A/N: Most characters and the main plot belongs to J.K Rowling.
Harry woke up the day after his first training session in agony. He had expected some pain, but this was on a whole different level to his expectations, it was like he wasn't able to move his legs they were in so much pain. But in the end, he knew it was all for the best. Sirius and Remus would no doubt be in pain too, given they hadn't done any exercise in a long time either.
Harry slowly gathered the courage needed, and got up. He didn't think that he had ever had so much trouble getting up in his life. He heard a light pop, and look at the place it came from, and there he spotted Veppy.
"Good mornings Master Harry, I's have brought you some Star Grass Salve, it will help with your injuries." She said handing him the salve. Harry thanked her before she left, and applied the salve. It worked almost instantly, and he felt better. He got ready for the day, and left his room, and headed downstairs. He was the first one down, but assumed that the other two would be down shortly. He called Ula and asked if she could prepare them some breakfast.
Before she could come back, the other two men made their way downstairs. Sirius didn't look too happy about being awake at this time, and Harry didn't blame him considering it was only 6 A.M, but they had things to do.
"Good morning you two, had a nice sleep ?" Harry asked, he just hoped that their beds were as comfortable as his was.
"Lovely, but could have down with a bit more sleep" Remus replied, shortly followed by a yawn.
"Yeah, although it looks like Sirius had the best sleep of his life" Harry said, his voice full of sarcasm. Sirius sent him a death glare, and the other two started laughing. They both sat down, and they were all served their breakfast. They had a lot of fruits, some toast and jam. The meal was eaten relatively quietly, although there was the occasional chat. As soon as they were finished, there was a sound which was caused by the wards. They all knew what that meant, and so they headed outside to the gate. Waiting outside, was Dumbledore. Harry had sent him the address to the place the day before, asking if it was possible to begin his teachings. He had come for their first Occlumency lesson. Harry waved his hands at the gates, and they opened.
"Good morning Professor" Harry said in a very businesslike tone. He wanted to prove to the man that he wasn't just a child, that he was more grown up than most his age. Dumbledore seemed to acknowledge this, and just by looking at him, Harry could tell he wasn't going to be treated his age. He knew he would have to push himself, but that was the only way to improve rapidly.
"Good morning Harry. It's good to see you all." Dumbledore replied in a very professional manner. He wasn't there as a friend, not really anyway, he was there as a professor, and a man who owed a favour to someone.
"This way professor, we will get to it." Together, the four of them headed back to the manor, Dumbledore admiring the beauty of the place. He had never been here, but had always wanted to see what it was like. One of the bonuses of teaching Harry, was that he could still keep a sense of control over things, he knew he wouldn't have it fully now, but st least he had a bit. They walked through the door, and he once again examined the place. From the entrance hall, it all seemed very businesslike, but he knew that most of the Pure-blooded homes were like that. The more personal spaces were behind doors.
They all headed down into the basement, where Sirius and Remus went to the training area, whereas Harry and Dumbledore went to the space they had prepared for Harry's Occlumency training.
"Alright Harry, this is your first mind training session, here I will be attempting to teach you Occlumency." Dumbledore began, and Harry knew that this wasn't going to be some sort of joke. "Now, Occlumency is a realm of your own, you create the rules, the area, and everything pertaining to it. It is a place where all your memories are stored, and where you can find things easily, but it is difficult for others to do just that. Learning this art helps you keep calm in situations where you would be quite stressed, or distracted. You normally chose an area with which you are quite familiar, a location that you can bring to your mind in a matter of seconds. Within this place, you will place all sorts of enchantments and traps. You will be fully in control of what happens there."
"Now I'm going to warn you straight away, this won't be easy, it takes years to master this, so don't expect too much from the get go." Harry nodded at this in understanding. "Now, I want you to begin by meditating, try to clear your mind as much as possible, I know it's impossible to do it completely, but think of nothingness, and concentrate on that." Harry sat down, crossed his legs, and did just that. It took him a few minutes to clear his mind to the maximum, he imagined nothingness, and could only see darkness. He assumed that was what Dumbledore was talking about, so he lifted his thumb, mentioning that he had managed.
"Alright, very good, the next step is to imagine all of your memories as something that you like. For example, I imagine that your friends Hermione's would be books, like mine. You have to imagine something that you like. It can be anything which can contain something. But it has to be able to be read or viewed, so it could be a picture, a piece of paper, a muggle television or even a newspaper."
