A/N: Welcome to part 5 of the story. The Summer of 92'! This segment is pretty short, only eight chapters long. Though it lays a lot of groundwork for the COS year.

Also, it's been drilled into my mind recently that I punctuate dialogue wrong. "You're suppose to use commas," They say. A rule which feels wrong, but maybe I should break the habit of doing periods before a dialogue tag? What say you? Do I alter this 800 page monstrosity with gross rules to appease the grammar gods?

July 1st, 1992

On a mid-morning Wednesday, Melissa ran swiftly through the streets of London. Her eyes darted about, ensuring that she was on the right path. Eventually she spotted her goal, a bronze swirl of metallic knots. Barely giving herself time to prepare, she jumped through a large hole within the knots, nearly tripping in the process. Beyond the hole she ran towards an apartment building of magical design. Bursting through the doors, she barely hesitated in her stride as she ran down the hall.

"HI VALERIE, I'LL SIGN IN LATER, THANKS!" She yelled out, barely nodding to the bewildered purple-robed clerk as she ran on by.

She bounded up flights of stairs, and twisted down hallways until she gave a sudden stop and knocked half-mad on the door. The door transfigured, allowing a metallic pair of lips to appear. At once Melissa dropped her wand onto the bottom lip, and the strange mouth seemingly swallowed the wand with comical sound effects. Once it had finished, the door clicked through a series of locks. Finally, the door opened, and Marcello Salvatore looked down at her with disapproval. "You're late."

"I know. Sorry. The bus was running late." She panted. She walked into the flat, trying to catch her breath.

"Perhaps your family should invest in a floo?" The man suggested.

"We've talked about it, but it's not a realistic option." Melissa found an armchair and collapsed into it. "So to public transit we go!"

The man pondered the excuse for a moment. "Is there not a magical transit in use? Remus has mentioned a bus system."

"The Knight Bus?" Melissa whined, then gave half a laugh. "I've heard about that thing. I'm rushed, not suicidal."

From the living room, Harry's voice called out. "Morning, Melly!"

"Morning, Harry!"

The boy walked up to meet them in the entryway. "Ready for practice?" He asked.

Melisa huffed through her nose. "Well seems I already had my warm up."

"What you do in your own time is your own time." Salvatore cut in. "We shall have our own exercises, regardless. Come along, Bennett."

Joy. Melissa thought to herself. She refused to complain, though. Harry made a comment like that on Monday and had to do laps as a result. Best to grin and bear it while the defence tutor ran them through the wringer. Well, here we go. She pushed herself out of the armchair and followed the boys to the living room. Defence training, Day Two…

On Friday they were introduced to their Occlumency tutor, Mrs. Torrero-Ramirez. From their introductions, it was clear that the witch was a former colleague of Salvatore. Her age was akin to his, somewhere in her late-fifties. Most of her brown hair had gone grey, yet her bright brown eyes observed each child sharply. Coupling that with the large scar on her right jaw and a small collection hinted from the edges of her robe, the woman made for an imposing figure.

"My esteemed comandante has informed you of the basics of occlumency, is that correct?"

"Yes, ma'am." Both children replied.

"And which of you failed in making proper barriers without any formal training?" Her hawk eyes searched them.

Harry and Melissa gave each other a quick look, then Melissa sheepishly raised her hand. "That was me, ma'am."

"Very well." The woman dismissed. She then turned her full attention to Harry. "Señor Potter, we will begin with your tests. First, I will test your natural defences, then have you attempt the five common forms of occlumency. Let us begin." She pointed her wand directly to Harry's face. "Legilimens."

Melissa and Salvatore watched on as the woman penetrated Harry's mind. Harry seemed to twitch at times; but, honestly, it was hard for Melissa to understand the results. When Mrs. Torrero-Ramirez finally lowered her wand, she had the faintest of smirks on her face. "Good. Now, Señor Potter, attempt to clear your mind and I will try again. Legilimens."

She and Harry battled each other four more times after that. After trying the cleared mind method, Harry had to try a selective-memory block -specifically, to hide any memories about Sirius while Torrero-Ramirez would search them out of him. The next test was to create a false memory of Sirius while hiding the rest. In the fourth, Harry was to imagine his memories hidden in a mind maze. In the final test, he was meant to push Torrero-Ramirez out in a battle of wills.

