Collared
Adriana Troy

Disclaimer: The characters and world they are in belong to JK Rowling. I make no money from this fan fiction. Honest.

Pairing: Severus Snape/Hermione Granger. Post Voldemort's WWWII (Wizarding World War II), so Miss Granger is no longer a student. No squickiness there. Read on to find out the rest.

Rating: The Fanfiction.net version is a strong PG-13. My view is if you can watch Buffy, then you can probably read this. Other archived versions will include much darker violence and consensual adult situations (yeah, sex) and will be labeled NC-17. That won't happen until far later chapters, and I'll try to include the link to the alternatives if anyone is interested. Since FF.Net is now a prudish prat when it comes to such things.

Archive: Sure, knock yourself out. Just keep author's name in tact and don't change anything. I think that's pretty much a given. No need to directly e-mail the author and ask. She'd just say yes anyway.

A/N: Although this involves a collar, there isn't any real BDSM (if you don't know what that is then don't worry). Hermione isn't likely to begin brandishing a whip, so my apologies if that disappoints you. The beginning (and other parts) is purposefully fashioned after Silence of the Lambs. I fancy Snape as a Hannibal like prisoner and Hermione as the fresh agent Starling. It is, in fact, where the idea for this plot first bloomed. Then, as all plot bunnies tend to do, it multiplied at an astounding rate. Booyah.

Sorry for the wait. Here it is.

Chapter II

Painting the Ocean

He could hear them coming as far away as the staircase, Granger's heels clicking on every stone step like a warning bell. He forced his hand away from it, but he could still feel it. It's shadow was much worse than the night before, although he was certain it was his own mind that tricked itself into thinking the skin where the band was wrapped tightly around was stinging. It was not only prickling his skin, but his mind as well. A little whisper that uttered no words but he understood none-the-less. You have no choice, it was telling him, no choice.

The worst part of it all perhaps, was that the alien presence was making itself more integrated into his thoughts with each passing moment. Snape believed firmly that he would be unable to distinguish his own thoughts and desires from it's eventually, and quite frankly, that idea terrified him as the Dark Lord never could.

Damn that little wench.

Snape could recognize the seething anger that he held, and it was there because she had not forbid him from feeling those emotions towards her. The glowering man supposed he should be grateful for that allowance, but somehow the idea of not being able to act on that rage was insulting and degrading. There had been times in the past when he had derived strength from it. While it was never wise to display one's emotions, he always recognized them as powerful tools.

Well, he thought as Granger and her armed escort neared his quaint little cell; he would simply have to re-direct it. Every order she gave him that ignited that burning need to retaliate, Snape would save it all for when he found the others. When they wore little shiny collars of their own he would smirk slyly to his old comrades, and wait for the day when his would come off—knowing theirs never would.

And it would come off.

He lazily peered out the corner of his eyes as they approached the wards separating Snape from the flame lit corridor beyond. The first step to his freedom, and one he looked forward to taking soon. They appeared in front of it, and he recognized the five lumbering guards standing all around Hermione like a human chain. Workers at Azkaban donned rather plan red robes, with a single white stripe encircling the chest. If they were higher up on the command ladder, they would wear two stripes and so on. These five had three stripes, and he felt the corner of his lips slowly curl upwards in satisfaction. It was not every prisoner who was worthy of such ranking security measures.

It was clear from the shifting of their eyes from his unbound hands and feet they would prefer to see him in chains. Snape tossed his hair out of his face and continued to peer steadily at them, a challenge in his gaze that none of them could meet. One did not school over a thousand children without learning a little something about intimidation. Humans were like animals in that respect, whoever broke the eye contact to look away first was submissive.

Which is why it came as no surprise to Snape when Granger stubbornly refused to give way. His lip curled again, but not in satisfaction, rather supreme annoyance. She would have researched all the little Slytherin power games. Probably spent a good deal of time researching many things about him, Snape wouldn't be all that surprised to learn. She always did make an epic out of an essay.

"Well?" He snarled when none of the guards moved to begin unweaving the wards.

The anger and distrust they shot to him did little to move him, well aside from the supreme annoyance. They were truly blithering idiots if they thought that he could disobey any order from Granger. Well, that was another lesson from years teaching at Hogwarts. People were extremely stupid, especially within groups where one person's idiocy seemed to seep to the rest through some sort of osmosis.

"It's perfectly alright." Granger stated, trying to infuse confidence into her voice. Which, he noticed, still held a level of that bossy superiority he had hoped she'd outgrow. For what little credit he could give her, it was greatly smoothed over. Perhaps it was merely this situation that brought it out.

For the sake of his sanity he hoped so. Being ordered around in that sort of tone would drive him up the wall in a manner of hours, and it seemed that he would be forced in her company for days. Perhaps, shudder to think it, weeks.

Months were not an option.

He was brought from his silent musings when the guards finally lifted their wands and began tracing the intricate runic patterns that formed all the wards to keep him inside his cell. He was profoundly thankful for it, since it was rather bothersome to realize he'd once again been thinking about the Granger chit. He really had been inside this cell for too long if the little Know-It-All became something worth perusing over in his mind.

As the invisible barrier slowly began glowing a dull violet, he chalked it all up to not having seen any sort of soft female curves in years. That was enough to addle any man's thoughts. Not that he intended to think on them for very long.

Snape barely repressed the urge to sigh and pinch the bridge of his rather large nose as his mind kept wandering towards these distractions. No more thinking on it. Her curves weren't even that great. Bah.

