In Every Darkness
Chapter Seventeen: An Unwelcome Revelation
21. 7. 1996(Night)
Harry's mind was still reeling from the information he'd gotten about Tatsu as he slipped into bed that night. Tatsu had left in his customary way – out of the window – just a few minutes before.
Tired out anyway after the days activities, even if he had slept once already, Harry sank into the welcome oblivion of sleep in just a few moments.
"Hey kid!" Sirius's voice. Harry spun around and grinned at his godfather.
"Hi Sirius!" he said brightly.
"What's been going on?" Sirius asked him curiously, as the scene shifted to Grimmauld Place.
"Well, I got my OWL results today … That was good, but the bad thing was that Snape brought them," Harry replied.
Sirius hissed angrily. "How did you do?" He asked, after he had calmed down.
"Well, I might be able to be an Auror. I got six OWLS and the rest were exceeds expectations," Harry replied, grinning.
"Well done!" Sirius looked somewhat excited. "Your father and I did about the same, I think. We were Aurors, as you know. Something tells me this isn't all though."
"It isn't," Harry replied happily. "Tatsu finally told me everything about himself. He talked about you as well."
Sirius froze. "What did he say? Did he tell you why he left? I never found out … I thought I must have done something wrong."
Harry's godfather looked so lost and sad that Harry got up and gave him a quick hug. "No Sirius, it wasn't anything to do with you. When he was fighting some Death Eaters the day he left, he found that his father was one of the ones that he killed. He couldn't stand himself and fled back to Japan," he said.
Sirius breathed in relief. "Thank god, you don't know how long I've been thinking that I drove him away somehow."
"He was really torn up when he found out you'd been imprisoned, Sirius. He said that when he found out, he wanted to find you and take you to the Ministry to prove that you weren't the monster they thought you were … I told him how you died," Harry said.
"I'll have to try and talk to him," Sirius decided. "I missed him all the time he was away when I was in Azkaban … But as you know, I thought I had done something to drive him away. Harry, the next time you see him, would you tell him about your dreams of me, so that he is expecting me?"
"Of course Sirius!" Harry promised.
"Good kid. Now, what are we going to do tonight? Have you been practicing your mind shield?" Sirius asked.
Harry nodded. "A little bit, but I've been having some trouble with a few of the spells that we've been learning, mostly the ones from last year, I was wondering if you could give me a hand with them?"
"Sure! Which ones?" Sirius asked.
Harry sat down in a chair in front of the fire as the Gryffindor Common room became their surroundings, lifting his hand, he revealed a Transfiguration book.
"Transfiguration? Oh good, I'm good at that!" Sirius remarked, sounding rather relived. Harry rolled his eyes and flipped through the pages, searching out all of the spells that he couldn't do yet.
By the time Harry was tugged from the dream, he could do most of the transfiguration that he hadn't been able to do before, and some of the Charms.
Since they hadn't actually done any practical defence work last year, he wasn't behind on that, besides, he knew more than most people in his year about Defence Against the Dark Arts.
The next time Harry met up with Sirius, they were going to try and get Harry up to scratch on Potions – Harry still wasn't too sure how he'd managed to pull off an 'outstanding' in the subject.
As he drifted into waking, he was startled by a loud cracking sound. Immediately he thrust himself off the bed, wand in his hand, wand raising almost of its own accord, a spell coming to his lips.
"Potter, calm down! I'm from the Ministry!" A voice barked at him. Harry blinked and looked at the young man in front of him.
"I've seen you before," Harry muttered, thinking back, trying to remember. "That's right … You're the one that oversaw my potions particle in the OWLs!"
"Guilty," the man admitted. "Actually, that's why I came. If I'd known you were this good at duelling, I would have knocked."
Harry sat up, pushing his hair out of his face, knowing that he couldn't do anything to make this man suspect that he could do magic outside of school. "What did you want to see me about?" Harry asked, eyes narrowing slightly.
"Well, I know that the OWL results have been sent out, and therefore that you would know that you got an 'outstanding' in Potions. I'm sure you're wondering how you managed to do that," the man said with a shrug.
"I was actually. I'd been getting Hermione to help me a bit, and not having Snape breathing down my neck was good, but I didn't think I did nearly well enough to get an 'outstanding'.
"You didn't," the man told him simply.
Harry looked at him, confused.
"You might have just gotten an 'exceeds expectations' if I had been going by the way we are supposed to grade students. But my aunt was telling me that you wanted to be an Auror …"
"Wait a second, how did your aunt know?" Harry interrupted.
