Harry Potter and The Tomb of Hogwarts

Harry Potter and

The Tomb of Hogwarts

Chapter 9

Untold Stories

His eyes flooded with tears as he stared at his unwrapped gift. He could feel a lump the size of a pumpkin in his throat and his breathing was coming in short bursts, but he was able to get out a single word.

"Sirius?"

"Hello Harry. It's been a while, hasn't it?" Though his voice was soft and mostly monotone, it was obvious that Sirius was more than a bit nervous at addressing his godson.

"Sirius. But how. I thought you were..."

"Harry, I'd like to take a moment to explain everything, and then I'll answer any questions you have." Harry just stared back at Sirius and gave a slight nod, having no idea on how else to respond.

"First, Harry, I want you to understand something. Sirius Black is dead. Were he not dead, I would not be speaking to you now." Harry's confusion was worn plainly on his face, but Sirius continued on. "You see, Harry, portraits like this one, and the ones at Hogwarts, are all self portraits made by people who want to leave a part of themselves behind in case they die. It's quite similar actually to the magic used in the diary of Tom Riddle. And in making a portrait you create a duplicate of yourself that you can leave behind for those you love."

"So, you made this portrait for me?"

"Yes. The past year had me cooped up in this house and I knew I would probably end up doing something stupid that might get me killed, so I decided that before I let that happen I would make this portrait so that when I died, you would still have a part of me left to talk to. But I want you to remember a few things. When I made this portrait I decided that you would not have a portrait as a godfather. I wanted you to have someone who could watch over you whenever and wherever you needed. That's why I had asked Remus to take over those duties for me. But I did want to still be here in case you needed me for anything."

"So you don't want to be my godfather anymore?" Harry said, obviously hurt.

"Harry, it's not that I don't want to be your godfather," he said, his monotone voice beginning to wane. "But something you must understand that though I look and sound the same, I am not the Sirius that you know. What you see before you is an echo of your godfather, and I cannot provide you with what you need from a godfather. That's why Remus has taken you to his family's home, brought you shopping at Diagon Alley, and ridden Buckbeak with you. He can do what I cannot. All I can do is talk to you and offer some advice, and you need more than that, especially now. But I will still be here for you when you need me."

As everything Sirius said had come together in his mind, Harry began to understand what it meant, and his stomach bottomed out. It was like losing Sirius all over again. For a fleeting moment he'd thought that his godfather had come back, and now he felt as though he'd lost him all over again. But he hadn't. Not really. He'd been given a chance to keep in touch with Sirius, even if he couldn't be here with him.

After a few moments of silence he swallowed deeply, raised his head back up to Sirius, and smiled. "Well, I'm glad to have you back," he said with a firm nod and smile.

Sirius just smiled back for a moment, then looked over to his right expectantly. Harry followed his gaze over to Professor Dumbledore.

"Harry. I know how you might be feeling right now and I want you to know that it is not unusual for people to become a bit confounded when they first receive a portrait of a loved one. The one piece of advice I can give you is to think of this as a way to remember a friend who has moved away forever to a place you can never visit, but you can always speak to him through his picture the same way you might use a telephone."

Harry nodded having come to basically the same conclusion himself. But all he really cared about was that he still had some essence of Sirius back, even if it were locked behind the wall of a picture.

"Remember what I said to you during your first year, about the Mirror of Erised?" Harry nodded. "Well, the same goes for portraits like this. It's wonderful to be able to speak to them, as I do every day with the paintings on my walls back at Hogwarts. But do not forget that as a part of them still lives on in their paintings, so must you continue to live the life you have to it's fullest. It is similar, I suppose, to the Mirror of Erised in that respect, only more so, as Sirius painted that portrait so he may guide you in your life, not take it away from you. Remember his gift while continuing to live your own life, and never will you dishonour his memory."

"I think I understand, sir," he replied.

Dumbledore smiled broadly. "I'm sure of it," he replied simply.

After a few moments he turned his attention over to Remus for the first time since he had heard Sirius's voice. He walked slowly over to him, his arm stretched out to shake his hand, but somewhere in the few feet that stood between them the one hand became two and he embraced Remus into a tight hug, tears again rolling freely down his face.

They stood there for a few moments, until finally it began to feel a bit uncomfortable and stepped apart. Harry looked back up at both of his godfathers and smiled.

"Thank you. I don't think I could have asked for anything for my birthday as wonderful as this." He looked back up at Sirius and saw a single tear roll down his cheek. "And thank you for doing this for me, Sirius. I don't imagine it would have been an easy to do."

"You know, Harry, I can remember everything in my life up to the day I made the final stroke on this portrait, and the one thing I can remember more clearly than anything else is how much I wanted to make sure that you would never lose another person you cared for so long as you lived, at least not completely. I'll always be here for you if you need me. Even once you get to school. Remus has agreed to place one of our larger mirrors across the room there, so any time you need me you can reach me through that mirror, but don't ask me to help you cheat on a test, unless it's potions of course," he added with a wink.

Dumbledore seemed to have caught a cough just then, though it only lasted a moment before he spoke up again.

"Well, I believe that it is time for us to take our leave. Harry, I'll see you back at Hogwarts, and I do expect that you will continue your homework," he said with a smile.

"Yes sir. I've been making some real progress over the past few weeks."

"As I have heard from Severus. And I was also glad to hear that you decided to take on the Duelling Classes. I am sure that many of the parents and students will be happy to hear it."

