Author's Notes: It seems that people don't like Het much. At least in my case people seem to enjoy my slashy fics more... Although I was wondering if it's just general hate for the canon pairings in the case of this fic. I can't say I'm fond of the canon pairings, but I still wanted to try a shot at dealing with them, plus I do wanna write my Ginny adventure fic since the crazy idea popped into my head. This chapter is the first to have quite more writing than the original. Next chapter will change a lot in comparison to the original too. Better not to mention what the original had for chapter 9 as I hope now it will be better. I do know that last time chapter 9 chased many readers away, but the fic still ended with a nice amount of reviews. Can't say the same (in reviews) will happen with this version even when I'm trying to make it better... LOL

Song: 'Life' by Yui (From Bleach)

Ch. 8: Occlumency and Getting Along

Ron was very nervous after reading the letter from his siblings. "Mum is really going to have my head if the Ministry finds us and takes me to her. I can't believe we were exposed like that!"

Hermione gave him killer eyes before replying: "It's your fault for suggesting us to have some sort of celebration in a Karaoke Bar! This is very bad!" Hermione then looked at Snape as if waiting for him to support her somehow, but he seemed lost in the copy of The Daily Prophet.

"What are you reading?" asked Harry curiously.

Hermione, who was closer to the ex Potions master peeked at the paper, gasped, and then pleaded: "Don't show it to him, sir!"

Snape locked his onyx orbs with Hermione's brown ones: "Why not, Miss Granger?"

"You'll only make him feel miserab--"

Snape cut the Hermione's words. "Here Potter! Have a look at what you caused," he said heartlessly as he passed the paper to Harry.

Harry's hands were trembling as he held the newspaper in his hands. He shook his head as if doing it would make the article disappear, but knowing very well that it wouldn't change anything. "Why..." He let the paper fall to the floor and silently walked to a corner and crouched. He could feel the knot at his throat, but the tears wouldn't come. He simply swallowed it all and stared into a wall.

"Bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed as he picked up the newspaper and saw the article. "That's the red haired girl that sang with Harry on stage! Why would they kill her? And in such a way!"

"It's possible that some Death Eater thought she somehow knew Potter as he even held her hand on stage. The Dark Lord's follower must have been quite angered by his error and that's why he ripped the girl apart and decided to perform an autopsy as a bonus." Snape almost sounded as if he was enjoying how the girl had died and been found without her vital organs.

"You murderer!" Harry spoke all of a sudden from his corner. "Don't you even care? That--" Harry's voice broke. "That could have been Ginny if I had kept my relationship with her!" Harry covered his face and Hermione ran to his friend, knelt in front of him, and trapped him in a strong hug.

Ron blanched at Harry's words. He hadn't even considered that detail, but he was now adding two and two. Harry had been drunk and had chosen to place himself beside the red haired girl because in his drunken state he had been reminded of Ginny. "So that's why you broke up with her? To protect her! She wouldn't explain anything-- Oh mate..."

"Pathetic," Snape said harshly. "Always trying to be noble, but in the end you brought death upon some stupid Muggle girl."

"STOP THAT!" Hermione surprised them by yelling at the top of her lungs. "Don't you have any feelings? And it's not Harry's fault! Don't you dare try to make him feel guilty! Don't you know that he has suffered enough?"

"He should learn that he is not the only one that suffers in this world!" Snape stood looking almost majestic in his usual billowing black robes. "He is not the only one that has suffered! Do you want me to sympathize with him? Who has ever sympathized with me, Granger? Who has ever cared that I'm trapped as a Death Eater, having to kill even small children against my will just because some old fool wanted me to remain as a spy? Have you three even sympathized with me in how I was forced to kill the annoying headmaster? Do not expect any pity from me! Learn from your actions and don't act stupidly next time!" Snape sat down, leaving a gaping Ron, a still angered Hermione holding Harry, and a numbed Harry Potter trapped in the girl's arms.

XxXxX

The days passed and Hermione and Ron seemed to be getting closer to each other. After one week of living together in the cottage, one day outside Harry had been exploring a bit and when he came back he had noticed his two friends kissing behind a tree. Harry was shocked even when it was something that he had actually expected to happen sometime soon. He felt uncomfortable and afraid of interrupting his friends so he left for a walk. It was early in the afternoon and Harry soon spotted Snape picking up some plants. "What are you doing?"

