Severus shook his head, re-calibrating his mind so that the water was empty and calm again. His thoughts had affected his imagery, causing it to reflect his fears. But he was in control again, he was in control now, he was absolutely certain of it this time.

He slowed his long body to a stop, turning so he could look at the lioness following behind. She was panting, to his amusement, and her body was blotched where patches of her fur had gotten sweaty.

"Out of shape, are we?" He teased, narrowing his eyes as he scrutinized her body. She huffed and fixed him with a glare, but he didn't miss the flash of relief in her eyes and the slight shift in her stance as her muscles relaxed. He twitched his dark silver tail at her.

"Come. We'll go down to the lake to begin our first lesson," He told her, turning again to trot off in the direction of the hidden path that would lead them to the secluded cove.

A few moments later they were both seated on their haunches on the ledge overlooking the lake. They were facing eachother, Severus looking down at her, his dark eyes peering over his arched nose. Hermione looked up at him, observing him closely. Severus scowled under her gaze, and spoke up uncomfortably.

"You'll be showing me the visualization you use to Occlude your mind," He said, even his mental voice low and menacing.

Hermione was used to it, however, and didn't flinch when his intimidating voice flowed into her mind. She narrowed her eyes in concentration, then gave him a slight nod of her feline head, and then Severus was in her mind.

He found himself in a library.

He shouldn't have been surprised.

This wasn't the best technique to Occlude one's thoughts and memories. All someone had to do was pick up one of the books, alphabetically organized, no doubt, and they would have access to whatever she was trying to keep hidden.

He walked down the aisle he had appeared in, running his fingers along the spines of the books. He looked at them closely and realized that none of the spines were labeled. He pulled a book off the shelf and turned it over to see if it had a title. It didn't.

Interesting.

He placed the book back on the shelf without opening it and continued down the aisle. He felt a surge of smugness in Hermione's mind and frowned.

She had something up her sleeve that she couldn't wait for him to see. But what? Was she merely happy that she'd proved to be smarter than he'd anticipated? That she'd thought not to label her books? No... it was something else.

Severus reached the end of the aisle and realized there were three other aisles in front of him to choose from.

Ah. She had made a maze.

Clever.

He could practically feel the smile broaden on her face and rolled his eyes in response.

He strode down the middle one and grabbed a book swiftly, opening it with the quickest of movements. She'd had no time to prepare any defenses.

The book opened in his hand easily, the pages whirring and flipping as the memory within flashed before his eyes.

A young Hermione on a swing set, laughing as her legs swung underneath her, her two parents standing behind her and taking turns pushing gently on her back.

Severus slammed the book shut and slipped it back into it's spot on the shelf.

A childhood memory.

Severus continued down the aisle swiftly, curiosity egging him on.

Had she organized it with all of her important memories in the center? That wasn't safe either. As soon as the person in her mind mastered the maze they would have access to all her memories, and she'd have no way to stop their prying fingers from opening every single bloody book with every single secret of the Order, everything about Potter and Weasley, everything she knew about Severus... It would be a disaster. It would not do.

But he pressed on. He had a feeling he was missing something. Hermione wouldn't be so careless, so obvious. She would have thought of something.

And she had.

Severus had lost count of how many times he'd reached a dead end, picked up a book, found that it was an innocent, useless memory, turned around, and tried again... only to have the same result.

He'd tried pushing over bookshelves, blasting them away magically, summoning certain memories... Nothing worked. He had to walk through this maze until he found the most important memories, the ones that, if he were the Dark Lord, would tell him everything he needed to know.

He had no idea how long he'd been in her head, but when he finally reached the small door cleverly hidden behind a fake bookshelf (he could smell the difference in the material used for the shelves) he almost cried out in relief. He would have left much sooner, but Hermione had urged him on, assured him that she was doing fine, having him in her mind. He wasn't a burden, he was just there, ambling through the corridors of her library.

And now he'd found it. He pulled the fake shelf away from the wall and slipped through the small door behind it, labeled "Restricted Section" in Hermione's neat print. He smirked and removed himself from her mind.

He blinked as he re-adjusted to being back in his tiger form. He twitched his ears and curled his tail around his black paws, then brought his obsidian eyes down to meet Hermione's.

"Clever, witch. The Dark Lord would have become extremely frustrated and eventually given up once he realized he couldn't curse himself through your maze, or summon your important memories. He would never have the patience to go through your whole maze to reach the 'Restricted Section.' As such, you may keep your visualization. It is sufficient,"

Hermione practically beamed back up at him, and he allowed her a few moments to bask in his well veiled praise before raising a thick feline eyebrow at her.

