Disclaimer: Standard, J.K. Rowling owns the universe and the characters that appear in her books. I own my additions to it…yadda yadda yadda. For the full disclaimer (that applies to the whole story not just the first chapter, see chapter one).
Chapter 12: Pensieves and Pressing Problems
Harry took back everything he had thought about being lucky about his punishment upon seeing what he was assigned to clean. Apparently McGonagall had simply needed more time to come up with a truly horrific punishment for them. However that time was well spent. As he looked upon the prefect's bathroom that had been assigned to him and Neville, he had to wonder what sadistic fate had made this decision.
The bathroom that was assigned to them was the one closest to the Slytherin dorms and it was nearly in total ruin upon their arrival. The floor was complete flooded with what Harry could only hope was bath water, but was likely not given the smell, the bathroom reeked. The toilet was clogged obviously purposely and the bathtub was full of dirty water. Harry had no doubt that this was the work of a certain blond Slytherin who must have somehow gotten word of his punishment. As much as he had stopped hating the boy this time he had gone too far. Here was no way that Malfoy was getting away with this unscathed. Neville definitely agreed.
They were supposed to clean up the mess without magic, but given the state of events in the room and the lack of any supervision they decided to cheat slightly and at the very least make the room more bearable with an air purifying charm. It didn't keep them from needing showers and clean robes horribly but at least they could breathe while they worked.
Harry knew this was going to be a long week as he, Hermione, Seamus, Ron, Neville and Wesley had been assigned to clean the bathrooms every night. Even Hermione had complained about the punishment being unfair considering their work loads but all McGonagall had responded with was a simple, "You should have had the sense to get a teacher then." Before leaving with her 'and that's that expression on her face. Harry supposed that compared to the others in that confrontation they had gotten lucky, as they had been assigned to cleaning up stables with Hagrid and Charlie. Harry was glad he wasn't doing that, goodness knows what Hagrid had brought in, but whatever it was he certainly didn't want to be the one cleaning up after it.
But there he was on a Sunday night cleaning up an obviously purposely vandalized bathroom, for the first time of what could be many, while trying to decide how to work his schedule around this new chore. It appeared that the DA would have to wait a week for a meeting as that was the only thing he could think of that he could afford to delay. He was sure the members would understand, but that didn't make him like the delay any better.
Harry's Monday was much better, in Care of magical creatures they had spent more time working with the Pegasus, although this time was less fun and more work. They had learned how to really ride the thing as well as how to board and get off of it mid flight and other important things like that. Apparently Charlie was going to get right into the technical stuff. Harry was impressed though. Teaching seemed to come naturally to the second oldest Weasley.
Now he was waiting on the red pillow next to the black pillow in professor Saren's classroom waiting for class to start. Ron, Hermione and Seamus were sitting on the other randomly scattered red pillows. Justin and Ernie were there as well as Padma Patil. Terry and Michael were not there yet and neither was Blaise. Professor Saren was also not there yet. Harry noticed that Justin had chosen the yellow pillow next to the black pillow this time. Ernie hadn't said anything about it nor even seemed to notice. Maybe they were growing to like the wayward Slytherin? Harry couldn't be sure.
Blaise walked into the room then and smiled in Harry's direction after scanning the room, presumably for his spot. Justin immediately surprised Harry by turning towards Blaise and saying, "Hi," with a smile on his face. Oh right…they worked on that potion together didn't they?
Then they went off talking about who knows what. It wasn't that Harry didn't care it was that it was merely small talk that he had reason to really pay attention to. After a few more minutes Terry and Michael entered the room followed shortly by Professor Saren.
Professor Saren was wearing the same thing he had the previous day. Harry felt silly now he just realized that he was one of the only students still wearing his robes. In all the confusion of the weekend he had complete forgotten about that. No one else seemed to notice so it hardly mattered.
Professor Saren produced a small trunk from his pocket which he then tapped with his wand saying an enlargement charm. He then opened it and pulled out a pensieve. "This, as some of you likely know," Saren sent a knowing smirk in Harry's direction, "is a pensieve. It is used for storing memories either so one can watch them or even experience them in a different and generally more tangible manner, it is also useful for storing memories one does not want others to find through legillimency, which is primarily what we will be using them for in here. However since they are such a useful tool when dealing with memories I am going to teach you much more about them then simply the general uses that most witches and wizards know of."
