Harry felt as though he was frozen. He didn’t dare to move a muscle as his eyes locked on the bird.

The dark bird remained in its stationary position on his chest. Its head tilted slightly to one side as it watched him.

Shit. Waves of panic pounded through Harry’s veins as the nausea died away. ‘If it moves again, I’ll... what do you do to get rid of a bird? Scream? Hit it with something? Or should I just try to get away from it? It seems so much bigger now it’s up close.

Up until this point Harry hadn’t been scared of the crow. Of course, simply seeing the creature was frightening and unsettling; the way it flitted in and out of his line of vision was particularly eerie. He’d also found it hugely unnerving when it had become apparent that Snape couldn’t see the bird; although this really just confirmed what Harry already knew: that there was something unnatural about it. Nevertheless in spite of all of this he’d never actually been worried that the crow would hurt him, that is not until now.

With the crow perched on his chest Harry was suddenly uncomfortably aware of it’s steely, strong beak and long, curved talons.

 What will I do if it tries to peck my eyes out? He suddenly wondered. Shit.  

  The bird seemed to stare back at him. Then without warning it spread its wings. Harry gave a short involuntary cry and covered his face with his arms as it soared towards him but it landed again almost at once on the crown of his head.

 Harry sat stock still wishing desperately for it to disappear and leave him alone.  Just go, please, he urged.

Instead the crow seemed to settle somewhat, after a little pacing about to find a comfortable spot before beginning to use its beak to explore Harry’s hair. Delving into the dark, mop it seemed to be teasing tufts of hair about. What the hell? Harry thought incredulously.

Trembling slightly Harry hesitantly removed his right arm from his face. Very slowly he gradually raised his hand towards his head but just as he was tensed, ready to touch the creature the slight weight vanished. Laying his hand on his head he confirmed what he already knew. It was gone.

***

Severus came in and sighed when he saw that Harry sat curled up with his book propped up on the arm of the sofa.

‘I take it your stubbornness knows no bounds?’

Harry laid his book down and looked up at the professor, ‘what are you talking about?’

‘Apologising Potter. You realise that you will of course have to stomach it eventually.’

‘Oh that.’ Harry shrugged. ‘I’ve spoke to Malfoy already and I’ll speak to Lysander in a minute.’

‘You apologised to Draco?’ Severus’ voice didn’t betray any of his surprise but he did raise one eyebrow.

‘Kind of. I said I was sorry about his eye but that I would probably hit him again if he said anything else about Sirius.’ Harry replied honestly. ‘What?’ he continued, correctly reading Severus’ disapproval, ‘if he keeps to his promise to shut up, it won’t be an issue at all will it?’

‘You realise a Slytherin would simply have confirmed he’d apologised and left it at that?’ Snape said heavily.

‘Well I’m not a Slytherin really, am I? Look do you mind if we stop going on about Malfoy – I’ve got something else I need to talk to you about, something important.’

Severus looked at him expectantly.

Now that the moment had arrived for Harry to open up he found that it was harder than he’d expected. His mouth dried up and he couldn’t think how to begin.

Severus took pity on him. ‘Is this about what you saw at breakfast?’

 ‘You know about that?’ Harry sounded shocked.

 ‘Your recently acquired status as an occlumens makes you no less fallible than it makes me a fool. It would be patently obvious to an idiot that you saw more than a shadow this morning.’

‘I did see something,’ Harry admitted in a small voice. ‘I’m seeing things quite often.  I think I... I... might be going mad, Snape.’

Harry stared at the ground, he wasn’t sure why he felt so uncomfortable discussing this with the older wizard. Perhaps it was because he knew there was no way that Snape would ever spare his feelings and one thing was certain: he didn’t think he could bear it if he started to insult him now.

If Snape was surprised by Harry’s candour he hid it well.

‘I’m sure that your grasp on sanity is neither more nor less secure than that of any of the other harebrained adolescents in this establishment. But go ahead:  tell me what you saw.’

Harry kept his eyes on the ground, scuffing the toe of his shoe along the carpet.

‘You know that before I thought I was just having really vivid dreams, ones where it seemed like I was awake? Well, there’s been two occasions now where I know for a fact I haven’t been asleep when I’ve been dreaming.’

