Disclaimer: Nothing is mine; everything is J K Rowling's.

The next chapter is up. It's time for things to start to move on a little bit and build up steam, the end of the beginning has begun...

Chapter 44

Somehow Harry found himself in the Hog's Head sitting next to Katie and watching, bemused as Hermione, Ron, Dean attempted to persuade Neville that he was really quite capable of teaching anyone he wanted to.

He was only here because Neville had insisted on it, because Hermione had clearly worked out that Neville's newfound improvement and his closer friendship with Harry were no coincidences, and because Katie had finally escaped the care of Madam Pomfrey and wanted to go outside. It had been the latter that really clinched things, Katie had not been taking no for an answer.

That left the two of them sitting around the edge of a table in the Hog's Head, sipping butterbeer and watching the spectacle unfold in front of them.

'Why are we here?'

'I wanted to get out of Hogwarts and go walking around Hogsmeade for a bit,' Katie reminded him, taking a sip of her drink and getting foam on her upper lip.

'I mean right here, as in the Hog's Head, we already went walking up to the Shrieking Shack earlier.'

'Oh,' Katie gave him an incredulous look, licking the foam of her upper lip, 'don't you know?'

'Obviously if I knew, I wouldn't be asking,' he responded acidly.

'Don't be grumpy,' Katie remonstrated him, patting him gently on the cheek with her cold, slightly damp hand. Harry wiped the condensation of his cheek and gave her a flat look.

'Umbridge is refusing to teach us,' Katie explained, 'apparently Neville's proven himself a good teacher and is a way ahead of where he's supposed to be. Hermione, Ron and Dean have been offering to form a group for him to teach, though,' she nodded at the dispute that was still continuing in front of them, 'it seems they did it without asking Neville first.'

'So why are you here?' Harry asked. Katie was in the year above them, she'd already passed her OWLs.

'I thought it might be fun,' she grinned, 'besides, I have a pretty good guess where Neville learnt his stuff from.'

'I taught him everything he knows,' Harry admitted, with a slight smile. Lying to Katie, or teasing her too much, normally only got him quaffle-sized bruises. He was no longer allowed to attend quidditch practices, but that probably meant she'd just hex him where he stood instead.

'Thought so,' Katie beamed. 'He's a lot better now, you know,' she added more quietly and seriously. 'Whatever you've told him or showed him has really helped him. He used to just drift around silently, break things and squeak with surprise, like a big, clumsy mouse.'

Harry laughed, briefly drawing the attention of the arguing quartet.

'It's going to be quite a small group,' he remarked. 'I'm teaching him, they're already learning from him, and you're only here to have a laugh and hex me.'

'Everyone's supposed to coming in about five minutes,' Katie responded, taking another long sip of her drink. This time she avoided getting foam over herself.

'Ah, so it won't just be us.'

'No, though I have no idea how many people will actually be coming,' Katie's face scrunched up in thought, 'maybe ten or fifteen.'

'They might be disappointed,' Harry pointed out, finishing his drink and nodding at the quartet. 'Neville might not ever agree to teach them.'

'You'll have to teach us instead,' Katie smiled.

'Dark ice curses for beginners,' Harry grinned, only to get punched firmly on the shoulder.

'Don't joke,' Katie admonished him. 'Impaling other students with icicles isn't funny.'

It is when it's Malfoy, Harry almost said.

He rubbed his shoulder and stuck his lower lip out dramatically instead.

'Harry,' Hermione's voice interrupted, 'tell Neville he has to teach us.'

'Why?' Harry shrugged. 'He can make his own decisions. If you want to, or think you should, then by all means teach, Nev, but don't let them force you into something you don't want.'

'Umbridge isn't going to teach us,' Ron pointed out, still surprising calm.

He'd have exploded by this point last year. Maybe he finally grew up a bit.

'Yeah, and Neville helped us already with his shield charm,' Dean added. 'I'm sure he wouldn't mind helping you, or anyone else if he'd only get over his fear of speaking to people he doesn't really know.'

