Hi there. This is my first no-pairing story and I'm damn proud of this because this is the first time I have written a chapter this long. Please enjoy! I placed an easter egg at the start of it. (My first use of it)

!Warning!: Some vulgar language, Good!DarkSide, Evil!Dumbledore

Childish Tantrum

Chapter "1": Childish (Prologue)

"Harry, this is ridiculous -while I approve of this- your reasoning is so childish!"

Harry was currently going through the 'number one' Occlumency book in the Restricted Section.

"Why? I finally learning something, Hermione. Willingly. Wasn't that what you wanted since our first year? Why does it matter that I do it to break Voldemort's mind?"
"People don't gain knowledge to bother others, Harry!"

"They do," He said, his face disbelieving. "Voldemort does, Snape does, Malfoy does; hell, even Muggles do! Haven't you seen those villains in the telly? Face it, Herm, people often do things to disturb some poor guy's eternal peace. I'm just doing it to a Dark Lord who named himself after a French phrase." She blinked slowly.

"Wait, French... What?"
"You know that Professor Dumbledore and I meet occasionally every year, right?" Hermione nodded as she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "He said that Voldemort meant 'Flight Of Death' in French."
"Ah, that's... terribly coincidental." Harry huffed, his eyes regaining the irritated look he had lost during the conversation. He began to drum his fingers on the cover of 'Forbidden Practices Encyclopedia.' "If Voldemort wants to screw up my mind, he better get ready to get his screwed up in return."

"But Harry!" Hermione interjected. "He is way ahead of you! How in Merlin's name do you expect to be his equal in Legilimency, when he has years of experience over you? Not to mention his mind is impenetrable! Even Headmaster Dumbledore can't use mind magic on him!" Harry scowled and averted his eyes.

"I don't know." He told her. Just as she was about to criticise him again he continued, "But I know that I can do anything if I put my mind to it. After all, I survived the Killing Curse, how difficult can this be compared to that?"

"Apparently very difficult." Harry spoke to himself in the old library.

To attempt Occlumency, one needed to 'clear their mind' and then 'throw the intruder out of their mindscape by mere will power.' But that was the problem. Even the best owl-ordered books didn't explain what the person who practiced Occlumency needed to do to clear their mind.

'Shit, this is just a dead-end street. No book has what I need.'

What was he missing?

Just as he was about to dive through the massive mountain of mind magic books, he heard a shout addressed to him and an aggressive shushing whisper -Probably from Librarian Pince-. When he turned his head to look at the disturbance from among the dusty pile, what he first noticed was orange.

"Ron? What're you doing here?" He asked quizzically. Why would Ron visit the library?

The answer came almost instantly. 'Hermione must have told him to.'

"Hermione said that you were hanging out with books in here since Friday night."He flopped down on the seat next to him and began going through his pockets until his freckled hand was thrust into Harry's face, holding a shiny purple and gold wrapper. "I brought you chocolate frogs." Harry snatched the treat and gave Ron a crooked grin, "Thanks mate." Then he began telling his tale: the lessons with Snape, the visions of the narrow corridor with that single door, the pain in his scar, everything. And, of course, his current predicament.

"I don't know what I'm doing wrong," He was saying. "I've tried everything! But every book has the same thing Snape said: 'clear your mind'. What the bloody hell does that mean? None of the books will tell me!"

"Hey buddy," Ron interrupted him while munching on his share of chocolate. "You know what I think?" He inquired, fanning himself with a copy of 'Mind Shield 101 For Dummies' using one hand. "What?"

"You should loosen up and burn those books if they agitate you that much." Harry raised a brow in a similar fashion to his Potions' Professor.

"Wow, Ron, 'agitate' is such a big word, where'd you learn it?" His ginger-haired friend frowned and playfully punched his shoulder.

"I'm serious though, if the books don't have what you need, you just gotta do it your way. They don't write these to teach you, right? You don' need to do anything they say." Harry was speechless against his best friend's momentary wisdom. It was very unlike Ron to give others sensible advice instead of receiving it.

"Thanks." He simply responded.

Harry was attempting Legilimency without eye-contact.

He couldn't drive Voldemort mad if he had to look into the slimy snake's eyes all the time. And anyway, hadn't he read Harry's mind in his first year through a turban without his wand? That meant it could be done both wandlessly and without eye-contact, right?

Well, it didn't matter. Harry had to do it even if it was impossible.

His guinea pig (He didn't mean it as a pun) was Ron for the time being. But for some reason, no matter what he did, he couldn't intrude upon his mind. It made the situation even degrading because Ron didn't have a miniscule amount of Occlumency skill.

"Come on, Harry," He whined as Harry threw himself to the fluffy red-gold sofa. "You gotta think simple. You're making everything harder by thinking too hard."

"How in blazes am I making it harder?" He asked him, incredulous.

"Well, uh..." Ron sat beside him. "The manual tells you to... send a beam or some shit like that, yeah?"

"Yeah?"

"Say, what would happen if you sent that beam with your wand and then put it down?"

"Ron, you aren't making any sense, that beam would dissolve the moment I let go of the wand."

"What are you two doing?"

Both of them turned their heads to the door and saw Hermione coming through the Fat Lady's Portrait. "Legilimency doesn't work like that, Ronald. You have to feed that beam a steady flow of magic to make it work. Not only that, but if you don't keep the amount balanced, it won't work at all and the connection will collapse." She lectured with her hands on her hips. Ron jumped on his feet and declared passionately, "Mione! You're a genius!" Pale pink dusted her cheeks and all she could manage to utter was a 'What-' before his dense friend took over and began explaining his outburst.

"I think I know just why Harry sucks at mind reading!" 'Legilimency.' Harry's mind corrected but listened to him anyway. "He's putting too much magic to it! You know, when we started I just thought he wasn't trying enough but he's probably trying too much. You said that the... dunno, beam-connect or somethin', had to be balanced right? It's like medium amount, not too much and not too little, isn't it?" Hermione looked surprised and nodded, "Yes, Ron, it's exactly like that. Did you perhaps hear that from your mother?" His ears reddened as he spoke,

"Yeah. What are we gonna do now, though? Harry, mate, what're you gonna do?"

Harry rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. Hermione -God bless her-, seeing that he was in a tight spot, swiftly saved him. "You need to familiarize yourself with the feel of magic." She told him. "When you do and when you try Legilimency after that, I'M sure it will come to you a lot easier."

So began the magical variation of 'Harry-Hunting'.

Did you like it? I hope you did cause I had to spend all my spare time from homework to write this. Have you found the reference? It was pretty subtle, though...

See you next time! I'll be popping in occasionaly!

-Int.