Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: I guess I forget to mention this before, but I'm going to be updating this story every week on Mondays. Oh, and I also wanted to add that I pretty much like cannon relationship, which I'm basically talking about Harry and Ginny . . . I won't say more than that it's a big part of the story. Also, some of you asked about Draco and how involved he would be in this story. The truth is not much, though I'll probably have some times when he's featured. However, I'm going to go through this story as mostly Harry perspective, though Ron, Hermione and the others will have their chapters too.

Thanks to SingularityStar, who is my beta for this story.

Chapter Two

At Grimmauld Place

Harry woke up with his scar prickling. He had the dream about walking through an unknown corridor again, and he realized that whatever it was, it was from Voldemort's mind. He didn't get out of his bed right away. The last two nights, or what felt like two nights, he had been somewhere he couldn't feel Voldemort's presence at all. That had been a welcome change. Though the things in the book made him uncomfortable, not having his scar hurt had allowed him to sleep in peace.

Now, as the pain started to dull, his mind wandered to the fact that he never wanted to think about. He now knew the reason why his scar hurt … why and how he was connected to Voldemort and the thought made him sick. He knew that the pain in his scar would always make him think about this, and there was nothing he could do to change that.

"You awake, Harry?" Ron asked in a whisper.

Part of him wanted to ignore Ron, but he mumbled, "Yeah."

"Happy Christmas!" Ron replied, beaming at his friend.

"Oh … that's right, it's Christmas!" Harry sat up and smiled back at his friend. He couldn't help but smile when Ron was in a good mood. He then added with a knowing look, "I don't remember you coming back last night …"

"Er …" Ron said, blushing slightly as a goofy grin spread across his face, "Hermione had a few things she wanted to talk to me about …"

"I'm sure she did," Harry chuckled. "Did you get anything good this year?" he continued, changing the subject.

"Yeah … thanks for the gloves," Ron said holding up the gift that Harry had given him. "But Hermione gave me a homework planner …"

"Well, that's very festive," Harry said, opening his own presents and noticing that he had received the same thing from Hermione. "It's her passive-aggressive way of telling us to work harder."

"I didn't know there was anything passive about her," Ron chuckled. "But something tells me I'm not going to be using this."

Harry chuckled at this as he finished opening his presents. He really liked the books that Remus and Sirius had given him, knowing that he would put them to good use. Then there was the traditional Weasley sweater, of course. Although he had received one every year since he had started at Hogwarts, this year it felt different; he felt more connected, knowing that they really did consider him part of their family.

As they made their way out of the kitchen to have breakfast, they ran into Hermione and Ginny. The latter smiled at them before she continued on her way; Harry could tell that she didn't want to be near him. He felt like an idiot for what he had done, but he was honestly confused by all that he was feeling and he wanted to be truthful with her. He noticed Hermione giving him a look that told him that she knew everything he had told Ginny, which much made him even more uncomfortable, but luckily, she didn't mention anything.

"Thanks for the book, Harry. How did you know I wanted New Theory of Numerology?" Hermione asked, smiling at him.

"I heard you mention it once or twice," Harry shrugged, aware that Ron was grimacing at him.

"Ron, the perfume you gave me was … unusual," Hermione added and Ron blushed, not sure if that was a good thing or not. "I like it."

"Really!" Ron said smiling.

"Well, it's not something I would have chosen myself …" Hermione started, causing the smile to fall from his face. "But it reminds me of you … I really like that."

"I'm not sure what that really means, but something tells me I should just let it go," Ron said looking confused as he moved to get closer to her. "Hmm … are you wearing it now?"

"Yes."

Ron's grinned broadly at that and he leaned in to kiss her, marveling at the fact that he was allowed to do that whenever he wanted now.

"Well, that's my cue to leave," Harry mumbled, starting to make his way downstairs.

Hermione chuckled, and pulled away from Ron, "Come on, let's get some breakfast."

"Fine," Ron said. Still smiling, he took Hermione's hand and they followed their friend down the stairs. They were all surprised to see that Percy was in the kitchen. Of course, they had forgiven him for his lapse of judgment, but that didn't mean they thought that he would come here so soon.

"What are you doing here?" Ron asked.

"Always the sensitive one, aren't you Ron?" George said.

"Doesn't that make you want to reconsider, Hermione?" Fred added.

"No," Hermione answered simply, rolling her eyes.

"It's Christmas, I wanted to spend it with the family," Percy answered his youngest brother like he hadn't heard the others talking. "Besides, I wanted to tell Remus everything that I know about Fudge as of right now …"

"It's very useful having a spy in Fudge's confidence," Remus pointed out.

"Just remember Perce, you can't let Fudge suspect you," Bill said to his brother.

"I know," Percy rolled his eyes. "He's well aware that I'm a Weasley … but I know how to deal with that …"

"Just keep acting like an overachieving arse," Fred suggested.

