Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter etc etc

Slytherins Secret

AN: I apologise for how late this update was, I really needed to work through my ideas on Occlumency before I began. Thanks for all of the animagus advice, some cool ideas, especially from people who explained their rational. As always Moi I adore your reviews.

Chapter 8: Priorities and time

Harry spent the rest of the day quietly before waking again at midnight and discreetly checking for observers. ~Fawkes~ he whispered furtively and the bird appeared in a brief bust of flame.

~To the chamber fledgling?~the beautiful bird asked in a muted trill and at Harry's nod flamed them both into Slytherin's chamber.

Harry landed on his feet in the centre of the chamber and greeted his ancestor "Good evening Ancestor Salazar, I trust you remain well?" noticing the gloom he hissed ~lights~ and moved to sit on a comfortable bit of rubble.

"Of course child, I hope that your health continues to improve and that your plotting goes well?" the statue smiled at him then tilted and eyebrow enquiringly.

Harry relayed his day, which, on reflection, had gone fairly well "Madam Pomfrey was really helpful, I feel a little guilty about the whole magic thing, but I think she needs deniability, if she doesn't know I'm faking she can't get into trouble" Harry finished his tale.

"Indeed, this is excellent news child, we did not have these contracts in my day, but then our concept of childrearing was rather different, a clever invention. We may have to recruit the local potions master for the harvesting of the basilisk, I expect the Goblins to charge a prohibitive finder's fee and then recommend him, along with every other potions master in Britain, regardless."

"But.." Harry protested.

"I know child, his interactions with you have been most unfavourable, I have only seen from your perspective and a few times from my disowned Heir's. I am …uncertain as to where his loyalties truly lie. However, in this chamber you hold power, he cannot leave it without you, nor speak of its contents, perhaps, as with Ms Figg he is controlled or coerced in some way. He has, after all, attempted to save you on several occasions, and it is obvious that he detests teaching here, so why remain? Hummm, this requires further thought, but without more information…."the statue trailed off into thought.

Whilst Slytherin thought, Harry, Fawkes and Dobby again went through the tears, food and chat routine, but Harry got Dobby to confirm that he had deliberately set of the monitors at Privet Drive that summer, although getting the little elf to calm down again after that announcement had been a feat. Dobby confirmed that he was having to be very careful whilst looking for information on the Potters, fortunately he would automatically be added to Harry's vault as an acknowledged elf, so that was the question of eating this summer sorted.

When this conversation wound to a close, Fawkes trilled a reminder to Salazar and pecked his ear to gain the statue's attention "what? Oh get off you silly bird!" Slytherin muttered irritably.

"Where were we before I was distracted? Alright, child, our first priority is your removal from, or safety and wellbeing with, your despicable relatives. You and our unexpected ally have a potential means of neutralising your relatives, the elf and Fawkes between them, can guarantee your temporary safety and ability to leave if necessary. Removal of them as your guardians is unlikely, but the first step when in residence will be checking the wards to determine their efficaciousness. Do you agree that you are doing all you can to fulfil the first objectives?"

"Almost, I need to learn about the wards and how to test for them, without a wand, but I don't know how."

"I am unsure, there may be information here at Hogwarts, but it would likely require too much time…."

"Ancestor Slytherin?" Harry prompted when the statue had not spoken for some time.

"Oh I am sorry child, something about 'time' is running around in my head, I shall recollect eventually do not worry. Well, the other option is your family's bequest to you, if there is more than a trust vault there may be writings that can help, accessible outside of the school, the wards may be based on your Mother's work, sacrifice alone would not suffice to have saved you, let alone granted lingering protection. There must be some reason Dumbledore insists on your return, although why he cannot just inform you….." The statue looked sad and a brief grim look passed across his face at this thought.

"Master Harry?" Dobby interrupted them cautiously.

"Yes Dobby, what's up?"

"Master Harry, Dobby cans be checkings the wards for yous sir! Dobby is able to do whatever is needful to serves the House, I cans be popping over and findings what keeps you safe, and if you is still in dangers, Dobby mights needs to check again with yous at the house though." The little elf was staring at his feet looking nervous for having dared venture a suggestion.

"Really? That's brilliant Dobby, you know the drill, don't get caught and don't risk yourself, if it takes days that's fine." Harry beamed at Dobby, knowing what spells were on the house before his confinement there gave him a much larger amount of flexibility.

The little elf blushed furiously "Dobby starts now, I sees you here tomorrows!" then he popped away.

"Ummm so where were we?" Harry asked, picking up the thread of the conversation again "ummmmm yeah, I remember, safety and food at the Dursleys', and analysis of why I have to be there and what magic affects me there, what's next?" He thought about it for a moment "Oh health in general, I guess, that or safety in general?"

