A/N. This was a very fun chapter to write, but it does require a disclaimer; as everyone knows, J.K Rowling owns all these wonderful characters and material. However, this particular chapter blatantly steals from another wonderful author named Tamora Peirce. Her material meshed seamlessly with occlemency, and I couldn't resist. What I took from her was the concept of the "Liars Palace", which is from her book series Tricksters Choice and Tricksters Queen, which I highly recommend to anyone and everyone.

Thank you for all the encouragement and feedback, I have an absolute blast writing this story, and the best part is hearing from all of you that you enjoy it. I hope you have half as much fun reading it as I have writing it!

This chapter is dedicated to my mom; Happy Mother's Day! I love you.

Chapter 26

Autumn was a beautiful time of year at Remus's cottage; the October air was cool and brisk, the leaves on the trees flushed with deep reds and oranges. Sirius, Remus, and Arya were unable to appreciate any of the gorgeous morning scenery, because all three of them were sweating and gasping for breath as they attempted to run the two and a half miles around the perimeter of the property. Tonks was there as well, bringing up the rear of the group at an easy jog; Sirius wouldn't be surprised if he turned around and saw her wielding a whip.

He knew that this entire disaster was his fault. It had been him that insisted on teaching Arya the basics of defensive magic, and her eventual suggestion of asking Tonks for assistance with training had seemed reasonable at the time. Arya was doing well with the spell work using her father's wand, and Sirius had taught her an array of simple spells such as a basic shield charm, disarming spell, leg-locker jinx, blasting hex, and a few others for variety's sake. Arya was as eager as always, and she had come up with the idea of asking Tonks to pass along Auror training techniques the other week.

Sirius should have known by the evil glint that came over Tonks' face as she suggested she give them all some training that they were in trouble, but no; he had just naively gone along with it, and look where that had gotten him. Attempting a long distance run at six in the morning, instead of lying snug in his nice, warm, soft, cozy bed…

He was hoping beyond hope that Arya would see the error of her ways and call this aspect of training quits after today, but the glimpses he caught of her face showed a look of pure determination, behind all the sweat and redness anyway.

Of the three new recruits, Sirius was definitely in the worst shape, which he thought was blatantly unfair. Arya had the advantage of being young and naturally light and skinny, which was the ideal build for a runner. He could understand that, but what he couldn't accept was that Remus was also doing better than he was; the man seemed to spend the majority of his time sitting on the couch eating biscuits and reading, and yet he was still out running him. Perhaps being a werewolf gave him extra stamina, or perhaps St. Mungos hadn't completely rectified Sirius's atrophied muscles from his time in Azkaban.

However out of shape he was, he wasn't about to give up while Arya and Remus kept going. He gritted his teeth and tried to remind his legs that he had once been a talented athlete. They didn't seem to remember, but he did manage to make it back to the cottage with the others. He tried to flop down on the grass, but Tonks harried him up again, handed out water bottles, and instructed them to all take a cool down walk around the yard, and drink the water slowly to avoid bringing it all back up again. Sirius wanted to kick her for not even sounding out of breath, but he contented himself with scowling and doing as instructed.

When she finally did let them collapse to the grass, it was for stretches and then sit ups and push-ups. Those at least he could do without too much trouble, but Arya's arms were too weak to get her all the way up; Tonks reassured her that she'd get there with practice, and set her easier exercises that would help get her too that point. Arya looked at her arms as if they had betrayed her in some horrible manner, and Sirius repressed a snigger; he had never met a child with quite her amount of drive. In fact, he hadn't met many adults that could match her in that regard either.

"Alright everyone, good job! Remember to stay hydrated, and get plenty of protein in your meals today. Do your stretches before bed, I'll see you all bright and early tomorrow morning for round two!"

Tonks waved cheerily at them; ignoring the looks the others were giving her, and jogged back inside to head to her training through the floo.

"Remember when she used to be so tired out from auror training that she didn't have the energy to be an evil dictator?" Sirius asked from his position lying prone on the dew soaked grass.

