It was nearly Christmas. Harry was having a great third year at Hogwarts. He'd decided to focus on his studies instead of playing Quidditch his first year, much to Hermione's approval and the disapproval of all of the Gryffindor boys. He'd enjoyed flying, but he could always practice flying without having to play Quidditch.

Harry had a recurring dream in which Professor Quirrell turned to ash in his first Defense Against the Dark Arts class after giving him a monster headache, but the Professor had simply disappeared that year. Everyone said so, even Hermione.

His second year had been marred by the lackluster teaching of Gilderoy Lockheart. There was another incident wherein his subconscious screamed that he was a dragon and then a book in Ginny Weasley's basket at Flourish and Blott's had melted. An elf had stolen his mail that summer for some reason, but nothing happened to interrupt his ongoing contest over top marks with Hermione during the year. And he just rang Hermione on the muggle telephone anyway.

Most of the boys in his dorm had decided to take Divination, but Hermione had challenged Harry to take Runes, Arithmancy, and Care of Magical Creatures. The two had both signed up for all of the electives, but MacGonagall had told them that there was the option of taking those three or some combination of two others as the schedule wouldn't line up otherwise. Hermione had been crestfallen, but Harry had been secretly relieved.

"Harry?"

"Yes, Hermione?"

"Do you remember in first year when we were in here and you found a restricted section on wand lore?"

"No, Hermione."

"Think about it. Concentrate."

"What's this about?"

"Just concentrate on remembering the restricted section on wand lore. We were sitting at a table just over there…"

Harry concentrated and had a vague impression before a sharp pain in his head knocked him over.

"Wha?"

"You broke the obliviation."

"Hermione?"

"You were obliviated, Harry. And so was I."

"The hidden section on wand lore? But why?"

"I don't know."

"How did you figure it out?"

"Occlumency. I've been studying it since Professor Snape made me cry in first year."

"What's that got to do with knowing you were obliviated?"

"Occlumency is the art of fortifying, organizing, and defending one's own mind. It makes legilemency difficult or impossible, it can be used to beat veritaserum, it largely nullifies things like love potions, it dulls the effects of Dementors, and it makes false memory charms easy to recognize. A skilled enough occlumens could potentially retain their wits during Dementor exposure."

"How many times have you been obliviated?"

Hermione frowned and looked at the stacks.

"Well?"

It came out a whisper when she said, "I don't know."

"You do though. You have a perfect memory. Eidetic. You remember everything."

"Lockheart… did it a few times. He didn't do anything untoward, he just made sure I didn't remember certain things. I only have a few blank spaces, so he completely destroyed the memories rather than implanting false ones. I'm pretty sure he put a confundus in as well."

He'd known Lockheart was a fraud, but this… well, it made Harry angry.

"What about other teachers? Like Snape? He's always been a bit of a git."

She shook her head. "Not him. The Headmaster was the one who removed the memory of the wand lore, I think."

"Dumbledore?"

She nodded. "Think hard about the meetings you had with the Headmaster. You're the most powerful wizard I've ever heard about. You're breaking memory charms on sheer will and magical might rather than skill. Think hard and the charms will unravel."

Harry focused on the Headmaster and found that several of the hazy meetings he'd had involved the Headmaster cleared up and resolved into him hearing the Headmaster utter, "Obliviate," before the memory went blank.

"My first trip to Ollivander's wasn't me going through a great many wands to find the right one. I blew one up, it nearly took my fingers off. And Mister Ollivander took the closest fitting wand straight over to me. This wand." He held the Holly wand up to Hermione. "I don't remember what happened after that."

"This is important, Harry. You have to start practicing occlumency. I'll give you the book I've been using."

"It took you almost three years to get this far. What makes you think I can pick it up quickly? Is it the power thing again?"

She shook her head. "I've been obliviated more than that. Specifically about occlumency."

"What happened?"