'I know I should teach,' Neville muttered, 'but nobody would listen to me, they'll never think that I know what I'm talking about.'

'Show them they're wrong,' Harry responded firmly. 'When they see you're better than them they'll have to swallow their pride and ask for help. It will be fun.' Hermione shot him a glare, and Katie drowned a giggle in her butterbeer next to him, spattering foam over her mouth.

'Very attractive,' Harry congratulated her, and the chaser flushed slightly.

'Everyone will be here soon,' Hermione fretted.

'You should have thought about that before leaving it to the last minute to tell Neville what you wanted him to do,' Harry told her unsympathetically.

'I assumed he'd want to help his friends,' Hermione responded pointedly.

'Maybe he already is helping all his friends,' he replied coolly. Neville looked uncertainly between them.

'I'll teach,' he decided, then smirked, an expression Harry wasn't used to seeing Neville wear, 'but Harry will be my assistant.' Ron and Dean looked nervous, no doubt considering the prospect of numbers falling once they realised Harry was involved. Hermione looked rather too happy about it.

'That's good,' Katie told them all cheerfully, 'because everyone's arriving now.'

Neville gulped, but straightened up and fixed a determined expression on his face.

'There are a few more than ten,' Harry pointed out to Katie, as the Hog's Head swiftly filled up to the point of inconvenience.

'I underestimated Neville's appeal,' she giggled.

'That or nobody has managed to teach themselves how to do a shield charm.' Harry decided his second reason was the more likely of the two. He was still trying to find a way of improving his own, the shining, silver barrier that Voldemort had created was much more impressive than his bright light. He was also slightly tempted to see what would happen should he cast it angry, but it would be best to wait until he was in the chamber for that, though he would be spending even less time there now than he wanted.

Umbridge had forgotten, in her glee, to give him detention, but the moment Dumbledore had been told Harry had somehow found himself scheduled to be spending at least one evening a week with Snape for the rest of the year. It meant, as likely as anything else, that he would be very well acquainted with the school cauldrons come the summer and that the headmaster could keep an eye on him.

'I guess we should start then,' Hermione said suddenly, throwing a disappointed look at the trio of boys beside her. 'Professor Umbridge doesn't want to teach us any real magic, so we'll have to learn it and practice ourselves. Neville has already helped us from time to time,' she looked faintly embarrassed having to admit to needing assistance, 'and he's agreed, with a few stipulations to help teach a larger group.'

'Longbottom?' A blond Hufflepuff laughed. 'He doesn't even know which end of the wand to hold.'

Neville flinched, and Hermione opened her mouth to retort in his defence. Surprisingly, Neville beat her too it.

'Let's see your shield charm, Smith,' he ordered, in an oddly authoritative tone. The Hufflepuff flushed and sat down without saying anything else.

'Protego,' Neville said, and he was instantly surrounded by a bright wall of silver light. There were more than a few exclamations of surprise. Harry shot his friend a grin when Neville looked up to give him a grateful nod. Neville let the shield hover for a few moments before dispelling it, and Harry noted that it was still trembling slightly.

'So now it's obvious that Neville can help, we want to know if you're interested in being part of the group,' Hermione announced.

'How will it be run?' One of the other Hufflepuffs asked.

'And what were Neville's stipulations?' A Ravenclaw asked warily.

'I had three,' Neville replied, answering the Ravenclaw's question. 'They are not negotiable, if you wish to be helped you will have to accept them. Firstly, nobody tells Umbridge, none of us want to spend any time in her office doing lines. Secondly, the locations and dates of meetings will be conveyed secretly and are to kept a secret, along with the group's name and the names of the other members. Lastly, Harry Potter will be assisting me.'

'I'm not letting him use dark magic on me,' Smith declared over a none too quiet murmur of discontent. 'I read about what he did to Malfoy.'

'Malfoy pretty much deserved it,' Ron snapped. 'I was there, and so were Angelina, Ginny, Katie and my brothers. He thought it was funny to gloat over having deliberately attacked Katie.'

