Blood Bound

Chapter 22 - Doceo

"I don't particularly like any nicknames to be honest, most variations people come up with for 'Hermione' are truly awful." She confessed, remembering her childhood full of Hermy and Herms with a grimace.

"Well it won't be a nickname obviously, it'll be a pet name." his fingers had travelled up from her side and across her shoulder before settling under her chin. Draco leaned over her body and used his leverage on her jaw to tilt her chin up, so their lips slotted together perfectly in a chaste kiss.

"Only if it's not an awful one" she conceded when their lips separated. "Some pet names are just as terrible."

"Lovely, now that we've addressed that; sit up, I have another idea I want to try." In a flash he'd pulled away from her side and was once again sitting in front of her, legs crossed underneath him as he waited.

She pulled herself up into a sitting position and looked at him expectantly.

"Okay close your eyes." She did. "Your legillemency is almost sentient, so imagine it as some animal or being, whatever you want it to be." In her mind an image of a snake appeared on its own before she could even consider what animal to think of, it had pale white scales and bright pale-blue eyes. The snake was coiled on the ground, looking as though it were waiting for something. "Now," he continued "usually with occlumency you would build walls around your mind, or file memories away in books or boxes. I want you to do something different, put yours inside something, maybe a cage." He instructed her, the timbre of his voice was soothing as it echoed off her ears, sounding far off as she focused on the little white snake. Hermione conjured a small cardboard box like the one people pack office supplies in. She watched behind closed eyelids as the snake slithered into the box and settled in a ball in the middle. She then set the lid on top, hiding the animal from view. "What did you put yours in?" He asked her.

"A box" she replied, her voice barely a whisper as she continued to focus on the box with her little snake inside.

"Okay now open your eyes and look at me, let's see if your box was enough" She followed his instructions, meeting his silver gaze with half-opened eyes, still able to see the small brown box in her head. After a moment the lid on the box lifted, and a small white head poked out from underneath it.

"Try and make the container stronger, I can still feel your magic trying." At his encouragement Hermione put the snake back in the box, changing it from the little brown box to a hard-sided cage that resembled Crookshanks' cat carrier. She could see the snake anxiously slithering in small circles inside the carrier, rubbing its scales up against the metal grate of the door.

She felt triumphant for a moment, watching the small creature circle in its containment. She held Draco's gaze and his eyes sparkled encouragingly. Her victory was short-lived however, when she saw the small snake climb out of one of the air holes at the top of the carrier.

"That's alright, try something else, something stronger." He prompted, he sounded more patient now than he had before. The prospect of making progress obviously erasing his earlier frustrations.

This time she surrounded the small snake in a little dome, it was woven of intricately twisted vines that resembled the pattern on her wand. Acting on her instincts, Hermione conjured thick leaves to sprout from the vines, covering the larger gaps in the plant and containing the small animal. Feeling compassion for the small creature, she also imagined a large wooden piece of driftwood for the snake to perch on and lined the inside of its confines with a rich green moss. Holding this image in her mind as strongly as she could, she opened her eyes the rest of the way to hold Draco's stare completely.

"Okay, now I'm going to project a thought outside of my walls to see if your occlumency holds alright?" She nodded, focusing her attention on him to see if she could hear him. He closed his eyes briefly before opening them again and looking at her. She could feel more than see the snake starting to move again in its confines, brushing experimentally against the edges of the dome for a moment before it seemed to give up and curl into a tight ball on the mossy bedding.