Ch. 7

Occulmency Lessons and Quittach Try-outs

After crawling through the portrait hole, Harry spotted Ron in their favorite corner by the fire, hunched over his work.

"Where's Hermione?" Ron jumped clearly startled and Harry laughed.

"What? Oh, its you."

"Nice to see you too." Harry spotted Tally sitting by Neville across the common room, working on their homework together.

"She went to go talk to the house-elves." A voice said from beside Harry and he turned to see Ginny standing behind him. He gave her a quizzical look and she just shrugged her shoulders, "I was coming back from the library when she stormed passed me. She was ranting on about finding out the truth."

"Oh yeah, she went to go ask Tally's house-elf questions about her past." Ron added.

"I honestly don't understand what she has against her. I've been talking a lot to Tally, she is such good friends with Neville, so they hang out with Dean and myself most of the time. She's real nice and she very funny." Ginny said, looking between the two and sitting down in a chair. Harry sat down across from her.

"Well there was no need for that. Tally just told me her whole story on our way back here. It's really quite a tale too. Nothing I was ever expecting." Both Ron and Ginny's eyes grew wide and they leaned in towards Harry.

"Really?"

"What did she say?" They both said at once.

"She told me I could tell you guys, but I think we should wait for Hermione." Just then, Hermione ran through the portrait hole looking very harassed and walked briskly over to them.

"Well, her house-elf didn't tell me much, just that she is very well taken care of and is respectful to her Master and Miss." Hermione said as she sat down beside Ron, who looked slightly embarrassed by how close she was to him. Harry looked over at Tally and saw her watching them. She smiled slightly before turning back to her work.

"It doesn't matter because Harry here does know what happened, the bugger was just waiting for you." Ron commented with a smile. Harry took a breath and then recited when Tally had told him. Hermione's eyes were wide and full of tears by the end and Ginny had her hands over her mouth. Ron sat their looking completely dumbfounded. "You know, I remember Mum and Dad talking about a little girl who was caught in the middle of something terrible and had an unforgivable used against her. It was probably Tally they were talking about." Ron said quietly, looking in the direction of Tally.

"Oh, I feel so terrible. This whole time I've been treating her so wrongly. I'm going to go over and apologize!" Hermione stood, but Harry stopped her.

"Hermione, wait. I have more to tell you. It has to do with the prophecy." All three of them looked at him and Hermione sunk back down.

"What about the prophecy? It was smashed wasn't it?" Ginny asked.

"Yes, it was, but the person who heard the original prophecy was Dumbledore." Harry took another deep shuddering breath. "After the whole-Ministry-incident, Dumbledore sent me back to his office. Once there, he told me what the prophecy said."

"WHAT? You've known what it said all this time and you didn't tell us?" Hermione said angrily. Ron put his hands on her shoulders to calm her.

"I'm sure Harry has a good reason for not telling us."

"Er-well, I didn't want to burden you guys with it, that's all." He said, though he couldn't look them in their eyes. "But Tally explained to me that you guys have every right to know-"

"Tally knows? You told her but not us?" Hermione exclaimed, tears brimming her eyes. Ron had a sad, hurt look on his face.

"I wasn't going to, it just sort of happened. She just told me her life story, something extremely difficult to do. She let me into her world and I just told her everything too, okay?" The two of us have so much in common, I don't mind talking to her alright?" Harry added, his anger near boiling point. He couldn't understand why his friends were behaving this way.

"You talked about Sirius with her, didn't you?" Hermione asked, the tears were now flowing freely down her face. When Harry didn't answer, "You can talk to a total stranger, but not to your own best friends."

"Listen Hermione, it's not like I don't want to talk to you guys about him, but it's different with Tally. She didn't know him, so she has no grief of her own to deal with. If I talk to any of you, I see the grief there, it's always there, and it's like I lose him and disappoint you guys all over again. It's just to hard for me right now, okay?" Harry looked pleadingly between the three of his friends, willing them to understand. Slowly Ron nodded his head and Ginny smiled sadly at him. Hermione sighed deeply,

"Alright Harry, for now we don't have to talk about it. What did the prophecy say?" Harry told them exactly what the prophecy had said and what it meant. Hermione started crying again and ran up to the girls dormitories. Ron just looked stunned, Ginny, however, looked at him with a determined face while placing a hand oh his and said,

"Don't worry Harry, we won't let you go through this alone!" Ron seemed to come out of his stupor and cleared his throat,

"Yeah Harry, that prophecy may have said you were to do it, but you won't be doing it alone. You have us and we'll be with you through it all!" Ron looked very determined. Harry smiled at him, Tally had said almost the exact same thing, he only hoped Hermione was as strong.

