Disclaimer :- I do not own any fictional character

I do not own Harry Potter. ( i wish i did)

Legilimens-Chapter 10

The days went by with Harry noticing the decrease in attention directed towards him, the novelty of Harry Potter at Hogwarts dieing off. Harry started preparing some of the plans he had to set in motion. He needed the old man off his back before he could perform more advanced magic. The Hufflepuff dorms true to their motto had several warded rooms to practice magic, the only rules being that a seventh year had to be present during practice. Harry made full use of it to make several allies in upper years, many times asking them for pointers although he did not need any, not because he was arrogant but because of the huge amount of information available to him. Tom Riddle did not like doing things halfway, he read as many books as he could and then practiced, drawing his own conclusions, making extensive notes that could be written in form of books without unnecessary information such as history of the spells, name of inventors etc. A big contrast to Hermione Granger who read theory to form opinions, then believing them she practiced magic. The girls simply did not have an opinion of her own, yet she had a massive stubborn streak. Being stubborn could be both a boon and a bane, it could take you to the top of the world or it could get you killed. Harry decided for now to leave the Granger girl alone, she had very little redeeming qualities and would not make a strong ally. Sure the girl was a hard worker, and book smart, but she could not be called intelligent. Tom Riddle and Dumbledore were intelligent, even Ronald Weasley as much as Harry loathed admitting, was intelligent in his chosen field, that is chess. He had seen a game Weasley was playing on Saturday morning in the castle grounds and the boy was brilliant when he applied himself at it. Granger on the other hand had very good memory for a person who had little to no training in mind arts. She meditated the mundane way but it was good enough to give her a rudimentary grasp at occulmency, She had a very organized mind for someone who did not do it deliberately, but she simply did not have imagination, she was the perfect material for someone who wanted an assistant, she could help others but she lacked what it took to do something on her own, she would not betray you and steal your research. She was loyal too! But still she was a muggleborn, and a muggleborn that had no tact whatsoever add that to no social skill and her arrogance which he observed when Lavender Brown tried to give her a book for Wizarding etiquette, the girl actually rejected it and said it was backwards!

McGonagall was showering her with praise going as far as saying that she had the making of the "Greatest witch of her age" and Harry had to suppress a snort violently.

She was just like a parrot she read and she read to memorised everything and then vomit it out eagerly when someone asked, while having no sense to summarize things. Books were meant to give complete and detailed information, what was the use of memorizing line by line when only relevant information was to be used. He had seen one of her essays that was twice the size required, affirming the belief of the girl having little common sense to go along with her sharp memory.

Add all this to her being a muggleborn, meaning no social status, no wizarding money and her being bossy, you get a perfect Dumbledore toady material. She would go ahead and tattle you to others if she thought it were for you own good, without any consideration of the others persons feeling on that matter. No wonder she did not have any friends.

She was too much trouble that it was not worth to befriending her, and Harry was not some golden boy who would take pity on her and try to befriend her, there were better people out there with lesser faults, all this not counting her obsession with those in authority put her in Harry's avoid list. She simply had too much to offer than the cost of maintaining such friendship.

Although if something happened and ensured the girls loyalty towards him; he had no problem being friends with her.

Another was the Weasley boy, though the boy could be good if he applied himself, Harry could not see him go far, he was lazy, had an immense inferiority complex, was immensely jealous and thought that the world owed him.

Harry and Neville made their way to the owlery where Harry greeted Hedwig and Neville sent his letter to his grandmother, although Harry also made some requests aside from the usual pleasantries in the letter.

Harry grinned and was eagerly waiting the reply and to see his plan in action. Harry felt a mind probe from Neville and grinned

"let… sent"

"Much better than last try Neville" Neville smiled shyly, still not used to the praise.

Harry had begun instructing Neville in art of legilimency after going over basic occulmency. Harry reasoned that not only did it teach you a new art, but regularly sending and receiving probes helped learning occulmency. It was the reason Harry was so proficient in Occulmency. When you probed someone's mind you subject yourself to mental assault of information at an unnatural pace. That led to development of occulmency at the best pace possible. It was a natural way for the brain to handle the excess information that is adapting itself on instinct and organizing itself to deal with the assault, not to mention to learn how to destroy unwanted information and how to retain what was meant to retain. That was merely a part of it; the brain became more efficient and formed instinctual way to counter the influx brought by its own actions that is, legilimency. If you could counter your own legilimency, you gained the ability to counter others that were somewhat more skilled than you yourself were. It was a win win scenario and Harry and Neville had started a scheme of sorts, Neville would only read half of the core subjects from books and half would be read from Harry's mind, It was needed that Neville practiced legilimency on an occulmens to get a grasp of it, if invasive mind magic was used by an untrained individual then you had to be prepared for the guilt of shattering someone's mind or damaging it in some way or another.

