'Hi Tom. Just finished class.'

'Hello Ginny. How have you been today?'

'Not good Tom, I had an accident broomriding practice. I slid off my broom and fell on the ground on my back with my bottom up. So embarrassing! It was all because I was trying to help Loony Lovegood, she's so clumsy. Urgh!'

'I'm sure it's not her fault.'

'No, but she can never fly right. She's strange too. She doesn't know how to talk to people; she just goes from one subject or another. Nobody in our year even likes her. She doesn't have any friends. '

'That's a bit harsh. Maybe she just needs someone to give her guidance.'

'Yeah, I guess I am too harsh on her. Anyway, I was wondering if you knew how I could make a boy like me?'

'I suggest being nice but there isn't really anything else I can suggest.'

'It's just that I really like this boy called Dean Thomas. He's a few months older than me and is in the same class as my brother Ron and Harry Evans.'

'I suppose that being nice to him works and hopefully he likes you back. You're a nice girl. I'm sure he'll like you. Hey, can I ask you to help me with something?'

'What is it, Tom? Just tell me and I will do it.'

'I'll show you. I'll help you do it.'

The next thing Ginny could remember was lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She had no idea what had occurred, only that it was dark outside and the other girls in her dorm were asleep. She began to shake and her breathing was shallow. Her hands felt sticky, so she ran to the bathroom. There was blood on her hands. Ginny washed her hands three times to get all of the blood off and then five times more. She then went back to her dorm. She didn't sleep that night.

"I have to painstakingly remind you that I will not tolerate any talking, wand waving or other kinds of foolishness in my class. On another note, I appreciate that some of you understand by now that as you are now in second year and that the work will be harder. However, some of you have not. I will also not tolerate deliberately sloppy work…"

Severus stood at the front of his second year Gryffindor-Slytherin class returning the student's assignments with a flick of his wand, he was not impressed but that wasn't anything unusual. Most of the class had managed to write reasonable essays or else nothing out of the ordinary. He returned every essay except for Harry's.

"Harry Evans, your essay on Moonstone properties was mediocre. Detention after dinner at 7pm."

The whole class gasped, Harry never did poorly on assignments and he was top of nearly all of their classes. Detention after dinner was usually for serious misconduct.

Harry's eyes widened in exasperation, "But sir, its Halloween tonight, the feast -"

"Silence, I will explain the faults in your essay in detail at 7pm. Class, turn to page 31 of your next text. We will be making Honeysuckle Cough Remedy today."

Harry slumped in his chair, he felt disappointed. He knew that he had worked hard on that essay. Hermione had received Exceeds Expectations which was a good score for a Gryffindor to get from Snape.

Severus wasn't concerned about what Harry was thinking, not now, for the boy would discover the truth at night. What he was going to do would never be approved by Dumbledore but he wasn't concerned about that. After thinking about the previous year's bad events and knowing the boy would be facing more danger in the future, Severus had made a decision. He didn't care about the consequences as far as the old man was concerned but he was not going to let Harry go on not being able to defend himself. Lily and the boy always came before his duty to Dumbledore.

Halloween feast was as grand and magnificent as it had been last year. The people of the magical world really did celebrate the holiday like it was purely self-dedication to their own kind. Everything sweet treat was delectable and extravagantly made (except for the cockroach crunch, which to Harry's disgust was actually made out of real cockroaches). Harry made an effort to smuggle as many sweets as he could as possible.

"I'm sure he can't get away with this Harry," Hermione said, taking another mouthful of steak, "Giving a student detention on Halloween is just cruel."

Harry signed, "He just did."

"I can't imagine what you did wrong on that essay," Ron said with a shrug, "I did mine two hours before and I got an Acceptable. I didn't care. Hey, have either of seen Ginny? She's been acting odd all of a sudden."

Hermione shook her head, "No, Ron we haven't seen her."

Harry didn't know what to say but just shook his head and ate the rest of his pumpkin and spice cupcake in silence. He knew for sure that Snape was not telling him something important. He still had no real idea what it was. Maybe Dumbledore had ordered Snape to look after him.

At quarter to six he said goodbye to his friends and stopped delaying the inevidable. He walked down to the dungeon without a word and avoided the glances of Slytherins mocking him for receiving a night detention. He knocked on Snape's quarters.

"Come in."

The room that Harry found himself in was bigger than he had anticipated. There was greenish light coming from the ceiling and he noticed that the ceiling was merely water from the Great Lake held back by magic. The second thing he noticed was the scattering of books and papers around the room. There was little walking space. At a desk in the left side of the room, Snape was scratching a piece of parchment with his quill. Snape turned around, on his face was a smug look. He pointed to Harry and then a pile of books, Harry sat on the books without complaint.

"You gave me detention for my essay." Harry said.

