"So you've been having strange dreams, kind of premonitions?" Hermione paraphrased after listening to Harry's explanation. "And that's how you found out Sirius was alive?"

"Yes, in my dream I saw him with Connor down by the lake. That's how I hurt myself last night, I fell over after we'd sneaked out to try to see him."

"So you haven't actually seen or heard from him yet? For real, I mean."

"Just in the dream."

"Oh." Hermione and Ron shared a quick glance.

"Um, Harry?" Ron's voice sounded troubled. "How do you know that your dreams... well ...aren't just dreams? You were pretty close to your Godfather – it'd be perfectly natural for you to be dreaming that he's alive."

Harry shook his head confidently.

"No. For a start, the dreams are completely different to normal. I'm actually there in the dreams and everything is more intense somehow, the sounds, colours, movements... I actually feel what's happening. They're more real than real life somehow... And then there's Connor."

Ron and Hermione's gazes moved to rest upon the tall, Irish boy who seemed to stiffen as Harry prepared to tell his secret, although he didn't protest.

"One of my strange dreams was about a Crow..."

"One of your dreams? How many of these premonitions have you had?" Hermione interrupted.

"The rest don't matter," Harry said dismissively. "The one about the Crow is important though. Anyway I kept seeing it, over and over again, until I thought I was actually going mad. It wasn't until yesterday that I said something about the Crow to Connor..."

"He nearly brained me with a tooth-mug." Connor interjected.

"...and then he showed me who the Crow really was."

Connor stood up and after a slight pause transformed.

Ron and Hermione watched agog as he then transformed back to his human form.

"So I knew then," Harry said earnestly, "my dreams weren't random." He stood up and paced the floor in excitement. "I've been seeing real stuff, and I saw the Crow with Padfoot and realised that's going to happen. Sirius is alive and will be coming back to the grounds of Hogwarts," Harry ended with a note of finality.

And no one can argue with that.

***

Apart from Hermione and Ron it seemed, as they proceeded to spend the following three quarters of an hour bombarding Harry with concerned questions.

"The thing is, Harry," Ron had said sounding uncomfortable, "you sound so sure that this is all going to happen, but just because one of your dreams comes true doesn't mean they all will."

"How can you know that your mind isn't just showing you what you want to see?" Hermione had also added.

A lump formed in Harry's throat as he stared at them both.

"I thought you were happy for me," he said quietly. "You know what this means to me."

"Don't get us wrong, this'd be great news... if it's true. We just don't want you to be disappointed if it's not..."

"We thought you'd actually seen Sirius, Harry. That you had actual proof he was still alive..."

"What about him!" Harry cried pointing at Connor.

"Well yes," Hermione said hesitantly, "there is that. But honestly Harry, no offense, you were always dreadful at Divination. You've said so yourself! And you and Ron used to make up all your premonitions. So you can't blame us for being a bit surprised by all this."

Connor raised his eyebrows at that. "Well you know why that's changed, don't you?" he said.

They all looked at him.

"You know," he repeated as if the answer was totally obvious.

"What?"

"Occluding," he replied sounding puzzled that Harry hadn't worked it out.

"Lots of wizards unleash their seer abilities to their full potential for the first time after they've learnt occlumency. I mean, it's hardly common, but scarcely unheard of. It's actually one of the very reasons that some people learn occlumency in the first place. You must know this already. Didn't Dumbledore tell you?"

"No, Dumbledore never mentioned it while he was teaching me occlumency," Harry replied hurriedly, hoping that Ron and Hermione would understand enough to leave Severus' name out of it.

"Well you must have read about occlumency? Any decent text would mention it!"

I only read the bits that Severus told me to, Harry realised.

"I didn't have a clue," he said out loud.

Although now things make a lot more sense. Like the fact that my nightmares don't go away after occluding like they should do. Why didn't Severus tell me?

***

Realising that Harry didn't trust Connor fully, Hermione held on until after dinner that evening when Connor was in detention and the three of them were huddled in a corner of the Gryffindor common room to finish her questions.

"When are you going to tell Snape what's going on?"

"He knows about the dreams," Harry replied. "But I don't think he realises they're premonitions. He certainly never suggested that they were to me."

"So why haven't you told him, now that you know? I'm sure there's got to be a way you would manage to do so without giving away Connor's secret. Then he could help you meet Sirius." Hermione asked watching him closely.

Ron answered for him. "Are you completely mad? Snape and Sirius hate each other!"

Harry nodded slightly, "I must admit, that's kind of what I've been thinking. I mean I trust Snape now, I really do, and if it was about anyone else, I'd tell him. But I can't help thinking if Sirius creeps back here to see me and is met by Snape he'd go again!"

"Well, Dumbledore then," Hermione suggested, "I just don't think it's a good idea for you and Connor to be sneaking off to the lake at night."

"If Sirius had wanted Dumbledore to know he was here he'd come into the castle," Harry reasoned. "If he's skulking around by the lake he obviously wants to keep it private that he's here. That's why we need to go to him."

