Disclaimer: I do not own the Characters or places in this story unless otherwise stated. I am making no money of this story.
Chapter 3: Occlumency and Spies
After Harry went to his dorm room that night he began reading the book that Professor Snape gave him on manners. Luckily he had charmed it first to look like something else on the outside so that he was able to avoid the awkward questions from his friends. 'this sure is a lot to remember' he thought feeling completely overwhealmed. He decided to just be extra careful and if in doubt watch Draco. Draco seemed to have been brought up with great manners. He had just finished the book when the racket downstairs ended and the other boys came upstairs.
"Where'd you go Harry? We were having a little party downstairs." Draco asked him.
"Sorry mate. It's been a really long and confusing day. I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts for a while."
"What's bugging you?" Vinny Crabbe asked a bit put out that Harry had skipped out on them.
"Nothing really. I woke up this morning just like any other day then all of a sudden Dumbledore shows up on my doorstep telling me I'm a wizard and my parents were murdered by the same maniac who tried to murder me, and I found out about this whole new world I knew nothing about. Add to that the fact that everyone except you guys is trying to run my life and pick my friends and so on and it's just been a very stressful day." Harry replied with a sigh.
Draco sat on Harry's bed with him. "Yeah I guess that is a very long day" he laughed. "Well if you need any help catching up or anything just let me know. It will probably be pretty tough for a while since you haven't grown up with any of this stuff. I can't believe you never knew you were a wizard. That's crazy"
Harry laughed with the other boy. "Yeah my family is kinda magic phobic so it was always a taboo subject. You should have seen the look on my aunt's face when dumbledore showed up. It was hilarious!" He did a passable expression of the face and everyone started laughing. The boys stayed up just talking and having fun for another hour or two before they all fell asleep.
The next morning was a flurry of activity as they all tried to get dressed and showered and ready for breakfast on time. The dicipline required in Slytherin was a different sort than most of the first years were used to. They were all to be ready by seven am and then they lined up in two lines first years at the front followed by the second years then the third years and so on. They then followed Professor Snape into the great hall and kept their lines as they split to each side of the table. All of the students watched as Snape went to the head table and they were seated after he was. The first years from the other houses watched in awe. They had never seen such precision. Their houses never did anything like that. They just wandered in whenever they felt like it.
Across the hall Ron huffed and remarked to his friends "Stupid Slytherins. Think they are so much better than us but they are just a bunch of pure blood racists. I can't believe Potter got stuck over there. Doesn't seem to like it much does he?" He looked over at Harry who was looking down at his plate and not talking to anyone.
'This sucks' Harry thought bitterly. 'I can't talk to my friends all day. I better start looking around for people to make friends with. I hope Dumbledore will be happy if I just pick someone else in Gryffindor to be friends with. I really don't like Ron and it will be really hard to pretend to like him. Maybe his twin brothers wouldn't be too bad.'
Headmaster Dumbledore arrived at that moment and looked around the hall and upon seeing Harry apparently at odds with his housemates smiled a smug smile of satisfaction.
After breakfast was finished Snape came down from the head table along with the other heads of house to hand out class schedules starting with the first years since they were all the same as were the second years. After handing Harry his schedule he said in a low voice "you have most of your classes with Gryffindor so you should take the opportunity to make some Gryffindor friends so the headmaster doesn't get suspicious."
"Yes sir." Harry mumbled with his head still down looking at his schedule.
Monday: Double potions 9am – 11am
Transfiguration 11am-12pm
Lunch 12pm-2pm
Charms 2pm-3pm
Herbology 3pm-4pm
History of Magic 4pm-5pm
Dinner 5pm-7pm
The rest of the schedule looked much the same except each day there was a different class that was a double period. As Professor Snape said most of the classes were with Gryffindor. He would just have to hope that he found someone other than Weasley to sit with in class.
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He entered his double potions class a bucket of nerves but found out that he didn't have to worry about ending up next to Ron. Apparently the redhead thought that ending up in Slytherin was the worst treachery imaginable and could be heard remarking about it before class. "Well Mr. Weasley since you think Slytherin is so horrible that you would shun a friend for making it into my house you will be stuck working with a Slytherin for the rest of the year" Snape sneered as he opened the door. "In" He said in a very perturbed tone. When the class had found their seats he walked up to the front of the class and gave his usual first year speech.
"We are going to have a little experiment this year at the express wishes of the headmaster. Each Slytherin is going to be paired with a Gryffindor for the remainder of the year." He then went about announcing the pairings. He thought about putting Potter with Weasley since he was sure the headmaster would prefer that but decided that it wasn't worth putting Harry through that after everything else he had been through so decided to put Weasley with Malfoy and Potter with another Gryffindor first year named Dean Thomas. Thomas was a muggle born so wouldn't be so far ahead of Potter and he seemed like a good kid for a Gryffindor.
