Harry was sat, gazing at the fire, when Snape entered the common room.

"Professor," said Harry quietly, not breaking his gaze from the flickering flames.

"What?" spat Snape.

"I believe we will need to start Occlumency lessons early."

Snape narrowed his eyes. Potter sounded... strange. His choice of language sounded far too formal.

"Give me a reason why I should waste even more time trying to get you to bury your Gryffindor heritage and stop acting like the spoilt Golden Boy you are," drawled Snape, sitting down somewhat heavily in another armchair.

Harry didn't stop staring at the fire.

"Voldemort has just tried to break into my mind," he said quietly.

"Don't exaggerate. It was probably just a headache," growled Snape, massaging his own temple with his fingertips.

Harry slowly turned his head.

Acid green eyes penetrated Snape, and he felt something gently touch his consciousness. Snape felt fingers gain holds in his mental shields and slowly, inexorably, peel them back. Snape sat, rooted to the spot, unable to move as Potter carefully began to tear down some of the best structured mental shields -

Harry suddenly shut his eyes hard, and Snape felt the power release him. Harry kept his eyes shut, but the calm exterior had disappeared; instead, a mixture of panic, misery and shock replaced it.

"God, I - what - what did I just do?"

"You just began to strip away my shields," said Snape in a perfectly level tone.

Harry locked eyes with Snape again, but there was no penetrating gaze there this time; just acid green worry.

"How did I do that?"

Snape was unnerved, and as a result, his face was completely unreadable. God alone knew how much power this boy harboured.

Snape chose to ignore this question for something much more pressing.

"Voldemort has just tried to get into your mind, you said."

Harry shook his head, stood up and began to pace from one end of the common room to the other.

"Yes," he said simply, rubbing his scar. It felt a little tender. Harry was not surprised. He would never again think anything else was nearly as painful as what he had just been though. Bring on cruciatus, torture, end-of-year exams - nothing would ever quite be as searing as the pure, white-yellow pain that had totally taken over his system.

It wasn't even pure white pain. It was the kind of pain, the kind of heat and light you associate within the heart of a star; an overload of the senses until human words can no longer describe it.

Voldemort could be trying to do any number of things; possess his body, possess his subconscious, or even merely talk to him. There was the faintest flash of a grin at that one. Why the hell would Voldemort want to talk to him?

Snape had already realised that Potter was hiding things from himself, as well as from others. Could these have fashioned walls inside Potter's head, walls which not even he could breach, and walls which behind lurked a persona of the boy's personality? A character who wanted Snape to know something?

Why?

What was there for Snape to see?

... well, what did he know? Some part of Potter had tried to break through to Snape. Potter had managed to overrule it, and with no idea of what had just occurred. Potter was still bloody hopeless at clearing his mind. Was it possible that the boy was trying to stand on his own, and had had to break off a part of his subconscious, to store those memories he did not want to see during the day? And this part of him melted away during the night, releasing a flood, a torrent of nightmares. And during the day it kept him sane.

It was not a split-personality, gods, no. This was merely Potter trying to defend himself, trying to keep himself sane. It was working damn well, too.

"Did Voldemort gain access to you mind?" Snape barked suddenly. Potter mutely shook his head.

Aha... this hidden part of Potter's psyche was also protecting him... Voldemort planted an attack quite firmly at Potter's mind, but it bypassed this walled-up snippet of subconsciousness, and without the full target to hit the end result was failure.

Oh... oh dear.

"Potter," said Snape harshly, standing up. "Sit down."

For once, Snape noticed with mild amusement, Potter did what he was told without asking. A calm look had come over the boy's face. Snape highly suspected Potter had managed to gain control of himself, and was fighting his internal battles without displaying this on the outside. He was good at that. Stoicism in one so young was a rare thing.

Snape took a few paces forward, until he was towering over the boy. Emotionless eyes locked with his own, and once again Snape was startled by how old they looked.

"Now listen to me, very carefully, Potter," he began in a low voice. "It is absolutely crucial that you clear your mind, that you occlude your mind every night before going to sleep. It is crucial. Do you understand?"

Potter nodded and Snape took a step back.

"Stay here. I have to go talk to the headmaster."

In a flourish, Snape was gone.

llllllllll

Snape returned to the Gryffindor Common room to find Potter, to Snape's relief, exactly where he'd left him. It had been roughly half an hour since Snape had left.

