Scented

Disclaimer - I don't own harry potter or the world in which he ..er… frolics

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She could feel him turning, tossing in bed. He was dreaming, and she couldn't wake up because of it. He was dreaming of her - that much was evident. She couldn't see the dream as much as experience it, and the feeling swept over her. It was such an odd sensation, because she felt as the man felt, without the certain necessary appendage.

She was reminded of Harry's dream, when he had discovered Arthur Weasley being attacked… or when he had been the snake.

She pressed into warmth, and was quite disturbed to imagine that the warmth was her own. The pain was back in a burst of emotion, and it stabbed at her. It prodded into her mind, rummaging through her thoughts as if she were dead. The dream ended, and she could feel Severus' alarm. He was awake, but he hadn't broken the contact. He was coming to her.

"Are you alright?" Severus whispered by her bedside. She hadn't stopped to think how he'd come into her room so quietly.

"Do you dream of me?" Hermione asked, lifting herself off the bed.

He looked at her, into her eyes and found very little sanity and too much pain.

"I know what you're thinking," Hermione whispered into his ear. She pressed up against him seductively, trying to elicit some response.

"Because I wasn't hiding my thoughts. You're not right, Hermione. It will take some time to adjust to your predicament." He placed his hands firmly on her shoulders and tried to pry her off.

"No, it wont. The hurt wont go away until I finish what I started." So she looked into his eyes and smothered him. She showed him the dream that had taken place minutes prior, and his defenses were down. It didn't matter that he couldn't breathe or move or make his choice. He was hers to take, as he had promised.

She overwhelmed him with the dream that he probably could not remember. She glanced at his eyes and saw the cloudiness there, the fervor he could not deny. Carefully, she pushed him onto his back and watched intently as he moaned in agony or passion. Hermione found that irresistible. She touched his neck, gently, and wrapped her arms around him. She whimpered for effect, and he tensed beneath her. She positioned her knees on either sides of his hips, fascinated at his expression. Severus squinted his eyes shut and fought to block her from his mind. But she suppressed him, because she was stronger than him. He tried valiantly to push her out, to end it before it could begin.

She leaned down on top of him and licked the lobe of his ear. He tasted like the perfume gem - sweet and distant. "I need you now, Severus, don't fight me. And I know you want me, I can feel it." She rolled her hips and felt him tense, then relax. As if he had done all he could, and now he was resigned to it.

Hermione heard a loud noise outside of her bedroom and watched as Draco burst in, panting as if he had run a marathon. Severus sat up, throwing her off, and took deep, gasping breaths. Her momentary lapse in concentration had released him from her hold.

Severus looked up at Draco, who was laughing shakily and trying to assess the situation.

"I don't have my wand, put a body bind on her," Severus said, keeping his voice level.

"Right-o, Severus." Draco nearly laughed and spelled her still. Hermione looked frantically about, afraid of what had taken place. What she had done.

"I didn't think you could hear me," Severus said, speaking to Draco and looking completely past her.

"It's hard not to when Granger's spilling her thoughts out to anyone who cares to listen. To tell you the truth, I thought she'd conjured you in a dream. It was a while before I realized you were actually here." Draco smirked, looking past her as well.

"That's…wonderful." Severus snorted, before pulling his shirt back on. She didn't even remember removing it.

"So, what do we do with her?" Draco asked, looking worried.

"I'll give her a mild sedative, it should calm her mind." Severus left the room, leaving her with Draco. He looked much pleased.

"I told you you're a Pureblood. Mudbloods can't handle this stuff, I heard they go crazy." Draco smirked, watching her struggle against the body bind. It was true she wanted to slap that smile off his face.

Severus returned, a wand in one hand and a bottle of steamy blue potion in the other. He released her from her body bind and watched her sit up on the bed.

"Severus," She looked somewhat terrified, "What was that?"

"I'll explain it to you in the morning, Hermione. You need to drink this for now, and it will stop hurting." He proffered the small bottle.

"I wont drink that, it's a sedative! I want to know what's going on if you're resorting to drugging me!" Hermione grabbed the wand from Draco's lax hand and pushed him away from her with her feet. She held it out threateningly, waiting for an answer.

Severus sighed and easily plucked the wand from Hermione's hand. He returned it to Draco, put his own wand in his sleeve and watched her closely.

"Your condition. It will get worse before it gets better. You can sense what others are thinking: how they feel, their instinctual reaction to any situation. Your connection to a person, specifically on the level of Walking, only increases this capability. Basically, until you learn to hold yourself together, you'll be able to see what others see, hear what they hear." He sat on the edge of the bed and noticed Hermione shiver. "But because you cannot hold yourself together, the same effect can easily be reversed, to give anybody able to Walk the opportunity to invade your personal thoughts and dreams. It is too dangerous to leave you this vulnerable, so I'm going to give you a very mild sedative to calm your mind, so you can sleep without having to see others' dreams. Will you take it?"