"Health would be my priority child, but until you have guardianship settled it must be left largely in abeyance. I would suggest however, getting some exercises to break up the scar tissue from that fang, the Phoenix tears alone cannot heal it as it is equivalent to a curse scar."

"I had noticed all of my old scars fading except my forehead, there were lots of tiny ones on my hands from cooking and gardening, or I probably wouldn't have realised."

"Ah yes that scar. It and its associated link to Riddle are worrisome, especially from a magical health perspective. In conjunction with what we know of the diary it is most unsettling, I think we need somebody to examine it for active curses, but how we are to achieve that with any degree of confidentiality…."

"Might have to wait until the issue of magical guardianship is sorted before we can even begin…." Harry continued the thought "Why is it so worrisome, not that I like having any sort of connection to that thing."

"As you know I have only seen Riddle's life as it intersects with yours and what has occurred in this Chamber, I cannot know his thoughts, how he yet survives the destruction of his body or his avenues to return. However, when he was a student here he brought a petrified girl into this chamber and killed her in a ritual sacrifice, that sacrifice imbued a book with a foul feeling dark magic, and that book was destroyed by you this past Monday. I am ….concerned as to the nature of this ritual the feeling of the magic contained within that scar is similar, though not as …slimy?" the statue shuddered in memory.

"Right" Harry replied feeling sick "so his magic is tainting me in some way, and its similar to what allowed him to possess Ginny and possibly return to life?"

"That is my belief, thankfully you are of stronger will, and were gifted more powerful magic than the girl, it is also possible that this taint has not become active; for the moment, your magic has created a barricade against the taint, so time is a luxury we possess although it would not do to idle it away."

"Thank Merlin for small favours!" Harry said wiping his forehead and feeling a little better "I don't see that there is anything we can do at the moment, but if I come up with anything I'll run it by you first?"

"That is good child; however, interacting with the world as you do you have more chance to see an opportunity than I, if it is time limited trust your instincts, think it through, then size it if the opportunity still appears good."

"Ok! Well then the only other health related issue I can think of is exercise, I need to do some to take the most advantage of Fawkes' healing, but again the guardian thing kind of limits that." Harry responded trying not be be surprised by his ancestors faith.

"True child, subsequently let us consider safety, what, beyond your physical safety from your relatives, may concern us?"

"Well I can't really defend myself, no magic yet, so a way to defend myself without getting expelled?"

"Or if you have lost your wand I should think, child there are several solutions to that, what can you determine?"

"Well….there's muggle martial arts? Duddly is into boxing, but I think you can take general self defence, 'would take me ages to get any good though, can't think of anything else."

"No? Well at some point you must learn the sword in order to be worthy of the one you wield, no?" the statue asked again arching an eyebrow questioningly.

Harry paled and nodded convulsively, he had an inkling that making the sword of Gryffindor angry with him would be a very bad idea, right up there with smuggling dragons and following those spiders into the forest.

"There is also wandless magic, controlled magic done wandlessly is a matter of focus, discipline and intimate knowledge of the spell's magical makeup, it is limited to spells that you are so familiar with that you could literally cast them in your sleep. However, control of your mage sensing, and the Occlumency you need to learn will help you on that route and a few core spells could be picked, like?" He trailed of, again giving Harry the chance to think things through himself.

"Uhhhh light, unlocking and locking, maybe a shield or some way of getting my lost wand?" Harry ventured tentatively.

"Good, more can be added later, but light, locking and summoning are the usual core spells, well done!"

"So self-defence, swords and wandless magic, but I guess all of these are on our long term list as well?" Harry asked sounding defeated.

"Not entirely child, I can teach the basic forms and muscle building exercises for the sword, the early stages are largely muscle memory, many teachers do not give a live weapon in first year of a studentship, and, as I mentioned, we will be covering the preliminary stages of wandless magic."

"Oh, well that's good then."

"That's physical safety without overt magic or when disarmed, still to go, safety with a wand, or in the mind."

"I guess I really need to work on my defence huh? I don't think I learned anything this year and not much more last year, the best I can do is hope something from charms class is relevant, like Ron with the club in first year."

"Well the deficit is not your fault, but it is reparable, at least with your adventures you have the right mind-set, defence is about all of the magical and non-magical means you have of keeping yourself and others safe, I believe you have that, or will, now that you are able to develop your planning, sneaky, positively Slytherin side." The statue grinned at him when describing his Slytherin qualities.

"So I guess I need to find out what should have been taught, maybe my parents would have some decent defence books? Could I Owl somebody in the ministry for the syllabus? Could we have an independent study group?"

"All excellent ideas child, all quite plausible, the study group should help you to branch out politically…"

"What do you mean?"

