The next three days were spent rigorously following a demanding schedule with Snape. The morning after the beach fire, Harry had come down to find Snape working on the schedule at the porch table. It was later than he usually came down—he'd remembered the animagus book in his side table after showering and had sat down on his bed to read the first chapter, which introduced animagus forms in broad categories of animals. Harry had been immediately drawn to the birds. The idea of free-flying appealed to him greatly and he'd readily gotten lost in imagining being able to transform into a bird. Now, Harry looked over Snape's shoulder, munching on cold toast.

"Wow. If that's for me I'd better get started now."

"It's for both of us," replied Snape. "I want to recover some of the time we've lost so we can move on."

"Move on?" asked Harry. "Move on to what?"

"To what comes next," answered Snape cryptically. He looked up at Harry. "Potion ingredient preparation, in-depth study of the Goblin Wars, remedial Divination…that sort of thing." One side of his mouth lifted up but he continued to work on the complicated schedule. "But first—you will need to finish your summer assignments and read the rest of the Grindelwald book. I also need to spend time thoroughly testing your Occlumency shields. Furthermore, we have not yet completed a study of the symbolic elements in your drug-induced sea dream—particularly the last portion just before you awoke. Finally, I will need to understand precisely why you have a book on animagus transformations in your bedroom."

Harry had taken his place at the table as Snape worked and talked. He was taking a drink of tea when Snape mentioned the animagus book. He choked and coughed as Snape waited patiently, still making notes on the schedule and seemingly not paying any attention at all to Harry.

"I…uh, was wondering about wards," Harry answered. "And why did you look in my drawer?"

"Because you are a teenager—and because I noticed a book missing from the shelf. Now do go on." He put down his quill and leaned back in his chair.

"Well, our DADA assignment is about wards, and when I was out front yesterday morning working on my Herbology assignment, I found a beetle. And that reminded me of Rita Skeeter—you did know she's an unregistered animagus, didn't you?"

Snape raised an eyebrow.

"No, really! Hermione had her in a jar and made her swear not to publish any tripe or she'd turn her in. That was after all that stuff about me during the Triwizard Tournament got out."

"You're serious."

Harry nodded. "Really."

"And since the beetle reminded you of this…person…I can assume her animagus form is in fact a beetle?

Harry grinned. "Yeah. Hermione would have had a hard time putting her in a jar if she were a billy goat or a crocodile or something."

Snape gave him the level stare, but his mouth twitched just enough for Harry to notice. "And did you ever—even once—consider taking this trapped beetle to…hmmmm…your Head of House? Who happens to be a member of the Order of the Phoenix and a registered animagus?"

Harry grinned again. "You can't pin that one on me this time, sir. Hermione caught her—while I was in the infirmary at the end of fourth year. She showed us the jar on the Hogwarts Express on the way back to London."

Snape was shaking his head. "Perhaps Ms. Granger has less common sense than I thought. All right. I'll let the matter of the unregistered animagus prowling around the halls of Hogwarts go….for now. But I'm still trying to piece together how the book in your drawer relates to your DADA assignment on wards."

"I'm getting there. You keep interrupting," replied Harry.

Snape waved his hand for Harry to continue.

"Anyway, I saw the beetle on the flowers and thought about Skeeter. It made me wonder if wards could be set to recognize a wizard or witch in their animagus form. If we had had wards like that when Ron had Pettigrew in our dorm room all those years…." He trailed off, thinking, of course, about Sirius, rotting away in Azkaban while Peter got fat as Ron's pet.

Snape was studying Harry.

"What?" asked Harry. "Is it stupid? Impossible? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It is neither stupid nor impossible, Mr. Potter. A ward is something that at the core guards or protects. Magical wards can be incredibly simple or unbelievably complex. A simple ward might notify you if someone sets foot in your bedroom while a more complex ward would prevent anyone from entering in the first place. An even more complicated ward would allow some to enter and would prevent others from doing so. Categorizing the cans and can'ts adds yet another level of complexity. You can ward an item so that it can't be removed from a certain location or that it can be removed but only by a certain person or a certain type of person. Mr. Potter, you should be taking notes." Harry had been listening to Snape talk, fascinated. He didn't seem to hear his professor's comment about taking notes.

"The Philosopher's Stone was warded like that. That must have been a ridiculously complex spell—to judge a person's intent."

"It was."

"So, that's why I have the book," said Harry. "I wanted to learn more about animaguses…that doesn't sound right."

"Animagi," provided Snape.

"Right, animagi," repeated Harry.

"And for that you need a book entitled 'Animagus Among Us: A Beginner's Guide to Finding the Animal Inside?' Don't you think a book such as 'All About Animagi' might have better met your needs?"

Harry reddened. "It sounded interesting."

"It is interesting. But it is not casual reading for underage wizards. I will ask this question even though I fear I already know the answer—are you interested in studying to be an animagus?"

"Listen, I know this isn't the time to do it. I know the argument—I have too much on my plate already, for one. I should get proficient at Occlumency first."

"You must study with a registered animagus. You must actually register to study the art form. Animagus transformation is riddled with dangers and difficulties. There are a number of risks including not being able to transform back, going "native" and being severely injured or killed while in the animal form."

"OK, OK. I get it. I'll give the book back."

Snape stared at him expectantly.

"Now?"

Snape nodded, the barest hint of a nod.

