"Dumbledore is going to die…" Hermione echoed her professor's words, now safe within the confines of his dungeon.
"The man's already on death's door. He has been for a while now. He's been seeking pieces of the Dark Lord's soul in an effort to destroy him. He must have truly been the old fool that he claims to be to make such a fatal mistake."
"He's dying." Hermione looked up at him from under furrowed brows, tears falling freely down her hot cheeks.
Of course, he had forgotten that death was not a daily occurrence in the young girl's life. Whatever relationship (he hated the word) it was that they were developing the recent developments between them made him desire it to be a positive one. The trouble was that he had absolutely no role models for what exactly a healthy relationship should be, be it friends or… "Be strong." He held on to his teaching construct as he gently wiped away her tears with his thumb. She was soft like a peony. "I will ensure that Dumbledore will not suffer."
"No…" She shook her head and more tears fell. It was remarkable that she could produce so many when it seemed he had none left to give. "He wants you to be the one to do it?" She squeaked. "Shouldn't it be Draco? Isn't that his task? What will he do when he finds out that his puppets aren't behaving the way that they should be?!"
Now it seemed the girl was starting to grasp the Dark Arts. She could have been a Slytherin yet, he thought with a certain pride. "The Dark Lord desires an outcome overall. And he shall get what he's after. I assure you he's envisioned all possibilities. In fact, I'm certain that he sent Bellatrix in search of her sister to fetch me."
"That snake." She spat.
"He'd find that quite complimentary." Snape struggled against the odd humor he found in all of this. Perhaps he was going mad after so many Crucios. Maybe it was because he was finally getting an outside perspective.
"Everyone will think that you're the scum of the Earth." Hermione worriedly mused as her hands balled her robes into fists.
He placed his forefinger and thumb to her chin. "Will you, Hermione Granger?"
"Never." Her eyes were fierce like the lioness she was.
Severus reveled, but continued on. "Harry Potter will. Ronald Weasley will. But you must continue on as I have." He was stolid. "They must. Not. Know."
"Why?" Hermione was breathless.
Snape took a moment to formulate his response, relating back to his youth. "Young men need to be driven to accomplish great feats. The death of a man that they idolize at the hands of a man they have always abhorred will only reinforce their goals of defeating the Death Eaters. If they start questioning their perception of me now, they will stop to analyze the humanity of all the members of the Death Eaters, perhaps even the Dark Lord himself. Heroes and villains must be clear in this fight." He took a breath. "Aside from those matters, after this year I will have only dark forces on my side. If the boys should know the truth, they will go spouting it from the tallest tower and I'll be dead within the day."
Hermione chewed her lower lip as she examined her thoughts. She was going to have to be a spy of sorts as well- amidst her greatest friends. It was all for the survival of the man before her, the one who was now baring his soul. "Do you trust me? Are you convinced that I could keep this secret under curse and torture?" Hermione was overwhelmed at the bleak future that stared back at her.
He was silent for a moment. "We have seen short glimpses of what lies inside each other's minds. But what I have seen there, and over the years, assures me that you are the only one in this castle that I can trust."
Hermione grasped his hands and swore over and over again. "I promise." She gulped. "I promise!"
He imparted a brief kiss to her lips and she returned it with fervor. He smiled sorrowfully. "It will be a hard time for the both of us after this year. And I am certain we are not likely to come into contact again."
Her heart dropped. Perhaps arithmancy or having a proper divination teacher could help her obscure future come to light. There had to be a book that held the answers somewhere…
He noted her response. He tried to ignite the fire inside them once more. "Luckily for both of us, your mistaken love potion that inspired this mess has initiated the development of an occlumency jump."
"What?" Hermione was pulled out of her problem solving. Then she recalled their odd transfers of thought. "You mean you figured out why that happened?"
"You may have noticed that the best way to create a potion isn't written in a book." He knew she had been looking over his writing as the Half-Blood Prince.
She huffed as she acknowledged his statement. "Go on."
"Many do not know this, but the feeling and thoughts you are concentrating on are as important as the ingredients that go in to a brew. That's why Longbottom's never been successful; he's too focused on screwing it up. And you, my dear Hermione, were searching for a way to talk to me."
"What?" Hermione felt the innocent student inside of her jump.
"You may not have acknowledged it, but when you were working on that potion, you were thinking about my coursework and you wanted to be able to communicate with me."
"P-perhaps." She stammered.
Severus smirked. "Be it for guidance or… other reasons… you created a potion that would initiate a pathway between our minds."
"Really?" She was awestruck.
"It was only when you unapologetically put your lips on mine that the door to the pathway was settled as passion, or as the other ingredients in the potion may deem it, love."
Hermione blushed. "Love…" She repeated.
"Now don't go getting all doey-eyed on me, the effect of that aspect of the potion is as fleeting as those the Weasley boys annoyingly developed. But, this link between us has been open and fostered for some time."
"So… Are you saying we can communicate telepathically?"
"We already have inadvertently. Now give it a try with the direct approach. Think of something you're passionate about to open the door and send a message. Let's start with images and then we can try adding words."
She felt butterflies in her stomach, "Do you want me to go first?"
"I wouldn't have it any other way." He smirked.
She closed her eyes and tried to envision. Perhaps it didn't need to be passion in the romantic sense. She had to try all the options. She imagined a world where Muggles and Magical beings were able to speak freely to one another without fear. Then she felt herself pushing that thought into Snape's direction.
"An admirable image." Snape's low voice appreciated. "And I see that you have determined that passion does not come in only one form. Now remember, passion need only open the door. It need not be the message."
She could feel a warm thought enter her mind, soon she saw an open meadow where the flowers were dancing with a soft wind. "Where is that?" She cooed.
"A place that exists, for now, only in our minds." He took her hand as she opened her eyes. "This is our weapon against the dark, Hermione. And we must sharpen everything in our arsenal to win this fight."