Disclaimer: See Chapter I
Also, I'd like to thank those of you who have taken some time to read and review my work (you know who you are). Your kind words have been felt and hope the wait hasn't been too long for this next installment as I'm trying to update my work every three chapters or roughly once every ten days. One final bit of thanks to the Harry Potter Lexicon that is quite the resource for anything Harry Potter related. Please note that this work should now be considered AU since Bk V has hit the streets.
Speaking of which, I believe I said in one of my earlier chapters that I was going to say as close to canon as possible. Now, I realize writing an AU fanfic of a year that has already been covered I shouldn't be too concerned in regards to canon, yet nonetheless I am. It is for that reason I've decided to incorporate elements of Book V along with the outline of events I drew up for my work. Hopefully, this won't disappoint people but I'm sure some of you may have noticed already some details from Bk. V. I won't say what they are, since I don't want to ruin anything for anyone, so just stay alert and read Book V as soon as possible to figure out where canon and fanfic meet. To be quite truthful, there are portions where my work and canon can dovetail quite easily and well, and I intend on using them.
One final note: if anyone reading this is also a fan artist, please feel free to draw any character from this work in any way you feel like going at it. Just make sure you drop a review telling where the image can be viewed.
Anyhow, without further trouble, the next chapter.
Chapter XX: S.E.R.E. and OcclumencyThe morning of the 1st of November found Harry sitting at a small table in the back corner of the Hog's Head, sipping a very rancid cup of Earl Gray tea. Since it was a school week, Harry had on his school robes, but wore over it his cloak, and had a bandage covering his scar. Morning briefing had been rather depressing, as Harry finally learned the full details of Hagrid's mission with Madame Maxine to the Giants in Russia. To say that the mission had been a waste of time would be a vast understatement; to call it a disastrous setback would be viewing it in more even terms.
Harry had studied up a bit about Giants, and found out that they were very disorganized, almost animal-like in their behavior. Even though he had taken his reading dispassionately (Harry knew full well from personal experience that all writing has it's own coloring to it, no mater how fair the writer tries to be), it was obvious Voldemort had known what he was doing. Hagrid and Madame Maxine had established contact, and even gotten friendly to the point an alliance appeared to be likely via the use of gifts and flattery with the chief of the giants. Which was when McNair, the Death Eater in the Department of Magical Creatures, had shown up, and got a fellow giant to launch a coup, and killed the chief. This new giant had sent Maxine and Hagrid packing (with the two of them barely escaping with their lives), and had then launched a purge of all giants who seemed taken with the idea of an alliance with the wizard world.
Apparently, all Hagrid's mission, on Dumbledore's orders, had accomplished was make the giants an even greater endangered species then they previously were, and let the few survivors out there know that there were other wizards besides the Death Eaters who wished friendship. The only silver lining in the whole black cloud had been the fact that with the giants so fragmented killing each other off they wouldn't be of much usage to Voldemort (or to them either) as well as the more long-term seed of friendship that had been planted. Beyond this, there was no other real news for Harry, though that alone had been black enough.
Yet, despite the bad news, the last several days were amongst the happiest Harry had ever had due to one person: Ginny. His days were the usual of school and training, but once the night began, it was his. Or rather, his and Ginny's as they did as much together as any couple could manage under their circumstances. Harry had had a quiet word with Bladvak, and Ironhammer, telling them that he was seeing someone, so if it wasn't too much trouble to 'hide' his icon on the War Room map from roughly 2200 to 0500 hours every night. They had quite understood, and had informed him not to worry, that his secrets wouldn't be divulged.
Harry and Ginny, easily evading the eavesdropping of their peers and the faculty and now not having to be spied upon by the security forces, enjoyed their time together. Weeknights, they would go and walk the grounds, talking, learning of each other. When they kissed, or held each other in each other's arms, it was usually under the lone oak tree near the lake. Despite the weather (it had started turning cold after the ball), or perhaps because of it, Harry and Ginny would spend much time just looking and snuggling with each other, lying beneath the branches of the oak wrapped Harry's cloak. It was peaceful, and contenting to Harry. During the weekends, Harry would take Ginny out to eat at Buck's Tavern, in Hogsmeade, where Ms. Thomas tended to run a tight restaurant, and kept a tight lip, too, about just who her customers were.