Remus groaned from the ground nearby. "Moody must be slacking; he can't possibly be working her hard enough…"

"When did we get so old? And out of shape…"

"Too many biscuits…"

They lapsed off into exhausted silence, and Sirius saw that Arya had sat up and was poking her arm muscles with a distinctly disgruntled expression. Sirius grinned.

"Cheer up, kiddo. They'll get stronger soon, if Tonks keeps up with this kind of routine."

They were going to have to feed her even more if they were going to be doing a daily run; she already ate a crazy amount of food, but she still resembled a stick. A tall, gangly, freckled, red headed stick. The amount of calories she'd need to build muscle was probably enormous, and Sirius felt a large amount of gratitude that they had enough money to feed her, and magic to make food preparation easy.

They all made their way inside with various amounts of moaning, groaning, and limping to shower before starting their days. Sirius made it out before the other two and cooked an enormous breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, hash-browns, and toast with lots of butter, making sure to give Arya second helpings of everything.

Remus ate quickly, already dressed in his dress robes for work, gave Arya a one armed hug, waved Sirius a quick goodbye, and headed toward the floo with a piece of toast in hand.

"Remember to read that chapter on the Goblin Rebellions; I want an oral report on it this evening! And write at least three paragraphs on the muggle and wizard alliance during Grindelwalds reign!"

Arya waved him off idly, her nose already buried in her history book on the couch, the cat happily purring in her lap.

Sirius cleaned up with a few quick spells, and gathered ink, quill, parchment, and a stack of Kreacher's reports and various correspondence that needed attention. Kreacher was as invaluable as ever, providing information about Sirius's political enemies without them ever suspecting a thing. Sirius's knowledge of the various factions within the Ministry baffled and outraged his opponents, and awed and impressed his allies; Slughorn had been a terrific help in forming connections, and Sirius's network was growing.

His role as one of the governors of Hogwarts gave him an official title without requiring much work; Hogwarts was very efficient at self-governing.

He and Dumbledore had not forgotten about the horcrux; Dumbledore was tracing down everyone who had known Tom Riddle before he had become Lord Voldemort, in search of possible locations that could contain more Horcrux. He also maintained that Slughorn, who had been Tom Riddles favorite teacher, may be of vital importance in regards to gathering information. How to go about obtaining that information had still not been decided; getting people to talk about their pasts with Voldemort was a sensitive business. For the time being, they were simply keeping in close contact with him by means of Sirius, and more recently, Remus. Slughorn seemed much keener on Remus since his sudden success, which wasn't entirely surprising.

After the Daily Prophet had run a first page article interviewing Tonks about the werewolf attack, Slughorn had taken quite the interest in her as well, which seemed to make her rather uncomfortable. Sirius's trump card, however, was Arya; Slughorn absolutely dotted on her.

After every time the two of them were together, Sirius would sternly tell her not to let it all go to her head. She just rolled her eyes at him and assured him that it would take more than that to inflate her head, which did seem to be true. Sirius and James had been extraordinarily cocky as youths, but Arya thankfully seemed to have inherited her mother's down to earth sensibility. Or perhaps, considering her life with the Dursleys, it was a miracle that she had any sense of self-worth at all.

Arya's POV

By the time Arya was done with her reading and writing assignments it was the afternoon, and her muscles had begun to ache from the morning exercise. There was a steady burning sensation from her thighs and calves, her stomach felt tight when she moved her torso, and extending her arms out further than ninety degrees felt impossible.

There was a nasty voice in the back of her mind that was telling her to give up now, because there was no way she could get up and do that again tomorrow; She was doomed to be a scrawny speck her entire life, and she'd never be as good a fighter as Tonks. She firmly ignored her inner skeptic, and sat on the cottage floor after lunch to go through the stretches Tonks had set; Sirius joined her with a similar amount of grumbling as her inner voice.

After they had worked out some of the stiffness, Arya wheedled Sirius into letting her practice magic, - he had begun letting her as long as she stuck to the spells in the books for first year students, and stayed within his sight at all times. After he had begun teaching her defensive spells it had seemed silly to forbid her practicing in other subjects as well. He had muttered something along the lines of 'in for a knut, in for a sickle' and given up refusing her wand access. He did warn her that she was going to be bored during all her classes if she kept it up, but she had reminded him that Hogwarts had the most extensive magical library in the country; she'd have plenty to occupy her.