"Thanks." There was a pause and Hermione was coming back down the stairs with Tally talking quietly into her ear. When they got to the bottom of the steps, Hermione hugged Tally and they went their separate ways. Hermione sat back down beside Ton. She looked at Harry,

"I won't let you fight him alone, Harry. You can count on me." Harry smiled and she returned it.

"Hey Harry, what did Dumbledore want with you anyway?" Ron asked.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. Professor Adams will be teaching me occulmency every Thursday after lunch."

"Really? I didn't know he was skilled at it." Hermione said.

"Yeah, Tally said that her whole family knew occulmency. Tally included."

"She is a Legilimens?" Hermione asked, completely stunned by this news.

"She says she's been for years."

"That's awesome mate!" Ron said, clearly enthused by the whole prospect. Hermione, however, bit her lower lip.

"Why did her parents want them to learn Occulmency?"

"Americans are bloody paranoid, Hermione, but who cares? The point is that Harry no longer needs to be around Snape except for in Potions class."

"I'm curious that's all."

"She explained it too me and, basically, Ron's right. Americans are paranoid. Besides, I thought you were okay with Tally now?"

"Oh, I am. She was awfully nice to me upstairs, even after I've been completely horrible to her. It's just, I don't know, it seems a bit odd, doesn't it?" But both Ron and Harry shrugged their shoulders in response and Ginny merely smiled and left to rejoin Dean at the portrait hole for dinner.

"Harry, when are tryouts?" Ron asked, obviously changing the subject.

"Friday after dinner."

"Our team will be undefeatable this year, I guarantee it!" Ron pumped. However, Harry's mind had turned back to thoughts of Tally and all of the new information given to him in those few short hours.

The following week past as slowly as the first. Turns out the Adams was very skilled with DADA and, as much to their surprise, acted very impersonal, almost formal, with Tally.

"I guess years of having him as a teacher and you as a student, you kind of get over it, don't you?" Hermione asked her one afternoon after a DADA class.

"I suppose. When I first started school, it was all awkward, but now he's just another Professor and I'm just another student."

By the time Thursday rolled around, Harry had nearly forgotten his occulmency lesson when he was reminded by Hermione. He skidded to a halt outside of Professor Adams classroom a few minutes late. He knocked and immediately heard "Enter". Inside, Harry spotted Adams crouched down in front of a desk talking quietly to Tally.

"Er-" Harry began, feeling as though he had just walked in on something private. Adams stood and faced Harry.

"Good afternoon Harry. I hope you don't mind that Tally will most likely be present for all your lessons."

"Er-"

"I can go back to the dorms." Tally interrupted. Harry looked between the two.

"No you damn well cannot! Not unless Professor McGonagall or Madam Pomfrey escorts you there."

"Josh, I can handle it."

"Don't Josh me and no, you are far at weak." Facing Harry, "Tally has specific lessons with Madam Pomfrey dealing with her heart, so she is extremely weak afterwards. She can stay here, she knows occulmency and can help when needed and then leave with you to go back to the Gryffindor common rooms. Of course, only if you agree." Harry looked at Tally. She was extremely gray looking with dark circles beneath her eyes. She had the look of wanting to be anyway else but there in that room.

"Sure, its fine with me."

"Good, good. Let's get started then. Harry from what I've been told, you know the basis of occulmency. However, I am going to explain the purpose for it. Although, I am sure in your case, you understand the necessity for it." Harry nodded, "Good, now, occulmency is a process of completely wiping your mind of all thoughts that way, when you are faced in an impossible situation, another person cannot access your thoughts, knowledge, or body. The strategy that I have always taught is to put up a sort of barrier, like a wall or a vault or something to that nature. Something that cannot be broken."

"Everything can be broken." Tally said quietly. Harry and Adams turned to her and Harry noticed that her entire attention was watching the world outside the window.

"Er-so Harry, what I want you to do is clear your mind and when it's clear, begin to build your barrier. Make sure its impenetrable, no holes, no leaks."

"Everything cracks eventually." Tally said quietly again. This time Harry raised his eyebrows to Adams,

"Don't worry about her Harry, she gets like this sometimes after her lessons."

Harry had spent the last hour clearing his mind and beginning a steel barrier to keep unwanted people from his mind. He walked in silence beside Tally until he could not stand it any longer.

"I had a dream about you-er-at least I believe it was you." Harry told her. Tally slumped against the wall and looked at him.

"Oh really? Was I any good in it?" She asked with a small smile playing on her lips. Harry reddened when he realized what he had just said.

