“I don’t want to do this again, Severus!” Hermione whined, retracting her hand from his. She saw his eyes flash in anger then harden into dark stones of annoyance. They had been at this for hours and she knew he was getting too close to the answer she had to keep him from. Every time he gripped her hand, his thoughts entangled themselves with hers. A side-effect of the magical vows she now knew they shared.

She didn’t know how this was affecting her, since she technically hadn’t married Severus yet. But she knew she would be returning to her time eventually to do just that. And somehow their magic had formed a link that was tethering them together.

She had studied the subject fleetingly while she was bored in the library one night. Unbreakable vows and their place in wizarding marriages had went by the wayside years ago, but she figured whatever reason she had for taking on one with Severus had to be serious. Vows in the wizarding world were very different from the muggle world, as they came with magical bindings.

Between the vows and the time traveling, she was sure something had happened to alter this time line, she just wasn’t sure how. But she knew the time traveling was having an affect on her. She wasn’t sure she would be able to pull off being her younger self when she returned to her own time. She felt older and she knew she looked older. Just looking at the picture she had of herself with Harry and Ron was evidence of that. And she was only almost two years into her mission. She still had one to go. She shuddered to think of what kind of excuses she would have to come up with when she returned to her time.

Severus sighed and started rolling up his sleeve. They had been studying the welts that appeared on their arms when they touched, so he had insisted they roll their sleeves up so he could see how far the welts went up their arms. Hermione was getting exhausted from shutting him out of her mind, though. Thankfully, her weekly occlumency lessons with the headmaster were paying off. But she knew he was figuring out how to get around her shields every time he slipped into her head. The last thing she needed was granting a teenage boy free access to her mind, especially one as dubious as Severus.

“I guess we can stop for the night.” Severus said with a downward turn of his lip.

Hermione rubbed her arm, tenderly cradling it. She felt like every nerve in her was singed with magical burn out. She was getting tired and grumpy just thinking about how tired she was. She was doing twice the work he was, since she had to work so hard to keep him out of her thoughts while doing this.

She had a vague feeling that he was trying to find something while he slipped into her mind. And this was not their first meeting to try to figure out what this bond was. She originally had tried to throw him off by leading him in the direction of legilimency bonds that happened when people tried, or sometimes accidentally, bonded their minds together. He took the bait for two weeks, pouring over books in the library to try to find a way to reverse it. He eventually came to the conclusion that it didn’t make sense that the bond would make visible marks on their skin when they touched.

She then tried to throw him off by accusing him of trying to form a legilimency bond with her and it backfired, leaving a scar. She got the idea for this by Harry’s scar that he carried from Voldemort’s backfired killing curse. Severus spent the next week proving to her that he didn’t do anything of the sort, bringing her tome after tome and pointing out passages that proved her theory incorrect.

It was now almost Halloween and Severus was going back to his original theory of unbreakable vows. She tried to point out that this was impossible since they had never taken any vows together, which is what he was currently trying to figure out. He kept her late twice that week trying to decide if they had been obliviated after taking an unbreakable vow, something Hermione was playing into to bide her time.

“Its getting late, Severus. I think we should return to our rooms for the night.” Hermione yawned for emphasis, hoping he would follow her lead and agree.

Severus started closing the books that were strewn across the table and she followed his lead. She reached for the last book at the same time as he did and they both stopped abruptly. Hermione pulled her hand back and busied herself with the straps of her bag, trying not to feel his gaze on her. Severus cleared his throat before quietly saying, “Hogsmeade weekend is this weekend. I thought maybe we could meet there-“

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“I don’t know if it’s a good idea to talk about this stuff in such a public place.” Hermione said, the thought of talking over their current situation in the three broomsticks would almost surely attract the attention of Madam Rosmerta, the biggest gossip in Hogsmeade.

“I didn’t mean to talk about this, Acacia.”

Hermione looked taken aback, “Oh? What did you want to meet for?”