"Picking up some ingredients... for potions." Snape gave Harry a strange look and continued looking for different types of plants and sap from diverse trees that he collected in vials. He saved them in a strange black basket. "Want to see something?"

Harry was startled by the question, but silently followed the man. Even though Severus didn't want to show any care for Potter, inside he did care and wanted to deviate Harry's thoughts from idiotically blaming himself for the crude reality that surrounded him. They walked for about twenty minutes and arrived at a beautiful small lake. It was an amazing view and Harry touched the water. It was quite cold because of the atmosphere that protected it in that forest. "It's beautiful..."

Snape placed the basket on the ground and touched the water with his wand. "Touch it now."

Harry noticed that the water had vapor coming from it and when he touched it, it was hot. "Hot spring?" He looked at Snape curiously.

Severus removed his clothes and entered the water. Harry just stared timidly. "The water won't eat you, Potter."

Harry still felt uncomfortable at the thought of exposing himself in front of the git, but he was no coward so he removed his clothes too. He entered the water, but kept a fair distance between himself and Severus. Harry relaxed in the hot water and suddenly grabbed his left shoulder and started to massage it. It hurt ever since the wolf had jumped on him nights before plus he had accumulated quite an amount of stress in his body.

"May I?" Harry stared at Snape in disbelief, but nodded. Snape got behind him and started massaging Harry's shoulders. He then took some of the hot water and poured it over Potter's back, and then started to work all of the back muscles in a very delicate way, but suddenly roughened.

"Ouch!" Harry exclaimed and glared at his ex teacher. He could swear that Snape looked like he was stifling a laugh and feigning innocence before continuing with the process.

Harry was losing himself as he relaxed. He felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier, but Snape shook him and whispered in an angry tone: "Do not fall asleep here, Potter, unless you want to drown." Severus then stopped the massage session and distanced himself from Harry. "Better?" HHarry nodded feeling ashamed. Soon he saw his whole body was red and figured that he was spending too much time in the hot water, but didn't care about looking like a boiled shrimp.

"Why didn't you ever married and had kids?" Harry voiced the strange question that had been nagging at him.

"I guess your father chased all the girls away from me while in Hogwarts. He and Black made sure not even a fly would approach me. Does it make you feel better about yourself?"

"No, it doesn't," Harry replied with a frown. "You don't have to assume that I'm like my father. He didn't even raise me, you know? I almost had to raise myself because the Dursleys definitely didn't do any job at it."

"You were still pampered with those relatives of yours. I'm sure the old coot Dumbledore would have never placed you in a bad environment. After all, you were his favorite brat from the start."

"Oh really?" Harry started to laugh sarcastically. "Pampered, huh? Now that's a good one! But no use blaming Dumbledore after he is dead, right? Plus in the end my aunt seems to have changed a bit." The last words came in a whisper. Harry suddenly raised his bright green eyes and locked them with Snape's. "Wanna try? Wanna see for yourself? You've always enjoyed your little intrusions into my mind, haven't you? Wanting to make fun of me and my childhoo--" Harry gasped as he did feel the intrusion. He didn't think Snape would seriously do it. He could see images of him being neglected. There was a baby with a terrible nappy rash due to irresponsibility in his relatives changing him; Vernon being furious because the baby wouldn't stop crying as the baby boy's skin was scaling and bleeding. There was an angry Vernon, furious as a Health Visitor almost wanted to call Social Services due to baby Harry's state, and then Petunia starting to change the nappies more often because if Social Services came they would take baby Dudders too.

The baby scenery changed and there was Vernon beating a toddler Harry with a leather belt because the toddler was being potty trained and had accidentally pooed on his briefs.

Flashes of Vernon mercilessly smacking and beating Harry for anything and everything kept coming along with how Harry slept in a cupboard under the stairs, and how he was malnourished, often denied of food as punishment for who knew what. There was also Petunia trying to make Dudley's clothes miraculously fit Harry as the other boy doubled Harry in weight. All of Harry's terrible childhood kept coming over and over until Harry screamed and the barrage of images disappeared. In seconds Harry was out of the water and yelled at Snape: "Enjoying yourself, you bastard? F-ck you!" Harry used his wand to perform aloud a quick drying charm and to summon his clothes to dress him, then fled. Snape simply looked shocked as Harry's childhood had been nothing like what he had expected to see.