"Dumbledore the first time, but then it must've been people from the ministry or something. I'd been too loud about inquiring about it, but they didn't know that I'd made coded messages to myself. It just seemed odd that I wouldn't have pursued it sooner."

Harry continued to stare at her. A tactic that would usually get her to elaborate. It worked. Again.

"I finally went to Borgin and Burque's for the book. I paid an extra fifty galleons for the shopkeeper to forget I'd ever been there. I don't know if he actually obliviated himself, but the shop has a reputation. The book's not illegal, but the ministry doesn't want citizens to have defenses, I suppose. It is classified as Dark though."

Harry nodded. "Why would it be Dark?"

"Harry… I've learned that history isn't written as an accurate accounting of events. It's a story that the winners tell."

Hermione's face was scrunched up and that told Harry everything he needed to know about how Hermione felt about that.

"Why wait until now?"

"It's almost Christmas. We'll be going home tomorrow. You're ridiculously talented. If anyone can learn in two weeks, it's you."

"How long did it take you?"

Hermione winced. "I spent the whole summer on it. And I do the exercises every night before bed and every morning when I wake up."

Harry blinked. And took a breath. "And you want me to learn it in two weeks?"

Hermione nodded. "With the Dementors around the school, we have to protect ourselves."

Harry's eyebrows rose slightly. He was still working on lifting just the one, which would've been perfect for this situation. "Just us though?"

Hermione shrugged. "Help yourself first before helping others. It does no good to help someone else and then die or something in the process."

"Makes sense." Harry started packing his books. "Two things."

Hermione paused in packing her own books. She stared at Harry, waiting for him to explain.

"First, I'm going to learn the Patronus charm in January. I've worked it out with Professor Lupin."

"Okay. And second?"

Harry blushed. "I think I might fancy you and I don't want it to affect our friendship so I'm being honest. If you don't want to do anything about it, I understand."

Hermione froze.

Harry looked away and finished packing his parchments.

"Harry?"

Harry turned to look at Hermione.

"I think I might fancy you too. I think I have for a while."

Harry smiled.

"But! I'm nowhere near ready for it. Having a boyfriend, I mean. I can't… I have to be in control. I don't want to be the kind of girl, the kind of person who is controlled by hormones. I just can't, Harry."

"Okay. Sure. I understand."

He turned to leave and she grabbed his arm. "I'm not rejecting you. I'd rather… if it's the only way to remain friends, I'll… I don't really want to, but… I'll do it if it's the only way we stay friends."

Harry held her hand and smiled wanly. "I couldn't do that to you. I couldn't force you to do something like that. You're my best friend."

"How about a compromise? Get occlumency down and we can try kissing on the train. If kissing doesn't work out, we can still be friends and just put the whole thing behind us. Okay?"

Harry let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "A date. No pressure involved. First Hogsmeade weekend in January. If I get occlumency down by the train ride back."

It was Hermione's turn to let out a breath. Her only real experience with romance was from books and those were just too much. She couldn't even think of doing the things in those books. A date with Harry would be so much better than… well, she'd be having a chat with her mother about those books over the holiday. She had a feeling she'd been reading the wrong books. Even if they were exciting. And a bit fun.

000

Harry read the book as soon as Hedwig dropped it off at the apartment the night he got home for the holidays. Hermione had decided to send it with Hedwig the evening before they'd left so that neither of them could be caught with the book on their person or in their things. Harry was going to put it in his vault at Gringott's as soon as he was able to convince his aunt to take him to Diagon Alley.

He focused on the exercises with a fervor and focus that would have impressed any of his teachers. His aunt took him on as many outings as she could since Dudley was spending the holiday with his Aunt Marge. Apparently, the woman, Aunt Marge, had resources to obtain court mandated time with Dudley that included the Christmas holiday.

When Harry told her about the occlumency, she'd asked him if it required magic to learn. Harry had no idea, so he just offered her the book. The two of them started practicing together on Harry's third day home.

On the first of January, Aunt Petunia broke down crying. "It's working, Harry."

