How To Correctly Break Rules
By NefariousImp
AN: Here's a few shout outs! Thanks, ASH, both of you (took me forever to figure out it wasn't the same girl signing the letter X3 Ash) (what does the X3 mean?) and thanks to Pottersgurl07, who has a magnificint story called Hermione's Personalities, take time out to read it. And to Lain in The Wired. You guys are my greatest supporters. Thanks to all the other reviewers as well, you all keep me going. Thanks Crista for helping me with ideas for this chapter. Writers block sucks.
Chapter Seven: Teaching The Teacher
Draco, Hermione, Harry, and Ron had double potions just after breakfast. They had barely sat down when Professor Snape was snapping at them.
"A weeks worth of detentions to you three for lack of attention. You will spend it before lunch, cleaning my classroom." Which was absurd cause they had been paying attention.
Draco had snickered cause he knew that Snape was just picking on them and Snape whipped around and gave him a weeks worth of detentions as well!
He gaped at him. Snape had never given a Slytherin detention before!
"I am not in a mood to be trifled with, Mister Malfoy." He said turning to the blackboard.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked over at him with smug grins on their faces. He gave them the two finger salute.
"That's another two weeks for each of you." Snape said not turning around. They had learned a long time ago that Snape seemed to have eyes in the back of his head so they didn't question it, but still it was creepy, either that or he knew them all so well that he could tell their reactions to each other by now.
They showed up for detention right on time, cause they knew that if they were either early or late they'd just get punished. Snape shut the door behind them and locked and silenced the room.
They saw Ginny already sitting at one of the tables.
"He got you too, huh?" Draco grinned at her. She nodded and rolled her eyes.
"Yes, Mister Malfoy, I got all five of you in the same room for an hour a day for three weeks. Now, why would I possibly do that for? Hmm?" He looked at them.
"Cause you're mean?" Ginny gave a guess. Snape looked at her and fought a smile.
'The little twit has more bravery than the other four put together.' he thought.
"Sit down." He gestured to the tables. They all sat down and he pulled up a chair right in front of them. "Professor Dumbledore has informed me of what has been happening. If Harry remembers correctly I am proficient at both Legilimency and Occlumency as is our humble Mister Malfoy."
"You know Legilimency?" Ron asked in shock.
"Of course, how do you think I always knew what wounds to rub salt in? You three were like open books." Draco smirked at them.
"Reguardless, you four are here to learn Occlumency. And Mister Malfoy and myself will be the ones to teach you. Since Mr. Potter had a hard time learning it from me, Mr. Malfoy will take over your teaching. Miss Granger can be taught at night in her quarters. In the meantime, the rest of you will be cleaning my room till you..."
"Professor, I would like to learn Legilimency." Hermione interrupted. Snape looked into her eyes and nodded.
"You do possess the talent to be very gifted in it. Go and ask the Headmaster if I have permission to teach you. Ask for Miss Weasley as well, I believe she will be proficient in it as well."
"Why not us?" Ron asked.
"Because the two of you are bumbling idiots that will barely be able to guard you minds, much less see into someone elses at the same time as closing yours off. It takes a very sharp mind to learn both. And looking at your class scores is proof enough. Both of you hurry to the Headmaster, I've already got a headache." Snape said rubbing his temples.
The two girls left and Harry, Ron, Draco, and Snape pulled up chairs facing each other. Draco was facing Harry, and Snape was facing Ron.
Snape explained the basics of it to Ron as Harry had already had a few lessons in it.
Draco stared into Harry's green eyes. He saw a few walls go up as he delved into his mind. Which showed that Harry really did suck at it. Draco shouldn't have been able to see the place at all much less the walls coming up.
Draco shook his head and frowned without breaking eye contact.
"Let's start with something small, something that doesn't have alot of emotion attached to the memory. Try to block it without me seeing you even block it. Let me see your bedroom."
A flood of memories and emotions attacked Draco making him break eye contact and shake his head.
He stared at Harry in bewilderment. "Your bedroom was a broom cubbard under the stairs? What kind of people were your reletives? You were flesh and blood! They treated you worse than I've ever treated a house elf!"
