Hi there!

Thanks as usual for the reviews. You are my creative sustenance.

A big thanks to REQUIEMCROSS who has read and reviewed nearly every chapter in a week! That is some dedication, my friend and I appreciate all the feedback :)

Without further ado, away we go!

If Someone Cared Enough

Chapter Ninety-Seven: Legilimency and Lesser Known History

Severus slumped down on the floor, leaning against Lily's bed. A simple white t-shirt covered his chest, damp with sweat from the summer heat and the efforts of his and Lily's labors.

They were getting closer in their pursuit of mastering Occlumency. With each new attempt, Lily managed to put up more defenses against Severus. Eventually when her defenses were strong enough, they could work on making them less detectable. For now, they were merely laying down a foundation from which to work upon in protecting her mind.

Severus himself was fairly confident in his own skills, despite lacking a capable Legilimens to practice against. Throwing himself so fully into his studies and mediations, he'd become rather adapt at disciplining his thoughts into certain patterns. During meditation, he practiced training his recollections to focus on specific and key subjects, a necessary ability if one was to ward off an invasion in their mind and present only the most believable yet useless information for prying eyes.

His study in Legilimency came in handy for teaching himself the opposing skill, both required strict discipline and a thorough understanding of the inner workings of ones mind. The ease with which he applied the teachings of Legilimency to the learning of Occlumency made him wonder why it was so common for a Master of the mind arts to only be truly skilled in one ability or the other rather than both.

From what he heard from Lucius when he still associated with the darker sort, Bellatrix was quite adept at Legilimency but her skills in Occlumency were rudimentary at best. It was most likely because of the nature of the two skills so greatly conflicted with each other in comparison.

Occlumency was a steady, meticulous act of constructing false images and carefully laid misinformation to fool ones enemy. The goal was to make them believe they found what they sought or found nothing at all while in actuality having seen none of their victim's true secrets.

Legilimency on the other hand, did not necessarily require gentleness or careful execution. While healers licensed in the skill practiced a gentle touch, one could just as easily extract information from a mind with reckless and relentless searching through an unguarded mind. You did not need patience to acquire knowledge from someone's head, only the ability to barge into their mind to begin with. Bella's impulsiveness loaned itself very well to the practice, while Occlumency's need for subtly and conciseness went over her head.

Another benefit of Severus's understanding of Legilimency is that it gave Lily someone to practice Occlumency against, as the girl was a more tactile learner than a visual one.

Severus had always possessed a knack for learning purely on what he read, following and memorizing instructions to a tee. It was only with potions or his own spell creations that practice became more practice than formality. The latter always required various test runs to see if the incantation even produced the intended spell he designed. Then there was the former, whose science was so mercurial that experimentation and alteration tended to be the only way to achieve perfection far surpassing a potion's book instruction.

Legilimency had been a strong exception at first. While he could practice clearing his mind for Occlumency by himself, you couldn't exactly learn how to get into someone else's head without…well….a head to get into. That's why he'd required test runs back when he first began to learn the skill. He'd never know if he could successfully entered someone's mind unless he actually tried to.

Legilimency aside, Severus tended to lean more towards perfecting a skill through memorization, learning and internalizing the needed techniques to perform complicated spell work. He usually had it relatively close to mastered before his first attempt of casting a spell.

On the opposite end of the wand, Lily needed actual practice to hone her abilities in most anything. Though quick as a whip with an intelligence that Severus felt would put most Ravenclaws to shame, Lily's skills were owed to repetitive practice and memorization through actions. She could read something from a book and retain a general understanding of it, but what really made knowledge stick for her was putting what she read to physical use.

In short, she was more of a hands on sort of person. Even with potions and charms where she excelled the highest, she needed to do the potion or charm at least once to truly remember the steps; just reading it would not be enough to keep every detail in her head.

So here that were, practicing, practicing, practicing.

Lily whistled out a breath, leaning over with her hands on her knees as she catch her breath.

"I didn't realize learning an ability that has to do with thinking would be so physical," she wheezed, "How many times have I knocked you over?"

Severus counted off in his head, casting a glance at a knocked over stack of books and the crooked picture frame on the wall, "Nine times. You're getting stronger."

Lily grinned, "That's good. I suppose all the headaches are worth it."

"That will lessen with time," Severus assured, passing her a potion for the migraine. Thankfully, you didn't need wand work for most rudimentary potions or else the ministry would have been at his house many times over the years for underage magic, "Once you've fully honed your defenses, only the most abrupt and forceful of legilimency attempts will cause any discomfort."

