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Unlikely Partners
Chapter 8
"I believe that's a very wise decision, Miss Granger," Severus told her as he stood up.
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked. "I don't want to move"–
"Did I tell you I wanted you to move, Miss Granger?" Severus asked in a tone that hinted she was beginning to try his patience.
"No, but you stood up so I automatically thought you were on your way back to the other room."
Severus looked at her, his features set into his trademark "Potions Master" sneer.
"Don't ever assume your initial predictions are correct, unless you first have substantial proof that they are true," he told her.
Severus took his wand and flicked it in the direction of the bathtub. In an instant it filled with water and the water jets turned on, bubbling fairly loudly in the room. Hermione stared at him, waiting for him to explain his actions. Severus said nothing and went to the sink across from Hermione and gently turned the water on, barely touching the handle so that the water only dripped steadily into the drain. He then turned to face Hermione.
"I have just created two auditory stimuli." Severus told her smoothly. "The bubbling water drowns out the sound of the dripping faucet. We're going to use Shield Occlumency to make it so that you are able to magnify the sound of the dripping faucet and accurately discern how many water drops hit the bottom of the sink in a period of fifteen seconds."
"Well right now, I can still see the faucet and it's dripping at the rate of–
Severus stepped to the right so that he completely blocked Hermione's view of the faucet.
"Look at me, Miss Granger."
Hermione raised her eyes to Severus's face.
"Before we begin, I'm going to have to teach you how to merge your subconscious and conscious minds. In Occlumency, these two parts of your brain work in tandem. Normally, as I'm sure you already know, they're completely separate."
"What exactly will I have to do?" Hermione asked him.
"It will sort of be like thinking of two things at once. Once I step inside your mind you'll be aware of my presence, but unaware of what I see in your thoughts. I want you to focus all of your attention on my presence in your mind. I shall use my power to awaken an unused part of your subconscious mind and you will then have the ability to either magnify or reduce certain stimuli. We'll start by having you magnify a visual stimulus and then move on to having you magnify the sound of the dripping faucet. Magnification is easier than reduction, but because of your significantly weakened mental state, I sincerely doubt you'll be able to successfully do it the first time. Once you've confidently mastered it, you can move on to more difficult tasks that will eventually lead to blocking Voldemort's presence from your mind."
Hermione blinked, trying to force her mind to comprehend everything Severus had said.
"On your word I shall begin." Severus told her.
Hermione let out a breath, smoothed her hair behind her ear, and gave Severus a subtle nod.
Severus, with his gaze locked on Hermione's eyes, immediately gained access to Hermione's mind. Usually, during the first few seconds of the act of mind intrusion, the Legilimens received a sort of mental "kick" as the person whose mind they had entered instinctively responded to their invasion. He did not receive the particular response from Hermione.
Severus passed by the thoughts at the forefront of Hermione's mind.
How long will I have to stay here?
Harry will be sick with rage when he finds out I'm gone . . . He might never forgive me when I tell him the truth.
Severus pressed further in and found Hermione's recent memories. He saw Hermione sitting in front a television with a bowl of jelly beans resting on her stomach. Severus went past that and saw an image of Nymphadora Tonks talking to Hermione. Past that he could see Hermione standing next to Remus, looking at the Latin text he was translating.
Severus pushed even deeper, again expecting even a weak reflexive response at his strong hold on Hermione's mind. But even as he began to see images of older memories and thoughts, she didn't even mentally "flinch" like everyone he had probed this deeply had done.
It was a good thing that Hermione had no idea what memories he was currently viewing.
Apparently he had found the section of memories in her brain devoted to sexual experiences. Since Hermione was currently unable to hide these images from his eyes, he had known that there was a good possibility he would see them as he made his way to the innermost part of her mind.
Severus passed a memory of Hermione passionately snogging Victor Krum. Severus supposed he could attempt to back out a bit and go around another path to get to her subconsciousness. But minds were unpredictable little things and though he could try to bypass these memories on his way to his destination, there was no guarantee that that he would successfully be able to do so. Besides, it wasn't as if Hermione was aware of what memories he was now looking at.
As Severus moved further into her mind he saw an image of Hermione underneath a slender red-headed young man. Severus had figured Hermione had lost her virginity to either the Bulgarian Quidditch player, Potter, or the youngest Weasley boy. Obviously that wasn't the case.
It had been with one of the Weasley twins.
The liaison made some sense, at least Fred and George-Severus couldn't tell who it was-had sharp intellects and were free thinkers. Both were characteristics Hermione greatly admired.
Not that he gave a damn who she slept with.
Severus quickly pushed past that particular memory and felt the degree of Hermione's awareness decrease as he finally found the outer edges of her subconscious mind.
Severus quickly found that he was not yet out of the sexual thoughts of Hermione's mind as thoughts and images came into view about her desires and fantasies.
The first image Severus saw was Remus slowly kissing Hermione. Severus then heard the thoughts that accompanied the image.
