Disclaimer: Anything you recognise belongs to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing, make no money from anything, and am writing this purely for personal enjoyment.

AU. The story starts at the beginning of Harry's seventh year, but ignores the events of HBP. No parings, Snape mentors Harry. OC's, but they will not be the focus of the story.

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He answered Dumbledore's questions as best he could and stayed out of Madame Pomphrey's way as everyone was fussed over. Everyone was too busy playing political games arguing about safe refuges to notice him, and it wasn't long before he slipped away and stumbled down to the chamber. He was relieved to find Snape waiting for him. It was an odd thought, really, that he found the man comforting.

"Are you unharmed?"

"Yes. Magister. I'm fine. That little girl..."

"Would have died whether you'd been there or not," interrupted Snape dismissively.

"Hah. What was it you said the other day? 'Perhaps I am simply waiting until he kills all the other people'?"

"Don't be an idiot, Potter. I wasn't advocating mindlessly running out and attacking him, I was admonishing you to pay attention to your studies, which are still far from complete. Now, I wish to hear exactly what happened. Lupin mentioned you were the one to give the warning. What alerted you?"

Harry forced himself to breath and concentrate on Snape's questions.

"I think I was a little detached because of the funeral. I felt something out of place - I think I caught the thought projection of the attack."

"What did you tell Dumbledore?"

"That I caught sight of something as I turned around. I'm supposed to have 'seeker instincts', so I think he just put it down to that. He didn't look suspicious at any rate."

"Good. Go on."

Snape listened with concentration while Harry detailed the 'battle'.

"If he'd cast the killing curse, you would have had a hard time explaining to Dumbledore why you weren't dead, you realise."

"My Mother's love? Besides, it would have been more inconvenient to explain the same fact to Voldemort."

Snape sniffed.

"Well, suppose you did the best you could."

"The best I could? After that, I just stood there and didn't do anything. This is never going to work!"

"No, we simply need to work on getting it to work," corrected Snape.

"What's going to be different next time around? Hell, the only reason I'm still alive is because Voldemort doesn't realise I'm a real threat to him. The second he thought I might actually try an attack him..."

Harry trailed off, and started to pace along the small gap between the furniture.

"We always knew we still had details to work out, such as getting you close enough to touch his blood..."

"And how do we do that exactly? Ask everyone not to use any more rune shields because I don't think they look pretty?"

"Or we could find some way to make sure you're on the other side of one," said Snape coldly. Harry stopped pacing and looked away from Snape. Snape's accommodation today didn't extend to interruptions, it seemed.

"The second problem is going to be separating his soul fast enough that he won't realise what you are doing. That means you are going to have to practice at it until you can do it at high speed."

"More rats?" Harry asked in a small voice.

"Yes, Potter. More rats."

Well, it was something to do to take his mind off things, at any rate. Harry cast the protective spells and moved a rat to the bench. It wasn't quite enough to calm all his fears though. Not looking up from the table, he asked, "What happens if I get there, and everything works perfectly and I just freeze up? I mean I can barely bring myself to do this to the rat in perfect conditions..."

"And you're scared."

"No! Well, yes."

"You're stronger than you realise. I think you'll find that when you get there, you will have no problems going through with it."

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The common room was mostly deserted, as it was increasingly commonly. The trickle of students who left after the attack on Hogsmeade turned into a flood after the funeral massacres. It was 'just the work of a few extremists whom the Ministry would soon bring under control'. But still, students left. Nothing to do with the You-Know-Who palaver, naturally, the whole thing would shortly be resolved. Just families who had been planning to move countries anyway, you know. Families who had decided to take an extended holiday to visit a far-flung relative in need. Families who called their children home just before their houses disappeared. War might not have been declared, but it was being waged.

Hermione was curled up by the fire, not reading the book in her hands. She'd been doing that a lot since Ron died.

"Hermione?"

"Yes, Harry?" she said, not looking up.

"I need your help."

That caught her attention. She sat up and put the book in her bag.