Potter was staring intently into the fire. Too intently.

"Wake up, Potter," barked Snape. Potter blinked, but that was the only sign he gave to display that he knew that Snape was there.

Snape paced across the room, and sat down in another armchair. Potter was idly plucking at the fabric of the right arm of his armchair; by the looks of the frayed and exhausted cloth, this was an old past-time.

Snape moved his own gaze to the fire, and ran his eyes over the fireplace. In contrast the the usual Gryffindor frippery, it was quite plain, and simply-carved black stone. The dark rock absorbed some of the heat from the fire, Snape supposed, and that kept the room warm long after the fire had gone out. Gryffindors were stupid, but they weren't impractical.

Harry was trying not to think. He wasn't feeling well again.

After the impromptu assault on his brain, his mind was feeling overheated. Glancing out of the window, he judged that it was about one o'clock. Amazing that the whole charade had taken about three quarters of an hour; feeling ill, leaving the table, Voldemort hitting his mind wham-bam with enough force to make him forget he was alive.

Harry had more than enough reason to expect it again. He really wasn't looking forward to it.

His mind felt blank, but Harry assumed tiredly it was because he didn't feel too good. His head hurt a little from where he'd hit it on his route to the floor, during Voldemort's attack.

He settled himself more comfortably and rested his head on the wing of the chair, closing his eyes. It was a couple of minutes before he drifted into darkness.

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What's Next: Chapter 19

The first ray of light that heralded Christmas crept wonderingly over the horizon, illuminating the snow-capped trees and the frozen ground in a golden gaze.

Everything was quiet for a few long, long seconds. Pure silence: a rare resource that only the fortunate encounter…

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Jen: Will do.

shelly101: Tee hee... hope the above is as good an answer as you wanted.

starinthedark11: Thanks!

PadfootsNoxed: -Blushes- awww, thanks.

reachout: I find your argument interesting, and not only because you appear to have a pathological fear of capital letters and punctuation.
Okay:
1) You don't have to agree with it. This is your God/Allah/Insert-deity-or-government-of-choice given right.
2) I would not know. I have never committed suicide.
3) Generally speaking, I do not just 'live'. Bacteria just 'live'. If I just 'lived', where would my sentience go?
4) I don't really think there is a meaning to life, apart from to support a few choice proteins called DNA and help them reproduce.
4 1/2) Why wouldn't you try to define the meaning of life? Douglas Adams, I feel, summed it up quite nicely: 42. Makes perfect sense. Besides, I did a lot of research when I wrote this, stealing a few viewpoints here and there, and it proved to be an interesting experience. While I may never pin down a satisfactory argument, at least I learned something along the way.
5)If there are holes in every argument, then why do you think 'every idea is valid'? Holes invalid idea.
6) I was stealing a few existentialist ideas taken from philosophers such as Jean Paul Sartre ("Existentialism and Humanism") and Albert Camus ("The Myth of Sisyphus" and "The Plague"). While I generally regard existentialists as strange people, I feel that, as in every argument posed by a philosopher, there is a grain of truth. If my argument is 'not sufficient', then take it up with French existentialism and its wide cult of followers, not me.

ShadowedHand: Thanks! I got a little tired with angsty titles... they were beginning to sound mournfully rubbish, so I went for a little... detail.
Three major events... next is (checks story in progress) in about 5 or 6 chapters...? I don't know, I tend to restructure the story as I go along.
Snape WILL get better... eventually.

sakura saisaka: I do try.

Sapphire Starlet: Hmmm indeed...
Snape changing? Ewwwww. I bet there's more meat on a butcher's pencil than on him. Is he a teacher, or do they use him in the hallowe'en decor?
Yes, I am slight p that the pain spell was predictable, but what the hell.
Snape isn't going to get sympathetic for a while, but he will do eventually. I just love their mutual dislike. It makes confrontations entertaining.
Please keep reading!!

leggylover03: You'd really be quite surprised. Actually, no, you wouldn't, it's got Snape in, after all.

