In Every Darkness

Chapter Eight: Occlumency

13.7.1996(Early Morning)

Harry slept little and badly that night, as he generally seemed to, and ended up reading for most of the night and nearly finishing his book.

In the early hours of the morning he was getting bored of reading, and set up the sound-system that Tonks had insisted he get, and inserting one of the CDs.

Not particularly trusting Tonks's sense of music, he turned the volume down to very low, and pressed play.

He was glad that he had turned the volume down – as far as Harry could tell it was Heavy Metal. Harry didn't know too much about music, rarely having the chance to listen to it.

He left the CD running and wandered around his room, wondering what he was going to do for the rest of the summer. "Just over a week out of school and I'm already bored out of my brain," he remarked wryly, not talking to anyone in particular.

Oh well, at least he had some books, and the CD player. That would be a start.

Harry heard a roar from the street outside and walked over to the door. He saw a moving van pulling up to Number Six Privet Drive and remembered what his Aunt had said when they first arrived home.

She'd been her usual gossipy self, saying how Mrs. Next-Door and her horrible daughter were selling and moving out.

Harry hadn't paid it much attention at all. Now, it seemed, someone had bought the place and was moving in, judging by the large moving van that was parked in front of the house.

Harry watched in interest as a car pulled up behind the van and a tall, strong and graceful looking man got out and approached the van.

The man looked interesting, though Harry couldn't tell what it was that drew him to this stranger. Maybe it was the fact that man looked as if he was the only one who controlled his life.

For the rest of that day Harry watched The Stranger moving in. Going down to dinner that night, he saw Aunt Petunia peering out of the kitchen window, her beady eyes watching the house next door eagerly.

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and grabbed his plate, heading upstairs. His aunt would probably be gossiping on the phone tomorrow morning to someone. He would find out what she knew about The Stranger then.

Upstairs he used his wand to do a simple multiplication spell on the food, doubling it.

Grinning, he began to eat, already thinking of sleep, and hopefully dreaming of Sirius.

"Hey kid!" Sirius called to him, smiling happily.

Harry raced forward and hugged his godfather tightly. "Hi Sirius!" he exclaimed. "What are we going to do tonight?"

Sirius looked thoughtful. "Snivellus was teaching you Occlumency last year, wasn't he?" he asked.

Harry scowled, but nodded.

Sirius sighed. "Let me guess, you didn't make any effort to learn?"

Harry nodded, expression cold. "I'd rather not learn anything that bastard tries to teach me," he growled.

"Too bloody right. Never listen to Snivellus if it's the last thing you do. But, Occlumency is very important, and you're still having dreams, aren't you?"

"Not like before… At least, I don't think I am. But it was because of one of those dreams that I went to the Department of Mysteries. And that's why you died," Harry replied.

Sirius rested a gentle hand on Harry's shoulder. "It's alright, kid," he told Harry, smiling faintly. "I've told you I don't mind being dead, and I don't blame you in the slightest. But you blame yourself, and that's just as bad. So, I'm going to teach you Occlumency."

"You can do that?" Harry asked.

"Once you enter the Realms of the Dead, you know more than any living person ever could," Sirius responded coolly. "I can't do that much in dreams, it's a lot harder, but I can tell you the basics, and you can practice when you're awake, and I'm sure that Dumbledore will continue teaching you over the course of the year."

"Right, so, what do I have to do?" Harry asked, sitting down on a chair that appeared the moment he thought of it.

"You're getting the hang of this," Sirius said with a happy smile. Harry grinned back at his godfather. "OK … Um. To start! Yeah, to start, you have to block your mind, imagine a shield before your thoughts to block anything that comes into them."

"Snape never told me that," Harry remarked calmly, doing as his godfather asked him.

"He wouldn't," Sirius growled waspishly. "I swear, if I wasn't dead, I'd have to do something to him."

Harry smiled faintly. "Of course Sirius," he told his godfather, smiling condescendingly. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Ok, now we see if the shield works," Harry braced himself. He wouldn't mind nearly so much if it was his godfather that managed to get through the shield.

Sirius lifted his hand and rested his fingertips gently on Harry's forehead. "Legilimens," Sirius whispered. Harry concentrated all of his will on holding the shield in place.

Then he felt something, like when Snape entered his mind, but this time, the other-mind hit the shield that he'd constructed. He could feel Sirius seeking along the shield, then suddenly drawing back and leaping at the shield again.

The barrier shattered and Harry cried out in pain. Immediately the other-mind was gone. Harry opened his eyes in the waking world and rubbed his head, which was throbbing terribly.

"Oww!" He groaned. "Dammit!" he added, realising that he was awake again. With a sigh, he swung himself off the bed and glanced at his watch. 'Oh well, six in the morning isn't too bad. Guess Sirius was right about time passing differently in dreams,' he thought to himself.

Picking up The Hobbit, Harry settled down to read until a slightly better time of the morning.

Three hours later, when Harry was nearly finished his book, he got up again, stretched and changed clothes to go downstairs. His aunt gave him a cool look as he approached the table – he certainly wasn't wearing clothes that she approved of.

