"Oh, sorry professor, excuse me."
Professor Snape's eyes were cold and empty, but he no longer seemed to take satisfaction in tormenting Harry. There was something… something in him instead.
"You'll want to be more careful, Mr. Potter." Snape loomed over him.
"Yes professor." He nodded and turned to go practice some magic, but Snape called him back.
"Be warned, Potter - any more night-time wanderings and I will personally make sure you are punished. Good day to you."
Snape knew? Harry frequented the restricted section of the library, pouring over books on mind magic. He would finish one and return it and select a new one, occasionally he would take something for dark curses and other things, the Basics of Sacrificial Magic had been both interesting and enlightening.
"Night-time wanderings?" Daphne asked, eyebrows raised. "Is this why you aren't sleeping?"
It was, partly. He scrunched up his face; she wasn't going to let this go.
"I have an invisibility cloak. I used it to break into the restricted section."
Tracey gasped. "The restricted section?! Why would you do that?! What have you been learning? Is it dark? Will you show us? Ooh, I bet it's very dark. Are you very good at it, do you think? Can we see your cloak?"
I am fairly good at it, yes.
"I need you to not spread this one around, Tracey, okay? Please?" He had never asked her for anything before, and the unique request had her immediately agreeing. "Do you promise?" He asked earnestly.
"Of course, now what have you been learning? Can you show us?"
Harry shook his head.
"I can't show you, its abstract, alright?"
Tracey eventually conceded and left, after it became clear he wasn't going to talk about it.
"It's the mind arts, right? I know you're interested in them." Daphne was far more persistent, and was the only one who knew about that aspect of his studies.
[He will tell me.]
Harry couldn't argue with her confidence, but he severely doubted he would give her the full details.
"Yes, it is. It's not exactly something I can show off and it's fairly difficult. I suspect to master occlumency I would need someone to attempt legilimency on me repeatedly and practice enduring the assault." That, at least, was true, and it pushed her towards that branch of the mind arts. Misleading, but not false.
She nodded. "But you still want to learn."
He sighed. She really wasn't dropping it.
"I want to learn other aspects of it too. There's another aspect called legilimency I want to master in my life, and occlumency practices can help with casting to some extent. There's also a few even rarer practices."
Several, and they were all useful, being aided by occlumency to a large extent.
"What other practices?" She was getting more interested.
"Augeomency is the practice of using your magic to strengthen your mind, it's supposed to help with memory and recall, but it's just as difficult as the others."
Not to mention abstract.
"Do you think I could learn them?" He blanched at the thought of losing access to her emotions.
"I don't see why not, but I can hardly teach you." That was true, no white lies in there.
She smiled this time and nodded, thankfully accepting his words.
"Come on, you're going to show me how you did that shield." She demanded.
He agreed perhaps a little too readily.
pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq
Harry picked himself up out of bed and grabbed his cloak and wand.
I need a new book… something on… counter curses.
He decided on a whim.
He marched down to find that Lisa was in the common room, waiting for him.
"You're going out again, aren't you?" She said.
Harry mentally cursed.
"I am." He confessed.
"Where do you go? You know we're worried about your sleep. Professor Flitwick even asked about it once." It seems he was not nearly as subtle as he wanted to be.
"I like to explore the castle, on my own time."
She frowned at him. "I-I think you s-should go to bed." He could feel her nervousness.
She really didn't want to stand up to him, as his friend.
[Please just go, just go back to bed.]
There was an image of blonde hair and blue eyes, she was biting her lip nervously.
"Daphne put you up to this." It wasn't a question, and it caught her off-guard. "She told you to try and keep me in."
"She's worried about you, we all are – your friends, that is." Ah, all of them then. They finally all got together. His own attempts at that could never be called successes.
It really couldn't have happened at a worse time.
He saw the memory better, they were all there, grouped together. Neville, Hermione, Tracey, Lisa and Michael Corner. Harry hadn't actually expected him.
"Michael and the other boys say that you are always awake any time they should happen to wake up! And Tracey said you have been wandering the castle at night!"
The gesture meant a shocking amount to him; them getting together just to help him. But it frightened him too, having them all meet together without him. Plus, he really wanted, or perhaps needed, to get to the third floor.
"Look Lisa, I'm alright, really. I am. You don't have to do this, okay?" That was evidently the wrong thing to say. The shy girl seemed shake her head, scrunching her hands up near her face.
Oh no she's going to start to cry.
He looked her in the eye. He had no idea how to comfort her. He reached into her head. Gently laying reassurance in her mind. He tried to calm her down, but it wasn't working. He failed to create the connection. He wanted to snarl, he had done it so easily to Malfoy on the train.