Bonus Chapter 3) Occlumency

Author's Note: Hi again! Another bonus chapter here. This one fits in right after the Easter chapter "Tea and Grief" and goes through "Execution." I might release another bonus chapter later that goes somewhere in the middle, but it will take more writing than just sprucing…so for now, enjoy.

May 1994

On the following Sunday, an austere group of Slytherins entered Snape's office, including Draco Malfoy. A teal light filtered in from the lake windows above. The furniture had been cleared for a circle of chairs.

"Nice of you to finally join us," Snape commented. The other students smirked but didn't laugh. No one wanted to belong to Occlumency Club, but Draco's attendance only confirmed one thing: that the Slytherin Prince's life wasn't as perfect as he wanted everyone to believe.

"Not really," Draco answered.

"And what, dare I ask, convinced you that you should be here?" Snape asked with a sly smirk. Draco glowered.

"Father went through my memories, alright! Just like you said! Now, stop rubbing it in my face and teach me how to stop it so I can leave—"

Draco's classmates met his response with chuckles.

"Crowley," Snape asked the seventh year as he paced around the circle, "how long have you been in occlumency club?"

"Three years, sir," the strait-laced prefect answered smugly.

"And how much of your memory can you block at one time while being attacked?" Snape asked as if he didn't know.

"Approximately 90%, Professor," Crowley admitted. "Things still slip."

"Ah…" Snape answered rhetorically, "so it would be foolish to say that occlumency can be learned in one weekend?"

The other students now cackled. Draco glared furiously at the stone floor.

"How much can I learn in three months?" he asked.

"Excuse me?" Snape asked.

"How much can I learn in three months? I have three months until the end of the term." Draco curled his hands into fists on his knees.

"That all depends on your dedication…" Snape drawled. "…now to demonstrate—"

Legilimens!

Severus ascended the slope, levitating Draco's body alongside Minerva with Anastasia's. He kept looking at his former teacher, waiting for an explanation, but she said nothing. They reached the hospital wing. Poppy prepared two cots next to each other.

"Good gracious, what happened this time—"

"Dementor attack," Minerva answered as she and Snape lowered the students onto their cots.

"Dementor—did they?" Poppy brought a hand over her mouth.

"Anastasia was…well she was very close to being…" Minerva's voice broke, "…she's fine. She's fine now. It's my own fault, I shouldn't have pushed her."

"Pushed her to do what?" Poppy asked. Minerva, panicking, realized she said too much.

"Something for Dumbledore, it's done. It's all done. They'll be okay, they just need to sleep it off."

Snape folded his arms and rolled his eyes.

"Are we just going to glaze over the fact that these two have a lifeline? A mythical thing of romance novels? A piece of magic that people thought died as it should have, long ago—"

"Oh, you've figured it out. Well, yes they do, Severus. I thought that was fairly common knowledge at this point," Poppy commented sharply and began tending to the patients, checking temperatures and casting warming spells.

Minerva glared.

"I'm not glazing over it, Severus. I've lived with the knowledge for nearly two years now. It's nothing I can change!" she raged.

"When was it established?" Severus asked.

"By Narcissa, the day they were born, to save her life when Voldemort attacked her mother," Minerva explained.

"Oh…" Severus said, as if the woman's involvement somehow legitimized it, "…does Lucius know?"

Minerva's eyebrow popped.

"Are you mental? He's working hard enough to separate them without knowing about the lifeline—"

"Well, if he knew it was inevitable, he might stop fighting so hard. Draco's dealt with his misgivings about her all year. If he knew there was nothing that could be done—"

Minerva snapped.

"There is something that could be done, Severus. That's free will. Anastasia has lived most of her life without being able to make decisions for herself, and I plan to raise her with the knowledge that she can choose any destiny. It does not have to be this way forever."

Severus gave a sarcastic laugh.

"Did you not see them the night of the ritual his family attempted? They were out of sorts, she was babbling like a lunatic, he very well near went catatonic upon his return to the castle…they can't possibly be separated at this point."

Minerva looked down at the ground, hopelessly.

"No, but they can continue on with their lives in the ways they wish…if Lucius Malfoy found out about the lifeline, he would do his best to find every measure to separate them…but it should be theirs to choose. Not to mention, he might kill his own wife if he knew what she did…and despite my dislike of Narcissa, that's not a risk I'm willing to take."

Severus's eyes flickered from the woman's face to the door, as if he were deciding whether to send an owl. She gave him a final harsh glance.

"Do you understand, Severus? If not, I'm afraid we'll have to have a longer discussion with Professor Dumbledore."

Severus sighed and nodded.

"I understand. I will help guide Draco to the best of my ability, and I will ensure he keeps the lifeline a secret from his father."

"Thank you…Severus…thank you…" Minerva said, and then departed.

June 1994

It was the occlumency meeting after the animagus incident during which Severus discovered the Anastasia and Draco's plot to run away. Instead of saying anything then and there, Severus gave Draco a look intending for them to speak afterwards.

"Don't tell my parents…" Draco tried. Snape rolled his eyes.

"Ah yes, let me not tell them that their only son is planning to run away…after everything they've done for you...you plan on leaving for the wilderness with a girl who at best has planned two days ahead…with your madman of a cousin on the loose—"

Draco folded his arms.

"But that's just it…I don't want to go…I want to convince her to stay."

Snape narrowed his eyes at the boy shrewdly.

