Silver Hourglass

Occlumency Lessons Chapter 46

Harry pushed open the kitchen door in Grimmauld Place to find Snape and Sirius both seated at the long kitchen table, glaring in opposite directions. The silence between them was heavy with mutual dislike. A letter lay open on the table in front of Sirius.

"Er," Harry said to announce his presence, looking at his godfather and Head of House.

"Sit down, Potter."

"You know," Sirius said loudly, leaning back on his rear chair legs and speaking to the ceiling. "I think I'd prefer it if you didn't give orders here, Snape. It's my house, you see."

An ugly flush suffused Snape's pallid face. Harry sat down in a chair beside Sirius, facing Snape across the table. "What are you doing here...sir?" Harry asked confused.

"I was supposed to see you alone Potter," Snape said, "but Black-"

"I'm his godfather!" Sirius said louder than ever.

"I am here on Dumbledore's orders," Snape said, whose voice, by contrast, was becoming more and more quietly waspish, "but by all means stay, Black, I know you like to feel ...involved."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sirius said, letting his chair fall back onto all four legs with a loud bang.

"Merely that I am sure you must feel-ah-frustrated by the fact that you can do nothing useful," Snape laid a delicate stress on the word, "for the Order."

"I'm a free man! My charges are clear!" Sirius said, pounding a fist on the table.

Snape's lip curled in triumph as he turned to Harry, ignoring Sirius' out blast. "The headmaster has sent me to tell you, Potter, that it is his wish for you to study Occlumency this term."

"Study what?" Harry said blankly.

"Occlumency, Potter," Snape said. "The magical defense of the mind against external penetration. An obscure branch of magic, but a highly useful one."

Harry's heart began to pump very fast indeed. Defense against external penetration? "Would... would this be because of Voldemort?" Harry asked.

"Mayhap," Snape said. "You will receive private lessons once a week, but you will not tell anybody what you are doing, least of all Dolores Umbridge. You understand?"

"Yes," Harry said. "Who's going to be teaching me?"

Snape raised an eyebrow.

"I am. ...Obviously."

"Why can't Dumbledore teach Harry?" Sirius asked agressivley. "Why you?"

"I suppose because it is a headmaster's privilege to delegate less enjoyable tasks," Snape said silkily. He got to his feet. "I expect you at six o'clock on Monday evening, Potter. My office. If anybody asks, you are taking Remedial Potions. Who knows, lie good enough and they'll actually believe you."

He turned to leave, his black traveling cloak billowing behind him.

"Wait a minute," Sirius said, sitting up straighter in his chair.

Snape turned back to face them, sneering.

"I am in rather a hurry, Black ...unlike you, I do not have unlimited leisure time. ..."

"I'll get to the point, then," Sirius said, standing up. He was rather taller than Snape who, Harry noticed, had balled his fist in the pocket of his cloak over what Harry was sure was the handle of his wand. "If I hear you're using these Occlumency lessons to give Harry a hard time, you'll have me to answer to."

Snape just glared at Sirius for a moment, silently judging his words before turning back to Harry. "Six o'clock Potter," Snape said before he left.