That evening Harry was surprised to be escorted by Filch, not clean another part of the castle but to Professor Snape's classroom.

Harry gulped and felt all the colour drain from his face. Professor Snape directed him, not to the sink to scrub cauldrons like Harry expected, but to a desk. Harry was so nervous by this point that he was trembling.

"You screwed up your potion today more spectacularly than you have all year Potter. Just when I was starting to think you weren't a total dunderhead and may possess even a tiny iota of your mother's talent, you go and screw up even more spectacularly than even Longbottom's usual failures." Professor Snape said arching a brow.

Harry flinched, trying to figure out what the man was actually saying. His tone was harsh, but the man's magic was stiller than it normally was when the man normally berated Harry and was truly angry. That and the man didn't feel angry, just unhappy, irritable and... confused?

That made no sense.

And some of that had almost sounded like a compliment for a moment there. Harry wondered if Professor Snape was ill.

In an uncharacteristic display of weakness, Professor Snape pinched the bridge of his nose, took a deep breath and said in a voice devoid of its usual bite, "brew the potion again."

Harry frowned but scrambled to get to work, not wanting to upset the man further. He was glad he'd brought his bag with him. He wasn't going to question the Professor's uncharacteristically charitable mood. He set up his mat and his timers and took out his notes on the recipe in his mum's book, and started preparing ingredients.

Again he could feel the magic of the ingredients; sleeping, partially dormant, but not quite. He could feel the ingredients calling to his magic, pulling like a sponge, and he wasn't sure what to do with it. Last time he'd tried to stop it. To stop the ingredients and the potion pulling at his magic. But that had not gotten him anywhere.

This time he let them. He let his magic flow down the tools he was using to dice, grind and press the ingredients, and then let it flow down the stirring rod into the caldron, and let the ingredients fall from his fingers into the potion taking his magic with it.

He got two-thirds of the way this time before exploded. Again at least he managed to douse it with Bi-Carb and snap up the containment ward before it blew up spectacularly in his face.

Harry looked up, his breathing shallow, his heart pounding. He was sure his teacher was about to blow up at him. Instead, the man was frowning at him as if he were a particularly interesting potion ingredient. This did not at all reassure Harry...

Harry hurriedly tapped the runes to vanish the mess and the ward. He cleaned up his station, his hands shaking so badly he nearly dropped things a number of times. Especially his cauldron once he started scrubbing it in the sink. All the while, Professor Snape just stared at his place, thinking.

When Harry had finished scrubbing, Professor Snape said, "Potter prepare these."

Harry turned and approached the bench, a jar of horned slugs, snake fangs and porcupine quills. Harry went scarlet, his cheeks tingling. Surely he wasn't so bad as to need to go right back to the very first potion lesson!

Feeling about two inches tall, his eyes stinging with shame and humiliation, he slowly started preparing the boil cure. He crushed the snake fangs into a fine powder, not even needing to open his book, then put them over the heat. When that was done, he added the horned slugs letting the magic flow into the slimy things as they bubbled. Then he took it off the heat and added the quills letting the magic flow from his fingers.

It was the right colour, and the smoke was pink as it should be, but it felt... off.

Shit, he thought his shoulders slumping. Professor Snape didn't say a word, before flicking his wand, bottling the potion and sending the cauldron to the sink to be scrubbed.

Harry stared, but quickly hurried to scrub the cauldron clean.

"It's an adequate brew, boil cure is hard to mess up," Professor Snape said mildly when he was on his way out the door feeling like a failure.

Harry's heart sank even further. Simple and yet he still screwed it up, Professor Snape was right. He was an incompetent moron.

"Return here for your detention tomorrow, and we shall work on the issue," the Professor said.

Harry fled the room and Severus watched him go with a concerned frown.

When Harry rose on Saturday morning, (after an extra day in the chamber using the time turner), he sat for a moment and had to open his planner to check what day it was and that he'd had everything done. He then smiled when he realised his homework was done and all he had to do today, other than lessons with Bill, and detention, was duelling with this friends and working in the forest. Saturday was his off day.

He grinned and hurried to get out of the castle for his run.

This morning the others had joined him, so they ran around the lake. Hermione had persuaded the twins and Neville that being fit would help their duelling stamina and that if Harry had to get up early to do it, the least they could do was support him.

"Plus," she had argued, "we can plan all sorts of chaos and revise all sorts of things on our runs."

They didn't talk about much of anything that morning, the twins and Neville were to bust panting and trying to keep up with Harry and Hermione who were much fitter than the other three who were not used to running.