It was also a quicker way to learn, transferring knowledge was much faster than reading from books and Harry's own knowledge on Herbology improved.

Meanwhile Harry had to try his best to not assassinate Snape, seeing as Snape was doing his best impression of a wounded dog holding a grudge. Such a dog barked and barked in hope to intimidate its foe. Harry was not going to let Snape be, Snape was in Harry's book a dead man; he just did not know it. The only reason Snape was alive and kicking along with bullying people was because Snape was too damn predictable, all sort of responses that Snape could think of in any situation, Harry knew them. For being a Slytherin he sure was doing a fine job, portraying himself as the next dark lord in front of kids. He Harry knew that if he used his status not to mention Snape's foul reputation, Snape would be lucky to avoid Azkaban; sabotaging education was a punishable crime and only Dumbles protection was saving him. Snape and Tom had planned Snape's betrayal but Tom always had his doubt. Snape was a dog with many masters yet he was loyal to none.

Snape prided himself as being a master occulmen but just after his joining Death Eaters, he was injured when Aurors arrived on time for once, of course it was on Tom's orders that he had stopped his agents from running interference, he himself had taken part in that particular raid, a rare occurrence. Normally he did not pay "visits" to anyone, but this one was to increase his terror and provide reminder to the wizarding population. The DE did not usually fight open battles, nor did they attack in daylight or public places. The death eaters were ordered to attack people's home at night and next day bodies were found with a Dark Mark hovering above. But on that particular raid He made sure that Snape was injured along with Regulus Black.

Doing so, he was able to grab both of them while they were unconscious and apparated to a secret place, where he had used legilimency with the aid of some hallucinogens. Snape was not that good at that time to resist such attack. He did not even remember anything after being stunned.

In short he had very good measure of Snape and it was the reason he was not taken into their inner circle, him not being wealthy did not hurt the fact either. His cousin had inherited all the Prince fortune and left the country for France.

Harry apart from potions was having a good time at Hogwarts, he excelled in practical work but made sure to score low on theory, there were no practical exams till third year and this would give Harry third best grades amongst his peers, Neville too followed Harry's example and was getting about fourth position so far. Not that there had been much testing but they did receive their first grades on homework assignment.

He had seen Draco Malfoy spying on him, probably on his father's instruction but strangely he did not challenge Harry's authority and did not speak out of line, although he was known to prance around lording over others. He had seen him trying to bully his fellow 1st and 2nd years, atleast those who had lower social standing than his own, What did Malfoy used to say in Tom's time, that is Abraxas Malfoy – "A Malfoy always knows his place, the best amongst the best". Now that five years previously Malfoy got his place on Board of Governors of Hogwarts, after the death of the senior most board members, and for once the position was not gained by Malfoy by assassination, the old guy was going to croak any day. Not that Malfoy dare to try assassination of the eldest Smith.

Although all could never be well, as Ronald Weasley was trying his best to get on his nerves:-

Flashback

"Hey Harry!, mate why don't you ditch those losers and come sit with us lions, we would accept you on our table even if you are from the house of losers. You are a hero, Harry and heroes must sit with Gryffindor"

Zach, Ernie and Justin were all sharing similar scowls and looking at Harry to see how he would respond, in half a month they had known Harry one thing was most certain, he had a very smart mouth when he wanted to have one, calling the dark lord as Dorky and Snape as "Snappy".

Meanwhile Harry looked past Ron towards Neville who just came down from the Gryffindor dorms, winking at him Harry motioned his friends to follow as Ron and Seamus sitting with the Prefect-Weasley (who it seemed did not like sitting with his brother) Harry marched past them and sat opposite to Neville.

Looking at Ronald he replied-

"Sure Ronald, I would love to sit with a real lion instead of some loser who acts like a pig on two legs." Giving a glance to the plate piled in front of the red-head.

