Hey Guys

Sorry for how long it took me to post this last chapter with the end of term and everything I just got super crazy!

Uni will be over soon so I might have a bit more time to post!

Hope you like this chapter, and please let me know if Snape is getting a bit too out of character, Im starting to think so... but maybe thats okay?

Let me know!

Please Read/Review

Chapter 23

It was now the middle of February and Hermione was well into becoming an accomplished occlumens. Severus had now taken to testing her in the presence of others, whether it be in the Great Hall during meals or during DADA class while she was waiting for everyone else to catch up to her. It seemed to Hermione that this little game between the two of them had become one of Severus' favorite pastimes and that he truly enjoyed trying to catch her off her guard.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by the slamming of a door, and Severus' snappy voice saying, "I have had it with that old man!" He said banishing his traveling cloak to the other side of the room.

"Hermione I am demanding to know! What do Potter and Albus do in those meetings! I must know!" he said now an inch from her face. Taking a step back she said in a soothing voice, "You know that I can't tell you Severus."

"You can't or you won't? Just admit it you don't trust me!" He said in a demanding tone.

"Severus, you know that isn't true, so don't say it. This has nothing to do with my trust in you."

"Then what is it about!"

"It's not my secret to tell. Harry trusted me not to tell anyone and I intend to keep that trust. I don't tell anyone about the real you because you asked me not to. Would you like it if I told everyone that you gave me a necklace for my birthday, or that you consider me your friend?"

"No of course not! But that's different!"

"No it's really not Severus. Now I hope that you will respect my decision to not tell you everything as I have respected your decision to not tell me everything." She said with a tone of finality.

At hearing that last sentence all the fight seemed to go out of him. "You're right. I know you're right. It's just Albus! He can be so completely frustrating at times!"

"Where have you been?" She said motioning to the traveling cloak.

"I was out harvesting potions ingredients in the forbidden forest."

"Where are they? The ingredients I mean."

"I may have….. used them as ammunition on some especially happy first years." He said looking away from her ashamed, and waiting for Hermione to scold him.

"Severus!"

"I wasn't aiming for them, I merely wanted to startle them."

"Which I'm sure you more than succeeded in doing!" Looking at his broken expression she said in a softer voice, "Severus? Are you alright?"

"Just tired, I am being pulled in many different directions."

Hermione was stunned to hear such a confession out him, it wasn't like Severus to admit a weakness. "Why don't you have some of my tea and go to bed I can finish up our work for tonight. You obviously need the rest."

"That would be nice but I have seventh year papers to grade."

"It's alright I'll do them you can grade Harry, Ron, and Neville's to make sure that I stay impartial."

"Just give them T's we both know that's what I will give them." He said with a wry smile.

"I'll be sure to do that." She said jokingly. "Now go to bed!"

"Yes mother."

….

When Hermione steeped through the portrait hole it was just after two. Severus had been right, it had taken her a lot longer than she thought it would to finish the potions for the hospital wing and then grade the 7th year papers. She was now exhausted she didn't even notice Ginny come up to her. "Hello Hermione."

"Oh! Ginny! You startled me, I didn't see you there. What are you doing up at this hour?" She said through a yawn.

"I wanted to wait up for you, but I didn't realize that I would be waiting this long. Have you been in the dungeons this whole time?"

"Yes. What of it?" She said somewhat defensively.

"It's just that are you….. were you really working in the lab this whole time?"

"Yes! Of course I was. What else would I be doing?"

"Well I thought that maybe he might have found out about how you feel and-"

"Well you're wrong Ginny. If you must know he retired early for the evening and I was up late finishing his grading, and my own work!"

"Oh."

"Yes. Now if you will excuse me I am exhausted, and all I want to do now is go to bed."

She said walking passed her up to the girls' dormitory. "Oh and Ginny please don't tell anyone how late I got in this evening I don't want Harry worrying about me being over-worked."

"Sure Hermione, but you're not are you?"

"A little bit, but then again so is he." She said matter-of-factly. "I promise Ginny it's nothing I can't handle and I'm loving every moment of it, I really can't complain."

"If you say so Hermione. Just promise me that you'll come to me if the situation changes."

"I promise."

The next morning Hermione woke up with a splitting headache feeling as if she had only just gone to sleep. When she got into the Great Hall she instantly felt the push on her occlumency shields. It was different this time, for some reason the push was attached to feelings. It felt like concern, curiosity and… guilt? She looked up to see Severus looking straight at her. She tried to send back some sort of feelings of happiness but wasn't sure if she succeeded, by the look on his face, she hadn't.

As she tried to eat her breakfast she felt a constant force trying to break in. She was tired and not in the mood to fight off a mental breach at the moment, so with all of the force she could muster, she sent a wave of anger back at him. Making an excuse she got up from her seat and decided to go to Severus' lab to get one of his extra strength headache cures. She knew that she wouldn't be able to focus in class today if she didn't do something about it now. She was walking towards the Gryffindor corridor when she was unexpectedly pulled into a little alcove that she had never noticed before. She panicked quickly trying to remember every defensive spell she had learned. She then looked up to see who her attacker was, only to sigh in relief when she saw it was Severus.