Lily sat down next to Severus, "Of course, You-Know-Who and his pals will probably prefer the most forceful methods."

Severus nodded, "Which is why once your walls are strongest, we can work on your deceptions. Pushing someone out has to be a last resort; the goal is to let them think your defenses are too weak to prevent them getting in and the memories you keep at the forefront of your mind will make them believe they are seeing all that there is to be seen. If they think you cannot fight them and that they're seeing your thoughts against your will, they will have little need to put much effort into being forceful with you. They'll assume you're too weak to hide anything from them."

"But won't they suspect I might have learned from you?" Lily asked curiously, "Sure they don't know you can do this, but given all the things you've studied and dabbled in over the years, it wouldn't be unexpected for you to learn the minds arts."

Severus wagged a finger at her, "Ah, but you see I am a hormonal teenager. And a lowly half blood at that. This is where our enemies prejudices work to our benefit. Do you really think Lucius and his friends would believe a half blood or muggleborn to be capable of learning something many of them have struggled with or even failed to learn? Bellatrix is rumored to have spent years just to master legilimency. Occulding is something she only knows the mere basics of."

"So you're saying that their convictions of being superior to us will make them insist we couldn't do something better than them," Lily summed up.

"Exactly," Severus said with a nod, "Most of them despise me and it has only grown since I turned against them. I imagine many of them are just insecure enough to have convinced themselves all my priors skills and success they sought me out for were merely flukes or perhaps even the result of cheating. Lucius is too prideful to admit that a half blood from the slums could ever surpass him in anything and Bella I am sure fully believes that no half blood could ever measure up to her."

"Then there's our maturity," Severus added, "Or rather mine. My temper is notoriously known throughout the school since first year. I was the impulsive, quick to anger, venom-spitting wretch of Slytherin. I've always been easily egged on by Potter and his group, made a fool of myself or gotten in trouble retaliating. Occlumency takes quiet, subtle finesse and well…I'm afraid my immature and foul reputation proceeds me," Severus flashed Lily a smirk, "So of course there's no way I'd ever master such a skill."

Lily grinned back, "And of course, you're going to utilize memories you can show the most teenage angst and ire from, hm?"

Severus gave her a thumbs up, 'Precisely. Remember, I said when we first started that the trick is to use memories that evoke strong emotions, but to only mimic feeling them. All my anger, my past, times when I've been at my lowest will shine through to anyone who takes a glimpse inside my head, and they will see a pathetic, lonely schoolboy, not a potential adversary."

"But of course you don't actually think that of yourself, right?" Lily asked just to be sure.

Severus smirked, "Are you kidding? I helped kill a Basilisk." He put his arms behind his head cockily and leaned back against Lily's bed.

Lily laughed, swiping a pillow off her bed to smack Severus with, "Smug git."

"Speaking of smug gits," Severus began, "Heard from Potter yet?"

Lily groaned, her head slumping forward, "I take it you saw his seal among my letters in the mail?"

Severus hummed in assent, "Kind of hard not to; he's got a custom wax emboss of a stag's head. Not the easiest thing to miss."

"Considering what his animagus form is, it finally makes sense why he had that wax stamp made."

Severus snorted, "Probably thinks of himself as king of the forest."

Lily shoved Severus's shoulder playfully, "Be nice; he did help us in the Chamber."

"More like he helped you," Severus pointed out, "Pretty sure you and his friends being down in the Chamber won out over the thought of leaving me to die down there. Well…that and the opportunity to play hero for all the glory."

Lily rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I know. Did you hear him those last few days of school? He kept flashing the scars on his arm and regaling any idiot who would listen with tales of his battle with the Basilisk."

"A story full of contradiction because he has to explain how he fought it without mentioning he's an unregistered animagus," Severus said with a snicker.

"As if his fan club notices," Lily teased, "Still…I do appreciate him helping us. I'm not going to be ungrateful to him coming down there to save us."

"Especially when this time he was saving us from something he and his friends had nothing to do with," Severus admitted begrudgingly, "Well, except for Pettigrew, but he was possessed. It's not like they tricked us down into the Chamber to fight a giant snake like they tricked me to face off against a Werewolf. Still doesn't redeem them."