one small instrument: I shall of course, keep updating. I hope this is satisfactory. I would say this is more of a symbiotic relationship (between reviewer and writer) than anything else.
What would be wonderful would be you telling me some of these traps (or e-mailing them to me, if you think someone might get REALLLLY offended). I do know what you're talking about... specifically, for me, it is when Snape gets sappy within the first five seconds/minutes/chapters.
I have been recently re-writing chapter 27 (don't hate me all those other reviewers who are, for some reason, reading this.) and I worry constantly about whether I am, as you say, slipping into the time-honoured groove of crappy predictability. It's not pleasant, I can tell you. That is the advantage of writing ahead, however - you can change the plot at a moment's notice. This has happened, oh, eight or nine times now, with about a billion different endings... strange, as how I haven't actually written the ending... just the last chapter.
I'm impressed you've been reviewing my old author notes, although I'm not quite sure why. Never mind.
I know exactly why I'm impressed in other areas, however. You seem to have author styles down to a sixteen-figure decimal point. Your accuracy with how you describe some authors is really quite startling. I've pondered that very same issue myself, and I think I've come up with a hypothesis.
All authors see the characters in their own way, and when they write a fanfic these impressions jump out all over the place - and the author assumes we know this. For example: an author might think that Snape has a big pink squishy soft side and leaps into the fic with that presumption. We instantly get a side of Snape that is soft and mournful - we know Harry/Draco/insert-character-here and Snape are going to have a big happy hug-therapy style thing, and it kind of ruins it. The way I see it, people build up impressions involving their favourite characters and then act out scenarios they want to see happen between them.
I'm very flattered that you think that I could lead the reader along in such a way... character development has never been something I've taken a lot of notice in but I do like to expand a character's thoughts. That is probably the reason why I wrote Conscienceness (one of my other fics). Some people aren't too keen on the philosophy but there you go. (I am adding one more chapter to that from Snape's POV but I'm not sure if it would ruin what the fic is already about. Comments would be useful. Hint hint.)
Besides. Actionnyness comes soon.
That is a very fair point. I suppose because my handwriting is all loopy, these formal letters will do to balance out my writing.
Your 'prattling' is entertaining. I do so love long reviews. Do review in a major way next time as well.

Shadowed Rains: Yes, I know the problem... lousy narrowband connection and only one phone line. You can either have friends via e-mail or friends via the phone line, not both. It's a bugger.
I am somewhat flattered that you are reading my author notes.
IT SNOWED WHERE I LIVE!!! FINALLY!!! Cough. Yes. Because I live on the top of a valley, and there are lots of fields nearby. and I have a sledge... let me just say I think I'm mildly conscussed after attaining speeds of about mach 2. Snow where I live is kinda cool... it usually hangs around for a while as well. Then you have all the pretty scenery... sigh... I love where I live. I'm going to take photos of where I live in every season and post them on the internet someplace.
'My writing style is unique, just like everybody else's...' I've always found comments along those lines extremely enteraining. They're something to giggle mindlessly at.
Hey, stick with your notes... if you didn't copy me word-for-word then you're notes will be as original as they can be... if anything, mine aren't. I took a fairly commonly-used scenario of Harry/Snape. Do an all-ratings angst search between Harry and Snape and you come up with about 44 pages of the stuff.
I daresay fanfiction did indeed let you send your review, judging by my response.

sphinx12: Thankyou!

Shea Loner: Nyawwwwwwwww... I like it so much, I am dedicating this chapter to you. As you already may have noticed. Hey, I'm writing this before the chapter's posted, so... yeah. Whatever. I have decided, from this point on, whoever writes poetry will have a chapter dedicated to them.

ilikebooks: Do you indeed? So do I.
Perhaps... or perhaps not. Follow the story and find out. -cackles insanely for no apparent reason-

texasjeanette: Thankyou. Stumped, eh? Hope this answered a few questions...

BlownAway56: 'Prestigious fanfic writers'? Oo-er. I may have to upgrade the quality of my writing. '-'
Yes, I was wondering when someone would pick up on that. I put in the first one and waited for a couple of chapters to see if anyone would notice, and decided to make it a personal challenge to see how long I could plagiarise the man before it called attention. Frankly I'm amazed it waited this long. There is a fourth reference (the last Terry Pratchett I used) knocking around in one of the chapters that you have failed to spot. Let's see if you can find it.
I intend to try and find a space for a Dark Lord reference (a vague re-write of lines 1-33, page 285 of 'The Last Continent') merely because it would be extremely entertaining. I'll give him his due credit for that one, of course.

espergirl04: Yeah, although I have to say that 'Aerials' is probably the most bizarre song on Toxicity.

duffy: 'It doesn't go anywhere'? There's gotta be balance. BAAALLLLAAAANCE. Sorry, I just wanted to say that.