"You do?" Harry cringed a bit at her eagerness. She still didn't seem entirely convinced he had forgiven her for her actions this year, and was still being excessively nice to him.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you why I need it…"

"That's okay, Harry, really."

"… but if I tell you what I need," he ploughed on, "would that be enough for you to find a solution?"

"Well," she said, fetching out a notebook and quill, "tell me what you have."

"I need something that will take me through wards."

"Wards cast by us or by them?"

"Both."

"Hmm. You must realise, Harry, wards are designed to prevent you from doing that. If there was a simple way to bring down a ward, everyone would do it."

"Yes, I know. But I don't need to bring the ward down, or hex through it. I need to … bypass it. And if anyone could figure a way to get around the limitations of the wards, it would be you."

"Harry," she said disapprovingly, but he could see she pleased by the praise.

"Well, give me the details. Are we talking about fixed wards as well as free wards?"

"Only things that could be cast in a battle, I would think."

"Free and hooked wards, then. When you say you don't need to attack through them, do you mean that you won't use magic until you are on the other side of the ward, or that you won't use magic at all?"

"That would make a difference?"

"Of course it would. Didn't you read that section on wards and intent?"

"Umm…"

Harry could see she was about to comment on his work habits, so he hurriedly answered he original question.

"I'd need to be able to do internal magic. I'd really like to be able to use defensive magic. Aggressive magic I could do without."

"Okay, I'll see what I can do with that. Will you know when you need to do this?"

"Well, I'll know in advance that I will need to, but not the exact time or date, no."

"So you could carry a charmed object, but you couldn't use a time-triggered spell."

"Yes."

"You want to get through or around it physically. A ward is more likely to be a dome than a wall, but I wonder how many are full spheres. None of them would be absolute barriers, because those suffocate any living thing within them. The ones that stop sound or light wouldn't be used in battle. 'Dispelling the Unwanted' had something about variable levels of access, I wonder… Come on, we need to get to the library."

Harry smiled as she dragged him off. She might be a little more subdued, but she was still Hermione.

Later that week he paused, leaning against a stack. He just meant to close his eyes for a second, but he jerked awake as he started to slip forward.

"What are you looking for?"

"Neville! Ah, just a research book. For Hermione. You know how she gets."

"Yes, I do. I also know that anyone could help her fetch books and read indices, but only you can do some of the other stuff you're doing."

Harry froze. Neville couldn't know, could he? "I'm sorry, Neville, I don't know what you mean," he tried.

"I'm not an idiot, Harry, please don't treat me like one."

"Sorry." On reflection, the Voldemort stuff was pretty obvious. No doubt all the people close to him had realised something. The vampire stuff was a layer deeper - one secret hidden by another.

"That's okay. But this is not okay. You are going to tell me what book you were looking for, and then you are going to bed. I will then assist Hermione, and she will come and find you once she has a solution to whatever it is you're working on."

Harry found himself smiling.

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A few weeks later, Harry stood blankly in the middle of his dormitory. He didn't need to sleep, he didn't have any work to do, and he was under strict instructions not to practice soul-draining - he hadn't reached increased his speed in days and Snape had grown irritated by his obsession. He didn't have anything to do. He hadn't had a free moment since Ron's death, and he quite literally didn't know what to do with himself.

"Could you check your dorm, Neville?"

"Hermione!" called back Harry. "Wait there, I'm coming down."

Harry took the stairs three at a time and skidded to a halt in front of Neville and Hermione.

"Harry, I'm so glad we found you." She was bouncing on the balls of her feet, and her face had temporarily regained its normal animation. "We've found it."

"You have? You have! That's great. What is it? Have you tried it yet? What do I have to do? Will I need to practice it? Do we need any special ingredients?"

"Yes, it'll need practice, no, it doesn't need anything besides your wand. We'd best try it out in the room of requirement, so..."

"Let's go then!"

Caught up in Harry's excitement, they raced each other there. For a few minutes they were children once again.

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