After the pairing were announced and the students finished changing seats to be with their partners Snape decided to have a little fun with Weasley. "Mr Weasley, what would you get if you added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
"I don't know sir."
"well well. And you a pureblood. Imagine your parents disappointment." He swept his robes around almost hitting Ron in the face with them. "For your information Mr. Weasely those two ingredients creating a sleeping draught so powerful it is known as the draught of the living death." he spun on the rest of the class. "why aren't you writing this down?" he sneered.
Harry thought this wasn't a very good beginning to his new school year. And he had just decided that he almost liked Snape. At the end of class, however, his hiccoughing solution was pronounced passable. He decided he did like Dean Thomas though and hoped the headmaster would be happy with his having just one Gryffindor friend since the only other Gryffindor boy was Seamus Finnegan who was just a menace. He had already blown up three cauldrons in the one class. Maybe he would try to get a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff friend too since the headmaster seemed okay with those two houses.
After a difficult day of classes and a ton of homework he trudged back to his common room to find Professor Snape waiting for him. "May I have a word Potter?" and walked back into his office. Harry followed and after closing the door he began. "I would like your permission to begin teaching you the art of occlumency. It is used to shield your mind from anyone wanting to see your thoughts and memories without your permission. The headmaster is very accomplished at this and may look for information on how close you are to the Slytherins and other information you may not wish him to have. It should only take a week or so for you to become profficient and in the meantime we can tell the rest of the house that you are studying with me in order to catch up to the level that your peers are magically. Since most of Slytherin house is pureblood they have been raised with magic as a daily part of their lives."
"That would be great sir. Would you also help me to catch up with the magic part too?"
"I could if you wish. We really shouldn't study occlumency for more than 30 minutes at a time since it can cause headaches for longer periods so we can do 30 minutes of occlumency and then 30 minutes helping you to catch up." At Harry's nod he continued. "I would also like it if you would come to me with any problems be it with students, faculty, or even needing to talk about anything in your life like your relatives, home life, whatever. I may seem like a real git to the students..." Harry snickered at this, "but I really do care. Especially about my little snakes."
"Yes sir. Everything has been great so far except..." Harry trailed off.
"Go on"
"Well it's hard having to pretend all the time like the Slytherins are so mean to me and that I hate them and having to pretend to be friends with everyone else. It's like I can't be myself."
"I can certianly understand that Harry. I wish there was a better way. I'll think on it and see if I can come up with something else we can do."
"Thank you sir. When will we be starting our private lessons?"
"I was hoping to start tonight if you are up for it. The sooner we can keep the headmaster out of your head the better. I was also hoping I could look at some of your memories of your childhood while we work since the only way to teach you is to look at your memories anyway and I'm sure your childhood was less than happy since Dumbledore himself chose your home."
Harry was very apprehensive about this but decided it couldn't hurt so they began their lesson.
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Contrary to Snape's beliefs it only took Harry three days to master occlumency which was lucky for them since the headmaster called Harry to his office after classes on Thursday evening.
"Harry Harry Harry," he began shaking his head. "I feel I owe you an apology. I can't believe the hat placed you in Slytherin especially after all the trouble you have had with those from that house in the past. I can tell it is very difficult for you there, but unfortunately there is nothing we can do. Once the hat has chosen that is the final word. I am glad to see that you have made some friends despite this though. I have noticed you speaking with Dean Thomas frequently. He is a good boy."
"Yes sir." Harry said looking at his feet. "It is hard to be in Slytherin knowing that they all follow the dark lord and all, but they aren't mean to me or anything. They just ignore me and I ignore them. I'm glad that not everyone thinks that I'm horrible just because I'm a Slytherin like Ron does."
"Mr Weasley? He won't speak to you anymore? That is disturbing. I will have to have a talk with him about loyalty. You are dismissed Harry." As Harry got up to leave Dumbledore said as an afterthought, "By the way, you may feel free to come to me with any problems you have whether school related or otherwise."
"Yes sir," Harry said though what he thought was 'fat chance old man'.
After Harry left his office Dumbledore let out a long sigh. He had tried to read Harry but the boy was shielding. Either someone had taught him Occlumency which was very disturbing especially as it was so quick, or the boy was a natural occlumens which was almost unheard of. 'I don't think this is going very well' He thought to himself. 'I may have to try to eliminate him anyway. I can't risk him finding out that I really am Lord Voldemort.' At that thought it dawned on him that the only person other than himself capable of teaching the boy occlumency was Professor Snape. Hmm. He would have to keep a much closer eye on Severus. If he was really on Tom's side and just spying on him for the fool he would surely make him pay.