"Hullo, Professor!" Harry beamed, closing the office door behind him. Looking around, he felt a little foolish to realise that Snape was nowhere to be found.

"In here!" a deep voice called. Harry walked over to an opening in the wall he'd never seen before. It led down a narrow passageway, which Harry curiously ventured down. At the end, it opened up into a private little sitting room. A small green couch and two armchairs circled around a coffee table, which had multiple stacks of books on it. Set into the left wall, a fireplace smouldered. Snape wasn't in this area, either.

To the right, the room extended into a small kitchen with a round dining table that had one singular chair. In the far wall, between the kitchen and sitting room, an opening led into a short hall that had two doors, one on either side. The bedroom and bathroom, if Harry had to guess.

Snape was standing at the counter in the kitchen, stirring a cup of tea with one hand while simultaneously flipping through a potions book propped next to a cauldron on the stove with the other.

"Never," Snape stressed, "brew potions on a stove."

"But you're doing it," Harry said in bemusement. It wasn't something he'd ever planned on, but the sight in front of him was incongruous enough to throw him off.

"I am hardly a shining role model," Snape calmly stated, taking a sip of his tea before tossing a handful of some lumpy ingredient into the cauldron.

Harry decided not to address that. "I'm here for my Occlumency lesson."

Snape spared a moment to give him a look over his shoulder. "I know that. Close the door to my office."

Harry wandered back down the passageway and stared into the office for a moment, unsure of how to close it.

"There is a lever in the wall," Snape called.

Harry sighed. How did Snape always know? He scanned the wall next to him and, sure enough, a short lever was pushed up. Harry pulled it down, and the stone bricks of Snape's office wall closed in to block it off.

Harry trotted into the sitting room again and flopped onto a chair.

"Are these your private quarters?"

Snape nodded. "I will be with you in a moment. Please, begin meditating."

It was probably harder than it should have been to block out any distraction and focus on inner calm. He was intensely curious about what had to be Snape's private quarters, as well as amused by the sight of Snape indulging in what was apparently an inadvisable brewing habit in his own home.

What was he making? Some kind of household spell? A cleaning agent?

No. Focus.

Not too long after, Snape had settled into one of the armchairs with his cuppa. He handed another to Harry, who looked into it trepidation.

"This isn't what you were making in that cauldron, is it?" he asked suspiciously, thinking of the lumpy substance Snape had tossed in.

"Of course not," Snape huffed, taking a long sip of his own. "That's too acidic for human consumption."

"Then why were you making it in your kitchen?" Harry leaned away from his cup, less reassured than ever.

"I, unlike the average fifth year potions student, know how to properly clean my workspace," Snape sniffed imperiously.

Harry let his silence speak for him as he hesitantly took a sip. It tasted normal, so he gave up and began drinking it in earnest.

"I thought it would be good to… talk," Snape began, face scrunching up at the word 'talk' like it was a foul expletive.

"...Why?" Harry asked.

"After today's potions class, it may be important to ensure no lingering resentment remains before beginning the lesson."

"Oh. That's good of you, sir, but I'm not resentful. S'just potions. Gotta keep up our covers, I know."

Snape stared at him. "You seemed rather upset during class today."

"Well, yeah," Harry said, "it was class."

From the way Snape shook his head, he had clearly been expecting more teenage angst than a casual shrug. "Despite having seen them before," he said slowly, "your acting skills always seem to catch me unawares."

Harry, who was a terrible actor and could barely make up a good lie on the spot, shifted in his chair. He hadn't been putting on an act in class; he'd been genuinely angry about the way Professor Snape had been treating him and his friends. But that was the potions professor. This was village Snape, who didn't deserve Harry's anger. It was all quite easy to switch between the two people with the separate Occlusion. "It's alright, really."

"And you are well?" Snape pressed.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?"

Perhaps sensing Harry's desire for a shift in topic, Snape smirked. "It seemed from Wednesday's goodbye that you had somehow ingested an improperly brewed babbling beverage."

Harry dropped his head and groaned. Of course Snape had noticed, and of course he would bring it up. Well, it wasn't like Harry could tell him the real reason for his weird behaviour. "I was thinking about Gobstones."

"Gobstones."

"Yeah. The others were, er, talking about playing a game and I didn't want to miss it."

"Which is why you stayed so late in my office?"

"I forgot."

Snape rolled his eyes and apparently decided that he didn't care enough to ask about it anymore. "If you are certain you feel up to it, then we will begin one of the most important aspects of your Occluded mind."

Sensing the shift in Snape's manner, Harry leaned forward. "Sir?"

Snape leaned forward to match him. "The arrangement and layout of your mind maze."


"I'm not really sure how this is supposed to go," Harry complained. "It feels like, as soon as I move one group of memories to a new spot, the one I just moved has already floated away."

"There is no reason, and indeed it is better not, to have your memories too strictly arranged. A natural mind is loose and wandering. Anything too structured will give away your skill. It does not have to be perfect!" Snape was beginning to get frustrated as well.

"Trust me, it's not!" Harry opened his eyes to find that Snape had pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You must create the actual maze part of your mind maze for the last few months to be worth it. You have sorted and organised your memories, and in doing so gained practice in controlling your own mind, but that in itself does nothing to block out an external intruder."

