Disclaimer: If you don't know who owns Harry Potter, you must be living with the pygmies in Central Africa… In which case you probably don't have internet access, so this is really unnecessary…

A prickling sensation arose at the back of his head, as he met Dumbledore's blue eyes. Instantly, he knew what it meant. Albus Dumbledore was trying to invade his mind, trying to read his thoughts and memories…

Chapter 4

Mind Magic

Harry somehow knew what was going on. Dumbledore was trying to gain access to his thoughts and memories, and somehow, he knew how to stop him as well. He had been taught the art of mind control, by… a snake?

Harry's eyes widened in shock, as he recalled the lessons he had been given. He could talk to snakes! He heard the snakes hiss in his head, telling him what he should be doing.

'The best way to block memories from a Legilimens… is not by erecting a mental barrier… which takes up too much focus, and which happens to be the only way wizards seem to know.' The snake appeared to shake it's head at this. 'But instead, by moving those memories about in your mind rapidly… the Legilimens will be confused by the apparently chaotic memories in your head… unsorted, seemingly random memories… makes his job finding the required memory infinitely difficult…'

Harry stared back at Dumbledore, meeting his eyes. What memories should he hide? The flashes of his past, certainly. He decided there was no point trying to hide any others, as Dumbledore would undoubtedly get them from the others. He quickly found the memories he did not want Dumbledore to see, and grouped them together. He imagined his mind to be a kind of maze, and Dumbledore walking down the path, occasionally stopping to observe some memory or the other (The snake had taught him to picture his mind as a network of tunnels, but he had felt more comfortable using a maze). He moved the group of memories as far away from Dumbledore as possible, and began to place random memories, not in any chronological order, in Dumbledore's path.

He could almost sense Dumbledore's frustration, he was being forced to examine each memory individually, he could not guess what the memory contained, it wasn't related to the ones nearby. He felt Dumbledore pause for a while at a couple of memories. Had he left out some important memory by mistake? To his surprise, however, they turned out to be his recollections of catching rats in Azkaban, and being greeted by Ginny after coming to Grimmauld Place. What did Dumbledore find so interesting about these?

Harry heard the hissing in his ears again. What now?

'One time when the mind is vulnerable to attack, is when one is using Legilimency… Focus too much on attacking another's mind… and your defenses become weak…'

The snake proceeded to teach him a useful Legilimency technique to use in such situations, the idea being that when performing Legilimency, one's mental shields must have an opening, to permit entry of memories. It would be relatively easy to enter Dumbledore's mind now, since he would not need to break through his mental shields, plus the method was untraceable, Dumbledore would be too busy examining Harry's memories to notice his mind was being invaded…

Harry stared deep into Dumbledore's blue eyes, and immediately encountered a strong barrier. Not bothering to examine it more closely, he looked around for an opening, there must be one somewhere…

Found it!

He was inside Dumbledore's mind. What should he look for? The answer came to him unbidden, his wand… he needed his wand.

He felt Dumbledore begin to withdraw from his mind. No, he needed more time!

For the last time, the hissing began again. The snake, which he discovered to be a spitting cobra, was teaching him Hypnotism. Something the snake had found highly useful while hunting it's prey… (A/N: Read A/N at the end of the chapter for elaboration)

Hypnotism was another technique of Mind Magic. Harry learnt that Mind Magic was a huge field of magic by itself, though mostly unexplored…

'Focus your magic into your eyes… Strive for domination in the battle of wills…'

Harry felt his eyes grow brighter, as he stared deep into Dumbledore's eyes, willing him to retain contact. It seemed to work, and Harry didn't waste any more time. He delved into Dumbledore's mind, looking frantically. It didn't take him long to find what he wanted…

Dumbledore entered his office with bowed shoulders, looking particularly old. He sighed, and removed a wand from his robes. He looked at it for a moment, apparently deciding what to do. With another sigh, he moved towards a portrait of a clever looking wizard with a sharp pointed black beard. He was sleeping.

"Phineas," Dumbledore said gently. The wizard woke up. "I need to store something."

The wizard looked at him for a moment. "The boy's wand?" Dumbledore nodded.

