‘Good evening Mr Potter.’

‘Good evening Professor.’ Harry walked into the study and looked around curiously.

‘No Malfoy?’

‘I asked Mr Malfoy to accompany us a little later. Because we’ve been working more with him these last few sessions we haven’t yet had an opportunity to verify your…“out of body experience”. The Headmaster gave me leave to have a little more time with you this evening to experiment.’

‘Okay. What do you want to do?’

‘I’m going to go into my room. I want you to stay here and see if you can do it again. Give me a few minutes to get in. I’m not going to block you, so I need to trust you won’t go poking around. Understood?’

‘Of course.’ Harry replied, almost indignantly. Snape nodded sharply and walked out. Harry sat down and closed his eyes. He slowly built up his mental protection and, when he judged enough time had passed, reached out. Barely noticing, he muttered to himself.

‘This was so much easier when I was asleep. How can I break into a mind miles away but not tap into one down the corridor?’ He sighed deeply.

‘Mr Potter!’ Harry yelped. Snape’s head had appeared in the fire.

‘Do you know, I’ve been in the wizarding world five and a half years now, and that still surprises me.’

‘What are you doing?’

‘I’m trying.’

‘It has been ten minutes Mr Potter and there has been nothing.’

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realise it had been so long.’

‘I should have known this was impossible. The whole principle of Legilimency relies on eye-contact.’

‘But I did it.’

‘And that is the fundamental problem. Do you have any idea how you accomplished such a feat?’

‘I was asleep.’

‘Yes Mr Potter I am aware of that. You have no vague inkling of what could have caused it?’

‘None. Do you want to try again?’

‘Very well.’ The head disappeared from the fire and Harry retreated back into a meditative state.

‘How did I do it? I must’ve cleared my mind because Voldemort couldn’t get in. But if I do that I can’t use Legilimency. Which it can’t be anyway because there’s no eye contact. Wait.’

Snape was pacing in agitation. He pulled up suddenly. ‘Harry?’ The teen smiled but knew Snape couldn’t see him. ‘I know you are there.’ He paused again. ‘I always knew you would drive me mad. Talking to people that aren’t there now. Not just talking to myself.’ He pulled himself up and addressed, with reasonable accuracy, where he imagined Harry would be. ‘I want you to come and read the title of the book on my desk. Then go. I’ll be there momentarily.’

‘“The Phantom Thirteenth use of Dragon blood – Myth or Reality?” Sounds like thrill-a-minute stuff.’

‘Well that answers the first question.’ Snape swept in and took the seat opposite Harry. ‘The second of course is how did you manage it?’

‘It’s not like Legilimency.’

‘We had realised that.’

‘That’s how you do it. Legilimency is eye contact. You have to force a path, and you do it with that. This is different. It’s just opening the path up. It’s in your head already. That’s what Professor Dumbledore meant about being accustomed to each other. My mind knows where yours is. I don’t need to force in, as long as you don’t block, because I just need to find the place in my head.’ This was spoken all in a rush and fleetingly Severus thought of another Gryffindor who would be finding the whole thing equally fascinating.

‘Interesting. There have been a few cases like this. But the documentary evidence is very sketchy. Legilimency is so rare, and in most cases it’s only practiced one way.’

‘Are you going to try?’

‘Hmmm? No, not now anyway. Draco should be here soon, and he needs practice.’

‘Suppose so.’

‘Harry…’

‘Yes?’

‘Professor Dumbledore asked me something. He had a moment of doubt regarding our current situation. If you would rather not work with Draco, we can arrange something else.’

‘How? I can’t work with Professor Dumbledore and neither of us have any spare time. Anyway, am I not supposed to be helping Malfoy? He is getting better.’

‘True. But you do have rather a long-standing animosity towards him.’

‘And he doesn’t like me much either. But I don’t want him dead. And I really don’t want to kill him. This seems the best option.’ Harry gave a half-smile which Snape answered.

‘It seems that way. Just remain composed please. Half of what he says is trying to deflect attention from something else. Try and understand what it’s like. He’s afraid of what might happen, understandably, and he might say something. Kindly refrain from reacting.’

‘Understood.’

They sat in silence for a few minutes until there was an impatient knock.

‘Draco.’

‘Good evening Professor. Potter is there any reason your sidekicks asked me where you could be?’

‘Hermione and Ron?’

‘No Potter the other two people who follow you around everywhere. Of course them!’

‘No idea.’

‘We have an agreement.’

‘I know we do. And I haven’t broken it.’ Harry was deliberately calm when he said this. Malfoy watched him suspiciously and then turned to Professor Snape.

‘What do you want me to do?’

‘It’s your turn to try Legilimency.’

‘On Potter?’

‘Not this time.’

‘On you?’

‘No Mr Malfoy on the other Occulmens in the room.’ Harry snorted at what could, with a liberal interpretation, be construed as Snape defending him. Malfoy pulled his wand out quietly and waited for Snape to follow.

‘Legilimens!’ As expected, there was no reaction.

‘Try again.’

‘Legilimens!’ This time something seemed to have happened. Both Snape and Malfoy had their eyes closed but Malfoy seemed the one in most pain. Harry opened the link with Snape tentatively and was confused to find Snape’s mind-shields nonexistent. With a little more probing it might be possible to see what was happening. But that was an experiment for another day. Harry pulled out just as Malfoy broke the spell.

‘See what you wanted Draco?’ Snape didn’t sound angry, just tired.

‘Yes sir.’

‘If you had seen that before would you still be here?’ Harry suddenly realised what the memory was. Malfoy pulled himself up self-righteously.

