It Could Have Gone That Way; A Harmione Fanfiction

Chapter 56: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry ran as far as he could from Snape's office. He hadn't meant to see into Snape's mind, he had just been angry and had so badly wanted to show Snape how painful it was to have someone you didn't trust watching your memories. Practically falling through the portrait hole, Harry wiped his forehead and realised that the evening's Occlumency session had left his grey t-shirt mostly black and sticking to him with sweat. Brilliant, he thought.

"Harry? You're back early." Hermione stood up from the sofa.

"Oh. Uh, yeah." Harry stammered, moving over to her and Ron, who was sitting on the sofa,"Snape thinks I'm done. Says I've mastered it and don't need to, er, come back."

"So, you've stopped having the dreams?" Hermione pressed suspiciously as the pair sat down.

"Pretty much." Harry couldn't look at her, but he didn't want her on his case all the time about Occlumency and the dreams, even if she did mean well.

"Well, I don't think Professor Snape should stop until you're absolutely sure you can control them!" She said indignantly,"Harry, I think you should go back to him and ask-"

"No." Harry said forcefully,"Just drop it, Hermione, okay?"

Ron suddenly gasped.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"There's only six weeks until exams!" Ron yelped.

Hermione rolled her eyes,"How can that come as a shock? Look, I've made you both revision timetables. I tried to make them more interesting by colour-coding them and making them flash. That's about the best I could do, I'm afraid." She handed the boys their timetables.

"Ooh, you've given me a night off a week!" Ron beamed.

"Yes, that's for Quidditch practice."

"Oh." Ron grouched,"Well, then."

"Harry, I've been meaning to do this spell for a while." Hermione changed the subject suddenly,"It's a good one, I think. It's easy, too."

"Go on, then," Harry said,"what is it?"

"Rennervate. It counters Stupefy. Um...Ron, would you like to be a test dummy for this?" Hermione asked.

Ron looked like he had been asked to shave all of his hair off,"No way!"

Sighing irritably, Hermione scanned the room. The only other people there were Neville and the twins. "Do any of you three want to be a test dummy?"

"Nope." Fred stood up and left.

"Thanks for the offer, though." George followed suit.

"Neville?"

"Er...well, I've got somewhere to be...I'm tired. Sorry. Bye." Neville hurried upstairs nervously.

Hermione exhaled angrily. Later that night, Harry decided to tell Hermione the real reason for Snape stopping his Occlumency lessons. She had not been very pleased with him at all.

***********

"Facing this stuff in real life is not like school. In school, if you make a mistake you can just try again tomorrow, but out there - when you're a second away from being murdered or watching a friend die right before your eyes - you don't know what that's like." Harry said grimly.