"You heard me, Potter," Snape said.

"I don't want to go," Harry replied, blinking at Snape dumbly. "You can't make me,"

"Yes, I can. Don't reduce me to brute force, Potter," Snape threatened.

"Dumbledore doesn't even want to talk to me! He ignores me. I won't go to him and that's final,"

"Are you disobeying a Professor?" Snape demanded.

"Yeah, I am." Harry said insolently. He walked to the office door, opened it, and hurriedly went out before Snape could kill him. That git couldn't make him go. Harry would rather that he kept his nose in his own businesses. Feeling extremely humiliated and flustered, Harry went back to his dorm, trying to clean his tearful face. Oh God! He had cried.

Meanwhile, Snape glared at the office door. He would punish the boy for it later. For now, he had to talk to Dumbledore. This was much more serious that he had thought. The memory had been awful. In fact, it had reduced the Boy-Who-Lived to tears.

XXXXX

"...You can't ignore me now, can you?" Snape was saying. "Not after he collapsed,"

"No, I don't think I can," Dumbledore sighed.

The man was always sighing around him! Snape thought angrily.

"He is a lot like you," Dumbledore said, as if it was an afterthought. "I realize that..."

"Excuse me?" Snape demanded. "How can he be like me?"

Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "Perhaps...?"

"You are making no sense!"

Dumbledore sighed and shook his head. He said softly, evidently to himself. "No, no I can't."

"Dumbledore I-"

"I think you should resume the Occlumency lessons, except avoid those certain memories," Dumbledore said. "It will be better for both of you."

"I refuse," Snape said immediately. "I won't teach him until you do something about those relatives of his."

"Severus-"

"How dare you sit there, all calm, while your precious saviour is getting beaten up. You don't care about anyone but yourself!"

"Calm down, let us talk this over-"

But Snape had already left the office, only the sound of the tips of his boots walking down the steps audible.

XXXXX

Harry was still snuffling into his pillow when Neville spotted him.

"You okay, Harry? Do you have a cold?" Neville looked scared.

"'M fine," Harry's voice was muffled. He sat up, rubbing at his sore eyes. He couldn't see very well, his glasses were much too blurry. He took them off and started to clean them. He put them back on but they still seemed oddly blurry. Huh?

"Do you want me to get you something?" Neville asked, still hovering near his bed. "I could if you want. You seem to be upset, or maybe I should just leave you alone-?"

"Calm down, Neville. I'm fine, honestly." Harry said, squinting. He tried to wipe his glasses clean again.

Neville looked ever so slightly hurt but he said, cheerily: "That's good, Harry. Anyway, I'll be in the common room if you need me." He gestured his head towards a book in his hands. "Just came to get this!"

"Oh, okay," Harry watched him go downstairs a little disappointedly. Neville was a little clumsy and forgetful, but nice most of the time.

He looked at the mirror on the wall and hurriedly smoothened his hair. They were much less messier than normal. In fact, they were nearly straight and a little darker. Harry looked at them puzzledly. Nothing stuck at the back of his head anymore and he felt suddenly scared. What had happened to his hair? Once again, he tried to clean his glasses but they still made him see blurry. He went downstairs with them to the common room.

Hermione was doing something on a parchment and she smiled when she saw him. "Harry?"

"Hey," Harry took a seat and sat down next to her. He handed her his glasses. "Could you try a cleaning spell on them? They seem to be blurry,"

Hermione helpfully waved her wand at the round glasses and then held them back to Harry.

Harry wore them and frowned. "Still blurry." He said. "Weird."

"Oh, Harry! Maybe your number's decreased!" Hermione said, brightly.

"My what?"

"You know, your number. Maybe it's decreased a bit. It might be blurry because of that." Hermione said. "When we go to Hogsmeade, there's an optic shop round the corner. You could go there,"

"Right. Well. What do I do know? The Hogsmeade trip's this weekend. And I've got four days till Saturday."

Before Hermione could answer, Ron came running up to them. He was breathing heavily. "Harry! It's Dumbledore! He wants to speak to you!"

A wave of shock froze Harry numb as comprehension and dismay fell upon him.

XXX

"You wanted to see me, Sir?"

Harry wasn't sure he liked the Headmaster much, especially after the old man had ignored him.

"Ah, sit Harry," Dumbledore was still not meeting his gaze, his eyes fixed at a point on his shoulder.

Harry sat and waited for the Headmaster to begin.

"Harry, Professor Snape-" Harry felt furious. How dare Snape tell Dumbledore everything! "-Has told me that perhaps you are feeling uncomfortable with the Occlumency lessons. Now, I must advise you to-"

"Excuse me, sir," Harry said sharply. "But why are you speaking to me now? I thought you were set on ignoring my existence? And how much did Snape tell you?"

"Professor Sn-"

"Yeah, yeah, answer the question," Harry couldn't help feeling his temper rise.

Dumbledore didn't say anything for a while.

"Harry, that is not important right now. What is important that-"

"Look, you can't just force me to..." Harry trailed off, suddenly squinting. He took off his glasses and blinked. Everything seemed eerily clear.

"Harry?"

"My-my glasses. They're really blurry, no matter what I do. And-and I can see..." Harry was suddenly very frightened. "I can see everything,"

Dumbledore looked calculating and then startled.

"Give them to me," he said. He used a spell on them and frowned. "They seem fine. Perhaps you should go to an optician Harry. You can get your number checked,"

"Oh," Harry said dumbly.

Dumbledore suddenly looked scared. "You can see me, you say?"

"Yeah, I can. Weird, isn't it?"

"Quite." Was it his strange vision or did Dumbledore suddenly look pale and scared but was schooling his face into a calm mask?

"Well, as I was saying," Dumbledore handed him back the glasses. "You must continue the lessons. They are of utmost importance to you and everyone in the Wizarding Community-"

"But what did Snape tell you?" Harry asked.

"He was obscure," Dumbledore said carefully, not bothering to correct Harry's informality. "He only told me that you were getting extremely anxious during the lessons and perhaps I should talk to you,"

Harry relaxed. So Snape hadn't told Dumbledore everything? Well, that was a decent thing to do. Weird for Snape, but yeah, decent.

"Alright sir, but the lessons are too much hassle for me," Harry said. "I still don't get why I need them. Things just seem to get worse after them and-"

"Harry, it is of no need for you to know why you do or do not need them. You must take them anyhow and I order you to. Now, this conversation is over. I was simply trying to lighten you up. You can go now, Harry, your friends will be waiting."

Harry stared at Dumbledore and suddenly left without a word. His feelings were mixed, but the negative ones were overcoming the positive ones.