Harry sighed but went to get the book. When he handed it over to Snape, Snape handed him a much thinner, less intriguing book predictably called 'All About Animagi.'

"Try this for extra-curricular reading. It is actually much better than the rather unimaginative title would suggest. If you are truly interested in pursuing this, speak with Professor McGonagall. She typically takes one or two student apprentices a year—usually seventh years, but occasionally a talented sixth former. Now that we have wasted another 15 minutes, let us move on to something productive."

That statement launched nearly three days of intensive work that left Harry weary both in mind and body. Snape had legilimized him from every angle and in every possible situation, even when he was fast asleep. Harry learned that eye contact only made the legilimancy easier—it wasn't a requirement for "brain rape" as he crudely began to call it. This was proven on the first evening when he was relaxing in the bath tub, minding his own business, when a lovely image of Ginny Weasley, hugging him and comforting him back at Hogwarts right after his accident rose in his head. That image was closely followed by one of him kissing Cho Chang last year and that one was followed by various Gryffindor girls…. "Hey! Can't a guy have some privacy?" he wailed as he hastily occluded, making a mental note to reexamine the Ginny Weasley memory-image again soon.

On the second afternoon, after Harry had finished the Grindelwald book, Snape had given him a two-hour long oral quiz. It consisted of open-ended questions such as "In Chapter 5, the author suggests pairing two barrier elements together—such as fire and rock—under certain conditions for certain occlumens. Describe these conditions." Or "In the last chapter, the author states that a natural occlumens is always occluding and that this natural state has certain benefits and risks. Discuss." Harry was exhausted after the two grueling hours, but Snape seemed pleased enough. "Pleased enough" for Snape, of course, meant "Passably done, Mr. Potter" and "Decent retention of the material" not "Excellent job. You've a quick mind and a sharp intellect."

They'd spent two more sessions in the ocean, Harry sticking a bit closer to the shore this time around. Then Snape tested Harry on erecting his barriers in a variety of locations—on a blanket at the seaside, the hammock on the porch, the sitting room sofa, his waterbed in his bedroom, sitting on the front stairs of the cottage. After he was satisfied that Harry did not actually have to be in the ocean or at the ocean side for success—Harry wisely did not point out that Dumbledore's stealth attack already proved that—they began working on triggers to help Harry pull out of his occluded state. Up to this point, during all of the practice sessions, Harry had remained occluded until Snape physically touched him and called his name. Once, as a test, Snape had left him occluded for two hours at the porch table. Harry had eventually fallen asleep and his head fell forward and hit the table, waking him.

"It will require a splitting of consciousness," explained Snape. "You will still retreat inside your barrier space with all that is important to protect, but you must leave half an eye open, so to speak, so that your conscious self can perceive that the intrusive attack has ended and release you from your protected zone."

"Riiiiight," said Harry.

Snape sighed. "You have chosen a very effective barrier, so effective that you lose yourself in it and zone out totally. Fortunately, our goal is to protect you from attacks by a vicious Dark Lord, not from fellow Gryffindors trying to get information about your latest amorous tryst. It wouldn't do for you to fall into a trance in the middle of breakfast because Mr. Thomas wanted details of your date the night before that you were unwilling to provide." Harry obligingly rolled his eyes. As if. Dean got way more action than Harry. Thinking of Dean with Ginny caused a spike of jealousy to flare up.

"Mr. Potter?"

Harry snapped back to the present. "Yeah—OK. Half an eye open. So what does that mean in my Occlumency terms? I've been trying for the shielded, half-formed infant mind... Hey," he protested as Snape opened his mouth. "Stop that! I know what you're thinking!" He picked up a wadded up piece of parchment and lobbed it over at Snape, hitting him squarely on the nose. The parchment wad bounced and landed in Snape's tea with a splash.

Harry froze.

Snape stared at his tea and then at Harry. He rubbed his nose. He then reached into his tea and extracted the sodden parchment ball, leaned across the table and pressed it against Harry's face where it stuck to his cheek, dripping tea dribbles down his chin.

"That's for your cheek," he said without further comment. The parchment ball fell off of Harry's face onto the table. Snape ignored it.

And so it went on. By the end of the exercise Harry had managed to implement a visual trigger to end the shielding. It was almost like Snape said—with a small part of his brain focusing on what was actually in front of him, he was able to rouse himself from behind his barrier when Snape simply waved a hand at him. The most difficult part of the entire exercise was learning to keep his eyes open while he occluded.

"That will have to do for now," said Snape. They had made sandwiches for dinner and eaten them with crisps right out of the bag. Harry hadn't even had to cut the fruit up—Snape had tossed him a washed apple and he had eaten it in bites. "We have a long day tomorrow. You will need to pack two changes of clothes—we will be taking a short holiday. The Headmaster has suggested a brief excursion to London, but has requested that we go incognito, so to speak. And practically speaking, there is no better place to be incognito—disguised or not—than in London." He pulled a Muggle guidebook from his pocket and set it on the table in front of Harry. Harry picked it up, stared at it for a moment, then stared back at Snape.

"We're going on holiday? Together?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter. And I have very high expectations for this trip as I haven't had a proper holiday in some time."

Harry nodded. He wanted to say that he hadn't had one in some time either, but to be perfectly honest, he hadn't ever had one. He was finally going on holiday. With Snape. Ron was going to have kittens.