Harry concentrated on what the Headmaster was saying. He was trying to think of something that he liked. He imagined a Pensieve, and a bunch of small glass vials, each of which contained his memories. He once again lifted his thumb, telling the Headmaster of his school that he had done it.
"Very good Harry, it normally takes quite a long time for people to manage that, yet you seem to have done it in a few minutes, you seem to have a knack for that. Harry would you mind if I performed Legilimency on you, I have a theory I would like to try ?" Dumbledore asked, Harry could tell that he wanted to know if his theory was right, but he was a bit uncomfortable with someone being able to read his mind.
"If you don't mind me asking, what is your theory ?" Harry asked, hopefully the man's answer would help him decide whether or not he should allow the teacher to read his mind.
"Very well, as you know, the night your parents died, and you got that scar, Voldemort had created a Horcrux within you. My theory is that when you removed that Horcrux, it only removed his soul fragment, but not all of his memories. You wouldn't be able to access these memories, but they would help you master things that he had mastered easily, for example, your spell work. I have never seen somebody manage to do magic so powerful for the first time as you can, and that's including myself, or even Voldemort himself." Harry was completely shocked at the old man's explanation, but when he thought it through, it actually made sense to him.
Harry ended up nodding his consent, and Dumbledore thanked him. He pulled out his wand, and pointed it at Harry's head. "Legilimens" Dumbledore said, and as soon as the word left his mouth, Harry felt an uncomfortable feeling in his head, as if he was being watched, a feeling he didn't like at all. A few seconds later, Dumbledo,re was pushed back rather forcefully. Sirius and Remus came in to see what was happening, and they saw Dumbledore on the floor, knocked unconscious. So they looked up at Harry asking for an explanation.
He told them of the theory Dumbledore had, what he wanted to do, and everything pertaining to the training. They were as shocked as Harry was when they learned of Dumbledore's theory, but they were then surprised at Harry's ability to have done so much on their first lesson. It had taken Sirius ages to get that far, of course the fact that he had started learning it when he was just 7 years old didn't help, but it was still surprising. When Harry finished explaining, they called one of the house elves, and told them to take Dumbledore to one of the guest rooms. The other three decided that they would take a small break, and if Dumbledore wasn't awake before the end of that break, they would begin their spell practice.
Dumbledore had just cast 'Legilimens' on Harry for the first time, and it surprised him what he found. The place was a huge wreck. From what he saw, he was currently in what was a very beautiful room. But it wasn't beautiful anymore, it looked like a war had been fought in it, the place was crumbling around him. If Harry had gotten this far already, it would have surprised him more than anyone could ever be. But this place didn't feel like Harry's magic, there was a bit of it, but the rest was foreign, yet familiar. There were shelves upon shelves, all stacked with small round orbs, orbs which looked much like prophecies to Dumbledore. The room was in the same style as Hogwarts, yet it was a room he had never seen in the castle.
He started walking around, and found something which was odd. On the floor in the middle of the room, he found a pensieve and a bunch of vials with memories in them, but there weren't many vials compared to the amount of orbs. And this fact solidifies his theory. He decided to try something, he picked up one of the vials, on it was written 'First time on the Hogwarts Express', and poured it into the pensieve. He put his head in it, and was watching Harry walk through the barrier to the train, then talk to Hermione, and then find a compartment with her. At this point he pulled out of the memory, and went over to the closest shelf. He looked over some of the names on the small golden plaques beneath the orbs. He came upon one which he found interesting: 'Discovery of the Chamber of Secrets'. This was something which intrigued Dumbledore immensely, so he decided to look at it. What he didn't expect however, was to be thrown back by a dark cloud. What happened after that, he wouldn't know as he fell unconscious.
It was now the next day, and Dumbledore still hadn't woken up. Harry, Remus and Sirius had trained quite a bit, Harry had learned another few spells, however he found that he was quite tired after his mind training. Sirius and Remus understood, and let him off for the rest of the day, they had continued for an hour or so before joining him.
