The silence surrounding the two was thick. Sedaya Boroda had left them after Hermione had entered the room, leaving both she and Severus Snape alone. Hermione was regretting asking the elder domovoi to leave but she needed to do this alone. If anything it would keep Snape in a position of safety if there was no deal to be had. Safer from Dimitry Ivanova. Sedaya Boroda was her stalwart companion since she could first see him but he was still very loyal to the patriarch whom he served for centuries before magic returned to the Ivanova bloodline.

It wasn't that Hermione didn't trust her dedushka but Dimitry was old and he carried a deep distrust that was difficult to shake, much like a grumpy auror she knew. He hated those who believed themselves to be the only ones who knew what was best for society. This meant he despised Albus Dumbledore which in turn meant he distrusted Severus Snape since he worked with Dumbledore. She understood the complexity of her dedushka and she respected him, she loved him. He was an ever-present figure in her life especially since she had been petrified her second year. The ability to walk straight into her mind had been a blessing when all she could feel was terror.

"You must have many questions," she finally broke the silence before taking a sip of her tea. She was grateful for its warmth when compared to the arctic chill that had settled within her inner world. She hadn't been able to calm her emotions and occlumency was well and good to conceal them from the world but when one was within their own inner sanctum it was difficult.

"That…would be an understatement."

She choked back a laugh that wanted to burst from her chest with the look on his face. Never once did Hermione ever imagine she would see an expression cross his face that wasn't one of seething hatred or stone-faced indifference.

There were an innumerable amount of questions Severus had. Where they were and why he was there were at the tip of his tongue. He had already deduced that it wasn't a dream from the chill that was present from the moment he woke. He wasn't sure he wanted to know the schematics of where they were as there was a nagging feeling he would be way out of his element. Best to avoid questions that would put him in a position of no control.

"Why am I here?" A finger ran over the rim of his teacup. A simple question that would provide a simple answer.

"I need an ally," the words caught him off guard as he looked up to catch her gaze. She didn't move to break contact, "and so do you."

Severus blinked once then twice. Moving to pinch the bridge of his nose, a migraine was on the way. An ally. Of all the things she could have said that wasn't one of the things that had crossed his mind. Were they not technically allies already? While yes she was a student she was like him under Albus' thumb and they both were fighting for the "greater good" against The Dark Lord.

"An ally?" He scoffed at her. "Forgive me Miss Granger but I don't see how this is any…"

"Did you know that the Headmaster put protection around the Weasley family?" She cut him off. The howling wind outside made him aware of how she felt about that.

He wasn't aware of Albus placing the Weasley family under protection. It didn't make much sense to Severus why Albus would put a pure-blood family under protection when they could defend themselves and not a Muggle family who had a daughter that couldn't actually use magic outside of school. Unless Albus knew something about Granger that no one else was privy to. Something that Hermione Granger knew about herself but kept hidden. The feeling that seemed to never want to leave him when his thoughts turned to the question of why Dumbledore would not heed his warning. He called bullshite on the Headmaster's excuse of not believing the Dark Lord would move so quickly against Granger.

"What are you, Miss Granger?" The question left him before he could even stop himself. The question that had plagued him since he found her in the Astronomy Tower, elemental magic on full display.

"Not what Professor, who," she whispered. She had looked down at her hands that were wrapped around her teacup. The winds stopped blowing as a calmness came around them.

"Tell me why Albus Dumbledore wanted you under his control?" he softly inquired. Part of him was curious and the other part wanted to know what he was about to get into. He despised being left out of the loop and Dumbledore enjoyed keeping everyone out of the loop unless he had a little morsel of truth that needed to be told and even then it wasn't enough to complete the whole picture.

"Both…" Hermione stopped before she wet her lips as she tried to steer her courage. "Both my parents come from magical families. Families that were believed to be extinct until I was born."

Severus mentally tallied how many families had technically gone extinct in terms of no magic, there were far too many to count.

"You wouldn't recognize either family name," she glanced up at him catching him in the midst of deep thought. "My mother's family is Russian and my father's…well the matriarch of the family was cursed only sons to be born with no magic."

"Was his family Russian as well?" Severus inquired.

Hermione shook her head in the negative, "British, but you won't find anything in the archives on them. The family worked to remove all traces of themselves from history."

He raised an eyebrow at that. It was unheard of for a magical family to remove themselves after a curse was placed. Many families would want to be remembered if the curse happened to be broken in any fashion. A triumph over a curse would be cause for celebration.

"My father's history is far more complex than my mother's but even her family can be complicated to understand especially to foreigners."

Before he could ask for her to continue he noticed her eyes widen with fear which was followed by a quick word in what he could only assume to be a word not fit to be said in the presence of company.

"You need to wake up."

"Excuse me?" He was confused by her quick movements and change in demeanor.

Then he saw it. No, not it but a person. It was a silhouette of a person at least. Before he could voice anything to Granger he felt it, a sinister feeling that seemed to ooze around them. It was suffocating and fear-inducing, a nightmare in the flesh.

He caught movement from next to him as Granger moved her hand and the windows he hadn't even realized were there smashed, ice and snow flew into the room. A cover, she was creating a diversion to thwart whoever was coming their way.

Feeling her small hands grasp his face and he looked down at her. Her eyes were lit with fire, he was fairly certain this was not the moment to feel some relief to see a spark of life that wasn't a fabrication in her eyes.

"Wake up!"

Gasping for air Severus sat straight up in his bed. Confusion flooded his mind and terror in his heart. What the hell had Hermione Granger dragged him into?

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Hermione opened her eyes to the light streaming into her dorm room, looking around she took note of Lavender and Parvati both still blissfully asleep. She wished to go back to sleep, exhaustion permeated her mind. It had been a long night, one that was interrupted by Dimitry Ivanova. After she pushed Snape out of her inner sanctum she calmed the storm that surrounded him. He had not been very happy with her yet was impressed that she caught on to him so quickly. She had to plead her case and beg him to do no harm to Snape.

Her thoughts dissipated as she felt movement on her bed. Crookshanks moved to stretch in the unnatural way that cats seemed to be the master of. Her eyes narrowed at her familiar.

"Traitor," she whispered.