"So she is under the presumption that you will be joining her on this idiotic mission for freedom?"

Draco frowned, frustrated at the desktop. "It's not idiotic…she just doesn't know what else to do. My father's funded this stupid trial and made things even worse. She had some sort of fight with her father over the obscurus thing."

Snape stalked closer and towered over the boy, although it was becoming more difficult since Draco now nearly met his eye-height.

"You have two choices…you can tell the headmaster yourself. He stops her, she doesn't get in trouble. Or I catch her and she gets detention…or suspension…for the rest of term. Which will it be?" he demanded.

Draco panicked.

"I can't tell the headmaster! What if my father finds my memories of talking to him? Besides, why would Professor Dumbledore bother talking to me? He probably hates me!"

"We do have a thing called owls. You don't have to talk to him in person…still, I think it's best that we remove your memories of your plans for this escapade and of the events of the other night. There's no way you'll be able to hide it with the amount of training you have."

Draco stared somberly into the empty fireplace of Snape's office.

"What, and just leave her hanging? She won't understand why I didn't—"

"Then write her a letter as well…just do what you need to do, and I'll erase the evidence for you. Consider it a favor."

"But I don't want to forget…" he drifted off.

"Do you realize the position Anastasia is in? As well as your mother? Right now, your father has no idea about the lifeline. He believes that your mother is out of secrets to tell, and Anastasia is a flea that he can't seem to shake. If he knew that you're under a lifeline spell—that the future of the Malfoy line has already been decided, and that it's Dumbledore of all families—"

"What, woah, woah, woah. No one said anything about us getting married. It's just a spell."

"Just a spell? How do you expect to date other people with this attached to you?"

"I wasn't really thinking about that until you said it that way—besides, she says she wants to try and choose her own destiny—" his voice was getting higher by the second.

"Ah yes, by running away with you and away from all her other prospects…I'm sure that will work out tremendously…"

Draco's ears turned a deep blush.

"If your father catches the slightest wind of the lifeline…and he knows he can't kill her without hurting you…who knows what he'll do to keep you two away from each other? He's already wanting to send her to another country. What do you think will happen if he knew he was fighting an ancient curse no one knows how to undo?"

Draco's thoughts flashed back to Lucius's botched attempt at tearing his mother away from him and the family wards.

"Alright…alright, you can have the memories. Just, keep them safe, because after I learn occlumency well enough…I want them back," he decided fiercely.

"Of course…if you get that far…"

A few days later, Draco wrapped up the book of pureblood law and his note and sent the package to Anastasia at dawn. After which, he journeyed to Snape's office to have his memory wiped.

"It's done," he said upon Snape opening the door.

"By the lack of news, I believe the headmaster's daughter is still safe in her common room?"

Draco nodded.

"Hurry up and take what you have to…only what you have to," he warned.

Draco recalled the memory. Chasing after Anastasia to save her from the dementors, watching her soul fall back into her body. He remembered her soul…resplendent.

He remembered her telling him to meet her in the forest. He remembered pacing back in forth in his dorm trying to decide what to do, and Blaise, who had forgiven him after a long while, staring at him as if he were insane. He remembered the occlumency meeting and Snape's offer to wipe his memory, writing to Professor Dumbledore, handing a different letter to Blaise, and finally sending the package to Anastasia that morning.

Snape collected all the memories in a silver thread and shook them into a vial.

"You can have them back once you've learned more."

Snape corked it and placed it in a cabinet where it could be obtained at a later date. He then turned back to his dazed student.

Draco looked around. His mouth tasted faintly of bar soap. "Professor, am I in trouble?" he asked.

"What? No, you came here to check your grade on the last potions lab."

"Oh…right…" he nodded confusedly, and then left for breakfast.

Later, in the boys' dorm, Blaise removed a letter from the drawer under his bed.

"Malfoy, you told me to read this to you…it's from yourself."

"What?" Draco asked.

"The first instruction is to tell you to look over there…not at me."

"Oh." Draco understood instantly. He could hear the information, but he couldn't see.

"Earlier, you felt confunded in Snape's office. He took some memories that you needed kept safe, because there's no way you're going to learn how to protect them in time to go home for summer. Here's what you need to know.

"Anastasia asked you to run away into the Forbidden Forest to get away from your families. You knew it was a bad idea, so you did as Snape advised and ratted her out—"

"What is wrong with me?"

"Hell, if I know mate. If a girl like that wanted to run away? I'd already be gone.

"Anyway, you ratted her out. You also sent her a birthday gift with some information that will help her with the trial. So, if you do see her, know that she did tell you the plan she was thinking about, but it wasn't going to work and it would be way too dangerous."

"Okay," Draco answered.

"She owes you anyway, because you saved her ass from dementors the other night, and basically kept both of you from being killed. That's part of what Snape took. Remember to get that back as soon as you can. It's a very strong memory, so it will take a lot of hiding.

"That's it…" Blaise said, and sharply folded the note before casting incendio. Bits of burnt parchment floated up, barely disintegrating before reaching the draperies.

Draco stared out the window to the Black Lake for a long time. Creatures moved in the shadows, but he could pick out no clear forms.

"I feel like you're not telling me…like a lot of stuff," Blaise admitted. "I thought we were friends…but this is a lot."

Draco turned back to the closest person he had to a brother, eyes begging for understanding.

"That's all I can tell you right now…you know more than most…more than Crabbe or Goyle."

"Right, well…if you ever feel like explaining…I'll be around."