Confusion marred Ronald's face while he tried to figure out the meaning, while the Great Hall erupted in laughter

But this encounter did help setting Harry's "puffness" firmer. People now stopped doubting whether he belonged in Hufflepuff both in actions and in their minds. Initially there was a lot of doubt and rumours were running about the BWL going puff for more attention to BWL being Slytherin. Harry had to laugh at the idiocy of it all, Tom once wanted to unite all houses and although he had a much less subtle approach to it the intentions were actually good. He wanted Slytherin to be the only house, but he actually wanted it for the purpose of unification seeing the less than ambitious would also be a part of his house.

Meanwhile Draco could not let the chance go by and he had provoked the red-head idiot to a midnight duel in front of everyone, Harry knew Malfoy would never show up and he himself took advantage of it by slipping a tip to Peeves.

Weasley was looking pale the next day but was rather unharmed much to Harry's disappointment, strangely the Granger girl had taken it upon herself to "guide" Weasley and accompanied him towards the Three-headed dog which Hagrid lovingly called " 'luffy".

Flashback End

Shaking out of his musings Harry moved towards the Quidditch pitch seeing it was to be their first lesson. It was scheduled along with the Ravens and true to their name some Ravenclaw's were sporting books with them.

The instructor was a slanted eyed woman with a stern face and white hair. Rolanda Hooch ordered them to stand in front of their brooms in a line. The brooms, if you would call them that were outdated beyond belief, yet Harry would admit the enchantments were very well done. You could not give learners a Nimbus 2000 could you?

They were then shown the correct way to call their brooms and after some tries everyone was able to do so.

Next came the mounting where she criticized a lot of students who were from wizarding families for their grip and methods.

And then came the most exciting and nerve wreaking part – to fly.

Harry found he excelled in it, Tom was an acceptable flier but he was not a natural, Harry was a natural. He found he could fly very well and he already had good hand eye coordination to the point he could write with both hands, not to mention all those exercises were aiding him in controlling his broom like no other in vicinity.

He soon started doing dives and rolls instead of laps and Madam Hooch had to whistle twice to make him stop.

"Very good Mr. Potter" she said eying him carefully.

"Your father would have been proud of you; he himself was a very good player. I would recommend that you take part in reserve trials for chaser and seeker." All the while everyone was looking at him in awe.

They were dismissed soon after and the Hogwarts rumour-mill was full of Harry Potter again.

He had already been sought out by Cedric and Nymphadora, whose name he still spoke out loud, to try for the quidditch team. Nymphadora, because of being mentor, and Cedric because he was on the team as seeker this from last year.

His talks with Nymphadora aside from studies also changed and he now knew the reason why she was a second year.

"Nymphador…" dodging a stinging hex he continued "why are you a second year and not in you age group?"

She looked at him carefully and then replied with a sigh

"I caught dragon pox last year and had to remain isolated for 5 months, normally it does not cause such harm except in old age, but some people are affected much worse than normal and I happened to be one of them."

"Isn't there a vaccine or something, or maybe a cure?" he asked curiously. She replied sadly

"A vaccine is their, and a cure too, but the vaccine sometimes fail, especially to those who need it the most, apparently such people have lower resistance to such highly magical virus. Well until they once catch it, after once the immune system is strengthened significantly. As to the cure, my parents are not wealthy enough to afford it and being isolated in a room was the only way."

"And why not request exams separately?"

"You would not understand, my parents are not liked by some people and they took this chance and blocked my petition citing that I had no practical instructions and for my own good, I need to re-do the year."

Harry started thinking furiously..

"So that is the reason she wanted to befriend me, being a Potter and being Harry Potter allows me a good political clout. She is daughter of a cast-out black and a muggleborn, people are especially nasty to her family. The girl is much more Slytherin than most and lives up to her Slytherin heritage. She just like me would not have been liked well in Slytherin, especially when her mother ran away from the contract."

"That sucks Nympha…." *dodge* "dora, you had your birthday in September, so you were almost a year early."

Tonks just shook her head sadly, and brightened up, her hair colouring up from brown to pink in a second "So, now how about you show me you transfiguration homework?" and then the conversation moved on to their study subjects.

A.N- Harry's plan will be shown in next chapter.

Sorry for being late, I went for a vacation and it was after 3 years!, first two I had to spend studying and next year I got enrolled in college. But enough of petty excuses, I have edited the previous chapters and fixed a lot of problems, I hope they are now acceptable.

Next chapter will contain my views on most major canon characters and why I do not like some common ones. Some of those views are shared by one other author whose name I do not remember but you can search for a fic name "Lily's changes"(in my favorites) and read the first 3 chapters. My views are astonishingly similar for some of the "well liked ones", like Arthur and The twins.