She happily set off to her room, and emerged moments later with the Standard Book of Spells Grade One, and the Beginners Guide to Transfiguration in her arms. Sirius fetched Lily and James's wands for her to use; she seemed to prefer James's for Transfiguration and Lily's for charms.

She had succeeded in charming her shoes purple and transfiguring a twig into a lump of coal (what purpose would that serve, anyway?) when an owl tapped on the drawing room window, and she looked up from her stack of coal pieces. Sirius retrieved a small roll of parchment from a handsome tawny owl and unrolled it.

"Looks like you'll be having a full day of lessons; Dumbledore will be by for Occlemency after dinner."

Arya was excited to show Dumbledore the progress she'd made since his last lesson; she tried to practice every night before going to sleep, as he'd instructed. It was hard to gauge her progress without him there to test her, but she tried anyway. The first few weeks of lessons had been frustrating for her, because she had found that clearing her mind just didn't come naturally to her at all. It had taken her months just to get that basic part of it down, but after mastering that part things had begun to improve.

After she had managed to maintain decent barriers, Dumbledore's lessons had become more sporadic. Since he was now confident that she would know if someone was fishing, and be able to ward them off long enough to get help, the need to teach her more was less urgent. He still came to give her lessons, just less often than at the beginning. So far they had mostly worked on blocking out an intruding mind with mental barriers, but he had hinted that she might be ready to move on to more advanced techniques soon; Arya firmly stomped on her growing excitement, because oclemency simply didn't work if you were emotional. The whole purpose of it was to stop someone from reading you, and that required calmness and organization of the mind.

When Remus arrived home from work, Sirius was almost done cooking dinner and Arya was in a cross-legged position on the floor, attempting what Dumbledore called 'meditation'; a technique appropriated from Indian magical practices that he claimed helped to clear and empty the mind. Mostly she was thinking about how clear and empty her stomach was, and the smells of roast chicken coming from the kitchen weren't helping. Even with sore and tired legs, she made it to the table in record time when Sirius announced that it was time to eat, and devoured half of the entire chicken by herself.

Sirius remarked that the cure for anyone suffering from a lack of appetite was a long run in the morning; for someone who already ate like a teenage boy, the effect was rather alarming. Arya threw a green bean at his head and reminded him that Tonks had told them to eat extra protein, and that she was still growing upward as well. She and Remus had a quick squabble over the last of the mashed potatoes; he won, but gave her most of them anyway after she used her puppy dog eyes on him. He was a sucker for pouting, and she exploited his weakness ruthlessly when it came to food.

Dumbledore arrived to find them in various stages of passed out, propped up on the couch and the kitchen table, clutching overly full stomachs and tired from the unusual amount of exercise they'd started their day with.

He surveyed the scene, bright blue eyes twinkling with mirth behind his half-moon glasses.

"Oh dear, what has happened here?"

"Nymphradora Tonks happened here." Remus supplied from his position lying prone on the couch. "I feel like the full moon hit early…"

"Uh-oh, you're going to be in so much trouble when I tell her you used her first name!" Arya called from where she was still sitting at the table, resting her head on her arms in front of her.

Remus paled slightly and pulled the couch blanket over his face to block them all out as Sirius sniggered at his oldest friend.

"Ah, I see." Dumbledore smiled. "I've never seen Alastor as pleased with someone as he has been with young Miss Tonks these last few months. I don't believe anyone has ever asked him for more extra training before; he is quite pleased with her progress."

Arya and Sirius gaped at him in astonishment, and even Remus peeked out from under his blanket to stare incredulously at him.

Sirius voiced what they were all thinking.

"She asked him for more training? Just a year ago she was so tired from a day of training she could barely avoid falling asleep in her food over dinner!"

"An excellent example of the benefits of hard work." Dumbledore replied, and peered at Arya over the top of his spectacles. "I trust you have been practicing hard at your lessons as well, Arya?"

