The morning sun streamed into Harry’s bedroom at number twelve, Grimmauld Place. Harry groggily sat up, wondering what time it was. He’d slept better than he had since Dumbledore’s death, including the times he’d taken a Dreamless Sleep Potion. He stiffly rolled out of bed, stretched, and reached for his glasses. Putting them on, he was surprised to see that the clock on the bedside table read 8:21. Wow, he had really slept late. The bed on the other side of the room was empty. Ron was up before him? It wasn’t Christmas Day, so this was a first.
Harry got up, grabbed his towel, put on his robe and walked toward the door, hoping to catch a shower before starting his training. Stepping out into the hall, he saw Ginny walking into the bathroom ahead of him, towel in hand. He would have to take a shower after training. Smiling to himself, he tossed the towel back onto his bed, got dressed and went downstairs.
The delicious fragrance of bacon being prepared and coffee being brewed enveloped him as he entered the kitchen. He had never really liked coffee--until O.W.L.s came along; then he found out just how wonderful a drink it was. He saw Hermione and a groggy-looking Ron sitting at the table, talking quietly to each other.
“Ron, you have to wake up; you said you wanted to go with me this morning, and you knew that we would have to be up early,” Hermione was saying.
“I know, but why did you need to wake me up so early? I mean, we’ve just been sitting here for half an hour; think of all the sleep I could have gotten,” Ron complained, dishing a spoonful of eggs onto his plate.
“I know, but you are always in such a bad mood when you don’t eat, and I didn’t know if your mum would be here to make breakfast or if I was going to have to.” Hermione smiled at Mrs. Weasley, who had indeed been present to provide breakfast that morning and was in the process of getting another batch of eggs going. “Thanks again, Mrs. Weasley, but you really should let me help you with that.”
“No, no, dear, I am happy to take care of it,” Mrs. Weasley proclaimed. She was not the type of woman who gave up space in her kitchen easily.
“So where are you two off to this morning?” Harry asked, smiling mischievously. He had been thinking that something was going on between his friends ever since the funeral, but they had yet to confide anything to him.
They both looked up, startled. “Oh, we--uh--we…we’re going to Hogwarts. I have to meet with Professor McGonagall,” Hermione stuttered.
“Yeah, and I thought since you were training all day that I would go with her. No point in just sitting around here with nothing to do,” Ron said calmly, although his ears had turned a bit pink while he was speaking.
“Well, sorry to disappoint you, mate, but you’re training with me today. Wait, how did you know that I was training all day?” Harry asked, wondering if everything about his life was open for all to know.
“Mum told me last night. She said you had to train with Mad-Eye in the morning and Dumbledore in the afternoon,” Ron said, looking from Harry to his mother. “So why do I have to train with you?”
“Don’t know; I suppose if you are going to be around me you need to know how to protect yourself. Moody told me yesterday that you, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and even Luna are each going to train with me once a week,” Harry said, as Hermione and Ron exchanged meaningful glances. “What?” he asked, feeling like he was the last one in on a joke.
Hermione quickly got to her feet. “Well, I guess I am going alone, so I will see you all later,” she said, walking over to the fireplace. “Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall’s office,” she announced as she tossed the Floo powder into the fire. In a flash of green flame she was gone.
“So when do we get started?” Ron asked, perking up at the thought of getting to train with Harry.
“At nine: we meet Moody in the library, but I don’t know where we are going to train,” Harry replied. He sat at the table and began loading a plate with bacon and eggs. Mrs. Weasley walked over with a cup of coffee and set it beside his plate. He took the cup gratefully and looked up at Mrs. Weasley. “Thanks,” he said smiling. He liked being mothered like this. When he was stressed or injured or had just lost someone important to him, Mrs. Weasley could be a bit overzealous, but at moments like these, she made him feel like part of the family; he felt normal when she did these little things, like fixing his breakfast or attempting to fix his hair. “So what are you up today, Mrs. Weasley?”
