A/N: All right, then, I know it's been awhile since my last update (all right, only a few days, actually, but it seems longer to me for some reason) but here it is. This chapter was a bit tough to write, and I'm definitely curious to find out what people think about it. Thanks for reading and (hopefully) reviewing! (Also, I would just like to say that I think it's really cool that fanfiction dot net now seems to be offering the hit counter for free! Awesome!)

Chapter 24

Legilimancy

Once the term had started up again Dumbledore had cut down his occlumency training lessons with Harry so that they now occurred twice weekly, once Monday evenings, and once on Friday during the day, as Harry had no other classes that day. He was progressing nicely, and by the end of February, he was able to block Dumbledore from his mind without any preparation time. They had worked down from the thirty seconds of concentration time that Dumbledore had originally given him, and now Harry was able to clear his mind basically instantaneously.

"The next step in Occlumency," said Dumbledore, after praising Harry for his newfound adeptness at clearing his mind, "will be to learn how to deceive someone who is trying to look in your mind. However, alongside training you to do that, I also intend to train you in mind-reading and I think that it may now be time to begin with that."

"You're going to let me read your mind?" asked Harry, taken aback by the amount of trust this would show in him.

"We're not going to start out with you trying to read my mind, no. For reasons which I will explain momentarily, it would be more beneficial for you to start out with other, shall we say, 'victims.' But first, allow me to explain a little bit of the theory behind this."

Harry nodded to show his assent, and Dumbledore continued.

"As I'm sure you gathered from your lessons with Professor Snape last year, a wizard can tap into somebody's mind by pointing his wand at his target and reciting an incantation. However, this is only one method of mind-reading. As with other spells, the wand is used as a filter and concentrater of magical energy, thus allowing a spell to be cast. Thus, as with other spells, the magical connection that allows you to read somebody's mind is most easily created using a wand. However, in this case, the easiest way to go about it also happens to be practically useless in most situations. There is no better way to tip somebody off that you are reading their mind than pointing a wand at them and saying "legilimens." However, secret knowledge, which is the kind that is most likely to be sought when one is forced to resort to mind-reading, is normally useless once the bearer of the knowledge realizes that the secrecy has been breached. Therefore, I think it useless to teach you how to do this spell with a wand, but will go straight to teaching you how to do perform it without one. Obviously, once you know how to do it the hard way, it should be no problem for you to perform the incantation and read someone's mind that way, if you are ever in a situation wherein such a course of action is feasible. Do you understand what I'm saying so far?" asked Dumbledore.

"Yes, I believe so. You want me to be able to read someone's mind without using a wand. I assume, however, that you're talking about something a bit more complicated than brewing up a potion and slipping it into someone's pumpkin-juice," said Harry, grinning slightly.

"Well, yes, I'm afraid so," said Dumbledore, returning the grin. "What I am suggesting you do is to read someone else's mind completely unaided. As I have implied before, it is best to think of mind-reading as a connection between two minds. Thus, the way to read someone's mind without a wand is to focus your entire mind on that person and their connection to you. Once you have focused deeply enough, you will form a psychic connection, and you will be able to hear their thoughts. At this point, you should have access to their stream of consciousness and will be able simply to eavesdrop, or, as you did with Mr. Malfoy, ask direct questions. Do you still understand?"

"I think so," said Harry, who was wondering whether he would be up to the task. Clearing his own mind was one thing, but reading another person's seemed like it would be much more complicated. Eliminating thoughts from his own mind seemed more doable than concentrating so completely on another person as to tap into their mind.

"Good. Now, the first time you do this, it should be with someone who you know very well, and thus have many thoughts about whom on which to concentrate. It should also be someone with whom you feel that you have a very strong connection. That is why I was of the opinion that, for your first attempts, at least, I might not be the easiest target. I thought perhaps you may be able to get one of your friends to volunteer to let you read their mind. This will be much easier to do than mind-reading would be in a practical situation, as this time it will not matter whether you allow your victim to notice your mental presence in their mind (there are ways to guard against detection which will be the subject of a later lesson). However, this alone should be challenging enough for someone who has only just mastered the basics of Occlumency. At any rate, do you think you can find someone who will let you read your mind?" asked Dumbledore.

"Yes, I suppose Ron, Hermione, or Ginny would let me do that," said Harry. "Do you want me to bring one of them with me to next lesson?"

"That will not be necessary," said Dumbledore. "You can attempt to make the connection this weekend and tell me of your success or failure when we meet again on Monday. You will not be able to do any damage to your own or the other person's mind simply by attempting to make this connection, so there will be no danger in you doing so unsupervised," He explained.

For the rest of the lesson, he continued to fill Harry in on the theory of mind-reading and gave him more specific instructions on how he could make such a connection.

As usual, that evening, Harry met with Hermione, Ron, and Ginny to eat dinner in the Great Hall. When they asked him how his Occlumency lesson had gone, he explained about his continuing successes in Occlumency and the fact that he was now also receiving instruction in Legilimancy. This was all well and good, and Harry appreciated the impressed congratulations which came from Hermione, Ron, and Ginny on his success in what Hermione assured him was "far past 'N.E.W.T.' level magic." However, then came the awkward part.