"Er-no, that's not what I meant. I had the dream before I met you." She was watching him intently, "See, I have these sort of visions, about Voldemort, I'm connected to him through my scar. Anyway, I had a dream a few weeks back, I was seeing though Voldemort's mind. This man was talking with him about a girl who disappeared somewhere with a guy. Voldemort said he would have his revenge on the girl and then he punished the man. Since I've met you, I think the man was your Uncle David and that they were discussing you." Tally stood in silence for a moment and then began walking.

"Is that why you take occulmency lessons? Because of these visions, this leak between the two of you?" Harry nodded, "Well, I suppose that makes sense, and I guess it could have been me."

"What are the lessons you take?"

"They are lessons for my heart."

"How so?" Tally seemed to need a moment to collect her thoughts.

"I'm what they call a Feeler. I feel what other people feel at any given time. For example, I knew you were hiding something on Saturday because I felt your worry, I felt your heavy burden. I feel it constantly when I'm around you, as I feel Snape's animosity towards you almost instantly whenever the two of you are in proximity to each other."

"So, you feel what I feel all the time?"

"No, not all the time. Feelers are a lot like Legilimens. In fact, they usually go hand in hand. Being a feeler means that you have to have control over it by learning occulmency. A lot of the time we choose not to invade people's privacy, unless the other person knows, or it is necessary. But, when a person is feeling something strongly or has no control over that feeling, people like me automatically feel the emotion too, whether we want to or not. Things like that are unavoidable."

"Are Feelers common?"

"Not really. They usually run in families, and usually only in women. Like in my family, it runs on my mother side and all the females were Feelers, if I were to have a daughter, the likelihood of her being a Feeler is pretty high. From what I can remember, most Feelers become Mediwizards or Healers. Madam Pomfrey is a Feeler, which is why I'm having lessons with her."

"But why lessons with your heart?"

"My heart is vulnerable because of all the damage. When I'm forced to feel a powerful emotion that is not my own and that I have no control over, my heart weakens and I am more susceptible to an attack. So, Madam Pomfrey is teaching me how to close off my heart to others' emotions or at least have some control over it." Harry thought about everything she had told him as they walked in silence back toward Gryffindor tower. Finally Tally broke the silence.

"What time are try-outs tomorrow?"

"Huh? Try-outs?"

"Quittach try-outs."

"Oh-er-around 6. Why?" Tally chuckled lightly. She looked completely back to normal and in full strength.

"I'm trying out of course!"

"You play Quittach?"

"Yes I play Quittach, chaser to be exact. My school has gone undefeated for the last 30 years!" She said rather proudly.

"Your school? Don't you mean house?"

"No, my school was far to small for houses, we only had girl and boy dorms. In Quittach, we played other schools all over the country. We really are good." She had an almost dreamy look on her face. "There is a chaser position, correct?"

"Yes, two actually, but I plan on giving Ginny Weasley one."

"Oh, she is good. We went out to practice together. I hope we both make it, we play real good together." She smiled at him and they continued talking until they separated to their different groups of friends in the common room.

After dinner on Friday, Harry walked down to the Pitch with the rest of the team. As they reached the Pitch, Harry saw Ginny easily with her Weasley red hair and Tally, who stood beside her. Harry and the team decided to not only replace the players who left, but to also have people on Reserves just incase of illness or injury. As a result of this news, half of the school Gryffindors from 2nd years to 7th years were standing in the middle of the Pitch. When the team arrived, everyone turned to Harry for instruction,

"Er-well, we should divide up according to which position you are trying for. Everyone trying out for the position of reserve Keeper, follow Ron, for Beaters, follow Jack and Andy, for Chaser, follow Katie, and for Seeker, follow me." With that, everyone broke off into groups.

There were only two 2nd-years who were trying out for the reserve Seeker position, so it didn't take Harry long to study them as they each took their turns. Harry was favoring the girl, Amy Henderson, rather than the boy, whose name Harry couldn't remember, but when each took their turns, Harry complimented each, wished them good luck, and told them the list would be posted tomorrow morning at the latest. He then sat in the bleachers to watch the other hopefuls.

Whoever was trying out with Ron wasn't doing a very well of a job, in a matter of minutes he or she had let 3 goals in. Those trying out to be beaters seemed to love walloping the ball, although their aim wasn't spectacular. He then focused his attention to the chasers. He watched in stunned amazement as the two chasers played and performed in complete unison; each knowing exactly where the other would be. One of them was performing odd broom riding that fit perfectly with what they were achieving. Harry caught sight of shocking red hair and realized that he was watching Ginny and Tally's try-out. Tally was the wild broom rider. Although Harry hadn't seen any of the other people trying-out, he knew by the look on Katie's face as well as his own amazement that Ginny and Tally were the new chasers.

Two hours later, Harry, Ron, Katie, Sloper, and Kirke sat in a small circle in the library discussing who should stay and who should go.

