I do not own Harry Potter, blah blah blah.

...

The rest of the day was relatively quiet. They held another chess tournament, which Ron won after beating the twins. Then Harry was showered with gifts, and urged to open "that one!"

The elder Weasleys gave Harry a new set of quills and inks, saying that his other ones were getting much too worn from all the writing he had done in the beginning of the summer. The twins had gotten him his own chess set, and enchanted it to respond to Parseltongue. Hermione had found a book on Parselmouths - "both light and dark" – and Parselmagic. Harry didn't know how she had obtained them, as Parseltongue had been declared dark by the ministry and all books on the subject had been confiscated. She must have gotten them from Knockturn Alley, somehow.

Ginny had bought him a whistle. She said he could use it whenever he was in trouble or needed help, instead of pounding on the floorboards. It even had his initials engraved on it, and had been strung on a red cord. Harry had smiled at her and put it around his neck. He would need it at some point, he was sure.

Ron had bought him a whole box of candies that made people create different animal sounds, magically.

"I checked on how they work. Vocal chords or no, you can use 'm, mate!" Ron had said. At which point Harry had grinned and popped one of the candies in his mouth, and promptly squawked like a monkey.

Finally, after they had had a dinner just as big as lunch, Harry had gotten away to practice his silent magic. He sat in a shadowed corner of the sitting room and placed a small feather that Fred had transfigured for him on a table in front of him. Then he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the feather. Focusing intently on making the feather float, Harry mouthed the incantation wingardium leviosa to help his focus.

Nothing happened in the first half hour of his practice. Harry kept getting distracted by the people around him. Fred and George laughing as they played Exploding Snap, Ron's questions to Hermione about his homework which he had finally decided to do, and even Hermione's book pages turning kept distracting Harry. Finally he picked up his feather, textbook, and wand and retreated to the room he was sharing with Ron.

Up here he could still hear the occasional explosions from the twins' game, but they weren't nearly so loud, and there weren't any other sounds. Hopefully, here he would get something accomplished.

Again he set himself up in front of that little feather, and pointed his wand at the thing and resumed his attempts to get it to float.

It was fifteen minutes of uninterrupted concentration before anything at all happened.

The feather seemed to do a sort of hop on the table. Harry was so startled the he jumped and his chair tumbled over backwards with him in it. Harry got off the floor and stared at the still feather fixatedly. Had it really moved, or had he been imagining it?

Feet were pounding up the stairs and Hermione was shouting his name. But Harry didn't care; he had made the feather move! He continued staring at that little innocent downy feather with wonder, and he didn't really notice the door banging open behind him.

"What happened Harry? Are you alright?" Hermione asked. Harry turned to face her, still in a sort of daze.

"Harry, what happened? There was this big crash…" Ginny added. Harry realized that everyone was standing just outside the door. Harry lifted his hands to sign a reply, but at that moment couldn't think of what the motions he needed to do were. So he just pointed at the feather.

Hermione walked briskly into the room and stopped beside him.

"Harry, what happened?" She asked firmly. Her tone finally snapped Harry out of his daze, and suddenly he was filled with excitement.

"I got the feather to lift! I did it! Well, it sort of just jumped, but it surprised me and I fell over. That is why the chair is on the floor, but I did it! Can you believe…" Hermione stopped him by gently taking his hands and pushing them down.

"Harry, that's brilliant! I told you it wouldn't take long." Hermione said, smiling.

"What did he say? I couldn't catch it; he was signing so quickly…" Ron asked.

"I did it, Ron! The feather jumped!" Harry signed, more slowly this time. Ron grinned and clapped Harry on the back.

"I knew you would do it, mate!"

"Yes!" Harry shouted in Parseltongue as he leaped in the air for joy. Then he noticed that everyone was watching him, amused.

"Now you just need to keep at it, Harry. It'll take you awhile to accomplish more complex spells, but you'll do it." Hermione encouraged.

After that Harry was nearly always in some secluded spot, practicing his magic. He kept working at the levitation charm until he was able to lift a dinner plate. That had taken him a week. Then he started practicing the summoning charm, and managed to summon his broom to him after a week and a half. Then he started to work on things simultaneously. He managed to make a deal with the twins: he would be able to practice stupefy and petrificus totalus on them for two hours every day, and in return he would be the test subject for the next two prank items they developed. Ron and Hermione had both advised against it, but he needed to practice his combat magic, ad if the twins were willing, why not?

As it turned out, Hermione and Ron had been wise in the advice. In just three days Harry had been uncontrollably laughing and unable to stop, doing ballet against his will across the front yard, and had an unstoppable bout of the hiccups. Each time he had to be stupefied in order to cause the condition to cancel, a failsafe that the twins worked into all of their projects before testing them.

But Harry, in return, got to put all his energy into casting his combat magic against them for two hours every day. He hadn't managed to actually do anything yet, so the twins mostly just stood in front of him talking. But each time he tried to cast the spells, he though he felt something inside him give a little more, as if there was some sort of barrier preventing his magic from pouring out.

Harry had also made a little progress in his occlumency. He had figured out how to organize his memories into neat categories, and to pull one memory to the forefront of his mind at will. He could then examine it in detail as if looking at a picture or video. It was amazing to Harry, to be able to have so much control over his thoughts. Was this what Snape's mind looked like? So organized and carefully controlled, just like a filing cabinet?

Harry had also rooted out all of the memories he had of his father and Sirius. Most of each had been from when he was just a baby. But each and every little glimpse of their faces in his mind was priceless to him.

