A/N: I've realized with the posting of this chapter that the italics from my text editor haven't been copying over to my Chapters here. I will go back and edit them when I have time, but I'm kinda peeved about it.

In any case welcome to another chapter, I hope that you find it as interesting as all the rest and I look forward to reviews if you have them (please?)

-PP

After lunch Harry and the other 6th year Gryffindors that were continuing in potions headed down to the potions dungeon, meeting the rest of the 'N.E.W.T.' students outside of the classroom. Draco was attempting to bait them, confident while Harry was not a professor outside of his classroom. Harry deliberately ignored him and began to quiz Neville about different potions ingredients. The normally shy boy was answering them as quick as Harry was asking and before long he was shooting back questions of his own. By the time Snape came from his office to let them into the lab most of the class was chuckling quietly at the display of the two boys. Their professor's presence, however, dampened the mood and they all regained their composure and filed into the room. Harry and Ron went to sit together at their usual table but Snape interrupted them from the front of the classroom, "Mr. Potter, since you've expressed so much confidence in the abilities of Mr. Longbottom perhaps you should partner with him this term." Harry shrugged and grabbed his potions kit from the table, switching positions with Hermione at the station she was setting up with Neville. His friend was giving him an odd look but didn't say anything in order to avoid losing any points from the strict professor.

"Since you all seemed to have duped the O.W.L. proctors that you are competent brewers you will start your term by assisting me in fulfilling an order that the Headmaster has agreed to donate to the 'Potter-Black Werewolves Alliance'. As Wolvesbane is a creation of my own design you will not find it in your textbook. The instructions are on the board and the abnormal ingredients can be found in the student supply cupboard. Since these are meant for consumption please ask me before you make a mistake that could render the potion volatile, or worse, inert. If I find that any of your potions were deliberately tampered with you will find yourself ruing the day you stepped foot into my dungeon. Are we clear?" He scanned the room of solemn faces, all of them hoping to avoid his direct attention. "Then begin. If you have to start over and you run out of time, schedule additional lab time with me before you leave."

The students lurched into motion, Harry scanned the ingredients list and made his way to the supply cupboard for the non-standard ingredients. When he returned Neville had finished setting up his cauldron in the middle of their workstation with the base for the potion filling it halfway as per the instructions. "What did he mean?" asked Neville as Harry slid the first few ingredients to him to chop and then work into a paste. "Snape? I told him that if he didn't breathe down your neck during class that you could produce a more than passable potion and explained that you knew ingredients better than anyone in our year." Neville nodded slowly as he rendered the paste to the correct consistency before checking his timer and slowly adding it to the cauldron. "Do you think he will be different in class this year? I think that I can handle it if he lets me do my work." Harry smiled at Neville's comment, "Yes, he should behave himself a little bit better. I have something that he wants so he is going to have to remain civil. Just focus on the potion, it's for a good cause." Neville flashed a grin at his lab partner and returned to rendering the different ingredients into their required states.

Halfway through the class period Snape came around the room to examine their progress. He told a few people to start over, giving suggestions as to where they blundered. Unsurprisingly he praised most of his Slytherins, only telling one pair to adjust their heat before the potion became too volatile. When he passed by Neville and Harry he looked down his nose to examine the bubbling potion. He must have found whatever he saw acceptable because he simply nodded and began to move to Hermione and Ron's station down the row, before he got far however a voice interrupted him. "Professor? I have a question about the potion." Both Snape and Harry were surprised that Neville would call attention to himself, but Snape turned and walked back to their station. "Yes, Mr. Longbottom? Your potion seems to be progressing nicely." Neville nodded and took a breath before replying, "I'm not having difficulty per se, but I wanted your opinion on a modification to the potion that occurred to me as we have been working on it." The class went silent at this, Neville Longbottom of all people was trying to modify a potion that Snape himself had created, it was a death wish.

"Mr. Longbottom I put a lot of effort into creating this potion, what do you think could add to the process?" Neville lifted the lid on his Potions kit and opened one of the spare drawers, pulling out a vial of what looked to be dried orange peel. "If I am reading these ingredients correctly, adding this to the potion just before it is complete will have a neutral outcome on the effect of the potion while neutralizing the bitter taste somewhat for the drinker." Snape arched an eyebrow and stared at the stoic Gryffindor. Neville, to his credit, held the gaze and his conviction that he hadn't said anything stupid. After a minute Snape nodded and gestured to the potion before him, "If you and Mr. Potter would like to experiment with your idea, I will not deduct points if the potion fails. I can tell right now that you are past the difficult portions of the potion and as long as nothing interferes you will receive an O for your work. If your adaptation doesn't render the potion inert then perhaps we could discuss making it an extra credit effort." Neville nodded and Harry grinned at him. Snape stepped away and finished his rounds before returning to his desk.

