The-Boy-Who-Lived/Neglected/Lied/Abounded/Betrayed/Fed Up/Left/Tortured /kills

Occlumency gone wrong

Harry was feeling relieved. They had just been about to start another occlumency lesson when Snape had been called away because Montague was stuck inside a toilet. Thankfully, the lessons had been cancelled and Harry had just been about to leave Snape's office when he saw it: a patch of shivering light dancing on the doorframe. He stopped, looking at it, reminded of something… Then he remembered: It was a little like the lights he had seen in his dream last night, the lights in the second room he had walked through on his journey through the Department of Mysteries.

He turned around. The light was coming from the Pensieve sitting on Snape's desk. The silver-white contents were ebbing and swirling within. Snape's thoughts … things he supposedly did not want Harry to see if he broke through Snape's defences accidentally.

Harry gazed at the Pensieve, curiosity welling inside him. What memory had Snape seen fit to put into the pensieve?

The silvery lights shivered on the wall. Harry took two steps toward the desk, thinking hard. What could it possibly be?

Harry looked over his shoulder, his heart now pumping harder and faster than ever. How long would it take Snape to release Montague from the toilet? Would he come straight back to his office afterward, or accompany Montague to the hospital wing? Surely the latter … Montague was Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team; Snape would want to make sure he was all right.

Harry walked the remaining few feet to the Pensieve and stood over it, gazing into its depths. He hesitated, listening, then pulled out his wand again. The office and the corridor beyond were completely silent. He gave the contents of the Pensieve a small prod with the end of his wand.

The silvery stuff within began to swirl very fast. Harry leaned forward over it and saw that it had become transparent. He was, once again, looking down into a room as though through a circular window in the ceiling. In fact, unless he was much mistaken, he was looking down upon the Great Hall.

His breath was actually fogging the surface of Snape's thoughts… His brain seemed to be in limbo… It would be insane to do the thing that he was so strongly tempted to do … He was trembling. Snape could be back at any moment … but a reckless daring seized Harry.

He took a great gulp of breath and plunged his face into the surface of Snape's thoughts. At once, the floor of the office lurched, tipping Harry headfirst into the Pensieve.

He was falling through cold blackness, spinning furiously as he went, and then —

"This'll liven you up, Padfoot," said James quietly. "Look who it is…"

"Excellent," he said softly. "Snivellus."

...

Snape lay panting on the ground. James and Sirius advanced on him, wands up, James glancing over his shoulder at the girls at the water's edge as he went. Wormtail was on his feet now, watching hungrily, edging around Lupin to get a clearer view.

...

"Wash out your mouth," said James coldly. "Scourgify!"

...

"There you go," he said, as Snape struggled to his feet again, "you're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus —"