Hey all! Sorry for making you wait a long time again...real life is hectic! But to make up for it, I wrote an extra few pages onto this chapter and a few fun surprises:)

Enjoy!


Chapter 11: Apologies and Gratitude


He was dreading going to Charms...fortunately, it was the perfect class to have discussions you didn't want anyone else hearing. Even if you got a little loud, no one would notice, because there was so much other commotion going on in the room that it just blended in. They had had many conversations in this class. Harry just didn't want this one to happen.

Ron and Hermione had seemed to sense his reluctance and clung to him like glue when they left lunch, so there was no chance of him ducking out into the crowds of students buzzing up and down the hallways.

Professor Flitwick gave the same speech as all the other teachers about N.E.W.T level classes and their importance, ending with the announcement that they would spend the first few days of class reviewing all the Charms spells they had learned so far.

"Everything you need is already waiting for you on your tables, so let's begin, shall we?" he said cheerfully, sitting down at his desk.

"Thank Merlin there's no Slytherins in this class at least..." Ron muttered as he and Hermione practically shoved Harry to the table in the farthest end of the room.

"Yes, speaking of Slytherins...so what prompted this sudden friendship with Malfoy, of all people?" Hermione asked, her mouth twisting in distaste at his name.

"I told you, he's not as bad as he seemed in the past and he's helped me out," Harry said irritably.

"But you're fraternizing with the enemy!"

"Oh shut up Ron, you accused Hermione of the same thing when she dated Viktor Krum, so don't even try that with me," he snapped.

"Yes, but still Harry, how can you forgive him for all those awful things he's done? Just like they never happened?" Hermione demanded, her face pink at the mention of her former boyfriend.

"He apologized," Harry said simply. "He knew he was being a git and apologized for everything, he wants to start over now that his father isn't breathing down his neck anymore."

"So now he's had a complete change of heart since you put his father in Azkaban? You just bought that rubbish and accepted his apology?" Ron scowled darkly. "Even though he tries to humiliate us every chance he gets, he's always mocking my family, and calls Hermione a- a- Mudblood!"

"Like I could just forget all that," he replied with a heavy sigh. "Can't you just trust my instincts on this like you do everything else?"

Hermione changed subjects tactfully. "All right, so say we accept it," she interrupted before Ron could retort. "What happened last night then?"

"Yeah, if you're such great friends with that git, then why'd you go and burn him?" Ron asked, carefully curbing his sarcasm.

"It was an accident...I don't even know what happened, I fainted," Harry answered honestly, looking confused. "I went to Dumbledore's office because Snape wanted to discuss our Occlumency lessons and Professor Malfoy offered to help me if I wanted her to outside class. I was just so angry thinking about everything that's been going on, then I ran into D- Malfoy and I fainted. He said I was glowing green and that when he touched me, the green energy burnt him. He stayed with me until I woke up and helped me back to the common room, where we ran into you two. That's all."

For a moment he felt guilty about leaving out the part in the Room of Requirement, but judging by the expressions on his friends' faces, they didn't need to hear about his nightmare. Especially since the thought of him glowing with green energy while he was angry was concerning enough as it was, he didn't even consider how they would react to that.

"You were surrounded by energy? I don't think I've read anything about wizards doing that...Why didn't you go straight back to Dumbledore and tell him about it?" Hermione said sharply.

"Well it wasn't exactly the first thing that popped into my head when I woke up, I just knew I felt like shit and wanted to get back to the Tower before curfew," he snapped. "Besides, I wouldn't even have noticed if I hadn't run into Malfoy."

"But Harry, this could be something serious! I mean really, you have a history of things exploding or blowing up magically without your wand whenever you get too angry or emotional," she responded worriedly. "And now that we're in our sixth year and have almost fully developed our magical powers, what if you get mad like that again and something worse than burning someone's hand happens?"

"Fine, whatever, I'll talk to Dumbledore later," Harry sighed, throwing his arms up in mock defeat. "Are you guys happy now?"

"I suppose...but that still doesn't mean I'm going to like Malfoy," Ron grimaced. "Just because he apologized to -you- doesn't make it any different."

"I never said you had change your opinions about him."

"SO! When do you start your lessons with Professor Snape again?" Hermione intervened once more.

"Tonight." Harry looked like he swallowed a giant lemon. "We're continuing with our Monday night scheduling."

"I know Monday is the worse day of the week, but honestly," Ron quipped, mirroring his distasteful expression. "Not only do you have to deal with Double Potions, but now a double dose of Snape."

"I really don't want to think about it right now...So what are we doing?..."

Dinner that night was an interesting affair. For the second time since Draco had made him smile the night before, Harry actually felt something other than self-agonizing guilt or anger or depression. He was extremely uneasy about how his resuming lessons with Snape were going to pan out, and with no small reason considering the rather violent way their last one ended. With his heightened nerves he had the wild paranoid thought several times that the Potions master was trying to bore holes through him just by glaring at him malevolently, and thus made it difficult to properly eat his meal.

"Oh Harry, stop being so melodramatic," Hermione admonished in exasperation when he glanced skittishly up at the staff table for the thirtieth time. "It's not like you're going to burst into flames by him just looking at you."

"I give him an Outstanding for effort though," Ron offered unhelpfully, then suddenly glanced over to the other side of the Great Hall. "He's not the only one who's got interest in the back of your head, Malfoy's keeps staring over here rather hard too. I've caught him twice doing it."

Harry let his eyes drift casually over to the Slytherin table just in time to see Draco turn his head away at Ron's glower and continue picking at his plate. Soon, people started filing out to head back for their common rooms and he realized he was about to face his doom...again.

"I'll see you guys later," he waved Ron and Hermione off as they split at the Great Hall entrance, the other two going off for Gryffindor Tower as he followed clumps of Slytherins into the dungeons.

He let his feet drag along the stone floor as slowly as possible, but he still managed to get to Snape's office sooner than he was ready to. The door flew open when he reached for the doorknob, causing him to jump back as Snape and Draco came out.

"Thank you-" They both stopped at the sight of Harry. Draco looked pale and drawn but he mustered up a half smirk. "Hello, Potter."

"Malfoy," he said with false stiffness.

"See you later, thanks again Professor," the blonde glanced between his Head of House and his former rival before vanishing off down the hall.

"Come on, Potter we don't have all night to waste if you're going to be back in the Tower by curfew," Snape sneered.

"Spare me the lovely sarcasm, Professor," Harry replied dryly. "So tell me why you insist on doing this when the last time you were swearing we'd never have another lesson while hurling jars of pickled goo at me."

"I should think our show in the Ministry of Magic just a scant few months ago is reason enough," he said smoothly, shutting the door and replacing all the charms and spells over it. "That and I...want to apologize."

Harry stared at the Potions master in shock. Did Snape just say he wanted to apologize to HIM of all people? This was definitely strange. "A-apologize for what?" he asked, dumbfounded.

"You know that I was the one who told Voldemort about your prophecy," Snape answered bluntly, turning slightly green at what he was about to confess. "But that was then and this is now, and if I could change it, I would. I may have hated your father and his friends, however, he didn't deserve what the Dark Lord did to him and his family because of a little school rivalry."

If he was stunned before, that was nothing compared to now. Harry had tried very hard to forget what Dumbledore had said at the end of last year, which wasn't too difficult given he had Sirius occupying his mind. He had gone into a self-righteous blow up, yelling and ranting at the Headmaster...but Dumbledore had told him the exact same thing Snape just admitted to him.

His initial reaction was to vent out at the Potions master, though that little voice in the back of head that had him trusting Draco Malfoy despite their wretched past was telling him that the greasy haired man in front of him was trying to be sincere. This move to help him again even though Harry had peeked into his memories in the Pensieve was a way of asking for forgiveness, between both of them.

And now he was waiting for Harry to respond.

"I don't blame you, and I'm sure my parents and...Sirius don't either. Things change, right?" he asked with a sigh that seemed to come from the very depths of his soul. "I'll put more effort into learning Occlumency and try not to let you down this time."

Snape gave him the deep look that Harry always associated with wanting to set him on fire without a wand, when really he was seeing how irrevocably damaged the teenager was by the burden his past mistake had caused. When the boy first came to Hogwarts looking so much like his loathsome father, he did nothing to keep himself from using Harry as a verbal punching bag, trying to make him miserable. He at least could do something to remedy his mistakes, and Harry had more than proved he wasn't his father, no matter how much they looked alike.

"Good, now that we're finally on the same page," Snape said, resuming his normal, peevish air. "And don't think that I'm going to treat you any different in class because of our...discussion."

"I don't care, I have to do the same thing M-" Harry shut his mouth instantly, his face flushing. "Never mind, let's just get started with our lesson."

He narrowed his dark eyes suspiciously but he allowed it to slide. "Fine, let's begin. Now, you remember what I told before about Occlumency?"

"Occlumency is the -fine-, -subtle- art of blocking out certain memories and emotions-"

"Haha, funny Potter," Snape interrupted Harry's dry imitation of what he had said during their first lesson. "At least I know you were paying attention. If it helps, think of using Occlumency as a wall to block the invading person out. If you're trying to cover up the memories and emotions to be able to look someone in the eye and believably lie to them, envision those memories and emotions being hidden in a box, out of sight and out of mind."

"I think I can manage that."

They cleared away the chairs and pushed his desk back up against the wall to create an open space. Snape held his wand at the ready and smirked at Harry. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah."

"Legilimens!"

Harry sucked in a breath and imagined Snape's magic as an army of Death Eaters storming onto Hogwarts grounds, then the gargoyle flanked walls shooting up out of the ground to stop them in their path. It seemed to work at first; the magic hit him and Snape's office stayed in perfect focus, though in his second of elation about doing it right, his guard dropped.

Everything swam out of focus but before any memories surfaced, the Potions master ended the spell. "That was an improvement. If you hadn't let your guard down, you might have had a chance to block me out. Too bad I wasn't using full power," he sneered again.

"You really infuriate me, you know that Professor?" Harry glared irritably.

"Good, now once more- Legilimens!"

He tried to picture something bigger than a Death Eater attack. A gigantic tidal wave about to crash over all of England that was being blocked by an even bigger wall of ice. He set ever fiber of his mind against the wave as it drilled harder and harder into the wall, he could outwardly feel the sweat beginning to trickle down his brow and making his unruly hair cling to his face. Harry wasn't about to accede to Snape's onslaught and gave another mental push with his glacial wall.

"Potter!"

Harry snapped back to reality as the Potions master abruptly ended the spell again, ice encasing his wand arm. "Honestly, you're going to have to control your emotions and use of retaliatory magic while blocking others out of your mind," he said waspishly, vanishing the offending ice. "You're lucky this is just a lesson, the Dark Lord or any other enemy would not hesitate to kill you if you let your emotions get the better of you and blasted them with some crazy spell trying to fight them. You leave yourself completely vulnerable to attack, even if it is the briefest of moments."

"Yeah well, I kept you out didn't I? You were pushing pretty hard for someone who's not using full power," Harry drawled in response. At Snape's menacing glare, he amended hastily, "All right, I'll try to control myself next time!"

"You won't -try-, Potter, you -will-," he growled dangerously.

"Okay, I swear! Shall we go again?"

"No, we don't have long enough before curfew and Merlin forbid you be allowed to break it for being the precious Golden Boy," Snape gave him another sneer. "Although you did show a nice bit of improvement, hopefully it will carry over into your abysmal potion brewing."

"Did you just compliment me in your own maddening way? Don't go soft on me now, Professor," Harry replied with a sickeningly sweet tone.

"Go on! Get out of here!"

He didn't have to tell him twice, Harry was out of the Potions master's office in a heartbeat and into the dimly lit corridor. His head was swimming and smarting from the effort of keeping Snape out now that his adrenaline rush had died, all he wanted was to crawl into bed and sleep it off. It was, without a doubt, going to be extremely difficult, everyone in the whole bloody Wizarding world knew how rash and emotion-driven he was, and now he was being told to control him emotions and restrain himself from the last person he wanted to hear it from.

Unfortunately for Harry, he knew he had to listen to Snape's orders to properly become a virtuoso at Occlumency. Maybe he could coax the oily man into teaching him Legilimency too; it couldn't be hard once he learned Occlumency.

Harry nearly flew out of his skin as a voice suddenly erupted out of the shadows from an adjacent hallway. "You're still down here lurking in the dungeons?"

"I just left Snape's office," he replied irritably. "I swear, I think you're stalking me Malfoy."

The blonde smirked, falling into step with the Gryffindor. "You wish. You're the one wandering around in -my- domain."

"So what? Am I supposed to drop to the floor and kiss your feet in my unworthiness?" Harry asked dryly, massaging the bridge of his nose in a vain attempt in warding off his migraine.

"Well, I -am- a prefect..." Draco said haughtily, running a hand through his long hair but he desisted quickly. "So what's bothering you?"

"Nothing really, I'm just exhausted from our lesson."

"You're not still taking Remedial Potions, are you?" he asked incredulously, then leered lecherously. "Or is there something else going on between you and our favorite Potions master?"

Harry mock gagged. "That's vile! No, I'm not shagging Snape! Nor am I taking Remedial Potions either, and I wasn't last year...it was just our cover story. I may not be the best at Potions, but I wasn't that horrible."

"You could have fooled me," Draco responded slyly. He stopped briefly, glancing around the hall for any other people. "Can I ask you something? Something...important."

"Sure."

"I'm serious, I'm risking a lot here," the blonde said, his face turning into a pained grimace suddenly.

"I've told you a few things about me, I think I can keep a few of yours secret too," Harry said supportively, waiting patiently.

Draco gave another, slightly nervous, glimpse around. "Do you think that I would be protected if I went to Dumbledore? I want as far away from my father and his life as possible, I've been speaking with Snape about finding a place to stay...I don't want to be one of the Dark Lord's slaves," he looked positively anxious now. "I want to save myself and my mother."

Harry felt a wave of warm compassion towards the Slytherin and gripped his shoulders in a reassuring way. "As much as the old man irks me to no end, I don't doubt that Dumbledore would do anything in his power to help you. With your mum being a professor here now, she already has a load of protection just being a staff member," he paused thoughtfully. "If Snape can't find you a place, I think I can help you there. I just have to clear it with Dumbledore first, but I don't think he'll have a problem with it."

'And if he does, he can bugger off. I own Grimmauld Place now.'

"You'd do that for me?" Draco asked, unable to stifle the hope out of his voice.

"Of course I will, I don't make empty promises."

"Yeah...it's just a bit difficult to trust people, though you know that pretty well yourself, right?" he said, shifting uncomfortably. "So what great talent other than his brilliant potion making is Snape imparting onto you?"

"Occlumency," Harry sighed, once more reminded of his throbbing head and continued walking. "And it sucks."

"I bet, that's highly advanced magic you're working with," Draco replied, acting nonchalant despite his inward surprise. What other skills were they going to drill into him before he was even a full fledged wizard? As if the guy didn't have enough stress in his life, now he's expected to take loads of extra lessons on top of it?

"I noticed," he remarked wryly. "I can't keep him out of my head without blasting him with a curse, usually rather nasty ones at that."

"I'm sure he enjoys it immensely," the blonde said, amused.

"If you call threatening to hex me into oblivion enjoyment."

They came to the stairs that led up into the entrance hall and stopped again.

"I have to go back to my common room now... there are times that I really hate being a Prefect," Draco lamented dolefully, then did something extremely rare- he smiled a genuine, albeit awkward, smile. "Thank you for hearing me out."

"I'll do whatever I can, I promise," Harry smiled back then went up the staircase with a wave and vanished into the entrance hall.


Oh no! Slytherins going soft on us! Haha...j/k.

Review and makes this authoress' day! I'm already started on the next chapter so you won't have to wait so long:)