Harry and Hermione had been practicing their Occlumency for months now, they had read the book back to front several times and Hermione had checked out several more on the subject from the school library.
The only problem was they had no idea how much progress they'd truly made without some way to test it. For now they would keep working at it and hope that if, but more likely when the moment of truth came that it would be enough.
As the Christmas holidays drew near, Hermione pulled him aside one day and declared that she was going to stay at Hogwarts so he'd have some company.
"You don't have to do that, I know you'll be wanting to see your parents again" He said, thinking of the sacrifice she had made in erasing their memories before they went on the horcrux hunt.
"I do but I also don't want to leave you here alone."
"I'll be fine, honest! Once Dumbledore gives me my dad's cloak I'll have plenty to keep me busy."
"Are you sure?"
"Please Hermione, go be with your parents. I've taken you away from them enough in the past."
"You didn't, it was my own decision and I'd make it again if I had to."
They discussed it repeatedly over the next two weeks, her offering to stay with him and he insisting that she go. At last, Hermione gave in for a change. She had decided to go home for the holidays.
And so Harry found himself alone on Christmas morning, but he didn't mind it too much. He immediately looked and was relieved to find a familiar parcel waiting for him.
Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you.
Use it well.
A Very Merry Christmas to you.
Harry doubted very much whether his father had truly left it in Dumbledore's possession or if the headmaster had taken it for himself at some point. He pulled the shimmery invisibility cloak out and tried it on.
Perfect. Now all he needed was the Marauder's Map and he would have everything necessary with which to infiltrate Dumbledore's office and take back the keys to his other vaults.
He then noticed another present waiting for him and he scowled when realized what it was. Mrs. Weasley had sent him a sweater and some fudge. It was highly inappropriate seeing as he'd never even met her in his second life and yet he wasn't too surprised by it. He decided he wouldn't keep it, he didn't want anything from that woman.
When Harry went down to the feast and upon impulse sat down next to the Weasley family. It was time to enact his plan.
"Hello" He greeted amiably. Percy, the twins and Ron looked shocked but quickly recovered and introduced themselves.
"Fred and George Weasley. I've heard all about you, of course" He said turning to the twins who grinned at him.
"Of course he has" Ron muttered jealously.
"Your pranks are legendary!" He complimented, laying it on thick. Percy huffed at this.
"Thank-"
"You!" The twins said, one finishing the other's sentence as usual. They puffed up with pride.
"We should pull one together sometime" Harry offered next. "You know, my dad was quite the prankster himself when he was in school."
"Really?" They asked in unison, eyes glinting mischievously.
"Yeah he and three of his friends caused all sorts of mischief together. Now what was they called themselves again…" He tapped his chin as if thinking. "Oh right! They were called the Marauders."
Fred and George's eyes widened and they exchanged a look of astonishment. Harry pretended not to notice. "My dad's nickname in the group was Prongs," He went on.
"Harry we would be delighted to work with you" Fred said.
"Meet us after the feast and we'll talk details," George glanced at Percy. "Away from snitches."
Percy scoffed at this. "As if they needed any more encouragement" He muttered, giving Harry a disdainful look.
Harry only grinned. By the end of the night he had the Marauder's Map in his possession once again and together they had pulled a magnificent prank on Snape.
When Hermione returned from the holiday break, she and Harry then exchanged late Christmas gifts. He then told her what had happened while she was away.
"Now that we have my dad's invisibility cloak, the Marauder's Map, and my new glasses, I think it's time to take back my vault key's from Dumbledore's office."
And so together they planned it out. They waited until after midnight and under the cloak they crept through the halls until they came to his office. Harry checked the map to make sure Dumbledore wasn't still there but fortunately he was in the teacher's quarters, probably fast asleep by now.
Harry then listed off every single candy he could think of until it opened the way for him and he almost laughed. Using sweets really wasn't a good password and he wondered why Dumbledore always used something so simple and easy to guess. The second he set foot inside the office he realized why.
A loud alarm immediately began blaring and Harry cursed aloud. He must have had something set up for when he wasn't in there! Suddenly a strange magical orb began floating around, the front of it looking vaguely similar to a camera hole, shining a piercing light, as if searching for intruders. And in fact that was exactly what it was doing.
"Let's get out of here!" Harry whispered to Hermione and they moved as quickly as they could while staying concealed under the cloak, back down the stairs. Not a moment too soon it turned out. Dumbledore was already running down the hallway toward his office. They swiftly moved in the other direction and when they had made it around the corner, they suddenly heard Snape's voice.
"Headmaster, I came as soon as I heard it. Is the intruder still inside?"
"No, I can sense that they're gone."
"Was it Quirrel?"
"I don't know, whoever it was must have been using a powerful concealment charm. The watcher couldn't see the person but someone was definitely there."
"You don't think it was Potter, do you?"
Dumbledore chuckled lightheartedly at this. "Of course not. The boy is completely under my thumb already. Besides he's only eleven, he couldn't have pulled something like this off, nor would he have any reason to. You must stop being so suspicious of him, Severus."
"Are you certain? I told you not to give him that cloak. He can get up to all sorts of mischief now."
"I'm perfectly sure of this. Perhaps you should being leaning harder on Quirrel, it's clear he's becoming more confident of taking risks" The headmaster continued.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other and then wordlessly hurried back to their common room.