Luckily, the glowing runes were enough to push those unpleasant thoughts from his head, and he watched with growing anticipation he hadn't felt since the night before his eleventh birthday as their outlines grew bolder and clearer. The guards weren't chanting charms, but there were looks of intense concentration on their faces- some furrowing their brows while others narrowed their eyes. He had a flash of being in front of a classroom again, watching children attempt to decipher his spidery scrawl across a chalkboard.

The light became intense, painfully so, but he refused to look away. When the first pattern shattered apart like glass, his entire being felt vivacious and alive. The next then broke apart, a much grander explosion then the last, and tiny shocks spilled into his cell and the corridor beyond like the last dying embers of a rain of fireworks.

Another, and the wards were significantly weakened. He could see four left now, and the guards' wands were vibrating with the effort. Well, their own damn fault for putting so many precautions up in the first place. Yet another thing he had to thank Black for. Aha, another. His body was thrumming, his heart beating with the speed of a hummingbird's flapping wings. So soon now, so very soon. The third burst in a grandest display yet, forcing several of the guards taking an involuntary step back- but Snape didn't dare move an inch. Two more. Two more and he would be out of this hell.

There was a humming now as the last two struggled against the waves and flicks of the wands forcing them to unravel. Snape's body was so taunt he felt he could snap and shatter himself. And then a ward did, and the blast actually sent his hair flying in all directions.

And then there was one.

It was a stubborn bastard, the strongest of them all. The anti-apparition barrier, and it was about to fall. He could feel the magic, tingling through his body down to his very marrow. His fingers curled into his palms, nails digging so painfully that the skin broke, but he ignored the sting. He willed the thing to break apart- let him out. It thrummed and then the violet changed shade to a furious red that made spots dance across his vision.

He felt it before it actually shattered. Like the whisper of a dying man, his final words in this world. It flared into an inferno of flames that licked the very tops of the stones lining the arch of the cell. Snape felt the heat push the air, but he didn't even blink. He couldn't even if he wanted to. He watched with wide open eyes as it gave a final pulse before it too exploded with a snap.

He was then staring at the panting guards, with nothing between them. Nothing.

Except that damn collar.

"I've already signed all the proper paper work, Professor." Granger said, but her voice was barely registering in his mind. It was gone. The wards were gone. "So we can go ahead and be on our way."

And then she made a graceful movement with her hand that clearly indicated that's what they should do. Snape blinked a few times, surprised his legs didn't seem to be catching the signals his brain was sending to them. The guards were on edge, having just preformed very complicated spells and having a notorious Death Eater about to just walk on past them would do that to a person.

Finally, it seemed Snape was able to make his feet move. One and then the other, and he was looking at from a vantage point so different then the one he had been kept in for so very, very, long. The scenery was the same. Bricks that seemed alive from the vermin that crawled atop them, lights that barely lit the corridor at all with the few torches set into the wall. It was not the view but the perspective that was so fantastic. He could even see that there were cracks in the ceiling just above his head. How fabulous.

"Let's move along now." Granger said gently, as one would speak to an anxious child. Soothing and very tender.

Snape couldn't help but shoot her one of his glares of steel, added with a sneer for good measure. He then turned on his heel and briskly began walking with long strides. He heard the others behind him take two steps to catch up, particularly Granger with her clicking heels.

There were other prisoners watching with loathing and longing combined as he strode past them without so much as a sympathetic glance. One witch, an inmate from before when the Dementors still guarded the walls, had the nerve to laugh hysterically. Snape snarled and had to curb the instinct to give the woman the finger. He wouldn't miss her either.

He'd miss none of it.

Then the oddest sensation fell over him as he took to the stairway and began his ascent out of the inferno. Like walking in a dream. The part of his mind that had accepted his fate seemed unable to grasp that he was actually leaving. And as he passed the top step and came to the ground level of Azkaban, a place he could not even recall passing on his way in, he thought perhaps he was in some sort of shock. He was numb. Things blurred into only sensations as Granger finally took the lead, following her down more corridors and past sentries as they came closer and closer to the giant doors.

The air was so fresh, he greedily breathed deeply of it. He couldn't recall the faces of those he passed, wasn't even sure if he sneered as they walked by, but then in an instant the doors were opened.

Sweet Merlin, there was still a sky after all.

It was so difficult to process the emotions and sensations as he stepped outside of Azkaban and back into the world- he felt even his way with the English language would never be able to adequately describe it. The sky was not a bright cloudless blue with an absurdly happy sun beaming down. Azkaban was perpetually covered in a dreary and gray fog that haunted its walls as sure as the poor souls who had died within. It was probably for the best that way, as such bright colors may have blinded him permanently.

But what he did notice, what he would always recall, was the ocean. As they walked briskly over the giant stone bridge that connected the rocky island to the British mainland, he could see and smell the ocean. An entity, a living nearly breathing thing of beautiful deep blues swirling with so many shades it boggled the mind as it stretched onwards into an eternity against a gray skyline. The waves rolled with a sense of their own, lapping with a sound that met his ears with a welcomed peace. Their tops were white foam, something that brought a vivid memory of potions he had worked on in different times when he was still a productive member of Wizarding society.

And there was the spray as those waves as they crashed into the stonework and met his face like a thousand miniscule tears. Or were those his? He couldn't tell and he didn't care. The wind was whipping his hair, the spray of the ocean was hitting his face like a splash of cold water, and the sounds were magnificent while jarring his very bones.

Severus Snape bent his head back and breathed deep of free air. Feeling alive again.

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A/N: Short- I know- but it's how I finally decided to go with this. I feel it's powerful enough on it's own, even though there are several longer- much longer- versions of it. Even if it doesn't quite captivate the emotions as well as it probably could. It's been long enough- however- and I don't wish to keep you waiting any more. It's just so very difficult to write this sort of scene. I hope I've succeeded.