“Oh, my, Ginny and I are going to Diagon Alley to pick up her bridesmaid dress for the wedding,” Mrs. Weasley beamed. She had certainly made her peace with Fleur after Bill had been injured, and her face broke into a huge smile every time the wedding was mentioned.
“Bridesmaid dress?” Harry asked, slightly confused. “But Ginny doesn’t even really know Phle…Fleur,” he said, catching himself just before saying Phlegm.
“Yes, dear, but it is an old wizard tradition that the bride gets to pick one of the groomsmen and the groom gets to pick one of the bridesmaids. Bill wanted Ginny to be in the wedding, and Fleur wanted you to be in it,” she said, and noticing that Harry’s eyes had grown wide with shock, continued, “Harry, didn’t Ron tell you?”
Ron was biting his cheek to keep from laughing. “Oh, yeah, forgot about that; Bill sent me an owl a couple of days ago to tell you. Must have slipped my mind,” he said, failing miserably to hide his amusement at his friend’s embarrassment.
“Thanks a lot, mate; remind me to return the favor someday,” Harry spat. “So what do I wear; what do I do? I have never even been to a wedding, much less been in one.”
“Not to worry, dear, I will pick up the dress robes you will be wearing while I am in town. I’ve seen them already and they are wonderful. Just let me measure you quickly,” she said, beckoning Harry to stand up. “You, Ronald Weasley, should be ashamed of yourself for not mentioning it to Harry.”
“Not mentioning what to Harry?” Ginny asked as she walked into the kitchen. Her hair was tied back in a simple pony tail and she was wearing jeans and a t-shirt.
The beast in Harry’s chest began to stir again as he watched her sit at the table and begin to assemble her breakfast.
“Your brother failed to inform Harry that he was asked to be in the wedding,” Mrs. Weasley answered, glaring at an unrepentant Ron.
“Harry is going to be in the wedding?” A slight tinge of pink brushed Ginny’s cheeks. “I didn’t know Bill was going to ask him.”
“It wasn’t Bill; Fleur wants him to be in it,” Mrs. Weasley said, measuring Harry for his new robes.
Ginny scowled down at her breakfast and turned crimson.
“Harry, Madam Malkin can go from these measurements, but you may need to go to Diagon Alley at some point if the robes need to be altered,” Mrs. Weasley explained, returning the tape to its drawer.
“That’s fine, Mrs. Weasley… um, how much money do I need to give you for the robes?”
“Don’t worry about that, dear. Fleur pays for your robes. She has already taken care of it,” Mrs. Weasley assured him. “Now, you two had better head to the library; it is already past nine and Alastor will not want to be kept waiting.”
Both young men got up to leave. “Have fun you two,” Ginny called. The scowl was replaced by a small smile, but there was still a touch of red in her checks. Ron nodded and walked out. Harry blushed a bit at seeing her reaction to Fleur’s invitation, feeling the monster in his chest give a sort of growl, and then he quickly followed Ron out the door.
They walked into the library and found not only Alastor Moody, but the twins waiting for them as well. Fred and George were dressed in matching scarlet pants and shirts. They both wore burgundy wizard hats, which clashed horribly with their flame-red hair. “It is about time you two. Come on, let’s get to it. Today you will be dueling with Fred and George here. I warn you all now, take this seriously. A lot of lives are at stake in this war.
“We know that, Mad-Eye,” Fred said, taking out his wand and flexing it above his head.
“We just hope that little Ronniekins can handle himself properly,” George stated, looking at Ron with a grin.
Ron didn’t flinch. “All right you two, enough with the little Ronniekins stuff.” He pulled out his wand, as did Harry, and began walking around the room.
“Hold on a minute,” Moody called. He flicked his wand and muttered an incantation. The walls expanded until the room was more than three times its original size, providing ample space in which to maneuver. “That looks better,” he said. “Wands at the ready and off you go.”
