Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to MiaCara, who is my beta for this story.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Lessons with Dumbledore

Harry was surprised how much and little had happened to him so far this year. It was already November and the first Quidditch match was going to take place soon. In a lot of real ways he felt like he was doing so much that he didn't even have time to think, what with the DA, lessons with Dumbledore, Quidditch practice and his classes. Still, it was weird that nothing suspicious had happened so far this year … it unnerved him that his life had not been threaten so far and he feared what that meant. He hoped that this silence didn't bode ill for him. Hoping it was brought on because they had been able to get Malfoy on their side, and therefore stopped Voldemort's attempt on Dumbledore's life.

He thought about the meeting with the DA, which more people seemed to be joining every few meetings or so. They had also had three meetings were someone else actually took up the job of teaching. It wasn't surprising that Hermione had been the first to volunteer for this, but it had been a shock when Neville offered to show everyone a curse that his grandma had taught him. Neville, though obviously nervous, had actually been good at describing what he wanted done, and Harry couldn't help but think of the book and how Neville had acted in it … as well as the fact that Neville was supposed to be a professor in the future. It was clear for him to see how that could be the case now.

On the last meeting in September, Harry had started another dueling tournament much to the approval of the DA. He had been disappointed when he had been disarmed by Terry Boot in the third round, but he had to admit that it seemed to please everyone else in the club … not to mention it made them all try harder. Ron ended up winning the tournament after defeating Padma Patil in a rather intense duel that Harry felt proud of. He could see some improvement in everyone and the confidence that people seemed to gain by being part of this group.

Harry's personal training with Dumbledore had been strenuous on him. In the first few weeks, he had been shocked when he found out that Dumbledore was serious about him having to use the disarming spell. He had been sure his headmaster was teasing him because it was the first spell he taught in the DA, but it was not the case. However, what Dumbledore had wanted Harry to learn, wasn't the spell, but to work on his non verbal spell casting ability and using familiar spells would made it easier. Harry wasn't too pleased that it had taken him more than a week to start to get the hang of non verbal spells, but there was nothing he could do to speed up the process. He wasn't sure if Dumbledore's understanding was helping him or not.

"It seems like you've got things under control now," Dumbledore had said with a smile.

"I suppose," Harry sighed, unable to look at his headmaster in the eyes. "I'm sorry it took so long …"

"Think nothing of it, Harry, it is difficult to learn at first," Dumbledore said kindly.

"I bet it didn't take you long to learn it," Harry muttered under his breath not really meaning for Dumbledore to hear, but of course he had.

"No, it didn't but few things took me long to learn," Dumbledore admitted. "However, the speed at which you learn something new isn't as important as how well you use it once you've learned the trick of it. I'm confident once you've learn this, you will use it properly."

"Why am I learning this, sir?" Harry asked. "I mean, well, don't get me wrong, it helps having you tell me things … but I would have learned non verbal spells for my classes this year … wouldn't I have?"

"I believe you would have," Dumbledore agreed and then gave Harry a piercing look that made the boy shift uncomfortably. "There are a few reasons why it is important for you to understand how to do non verbal spells … and why it's important that you learn it quickly. I wonder Harry, how much have you practiced Occlumency since last summer?"

"Occlumency?" Harry repeated a little shock that Dumbledore would say that before he looked away from his headmaster's eyes. "Not in a while … I didn't think it matters now that I no longer have a connection with Voldemort."

"A fair assumption," Dumbledore said.

"Sir, did you just use Legilimency on me?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I did," Dumbledore admitted with a smile. "Of course, when you use the non verbal form of the spell it is not as powerful; however, it is usually enough to gather emotions and predict what others are feeling, if not thinking. I would have to say that your mind is more blocked than it had been."

"So you use Legilimency on me often?" Harry questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"I try not to … it's not something anyone in my position should do," Dumbledore sighed, "but you have been in some rather … interesting situations throughout your time here."

"You can say that again," Harry grumbled, wondering when Dumbledore had used this on him in the past, but shook his head because he had more important things to think about now. "Sir, I still don't see why your teaching me non verbal spells."