Harry was truly happy and content, for here was a girl whom he trusted and talked to without hesitation once he had gotten over that one hurdle. Truth be told, he was quite glad now that that had been taken care of in the beginning, so that there weren't any that could now leave him uncomfortable.
During the daytime, Ginny would spend as much time with him, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Katrina, and Doc as possible. It was during this time she introduced Harry and the rest to Luna Lovegood, a brown-blonde haired girl with a sense of humor stranger then that of the twins. Yet, Harry found himself liking her as much as Ginny did for though she was apparently treated as something of an oddball by the rest of her classmates (like Cho, Luna was of House Ravenclaw), Harry found she was quite the character, endearing in her own wacky way. Doc, in particular, seemed quite taken with her, taking her out to town almost as often as Neville took Katrina, and Ron, Hermione.
To Harry, though, it was also a bonus in his eyes that she didn't treat him as either a murderer, or a glory-hunting bastard, the way much of the rest of the school outside of his friends treated him.
* * *
Harry pulled out his pocket watch and looked at the time. 0755. It was close enough to eight that he pulled out a chocolate frog, unwrapped it, and ate it. Looking down at the card, he saw it was a new one showing the Minister of Magic: Cornelius Fudge. Harry snorted in derision, and tossed it aside. After the previous year, (as well as most of this year) Harry had no respect and all contempt for the man.
"Say, have you found an Albus Dumbledore card lately? In your chocolate frogs I mean?" Harry turned, and saw that it was Remus Lupin, wearing his usual threadbare clothes and wizard robes. His cloak was blue black, and in the band of the wizard hat he wore was an ostrich feather. Next to him was a large black dog.
Harry smiled and answered, "Loads of them sir. If you could show me your room, I'll be glad to trade with you."
Remus smiled, "Of course. Please follow my dog Padfoot and I…"Harry leaned over and scratched behind the black dog's ears. Getting up, he followed Remus and into one of the backrooms which was little more then a space with a drawer, a bathroom (no tub, just a toilet, sink, and shower stall), and a bed. While it wasn't filthy, it wasn't exactly inviting either, with gray, cracked tiles, and the fact one of the windows was patched up with tape. Harry took all of this in as he sat down on the bed.
Remus pulled out his wand, closed and magically locked the door, and then cast the silencing spell. It was only then that the dog transfigured into the man Harry knew as his Godfather, and one of perhaps two (three counting Dudley) members of his family he could say he gave a damn about: Sirius Black. Black was grinning, as he came up and embraced him. Slapping him on the back, Sirius smiled, "You've grown taller lad, and wiry too." Harry laughed and went over to Remus, "Been a while, Remus."
"Indeed it has. Glad to see you're looking fine and fit."
Harry looked at the two of them and asked, "So, can you guys tell me just what the hell you've been up to for the past several months? Since about, what, July?" Remus and Sirius looked at each other, and Remus shrugged, "Can't tell you precisely what we were doing, but we were operating down south, in Belize."
"Alex's old haunts right?"
"Yeah, how'd you figure that out Harry."
"I remember last year, when Sirius was away, he used these really colorful birds in place of owls. I looked them up in a book and found out that they are a species of toucans found in Central America. Since Alex told me he used to live in retirement in Belize, I put the two together. Just answer me this, Sirius, how did you know to find him after you broke out of Azkaban?"
Sirius shrugged, "I saw a muggle newspaper clipping of the Business Times, you know the muggle business newspaper, naming him as a member of Struan's Tobacco in Belize, and it had a photograph of him. So, once I was finished at Hogwarts and Wormtail escaped, I didn't have much else to do except take Buckbeak down south."
"Speaking of which, where is he?"
Sirius got up and went over to the traveling bag that resided in one corner of the room. Pulling out a bag of crisps, he pulled one out, ate it, and held the bag out to Harry who refused. He said, "Well, he's here in London over at the Order's main headquarters, where me and Remus have been reassigned to." Sirius didn't sound too happy about, and it took Harry a moment to remember the order he was talking about was the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore's faction fighting the Voldemort.
"So what are you two doing, or is that on a need to know basis as well?"
"I'll be running the headquarters in London, while Remus is part of this protective detail we have based there."
"Where is the headquarters, and protecting what?"
"Can't tell you either yet, but we will eventually. Now, how was the ball?" Harry could tell by Sirius's tone that the conversation was over. Shrugging, he told him, "I went alone."