When they finished, Harry panted against the assault, as if physically drained. Their tutor, though, only offered an affirmative nod. "Good work, Señor. The results are good, but difficult. You are naturally attuned to expel intruders by force of will, and you show potential to use a memory labyrinth. However, both are considered the least reliable for sudden attacks. It may take longer for you to train your mind than my average pupil."

Harry pondered the summary for a moment. "So which should I do, then? The better ones or the ones I'm good at?"

"Those best with a force of will usually struggle with keeping their mind clear or leaving false memories." The woman explained. "I would advise on building a labyrinth to avoid gentle attempts of legilimency. Once your defences are strong enough, we will work on your offences so that you may expel intruders more quickly."

Torrero-Ramirez then gave Harry some tips on how to begin training. When he stepped back to start on his meditations, the woman turned her sharp eyes to Melissa. "Señorita Bennett, it is your turn to be tested."

A subconscious wave of nervousness washed through her, but Melissa held herself to a tight nod. "Yes, ma'am."

"Now, as I said before. This first test is only to see your natural inclinations. Do not build into your Occlumency until I have already entered your mind."

"Understood."

"Good." The woman nodded. Her wand raised to Melissa's forehead. "Legilimens."

Melissa felt the magic enter her mind. That said, not much else happened as a result. It seemed only a blink away before Torrero-Ramirez stepped back suddenly. Suddenly and loudly, as the woman yelled (likely colourful words) in Spanish.

"Luisa, qué pasó?" Salvatore asked the woman. Torrero-Ramirez answered him in Spanish, which budded into his own surprise, and left Melissa very confused.

"Uh, what just happened?" She asked.

At once the woman turned a sharp look at her. "What do you mean what happened? I entered your mind, tonta chica!"

"You did?"

The woman gaped at her. Then she groaned in frustration and swore something indecipherable. "This is worse than I thought. Marcello, how long was I in her mind?"

"About twelve minutes."

The answer startled Melissa, a reaction which Torrero-Ramirez caught. "You were completely unaware of my presence, and the things around you? You've left yourself completely closed off from your mind when you need it the most!" Melissa swallowed hard, realizing the gravity of the situation. The older witch rubbed at her temple. "Dios mio, this is the worst Occlumency defence I have ever seen! Just to remove it safely will take months before we can rebuild. Marcello, this is not something I can fix in a summer!"

Melissa looked nervously between the two adults. The legilimens, herself, looked almost pleadingly at Salvatore. The man seemed pensive as he thought it over. "Perhaps we should discuss this elsewhere?" He flicked his eyes to Harry. Melissa followed the gaze to find Harry clearly pretending to keep to his meditation. Seeing this, the others nodded and followed Marcello into the bathroom. Once inside, he layered some privacy wards around the door and walls. "Now," He turned to his colleague, "what is the current state of her defences?"

"Where to begin…" The woman considered. "It's a chimera of the memory labyrinth, force of will, and selective memory barriers. At the same time, it's not that at all." Despite the open-endedness, Salvatore simply gestured for his colleague to continue. "Instead of a labyrinth, there are layers. Layers which were locked away from each other until a legilimens attacked her mind."

Salvatore's body went rigid. "Her mind has been attacked?"

"Not exactly." Melissa said in a rush. The two adults looked at her in almost an accusatory way, causing the girl to duck her head as she explained. "Professor Snape went into my mind while I was recovering, but I fought him back?" Truthfully, she wasn't entirely sure of what happened that day; but it's the only explanation that made sense.

The former professor muttered something under his breath. Once done, he urged his companion to continue.

"As I said, the memories are split into layers by order of importance. Each memory in these layers is either loose or trapped within unique spheres, though before the attack they were all in spheres. From what I can tell, these spheres are completely defensive. She cannot access them without a great deal of strain. Adding that the layers were locked, as well, I can only imagine how she functioned properly in the past two months."

Melissa tried very hard to admire the tiling of the floor.

"Then there is the force of will…"

"That she has no memory of."

"Yes, because she's created magically-infused guardians for each layer."