'Look on the bright side,' Katie piped up in the silent shock of hearing Ron defend his former friend for the first time in a year. 'You'll get very good at defending against the Dark Arts if Harry's helping.'

'Thanks, Katie,' Harry congratulated her sarcastically. She gave him an innocent stare in return and finished her drink.

'What's wrong with just learning from Neville?' Terry Boot demanded.

'Harry is the one who taught Neville,' Hermione answered simply. 'You're learning from him indirectly anyway.' The room fell silent at that.

'Fine,' Smith sneered, 'but don't expect us to like it. I don't trust him.'

'It will give you a good motive to work on your shield charm, Smith,' Neville noted uncharacteristically viciously.

'So how are we doing this?' Terry Boot asked.

'Everyone who wants to join signs their name on this list,' Hermione waved an inauspicious piece of parchment in the air, 'anyone else might as well leave now.'

A handful of students from Ravenclaw left, but nobody else did.

Harry waited until last to sign his name, running his forefinger down the list of names as if he was reading them while quietly checking for enchantments with his wand held in his sleeve.

There were some quite nasty ones.

Hermione's serious about this remaining a secret.

Should anyone ever knowingly betray the group they would find their treachery quite hard to conceal. It was quite ingenious, but not ironclad. An indirect betrayal would leave the perpetrator's face completely free of pimples.

Harry signed his name with a flourish and rejoined Katie in the middle of the group.

'So how do we know when to meet and where?' Angelina asked. There were a handful of students from older years who had come to join. Harry presumed it was because they believed Dumbledore and wanted to be prepared rather than concerned about retaking their OWLs.

'That's easy,' Hermione answered, glowing with pride. 'You all get one of these.' She held out a box of horribly familiar badges. Neville paled slightly at the sight of them.

S.P.E.W.

'Since I had nothing to do with them, I've enchanted them with the Protean Charm. When Neville changes the numbers on the back of all the badges it will change on all the others. The number will give you the time and date of the next meeting.'

'Do we have to wear them?' Lavender asked, distinctly nervously. Ron sniggered.

'No,' Hermione conceded, 'but do try to be more careful about losing them this year than you were last year.'

'That's very clever,' Boot voiced, sounding genuinely impressed, 'but it doesn't tell us where to meet.'

The Protean Charm was a NEWT level spell if Harry remembered correctly, and not one he knew as it had not seemed obviously useful to him. Hermione's use of it was quite clever, and more than a little impressive.

It's actually quite a versatile charm, he decided. Maybe I'll have to learn it after all.

'All our meetings will be held in the same place, you'll know where to come from the second time, but for the first you should meet next to Hogwarts' worst tapestry on the seventh floor.' Neville's announcement was greeted by blank looks for the most part and only a handful of knowing grins. The Weasley Twins didn't know of it, but a blonde-haired, grey-eyed Ravenclaw, one of Ginny's friends, smiled and so too did Susan Bones.

'We need a name for the group,' the nearest Weasley twin decided.

'Ronniekins Rangers,' his brother suggested, grinning, 'or Hermione's Heroes.'

'How about something vaguely appropriate?' Angelina interrupted. 'And something that doesn't encourage your obsession with alliteration.'

'The Defence Club,' Smith proposed.

'Well it's a bit boring isn't it,' one of the Twins complained.

'Obvious too,' his brother pointed out.

Somewhere in the back of Harry's mind the beginnings of a plan began to form. Dumbledore was being a nuisance, assigning him detentions, watching him, potentially checking the school wards to expose his visits to France, and Umbridge certainly needed to go.

Wouldn't it be perfect to get rid of the both of them, one after the other, using the same piece of parchment?

'They should call it Dumbledore's Army,' he whispered to Katie, 'that's what the Ministry seems to think we're being turned into.'

Katie laughed, then repeated it loudly to the room, just as Harry had hoped she would.