"Thank you sir. Ron and Hermione are helping me work on different duelling techniques. I think it's going to be a lot of fun."

"Yeah. We've been going over loads of spells and stuff," added Ron just before Hermione gave him a nudge.

"Indeed. By the way, I took the liberty of drawing up a few possible schedules that might help you in your first few weeks, and our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher will be able to help you as well if you have any need of him."

Harry was about to ask Dumbledore who the new DADA teacher would be, but Dumbledore was speaking quickly and didn't give him much of a chance.

"Now, Minerva, I believe we have bit of work to do over the next month, getting Harry's new classroom ready, and I still need to take care of that situation with Mundungus, so if you don't mind, I'll meet you back at the school."

"Thank you Professor," she replied. "I will see you as soon as I finish speaking to Mr. Potter here."

Dumbledore smiled back at her, excused himself to Sirius, stepped into the fireplace, and disappeared.

"Now then," McGonagall said in her normally gruff voice, "since I have you all here, I would like to go over a quick exercise with the three of you. If you are all going to be practising to be Animagi, we need to get started as quickly as possible. In addition, I want each of you over the next month to practice each of these exercises on yourselves."

She handed each of them a small parchment outlining five lessons on changing basic aspects of their appearance.

"Remember, becoming an Animagus takes more discipline than any other aspect of magic because you are truly bending the laws of nature. So, tonight I want each of you to work on one thing; something which is actually quite simple once you get used to it. I want you to each look into a mirror and practice changing the colour of your eyes. At first it will happen quite abruptly, and this is to be expected, and it is very likely that you will be charming them, not actually changing the colours on your own. However, as you continue working on it over the next few weeks you will begin to actually alter their colour, and that's the first sign that you are doing it right. After that, it's all a matter of practice."

"Right Professor," said Hermione eagerly. "How often should we work on it; five times a day, six, seven..."

"Twice a day for ten minutes ought to do it for now, Miss Granger. Also, Mr. Potter, since you will be teaching a class this year in addition to everything else, I have arranged for you to be exempted from both Care of Magical Creatures and Divination. Also, as this is your sixth year, you are not required to take History of Magic, though you have been given an exception to take Advanced Potions if you choose, and I would highly suggest you take advantage of Professor Snape's generosity in letting you take his class. He doesn't usually allow sixth and seventh years to take his course unless they did exceptionally well in his class. And before you ask, Mr. Weasley, he has invited you to come back as well, and I expect you will be taking his class as well."

"He will if I have anything to say about it," added Mrs. Weasley, "and I dare say I'll have a lot more to say about it if you don't."

"Yes Mum," replied Ron in a depressed sort of tone.

"And don't you take that tone with me young man. You've still got a month at home and I can make sure it's the longest holiday of your life." Dreading saying anything else that might upset her, he simply nodded in agreement.

"Finally, Mr. Potter, a word of advice when you begin term as a new Professor. Take charge of the class quickly and be sure to point out that everyone is equal in your classes, be they Slytherins, Gryffindors, or anyone else. I expect if you do so you will find everything will run quite smoothly."

"I think I get what you're saying," he replied, nodding his head.

"Good. Well then, I must be off. I've got a long night ahead of me. And remember, it would be a great deal of help if you were to decide on your Animagus forms by the start of term."

"Yes Professor," they all said in unison.

"Well, good day to you all, and do say hello to Charlie and Bill for me, won't you Molly?"

Mrs. Weasley gave her a big smile and nod, then looked over at Ron and said, "Well, I think it's time we were off too. Ron, I expect to see you home Friday evening? And Harry dear, Happy birthday again, and thanks for having us."

"Yes, thank you a great deal Harry," added Mr. Weasley. "You've become quite a strapping young lad. You keep this up and we might be giving you a call in a couple of years for Auror training."

"Thank you sir."

And so everyone filed out into the fireplace until it was just Harry, Remus, Ron, Hermione, and Sirius. Since Sirius hadn't been around over the past few weeks everyone helped catch him up with the times. He seemed really intent on finding out what was going on with the new Duelling Class and they were more than willing to oblige. By midnight everyone but Harry had gone up to bed, leaving him alone with Sirius.

Even though it was getting late and Harry had just had one of the longest days of his life, neither he nor Sirius were feeling the least bit tired. They continued on into the night talking about Voldemort and Animagus training and his continuing the DA with Snape as his co-teacher.

"I'd watch out if I were you. He may be working for our side, but you don't have to be a Death Eater to make trouble. If you need any help, I've got several books on fighting the Dark Arts and Duelling."

"Yeah. I found those upstairs when we were cleaning out the attic."

"Oh, Harry. You haven't found a thing that really matters, except maybe some of those pictures and my lockbox. But all the really important things are at the Lupin's. They were the ones I last lived with. Last I heard Lupin still had my chest over there. That's where you'll find everything that meant the world to me. Trust me, there you will find spellbooks that will drive Snape absolutely bonkers."

Harry's eyes lit up at the idea of having one up on Snape. He begged for more.

"Well, you found those notes I had on spells that the three of us were working on, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, those were all fake. They were for one of many jokes we had played on people over the years. You see, we would take spells and potions that would do one thing, adjust them just a bit, then write on the notes that they did something completely different. Then we'd leave them around the common room and watch the fun."

He started laughing and telling Harry of some of their better pranks.

