Chapter 13: Snivellus and Moony

That weekend arrived and he still hadn't heard back from Remus so Harry found Tonks after breakfast on Saturday and asked her if she would be willing to take him to visit Sirius again.

She enthusiastically agreed and the two met an hour later in the headmaster's office to use his floo to St. Mungos.

The visit was an enjoyable one. Sirius was visibly improved by leaps and bounds. He was already starting to fill out from all the nutrient potions, and the wonderful house-elf prepared meals.

His color had returned and his eyes lit up the moment he saw his two guests arrive.

Sirius told Harry that he had already begun to work on the process of gaining guardianship. He had already filled out a mountain of paperwork, and had accessed his family vault at Gringott's, remotely, and sent out some monetary persuasion to a couple ministry officials to keep the proceedings quiet.

Harry told Sirius about his own correspondence with the goblins. They had already sent a goblin out to the Potter beach property and did an initial survey. They had sent Harry the warding specifications and estimates and he had already responded and told them to get started.

He had told the Goblins that Sirius Black was to be keyed into the wards, so they would probably be sending a representative to get a small blood sample from him in the next few days.

Once all the serious business was done and taken care of, the group sat and talked about Hogwarts. Sirius told Harry and Tonks several stories of some of the trouble he had managed to get into over the years and both of them enjoyed the stories thoroughly.

Finally their time ran out and the two had to leave and head back to the school. Harry promised to visit Sirius at the hospital the following weekend, knowing that it would probably be the last weekend that Sirius would be at St. Mungo's, and as such, his last chance for a real visit with him again until the Christmas Holidays.

– – –

The next school week began and Harry finally felt himself slipping into a predictable routine. Hermione joined him every morning for his jogs and exercises. She still had a long way to go, but she learned fast and had the motions down near-perfect by mid week. It was now only a matter of conditioning her body, and that would take more time.

Harry continued to excel in his classes. He would get his transfigurations and charms down perfect within the first few minutes of the practical practice, and spend the rest of the class helping Nevile and Ron. Hermione was catching on quicker and quicker, and she didn't seem to get nearly as frustrated when it took her longer than it took Harry.

She seemed to finally be coming to terms with the fact that Harry had an unfair advantage and it was unreasonable for her to expect the same results from herself. The fact that she got her spells to work before anyone else in the class, appeased her ego to some extent.

That Thursday morning when Hermione came down the stairs she found Harry sitting at the base of the girls stairs waiting for her with a small wrapped package in his lap.

"What have you got there?" she asked, looking at him curiously. Harry just smiled back at her and stood up, handing the package over.

"Happy birthday," was all he said.

Hermione gaped at him for a stunned moment. She hadn't told any of them when her birthday was, not having wanted any of them to make a fuss, but she realized suddenly that it was silly of her to be surprised by this.

Of course Harry would know.She mentally scolded herself and chuckled.

"Oh Harry, you didn't have to get me anything!"

"I know. But I wanted to," was all he said in return.

Hermione looked down at the package in her hands. It was obviously a book. It was the right size and weight for a book, and she quickly found herself removing the brightly colored paper from it.

Once revealed she looked down at the book with bewildered curiosity.

It appeared to be blank.

There was no title, and as she flipped through the pages quickly, she saw that they were all empty. And yet the cover looked aged and thoroughly manhandled. It was also extremely thick – far thicker than she would ever find appropriate for a journal.

She opened the front cover and noticed that there was something printed on the inside cover.

Anybook

"What is this, Harry?" she finally asked him.

He just grinned wider.

"It's an Anybook! They're absolutely brilliant! It took me forever to find one for sale. Most people who own them don't like to part with them, and I don't think that there are any people left who know how to make them."

"What's an Anybook?" she asked, suddenly even more interested.

"You can bond that book to a bookcase of your choosing. Once the bonding is set, a table of contents will appear on the first few pages of the Anybook. It will be a list of every book that resides inside the bookcase. Then you can tap your wand on the name of whatever book you want to read and the Anybook's blank pages will suddenly be filled with the contents of the book you chose."

Harry reached over and flipped the book so that they were looking at the inside of the back cover. "See those three icons?" he said pointing at three symbols that were printed there.

Hermione nodded and he continued.

"You tap this one with your wand and it'll reset the book to blank after you've loaded up a book in it. The symbols in these two icons are the ones that you use to bond the book to a bookcase of your choosing. You just inscribe these runes on the bookcase and perform a fairly simple spell. I can help you with it if you need me to. I don't know if I can do it with my wand, but I know I can do it with Addy's help."

"One of the best things is that you can keep adding more and more books into the bookshelf and the Anybook's table of contents will update automatically."

Harry paused and looked at the stunned look on Hermione's face. "'Mione?" he asked hesitantly. "Are you alright? Do you not like it?"