'All in favour of Dumbledore's Army?' Hermione asked, smiling at the joke.

Harry's hand rose into the air perfectly in the middle of the thicket of raised limbs. All he needed now was a few moments alone with that list of names and the framework of his scheme would be laid.

Sorry, Katie.

He didn't like lying to her, or manipulating her; she was his friend, and loyal enough to have never completely deserted him. He would make sure that neither she nor Neville were hurt because of this, and so long as they were never affected by it, he wouldn't feel too guilty.

'Dumbledore's Army it is,' Hermione decided, writing the name in elegant, neat letters across the top of the list of names. Harry smiled slightly, very satisfied with how well that had worked out in his favour.

'You should tell them about the list, Hermione,' Ron warned, 'just in case.'

Hermione looked a little reluctant, but began to speak again after a moment. 'I've placed a few enchantments on the paper, they took me quite some time to look up and create. When you signed your names you entered into a magical contract with the group. If you willingly, or knowingly betray us, there will be unpleasant consequences.'

'What kind of consequences?' Smith asked, he seemed a little more shaken than before.

'Let's just say everyone will know know who it was who betrayed us,' Neville replied firmly.

The box of badges began its rounds, growing progressively more empty.

'I thought I'd escaped these last year,' Harry remarked, choosing one for himself and passing another to Katie.

'It suits you,' Katie told him, 'the green brings out your eyes.'

'Thank you,' Harry responded with mock seriousness. 'I shall wear it always.' There were a few muffled sniggers and Hermione shot him a look that was somehow both hopeful and scathing.

'So what will we be learning?' Terry Boot asked. 'Nobody actually specified.'

'I can help you learn everything that you'll find on the OWL exam.' Neville shot Harry a questioning glance and he nodded in acquiescence, he might find more allies among this group of disaffected students. 'For those who want to be able to do a bit more, then Harry has taught me some very useful spells and knows a lot more.'

'Like what?' Smith seemed more apprehensive than anything.

'Dark ice curses,' Katie answered, beaming evilly. 'Great for creating beautiful icicles and impaling vulnerable first years who stray too far from their common rooms.'

So much for that not being funny.

'The blasting curse,' Neville replied, drawing the rooms attention away from Katie, who was basking in the mix of horror and humour. 'The stunning spell, and a good few more, nothing remotely dark.'

Harry resisted the urge to shake his head in irritation. They were so naive, so narrow-minded, he was more glad than ever that he had seen the truth about magic, else he too would be facing Death-Eaters with only stunning spells and a handful of virtually harmless jinxes.

There is no light and dark, Salazar's words echoed in his head, only power, and the intent that guides it.

'The Patronus Charm,' Hermione suggested. 'Harry can cast a corporeal patronus.'

Harry frowned, no longer sure that was true. He vividly remembered his last attempt to cast the charm in the maze of the third task, and the sluggish pool of silver mist he'd summoned around his feet. It had barely even been a shield.

'I can teach you the steps to cast it,' he told them, 'but the form of your patronus is quite personal, so I'd rather not display mine.'

'Then how do we know you can cast it?' Terry Boot asked, suspicious.

'Only light wizards can cast a patronus,' Smith added, pointedly creating tension.

'Sorry, Katie,' he whispered. 'I think it's too late for you.' She giggled and the bubble of anxiety burst. The Hufflepuff would have to try far harder than that if he wanted to goad a reaction from Harry, and he'd likely regret it if he was successful.

'I've seen it,' Hermione responded sharply, silencing Smith.

'The first meeting will be in a week, the same time as today,' Neville decided. 'If you can't make it, keep an eye on your badges for the next one and follow other members to our location.' He pressed the tip of his wand to the badge, screwing his face up in concentration, and the numbers on the back of the badge blurred and changed.

A week to think of a way to get hold of that list.

Harry could do that. Fleur would be more than happy to teach him a few tricks about enchanting, she loved showing off her skill in the art and Harry quite liked listening to her. It was pleasant just having her speaking to and focused on him.

