A few nights later, Harry was dreaming of the Department of Mysteries corridor again, walking down it towards the open door. There was something he needed in there, something important. He passed through the entryway into the circular room. And there he stood, surrounded by many more doors, unsure which to choose.

There was a hissing sound and Harry immediately tuned into it.

“Straight ahead,” the voice hissed. “Go through the door straight ahead.”

Except it wasn’t a suggestion, it was a command.

Just as Harry was about to take a step forward, he was being shaken awake.

“Come on, mate, wake up. You’re going to miss breakfast!”

Harry opened his eyes to the blurry image of Ron standing over him.

“That’s it,” Harry said. “I figured it out.”

“You figured out how not to miss breakfast?” Ron asked, confused.

“Not that,” Harry said, looking around, noticing that Neville, Dean, and Seamus were all present, in various states of getting dressed. Harry glanced back at Ron and mouthed ‘later,’ then grabbed his things and headed to the showers.

By the time they got to breakfast, they were late, and Hermione was already finished.

“I didn’t think you lot were coming,” she said.

“Sleepyhead here,” Ron said, gesturing to Harry, “wanted a lie-in.”

“Good thing you woke me,” Harry said, and he meant it. Had Ron not woken Harry when he did, Harry wouldn’t have had his epiphany.

Ron inhaled his food. Harry ate what he could and then grabbed an apple and a couple of muffins and stuffed them in his bag for a mid-morning snack.

“Hey, if it’s not Potty and the Weasel,” Draco said as they entered the Potions corridor.

“Bugger off, Malfoy,” Ron spat.

Draco opened his mouth to retort but Snape arrived just at that moment. “Inside,” he growled, and the students filed into the classroom obediently.

“You will be continuing your potions from last time,” Snape said. “Need I remind you that this is a tricky concoction, one that must be carefully monitored?”

Harry nodded absently. He needed to speak with Snape AND Hermione together, without arousing suspicion. His next Occlumency lesson wasn’t for a couple of days. He looked up at Snape, hoping to catch his eye but when he did, the Potions master merely looked away. Well, that wouldn’t do.

“Harry, pay attention,” Hermione hissed, grabbing his wrist.

“Oh, right,” Harry said. It wasn’t the first time she’d stopped him from making a mistake.

Harry wasn’t screwing up entirely on purpose. He was distracted. But by the third time Hermione had hissed a correction in his ear, Snape was looking decidedly annoyed. Which gave Harry an idea: a reckless, crazy idea, but an idea nonetheless. Without taking the time to think better of it, he grabbed his bottle of bearded dragon bile and dumped it upside down over Hermione’s cauldron, which promptly spluttered and spat vile liquid and fumes into the air.

“Harry!” Hermione screeched. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Harry lied.

“Yes you did! I saw you! You ruined my potion!”

“I did no such thing,” Harry stated.

“Potter! Granger! Detention!” Snape said, stalking toward them. “How dare you disrupt my class? You, Potter, I expect. But Ms. Granger? Really? Fifty points from Gryffindor! I expect you both in my office tonight at 6 pm sharp.”

Hermione was fuming but Harry felt relieved. He tried to look at Hermione but she refused to meet his eyes.

Ron was looking at Harry as if he’d grown horns. Ron mouthed, “What the hell?”

But Harry just shrugged. He waited for class to end; he hadn’t had a chance of making a decent potion anyway.

Hermione, on the other hand, was frantically trying to fix hers, but it was no use. Hermione had tears in her eyes as she handed in a clearly substandard potion—probably her first one ever—packed her things and left in a rush.

“Ron, pack my stuff, please? I have to catch Hermione.”

Harry caught up with her outside the girls’ bathroom. Hermione was walking out, brushing tears from her cheeks.

“I’m sorry, Hermione, it was a stupid thing to do,” Harry spluttered.

“How could you, Harry?” Hermione said, her voice sounding clogged.

