A/N: Thank you again for everyone who sent in their reviews. I love reading them as I'm sure you all know by now. I'm so glad everyone is loving my story as much as I love it too.

I haven't said this in a while, but this story isn't being beta'd right now. So please excuse any errors in grammar, or spelling. I'm sorry too for anything that is incorrect with my time lines or procedures in the story too. I'm writing this for fun more than accuracy. Oh and I still don't own anything in the Harry Potter universe.

Chapter 15

Hermione went to her rooms where she sat on the couch and studied. Or at least she tried to study, but her mind kept wandering. Astronomy was not as difficult for her as some people. She was pretty sure she was ready to take her final exams for it already. Which was probably a good thing considering she had reread the same sentence at least a good dozen times and she still didn't remember what it said.

She tossed her book to the floor with a growl, a rarity for her since she was normally very careful with her books. Hearing it thump loudly on the ground didn't make her feel any better.

Why would he do that to her? Why read her thoughts? Why place a spell on her? How often did he read her thoughts? Had he projected anything to her? How did she know that what she felt was her own feelings and not a projection of his?

That made her stop. A projection of his feelings? Did he feel something for her? When they started this, they both went in with the idea of it just being about attraction and sex. Nothing more. She wasn't looking for love or a boyfriend, and he didn't want that either.

Has it changed for him? If so, when? What made it change for him? He didn't seem any different than when they started. She paused, but he was different. He had been acting different with her from almost the beginning of the year.

Her first day back when she bumped into him and almost fell. Any other time he would have let the person hit the hard ground, then not only yelled at them for being in his way, he would have just left them on the ground.

He hadn't done that with her. He had caught her. His arms had come around her waist to keep her from falling. She had seen the surprise in his eyes too. She had thought it was surprise at seeing her, but maybe it was something else. Surprise for helping her? Had he noticed her even then?

Then at the statue to the Headmistress's office. He had come back. She didn't know why he had. Did he have a need to see the Headmistress too? If so she never saw him go back to see her.

He had teased her too. It hadn't even registered then. He had teased her about not knowing the password, then let her get away with calling him a rude, heartless, bastard. He would never have done that before. He probably would have hexed the hell out of her for it before.

She let the rest of that first day filter thru her mind. When she fell on top of him, he had just lain there. He hadn't tried to move her, or yell at her. He had just stared up at her in...shock? She of course hadn't been paying attention. Why hadn't she moved? Why had she just sat there straddling his hips?

It hadn't been until she was shifting around on him that he tossed her off of him, looking strained and angry. Had she aroused him with her movements? She knew it didn't take much to get him going now, but what about then?

That first night at dinner, he had jerked away at her touch. Sure he was rude, but then he always was. Well, not to her anymore. He was actually nice to her. When did he become nice? She had noticed every now and then and been surprised, but when had he started to do it? Why was he doing it?

She let the days pass thru her mind. She noticed him watching her more and more, oh she hadn't really noticed it then, but thinking about it now, she noticed. She had been distracted by her thoughts and he...he had been looking at them. She had seen him do it several times without even knowing.

She would have slipped into her thoughts of him and he stared at her in shock before with a shake of his head he went on with what he was doing. Oh crap, he knew all the times I'd thought of him.

What about this projection thing? How did that really work? Had he been projecting thoughts of him into her mind? Sure she had thought of him herself, at least she thought she had, but what had he projected. The flashes.

Her own thoughts would be slow in going to him. But the flashes in her mind had been instant. It was different in how she saw them. She had flashes of her dreams with him. In fact she only had flashes of her dreams of them in his class room. Dreams that seemed so real, that were so very intense.

Those were the dreams he sent her. She would bet every last bit of her money, down to her last knut, that he had sent her those dreams and only those dreams. They had been such good dreams too.

He had been gentle with her most nights, slowly building her passion. He always made sure she found her release, but he never had. She had always come awake with a start at seeing his eyes staring at her. The one night she intended to have all of him, Ginny came and ruined it.

Then the spell removers on the Great Hall had been installed. She never had dreams like that again. But she would get the flashes in her mind of them. That's what he did. He drove her crazy. He made her want him so bad she couldn't think straight. She would never have kissed him like she did the night of her exam if he hadn't driven her crazy.

That brought her up. The choice had still been hers. She could have ignored the dreams and the thoughts. He didn't make her want him, he just drove her nuts with her own desire. She wanted him all on her own.

If he hadn't driven her crazy she might not have had the nerve to kiss him. If she hadn't kissed him, they might not be where they were now. Today aside of course. Bloody git. Would he have told her about reading her thoughts?

If Ginny hadn't reminded her of his ability would she have ever known about it? The headmistress's words came back to her mind. "Sour and grumpy he as he is at times, he is also a bit sensitive and insecure too." Did he read her thoughts due to being insecure? Why would he be insecure?

The answer came quickly to her mind. Everyone has always rejected him. He expects me to reject him? To leave him? The questions made her heart ache for him. Why would she leave him? She...oh crap. I'm in love with him. When did that happen? How? I don't have time for love. I'm behind in everything. I'm not even out of school yet, I haven't picked a career, and I...I can't be in love.

But she knew she was just denying what was true. She was in love with him. It explained why she kept running to him with her news. When she got her scores back she ran to see him. After her parents treated her like they did and hurt her, she ran to him too.

Now she sat not only confused but scared to death. "He doesn't want love. He doesn't even want a relationship, he said so himself. This is just sex for him. Nice or not he doesn't want me like that." She muttered to herself.

That's not true. The pendant around your neck proves it. He wouldn't have given it to her if he didn't feel something. But love?