Harry, not entirely sure what to do, gave her an awkward hug.

"Oh, God…"

"Aunt Petunia? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

Petunia stood from the couch and ran into the bathroom. Harry was too stunned to follow, but he heard retching and puking coming from the bathroom. Then the toilet flushed and the sink came on. Harry moved to the bathroom door.

Aunt Petunia was in front of the mirror, her skin pale with a greenish hue. She turned to Harry and failed to smile convincingly. "It's okay."

Harry frowned. "You don't look okay. What's wrong?"

"I've been false memory charmed. Three times."

"What happened?" Harry asked urgently.

"Once was your mother. I'd seen her fighting and killing some men in masks. She was terrifying. I talked to her about it. I asked her to do it so I wouldn't have to think of her like that. It was selfish and stupid, but I asked for it and she did it. I… think she wasn't very good at it since I was still frightened of her afterwards."

Harry stared at her. Voluntarily having memories altered seemed so wrong. "What about the other times?"

"I didn't ask for it."

"What happened, Aunt Petunia? Who did that to you?"

"Don't. Don't you ask me that. Leave it, Harry."

"But why?"

She turned and screamed, "I don't want to talk about it! Leave it!"

Harry took a step back, but nodded. "Okay. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to… I'm sorry."

000

Harry met Hermione on the platform to return to Hogwarts. He nodded and she nodded in return. They went to find a compartment.

"Well?"

Harry smirked. "With the motivation I had? Of course I have it down."

Hermione raised a single eyebrow. Harry was still a little jealous that she could do that and he couldn't.

"I've cataloged all of my memories going back to when Voldemort killed my mother."

Hermione continued to stare with one eyebrow raised.

"I've uncovered seventeen obliviations and/or memory charms. Fifteen while I was at Hogwarts, two from before."

Hermione's eyes both went wide. "Before Hogwarts?!"

"Ministry obliviators when I was seven. They weren't as thorough as they should've been because I was 'just a muggle boy.' There was a magical girl in the library whom I witnessed levitate a book." He ended with a pointed stare at Hermione.

"Oh." Hermione had the grace to look ashamed. "What about the other?"

"An Auror on my eleventh birthday."

"What happened on your eleventh birthday?"

"I came into my power, just like most other magical beings. Only, my mother did something the night Voldemort killed her. I cataloged the memory and found something interesting."

Hermione, never one to leave a mystery, was the first to flinch. "Well?"

"I am the Dragon." The words resonated with so much magic that Hermione found it difficult to breath.

"What in Merlin's name was that?"

"The results of that night. Did you know that I've overpowered every spell I've cast at Hogwarts? Every single one. We need to learn some diagnostic spells. Or create them."

"Harry… how is this related? You're making leaps and I'm not following because I don't know the context."

"I'd only be speculating. I don't want to corrupt the data. If you collect it, you'll need to be objective."

Hermione nodded. Science. She understood science. She nodded again. "Right. We'll start looking as soon as we get some free time."

Hermione pulled out a book and started making notes in the margins.

"Hermione?"

She didn't even look up. "Yes?"

"Where do you want to go on our date?"

Hermione's hand slipped and she made a line across the page. She looked up with a slight blush. "I'd forgotten all about that."

Harry shifted in his seat. "I haven't. Are you still… is it okay? Do you want to go?"

Hermione nodded slowly. "I do. Can we just… walk around Hogsmeade?"

"Sure. Of course. I don't even know what a date is supposed to be like."

"I've been reading all of these books about romance and you have no idea how nervous I was." She giggled. "It turns out, I was reading all the wrong books! They were all fantasy, you see. Meant for lonely housewives' entertainment."

"Oh." Harry frowned. "Wait. You've been reading Romance novels? Like Danielle Steele? I read one my Aunt kept in the bathroom and she had to explain… stuff. Worst night of my life that didn't involve my parents' death. I nearly died of embarrassment."