“Because,” Harry said, dragging her behind a wall hanging that concealed a secret passageway. He checked to be sure it was deserted before he said, “I figured it out. I need to talk to you and Snape. Together. It was the only way I could think of.”

Hermione stilled, looking closely at Harry.

“You did it so he would give us detention?” Hermione asked.

“Yep,” Harry said.

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh. “Why didn’t you just stay after class and ask him if we could meet?”

“I thought it would look too suspicious,” Harry said. “This way, no one will ask any questions if we are spending time with Snape.”

Hermione looked doubtful.

“If I’m right,” Harry said, “Snape won’t like it, but he’ll understand. And, after we talk, he should let us redo our potions for full marks during detention. He’s been letting me redo mine, anyway.”

“He has?” Hermione said.

“Yep. That’s why I’m not failing anymore.”

“But he never lets students redo their work.”

Harry shrugged. “Best not look a gift horse in the mouth, eh?”

Hermione seemed slightly mollified.

“Come on, even if he doesn’t, it was just one potion. And everyone knows you’re the brightest witch in the year. Plus, I made sure that Malfoy was watching when I wrecked your potion and he’ll be all too happy to spread that around, which means Snape will have heard by the time we got to detention. So it’ll all be on me.”

“We’ll see,” Hermione said. “Come on, I don’t want to be late for Charms.”

Hermione insisted they arrive early, so it was at five minutes to six that they knocked on Snape’s office door.

“Enter.”

Hermione led the way. “Professor, I’m really sorry about this morning…”

But Snape had eyes only for Harry.

“Care to explain yourself, Potter?”

“I think I worked it out,” Harry said.

“Worked. It. Out,” Snape sneered.

“Yes, the dreams, and Occlumency. Last night, I was in the Department of Mysteries again and…”

Snape raised a hand. “Do you mean to tell me that you disrupted my class and endangered my students just so you get a detention with me?”

“Well, I…”

“And you involved Ms. Granger in this as well, for reasons known only to you…”

“Well, you see…” Harry stammered.

“When you simply could have stayed after class and arranged for a meeting time?” Snape continued.

“That’s what I said,” Hermione muttered.

“I know it sounds stupid now, but…”

“Stupid, reckless, idiotic,” Snape said, slamming his hand on the desk. “Do you have no sense, Potter?”

“I needed to meet with you and Hermione together and I thought if we got detention with you, it would alleviate any suspicion,” Harry stated. “Sir.”

Snape sighed and then shook his head. “Ms. Granger, am I to assume that you knew nothing of Potter’s plans?”

“No, sir,” Hermione said. “I was just as surprised as you were, sir.”

“Very well,” Snape said. “Ms. Granger, after Potter finishes telling us what is so incredibly important, you may re-brew your potion. Potter, you will receive a zero. For while you may have had your reasons, I daresay you had no idea what adding that ingredient would have done to Ms. Granger’s potion and your recklessness could have caused serious harm to those present in the classroom.”

“Yes, sir,” Harry said, not caring one whit about some stupid potion. He bit his tongue, bidding himself to wait for permission to explain why they were all really here.

Snape took a seat behind his desk and gestured for the other two to do the same. “Do tell us, Mr. Potter, what precipitated this urgent meeting?”

“Well,” Harry said, leaning forward in his chair. “You know I haven’t been able to stop the dreams. Try as I might, I just haven’t known how. I was talking to Hermione about it after one of our meetings,” Harry gestured toward Snape, “saying I needed a trigger to wake up. But Hermione said that maybe I just needed a trigger to close my mind.” Harry looked eagerly between Hermione and Snape. “I think I’ve worked that trigger out.”

Snape raised an eyebrow and Hermione asked, “What is it, Harry?”

“Parseltongue,” Harry announced. “I only realized it because Ron happened to wake me up out of my dream this morning. When I’m in the dream, Vol—” Harry broke off at the deadly look Snape was giving him, “You-Know-Who, then, he directs me using Parseltongue. He tells me where to go, which door to choose. That’s the trigger I need. I have never heard Parseltongue in any other dream. It’s the one thing that makes these dreams different.”

