Chapter 15

Well I'm officially back! I thank all of you for showing me so much support and being so understanding. It was so nice not to have one extra thing to worry about during finals! And to the couple of comments left telling me I made a mistake following the movie plot instead of the book, just so you wonderful individuals know, I did spend quite a while getting the beginning of this story's plot to follow the books as well as I could with the large changes I was making to the OC. The movie plot and book plot are pretty similar so please, for all of us, stop being such a stuck up ass.

Thanks3

Merlin sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "I'm sorry Harry what happened?"

"Um, I don't think Snape will teach me occlumency anymore" Harry answered a bit sheepishly.

"Harry, Professor Snape is the most qualified person to teach you. Why in the world would he refuse to do so?"

"Because he's a bitter old git," muttered Harry.

"As much as that may be true at some times, you still must respect your elders Harry," said Merlin with a small smile.

Harry's face colored a bit, "so who's going to teach me if Professor Snape won't?"

Merlin sighed, "I guess I will have to do."

"You?" asked Harry.

Merlin laughed lightly, "Well I am the only other person in the school that even knows occlumency so it seems the task falls on me. Are you still able to meet at 8 o'clock every Thursday night?"

Harry nodded, "I'm, uh, sorry for the inconvenience Professor."

Merlin smiled warmly at his student, "no inconvenience Harry. I'm happy to teach you if Professor Snape isn't a good match."

Harry nodded and stood to leave, "Thank you Sir."

Merlin watched the heavy door close behind Harry and once again he was alone in his office.

The fire crackled warmly in the corner and Merlin sighed. A strange feeling of peace washed over him and he took a sip of his tea. The earl grey flavor coated his mouth and he smiled. He remembered trying the tea for the first time next to Charles Grey* as the man waited anxiously for his opinion. Merlin had never found a flavor he enjoyed more. It seemed that everything around him had some sort of history he was somehow connected to. Merlin wondered if the world would be different if he had died with Arthur that day. How much had he affected history?

Would the only change be an absence of Earl Grey tea; or much more?

Sometimes Merlin would ache for a normal life. He did admit, life was much easier in the present day but he would always miss his life in the dark ages.

"What was that again Severus?" the Dark Lord asked.

"Potter has been having nightmares. His mental state is a bit fragile and he rarely sleeps more than three hours a night," Snape repeated.

"Would you say the boy would be easier to manipulate at this point in time?"

"Most likely" answered Snape, a bit suspiciously.

Voldemort smiled, "perfect. It seems Harry and I share a connection. He has been seeing bits and pieces of my mind and it seems to, ah, unnerved him slightly."

"Yes sir, but why is this important?" asked Yaxley.

"Well I can exploit it of course" answered Voldemort with a sharp look. Yaxley shrank back in his chair slightly and nodded. "From what I've come to understand is that fragments of my thoughts and emotions are slipping into Potter's mind." Here he gave a very pointed look to Snape, who gave no indication that this was his doing.

"I plan to set a trap by leaking some of my 'thoughts' to Potter, making him think someone close to him is in grave danger. We all know that the noble hero will do anything to save his friends. Then we will use him to obtain the prophecy and I will dispose of him."

Most the death eaters nodded enthusiastically at their master's plan, but only one kept his emotions in check.

"My Lord, how will you control which thoughts escape to Potter, how will you forge the fake ones?" asked Severus Snape, eyes slightly narrowed.

"With your help of course Severus" answered Voldemort with a blood curdling smile, "you are a master of the mind after all."

"Yes, but so are you My Lord" Snape countered.

As soon as it appeared Voldemort's smile vanished, "I will advise you to stop questioning me Severus."

Snape nodded and sat back in his chair, avoiding the eyes of every other person in the room. Voldemort droned on about his plans for another quarter hour before Snape was suddenly drawn back into the meeting.

"...Emrys?" Voldemort was saying. Snape sat up in his chair and watched intently as Malfoy began to speak.

"He has joined the Order" was all he said. Voldemort stiffened in his throne and any human emotion from his face vanished, replaced by a terrifying, cold rage.

"Severus, what is your report?"

"From the files we have discovered, Ben Emrys is 23 years old. Although from how he speaks of his adventures he is either older than he says or lying about what he has done. He most likely belonged to the Slytherin house..." Snape trailed off as a collective gasp echoed around the table.