Hermione's face was steadily growing redder and redder. She blurted out, "Yes!"

"I don't think I'm ready for any of that… stuff. I mean, my parts might react, uh, the way they're supposed to, but I'm just… I don't… I can't…"

"Oh my god! Me neither." She let out a huge sigh of relief. "I'm just not ready to do… that either."

Harry nodded. "Right then. We can go on a date and maybe kiss. But that's it."

Hermione nodded. "Yes. And if either of us, erm, changes our minds, we'll just discuss it like rational adults."

"Good. Good. That's settled then."

"Yes. Settled."

They both pulled out books and began reading as the train pulled out of the station.

"Hermione?"

"Hmm?"

"When you said you'd 'do it' to maintain our friendship, did you think I wanted you to… you know… do stuff from those novels?"

Hermione blushed brightly. "Yesnowlet'snevertalkaboutthiseveragain."

Harry started laughing. Hermione started to glare at him. "Come on! You're my best friend. I would never, ever force you to choose between being my friend and doing that. That's just wrong!"

Hermione started to giggle. "Yeah. You're right. That was pretty silly, wasn't it?"

000

"Well."

Remus Lupin thought himself an expert in Defense Against the Dark Arts. But he was utterly flabbergasted by Harry's Patronus.

"Something wrong, Professor?"

"Wrong? No. I mean, a corporeal Patronus on your second try is impressive, but I've only seen one magical creature Patronus."

"Is that bad?"

"No! It's just surprising. And that's rather large."

Harry looked up at the silver-white dragon breathing small plumes of silver-white fire in time with Harry's own breath.

"How big are they supposed to be?"

Professor Lupin frowned. "That depends on a lot of factors." He held up a finger. "But! The rule of thumb is that solidity is the true measure of power with this charm."

"So I'm doing it correctly?"

Professor Lupin nodded.

The dragon roared and blew a gout of silver-white flame over the two of them. It was warm and safe and pleasant and Remus Lupin hadn't felt that since he was a boy, before he'd been bitten.

"That, however, wasn't normal."

The dragon winked out. Harry looked crestfallen. "I didn't do it correctly after all, did I?"

Professor Lupin put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "You performed the charm perfectly. I've just never heard of a Patronus doing that before. Your patronus is special. That's all."

Remus felt something had shifted with his wolf. He had no idea what, but he'd never felt anything like the Patronus-fire before either.

"Why don't you see if you can cast it again?"

Harry went through the steps of the spell and then brandished his wand as he shouted, "Expecto Patronum!"

The dragon flew out of his wand again, curling protectively around them both. Again, it had flames coming out of its nose as it exhaled.

"I have to ask: how much power did you put into the charm?"

Harry frowned. "I tried to overpower the charm on the first try, like I usually do. But that didn't work so I decided to focus on the technical details instead. That seems to work much better. It feels like the spell is powered more by emotion than magic."

Professor Lupin nodded. "Indeed. I've always thought that to be the case, but I've never been able to test it. I'm tempted to make an alteration to my curriculum for the year just to see if it's true."

Harry lit up. "You should, Professor! That'd be brilliant!"

A cough from Professor Lupin's office brought both their attention away from the silver-white dragon curled around them. A man in raggedy clothes had his hands held out in front of him.

"Black," Professor Lupin spat as he drew his wand.

"Hear me out, Moony. Please. You can do whatever you want to me after, I swear."

"Talk fast, traitor."

"Peter was the secret keeper. It was a bluff so that if I was caught I couldn't give it up under duress. But he's here, Moony. Peter is here! I'm innocent and I can prove it if I can catch the rat."

Harry raised his hand. The two men ignored him.

"You blew him up. Peter's dead."

"Professor?" Harry quietly asked. And was roundly ignored.

The man, Black, shook his head. "He cut off his finger and set the explosion himself. A concussion is just as bad as a confundus spell, I'll have you know."

Professor Lupin's wand arm seemed to be dropping. "Why now? Why here?"