‘Of course I would. I knew what I was getting myself into. It’s going to happen anyway, I might as well be tortured for doing something.’ Snape allowed himself a sardonic twist of the lips.

‘Very good.’ The professor sat back down on the chair heavily and waved a hand. ‘You can go now. Two teenagers running rampant in my head is quite enough for one day.’

The two walked out, Malfoy slightly ahead. Harry sped up. ‘Malfoy.’

‘What is it?’

‘You were looking at a Death Eater meeting?’

‘And?’

‘I was just wondering, and don’t bite off my head, do you do any defence practice?’

‘Are you implying I can’t take care of myself?’

‘No. But…you know we have a group practicing defence. And I feel better about…things that could happen…because I know I practice. It’s not like we learn much in Defence classes.’

‘Well that’s the main flaw of Dumbledore appointing a woman who believes Expelliarmus is a dangerous dark curse and the sign of a potential Dark Lord.’

‘Professor Metus is a bit…’

‘...like Fudge after being hit by a Babbling Curse?’

‘Cautious I was going to say. But anyway…’

‘I don’t want to join your club.’

‘I wasn’t asking that. I know you wouldn’t. And Ron or Seamus would hex you anyway. I was thinking maybe we could practice. You’d get to curse me without any professors to stop it…’ Harry grinned lopsidedly.

‘Deal.’ Malfoy put out a hand for Harry to shake. He obliged and then spoke again.

‘We could start now if you want.’

‘If you want. Where?’

‘I know a place.’

*************

‘The Quidditch pitches?’

‘No one would think to look here.’

‘But if they do look Potter we will be slightly obvious.’

‘That’s where we have the advantage. There’s a charm called the Obscure Sagit.’

‘That would be the one that…’

‘Means if the person doesn’t know you’re there you can’t be seen.’

‘You’ve been listening when Granger talks then?’ Harry just smiled. ‘Want to make it interesting Potter?’

‘How?’

‘On brooms?’

Harry paused to think.‘Okay.’

A few minutes later they were hovering in midair facing each other.

‘Three. Two. One.’

‘Tarantallegra.’

‘Impedimenta!’

Anyone who knew where to look would see two near-blurs hurtling through the air, occasionally throwing a curse and occasionally tottering as one hit them. Malfoy gasped as one curse knocked him half off his broom but still glared as Harry hauled him up.

‘I was fine.’

‘I know, I was just…hold on.’ Harry felt the prickling at the edge of his mind. ‘Malfoy if you want us not to be seen put up whatever shield you use.’

************

Severus sat at his desk experimentally reaching out with his mind. After a few tries he understood what Harry meant and used the connection that was already there.

‘Mr Potter. That was rather a sharp rebuttal.’ He shrugged it off and reached for Draco’s link.

**********

Harry looked over at Malfoy who was holding the broom steady but seemed to be having difficulty keeping Snape out.

‘I wonder…’ He felt out a link to Malfoy and tried to help.

**********

‘Draco when did you learn to do that?’ Severus examined Draco’s defences carefully. There was something not quite right. ‘Harry.’ Severus moved his attention quickly to Harry. Who was now entirely undefended. The Quidditch Pitches. Severus could easily spot Draco’s white-blond hair, and years of functioning in the dungeons made it the work of a moment to pick out Harry’s silhouette. Both boys were flying with one hand, wand in the other. Advantages of being seekers. If it weren’t for the knowledge that neither would hear him he would have started with the sarcasm there and then. Instead he broke off the link.

He would go there, faster than a student could manage, they didn’t know the passages, and then he would start with the sarcasm.

************

Harry was falling. Apparently whatever he had tried to do with Draco had made him lose balance. Severus reached for his wand but before he could say anything Draco pulled up alongside the broom and steadied it. They reached the ground together.

‘We’re even now.’

‘That was why? Thanks anyway.’ Draco rewarded that with a slight nod.

‘Mr Potter. Mr Malfoy. Can you explain why you appear to be indulging in your joint death wishes, after curfew, in a forbidden section of the school grounds?’

‘Professor.’ Harry went first. ‘We needed somewhere to practice defence.’

‘You have an entire army to practice with. In a well equipped room. In normal hours.’

‘You don’t think me walking in with Malfoy would look a bit suspicious?’

‘Not as suspicious as flying around in the middle of the night tossing hexes.’

‘We were cloaked. It was only because you broke in.’

‘So you do have some sense then. But then perhaps not, as you dropped all your shields at the precise time he will be looking for you.’

‘I didn’t mean to do that. I was seeing if I could shield Malfoy’s mind. And it sort of turned off my own ones. And gave me a headache that nearly knocked me off the broom.’ Harry dropped himself to the ground carelessly. Malfoy looked down and decided that the ground was, after all, more appealing than holding himself up. After a moment Snape joined them.

‘Why brooms?’

‘To see if we could.’ A characteristically Draco answer. He was too tired to argue.

Harry rustled in his pocket for something, finally triumphantly pulling out a bar of Honeydukes chocolate. He broke it into thirds and placed a piece in front of Snape and Malfoy. ‘What?’

‘Chocolate, Potter?’

‘Good for driving away demons.’ Malfoy nodded in acknowledgement, then stood up and walked towards the changing rooms. He returned with three bottles of Butterbeer.

‘You keep that here?’

‘It’s well hidden. And helps with the demon driving.’ Snape looked across at them, muttered something about Firewhisky being even more efficient. He reached for the Butterbeer and, after a pause, the chocolate. And for a while they sat together in a silence that was not entirely uncomfortable.