With that he proceeded to hand out a pensieve to every member of the class. "Please be careful with these as I was only able to procure so many of them for the class and thus do not have an infinite supply of them in case one breaks." He then sat down in front of the class with another pensieve on the floor in front of him.
"First I am going to show you how to put a memory into it. It is a rather simple process however one must have some deal of control in order to do it properly. While moving the memory from your mind to the pensieve is relatively effortless. Moving a specific memory can be slightly trickier." Harry had seen Dumbledore and Snape put memories into pensieves and it had seemed relatively simple then and so he was anxious to try. Besides if it was that effortless then what did it matter if he took the wrong memory? He could simply replace the memory and do it again if he messed up. Saren continued however, and Harry couldn't help but notice that he seemed to respond to his line of thinking. And he could not be sure if this was simply coincidence given what he already knew about his eccentric professor.
"Now the reasons for not simply jumping into this are that pulling a random memory from oneself can be dangerous. It can bring out hidden or repressed memories which could be dangerous or even destructive to one's psyche particularly if they are memories that one isn't ready to deal with. We will be working on dealing with such memories later because it is impossible to truly master psionics while having them but that is well beyond the simple use of pensieves and would not be a good place to start the year with at all." Saren then got out his wand and motioned everyone else to do the same. "You shouldn't worry about getting some repressed memory though. As that is only likely to happen if one pulls out a memory randomly. What is far more likely is trying to get a specific memory and instead pulling out a related or simply similar one. It is the mental concentration which is the tricky part, not anything that has to do with a wand.
"Now first think of a memory something easy that you would not mind possibly sharing with the class that you can easily keep in your thoughts. Happy memories are usually the easiest to do this with however any memory that is not too emotionally distracting will work." Harry had a memory lined up already. The first time he had caught the snitch his first year it was a day he remembered quite clearly, and at this point found rather amusing considering that he had almost swallowed it.
"You all found your memory?" There were nods from everyone in the class. "Oh now picture that memory in your head and try and keep it there. It is easiest if you think of only that memory but that can be hard for some people and so it is more prudent to simply keep that memory the most prominent rather than trying to force the others out of your mind." Hermione and Padma began concentrating, Blaise, Justin and Ernie didn't really change at all and Terry and Michael looked bored. "Ok, now take your wand and put it to your temple," he did what he said as he said it. The class followed suit. "Now concentrate on sending the memory into the wand, it should very quickly leave your thoughts and then form on the end of your wand like a silvery wispy translucent substance. Once you feel the memory is completely removed. You will likely feel odd because you will be aware that you have a memory but will not be aware what it is. People experience this in different ways and so I cannot say what it will feel like but it will likely be fairly obvious." With that he took his wand from his temple with the silvery wisp that Harry knew was a memory before placing it into the pensieve.
Harry then did what Saren had described, and sure enough he began to lose the memory. He had no trouble whatsoever with other memories because this particular memory was a strong one which he had used many a time to remove more negative thoughts from his head. The feeling as the memory was removed was odd. It wasn't replaced by another memory is was simply gone and in its wake was a foggy feeling like there was supposed to be something there but there wasn't. It felt like knowing something but not remembering it. A memory he was supposed to have but could not bring up at the moment, a fog in his mind replacing the previous thought.
As soon as he was sure the memory had been removed completely, Harry carefully deposited the silvery substance into the pensieve not wanting to possibly lose or damage such an important thought. He then looked into it. It looked like a swirl of silvery clouds. He remembered what to do to see the memory and so stuck his wand in it and stirred, the image of him at eleven chasing the snitch, slipping off his broom and rolling into it mouth first showed up for anyone to se if they bothered to look. Everyone else was in different states of completion except for Blaise who at some point while Harry was worrying about his own memory had started meditating, or, at least that was the only way he could describe it. Padma, Terry, Michael and Hermione were looking into their pensieves stirring them with their wands. Ron and Seamus were looking at their pensieves with confused expressions on their faces.