“Expelliarmus!” Harry shouted as he moved towards Fred, who smiled as the spell bounced off his shield. He fired a Jelly-Legs Jinx at Harry. Harry launched himself behind a chair, avoiding the jinx and firing his own.
Ron was kneeling behind an armchair on the other side of the library, panting, and firing hex after hex at George, who stood there merrily as each curse simply bounced off his shield. “Where did they learn to conjure such strong shields, Harry? They aren’t even using their wands, and I can’t make a dent--” Both boys’ eyes widened in understanding.
“They’re wearing Shield Hats!” they exclaimed at the same time.
“Ah, it seems they are brighter than we gave them credit for,” one of the twins said.
“Only took them ten minutes to figure it out. I think you owe me five Galleons,” said the other.
Ron and Harry looked at each other and nodded. Together, they stood and fired Bludgeoning Curses at the twins--not at their chests, where they’d been aiming before and getting nowhere, but instead at their feet, where there was no shield protection. The twins immediately had their legs knocked from underneath them and toppled to the ground.
“Accio hat!” Ron and Harry yelled simultaneously. The hats sprung from the twins’ heads and flew into their waiting hands. They put them on and smiled at each other.
“Nice hat,” Harry said, looking at his friend.
“You too, Harry. Hey, how did you know to do that?” Ron asked. “I was thinking about it, and then we both just did it.”
“Don’t know… guess great minds think alike,” Harry replied, grinning at the twins as they gingerly got back to their feet.
“Play time’s over,” Fred declared, suddenly very serious.
“Yep, let’s go,” George agreed and the battle resumed in earnest.
+++++
Just before lunch, Mrs. Weasley, followed by Ginny, emerged from the fireplace, each with a package under her arm. As Mrs. Weasley set her package on the table, the door to the kitchen swung open. A battered Ron limped in, holding a towel on his left arm. Blood was dripping from a long gash on his forearm. Harry followed him, his t-shirt torn in several places and blood tricking out of a scrape on his chest. He too walked with a limp, albeit on the other leg. They were both laughing.
Mrs. Weasley screamed and her hand flew to her mouth as she took in the injuries. Ginny dropped the package she was carrying and quickly pulled her wand out, ready to fight, afraid that Death Eaters had found a way into the house. Harry and Ron were startled out of their laughter by the scream and were even more surprised to see Ginny with her wand drawn, pointing at each of them in turn.
“What happened?” Mrs. Weasley cried.
Ron again began to laugh, but Harry nodded reassuringly at Mrs. Weasley. “We’re all right; nothing is wrong,” he said, feeling bad for scaring them like this. “Ginny, put your wand away. There are no Death Eaters here; we just finished training and haven’t had a chance to get cleaned up, or have some of these looked at,” he explained, pointing at Ron’s arm.
“This is from training?” Mrs. Weasley asked incredulously. “What is Alastor thinking?” She immediately went to Ron and started healing the wounds on his arms.
“It’s okay, Mum; you should see the other guys,” he said, starting to laugh again. “Actually, you should probably go and check on them first. I don’t think Mad-Eye has much of a bedside manner.”
The kitchen door swung open and Moody came in with Fred and George in tow. The twins looked like they each had gone twelve rounds with a boxing champion. Fred could hardly stand and George was dragging his right leg behind him; it seemed that the leg simply did not want to move.
Mrs. Weasley screamed again and rushed to deal with the twins’ injuries.
After twenty minutes, all of the injuries were taken care of. While they looked pretty bad, they were all superficial, so Mrs. Weasley was able to quickly heal them.
“Harry, Ron, that was amazing,” Fred said, shaking his head.
“Yeah, I have never seen anything like that before. You two seemed to work as one in there. Did you use hand signals or something?” George asked, bending his right leg back and forth, happy to be able to move it again.
“No, we just work well together. Guess it is all those years of living and studying together,” Ron said, his chest swelling with pride at the praise coming from his older siblings.
Lunch was spent telling Ginny and Mrs. Weasley how the training had gone-- how at every turn Ron and Harry seemed to be one step ahead of the twins.
