I'm really, really sorry but this chapters probably a bit/very (whichever you prefer) crap basically. No Draco/Harry action, just some background information really, all Harry and his feelings, leading up to good stuff in the next few chapters. It's possible to skip this chapter if you want, I don't mind.

Chapter Eight – Talks

Harry walked glumly to the dungeon; his head bent looking at his shoes pounding the concrete, beat after beat. He was heading to Snape's classroom for his fortnightly torture or more commonly known as his extra potion lessons. In his hand he held his essay on the particulars that Snape required after he had completed a potion – this essay was on Veritaserum, which he had finally mastered after a month. Long nights had been spent working on this – he knew Snape was angry with him for two reasons. One because he had taken such a long time to master, even though it was one of the most complex potions known through out the wizarding world and so of course it had to mastered in a couple of days, or would be in a world according to Snape. And the other reason because Snape hadn't planned on moving this quickly – he was so angry when Harry had accomplished the Polyjuice Potion first time round, of course he didn't know about the events of the second year but Harry wasn't exactly going to tell him about that now was he……?

Harry knocked on Snape's door and waited, 'Come in.'

Harry stepped into the classroom, silently closing the door and walking into the supplies cupboard to fetch his finished sample.

'Here Professor Snape, my sample and essay,' Harry said dully, not really caring, his eyes heavy and blank, with none of their normal shining emerald colour. It was more just normal matt green.

'Test it Potter,' Snape said shortly.

'How?'

'What the bloody hell so you mean how?' Snape snapped at Harry, not seeing the sadness that penetrated Harry through and through his entire self. 'You shall drink it and I shall ask questions, that I know the answer to and we shall see if this concoction of yours,' Snape looked at the vial with disgust, 'works.' He spat.

'Like the fuck I am, you think I trust you?'

'Well you should,' Snape rounded on Harry, facing him, looking at him square in the eyes, 'and 5 points from Gryffindor for swearing at a teacher.'

Harry took a quick lance at the vial and without hesitating tipped the contents into his mouth, knowing he wouldn't win this particular match. This caused Snape's mouth to curl into a triumphant smirk.

'Is your name Harry James Potter?'

'Yes.'

'When were you born?'

'31st July.'

'Who were your parents?'

'James Potter and Lily Evans.'

'Where is the Order's Headquarters?'

'12 Grimmauld Place.'

'Ok, what is the Gryffindor password?'

'Now why would I want to tell you that Professor Snape?' Harry enquired.

Snape looked shocked and nearly speechless but not quite, 'you're supposed to be under the potion's influence……' Snape paused then a thin smile lined his lips, 'so it can't have worked, too bad Potter.'

'Actually Professor, you'll find that's its perfectly fine and works, I have just somehow managed to stop the effects when I wanted to and come back to reality.'

Snape started to speak but Harry interrupted him, 'but, but, but I'm the only one knows this little fact obviously and of course now you know and no I don't know how I did it.' Harry smirked a little, enjoying himself in that he had managed to baffle and annoy the infamous Professor Snape. What he had said was perfectly true, he had no idea how he did it.

'You always have been an arrogant son of a……'

'Now, now Professor Snape, you don't want me to have to take points for swearing do you?' Harry said cheekily.

Snape couldn't help but allow a small smirk to creep across his lips at this last comment.

'Very clever Potter.'

Harry smiled a small smile, almost unrecognisable as a smile but it was there. He then looked at the piece of parchment with his essay written on, and silently started to read it, checking it over. Not daring to look at Snape he began to pack his stuff up and placed his essay on Snape's desk. With that, he then left the dungeon very quickly.

0000

Harry had just reached the entrance hall when he heard running footsteps behind him. He turned around to see a marching Snape coming closer to him.

'Ok Potter, I want to give this a go to see if this potion of yours actually works and that you weren't bluffing all the way through.' Snape drank the contents of another of Harry's samples.

Harry stood and looked at Snape, standing here in front of him in the middle of the Entrance Hall at about 10.30pm, realising the power he now had.

'Right, why have you always hated me?'