"Not like it? Are you mental? Harry, I love it! This is absolutely brilliant!" she squealed as she jumped the distance between them and wrapped her arms around him in an exuberant hug.

"So you really do like it?" Harry asked, laughing.

"Harry, this is probably the best birthday gift that anyone has ever given me! Thank you so much!"

"Well, I'm glad you like it. You're welcome," Harry replied with a beaming smile.

– –

So far, Harry had managed to keep his interactions with Professor Quirrell to a minimum. He attended his defense classes, but he always sat towards the back and kept his head down. He never allowed the garlic-smelling man to make eye contact with him at all, and kept as low a profile in the man's class as he could manage.

The strange behavior had caught the attention of his friends and he knew it was inevitable that they would call him on it.

"Harry, what on earth is up with you in Defense class?" Ron asked as the four entered the common room after class had come to an end that day.

Harry hesitated and looked around the room. Dean and Seamus had entered just a few moments before them and seemed to both be settling comfortably into the common room. Neither looked ready to head up to the dormitory so Harry knew that if he really needed it, he could drag his friends upstairs for some privacy.

Just the same, he wasn't really sure what he would tell them, even if he wanted to.

Harry huffed and ran his hand through his hair. Three pairs of curious eyes were trained on him, and it was obvious that their patience wasn't going to last forever.

Harry motioned towards the stairs and began to make his way up. The other three quickly followed and within a minute the group was gathered around Harry's bed.

"I'm not really sure how much to tell you guys," Harry began hesitantly.

"Why not tell us everything?" Hermione asked.

Harry sighed. "It's... it's really complicated, and you'll just end up worried and stressing when it's something that none of you can do anything about."

"Why don't you let us decide whether or not it's something worth being worried and stressed about," Hermione said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I don't know, Hermione... I just... I don't think I can really explain it right now. I still need to sort through some things, and try to figure out a plan of attack for dealing with it."

"Why not just tell us, then! We can help you to make this plan, or whatever. You don't have to handle everything yourself, you know."

Harry shook his head. "I'm sorry you guys. Really I am, but this is something that I have to deal with. It's my responsibility. If I figure out a way that you can help me, then I'll come to you. I promise."

Hermione scowled at him, but Ron and Nevile mostly just looked kind of confused.

"Look, if you want to help then listen. I'll just try to make this short and simple," Harry began again, "Quirrell is trouble. Big trouble. Steer clear of him as much as you can. Never make direct eye contact with him because he could use that to try and read your mind. I don't know if Quirrell, specifically,knows Legilimency but... well, I'd rather not take any chances.

"Never let on that you think something more might be seriously wrong with him. As far as he's concerned, you're just normal students, and he's just an odd, smelly teacher. As long as that remains true, there's no risk. Try to stay under his radar, and steer clear of him as much as you can. Hermione, this means not trying to get extra homework from him. Just stay away from him. He's a miserable teacher anyway and he won't offer you any worthwhile instruction anyway."

"Alright Harry, but... well, why should we stay way from him? Can't you tell us anything?" Hermione asked.

"He's dangerous. If that's not enough then... okay, it has to do with the thing that was stolen from Gringott's. The thing that the three-headed dog is guarding. That's all I'll tell you."

The other three shared a wide-eyed look, but finally shrugged and gave it up as a bad job. Harry had told them as much as he was willing.

– – –

Harry had been practicing meditation and sorting his memories into different theoretical 'security levels' all week. He dedicated an hour each night before bed to it, and as such, was heading to bed earlier than his dorm mates.

He actually did some of his meditations and sorting down in his trunk's 'work room'. When it came time to sort through the memories of his more violent visions, it helped calm his nerves to have Addy there to talk with.

Having her to listen and act as a sounding board also helped him determine how best to sort his memories for 'security' purposes. He hoped to try and get at least some basic protective measures in place for the more sensitive visions before any real-world tests from professor Snape. He knew the man would be testing him by all-out attacking Harry's mind, but at least he was getting some legitimate instruction to go with it and supplement the process.

His occlumency lessons would involve more instruction than 'clear your mind' since he wasn't on such utterly rotten terms with his professor... or at least, not yet. Hopefully they would never reach on such bad terms, but Harry knew it was entirely possible if he ever lost his cool with the professor.

Harry knew that he needed to keep any of his visions pertaining to Snape's spying, and any information on the horcruxes away from his professor, but he also wanted to keep the visions he'd had of his parent's school days locked away. Harry knew that if Snape was aware of just how much Harry knew about that time, he would be rather mortified, and as such, incredibly angry.

Severus Snape was a very private man, and having the offspring of his boyhood rival and nemesis fully and entirely aware of how much he was tormented during his youth, would be a crushing blow to his pride and he would respond with an intense anger.

Harry did not want to be on the receiving end of that anger, so he was hoping that the preparation work he had done so far would be sufficient to at least keep those memories private.