Severus watched him carefully.

‘Go on.’

‘The thing is the things I’m seeing now are really similar to the other dreams, you know the ones I had about Sirius being killed and the other one where he was talking to a squib.’

Severus remembered these. The first had been just after they had heard that Sirius was in trouble and Harry had been worried. The second had been in the midst of a further set of nightmares where he’d finally managed to help the boy use his occlumency to calm himself down.

‘And there was that other one...’

‘The one where you were hurt?’ Severus asked. He could hardly forget that one. It had repeated over and over.

Harry nodded. ‘Yeah that one with the stabbing-spell,’ he said matter-of-factly.

Severus closed his eyes for a moment. He knew that spell and it wasn’t called a ‘stabbing-spell’ but he accepted that it probably quite an apt name for it.

‘How are they similar to those dreams?’

‘They all start the same way, I feel dizzy, like I’m about to be sick and then... well. I don’t know how to describe it. There’s a sort of feeling, a really strong sense that I am there. It sort of feels more real than real life; all my senses what I can see, hear, smell, feel, it’s all magnified.’

‘And the thing you saw at breakfast?’

‘There was a crow sat on top of the chair next to you. Just for a couple seconds. But you looked right at it and couldn’t see it.’

Severus digested that.

‘The thing is...’ Harry continued reluctantly. ‘I see this crow quite a lot after I have been occluding. And...well I felt it earlier as well. It landed on my chest and then my head.  It kept running its beak through my hair. I um...’ he flushed slightly ‘I think it was trying to groom me.’

 ‘So what do you think about it all? Why am I having such vivid dreams, seeing and feeling stuff which isn’t there?’

‘I’m not entirely sure.’ Severus admitted slowly, his expression unreadable. ‘Obviously the episodes about Black, and you being hurt are likely to be a perfectly understandable reactions to the events of the few months. As for the bird, well I will have to ask Professor Dumbledore’s advice, but it doesn’t appear to harbour any harmful intentions. I would try not to panic, but be sure to inform me whenever you next see it.’

Harry felt immensely relieved. It was as if a weight had shifted off his shoulders now that he knew Severus would be dealing with it, and he hadn’t seemed to think he was losing his mind. If anyone was going to give me the cold, hard truth it would be him.

‘Ok and thanks... you know for listening.’

Severus frowned. ‘Is that why you didn’t want to discuss it this morning? You didn’t think I’d listen to you?’

‘No, I was kind of mad at you about the whole Draco thing. But also... well I feel like I should be getting over all these nightmares. I’m sick of seeing this stuff, of not being normal. I keep thinking that it’ll get better and find a way to block it out, but I can’t seem to manage it.’

Severus seemed somewhat discomforted by this statement. ‘You may have to resign yourself to the fact that there is little more you can do. You can’t help having nightmares, Harry.’

‘That’s about of a turn-around for you,’ Harry said in surprise, ‘what happened to you ordering me to practise my occlumency more often to control these dreams?’

‘Don’t forget that I legilimised you an instant after you saw the crow this morning.’ Severus pointed out. ‘I know that your occlumency shield was more than sufficient.’

‘Which is crap because it means there is nothing I can do to stop what I’m seeing.’ Harry said with a sigh. ‘Do you think I could be right that the occlumency is making the dreams worse instead of better?’

‘Even if that were a possibility it is neither here nor there.’ Severus said sternly. ‘You need to be able to occlude, there are no two ways about it.’

‘I should hope not.’ 

Severus cast a quick Tempus.

‘Lunch has nearly finished. We had better go up if we are to eat with the rest of the school.’ He gave Harry a pointed look. ‘I have been beset all morning by irritating dunderheads demanding to know your whereabouts.’

Harry gave a small smile. So Gryffindor had gave him hell then? Good on them! Then the smile wiped off his face. They’re hardly going to be pleased with me. Letting them down at the last minute and not turning up.

‘What was the final score, Snape?’ he asked tentatively, hoping against hope that they had managed to pull through without him.

‘Slytherin won with 190 points to 180.’ Severus said dispassionately. ‘Although Miss Weasley did manage to catch the snitch.’

