Summary of the previous chapter:

School picks up again with a few changes: Professor Snape has taken over DADA classes and Professor Slughorn teaches Potions. Harry and the trio decide on their electives for the next year. Myrtle is not thrilled that the basilisk is still alive, but agrees to help the trio identify the girl who keeps banishing her from her bathroom.


Occlumency

For almost the entire month of May, everything was quiet. Harry thought it was the single most uneventful time he had ever experienced at Hogwarts. He had classes, did his homework, played Quidditch, and spent the rest of his free time reading or socialising. It was nice, for a change, not having to worry about anything. Scilla was happily chasing spiders in the forest and his Head of House was in a much better mood lately, probably due to the work on patenting the Anti-Choranaptyxis Potion (which still needed a better name). Hagrid was enjoying his workation with Newt Scamander. He had written Harry a letter, telling him all about the fabulous creatures he was helping his host take care of.

Ever since the Christmas holidays, Draco had considerably toned down his anti-Muggle rants. In fact, the only person who now raised the pureblood's ire was Ron Weasley. Draco found him 'uncouth' (the fact that he used that word made Harry assume that his father had used it for the Weasleys) and dumb, and the fact that Ron reacted so beautifully and predictably to Draco's taunts made his efforts all the more worthwhile.

His relations with Harry were improving, though. The young Malfoy had taken to occasionally inviting him to a game of chess in the common room when Harry wasn't playing against Blaise. Draco even suggested that maybe for the next school year, Harry could bring his own set of Labyrinth to the school and introduce it to his year mates. It went without saying that Draco would pretend to never have heard about it, and Harry wouldn't mention to anybody that he had played it and liked it, and that bringing it to school had been his suggestion.

Harry actually liked the idea. He would investigate other board games with Hermione over the summer and see what else might be worth bringing with him. Which reminded him that he would also see if he could find some practical books on yoga.

He and Tom (okay, mostly Tom) had finished reading all the books on Occlumency on Professor Snape's list, and it really seemed to them that Occlumency was not so much different from very deep meditation. The difference was that up to now, he and Tom had only used their meditation techniques together – relaxing and then focusing both their minds on whatever they wanted to accomplish – like floating a trunk. But Harry would have to accomplish Occlumency without Tom's help if he wanted to prevent a Legilimens attack, as Tom couldn't block Harry's mind for him. He would have to learn to protect his own, so that Professor Snape (or Professor Dumbledore, whose direct gaze Harry still avoided) wouldn't accidentally find his friend in there. So it seemed like a good exercise to try shielding themselves from each other. They had started practising that every evening for a few weeks now.

"There might come a day when we will both want privacy from each other," said Tom. "You know – with girls and whatnot."

"I'm not interested in girls!" Harry promptly rejected the idea, remembering with vague horror and embarrassment the spectacle he had made of himself on Valentine's day. Or rather, the spectacle Ginny had caused. "I'm only twelve!"

"But you won't stay twelve forever, so we'd better learn how to shield from each other before you find out that you're interested in that stuff after all. Because I definitely don't want to be fully aware of anything once you get into puberty and …"

"Alright – stop it! I understand. We'll keep practising, it's useful anyway. If I'm able to block you out, I should theoretically be able to block out everyone else, too. And if you manage to prevent me from sensing you in my mind – I bet even Professor Snape wouldn't find you if he Legilimized us."

And just like that, they had set themselves another task they took very seriously. It turned out that learning to block Tom was a lot harder than learning to move the locking bar of his cupboard under the stairs. Back then, he had had Tom helping, whereas now, he had to do it on his own. They soon found out that it helped a lot when they both tried at the same time to block each other. When they eventually succeeded for the first time at the end of the month, the effect only lasted a few seconds – they were both too startled and unsettled by the experience. Apart from the few instances of one of them fainting or the time Harry went into the diary leaving Tom behind, they'd always felt each other's presence. Ever since they could remember. Not feeling Tom felt utterly alien. As if there was a huge void inside of him.