Percy glared at him before he replied, "Pretty much."

"It's going to take awhile to get use to this new Percy," George 'whispered' to his twin.

"Okay, that's enough talk about that," Molly said, putting breakfast on the table. "It's Christmas!"

The breakfast really was nice, and they were able to enjoy the holiday without worrying (too much) about the war. That evening, they went to visit Arthur at the hospital, though, of course, Percy wasn't allowed to go (it would look too suspicious) and it was a nice ending to the day.

O

Again Harry woke up with his scar hurting, again seeing the corridor. This wasn't exactly how he wanted to wake up every day, but something told him he didn't have much of a choice.

"'Morning, Ron," Harry said, as he noticed his friend getting dressed. "Lessons with Remus today, eh?"

"Yeah... that's something I'm looking forward to," Ron grimaced. "I'm pretty sure that I shouldn't be learning this right now … I think it would be better if you're the only one that does it."

"Honestly, I would like it better with you doing it too," Harry said. "It might not be as important … but it's nice not to have to do something on my own for a change."

"You just don't want your head to be the only one picked at," Ron grumbled and Harry shrugged. They made their way down to the kitchen for a nice meal before they had to get to work.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed Remus to the sitting room, where they were joined by Bill and Sirius. Harry wasn't sure why the others were there, but he listened to what Remus had to say.

"I've been thinking about this for the last day and I thought that it would be best if we worked one on one," Remus said, noticing Harry's (and Hermione's) curious looks. "Harry, I'll be teaching you Occlumency. Sirius will be … trying to teach Ron …"

"What do you mean trying?" Sirius glared at him.

"And Bill will be working with Hermione," Remus continued, ignoring Sirius. "Harry, I think it's best if we go somewhere more private."

Harry nodded his head, and they went to the room that Remus was staying in. "The first thing I want to ask is if you understand what Occlumency and Legilimency are?"

"Er..." Harry said, and then told Remus everything he understood about those branches of magic, which admittedly wasn't much. Remus seemed to think it was enough, however.

"You seem to have a good understanding of this," Remus smiled, "however, as I'm sure you've realized by now, the connection you have with Voldemort is different than anything we've seen before."

"I know," Harry said bitterly, moving his hand unconsciously to his scar.

Remus grimaced at his reaction; he could see that Harry was really bothered by that fact. "I didn't mean it like that... I was just trying to stress the importance for you to control your emotions."

"Remus … how am I supposed to do that?" Harry frowned. "Especially when I think about the fact that he's a part of me …"

Remus was silent for a long time, thinking about how to answer that. "Just remember who you are Harry, what you've done. He doesn't have anything to do with the person you've become, Harry … the part of his soul in you has never had an effect on who you are … so don't let it start now."

Harry smiled at him, but said, "Ignorance is bliss."

"True," Remus allowed, "but that doesn't mean we can't get to work on Occlumency."

"Let's start then," Harry agreed.

"As I have seen from your thoughts Harry, you see me as being level headed," Remus said, "always in control of my emotions … or almost always …" he mumbled the last part when he remembered how he had reacted to the thought of his son and when he was being born.

"Yes," Harry nodded his head, but was looking at Remus curiously.

"It wasn't always that way. Right after I became a werewolf, everything in my life changed," Remus continued. "I had a shorter fuse … it was so easy to get angry that I knew I had to work on controlling myself. It wasn't easy, but luckily by the time I got to Hogwarts I had made some real progress, otherwise I probably would have strangled James and Sirius …" he added with a wistful smile. "But my point is that I think that's what you have to work on most, controlling your temper …"

Harry grimaced at this. "That's easier said than done."

"I know," Remus agreed, "but as soon as you have control over your anger … it will be easier to control your other emotions. That is the key to learning Occlumency."

O

"I didn't know that you knew how to do Occlumency," Hermione said to Bill as the others left.

"It's actually a very useful tool when working with goblins," Bill said. "Of course they can't use Legilimency, but they are very good at reading faces... it's difficult to hide things from them."

Hermione nodded her head to what Bill was saying, it made sense. "And you know Legilimency too?"

"Yes, it made sense to learn Legilimency as well," Bill said. "I was the best out of all the cursebreakers in Egypt."

"What an accomplishment," Hermione smiled at him.

"It really is," Bill chuckled. "But to get the point, Remus and I agreed that I would be the best to work with you because of the way that I was taught. As you know, we are hoping that you'll master the skills enough that you can continue to work with Harry until he has better control over his Occlumency. So we really need you to learn Legilimency, but at the same time, you have to know how Occlumency works. Considering that I, too, learned these techniques at the same time, I should be able to help you."

"That sounds good to me," Hermione smiled. "What do we do first?"

"First of all, we're going to start by understanding both techniques," Bill said, pulling out a book and Hermione smiled at that. "It's important for you to understand how the techniques work together and how they work separately."