But by the time they got back to the kitchen, clean but exhausted, they were smiling again.

"That really wakes you up," Neville said, digging into an omelette as Harry drowned his morning potions before digging into his own.

"It does," he said around a mouthful.

"Oh, we forgot to tell you about last night!" Fred said

"Heard someone complaining about it after curfew, and interrogated them," George added.

"You'll never guess what Peeves did," Neville said grinning

Hermione snickered, "it was so gross! You missed it. We heard the elves talking about it when we got to the kitchens for a late dinner."

"Peeves stole Professor Sprouts Dragon dung and chucked it around the great hall!"

"Got the headmaster right in the face!" Said Fred.

"And Ronnikins!" added George, "and managed to splatter McGonagall and the rest of the Gryffindors."

"and a few other students as collateral damage," Hermione added, "interestingly everyone that got hit with it is a known bully, or has been hexing us. Even foreign students. It caused a huge uproar apparently.

Harry frowned slightly, he had only asked peeves to target Dumbledore. So his friends or Hogwarts must have set him on Ron and the Gryffindors. Hogwarts probably pointed him in the direction of the bullies.

He grinned and started to laughed, "thanks," he said.

The twins plastered an innocent look on their face that no one believed for a second, and Harry smothered another laugh, opening the morning's mail.

He had 10 letters that morning, it had been increasing all week, and his friends took great delight in helping him open them and work out which stock reply to send.

Thankfully nothing hideous was in the paper, though there was a tiny article mentioning Dumbledore that made Harry grin.

'Dumbledore trying to make his students Oath-breakers? How far will the great warlock fall?' It went on to mention Dumbledore setting up an interview with Skeeter and a student known to be protected by a journalist contract, despite the fact that it was well known that said student was unable to actually speak to the journalist.

It was kept Harry's name out of it, but he did wonder if anyone would put two and two together to correctly get four? Or would they all, like so many in the wizarding world without an ounce of logic, put two and two together only to get nine? Honestly, that was almost tame for Skeeter.

While they were snickering over the paper, Hokey popped in with a list of replies he needed to send out, along with little notes from Dobby, who had taken it upon himself to act as 'Mr Harry Potter personal elf,' to oversee the letter business, as Hokey was a Hogwarts elf, not Harry's elf.

Hokey thankfully seemed to find the behaviour of the younger elf endearingly odd and indulged the elf, rather than be offended by it. Either way, Harry was very relieved to have their help and was even more grateful for the list of names and a summary of what they had said, and the elves suggestion of how to handle them.

Most of the letters the elves could use stock replies Harry had drawn up at their request. The really important ones they handed off to him, like a marriage proposal from when he was three, and an estate bequest.

Those he had to discuss with his friends and Slytherins and Rodgrip to make sure they were handled properly and he did not make any faux pas. Thankful the marriage proposal was not binding, and he had a politely drafted standard, 'I am honoured but, no thank you.' For any future proposals or betrothal contract, they found. Which unfortunately were numerous.

As to the estate bequest, it had been sold off a few years ago after he had not been heard from. But the deceased's a distant cousin who had handled the matter had put aside 200 gallons for him. Harry wasn't sure how he felt about that, but transferred it into his new vault and sent back a sincere thank you to the distant cousin.

All in all, it was a pleasant breakfast, and a good way to start the weekend. But it didn't stop the tense feeling in his chest that had slowly been building since he had returned to school. He felt like he was slowly drowning.

After breakfast, Harry headed down to the Shack to meet Bill. He was already there when Harry got in and pulled Harry into a hug.

"Harry!" He explained still holding Harry tightly.

Harry felt something in him relax when Bill hugged him close. The tension that had been building since leaving nocturne seemed to drain right out of him, and he sagged against the older boy. He hadn't realised just how tense he'd been.

"Missed you, sweetheart," Bill said, "you haven't been writing or calling us. You avoiding us again?"

"Harry?" Bill asked when Harry didn't reply.

Harry just let out a non-committal hum and hugged Bill tighter, basking in the steady warmth of his magic. Bill chuckled, his chest vibrating under Harry's ear and cast a cleaning spell and a repairing spell at the ratty couch before sitting them both down on it with Harry on his lap.

"That bad is it, sweetheart?" Bill said soothingly, "I know you were worried about coming back to school.

Harry just shrugged and when Bill didn't seem inclined to push him away snuggled closer instead, resting his head on Bills' shoulder. It had been an okay morning, but he'd had enough this week. He was suddenly exhausted. He hadn't realised how bad it had gotten. Not until Bill had hugged him and it seemed to just unravel the tight, anxious, overwhelmed knot in his chest.