Salvatore muttered softly under his breath, then asked. "Sentient or simply offensive?"

"Sentient. I had a very interesting chat with a guardian claiming himself to be the king of goblins while I was reviewing her defences." There came a pause for dramatic effect. "And then a rather unpleasant meeting with a gold-skinned creature with an unusual name. From what the first guardian explained to me, the others become increasingly violent as you go on, regardless of who tries to see the memories."

"Miss Bennett." Melissa turned her eyes up to Salvatore. He looked at her with surprising concern. "Please do not tell me that the instruction was for all- "

Melissa flinched at once, looking downward in guilt.

The man sighed. "...It was not Quirrell who attacked you in the forest, was it?"

She shook her head, silently begging her fists to stop shaking.

Salvatore turned his attention back to the older witch. "Luisa, how much can be done before September? There are things Miss Bennett knows that cannot risk exposure."

"I don't know, Marcello. This will take time. Steps. First I have to remove the more dangerous obstacles, then I can work to unravel the rest of the foundations."

"Very well. Do what you can, Luisa. Melissa, will you be alright? Both Severus and the Headmaster are legilimens. You will be at risk for at least this next year."

Her hands wrung together in a combination of guilt and nervousness. She took a breath, settling down her mind. "It can't be helped. Hopefully I can avoid them until then, but this needs to be fixed." She met both of their eyes with a firm nod. "Do what you need to do."

Once the meeting finally ended, and the adults flooed from the building, Harry and Melissa decided it was time for a much needed break. That in mind, the two of them went for a stroll around the neighbourhood. From there, they came across a park with a Mr. Whippy van parked nearby and got themselves some ice cream. Treats in hand, they walked up a hill overlooking the park and enjoyed the view as they rested under the shade of a large tree.

"Can I ask what happened?" Harry asked as he finished the last bites of his dessert.

Melissa frowned slightly. She spent a few seconds licking the sides of her ice cream cone -her mind flicking to the two now-dead guardians she has lost- before answering. "I tried out occlumency too soon and screwed up big time."

From her periphery she could see Harry eye her suspiciously. "You're being vague."

"Because I screwed up." Her expression twisted to a smirk that was both pained and playful. "Come on, Harry, I can't go laying it all out for you now, can I? I have a Brilliant Big Sister reputation to uphold."

That comment got him snickering. "Is that what you think your reputation is?" He asked mockingly.

"Well, hey, I've been looking out for you this long, haven't I?" She grinned. "I can't just go around talking about flaws and mistakes and whatnot. I'd lose all all-knowing big sister authority over you. That's just not allowed!"

Her joking protests caused the boy to roar with laughter. He leaned into her as he laughed, causing him to fall sideways with his head against her knees. "Melly, if there's anything you don't have, it's authority on something!" He laughed again.

"Prat!" She scoffed jokingly. She slowly finished up her treat as the two of them snickered and teased each other all the while. "You know, as mad as this week's been, I'm kind of glad we're doing all of this training stuff."

"Me, too." He stretched, his head still on her lap. "I'll have doubled my hours by the time summer's over."

"What do you mean?" She looked down at the boy.

"Well…" His forearms lifted enough that the opposing fingers could touch. "I had four and a half hours of DADA a week for thirty-six weeks, if you count exam week. Now, we're doing eighteen hours of defence training a week for nine weeks, and that equals the same amount of hours. All that, plus the studying I did over the year and the readings that Mister Salvatore and Mrs. Torrero-Ramirez want me to do, means that I'll basically double my hours of defence training before school starts again."

Melissa stared at the boy, struggling to find her tongue. "You mean you're actually counting the hours?"

"Yes." He smirked at her. "Why not? It takes ten thousand hours to become a master and half that to be a jack of all trades, right?"

"Oh my god, Harry!" She face-palmed in exasperation.

He quirked his brow with a look of bemusement. "I don't get what the big deal is. It was your idea, after all."

"No, no, no." She shook her free hand out in protest. "I was bored. You're a nerd!"

"And you're ridiculous." He fired back. The two of them broke into grins and began to snicker. Then they both curled into themselves, laughing loudly at each other's proclamations. After all, they were both perfectly right in their statements, and happy to be so.