"I don't know," Ron looked very uncertain. "If you've seen what's going to happen, Padfoot meeting the Crow, then you shouldn't need to set it up, should you? I mean it'll just happen won't it?"

"But it was only the two of them in my dream," Harry said patiently. "I saw it happen but I wasn't there with them. And there's no way I'm going to miss seeing Sirius again."

Harry fought to cover a yawn and settled back against the foot of the sofa he was leaning against.

"So are you both really going out again tonight?" Hermione asked. "You look exhausted!"

"I'll be fine," Harry said his voice muffled by another yawn. " Really, I will."

"I'd say take a nap before bedtime but it's already half-past eight..." Hermione continued to fuss.

Hastily Harry clamoured to his feet.

"Shit. I completely forgot. I was supposed to meet Snape at eight. I'd better go."

He headed towards the door but glanced back over his shoulder to smile at them in spite of his exhaustion.

"I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!"

***

It was twenty-five to nine by the time that a breathless Harry finally arrived at Severus' rooms.

"I'm sorry," he gasped collapsing onto a seat. "It slipped my mind."

Severus glanced up from the book that he'd been making notes from.

"Don't let it happen again," he said sounding displeased.

"So what are we doing tonight? More Langlock?"

"I think we'll try to move onto a non-verbal Protego," Severus replied, setting his book aside and standing up.

"Oh right." Harry also stood and fought to smoother another yawn.

"I want you to imagine what it felt like to cast the Finite to Langlock non-verbally. When you have that clearly in your mind draw up your shield."

Right. Protego. Here goes then.

They stood silently for a few minutes while Harry struggled to keep his mind on the task.

"Harry?"

"Sorry." Harry rubbed his eyes and couldn't stop a yawn escaping.

"Are you up to doing this now?" Severus asked pointedly.

"I'm just tired. Don't supposed there's any chance you could give me some more Pepper-up?" Harry answered hopefully.

"Not at this time of night, no." Severus answered irritably. "Perhaps we should leave this till another day?"

"No, honestly. I can do this. Just give me a second."

Forcing himself to forget about all his thoughts of Padfoot and the lake, Harry closed his eyes and concentrated hard on willing his shield to appear in front of him. At first nothing happened and he frowned and tightened his grip on his wand. Drawing up his occlumency shield to it's fullest degree he forced his mind to focus as he tried once again.

Protego.

"Yes!" He'd been delighted to see the evidence of his transparent shield shimmering slightly in the air before him upon opening his eyes. "I did it!"

"Quite so, Harry," Severus replied dourly, "now let's see you do it again, quicker, without closing your eyes and whilst defending yourself from attack."

And with a wave of his wand Severus sent the furniture a few metres back and took a step towards Harry.

"Are you ready?"

"Um. I think so?"

Severus sighed and fired off a Jelly-legs jinx towards him. Aware that his shield was going to be too slow, Harry stepped out of the way automatically.

"What are you doing?" the professor demanded.

"Sorry."

Harry brandished his wand more firmly.

"I'm ready," he said.

This time Harry managed to get his shield up but not quite quickly enough to totally deflect Severus' Tarantallegra. He ended up dancing a jig for a few moments before casting finite.

"I'm going to cast a stinging-hex this time so you might want to try and be quicker."

Harry practically threw himself out of the way this time.

Severus frowned.

"Sorry!" Harry gasped, "I can't help it. I'm trying so hard not to shout out Protego that I forget not to duck out of the way!"

"Well there's an easy answer to that."

This time Severus fired off a series of stinging hexes all around Harry, which were impossible to dodge.

Fumbling the spell once more, Harry shield was too slow and he was hit by at least four hexes. Thankfully they were fairly light and only caused him to wince for a minute or two.

"Shit. I mean sorry... sorry." Harry was frustrated with himself. "Can you try again, only this time not stinging-hexes please?"

Severus raised his eyebrows, smirking slightly, "as you wish."

For the first time Harry managed the spell successfully, casting his shield around himself in time to prevent Severus' Ventus jinx, which was fortunate as it appeared to be exceedingly strong from the way the curtains were blown around.

"Finally," Severus said but he sounded pleased and Harry was momentarily happy before the Professor unleashed a further stream of jinxes upon him.

After Harry'd ended up collapsed on the floor for the third time from the Jelly-legs jinx and been stung twice more Severus eventually decided it was time to call it a night.

Relieved Harry lay back on the floor waiting for his legs to start working again. A few minutes later he staggered over to the sofa he threw himself down opposite the armchair where Severus was sat.

"I think I was getting the hang of it a bit then, towards the end," Harry said massaging his calf and reaching out for the glass of water Severus had conjured for him.

"You were... satisfactory for a beginner." Severus replied. He'd actually been quite impressed eventually although he was loath to compliment too freely. "We will continue the lesson tomorrow."

"Sounds good. Um Severus, I was talking to Connor today about occluding."

"For what purpose?"

"He learnt the basics of it when he was being tutored at home and of Legilimency too."

"I see," Severus studied Harry carefully for a moment. "I trust my name did not arise during the conversation?"

Harry shook his head.