"And I'm not asking you to forgive them," Lily stated, "Let's face it; James has the emotional range of a teaspoon, Sirius even less. Even though they now regret what they put Remus through that night by the Willow, I don't think they'll ever truly possess the emotional maturity to grasp how close they came to killing you. Their head are stuck too far up their own asses; they're the 'good guys'; accepting that they almost murdered you would mean accepting they aren't as good as they think."

Severus smiled at Lily, grateful she wouldn't press him to make amends with those two. Lupin had proved himself a decent enough fellow once he got out from under their thumb, so Severus couldn't say he wished him ill will anymore, especially considering how Lupin had stuck his neck out for Severus in order to stop the Marauders harassment this past year.

Pettigrew, Severus had the tiniest inkling of respect for now, though he'd never admit it aloud. The meek boy had shown a remarkable amount of backbone in the Chamber, finally demonstrating a personality and sense of self never before seen while he followed in Potter and Black's shadows. Though he'd probably go back to being a faithful sidekick to the pair, at least Severus knew it was by choice and not because the boy had no mind of his own.

"We could sit around asking 'what if's all day," Severus declared, "But Potter won't change, I'm sure. So what did his letter say?"

Lily sighed, "Mostly he just asked how I was, how my summer's going. He apologizes for how things ended with him and Jess and hopes I don't think too badly of him for how it ended."

Severus scoffed, "Sounds like he's fishing to see if what Jess has been saying about him ruins his chances with you."

Lily nodded, "It certainly seems that way; I mean, despite talking about how he didn't mean to make a scene or anything, he doesn't really discuss how he made Jess feel at all. He's not really that concerned with her feelings, just how it came across to me."

"Let me guess," Severus posed "He also wanted to assure you that nothing is going on with him and Mary."

Lily chuckled, "You certainly have him pegged. Yes, he talked about how he's just friends with Mary and how nice she is, but how she isn't his type."

"Hinting at how he likes someone else," Severus surmised, "Namely, you. What else did he say?"

"That's where it takes an unexpected turn," Lily replied, "He asked me how you were doing."

Severus quirked a brow, "Beg pardon?"

"You heard me," Lily said, "He asked how you were. Said he'd have asked you himself but he didn't have your address. Went on and on about how he's wronged you and finally sees the light, how you nearly dying in the Chamber really 'struck a chord' with him," Lily gave Severus a thoroughly unimpressed look, "He laid it on pretty thick, to be honest."

Severus pinched his brow, "Please don't tell me his new tactic is going to be trying to befriend me to get closer to you…"

Lily shrugged, though a hint of a smirk showed how much she was enjoying Severus's misery, "Or at the very least make nice. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts asking you for homework help or trying to engage in idle chit chat about the weather."

Severus groaned, throwing his head back, "Being hexed by him would be preferable to that idiocy."

"If it makes you feel better, I think Sirius will still have a sneer or two for you," Lily pointed out, "James didn't say much about Sirius other than he'd try to make him 'come around'. I take it Black isn't on board with his new plan to woo me."

"Not if it included befriending me," Severus said, "Well at least if I have to be miserable with Potter's new plan, Black does too. That's a plus."

Lily grinned, "And Black can't do anything about it if he wants to keep Remus as a friend."

Severus snorted, "Or more than a friend."

Lily tilted her head, confused, "What do you mean?"

"You seriously don't see what's going on?" Severus asked, "They're the male equivalent of Simone and Theadosia."

"What?" Lily bleated, eyes wide as dinner plates, "Surely you must be joking?"

"I lack the sense of humor for jokes," Severus deadpanned, "You've honestly not made the connection? They're clearly barmy for each other."

"Really?" Lily asked. She thought about it, then shook her head, "No, they're just good friends."

Severus swept an unimpressed look Lily's way, "They were inseparable in the hospital wing."

Lily's resolve started to wane, "Well…they were worried about each other."

"They pushed their hospital beds together," Severus reminded her.

"They missed each other…"

"They were holding hands."

Lily looked at a loss, "But Sirius has always boasted himself to be the ladies' man of Hogwarts. He's got a different girl on his arm nearly every week."

"Something he stopped doing after the falling out with Lupin, if you recall," Severus stated, "Suddenly Black was stricken by a seemingly unexpected case of abstinence; I didn't hear a single bit of gossip about his usual exploits the whole time the Marauders were broken up."

"Besides, liking women doesn't mean he automatically doesn't like men," Severus went on, "He could like both; he strikes me as the type to shag anything with a pulse. Or the women were a cover. Men who prefer their own team tend to get derided as dandies and poofs in society; I doubt Black with his fragile male ego could handle people thinking him any less than the over the top masculine persona he puts off."