"Oh, James had come up with some fun ones too, I can tell you. The best one, I tell you it was hilarious, James had set up all but two basic potion ingredients for a Polyjuice potion and left it boiling saying it would increase your fame ten fold. Well, believe me when I tell you it did. Old Barty Crouch Junior was the unfortunate soul who had stumbled upon it and, of course he finished mixing the ingredients. The final ingredients were listed as hairs from an Albino Rat. Well, he drank it just before going to dinner, and when he walked through the doors, everyone look at him in amazement. It seemed everyone was shocked to see him except us and Professor Dumbledore. Can you guess why?"

"You didn't," Harry shouted in awe.

"The heck we didn't. Here comes Barty Crouch Junior. strutting his stuff like he owns the place not knowing he's taken on the appearance of the great Albus Dumbledore with Dumbledore sitting at the head table right there in front of him. And wouldn't you know the dolt just nods right over to Dumbledore and takes a seat and starts eating. That's when he finally noticed he had a three foot long beard. He holds up a spoon and looks at his reflection and turns white as snow. I'll tell you, we laughed about that for years. Even today I think about it and can't stop smiling for a week."

"My lord. You three were worse than Fred and George."

"Well, we tried. But I've got to tell you, that trick with the swamp in the west hall sounded awfully nice to me."

"But still. What else did you do?"

And it continued like that for another four hours until they were finally too exhausted to speak. Harry bid Sirius a welcome home and goodnight before heading up to bed for sleep. He practised his exercises that night but fell asleep before he had done anything worth while.

Sirius's medallion lay on his dresser.

That night Harry had another bizarre dream.

He was walking through a dark corridor and into a large cavern. It was nothing like the last cavern where the Hogwarts founders had brought him. This place had a coldness about it that made his skin crawl.

As he came out into the light he saw three figures huddled together over a small table eating dinner. As he drew closer he could begin to make out some of their conversation.

"We need to start making an impact," came one voice. "Our numbers are growing every week, but if we don't start taking some action I fear that some will begin to think you are not as powerful as you once were."

"Blasphemy," cried a voice Harry hadn't heard in over a year. But he knew which of the figures had uttered them, as he could see the silver hand of Peter Pettigrew on the right side of the table. "The Master has his own plans and he will do as he sees fit. It is not up to you to tell him what to do."

"No," came the high pitched voice that Harry recognised all too well. "Our young friend here is right. It is time that we began displaying our power over the rest of the wizarding world. Now that we have so many on our side, it is time that we began to show the world who is in charge here."

"Of course sir. We have many ready to sign up sir. Several students from Hogwarts have already..."

"Shut up, you fool," came Voldemort's voice. The man in the middle stood, and for the first time in two months, Harry looked at the face of the man responsible for so many deaths in his life.

Voldemort searched around the room, looking for something, and Harry had a good idea what that something was. Then, after a few moments, he closed his eyes and put on a face that told Harry that Voldemort was concentrating on something. Then, suddenly, his eyes flew open, and to Harry's Horror, Voldemort was staring right back at him.

"Well, well. If it isn't the great Harry Potter."

Harry was horrified. He couldn't feel his heartbeat, and he could swear he could feel his life slipping away from him.

"Well, if I had known I was having such a prestigious guest I would have cleaned up the place," he said waving his hand around. The other two men stood and started searching around for Harry, though it seemed they could not see him.

"Unfortunately, I have some things I must discuss with my associates here, so I'm afraid I must show you the door." He waved his hand to his right, and before Harry knew what was happening he had turned as was zooming straight for an open door and into a blinding light, and his scar began to burn. it was on fire, and Harry was sure his brain was going to explode.

Harry's eyes burst open. The pain in his scar was unbearable, he was sweating profusely, and he was quite sure that at any moment his heart would burst through his chest. A moment later he heard a loud pop as someone Apparated into his room. It was Remus.

"Harry," he said between short breaths, "are you alright?"

"I'm fine!" he said shortly. His head was throbbing and his senses were going crazy.

"What happened? I could hear you screaming from my room."

"It was Voldemort," he said flatly.

"He was here, at the house?" Remus exclaimed, his was out.

"No. It was another dream. I didn't do my Occlumency training last night, and I ended up dreaming about him. But this time was different. I think we've... Ouch."

"What is it? Is he trying to..."

"No. No. It's nothing. It just hurts like bloody hell. And he's pissed."

"Voldemort?" Remus asked blindly.

"Yeah. I don't think he's happy about me seeing what I saw, or at least what he thinks I saw."

"What did you see?" he replied anxiously.

"Not a whole lot really. It looked like he was living in a cave that had been made into some kind of underground castle or something, and I saw Pettigrew there with someone else. I didn't catch who he was. But he did say that it's about time that they started making trouble again."

"Yes. We've been expecting that for a while now. I'll have to let Dumbledore know."

Harry nodded, which brought on a second wave of pain which stopped him short. Then he heard a loud crack which split his head in two.

"Sorry," said Remus, handing him a large piece of chocolate.

Harry bit into it quickly and started to chew. His head began to pound even harder with each bite, but it did seem to calm down a bit a few moments later.

"Can you do me a favour?" he asked Remus, still wincing every few seconds.

"Of course. What do you need?"

"Could you give me that book over there on my desk? And the medallion too, if you could."