Harry still had his hand up. "Professor?" And was still ignored.

The man shrugged. "You know how there's some carry-over from Padfoot? Senses, minor tics, that sort of thing?"

Professor Lupin nodded.

"I want to follow the Dragon. Frankly, I can see why. He smells more powerful than Dumbledore. Hasn't the wolf noticed?"

Harry still had his hand raised. "Professor?"

"Question?"

"Is that Sirius Black and, if so, what are you talking about?"

Both men blinked at Harry silently until Black cracked a smile and laughed. "Bit more like Lily than James, isn't he?"

Professor Lupin smiled. "He's got her sense of humor too, I think. Not quite a Marauder."

Black sighed. "Too bad. He looks so much like Prongs."

"So you were friends with my father then?"

Black nodded and turned to Harry. "The best of friends. I'm actually your godfather."

Professor Lupin turned to Harry. "I don't know if what he's said is true, but if it is… He's been innocent this whole time. I want to believe… but…"

Harry looked at the two men. Professor Lupin's wand arm was at his side, but he was still clutching his wand tight enough for his knuckles to be white. Black pulled his sleeves up.

"No mark. See? And I don't have a wand right now. I'm completely at your mercy. Please, Moony. Please. You have to believe me."

"Where is Peter?"

Black smiled wide. "The Weasley boy's rat."

"Scabbers?"

Black shook his head. "That's Peter Pettigrew. I'm sure of it. He's missing a finger on his right hand."

The dragon winked out. The adults looked at Harry, whose face was set in a grim frown. "I'll get him. Don't tell Dumbledore."

Both men frowned. Black asked, "Why?"

"Dumbledore's obliviated me before. He'll keep whatever he wants quiet. He can't be trusted."

This time Professor Lupin asked, "How do you know?"

Harry smirked. "I'm an Occlumens."

Professor Lupin shook his head. "Which is perfectly fine for discovering if you've been false-memory charmed. But if you've been obliviated, you wouldn't know. The memories would be gone."

Harry paled. "So if I'd been obliviated, I'd have no way of knowing?"

"If you had a perfect memory to begin with, you'd have a gap, but it's incredibly rare to have a perfect memory."

Harry nodded. "I know, but the occlumency exercises can bridge the gap from excellent to perfect, so… I'll just… erm… go get Scabbers."

"You have to be careful, Harry. He's a cunning bastard," Black said. Professor Lupin was frowning.

Harry smirked. "So am I. It took some convincing for the hat to put me in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin."

000

Harry walked into the common room. He looked about until he spotted Ron Weasley. They weren't friends, mostly because the git kept insulting Hermione. Harry smiled as he walked up to the chess game in progress Ron was playing with Dean.

"Hey, Ron?"

"Whaddya want, Potter?"

Rude git. "I was wondering if Scabbers is safe. I saw Crookshanks eating a rat earlier and I was worried it might be Scabbers. We might not be mates, but that's a nasty thing to happen. I… wouldn't feel right if I didn't make sure."

Ron looked at Dean and Dean responded, "Go check it out. We can pick the game up later."

Ron and Harry went into their dorm where Ron found Scabbers in his cage. Ron let out a huge sigh as red light flashed into his back before collapsing in Harry's arms. Harry's wand whipped in front of Ron's unconscious body and a red jet shot into the rat in the cage.

Harry laid Ron out on his bed before casting another stupefy and an incarcerous on the rat. He carefully opened the cage and checked the rat's hand, finding the finger missing. He stuffed the rat into his pocket, keeping his hand on it as he walked up to Hermione.

He whispered, "Need your help with something. Leave your things and follow quietly."

Once in the corridor, Hermione asked, "Where are we going? What do you need help with? Who is Mark Hamill?"

"Professor Lupin asked me to retrieve Scabbers. He'll tell you everything when we get to the classroom. Luke Skywalker. What is forty-two?"