As Harry and Neville finished their potion, with Neville's modification included, and began to bottle it Harry tapped his potions professor and gave the equivalent of a raspberry across the link. "Yes, yes, Mr. Longbottom seems to know what he is talking about. I'm surprised that more students don't apply what they've learned in Herbology in my classroom. Now I need to discuss a time for us to work on my Occlumency, I suppose with that display today that remedial potions is out." Harry rolled his eyes and thought for a minute before replying, "Why don't we call it academic planning and tell people that Dumbledore pushed you on to me as my mentor for teaching. It is feasible enough that people would believe it, he is always trying to make us play nice." Snape caught his eye and nodded and turned to accept a rack of potions from one of the groups. Everyone except the groups that were told to restart submitted finished potions be the end of the double period and were happy to be out of the classroom. The remaining pairs put stasis spells on their cauldrons and stored them for whenever they were able to make it back into the lab.

Harry, Neville, Hermione, and Ron discussed the class at length as they slowly made their way up to the Great Hall for dinner. They were still discussing Neville's addition to the potion when Harry felt Dumbledore tapping him. "Sorry to interrupt Harry but I forgot to mention that we hold staff meetings after dinner on Friday evenings. You are required to attend I'm afraid, just join the staff as they file out of the Hall after dinner." Harry sent his acknowledgement as Ron asked him if he wanted to go for a fly once they finished eating. Sighing dramatically Harry groaned, "I have a staff meeting after dinner. If I get out early enough I'll join you guys. Get Ginny out on my Firebolt and get her used to it since she'll most likely take my place as Seeker." Ginny heard her name from down the table and said lecherously to the rest of the table, "Hear that guys? I get to ride Harry Potter's broomstick." The Gryffindor table burst into laughter and Harry suppressed a blush and was distracted by another hint of jealousy from behind him. With the other three house tables situated behind him he hadn't narrowed down his search for the mystery person by much, but he could at least rule out his own house.

Harry stood with his friends and waved to them as they left the Great Hall and made his way over to the head table. He made polite conversation with Professor Flitwick as they waited for the rest of the professors to finish eating. Soon they were all sated and, with teacups in hand, they filed out of the Great Hall. Harry found a seat at the end of the staff table closer to Professor McGonagall once they arrived in the staff room and busied himself flipping through his copies of his students' syllabi. A few of them were glowing and he noted that many of his Hufflepuffs had held a study session with their Ravenclaw counterparts and had made significant progress. Hearing his name he looked up from the sheaf of papers, "I'm sorry Headmaster I was lost in thought, what was the question?"

Dumbledore grinned at him from the other end of the table and repeated himself, "I was asking you how your classes were going, you gave me an idea of your initial lesson plan but perhaps you could share with your colleagues." Harry nodded and passed a few of the freshly updated syllabi around the table, "I gave all of my classes a deadline of the first class in October to be proficient with all of the spells on their syllabi. They are catered to each year and are all spells that they were taught previously. I explained to Professor Dumbledore that I don't expect silent or point casting from anyone and I'm treating that as extra credit, and my students are well aware of my expectations." He added that when the individual heads of houses all opened their mouths to interrupt him. They settled down and he continued on, "I've invited all of my students to participate in the Defense Association on Saturday evenings for extra tutoring but I might extend this to other subjects as well. While I may believe that Defense is the most important subject, I am teaching it and as such I am biased. I would prefer to include students whose strength lies elsewhere than create rifts where none should exist."