The students began to disappear in small groups, chatting excitedly.

'What now?' Katie asked, 'want to stay or head back?'

'I don't have much of a choice,' Harry shrugged. 'Dumbledore sent a note via McGonagall that I have detention with Snape in his office today for an hour, and again every week for the foreseeable future whenever he can organise it.'

'What for?' Harry raised an eyebrow at her. 'Oh,' she realised. 'Malfoy. I thought you'd managed to escape with just your ban.'

'Not much of an escape that,' Harry joked. It would have been an incredible escape. Any other student would have been expelled, or at least suspended, but Dumbledore wanted him where he could watch him, so Harry remained at Hogwarts.

'I guess we should head back then,' Katie decided, standing up and almost tripping over her chair.

'Too much to drink?' Harry quipped.

'No,' Katie scowled. 'I'm more careful now, after…well, you know when.'

'Yeah,' Harry responded quietly. 'I know.'

'Harry,' Hermione scooped her things into her bag very untidily, wincing slightly at the sound of crumpling parchment, and jogged to catch them before they left.

She must really want to speak to me.

'What do you want?' He still treated her coolly, it was no more than she deserved for breaking his wand.

'I spoke to Cedric about the third task.' Harry waited for her to continue. He doubted Cedric remembered very much. 'He says he remembers hearing the whistle and starting to run into the maze, then nothing until seeing you stun him.'

'That's unfortunate,' Harry remarked.

'He does remember being told that he was found unconscious next to Viktor, and that his wand had been broken.' Hermione seemed quite upset and disturbed by something, she clearly wasn't buying the set of events she had been told about.

Harry very carefully thought through the possible outcomes in his head and decided that while it would be best to keep his mouth closed for now nothing could come back to bite him. Cedric might end up feeling very guilty, which he didn't deserve to, but Hermione's search, at worst, would simply give Hogwarts' champion nightmares.

'You don't think that's weird?'

'Of course I do,' he agreed. 'You heard what Dumbledore said, someone was interfering, they probably got Cedric too and he'd just woken up when I found him.'

'It doesn't make sense,' Hermione shook her head, 'his wand was snapped deliberately, but for no obvious reason.'

She's not going to let this go until Cedric is forced to realise what really happened.

It made him more than a little angry with his former friend. She was going to stir up a lot of unpleasant truths, hurt Cedric unnecessarily and in return she would find nothing more satisfying than the story she already knew.

I can't even dissuade her, because it will make me look suspicious.

'I only know what I saw,' Harry responded evenly.

'I know,' she sighed. 'I'm sorry to bring it up after everything that happened, but I need to know what happened to Viktor.'

'Most people who go digging don't find gold, Hermione,' Katie warned, in a rather uncharacteristicly metaphoric manner. Normally she was quite blunt. Hermione glared at the chaser and stalked off, probably more determined than before.

'Is that actually a saying?' Harry asked.

'I made it up,' Katie admitted. 'I thought it sounded good.'

'I've heard worse,' Harry conceded.

'What actually happened in the maze?' Katie inquired quietly. 'You were answering her questions in a very specific manner, and you're not happy about her searching into this at all, are you?'

'If you're worried that I was responsible, don't be,' Harry assured her. 'I know exactly what happened, but I took a risk to protect someone. Her digging is going to undo that and it's not going to benefit anyone. They will get hurt, and nobody else will really be affected in the slightest. It's too late to implicate me,' he told her calmly, before she could worry about that.

'Cedric,' Katie realised. 'You snapped his wand so nobody could see the spells it cast and stunned him.' She scrunched her face up in thought. 'Why are you helping him if he killed someone? What don't I know?'

Harry felt a surge of gratitude towards the scruffy chaser. She had trusted him implicitly, assuming he had a good reason rather than telling him he was doing something wrong.

'Cedric didn't do anything consciously,' he told her, in a very quiet whisper. 'I spared him from blame in case Bagman hadn't been caught, now I'm only keeping him from the guilt of knowing, but it's no less than he deserves.'