Soon lunch was over, and the twins prepared to head back to their shop. “Nice work today, Harry…you too, Ron.” They looked at their little brother with newfound respect, causing Ron’s chest to swell with pride once again.
“All right, Harry?” Aberforth asked, walking into the room for the first time. He wore his battered traveling cloak over jeans and a collared shirt. Harry still couldn’t believe that this bartender was Albus Dumbledore’s brother.
“Yes, sir,” he said as he got to his feet.
“Don’t ‘sir’ me, young man. I’m not one of your professors; I work for a living. You can call me Aberforth, or Abe if you like,” he said, gruffly.
Harry grinned. “Yes, sir. I mean yes, Aberforth.”
“Okay, let’s go to the study. It’ll be quieter in there.”
They walked to the study in silence. Harry dreaded facing Occlumency again, although he was heartened by the fact it was not Snape teaching him this time.
Dumbledore sat in one of the squishy armchairs beside the fireplace. He motioned Harry to the other one. “So, how much do you know about Occlumency?” he asked.
“Not much, I think. I mean, I tried to learn it with Snape two years ago, but that didn’t go very well. He said I didn’t have a talent for it,” Harry replied bitterly, remembering the horrible lessons he had had with Snape.
“Yes, well, we all know much more about Severus than we did then, so let’s just see for ourselves how you do. What I want you to do, Harry, is close your eyes, empty your mind and picture a room with solid brick walls around you. Picture the walls, smooth them out, be sure of every detail. Do you have your room?”
Harry nodded. “Yes, sir, I mean yes, Abe.”
“All right, here we go….Legilimens!”
Harry immediately felt pressure build on the walls he had constructed. After a couple of seconds the walls began to crumble and memories started to pass before his eyes.
Celebrating his eleventh birthday in the shack by the sea…Not getting through the barrier in second year… Hermione Petrified…Ginny lying in the Chamber.
As these last images came to mind, Harry pushed back against them. He finally pushed everything out of the room and was able to rebuild the walls.
Harry opened his eyes, panting, and found himself lying on the floor. His head was throbbing.
“Very good, Harry; that was really well done,” Abe said happily. This was the first time Harry had seen the man smile, and he decided that when Abe smiled he looked like a Dumbledore. “I am surprised you managed to push me out so easily. What was it that made you start to fight me?”
“I saw Hermione Petrified and Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets. I don’t know; when I saw them I just wanted you out of my head,” he stated, rubbing his temples.
“Great…okay, ready to try again?” Abe asked.
Harry nodded and got back into his seat. He wasn’t sure if he really was ready to try again, but he had to figure this out.
“Legilimens!”
Harry’s walls stayed up longer this time, but eventually the pressure was too great and the walls crumbled.
Mr. Weasley being attacked….Sirius falling through the veil….Ron being attacked by the brains…. Neville getting his nose broken.
Harry felt a renewed desire to push the presence from his mind. He pushed with all his will, finally managing to rebuild his walls and secure his mind.
Harry opened his eyes, panting once again. He held the arms of the chair he was sitting in so tightly that his knuckles were white. Harry was surprised to see that Abe was panting heavily as well. They looked at each other, trying to catch their breath.
Finally, Abe smiled broadly. “Harry, that was fantastic. You really are every bit as strong as Albus said you were.”
Harry blushed at the praise but was encouraged by it and was quickly ready for another try.
They worked for another hour. Exhaustion threatened to overtake Harry. His head continued to throb, but surprisingly, his scar didn’t hurt at all. He wearily got back to his feet for another go when the door to the study was slammed open.
“Hogwarts is under attack!” Ginny bellowed before running back towards the kitchen.
++++++++
A/N I hope you all enjoyed that one. The story is hopefully starting to pick up its pace. Please leave me a review and tell me what you think.
I have to thank my Beta JenC, and prebetas Kerrbear, and Cableguysmom for there help. If not for them this story would be unreadable. Thanks ladies