Remus went over to the desk, picked up the book and medallion, and brought it over to Harry who had been sitting up with his legs crossed. He opened the book to the chapter on self healing through meditation. Then he picked up the medallion and placed it over his head.

A rush of calmness spread over his entire body. In seconds all the pain and headache was gone, and he felt remarkably refreshed.

"Whoa," he said with a smile. "That was bizarre."

"What now?" he asked.

"Well, I was going to try some of the meditation exercises to clear my head, and recently I've been using this medallion as a focus point. But this time when I put it on my head just cleared up all on its own."

"Hmm. Harry, I think you should take that medallion off until we can find out where it came from."

"But that's easy. We can just go down and ask Sirius. It was his after all."

"Right. Good thinking."

They both headed downstairs and into the living room to find Sirius wide awake.

"What's going on up there? I heard Harry scream out and..."

"It's alright Sirius. Harry's fine. He just had another episode and Voldemort, well; I'll explain it all in moment. Right now, I need to know, where did you get this from." He held the medallion up so that Sirius could take a look at it. A wide smile stretched across his face.

"Cindy Cattrell," He said with a soft sigh. "Oh what a woman."

"Who?" said Harry, looking up at Remus. But Remus had the same glazed look on his face, as though intoxicated by his thoughts.

"Oh, Cindy. Beautiful, wonderful Cindy. She was Head Girl During our Fifth years at Hogwarts and, oh my was she a looker. And you dated her, didn't you?" said Remus with a slight tinge of jealousy in his voice.

"You know it. It was after that spat she had with her boyfriend, what was his name. Johnsten? Something like that. Anyways, we dated for about six months, and she gave me that medallion there as a birthday present. Quite nice. I only wore it for a little bit because we broke up when I discovered that she had been, how do I put it..."

"Shagging someone else?" added Harry before he could stop himself.

"Well, I don't know if I'd put it just like that, but yes. She had gone back to her old boyfriend. I offered to give that back to her, but she said that it was a present and that I should keep it. I wore it a few times, but it kind of gave me the creeps, tell you the truth. Of course, if I knew then what I knew now, well, I might have worn it a bit more."

"Why's that? What's it do exactly?"

"Well, I don't know everything about it. Nobody does, really. But from what James and I found out, we thought it might be one of the four medallions of Hogwarts."

"The what?" asked Harry.

"The four medallions of Hogwarts. I don't know much about them other than they were made by the founders of Hogwarts. The one you got there was made by Rowena Ravenclaw. When they finished them, they each instilled a permanent charm on their medallions which would best represent themselves. From what we could gather, that one gives it's wearer a clearer mind. It was great for headaches, but I forgot all about it when I was in Azkaban."

"Oh." Harry looked down at the medallion in awe. "So this was made by Rowena Ravenclaw. I'll bet I don't stop hearing about this from Hermione for weeks."

"I don't doubt it," Sirius laughed. "I wager she'll be up for the next three weeks until she finds out everything there is to know about it."

"That's our Hermione," Harry replied with a chuckle.

They continued to talk for another half hour about the medallion and Harry's dream, which of course reminded Remus that he needed to contact Dumbledore.

"I'll do it," Sirius said, jumping in. "I've been waiting for an excuse to drop by for a while now," he added with a mischievous look.

And so Remus and Harry headed back to bed for the night, and Harry was sure to spend over half an hour doing exercises before finally allowing himself to sleep.

The next morning started bright and early with a tapping on Harry's window. He opened his eyes groggily, sat up, and opened the window for the bright white owl. For a moment he thought he was seeing double, as Hedwig was still in her cage, but he quickly realised that this owl was much smaller than Hedwig and had a large black stripe down its back.

He tore off the envelope and gave the owl a treat before it took off back to wherever it had come from, which he soon found out was Hogwarts.

Dumbledore had written him a letter.

Harry,

Sirius has told me about your dream. First I want to thank you for letting me know. It confirms many things that we have suspected over the past few weeks. However, it is not good news at all that he was able to pick you out in his mind. That means that he is more prepared than ever to try to manipulate you if and when your two minds meet. You must promise me that you will continue to work on your Occlumency exercises no matter what the occasion. I am not trying to chastise you, Harry, but it is very important that we stop him from being able to take control of the link you two share.

I will speak to you more when you come back to school, but until then please continue your exercises, and I would suggest that you keep that medallion close to you whenever you go to sleep. If it is the same medallion I believe it to be, it may be a strong deterrent against Voldemort using Legilimency against you. And remember what I said about Professor Snape. He is here to help, if you will let him.

Thank you again for informing me of your dream, and please inform me if you have any more dreams between now and August.

Yours truly,

Professor Albus Dumbledore

Harry took a deep breath. Dumbledore knew something that he wasn't saying. Harry could tell by what he had said in the letter.

I would suggest that you keep that medallion close to you whenever you go to sleep. If it is the same medallion I believe it to be, it may be a strong deterrent from Voldemort from using Legilimency against you.

That sure sounded like he knew something to him. But what did he know?

He quickly got on his robe and headed to Hermione's room and knocked. No answer. He knocked again, and again got no answer. He was about to knock for a third time when she came up from the stairs.

"Good morning Harry," She said brightly.

"We've got to talk," he stated bluntly. "Where's Ron?"

"He's in his room getting dressed," she replied.

He didn't say a word, but walked over to Ron's room and knocked on the door.

"Just a minute, Hermione. Jeez, you'd think it was an emergency to..."