"Merlin Severus! You gave me a fright! I thought you were going to attack me! Where are we?" She said suddenly looking around at her surroundings.

"It's a hidden alcove that I use when patrolling at night. I've caught many Gryffindor's that way."

"Why did you pull me in here?"

"I needed to speak with you."

"And this was the best way for you to do that? Someone could see us Severus."

"Impossible. There are strong wards around it."

"Well you have me here, what did you want to talk about?"

"You shoved me out of your mind in the Great Hall. Why?."

"What do you mean? I did nothing of the sort." She said knowing full well that was a total lie.

"That is not true and you know it." He said starting to get frustrated.

"I just have a headache is all. It's nothing to worry about. I was just going to the lab to get a headache cure."

He nodded, but Hermione could still tell that there was something else on his mind.

"Is there something else?" She said looking up at him.

"I have another question."

When he didn't proceed, she realized he was waiting for her permission to continue.

"Yes?"

"Today when you first walked in, you looked up at me, confused. What were you confused about?"

"Oh! I almost forgot! When you tried to enter my mind, it was different. I could feel your feelings attached to the nudge. I knew that you were curious about why I looked tired, and I knew that you were feeling guilty about it."

His eyes widened at hearing about her new discovery. "That's very interesting actually. I've only ever read about it. They say it happens when the two people in question trust each other completely they subconsciously give the other information. Over time, if practiced enough, we will be able to have full fledged conversations in our minds."

"So you've never met anyone else that can do that?"

"No. I'm not sure you realize how rare the art of legilimency and occlumency are. It is known to be used by dark wizards as a form of torture. There is rarely a time that two occlumens would trust one another enough to be able to achieve such a thing."

Hermione nodded her head in understanding. "That would be very useful. To be able to talk to you even if there were other people in the room."

"Indeed. Hermione I'm sorry for letting you do all the work last night, I should have realized how long it would take you."

"Don't spend another moment thinking about it, it's fine really. Besides you have already given me a thank you present." She said with a smile.

"Oh? And what would that be.?"

"You let me give Harry and Neville Acceptable's on their papers."

"I don't feel that guilty."

"I better go. It's almost time for class and I still have to get down stairs and then back up in time for my DADA class with the retched Professor Snape." She said through a giggle.

"I'll see you in class, make sure you aren't seen leaving here." He said with a smirk and then walked away.

…..

The next day Hermione stormed into the lab mumbling to herself and then slamming her book bag down on her desk.

"Something the matter?" Severus said sarcastically putting a stasis on the potion he was working on.

"Oh it's just Harry. He's been getting on my nerves lately." She said crossing her arms over her chest.

"What has the boy done now?"

"He's just been taking a lot of shortcuts in potions."

"What do you mean?" Severus said his interest peaked. He had been wondering about this since the Christmas party when Horace had been raving to him about Potter's talents in the art of potion making. He hadn't asked Hermione in fear she would get mad at him for being nosy.

"Well today for example, we were working with Golpalott's third law." Severus nodded his head telling her to continue. "But of course Harry has no idea what Golpalots third law was! He never does do the assigned reading. We had to make an antidote, and he had no idea how to do it! His antidote turned out horribly of course, so instead of handing in his potion he handed Professor Slughorn a bezoar!"

"What did Professor Slughorn say?"

"He laughed! He thought is was genius! And on top of not being cross he gave him house points! Honestly I wish you were the potions professor again, you would never have let Harry get away with that!"

"I'm quite sure that Potter never would have tried that if I was the potions professor."

"Exactly you would at least be fair!"

"Hermione I am anything but fair. You know it, I know it and the rest of Hogwarts knows it."

"Perhaps." She said with a lopsided smile, it really was amazing how he could put her in a good mood so quickly.

"So are you ready for this Saturday?"

"What's happening this Saturday?"

"Your first apparation class."

"Oh my goodness I totally forgot! I've been so busy with everything else it just slipped my mind. Do you have any books that I could borrow on how to apparate?"

"I'm sure I have one or two that I could lend you, I'll look after we finish this evening. But I don't think you will need a book to teach you how to apparate."

"Still it doesn't hurt to be prepared."

"Did I tell you I am one of the professor's assigned to watch over and assist the instructor on Saturday?" He said with an evil smirk.

"Great! That's even more pressure knowing that you will be there!" Hermione was now suddenly not looking forward to the weekend one bit.

….

Hermione woke up very early that Saturday with a nervous stomach. What if I'm the only one who isn't able to apparate? There have been cases where a witch or a wizard despite everything just couldn't apparate. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea for me to read those books. She thought to herself. One of the books Severus had given her had been full of horrible accidents over the years of witches and wizards learning to apparate. She was sure that Severus had given her that particular one on purpose, just to tease her. Honestly the things that that man found funny!