"Feel like calling Charlie? He's been worried. Been badgering me all week. He's missed hearing from you too." Bill said, and Harry nodded into Bills neck, fighting down a blush at the mention of another person that genuinely cared for him. It was so nice having people that liked him. Odd still but nice. He felt warm and safe here. He let himself relax.

Bill ran a hand up and down Harry's back soothingly and pulled out his mirror.

Harry woke sometime later, warm and comfortable to something warm moving soothingly up and down his back. He jerked.

The hand stilled, "it's alright, Harry. You're okay."

Harry blinked.

Bill.

He was on Bills lap, with his face still pressed into Bill's neck.

He jerked upright going scarlet, pushing away from Bill an apology already spilling from his lips. But Bill just soothingly pressed a warm hand to Harry's back, pulling him into a close hug again.

"It's fine, sweetheart, don't worry about it."

Harry looked up wearily checking Bill's face for anger. He'd fallen asleep, and wasted Bill's time, surely he'd be mad... Petunia had always been mad when he wasted her time...

Harry blinked, he couldn't see.

When had his glasses come off?!

Glasses were pressed into his hand, and the world swam back into focus as he put them on. Bill was watching him, his face not at all angry. Mildly concerned but no trace of any displeasure. In fact, Bill looked pretty relaxed. Harry reached out with his magic, looking for any hint of displeasure, any hint of threat. He caught a flash of worry, concerned, an image of Charlie's face in the mirror. But he could sense no anger. Just the warm, steady, reassuring magic that was Bill.

"Feeling any better, sweetheart?" Asked Bill.

Harry frowned, failed to stifle a yawn and said, "you're sure you're not mad? I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"I'm not mad, kiddo, don't worry about it. Charlie sends his love, by the way."

"Oh," Harry said, blinking confusedly.

"But I wasted your time, why aren't you mad? You should be mad."

"Of course I'm not, sweetheart!" Bill said, pulling Harry close again, "you obviously needed it, and that's okay. You're allowed to look after yourself, Harry. Did you sleep well?"

Harry stared at Bill for a long moment, something of an epiphany slowly ticking over at the edges of his mind, then he nodded. It was the best sleep he'd had in a while. Even with the dream catcher, he still had unsettling dreams. It helped, but it didn't stop them. Just pulled out the really nasty 'wake up screaming' nightmares - most of the time.

"I did," Harry said again getting up and stretching, "oh I meant to ask, I saw Dumbledore the first night back. Can you check me for magic? Hermione looked and didn't find anything, but we wanted to be sure."

"Sure," Bill said, standing and peering at Harry closely.

"You don't feel any different from normal, I usually would have noticed, now I know what your magic feels like when it's clean," he explained, "but I'll double-check?"

Harry nodded quickly, just in case the spells he and Hermione normally used had missed something. They were simpler ones then Bill's curse-breaking ones.

Bill waved his wand over Harry. His tests were not like the goblins, and he cast three different spells over harry, his magic washing over him comfortingly. His spells were more complicated than Hermione's, but they too came out clean.

"All clean," Bill said with a grin.

"Thanks," said Harry hugging Bill quickly as relief washed through him,

"We still got a bit of time," Bill said, "want to do some Occlumency?"

Bill was very pleased with Harry's progress in occlumency. Harry could easily throw Bill out, and his natural shields were recovering, if slowly.

The centre of Harry's mind had developed too. It was not just a cupboard now. Harry had been diligently shaping his mind, to make it hard to get into and even harder for an invader to find his memories.

His cupboard was still dark, and still had a nest of blankets and pillows. But it was a cozy cupboard. And more like a small attic with shelves and shelves of books. All his precious memories all hidden in pages of books on the shelves. All the painful memories, all the happy ones, all the important knowledge and everything he didn't want people sensing.

The cupboard was actually a small attic, in the roof of a sizeable wooden cottage in the centre of a wood that seemed to go on for miles. It was a nice, comfortable, homey space, again filled with shelves upon shelves of books.

He'd built the place around his cupboard so if anyone did get into his inner sanctuary, they would not think to keep looking further. The cottage was a decoy of sorts. This was the outer section of his inner sanctuary. There were still memories stored in the books here, all kept neatly ordered. But none of the truly important ones were out here; things like days at school, homework, the less painful days at the Dursley's.

Everything important was sorted safely away, hidden in the bookshelf in his attic. The attic with the hidden door.

He'd even managed to recall some hazy memories of his mother. They were fuzzy and not very clear, but he could remember feeling happy, and loved, the feel of her magic, her laugh, her smell, and the way she had sung him off-key lullabies.

