Sorry about the wait, mates! It's been a hellish week.

…

CHAPTER TWELVE – HER TURN

After a couple of days, Severus seemed completely back to himself. Hermione was relieved, except now she had no reason to sit with him at night and slip into sleep in the comfortable bed. The first night she slept restlessly, visions from a year past wracked her brain. Tonight, she hoped for a more restful sleep, the nights were warming as summer progressed and that certainly helped. She settled herself into the chair by the downstairs window and turned her head to watch Snape stride in after her. As soon as his trousers had dried after she had cleaned them, he had demanded them back. He had kept the t-shirt on for a while but today he had changed back into his button down and frock coat. It seemed ridiculous to her to be so formal in a rundown house with only the two of them, but she figured there were other reasons. She smiled up at him as he took his place standing by her chair and he nodded in response. Their interactions had been reformed somewhat; it was nearly impossible to be as formal as before.

"Thank you." Hermione said suddenly.

"For what, Miss Granger?"

"You were baiting Bellatrix so that she would take you instead of me."

He made a sound in the back of his throat.

"Now we know what to expect."

"It will not make it easier to be tortured."

"No," Hermione conceded. "But we know what she wants so we – I – can control what I say."

"I hope you can."

"I will." She said lowly.

He saw a flash of something in her eyes, like raw will power and he wondered if that would be enough. Severus was used to being tortured and quite frankly he had been in plenty worse spots than Bella had put him in this time around, but Miss Granger had never experienced such a thing before, and pain had a way of making people talk. Even if it wasn't the truth, there was usually something useful there. They watched the rest of the sunset in silence and Severus went up to his room. He changed from his button down to the T-shirt and slipped off his trousers. He might as well sleep comfortably, he figured, there was no point in adding extra misery to the experience.

Hermione went to bed shortly after, deciding if maybe she went to bed sooner she could fall into a deep sleep before the bad memories came. She settled in her pile, thinking wistfully of the bed, and even more, the secure presence of Snape beside her. It was still a strange thought that they had shared a bed, but in some ways it was impossible to think that it wouldn't have happened under different circumstances. Hermione drifted off wondering what Bellatrix would do to her.

Severus' eyes flew open. Something was wrong. He listened for what it might be and heard thrashing noises from the other room. He flung the sheets back and ran across the hall but stopped dead in his tracks when he realized no body was in the room with Hermione, she was alone, her limbs flailing and her body arching, terrified noises squeaking out of her. He knelt beside her and took a firm grip on her shoulders, but that only seemed to make it worse. At a temporary loss of what to do, he reached out and touched her face, one hand on her cheek the other hovering over an arm.

"Miss Granger!" He snapped. "Wake up!"

Her body arched and locked, freezing a moment before she fell back into the rat's nest she had made for herself, and curled towards his touch. He realized with a start his hand was moist with tears. He closed his other hand around her forearm, she flinched.

"Miss Granger?" He paused, waiting. "Hermione, wake up."

After a moment her eyes opened, and he watched as fear turned to relief and she jerked towards him, pulling herself against him, her fingers knotted in the t-shirt. He closed his arms awkwardly around her and felt her burrow against his chest.

"Tell me what is going on." He demanded.

"Just nightmares." Her voice sounded small and choked.

"Obviously." He drawled. "But you hardly sleep and when you do, its nightmares."

"You've noticed?" She felt embarrassed. She had managed to get them under control at the end of less summer when Ginny started asking questions. She didn't think she could do that again.

"Occasionally. This time was a bit more… intense."

She pulled away from him and rubbed the tears from her face. "I never told anyone about this."

He waited silently for her to explain. It was better than asking questions.

"It seemed so insignificant in the face of war; I didn't think anyone would care."

Severus understood that feeling whole heartedly; it seemed nothing mattered outside of the war.

"But last summer I met this muggle boy who lived around the corner from Gimmauld Place. He seemed like a good escape from the war, he knew nothing about it. But he was… insane."

Severus felt a twinge. He felt he knew where this was going. He didn't like it. Worse, he was remembering the summer past, Order meetings at Number 12 and he remembered how odd he had thought Hermione had been.

"After a short amount of time, he began being really possessive, couldn't understand why I wouldn't take him where I lived. He just about lost his mind when he saw me with Harry and Ron in the park. He… he hit me."

Severus tensed, his jaw muscles twitching.

"After that he was terrible, followed me everywhere, and called me worse things than mudblood. I couldn't get away and I couldn't do anything to please him, to make it better. He would laugh like everything I said was a joke, told me that everything I said was a lie. He was determined to prove I was cheating on him."

Of course she would think nobody would care about this in the midst of war. Emotional abuse never got the credit it deserved, but Severus knew better. Between his two masters and his father, Severus was more acquainted with emotional abuse than physical. Which was saying something.

"So you lived in fear." He stated through clenched teeth.