"Ron, it's me," Harry interrupted, "Meet us in my room as quick as you can," and headed to his room before Ron had a chance to reply.

The moment they walked through his door Hermione began to bombard him with questions, but he put an end to it quickly.

"I'll explain everything when Ron gets here."

"But..."

"Just hold on a moment. He'll be here in a second, and then I'll tell you everything."

At that moment Ron walked through the door.

"What's up Harry?" he asked

"I think you'd better sit down for this," he said with a sigh.

Harry was afraid that they might panic, but he had no idea. By the time he had finished telling them about his dream and what Sirius had said about the medallion, they were as pale as ghosts. They both started talking at once.

"You-Know-Who is going to start attacking again?" said Ron while Hermione asked in awe, "That medallion belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw?"

"Hold on," he replied, trying to calm them down. "Yes, Voldemort is going to start up again, and yeah, this did belong to Ravenclaw. And that's not the only thing. I think there's a lot more to this medallion than just it helping to block out Voldemort's attacks."

"How can you be talking about a stupid medallion when You-know... Alright, Voldemort," he relented with a shiver under Hermione's gaze, "is going to start attacking people again."

"Because I have to keep him out of my head, or else I'm going to go crazy. Between the pains I get when he attacks my dreams and the information he could get while I'm asleep, I need every advantage I can get. But that's not all. There's something else I haven't told anyone, not even Remus."

He told him about the dreams he'd been having over the past week.

"Well, that's very interesting. I wonder what she did to that medallion. Hold on, wait right here. I'll be right back," and she left before they could even say a word. A few moments later she came back with a huge book under her arm; a book that Harry and Ron had seen many times before thanks to Hermione, Hogwarts, A History.

"Not that again," whined Ron.

"Hold on," Harry jumped in on Hermione's behalf. "I think she might be on to something this time."

He knew what she was looking for in the books, and he had a pretty good idea that it would be in there. Sure enough, a few moments later Hermione cried out.

"Got it. I knew I'd read something about them in here. There's not much though; mainly just rumours. Let's see here. Each of the four founders had created medallions which they wore around their necks. Each was engraved with their house emblem and was, as legend has it, enchanted with powerful charms, each one representative of a character trait held the founder who made it."

"So what was Ravenclaw's medallion enchanted with?" asked Harry.

"Well, it says here that Rowena Ravenclaw was known for her love for intellect and deductive reasoning. However, it was rumoured that Rowena was also a soothsayer, or fortune-teller. There is even mention of a long lost diary which chronicled her predictions, though nobody has ever been able to confirm such a diary exists."

"So what? Is this thing supposed to make me psychic or something?"

"Not exactly. I don't think you could actually charm something to give its holder clairvoyance, but it might be able to help with similar stuff, like mind protection spells."

"But that doesn't explain my dreams. If this thing blocks people from attacking my mind, how come I keep having dreams of me and the Founding Four?"

"Actually, there's one more thing here, just below the paragraph about the four medallions. Let's see. Here it is. It's a bit cryptic, but there's something about some powerful magic being unlocked when three of the medallions are brought together. That was probably done after Slytherin left. That's why there's only three and not all four. I can't quite understand the rest, but anyway, there it is."

"I'll bet that's what I've been seeing in my dreams. There was loads of weird stuff in there. The sorting hat, that sword I used to kill the basilisk, and there were tons of potions and books all around. It was kind of like a series of alters that... But wait. That's not right because there were four recesses, not three."

"Harry, that's not what we need to worry about right now anyway. What we need to do is find out more about the one we have. I doubt we'll ever find the other two anyways."

"Right. What else does it say about Harry's medallion?" Ron asked.

"Nothing. That's it. I'll have to wait until we get back to Hogwarts before I can get any more information about it."

"Sounds like another year of Hermione the librarian," joked Ron.

They all laughed for a few minutes, then talk a bit more about Harry's dream. They spent the rest of the day talking about their upcoming year and planning their next visit to Diagon Alley in two weeks, when Hermione would be coming back from America.

The next few days flew by, and Harry fell back into his normal routine. He continued his Occlumency training and thought he was doing quite well until the following Monday morning.

He'd just come down for breakfast when it happened. He'd completely blacked out.

The next thing he knew, he was back at Hogwarts, surrounded by the Slytherins and standing in front of Professor Umbridge. She was preparing to do the Cruciatus curse on him, and the fear broke through him.

Then suddenly he was in extreme pain; his body on fire. When it finally stopped he looked up to find himself in a graveyard looking up at Voldemort laughing and taunting him. He could hear the laughter of the Death Eaters circling around him, and then Voldemort prepared for another attack, but Harry ducked behind a tombstone, landing with a hard thud.

When he stood, he watched as Sirius fell through the veil, looking over at him and taunting him about it being Harry's fault that he had died.

Harry doubled over on his knees, tears falling from his eyes, and when he looked up, Dobby was standing over him screaming at someone in front of him, with Lupin holding him back from attacking.

Harry stood up. He was back in the kitchen, and Snape was standing in front of them with what had to be the softest look Harry had ever seen, though it disappeared the moment their eyes met.

"Potter, I would hope you'd have more control over both yourself and your house-elf," he said with a sneer.

"At least Dobby would give people fair warning before attacking them," Harry shot back.