"I should have known it wouldn't be that easy," Harry said letting out a sigh of frustration.
"Well he is one of the most powerful wizards of the age for a reason" Hermione pointed out.
"I wonder what that orb was the thing that was searching his office."
"I don't know, I've never seen or heard of anything like it!"
"We'll have to come up with a new plan before we try again, though I don't know what we can even do about it."
And so after talking it over some more, they decided it was best to lay low for the time being until they could decide on another plan, both feeling a little discouraged by their failure.
Meanwhile they decided to start their training. In between classes Harry pulled Hermione into a broom cupboard and took out the time turner he'd acquired. They'd go back an hour and then head to the Room Of Requirement to practice spells. It was working out perfectly, allowing them to maximize their time and spend it on more useful things. The evenings were then spent with Neville, studying in the library, visiting Hagrid, or simply walking about the grounds.
When the problem with Hagrid and his dragon came up, at first Harry didn't know what to do about it. They weren't friends with Ron and therefore couldn't get help from Charlie.
"Why don't we tell Dumbledore?" Neville suggested. "He knows what Hagrid is like and I'm sure he'd be willing to help him get rid of Norbert discreetly so he doesn't get in trouble."
Harry and Hermione exchanged looks, surprised that neither of them had thought of it, now or before when they'd experienced it the first time. And as much as Harry wanted to avoid the headmaster, he ultimately went through with it as it was the best option. It all went smoothly and the incident passed without any real trouble.
Winter faded into spring, their exams came and went, the days grew warmer and things had finally been calm for while.
A few weeks before the end of term Neville burst into the library one day, looking panicked. "Neville, what's wrong?!" Hermione exclaimed when she saw what a state he was in.
"Just saw—got lost again and came across—it had three heads!" He said breathing heavily.
"We can't understand what you're saying, take a deep breath and try to calm down first."
"I got lost in the castle again" He told them when he was feeling a little better. Harry wondered how on earth he could manage to still get lost after all these months living there. "I accidentally wandered into the forbidden corridor and I couldn't believe my eyes…there's a three headed dog in there!"
Harry and Hermione glanced at each other. "Well now I guess we know why it's forbidden" Harry said, playing dumb.
"Why would they keep a monster in the school?" Neville asked, looking horrified.
Harry struggled to keep from laughing. Little did he know Fluffy wasn't the only beast hidden in the castle! Funny how everyone thought Hogwarts was one of the safest places with Dumbledore as headmaster. And yet Harry had almost died multiple times every year.
Whether it was a troll on a rampage, all the adults standing around doing nothing when Harry's broom was clearly jinxed and dangerous, going into the forbidden forest for detention, putting the one item Voldemort most desired in the school as bait, a basilisk petrifying students left and right for months on end, hungry dementors trying to kiss random students, a death tournament that was easily hacked to for a younger unwilling participant into it, Umbridge and many more dangers throughout all six years of school he'd attended up to now.
Sometimes Harry wondered if it wouldn't be better to leave Hogwarts altogether and find a different magical school to attend. It was certainly something to consider if things ever got really bad again.
With only a week left of term, Harry and Hermione decided it was time to attempt to put their latest plan into action for getting those keys.
First Hermione requested to meet with Dumbledore so she could try and convince him to let Harry stay at her house for the summer. Obviously they knew this wouldn't work but it was really just a ruse.
While this was happening Harry enlisted the twins to help with an epic end of year school wide prank. They snuck into the kitchens and spiked the lunch meal with potions that did all sorts of things, turning you into an animal for minute or two akin to the canary creams, changing their hair and skin color and other similar things. They rigged several of the hallways and staircases with dung bombs. Other hallways were turned into a slip n slide with a soap sud spell along with many more surprises throughout the school. A magical food fight broke out not long after.
To top the whole thing off Harry while under the cloak, used a spell to blow up the house point hourglasses. The whole school had erupted into chaos and Dumbledore was quickly summoned.
The second the headmaster had left Harry joined Hermione in his office. Just as they'd hoped, the alarm system wasn't currently activated when Dumbledore was having a meeting with a student.
"It's me" Harry whispered when he came in still hidden beneath the cloak.
"Oh good. Let's hurry, we probably don't have much time before he comes back!"
"I wouldn't be too worried about that" He said chuckling softly. Dumbledore was going to have his hands quite full for at least an hour.
They spent a few minutes going through his desk, being extra careful to put everything back exactly as it was so it looked wholly undisturbed. He even used his new glasses to look through things but the office was just too big and full.
After twenty minutes of no success Hermione decided to try the summoning spell. "Accio vault key!" Suddenly one of the filing cabinets made a thumping sound.
Harry tried to pull it open but it was locked, fortunately Alohamora worked on it. Inside the drawer were a bunch of file folders all with Harry's name on them. As much he was tempted to look inside them, wondering what on earth they were about, there simply wasn't time for it. He found three keys that looked nearly identical to the one he already had and slipped them into his pocket.
He put everything else back, leaving no trace of his being there. Hermione sat back down in her chair and tried to look casual. Eventually Dumbledore was bound to notice the keys were missing but hopefully by then it would be too late for him to do anything about it. He couldn't possibly suspect Harry because as far as Dumbledore knew, Harry wasn't aware such keys even existed.