‘She caught the snitch when Slytherin was that far ahead...?’ Harry said hollowly. If Slytherin were on 190 and Gryffindor only had 30 points she would have been better to hold off until they’d caught up.

‘It appears that she didn’t wasn’t aware of precisely how many points Slytherin were ahead when she ended the game. She was somewhat distracted dodging a bludger moments before she caught the snitch.’

That’s easy for you to say when your house won. Harry brooded.

‘After you have eaten and caught up with your friends, if you come back in an hour or so I thought we could make a start on practising Protego non-verbally later this afternoon.’ Severus suggested as they walked through the common room.

Harry eyes flew around as he saw someone had already spelled the room with dark green snake banners ready for a celebration.

I may well need an excuse to get away from Gryffindor if they take this badly, he thought glumly before his brain caught up with what Snape had said.

‘Non-verbal  Protego?’ He asked in shock.

‘That and other shields.’

‘You really think I’ll be able to do that?’

‘I see no reason why not. You have already demonstrated that you are capable of non-verbal magic with Titan Navitas and casting Finite Incantatum upon my Langlock yesterday. Eventually I would hope to teach you to cast Protego both wordlessly and wandlessly as well.’

They headed down the corridor as Harry was lost in thought, imagining all the advantages that would lie in being able to cast wordless, wandless shields in battle.

‘I’ll see you a bit later then.’ Harry said before slipping over to sit next to Hermione and Ron.

***

A couple hours later Harry made his way to Snape’s rooms feeling much brighter than he had earlier. The Gryffindor’s had been furiously angry... but with Snape rather than him. Rumour’s had gone round the school about what Malfoy had said to Harry alongside a greatly exaggerated version of their fight. All his friends had reassured Harry that he’d been quite within his rights to whack Malfoy one (although Hermione and  Ron paled at hearing that he’d done so in the middle of the Slytherin Common Room) and were highly indignant that he had ended up missing the match as a result.

Ginny had even gone so far as to say that she was sorry for letting him down, which Harry had rushed to assure her was not the case.

All in all, although Harry still felt desperately bad that Gryffindor had lost but he was greatly reassured that no one seemed to be blaming him.

Harry pressed the stone which allowed the door to swing open and walked into Severus’ sitting room.

‘Snape?’

A moment later the professor appeared, smelling faintly of potions, clasping a pile of papers which he deposited on a table.

When had he found the time to brew? Harry wondered vaguely. ‘Does he never rest?’

 ‘Harry.’

Severus stepped into the middle of the room.

‘Right, I shall demonstrate. Fire a mild jinx at me and I will use Protego.’

Harry did as he asked and fired a Rictusempra at Snape which he blocked with his shield in plenty of time, without drawing his wand or moving his lips.

‘Now you try. I won’t jinx you to begin with until you are used to drawing the shield up wordlessly.’

Harry moved to the right slightly so he was away from all the furniture. He concentrated hard, holding his wand tightly and clamping his lips together to prevent any words slipping out accidently.

Protego, Protego, Protego...nothing.

Severus allowed him to try several times before interrupting.

‘You need to focus utterly on thinking the incantanation.’

‘I’m trying.’

‘Use your occlumency,’ the older wizard suggested. ‘Clear you mind of all distractions before trying again.’

Harry sighed and tried again. He wasn’t sure that Snape would ever really understand his method of occluding, seeing as it was so completely alien to his own. Although his occlumency shield definitely allowed him to focus and calm his mind, the way he achieved this was by throwing his feelings into a shield.  He forced everything to become a continual whirlwind of movement as a backdrop to his thoughts. He certainly didn’t clear his mind. His occlumency shield was probably closer to a semi-controlled chaos of emotions being thrown around. It obviously worked, but he wasn’t sure that it would be particularly useful for casting non-verbal spells.

Nevertheless Harry preserved drawing up his occlumency shield to it’s strongest level, straining his mind...

Protego. Protego. Protego.

Severus watched the boy silently, biting back his irritation, knowing that it would not be helpful. Eventually he made another suggestion.

 ‘As you had success in countering Langlock wordlessly only yesterday perhaps we should use that as a starting point?’

 Without giving Harry a chance to protest Severus quickly cast the spell which locked the boys tongue to the roof of his mouth.

