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Chapter 7

The room became smaller and smaller. There was nowhere to go. Taking deep breaths, his lungs filled with cleaner scented air and dust. Nothing left to do, he pushed against the walls. He pushed and pushed. Until there was a crack, then two.

Severus barely dipped into Potter's next memory before pulling himself back.

"You're moving too slowly," He told the boy gasping on the floor below. "You have to be quicker. I have been teaching you using a fraction of the power the Dark Lord will. Every second he is in your mind is a second too long. "

Potter nodded, taking in a few more breaths before shakily getting to his feet. Severus waited until the boy had both feet firmly planted.

"Keep me out!"

Again he was in the cupboard. Severus quickly checked for visible gaps in the walls, under the doors. Good. He pushed firmly against weak spots that had been there before and they held firm. He would be satisfied if he weren't still here. If Potter was putting in a decent effort to eject him from his mind.

With the skill of an excellent legilimens, Severus once again made himself an opening. Driving is psyche down, battering against the floorboards. They gave away unexpectedly quickly and Severus found himself in Hogwarts.

They'd played this game over and over Severus barged into doors, recognizing Potter's signature by now on areas the boy wanted him to go into and avoiding them. He witnessed scenes of neglect, of a victorious Potter on a quidditch field, of Potter in classes. Things he'd already seen over and over these weeks.

Severus avoided the mind trying to herd him out for several more memories before withdrawing himself.

"That was pathetic, Potter." Severus sneered. "You haven't improved even the slightest."

"I'm sorry sir," Potter breathed harshly, one hand gripping his head. "I'll work harder."

"I don't want you to work harder," Severus snapped. "I want you to work effectively. You should be so proficient in occlumency that it should take you no effort at all to completely hide your mind from mine."

"Yes, sir."

"Clear your mind before you sleep, Potter."

"I do, sir."

"Obviously not often enough." Taking a look at the still shaking form, he growled. "Stay."

Not two minutes later, he returned with two potions. The boy had stood up and was now seated on the chair they'd started this lesson on. Annoyed, Severus thrust the first vial forwards. "Drink, this Potter."

"What is it?" Potter asked, eyeing the vial with caution, but he took it.

"Put some of those refined skills to the test." Severus crossed his arms, "unless you want to admit that the only thing carrying your marks thus far is being partnered with Mr. Malfoy."

Frowning, Potter held up the vial to the light and then unstoppered it. Before he could bring the glass near his face, Severus couldn't help but hiss.

"Has five years in my class taught you nothing?" Potter looked unsurely at the vial and then at Severus a few times before he seemed to have gotten a clue. What an idiot. Severus kept himself from pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation, but only just.

"A pain draught." Potter said after wafting the scent towards him, he glanced at Severus for the professor's confirming nod before swigging it down.

"And this."

Potter swished the pale green potion around, checking the viscosity, and then smelled it.

"A… a nutrient potion?"

"Are you asking or telling me?"

Potter stiffened, "telling you, sir. We made it last year and Madame Pomfrey gives them to me, sometimes."

It was an easy enough potion to identify. It smelled like apples and tasted similar as well.

"Well," Severus snapped. "Drink."

"But… why, sir?" Potter asked, but he did do as he was told.

"Potter, I know that this is going to be difficult for your pea-sized brain, especially as you've been starving it of all nutrition." Severus banished to two empty vials to the sink and wondered why he, of all people, had to be the one to talk about eating habits. "I don't care if you are skipping meals to make yourself thinner, either to be attractive or to better fly on that ridiculous broom. Stop it. There is no point teaching you how to shield your mind when you haven't given your body the fuel it needs to fight intruders. By now you know where the kitchens are and there is at least one of the servile creatures there that dotes on you. Get something there if you choose not to eat in the great hall. And Potter, if you ever come to my class or this tutoring session again without having eating something, you'll be scrubbing cauldrons and writing essays for Madame Pomfrey on nutrition. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir." Potter was looking a bit dazed.