Harry looked at the floor in something similar to shame and embarrasment.
"Cut it out, Harry. It's not your fault. Stop acting like you deserved it or something." Draco sighed. "Do you have anything in your memories that doesn't have a strong emotion tied to it? Seeing as how I was wrong about the bedroom, I'll let you pick one."
"Well, there's, no, how about..." Harry looked at him. "I don't think I have one."
"What? Everyone has little mundane things. How about your favorite pair of socks?"
"My cousin cut them up." Draco gaped at him.
"Ever have a favorite bar of soap?" Harry glared at him.
"I had to use dish washing liquid, cause my Dudley didn't want me using the same soap he used." Draco sighed.
"No wonder you suck at this, everthing in your entire life has strong emotions tied to it, you're an open book. But I believe that if you ever do learn it enough then you'll be a surprisingly strong master of it. You have passion and determination in everything. I believe there is hope for you, it's just the first few steps that will be near impossible to get passed."
Draco looked him in the eyes and smiled at him. "But, Harry Potter, I have faith in you. You will get passed them. It's all inside you. You are the most powerful and feared wizard. Even Voldemort is afraid of you. You CAN do this." Harry looked at him and smiled his eyes suspiciously moist.
"I believe that was the most touching thing I've ever seen." Snape drawled glaring at them. The two boys looked embarrassed and Ron grinned.
Harry grinned at Draco.
"Try it again, I think I'll do better now." Draco noticed Harry's eyes gleaming with determination and grinned back at him.
"Scared Potter?"
"You wish!" Harry smirked at him. Draco tried to pierce into his mind again only to find...nothing. Not one thing. He tried again with the same results. There wasn't even walls, his mind was simply blank. Draco pulled back and blinked.
"How'd you do that? A minute ago you were an open book. Now, there isn't even a book." Draco frowned. Harry grinned.
"Try again." Draco tried again and found only one memory.
It was of the night they played poker. And it was from Harry's point of view. He could feel a foot sliding up and down his calf. But the memory didn't proceed as it had actually happened. Next thing Draco sees is himself laying on the table in front of Draco, well actually it was Harry, but Draco felt like he was Harry. Then suddenly he's kissing himself.
Draco broke off the connection and fell out of his chair.
"That didn't happen! That sure as HELL didn't happen, Potter! What the bloody hell was that?" He yelled scrambling to the far side of the room in horror.
Harry looked confused.
"But it did happen, I saw it happen. I did that to you."
"Did what, exactly?" Snape interrupted. Harry shrugged.
"See for yourself." He leaned over and Snape looked into his eyes only to have a very similar reaction as Draco had. The two Slytherins stood on the other side of the room scrubbing their mouths with the backs of their hands and glaring at Harry who was laughing evily.
"Was it good for you guys? Cause I found it very satisfying." Harry said slouching in the chair with a very Slytherin grin on his face.
It was at this moment the two girls returned, hearing what Harry had said, they stopped in their tracks and stared in bewilderment at the males in the room.
"Okay, what the heck did we miss?" Ginny said putting her hands on her hips. Ron shrugged in his own confusion.
"I made the mistake of being friends with the only person in Hogwarts that the Sorting Hat said belonged in every House." Draco glared at the smirking Boy-Who-Lived-To-Be-A-Pain-In-His-Ass.
"And I had the unfortunate pleasure of reliving a rather disturbing memory of Mr. Potters." Snape said disgustedly.
Draco's eyes flashed to his Godfather.
"You can't believe that that really happened?"
"Mr. Potter can barely blockout the simplest of memories..."
"Did you not here my stupid speech about him someday being a Powerful Master Occlumens?"
"You mean to tell me that that was a false memory?" Snape's eyes widened comically. Draco scowled with a very clear message of 'duh' written across his face. Snape composed himself quickly. "Well, Mr. Potter, I suppose congratulations are in order, for I believe you just surpassed both Mr. Malfoy and myself in Occlumency. Although, we will be testing you further to make sure it wasn't just a fluke."