She pondered this back and forth for hours, stopping to call an elf for dinner. After eating, she found the room slowly filling with students. Needing to escape from the room that was becoming swamped and noisy, she quickly left.

She headed up to the owlery. She didn't know where else to go. The Astronomy tower was used as a make out spot, the library was predictable, the dorm full, and she didn't feel like going to Hogsmead.

Inside the owlery she sat on the floor, her back to a wall. What was she suppose to do? They had started this knowing she wouldn't be here long. She only had a few exams to go and she would be done.

How could they have any kind of relationship if she only saw him during Christmas and summer breaks? She got annoyed if she didn't get to see him for a few days due to being busy. He sought her out if she didn't come see him.

She sat there for a while until she finally heard the sounds of footsteps coming towards her. She glanced up as the Headmistress walked inside the owlery.

Minerva glanced down at Hermione and smiled. "What are you doing on the floor dear?"

Hermione smiled softly. "Thinking. I didn't know where else to go. The common room is full, Astronomy tower's used for...well you know, I didn't want to go see Hagrid right now, and the library wouldn't work."

Minerva pulled out her wand, transfiguring some straw into a cushy pillow, then sat beside Hermione. "Hermione, you could have come to me. Or there is always the room of requirement."

Hermione shrugged. "I didn't think of the room of requirement. I wasn't ready to come talk to you. What am I suppose to do?"

Minerva smiled softly at the young woman. "Hermione dear, only you can answer that. What exactly are we talking about incidentally?"

Hermione frowned. "I think I made a big mistake."

"What mistake?"

Hermione sighed. "I fell in love with him."

Minerva frowned. "How is that a mistake child?"

"That wasn't our arrangement. It was only suppose to be about...the physical aspect."

Minerva sputtered. "He made you agree to that?" She might just hex the man herself for that.

Hermione smiled. "No, those were my terms I gave him. I told him that I didn't have time for anything else and if he couldn't accept it, I would walk away."

Minerva frowned again. "Child, why would you ever say that? That's just cruel to begin with. If he wanted you, he had to agree or not have you at all? I never would have believed you to be that selfish."

Hermione ducked her head. She knew the headmistress was right. It was cruel.

"Besides, there is no way to have a physical aspect without your heart getting involved eventually if you stay with a person." Minerva told her. "Either you would leave because you couldn't stand the person, or stay because you really like them. Like eventually would becomes love. You are smart enough to know that Hermione."

Hermione sighed. "You would think I was."

Minerva laughed. "What did you expect to happen with you staying with him the entire Christmas vacation? You were bound to feel something."

Hermione frowned and looked back at her old head of house. "How do you know I stayed with him the whole vacation?"

Minerva laughed. "The portraits told me. The fat lady said you only came into your house to change clothes. You were in and out in less than an hour every day. You never came back at night either. Other portraits saw you coming from the dungeon so it wasn't hard to know where you were."

Hermione blushed. She hadn't thought of the portraits. "Um...sorry headmistress. I guess we weren't being as discrete as we thought."

Minerva smiled. "Don't be sorry, be honest. If you love him you should tell him. Show some of that Gryffindor back bone I know you have in you. If he is dumb enough to let you go, then I say hex the hell out of him.

Hermione and Minerva laughed together for several minutes. Hermione probably would hex him too. Giving him something to remember her by.

Hermione looked back at the headmistress. "So I should just forgive him for reading my thoughts and the dreams?"

Minerva frowned. "He's been reading your thoughts without permission? No, you should do something to pay him back for all of it. I know a few decades ago Albus had me so mad at him I got my revenge."

"Albus? Dumbledore?" At the headmistress's nod, Hermione sat for a moment. "I didn't know you two had a thing."

Minerva chuckled. "You wouldn't have, you were a student."

"So what did you do?" Hermione asked.

Minerva smirked. "I lured him into the room of requirement and had my wicked way with the man. After I scared the living daylights out of him first."

Hermione eyes jumped to the headmistress's. "Um...wow." It was all she could think to say.

Minerva patted the child's raised knee. "Wow indeed. How you scare him is up to you. All the things I know would scare him are forbidden. I'm sure you'll figure out how to deal with him, even if you didn't scare him at all."

The older woman stood up and left Hermione to her thoughts.

Hermione thought about it. She didn't know how to scare him either. The man had lived with the Dark Lord torturing him. How could she top that?

She went back to her dorm room much later. Crawling into bed and suddenly remembering that she had told Snape that she would meet up with him in his class room to make her earlier teasing of him up to him. To be the naughty student for him in his classroom.

She smirked. Well it wasn't happening tonight. She still needed to figure out what she was going to do.

She fell asleep thinking she needed to talk to Ginny come morning to find out how to block her thoughts until she did figure things out. Surely she would know since Harry had learned Occlumency, so Ginny was bound to know something about it.

Severus sat in his rooms frowning. Where was she? She hadn't been at dinner either. She had told him she would stop by but it was after curfew and there still was no sign of her. She hadn't even told him that she wasn't coming by.

That wasn't like her at all. Something was wrong. He knew it. Hermione was too thoughtful to just not show up.

He had asked Ginny after dinner if she had seen Hermione and the girl had looked very nervous about the question. When he had tried to peek at her thoughts he had found a solid brick wall. The damn girl had blocked him. He didn't even know she knew how to do it.

Frustrated he had come back here to read the book Hermione had given him. But then later he realized how late it got and that she hadn't shown up.

Something was going on and he didn't know what it was. He sighed. Maybe she had just been tired and retired to bed early skipping dinner. Or maybe she got tied up studying and forgot. He didn't like to think she forgot about him, but he couldn't blame her. She had so many things going on and so much in her head it would be impossible for her not to forget something occasionally.

He sighed and went back to reading. He could always find out in the morning.