it when I am finished watching all your teenage fantasies," he replied dryly and just as he had anticipated he saw the colour rise in her cheeks. It was enough to paint another smile on his face. Well, maybe these two weeks wouldn't turn out to be as tedious as he had expected, after all.

sssssssss

It was past midnight when Hermione finally made it back into the common room. She was beyond exhausted and her head still felt like it had turned into a beehive with hundreds of little striped inhabitants, even though Professor Snape had kindly handed her a Headache Potion after three hours of Occlumency training. She hated having him in her mind, having him sniff out every secret or embarrassing memory she had so carefully tried to hide from him. She was pretty sure there wasn't much more for him to find out by now and Hermione could only hope that he would keep his promise and not go after the twins because of their secret lab. It had taken him some time to find the memory, as Hermione had chosen to hide it in the bottom row in her bookshelf, but of course, he had found it anyway. She needed a bigger place to store her memories and more importantly, more unimportant memories to distract whoever tried to break into her mind. She already had an idea what she wanted to achieve in the end, but would she have the mental discipline to do it? Well, it wasn't like she had much of a choice anyway. From what Professor Snape told her, it was only a matter of time, until the Death Eaters came for her. And she would be damned if she wouldn't be prepared for that.

"Look who's finally made it back from detention with our favourite dungeon-bat," a casual voice surprised her, as she was just about to climb up the stairs to the girls' dorms. When she hastily turned around she saw Fred and George lounge on one of the sofas close to the fireplace and look at her with a matching smile on their faces.

"Fred? George? You're up late…" she said weakly and stared at them with a tired expression. She really didn't feel like having another rollercoaster-ride of emotions tonight, but that was exactly what happened every time she started talking to them.

"We waited for you to see if you're alright," George replied and was on his feet a second later. In five big strides, he was at her side and his brother wasn't far behind. "Did Snape keep you with him for that long?"

Hermione groaned inwardly. There was no escaping them today, she realised, not if she didn't want to be unfriendly and leave them there without an answer. "Yeah," she replied weakly and her lips morphed into a tired smile. "He's got a lot of work for me, I guess. But that's alright, it's worth it."

"We really appreciate that you are keeping our secret," Fred said in a low voice and before she knew what happened, he took her hand into his. "If you need anything and if it's just somebody to cheer you up, let me know, alright?"

Her mouth went dry as she felt his thumb slowly trace the knuckles of her hand while he looked at her with huge brown eyes. For a moment she wanted to snatch her hand back, but after a moment of hesitation, she simply allowed herself to enjoy his attentions and relaxed. "Thank you, Fred."

"How about we treat you to a new book on Saturday?" George asked with a kind smile and glowing eyes. "It's only one more day until then and you could spend your next detention thinking about which one you'd like."

Hermione could feel the blush creeping up on her again. "Which one I like, huh?" she thought and started chewing on her already swollen bottom lip. "Well, that's the problem, isn't it? It's impossible for me to decide." And by that Hermione didn't mean books at all. Merlin, maybe she should just tell them, that this was a bad idea. She felt more and more like they were wooing her, but was it fair to give them both hope, if there could only be one in the end? Maybe she should just forget about the both of them and direct her confused teenage hormones to somebody else… "Yeah, this would definitely make the hours until the weekend more bearable," she heard herself say instead and groaned inwardly. "But you really don't have to buy me anything. I'm sure we'll have a nice afternoon no matter what."

Instantly she was awarded a sunny smile from both. "I'm sure we will," Fred agreed and pressed her hand softly before he finally let go of her. And Hermione noted that her hand felt cold without his touch, all of a sudden.

"See you on Saturday, then?" she asked and looked at Fred and George with a shy smile.

"Sure," they said and beamed at her with matching expressions. Whom was she kidding anyway? She was too far gone for these two pranksters to even consider somebody else right now, even though she was pretty sure that having feelings for both of them could only end in a disaster.