"For now this is all we need, thank you Severus" said Voldemort, "as we all know now the mysterious new teacher at Hogwarts is a blood traitor." The rage on the Dark Lord's face was more than almost everyone at the table had ever seen before.

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"Harry!" yelled Hermione as the boy who lived suddenly collapsed onto the floor. Other students in the hallway stopped to stare and a few rushed forward to help Hermione.

"What happened?" asked a seventh year Ravenclaw neither Gryffindor had ever spoken to before.

"I don't know, he just collapsed," answered Hermione, "his head has been hurting for the past few hours but..."

The Ravenclaw nodded and helped Hermione hoist Harry up off the cold ground. They draped his arms over their shoulders and began to hurry up toward the hospital wing. After a long trek up many flights of stairs, the three arrived outside the looming wooden doors.

"I think...I will leave you...here if that's...alright" the Ravenclaw panted. Hermione nodded and thanked the boy, wiping the thin layer of sweat off her forehead. She pushed open the double doors and hauled Harry into the room.

"Yes?" asked Madam Pomfrey, "what happened!" she exclaimed as she turned around.

"He just collapsed Ma'am, he said his head had been hurting for a couple of hours and then he grabbed his head and just...collapsed" Hermione attempted to explain while the healer took her friend from her.

"I see..." Madam Pomfrey sighed, "thank you for bringing him here Ms. Granger."

Hermione nodded and moved to a corner of the room. After situating Harry in a bed the Healer turned to face her again.

"You may come visit later Ms. Granger. I'm sure you and all Mr. Potter's friends will want to mob him as soon as he wakes up" she said firmly, but not unkindly. Hermione nodded and left the room slowly, looking over her shoulder to gaze at her sleeping companion.

Unsure of what to do she wandered around the castle for a while, not in the mood to socialize with others at the moment.

She was about to pass by the library once again but instead she stopped just a few steps short. Reading always calmed her and there were still some interesting books she had found that Hermione had yet to read. Madam Pince nodded at the bookworm politely as she walked into the enormous room and Hermione gave a small smile back.

She wandered over to one of the more hidden bookshelves and began to scan. Her eyes rested on a book about myths, legends, and theories about wizarding history. She had seen it a few times before, but had never gotten the chance to read it (that and she wasn't too fond of books not based on hard facts). She pulled the enormous book from it's dusty place on the shelf and began to read. Although most of the book was obviously just speculation, a few passages caught Hermione's eye.

"Horcrux?" she muttered.

"A powerful object in which a dark witch or wizard has hidden a fragment of his or her soul for the purpose of obtaining immortality?" Hermione's eyes widened as she read on.

"The only known creator of a Horcrux was Herpo the Foul" Hermione narrowed her eyes a bit, "definitely sounds foul."

Bookmarking the information in her mind she read on. Some passages were written in Latin or another strange language she did not recognize. Where had this book come from? She continued to scan pages, seeing information she already knew. There was an extremely detailed description on every known type of dragon, better than any she had seen before.

"This would have been useful last year..." she said, turning the page.

"Druids?" she mumbled, lost in the pages. She had heard of the ancient magic users before, but she couldn't place where.

"Although the most well known Druids resided in England, the most dense population of the ancient wizards was located in Scotland. Most Druid prophecies and legends have been lost to the ages, but still a few remain. The most notable of which is the tale of Albion" Hermione read, "I've never heard of Albion before."

She felt her curiosity peak as she read the next sentence, "This is better known as the tale of King Arthur and Merlin."

"The Druids predicted the birth of a powerful warlock a hundred years before the child was born. They knew that one day the King and his Sorcerer would one day create the land of Albion, a land of peace that encompasses all of Great Britain. Merlin, whose Druid name was Emrys, was to continue the quest even after King Arthur died. The two..." Hermione trailed off and her eyes widened.

"Druid name was...Emrys?" she said and suddenly everything fell into place.

"Oh my god!" she said, much too loudly. She caught herself and looked around, but no one came. Looking around one last time, she slipped the book into her bag and stood to exit the library. Madam Pince gave her a nod as she left, which Hermione attempted to calmly return although she knew she must have looked rather frantic. The witch practically ran to the Gryffindor common room and sprinted to her dormitory once she was inside. Luckily, her dorm mates were down at dinner and she was left to theorize in peace.

