Harry settled down for a nap on the couch since he had not had any sleep yet and it was after midnight real-time.
After a series of nightmares involving either Sirius or Cedric and of course our dear friend Tom, Harry drifted into a more normal dream for a teenage boy. This one consisted of sequences of various girls in a range of states of undress. One part was back at the Yule ball with Parvati but instead of wearing her gown, she was wearing lingerie while trying to get him to dance. Another was one of a naked Hermione chasing him around the boy's dormitory with a bottle of chocolate sauce and a copy of the Kama Sutra and yelling "But it was assigned as homework!" The strangest section and the one that would have greatly disturbed Harry had he remembered that part after waking was when he was eating dinner in the Great Hall, Pansy Parkinson came over and sat down in his lap and making comments such as she really liked playing with large snakes. The only one Harry actually ended up remembering though, although the Hermione sequence was still there fuzzily, was where after waking up in the Burrow in Ron's room, he goes to the bathroom to relieve himself and catches a full frontal view of Ginny right after she steps out of the shower, before she can grab her towel off the rack. After these dreams, he settles into a deeper sleep.
Waking up and blinking sleep out of his eyes, Harry wonders to himself and blushes as he remembers the last bit of the dream with Ginny. Too bad that was not real, Harry thinks.
Glancing at the clock, Harry sees that about nine hours have elapsed inside the room and consequently, he was very hungry.
Harry closed his eyes and imagined that he needed a large breakfast of tea, orange juice, griddlecakes, and bangers sitting on the table. Opening his eyes he could see exactly what he asked for and it smelled delicious. Sitting down and opening the book on Occlumency, he started reading while eating. Harry noticed that the title of the book was called "Hiding the Mind's Eye, A Primer On Occlumency and Legilimency by Rasputin Mesmer".
(Here's are some excerpts from the book that Harry is reading)
One of the best ways to thwart an initial attack is to clear one's thoughts. This can be accomplished by several methods. One popular method, although limited in potential is to enter a trance-like state through meditation where you are one with the moment. "Be One with the Void" was a saying that my meditation teacher liked to use.
A better method is to "collect" your extraneous thoughts, those thoughts being any that are currently outside of your mental fortress, and bring them inside to whichever location you need or want and "shut" your gates.
Your mental fortress. It is the secret to both a defense against mental attacks; it also improves memory retention to an almost total recall and enhances other cognitive functions. This technique which will be explained further, was first used by Muggles who were relying solely on the spoken word, most of them being illiterate at that time. It was a method of organizing your thoughts into a familiar structure such as a cathedral, a castle, or other such structure. All your knowledge was divided into rooms or areas. For example, a knight would recall information about sword-fighting by looking in a particular part of his castle such as the area where the swords were kept in his armory. It was found that when this technique was used by wizards though, that it was effective against Legilimency. This technique is best effective if taught at a young age, when the mind is the most malleable.
Harry decided to use Hogwarts as his model structure.
Slowly over the next two weeks, Harry painstakingly sorted through his thoughts, sometimes painfully. The most painful memories of course were that of Sirius' and Cedric's deaths. Next in line were the memories of how he was treated by his aunt, uncle, and cousin. Those took the longest to sort through since there were so many bad memories that he had tried hard to forget. During those recollections, he began to see the odd things that had happened to him that made him a wizard and possibly signs of his animagus abilities coming out to protect him at such tender ages.
Harry remembered getting hurt and going to sleep crying, his tears washing over his injuries and waking up with them healed. That sounded like his Phoenix form coming out. Popping to the top of the school he could not quite figure out. It did not feel like apparition, which he had also been working on and perfected during this time. Harry was even able to mask the crack you heard when the air was displaced. There had been several books on how to apparate in the Library, which appeared when he wanted it to. Lucky for Harry it was the library that showed up like when he was doing the D.A., instead of the Hogwarts library. Harry did not fancy having the books scream at him when he tried to open them since apparating would be in the restricted section, being only for adult wizards. Harry wondered about the magic house elves had and how they could move through wards even as strong as the ones on the Dursleys' house and Hogwarts, having witnessed Dobby do both. He resolved to ask either Dobby or Mr. Tibbles about it. Maybe they would be able to teach him something.
Practicing dueling was also a necessity for Harry and he became better and better. Harry let the room conjure up training dummies for him to practice on and reflecting walls that let him practice his offense and defense. With his newfound skills in retention, comprehension, Harry quickly became a speed-reading demon. He devoured the section in the library on dueling with a passion. Remembering Dumbledore's duel with Voldemort in the Ministry and how he was transfiguring objects into obstacles and shields that deflected the killing curse even. Harry noticed that the results of the killing curse were different on inanimate objects than living creatures. He had seen the results of what happened when it was used on an animal or a person. But it seemed to have results similar to a Reductor curse when it met a non-living object such as a statue. The question was why. Harry filed that away for future discussion with Hermione and knowing her, research in the library.
Harry's two weeks nearly up, he sits down and writes a few letters. The first is to Remus thanking him for everything he has done and that Harry will have a surprise for him when he sees him next. The second letter was to the Weasleys, care of Molly and Arthur, inviting them to Grimmauld Place for his birthday, if they were not there already. If they were, he confirmed their welcome to his home. One of the hardest letters to write was to Ginny herself, telling her how his summer is going so far (what he can tell her that is) and that she was in one of his dreams and no, Tom was not in it, but if she wanted details about it, she'd have to ask him in person. To Ron, he writes about his summer as well and inquires about the Cannons and what Ron would do if Victor was traded to the Cannons. He also said that there was a surprise he had for Ron and something to tell him when Harry could get everyone together, including Ginny, Neville, and Luna. He wrote a letter to Neville wishing him a Happy Birthday and inviting him to his house for his birthday with transportation to be arranged. Luna was getting a letter thanking her and inviting her to his birthday as well and asking for a subscription to the Quibbler and to ask her dad if he would run an interview again by Skeeter. The last letter was the second hardest to write and was to be sent to the Quibbler again by Mr. Marshypot. This one though was blasting Fudge and his policies more.