Dressed in mid length shorts and a white, loose t-shirt with 'Punk' scrawled over it in black writing, Harry wasn't really looking the way he preferred to either. But the clothes were comfortable, and his godfather seemed to think that they looked good. He could get used to it.

Harry sat down at the table to eat this morning, which seemed to make Petunia mad at him – not like she'd actually do anything about it, not with the threat that Moody had issued at the train station.

They had no idea that there was a witch or wizard beside the house every moment he was in it. Harry wasn't planning on enlightening them to the situation either. Let them think that Remus being there was just coincidence.

After finishing his breakfast, Harry got up and headed outside. He turned at the end of the street and started to jog easily along it. He was surprised when no wizard came out of 'nowhere' to greet him. Then he felt a breath of wind that existed no where else. Looking up he caught sight, for a moment, of a slightly blurred figure in the sky that looked a bit like a heat-haze.

So, there was someone up there. Without pausing his steps, he spoke quietly but clearly, "Who are you?"

"We've not met before," a low voice murmured. "But I'd heard that you disliked being kept company, and decided that this was a good idea."

"Who sent you?" Harry demanded, stopping.

"Wary, child? Albus Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix sent me to guard you."

"Who was on duty the last two shifts?"

Laughter echoed softly. "Arthur, and before him Remus," it answered.

"Fine, I'll trust you, for now. But I've got a wand, if you are a Death Eater. And I know how to use it, too," Harry growled, starting to jog again.

His mysterious companion did not speak again, but Harry checked her position at random times, making sure that she never got too close to him.

Suddenly Harry saw a figure approaching from the distance. A moment later he felt a whoosh of wind at his mysterious 'guard' for the day swooped down beside him, watching also.

Harry sighed and stopped jogging, waiting to see who it was that was coming towards him, his wand resting in his fingers, until he recognized the man.

"He just moved next door, so he is supposed to be in the area," Harry told the near invisible woman beside him. "I dunno if he's a wizard or not."

"I don't think he is. But you can never really be sure," the woman replied. She stayed near by as the man got closer. Harry turned and started to jog back home. But this mysterious new neighbour interested him.

He allowed the other man to catch him up. "Hello there," the man greeted him, smiling in a friendly fashion.

"Hi," Harry said.

"I've only just moved here, so I don't know the locals much," the man confessed. "Do you jog often?"

"Not really, I go to a boarding school, and last year one of my friends died of a mystery illness – it's taken me a while to get over his death, and jogging seemed a good way of going about it."

"I'm sorry to hear that," the man offered politely, and Harry shrugged, feeling a little guilty about lying.

"Where did you move to?" he asked the man, as if searching for a change of subject. Of course, he knew exactly where the man had moved, but he wasn't about to let on that he'd been spying.

"A place called Privet Drive," the man said.

"Ah, the new owner of Number Six, huh? My aunt's been going crazy wondering who our new neighbour would be – we live at number four," Harry explained.

"Really! Well, that's a bit of a coincidence then! Fate, perhaps," the man remarked.

Harry shivered slightly. "Are you cold?" the man asked Harry.

"No," Harry replied, letting his shoulders slump. "I just don't like talk of fate – that friend of mine believed quite strongly in it. A day or so before he died, one of the students said something about him having a possibly fatal accident. Then he tripped and fell down a flight of steps and died."

Most of it was a lie, sure, but some of it was the truth – after all, he did hate the idea of 'fate' – apart from Pavarti and Lavender, who could like things like that after having Trelawney for a teacher?

"Ah, it's been a long time since I put my foot in it as often as I have today," the man said, smiling slightly.

Harry smiled and shrugged slightly. "It doesn't really matter. I'm trying to deal with it," he told the other man.

"Oh!" the man slapped himself in the forehead. "I'm being rude! My name is Kendo Tatsu."

Harry heard a drawn in breath from somewhere above him – it seemed that his guardian for the day recognized the mans name.

"I'm Harry," he replied. "Forgive me for saying so, but your name sounds kind of … odd."

"It's Japanese," the man – Kendo Tatsu - explained. "When they give names, they say the last name first – Kendo is a the Japanese art of bamboo sword fighting, and Tatsu means dragon."

"So … your name is Tatsu?" Harry asked, to make sure he was following.

"That's right."

"Forgive me again, but you don't look Japanese," Harry stated as they turned the corner to Privet Drive.

"I lived for some years in Japan. I ended up changing my name before I returned to England," Tatsu shrugged easily.

"Oh," Harry said.

"Well, since we are here and all, why don't you come in for a nice cool drink?" Tatsu offered.

"Go with him," Harry's mystery guard instructed him.

"Sure," Harry told Tatsu, thinking that the woman had sounded somewhat excited about something. "That would be great."

Well, I think that's a nice place to end a chapter! Please review and tell me what you think. Before anyone asks, yes, Tatsu will play something of an important role in the story. Well, if you review, I'll update faster! Hope you liked the chapter!

WolfMoon