"I see you have all seceded in filling your pensieves. I expected as such, it is not a difficult thing to do in the slightest. Whether you succeeded at putting in the correct memory is simply a matter of how clear you were able to keep your mind upon the transfer. Stirring the memory as some of you seem to already know will allow you to look at it, wands are recommended for this. Now removing the memory is essentially the same. Put your wand in the pensieve and then concentrate on picking up the memory. It shouldn't even really take that much effort, simply the want to return the memory. Then simply return the wand to your temple and concentrate on moving the memory back into your mind. This should be relatively effortless as your mind is where the memory is supposed to be anyway and the body and mind have this way of returning themselves to their natural state whenever they can and at other times which I will describe later. Now practice and don't worry if you get the wrong memory or fragments of multiple memories, just keep trying. You will get it eventually, I can think of no wizard who has ever failed to properly use a pensieve for it's most basic of uses." With that he wandered around the room giving people tips and generally doing what Harry would expect any teacher to do. The more Harry knew about his blind professor the more it seemed to him that his blindness didn't matter. In fact it didn't really seem to affect the man at all.
After about thirty minutes of moving memories into and out of pensieves, most of which was simply spent goofing off since everyone had succeeded with their intended memory by ten minutes into the actual work time. Saren clapped his hands to get everyone's attention before moving to the front of the class again. "Now that you are all capable at putting memories into pensieves now I will teach you how to scramble them. This could be important for this class as we will all be putting our most secret of memories into pensieves so that they will not be found out by anyone else, in case someone gets to curious and decides to get himself expelled. That and it is a useful thing to know if one ever wants a memory protected."
He took a memory and put it into his pensieve. "This memory is totally harmless however it is also fragmented to the point that that barely matters. As you should all be able to see there should be nothing of use in it. I have never seen this before so I wouldn't know but I do know that almost no one should be able to effectively navigate this memory." Harry had to agree that it would be a rather difficult endeavor. All he could see was mixed flashes of seemingly unrelated blurry images that not only were much to fast to make out but also seemed to mix with each other.
"Interestingly enough this is possibly the easiest thing to do with a pensieve besides placing memories into them. Essentially it is all in the delivery of the memory. One doesn't fragment it in the pensieve one fragments it in their head and then puts the already fragmented memory into the pensieve. I don't really expect you all to be able to do this today, however I hope you will all be capable of doing it by next week. Oh and those pensieves are yours, a souvenir for taking the class as well as a tool for it. But if it breaks you are going to have to buy a replacement, as I have far from limitless funds.
"Now as for strategies on how to fragment a memory it is actually quite simple, it is exactly what it is described as. One way to do it, that isn't the safest mind you, is to simply start with a still image of the memory or even a moving one, as long as it is flat and then manually take it apart in your mind like a puzzle. Mix the pieces around and then shove that in as much of a chaotic mess as possible into your wand. This is actually rather difficult for some people and rather easy for others. I suspect that those of you who are logical and generally do well in academics will have more trouble with this then the ones who think a bit more outside the box." He smiled knowingly in Hermione's direction, she responded with a slight sneer which only gave Saren, and Harry, amused smiles.
"Other methods include making it liquid and them mixing it together much like taking a wet painting and then mixing all the colors together. Well I think you all get my drift it does not really matter how you do it as long as in the end there is little way to make out what the memories original intent was. Don't worry about bringing it back together upon returning it to your mind. As I said the mind has a way of correcting itself and this is one of those cases where if you let it your mind will do all the work for you upon returning the previously fragmented memory."
They spent the rest of the time working on fragmenting their memories and true to Saren's word the Ravenclaws and Hermione were finding it rather difficult while it took Seamus, Blaise and Ron barely ten minutes after which they started trying other methods. Eventually they started talking since everyone else was working and it seemed that despite the house animosity, they were hitting it off quite well.
Harry found it was annoyingly difficult to fragment his memories in any way. He could never think of them that way they were too lucid for him. Everyway Saren had described required them to have a tangible nature which he never had associated with memory before. In the end he imagined a cloud surrounding the memory and obstructing it while spinning to disorient the subject while not affecting the memory. He would have to work on that as he was sure this was also an important trick for occlumency as well, and a spinning cloud would have no effect on lets say his professor who couldn't see anyway. He knew he would have to practice a better method but for now that kept his thoughts relatively safe and since he was going to be practicing with Saren without pensieves anyway there was no point in worrying about him getting into the pensieve or not. Not that he expected his professor to try that in the first place.
