Harry stood in the middle of the classroom that belonged to April. No one would have thought it was a classroom any more. There were a few sofas and comfy chairs around the room and in the corner was a small piano a little bit away from the fireplace and the room was decorated quite tastefully. All in all when Harry had first entered the room he thought he had just entered another house's common room and was about to turn back when April came out of a door on the other side of the room.
"Harry, you can put you bag just over there." April said pointing her wand at a chair. Harry threw his bag onto the chair and got out his wand. Harry stood opposite April and looked around curiously. He could see a few photos around the room but from where he was standing he couldn't see the occupants.
"Now Harry I want you to close your eyes." April said quietly. Harry did as he was told nervously. "Now try and empty your mind of all your thoughts. Occlumency is all about emptying the mind of emotion so that the Ligilimen can not find any emotional ties. In order to do this you must completely empty your mind of all thoughts and emotions" Harry started trying to clear his mind. He knew that he wasn't with Snape to learn Occlumency but he still felt very hesitant to do so. He heard April pacing around him and then the trickle of water going into a glass. Harry tried to block out the sound and instead a soft angelic voice filled his head.
"Harry, you're not emptying your mind." April said sternly,
"Sorry." Harry said. He took a deep breath and tried to empty his mind again. He screwed up his face slightly as he tried to empty his mind of thoughts. Suddenly he felt his mind reach a sort of limbo when he didn't feel anything.
"Very good, Harry" April said sounding proud. Her voice brought him back out of the limbo in his mind and he opened his eyes. April was smiling at him proudly, she was also holding a glass of water.
"Was that it?" Harry asked.
"Yes it was."
"How did you know?" Harry asked curiously. April shrugged,
"I've picked up many skills over the past fifteen years." April said. "No do you want to try and clear your head again or do you feel up to me trying to get into your mind?" Harry thought for a while.
"I think I can have ago at the mind thing but last time it weakened my mind." Harry said. April smiled and put her glass down and picked up her wand.
"Ready?" April asked, "On the count of three you try and block me entering your mind. You can use any spells you want." Harry lifted his wand hesitantly. "One, two three-" Harry felt a familiar sensation of someone breaking into his mind. He was on the grounds of Hogwarts surrounded by dememntors…flying after the snitch in the pouring rain and seeing Sirius as Padfoot standing by the forbidden forest…Harry and Voldemort duelling each other as figures came out of the end of Voldemort's wand. Harry let out a shout and the memories stopped. He looked at April. She was slightly pale but other then that she looked as though nothing special had happened.
"Well done" April said shakily. She picked up the glass of water and took a sip quickly and picked up a bar of chocolate. She broke a piece off and gave it to Harry. He ate it and April lifted her wand again.
"Ok, we'll do it again. This time when I break into your mind I want you to try and block out the memories and for Merlin's sake please try and avoid letting me see anything to do with your parents or Sirius"
"Why?" Harry asked. April took a sharp breath. Harry had seen the way Sirius and April had acted around each other when they were at Grimmauld place. April always seemed awkward around Sirius and Sirius just tried to avoid April.
"As you know Sirius and I were engaged and he cheated on me with my school friend. Then when he killed Peter we had just gotten back together. As for your parents, I think Jenny's told you about that." April said, "Now get ready. One, two-" The door opened and Jenny ran in holding a letter.
"Mum, oh sorry." Jenny stopped. Harry and April looked around at Jenny. "Can I watch?" Jenny asked.
"No you may not now, Jenny, what do you have to say?"
"Letter from Uncle Remus" Jenny said giving her the letter. She turned to Harry and gave her a smile and left the room. Harry watched her and smiled as she left. April put the letter down and turned to Harry
"Harry!" April snapped. Harry turned. "Ready." Harry lifted his wand. "On, two, three-" Harry was sitting across the table to Hermione in Grimmauld place…Ron, Hermione and Harry were all watching Jenny play the piano and singing…Jenny just now. Harry opened his eyes and saw April smiling slightly. "You can go Harry." She said happily. Harry looked at her confused and picked up his bag.
"Is that all?" He asked
"Yes, please practice emptying your mind when you have the chance, it's best if it's before you go to sleep but if you have to you can come down here to practice." April said. She turned and picked up the letter and started to open it.
"Thank you." Harry said before leaving the room. He actually felt happier then he usually did when he came out of Snape's Occlumency lessons. Harry put his wand in his bag and headed towards the common room.
"How was the lesson?" Hermione asked as Harry sat down.
"It was ok," Harry said, "Better then Snape's lessons." Harry started getting his homework out, he knew he had to do his homework quickly or it would just pile up and it had been bad last year when he was studying for OWLs, who knew what it would be like this year.
"Hey, any news on when the next quidditch practice is?" Ron asked.
"I haven't been able to speak to Katie yet but lets just say next Monday, I'll speak to Katie later." Harry said opening up his textbook. Ron was working his way through Grout's essay that was due in the next day.
"So, what exactly did Grout say was the best course of action?" Ron muttered.
"You should know, Ron." Hermione said,
"He isn't the one who's faced the giant." Harry said, Ron looked at Hermione with a 'so there' face.
"So?"
"Look it up in your text book, it's what it's there for." Hermione said as she finished her arithmancy work.
"Why? You know it all anyway so why spend hours looking it up when you know it anyway?" Ron asked. Harry tried to stifle a laugh but Hermione looked at him offended.
"Is that all you think I am? A walking encyclopaedia?" Hermione asked.
"A what?" Ron asked.
"It's a muggle thing." Harry said quickly, "Hermione, you know he didn't mean it like that." Hermione didn't look convinced. She got up and went to her dorm room. Harry sighed and looked at Ron slightly annoyed.
"What?" Ron asked.
"You know how she's like." Harry said to him.
"Sorry it's just that-oh, never mind." Ron laboured on with his essay.
* * * *
The weeks seemed to melt into each other and before anyone knew it was October. It turned out that Jenny was more then skilled on a broom, it just seemed to be part of her. She owned a nimbus three thousand, the new Nimbus broom but it still wasn't as good as Harry's firebolt but it was very good. Harry watched amazed during one practice as the three chasers sped down the pitch towards Ron, who was watching them carefully.
"Harry!" shouted Andrew Kirke. Harry turned and did a roll in mid air as a Bludger sped past him where his head had been seconds before.
"Sorry!" Jack Sloper said. Harry sighed and watched Andrew chase the bludger. He turned again and looked for the snitch he was supposed to be catching. Katie looked up at him and waved her hand. Harry dived towards her and cut in front of the chasers, they all dispersed quickly and Ginny started swearing at him.
"It might happen in a match and you have to be prepared if it does happen." Katie said coming to a stop next to Harry.
"Heads up!" Jack shouted as a bludger made the three chasers and seeker fly away quickly.
"Will you two get control of the Bludger!" Katie shouted at them and flew off towards them. Harry laughed.
"So yeah," Harry said trying to continue Katie's small speech, "You have to think of things to do if someone stops in front of you, the first team we play is Ravenclaw." Harry said with a frown. "And Katie's told me that their team will be hard to beat this year."
"Don't worry, we can take them on any day." Jenny said enthusiastically.
"Well actually, we would be ok if our beaters could actually aim properly and if our keeper learnt to actually save a couple of goals every so often." Ginny said.
"Ron's really good." Harry said. He saw the golden snitch heading towards them and then dart off to the side. "Hang on a second." Harry said not taking his eyes off the snitch. He darted after the snitch and caught it seconds before it started to change directions. Harry turned his broom and went back to Ginny and Jenny.
"Ok, what were we talking about?" Harry asked.
"Ron." Jenny said.
"Oh yeah, I'll fill in for Katie while she's sorting out the beaters if you want." Harry said. Ginny and Jenny smiled and Ginny passed the Quaffle to Harry. Ron was back to attention and the two girls began doing some tricks that Katie had taught them and almost got the quaffle past Ron. He spun and hit the quaffle with his broom so it flew half way across the pitch. He grinned as Jenny zoomed off to get it and came back and he blocked the attempt to score again. There was a scream and they all turned to see Katie on the verge of hitting Jack with his own club.
"Yeah, our beaters are really getting better." Ginny said sarcastically, smirking at Harry. Jenny giggled and followed Ron and Harry to go and stop Katie from killing their beater.
~*~*~*~
A/N:- What do you think?