The three men were sitting down at the table, their breakfasts in front of them. Remus was currently reading the newspaper, whereas Harry and Sirius were just chatting. They were just about finished when the door to the informal dining room opened. Dumbledore came through it, looking older than Harry had ever seen him, but he still seemed in good health. "Good morning" the headmaster said with a tired voice. The other three said their own greetings. The old man gained a seat, and let out a tired sigh.
"I must say Harry, your mind is quite a big mess." As soon as Dumbledore said this, he gained the utmost attention from the other three men in the room. "It seems as if my theory was right, your brain was a mix of yours and Voldemort's mind. Seems you hadn't started creating your own area to place your memories, it was fully his, however the place was falling apart. Your pensieve and vials were all place on the floor in the middle of the room, and Voldemort's prophecy spheres were all on their shelves. I would recommend you create your own area quickly, I don't believe we can afford to lose all of his memories." Harry fully agreed with this, he knew they would come in useful at some point.
"But when you do create your own space, make sure to separate both of your memories, maybe even lock them in a separate room or something, it would be unfortunate if people managed to find this stuff." Once again, Harry nodded his head in agreement, if Voldemort found out, he would change many of his tactics and many other things, and that would be a lost opportunity to Harry.
They all ate their breakfast deep in thought. It was some big news which they had just learned, and they needed time to digest it all. Dumbledore had offered to continue with their training, but Harry refused, saying that Dumbledore needed to rest for a while, which Dumbledore was thankful for. The other three started their training with some physical training in the morning, and in the afternoon, they would do magical training.
Much of the rest of the month had gone like that, except for when Dumbledore came back during the second week, Harry would take a bit of time from both so that he could work on his Occlumency shields, which were moving exceedingly quickly. By the 28th of July, he had created his own area, but the defences were minimal. They were the things that were taking the most time. He had still managed to create his space exceedingly quickly according to the other three men. He had built his relationship with Dumbledore quite a bit too, there was now, quite a bit of trust between the two of them, even between Dumbledore and the other two, he had proved himself to them all.
Harry had already sent out invitations to his friends for his birthday party last week, and now he was just waiting on their responses. He had only invited Neville, Hermione, Tracey and Daphne because he didn't want to host something with most of the first years, he had considered it, because first of all, it would be useful to make stronger connections with the children of the future Wizengamot, but also because he considered them his friends too, but none of them were on the same level as the other four. Of course, Harry had given permission to both Sirius and Remus to invite some people over so that they could hold their own thing in the house, however they would have to hold it in the ballroom as he didn't want everyone knowing where it was.
Together, Harry, Remus, Sirius and Dumbledore had decided that they would have a break from training between the 30th of July and the second of August where they would resume at full force, because after that, they only had three weeks until Harry was heading off to Neville's.
Harry was currently sat down eating lunch, between both of his Occlumency training sessions, when Bopper appeared in front of him. "Bopper has received a letter for you sir, it be from the House of Longbottom." The elf said, handing Harry the letter with a deep bow.
"Thank you Bopper, I am expecting another 3 letters, not today, but in the near future, just make sure not to deliver them to me during training please, I will readily receive them during meal times." Harry said with a smile. Bopper bowed once more, and disappeared with a pop.
Harry broke the seal, and read Neville's letter, it wasn't particularly long, but it did say his answer, and Harry was glad to see that he could come. He finished his lunch and went back to training.
That evening, he received another two letters, one belonging to Hermione, and the other to Daphne. Both of them accepting his invitation. The following day was quite a hard wake-up as it was his last day of training. He enjoyed his training, but he did want a small break from it. The differences were already extremely visible. Harry had grown a couple of inches, and he had gained a lot of mass, he wasn't a little skinny boy anymore, he was much more muscular. His eyes also held more power to them, they glowed more than they used to. His face had also lost some of the baby fat, and his jawline was getting more defined. He didn't resemble his dad much more now, there was still the messy hair, but that was about it now. All in all, his training made a bug difference on him.
A/N: Thank you for the reviews, follows and favourites. I didn't think I'd written so many chapters, and was surprised how little time I had actually been writing this story. I know the chapters aren't super long which would explain the amount of them, but this story is promising to be quite long. I was wondering if you think I should write this in two different stories, like, make this story go until the end of third year for example, and the next one the rest of the way, what do you think ?
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Thank you for pointing out the mistake I made pertaining to the LOTR movies, I forgot that this actually took place 30 years ago, but I have fixed it : )