"I heard that you ran a dueling tournament last term," Dumbledore said.

"Yes …" Harry answered slowly, looking confused, "we're in the middle of the new tournament now."

"Good," Dumbledore smiled at that. "You've been in several duels as well, outside of the tournament."

Harry nodded his head, thought it seemed more like a statement than a question.

"You'll find that many of the Death Eaters do not use verbal spells in a duel," Dumbledore added. "The Unforgivable Curses are exceptions of course, because they can only be used when they are spoken out loud."

"I understand, sir," Harry said. "Though I'm not sure why you just used Legilimency on me."

"A very skilled Legilimens, like myself and Voldemort, are able to use Legilimency while we're dueling, so that we have more of an advantage of knowing what our opponents are planning on doing," Dumbledore explained. "It might be true that you and Voldemort no longer have a connection, but that doesn't mean that he can't use Legilimency against you."

"I'm going to have to work more on my Occlumency," Harry said, he didn't like that idea much at all, though he had made his defenses pretty good by the end of last year.

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed. "And I'm going to be the one that helps you with this because using Occlumency while dueling is … rather difficult."

"Is there anything else I'm going to have to learn?" Harry asked.

"One or two things," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eyes and Harry sighed, knowing it was going to be a long year of training. Harry decided that the best way that he was going to improve himself was if he used the techniques he was learning with Dumbledore in the DA tournament. Which he did and proceeded to lose the next match.

Naturally, Harry told Ron, Hermione and Ginny about his training with Dumbledore, and each of them thought it wasn't such a bad idea working on similar things themselves (though they chose not to try it during the tournament like Harry had). Ginny got pretty frustrated about this because she was at the disadvantage of not having learned any Occlumency the previous year and as she was a year behind them she had not been taught any non verbal spells. Hermione tried to help Ginny out as much as possible with both these skills, but the progress she made had been slow.

By the end of October, Harry had completely mastered non verbal spells. Dumbledore had also declared that his Occlumency was very good … good enough that it would take great effort to be broken. Harry wasn't sure what that meant, but he knew that he never wanted to find out. It was then that Dumbledore had announced that in their next lesson they were going to start dueling and Harry was going to see if he could use what he had learned. It both terrified and thrilled Harry to see what it would be like to duel against Dumbledore, though he was sure that he didn't have a chance to even last more than a minute. Yeah, he knew that he had faced Voldemort several times in the past and lived to tell the tale, but that had been in a life and death situation and Voldemort had greatly underestimated him.

"You're back early," Hermione said when Harry came in only a half an hour after he had left to talk to Dumbledore.

"Yeah, well …" Harry started to say but stopped himself when he realized that there were several people in the common room still. Harry noticed that Dean, Seamus and Neville were all talking and the added, "Maybe we should go upstairs?"

They all headed for the boys dormitory and Harry preformed a spell on the door to make sure that the other boys couldn't overhear them or come into the room.

"So what happened?" Ron asked, sitting on his bed, Hermione next to him as Ginny sat down on Harry's bed.

"Dumbledore said that since I mastered the skills we were working on that I'm going to duel him in our next meeting," Harry said and as all three of his friends' mouths dropped.

"That's brilliant," Ron said dreamily. "What it must be like to be able to duel against Dumbledore …"

"I'm sure you could learn a lot … I bet someone could learn a lot just by watching a duel like that," Hermione said, looking like she liked the idea of seeing the duel.

"But why didn't he just duel you tonight … you had at least another hour before you normally get back?" Ginny asked.

"Don't know," Harry shrugged.

"Maybe he didn't want to put you in the hospital the day before our Quidditch match," Ron suggested.

"Dumbledore isn't going to put Harry in the hospital!" Hermione huffed at that.

"Hermione, it's Dumbledore! He could put anyone in the hospital he wanted," Ron rolled his eyes.

"I know that, but he doesn't want to hurt Harry … he wants to teach him!"