"However, I am confused. How does this visualization help you overcome your lioness instincts? Do you really just sit there and read a book?" His voice was condescending but his eyes flashed briefly with amusement. He wouldn't have been surprised, honestly.

Hermione shook her head.

"No," She said softly in his mind. As much as she said she was fine while he had been perusing through her mind, as soon as Severus had left she had realized how exhausted it had made her. Now speaking to him mentally was taking all of her strength. Severus waited patiently while she summoned up the energy to continue.

"I recognized that the library wouldn't work for that purpose, so I made another visualization," Severus furrowed his brow at her. He was curious to see what the second visualization was, but Hermione was exhausted.

"That will have to wait," He told her, his baritone voice rumbling in her head effortlessly. "For now, let us return to our quarters. You need rest,"

Severus transformed back into his human form and accompanied Hermione back up to the doorway to her room, grabbing and pocketing his wand from where he'd hidden in on a rock before they'd left.

Severus sat himself down gracefully in his recliner, motioning for Hermione to situate herself on the couch.

"Talking via the mind will exhaust you the first few times until you master the art of conserving your energy," He droned lazily, watching as she dragged herself up onto the couch; first her front legs, then a long pause, then one back leg, ever so slowly, and then as she lifted her last leg off the floor her body collapsed and her muzzle smushed into the leather. Severus chuckled at the display, a low rumble, and Hermione summoned enough energy to lift her head, fixing him with a glare, before dropping it back down with a heavy sigh.

She was asleep within a matter of seconds, her chest rising and falling slowly, her mouth opening slightly and her tongue lolling. Every few seconds one of her paws would twitch, or a claw would extract, and sometimes the muscles throughout her whole body would tighten and flex under her skin.

Severus was fascinated with watching her sleep. She had taken to 'cat napping' quite often during her time in recovery. She'd be utterly enamored in one of her textbooks, ignoring her body's needs, and sleep would sneak up and overtake her, her book still floating in the air beside her head where it would hang over the edge of the couch between her paws.

Severus would watch her for a few minutes before busying himself with his schoolwork.

She dreamed often, which was most interesting. He'd never asked what she dreamed about, but he wondered. Did an Animagus revert to their animal instincts in sleep or did they retain their human consciousness? Did she dream as a lioness or a human? Did she remember what she dreamed?

Severus's never dreamed, unless they were nightmares. His occlumency shields would only block so much, and last so long in his subconscious. If his night with the Dark Lord was bad enough, the images would slip through his shields and haunt him relentlessly.

Other things haunted him too. Dumbledore... his childhood... Lily.

He hoped Hermione had sweet, innocent dreams. But looking at her now...

He doubted it.

He'd watched this happen before. Hermione would be lying there peacefully, silently, completely still, and then suddenly her body would be riddled with tension, her legs would pump wildly, her ears would pin back, her lips would rise up over her incisors in a snarl. She looked both afraid and angry.

He rose from his chair and made his way over to her. He always proceeded with caution, in case she woke up and the adrenaline coursing through her caused her to act defensively.

She woke easily this time after he grabbed her hip and shook her. She raised her head and turned to look at him, eyes wide.

"It was just a dream," He told her, taking his hand off her hip and returning to his chair. She watched him move, but her eyes were unfocused.

"Don't dwell on it,"

She didn't hear him.

"Hermione!"

Her eyes sharpened and the brown orbs looked at him intensely.

"I said, don't dwell on it," His voice was deep with warning. She would heed his advice. She gave him a weak, short nod and adjusted her body so she could lay her head over the edge of the couch on top of her partially dangling paws. Her eyes were hooded as she peered down at the floor.

"Would you like a book?" He offered, fingering his wand out of his pocket and holding it daintily in his hand, ready to summon a text. Her head lolled to the side in the negative.

"Music?"

No.

"A drink?"

No.

"A walk?"

Merlin's beard. He was not cut out for this.

"Hermione, I'm not going to keep listing off things only to have you turn them down, but I'm not going to let you sit here and wallow in the horrors of your dreams either. What. Do. You. Need?!"

He almost didn't hear the soft, short whine that escaped her lips as she clenched her jaws to try to hold it in.

Well, fuck. This was it, wasn't it? Either he'd show her that he cared, and they could build their friendship, or he'd show her that she was just a pet. That nothing had changed. Sink or swim.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

Hermione's head lifted from between her paws immediately, her eyes were wide, this time with surprise.

"You heard me correctly, Hermione," He told her softly, leaning forward in his chair. "Would you like to talk about it?"

The look in her eyes alone told him that yes, yes she would.