"But that isn't the point of these exercises, is it Potter. The point is to test you when you are least expecting it. Just because you've had a recent birthday does not mean that I will not be testing you. Unlike our Headmaster, I do not think you so special that you can just skip important tests any time you have something to celebrate. Now, I will be back before our meeting on Wednesday. I expect you will have enough forethought to at least try to fight back next time?"

Harry gave him an angry sneer in response.

"I shall see you then. Now if you don't mind, I have somewhere else to be. Lupin," he said with a pained look before heading to the fireplace.

The moment he left Harry began to swear up a storm about how rotten Snape was and Remus nodded, though he didn't seem to say much about it.

Harry had received nearly a dozen more of these tests, though he hadn't shown much improvement until only two most recent encounters, and the first was simply by mere coincidence.

It had been while Harry had been asleep, and as such Snape had the problem of contending with Harry's medallion. . What Snape had done was use Alohomora to unlock the clasp, then a combination of Wingardium Leviosa and Accio to retrieve it without having to get too close to him and chance waking him up.

What Snape hadn't known was that Harry had felt the chain slip over his chin while he was asleep and that had given Harry just enough forethought to catch what was happening by the time he had relived the third memory and stop him from continuing.

More importantly, though, was the fact that this seemed to be a breakthrough point because he was able to do the same thing the next time he was attacked by Snape. Only that time he was also able to flip the switch back against Snape and forced him to relive a scene he'd seen once before with his dad taunting Snape in front of Remus, Sirius, and his mum.

Snape broke the connection and called it a day, but since he hadn't said anything bad about what had happened, Harry had assumed he'd done well. However, none of the lessons Harry and Snape had compared to the Wednesday session they had in the middle of August.

"Since this is the last lesson we will have before preparing you for your new professor, we are not going to be meddling with the books. If you have not learned everything you need to know from the books by now, you never will," Snape sneered as he looked at Harry.

"Therefore, we will be performing a series of Occlumency battles. Here, you will not only attempt to break my connection with you, but you must also attempt to take control of the connection. That is the only way you will truly be able to stop the Dark Lord from trying to penetrate your mind. If he sees the risk is greater than the gain, he will not be likely to attempt to use the connection you share. Prepare yourself."

Snape stood at attention the same way one would prepare for a wizards duel, and Harry did the same. A moment later they were wafting through Harry's memories. After the fourth memory Harry was able to push back a bit, and soon they were looking into Snape's mind, if only for one brief memory before switching back to Harry.

They continued to duel like this for four hours, taking five minute breaks every half hour to eat some chocolate. After the first three encounters Harry noticed that Snape too was eating small amounts of chocolate. This gave Harry a new resolve, and soon Harry was reliving three memories to Snape's two. He wasn't evenly matched, but he was fighting back, and that was more progress than he had made in a very long time.

During the last duel, however, Harry was able to do something he had never done before. He had gotten the first shot in and for the first time he was able to sense the different emotions coming from Snape's mind. He stood still in Snape's mind for what seemed like minutes, though it was merely fractions of a second.

Suddenly a glimmer of green light caught his eye, and he moved forward.

He was at a bright looking house in the hills, and in front of the house was a beautiful young woman. At first Harry thought it was his mum, but her hair was a bright red, even more so than Ginny or Ron's.

She was kneeling in front of a garden, minding her flowers and singing a soft tune to herself. Then as flash of green light fluttered across Harry's eyes and hit the woman across her shoulder. Harry knew what had happened even before her lifeless body dropped flat over her flowers.

Harry turned to see five men behind him, three of which were holding back a fourth. The fifth, Harry knew even without seeing his face under the hood, was Lord Voldemort. But to Harry's surprise, the three men were holding back Snape, who's eyes were red as fire, and for the first time Harry saw a look in Snape's eyes that he understood to be filled with more hated than any he had shown for Harry. And, just as Harry began to put together who that woman might be, a high pitched laughter came from the man standing alone.

"This is the price you pay," laughed Voldemort, "for not completing a task that your Master sets forth for you. Maybe next time you will work harder to please me, and I will not have to take those things that you so cherish." He turned around and looked at Snape for the first time and saw the anger flaring in his eyes. He laughed some more, pulled his wand back up, and soon the other three dropped Snape as he withered in pain.

The other three laughed as Snape cried out from the pain that could only come from the Cruciatus curse. Harry recognised the three laughs as belonging to Lucius Malfoy and his two lackeys Crabbe and Goyle.

Harry, going purely on instinct, reached into his pocket, pulled out his wand, and called out "Expelliarmus" at the top of his lungs.

Suddenly the world came screaming back at him, and to his surprise, Snape was on the floor in front of him, clearly unnerved and completely dazed. Then a very controlled anger overcame him and he stood amazingly quickly with his wand drawn before just as quickly coming to his senses just as suddenly.

He lowered his head slightly and spoke in a soft tone Harry had not expected.

"I apologise for my overreaction," he said simply. Harry could see sweat pouring down his Snape's face and his hands were still shaking quite bad.

"Was that the reason why you started working for Dumbledore?" he asked passively.

Snape did not speak for several minutes. Then, finally he nodded his head very slightly and spoke almost as though he were reading from a book.

"After Lily got together with Potter, I knew I had lost any chance of courting her. As you may have concluded before, I was interested in her for some time. I admit that much of my interest in her stemmed from that very incident you witnessed in the Pensive."

Harry bowed his head, knowing he'd opened himself for another verbal beating, but Snape continued without noticing.

