A/N: To Star Rose 7: I'm glad you took your time to at least start reading my story. But as I said before, don't like it don't read it. I personally reallyenjoy writing this story.

I want to thank all of you who have been with me from the beginning. Now, here's another chapter. Enjoy:))

Chapter 97: Not so well

The Occlumency lessons were not how I expected. I eventually had to go as well because, although I was a born occlumens, that didn't apply to dreams. When I was awake, he couldn't get into my mind. But in the world of dreams...I wasn't so lucky.

And so we started going together to weekly lessons with Sev, and it was horrible. He figured that I somehow had to learn to protect my mind consciously so it would be harder to get into it when I wasn't awake. That's why he gave me a potion that cancelled the protection. I never realized how guarded my mind was until it wasn't anymore.

I was terrible at it. Even a month later I could barely push him out. Harry was getting better, eventually managing to use Protego against him. Sev was not amused and shoved him out of the room. He slammed the door shut and sat at his desk, head in his hands. I walked up to him.

"What happened?"

"The shield reversed the spell, and he got into my memories."

"And what did he see?"

"The tree incident. When I called Lily...you know..."

"Oh. Well, that does look really bad. But I can explain it to him. It's not that big of a deal."

"I don't know. Maybe it would be better to stop the lessons. He's getting more frustrated than I am, and you're going to break down if we continue like this."

"No. I'll try to get better, but we can't stop now. It's not safe anymore. I'll talk to Harry, and he'll get back. Just, try to be nicer to him. He doesn't like you much either, but you have to cooperate on this."

Next morning, after breakfast, we headed straight to the Transfiguration classroom. When we got there, in the back, next to the huge bookshelf, was seated Umbridge, with a pink clipboard in her hand and her everlasting smile plastered to her face.

"Oh, dear.."

"Why is she here?" Hermione asked me.

"Inspection. She's gonna do that to all the teachers, to decide who can stay and who will be fired and replaced."

"Today we will start studying the next spell for the OWLs."

"Ahemm." She obviously wanted to say something, but was completely ignored.

"There are only four spells left to study this year and after that, the recap will start, and I will be here to help all of you with anything that you didn't understand or mastered over the years. Now, we-"

"Ahem"

"Do you need a cough drop Dolores?"

"No, Minerva, I was j-"

"Good, as I was saying, we will learn the vanishing spell. Observe: Evanesco"

She pointed her wand to the needle on her desk and it disappeared.

The rest of the class was spent by us trying to get our needles to vanish. Hermione and I got it on the second try, Ron and Harry a few tires later. It seemed that everyone in the room was trying to prove the toad what a good teacher Minnie was. Even the Slytherins. At the end, as we were packing, the two of them talked, and Umbridge left the room visibly irritated.

The next DA meeting was set on a Saturday morning, when Umbridge was at the Ministry. We met early, so we would have time for whatever business we had planned. Most of the members were happy to be back together with their friends, and obviously had fun over the break. But Neville...

"Hey Nev, you ok?"

"Look, Selene, I- about St Mungo's-"

"Don't worry, we won't tell anyone. It's ok, you know, your parents would've been really proud of you. No matter what your grandmother says. Look how much you progressed. Your secret will be kept."

"Thanks. What were you doing there, anyway? Aside from Hermione, none of you could even stand professor Lockhart."

"Well, there was a problem, but it's fine now."

"Good morning everyone. Welcome back to Hogwarts. Sorry we made you wake up so early, but this way, we'll be done before Umbridge comes back and sets the Inquisitorial Squad or Filch on us. Now, I hope you all had a relaxing break, as we are going to work even harder than before, to get though the OWLs and to protect ourselves. Let's start."

We started practicing the full body binding spell. We all had to work on it, as it could be very useful in a fight. Not much progress was made that day, but most people didn't even know the words to it when they entered the room. Me, Harry, Ron and Hermione didn't leave the room until noon. We wanted a safe place to talk and that was perfect.

"We should go grab lunch. And maybe take a walk."

"Yeah, I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry, Ron."

"True. Now let's go."

The toadless day was much better than we expected. It was like she took most of the darkness and sadness of the school with her when she left. Hermione tried to force us to start making learning schedules, but eventually realized she had no chance and let it go. At some point, the twins came over and the boys played a game of Quidditch. It was relaxing.

"Hey, did you know that apparently twins can develop their own language?"

"Yeah, Mione, it's Parseltongue, but others can talk it too."

"I'm not talking about that. What you said doesn't even make sense."

"Yeah, it probably doesn't. Now go to sleep. You telling me fun facts stopped being fun half an hour ago. I just want to sleep."

"Okay, okay, you don't have to get mad."

"I'm not mad. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

The black corridor was deserted. There was something at the end of it, butcouldn't quite tell what. I started walking until I heard a noise. It was really muffled, but I could still hear it. I turned around only to see Harry. We looked at each other confused, but kept walking. It was a door. But before any of us could opened it, I woke up. And I assumed my brother did too in the other room.