"What exactly did you see?" Ron asked curiously.
"Nothing." Snape and Draco said together, but Harry got that glint in his eye.
"Remember the ruined footsie attempt of Draco's at Poker?" They nodded. "Well, instead of yelling at him I kissed him." The three stared at him in shocked silence for a moment before collapsing in laughter.
Twenty minutes later, Draco had taken over teaching Ginny Occlumency and Ron had started to get a grasp on it. He was much better at it than Harry had been at first. Snape had spent ten of those minutes testing Harry on his Occlumency and had agreed that he had become a Master.
Dumbledore had given the girls permission to learn Legilimency and Harry was letting Hermione use him for practice. He wasn't putting up the walls so she could get a feel of looking into a normal person.
Snape had given the two girls a crash course in how to give a stare that penetrated a persons mind and Hermione was a fast learner as she looked through Harry's memories.
She pulled away after a few minutes of seeing his childhood.
"You know your Aunt and Uncle are going to get a piece of my mind right?" He sighed and shrugged.
"It's the past Hermione, leave it there. I never have to see them again, if I don't want to, which I don't." He grinned. "Alright, I'm going to start blocking some, see if you can see past it, now that you know what's there. Try to find my ninth birthday. Do you remember it?" She nodded. "What did I do to Dudley when he broke all my figurines?"
"You pushed him down the stairs and ended up locked in the cubbard for a month with only one tiny thing to eat a day. Only coming out to use the restroom." Hermione said with tears in her eyes. He wiped them away.
"Good, now, I'm going to block the memory of pushing him. Try to find it." Hermione spent the next five minutes searching for it each of them only blinking once a minute.
"Ahh! I found it! I really found it! It wasn't too hard to find once I looked with my peripheral vision. I read that the peripheral vision is more sensitive to light and movement that looking straight on." Snape, who had been busy with Ron, still, interrupted.
"I'm afraid that that's impossible Miss. Granger. The only way for you to see a blocked memory is if he lets down the guard and he is still technically considered a novice."
"But you just said that he was a Master."
"I did, but he is still new to it and prone to mistakes, so therefore, he is technically a novice."
Hermione didn't like that answer obviously cause her eyes narrowed.
"Fine, I challenge you. I bet you an O in Potions for all of us if I win." Snape glowered at her.
"That, Miss. Granger, would be cheating." She snorted.
"Please! You're a Slytherin, you're always cheating. Taking house points off of Gryffindor and never off of Slytherin. If that isn't..."
"Point taken, Miss Granger. However, I can guarentee an O for only Mr. Malfoy and yourself. The rest have to earn their grade. And WHEN I am found correct you will owe me a ten foot essay on the Slytherin History."
"Fine. What am I looking for?"
"My most guarded secret. That is all the information you will get from me." She glared at him.
"Deal, shall we begin?" Snape spun to sit in the chair, his cloak flowing up like the wind had caught it.
"I think you're trying to intimidate me with the whole 'billowy cloak, king of pain' thing. I just wanted you to know, it's not working." Hermione said sitting in the chair across from him.
She wasted no time giving him a penetrating stare, after about ten seconds she slid her eyes over slightly to look at the corners of his eyes. She concentrated on looking into his eyes with her peripheral vision.
Her eyes flew open wide and she gave a strangled choking sound and fell off her chair.
"You and...!" She gasped.
Snapes eyes went wide as he suddenly started to doubt his own abilities. He started to shake his head in warning, but Hermione was too far gone.
TBC...
AN: HAHAHAHAHA, my first ever cliff hanger. I grew an evil bone in the last two days. I was watching 7 kids all under 6 years old wednessday and had no time and thursday morning I was busy reading a recommended story by IcyPanther. It is called Parenting Class. And I recommend it more than any other story I've ever read. Thanks to Pottersgurl07 for telling me about it. By the way the whole 'Billowy coat king of pain' thing was off of Buffy. Thanks for the reviews! Esp. the one that said I was giving JKR a run for my money!