"However, I didn't expect to have any chance while we were still at school, and James had started dating her. After that, and for a long time, I kept to myself, trying hopelessly to fade away from the world. I was truly lost. By that time I had been in the service of the Dark Lord, and I filled my life with doing whatever I could for him." He looked up at Harry for the first time, but only for a moment before turning and walking around the room.

"However, a year after I left Hogwarts I was asked to do some undercover work that put me back in the service of Dumbledore, working as a double agent. That's when I met Sam. She was everything I could have wanted, and better still, she was my assignment. I was told to get close to her, as her father worked at the Ministry of magic. Before I knew what had happened, I had fallen in love with her." Snape paused for a moment, but Harry said nothing, not wanting to interrupt him.

"At that point," he continued, "I began to have misgivings about feeding the Dark Lord information. I did not like using Sam, and I liked the use of the information even less. I began to see my information leading to the deaths of some innocent people. Think of me what you may, Potter, but I do not take pleasure in the misery of others. I do admit that I have an affinity with the Dark Arts, but that stems from my roots of which I will not be discussing with you now. In any event, one night I discovered that Sam's father had been laid off from the Ministry. It seemed that too much information was tracked back to him. At this, the Dark Lord ordered me to terminate him."

Harry's eyes went wide. Could Snape really have killed his girlfriend's father?

"No, I could not," Snape replied to Harry's thought. "And I didn't need to be a proper Legilimens to know what you were thinking. In any event, I helped plan her parent's escape. However, our plans got back to the Dark Lord and he decided to pay us a visit. First he killed her parents and younger sister, then he brought me to witness her death which you have just witnessed. It was at this point that I truly came to realise the nature of my Master's plans. He offered me a way to redeem myself. He had me seek out Dumbledore and try to get as close to him as possible."

"So that's how you got your job at Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

"I will ask you one time. Do not interrupt me again. I doubt I will ever be willing to tell this story again in this lifetime."

Harry nodded silently.

"So I approached Dumbledore. But instead of sneaking into his group or going undercover, I approached him at the school and told him everything that had happened. I vowed to him then to do whatever it took to put a stop to the Dark Lord's plans. The night your parents were killed I learned of what the Dark Lord had planned and I contacted Dumbledore. He sent me to look after Neville Longbottom while he sent Hagrid to contact Lily and James. Unfortunately, He was unable to reach them in time. After that, I continued to work for Dumbledore as a spy for well over a year, helping to imprison over twenty people who were either Death Eaters or those working to join the forces. After that, Dumbledore offered me the position of Potions Master which I gratefully accepted."

Harry gave him a knowing look, and for the first time that night, Snape gave a mischievous grin. "And right now you are thinking me a liar. You are aware of my desire to become the Dark Arts Professor. Well, this will come as a bit of a shock to you, but I have no interest of ever filling that position."

If Harry's look of disbelief was obvious before, it was nothing compared to the look he was giving Snape now.

"Do you know who started the rumour that I wanted the Dark Arts job? It was Dumbledore."

Harry's look of disbelief quickly turned to one of confusion. After thirty seconds Snape shook his head.

"Come on Potter. Think. Why would he want it publicly known for me to have a strong desire towards the Dark Arts class?"

And it hit him like a rocket. "So that everyone will know that you're still working for Voldemort."

Snape didn't wince at the name, but his grin turned into a sneer. "Indeed. It assured that I have an open place among the students as a way into the world of Dark Magic. .And now that the Dark Lord has returned, I have let it slip that I am still in his service, though I must keep my composure here at the school. I do not think the Dark Lord believes it, but many of the Death Eaters do, and that is good enough for now."

"So that's what you've been doing for the Order?"

"Among other things, yes. However, I am growing weary of this discussion and I have things to take care of. I expect that you not speak of this conversation to anyone other than myself or Dumbledore, and that includes your two little friends." He used the word friends as though it were a foul word.

"In fact, I would prefer that you never speak of it with me again either, and if I were you I would not expect to get any special treatment because of what we have discussed here. I have only told you this now because the Headmaster believes that you may finally understand, once and for all, where my loyalties lie."

Harry nodded. He'd never liked Snape and always thought of him as the world's biggest git, but somehow now he seemed to feel something else. It wasn't exactly pity or sympathy; yet it was something close to both. What he did know is that after today he would never look at Snape the same way again. Now he knew why he had been so bitter all these years.

"Next week we will go over the preparation for your training when term begins. I expect you to know that book front to back when I arrive next week. Also, Dumbledore has asked me to remind you that you will be spending the week after next back at Privet Drive."

"Yes sir," Harry replied. He'd forgotten all about that.

"Then I will see you next week." And with that, Snape quickly packed up and headed to the fireplace.

As soon as he was gone Harry headed upstairs and talked to Lupin. He didn't exactly talk about what he had seen, but he had told Remus that he now understood what had happened to make Snape such an angry person.

"You don't know the half of it. Snape's childhood wasn't exactly the best either. Back when we were in school there were rumours that he had been abused quite a bit by his father. And you know, even back then you could tell that James was a good guy deep down, even to Snape. There were several times when Snape had attacked James and his family and James never replied with the same. He'd always bring it back to Snape himself."

"So that's why he started acting like a jerk? Because his father beat him?"

"I don't know for sure. What I do know is that the first day Snape arrived at Hogwarts it was obvious that he was trouble. But why had gone from bad to worse is anyone's guess, but most of us have an idea why he finally stepped back to our side after being a Death Eater."