Harry watched as Snape seemed to consider the prospect.

“So if you can recognize Parseltongue in your dream, you’ll know you’re dreaming,” Hermione summarized.

“Yes,” Harry said, “and there’s more. Maybe I can’t block myself from having the dreams, but if I can block myself from understanding Parseltongue—if I can hear it as hissing like everyone else does—then I wouldn’t be able to follow his instructions.”

“That’s an interesting theory, Mr. Potter, but how do you propose to do it?” Snape remarked.

“That’s where I need your help, Professor,” said Harry. “The whole reason I can speak Parseltongue is because You-Know-Who imparted that power to me when he tried to kill me. So, if I can’t block him getting into my dreams, maybe I can block that part of him, or myself. Then I should be able to make it so he can’t control me in my dreams.”

Hermione looked pensive. “Is there a way to single out and Occlude an ability in that way?” Hermione asked, directing her question at Snape.

“In theory,” Snape said, “it should be possible. I will have to do some research on it.”

“I can help,” Hermione volunteered. Then, backtracking, she added, “If you want, sir. I’m sure you are more than capable on your own, of course. It’s just that you are surely quite busy, and I’m pretty good in the library, so I just thought…”

“She’s the best at research,” Harry rejoined.

“I appreciate the offer, Ms. Granger,” Snape said. “You are welcome to research anything that might be useful in this matter. If you come across something of potential value, please record your findings and hand them in to me during class.”

“Yes, sir.” Hermione beamed.

“Anything else?” Snape asked, picking up his quill and writing out a pass to the restricted section for Hermione.

“Er, no… yes,” Harry said. “Sorry about your class today, sir, and thanks for allowing Hermione to re-brew her potion.”

Looking aggrieved, Snape replied, “Next time, Mr. Potter, just stay after class. All right?”

“Deal,” Harry replied, grinning at Hermione.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione spent much of the next week in the library. Hermione frantically researched everything she could find about Occlumency, while Ron and Harry tried desperately to catch up on homework.

“Your situation is so unique, Harry,” Hermione commented. “I don’t think the library is going to be of much use.” Hermione put a tome titled Occurrences in Occluding on top of a growing pile of books. “Maybe I am thinking too literally about this,” she moaned. “I need to think outside the box.”

“Outside the what?” Ron asked.

“It’s a Muggle expression,” Harry said.

“It means to sort of leave everything you know behind and come up with something new from all of the pieces,” Hermione clarified.

“Huh,” Ron responded. “Well, better you than me. Harry, where is Egrio’s moon? I thought it was supposed to be near Neptune, but I can’t find it anywhere,” Ron said, pushing his astronomy chart toward Harry.

Hermione rested her head on the table as Ron and Harry conversed. She let a stream of words run with abandon through her mind: moons, tides, currents, undertows, magnetism, direction, entranced, stuck, scarred, occluded, closed, roped off, bound... “That’s it!” she said, her head springing up.

“What?” Ron and Harry both asked, shocked by her outburst.

“Bound! We need to bind… I need to think about this,” Hermione said, reaching for a fresh scroll and a quill.

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance.

“Never mind me,” Hermione said, waving at them to continue their work.

“Yes, never mind her,” Ron said, “she might tell us someday. When it’s important.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Shh, I’m trying to concentrate.”

“Well, since it’s me you’re working things out about, do let me know at some point, okay?” Harry said.

Hermione ignored him, gesturing again for them to get back to work. She began to make notes on the scroll before her. They needed to bind Harry’s ability to speak and understand Parseltongue before he slept. Parseltongue was considered dark magic. That was Professor Snape’s area of expertise. She could spend a decade in the restricted section and not figure out what she needed. But she could present the idea to Professor Snape and hopefully he’d know a spell to do it. Putting her head down, she got to work, writing an essay on her idea.