Sirius looked shocked for a minute, "You went alone? But…"
"Hard asking a girl out when about seventy five percent think you're either a deranged lunatic, a braggart, a murderer or a combination of all of the above." This came out rather lightly, as Harry was still on cloud nine after the previous evening with Ginny. They had sat side by side, enjoying each other's warmth, their backs to the oak tree…
Remus looked over at him, "Alex told us last night that you asked to go alone, but you seemed rather unhappy about the whole thing then." He made it a question, and Harry wondered how much he should tell them, and started to speak, "Well, I asked this one girl out, one who I had a crush on since…" In an emotionless tone Harry told them of how Cho had slapped him, and told him off due to Diggory's death. Sirius exclaimed as Harry related what she said with, "What the hell is she talking about! You had about as much to do with that as…"
"Sirius shut up and let Harry finish."
Harry stopped and shrugged, "Nothing much to finish. I went alone and she went with Draco Malfoy. All I can say was that watching her with Malfoy was like having a blindfold removed, and showing just how silly my crush was." Harry paused, and decided to drop the bombshell.
"Tell me, Sirius, Remus, what would you say if I told you I think, I err… I think I'm in love"
Harry's godfather and his friend were silent, and then both of them laughed. Sirius clapped him on the back, and asked, "Well, at your age, any girl who doesn't look too bad is someone to fall in love…"
"I'm not joking, Sirius. You don't think I know the difference between wanting to fuck a girl and loving one?" Harry had got up and was angry. Sirius and Remus stopped laughing, and looked at each other. Remus cleared his throat, and said to Sirius, "Wow, just like his father. You remember that time we used to kid around with him about Lilly?" Sirius smiled, "Yeah, and he would get almost as angry as Harry over there." He asked Harry, "Are you…sure Harry? I mean, are you positive that this is the genuine article, and not another one of your crushes there?"
Harry sat back down and nodded, "Yeah, I'm sure, Sirius. When I was holding her in my arms, I never felt so…happy…and content as I have ever felt before." Glancing at them, he saw their eyes were riveted on him and stopped, staring back. Sirius broke the silence, smiling, and asking "Harry, I'm happy for you. Want to talk about her?" Harry knew Sirius didn't know how much he wanted to, but he had said he was going to keep it a secret, even from those close to him. The last thing Harry wanted was for Ginny and him to be found out, for then their relationship would be just one more weapon to be used against him
Harry shook his head, "I can't tell you her name, as we're keeping it secret, but you'll like her. She's feisty, and sweet." Sirius smiled, "Smart, keeping it a secret, just make sure you don't reveal that secret in the most spectacular way possible."
"What's that?"
"Your girl winds up being the first Hogwarts student in years having a big belly with a baby in it."
Harry laughed, and was gladdened to see his godfather back.
* * *
Harry returned to school with about five minutes to spare, Sirius and Remus having sent him back with the promise that Remus would bring him to see Sirius again soon, maybe even as early as the next weekend. Harry was looking forward to this, though not as much as his nightly excursions with Ginny. Since it was a day where he had History of Magic and Divination, Harry was in an especially good mood (Professor Trewlaney liked the predictions Harry made, especially since they were some of the darkest in the class) and went through his courses quickly and confidentially, feeling as though he could take on the world and win.
As the bell rang, though, Alex held Harry back, and told him to come to the Potions classroom for his nightly Auror training. Harry was slightly mystified, but obeyed, and waited impatiently through dinner for the time to roll by. After telling his friends at the table (Ginny included) that he was going to be coming back around one in the morning after a training exercise, (Harry had worked out a code with Ginny about how he was going to be spending his evenings. If he were going to be able to meet her, he would say he was going to be on a nighttime patrol with Moody. Should he be unable to meet her, he would say he was on a training exercise. It was a simple and foolproof system that they had worked out.), Harry strode towards Snape's dungeon, where he went in to find only his uncle and Snape.
Alex waved Harry over, and told him, "Sit lad, and make yourself comfortable." Snape smiled grimly; despite the armed truce between him and Neville, Harry was still fair game, though his usual games were rather restrained, and he hadn't deliberately failed any assignment of his, things were still tense. Though considering what had happened in previous years, this was downright welcome to Harry.