'You obliviated him,' Katie deduced. 'That was noble of you, Harry,' she teased. 'Still a Gryffindor at heart. I won't tell anyone, it's unnecessarily cruel to Diggory.'

'As brainless and reckless as they come,' Harry grinned, and thank you.'

'So how come you're only teaching Neville and not me?' She asked as they drifted back onto the school grounds.

'There would be an outcry from the lower years if anyone caught wind of me teaching you anything,' Harry smiled. 'You've terrified them all already, imagine how they'd react if they thought I'd been teaching you dark ice curses too.'

'Angelina said you used the water conjuring spell,' Katie pointed out.

'I did,' Harry grinned, 'but didn't you read what Rita Skeeter said. It was clearly a very dark curse, so I must have tricked her.'

'You aren't going to tell me, are you?'

'It was an accident,' Harry admitted, choosing his next half-truths carefully. 'I wanted to drench him in water, but I was angry and I think I did some transfiguration by accident after conjuring the water.'

'You must have been angry about me being hurt to do accidental magic at fifteen, Harry,' Katie suggested coyly. 'Is there something you need to tell Fleur?'

'Only that sometimes there are people who you see as more siblings than anything else,' Harry smiled at her slight flush, 'and that she should feel free to throw fire at you.'

Katie pouted, and turned towards the Owlery. 'I need to send a letter,' she told him, 'have fun scrubbing things for Snape.'

'I'm sure I will,' Harry gritted, annoyed at the time he might lose in the chamber because of this.

He was already slightly late to Snape's detention, they'd walked back from Hogsmeade more slowly than he'd realised, but Harry didn't particularly care. Dumbledore was not going to expel him for being five minutes late, and since he was already in detention for what would conceivably be the rest of the year they no longer had anything to threaten him with.

He walked past the Great Hall and down towards the dungeons and Snape's office at a casual pace, taking the time to watch the lower years edge away from him. Katie would have been pretending to recite the words to some dark spell by now.

Harry wasn't really tempted. It was funny when she did it, or when they did it together, but not while he was on his own.

'You're late, Potter,' Snape drawled when he eventually reached the office.

'I got held up because of Professor Umbridge,' Harry replied, which was very loosely true. The meeting had been held to make up for her lack of teaching.

Snape's office looked very similar to the potion's store, only the ingredients on the walls looked a good deal rarer. Harry spotted a few things he was fairly sure Snape shouldn't have in jars on the wall, including Ashwinder eggs and something that looked quite like dragon's blood.

'The headmaster is concerned by your recent spate of behaviour,' the potions teacher told him, looking down in the same strangely neutral expression as before. 'He believes there is a connection between you and the Dark Lord, and that his emotions are influencing you through it.'

A connection? Harry thought acidly. Are you sure he didn't mention anything about a piece of his soul being inside me?

'He has decided it would be prudent for me to teach you the mind arts and show you how to block out the Dark Lord's influence.' Snape fixed him with a piercing stare, something Harry avoided meeting given the subject of his detention. The potions master lips curled into the slightest of smiles. 'He mentioned that you had something of an interest them, though I'm sceptical that you have the emotional discipline for them.'

'How will you be teaching me?' Harry asked. If it was anything more than theory, then he'd have no choice but to occlude Snape from the very beginning. There were too many things that he couldn't let him, or Dumbledore know.

'I will attempt to breach your mind and you will try and keep me out.' Snape sneered slightly at the thought of not being able to penetrate the thoughts of a fifteen year old.

'Clear your mind, Potter,' the potions teacher ordered, drawing his wand. Harry emptied every thought from his head, focusing on the feeling of nothing, on the emptiness he had used to be, feeding every emotion and thought in his head into it.

'Legilimens,' Snape hissed, and a stabbing pain erupted from his temples. Harry ignored it, and let the nothingness consume him further.

