The following morning Harry was up and dressed by 7.00 am as he was used to being up at this time to cook breakfast for his rather formidable family anyway. He paused, unsure of what to do. Surely Snape wouldn't want to see me down this early, breakfast isn't for another half hour! He grumbled silently to himself. Opting to explore his surroundings, Harry took off with a brisk pace and left the room quietly. He left through his door and walked out onto the landing which revealed a series of other doors leading into different rooms. Ignoring these for fear of being murdered, (possibly in the literal sense!) by his hated potions master, Harry went down the flight of stairs to the lower landing and was just about to open a door there when...
"POTTER!" yelled Snape angrily, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING SNOOPING AROUND MY HOUSE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION? YOU ARROGANT BRATT!" he finished, his voice thundering throughout the house. Arms folded and his eyebrow arched as he waited for an answer, he watched the boy in front of him mumbling pathetically to come to some sort of coherent excuse.
Harry gave up and just looked at the floor, mumbling "sorry, I thought it was a library.."
"No Potter, it is NOT a library, but an old, disused cupboard, however that being so you will not attempt to enter any door without my say-so, I'm afraid that there are some rooms which would be deemed as unsafe." Snape finished smoothly "Furthermore you will address me as Sir at all times. Damn Potter, always has to go poking his stupid nose in everything that doesn't concern him. It would be just my luck if he died on my watch as well.. probably do it just to spite me. Snape thought half-heartedly. Well at least the night's sleep did him well, he does look rested. "Potter, are you in any discomfort today?" Snape enquired as politely as he could manage.
"No Sir, thanks. Everything seems to have healed up fine..." Harry trailed off, a hint of embarrassment tinted his words.
Snape nodded in acknowledgement, choosing to ignore Harry's obvious embarrassment. He threw a sharp look in Harry's direction, turned around on his heel and walked out of the room with Harry following nervously behind. They both entered the sitting room in which they had vacated yesterday and quickly took their seats awaiting for the house elf Poppy to place their steaming hot bowls of oatmeal in front of them. "Now Potter," Snape spoke suddenly making Harry flinch which he ignored. "As it is Friday, we shall proceed immediately to our first Occlumency lesson." he finished off briskly.
Harry glanced at the man and quickly looked down, he was embarrassed at himself for flinching but could not think of anything much to say to his professor so he settled for a quiet "yes, Sir." and looked back down at his food. After 20 minutes of spooning his oatmeal around and Snape glaring down at him wordlessly, Snape stood up and led Harry to another room down the corridor. This, Harry decided was not going to be fun.
"Now Potter, seeing as this is a lesson in which you must have your wand, I suppose you can have it back ONLY for this lesson, however I will require you to hand it back to me at the end until tomorrow." Snape finished smoothly, handing Harry his wand who in turn took it wordlessly.
Unable to believe his luck, Harry felt the familiar sensation of his wand warming his very being as he grasped it.
"Now Potter, turn to face me and try to think of something or somewhere that you feel safest in. Picture it very clearly and hold it within your mind. I will attempt to break into your mind meanwhile and you shall do your best to repel me in whichever you feel is best." Snape stated, business like. "Ready? One, Two, Three.. Legilimens!" Maybe I can find out more about the boy's childhood... thought Snape as he delved deep into Harry's mind.
All Harry could do was stand there, feeling appalled at the stream of memories he was being forced to re-live. He did not even have time to prepare himself. *He was cleaning dishes in his Aunt and Uncle's home when he was seven*. *He was following the house elf Dobby into his Aunt's kitchen*. *He was being growled at by his "Aunt" Marge's dog, Ripper when he was four*. How to make it stop? Harry thought desperately. Suddenly, he found himself on the floor in the large room panting heavily, he glared up from under his fringe at Snape who had just withdrew out of Harry's mind.
"To whom did the dog belong to, Potter?" Snape questioned smoothly.
"My Aunt Marge, she.. Ripper liked to growl at me" replied Harry frowning at his shoes, embarrassment clearly written on his face.
"Very well, Again!" said Snape with a hint of amusement in his voice. "And this time Potter, do try to put up some form of fight, it's like dropping into the mind of a baby." he added as a further insult. "Legilimens!" he cried out. He fell into Harry's mind quickly and headed through the many memories, all of which hinted at a hard family life but none of which would explain why he had found Potter in the state he had the other day. Again he pulled out of the stupid boy's head and rubbing his eyes, decided to end the stupid task for that day. He could see he would not find anything this way. "Potter, kindly get up off of my floor and hand me your wand. Clearly this is pointless until you at least do some research upon the subject. Therefore I expect you to go to the library, pick a few books on the subject and retire to your room to read them until lunch, then do the same after lunch and again before bed. You will do no good on the subject until you have some form of understanding to work with."
"Yes Sir," Harry replied quietly. Extracting himself off of the cold floor he handed his wand back into his Professor's outstretched hand and quietly went up to the library. It was a large, round room with a large window that looked out onto the grounds. It was open and had a light and airy atmosphere within it of calm and relaxation. Harry decided immediately that this was his favourite room aside from his own. Hurrying to get some books from the many shelves, he went back to his room in which he spent the rest of the morning lost in different descriptions of how to do occlumency. He still didn't feel much better about the subject of it and after lunch, he retired once again to his room to carry on reading about how to repel a legilimens. The rest of the day passed in a similar fashion and by the time both student and professor retired to bed, Harry had finished the first two books.
