A/N: A big thanks to my beta, RenitaLeandra who has done such a wonderful job- even when it meant doing the work twice.
Chapter 7
The rest of the week was agony for Hermione. She met Severus in the Room of Requirement every day from early in the morning until well past dinner time. She never ventured anywhere near the kitchens again, not wanting to repeat the experience of the first night. When he dismissed her each night, she went back to the Gryffindor common room where her friends, oftentimes including Remus and Professor McGonagall, would be waiting for her to give her comfort, support and sympathy. A part of her felt a tugging of guilt at the situation, remembering Severus's comment that he had never received such sympathy. She told herself that perhaps if he had just been a little kinder he would have had similar support, but it still bothered her.
Twice he had left their lessons suddenly when his Dark Mark had burned. When he had returned he was always irritable and uncommunicative, never telling anyone exactly what had been said.
Hermione's skills progressed quickly as the week went on, until finally, Severus could not penetrate her mind at all. Other times she would let him in only to show him exactly what she wanted to be seen. He often tried to catch her off balance at the times when they were not supposed to be practicing. It became commonplace for Hermione to suddenly find herself forcing him out of her mind during dinner, Order meetings, or when she would accidentally make eye contact with him. Finally, five days after their first lesson, he stopped her in the afternoon and told her they were done. Hermione felt a surge of nervousness.
"When…when will we leave?" she asked, feeling her heart try to beat itself out of her chest.
"Within the next day," Severus said shortly. He had just arrived back that morning after being at Riddle Manor all night. He had been especially cross and tried harder than ever to throw her off her guard during their lessons. Hermione had been able to stop him every time, however, and apparently that was all the convincing he needed.
"We will meet with Minerva and Remus to discuss exactly what our plan is. This evening we must practice you leading me where you want the Dark Lord to go in your mind."
Hermione swallowed hard but nodded. She had somehow expected more time. Severus led her out of the Room of Requirement and down to the Entrance Hall. These days there was almost always at least one Order member standing guard at the front doors. Sure enough, Sturgis Podmore was seen by the doors, looking out onto the grounds, wand drawn.
"Where are Minerva and Remus?" Severus asked him shortly. For a moment it appeared Sturgis wasn't going to answer him. He had a look of anger and disdain on his face and Hermione was once again reminded of the fact that most Order members had no reason to believe his innocence, regardless of what Harry had said.
"Minerva's gone; had to go to London to meet with the Minister. She's getting ready for the start of term next week," Sturgis said, turning his attention back to the Hogwarts grounds. "Remus is in Gryffindor's common room."
Severus gave a sigh of irritation. Because so many the Order members had at one time been a Gryffindor, their old common room was where most of them had felt comfortable staying.
'Not bloody fair to the rest of us. As if we want to be stuck in that red and gold monstrosity,' he thought to himself. But rather than say anything more, he pulled Hermione by the arm and they worked their way up to the seventh floor. All Order members had the passwords to all the common rooms at Hogwarts, for security reasons, and he had been given them on the first day he had returned.
"Madam Pudifoot's," he snarled at the Fat Lady. Hestia Jones should not be allowed to choose passwords again. The Fat Lady said nothing and seemed a little put off that a Slytherin would be allowed to enter, but she let them pass. As they entered the common room, Hermione saw Remus and Tonks sharing a chair close to the fire. Harry and Ginny were curled up together on the couch and Susan and Luna were looking rather embarrassed at the others while trying to read on the other side of the room. They all turned when Hermione and Severus entered the room. Hermione sat down on the couch as Ginny and Harry disentangled themselves.
"How is it going?" Remus asked as Tonks got up to sit down on the floor.
"She's ready," Severus said.
Remus's eyebrows raised in surprised. "Already? I'm impressed Hermione!"
Severus rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, she's bloody brilliant. We have more important things to discuss, however. In private." He looked pointedly at the rest of the group.
"I'm not going anywhere," Harry said heatedly.
"Potter can stay, but the rest of them," he waved toward the otherwomen, "have to go."
Ginny's face turned pink with anger and she opened her mouth to speak, but Susan shook her head.
"Come on, Ginny. Why don't we all go down to the lake for a bit? It's a nice day out," Susan said, motioning toward the door.
"That sounds like a great idea!" Tonks said brightly. "What do you think Luna?"
Luna was looking sceptical. "Well, I suppose; as long as there's no Three-fin Waterspikes in there. I thought I saw one the last time I was by the lake."
Hermione did her best not to roll her eyes and Harry looked away quickly, a look of amusement in his eyes. But the four women left quickly and Severus moved to sit down in a chair by the fire.
"What's going on?" Remus asked.
"The Dark Lord is aware of Potter's attempts to find his Horcruxes," Severus said. The rest of the group looked at each other, alarmed. "There is no need to panic yet, however. As far as the Dark Lord knows, the only one that has been destroyed is the diary. The situation with Miss Granger has given us an excellent opportunity to mislead him on the search. She will need to plant the thought in her head that none of the Horcurxes have been found and that Potter lacks any leads."
