Chapter 12
Draco's warning dulled the Order's shock the next day when a group of muggles were attacked. Harry had been eating lunch when his pendent vibrated and Moody informed him and anyone else who was listening about the situation. Again, Harry 'dueled' Draco when he saw him. Three Death Eaters were captured, and four muggles' were lost, another five had their memories modified.
The following two days held surprises, both of which the Ministry took care of. One was an attack on Diagon Alley, and another was ona group of muggles yet again.
On the sixteenth day of summer, Harry and his friends had another 'Auror Lesson.'
Today they drilled through six spells: Stupefy, expelliarmus, reducto, protego, the flippendo jinx: ivertae stashio, and the full body bind. Ginny again helped out in the lesson, and Harry quickly learned just how much he despised the bat-bogey hex. They paired off with their instructors again, this time Harry was facing off against Tonks.
Taking a leaf out of Ron's book, Harry used his animagus abilities to his advantage. He dodged Tonks' disarming spell by turning into a phoenix, and evaded the stunner by becoming a cobra; finally he tackled and disarmed her in his werewolf form. "No fair!" she complained.
Harry yipped his laughter and freed her, then changed back. "Just using the few advantages I have!" he said cheerfully.
She smiled despite herself and changed her hair to bright purple before they dueled again.
While firing a disarming spell, Splikvin barked from behind him, "You dropped your guard Potter!" He jumped what seemed to be three feet into the air—and right into Tonks' freezing spell.
He glared at Splikvin once he was free again. "You're fault, not mine." she replied with a shrug and moved on.
"Alright, cease fire!" Splikvin called a little while later. "Switch partners!"
They changed platforms randomly, and Harry found himself facing Snape. At least the last duel didn't tire me out all the way, he thought as they bowed to each other.
On the count of three, they began. Harry ducked the stinging hex Snape cast, and fired one of his own. Using Parsloz shields, Harry was able to keep most of the curses off—Harry noticed that some of them weren't the friendliest.
When Snape broke his shield with a powerful blasting curse, Harry began to get in trouble. Snape continued to use it whenever Harry fired a shield, followed by a freezer. Harry dipped and swerved, narrowly escaping them. He fired off a few stunners, hoping that one of them would hit—none did.
A sting got him in the arm, making him almost drop his wand. Harry bit back a groan and changed into a cobra to evade another. Snape seemed mildly surprised by the snake before him, but soon began to fire curses at Harry.
Harry hissed at Snape as a stinger hit the middle of his back, flaring his hood. Snape jerked, but remained calm.
"Be nice", Splikvin hissed as she watched them duel.
Tell that to him! Harry hissed back with annoyance as he darted away from a stunner. Splikvin chuckled and resumed inspecting the other duels.
Harry called all his forms and reflected Snape's stinger back at him. It hit the head Slytherin in the chest and made him wince slightly.
HA! Harry thought savagely, and whipped at him with his tail.
Snape jumped over it, firing more curses. They bounced off, until he hit Harry in the eye with a freezer.
Harry was slowed, but that gave Snape ample time to fire more. Dag nabit, Harry growled to himself as he froze completely. Snape smirked at Harry and then unfroze him.
"Halt!" Splikvin yelled. Harry became human and rubbed his head savagely, it was sore beyond imagination.
The duelers stopped and took a breather—mainly for the trainees benefit. They rested for about ten minutes, then switched to drills again. This time, three new spells were taught: jelly-arms, a shield that blocked physical things, and the levitation charm.
Five minutes into practice and Harry heard a whoosh sound that was all too familiar. He groaned.
The bean bags had returned.
Harry's second Occlumency lesson occurred that evening as well. He met Snape in the same room as last time and quickly cleared his mind; he hoped practicing it before bed had helped some. Snape said, "Legilimens," and the lesson began.
Freelance memories whizzed through Harry's mind, too fast for either of them to see. Harry slowed Snape down, trying to get him to halt altogether. While slowing, Harry's memories of his childhood came into view—the cupboard full of spiders, being chased into a tree by Ripper, running from Dudley and his gang...
Harry was barely aware of raising his wand as his head began to ache. "Expelliarmus!" he yelled.
"Harder, Potter." Snape's voice rumbled through his ears.
Harry could feel himself slowly sinking towards the ground. "Harder." Snape growled again.
Harry pushed back against Snape as they got closer to his inner memories. "Expelliarmus!" he hissed in Parsletongue.
The spell rocketed out and hit Snape, breaking the connection. Because his mind was weakened at the moment by the Legilimency, Harry's spell had the power of a normal disarmer and the potions master was thrown backwards about ten feet.
Harry straightened and cleared his mind before Snape could try again. As he'd suspected, no sooner had Snape gotten to his feet he said, "Legilimens."
Harry fought to keep them hovering in the freelance memories, but didn't totally succeed. Snape broke out of his grip—the result was like releasing a bow string. The outer memories zoomed by, before they crashed into Harry's inner ones.
He caught a glimpse of his father and knew that this was Snape's worst memory. Harry jerked them out of it, earning a splitting headache as a reward. The forceful move had put them in the middle of Harry's many memories of his capture by Voldemort.
The few images he had were soon replaced by vivid memories of the smell of sweat, blood, and the feelings of pain, anger, and hate. No, Harry thought—he didn't want to relive those times.
He brutally shoved Snape out, driving him back as furiously as he could through the memories of Sirius' death, the resurrection of Voldemort, and then through the outer and freelance memories.
Harry gasped for breath and opened his eyes, finding himself kneeling on the floor again. Snape was rubbing his head gently, with his wand at his side. "Sorry," Harry croaked.
The potions master looked up. "Do not apologize for doing what I told you."
Harry's eyes widened. "I got you out.?"
"Yes." Snape hesitated, but curiosity got the better of him. "The memories without sight, those are from last November?"
Harry winced slightly, "Yeah, they are; didn't you know when you went there?"
Snape looked at him sharply. "No, I did not. I do not choose which memories of yours to view; that is usually a drawback of this form of Legilimency."
"Oh, do you know why?"
"Somewhat. In this form, it is all about force, there is little control. The memories that are shown can only be controlled by the holder. This is because the outsider is putting all their effort towards getting in, not towards a certain direction, or rather, time."
"You don't seem tired." Harry noted.
"That would be because I am not."
"Huh?"
Snape sighed. "Potter, notice I said 'usually a drawback'. I do not need to exhaust myself to get through your defenses. After doing this since mysecond year at Hogwarts, I shouldn't have to."
Harry thought about it for a minute.
"So, you're going easy on me." He said finally.
Snape raised an eyebrow. "That is one way of putting it."
"What'll happen if you don't?"
"I don't know."
"Have you ever done it before?"
"Yes, with Selena. However, she is botha practiced Occlumens and Legilmens."
"Can you do it with me?"
Snape hesitated. "I doubt Black and Lupin would approve of it, especially the possible after effects."
"Then it'll be my fault," Harry replied.
Snape hesistated again, but finally nodded."Very well, clear your mind—and you had better have a strong headache cure nearby." Snape raised his wand. "Legilimens."
(A/N: So, how bad will it be? Will Snape be the victim of Moony and Padfoot's wrath?)
Coming Up:
Much Worse
Animagi Elite
Then:
Vision