Snape visibly flinched, but continued to press his assault, driving the ache in his head to new heights. Harry hurled himself into it, recalling the disassociation from everyone and everything, the aimless, meaningless hollowness that had been him, and letting everything else drown within it.

Snape swore and broke the link. Harry looked up, curious, he had never heard the man curse before.

'That was not proper occlumency, Potter,' he spat. 'I have never met a wizard who defends his mind by using creating such an unbearable feeling in which to trap their opponent.' His lips curled up again into that faint smile. 'It is quite unorthodox.'

'Thank you, sir,' Harry replied, wary now of where this conversation would head. If Snape thought he was competent enough to keep Voldemort from influencing him, then he and Dumbledore would realise that Harry's actions had been purely his.

'How long have you been practising the mind arts, Potter,' Snape asked, his tone cool, but not overtly hostile.

'A little over a year,' Harry answered honestly. 'The basics of clearing your mind help with focusing to cast spells, and I continued learning once I discovered more about it.'

'Then you have come a very long way in a very short time,' Snape told him flatly. It wasn't quite a compliment, or congratulations, just a statement of fact.

'It seems to come to me naturally,' Harry shrugged, 'maybe I inherited a knack for it from my parents.' He knew for a fact that an aptitude for the mind arts had been inherited from somewhere on his family tree.

Snape's upper lip curled. 'If you have, it was not from your father,' he sneered. 'James Potter did not have the discipline or the subtlety that the mind arts require.'

'My mother then,' Harry responded calmly, not let letting Snape antagonise him.

'You should be thankful that you appear to be more like her than anyone realised,' Snape said, his tone subdued.

Did he know her?

Harry knew that they must have been in the same year, his mother and father had been in the same year as each other and Snape was the same age as his father would have been. He supposed it didn't really matter, they were both dead.

'So what now, sir?' Harry asked.

'I was supposed to teach you how to occlude your mind from the influence of the Dark Lord, but it seems you are completely capable of it already as long as you remember to do it.' Snape looked briefly thoughtful, a surprisingly placid expression his sallow face. 'I have to keep you in detention for at least an hour every week until Christmas to avoid external repercussions for your actions, so we shall continue to practice your occlumency regardless. We must be certain that you can keep the Dark Lord out.'

'Thank you, sir,' Harry replied, keeping his tone even, despite his irritation. He'd rather hoped Snape would just stop giving him the sessions altogether.

'You can go for today, Potter,' Snape instructed, waving a hand at the door. Harry turned to leave, glad he could go early and more glad that it seemed Snape was not capable of stealing his secrets as long as he was careful.

'Potter,' the potions teacher called, just as he stepped out of the office into the corridor. Harry turned back, but Snape didn't speak immediately. He seemed to be struggling with something. 'It's reassuring to see that you have not wasted as many years here as I thought,' his face tightened uncomfortably, 'your mother would be proud of your recent improvements, don't slide back into acting like your contemptible father.'

So he did know her.

A younger Harry would have asked about her, might even have begged, but he only gave Snape a neutral look in response to his backhanded compliment, then continued on his way. His parents were dead. He wished they weren't, but Dumbledore had warned him in front of the Mirror of Erised how dangerous it was to dwell on unachievable dreams.

Snape does have a point about wasting time, he realised.

He'd improved a vast amount last year, but relatively only a little this year. Granted, he had less time, there was no excuse not to go to lessons, or not to do his homework, and he was not so far ahead as he had been then, but he'd still managed far less than he ought to have.

It's time to push things on, Harry decided.

He'd offer to teach Neville occlumency, start improving his duelling by learning to deflect hexes like Riddle and by practising with Fleur, and he would talk to Sirius again. Hopefully his godfather might have learnt something about Dumbledore's plans that would help Harry implement his own. If he wanted to find about that prophecy it was likely he would have to leave Hogwarts, and it really would be best if both Dumbledore and Umbridge were unable to interfere.

AN: Please read and review, thanks to everyone who has, your reviews give me motivation to keep writing :)