"I'm going to tear you apart, Potter!" Severus' voice roared across the room. On the other end, Harry lay on the ground, trying to heave himself up. "That is, unless you learn to keep your mind closed...and you WILL learn," he promised as he slowly advanced, wand drawn in front of him. It was like watching a predator stalk its prey.

"For—the last—time," Harry panted in a low voice. He was extremely worn, bleeding from what seemed like every surface. "I don't know how!"

Growling, Severus cast a silent spell, forcing Harry to flatten against the floor. He resisted, but Severus was too strong. "THEN YOU'RE NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH!" He released the spell, leaving Harry breathing harder than before. "Focus, Potter," he spat, turning in a sweep of robes and returning to the other end of the room. "Clear. Your. Mind. Now hit me with something."

Harry staggered forward, throwing out a silent stunner. In all actuality, he had become quite good at non-verbal spells. It was closing his mind that was still giving him troubles, and it certainly showed.

Severus easily deflected the stunner with a flick of his wrist, sending it waywardly skidding across the floor, causing Harry to shield himself with his arms as debris flew up around him.

"Is it too much to ask that you don't destroy the flooring as well," called McGonagall from where she, Draco and Hermione watched in a corner of the room. Severus ignored her as he sent more spells at Harry, completely too focused to answer.

Hermione was, obviously, a bit torn. She stood by and watched at these dueling lessons, worrying her bottom lip or finger nails with her teeth as the two of them beat each other up with spells and curses. She never cheered on one or the other out loud; she rooted for Harry because he was her friend and he needed to win and learn. She had obvious reasoning for wanting Severus to be triumphant.

That aside, Hermione knew what Severus had to do to Harry to accomplish this. Going into it for the first time had been somewhat of a shock, to say the least. Severus had not been nice by any means, and had made it a concrete point that this would be no "afternoon dueling club."

But Harry needs this, she resigned. It would all turn out for the best in the end. Right now, he just had to get through the rough patch of closing his mind off to easy invasion, and as hard as Severus was being on him, Hermione had to admit (albeit grudgingly) it would most likely benefit Harry in the end.

Legilimens, Severus muttered as Harry made the mistake of looking him in the eyes. Instantly, Hermione could see him fighting it. Her fingernails flew to her mouth, an instant aid for the anxiety.

Harry had fallen to his knees when suddenly, "NO!" Harry's voice rang out through the room as at the same time, a jet of light and sparks flew from his wand which was unfortunately pointing in an upward position.

None of them had time for much reaction as whatever came from the wand hit the ceiling, causing stone to crash and rain down around them all. Hermione, Draco and McGonagall were far enough backed into the corner where nothing much hit them. Severus, however, was not so fortunate.

Part of the dust cleared just in time for them to see what seemed to be the largest chunk of ceiling come crashing down, hitting Severus right on the head. He collapsed, unconscious in a heap on the floor. And then, for him, there was blackness.

- - -

His head pounded, it ached.

Bloody ow.

Potter.

That dunderhead...

Someone needed to teach that idiot a lesson he was not likely to forget.

Severus realized in bitterness that it would be him who would again, be doing the teaching, putting what little well being he still possessed in distress.

Slowly, he opened one eye a fraction. He was in the hospital wing, he noted. Typical. Now they would be all over him, prying and poking and Merlin only knows what else. He would have been content to heal in his own quarters, thank you very much.

Across the ward he saw Hermione sitting next to the bed where Potter probably was. She was speaking in almost a whisper, but he could still here the gentle reverb of her voice. Involuntarily, he felt himself start to relax slightly before shaking his head, remembering he was still livid at the boy in the bed across from him.

Potter was going to have to learn to control his mind. Severus could hear precisely what spells were coming at him before Potter even opened his mouth. He would be helpless against the Dark Lord.

Speaking of the devil, he thought as a searing pain drove through his arm. He clenched his teeth, as he had done many times since the incident with the Death Eaters. He refused to be mollycoddled over it. He sighed as it subsided after a while and relaxed again, his breathing returning to normal. Wondering how long it would take the boy wonder to learn to stop broadcasting his thoughts, Severus slowly drifted back off to sleep.

--

Training sessions continued. Harry improved, in most everyone's eyes, greatly. To Severus, of course, there was still work to be done. True, Harry was not perfect in his dueling skills, but he could now fire silent spells without any prior warning to his opponent.