Her watery honeyed eyes met his. She gave him a little nod. "Constant fear. After a while he started threatening me, and near the end…"

Her eyes were unfocused, looking somewhere past his shoulder. He caught the slight tremble in her arms. After a few minutes of this she slowly focused back on him.

"Near the end of the summer he started beating me; he'd get me on my knees and kick my stomach."

He felt like an idiot. He had seen her transition from comfortable summer clothes to baggier clothes, to long sleeves and pants. The only other fool who wore long sleeves and pants in the summer was himself. She had been hiding the signs. He knew these things.

"That's what the bath potion is from." He realized.

She nodded again. "I had to spin quite the web of lies to get it from Molly. I could only do so much with magic."

"Magic?"

She smiled secretively at him, distracted. "I'm older than I ought to be. I used a time turner all of third year."

Severus snorted, almost rolling his eyes. "That explains your insane schedule. How many years did you add?"

He saw her calculating in her head. "Well, I'm nineteen now."

His eyebrows rose. "Three years. That's a lot of time."

"I feel it too. I didn't think I would, but I do feel older."

"I'm not surprised." He ran a hand over his face, feeling weary again. "Can you sleep?"

To his surprise she blushed. "Erm, maybe."

"What is it, Miss Granger?" He didn't mean it to, but his caustic tone was returning.

"I, erm, noticed I felt better in the bed."

He cocked an eyebrow at her and her blush deepened.

"This isn't a ploy to take your spot," she offered him an uneasy smile, "I just felt safer with you there."

"I see."

There was a long uncomfortable pause. Severus could see her breathing uneasily in anticipation. Finally, he snatched her pillow from the nest and left the room, after a stunned moment, Hermione stumbled after him. She watched silently as he dropped the pillow on the empty side of the bed with a resounding thwap against the headboard. He stood with his arms crossed and a raised eyebrow. Grinning, she glided to the other side of the bed and nestled herself under the blankets, her head on her pillow. She watched – realizing he only wore his briefs and the t-shirt she had gifted him – as he slipped into the bedding and lay on his back, one arm under his head. He was much more graceful than she.

"Do not tell me you also wish to be held."

Hermione looked at him, stunned at his cold, nasty tone and then she guffawed. "No, sir, I do not." She was grinning.

Severus felt his lips twitch in response. "Good. Please stay on your side."

She looked at him appalled, clearly acting, "I would not dream of crossing the boundaries!"

He sighed, resisting a chuckle. "Go to sleep, Miss Granger."

"Sir." She acknowledged seriously before grinning again and nestling into her pillow.

SHSHSH

If Severus thought he would regret his decision in the morning, he would have been wrong. It was pleasant to wake up late to her easy, even breathing beside him. She clearly had slept through the night or he was sure he would have waked again. She was sprawled out on her stomach, her face turned towards him, her arm outstretched, he smirked when he noticed it "crossed the boundary" to his side of the bed. He watched the steady rise and fall of her back as she breathed, taking note of her hair fanned out around her, the pale arch of her arm against the dark sheets, the stretch of exposed skin where her shirt had rode up during the night, the curve of her bum under the thin blankets. He exhaled sharply through his nose and reach over to pull the sheets up past her exposed waistline, so she was covered. He returned to staring at the ceiling.

It seemed like ages later when she began to stir, he turned his head to glare at her and he was pleased when her eyes opened and she gasped, flinching a little.

"Morning," she grumbled, "you startled me."

"You crossed the boundary."

"What?"

He looked pointedly at her outstretched arm.

She giggled and retracted it. "Woops." She grinned.

He shook his head. "If you can't obey the rules, you may return to your nest."

He noticed she huffed but didn't leave. It felt like a victory, but he didn't know why. Despite his opinion that their arrangement should be a onetime thing, he did not instruct her to leave and noticed that over the next week, her nest was reducing in size and some of her things were finding their way into tidy piles near the foot of the bed on her side. Their usual patterns remained, except he found it wasn't that bad to read next to someone, although she tended to stare at him, giving him the same tingling feeling he had gotten in the library those two times past. They each read the two books she had brought and discussed possibilities, Severus getting an inkling of where the sword of Gryffindor might be.

SHSHSH

Hermione enjoyed their comradery. Even more so as they discussed ideas about horcruxes, how to destroy them, or any other interesting topics she found in the books. At the end of the week, Hermione was down in the kitchen when she felt the wards shift and she quickly pushed the food back into the cabinets and went to the front door before whoever it was could come to her. She held her breath when she saw Bellatrix swaggering through. The witch looked drunk and vicious; Hermione's blood ran cold.

"Mudblood." Bella sneered.

Hermione swallowed.

"You're coming with me, filth!"

Hermione didn't have a chance to try anything, she was immediately immobilized and hustled outside by Bellatrix. Before a hood was placed over her face, she caught a glimpse of Snape running down the stairs in his briefs and T-shirt, a look on his face she had never seen before. The house suddenly disappeared and all she could see was the inside of the hood…