'Because you're exactly like your Father and you're what I wanted to be when I was younger.'

Harry was shocked but satisfied with this answer but went on to do one more question just to make sure and of course abuse his power.

'What is the password into the Slytherin Common Room?'

'Power is everything.'

'My God,' thought Harry. 'Who came up with a password like that? No wonder all Slytherins are complete tossers.'

Harry then waited for the potion to disappear from Snape's system, just so he could prove he had done it correctly.

'Happy now Professor Snape?'

'Not bad Potter, not bad.'

Harry turned around to walk back to Gryffindor Common Room thinking, 'well that's the best compliment I'm going to get from him, so bully for me!' Then he said out loud, 'Oh, thanks for the password to allow me into the Slytherin Common Room!'

Harry didn't hear a response, just the fading away of stomping footsteps.

0000

Flick, flick, flick went the pages.

Drum, drum, drum went the pounding headache in Harry's head.

Then rip, rip, rip, tear, tear, tear, shred, shred, shred, went the pages of his photo album, as he shattered them on the floor in front of the common room fire.

Tears were streaming down Harry's face consecutively, never stopping and he didn't do anything to prevent them.

Harry thought of how things were with Ron, Hermione, the Weasleys with Percy and Sirius. Sirius, his Godfather and closest thing he had ever had to a Father. A troublemaker but his heart was in the right place and why, when Harry finally needed him the most, why wasn't he here? Harry knew the answer to that and it was because of him Sirius wasn't here, all his own bloody fault. Harry was now shaking with rage and resentment, he hated himself, he hated Sirius for falling and leaving him, he hated Ron and Hermione for finding each other, he hated Dumbledore and the wizarding world for placing so much responsibility on his shoulders and most of all he hated his Uncle for making him scared.

Harry leaped up and headed for bed, when he was at the bottom of the staircase Harry muttered, 'Reparo,' and the photo album fixed itself and sat there in front of the dying fire.

Harry was too tired to notice he hadn't used his wand to do that spell as it lay by the fire beside the now mended photo album.

0000

Harry awoke Sunday morning to go down to breakfast with Ron only to find him already gone. 'With Hermione again I suspect,' Harry guessed to himself. And so he walked to the Great Hall alone, again.

0000

'I'll see you guys later,' Harry called to Hermione and Ron as he left lunch to go to Lupin's Defence Against The Dark Arts lesson. Neither Ron nor Hermione acknowledged that they'd heard him, they were too busy laughing at something stupid Ron had done.

'I'll see you guys…,' Harry repeated slightly louder but stopped as he realised they weren't going to hear him no matter what.

So he left the hall, not hearing the whispers behind his back or seeing the silvery grey eyes from the Slytherin table bore into his back.

0000

Harry slowly walked to the Room of Requirement, re-living the moments of last night in his head. All his emotions had finally overcome him, causing the warrant of tears to come streaming down.

Harry's boxing gloves were dangling down by his side swinging in a rhythmical swing. They were swinging in time to Something Corporate's 'You're Gone.'

'Taking steps back through the words I should've said to you,

They all got lost,

You went away,

Well I feel sick and you don't care anymore, anymore,

Hours to be with you,

Minutes of me in you,

And I can't feel this happening,

So tie my hands back,

And make me feel……'

Harry began to hum this out loud all the way and as he finished outside the Room of Requirement the last lyrics were going through his head…

'And you don't care,

Your face is on a billboard,

And you're everywhere,

You don't care much for interviews,

You're gone, you're gone, you're gone, you're gone,

You're gone, you're gone, you're gone, you're gone away,

If you don't like being hurt then please don't stay,

If you don't like being hurt then get away,

If you don't like being hurt then please don't stay……'

Harry stood and thought of Sirius, 'please don't go away.'

0000

Harry was circling Remus in the ring that had been provided for them, Harry was tired, sweaty and very, very preoccupied. So far he was losing 5 matches to 2, which, compared to the last two weeks was awful, when Harry had firstly thrown himself into work, training and practicing occlumency, potions and Defence Against The Dark Arts he had become very, very good. Although that was when he'd stopped eating and done nothing but dedicate himself to it all. Until finally he had been told off by Dumbledore who'd managed to penetrate Harry's mind when he had blanked out in their session. That was when Harry had found a balance and so had started to eat once again.