"Do not misunderstand me, I acknowledge that between your Muggle life, and various happenings here, you have not had much opportunity to socialise with your peers. Unfortunately, that precipitated this year's disaster, nobody but your two close friends knew you well enough to know how ridiculous the ideas were. If you formed a study group for defence catch-up it would give you the opportunity to befriend people from other houses without being overt, long term you are forming a political base for when you attain adulthood."

"But!"

"But nothing, 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' aside, you are Head of House Potter, an Ancient and Noble House, whilst you did not know this, now that you do you understand the outline of what is expected of you. Besides which, you are my Heir and you are my best hope for the redemption of our line, you also need allies against those like Lord Malfoy."

"I… yeah, that's true, I need to find out more about my House, hopefully when Dobby figures out the basics I will be able to find an Ally or Vassal of the house, who can fill me in, without weakening my house."

"Precisely, quite remarkable your elf; the benefits of the Potter bond appear manifold given the degree of independent thought and action he appears capable of."

"Ok so for defence I need to talk to people before they leave and write some letters; mental stuff then?"

"Ah Occlumency and Legilimency, great and terrible tools, true mastery of either will take years, but the beginnings and a determination of your potential may be achieved within months. Sadly I can only teach our family's magic after the first stage is achieved, but it is learnt rapidly and provides an excellent passive defence, it is as if the mind is never quite were the legilimancer is looking. Not deliberately, it is like a mirage, always out of reach, of course an accomplished legilimense can overcome this, but it will delay them and appear unintentional, a mere by-product of your thought process."

"So I might not even have the basic defence before I come back to school?" Harry asked becoming worried.

"No, there is something, something about time…Oh! The Chamber of Secrets, I even I forget some of its secrets, this is a site of ancient druidic magic, it is why Hogwarts was built here, one of the things affected by their rituals was time, in this chamber time is more malleable than normal. We can make use of a time fluctuation ward, not until the end of this week sadly, it invariably sends one back a week in time,and divides the magical reserves available to the user, you could not have been present in the past or you would not have survived that bite, not with your reserves divided. We also cannot know what would happen if you with bound magic and you with unbound magic interacted, in order to even things out the bindings might transfer over as if they had never broken. This must be why you feel so tired still, if you have been using this compression to go back to Tuesday when you woke in hospital then your reserves will need time to adjust especially if you are casting in the other timeline. You are probably asleep in one of the side rooms right now, but it could cause all sorts of problems if we were to check."

"But basically, so long as we are careful and I go back no earlier than Tuesday morning I can get an extra week here to work exclusively with you? I still don't see that being enough?"

"Ah but you will have weekly check-ups for your magical recovery yes?"

Harry grinned like a manic and let of a small 'woop' before doing a victory dance "Yes! I can do magic this summer, I can do magic this summer!" he sang happily.

Slytherin waited patiently for Harry to finish celebrating, smiling a little, before continuing "now that that's out of your system, there is no time like the present to begin your Occlumency education. Occlumency is the art of organised defence of the mind, it is the natural counter to legilimency, all people have a natural resistance to legilimency, you may find it referred to as subconscious Occlumency in books although this is somewhat of a misnomer. The first skill needed to begin conscious or active Occlumency is meditation, this allows one to clear and organise the conscious mind and its surface thoughts, there a many methods of achieving this, we will attempt a few and I will expect you to read Muggle books on the subject to see if any of their methods suit you better. "

"Can Muggles learn Occlumency then?" Harry queried.

"No, one of the skills that set the early magical or shaman apart from his no-magical counterparts in the tribe was the ability to reach a true trance state, some Muggles (who may well be trace-magical) can achieve something similar, but the interaction with our magic is required to reach the visualisation of your mind's defences necessary for Occlumency.

"Oh Ok, but I should still look into their meditation techniques?"

"Yes, many Muggle religions use meditation as a tool and their writings may be more concise and current, the writings in our world on Occlumency are more from my time period than yours and are very wordy at that. The first step is clearing your mind, I will talk you through techniques when we begin, but you can expect anything and everything to pop up and distract you, a confusing whirlwind of thoughts and images, at first, too fast to even focus on. This will gradually slow and individual ideas will call for your attention, at this stage we will begin to flag incoming thoughts as urgent, unimportant etc, when this process becomes fast and subconscious you will have a mind clear of all but your focusing thought, I will then teach you to focus inwards, it will probably take a few weeks to reach the first stage and a few months for the second, so do not be discouraged."

"Alright what do I do?"

"Seat yourself comfortably, and we will begin with breathing." Salazar instructed, arranging his statue into an approximation of the lotus position. Harry sat comfortably and closed his eyes, listening as the statue talked "now focus on my voice, breath in 2,3 ,4 ,5 ,6 and out 2,3, 4, 5,6, in 2, 3…"