"Alright. The answer to everything. Who is the best Doctor?"

"This way. Tom Baker."

"I like Sylvester McCoy better, but you're entitled to your opinion." Hermione nodded and put her wand back in her pocket now that their identity confirmation protocols had been fulfilled.

Her wand came right back out when she entered the Defense classroom and saw Sirius Black as the door shut behind them.

"Professor Lupin?"

Harry pulled the rat out of his pocket.

"Miss Granger, please lower your wand, but keep it ready. If that rat is an animagus, then Sirius is innocent. He's already bound, as you can see."

Hermione lowered her wand and gave a nod to Harry. "Please tell me you've cast privacy charms and checked the room for any other surprises?"

Professor Lupin blinked.

Black laughed as he said, "Moody is going to love her, Moony."

Professor Lupin began casting charms. Several of them were non-verbal. "We're secure. I mean, as secure as we can be in Hogwarts. The rat, if you don't mind?"

Harry set the rat on the floor and Professor Lupin cast a jet of blue light at the rat. Before their eyes, the rat turned into a balding man with pale skin and colorless hair. Hermione cast a stupefy at him. Professor Lupin and Sirius Black looked at her. Black was grinning and said, "Moody is going to LOVE her. I'm telling you all right now."

"That's Peter," Professor Lupin whispered. "That's Peter!" he shouted. "I'm going to kill him!" he growled.

Black was laughing, "I told you so," repeatedly.

Harry stepped between Professor Lupin and the man on the floor. "Don't!" Hermione stepped to Harry's side.

"He killed your parents, Harry."

Harry flinched. "What about the law? What about Sirius being imprisoned? What about the bloody dementors?"

Black was still hysterical in his bindings, but Professor Lupin sobered immediately. He took a deep breath with his eyes closed and when he opened them he began to pace. He stopped abruptly.

"Alright. I can take the secret passage to the Shrieking Shack and apparate to the ministry. If I go directly to the DMLE, Dumbledore won't be able to hush it up. Probably. I'll have to send him an owl with a note. This doesn't merit a patronus message since it isn't an emergency."

"Moony, there's a problem with that plan."

Professor Lupin looked over to Black and raised a single eyebrow. Apparently, everyone except Harry could do that.

"Several problems, actually. The first of which is that you'll have to levitate the rat's body behind you or wake him up. Because you're pants at transfiguration."

"I got an Acceptable on my NEWT!"

Black nodded. "Exactly. Pants. Anyway, second problem is me. I mean, I can hide out in the castle as Padfoot, but I don't know how well that'll work or how long I'll be able to keep it going." He smiled widely. "I almost said, 'keep it up,' but that would've been too easy."

Professor Lupin and Harry sniggered. Hermione blushed and said, "We're not hiding this… this… this pervert, are we?"

"Hey! I prefer 'Ladies Man,' thank you very much. And I'm Harry's godfather and innocent and I've spent… I forget how long locked up in Azkaban. Didn't even get a trial, either."

Hermione stared at Black and spoke to Harry, "Harry, I've never spoken ill of the dead before, but your parents were mental to put this man in charge of your spiritual development."

"What?"

"He's completely unfit to-"

"No. I mean what's that about spiritual development? Isn't a godparent in case something happens they raise the kids?"

Hermione shook her head. "No. That's a common misconception. A godparent is responsible for the spiritual development of the child. Basically, they help them with philosophical or religious questions that kids might not be comfortable talking to their parents about."

"Okay. Kind of a random thing to jump on. So how do we take care of Peter?"

Professor Lupin cast, "Mobilicorpus," and Peter's unconscious form lifted off the ground. Then he cast, "Talpa," and the body disappeared. "You're over-thinking things, Padfoot. Maybe Azkaban wasn't all bad for you. Now hide out and wait for my patronus."

AN: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Things will slow down in fourth year. I don't see the point in Quidditch, personally. It's two games played on the same field, at the same time. There's a reason sports either have a clock or a course.