"Okay Hermione let's look at the facts: his magical power was off the charts, he's a Slytherin but a nice one, he says he knows people that were alive almost a hundred years ago...and...and...a book says the Druid word for Merlin is Emrys. Professor Ben Emrys" she muttered to herself as she paced across the room, "oh gosh I wish I could talk to Dumbledore about this. I mean. I can't confront Professor Emrys, can I?"

Suddenly Lavender and Parvati burst into the room, smiling and laughing.

"Oh, hi Hermione" said Lavender with a smile. Hermione smiled back and the two girls went back to their gossip while Hermione turned back to the book on the desk in front of her.

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"Now Harry, I want you to close your eyes and relax. Think of the moment before you go to sleep. Stay conscious but clear your mind of all thoughts and emotions" said Merlin calmly, looking at the young boy sitting at the chair across from his desk. He waited for a few minutes before speaking again.

"Now, I want you to imagine a wall. Make it as strong as you can and hide all your thoughts and emotions behind it." Harry imagined a brick wall in his mind and only a void in front of it and everything else in his mind behind it. Merlin smiled.

"Very good Mr. Potter. I'm going to walk you through some exercises to help you control your emotions and clear your mind. I want you to do these whenever you start to get a headache, feel sudden spikes of emotion, and before you go to sleep."

Harry opened his eyes and nodded. Already his lesson with Professor Emrys had been more productive than any of his lessons with Snape.

They spent the next hour working through the exercises and when Harry stood to leave his teacher's office he felt more at peace than he had since Cedric's death.

"Oh I'm sorry Mr. Potter I forgot to ask, how are you feeling? I heard about your little, ah, incident yesterday" Merlin said, looking at his student with a worried look.

Harry laughed uncomfortably, "yeah, I've been having some light headed spells lately but Madam Pomfrey gave me some potions to take so I'm sure it's fine now." Merlin was a bit worried at how quickly he brushed off such a worrying incident but instead of pressing him further he simply smiled and bade him goodnight.

Harry left the room in high spirits, almost excited to do his extra homework. If it made him this calm before bed every time then maybe he would finally be able to sleep well again. The prospect of a good night's sleep boosted his spirits more. As he entered the common room he even caught himself humming quietly.

"Harry?" asked a small voice from the corner of the common room. Harry whipped his head around to see the youngest Wesley child studying in a plush red armchair in a quiet corner.

"Ginny!" Harry said with a smile, "How are you?"

She smiled at him sleepily and shifted the papers that surrounded her, "just finishing an essay for Charms. You know, generally having a great time."

Harry laughed; more than he had in a long time, "need any help?"

Ginny shook her head, "I'm pretty much finished, although I wouldn't mind some company."

Harry smiled, grabbing a chair and dragging it over to face his friend. He missed the small dusting of red that adorned Ginny's cheeks while he worked.

"Y-you seem like you're in a better mood than normal" she commented.

"I don't know" Harry sighed, "I think it's just the potions Madam Pomfrey gave me."

Ginny scribbled down another few sentences before answering, "No, I mean back to how you used to be before..." she trailed off.

"Oh...thanks I guess..." Harry said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.

"Sorry I didn't mean it that way" Ginny said, trying as hard as she could to hide her embarrassed blush.

"It's fine...Ron and Hermione have told me the same thing...just in a more blunt way" Harry said with a small smile.

"I know it's been a rough year Harry, it's been hard for everyone. Not that any of us can actually understand what you've been though. But I mean...personally...I think you're doing a great job" Ginny said, her eyes determined and face serious.

Harry sat in silence for a few moments, before giving Ginny an incredulous look, "t-thanks Ginny. You're actually the first person to tell me that."

Ginny smiled happily and went back to finishing her essay. Harry stood and climbed the stairs to his dormitory. It was still rather early but he found his eyes drooping quite a bit.

"I guess I can just take a little nap" he muttered, collapsing down on his bed.

In later years Ron would joke that Harry had pretty much died for a day or so and as much as Harry would deny it, it was the best sleep he had ever gotten in his entire life.

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Well there we go guys! A pretty action packed chapter if I do say so myself. I've been making a general rule for myself not to upload any chapters under 2.5k words. I have about 30-40 chapters planned for this entire story, but I was wondering if you guys would rather I combine chapters so there will be a few less but the one's I do update will be longer. I'm not quite sure what I want to do yet so I guess just comment your opinions. I'm so happy about how much people love this story so far, it really makes my day.

See you all next update!