Harry sighed as he walked down the nearly deserted castle corridor to the door of Professor Snape's classroom. Every time he reached the door and raised his fist to knock he found himself thinking the exact same thing.
Why am I here again?
While he knew perfectly well why he was to be subjected to another hour or so of torturous Occlumency it had never fully sunk in, or rather he could not bring himself to simply accept it. It was Snape he was dealing with after all! Just as he raised his fist to knock again the door creaked open.
"Mr. Potter." He heard the monotonous, condescending voice of the Potions Master before he saw him, sitting behind his desk at the far end of the classroom. Harry silently entered the dark and gloomy domain of the potion's master. The man seemed to be glaring and angry with him already.
"Let us make one thing perfectly clear," Snape said as he rose from his desk. The doors slammed loudly behind Harry as he stepped forward; reminding him of a horror movie he had watched at the Dursley's several summers ago. "I do not want to be here and you do not want to be here. However it is vital to our cause that we suffer one another. If I do not successfully teach you Occlumency Voldemort could not only have unlimited access to all of your thoughts, knowledge, and memories but he could come to possess you, and even worse I will receive one leviathan of a lecture from an irate Dumbledore."
If anyone else had said exactly that Harry would have assumed that they were joking and possibly even laughed it off. However, something told him that Snape was wholly serious.
"So you will be mature and you will not leave this room until your lesson is complete. Agreed?"
"Yes professor." Harry replied weakly. As mature as you'll be.
"Good." Snape replied flatly, that obviously being the last word he truly thought described their situation. He then roughly took Harry by the arms and pulled him back to the other side of the room by his desk. Harry wretched inwardly (and perceptively) at the older man's touch. Snape felt this and rolled as eyes as he positioned the boy on a chair and sat in one across from him. Harry looked down at his feet, wishing he were somewhere else.
"I will now penetrate your mind."
"What?" Harry asked, not quite catching the words of his professor. Before he knew it he felt something similar to being thrown back several feet. Then memories began to swim before his eyes. First he saw when he had met Ron and he tried to impress him by using a spell to turn his pet rat yellow, followed by Aragog, the last thing he saw was a brief glimpse of the Yule Ball.
"You are not even attempting to resist me Mr. Potter."
"I wasn't ready professor. You caught me off guard."
"Of course." Severus replied caustically. "Try again."
This time Harry resisted to the best of his ability and only managed to delay Severus's attack before he hit him full force, walking through a memory of a strange, dopey look Ginny had given him one morning when he had stayed with the Weasley's. When Snape finally relented Harry found himself beyond exhaustion. He collapsed, nearly falling off of his chair.
"Well, at least you are attempting to resist." Snape droned as he looked toward the clearly exhausted Harry. "Shall we try again?"
"Professor I…I…need a rest." Harry moaned quietly.
"Fine Potter, you have five minutes."
Harry only let his head fall over the back of the chair, his body going limp as Snape exited the room.
Snape returned four and a half minutes later to find Harry soundly asleep. He sighed, finding the resemblance between Harry and his belated father eerie. Snape recalled days when James had fallen asleep in class in a similar position. This recollection only fueled his hatred.
"POTTER!" He barked and sent Harry near falling off of his chair, shaking. "Useless boy." He muttered. "Get out."
"What?" Harry asked, semi-dazed and still fighting the lingering effects of sleep and exhaustion.
"You are weak and cannot handle any more today. Return Wednesday." Snape said and Harry stood shakily at first but his emerald eyes blazed with indignation.
"I can handle anything you can give me, Professor." Harry said.
"You are as pale as death and can barely stand. Go back to Gryffindor Tower, Potter." Snape hissed.
"No." Harry replied.
"Listen boy-"
"Not willing to try again Professor?"
The next thing Harry knew he saw Lupin's face, the kind eyes flecked with gold and the frowning lips. He looked clearly upset. Harry looked as if he wanted to burst into tears, but simply couldn't. "Harry, you can tell me." Lupin said, his soft-spoken voice poignant. He wasn't wearing a shirt and he wiped sweat from his forehead, his hair was dripping. The walls and ceiling of the room itself seemed to be sagging due to the torrid summer heat. They were sitting on the edge of a white bed in a fair-sized room. Snape recognized it as Lupin's room in 12 Grimmauld Place.
"Remus-"
"You do trust me, don't you?"
"Remus, it's just that I-"
The older man silenced him by putting his arm around him. Harry sighed miserably. "I just don't know how to tell you in a way that doesn't sound…"
"Doesn't sound what, Harry?" Remus asked gently and Harry seemed to shrink even further into himself.
"Completely…horrible."
And suddenly it stopped as Snape was forced away and out of Harry's mind. Harry nearly collapsed. He was shaking.
"Perhaps you are not entirely encapable after all." Snape said after Harry had stopped shaking. He made no attempt to help him up. The snide professor spoke in such a way that made his compliment sound like complete mockery. "Come back Wednesday."
Harry's eyes suddenly grew wide. "W-Wednesday?"
"Yes Potter, Wednesday." Snape said as he sat back at his desk and began to grade essays. Harry began to walk toward his desk.
"What is it Potter? I dismissed you, in case you have forgotten."
Harry swallowed. "It's just…could I have one more day, Professor?"
"Have you already made prior engagements, Potter?"
"No." Harry replied evenly. "I just need the extra day to rest. You've nearly killed me Sir!" Harry exclaimed.
"Fine, we will reconvene on Friday." Snape replied, hoping that making their lesson on a Friday night would make Harry reconsider.
Harry gasped, almost unable to believe that Snape had actually done him a favor. He nearly smiled but caught himself. Snape gazed at him suspiciously.
"I am watching you Potter and whatever or whomever takes precedence over our lessons: I can promise you that I will uncover it."
"There is nothing prof-"
"Get out, boy." Snape hissed and Harry left the classroom as fast as his legs could take him.
"Not even near fifteen years in Azkaban could change him," Snape mused as he picked up an essay so illegible that he could not even be certain of who wrote it, let alone whether or not it was well written or even what the topic of it was. "Once a dog, always a dog."
Author's Note/Review Reply:
KnowingDivine: I'm doing very sexily. And yourself?
AN: So, yeah. I got these sexy ghetto headphones. They weigh as much as my head, but I don't care beacuse they are amazing.
"Jesus walked into a hotel with some nails and asked "Can you put me up for the night?"
