Thank you to the beta of this chapter- songofstars

Chapter Thirty Eight – A Secret Plan

Harry was not looking forward to the conversation he was doomed to have with his Professor that morning; which was why he was taking extra time in the shower in the hopes of delaying the inevitable, but even with the hot water relaxing his tense muscles, his mind was still on what Malfoy told him last night. If his suspensions were right, then it wasn't just him and Draco that had suffered at the hands of Lockhart: there were others, and if they were remembering just as Draco was, then it was only a matter of time until someone else tried to take their own life because they couldn't handle the memories. The only difference was that they wouldn't know what was happening to them, some may even presume that they were losing their mind.

Harry already had a plan in place. First, he needed to find a way to get his hands on the records from his second year to find out who else had detention with Lockhart. That was going to be the hardest part. Secondly, he needed to track down everyone who had detention with the man and find out if they were remembering anything like Malfoy. Harry wasn't sure how he was going to do that part yet. It wasn't like he could just walk up to them and ask about their memories. Besides, what if they didn't remember anything? Harry could open up the floodgates of memories and that was the last thing he wanted to do.

Harry hadn't figured out what part three of his plan was going to be. He didn't know what he was going to do once he tracked everyone down and he definitely didn't know what to do if their memories were coming back.

Harry thought about letting his Professor in on his plans but decided against it just in case Snape was going to stop him. This was something that he needed to do. There was a small voice in the back of his head telling him that he needed to do this, he needed to help. Harry needed to help, he just didn't know how he was going to do that.

Once Harry was done with his shower and got himself dressed for the day, he made his way out into the kitchen, noticing that Snape already had breakfast laid out.

"Morning," Severus said behind his book he was reading as if he could see through the pages.

Harry bit his bottom lip as he sat down at the table, expecting to hear a lecture from his Professor. Letting out a long internal sigh Harry picked up his fork and started to push his scramble eggs around on his plate, not feeling much like eating.

Severus marked his page before setting his book down. "Where did you wander off to, last night? Past curfew I might add...way past curfew?" Severus questioned, reminding Harry of the times his Professor would ask him questions during class when he wasn't paying attention.

Harry tried his hardest to get his brain to come up with an answer. In an effort to buy himself more time, he picked up the glass of pumpkin juice next to his plate and took a sip. Harry always suspected that his Professor had some kind of lie detector device on him since Snape always seemed to know when he was lying during his years of Hogwarts. Harry knew that he needed to come up with an answer that was close enough to the truth so Snape wouldn't be able to detect that he was lying.

"...I was feeling a little cooped up so I went for a walk around the castle," Harry answered as he set his class down.

"At one in the morning? When you should have been sleeping?" Severus inquired.

"I was having trouble sleeping," Harry was impressed with himself, that wasn't a lie. "I needed some fresh air."

"You couldn't open your window?" Severus interrogated.

"Like I said, I was feeling cooped up and needed to get out," Harry explained as he continued to push his eggs around the plate.

Severus leaned forward, crossing his arms on the table. "Harry, look at me," Severus ordered, waiting until the boy's eyes landed on him before he spoke again. "Does this have anything to do with that secret club that you and your little friends cooked up?"

Harry was taken back by the question. He thought that the DA was secret enough to keep any of the Professors from noticing, but obviously he didn't do a good enough job with it. If Snape knew about them, how many more knew? Did Umbridge know about it? If she did, then he needed to move everyone to a different location before she came knocking.

"Calm yourself," Severus spoke, noticing how stressed Harry suddenly got. "No one else knows about your little secret."

"How do you know?" Harry asked.

"Being a spy for many years gave me the ability to notice the smallest of details. Noticing that something was going on took me less than a week, especially when some of my Slytherins would disappear for hours at a time. It didn't take much to put two together." Severus explained.

"I don't have Slytherins in my class," Harry said, confused.

"Are you sure about that?" Severus asked, with a raise of his eyebrow "You going to tell me what you've been doing?"

Harry let out a small sigh. "Professor Umbridge is refusing to teach us defence against the dark arts and people need to learn how to defend themselves since…since He Who Must Not Be Named is back. I'm not going to let what happened to Cedric happen to them...I can't" Harry explained. "Hermione and Ron are taking over the classes while I'm...while I'm here."

Severus nodded as he listened to Harry explain. He had to give it to Harry, the boy decided to do something instead of sitting back and taking what Umbridge was doing to the school. It was much like something Lily would have done during her time in school. She was never one to sit back and do nothing. If Severus took a moment to think about it, Harry was also one to never sit back. The boy was always doing something...mostly something that would endanger his life.

"I…" Harry hesitantly spoke, pulling Severus from his thoughts. "I was hoping I could hang out with my friends, today? Leave the chambers?" Harry asked hopefully.

Severus raised his eyebrows once more, Harry hadn't shown any interest in leaving his chambers. "Are you sure you want to go out today?" Severus asked.

"...It is Saturday, most of the school would be at Hogsmeade today," Harry said, pressing his lips together as he waited for an answer.

Severus took some time, thinking whether or not it was a good idea to leave the boy to his own devices. He did promise Harry that he would have more freedom and taking back that promise could diminish the trust he had made with the child.

"You may go and hang out with your friends, but I don't want you leaving the grounds and if you need anything, all you have to do is press the symbol on the metal bracelet. It would alert me that you are in need of my help," Severus explained. "And you aren't going anyway until you have some breakfast," Severus added, noticing that Harry hasn't touched his food since he sat down.

Harry nodded but continued to push his food around his plate for the next five minutes or so before he asked the question that had been nagging at him. "The Obliviate charm: would it be possible for someone to gain their memories back that have been taken without having to do anything? Just say, they woke up one morning and they had this feeling…" Harry struggled as he tried to explain. "A feeling that a memory is there but they are unable to reach it."

"...It would depend on a number of factors. Why?" Severus inquired.

Harry shook his head. "Just wondering...what kind of factors?"

"...Eat your breakfast so you can hang out with your friends," Severus quickly spoke, hoping he could move Harry off the topic.

Harry didn't say anything else as he picked up his now cold toast and took a bite. He was sure Hermione would be able to find something on it in the library but Snape's refusal to tell him anything still annoyed him.

It wasn't long until Harry finished his breakfast. Wolfing down the last pieces of scramble eggs, he made his way to his room to get the Marauder's map and his father's invisibility cloak.

Harry sent out a letter with Hedwig, telling his friends to meet him in the library before leaving Snape's chambers.

Once out in the hallway, Harry slipped the cloak on, still nervous about running into people as he made his way down to the library. A rush of relief flowed through him when he saw that the library was empty.

Taking the cloak off, Harry made his way to the back and sat down at one of the old dusty desks as he waited for his friends to show up, rolling the bracelet up his arm and under his sleeve so it wouldn't be seen. He really didn't want to explain to his friends what it was for.

Harry had been waiting for several minutes, but it seemed as if his friends were taking their time to appear. Letting out a small sigh Harry got up and began looking through the shelves of books. He wasn't sure what he was looking for but he was sure he would know once he saw it, soon Harry lost all sense of time as he fingered through the many old books.