Harry focussed as hard as he could: Finite Incantatum, becoming a little frustrated as he struggled to unlock his tongue. I know I can do this.

‘Come on, Harry. You showed that your expertise with this only yesterday.’ Severus reminded him.

Finite Incantatum. Finite Incantatum. Finite Incantatum.

Severus made a movement with his wand as if to remove the jinx but Harry waved him off irritably.

I know I can do this.

After ten minutes Severus left him to it and sat down at his desk, pulling his papers towards him. Twenty minutes later he was totally immersed in his notes when Harry approached and tapped him on his shoulder, pointing at his mouth.

Severus barely glanced up from what he was writing.

‘It appears that you need a strong motivation to regain your power of speech Harry. Focus upon that.’

Harry ran his hands through his unruly hair in exasperation.

Realising that the professor’s mind was made up, Harry retreated to the other side of the room once more and decided to make the best of it.

Finite Incantatum.

Another half an hour later and Harry was really fed up. It was so galling that he had been able to counter Langlock wordlessly only yesterday and now seemed utterly incapable of repeating the action. Harry couldn’t believe that Snape was being such a git. He’d been about to remove the jinx earlier, but then he’d made the decision to carry on, not realising Snape would stubbornly, refuse to help him later on.

He tapped Snape on the shoulder again. This time the professor didn’t even look at him.

Annoyed and frustrated, Harry grabbed a spare quill and sheet of parchment from the table and hastily scrawled a note which he pushed in front Snape.

‘No, Harry, you need to keep going. Persevere and I am sure you will be successful, given time. Would you be able to say you’d “had enough” if the Dark Lord were in front of you?’

Harry scribbled something else.

‘As long as it takes.’ Severus snapped before banishing the spare quill.

Harry scowled and stalked off to throw himself on the dark, green sofa. His mind still working furiously at trying to throw off the Langlock. Severus watched him with some amusement before turning back to his work.

Another hour passed and Harry realised that they would be beginning to serve dinners in the Great Hall. Snape’s always fussy about me eating sensibly- surely he’ll let me go for my meal?

Harry tapped him on the shoulder once more. This time he mimed using a knife and fork.

‘What part of “as long as it takes” do you not understand?’ Snape said evenly, looking back at his notes until they were pulled sharply away from him.

‘You realise that you are perfectly at your own liberty to head down to the Great Hall? I’m sure you will find someone else who is willing to help you resolve your predicament.’

Yeah and a million Slytherin’s on the way who will take the piss, Harry thought moodily. But he didn’t have time to plan his next move because there was a sharp rap on the door.

Grabbing Snape’s arm Harry pointed at his mouth agitatedly.

Snape smirked and headed towards the door.

Harry grabbed the first book to hand on a nearby shelf and threw himself back on the sofa. If he pretended to be reading perhaps he could avoid saying anything. Whoever it was had came to speak to Snape, not him, after all.

If whoever it was did see that he couldn’t speak, he supposed it wasn’t the end of the world. It was  just excruciatingly embarrassing to have people thinking that Snape cast Langlock on him whenever he wanted to shut him up.

Snape opened the door, revealing the student who’d knocked.Of course it would have to be bloody Malfoy.

‘Severus, Potter.’ He greeted them both politely

Harry nodded slightly keeping his eyes glued on the book in front of him.

The words glazed over in front of his eyes. Malfoy will love this. Even if he keeps to his agreement not to insult me, he’ll find it hilarious.

‘Take a seat Draco, Harry and I were just catching up on some gaps in his...’Severus glanced quickly at the title of the text Harry had grabbed hold of which happened to be a first year textbook, ‘basic potions knowledge,’ he finished smoothly.

Draco’s eyebrows almost disappeared under his hairline although it was impossible to tell whether it was due to his Godfather’s use of Potter’s given name or the fact that hid enemy was trying to fill in knowledge he should have learnt years ago...

‘No, I won’t disturb you as you’re obviously busy,’ Draco murmured. ‘Perhaps I could pop back later Severus and use your floo, if it’s convenient?’

‘Of course. If you come back in an hour, I’d like to speak with your parents as well if I may.’ Severus was conscious he ought to spend more time with his godson.

‘That’d be nice. I know that Father and Mother are always pleased to hear from you.’ Draco said formally.