Lily frowned, mulling over his words, "But Remus? Come on, Sev, you and I both know he could do better than Sirius."

"The heart wants what it wants," Severus said sagely, "As it is, I happened to stumble upon a very private heart to heart between the two a few weeks back. Back when their friendship was still severed. You'd have to be blind to not see Lupin cares for him back after seeing that discussion."

"But Sirius?" Lily asked in disgust and exasperation, "He's so oafish and crass. He's always slacking off and madding lewd comments. He's got the attention span of a flooberworm for goodness sake! Why would he appeal to Remus?"

"Because he likes Lupin despite his little problem," Severus said pointedly, "You are as aware as I am that most werewolves do not go on to marry and have the white picket fence with a dozen little children running around. Many people are too caught up in the stigma to consider dating someone with Lycanthropy, let alone marry one."

Lily huffed, "That's so wrong though. They're only a wolf on the full moon, they can still be someone perfectly lovable the rest of each month of the year."

"Yes but how many people want to wade through the nightmare at the ministry?" Severus asked, "Registered werewolves do not have much luck securing a marriage license, the ministry usually prevents it for a myriad of made up reasons that they can get around being accused of discrimination. And with so little marriages for them going through, we don't have a lot of documented evidence proving whether or not a child born of a werewolf and an uninfected person would carry the lycanthrope curse."

"So people like Remus spend most of their lives alone," Lily said sadly, "That's so unfair."

Severus rubbed her back, "It's unfortunately reality, like it is for a lot of different people out there with other magical beings' blood in their veins. Half giants and half goblins fair no better. Sure they can hold down jobs better since they don't suffer sickness every month before the full moon, but there aren't really any laws in place to prevent them from being fired for being 'half breeds'. And that discrimination makes it harder for them to find a husband or wife as well."

"And let me guess," Lily groused morosely, "The ministry makes marriages hard to come by for them too."

Severus shrugged, "To a certain degree, but it's not as successful as with Werewolves. Other magical races have their own cultures and laws, so if the ministry forbids a marriage between a human and a goblin, they can get married under goblin law. If you want to marry a Veela, join a vela coven, and so on and so forth."

"But Werewolves aren't technically their own race," Severus added with a sigh, "They're considered just groups of cursed witches and wizards. They can form packs, but without being recognized as their own people, they can't make laws that must be respected by other races and cultures."

"So they can't have jobs," Lily listed off moodily, "They can't go to school, can't marry, and can't be treated as people. No wonder Remus settled for Sirius, at least that git cares about him."

Severus smiled fondly at Lily, playing with a strand of her hair, "I wouldn't call it settling. Sure you and I can't see Black's worth, but it would appear Lupin is utterly smitten with him. What he feels is genuine, so perhaps he sees something about Black we can't…and probably will never see, since frankly I'm quite alright with not finding Black attractive."

Lily giggled.

"Besides," Severus continued, "Werewolves have it rough, that much is true, but they still have it better than house elves. Did you know one of the wars with Goblins was over a house elf?"

"Really?" Lily asked, intrigued.

Severus nodded, "Simone told me; Binns tends to gloss over why we fought with Goblins. He just focuses on whether or not we won. But I guess one of the battles was started by Daggerback the Merciless…although I suppose he was just known as Grinwreck Daggerback before the war began."

"What happened?" Lily inquired, scooting closer.

"Grinwreck was the broker for a wealthy family of wizards," Severus explained, "The Blishwick family—you might have heard of them; one of them married into the Black family before the rest eventually died out. Anyway, Grinwreck fell in love with the Blishwick head house elf, Wisp. He tried many times to barter a deal with the Blishwicks to purchase Wisp, but they denied all offers."

"Serves him right," Lily snorted, "Trying to buy her like cattle while claiming to love her."

"She wasn't recognized as a person, Lily," Severus reminded her gently, "The Blishwicks owned her like property, she didn't have the right to marry aside from to breed with other house elves at their command to have more children that could be used as servants."

Lily grimaced, "That's terrible."

"That's why Grinwreck wanted to purchase her," Severus explained, "He would essentially be buying her freedom. But the Blishwicks refused."

"So what did he do?" Lily asked.

Severus frowned, "He couldn't stay away from Wisp. They carried on an affair for years before the inevitable happened."

Lily blinked, "The inevitable?"

