Chapter 4

It was a Saturday in November and Harry was almost late for his first training session with the Junior Aurors, of which he was technically considered one. This weekend's task was his less than favorite, legilimency and occlumency. The Head Auror was seeking to determine who might show a talent and potentially receive specialized training in this area as it was crucial for interrogations. Harry wondered if his experience with Voldemort would give him an advantage.

At least everyone had the same color robes as he did now. He had met most of the junior Aurors through the department's activities. He introduced himself to the few he didn't know and offered them chocolate.

"O.k., everyone. The topic we are covering today is very advanced. Most people do not have a talent for these processes, so don't worry if you don't. You should be able to perform a rudimentary level of legilimency even if you don't have a talent, however. Those who do show more of a mastery will be chosen for specialized training in this area. If you have experience with the processes of legilimency or occlumency, go into that group. Those with no experience join me."

Harry joined the more experienced group, while the senior Auror in charge raised his eyebrow at him. "I was trained in both legilimency and occlumency at Hogwarts," he explained.

"I thought they didn't cover such advanced topics at the school."

"They don't. I was given extra lessons by Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore." The senior Auror raised his eyebrow again, but said nothing else.

He divided them into pairs, pairing Harry with the youngest person in the group besides himself, an Auror named Wilson. It was still someone who he had never overlapped at Hogwarts with. "O.k. Now, one of you try to penetrate the mind of the other, while the other tries to force you back out. If you are making no progress, let me know and I will come help you."

Harry penetrated his partner's mind easily. His partner did not seem to be giving any pressure to him to retreat. After Harry had seen a couple of embarrassing experiences, he retreated on his own. "I was trying my hardest to push you out, Potter, and it didn't seem to make any difference. I was the best in the class at the last workshop. Where did you learn how to do this?"

"Believe me. I didn't care for my previous experiences. I seemed to be able to penetrate Lord Voldemort's mind when I didn't want to or try to. When I was younger, it came in the form of dreams that I couldn't control. Later, I was able to control it more, even get into his mind sometimes when he was trying to keep me out."

"Well, that's uh, interesting and more than a little disturbing," Wilson said. "O.k., I am going to try to penetrate your mind now. Try to push me out as hard as you can."

Harry's mental energy slammed into Wilson's as he tried to penetrate his mind. He knew he should not have "tried as hard as he could" when Wilson fainted.

The Senior trainer in charge of their group and the Healer on duty rushed over. "What did you do, Potter?" his trainer asked.

"I pushed him out of my mind as hard as I could. I am used to doing it with Lord Voldemort over distance or with Severus Snape who was such an expert at occlumency that even Voldemort couldn't penetrate his mind. Maybe because Wilson was close by, that's the reason that it overpowered him. Sorry, sir. I hope he's o.k. I may just be a menace."

The Healer revived Wilson and said that he was fine. Harry apologized to him but Wilson just kind of looked at him strangely. The senior Auror pulled Harry into a corner.

"Look, Harry. We obviously need to explore your prior experience in this area more to help us understand how to train you to control it better. You obviously have a very high aptitude for this skill, though. I will talk to Robards to let you train with the specialty group we have or we may need to train you alone with our best expert. Just go home for now; you obviously don't belong in this beginner training session and I can't run the risk of you hurting anyone else."

"Yes, sir." Harry left for home feeling somewhat defeated. He was such a strange mixture of some talents where he was better than some of the most advanced Aurors and other areas where he really knew no more (or sometimes less) than the Auror trainees. Would they ever figure out what to do with him?