'Oi Harry, lets stop,' sighed Remus as he sat down heavily on one of the chairs. A few moments later Harry joined him. 'So what's up?'

Harry jerked his head sideways to look Remus in the eye, 'What do you mean?' he asked innocently. Remus didn't bother replying and just looked back at Harry with the 'I know, I maybe old but I know' look.

Harry sighed once again and knew instantly that he wasn't going to escape his friend now.

'Sirius, my life now, Hermione and Ron and my past. They are the things that are bothering the fucking hell out of me.' Harry paused, not bothering to apologise for his language and he looked at Remus to see if he would get a response but Remus continued to examine his boxing gloves. So Harry continued, 'All my memories of Sirius have begun to reappear in my head and haunt me during the day and in my dreams, for no apparent reason, he's always there. When I do my homework and I can't do a question I think, 'what would Sirius do?' I mean normally it's 'Where's Hermione?'' At this point Remus gave a small chuckle but Harry continued as serious as before. 'So I don't know what to do, I want to remember him but also forget him, I can't have him always there, it's not normal plus it's distracting.'

'Well Harry, I really don't know to be honest as to why he's there constantly in your thoughts but I know of a spell I could perform to try and counteract it……?'

'Yes, I think that would be a good idea.'

'Harry I also think you just need to let go of him completely and just remember him as your Father's best friend and your Godfather, nothing more, not while the wound is still new and open.'

Harry nodded, he now didn't take his eyes off his boxing gloves, 'Then there's Ron and Hermione,' Harry spat at the ground. 'yes I know it was my doing but that was because they were moping around doing not doing anything about each other when it was so bloody blatant they had fucking feelings for each other. I think I deserve at least a thanks for putting things in motion, but no, not a bloody thing, bastards.'

Remus stared wide eyed at Harry and begun to stutter a reply, 'Well, well...I mean……' Remus composed himself, 'What I mean is that surely they're just in their honeymoon period and well…it's quite sweet really.'

'SWEET, IT'S NOT FUCKING SWEET WHEN YOU HAVE TO PUT UP WITH IT 24/7!' Harry shouted, 'trust me.' He finished in a quiet voice. 'I am just so fucking tired of having them in my face, there, kissing, snogging, whispering things, cute things to each other.'

'Sounds to me as if you're jealous.' Remus said instantly regretting it.

'Where the buggering hell have you been for the past 30 minutes? Of course I'm jealous!' He looked through the window of the Room of Requirement expressionlessly at the outside and the falling leaves.

'Harry, please calm down, you're not doing yourself any good. DO you want to talk about any of the other things you mentioned?' Remus questioned.

Harry shock his head, not in a 'no' fashion but in a 'this is hopeless, you wouldn't understand, almost pitying' fashion. 'No thanks Professor Lupin, I have to go now, same time next week. See you tomorrow.'

Harry walked from the Room of Requirement leaving Remus in a state of absolute shock, he had never seen Harry like that.

0000

'What did I do? What did I do? I am such an arsehole. All he did was try to help……shit, crap arse – I am officially the World's Biggest Twat.' Those were the thoughts that took over Harry's mind as he lay on his bed, with his hangings closed listening to Neville's snores, Ron's grumblings, mainly of 'Hermione, Hermione' and of Seamus' whimpers, 'that guy always did worry me, although he does have a cute arse, a devilish accent and lovely big blue eyes.' Harry thought and turned over to go into a restless sleep.

0000

There was a lot of smirking, small smiles etc in that chapter! Oh well, maybe I'm losing my touch? I don't know; I really hope not, hope you liked that chapter, if you read it that is. People, people please review – I really need to know what people are thinking of this and whether it is worth continuing. Thanks ever so much again to the two best reviewers an author could want: Shiny-misS and charl1e. Also a big thanks to all the other people who have reviewed my story so far, if you've just read this please, please review. Lelimo.