Apparently he was not the only one to not come up with an effective way of doing this as near the end of the class Hermione started yelling at her pensieve, much to everyone's amusement. Saren had a short talk with her in the corner which seemed to placate her at least for the moment. But she still looked like she wasn't getting any closer to succeeding. Michael and Terry were having just as much trouble as Hermione but Padma seemed to have figured it out rather quickly, at least compared to the other three although she kept trying over and over again even after apparent success. Harry surmised that in this class she was going to be the top student. The stuff obviously just came to her.
Harry stayed after class, telling Hermione, Seamus and Ron that he had a practice related question to ask him. They all seemed to understand and so left him to his own devices.
Blaise stuck around to ask Saren a question regarding meditation but eventually he left as well. When Harry was certain it was just the two of them he quickly went and shut the door before bringing up his query with his youthful professor. "Professor, you know how you said that you wanted me to invite my other dorm mates to our occlumency lessons?"
"Yes?" Saren didn't even turn upon giving his response he was busy cleaning up whatever was in the chest that he had taken the pensieves out of. His tone made it clear to Harry that he was listening despite the distraction.
"Well I couldn't think of a good way to tell them so I thought I would just bring them to the next session and then you could tell them."
"Ok, I can do that. Although don't expect Mr. Tinderspoon to take part in the lessons. I know for a fact that he will decline. Don't worry if he finds out though, he is good at keeping secrets. Now run along and rejoin your mates. Wouldn't want anyone getting suspicious now would we?" And with that Saren turned around, smiled and motioned Harry towards the door.
Harry had wanted to ask Saren what he knew about Wesley but it was obvious from Saren's expression, as nice as it was, that the conversation was over. This did confirm one thing though, Wesley was obviously hiding something. And more to the point Saren, and likely all the other teachers now that he thought about it, obviously knew what it was. Snape's shenanigans towards Wesley as well as McGonagall's insistence on his transfiguration ability all pointed to something. He wasn't about to ruin a possible friendship over a simple secret, especially a secret that was obviously not being kept from the staff. But he had experienced too much to let it go without a second thought. Alastor you are turning me more and more. Pretty soon you'll have me wearing that hip flask of yours. Harry smirked at that thought as this was not the first time he had considered that prospect.
There was a surprise that day at dinner. The Daily Prophet had an emergency second addition delivered to all permanent subscribers which of course meant that Hermione was right on top of it. She was reading the very front page and was about to take a bite of her dinner when she gasped and dropped her fork which proceeded to knock over her pumpkin juice which Wesley managed to just barely stop from spilling off the table and staining her robes. She noticed none of this as she virtually instantly scanned the rest of the article before announcing. "This is bad…no it's horrible! This is possibly the worst thing that could have happened…" This got nearly all the Gryffindors attention. Colin and Dennis even stopped chatting and edged silently closer to get a better view. After the shifting stopped Hermione started reading the article.
"'The Minister of Magic is missing.'" A few gasps were heard form the crowd but a few relieved sighs were heard as well. Hermione ignored them and continued. "'This Saturday Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, disappeared while on a business trip to Ireland.'" Seamus gawked at that. "'He was supposed to return that same day, no one seemed to worry until an informant said that they had seen men in black robes near the apparition point that the minister and his team were planning to return to. Death eaters are suspected and some in the ministry have even theorized that the minister himself has been in on He Who Must not be Named's plot from the beginning, especially considering his denial of his return last year. There has been no proof either way on these accusations.' Ignore that," Hermione interjected, "It's written by Rita Skeeter. 'Now the amazing thing about this is just how fast the ministry came to action. Dolores Umbridge, who graciously volunteered to take the job, was appointed to the minister position…'" Harry nearly choked on his own Adams apple when he heard this and apparently he wasn't the only one. Gasps, coughs and choking were heard from all over the great hall, "'…as it is unlikely that Fudge is alive unless he himself is a death eater."