"Then get out." There was no point continuing on today and Severus certainly didn't want to have the brat around. When the boy left, Severus contemplated what to do. It was only seven o'clock. And he was neither on supervision tonight, nor on tomorrow's duty roster for Hogsmeade (the one concession he'd gotten from the headmaster in return for teaching the boy occlumency again).

Manually scrubbing down the vials (magic left residue that could ruin more sensitive potions) he stared at them for a minute after placing them on the drying rack. Poppy had been giving the boy nutrient potions. It wasn't something they often had a lot of call for and it had an extremely long shelf life, so he hadn't made any more this year. She was probably running low.

Grumbling about idiot boys starving themselves to death and ruining his first decent Friday off in weeks, Severus headed to his private lab.

Harry locked his jaw and wrinkled his nose in an effort to keep Moody from seeing he was yawning. It was seven in the morning and he'd been here since five. After Snape's weird lessons last night, Harry had managed to spend a little time with Ron and the other boys in his dorm. It was fun. Harry had gotten another shipment for the twins containing the new candies they're working on and the year-six gryffindor boys spent hours testing them out.

Harry just wished he'd gone to sleep a little earlier and managed to get up in time to sneak some breakfast before he had to be out with Moody. They'd spent the last two hours testing Harry's memory of the spells he'd been learning since this summer. He'd done well. Obsessively reading over an ever-growing list every night meant he didn't forget more than one. And that one had been pretty useless overall.

"That was pathetic, Potter."

Oh be still my heart, a compliment. Harry wondered if there was a special 'how to be a bastard' course that Moody took. Or maybe he taught it. Because even Snape gave credit where it was due. Mostly. Snapes' 'decent' was equivalent to anyone else's 'outstanding'. And you knew if your potion was especially good, because he had you bottle the whole thing if it was something useful like a cleaner or medical potion.

"Bet you wish you could join your little friends on their shopping trip, don't ya?" Yes. He definitely taught the class.

Harry shrugged. There was no point denying it when it was true.

"I'll tell you what," Moody smirked. "We'll stop here today. If you beat me properly in a duel."

"Stop? I can go to Hogsmeade?"

"If you beat me, we'll be done for the day." Moody agreed.

There was a trick in there somewhere. He knew it. He just didn't know what the trick was. Harry nodded anyways and got into position. It didn't matter anyways. He would have to duel Moody either way.

There was no point starting small, either. Especially if Moody was serious about giving Harry the rest of the day off.

"Confringo!" Moody's real eye widened a bit as he knocked the blast aside. The wall behind him burst into flames. It would go out soon, but the heat would be a slight distraction to the auror.

Moody sent a streak of purple flames, Harry recognized as the hidden agony curse. It destroyed organs without breaking the skin. Pomfrey needed days before she'd gotten him sorted the one time he'd gotten hit with it.

"Expulsio!" Harry yelled, quickly followed by "Avis and Oppugno!" Birds shot out of his wand to dive bomb Moody even as he blocked Harry's first curse. Moody's favourite shield didn't do well against alive organisms. Harry didn't have time to revel in Moody's screech as one actually managed to pop his mechanical eye out of its socket, because the man promptly sent an entrail-expelling curse.

"Picapermoveo!" Ravens shot out this time, aiming for anything shiny. Harry didn't let the sight of their scattered remains bother him, sending a conjunctivitis curse.

"Birds again, boy?" Moody sneered. Sending a silent stunner.

Harry barely paid attention to the weak spell, attention on Moody.

"Reducto!"

"Furnunculus!"

"Incarcerous!"

Harry waited for the ropes to come close to him before casting

"Funisadanguis!" And the spell turned back on it's caster, snakes hissing and biting at Moody.

Sadly they didn't even get very close before Moody killed them off with a blasting curse.

"Reducto!" Harry shouted, quickly followed by "expeliarmus!" and another "Reducto!"