Snape coldly spoke, "Do sit, and pay attention Potter."
Harry sat down on one of the chairs, and looked at his uncle. Alex, once he was sure he had Harry's attention, began. "Harry, do you know the acronym S.E.R.E.?" pronouncing it seer. Harry nodded, "Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape, sir." Nodding in approval, Alex continued, "Harry one of the most difficult portions of an Auror's training is what is called S.E.R.E. in the muggle world. Basically, what it calls for is to be subjected to the Cruciatus curse, sundry truth serums, and Legilimancy." Seeing the questioning look on Harry's face, Alex explained, "The art of reading people's thoughts via magical means, Harry. Countering it is under Occlumency, which…"
"Which I have been given the onerous task of teaching you, Potter, by the Headmaster." Snape joined in. This was the first time Harry had heard of either subject of magic, but he wasn't surprised, for Harry knew eleven years of ignorance of the magical world ensured he was a babe in the woods when it came to magic. "Very well, anything else?"
"Yes, Harry. I'll be teaching you how to condition yourself against interrogations using muggle techniques, both soft and heavy. Now, you're probably wondering why we are putting you through this…"
"The thought has crossed my mind, yes."
"Harry, you know the Dark Lord has, to put it bluntly, a hard-on for you for years. Using the psych profile I had drawn up over the summer time by this muggle psychiatrist I know from my dealing in Latin America it indicates…" Alex pulled forth a manila folder from his desk and began to read. " 'The subject is an individual of great intelligence coupled with vast feelings of inferiority due to years of mental, and possible physical/sexual abuse. Subject will therefore, should he feel if he has been bested, the urge to not only defeat in detail and length, but to humiliate the target of he feels did so.' Now that sounds like the Dark Lord does it not?"
Harry nodded, and listened as Snape asked harshly, "What muggle did you impart knowledge of our world on? Did you have leave of your senses then?"
"Relax, Snape, the good doctor whom I'm referring to is quite like Sirius Black: brilliant, but on the run from the law. Why the Americans have a multi-million dollar reward for the man, and I think the man sees no need to draw attention to himself."
"What was his crime?"
"Killed a bunch of annoying people, and ate parts of several of them."
"Hmm…" Snape seemed to be digesting this last bit of information.
"Anyhow, Harry, the point I'm making is this: it is more likely you will be captured, tortured and interrogated before a formal execution instead of being killed out of hand. With the information you have in your mind, you are a source that we cannot afford to lose. Therefore, we are going to condition you to withstand interrogation for as long as you are able."
Snape was glaring at Harry coldly. Harry knew why: I wouldn't be too thrilled either if I knew my cover, and thus my life and that of my daughter's, depended on someone whose guts I hated.
Alex got up and went to the blackboard, where he wrote the number 48 on it. "Forty-eight hours is how long it should take under optimal conditions for you to be located and a rescue operation conducted. It is also the average length of time a man, with adequate training and conditioning, last under torture and constant interrogation. However, the exact length a person can withstand such deprivation varies from one person to another. There is one constant, however: everyone breaks. The question is just how much they will extract from you, and how much they believe what you tell them."
Snape entered, "Your first lessons will be in regards to Potions. There is only one potion that can be used to defeat any and all truth serums, to include Veritaserum, and muggle chemical based compounds such as sodium pentothal. It is called Nullificaserum, and is relatively easy to brew. There is only one side-effect, which I might add you need not concern yourself with, but I shall tell you nonetheless."
Snape grinned skull-like. "Any time you come into contact with a truth potion of any form will cause your mind to dissolve into madness, or cause you to die. Either option seems quite worthwhile to my tastes, but I digress…" With that, Snape (after acidly informing Harry to pull out parchment and quill and to take careful notes) detailed the procedures to brew the Nullificaserum, which was actually easier to make then the Polyjuice potion (a potion used to alter one's appearance to that of someone else, and was quite dangerous to make; which was why Harry, Ron, and Hermione had brewed it Moaning Myrtle's bathroom back when they were second years). The potion was almost a poison of sorts, the trigger of its deadly effects being contact with a truth serum of any sort. Its effects lasted up to 72 hours.
"Sir, one question."
"Yes, Potter, what is it?"
"How can you tell if someone has been taking the potion?"