Almost instantly upon finishing that sentence there were so many people gathered around the Gryffindor table that Hermione and her immediate company relocated themselves to a more central position at one of the other house tables. The other students gladly let them move but only so that they could listen in without mashing the entire student body into one corner of the room. Everyone looked worried at best, even the Slytherins that had been her patrol unit the previous year seemed nervous. They were power hungry yes but not stupid for the most part. They knew that this was likely just as bad for them as it was for everyone else. About the only person who didn't seem worried in the least was Draco Malfoy. He was simply smirking in the group' direction from where he remained sitting.
"'The first thing she said upon agreeing to this interview was, 'I am sorry about minister Fudge. However it is appalling that this was allowed to happen in the first place. The aurors in the ministry have been slacking off for years and it must stop now. I will personally make the aurors redouble their efforts to find any and all death eaters. Not a single one will rest until every last one of them is found.' Her next statement had to do with Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 'Another issue of grave concern is the state of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, mainly the current headmaster Albus Dumbledore. He has not only directly disobeyed ministry laws on multiple occasions, but is also too lenient and often a danger to the students. He has hired a incredibly large number of dangerous professors, many of whom were part humans, completely disregarding the laws and processes for hiring such individuals and has even kept quite a few of these individuals natures a secret from the parents of the students.
"'Here are just a few of the more questionable appointments that he has made during his reign as headmaster.'" Harry wished that woman was here so he could hex her. Albus Dumbledore was clearly in control but hardly reigned over the school. He kept his anger in check there was nothing he could do about it now anyway. "'One loony 'seer' by the name of Sybill Trelawny who not only predicted the deaths of the students at least three times a week but also seemed to have no actual prophetic ability whatsoever and spent her time lecturing students pointlessly about increasingly ridiculous divination techniques. Then when I had her fired because of her incompetence, he immediately replaced her with a Centaur, without any consent at all. And not only was he a Centaur, but he was also a fugitive to his own kind! Two years earlier he hired one Remus Lupin who is a known Werewolf and has been one since he was a child, he changed in front of not only professor Severus Snape but also three students, Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley and the renown Harry Potter, nearly killing them. Severus Snape was also one of Dumbledore's more dangerous choices as he is not only a master of the dark arts but also a former death eater, or so he claims. I don't think there is anything "former" about his alliance at all!
"'His ability to keep the students safe has been proven unreliable at best as there have been numerous student injuries during the time that he has been headmaster including but not limited to the Petrification of a ghost a cat and at least four muggleborn students when a basilisk was allowed free run of the halls for nearly a whole year! Who did he blame? Voldemort of course who was not confirmed revived by he himself until two years later. Now he has not only brought back Remus Lupin to the campus for the students "protection" and has brought Leon Saren, a known Dhampyr, half vampire for those who are not well versed in the dark arts, as a psionics professor no less!
"'This kind of irresponsible behavior must stop immediately and so I have decided to bring back the high inquisitor position on a more permanent basis. I myself will be too busy with important ministry work to take the position I so dutifully held last year. However I have found the perfect man for the job. He is totally behind the ministry and has proven that by choosing to follow his ideals and the laws of the ministry over even the wishes of his own family…'" Harry started getting queasy, She couldn't mean, "'…a fresh young wizard who has risen fast in the ministry, but was perfectly willing to drop all his current work to take this job. One by the name of Percy Ignatius Weasley…"
Harry tuned out the rest of the article. How could this be happening? He thought he had seen and heard the last of Umbridge when the ministry men had taken her away the previous year. But now not only was she back, but she was the new minister of magic? And has assigned Percy as the Hogwarts high inquisitor? It was then that Harry noticed that the teachers were no where to be seen. They were obviously off having some meeting about the current state of events. Harry could think of little that could make this worse.
Then Harry absent mindedly pulled a small anchor out of his pocket and handed it to Hermione who stopped reading completely to take it and put it in her pocket. Harry's shock had completely disappeared at that moment, leaving him coherent enough to plan what he was going to do about this. It was inconceivable that he would be foiled two years in a row by the high inquisitor. But this time he had the advantage. He knew Percy and had the experience of the previous year. No he was not going to be beaten by a new High Inquisitor. He was going to continue with his plan for the year, and no one, not even Dumbledore himself was going to stop him.
