Disclaimer: I do not take credit for anything associated with Harry Potter. No financial profit is being made.

Unlikely Partners

Chapter 9

Hermione did not immediately respond.

"I'm waiting for you to answer me," Severus told her.

Hermione continued to stare at the floor, unable to look into her former professor's eyes.

"I don't know what to do," she said in a barely audible voice.

She could feel his gaze on her and could clearly envision him staring at her with an expression of restrained contempt, as if he held her responsible for what had just occurred because it was her problem that had put them in this situation.

Several seconds passed in silence. Hermione guessed that Severus was trying to put the scene they had just watched out of his mind forever.

Hermione was trying to do the same thing, but no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't just forget about what she had seen.

Perhaps Severus was having an easier time than she was. After all, he was extremely accomplished at both Occlumency and Legilimency. It was possible that he knew some sort of trick that would purge his memory of the images in an instant.

Hermione expected him to break the silence. When he made no move to reply, she had to consciously stop herself from looking up into his face. For now, it was better that she avoid meeting his gaze.

Severus had considered leaving the room without another word when there had been no forthcoming response from Hermione. What had prompted him to remain in front of the girl now had more to do with his buried moral principles than it had to do with any logical reason.

He now had the notion that it would have been best to get the hell away from Hermione Granger as fast he could.

Yet he hadn't moved.

Severus gritted his teeth in order to keep himself from uttering a string of curses.

What he needed right now was a very cold shower and a glass of brandy.

But though that was true, he couldn't bring himself to leave Hermione while she was suffering.

He had told Remus and Nymphadora that he would keep Hermione safe and he'd be damned if he let himself walk away from the girl when she still needed his help.

She was in his care and he wasn't about to jeopardize her well-being.

But given the circumstances, he wasn't entirely sure that he had made the right decision.

If he tried to continue the Occlumency lesson and those damned images persisted, who wold protect Hermione from him?

Hermione thought about breaking the silence, but couldn't think of anything to say. She longed to be able to relax enough so that she could get some sound and undisturbed sleep.

Maybe if she forced herself to complete the Occlumency lesson with Severus she would be able to rest tranquilly for more hours than she cared to count and then when she woke up again she would be able to think of this day as the nightmare it seemed to be.

But completing the lesson involved her staring into the depths of Severus's dark eyes again.

After what had happened, would she even be able to do that?

For once she was at a total loss for an answer. This was most certainly not a situation she had studied in one of her books and she hadn't the faintest idea about how to deal with this particular scenario.

A part of her wanted to laugh at the sheer absurdity of this circumstance. Never in her wildest dreams had she believed that something like this could happen.

And yet here it was, quite a reality, and hardly new whether to laugh or to cry. Her nerves were so shot that she was on the verge of doing the latter if this situation didn't improve quickly.

She knew Severus hated indecisiveness. In the potions classroom he had made it very clear that indecisiveness in potions making could turn even the simplest of potions into a nasty explosion.

Hermione what Severus was now thinking.

He had yet to leave the room, so apparently he was still willing to help her.

More than anything else Hermione wanted the deep rooted sense of dread that was brought on by Voldemort's presenceto go away forever. The quicker that feeling was gone, the quicker she would return to a normal state of mind.

Hermione sighed softly. She knew what she had to do. Completing the lesson was the only way she was going to overcome Voldemort's effect on her.

"I want to finish the lesson," Hermione said firmly.

"Very well, Miss Granger." Severus told her calmly. "I suppose I don't need to tell you that you should focus your attention on something other than myself from now on,"

Hermione shot him an irritated glare.

"Don't worry. You'll be the very last thing on my mind."

Hermione shifted into a more comfortable position, but made sure that her grey cargo skirt adequately covered the skin of her thighs before she looked back at Severus.

"We'll start by having you reduce the image of Westminster Abbey. I don't want to try the image of the snake again lest it bring back the exact thing that caused us to stop this lesson," Severus explained to her.

He looked at Hermione and she nodded once, indicating that he could enter her mind. He did so with a split second focusing of his gaze on her eyes and then proceeded to quickly move though the layers of Hermione's mind to find the newly awakened part of her subconsciousness. Severus knew he was beginning to reach his limit on the strength it took to maintain the connection, but he couldn't think about that now.

He pictured the front entrance of Westminster Abbey and willed the same image to appear in Hermione's mind.

Hermione's gaze became distant and several seconds passed with the image still intact. Then slowly, Severus saw the image's clock face begin to flicker. A few heartbeats later, the image began to dissolve and fade to blackness until it was gone completely from both Severus's and Hermione's minds.

A smile crossed Hermione's face as she prided herself on her accomplishment. By focusing her attention on visualizing the day she returned home, she had successfully reduced the image of Westminster Abbey. But her moment of triumph was quite short lived as her mind was suddenly invaded with another risque scene starring her and her former professor.

Hermione tensed, unable to stop it. Her eyes widened as she clearly saw what their images were doing and she squeezed her eyes shut in an effort to make the images go away.

The action did nothing to decrease the image's intensity. Hermione was powerless to stop herself from being forced to view a detailed in scene in which she straddled her former professor and rode him slowly and rhythmically, her long hair thrown back over her shoulders as she tilted her head back in ecstacy. Severus's image tightened his hands on the bed sheets as Hermione lowered herself onto him completely.

You must ignore it, Severus said evenly inside her mind. If you force me out of your mind, I cannot guarantee that I'll be able to enter it again without waiting for my power to strengthen. My strength is taxed each time I enter your mind.

How long would you need to wait before entering my mind again? Hermione asked.

