Scarlet Pain

A/N: Well, here\'s the next chapter. Love the great reviews so far. Hope you all enjoy.

RainShadow: Merci beaucoup. Je voudrais ecrire plus des chapitres mais j\'ai mes devoirs et beaucoup d\'autre choses. J\'espere ecrire plus apres cette semaine. Glad you liked it so far.

Disclaimer: Not mine, just borrowing the characters for a while.

Scarlet Pain
Chapter Seventeen

Harry ducked into a shadowed corner and pulled out the Mauraders Map. This was the fifth time on the way to the dungeons that he\'d pulled himself out of sight when a student had happened by. He didn\'t know why, but he didn\'t want to run into or talk or be seen at all by anyone. Whispering the words, he waited until the coast was clear to slip back out into the hallway and made his way down to Snape\'s office. When he realized he was going to be late, Harry stuffed the map back into his bag and sprinted the last little way. He didn\'t even realize he\'s forgotten to cancel the map.

The Gryffindor braced himself as he walked in for his \'detention.\' He remembered what Occlumency lessons had been like before, and had no reason to suspect that this time around would be any different. Harry knew he had to master this, and fast, and hoped that this was one of those things you could accomplish out of sheer desperation.

Severus, when he wanted to be, could be a very observant man, but he would have been blind to miss the tension that had the young Gryffindor ready to bolt from the room at the first sign of danger. Snape sighed to himself and resisted the urge to sneer. Maybe he should have shoved Harry over to Filch for this detention. After all, he\'d told the boy they would be using Tuesdays and Thursdays for Occlumency, and today was Monday. Of course, that would have been mean. I am not a nice person Severus told himself. No he was just an unfair bastard. Snape scowled. He may not have been nice, and true, he may even be considered a bastard, but he could not be accused of being unfair. Right because you\'ve been so fair to the Gryffindors while acting as a spy Okay, so he\'d had to compromise a little to avoid detection. It wasn\'t as if that didn\'t have its own perks. He got to put those arrogant Gryffindors in their place. Sure, that\'s what you were doing when you treat Harry like complete scum. Damnit, fine! He was an unfair bastard. Snape nearly growled in frustratrion and growing self-doubt, not that he would admit to anyone he might possibly have been in the wrong.

Harry watched in growing trepidation as the Potions Master got seemingly angrier and angrier, the man unwittingly giving Harry the full force of his glare. This, Harry was very sure, was not a good sign. In fact, he was half tempted to make a run for it while he still could.

Severus snapped out of his thoughts at a slight movement from the young man in front of him. Harry was watching him warily and looked to be inching towards the door.

\"Potter!\" Okay so his voice came out a bit sharper than he intended and by the look on Harry\'s face, he\'d just gotten off on a really bad foot. Maybe it was time to try this again? \"Mr. Potter. Put your bag by my desk and stand sit in the middle of the room.\" Slightly better, but this was Snape after all.

Harry finally took in the room. It looked as if it had been slightly enlarged and everything had been pushed to the edge of the room. In the center of the room was a cushion and nothing else. Harry dropped his bag in a heap by Snape\'s desk and without saying a words sat down nervously on the cushion. Neither the professor nor the student noticed how Harry\'s bag seemed twist as it was dropped, spilling out the map which floated to just under the Potions Master\'s desk.

Severus pulled out his wand and saw Harry\'s adams apple bob as the Gryffindor swallowed hard. Snape gave an audible sigh of exasperation and put his wand on the desk.

\"What do you know of meditation?\" Harry blinked at the seeming non-sequitor.

\"Uh, some, I think.\"

\"Eloquent as always. Alright,\" Snape pinched the bridge of his nose and reorganized his thoughts, desperately reigning in his frustration that in all fairness was not the boy\'s fault. \"Get...comfortable, close your eyes and imagine yourself in a very peaceful, solitary place. Whatever you think of it needs to be a place that you think of as a sanctuary that is only yours. Do you understand?\" Harry nodded and Severus waived his hand, prompting him to go ahead. The Gryffindor took a shaky breath and closed his eyes. Immediatley he felt uneasy, and his hands twitched in his lap. He didn\'t like the fact that there was someone else in the room that he couldn\'t see, let alone that it was his Potions Professor who had never had any reason to like him despite his previous words to the contrary.