Snape flicked his wand; a few papers flew onto Harry's lap. It was his moonstone properties essay and there was a 'O' for Outstanding marked on it.

Harry became angry, "If you wanted me to come, you didn't need to humiliate me in front of the whole class. I worked really hard on that essay."

Snape shrugged, "Being nice would have appeared out of character. Anyway, if I need to make an emergency meeting with you, I will give you another night detention for a mundane reason so don't take it personally. Otherwise, I must let you know that the next meeting is on Sunday afternoon at three. Your essay isn't the real reason I summoned you here. I must tell you Harry that you must never speak of this meeting or any of the others afterwards. Not even to Dumbledore himself."

"Based upon what has happened the previous year, it has come to Dumbledore's attention based upon that you may need extra lessons for self-protection," Snape began in his usual drawling tone, "For a start, Dumbledore wants you learn to control the visions you are having. True seers are quite rare but not unheard of and their abilities are usually uncontrollable.

"I will teach you the art of Occlumency, which is act of magically closing one's mind against Legilimency or in other words what muggles might consider 'mind-reading'. However, legimency might be better understood as navigating through the many layers of a person's mind and correctly interpreting one's findings. The mind is not a like a book with pages but a vast collection of information that is vastly interconnected. Many legilimens find that the ease or difficulty of interpreting another's mind depends upon an individual's personality and intelligence. Some people's minds are like simple children's drawings and others like vast collections of imaginative stories or mathematical equations. You may even come across the rare individual whom you will find that trying to interpret their thoughts is like trying to figure out what the number eight smells like. There are many people whose thoughts may appear alien."

Harry was confounded, "Is occlumency and legilimency taught at Hogwarts?"

"No, nor is it written in any book," Snape said with a slight smirk, "Only those lucky enough to taught such skills know how to use it."

"Can Voldemort use legilimency?"

"He can use it to rip your mind in shreds until there is nothing left. Now let me continue - Occlumency is a way of creating a barrier against a legilimens or in your case, invading and unwanted unconcious thoughts. It involves clearing your mind. I believe that in time you will be able to control your seer abilities. More advanced Occlumency involves suppressing only the thoughts, emotions, and memories that would contradict whatever it is an Occlumens wishes a Legilimens to believe; hence, it is not obvious that Occlumency is being used even if the person is lying. But that will be for another time, much later when you are old enough to understand it. Now, we must begin today's lesson in Occlumency, learning how to clear the mind…"

At nine thirty, Harry left the dungeon to make his way back to the Gryffindor common room. Harry was kind of perplexed; he had spent a whole lesson trying to attack Snape with minor spells. If Harry had not successfully cleared his mind, Snape could easily block him. As of such, Harry had only managed to him Snape successfully once. He had walked out of the dungeon with mind blanking exercises to be performed before bed.

Suddenly, he began to hear a hissing voice and for a moment, the sound of something slithering:

'I must eat. I smell blood. I smell human children, what a delight! Kill. Kill. Kill.'

Harry began to panic and he began to run back to the common room as fast as he could.

Then he heard another voice, this one was definitely human, "Harry! Harry! Harry!"

He turned around to see Luna standing in the hall, with her hands wringing about her turnip necklace.

"Go back to the Ravenclaw common room, Luna." He told her, "It's not safe."

She shook her head, "I'm too scared to walk by myself anymore. I can hear evil voices and they say awful things. I must really be as loony as everyone says I am."

"No, Luna." Harry came closer to her and grabbed her by the shoulders, "I can hear them too. I can help you get back but we must avoid the voices. Whatever is making them is no friend to us."

Luna nodded and together they ran.

"We must pass through the second floor." Luna said as they ran, "The other entrance into the Ravenclaw tower is blocked."

As soon as they had reached the second floor, they knew something had happened. There was a crowd of students and the floor was soaking wet.

"It must be water from the girls' bathroom," Luna said to him.

In the distance, Harry could hear McGonagall's shouting voice, "Stand away! Prefects- lead all your students back into the common rooms. I want you all gone in three seconds!"

Before being taken away by Percy, they got a good glance of the hall. Filch's cat, Mrs Norris hung from a torch bracket, stiff as a board. As much as Harry disliked Filch, it was cruel for anyone to hurt his beloved cat. However, more concerning was the red writing on the wall. The way it dripped made Harry know it was written in blood. 'THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE!'

"Thank goodness we weren't the first people to find it," Harry said, "You better follow your prefect."

Luna nodded, "Thanks for helping me."

"It's ok; I'll see you again tomorrow."

In the distance, Harry could hear a voice: "Enemies of the heir, beware. You'll be next, mudbloods!"

He turned around to see Draco Malfoy looking directly at him.

A/N: Thank you for the reviews, follows and favourites. Don't hesitate to tell me what you think. Good, indifferent or bad.