With this, Severus could not deny his was pleased.

Neither of them had come out quite as scathed as the first session anymore either. Severus did manage to bang Harry around quite a bit though. Hermione had a feeling that he was being a little harder on him for his own enjoyment.

"Are you sure you aren't enjoying this—torturing Harry—a little too much, Severus," she asked one day as they walked back to his quarters after a dueling session.

Looking sideways at him, she caught the tiniest shadow of a smirk. "Of course not." His face instantly was devoid of any grinning, his voice as serious as though he were teaching a class, but she knew inside, he was still smirking. He was impossible sometimes.

Hermione made a skeptical noise, eyeing him somewhat suspiciously as he stepped aside, allowing her entrance to the office before him.

"All I'm saying is that he needs your help, as you very well know," she continued, not caring that Severus was probably behind her rolling his eyes. "It would be nice if you could at least pretend you weren't getting your kicks out beating his brains out every other day of the week." She turned around and jabbed him in the chest with her index finger, emphasizing her point.

Severus raised his hand in mock-truce, then placing it over his heart in an even more sarcastic gesture, bowing his head slightly. "Truly, I beseech you accept my deepest apologies for my mistreatment of your friend."

Hermione only cocked her head slightly to the side, looking at him with a raised expression, an expression to tell him to knock it off.

And then she too grinned slightly. "Well don't let it happen again," she said through gritted teeth, playfully jabbing him this time. She knew it would be impossible to remain angry with him for long.

Taking her hand as she poked him in the chest, he splayed it out, pressing his own hand flat against hers. He watched her as she studied it; the change in attitude apparent as she softened to his gesture.

"I used to admire these hands," she said suddenly, yet softly, not betraying the mood. She looked up to see his slightly raised eyebrow in questioning. With a slightly embarrassed smile, she looked back down at their hands, drawing breath to elaborate, turning her hand over in his to hold it as she did so.

"While you worked on potions," she continued, her voice becoming softer out of shyness. "So skilled...the way you handled, well, everything." She shrugged slightly. Turning his hand over, she ran her own across his palm gently. "They've seen, done, so much. So experienced..."

With another small smile, she looked back up to him, meeting his eyes. He was giving the same look back; he gave her chills by merely gazing into her eyes, into her very soul.

"Yes, experienced," he finally whispered as his free hand reached up and touched her cheek, moving back tenderly to cup her face, his thumb brushing in the gentlest of ways across her skin. He leaned in then, slowly, and kissed her, their other hands intertwining quietly, tenderly, with minute passion.

It was the kind of quiet passion that simply said, 'I love you.'

His hands trailed expertly down her upper arms, straying then to her sides where they ended, resting on her hips. They continued slowly in their embrace, each one taking an equal amount of care. It was as if they were dancing, their movements precise in time to a rhythm unheard by the entire world except for the two of them.

Hermione ran her own hand across his cheek, caressing, loving the way he responded by leaning into her as if asking, no demanding more. She was all but unwilling to oblige.

Reluctantly, they broke apart, but not moving, lingering only inches from each other. Hermione closed her eyes, savoring the taste, the feeling of him on her lips. She was sure he was doing the same. With just an equal tenderness, Severus held her head gently in his hands. He simply held her for a brief moment, and then placed one firmly soft kiss on her temple.

Suddenly, the door banged open fiercely, breaking the moment, revealing a flustered-looking Minerva McGonagall. "Severus," she panted, out of breath. Hermione was instantly worried by her tone of voice. "The Death Eaters are here..."

There was momentarily a stunned silence in which Minerva took another breath. "The castle is being attacked."

Hermione was sure her own face had gone pale. She looked up at Severus who held her gaze for an instant. She saw the merest flicker of unease and panic before it went back to stone and he looked to McGonagall, speaking in a voice that would not betray his well-hidden anxiety.

"Then it is time.

AN: sorry this one was so short! I'm still battling with the writer's block at the moment, but I wanted to get something up because I know a lot of you have been waiting (and very patiently too!). So I thank you, deeply, for sticking with me. Hopefully you aren't too disappointed with this chapter. /

I'm not sure, at this point, how much farther I want this to go exactly. Any input is greatly apprieciated. I have a few different endings floating around in my head, so I'll see where it takes me after this point in the story.

Review? :)