Severus shrugged and put the last book in his satchel, letting his hair eclipse his face from her wondering look. “I just thought it may be nice to meet without studying something once. Forget I mentioned it.” His last sentence came out harsh and quick.

Hermione’s mind was going into overdrive. Did Severus Snape just ask her on a date? No, certainly not. He was not the type to want to pursue anything with her. “No-I mean…I think that would be nice, as well.”

He looked up at her from his bent position in shock before straightening. She had to look up to meet his eyes when he stood at his full height which made her feel small, a feeling she was not used to. She saw him pull nervously at the sleeve of his robes, “Can I meet you at the hospital wing around 2?”

Hermione nodded, “Yes, I should be done with my shift by then.”

Severus’ face seemed to light up a bit and he stiffly wished her a good night before leaving her alone in the brewing room. Hermione couldn’t help but feel giddy anxiety about seeing him outside of the school.

She bit her lip and tried to force down the smile that tugged at her mouth. Severus wanted to see her for something other than academic purposes. Why did the thought tickle her so? She shook her head at her own nonsense and hurried out of the small room and down the hall to own rooms.

- - -

Hermione’s week seemed to stretch on endlessly, like she was walking slowly down a long hallway with the door she needed to freedom on the opposite end from her. She tried to keep herself busy with work in the infirmary, but as she got closer to her goal of ending her apprenticeship with Madam Pomfrey, the easier the job got. She was in a routine now, understanding her role and what was expected of her. She often found herself hoping for a student to show up to give her something to do, even though she didn’t want anyone to be hurt.

After a particularly slow day in the hospital wing, Hermione was happy to be dismissed for dinner in the great hall and walked with the older witch to the head table. The great hall was decked out for Halloween, glowing pumpkins floating above their heads and fall wreaths hung on the walls.

She tucked into dinner thankfully, enjoying her food and not paying much attention to anything else. She nodded along to Professor Flitwick’s conversation about the muffliato charm and tried to follow Professor Slughorn’s boisterous conversation about some quidditch player he had the pleasure of teaching however this didn’t hold her attention for very long. Quidditch was just not the interesting to her.

After dinner, she left the hall feeling drowsy from the food settling in her stomach and was looking forward to relaxing in her chambers. She was quickly pulled from that, however, when she heard her name being called from behind her. She stopped and looked around, finding Remus hurrying towards her.

Her stomach sank when she saw him, but she plastered a smile on her face. “Remus, how are you?”

He stood close to her so that she had to look up at him. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers and smiled down at her, “Good, good. Say, I was thinking, I was invited to Professor Slughorn’s Halloween party at the end of the week and I…well, I was wondering if you’d like to go with me? Just as friends, of course.”

Hermione was torn. If she went with Remus, that would not gain her any points with Severus. But, she also wanted to keep her friendship with Remus, and after turning him down a few weeks ago, she had worried that he would have sore feelings towards her. This would be a good opportunity to mend things with him. But Severus would not like it one bit. But he was getting her at hogsmeade, so this would only even things out. Right? “Um…I don’t know if it would be appropriate-“ Remus hung his head and shuffled his weight, looking downtrodden. Hermione’s heart felt broken seeing him so sad at her indecision. “But I suppose if we are just going as friends…”

Remus’ face lit up and he looked up with a hopeful spark in his eyes, “So you’ll go with me?”

Hermione warred with herself for a moment more before biting the bullet, “Yes, I’ll go with you. As friends.” She stressed again.

He looked thrilled at her agreement and gripped her shoulders like he was going to hug her, but then stopped himself and pulled away quickly. He awkwardly popped her on the shoulder instead, “I’ll meet you around 6 on Saturday night?”

Hermione nodded and smiled, “Sounds like a plan.”

She watched as Remus bounded off with a hitch in his step.

She was now going to see Severus at 2 on Saturday and Remus at 6. She just hoped she didn’t end up regretting all of these plans.