Outtake –Legilimency

(Between chapters 21 and 22)

Harry was safe, healthy and still in possession of the Cloak of Invisibility when Dumbledore had picked him up, but that was only to be expected. The boy had been in constant correspondence with his school friends who had not been worried about him in the least. The senior wardbuilder had also reassured the Supreme Mugwump each Tuesday evening that Harry was fine, happy, although disturbingly attached to 'that filthy war criminal'and that he had continuously referred to Nurmengard as 'home'.

Now that Sirius Black had been proven innocent (and old Crouch would occupy his former cell for several months) it was obvious that Harry wouldn't be willing to return to Little Whinging anyway. Which was maybe for the better – if Harry went back to live with his muggle family, then Sirius would have accompanied him, either as human or as a dog... and that would have been outright catastrophic, to the muggles and to the Statute and to the British magicals alike. And if something happened to Black during his recovery? Harry would grab his broom and fly over to the continent for the summer. Unless the Dursleys could be convinced to take that Nimbus away; but why would they? The fat muggle would be eager to be rid of him, he would probably even sign whichever muggle documents there are to allow an underage child to travel abroad by muggle means. Not to mention, with the Potter family's wealth nobody would bat an eye if Harry mail-ordered a new broom for himself.

Honestly, the blood wards around Petunia Dursley's home could be forgotten. But where could the boy be hidden until he could defend himself? That led to another uncomfortable thought. In his last letter, Gellert wrote he 'will have to train the Master of the Cloak how to defend himself from the Master of the Wand'. Who could tell what that meant? If Gellert was infamous for one thing it was his tendency to hideously overdo whatever he set his mind on. The accusation hurt Albus, however. He would never try to take the Cloak. Never again. James Potter's death was enough on his conscience.

The headmaster stared at his wand with trepidation. What if Gellert had turned Harry against him? The boy had been with him for over three months! Sure, Dumbledore had faith in the boy, and Gellert himself told him in a detailed letter how Harry hadn't let him put his thoughts in a Howler, but after all that Grindelwald had done, Albus preferred to be safe rather than sorry.

Despite spending three months with Grindelwald, Harry still didn't hurry down for breakfast earlier than the average child. True, he went flying from his dorm window at dawn every now and then, that had to be a habit he had picked up in Nurmengard, but how could anyone read the thoughts of a wizard who was focused on performing a Wronsky feint?

The opportunity offered itself the first weekend after Harry's return. With the boy in Nurmengard, the Dursleys had never bothered to sign his Hogsmeade slip, and his godfather had yet to receive the schooling documents. Harry stayed behind with only a few students and some people from the staff.

It was easy to find him, and the young wizard greeted him with awe. Was that connected to the Elder Wand? Did the child know what exactly it was and who it had been taken from?

Yes and yes. There was no surprise.

"Hello, Harry. May I sit here?"

"Sure, professor. I'm waiting for Professor Lupin, he promised to show me how to pass into the..."

Confusion and awkwardness. Clearly the boy had heard (somehow) about the Shrieking Shack and that the Marauders had used it to an extent that it counted as their backup home. Remus had contacted Sirius there, once Andromeda's daughter's suspicion made him doubt his only surviving friend's guilt.

Did he also know Lupin was a werewolf? He blinked into Harry's emerald-green eyes.

Immediately, he found a memory of Alicia Spinnet pointing out that a werewolf is surprisingly mild after the last two Defence teachers they had had, to which Lavender Brown had replied 'two out of three' and then the Gryffindors had argued whether Lockhart had counted as a Defence teacher or not. Apparently, however, the general consensus was that Lupin's infection was relatively little reason to worry. Having had a war criminal right before him had most certainly put his furry condition in a new light...

Another thought from Harry: werewolf or not, Remus was a good friend of James Potter.

Friends...

Unprompted, Albus's mind jumped to his own youth, to his own best friend (no, Gellert wasn't a friend, he was EVERYTHING) and to a bag of Bertie Bott's Beans. A young and inexperienced Albus had laughed at the concept of seeing things through magic, to which a young and already experienced Gellert had responded by picking a specific greyish bean and daring Albus to try it.

Harry busted out laughing. "Sorry, professor. It's just, Professor Wohl never volunteered that memory. It helped that you've already told me the ending."

Albus jumped up, and was embarrassed to realise that he'd screamed, then took several more steps backwards.

"Professor Dumbledore...?"

"You... You... How? You didn't even use your wand!"

"I'm sorry, professor. I didn't mean to sneak! It's just, you already told me it was vomit flavoured, and Professor Wohl never allowed me to see that one, so I just... I'm sorry, professor!"

The headmaster glared around in confusion, hastily raising shields around his own mind before Harry could look further.

"Albus, are you all right?" Minerva hurried to him, and Remus was also running from the other direction, inquiring about more or less the same.

Yes, he was all right. Only shocked. A few months prior Harry had not yet been a trained Legilimens.

He made sure he had his strongest Occlumency shields up before voicing his thoughts.

"I'm sorry," Potter repeated.

"You did well, Harry," Remus interrupted. "You caught your headmaster by surprise, that's a feat your dad would have loved to accomplish." The werewolf even gave a thumbs-up.

"What happened?" Minerva insisted.

"I was caught by surprise," Dumbledore repeated Lupin's words, "but no harm was done, I believe."

Oh, the harm was done... Grindelwald had even warned him that he was preparing Potter to fight him off! That restless meddler. There was a reason nobody had been allowed to visit him! But it was way too late to regret trusting the dark wizard. "I didn't expect to find young Mr Potter in my mind wandlessly."

"You were the one holding up the connection, sir," Harry quietly explained. "I just went along."

"Exactly how accomplished are you in Legilimency, Mr. Potter?" Minerva asked. She couldn't seem to decide whether she was angry or pleased. Shocked, that she certainly was.

"I'm learning to steer away from things I'm not meant to see," Harry replied shyly. Of course he had a lot to improve in that field.

"That's a very dangerous phase, my boy. Did Gellert teach you all that?"

A nod.

Albus sat down, his face pale. "I cannot imagine just what you've seen in his mind, my boy."

"Much." Enough that he could see the thestrals flying their morning rounds around the forest, but Harry wouldn't say that out loud.

So Gellert wasn't shy to let Harry see so much pain, so many deaths. But he declined to show him how he'd tricked a young Albus into taking that vomit-flavoured bean!

"Do you have anyone to practice with?" Lupin asked. He seemed torn between offering to help his best friend's son and keeping his furry misery to himself. Of course he couldn't offer to teach occlumency, but reading unshielded thoughts already took a lot of skill and long hours of practice.

Harry shook his head, not understanding the unspoken offer. "I was about to ask Hermione but she's too busy with all the classes she's taking. And Ron's been so sullen ever since his rat vanished."

Remus paled, the one guilty in said rat's disappearance.

"Well, Severus owes me a favour anyway," Dumbledore mused aloud. If Harry would take lessons from Snape, they might finally reach an understanding. Or, a slightly less preferable outcome: Harry would never try Legilimency again.

"I think Longbottom wouldn't mind," Minerva said, however, almost at the same time.

Harry cheered up. "Yes! I'll ask him as soon as he's back from Hogsmeade!"

Albus honestly wished he could strangle Grindelwald with his bare hands, but the old criminal was a thousand miles away in Austria, so the worst the headmaster could do was to send a howler with Fawkes. (And he was at an advantage: not even Harry would stop him from that.)

But, by the time he was in his office again, he found himself composing a normal letter.

'Gellert,

I wish you were here right now...'