These times, the memories didn't come in a flood like the ones of his mother had. With his mind organized Harry had focused on "dad" and suddenly the memories were just…there. He could manipulate them just like his other more recent memories. So Harry had sorted through them and sort of "watched" them, like videos. But his heart swelled with happiness and sorrow over and over as he repeatedly saw his father's face.

Two weeks after his birthday Hermione left, saying that she would see them all at Hogwarts. She apparated home, starting Harry thinking on a new subject of thought. He couldn't use a floo anymore, unless he went side-along with someone. He could use portkeys, but those were difficult to make and regulated by the ministry. So the only other choices Harry had for transportation was muggle methods, broomsticks, and apparition.

Broomsticks were fast, but they still took a long time and it could be very dangerous, especially in bad weather. And in emergency situations that required a quick getaway, a broomstick wouldn't cut it. Neither would muggle methods, which were even more unreliable than broomsticks. So, apparition. Harry hadn't done too well in sixth year trying to learn to do it, and he hadn't yet even taken the ministry test. He'd have to work on it at Hogwarts, along with the sixth years. Then, when he mastered it, he could get his apparition license from the ministry. Hermione already had hers, and Ron was scheduled to take the test in two weeks, two days before they would leave for Hogwarts. Harry and Ron had planned on taking the test together, but Harry wasn't ready yet, so Ron had reluctantly gone ahead and scheduled the test.

Soon, both of Harry's best friends would be completely independent, able to transport, defend, and support themselves. Harry, however, felt like a first year in comparison. He could do none of those things.

Yet.

Three weeks after his birthday, it was nearly time to return to Hogwarts for seventh year. Harry had mixed feelings about this: on one hand, Hogwarts had always felt like his home, and he longed to return to the endless stone corridors where one could find a place to be alone, even amongst about a hundred or more other teenagers. Hogwarts had always made him feel safe.

But on the other hand, there was the problem of the other students. Harry knew now that the Gryffindors were on his side. But what about the other houses, and the Slytherins especially? He was bound to be nastily pranked at least, maybe even bullied.

That was why he was feverishly trying to perfect his petrificus totalus. He had managed a reasonable stunner a couple days ago, and had since seen it grow more powerful in his hours of practice. Hermione had already advised him to learn the spell for waking someone from unconsciousness, enervate. He would need it, since he could now only fire two stunners in practice now before both Fred and George were knocked out.

But the petrifying spell was slightly more difficult than a stunner. Harry thought of it like this: The muggle way, all you had to do to knock someone out was to give them a good bang on the head. But to immobilize someone took a lot more energy. You had to wrestle every muscle into submission.

Harry was practicing now, on Fred. George's turn was in fifteen minutes; right now he was just watching Harry fling weak petrifying spells at his brother that only resulted in Fred not being able to blink, or maybe to not move an arm on Harry's best spells.

Harry narrowed his eyes in determination. He could feel his magic surging through him, trying to pour from the tip of his wand. But again, something seemed to be holding back his magic.

Focus. Freeze Fred. Make him unable to move…Harry thought, trying to unleash his magic at the bored twin.

He pursed his lips, getting a little frustrated. Why couldn't this be easier? Why couldn't the blasted spell just work?

Harry sighed, and focused again. Then he had a brainstorm. Why couldn't he use some of his occlumency exercises to help his focus?

He cleared his mind and focused on a single thought. Pertrificus Totalus.

Memories came to the forefront of his mind. Hermione petrifying Neville in first year, Harry teaching the DA the spell, Order members and death eaters using the spell in battle from both fifth and sixth years…

Harry found the memory of when he first learned the petrifying spell in Defense Against the Dark Arts, in third year. He remembered Lupin giving his students instructions on how to make the spell work.

Harry focused on the image of Lupin's petrifying spell in the memory, and then imagined that same spell shooting from his wand.

Suddenly with a blast that knocked Harry backwards off his feet, a bright, powerful looking spell shot from the tip of Harry's wand. Harry caught a surprised expression on Fred's face before the spell hit the twin and knocked Fred over like a bowling pin.

Harry scrambled to his feet and ran over to Fred. What had the spell done? It had born resemblance to the petrifying spell, but it was one of the most powerful spells Harry had ever seen. Just what had happened? One minute he hadn't been able to freeze a cat, and the next his spell was so powerful it blasted Fred over?

Fred was ramrod straight, a shocked expression frozen on his face. His limbs had snapped tightly to his sides and his joints had locked. George was checking his brother's pulse worriedly.

He looked up at Harry.

"You did it, Harry. He's fine, you've just petrified him. But that was a wicked spell! I've never seen one so powerful!" George said, excited.

"Are you sure he's alright?"

"Yeah, fine. Do you know what happened?"

"Not really. It was sort of like there was a net of some sort, holding back my magic. But then, when I fired the spell, it was like the net broke and all my magic just exploded from me. I think using occlumency helped, a lot."

"What happened!" Mrs. Weasley shouted as she ran out of the house.

"Mum, everything's fine. Harry finally managed a petrificus totalus, and it was bloody powerful, Mum! You should've seen it!" George explained.

"Oh, Harry, that is wonderful! Oh, but Fred…here George, help me get him inside." Mrs. Weasley said.

"Can I levitate him in? I've done smaller things, but I want to see if I can manage something larger."

Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips.

"Alright, Harry, but don't you make a mistake." Harry nodded and focused on making Fred float. With an ease that surprised him, Fred lifted straight from the ground and hovered at the level of Harry's wand. Harry exchanged shocked glances with George. Why had that been so easy? Was his analogy of the net more true than he had thought? Had something inside him been holding his power back, but now had released his magic?