"Well, that's about the truth," Harry said, sounding frustrated. "We've only been able to find the locket."
"I am hoping that once I am back in the Dark Lord's good graces, I will have access to more information; perhaps where he is hiding them."
"And what about Hermione?" Harry asked. "Even if she is successful, how long will she be forced to be captive? We cannot just feed her to the wolves…" he cut off suddenly, blushing as he realized what he just said. "Sorry Remus. I didn't mean…"
"I know, Harry," Remus said kindly, although his face had drained of colour at Harry's remark. "But it is a valid point. We cannot just send Hermione off to You-Know-Who with no plan to get her back."
"I am working on that," Severus said.
"Working on it?" Harry said, growing frustrated. "We need to have a plan to get her out of there. You can't just leave her there!"
"I will not just leave her there," Severus shouted and they all jumped. "I will find a way."
"Please," Hermione said finally speaking up, "don't speak to me as if I'm not in the room. Harry, I made the decision to do this despite the risks…"
"You made the decision because of Ron!" Harry shouted. "You're not thinking straight! You can't just go waltzing into Death Eater headquarters and expect a soft bed and fine food. I was in there. I know what they do!"
"Harry," Hermione said calmly, "Severus has said that he will find a way out and I trust him. We must all trust him."
Harry did not look like he trusted him in the least, but he said nothing more and the four began to discuss exactly where Hermione would lead Voldemort in her mind. After more than an hour of discussion, they finally came up with wha would be easily believable and that would show Voldemort virtually nothing of their true strategy. As they were finalizing their plans, Tonks, Ginny, Susan and Luna returned from the lake.
"Enough's enough," Ginny said as they came in. "If you still have things to discuss, you can find somewhere else to do it."
"We're done," Remus said as they all stood up. "It's about dinner time. Why don't we all head down to the Great Hall?"
They all filed out, however as they reached the ground floor, Severus looked as if he was going to continue on to the dungeons.
"Aren't you going to join us, Severus?" Remus asked. The other man turned around.
"I don't have much interest in being friendly," Severus growled.
"Well, come anyway," Remus said, sounding more forceful than friendly. "It would do everyone good to see you as one of us."
Severus seemed to understand what he was saying and he returned to the group to join them in the Great Hall. Hermione was surprised to see that virtually all of the Order was there. Tonks grinned a little sheepishly.
"I know a party isn't really appropriate, but I thought it would be nice for you to have one last nice meal before you…" she cut off, no longer grinning. "Anyway, I thought you might like to see everyone."
Hermione smiled through the tears that had suddenly formed in her eyes and gave Tonks a quick hug. She allowed them to pull her into the room and -- for once -- everyone sat at the same table, which was an unusual occurrence to say the least. The house-elves had prepared all of her favourite dishes and, as had been the case since she started her Occlumency lessons, she was ravenous, eating several plates full and enjoying the company of all her friends around her.
Severus, however, sat as far away from Hermione as he could manage. He had felt a strange pain in his chest since their discussion in the Gryffindor common room. He could not remember the last time someone had placed such blind faith in him, but he was quite sure her faith had been misplaced. He found he had no appetite for food and left his plate mostly untouched.
Finally the evening came to an end and everyone insisted Hermione had to get her rest. She went up to the dorm and gathered her things together. She would not be returning to Hogwarts since the new term was about to start. The Order members that had been staying there were returning to Grimmauld place and Tonks and Susan had offered to take her belongings with them. Only Ginny would be returning to Hogwarts, but as a student in order to finish her seventh year. Finally she tried to lay down, however she found she was having a hard time relaxing. After an eternity of tossing and turning, and when she could hear the heavy breathing of everyone else in the room, she finally threw the covers back and decided to go down to the kitchen for some tea to soothe her nerves.
She pulled her robes on quickly and snuck out of the common room quietly, where she saw Neville asleep at a table, Herbology books strewn across it. As she made her way to the kitchen, she told herself that she was not doing this in the hopes of running into Severus again. Yet she had noticed how withdrawn he had been all evening and how he had not touched his food. She had felt bad for him, thinking back to their conversation after her first day of lessons. He was not the friendliest person she had ever known, but he still deserved the kindness and respect of the Order members. He deserved to have people worry about him too.
As she tickled the pear and the door to the kitchen opened, she saw him sitting at a table, a steaming mug in his hand and his head bowed, almost as though he were sleeping. He jumped and turned suddenly, his eyes darkening as he saw her.
"You should not have come down here," he said standing up and walking toward her.
"Why not?" Too late she noticed his wand was in his hand.
He looked at her for a long moment. "I'm sorry, Hermione, but it will be better this way," he said quietly and then he suddenly raised his wand toward her.
"Stupefy!"