Hogwarts had its fair share of bullies as well. The most notable one was, of course, Draco Malfoy. But where Dudley and his gang had been formidable enemies, Draco was not. Harry never stood a chance against his cousin and his gang. They were all bigger and stronger than he was, and he didn't have any means to fight back. But Draco was a different story. Really, Draco was just a spoiled brat whose bark was much worse than his bite. Draco could talk with the best of them, but he was often quick to back off from or avoid confrontations altogether. The only time he ever initiated a confrontation was when he was at a distinct advantage. Harry wasn't really worried about Malfoy. He was just a coward riding his daddy's coattails.
Harry was interrupted from his musings when Snape locked away the pensieve in a cabinet on the wall. Sneer in place, the Potions Master turned toward Harry and spat, "Clear your mind."
'How utterly predictable,' Harry thought to himself.
A moment later the professor had raised his wand and violently whispered, "Legilimens!"
Harry felt as if a battering ram had just smashed into his mind. When he had been blocking Dumbledore a week ago, the old man had barely been grazing the surface of his mind. The presence was hardly even felt by Harry. This was different, forceful, painful. But his shield held. Shock registered for only a moment on Snape's face before his sneer snapped back into place. "It seems you have been practicing. Let's see how your mind stacks up. Legilimens!"
Harry felt the battering ram again, only this time it didn't relent after its initial attack. It backed up and crashed into his mental wall again and again and again. Harry held on for all he was worth, but he was unaccustomed to holding the shield in place in the face of an assault, let alone one of such viciousness. After a couple minutes of the hard fault battle he felt the walls in his mind start to crumble, and Snape emerged victorious. He was not, however, immediately granted the spoils of his conquest. Harry still had his trunks. Snape was given random, inconsequential memories and thoughts that began to float past his consciousness. He shunted them aside looking for more meaningful memories but found none.
Taking advantage of the man's distraction, Harry pushed with all his mental might at the unwelcome guest in his mind. He felt the presence forcefully ejected from his mind and watched as Snape stumbled backwards. He backed up into his desk and ended up sitting on it with a muffled "Oomph." While Snape was still trying to orient himself, Harry quickly began to rebuild the shattered wall in his mind. He was going to be ready for the man's next assault.
"Impressive, Mr. Potter," Snape congratulated emotionlessly as he stood up from his desk. "But not good enough, I'm afraid," he continued in a growl. "If you cannot hold up against my assault, you'll have no hope standing up to the Dark Lord. Take time every night to reinforce the barriers in your mind. We shall meet again next week. You are dismissed."
A bit taken aback at the prompt end to the lesson, Harry nodded dumbly and strode to the door. He opened it up and walked outside. As he shut the door behind himself, he glanced back into the room and saw Snape shakily slump into the chair behind his desk. His face lit up in a wide grin as the door clicked shut. It was definitely a good start.
The next morning after breakfast, Ron headed off to Divination while Hermione went to the library. Harry was headed toward the Room of Requirement to work with the training dummies, but a hand caught his shoulder as he deviated from the path to Gryffindor Tower. Spinning around to find the source, he came face to face with Dean Thomas.
Dean looked a little unsure of himself as he spoke up. "Hey Harry, can I ask you something?"
Harry looked at the boy carefully, wondering what it was that was on his mind. "Sure. Do we need to head somewhere more private or…?" he trailed off leaving the question open in the air.
Dean shrugged. "It's not really necessary. Look, I wanted to ask you about Ron…" he trailed off seemingly unsure how to proceed.
"What is it?" Harry prompted. "Is something wrong with Ron?"
"I'm not sure," Dean replied. "He's been acting weird around me ever since we got back. At first I thought it was just my imagination, but now I'm not so sure. He seems fine around everyone else, but rarely ever speaks to me and when he does his tone completely changes, goes cold, scathing almost. Almost feels like I'm talking to Malfoy or something… Anyway, you wouldn't happen to know what's up with him, would you? Did I do something? Or say something?"
"Have you confronted him about it?" Harry asked, already having an idea of what the cause was but not wanting to have to explain it to Dean. He didn't imagine Ginny would like that, and he didn't know how Dean would react.
"I tried to ask him if anything was wrong, but he just says everything's fine, then turns away," Dean said, waving his arms in the air exasperatingly.
Harry let out a low sigh before answering. "I think I might have an idea of what it could be. It's not anything that you did, and it's not anything Ron should be upset about. It's more of a misunderstanding than anything. I don't want to say anything until I can check a couple facts, so can I get back to you?"
Dean shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I guess so. I don't mean to get you involved in anything. It's just getting bloody frustrating, especially since we sleep in the same room. I figured if anybody would know what was going on it would be you."
"Hey, no problem," Harry said with a smile. "I'll talk to you later, Dean."
As Dean headed back toward Gryffindor Tower, Harry continued his trek to the Room of Requirement. He didn't think Ginny could have forgotten to tell Ron the truth about her lack of a relationship with Dean, but he wanted to ask her about it to make sure. And he was not about to tell Dean about her fib without asking for her permission first. He struggled to remember what she had said her schedule looked like today. He knew she had mentioned it at breakfast that morning. He thought she said she had double DADA first thing in the morning, then a break before lunch. That gave him two hours to train before her class would let out.
Harry asked the room for his usual training room with the training dummies and after setting up various privacy wards, set to work. He went through periods of dodging without magical aid, full out dueling, and dueling with no shields. He left himself plenty of time to wash up and get to the DADA corridor to head Ginny off after her class ended. When he reached his destination, he had three minutes to spare before the bell.
He leaned up against the wall a little ways down the corridor and waited for the class to be let out. Soon enough the door to the classroom was opening, and the 5th year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were streaming out of the brightly lit classroom. He caught Luna's eye as she passed and gave her a warm smile along with a nod of greeting.
He finally spotted the familiar mane of red hair belonging to one Ginny Weasley coming out of the classroom. She was one of the last ones out, conversing animatedly with Jack Sloper and one of the girls in her year. Harry thought her name might be Mandy but couldn't say for sure. As they were walking toward him, Ginny looked up and their eyes locked for a moment. A broad grin graced her lips and was accompanied a moment later by a mischievous glint in her eyes.
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