That alone had made sorting all the painful memories worth it.

"well done!" Bill said when Harry told him about it.

"I'm having a much easier time remembering things," Harry said, "now that my mind is ordered."

"Well occlumency is mental discipline, and the brain is a muscle, the more you train it and practice with it, the easier things get."

"It's easier to remember things from way back, but it's also easier to remember things like what I had for breakfast three days ago," Harry said.

"Yeah, it's great," Bill said, "it helps with exam memorising too."

"Yeah, I still need to make sure I understand it, I can't just miraculously remember everything. But it's easier now. And if I really focus hard and review the memory and can reread a page of something I saw. But it's much harder, and it gives me a headache." Harry admired.

"Well, well done. Some people can manage to train their occlumency up to a level that basically works photographically," Bill explained, "Severus, is like that I think. But you need to really work at it, it's a muscle. It won't get there straight away. And not everyone can do it."

Harry nodded in understanding, "there are still a few weird things left that I haven't been able to sort." Harry said, recalling the eery white memories.

They had seeped into the blankets in his cupboard, making them hard to get to. And even when he did manage to narrow one down and draw it out, they seemed to slip away from him or seemed to coil up tight. Try as he might, he couldn't seem to get them unwoven enough to uncover the memory. There was no doubt in his mind, though, that they were the obliviated memories. And it was completely vexing that he knew where they were and he just couldn't get to them or decipher them.

"It's just these weird white wispy things left," he said, "I think they're what was obliviated. I can't touch them yet, it just gives me a headache."

"It will give you a headache if they're the obliviated memories." Bill confirmed, "You'll need a master legilimens to work it out, depending on how well they were obliviated. If it was Obliviated with the Complex Obliviate, done by a legilimens, then only a legilimens will be able to undo it. If it was just the simple Confundus Obliviate, you might be able to work it out in time. But most likely again, you'll need help from a legilimens that you trust to pick them apart. Some times they come back on their own, now you're aware of them, and now you're working on occlumency," Bill reassured at Harry's horrified face.

"Right," said Harry feeling a little disappointed, he had hoping Bill would be able to help him untangle them.

"Sorry kiddo," he said correctly reading Bill's face, "I'm not that good at Legilimency. I can do rudimentary legilimency, enough to start teaching you occlumency, but I'm not good enough to help you fix it," he said, wrapping Harry in a hug.

"So, now what?" Harry asked.

"Now we can start working on shields," Bill said flopping down on one end of the sofa and dragging Harry with him.

"Remember those exercises I got you to do for shielding the outer mind?" Bill asked.

"Focusing intently on something, visualising things like fire or endless fog," Harry recalled.

"Good, you want things like that around your inner mind too. You want to practice visualising them until you can recall them at will. You want to weave those images into the magical barriers we've been working on building up around your inner and outer mind." Bill said.

"So something like fog around the outer mind, or an image of fire or water," Harry said thinking aloud, "then something like a wall of fire around the inner protections, woven into the magical barriers I've been building, so it's harder to get into."

"Yes," Bill said.

"Can you layer several things?" Harry asked, "what about if the inner mind sanctuary is in something like a vault, a warded one. Then only way in is a twisting, confusing labyrinth of cart track, like Gringotts or going down an endless well. An intruder would get lost in the first, or lose their breath in the second. Then the entrance to those things are covered by fire and fog, or smoke. You'd have to go through all that to get to the inner mind it would be unpleasant, the fire would burn you, or make you think you were burning, the fog would make you think it was hard to breathe, as would a bottomless well of water. It would go against natural instincts to keep going through them. Survival instincts would say, stop, pull back, get out."

Bill blinked, "that's more specific and psychological than most people think of. Most people go for more abstract defences that literal ones, making it hard to find their inner mind. But it would act an extra layer of protection. It would take time to work up to though. The more complex you make it, the more magic and experience it will take. Start simple with just fire, for example, and making it realistic, then work up in complexity."

Harry thought about it a moment, "start small. Sometimes the most simple solutions can be the most powerful."

"You got it, sweetheart," Bill said, "your original fire idea, is good. It should work really well if you can capture the memory of heat. As could deep water if you can capture the feeling of needing to breathe. But maybe leave that for later, let's focus on fire for now."

"Could I weave in memories of fire?" Harry asked, "of what it's like, its heat and its sound, and how much the burns hurt?"

"Yes you can," Bill said, sounding a little sad, "the attacker would have to go through it, the memories to get to your inner mind. It would be a good deterrent, and using memories would make it easier to fool them into thinking they really are experiencing fire."