"That was scary," said Tom, when they had recovered from the shock. "I didn't even feel your body. I didn't feel anything at all. It's like I existed only in my own thoughts."

"It would have been helpful the few times Vernon gave us a thrashing," said Harry. "Or when I had to take the Skele-Grow for my arm."

"I don't know. I think I'd rather share your pain than feel nothing at all."

"I wonder if – once I manage to occlude you without you blocking me at the same time – if that would make you feel like you had your own body? You should then be able to feel sensations without actually feeling me."

"That's what happened when you were in the diary," said Tom. "Though I still couldn't do anything with the body I felt."

"Did you try? I mean – seriously try, like we did with the lock?"

Harry felt Tom frown. "No."

"It might be possible. Let's do some experimenting once we have a good grip on this."

"Doesn't the idea scare you?" asked Tom, sounding perplexed. "I mean, you're offering me to take control of your body – that's basically like possession!"

"No, because it wouldn't be a hostile takeover, but me actively retreating. I'd always be able to come back. Besides, it's you. I trust you."

Harry felt Tom's amazement at that. Trusting was altogether a difficult concept for him. He was getting better at it – he even trusted Snape, Neville and Hermione to some degree. But he always made sure that he was in control of what he trusted them with. If it was Tom in the driver's seat and Harry the one riding shotgun, Harry wasn't sure Tom would be able to allow Harry the same kind of control. But that was okay. Harry was convinced that trust bred trust (however he had come to that insight – he must have picked it up from Tom's psychology books), and Tom would get there one day. And if not, that was okay, too. Maybe it was not in a true Slytherin's nature to be trusting.

"I don't like not feeling you in my mind," Harry said to Tom. "But that's another reason for me to practise. One day, we'll find a way for you to get your own body, and then I will have to learn to live without you. Maybe it's helpful then if the feeling is at least somewhat familiar."

Like all skills one had to practice to become accomplished, blocking each other became easier with practice. Without consciously being aware of the fact, Harry and Tom had been practicing the mind arts since Harry was eight. Severus Snape, had they asked him, would have told them that what they called meditation and telepathy was very close to Occlumency and Legilimency. They had been using both skills under the most difficult conditions, as their minds were as close as minds could get. So it was not really surprising that learning to block each other was just the reverse process of being able to talk to one another mind-to-mind, and they had mastered that when they were eight.

"Alright. Are you ready to try moving my body?" Harry asked once they both felt confident enough to take the next step. "I'll block you out and retreat to my corner of our mind. When it feels as if I'm gone, try to do something simple. Open my eyes or move a hand or something like that."

"Right. Though I still think you shouldn't be comfortable with that."

"We talked about it, Tom. Imagine, if this works, you could take over whenever I fall unconscious again! It would be an immense relief, given how often I seem to fall flat on my face for some reason."

Harry lay down on his bed and closed his eyes. Starting his breathing routine quickly brought him into a state of relaxation. Then, he slowly let go of this focus as well, concentrating on the image he had created in his mind. A staircase leading up to a room high up in a tower, well above all the hustle and bustle going on below. With every step, noises grew fainter as he left the world behind. Harry imagined the deep golden light of an evening sun falling through windows, and a cozy fire crackling in a fireplace. Sitting down in a comfy chair, he concentrated fully on his imaginary room, filling it with furniture, with cushions, curtains and carpet, with books and other odds and ends. He was very diligent in his creation, paying attention to every detail, so it took quite a while to fill the space.

Meanwhile, Tom lay wide awake in Harry's bed and body. He, too, concentrated heavily on Harry's breathing, but contrary to his occluding friend, he didn't lose his focus on the here and now. He tried to feel every sensation very consciously, the rise and fall of his chest, the sound of the air moving in, the beating of his heart. He tried to feel and be fully aware of every body part, shifting his focus to his eyelids. Then he tried what he had done with the sliding bar on the lock to the cupboard under the stairs: willing them to move with all his mind.

And then, for the first time ever in his life, Tom opened his eyes.