"Why's that," Harry asked, trying not to sound so like he knew more than he should have.

"Well, there were rumours that he had a girlfriend and that at some point she was killed by Voldemort. After that, he got a hold of Dumbledore and started working as a spy."

Harry nodded while trying as hard as he could to keep a straight face.

"So what happened next? What was it he did that has Dumbledore so sure that he'd gone straight?"

"He's not told you?" Lupin asked with a clearly surprised look on his face.

"No, why?"

"Well, I'm not sure I'm the one to tell you, Harry, but I guess someone should. You see, Harry, when shortly after Voldemort disappeared a lot of the Death Eaters gave up and, well, you know all about that. Well, some of them went on rampages, trying to avenge their master. Four of them you know about, Rudolphus, Rabastan, and Bellatrix Lestrange, along with Barty Crouch junior, all kidnapped Frank and Alice Longbottom and tortured them into insanity."

"Right. They were all sent to Azkaban."

"Right. But do you know how they were apprehended?"

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"It was Snape. He's the one that tipped off the Dumbledore about their capture the moment he learned about it, then he went to their house and protected him. As it turned out, Rabastan came after Neville and would have kidnapped him too if Snape hadn't been there. He brought young Neville and his Grandmother to Hogwarts where they stayed until the Lestranges and Barty Crouch were captured. Were it not for Snape, the Longbottoms would have been tortured to death and Neville would have been next."

"And Snape saved them?" Harry asked astonished.

"That's right. But outside of Dumbledore, Snape, you and me, nobody knows about Snape's involvement in that night, and it needs to stay that way, and that includes Hermione and Ron. Not even Neville knows about it. I think that's a large part of the reason he picks on Neville so much. It's the whole 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' mantra."

"Right. I'm sure that's the only reason too," Harry said sarcastically.

"Right," Remus agreed. "Well, I'm not saying that he's the best guy around, in fact I'd say he's probably the worst guy to stay on our side, but he is on our side, and that's what's important. And we need him now, as much as ever. He's one of our best resources for information on Voldemort's activities and he's currently working on putting himself back into the good graces of a large number of Death Eaters."

"How?"

"That's not important. Just understand that no matter how he acts or what he does, he's important to our cause and he will be there if you truly need him. Don't forget that."

"Yes sir," Harry said softly.

"Good. Now, why don't we find something a bit nicer to talk about."

And so they talked on for a short while, until Harry began to feel the drain of the day finally set in and he headed to bed.

And so Harry's last two weeks of freedom had come and gone.

He spent the last two lessons with Snape training while they barely spoke. Most of their time was spent going over the new book, Mind over Magic, and practising the exercises in it. Unlike his other two books, the only way to practice the lessons in this book was to have someone attack his mind, and then have him completely block the intruder's thoughts. He had to wait until Snape had entered his mind, then empty his thoughts until the only things left were him and Snape in a kind of black void, and since Harry was finally getting the hang of Occlumency, his lessons were going much faster than before.

When He wasn't working on Occlumency he was honing his duelling skills and getting ready for his sixth year at Hogwarts.

Finally, the day Harry had been dreading for the past two weeks had arrived. It was Sunday night and all the Weasleys were there, along with Hermione, all bid goodbye to Grimmauld Place with a big dinner. Then, he said his final goodbyes and headed back to Privet Drive.

Remus accompanied him all the way home and gave him a little ray of hope at the end of the week.

"Harry, I thought I might give you a bit of good news. I've been able to get a flat in Hogsmead that I'll be able to use, so I'll be around if you need to me. Also, if you ever need to talk to me immediately, you can always use your mirror to reach me. Everyone in the Order has one."

Harry's face dropped. "I broke mine just before I came home from school."

"Not to worry. A simple Repairo spell should take care of it just fine."

Harry nodded dumbly. Of course he could repair it. Here he was, about to be a sixth year student and a Head Professor of Magical Duelling and it never occurred to him to use magic for something as simple as fixing a mirror. He shook his head at himself and smiled.

"Thanks. Well, if I don't get in there soon I might lose my nerve."

"Right. Well, I'll try to come by next Thursday to pick you up. And remember, just because you live here doesn't mean you have to spend the whole week here. I heard the Weasley boys talking about having a "Back to school" sale you might want to check out this coming weekend. Bring Dudley along. He seems to be coming along well."

"Yeah. I never thought I'd say it, but he's not all bad. Maybe you can even come and meet us there."

"Unfortunately I have something to do over the next week for the Order and I don't think I'll finish before Sunday. But I'll see what I can do, okay?"

"Right." Harry gave Remus a quick "manly" hug and headed inside before he broke down.

He headed straight to his room and unpacked his trunk. He'd been here only a week before, but somehow it seemed like he had felt like he'd been punished for something he'd done in another life. But at least this time he didn't have to worry too much about the Dursleys, and that helped.

As soon as he unpacked he dipped into his books and tried to drown himself in his studies. Dudley came in after a few minutes to say hi, but he couldn't stay too long or else he might make Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia suspicious.

And so the last full week of the holidays began, and Harry settled in for the long haul, went to bed, and dreamed with a smile of the days to come when he would be back at Hogwarts, waiting for his next great adventure to begin.

<-=-+-=->

Coming Soon

Chapter 10

Siege at Kings Cross