"Well, too be honest, I definitely like Amy best. She was patient and very observant. Her only issue is her speed, but I can work with her on that." Harry comment.

"Good, so Amy it is. I like John best, he's a 4th year. He definitely has potential-" Ron began.

"What about Chris? He was good!" Sloper interrupted.

"I didn't like him, he was too arrogant. which caused him to mess up more than he should of."

"Okay, so Amy and John, what about you guys? Find any good Beaters?" Harry asked, trying to deflate the beginning of an argument.

"Yes, Euan Abercrombie and Natalie McDonald were really good, we think they should be our reserves." Kirke said.

"Not to mention Natalie is wicked cute." Sloper added, smiling brightly. Harry saw Katie roll her eyes and Ron chuckle.

"What about you Katie? I was watching Ginny and Tally and, I have to say, they were brilliant together."

"You're only saying that because Ginny is Ron's sister and you fancy Tally!" Sloper said, seeming quite put-out.

"Oh no, I have to agree with Harry, Ginny and Tally were absolutely amazing." Katie agreed, "They are definitely a perfect team. I think Chessa, Emma, and Denis should be on the reserves."

"Denis Creevey? He plays?" Ron asked, not even trying to hide his astonishment.

"And quite well might I add." Katie replied.

"I think we have everyone. Let's pin this up and get this over with, I still have homework to do." Harry grabbed the parchment that had the names of those who would be joining the team and headed to the common room with the team following close behind.

Pinning the list to the board, it read:

SEEKER:

Cpt. Harry Potter

RESERVE:

Amy Henderson

KEEPER:

Ronald Weasley

RESERVE:

John Flaunder

BEATERS:

Jack Sloper

Andrew Kirke

RESERVES:

Natalie McDonald

Euan Abercrombie

CHASERS:

Katie Bell

Tally Adams

Ginny Weasley

RESERVES:

Chessa Waters

Denis Creevey

Emma Dobbs

As soon as the list was posted, a crowd of people pushed past Harry to read. A flash of red hair told him that Ginny was among them.

"TALLY, TALLY!! We made Chasers, we did it!" Ginny cried as she whipped past Harry again and ran into a hug from Tally. The two girls began jumping up and down in excitement while the Gryffindor boys watched in amused shock. Dean made his way over and extracted Ginny from Tally, then hugged her as Neville hugged Tally. For a moment Harry felt a tug of jealousy at Neville, but shook his head and wondered where that thought had come from. Harry heard a number of groans and even witnessed a girl burst into tears. However, most of the screams and excitement from those who made the team drowned out all the sorrow. Harry made his way over to Ginny and Tally.

"Congratulations! I saw your try-outs and you both were excellent!"

"Thanks Harry! Wait until Mum finds out, she'll be so proud!"

"Yeah, I'm excited to tell Josh and Chrissy." Tally said beaming, "I think tomorrow I will go to the Owlry to visit Rufus and Tawny and send my letter to Chrissy." Tally added, mainly to herself.

"Er-Rufus and Tawny?" Ron asked, having just joined the group. Tally turned to him and smiled,

"Rufus is my Barn owl and Tawny is Josh's Screech Owl. Well, I better get some homework done before I go to sleep. I'll see you all later." And she walked away with Neville. Ron and Harry walked to their usual corner where Hermione was seated, hunched over something.

"Hey 'Mione!" Ron said happily. When Hermione looked up, Harry saw tear streaks down her face and a letter gripped between her white knuckles.

"Hermione, what is it?" Harry asked, immediately stepping around the table and placing an arm around her shoulders.

"Th-they attacked our ho-house. Everything w-was de-destroyed." She said shakily, as tears spilled from her eyes again.

"WHAT?" Harry and Ron exclaimed, both utterly shocked at what they had heard. "What about your parents? Are they alright?" Harry asked, his heart clenched nervously with all possibilities to that answer.

"Th-they're alright. They were at a convention when it hap-happened."

"Maybe it was all an accident?" Ron said hopefully, clearly unsure of what to do.

"N-no, the neighbors saw men in black hooded gowns just before it happened. It had to be Death Eaters, there's no other explanation!"

"I'll write to Remus and ask about any information the Order may have." Harry said, hoping to calm Hermione.

"And your parents are fine, 'Mione, so please stop crying." Ron pleaded.

"Alright, you're both right. I just-I just need to get some sleep. I'll see you both in the morning."

Harry watched her disappear up the stairs, his mind whirling through Hermione's loss and exactly what it meant. He glanced over at Ron, who looked as frightened and helpless as Harry felt. At that moment, Harry knew, the second war against the people Harry loved most, had begun.