"Simple, take a drop of black ink and stain it on a fingertip. If the ink turns green, then the subject has taken the potion. The intensity of the color also demonstrates how long ago it occurred as well, as the more green the color it means the potion was taken recently."
Following this, Alex gave a lesson on muggle interrogation techniques. It was harsh, blunt and to the point. "Harry there is only rule with interrogations. Lie, and keep lying as long as you can. Stick to your lie, and they will eventually believe you. The trick, of course, is to be able to withstand what they throw at you as you keep your lie straight, for only if they are sure you are truthful will they stop." Alex began to describe some of the methods that could be used to make him talk.
After another hour in which Alex described the techniques of soft interrogation (sleep deprivation, constant questioning, deprivation of water and food, usage of truth serums, etc.) and hard interrogation (physical torture of varying degrees to include electrical shock, mutilation, and beatings), Snape began teaching Occlumency. Harry wasn't surprised to learn that the wizard world had a form of mind reading, even though it depended heavily on time and space. Snape told him not to be stupid, that the mind wasn't like a book, and that Legilimancy called for the extraction of memories and emotions from the mind. Considering a lot could be learned from even a minute piece of information, Harry was surprised he hadn't been taught this earlier.
Harry and Snape had paired off, Snape telling Harry to try and empty his mind, to block Snape's intrusion into the deepest recesses of his mind. Attempting to do so, Harry felt memories both good and bad come up in his mind. Snapshots, like a slide show gone crazy appeared, only with the attachment of the emotions Harry had felt then.
The memories were sweet and stung, like a glass of pink lemonade with ice and gin…
Five-year-old Harry watching his cousin riding a bicycle, feeling a jealousy nigh unbearable…
Nine-year-old Harry scurrying up a tree, his 'family' laughing at him as a slavering bulldog chased him…
Eleven-year-old Harry, the joy he had once he found out he was going to Hogwarts…
Fourteen-year-old Harry asking out, and being burned down, by Cho, hating Cedric Diggory for it…
Fifteen-year-old Harry and eighteen (or was it nineteen? Harry wasn't sure)-year-old Alice, on the bed at Meg's, feeling passion and release like he never had felt before…
Not this you bastard, Harry screamed in his mind. His vision cleared, and he found himself gasping for breath, kneeling on the floor while Snape rubbed his wrist, an angry red welt on his wrist.
After asking Harry if he had planned on hitting him with a Stinging hex (as well as the closet thing to a complement Snape had ever given Harry, "Better then expected for your first time")
The second time was almost like the first, only shorter…
Four-year-old Harry, tears on his face after a beating by Dudley, vowing he would never cry again so long as he was under their roof…
Seven-year-old Harry, curiosity and fear and excitement as he played Doctor and Patient with a girl his age behind the school, Dudley and his friends almost finding him…
Thirteen-year old Harry, full of anger and rage at Snape under the Shrieking Shack, Sirius's life in the balance…
Fifteen-year-old Harry, feeling nothing as he embraced the stinking, bleeding corpse of the Irish terrorist close to him as Second Platoon vivisected the enemy column, watching with slight awe as Neville jumped the hedge and ran into the kill zone, tossing Harry his rifle…
This time Harry must have shot a counter-curse of some sort, for now Harry could see images not of his own in his head. He assumed they were Snape's…they showed a dark-haired boy crying in a corner whilst a man shouted at a woman…a greasy haired teen shooting down flies with his wand…the laughter of a girl as the same boy struggled with a broom.
Snape called it off this time, saying, "That was…unexpected, but nonetheless effective, your use of the Shield Charm. Now, empty your mind of emotion, and you will be better able to withstand it."
"White wall, Harry, think white walls." Alex spoke from his chair in the corner of the classroom.
Harry did so, and improved as the discipline instilled in him during the summer time kicked in. Knowing that his life (more importantly, that of Ginny, and his friends and family) might one day depend on it. Yet, no matter how hard he tried to smother the thought, it was still there: no matter how hard he tried to decipher the inner workings of the man called Severus Snape ("The first rule of war is to know your enemy, and by knowing him, you will be able to defeat him", Alex had told him over the summer. They had been talking of the works of Sun Tzhu and Sun Pin, two of the seven most formidable writers of strategy in ancient China), Harry found something new that shattered the paradigm he had placed the man in.
Severus Snape…was he friend, foe, or neither?