"I don't think Dumbledore is going to hurt me," Harry cut into the debate before his friends could get any farther, he could tell that they were just trying to push the other's buttons. "But you might have a point about the Quidditch match … that is tomorrow isn't it?"

"It's always nice to have a captain that's on top of things," Ginny said sarcastically.

"Sorry … I've got a lot going on this year," Harry sighed, "Quidditch has been just about the only part of it that's been fun."

"You don't think snogging me is fun … see if I kiss you again anytime soon," Ginny huffed in mock annoyance.

"Oi!" Ron huffed. "I'm sitting right here … I don't need to hear about you two snogging."

"Would you rather see it?" Ginny questioned.

"I thought you weren't going to snog me anytime soon?" Harry reminded her with amusement.

"You know annoying my brother is always higher on my priority list than being annoyed at you," Ginny shrugged.

"I do know that," Harry grinned at her.

"Still here!" Ron grumbled.

"I think that's Gin's point, Ron," Hermione shook her head at him smiling. "When are you going to get used to them being together."

"I have two answers to that and they're both true," Ron said, looking at her.

"Which are?" Hermione asked.

"I've already got used to them and I'm never going to get used to them," Ron said.

"You're such a contradiction," Hermione smiled at him.

"Oi! Open the door!" Seamus voice said and Harry put down the charms and opened the door.

"Sorry," Harry said.

"You know when you take a bird up to a room and lock yourself in, you're not supposed to have her brother in the room too," Seamus said nodding his head at Ron.

"That's not what was going on," Harry said.

"We know that, Harry," Dean said. "You were having one of your secret meetings."

"Er …" Harry didn't know what to say to that, because it was what was happening, but Dean … or anyone else … had said that to him before.

"Er … I meant that to be a joke," Dean mumbled.

"Oh," was all Harry could say now.

"Though Dean is right, it's not hard to tell when you three … er … four now I guess … are up to something," Neville said.

"Like you're one to talk Neville, weren't you a part of what happened last year?" Dean rolled his eyes.

"Not really … they just … er … never mind," Neville said, remembering that he wasn't supposed to say anything.

"And that's my point right there," Dean chuckled before he turned to Harry with a frown. "We get it, you know. That you've got other things to worry about than just classes." He paused there looking thoughtful before he added, "we'll be there you know … if and when you need help."

"Thanks Dean," Harry smiled at him, glad for the offer of help, but seeing as they were all in the DA there wasn't much more that they could do now. "But right now the only help you can give me is getting to bed. And that goes for you two as well," he added nodded his head to the Weasleys, "we've got a big game tomorrow."

"Right you are, captain," Dean smiled at them. The girls left and everyone started getting ready for bed.

The next day, Harry had been surprised to find that Malfoy wasn't going to be at the game. Tonks had told him months ago that Malfoy had his memories back and that he was working with Snape, but he had not see Malfoy except during classes. It seemed odd to him that Malfoy would miss a game. He was sure that Malfoy would have taken Quidditch as one of the few bright spots after trying so hard to fight against Voldemort. When he mentioned this to Ron, his friend just shrugged.

"Maybe he doesn't have time to play," Ron said. "But this is a good thing; I doubt their new Seeker can be any good."

"I supposed that's true," Harry chuckled; Ron was in full Quidditch mode right now he wasn't going to let anything else bother him. It turned out to be one of the best games the team had ever played. Ron had been excellent as the Keeper, keeping a clean sheet and the Chasers scored fifteen times before Harry finally caught the Snitch. Ron had been right, the Slytherin Seeker had been horrible and Gryffindor had their greatest victory over Slytherin in thirty years.

A/N: I'm not really sure if I like this chapter or not, but I really wanted to get one out today and seeing as I just had two chapters on Thursday this should be good. I'm not sure if you could tell or not, but I didn't really know what I was going to have Dumbledore teach Harry in the lessons, I just hope that part made sense, since it was the only part of the this chapter that moved the story along. I think the next chapter will have Draco in it … I thought it would be nice to see where he's at.