When she made it into the Great Hall she didn't really feel like eating but knew that apparating on an empty stomach was not a good idea so she reluctantly ate. Feeling a slight push on her mind she looked up to see Severus sitting at the high table staring at her. He really needed to be more careful someone could easily see him. No sooner had the thought crossed her mind, Severus looked away from her and started up a conversation with the Headmaster. Obviously he was still able to read the thoughts on the surface, granted she didn't have a wall around them, she quite liked the little exchanges they could now have even if it was basically just emotions at this point.

….

SPOV

He had been looking forward to this all week if he was being honest with himself. It was one of the reasons that he hadn't been too upset about being assigned to oversee the lesson. Of course he made sure to act as if it was the last thing he would want to be doing on his day off, he did after all have to keep up appearances. Watching Hermione fumble had become one of his new favorite pastimes. He was looking forward to making snide comments and her not being able to talk back to him.

So it was for that reason that Severus Snape walked into the Great Hall with a very satisfied smirk plastered across his face.

"What is that you look so pleased about Severus?" Minerva said with a knowing smile.

Luckily he was saved from having to answer Minerva's question when hearing a familiar voice shout

"Ah Professor Snape! So glad to see you again!" Severus turned to see the apparition instructor, a small wizard with wispy hair walking over to him. "I still remember the first day I met you! You were only seventeen then but already a master at the three D's weren't you Severus! Before the first class had even ended you apparated into your hoop!"

"Hello Mr. Twycross." Severus had to admit he did bold some sort of soft spot for the man, he had always been nice to him despite the rumors of him being a Death Eater. "How was your journey? I hope the poor weather didn't complicate things."

"Not at all, not at all m'boy it's a shame that we can't hold class outside on Hogwarts' lovely grounds, but the Great Hall will do just fine, I'm sure!" looking out at the sea of sixth years he said, "Well it looks like I'm needed!"

Severus watched as the ancient wizard took command of room reciting the same speech he had heard when he was seventeen. His eyes flickered over to Hermione who was treating every word as if it was spoken by Merlin himself. Scanning her mind briefly he had to hold back a laugh when he heard hermione reciting destination, determination, deliberation! (should be in italics). Realizing he had been looking at Hermione too long he scanned the room for students he could deduct points from. His gaze finally landed on Draco, who seemed to be in the middle of a heated argument with Crabbe and Goyle.

"Malfoy! Be quiet and pay attention!" Barked out Minerva.

Honestly if that boy didn't learn how to control himself he was going to get them both killed! Severus thought to himself as he sent a warning look over to Draco.

An hour later and only one splinch accident later class ended. Luckily there hadn't been anymore incidents with Draco and the class had gone relatively smooth. He had thoroughly enjoyed watch Hermione get all flustered while trying to apparate, and having no result. He wondered if this was the first thing that had not come easily to her. It might have been cruel to give her that book on apparition accidents but he just hadn't been able to resist. Hopefully reading those stories hadn't made her that nervous.

Eight o'clock that same evening Hermione walked into the lab to see Severus reading the latest issue of potions monthly at his desk. Not wanting to interrupt his train of thought she went over to her desk and started to read some books she had checked out from the library earlier that day.

"So how did those books on apparation work out for you?" He said with a satisfied smirk.

"You know exactly how they worked out for me. Honestly, why did you think it would be a good idea to give me a book titled 1000 Ways to Splinch Yourself ?"

"Because I knew you wouldn't be able to resist reading it."

"You are a cruel, cruel man!"

"Have I ever said otherwise?"

"This is true I suppose. Hey Severus, could I have a pass to the restricted section, there are a few books in there that I wanted to look at for the anti venom."

"Of course." He said writing out the note and sending it over to her.

"Thank you!" she said grabbing it out of the air and pocketing it.

"So did you hear that the Hogsmeade trip for next week is most likely going to be canceled?"

"No I hadn't. Is it because of what happened to Katie?"

"Parents are getting worried, Dumbledore is getting a constant stream of letters from concerned parents, it seems like the best way to keep everyone safe."

"Yes, it is probably a good idea. Hopefully everything will calm down now."

"It doubtful." He said in a dark tone.

….

It was now the following Saturday, and as Severus had said the Hogsmeade trip had been canceled. Hermione hadn't really cared either way, she had a lot of work to do and had planned on going to the lab either way. Severus had gone to Dumbledore about something, so she was left alone to finish up the potions for the Hospital Wing by herself. It wasn't so much that she minded doing the work she just missed his company. Her thoughts were suddenly cut off when the door to Severus' lab slammed open to show a very out of breath Severus.

"Merlin Severus you gave me a fright! Look you made me spill the skele-grow!"

Severus just looked at her with a anxious look on his face. "Severus? Whats wrong?"