...\'I will never intentionally harm you\'... Snape\'s words from last week\'s detention came floating back to Harry, though he still had nagging doubts. What if he unintentionally hurt him, Merlin knew others had done so before.

...\'I will not force you to do anything against your will unless it’s to keep you from harm\'... Another part of him relaxed, even if not completely. At least it was a start. As it was, Harry barely registered the fact that Snape had started speaking again.

\"This place will be your center, where your ability and strength to occlude your mind will come from. Nod if you understand me.\" Harry nodded. \"Good. Give another nod when you have reached this place in your mind.

Harry thought long and hard. Where was his sanctuary, where he felt the most free and the most safe? Hogwarts could be considered one, but it wasn\'t his. Besides, he wasn\'t all that sure anymore that the school was the safest place for him after all. He thought of rooms within Hogwarts, but again none seemed right. He even started to consider his cupboard from when he was little but a suffocating sense of dread filled him at the thought and he quickly shoved it out of his mind. Maybe if he made a place up? But no, that didn\'t feel right either.

It was with a sudden burst of inspiration that Harry realized that his place was flying through the air on his broom. He was tempted to ask, but thought better of it. Making a quick desicion he decided that that would be his place. Harry gave a sharp nod and opened his eyes.

\"Legilimens!\" Snape attacked his mind with a force to nearly knock Harry back, but Harry had kept a hold of his center. For a few endless moments Severus chased Harry through his mind, unable to catch hold. Then the Gryffindor faltered slightly in his concentration and suddenly Harry was seeing images of his life flash before his eyes. No!

Cedric\'s dead eyes. Sirius as he fell. A rock shattering through a car window. Harry felt himself go cold at the sight. Broken glass and blood on his hands. A letter. Darkness filled with scarlet colored pain. Harry struggled against the pull of his mind. No, he couldn\'t let Snape see. Broken glass again, this time in a dark room. The letter from today. Mr. Collins approaching from the shadows. Terror.

\"No!\" Harry shoved at the intruding mind in blind panic and was relieved when it backed off. When his vision cleared he realized he was sprawled across the floor of his professor\'s office, said professor leaning heavily against the desk. For a moment nether said anything.

\"Better Mr. Potter. But still not good enough. The Dark Lord would have torn you to shreds.\" Harry could only gape at him in shock. Had the Potions Master just given him a compliment? Okay, so it had been a backhanded compliment, but the words had still come from Snape. \"When you\'re done with your fish impersonation I have a question Potter.\"

Harry snapped his mouth shut and scrambled to his feet nodding.

\"Where was your center?\"

\"Flying on my broom.\" Severus raised his eyebrow in what could be interpreted as surprise.

\"Indeed. How interesting.\" Snape glanced at the clock and before waiting for Harry to answer continued. \"Work with that, and practice falling into that space. The better and faster you are at getting to your center, the stronger you\'ll be against a mental attack. Understood.\"

\"Yes sir.\"

\"Good, you are dismissed. I will see you here tomorrow at the same time.\" Harry nodded and grabbed up his bag, still unaware of the fact that his map was missing. As he turned to leave, the Potions Master said one last thing. \"Oh and Potter? You missed class today. If by the end of the week you have not given me a good reason as to why and made up the work, that will be 20 points from Gryffindor.\"

Harry nodded with a quiet \"Yes sir,\" and left without another word.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Unbeknownst to both professor and student, two ghosts were quietly congradulating each other on a job well done.

\"Now to set in motion the next part of our plan.\"

\"I agree, except Sal, that we need to get that letter away from Harry first. It could ruin everything.\" Salazaar expression darkened.

\"Yes, if he opens that all this would have been for nothing.\"




TBC