She watched him with an expression of mute horror. So she hadn't known how dangerous it was, how easily she could give away the secrets of the Order. She took the small bottle and downed it in one, gagging afterward.

"God, what is that?" She wheezed, "It's still burning."

"Actually, it was just a few ounces of Firewhiskey and Absinthe." He smiled at her, "Mixed, it's quite effective as a tranquilizer. I had to work with the materials I had in my room, you see -"

She was fairly sure he'd said something else, but the lack of consciousness really made it difficult to listen.

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Her head hurt. Wait, it hurt like someone had hit her in the head with a sledgehammer. Why was she on the floor? She heard a woman gasp, and suddenly Madam Pompfrey came into view.

"Oh, how did you get there?" Pompfrey levitated her body onto her bed. "It was completely unethical for him to give you alcohol, and such a large amount. I'll make sure to have a word with him. Just rest. Here - I left a potion for your headache, just make sure you drink at least one cup of water."

Hermione felt better as the potion took effect - she'd made sure to sniff it before taking tentative sips. She couldn't feel Severus anywhere in the nearby vicinity, so he must have left after last night. She had basically seen his fantasy, anyway. Draco, Harry, Ginny, and Ron were talking to each other, playing something eerily similar to the muggle game Monopoly. Fred and George - well, they were doing Fred and George things and Hermione wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know. There was a new person as well, Albus Dumbledore greeted her mental probing with the offer of a lemon drop. She politely declined, and went about her mental inspection of Madam Pompfrey, who was replenishing the school supply of Skele-Grow. It was disturbing how fast they had run out. Dumbledore chuckled, listening to Hermione talk to herself, well, think to herself.

"I would advise that you stay away from my mind, Miss Granger," Professor Dumbledore said from the doorway, "You may sustain some injury."

"Sir?" She was a little insulted.

"I mean to say, I have set some boundaries, a failsafe if you will. If I weren't expecting you, or if you took me by surprise, I may kill our connection too abruptly, and we may both come out injured. Also, leaving your own mind is dangerous in itself. You could easily become lost and not be able to find yourself."

He twinkled at her while she thought on it. "Sir, do you mean to say that I could get lost while I'm…helping the Order?"

"Possibly. Hermione, I'm afraid we must have a rather dismal conversation today, it has to do with choices."

…Choices? That sounds like he's giving me The Talk that Dad gave me when I was twelve.

"Miss Granger, I don't know exactly how to say this, but we need you. We need you to Walk for us. I will not mince words - we need you to kill. You can kill them mercifully, Walking permits for a person to feel absolutely no pain. We've looked everywhere for a wizard with these capabilities, but you're the strongest mind we've yet to come across. You're stronger than Mister Malfoy and Professor Snape combined. You understand what this means for the Order?" It was hardly a question.

She gave the only answer he'd accept, "I understand and I will cooperate, Sir. I don't know if I'm truly stronger than Professor Snape, but I will help in any way I can."

"Once we win…Once we win, we'll be able to reward you completely, fully. I can't say it will be easy-"

She glared, "Please, spare me the platitudes. There was no way I could turn you down and you know it, and I'm aware of it as well. Don't pretend you gave me the choice."

He watched her with sad eyes, "It's for the good of the cause, Hermione. Please understand, the pain of one may bring the liberation of thousands."

"Yes, yes, I know. I'm Jesus."

Her eyes were weary, and Hermione suddenly felt so sick of the entire ordeal. She wished she could stop and get off of this emotional roller coaster, but there she was stuck at the top of it. Dumbledore left without another word, sensing her agony. Perhaps it was then that she'd taken the role Severus Snape. She felt angry.

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Ayah, sorry it took f'rever to upload another chapter. I've been working on Hermione, In Style a lot too (please go read it, it's in dismal shape as far as reviews go. Matter o' fact, so is this. Review, People! Make me happy!) yeah, Go read Hermione, In Style. I ate a personal pan pizza - first time I ate the entire thing. Ugh. It's like..nastay. I dunno how, but my brother can eat an entire large pizza, and I can't get past the second crust before I feel like throwing up. It is kinda nuki-heh, isn't it? Like, greasy and nasty.

Gimme a wootwoot, and a HOLLAH. My doggy is DYING. I feel bad for the little bastard. He's got cysts the size of golfballs, and we're having them surgically removed next week. Poor SOB wont be able to walk for ages. Fuck it! Yeah, go Korn!

I went to watch La boheme last week. Was tres good (specially the collurata, colluruta, I forget, but they've got these kickass voices I had when I was a little girl (yeah, I was one of those opera singer - in training things Korean moms have got, and then I started smoking) , got terrible seats though. LA opera house, pretty nice. Lots of moronic snobs though. How I loathe those bitches. Anyway, I grew up pretty spoiled too, but a few punches and kicks to reality and lookit me, I'm city as pie. Er, I'm babbling. Just

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-Jenny from the Block…