‘I can’t do this; it’s too difficult!’

Severus and Hermione were in his office, attempting the Legilimency lesson which Hermione’s kidnap had aborted last year, and Hermione was not used to being unable to cast a spell.

Severus, however, was calm and patient. ‘Did you see anything?’

‘No, it was all jumbled up – like a scrambled TV signal.’

‘So you saw my memories,’ said Severus, having considered her answer. ‘You just couldn’t control them.’

‘Suppose so.’ Hermione knew she was sounding childish, but she was annoyed at herself.

‘Hermione.’ The voice, emanating from the portrait of Dumbledore behind the headmaster’s desk, made them both jump. ‘Excellence does not require perfection,’ Dumbledore said gently.

Hermione smiled slightly. ‘I know that one. Henry James.’

‘Yes.’ The portrait returned her smile. ‘I normally prefer to rely on my own wisdom, but that pearl seemed appropriate. You are expecting too much of yourself. Legilimency is well beyond NEWT level. Only those undertaking further training for the Ministry learn it, and then only for certain roles – Aurors, for example, and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.’ He looked at Snape. ‘And Death Eaters, of course.’

Severus glowered back. ‘We have been going about this the wrong way,’ he told Hermione. ‘The easiest way is for me to penetrate your mind, and for you to throw up as strong a Shield Charm as you can.’

‘I’ll hurt you. Harry threw you across the room last year!’

Severus didn’t look too happy at being reminded of this, but said calmly, ‘Don’t worry; I’m ready this time.’ He raised his wand and said, ‘Legilimens!’

Immediately, Hermione cried, ‘Protego!’, and was once more immersed in his memories.

It was an unsettling experience. She caught flashes of the scenes she had witnessed in the Pensieve – they were less jumbled now, more like a video on fast-forward. Then she came to an image which made her catch her breath in surprise, and the memories stopped moving. It was of her, standing in their bedroom after they got back from the Ministry. But it wasn’t her as she knew she looked in the mirror. Her skin was creamy, her curves far more luscious than she had ever noticed them. Her eyes were luminous and her hair hung in perfect ringlets rather than its usual frizz.

Hermione broke the connection and stood, gazing at Severus, an idiotic grin spreading over her face.

‘Well?’ he asked briskly. ‘Did you feel you had any control over my memories this time?’

‘Not at first,’ she admitted. ‘At first, they just sort of rushed at me.’ She looked down, embarrassed. ‘But when it came to our first night together, they slowed down.’

‘Yes,’ he said laconically. ‘I noticed you lingered over that one.’

‘I was interested in how you see me,’ she told him, face flushed. ‘It’s like a prettier version of me. Like I’ve been airbrushed.’

Severus decided this was not the time to inquire about some strange Muggle technology he’d never heard of. ‘I keep telling you you’re beautiful. Well, now you have the proof.’

Hermione blushed again, but tried desperately to keep her mind on her lesson. ‘Anyway, I wanted to see that one, so I made the rushing stop.’

‘Very good. That is the control you need with the Legilimens command. It takes force of mind to call up the memories you want to see and sift through them.’

Hermione smiled shyly up at him. ‘Can I see the way you see me again?’

‘I very much doubt I shall get any peace until you do.’

They didn’t get my more Legilimency done that afternoon, either.

*
In the end, she didn’t get to use Legilimency, or teach it to the DA. Hermione had been horrified to learn, at the first meeting after Christmas, that Luna had been snatched off the Hogwarts Express, and when Ginny did not return from the Easter Holidays the DA began to fall apart. Through her contact Galleon, Ginny had been able to reassure the others she was safe, although she wouldn’t tell them where she was.

True to his word, Severus had withdrawn Hermione from Muggle Studies and Dark Arts classes. They spent that time learning Legilimency, and reinforcing her Occlumency and other defensive knowledge. She kept out of the Carrows’ way, but Neville reported delightedly to her in Charms that both were looking pale and shaky and were sporting scars on their faces remarkably similar to the ones Amycus had given him and Hermione in the second week of term. Hermione surmised from this that the Carrows had had their predilection for the Cruciatus Curse turned against them. With Hermione untouchable, the Carrows redoubled their efforts to bring the rest of the school under their control. Michael Corner was caught releasing a first year they had chained up, and they tortured him so badly that Michael spent a week in the hospital wing. Severus was furious about that, but there was nothing he could do. Hermione begged him to go to Voldemort again, but he explained that he was walking an infinitesimally fine line between protecting the students and keeping his cover. For her he would risk going to Voldemort, but anyone else would have to fend for themselves. Hermione wept for Michael, but understood the situation.

Then, in the middle of April, Neville stopped coming to classes. He managed to send a coded message to Hermione on her contact Galleon, just as Luna had done to him when she had been kidnapped: “In Room of Requirement. Don’t worry, am safe.”

Over the next fortnight, Hermione became used to feeling a permanent warm patch in her breast pocket as more and more students sent her messages:

“With Neville. Seamus.”

‘With Neville. Ernie.”

“In Room of Requirement. Lavender… Parvati & Padma… Colin & Dennis… Hannah… Demelza… Susan.”

Severus greeted each message stoically, but Hermione began to feel more and more alone. If she hadn’t had Severus, she thought she might have run mad. She remembered what he’d said to her the night he had shown her his memories: “The two of us against the world, then.”

This was one prediction which seemed rapidly to be coming true.

*
A/N: A short chapter to prepare the way for the horrors to come.