"Not turning it over to the Ministry, Dumbledore?" Phineas asked slyly, "Isn't it against the law to withhold a convict's wand?"

Dumbledore sighed again. "Harry has not yet been convicted, Phineas," he said quietly. "And we need the wand in the war…I need the help of the Ancient and Noble House of Black."

The portrait nodded and swung open, at what was apparently a password of some sort, to reveal a cavity in the wall. Dumbledore placed the wand inside, as the portrait swung back into place.

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Dumbledore frowned as he examined Harry's memories. He could find no memory before Harry had been sent to Azkaban. Perhaps he had been telling the truth…

But where had the memories gone? Even if Harry was suffering from amnesia, the memories should still be there, they should merely be inaccessible. But there was no trace of them, it was as though they had completely vanished… but that was impossible.

He was still pondering the mystery, as he prepared to leave his mind. Suddenly he found that Harry's green eyes were glowing faintly. He stared at them, losing all sense of time, he felt like he was drowning in a pool of green water… No! He fought to escape the spell he seemed to be under.

Suddenly, he was back. Harry's eyes were their normal green colour. But the smile on his face was gone; he was studying Dumbledore with calculating eyes, his face completely expressionless.

What just happened?

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Harry fought hard to keep a straight face, as Dumbledore strove to collect himself. He noticed the others were staring at the pair of them. Damn…

"Is everything okay, Professor?" Hermione asked, unsure of what just happened.

"Certainly, Miss Granger," replied Dumbledore amiably. "I was just remembering the old times." He turned to Harry. "It's wonderful to see you again, Harry."

Harry was surprised by the sincerity in the old man's voice. He merely nodded.

"Well, have a seat everyone." With a flick of his wand, Dumbledore conjured up six comfortable armchairs.

Harry looked around the walls, trying to find the portrait of Phineas. He found the wizard staring at them through half closed eyes. When he saw Harry look at him, he closed his eyes immediately, and started snoring slightly.

Fawkes flew off to his perch, as Harry sat down. Dumbledore was looking at him very seriously. "I imagine you have many questions, Harry. I'm sorry for making you wait, but I believed that I was the best person to tell you."

Dumbledore stopped, and looked at Harry, waiting.

Harry nodded slowly. "Why was I sent to Azkaban?"

Dumbledore looked slightly surprised that this was Harry's first question.

"You were sent to Azkaban because it was believed that you subjected a certain Draco Malfoy to two curses, the Imperius and the Cruciatus. You must know that these are called Unforgivables, and their use ensures a life sentence in Azkaban."

The names of the curses were vaguely familiar to Harry. Then he remembered…

Harry bowed his head in shame. "Why was I released?" When Dumbledore looked at him suspiciously, he added quickly "And what are those curses?"

Dumbledore paused, contemplating Harry. "For answering that question, I must tell you something of your past, Harry."

Harry nodded, as Dumbledore retold the story Hagrid had told him before, with a few more details. He asked a few questions about his parents and Voldemort. He learnt that his parents were Aurors, and were in the forefront of the battle with Voldemort, and had had some narrow escapes. He learnt that he had survived the Killing curse because of his mother's sacrifice, which left protection in his blood. Voldemort had laid low for thirteen years, and that he returned to his body after performing a dark ritual. Dumbledore told Harry about his unwilling participation in the ritual, which effectively nullified the blood protection given to him by his mother.

Harry felt tears in his eyes, upon knowing how much his parents had loved him, and protected him. But… there was something wrong about the story. He contemplated this for a while, and it finally struck him.

"Voldemort came to my parents' house himself?" he asked. Dumbledore nodded, knowing where this was going.

"Why did he want them dead so badly?"

Dumbledore looked at Harry for a long moment, evidently thinking what to say.

"Your parents were in the forefront of the battle, Harry. They were a powerful witch and wizard. Voldemort often attacked the families of those who opposed him."

Harry had a strong feeling Dumbledore was hiding something, but something else struck him.

"Why wasn't their house protected? Where were the rest of you when this happened?"

Dumbledore's shoulders sagged at this point, the bright twinkle in his eyes was gone.