Nymphadora Tonks is the luckiest woman alive. If I was granted three wishes, one of them would have to be for Remus to kiss me. . . Oh hang it, I'd want to have him for a night . . .
The last thought was followed by an image of Remus in bed with Hermione.
Severus had to fight the urge to roll his eyes. To do so, would have sent him completely out of Hermione's mind and he would have had to start the process all over again.
Did she even know that the werewolf she was fantasizing about was bisexual?
Severus moved away from Hermione's subconsious thoughts that contained images of a lusty Remus Lupin.
Finally, Severus located the part of Hermione's mind that he had been searching for. It was a small part that Muggles almost never used and adult wizards and witches only used it occasionally, unless of course, they were trained in Shield Occlumency.
Miss Granger? he whispered gently, acutely aware of the damage a loud voice could cause in this untouched part of her mind. There had been accounts in various history books of what happened a Legilimens used a normal tone of voice in the inner parts of a student's mind. All of them involved great pain in the student and the sudden forced removal of the Legilimens from the student's mind. Do not speak, just think your answer in your mind and I'll hear it.
Yes? Hermione questioned weakly.
Close your eyes. Can you detect my presence in your subconsciousness?
I see you standing in front of a gray background, Hermione told him.
Good. Now I want you to relax as much as you are able.
Hermione exhaled slowly and Severus felt her mind become less hyper-alert to her surroundings.
I'm now going to project a basic image in your mind and I want you to concentrate on it, making it more detailed and clear or ignore it, causing it to fade and disappear.
What is the image going to be? Hermione asked.
If you knew, this entire exercise would become ineffective.
Severus thought for a few seconds, deciding what image he would put in Hermione's mind. He was tempted to project an image of Remus and tell her to concentrate on adding details to the image. Doing so would certainly teach her how to use the latentpart of her subconscious mind to modify a visual stimulus. Though she probably wouldn't be very happy if she knew he was aware of her less-than-decent thoughts about the werewolf.
Considering the situation between him and Hermione, he had no desire to make her hate him.
He settled on projecting an image innocuous enough that Hermione wouldn't think of it as having any sort of sexual connotation. He chose an expanse of green grass near a forest, not unlike the grounds of Hogwarts.
Make this image more detailed. Add whatever you want to make it more specific, he instructed.
Not surprisingly, Hermione chose to make the image into Hogwarts, even going as far as to add the school's lake and prominent trees.
Well done, Miss Granger. I'm now going to back out of your mind and we'll be able to carry on a normal conversation. Severus told her. Keeping Legilimency up for so many minutes was beginning to tax his brain. If he kept it up much longer without taking a break, he'd have quite a splitting headache and then he'd be completely unable to help Hermione.
"It appears that your mental strength is not completely exhausted. I want you to practice now with the auditory stimuli. Open your eyes and focus all of your attention on making the dripping faucet loud enough for you to hear."
Hermione stared in the direction of the faucet for ten seconds.
"I can't make the sound seem any louder"she told him.
Severus sighed.
"Miss Granger, one of your most noticeable faults is that you often try too hard when completing a set task. You're trying to see the faucet, Miss Granger. I assure you that my chest won't be turning transparent anytime soon."
Hermione looked up into his face with a determined expression in her eyes. She said nothing as she bent her head down toward the floor and again concentrated on magnifying the sound of the dripping faucet and ignoring the sound of the whirlpool bath.
After almost a full minute Hermione raised her gaze to Severus's.
"Okay, I can actually hear the dripping faucet now."
"Can you?" Severus asked, and with a twirl of his wand he conjured a pocket watch, flipped it open and looked down, watching its second hand. "How many drops do you hear in fifteen seconds?"
Hermione was silent, trying to count the number of drops she heard.
"I can't hear them for more than five or six seconds at a time." she told him.
"Concentrate harder."
"What's so magic about fifteen seconds?" Hermione asked sullenly, on the road to reaching her breaking point.
"If you can magnify the stimulus for longer than ten seconds you should have no problem moving on to more advanced Shield Occlumency."
"Fine." Hermione told him tersely. "I can do it longer."
"I'm sure you can. Why don't you prove it to me?"
Hermione took a deep breath and stared at the bathroom floor and she focused all of her concentration on magnifying the sound of the dripping faucet behind Severus.
Severus leaned back against the sink and idly watched the second hand travel around the face of the pocket watch.
"All right, I can hear it clearly and the sound is no longer fading."
"Are you ready for me to time you?" Severus questioned.
Hermione nodded. Severus looked at her and then looked down at the pocket watch.
"Start counting." he told her.
Hermione silently counted the number of drops she heard drip into the bottom of the sink.
"Stop. What was your number?"
"Twenty-three," she announced.
"Very good, Miss Granger. We are now closer to stopping you from being affected by Voldemort's presence."
"What do I have to do now?" Hermione asked as Severus turned off the sink and turned off the water in the tub.