"Brilliant!" Harry cheeped far too cheerfully for having just talked about being burnt or making someone else think they were being burnt.

They meditated on it, and Bill coached Harry though a few guided meditations to help him start building his ideas.

And by the end of their lesson, Harry had sturdy walls of burning fire around his inner mind, and a dense fog of smoke around his outer mind. It was hard to hold at first, and harder again to weave in real memories into. But it was proving to be worth it when he had managed to keep Bill out twice. Bill hadn't even made it through the outer mind the first time. And when he did the second time he was stopped completely by the wall of fire.

At that point, Harry's walls had collapsed in exhaustion. It was hard work, and he couldn't maintain it for long. Though Bill assured him that would come with time and practice.

"Fuck me, that's hard work," Harry panted after Bill had called a halt.

"You did well, really well. Keep practising, but don't overwork yourself. The mind is a muscle. Too much practice at once can strain it."

Harry nodded, picking himself up off the floor where he'd fallen. It was an odd feeling having his mind so completely protected. It almost gave him a tightened sense of focus, of being able to compartmentalise a little.

"You'll want to be careful not to fully occlude all the time," Bill warned, tossing Harry a block of chocolate to build up his reserves.

"Why?" Harry asked, taking a large bite, and humming happily as warmth and strength seeped back into him.

"Well, it compartmentalises things at full strength so you can focus more on the defensive and think clearly than on emotional decisions or distress. It can be used to suppress emotions. And that's okay a little bit, in an emergency when fighting to keep someone out. But not all the time. It's dangerous. You'll have a breakdown if you do it too much. So you have to make sure you let your barriers down regularly. If you just turn off, you'll destroy yourself, and your mind will self destruct." Bill warned.

"But it would be nice not to feel sometimes," Harry said in a small voice, feeling a weight return to his shoulders.

"I know sweetheart," Bill said, "and a little sometimes is fine. But not all the time. It's not safe, and you'll end up blowing up or damaging your mind. You need to let yourself feel and process your emotions. They get toxic otherwise. Don't take that risk."

"The better you get at Occlumency, the easier it will be, and the more devastating the fall out will be when it stops." bill said, looking at Harry closely, "I can hold my shields moderately all day now, and that's as good as they'll ever get.

I'm not a natural, but it's good enough for most things, and I can make them stronger for shorter periods of time when I need to. But you have the capacity to be much better than me, so you'll need to be more careful and have the self-discipline to look after yourself and not abuse the power you have." Bill said, looking at Harry very seriously.

"Being able to switch off and just function on logic can be useful sometimes, but you need emotions too. You need a balance of logic and emotions to function well. Don't forget that, okay?"

Harry nodded, thinking of all the times as a child when he'd just turned off for a bit and how brutal the meltdowns had been when it had eventually gotten too much. It always did catch up to him in the end.

"I won't abuse it." He said quietly, "I don't want to bottle things up and explode. Things need to be dealt with as they come."

Bill hugged him tight, and it took Harry a little longer to relax into it, something Harry knew Bill noticed.

"Good job, love," Bill said, running a hand soothingly down Harry's stiff back. "Now let's do some work on your Legilimency and see if you can manage it deliberately this time. You leek sometimes, and I can feel your mind reaching out. We need to stop that, so you can control it."

And so they set to work. Unfortunately, Harry was not have as much luck with legilimency as occlumency. It was a lot harder to teach, as it was different for everyone. Especially as Harry was highly sensitive to magic and an empath, how he did legilimency was very different from Bill.

He could do the spell and perform it now, but he was having trouble gaining any fitness over the spell. He was also struggling not to accidentally picking up on peoples thoughts when he was sensing magic or emotion. It was hard to separate the three mental senses. Half the time he still wasn't aware he was doing legilimency. And no amount of occlumency had any effect on stopping his accidental legilimency.

It was very frustrating.

At least it was helping his friends with their Occlumency studies though.

END NOTES

Bill and harry hijacked the plot I had planned for this chapter... Was going to have all sorts of good and productive things happening... but instead this happened.

Also there is a method to snapes actions and it is not at all cruel the way harry assumes it to be… it will be explained later.

Just to clarify

You need two heads for a resort

Three heads to partition to be houseless instead of unhoused. (That basically a petition to change houses and removes the black mark of an h housing for your record) sorting only happens at the start of year feast.

Harry never actually asked snape for his help on the re-sort. He just assumed snape hates him still and won't help. There's a difference between his assumption and reality.