Almost the entire staff was nodding along with him, a few of those that had been against his appointment were now changing their outlook. Since he was handling it maturely and would be a great asset to all of the students, they were seeing some of what Dumbledore saw in him. Snape merely refrained from scoffing but Harry felt it as if it were a pat on the back. That didn't last long however as when Harry finished speaking Snape interjected something that had been bothering him, "Professor Potter," he began, his tone even and calm, "Why is it that your only assigned detention for the week is to Mr. Malfoy? Surely you should expect him to act out against your appointment." Harry grinned at the Potions Professor, "Professor Snape, Mr. Malfoy did question my…credentials so I challenged him to a friendly duel. I limited spells to those that were on my syllabus and allowed one of his house mates to signal the start. As a friendly wager I told him that if he lasted for five minutes he could skip the first five weeks of my class, but for every minute short of five he lasted he owed me a weeks detention. He didn't last much longer than a minute so he owes me four Sundays of detention. I gave him an out, he decided not to take it." Snape nodded before speaking, "What exactly are you going to assign for his detention? I believe that your detentions must be pre-approved by the headmaster."

Harry smiled sweetly and drew a book from his backpack and threw it towards Snape, allowing it to slide to a rest a few inches from where the Professor was leaning on the table. "I am going to assign him some extracurricular homework from that book. It is more of a Herbology or Transfiguration assignment but I am aiming for an attitude adjustment, which is what I believe is the purpose for detentions." Snape snarled and muttered under his breath, 'Not that you've gotten that out of any of yours,' before reaching for the book. "A muggle biology text? What do you expect him to learn from this?" Dumbledore spoke up at this point, a smug grin adorning his face, "I believe Severus, that Harry is hoping that Draco learns that blood is blood, no matter who it comes from. Is that your goal Harry?" The Defense Professor nodded before adding, "Yeah that or maybe a little warning about inbreeding." Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick both snorted and Snape glared at him before sliding the book back across the table. Harry floated it in to his bag and retook his seat.

The rest of the table was staring at him however, with the exception of Professor Dumbledore, "Uhm, Harry dear did you just do wandless magic?" Professor McGonagall looked a little bit pale at the thought. "No ma'am," Harry replied easily, grinning at his Head of House, "I've been training this summer with psionics, I can manipulate the world around me using the power of my mind. It is one of the reasons that Professor Snape has requested my help with his Occlumency. It would be hard for me to explain everything that I can do, but rest assured that I can take care of myself, though sadly I cannot continue as the Gryffindor seeker." Professor McGonagall was somehow more upset about this development than she was about his apparent wandless magic, "What do you mean Harry? Surely you can continue, I personally had your Quiddich ban lifted!" She was almost bouncing in her seat while Snape grinned from across the table.

"I'm sorry Professor, but I can locate and catch the snitch reliably within 30 seconds of its release, it would be an unfair advantage since I can't just 'turn off' my abilities. The snitch itself is immune to magic but what I am doing is technically not magic, I could summon it to my hand without thinking about it. Rest assured I've loaned my broom to Ginny and she's outside right now practicing to take my spot. Ron took it rather well actually." While McGonagall opened and closed her mouth in frustration Harry turned to the Headmaster, "Sir, Professor Snape and I have concocted a cover for our Occlumency lessons, we are going to call it 'Academic Planning' as you have assigned Professor Snape as my faculty mentor." Dumbledore chuckled at this, "Oh have I? Why in my old age I seem to forget the things that I do from day to day, but that sounds like an excellent idea. Is there anything else that needs to be addressed before I call this meeting to a close?"

Professor Flitwick stood up in his chair to get everyone's attention, "Actually I have noticed a dramatic change in Ms. Lovegood's attention span. It seems to have grown by leaps and bounds, not that I didn't understand the girl's predicament before, but she's been able to remain coherent for my entire class and her grades have moved up from the middle of the Ravenclaw pack." A few other professors agreed with this, having noticed the change themselves, all of them were curious as to the development. "Uh," Harry began, as he sheepishly raised his hand, "That was me. She's got the potential to be as strong as Professor Snape in the mind arts, but she's been a wild Legillimens the entire time that she's been here. I helped her build her shields on the train to school and she's been able to keep everyone out, which leads to her actually being able to do her homework and pay attention in class."

The table was silent again until Dumbledore broke the silence, "Indeed? Well done Harry, that must have been nerve wracking for her to be around so many powerful minds for such an extended period. I wonder why nobody noticed the problem before?" Harry nodded and replied, "Well when she talks about snorkacks and such it is hard for us to believe it if she were to tell us that she hears our thoughts. I diagnosed her when she told me that I was 'quiet' compared to everyone else. I used a quick and dirty technique that Elena used with me to teach her how to put up her occlumency shields. It wouldn't work for everyone, but I was like she was at the beginning of the summer, picking up stray thoughts from people in a two mile radius, it was rather extreme." Dumbledore nodded and picked up a small wooden hammer, "Well with that, I am going to call this meeting to a close. Harry don't hesitate to ask anyone for help if you need it." Harry smiled at him and they all moved to escape the staff room, ready for their weekends to begin.

