Friday was the final day of classes for Hermione. She awoke that morning only to realize that this would be her last day of school ever. Tears streamed down her face as she stepped into the shower. It was most definitely a bittersweet moment. "One door closes, another opens," she told herself contentedly.
Soon, she would be one of the youngest Hogwarts professors in history. Soon, she would wake up and it would be September first, and she would be standing in the front of a classroom instead of sitting at a desk. A smile crept up on her face as she turned off the shower. Professor and Gryffindor Head of House. Oh, I do hope I don't mess this up. The vial of Felix Felicis glimmered from the top of her dresser across the room, catching her eye. It took a great amount of willpower to resist taking it. "Severus would be so disappointed. Besides, that might be the reason he gave it to me in the first place – to test me."
Hermione was still wary that she wasn't an expert in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Severus assured her on several occasions that she was more than qualified for the job.
"Hermione, listen to me. I have years and years of experience in this field, so take me seriously when I say that I have never seen a student progress so much in a matter of only a few weeks. You will do an outstanding job."
His words rang in her head as she sat down to her first final examination of the day, Transfiguration. Her task was to transfigure various objects into animals, and then back to their original state, within fifty minutes. It would certainly be a challenge. By the end of the hour, Hermione had successfully completed the test with only one mishap when she transfigured a mouse into a cauldron instead of a cereal bowl.
"Must have Potions on the mind," Professor McGonagall teased. Hermione left the room flushed, but pleased that she passed her first exam.
Professor Sprout's final was the worst. Hermione struggled to recall nearly a hundred different magical plants and their properties. It was also an oral examination, so she did not have much time to think before Professor Sprout asked for an answer. Her constant interruptions were rather irritating.
"Come on, dear. You know this one. Remember second year, the Mandrakes?"
When that examination was finally over, and Professor Sprout informed Hermione that she had gotten all but two questions correct, Hermione moved on to Charms. It was by far the easiest, as she had expected. She merely performed ten incantations and passed with flying colors.
"Well done, Miss Granger! Well done. You have always excelled at Charms. I look forward to working with you as a colleague!"
"Thank you, Professor Flitwick," Hermione grinned. She walked out of the classroom with a bounce in her step.
Hermione cautiously entered the Potions classroom. Although she knew she would pass Severus' exams, she still felt that deep urge to impress him. Therefore, she had studied for Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts far more than the other three subjects.
"Professor Snape," she greeted him with a smirk.
"Miss Granger," he replied, equally as amused. "I look forward to your graduation tomorrow morning, although I admit that I will quite miss our one-on-one sessions."
She blushed. She had had the same thoughts fleetingly, hoping that they would see each other just as much after their mandatory time together was over. After all, did he really want a relationship with her after all this was over? How would she know how often to come see him, talk to him? And would he ever visit her? These thoughts scared her. I don't want to be without him.
"We will continue to see each other, right?"
"I surely hope so." He smiled at her. She swooned.
"Today, your examination will cover the following topics: love potions, lust potions, counterpoisons, and power and success potions. You will also need to identify various ingredients and their uses. Are you ready?"
Hermione nodded. She spent the next hour completing Snape's difficult exam, her confidence wavering after every potion that she was sure she messed up.
"You're doing great, Hermione. Just keep going."
His words of encouragement were all she needed. She completed every task he gave her, and even argued with him over the last question involving gillyweed.
He chuckled at her stubbornness. "This is why I believe you will make an excellent professor, Hermione. You are a natural leader."
"Thank you," she gushed. It was time for her last final.
Severus stood up as if reading her thoughts. "It is time for your Defense Against the Dark Arts examination. I have intentionally constructed it to be rather difficult, even for someone as brilliant as yourself. You must remember that in order to become great, you must first recognize your own limitations. I do not expect you to pass with flying colors. I expect you to be challenged, and I do not want to see your confidence lowered because of a few wrong answers. Do you understand?"
Hermione nodded nervously. She was not used to getting answers wrong, and she was sure that it would cause her to become upset. However, she stood up straight and said, "I'm ready." You can do this.
"You have one hour to complete the given tasks. I will give them to you one by one. The factor of surprise must be taken into account, since the Dark Arts are often used against one without warning. Your first task is to ward off a swarm of dementors. We will apparate outside the building in approximately thirty seconds. Prepare yourself."
A thousand thoughts flashed through Hermione's mind at once. How were they going to apparate in Hogwarts? How many dementors constituted a "swarm?" And speaking of dementors, how on Earth did Snape get ahold of real dementors?