O

"Do you really know what you're doing?" Ron asked Sirius as they sat in his room.

"Yes," Sirius scowled. "I don't know how to do Legilimency … but I know about Occlumency."

Ron wasn't reassured by this, not really sure that Sirius would be able to help him, but he felt it would be good to try. After all, if Hermione was going to learn how to read minds, or whatever Legilimency was, he'd better know how to close his off.

Sirius told Ron everything he knew about Occlumency. Ron had no idea if it was helping at all, but at least he could understand what Sirius was saying. Sirius had a way with his words that made him confident that he could do this.

O

"How did it go?" Ron asked Harry as they sat down on his bed. They had both spent a good portion of the day trying to control their emotions.

"Remus taught me mediating techniques," Harry said. "Ways to calm down quickly. He said that as soon as I have control of my anger, I'll be able to control all my other emotions."

Ron grimaced. "I'm glad I'm not working with Remus... I doubt I could control my anger."

Harry chuckled. "It is difficult, but I can see that his methods work. How's it working with Sirius?"

"Good … er … I think," Ron said. "No one is actually poking around in my head yet, so I can't be sure."

"I know what you mean," Harry said. "I wonder how Hermione is doing."

"She's probably mastered both techniques by now," Ron said.

"Nervous about her reading your mind?" Harry questioned.

"Yeah … she already knows pretty much everything … I don't need her to know my whims, too," Ron frowned.

"I doubt she would read your mind," Harry said. "Especially if she knew that you didn't want her to."

"That might be true, but something tells me she's going to be dying to know what I'm thinking at some point … it's got to be tempting just to take a peek," Ron pointed out and Harry nodded his head.

"You're right … that is tempting."

"Hermione!" Ron said looking at the door. She had come up to tell them it was time for dinner.

"Sorry … I didn't mean to scare you," Hermione said, her lips twitching in amusement.

Ron disregarded that comment, "How was your lesson, Hermione?"

"I just read all day," Hermione said.

"So a perfect day for you then," Harry teased her and she narrowed her eyes at him, before turning back to Ron.

"Are you really worried that I would use Legilimency against you?" she asked.

"I know I confuse you a lot of the time …" Ron trailed off, noticing that Hermione had an almost hurt expression on.

"I wouldn't do that to you," Hermione responded. "No matter how curious I am, I promise I would never us Legilimency on you … you have my word."

"Hmph …" Ron smiled, but was thoughtful at the same time. "You can use it on me sometimes, if I say you can."

Hermione's eyebrows furrowed. "Why would you want me to use it?"

"Er … well … I'm not always good at saying how I'm feeling," Ron said rubbing the back of his head. "Things would be a lot easier if you could just know."

Hermione smiled at that. "Okay Ron. Oh … and I'm here to get you guys for dinner."

"Argh … why didn't you say that sooner?" Ron groaned and left the room.

"So, how are you really doing, Hermione?" Harry asked. As he made to follow Ron he noticed that she was frowning.

"What makes you think something's wrong?" Hermione asked defensively.

"Because I know you," Harry answered. "You just look worried."

Hermione sighed, "It's going to take a lot to master both techniques … and then they're hoping that I will be able to help you … but if I can't master it in time … I'm going to let everyone down …"

"Mione," Harry said exasperated. "I can't speak for anyone else, but you will never let me down … especially not because you can't master something that isn't even taught at school."

Hermione gave him a weak smile, "Thanks Harry … that helps."

"Anytime Mione … er … do you mind me calling you that?" Harry asked.

"I guess not," Hermione replied, smiling slightly. She had liked that only Ron had called her that, but at the same time, it felt right for Harry to use it too.

Harry smiled and then they walked down the stairs to join the rest of the people there. There were actually a lot of people there today since Tonks, Kingsley, and Mad-Eye had joined them. Harry was sure that they were planning on having that meeting tonight after dinner and he was wondering if they would be allowed to hear what was going on or not.

After dinner, a lot of the other Order members showed up and Harry was pleased and slightly surprised when he and his friends were included in this meeting. He had half expected the adults to keep him from being involved, but they all seemed to accept him and the others being there. He didn't really say anything during this meeting, mostly because he knew he wouldn't be involved in any of this. It was still interesting to hear how a meeting worked, watching Dumbledore tell everyone what they were planning on doing.

He had expected most of the meeting to cover what they had discovered in the books, and more specifically about the Horcruxes. However, the brunt of the meeting was about what the order was doing right now and other typical things like that. Harry figured that Dumbledore probably was going to talk to the selected few that either already knew or he decided he could trust with the truth. That was probably why he had asked Kinsley and Mad-Eye to stay behind. He was a little upset that he didn't get to hear about that part of the meeting too, but after everything else that happened today, he decided to let it go.