"Er," said Harry carefully, "Dumbledore reckons that I ought to try to read someone's mind this weekend, and he says it should be someone who I know well and have a strong connection with. I thought that one of you three would be my best bet. But, of course, if you don't want to, I completely understand," added Harry.

"Of course we'd let you," answered Hermione quickly in a way that showed she didn't want to prolong Harry's awkwardness for any longer than necessary. "It's not like we have many secrets from each other anyway, and I'm not ashamed of anything. Giving up a bit of personal privacy is a small price to pay to further our cause."

"Yeah, mate, you can read my mind if you like," said Ron, reassuringly. "Just so long as you don't start asking me to come in with you for your lessons. I think your mad for taking on extra lessons just when the professors are getting more and more neurotic about making us study for our NEWTs for next year," said Ron, grinning.

"I think you should try on me," said Ginny. "I think that, lately at least, the connection between you and myself is the strongest you've got."

Harry looked at her and nodded slowly. This had been what he was thinking as well.

They had determined to try it that night in the common room. They had further decided that it would be best to do this once everybody else had gone to sleep to avoid any questions from curious onlookers. Therefore, they stayed up talking until the Creevy brothers, who had been the last people to be present with them in the common room, went up to bed.

Harry gazed appraisingly at Ginny from his seat in an armchair opposite the one in which she was seated. "All right, so all you've got to do is to sit there and relax. As this is my first time, I would rather that you don't do anything to try to interfere, assuming that you know how. Just, one thing that you may want to do, is try to put your concentration on something that you wouldn't mind me knowing. If there's anything that you want to keep private, think of something else, and I'll try not to ask any mental questions that would lead you to anything that might be an uncomfortable subject."

"Harry," said Ginny seriously, "there's nothing that I need to keep private. I want you to be able to trust me, and so I've got no problem trusting you with any thought or memory that might cross my mind." After a moment's pause, she said, "Plus, it's not like I've got a whole lot of secrets. The only thing I'd keep secret under normal circumstances would be the whole nightmare with Riddle and his diary during my first year, but as you're the one who saved me from him, I kind of assumed that you already knew about that." She smiled, and Harry was once again struck by how she could find humor in even the darkest situations.

"All right, then just relax," said Harry, and Ginny closed her eyes peacefully as if getting ready to fall asleep.

Harry closed his eyes and began to concentrate. He concentrated on her bravery, on her wonderful sense of humor, her fierce loyalty, her gentle caring, her quick temper, and her kind smile. Everything that was the essence of Ginny Weasley. He also concentrated on his connection to her. He thought about his first sight of her at the train station before first year. He concentrated on the first time he had formally been introduced to her, before his second year began. He focused on the memory of finding her nearly lifeless form in the Chamber of Secrets less than a year later. He focused on how she had insisted upon coming with him to the Department of Mysteries last spring to try to save Sirius from Voldemort. He thought about the time, earlier this very year, when, after helping to save her from the Death-eaters whom had used her to lure him toward them, he first realized that what he was feeling for her just might be love. And he thought of the time, about two months ago, when the realization had hit him full force, after that love had helped to lessen the rage he was feeling toward Wormtail.

He concentrated on all of this and tried to push everything else out of his mind. He continued to think until he finally sensed a thought that was not his own, and he knew that he had tapped into Ginny's consciousness.

The first thought which he found there was simple enough, being, I think I really may be in love with Harry Potter.

Simple though the thought was, it caused him quite a bit of surprise, considering that this wasn't really the way that he had imagined coming across this particular bit of information. This, coupled with the surprise that he felt about actually being able to get into her mind so easily, was just enough of a shock to make him lose concentration and break the connection.

His eyes were immediately open as he blinked out at Ginny. "Really?" he asked.

Ginny looked for a moment as if she was feeling awkward, but then grinned and said, "Yeah, of course I love you. I wasn't really sure before, but I think that's the only explanation for it now... I don't think I could have been so okay about letting you read my mind if that weren't the case. I mean, I know Ron and Hermione volunteered as well, but I think they would have had certain thoughts that they wouldn't have wanted you having access to, or they at least would have been a bit nervous about making the connection. But when I closed my eyes, I had no trouble relaxing knowing that in a moment you would be able to read my thoughts. I trust you more than I have ever trusted anyone before, and that's because I love you." She paused for a moment before adding a playful afterthought. "I further trust that you love me too, because otherwise I think I may have just made a terrible fool out of myself."

"Yes, I love you," said Harry without hesitation. "And I've known it for a couple of months. That's why I was able to make the connection so easily, I don't reckon it would have been so quick even with Ron or Hermione."

They sat there for a moment, looking at each other as if they expected something impressive to happen now that they had both confessed their love for each other. When nothing extraordinary happened, Ginny laughed and said, "So, we love each other, then? Well, that's pleasant." Then they each got up from their chairs and kissed each other. And if they had been expecting something spectacular to happen because they had announced their love for each other, the kiss fully met these expectations.