Harry was determined to get Cornelius Fudge out of office. He wanted somebody competent and firmly on the side of the light. Which most likely meant a member of the Order. Harry mentally ran over a list of possibilities. Struck immediately from the list were Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape. Harry hated to admit it, but the Headmaster was right in the fact that he was better suited as Headmaster, rather than Minister. Snape on the other hand, was Snape. Enough said and the least said the better. Harry also removed Mrs. Figg as a candidate because she is a squib, no slight intended. Mr. Weasley was almost struck from the list. Harry trusted the man with his life and more, but fact was Arthur had no ambition to rise beyond the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department, being too enchanted with it. Although if push came to shove, he might rise to the challenge. He fought in the first Dark War and survived. Mundungus Fletcher was immediately scratched. Putting a shifty thief like him in charge would be giving a kid the key to a sweets shop and giving him free rein.
Harry went down the list of names that he knew of and added Madam Bones to the list. Harry was not sure if she was a member of the Order or not but he trusted her to be fair and she did stand up for him against Fudge. Of all the names on the list, hers was the one that stood out the most in his mind.
It was about two in the afternoon in the room, when Harry decided to come out of the Room of Requirement. Before leaving, he checked the outside clock and saw just under three hours had elapsed. Harry then turned the hourglass back over and it turned back from orange to blue, meaning it was safe to leave the room at that point.
Exiting the room, Harry headed straight for his private library, intent on seeing if there were any books on wands, taking a short tour of his quarters on the way.
Harry was impressed with his rooms. The sitting room alone was almost the size of his dormitory at Hogwarts. It was decorated in soft pastel browns with black leather and mahogany furniture. There was a painting of Godric there hanging above a large stone fireplace.
The master bedroom was also a remarkable sight. The walls were sea blue with a warm maple woodwork on the lower half. The draperies on the window and the bed were done in emerald with gold trim. The bedspreads and linens were Gryffindor scarlet and gold. The bed looked big enough for six people at once. There was an enchanted window on the west wall that showed a darkened Quidditch pitch.
Harry took a quick look at the bathroom. He was shocked. It put the Prefects Bath to shame. Not only did it have a tub at least as large, but had an enclosed glass and white marble shower big enough for four people and a built in seat. The shower also had multiple showerheads. There was a state of the art sound muggle sound system embedded into the west wall. Harry could only assume that it was enchanted to work properly. There was also a large sauna, a floor-to-ceiling mirror that took up the entire south wall. There were 3 sinks and enough counter space between them to lie down on.
Checking the map, Harry found the current password to get into the Library which changes once an hour and where the door was. The door was on the east wall in the southeast corner of the master bedroom.
Tapping the correct spot the wall with his wand and speaking the password, part of the wall slide backward and to the side, revealing a library that felt comfortable. There were a few tables with magical lights on them and several stuffed chairs but the rest of the room was stuffed floor to ceiling with books. There must be at least a couple thousand volumes easily.
Harry started looking and after about 20 minutes of searching, found a section on wand-making. During his search, he encountered the Dark Arts Section, Dueling, Broomstick Design, Potions (even found a thin book called "Potions For Idiots (Gryffindors)" by Severus Snape), Transfiguration, and the Mental Arts sections.
Picking out a couple of the most interestingly titled wand-making books and the potions book by Snape, Harry put the books into his pack and made his way outside.
Being about just after six in the morning now, Harry could see the sun rising. After watching the beautiful sight for a few minutes, he sighed and got ready for a new day. Retrieving the map from where he stashed it, Harry zoomed it out to cover the whole grounds.
Covering about 100 acres, not including the land that the manor itself was on, the map showed a Quidditch pitch to Harry's right and around the corner to the north. It was not as big as the one at Hogwarts of course, being for personal use and not competition. Off to the south of the manor are the stables and pastures, both currently empty of creatures except for some goats wandering around nibbling on the grass and occasionally talking to each other. One of the goats was about five feet away from Harry and he distinctly heard it say "M-m-m-o-o-o-v-v-v-v-e" with a very goatish accent while it was staring at the patch of clover underneath his feet. Harry startled and quickly moved to the side, after which the goat proceeded to amble over and start chewing on the clovers.
To the west was the path to the Carriage house and the way out. The southwest held a decent sized lake, but luckily no giant squid. To the southeast, to the east and also to the north on the other side of the pitch, there was a large forest, looking forbidding as the Forbidden Forest.
Resolving to check out the pitch and the rest of the grounds after he got his Firebolt back and when he had more time, Harry put the map away and brought his necklace out into view.
Due to a slight phobia caused by the unfortunate Tri-Wizard Cup Incident, Harry at least for now had some irrational fear when it came to portkeys. With some bit of hesitation even though he knew this one was safe, Harry grasped the badger firmly with his left hand and holding his wand at the ready in his right said firmly, "take me back to PRISON!" and disappeared with a tug behind his navel only to reappear in his room at the Dursleys and hear Aunt Petunia bellow through the closed door, "For the last time, boy! Breakfast is ready!"
Taking the advice given for apparating and hoping it applied to portkeys as well, Harry did not brace himself for landing this time. Landing on his feet for a change, Harry said to the door, "Thank you Aunt Petunia, I'll be down in a moment."
"Humph. Don't take too long."
Tucking his necklace back under his shirt, Harry tossed his knapsack on his bed and tucked his wand up in its holster up his left sleeve. After stretching for a moment, opened the door and headed down to breakfast.