"Wisp became pregnant," Severus said lowly, "Considering Wisp was seen as little more than property to her masters, how do you suppose the baby was viewed?"

Lily gasped, clapping a hand to her mouth, "No!"

Severus nodded, "Grinwreck was denied rights to his child on the grounds that it was an extension of the Blishwick's property. So…Grinwreck and his family declared war. The goblin community was up in arms about a half goblin being kept from them. The very idea that a child carrying their blood would be kept as little more than a servant infuriated them. They called war on the wizarding world and Grinwreck led the charge."

"And so Grinwreck Daggerback became Daggerback the Merciless," Lily mused.

"And he was," Severus stated, "The torture methods Binns described in class; all Grinwreck's methods. He came up with them himself. He was not a man who would be kept from his lover and child."

Lily leaned in closer, "So what happened? Did he rescue Wisp and her baby?"

Severus looked down, "I'm not sure. Simone said her goblin friends told her that Grinwreck was felled by an arrow and beheaded by the Blishwick patriarch himself."

"How awful," Lily lamented.

Severus was inclined to agree, "Yes, but legend has it Grinwreck cursed their family with his dying breath. 'May your fortunes run to ruin, may your bloodline run dry,' or something like that. Either way, by the 1930's the Blishwick family was little more than a memory, more than half of them being wiped out by a rather vicious case of Dragon Pox and the rest falling to destitution and obscurity. So I guess in a way Grinwreck got the last laugh."

"But what of his lover and child?" Lily pressed, "What ever happened to them?"

Severus furrowed his brow, "That's the strange thing. According to Simone, the reason Wisp and her baby were kept out of the history books as the cause of the war is because they were never seen or heard from again. No wizard historian could ever find a trace of Wisp. The remaining Blishwicks after the war could never find her or the baby, or at the very least said they had no idea what became of either of them…"

"They just…vanished?" Lily breathed in amazement.

"Apparently so," Severus agreed, "If anyone knows where they went, they're not talking."

Lily rested her head against Severus's shoulder, "Do you think the goblins in Grinwreck's family smuggled them out?"

Severus shrugged, "Anything's possible. Both Goblins and House Elves have powerful magic; though I'm not sure how Wisp would have left without being presented with clothes by her masters."

Lily sighed, cuddling closer to Severus, "Why do people have to be so awful. Is it so wrong to let others simply live and love?"

Severus stroked her hair, "Sometimes people hate what they don't understand because in truth they want it for themselves. Seeing someone else happy with simple love while those of hate have everything in the world but happiness makes them want to take away everything from everyone else. I doubt Malfoy would be so set on hating Muggles and Muggleborns if he were truly happy. Focusing on ruining things for them allows him to pretend he's got something to actual be happy about."

"And You-Know-Who?" Lily asked.

"Tom?" Severus mused, "I doubt he even knows what happiness truly feels like."

The pair sat there for a while after, fingers intertwined, heads together as they took comfort in having never led so empty and meaningless a life as the famed Dark Lord.

Woot, making up fake Goblin Lore!

Having seen the second Fantastic Beasts movie-

(MILD SIDE CHARACTER SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT)

-the knowledge that house elves can half children with humans and yet are still considered property to most wizards and witches hits uncomfortably close to how black slaves were treated in reality and makes the plight of house elves a lot more dark in my opinion. I mean, they were close enough to humans to have children with them; making that fact that they were basically possessions of wizards so much more creepy and disturbing (not that it wasn't already bad before I knew they were close enough in relation to humans to interbreed).

(SPOILERS DONE)

Goblins, as I've said before, get a pretty raw deal themselves in HP. Rowling doesn't portray them as anything more than mean and greedy and it's clear within the universe that most wizards, even good ones like Hagrid, view them in poor light as bad, unpleasant creatures. It isn't very fair. And of course, they are denied wands because they can "do magic without it" which is a stupid excuse given that wizards can learn to practice wandless and non verbal magic, making wands unnecessary for them as well. What it comes down to is wizards fearing goblins getting to powerful, and as we all know, prejudicial-based fear never makes anything better.

So, I couldn't help but wonder what some of the reasons might be for all the Goblin/Wizard disputes Binns likes to drone on about. What if one of them was for a noble cause, like love and freedom?

On a different subject, while I like shipping Remus with Sirius, I do think Remus could do much better, given what an inconsiderate ass Sirius is. Does that make sense...I don't think it makes sense. Oh well.