By the time that Harry made it to the Entrance Hall his friends were coming in from the Quiddich pitch. "Harry I have no idea how you handle this thing, but I'm going to learn it if it is the last thing that I do." Ginny prattled excitedly, towing his broom over her shoulder. Ron, Neville, and Hermione were right behind them talking animatedly, "Ginny was amazing up there, but she keeps telling me that she could be better." Ron told him as they made their way up the steps. "Would you come to tryouts with me next weekend? I realize that you can't play but that doesn't mean you can't help me manage the team." Harry grinned at his friend and nodded, "Of course Ron, I'd be happy to help you pick out your new team." Hermione rolled her eyes and Neville let out a laugh as they made their way up the stairs. The boys had a few games of exploding snap while Hermione read ahead in her textbooks and Ginny wrote a letter to her mother. She forced Ron to write a few paragraphs before she sealed it and looked at her watch, "Darn it, entirely too late to head to the Owlrey…unless you want to lend me your cloak Harry?"

Harry shook his head, "Not worth getting caught, and besides I'm a Professor. Hang on and I'll just ask Hedwig to come down here." Unsure if it would work, Harry tapped his owl and sent images of the common room to her. He received a soft 'coo' in return and soon after Hedwig was tapping against the glass. "How did you do that Harry?" Ginny asked as she went to the window and let the snowy owl indoors. "Hedwig do you mind doing a run to the Burrow? I've got a letter for mum." Hedwig bumped the redheaded girl on the forehead gently and grasped the letter in her beak before taking off again out the window. "You know how I explained about 'tapping'?" His friends nodded, they were all but alone in the common room now, most everyone else exhausted from the first week of classes. "I did that with Hedwig but I sent her images of the Common Room and hoped that she'd get the idea. Apparently I have a very smart owl." Ginny thanked him for the loan of his owl and took his turn in Exploding Snap, causing the pile to immolate quickly, ending the game.

Hermione cut in before the boys could complain about the abrupt end to their game, "Harry, can you teach us how to 'tap' one another? I know I did it accidentally a few weeks ago but being able to communicate with you would be dreadfully useful." Harry shrugged and asked everyone to get comfortable sitting around him in a circle by the fire. "Okay, I'm going to tap each of you in turn so that you get a feel for what it is like. You all have rudimentary shields so you might feel something slightly outside of your mind, we can work on building those up later. Eventually you'll learn what different people feel like, for example I can differentiate between the guys and Dumbledore and Elena and Alistair." They nodded and he gazed at them in turn, tapping them and saying "Slytherins sneak slyly, surreptitiously stealing stogies." The all grinned as they received the message, the feeling against their basic shields somehow extremely 'Harry'. Neville frowned for a moment before screwing up his face slightly and Harry felt a tap on his shields. Allowing it entrance he heard his lab partner say, "Hufflepuffs happily help heat hearty hamburgers." Harry smiled broadly, "Good job Nev! That is exactly what you want to do." Hermione looked shocked and said, "Did he just tap you Harry? He's only felt you do it a few times."

Neville smiled sheepishly and said, "Gran had me doing Occlumency lessons over the summer after what happened to Harry at the ministry. No offense mate but she was worried about me being possessed like you were in the Atrium." Harry waved it off and turned to the rest of his friends, "You can all catch up easily to where he is. You are starting your classes with Elena next week and she will have your shields up to snuff in no time." They all nodded excitedly, though Hermione seemed to be peeved that she wasn't even the second one in their group to learn something new.

Harry yawned and stood up, stretching as he did so. "I've had a long week, and I can sleep in tomorrow so I shall. See you guys at lunch." His friends laughed amiably and Harry padded up the stairs to the 6th year dorm. He fell into bed without changing out of his clothes, though he didn't notice when Dobby popped in and, with a snap of his knobby fingers, changed him into pajamas and tucked him in. "Sleep well Harry Potter sir." Whispered the elf, before popping out of the room.

A/N: Again, please leave me a review if you find something that doesn't make sense, I promise you that I didn't mean to do that.