Perhaps twenty minutes, perhaps an hour. It is also very possible that it would take much longer than that. I truly don't know and I'd rather not have to find out.

And how much longer do we have to do this? Hermione questioned desperately.

Until you're competent enough at reduction that you can keep the stimulus reduced indefinitely without expending any energy. If you're ready, we'll try that next step now.

Hermione didn't respond.

Severus sought to come up with an image that would ensure that Hermione would be able to successfully block Voldemort's presence from her mind. But trying to that while his body forced his attention on the images of him and Hermione was proving to be quite a difficult feat.

Severus took a deep steadying breath, trying to clear his mind as best he could, but the long low moan that Herione's image let out as his own image lifted his hips to move with her nearly made him shudder with intensifying arousal.

He had to think of another image, but unfortunately at the moment, all that filled his mind was the very realistic image of Hermione on top of him.

Hermione eyed him uneasily, as if she expected him to advance towards her at any second.

The images Severus saw changed. He stilled as he watched his image pull Hermione's against him and then roll on top of her with a roguish smile.

This has got to stop right now, Hermione said urgently.

Her words barely registered in Severus's brain.

Please! If this keeps up any longer, I'm afraid of what will happen, she told him.

You have nothing to fear, Miss Granger. I'm not going to touch you! You only have one more task to complete. Then you'll be able to apply your skills at Shield Occlumency to get Voldemort's presence permanently off your mind.

We'll just have to complete the lesson later.

As soon as Hermione had thought the words, Severus's image began thrusting against hers. It quickly became too much for Hermione to bear.

Using her last reserve of energy Hermione stood up as quickly as she could and hurried out of the room. Back in the bedroom, her chest constricted as a wave of mind numbing panic gripped her heart.

Apparently the scant distance she had traveled was enough to bring back her earlier feelings of hysteria tenfold.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she shrieked, with such soul deep intensity that it painfully wrenched her vocal chords.

Hermione fought for breath, willing herself to stay upright as the room spun before her eyes. She noticed that the connection between her and Severus had been broken again.

Severus appeared in the room and moved to stand in front of Hermione.

"I told you not to force me to break the connection," Severus said to her. There was no reproach in his voice. It was only a simple statement.

Hermione forced herself to breathe evenly.

"It . . . had to . . . be done," she told him between breaths.

"Do you think I would have forced myself on you?" he asked in a quiet tone.

"No!" Hermione said quickly. She focused on his eyes again. "Do you honestly think I would have resisted you? I just couldn't risk the possibility of something happening that neither of us would have wanted."

"I meant it when I said I would never touch you," Severus said sincerely.

"I know that's what you said, but I'm not sure if you–if either of us–could have resisted the urge to act on the desire for much longer."

Severus didn't answer immediately.

"But you'll still need to finish that last part of the lesson before you want to go to sleep. Unless you're planning on staying in the bathroom."

"There's only one more thing I have to learn, right?" she asked.

Severus nodded.

"I was able to make the image of Westminster Abbey go away before the other images began, so maybe I can complete this last task before they show up in our minds again,"

"Perhaps," Severus told her faintly.

As expected, his temples were beginning to throb with what would soon become excruciatingly sharp pain. He had known that the incapacitating headache was going to come, but he had hoped that it would have taken longer to manifest into truly intense pain. He could only guess how long it would last, but he certainly wasn't going to delude himself into thinking that it would go away quickly.

No, this one was definitely here to stay for awhile. The sound of Hermione's voice brought Severus from his thoughts.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

Severus narrowed his eyes at her, and then bit back a curse as the movement caused an explosion of pain inside his forehead.

"Why wouldn't I be?" he asked with a tinge of sarcasm in hs voice.

"You're trembling," she said with a hint of fear coloring her tone. "Is this a normal after effect of performing Legillimency?"

"I'm quite fine, Miss Granger," Severus clipped out.

"Are you sure?"

"I only have a bit of a headache," he told her, his tone more than a bit strained.

Hermione's expression became concerned. She knew his pain had to be greater than what he let on because of the tightness of his voice. And as she watched Severus grimace slightly in pain, she found that her own turmoil was dramatically decreasing as she focused her attention on the man in front of her.

Hermione saw Severus briefly close his eyes in silent agony and a sudden ida came to her, one that would be beneficial to both of them. All she had to do was convince her former professor to agree with her.

"Snape? I think I've realised that if I have something to take my mind off of Voldemort, I'll no longer be affected by his presence. Well, at least not as long as I can focus my attention on something else." she explained to him.

Severus stared at her. Searing pain radiated down his spinal cord and back up to the base of his brain.

"What do you want, Miss Granger? A crossword puzzle?" he asked her irritably.

"No, I just want you to let me take care of you while you're in pain,"

"Excuse me?" Severus asked her, fairly sure he hadn't heard her correctly.

"Look, right now I need to divert my attention away from Voldemort or else I'm going to drive myself up a wall. I need to focus my mind on some sort of activity so that I can actually have a moment's peace. I'm asking if you'll let me take your mind off of your headache." she told him seriously.

Hermione took a small step towards him. He didn't back away.

There was a pleading look in Hermione's eyes that Severus couldn't ignore. In truth, he was more than a little amazed that she still wanted to be near him.

This day can't get any stranger and the situation certainly can't get any worse, he thought to himself.

Finally he spoke to her again.

"What exactly do you have in mind, Miss Granger?"

Hermione smiled.

"Nothing bad, I promise you."

A/N: Please don't be a silent reader. I know there are a lot of you who haven't reviewed yet. I greatly appreciate all the comments I receive so please let me know what your thoughts are.