As she met his piercing blue eyes, she felt the feather light touch of his mind on hers; she met him with the smooth barrier that she had worked on relentlessly since their first lesson so many months ago. It still wasn't as strong as it should be; a full on assault would crumble it down, but it was getting better. She had smoothed out the cracks and weak places, crafting a smooth shield that defected prying and left no holes for an invader to wiggle through. Dumbledore had assured her that strength would come with time and practice, and that the hardest part was creating a stable and consistent shield, which she had done.

The last few months they had begun organizing her mind behind layers of mental barriers; a process that never failed to leave her with a headache. It was vital that the secrets she was privy to remain hidden, and thus one large frontal shield was deemed too easy to get through – the deepest secrets were hidden and placed within her mind behind smaller barriers of her own creation. It was a strange system in which she had to make connections in her thought process to unrelated things, and them place them together where an intruder might never think to look; for instance, her knowledge of hocruxes was placed with her memories of a stay with her old neighbor Mrs. Fig when she was four. The theory being that most Death Eaters didn't have much interest in looking at old pictures of cats and eating stale chocolate cake.

Dumbledore smiled again. "Very good. I think you'll like our lesson today, if you can stay awake for it; it'll be a little different than our usual."

Arya nodded eagerly and sat up straighter at the table. Sirius stood and began to clear the dishes, creating room for the professor to take a seat across his student.

"Thus far we have concentrated exclusively on blocking and evading techniques, and you have progressed well. You will continue practicing what we have studied on your own time, until you have achieved an acceptable level of strength; but that will come with age and repetition. In between now and then, however, we will be learning the much more difficult task of outright deception and memory fabrication."

Dumbledore reached inside his robes and pulled forth a folio of parchment, which he handed to her across the table.

"This is an essay written by one of the most proficient occlemence of the age; I persuaded him (not a minor task, mind you) to compile it for me only last week. In it he explains at great length what he has delightfully dubbed "the Liars Palace", and it is this that you and I will build together in the coming years." He chuckled at her expression. "Yes, it will take years. It is an on-going process that you will have to maintain for as long as you wish to keep your secrets hidden from prying minds. You have a very active imagination and have shown an aptitude for this, Arya. You may find this easier than you think, after you understand what it is I'm asking of you."

Arya flipped open the folio and examined the small, precise writing it contained; there was a lot of it.

"Tonight I will explain to you the basic concepts, and then I will give you several weeks to read the essay and compile a list of ideas about how you will build your palace; what about yourself will you hide, and what miss-information will you sow? On my next visit we will go over your list to refine and hone it, but there is only so much I will be able to do; the bulk of this can only be done by you. It is, after all, your head we are dealing with."

"The main concept of the Liars Palace is a false identity that you will build for yourself, using real memories for the basis of your false self – your history will be as you wish to show your enemies, your personality will appear as you wish them to see, instead of how it is. By this means you will hide your secrets, your liabilities, your truth. A master of a Liars Palace is the true master occlemence; the true mark of mastery is a man or woman who appears to have no grasp of occlemency whatsoever. An enemy will enter your apparently un-guarded mind, and find the false mind that you have crafted for them; they will find only what you wish them to. If you are expected to know a little occlemency, you may create a weak shield to protect it. The invading mind is meant to think that that is the best you can do, and it is a farce that is often successful."

Arya sat with her knees drawn up to her chest on the kitchen chair, listening with wide eyed excitement. What Dumbledore was describing was beyond what she had ever expected to learn about occlemency. He went on about the ways of building false memories off of real ones, and about what type of things she should consider hiding, and what things to leave untouched.

By the time they had gone over what he deemed necessary and he had departed the cottage, Arya's mind was on overdrive with all the information she had absorbed. As she wished Sirius and Remus goodnight and made her way to her room, she ruefully reflected that her legs felt like limp noodles, and her mind like a soaked sponge.

The next morning as Tonks herded them all out the door for another torturous run, Arya would have gladly exchanged her burningly sore legs for the limp pasta legs of the night before.

lll