"Then why have my visions stopped?" Harry challenged.

"That," Snape said, "is something we have already discussed. Your visions were a result of your subconscious mind wandering haplessly down the connection in your sleep. The Occlumency work you already completed trained your mind enough that it stopped doing so."

"Why bother with all of this, then, if I'm just so bad at it?"

"Because the Dark Lord can still use Legilimency on you!"

The two of them were both standing now, glaring at each other with heaving breaths. After a tense moment, Snape's expression visibly closed off as the man sucked in a lungful of air and held it. When he let it go, the tension lines in his face relaxed. Harry would have bet anything that he was Occluding. Probably with shields, like normal people have.

"Please sit down."

Harry collapsed in a chair and closed his eyes, following Snape's example and taking a deep meditation breath. And then another. He'd spent the last hour trying to follow Snape's (in his opinion, extremely unhelpful) directions without success.

"Tell me, what do you need from me?"

"Useful explanations," Harry muttered under his breath. From the way Snape's calm face twitched slightly, he'd heard.

"Then I will try to put it in different words." He also sat down.

Waiting for Snape to gather his thoughts, Harry played with his long-empty teacup. There was a tiny chip in the ornate china swirl at the bottom of the handle. Maybe one of-

"Are you aware of what the ECM is?"

"That what?"

"I suppose not, then," Snape said wryly, and Harry relaxed a little more at Snape's tone.

"Is it something magical?"

Snape shook his head. "It is a biological term primarily employed by muggle scientists, although I believe advanced Healers are aware of its existence. It stands for the 'Extracellular Matrix'. The ECM is a network of molecules between the cells in your body. I trust you know what a cell is? Yes, well, the ECM serves multiple roles. It connects cells together, separates different tissues, and facilitates communication between cells. A large portion of the molecules composing the ECM are produced by the very cells it unites."

"That's… cool," Harry said slowly. "Er, what are you going on about, though?"

"Shut up and listen. Think of the human body as an analogy for your mind maze. Each memory is a cell. Similar memories are grouped together to form tissues. Certain memories that you want to keep hidden—war secrets, for example—are inside closed chambers like those of organs such as the heart. These vital organs are the centre and focus which all of the other tissues and cells work to protect and assist."

"Okay," Harry nodded, beginning to understand.

"Previously, you've already sorted all of your memories into tissues. Now, you need to create a mental ECM, some kind of uniting element, to connect those tissues together into organs and shape or construct all of these organs and tissues into the final, proper arrangement they need to be in for your mind maze."

"That makes sense," Harry smiled, appreciating the visual. "So, how do I do that?"

"I… am not sure."

Harry gaped at him. "You're… not sure? What do you mean? You're always sure!"

"Your faith in me is inspiring," Snape said flatly.

"I mean it! How can you not be sure? Haven't you already done it before?"

"No, I have not." Snape's voice was terse. "Personally, I use a different style of Occlumency that focuses on extremely compartmentalised memories and multiple layers of shields. When I wish to hide something from a Legilimens, I conceal it behind deeper shields and allow them to break through the surface shields and access sacrificial secrets to trick them into believing they have found all there is to conceal. Traditionally considered easier, this requires a level of emotional suppression that I felt you could not achieve. A mind maze uses emotion to form its connections rather than block their accessibility."

"I can suppress my emotions!" Harry said hotly. Snape gave him an extremely dry look, and he conceded the point. "Well, maybe not as well as you."

"I've always been skilled at repressing any real feelings," the professor said, settling back in his chair. His tone implied that this wasn't necessarily a good thing.

"So, if you've never done it before, how are you teaching me?"

"I have experimented with many different styles and variations of Occlumency over the years, including a mind maze. In that particular method, I achieved about the level of proficiency that you yourself have." He hesitated, and then admitted, "I was never able to get past the shaping of the maze itself. If I have been unhelpful in coaching you through it, it is because I have a limited understanding of it myself."

"Oh," Harry said, deflating. If Snape, expert at the mental arts that he was, couldn't do it, what hope did Harry have?

"Stop," Snape ordered. "I can tell you are beginning to question yourself. If I thought you could not succeed, I would not have tried to teach it to you in the first place. I originally chose to instruct you in the mind maze method because I believed it best suited to your temperament and nature. Nothing since then has changed my mind. You have had greater improvements in the earlier stages than I ever did. From the beginning, I struggled to tap into my emotions and to use them rather than push them away. For you, it was instinctual."

"But what if I can't do it?"

"You certainly cannot if you give up after one frustrating lesson," Snape pointed out. "Where is your Gryffindor courage and grit? If you can persist in practising those blasted bagpipes for months on end, you can keep at this until you have achieved your goal."

"But the bagpipes are fun," Harry pointed out, grinning and feeling bolstered.

"At least you have a talent for Occlumency," Snape muttered.

"Oi! I'll have you know, only three house elves came to see what was wrong this week!"

"They can probably feel the castle shuddering." Snape tapped his knee. "Alright, go on with you. That's enough for today's lesson. Get some rest."

Harry stood and made his way over to the passageway while Snape took their teacups to the sink. "Alright. Bye, sir. And… Professor? Thank you."