He could see the fear flash in her eyes. Yes, it was slightly evil of him to do this to her, but in all honesty, it would make him feel more at ease in the long run to know that she was able to defend herself properly. Besides, they weren't real dementors, they were boggarts used for testing practices. She couldn't know this, of course. He apparated the two of them outside, where the test boggarts immediately descended upon Hermione. She held out her want fearlessly and shouted, "Expecto Patronum!"
A light flashed before her and a dove appeared. It was almost a beautiful sight to see Hermione so confidently expelling the fake dementors. Severus wondered what memory she was focused on.
Hermione thought of how happy she would be come tomorrow, when she was officially a Hogwarts professor and she could pursue a relationship with Severus. She thought of the way he would kiss her knowing there was no need to hold back any longer. She imagined seeing him truly relaxed in front of her for the very first time.
Her dove patronus kept the dementors at bay for two whole minutes until Snape muttered a spell that made them vanish entirely. Hermione looked at him in awe.
"They weren't real. Boggarts used specifically for testing purposes," he explained quickly.
This disappointed Hermione slightly. She thought that she had actually fought off nearly a hundred dementors by herself and was rather proud. Oh well, at least I passed the first task.
"Your next task will involve Occlumency. As before, I will attempt to enter your innermost thoughts, only this time, there is a catch. I trust you know that there are various levels to Legilimency?"
She gulped. "Yes, sir. I know that those who are skilled in the art are able to control how deeply they penetrate the mind."
"Exactly. I have used a medium frequency on you before, but have never used Legilimency to its full extent. This time, however, I will be searching for your most closely held secrets and desires. But first, I must ask your permission."
"My permission, sir?"
"Yes. Although I feel that this task is necessary for your future, and will help protect you in the case of Dark Magic, I must ask for your consent. After all, I will be seeing parts of your mind that you might not ever show to anyone."
Hermione took a step forward and brazenly replied, "I give my consent. I trust you, Severus. With my life."
The professor tried to ignore the warm feeling he got in his heart at her words. She trusts me. After all the emotional turmoil I have put her through in the last seven years, she trusts me.
"Severus?"
"Yes. Thank you, Hermione. I would trust you with such a matter as well."
She smiled back.
"Are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
"Legilimens!"
Severus glided into her memories. He progressed through the layers quickly before she had a chance to expel him from her mind. He needed to reach the deepest level possible before he could allow her to push him out.
Glimpses of Hermione's past Muggle life flew by. She was a happy child, utilizing her magical abilities from an early age. He saw her playing in the living room with her mom, riding on a toy broomstick and levitating various objects.
In the next level, Severus saw flashes of hurt and terror in Hermione's eyes as she fought in the last battle of Hogwarts. He felt some of her inner desires; longing to be beautiful, loved, accepted. In that moment, Severus wanted nothing more than to quell these insecurities and tell Hermione how wonderful she was. He pushed away the thought. I need to focus.
He delved deeper and saw Hermione struggling with her inner demons. Here was where she kept her less acceptable desires: lust, power, superiority. He caught a brief moment of a daydream in which she defeated Voldemort herself.
It was, of course, normal to have such thoughts buried in one's subconscious. The image that surprised Snape the most was one of an older Hermione kneeling before himself in a submissive manner. This doesn't add up, he thought. Why would someone like Hermione Granger submit to anyone, much less himself? But there she sat, waiting to follow his every command. The daydream ultimately turned out to be sexual in nature. She took great pleasure in obeying him as he demanded that she "stand up" and "bend over that table."
Hermione abruptly threw Severus out of her mind. It took such an immense amount of effort that she was left breathless and faint when she came back to reality.
Snape muttered an incantation and his wand displayed a timer. "Forty-five seconds. Not bad, Hermione, although I did see far too much than I would have liked."
Hermione took this to mean that he found her inner thoughts and feelings disappointing. She drooped her head in shame.
"Professor, I know some of the things you saw were horrific. I'm sorry…"
He lifted her face with his hand. "That isn't what I meant, Hermione. My point was that, had I been anyone else, you would have put yourself in great danger by exposing some of those desires. However, you were eventually successful in pushing me out of your mind, so you have passed."
"Is that all?" she asked, relieved beyond measure that Severus did not think less of her.
"No. I have one more task for you."
The two apparated back inside the Potions classroom.
"I thought no one could apparate inside Hogwarts," Hermione said after they arrived.
"The four Heads of House can."
"Oh. Nice job perk."
"Yes, yes. So, your last task will be a duel."
Hermione gasped. "A duel with whom, sir?" she asked, although she already knew the answer.
"Me," he said with a grin.