"You were able to magnify the image of the field. I'm going to project another image in your mind. This time instead of magnifying it, I want you to reduce it by ignoring it, you'll have to redirect your attention to something else."
"Like what?" Hermione asked him.
"Anything you want, it can be memory or a specific thing, though this early in your training it would be better if you focused on something tangible."
"Like you?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow.
This time, Severus did roll his eyes.
"I may be a tangible thing Miss Granger, but do you honestly think that's the best thing to do, especially after what I've told you?"
Hermione didn't immediately answer.
"I honestly wasn't thinking about that, it's just that here in this room there isn't a whole lot to focus my attention on. What am I going to do, stare at the sink? Plus, I want to get this done as soon as possible. I thought focusing on you might make this easier and expedite the process of finally mastering Shield Occlumency enough to get Voldemort off my mind."
Severus considered her words. She did have a valid point. If Hermione tried to focus on the blank wall or the sink, undoubtedly it would take her more than a few tries to completely reduce the visual image he projected to her. Given the fact that he would have to project more than one image to ensure that she mastered the technique before trying the last task which was attempting to block Voldemort's presence from her consciousness, they could be at this for another hour at least, maybe two.
Severus was already beginning to feel the onset of a headache. He didn't want to stay here any longer than he had to. When this was finally done, he knew he'd be resting for quite a while.
"Focus on me if you must, Miss Granger. But first try focusing on a particularly vivid memory or mental image." he told her.
Hermione nodded. Severus entered her mind again, but unlike the first time he was immediately able to locate her subconscious mind. Legilimency was kind of like finding one's way through a maze, having reached the center of the mind once, one was able to memorize the exact path and get there ten times quicker than the first time.
Now when I project the next image, I want you to ignore it completely. Pretend like it's not in front of your eyes, focus on something else, and it will disappear, he said in the same soft voice he had used earlier.
Severus sent Hermione an image of Voldemort's pet cobra.
Hermione's expression became distant as she tried to focus her thoughts on another image in her mind and cause the image of the snake to fade away.
Severus waited for the clarity of the image to falter, but after thirty seconds, the image of the snake was still as clear as it had been when he had first projected it to her.
What are you focusing on? he asked her.
My pet cat. It was the first thing I thought of. Hermione told him defensively.
That's not good enough, Miss Granger. Try focusing on me instead.
Hermione raised her head and locked gazes with her former professor. Severus stared at her, waiting for her to reduce the image of Nagini.
For several seconds nothing happened. Suddenly the image of the cobra faded completely.
I take it I'm better at keeping your attention than that sorry creature you call a cat? Severus inquired softly.
I suppose you could say that Hermione responded, her voice faltering a bit.
Suddenly without warning a completely unbidden image appeared in Severus's mind.
He was shirtless and had Hermione pinned against the wall she was now leaning against. Her legs were wrapped around his waist and he was ravenously kissing her neck while he slid a hand beneath her skirt.
Judging from the look on Hermione's face she saw the exact same image.
For several seconds neither one of them was able to do anything to stop the images from entering their minds.
Make it go away, Hermione finally begged him as the image of herself began to erotically call out Severus's name.
If I could, I would, he hissed. Ignore it.
Did you know this was going to happen? she demanded.
Severus quickly withdrew from Hermione's mind before he hurt her by yelling inside of her head.
"Of course not!" he said outraged. Thankfully, upon breaking the connection between them, the image disappeared from their minds.
"You told me I would be too weak to be effected by the attraction the Occlumency creates."
"Yes, well I suppose I made mistake in thinking that. I'm not infallible you know."
Hermione let out a feminine snort.
"And I suppose you had no idea it was going to be that vivid?" Hermione asked him seriously. "Thank god you warned me of this, or else I would have thought that you were purposefully creating it."
"I've never taught Occlumency to a woman before. There was no way for me to know exactly what would happen!"
Hermione cursed vehemently.
"You have not yet accomplished the goal of this lesson," Severus told her firmly.
"You actually expect me to let you enter my mind again after what happened?" she asked incredulously.
"It's either that, or I leave you to deal with the effects of Voldemort's proximityalone."
Hermione glared at him.
"Isn't there anything we can do to prevent unwanted images from entering our minds?" she asked him seriously.
"I doubt it. I told you how the first Occlumency instructors prevented this from happening, didn't I?"
"They prevented it by forbidding a man to teach a woman Occlumency."
Severus nodded.
"I'm the only one who can help you, Miss Granger. If you want my help, you'll have to tolerate the images. If you don't want my help, I'll leave you alone. Maybe in time your mind will adjust to Voldemort's presence, . . .but I wouldn't count on it." he told her seriously and shrugged nonchalantly.
In truth, he was trying very hard-quite literally speaking-to ignore Hermione's recent appearance in his thoughts.
"So Miss Granger, what will it be?" he asked.
A/N: oh no, another little cliffie! Now I know I have quite a few silent readers. Could you please leave a review? If not I still appreciate the fact that you're continuing to read this. But I really want to hear from all of my readers.