"Hullo Harry, how are you doing on this fine day? The nargles seem to be very attracted to you at the moment. Are you worrying for no reason again?" Luna's dreamy voice echoes in the empty hall and I grin at her. I tell her that I just didn't sleep well, and we continue down the hall when I suddenly bump into what turns out to be a very aggressive Blaise Zabini. I immediately apologize. Malfoy and I may have been antagonizing each other for years now, but unlike him I don't want to pull his friends into it.
"Who the hell do you think you are Potter, Uno Mas?!" Zabini bitches and I stare at him confusedly before getting his reference. It is a wizard reference though, so I pretend not to know who he means:
"Is that a pop star or something?" I ask dumbly and smirk inwardly. Zabini stops looking angry and instead he looks somewhat exasperate.
"NO! He's the father of all magic you absolute bloody moron!" He shouts and shakes his head.
"Zabini?" I ask, amused. He says 'what' and looks at me incredulously. "Did you know that the word 'moron' means 'carrot' in Gaelic?" He face palms himself and continues to stride towards the great hall in a very pure-blooded manner. Honestly, the bumping into me thing and then shouting although I apologized was such a Dudley-move.
--
During breakfast I receive a note from Dumbledore, sadly excusing me from History of Magic, although I mostly self-study that since Binn's isn't that great of a teacher. Dumbledore's note is ordering me to his office right after breakfast. Apparently, the password is 'Gryffin'. What could he want from me? I hope this has got nothing to do with my recent nightly activities, but how would he know? I still have the invisibility cloak and the Marauder's map and he can't have been spying after me. It's Dumbledore after all. He only wants what's best for me.
--
"Ah, Harry, my dear boy!" Dumbledore greets me with his grandfatherly smile, and I wonder whether he has been copying notes from Slughorn or the other way around. Why do they always address me the very same way?
Apart from Dumbledore there is my favourite teacher of all my Hogwarts years standing there: Snape. Sike. I suppose he's on his way out... Or not. He isn't moving. The air is awkward. I'm looking at Dumbledore, Dumbledore is looking at Snape, and Snape is staring at me.
"So... Ummm...?" Eloquent as always Harry, truly, you are a master of words, I bully myself. I can also see Snape having similar thoughts, while Dumbledore just keeps smiling. What is this, a horror show? I cannot with the tension.
"Let me cut to the chase Potter, before we all grow roots here that is: The headmaster sees it fit for me to start on our friendly little occlumency lessons and I am supposed to teach you extra-curricular things for Defence in addition." Snape states, gritting his teeth and I feel myself become very, very pale. If he finds out about what I've been getting up to recently he will have a field day. Whether with the light or dark side I don't know. Either way he would use that against me in every single way he could think of; and with all the things negative about him, he is not uncreative.
"Well, that was all Professor, do you want to say anything else?" Dumbledore looks at Snape, so I am guessing he has something private to discuss with me. Snape reads the room apparently and leaves, robes swishing behind him. "Now that we have that out of the way: I have a mission for you." Dumbledore begins and I swallow thickly.
--
"He wants you to destroy pieces of my mother's master's soul? That is evil! Killing I understand but killing off only parts of a soul is very very painful and sadistic. Are you sure this headmaster of yours is light Master?" Harriet asks, eyes scrunching up as if out of suspicion. I roll my eyes and tell her not to worry.
Apparently, my theory about Voldy and the Horcruxes was right, although I'm not sure how Dumbledore found out about that. He said something about having had a thorough talk with Slughorn, whatever that means.
"So, killing is fine, but hurting only parts of a soul is evil?" I ask bemusedly.
"Depends on who you're killing master." She hisses and I chuckle, slightly shaking my head at her antics. "Also, could you find a way to carry me with you?" I nod and she squirms around excitedly. She's been asking for a possibility to be around me at all times and protect me without having to have me use a shrinking and unshrinking charm all the time. I tell her about the ritual I've recently found, which would allow her to change into a travel friendly size and back at will. The ritual is actually pretty short and simple too, so we use the remaining time I have until my next lesson to complete the ritual. I also adjusted her looks to not look as much of a basilisk-baby in case someone does see her. We give a few tries and then she happily slithers up my leg and settles around my arm, under my robes. I smile, also feeling much more comfortable having her with me.
--
"Potter. Right on time for a change." Snape drawls and I have to hold back a sigh. It's ten minutes before the time he asked to meet me.
"Look Sn- Professor Snape, can we please leave out the occlumency lessons. I am fine now and I'm sure you don't want to teach me again after the horror of last year and-" I begin, but he silences me.
"I decide what I will teach you and you will learn whether you want to or not, so prepare for your mind to be penetrated Potter." He states, eyes darkening, if that is even possible. Why does he always have to say every word like it's its own bloody sentence. He always sounds constipated too; at this point I'm honestly concerned for his health.
I am only concerned with these lessons because I have a mental barricade of sorts and it is a mind-scape so to speak, designed to lead any intruders on for hours and it doesn't feed off of my energy as soon as I'm unconscious. Instead, for whenever I'm sleeping or knocked out, it connects itself to a magical ring, which Salazar Slytherin pointed me to in his office. He said it was the heir ring to Slytherin, which: first off why was it lying around and not in Gringotts, second off... It just can't be. Slytherin told me himself that the ring only accepts heirs of Slytherin or their destined partners and I'm pretty sure Salazar and I already checked everything concerning my familial background and apart from that... The only living heir of Slytherin happens to be my worst enemy and surely hates me as much as I hate him. He's like my arch nemesis of sorts and I kind of have to kill him for world peace, although Salazar doesn't seem to want to get that into his thick skull.
'Now at least I have no time for my thoughts to trail off any further', I think as I face my unhappy DADA professor.
YOU ARE READING
The Not so Dark Hours (Tomarry)
Fanfiction6th year at Hogwarts. Harry is starting to suspect that Dumbledore is not who he makes himself out to be. Furthermore, Harry succumbs more and more to the hunger for knowledge, even if that path might also include learning and using dark magic. On t...