"No, I did say that Dumbledore had been teaching me to occlude though."

"It would have been better not to mention that you were learning at all," Severus commented. "But if that information does get passed on I suppose it will be no more than what the Dark Lord would expect. I will make a point of informing him about it myself at the next opportunity."

More brownie points for you, Harry thought, and perhaps it's also a good defensive measure to avoid being crucio'd if the news did get back to Voldemort and you hadn't told him.

Harry wanted to explain he hadn't intended to tell Connor anything, but that he hadn't much choice after he'd tried to legilimise him. However he didn't want to get Connor into trouble so he simply said: "I don't think he'll gossip about it."

Severus nodded.

"Um, Severus?" Harry tried again.

He felt distinctly uncomfortable bringing up the subject of his dreams when he was keeping the whole Padfoot thing secret but this question was bothering him.

"Yes?"

"Well...why didn't you tell me that occlumency makes people have premonitions?"

Severus looked surprised. He certainly hadn't expected that.

"What makes you think it does?"

"Connor said so."

"Well he's wrong, it doesn't make you have premonitions." Severus sighed. "It is true however that it can unleash latent seer abilities, if for some reason your mind is blocking them from you."

"So why didn't you tell me that before?"

"It hardly seemed relevant."

"But the dreams I've been having... they've been since I've been able to occlude."

"Harry," Severus leaned towards him slightly, his dark eyes full of compassion. "Your dreams are not premonitions; they're an expression of your greatest hopes and fears. Think carefully. You've dreamt about being grievously wounded, going back to your relatives, Sirius being alive and later back at Hogwarts. The only one which doesn't have an obvious explanation is the Crow."

"But what if they are true?" Harry said in a low voice. "Maybe they just haven't happened yet."

"Harry. There's no way in the world you are ever going back to your relatives, not after what has happened. It wouldn't make any sense. As for your Godfather, well, I'm afraid that we would have heard something by now if he were alive."

"Hmm."

Harry lay back on the sofa again and rested his eyes. He thought back to when his Godfather'd gone missing. He'd screamed at Severus that he must be glad he was dead, although he'd vigorously denied it. I wonder how he will actually feel when Sirius turns up again?

"You ought to go to bed if you're that tired."

"In a minute," Harry murmured without opening his eyes.

He was so tired. Harry could feel himself falling asleep, but the feeling was too pleasant to fight against. The occasional swish of paper told him that Severus had started reading his book again. The sofa felt incredibly comfortable beneath him. He'd just have a quick nap before creeping out to see Sirius.

Suddenly everything changed. The room became a blur as he was shaken violently by both shoulders.

Harry felt like he was being deafened by his teeth rattling inside his head before he was abruptly released and went flying backwards, hurtling painfully into the wall behind him.

His heart beat crazily as Severus slowly crossed the room to kneel down beside where he was sprawled in a bruised heap. A powerful hand shot out to relentlessly jerk Harry's chin up, leaving him no choice but to look up into the black eyes which were glittering dangerously in front of him.

Harry gave a gulp as he fought to choke back a sob. He could sense how furious Severus was, but that was to be expected. What he desperately needed was the opportunity to explain everything. Just a slither of forgiveness or understanding would be enough. Ten minutes, just ten minutes for them to talk and perhaps things could be mended.

After all, it wasn't as if he wasn't owed an explanation too.

There was a pregnant pause as they both struggled to catch their breath. What happened next would be crucial for them both.

"I'm sorry," he croaked. "Please forgive me?"

"Forgive you?! You miserable, little fool, I hate you for what you've done," Severus said coldly.

Harry woke abruptly. He sat upright all of a sudden, his hands cradling his back and shoulder although the pain had dissipated immediately.

"Harry?" Barely two feet away from him Severus was sat calmly holding his book in his hand, oblivious to the scene Harry had just been part of.

A deep sense of hurt engulfed Harry as he scrambled to his feet.

What the hell was that about?

"Are you alright? Was it a nightmare?"

"No, I'm fine," he replied shortly making his way to the door rapidly. "I'm going to bed."

I hate you for what you've done.

"Harry," Severus had reached out for something and was stood up now, walking towards him.

I would never physically chastise you.

"Here," Severus held a book out towards him now. It was all he could do to not cringe away.

It was not my intention to hurt you.

"It's the book on non-verbal magic I was telling you about. Harry, why don't you sit back down and tell me what's bothering you?"

Harry forced a weak smile and took the book.

"Honestly, I'm ok. Just over-tired. I'll see you tomorrow."

***

His dorm was empty when he got back there. The others were probably still in the common room, although it was possible that Connor was still in detention with Filch. Harry threw himself on his bed.

So I've had another dream- premonition- even and Snape's mad it me in it. So what? So he shakes me and throws me against a wall. I'm hardly a delicate, little kid, am I? I've survived Crucio for heaven's sake. I've survived bloody worse from my Uncle, even. So why the hell am I so upset?

You miserable, little fool.

I hate you for what you've done.

Fuck it. Maybe it was just a bloody dream. Nothing more.

***