He had seen from his visions that when the two of them were cooperating and Snape was making a legitimate effort, that Harry could learn a tremendous amount about the mind arts from the man. The key was to get that cordial cooperation started and maintained.

When Friday arrived, he felt about as prepared as was possible for his first legitimate Occlumency lesson with Snape.

He'd shoved his most sensitive memories as far back into the recesses of his mind as possible and had a mountain of other visions and information piled on top of them. He couldn't construct a proper shield yet, but he could at least drown out the sensitive stuff with a lot of rubbish as cover.

As Harry had expected Snape had begun 'testing Harry's current defenses' by simply attacking his mind.

It wasn't exactly pleasant, but at least he was prepared for it.

Much to Harry's shock and awe, Snape actually seemed mildly impressed by what he found. He even made some comment about how well ordered Harry's mind was, especially for an eleven year old.

Once the initial 'mind raping' was sufficiently explored, Snape actually began discussing the theory and practical application behind construction a mindscape, and the lesson progressed from there.

Books were one thing, but having an actual master of the arts sitting there in front of him and able to answer his questions and clear up the things he had trouble understanding went so much farther for Harry.

The two ended up in a surprisingly deep conversation on the nature of magic and how the mind and body worked together to interpret, dictate, and mange a person's magical core. Harry explained to Snape what he had theorized about how mastering mind magic actually greatly increased a wizard's magical potential since it gave them a much stronger comprehension and connection to their magical core.

These were all concepts that Snape himself had mulled over in his own mind, many years ago, and he was honestly surprised to find someone so young thinking so thoroughly about such high level theoretical magic concepts.

An hour and twenty minutes into their private lesson, during a particularly enthusiastic conversation, Snape mentioned what was honestly an extremely high level concept that Harry was actually unfamiliar with. It was that moment that brought about the suddenly realization to Snape that he had managed to completely forget that he was talking with a child.

James Potter's child, at that!

'No.Lily'schild,' Snape mentally corrected himself,'The boy really is much too smart. It's a wonder he didn't get sorted into Ravenclaw.'

At the end of the two hour session, Harry left feeling extremely confident. It had gone so much better than any of the visions he had ever had of an occlumency lesson. Not that he'd really had many. He's had visions of taking lessons with Snape in his fifth year, and that was after a previous four years of constantly bickering with the man.

Later, after he had first decided that he would explore taking Occlumency lessons sooner he had a couple visions where he had managed to convince Snape to teach him during his second year, but those hadn't gone very well either.

Those visions were still significantly different since Snape had actually given Harry some legitimate instruction in them, and Harry had first been introduced to the concept of the mindscape.

But still – a tension had existed between the two of them that had impeded the learning process.

It was obvious that the choices Harry had made in an attempt to make this work better had done their job. Harry was actually feeling quite optimistic at this point, and was looking forward to the next lesson.

– – –

It was Saturday again and Harry was standing in the Headmaster's office fidgeting anxiously. He had received a reply from Remus Lupin earlier that week and the two had agreed to meet in the Headmaster's office so that Remus could then escort Harry to St. Mungo's to visit Sirius. It was the last opportunity Harry would have to visit his godfather for quite a while since he was being discharged from the hospital the following day.

"I must admit, Harry, I was most surprised when you informed me of who would be coming to take you to visit Sirius," Dumbledore said from his desk as he observed the young man waiting impatiently in his office.

"I don't see why you'd be surprised. Remus and Sirius were my dad's best friends. It makes sense that I would try to get Remus involved in this."

"That is true," Dumbledore said with a nod of his head. "Tell me, Harry, are you aware of Mr. Lupin's special circumstances?"

"I am fully aware of Mooney's furry little problem, if that's what you're referring to," Harry said, shooting his headmaster a slightly cold glare.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and his beard twitched in what Harry thought was probably a bit of a smile.

"Isn't that what your father called it?"

Harry nodded. "Yes."

"You mentioned during your first visit to me that you had actually seen some visions of our parents from before your birth. How much of that time was from their school days, I wonder."

Harry smiled and looked away towards the fireplace trying to control his desire to chuckle. "Quite a bit, actually."

Before either had an opportunity to say another word, the fireplace came to life with bright green flames and out stagged a rather shabby looking man with a pale, scarred face and light brown hair.

Harry focused all of his attention on the man and smiled widely.

"Hello Mr. Lupin," Harry said with a polite nod of his head.

Remus turned to face the boy and stood dumbstruck for a solid second before smiling softly.

"Dear Merlin, you look just like your father at this age. Its like looking back in time," Remus whispered.

Harry flushed lightly and ducked his head.

"Thank you for agreeing to come with me, Mr. Lupin," Harry said, looking back up and smiling at the man.

"No, Harry, thank you, for writing to me and asking me to join you."

Harry just nodded and glanced back at the headmaster for a moment before looking back at Remus. "Shall we be off?"