Disclaimer: See first chapter

A/N: Here's the second chapter of the story. Thank you to all who have shown interest in this so far, and hope you enjoy this as well!

Chapter 2: An unusual lesson

Monday evening came faster than Snape would have liked. He had given much thought to what he would need to teach and had reached an unpleasant but necessary decision. He was quite sure that what he had planned was very different from what Dumbledore and the boy himself had expected but it was perhaps the most important thing Potter would have to learn. He absolutely loathed having to do this, but there was simply no other way around it and Dumbledore was right, this task was too important to let his feelings get in the way. Knowing all this however, did not help to make it any less distasteful.

Glaring at the apprehensive boy standing in front of him now, as if he was the one to blame for all this (which, as far as Snape was concerned he was), he began, "Potter, you no doubt remember the prophecy the headmaster told you about, and if you have managed to retain any information in that head of yours you will know that you must face the Dark Lord in battle, ultimately to kill him or be killed, though I am not quite sure which outcome I am hoping for."

Smirking at the familiar signs of the rising anger in the boy standing in front of him – the clenched fist, the determined glare-Snape continued.

"Now I will assume that even an imbecile like you can see the need for you, given the situation, to learn how to defend yourself. But more importantly, you must remember that your objective is to kill him, not just disarm him or stun him like you have done to his death eaters before, but kill him. Which means you have to learn to kill."

Snape paused slightly to let that sink in. He could see that the full realisation of it was only hitting Potter now. What did the boy think? He was just going to arrive in front of the Dark Lord in a blaze of glory, in golden armour, and by the might of his righteousness and nobleness smote the evil villain to the ground? Hadn't he actually considered that he would have to learn to kill, to commit the act of murder? Killing was never as easy as the innocent believed. He knew what it felt like.

"Avada Kedavra…" Harry whispered, bringing Snape out of his thoughts.

Snape nodded. "Yes Potter, the Avada Kedavra.. The ultimate unblockable killing curse. The unforgivable. That it what you must learn to cast if you are to have any hope of victory, and that it is what I am going to teach you. It is not something that you will be able to cast effectively on the spur of the moment, without having practiced for it before."

Harry's head jerked up in surprise. He absorbed this information then questioned, "How are we going to practise that, sir?"

Snape set his jaw as he launched into the next part of his explanation. He had a feeling Potter would not like it very much, though he didn't really see why he had any right to complain.

"Well obviously we will be unable to find any willing volunteers for you to practice the killing curse on. The next best solution then is to practice another Unforgivable instead. The three Unforgivable spells, Potter, require similar skills, only different amounts of power. By practicing another one, we can hope that when the time comes you will be able to perform Avada Kedavra as well. For now, Potter, you will perform the Cruciatus curse on me."

Ignoring the way Potter's jaw dropped, Snape went on boldly before there could be any protests.

"You will cast the Cruciatus curse. You will try to hold it on me for as long as you possibly can. You probably won't be able to hold it for very long right now, but with practice I will ensure that you are able to cast much more powerful ones."

"Sir…"

Ignoring him once again, Snape continued, "For now, I will not attempt to resist or fight back your curse in any way, I will stand in front of you wandless. However, as you get better, we will attempt to use it in a duel situation, where you will not be given time to focus your concentration before using it, and will be expected to cast it on the spot, again and again until one finally hits.

"Sir!"

"What is it, Potter!" Snape finally snapped, thoroughly annoyed at him. It was not as if he was enjoying this any more than the boy – he had much better things to do with his Monday evenings than be tortured at the hands of an insolent brat, that brat being Harry Potter making it even worse - but there was no other way for Harry to practice the Unforgivables, and he had to be able to cast them or else they might as well hand Voldemort the victory now. Why couldn't the boy just get it done and over with rather than bothering him with pointless interruptions?

"Sir, couldn't we…couldn't I practice on spiders or something. I mean, how can I cast it on you?"

Snape sighed inwardly. He had known that Potter's Gryffindor nobility would get in the way. "Do I detect a hint of sympathy for me, Potter?" He said, in a sneering tone. "Strange, I was under the impression that you wanted nothing more than to hex me into oblivion the first chance you got."

Harry's eyes blazed with anger, and Snape smirked faintly.

"As for your question, Potter, no we could not use spiders because, as I am sure someone with a little more brains than you possess would be able to tell you, it takes much more power to cast an Unforgivable on a human being as compared to an insect. It will certainly not help our cause if you were to kill the flies around the Dark Lord, now would it?"

Harry seemed about to protest again, but one look from Snape and he reluctantly clamped his mouth shut.

"Now if there are no more pointless arguments, I have to tell you one last thing. You are not to mention what is going on here to anyone, not to your band of rag-tags, not to any of your fan club, not even to Dumbledore."

Seeing the shocked look on Harry's face, Snape elaborated, " No Harry, Dumbledore does not know what we are doing. He knows only that I am training you, building up your duelling skills, but he does not know what form this training is taking, or no doubt he would not allow it. I am afraid he does not see eye-to-eye with me on my teaching methods, but since he left it to my judgment, I will continue with it. He will not hear about this. Do you understand?"

Although clearly uneasy about this 'lesson', Harry had no choice but to nod in agreement.

"Then, if you please, wand on the ready"

Snape moved some distance away before turning around to face Harry, a strange glitter in his eyes, his face a blank mask. Nodding curtly to him, he placed his wand between his teeth, and clenched down hard on it.

Harry was confused at first at this unexpected gesture, then understanding dawned on him. Snape was quite serious when he said no one would 'hear' of this, he was going to make sure there were no sounds, no screams to leak out of the door. Harry closed his eyes briefly, his heart beating in anguish for what he was about to do. There was no love lost between the two of them, that was for sure, but even then Harry could not bring himself to so coldly and casually cause unendurable pain to a defenceless person, even a person like Snape. Harry had never considered until this moment how hard it actually was to cast that kind of a spell. However, he had to learn. And with that thought in his mind, Harry opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and focused on one of the hardest spells he had ever learned. Pointing his wand directly at Snape, Harry tried to summon up all his hatred for the teacher but it was hard to hate someone when they were willingly waiting to be tortured at your hands. Trying to see past the Snape standing in front of him now, Harry instead imagined the sneering, smirking Snape that he knew so well, and putting as much power behind the spell as he could, yelled, "Crucio!"

A/N: Review, please!