He kept pushing and pushing. He gave the old auror no rest. No time to think. Still, he knew it would only last so long. Moody was powerful and he had stamina. On top of that Harry had been performing spell after spell for two hours already.

"Percutio." He sent a percussion hex but wasn't surprised when it rebounded.

"Peremptum!" Moody slashed a bright white, destructive flash and Harry didn't even try to block it, just dodge as far out of the way as possble. There was a new window, showing the next classroom.

"Letumanus." A hit. Moodies face went white with pain as his right hand shrivelled up. He just managed to transfer his wand to the left before it hardened into an impossible knot of dead flesh. And now Moody was in pain… and mad.

"Epiraediumdeflamma!"

Even now Harry thought that the spell looked impressive. Unfortunately for Moody, Harry had also injured the man's right arm before and knew he had significantly less control over the firewhip with his left. Moody put it himself without even coming near Harry.

"Tergum." Harry had a plan developed, now that Moody was injured and limited to spells that used less control. He just needed to egg him into..

"Exustio!"

There it was. The fire curse that had caught Harry so many times.

"Plumbeusmare." A thick wall of water erupted in front of him. Upon contact Moody's curse caused steam to richochet back and blast the man off his feet. But he wasn't done. "Lodicula."

The remaining water wrapped around Moody. A leaden blanket made of water, forced him to remain on the ground. Where he might have avoided the stunning hex.

"Well?" Harry demanded. "Well?"

Moody struggled for a minute, maybe two before nodding his head.

"Let me up. The match is yours."

"Exalant." The binding water turned to mist and evaporated within seconds.

Harry didn't offer to help the man up. At best it would be refused, at worst the man would do something and Harry would be in pain. It only has to happen once for Harry to learn his lesson.

He breathed out, his limbs felt like jelly. He'd won. Won. Harry had managed to fight the man to a standstill before, mostly out of luck than anything. But he'd won today. He was done.

"I knew you were holding back."

Harry's elation abruptly drained. "I wasn't sir."

"No?" Moody quirked an eyebrow, the empty socket beside it gaping open horrendously. "Then how do you explain this?"

"I've been studying water charms, sir. For class. You haven't used any fire hexes this week."

"A likely story." Moody bend and picked up his mechanical eye. "What are you luffing about for? Clean this place up."

Harry was quick to do so. The bodies of his birds and snakes were banished. As magical constructs, the blood went with them. It took more time to repair the walls, which were damaged badly, especially the giant hole. But Moody had Harry learn this summer. And Harry began the arduous task of rebuilding the walls and layering the protective spells on top of them. In his periferal vision, he could see his instructor transfigure a chair and sit, drinking heavily from his hip flask.

When he was done, he looked to Moody who only scowled at him.

"Well." He growled. "Get to it? Outside. I want twenty laps around the lake."

Harry knew he shouldn't argue. He knew there was no point.

"But sir." He had to try. "You said-"

"I know what I said, boy." Moody's lips twisted into a cruel smirk. "We're done for the day. Done duelling. It's time to work on your physical preparedness, boy."

He'd known better. He'd known it was a trick. It didn't make him any less disapointed as he ran down the steps.

Moody came out around his fourth lap, probably stopped to pick up something to eat, judging by the sandwich in his hand, as well as more booze. After running he swam. Forcing his aching arms to move himself throug the water. Fighting the current that was surprisingly strong even this close to shore.

Even then he wasn't done. Moody spurred him on for jumping jacks and weird flexibility drills with stinging hexes when he moved too slowly.

"I suppose that's enough for the day." Moody nudged Harry's prone body with the toe of his boot. "That was pathetic Potter. Even my green recruits do better."

Harry wasn't even a recruit, much less a green one.

"Learn the spells in chapters six through nine."

That got him up.

"Sir," Harry protested. "By tomorrow? There's no way I can do that. That's going to be atleast eight spells, probably more."