"Their house was protected, Harry. However, we all made a mistake. One for which I shall never forgive myself…" Dumbledore seemed overcome with emotion. "We trusted someone… someone we should never have. One of your parents' best friends, he was a Death Eater…" Dumbledore explained about the Fidelius charm, and how Pettigrew betrayed his parents. He spoke about Harry's godfather, a man named Sirius Black, who was incarcerated in Azkaban for twelve years, everyone had thought he was the traitor. Sirius had escaped from Azkaban, to protect Harry from Pettigrew.

Harry's heart went out to this man, a true friend of his parents, who had suffered so much. "I would like to meet him," he said quietly.

The silence that greeted him, followed by a sob from Hermione made him look up quickly. He met Dumbledore's eyes and said blandly "He's dead too, isn't he?"

Dumbledore bowed his head. "Sirius was killed in battle a year ago," he said quietly.

Harry closed his eyes, trying to absorb everything he had heard. There was complete silence in the office till he opened his eyes again.

"Why was I released from Azkaban?"

Dumbledore explained to him what the curses did, and then added "Mr. Malfoy was captured along with five other Death Eaters, a few days ago. They had attacked a Muggle village. Under a law passed recently, use of the Unforgivables on Death Eaters is legal."

"But I had used the curses on him?" Harry hoped and prayed that this wasn't true, Death Eater or not, the Cruciatus curse just as painful.

"Under Veritaserum, Mr. Malfoy confessed that he had lied about the Cruciatus curse. However, I'm afraid it seems you had cast the Imperius curse on him. This happened last Halloween."

Last Halloween… and today was the first of July. He had been in prison for almost eight months…

Harry glanced at the others. Neville was white, Ginny looked murderous, and a glance at Ron's open mouth confirmed that his friends had known nothing of all this.

"Why was this fact not revealed at the trial? Why wasn't I asked for my side of the story?"

"It was a closed trial, Harry. Because of your rather special status, it was decided that the wizarding public should not know of your trial. You are regarded as something of a hero, Harry. It would have resulted in lowering the morale of the people drastically, if it was known that you were on trial for using Unforgivables."

Harry was shocked, to say the least. A wave of fury passed over him. How dare they?

The next question came in a whisper "Who knew?"

Dumbledore seemed unfazed. "It seems that our ex-Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, took it upon himself to head the jury. Mr. Malfoy was called as witness, from his testimony, we hear that there were two others. Nothing of the trial reached the ears of the public. Your friends certainly didn't know about it."

Harry simply stared at Dumbledore. Three people had sentenced him to prison? What kind of justice was this? He had no doubt his friends knew anything about the trial, the story Dumbledore was telling him seemed to be news to them as well.

But wait… How much could he trust Dumbledore to tell him the truth? He needed confirmation from another source…

"I must speak to this man, Fudge," he said firmly.

"Cornelius Fudge was assassinated by Death Eaters two months ago," said Dumbledore quietly. "The other two were killed as well, in the same raid."

Harry let out a short bark of laughter. So, he had to trust Dumbledore to tell him the truth, eh? But oddly enough, he felt that the old man had been honest with him so far…

"So there's no one I can blame now…" he muttered, more to himself than the others. "My friends didn't know…" he stopped there, and looked sharply at Dumbledore.

"You knew?"

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A/N: The spitting cobra is a snake found in Africa, which kills by spitting poison at the target's eyes, blinding and usually killing it. It can aim accurately, and can spit as far as fifty feet or so… So, Hypnotism would come in useful for them…

Well, this took longer than expected to put up… There was a college fest this weekend which I had to attend…

Many thanks to logi, Rachel Sedai, The Unknown Weasley, lonlyheart and HarrySlytherinson for taking time out to review… glad you all seemed to like it!

Rachel Sedai: Sure… guess away! Anyway, you're kinda right, but not really… umm, fine, guess you're kind of close… Guess that didn't help much! Here's a hint… In this fic, people are going to be as 'in character' as I can make them… including Dumbledore (The Dork!)

The Unknown Weasley: Yeah, guess you're right, it is moving sort of fast isn't it? Well, it's because I don't want to make it drag… I read a few on that got boring cos of too much detail and dialogue… still, guess you're right, maybe I should slow things down a bit…

Hope you all liked the chapter! Review if you can…

shadylion