‘I’ll pop back in a bit then.’ Draco said before drawing the door closed behind him.

Throwing down the potions book Harry pointed at his lips again. This is beyond a joke.

Snape ignored him and sat down once more at his desk.

Harry started drumming his hands on the table to get attention.

‘Keep that up and I’ll cast a binding spell on your hands,’ Snape warned him amicably.

Harry snatched the remaining quill from the table and this time scrawled across the sheet Snape had been writing on. His writing was simple and to the point. He underlined it several times to make his point.

Snape glanced at the word ‘ENOUGH’ written in capital letters and looked at Harry the corners of his lips twitching suspiciously.

‘Honestly, Harry, have you no manners?’ He said reprovingly removing the quill from the boy’s hand and running his wand over the scribble to remove it from his notes.

Reminded of Draco’s taunt from their argument yesterday Harry finally saw red.

‘You stupid, old... oh!’

‘Oh, indeed.’ Snape said mockingly, casting a quick Tempus. ‘And it only took you two and a quarter hours to reach this stage. ‘

Before Harry had chance to say anything else Snape cast Langlock again.

There were a few long seconds when Harry almost despaired he was back to square one before he found the knack again and managed to throw it off.

‘Stop it!’ He said.

‘Once more, last time, I promise.’ Snape replied mercilessly pointing the wand once more.

‘Aha!’ This time Harry managed to undo it automatically, ‘I can do it!’

‘Alas, it was so blissfully, quiet.’ Snape said drily standing up. ‘Never mind.’

He strode to the fireplace and floo called for a meal to be brought for them both.

Harry was still a bit annoyed, despite immense satisfaction at finally managing the spell. ‘That wasn’t very nice.’

Severus gave a slight shrug. ‘But highly effective I think you would agree.’

‘Hmpf.’ Harry snorted. ‘Well at least I know you won’t be able to do it again now I can counter it. Incidentally, I don’t think it’s about needing to focus at all. The way I countered it was by willing for it to happen, really strongly and suddenly. Building it up gradually was useless.’

‘In which case given your temperament I’m surprised it took you so long to crack it,’ Severus observed. ‘Just make sure you remember for Protego.’

A house elf appeared and silently set an enormous tray in front of them before Harry could retort.

Harry took a huge bite from a jacket potato before chewing furiously. ‘When are we going to practise shields?’ he asked as soon as he swallowed the bite.

‘Well as it took you over two hours to achieve something which you were already capable of I think it will have to wait for another day. I wouldn’t want to provide more substance to all the Gryffindors who are convinced I am holding you hostage in here. In any case Draco will doubtlessly be along shortly.

Which reminded Harry of another grievance. He swallowed his bite hurriedly.

‘You made him think I’m doing remedial potions again!’

‘I think your choice of text was more to blame for that than I.’ Severus observed.

Harry glanced at the book he’d left out on the sofa and cursed softly under his breath.

He remembered something else that he’d noticed.

‘He calls you Severus!’

‘You may do the same, if you wish.’ Snape replied carelessly forking up a mouthful of peas.

Harry stared at him.

‘Ok, Severus.’ He said seriously before cracking at the last minute and bursting out laughing ‘Sorry, it’s just really weird, that’s all.’

‘It’s a name, Harry.’ Snape replied evenly. ‘Try not to make a spectacle of yourself over everything.

‘Ok, ok.’ Harry said ignoring his griping. ‘But um... Well if I’m going to call you Severus do you think you could call me Harry instead of Potter?’

‘I do call you Harry.’ Severus glanced up at him. ‘If I’m not mistaken that’s what I said only seconds ago.’

‘Well yes now you do. But as soon as I do something to annoy you I’m suddenly Potter again.’

‘Well you could always try not to annoy me.’ Severus continued with his meal and Harry shrugged his shoulders in frustration. Hopeless.

‘...But I daresay I could endeavour to do as you ask.’

Severus darted a quick glance to the boy and was rewarded by seeing him give a broad grin as he attacked his meal again with a healthy appetite.

They’d just about finished when there was a knock at the door.

‘That’ll probably be Malfoy,’ Harry said as he stood up. ‘I’ll see you tomorrow then.’

‘Goodnight Harry.’