"Oh I know." Moody said. "It's punishment, Potter. For holding back before today. Learn them or you know the consequences. I'll be having a word with the headmaster abou this as well.

What could he do? There wasn't any choices here. There weren't any options. He just had to try as hard as he could, knowing that he would be punished tomorrow anyway. Just like Moody intended.

…..

Harry just barely managed to drag himself down for supper. The sight and smell of so much food when he hadn't eaten anything today and barely a few morsels yesterday made him nausious.

Ron wasn't helping either. The redhead had drizzled some sort of red sauce all over his chicken and was talking and chewing at the same time.

"You should have see it Harry," the boy was mumbling between bites. "Neville was awesome."

"Yeah?" Harry turned to Neville, anything to stop looking at the red bits of flesh being ground up.

"It wasn't anything." Nevilled shrugged. "Justin was just being a prat."

"He was having a go at you." Ron added. "Kept on about how you think you're too good for us now that you went up against You-know-who."

"Oh." Harry shrugged. Justin Finch-Fletchley was a prat, and he was always the first one to insult you when your back was turned or to your face. "What did you do?"

"He was being so loud about all the reading he'd done this summer," Neville rolled his eyes. "So I duelled him."

"Knocked him back in five seconds flat, mate." Ron crowed, accidentally spilling his cup. Neville smiled, looking a bit proud. "Harry, you gotta see the stuff we got at Hogsmeade, mate. It's awesome."

Harry felt like he had at the beginning of the year, when Ron and Hermione told him about their great summers. Jelous. Here they were having the time of their lives while he was being worked to death and feeling so sick that he could barely keep down the small portion of steamed vegetables and rice he'd scooped for himself.

When Ron started in on a piece of ham, Harry couldn't take it anymore. Giving up on the rest of his food, he grabbed his bag. "I gotta go study."

"Harry!"

Ron caught up to him just outside of the great hall. Hermione was with him.

"What's up with you?" Ron yelled, "here we are, trying to make you feal better about being stuck here all day and you just up and leave."

"I'm sorry, Ron." Harry sighed. "I'm just tired. I think I'm coming down with something."

"Whatever." Ron huffed, looking at the door and then back at Harry. Evidently deciding not to go back and finish eating. "You headed to the common room?"

"No," Harry adjusted his bag. "The library. I gotta study."

"Harry," Hermione rolled her eyes. "You can't be studying like this all the time. It's ridiculous to say so."

"I am studying." Harry couldn't help but snap. "Moody gave me a whole crap load of stuff to learn for tomorrow."

"He barely assigns any homework in class." Ron snapped back. "Stop lying about how much work you've got. We don't believe you anymore."

"Lying?" Harry laughed. "I'm lying. I'm the one that's lying? Where do you get off? Why would I lie about something like that?"

"We don't know," Hermione said, eyes narrowed on Harry's face. "Why would you?"

"You know what?" Harry was too tired for this and he had too much work to do. "I'm done. Really. Believe what you want."

He was done.

….

Harry didn't know what he'd done to earn a reprieve. But Moody didn't do anything when Harry came back to him the next morning, only having managed to successfully learn and cast six of the ten spells in those chapters.

They didn't even duel. Moody ran him through his physical routine, a less intensive one than the day before and sat him down to go over tactics for a few hours. By eleven he let him go.

Harry still didn't understand until he was at lunch and an elf popped by with a message to go see the headmaster.

Great.

Harry made his way up to the headmaster's office. He didn't even need to knock on the door before hearing a soft "Come in Harry."

Harry looked around, noting that there were a few more things to look at since he'd been here last. Harry ignored the chair and went over to Fawkes, giving the phoenix a bit of a scratch at the base of his neck he knew the bird had trouble reaching.

"He's been missing you, I think. You haven't visited."

Harry flushed, when the phoenix added in a reprimanding little trill and head butted Harry's hand. Murmuring his apologies, Harry spent a few minutes getting the good spots before the headmaster pulled out a file from his desk.

"Come sit, Harry. Lemon drop?"

"No thank-you sir." Harry eyed the file. "Is that about me, sir?"

"Yes, indeed Harry. It is." Dumbledore adjusted his spectacles as he opened it and glanced at the papers inside. "Your quarterly marks, to be precise."

"And?"

"Most of it is quite impressive Harry."

Harry winced. Before he began his training, the headmaster had emphasized that Harry needed to have a good grasp of the basics. That included all of his Hogwarts' classes. Training with Moody was contingent on performing well in school.

"I have been working hard, sir."

Dumbledore hummed, flicking through some of the papers. "You've done quite well in Runes, Exceeding Expectations and Outstanding in both Potions and Charms. Very well done, Harry."

"Thank-you, sir." Harry had to admit that he'd been working ridiculously hard in both classes. Since defence used a specific branch of charms, Harry had come to the conclusion that being better at them, in general, would help him. It did. He'd always been pretty quick at picking up spells in defence, but there was no way he could have kept up with Moody's demands last year. Working with Malfoy was mostly responsible for his marks in that class. And with runes, he was just desperate not to get a detention.

"You also have Exceeds Expectations in transfigurations, healing, defence against the dark arts and creatures. And an acceptable in history of magic." This time Dumbledore did not sound particularly pleased. Harry waited as Dumbledore closed the file and sat back. "Harry, you've done quite well. Especially after all we've thrown at you."

Harry didn't say anything, knowing that there was a giant BUT to follow.

"However," close enough, "I wonder if we are expecting too much."

Harry swallowed. "What do you mean, sir?"

"That perhaps all this additional training is too much. Perhaps we should stop now."

Part of Harry wanted to agree. He was tired. Tired of lack of sleep. Tired of getting hurt all the time. Tired of never having time to spend with his friends. "May I ask why, sir?"

"Exceeds Expectations is a very decent grade. But we must look at this in terms of what you are understanding. A mark of eight out ten means that there are two questions you do not know the correct answer to. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"It is imperative that you understand the basics of magic, including our history, Harry."

"I have been studying, sir." Harry couldn't help but protest. "I know the answers, I do. Even in history. If B- if Professor Binns gave us anything else than essay questions on our tests, I would do loads better, I promise." He sucked at essays. Really he did. Most of his points lost were from grammar or spelling errors. Those he could correct if they were something to hand in and most teachers didn't care so much if it was a test. But Binns didn't care about that and he usually didn't bother with essays, just essay exams and quizzes.

"And you have been doing well. I know that Professor Moody is a difficult taskmaster. But why, with all this additional training, are you unable to maintain Outstanding in his class? It doesn't stand to reason, Harry. And Professor McGonagall is reasonably upset that you haven't been maintaining your previously solid Outstanding in her class as well."

That, Harry couldn't answer. He didn't know why he wasn't doing as well in McGonagall or Moody's classes. He didn't understand what they wanted. He performed the spells they wanted. He got all the information down needed for his essays and double checked his spelling and grammar. Maybe it's because he wasn't half copying off Hermione anymore? With Moody, he was pretty sure the man was just being vindictive.

"So," Dumbledore leaned forwards. "This is where we stand, Harry. Will you try harder to learn what we need you to? And do we need to stop the additional training with Professor Moody?"

This was it. His chance to stop. All he had to say was yes.

"No," Harry just couldn't do it. He couldn't let all those people down. The ones who depended on him, the ones he'd already let down. "I'll work harder. I promise."

"That's what I needed to hear." Dumbledore smiled and nodded, as though he'd to another decision as well. "Please come to me, Harry. For whatever reason."

"I will." Harry said, getting up. He felt stiff and even heavier than before. A wrinkled hand appeared before him, helping him up.

"Don't forget Harry," Dumbledore patted the hand and went back to the other side of the desk to sit again. "Friends make these hard times much easier to bear."

Harry thought of his fight with Ron and Hermione last night. And he wondered if that was true.

…..