"The rules are simple. No dark spells, no spells that alter the mind state in any way. Do you understand?"
"Yes. But Severus," she blurted out.
"Yes?"
"You don't honestly expect me to win a duel against you?"
He gave her an intrigued look. "Perhaps you are underestimating yourself, Hermione."
She shook her head. "Alright, I suppose there's no avoiding it. Have it your way."
Severus smirked at her again. "Ready?"
"Yes."
Both drew their wands in a flash. They made eye contact for a moment before the spells began flying.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
"Finite Incantatem!"
"Impedimenta!"
"Finite Incantatem!"
Spells flashed across the room as each opponent blocked them. Hermione noted the animalistic look in Severus' eye and filed it away in her memory. She fought the aroused feeling that snuck up on her. Concentrate.
Snape was caught off guard by the passionate look that had come across Hermione's face. She was so beautiful, so determined. Focus.
"Expelliarmus!" Hermione cried, disarming her professor. The duel was over. She had won.
Severus took a moment to steady himself. "You beat me," he said incredulously.
"So…you didn't let me win?"
"Let you win? Merlin, no. You beat me fair and square."
A smug smile crept up Hermione's face.
"Congratulations, dear one. You are now a Hogwarts graduate."
She took a moment to let this sink in. Severus took her hand and kissed it.
The butterflies in her stomach went crazy.
"Technically, however, you are still a student until tomorrow morning when you receive both your diploma and teaching certificate. I was going to wait to give you this, but you may as well have it now."
Severus hated himself for being such a softie, but he really wanted to see the look on Hermione's face when she opened his present. He didn't want the moment to be tainted by having anyone else around.
Hermione took the small green package that Severus handed her and slowly untied the ribbon. Inside was something that nearly made her heart stop.
It was a Soul-Book, a magical book that wrote a story based on the owner's soul. In it appeared the deepest desires and most important life events of its master. No one else could read what was in it.
"Where on Earth…"
"Never mind that. I figured it would go with our lesson plan for this evening perfectly, although I was going to give it to you tomorrow." Truthfully, he simply wanted an excuse to buy Hermione something nice. A Soul-Book was just the thing for someone as deep and intellectual as Hermione. Perhaps it would show her things about herself that she didn't even know.
Hermione watched in awe as the cover began to turn red and gold. Her name was embroidered across it in shimmering letters.
Forgetting Severus completely, Hermione flipped the book open to the first page. "Hermione Granger is the truest of true Gryffindors with a troubled past. Her journey to fight the most evil wizard of our time, Lord Voldemort, was most difficult and trying. Only one of high intellect, creativity and bravery could perform such tasks in the face of death…"
Hermione watched as the pages lit up with various moving pictures of herself. "Is this supposed to be so flattering?" she asked Severus. "I read about Soul-Books years ago, but I never expected them to be so…uplifting."
"The Soul-Book tells the owner's story truthfully and without hesitance. The reason I bought it for you in the first place was so that you would see what a wonderful person you are. People lie, but magic does not."
Tears swelled up in Hermione's eyes. She flipped through the book, page by page, until she came to the back cover. The last page showed a picture of none other than Severus Snape.
She looked up at him questioningly. "Severus, why are you in here?"
Confused, he leaned over her shoulder to find a blank page of parchment. "I am unable to see anything in it, remember? The story belongs to the owner, and the owner only."
"But then why are you on the last…" Hermione stopped short. Words began to form underneath the handsome picture of Severus as if an invisible quill were scrolling across the page. "Hermione Granger and Severus Snape are soulmates, the most ancient form of magic known to man. It is rare that a witch or wizard finds their soul's mate in the modern world, but Hermione and Severus have succeeded against all odds. She saved his life in a time of need, and one day he will save hers as well. The two truly belong to one another…"
She dropped the book in shock. Soulmates. Soulmates. What on Earth?
Her eyes drifted up to a concerned Snape. Did the book tell her something negative about herself? He mentally beat himself up for giving her an object that could potentially destroy her self-esteem. But I was positive that it would only show her how amazing she is. What had she seen to make her this upset?
"Severus…" she whispered. "I think I know how I saved your life on the last night of the war."
"Really?" he asked, the anticipation in his voice rising. "How?"
"We…"
"Yes? Hermione?"
She met his eyes. "We are soulmates."
A/N: How did you like that little twist? I hope everyone understood the concept behind the soul-book. I tried to think of a good present for Snape to give Hermione for days, and this one came to me in a dream. I thought it also tied in well with the plot. Yes, Severus and Hermione are soulmates! I'll explain more about this phenomenon in the next chapter, of course.