"Whoops! I didn't introduce myself did I? My name is Michael McGonagall, my aunt is Minerva, your head of house, I believe," the man admitted with a grin.
"Ah. Ok, so Professor McGonagall mentioned that I wanted to be an Auror …" Harry prompted the man, Michael, to continue.
"Yeah. So I thought that I'd give you a little boost. I know what you've done in the past, and I think you are the kind of person that the Aurors are going to need on their side. I gave you an Outstanding in Potions so that you could get into the class that you needed in NEWT levels," Michael admitted.
"So you came to tell me that even though I'm really bad at Potions, I've gotten into the Advanced class, and now I'm going to make a fool of myself?" Harry asked.
Michael laughed. "I see why my aunt likes you … Whoops, I wasn't supposed to tell you that," he said.
"Professor McGonagall likes me?" Harry asked, amazed. He hadn't thought that his stern head of house liked him much at all, with all the trouble that he got into.
"Yeah, but I wont say any more about that, my family calls Aunt Minerva 'Dragon' for a reason," Michael replied, shrugging it off. "And no, I actually came today to see if you wanted me to give you some help with learning to make Potions at some point in the future."
"It might be useful – especially if I've got Snape again next year. He's going to be just waiting for the chance to get back at me about getting into his class," Harry admitted.
"How about I come around on the twenty-eighth ? That's five days from now," Michael offered.
Harry thought hard, he didn't think he was doing anything then. "Yeah sure, that would be great!" he replied enthusiastically, still trying to get over his shock.
"I'll knock next time," Michael added.
"Come to the window," Harry responded. "My family doesn't like wizards that much."
Michael looked surprised at this, but nodded anyway. "I'll see you on the twenty-eighth!" he said brightly, dissaparating.
Blinking sleep from his eyes, Harry got out of bed and got ready to go and help Tatsu for the morning. He concentrated briefly, his mind shield forming swiftly, and he smiled. He was getting better at creating it – now he just had to hold it there.
Allowing his mind to wander slightly, he began the process of first cleaning his room, then himself and his clothes. Going downstairs, he grabbed some breakfast and headed out to meet Tatsu for the morning jog and then back to Tatsu's house to help with moving in once more.
This would be the first time he'd seen Tatsu since the man told him the truth. Would things be different now? Harry hoped not, he liked his friendship with Tatsu just the way it was.
"I could do some things with magic, you know. It would make things go much faster," Harry remarked suddenly. "I'm not sure why I never thought of that – probably because I'm too used to thinking that I'm not allowed to do magic in the summer holidays."
"That could work…" Tatsu mused.
By mid afternoon, Harry's wrist was aching from all of the wand-work he and Tatsu had been doing. Harry provided a spell, Tatsu modified it to their requirements, if Harry didn't know a spell that would do the job straight off.
Finally, however, Tatsu decided that they'd done enough for one day. "We're nearly finished now, but I know you must be getting tired of this," he remarked, grinning slightly.
Harry nodded, pretending to be much more tired than he really was for a moment before the two of them sat down, laughing.
"Well, let's begin meditation!"
It was only now that Harry realised that his mind shield was still up – it was weak, and another mind could easily push it aside, but it was still up!
He did not have time for celebration, however, because Tatsu was already urging him to sit and begin the process of meditation. "I want to see if you can stay in the Centre without any protection," Harry's teacher said.
Harry nodded, blanking his mind as he had become accustomed. He had been practicing had home just blanking the thoughts from his mind.
He let himself fall through the layers of his mind, until, quite suddenly, he was encased in the peaceful place that was his Centre.
Harry's eyes flickered open.
Tatsu smiled. Harry Potter had to be one of his most promising students ever. He was willing to learn what Tatsu wanted to teach, and Tatsu knew that if things were presented to him right at Hogwarts, he would learn much faster and better than he had before.
It's not my place to question his other teachers, Tatsu reminded himself, watching as Harry allowed himself into his centre place.
Suddenly Harry's eyes flickered open, they were ever so slightly tinged with gold. If Tatsu had not been looking for this, he would never have noticed it.
"Good," he muttered, falling into his own centre with long practiced ease.
"What is good?" Harry's voice was quiet and completely calm. There were no emotions showing on his face, or in his voice.
"That you have caught on so swiftly," Tatsu responded. "Now the training can truly begin!"
***
I know, it was a little short, but hopefully next chapter will be somewhat longer!
~WolfMoon~