XxXxX

During their second week of living in the cottage, Snape decided to train his ex-students in Occlumency. For some reason he had decided that the three of them should learn it, but he didn't give them explanations on why. Hermione suspected that Snape was afraid one of them could get captured and Ron and Harry decided to agree with her as it was the only explanation that would make sense. Harry was still wary around the ex-teacher after what had happened in the magical lake turned into hot spring. At least Snape had had the sense of not speaking about it. In fact, they were not speaking at all.

The first day, none of them managed to block Snape's invasions. He could easily enter their minds and see anything he wanted, something that started to make the three friends quite uncomfortable. Harry, who was almost used to it, was at least relieved about the fact that Snape seemed to be getting into good memories from Hogwarts somehow. Still, Snape ended up screaming at them as he discovered the Polyjuice event among other things in their minds. Ron whispered to the other two after a while: "At least he can't take points from Gryffindor or expel us..." Hermione still looked ashamed and Harry frankly didn't care.

On the second day, Hermione managed to block Snape three times in a row. Snape was truly amazed with Miss Granger, but he wasn't ready to admit it. Harry managed to block Severus once, while Ron couldn't manage any blocking.

The third day gave a great victory to Hermione. She was so good in keeping her senses that she easily managed to empty her mind of emotions. In three days, she had mastered Occlumency, but the boys were still having a hard time with it.

The fourth day Hermione was still perfectly able to block all of Snape's intrusion attempts into her mind. Ron managed to block Snape twice, and Harry once. For some reason Harry wasn't able to empty himself of emotions. A barrage of thoughts always entered his mind causing him to lose control. Severus, who had been quite calm so far, was getting impatient: "You have to empty yourself of emotions, Potter! Don't you understand how important this is?"

"I can't do it! I can't! It's just impossible!"

"That is exactly the reason why you will get yourself killed, Potter! The Dark Lord will know all your spells before you even try using them! It is not impossible! Granger already mastered it! Even Weasley has blocked me twice! You want to get killed? So be it!"

"Go to hell!" Harry was now angry by the way Snape had snapped at him and ran outside of the cottage leaving his friends with worried faces.

Hermione approached Severus as calm as she could. The man sat on a chair with his face in his hands. He looked tired and Hermione wondered how all that running and all that had happened had affected the older man. He was certainly no teenager like them. "Sir? Perhaps if you are a bit softer on him... The way you snapped, you cannot possibly think that he'll just accept what you are trying to teach him if you snap at him like that."

Severus looked at Hermione and she noticed that there was sadness in his eyes. "I don't know why Albus did this to me. I cannot deal with that boy."

"So far you've been doing a great job, sir. I know you can deal with Harry, I know you can," Hermione tried to encourage the wizard.

"Yeah, it was just today that it kind of got out of control... Harry will be alright." Ron put his arm then around the girl's waist.

The 5th day, Severus tried to be more patient, but Harry didn't trust him and the hate that resurfaced the day before kept the boy from blocking the mental attacks. Severus didn't snap once and as Harry softened the attacks were less abrupt. By nighttime, Harry had managed to block Snape's Legilimency five times in a row, but he was exhausted.

"You can rest now. Everything will be fine." Snape then left for the kitchen to prepare a quick dinner. Harry followed Severus Snape with his eyes, wondering if the man was sick as he hadn't yelled at him.

XxXxX

The third week had arrived and they knew that by the end of it they were supposed to go to a Ball. Severus hadn't explained yet anything about that little fact. The teens didn't know how they would dress or act, what kind of Ball was it, anything. Then several owls arrived with packages. Harry, Ron, and Hermione carefully observed their Severus while he unwrapped the packages and smirked. "My old friend has sent us proper attire for the Ball as he had promised in his letter to me two weeks ago. I had described your heights and weights and with just that, he was able to work something out. You can take a look."

The youths started to check the odd clothing and Severus smirked when he noticed their expressions. Hermione gave Snape a strange look: "These look like they belong to older times... Like maybe two centuries ago? They seem like fairy tale type of clothing."

"It's their style, Miss Granger, and that is how you are expected to dress at such a Ball."

Ron had gone pale and Harry showed concern for his friend. "What's wrong, Ron? You look like you've seen a ghost!"

Ron, with whitened lips, glanced at Snape in disbelief: "It's a Vampire Ball, is it? They are the only ones with these strange tastes. My dad has told me about their style."

"I'm glad you can sometimes show you have little bits of knowledge Weasley. I always thought you were a lost cause," Snape gave the redhead a devilish smile.

"Then it is a Vampire Ball? For real?" Hermione's eyes sparkled in anxiety and hunger of seeing something new to her that she would never be able to appreciate in the Muggle world. Severus nodded with a bored expression.

XxXxX

In two days, they would be going to the Vampire Ball. Their backpacks were ready with everything they were carrying with them as Severus' friend had invited them to stay over at his mansion after the Ball, plus Snape had told them to be ready at all times in case the cottage was somehow traced.

The four were relaxing at the lake, turned again into a Hot Spring. For decency's sake, they were all in towels. Hermione's of course was the biggest towel because she had more to cover. She was still dreaming about the Vampire Ball, while her seemingly boyfriend was dreading it. Harry didn't even know what to think, as he didn't know much about vampires.

During the days past, Severus had kept them mastering Occlumency and so far, they were doing quite well. It was amazing how they could learn from the harsh Potions master when he couldn't take points from them and when he didn't have Slytherin students to favor over them.

Hermione was the first to leave the 'hot spring' with Ron following behind. There was silence for a while between Severus and Harry, but the man soon left too, but not without a warning first. "Don't stay too long. There are many creatures roaming in this forest even if they tend to hide during the day. You can also pass out in a hot spring." Harry nodded and as the man's silhouette disappeared he thought about how Snape was actually standing them and vice versa. The situation seemed too unlikely, but Harry was alright with it for now. He still wondered if Snape would betray them at some point, but wanted to push the thought away. He still didn't trust the spy too much.

As he found himself alone, Harry submerged and resurfaced, but just as he resurfaced, he almost screamed when he saw a man right in front of him. Harry's heart could have easily been beating at 180 per minute.

The man smiled showing rotten teeth. He was dressed in rags and started to smell Harry's neck and shoulders. Soon he spoke in a raspy voice: "Young blood. Smells so good." Harry trembled as the dirty man that had joined him in the water licked his neck and right cheek like a dog would. The man looked at Harry carefully and gasped as he noticed the scar that was showing, partly hidden in dripping wet strands of black hair. "The Boy-Who-Lived... I could make you into one of us on the next full moon..."

"No... Thank you..." Harry found himself refusing the offer as politely as he could, but with a high-pitched voice. Remus Lupin could be a werewolf too, but the ex-Marauder had always tried to fit in with humans. The werewolf that Harry had in front of him had obviously been in the wild too long.

The ragged man got out of the water and left running like an animal on all fours instead of on his own two legs. Harry needed two minutes to recover, but as soon as he was able to, he got out of the water, dressed, and ran as fast as he could towards the cottage. That was definitely their last day there in the enchanted forest as he had been recognized.

As soon as Harry arrived at the cottage, he grabbed Snape by the arm. "We have to leave! Now!"

Severus could see that Harry was in a nervous state, but he had to ask: "What happened?"

"A werewolf... At the lake... He recognized me... My scar..." Harry pointed at his scar as if he wasn't making himself clear.

Snape punched the wall hard and swore. Then he moved to the others. "We'll leave. NOW!"

They took all their things and followed Severus through the forest. They were lucky it was still daytime, not because of the werewolves, but because of the other creatures that inhabited the forest. The werewolves at that point were not a severe threat, as it wasn't going to be a full moon yet. They had been walking, but after a while, Severus perceived footsteps behind them. Their pursuers were quite far, but they had to accelerate their pace. In minutes, they found themselves running yet again.

While they ran Ron asked Snape: "Werewolves in human form?"

They ran quite a bit more before Severus replied: "Probably, but they might have Death Eaters with them. The Dark Lord has been trying to get the packs under his control. You must have seen Fenrir Greyback the night that... that night in Hogwarts." Ron nodded in understanding as they kept their quick pace, needing to abandon the forest as soon as they could.

A person told me that readers tend to forget to review. Still, I want to avoid putting 'Please Review' after every chapter because I think people find it annoying. Not sure.