A/NHey again! Sorry for the wait :D Enjoy!

Disclaimer I don't own Harry Potter (..yet)

~Parseltongue~

'Mind speak'

16. Trust

They were in one of the abandoned classrooms on the third floor. The room had a single window that looked out over the lake, most importantly, there were no portraits hanging on the walls.

The mood of the room was serious, "Well?" Harry asked with a carefully blank face.

Hermione closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, "I've been talking to Luna a lot recently." She phrased 'talk' in such a serious way that it left Harry in no doubt as to the topics of said conversations.

Harry allowed a small smile to creep over his face, "Intrigued?" he asked, almost playfully.

"Why me?" she asked, as she realised that Harry wasn't going to say anything else.

Harry sighed regretfully, "You should really value yourself more, Hermione. To put it shortly, you are a genius."

Hermione looked up and the pair locked eyes intensely for the next few seconds, "Still though, why do you want me?"

"Nothing devilish, I assure you," Harry said, voice still ever so slightly playful, though his tone hardened with his next words, "And nothing you would feel uncomfortable doing. Coming to me was completely your choice, as would leaving… apart from the necessary secrecy vows."

Hermione perked up a bit at this, searching Harry's face for – something.

"Are you prepared to accept these terms?"

Harry could see her pupils dilate as she seriously thought about it, Harry smiled inwardly, he knew Hermione wouldn't refuse.

"Yes."

Harry smiled widely.

x ~ x ~ x

Harry looked up and conjured a warm smile to his face and Hermione walked in. Dinner had finished perhaps an hour beforehand and most students were holed up in their common rooms, excitedly discussing the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend. Draco and Luna looked up warily from their position at opposite ends of the same sofa. Hermione stood a short distance away, uncomfortably appraising the room.

Surprisingly, Draco was the first to speak, "Welcome to the Room of Requirement." Luna sniggered from her position, staring unabashedly at Hermione.

Harry supressed his laughter at Hermione's unease, instead turning towards the seated pair with a fond expression, "Draco, Luna. Stop teasing the poor girl," he then gestured to a comfortable looking armchair, "Please, take a seat."

Hermione shot a grateful look Harry's way before carefully seating herself and opening her mouth, "Why am I here?"

Draco and Luna shared looks, the question was an obvious one. Hermione had already learnt of most of the trio's plans and, after some gentle persuasion, had even agreed to take part in some of them herself. Harry had gleaned that she had thought herself, and many other muggleborns, unfairly treated by the magical world and its government. But Harry felt like she wasn't being entirely truthful.

"We feel that our –" Harry hesitated over the word, "members should have a certain amount of training." Truthfully, it had taken little over a week for Harry and Luna to get Draco on side with their ideas about Hermione. At first, he had thought they were joking.

Hermione pinched her lips, obviously puzzled. Harry had faith that she would not disappoint.

"We're going to teach you how to duel, properly," Luna piped up.

Here Hermione frowned, "I already know how to duel properly."

Harry watched as Draco rolled his eyes, "Potter!" he said sharply, "Care to give Granger a demonstration?" Standing up as the room shifted to accommodate a duelling arena.

Harry smiled, grateful for the chance to fit in a little practice before tomorrow. He flashed his teeth in a feral grin, "Certainly."

Harry and Luna stood up, and as he walked past the fourth year he heard her say quietly to the newcomer, "You may wish to prepare yourself, when these two fight it can sometimes get… intense."

Harry caught Hermione's nervous expression, "The wards around the arena are strong, but a 'protego' here and there won't hurt you." He winked.

He turned away quickly, both not needing to see Hermione's expression and eager to commence the duel.

He drew his wand and faced Draco, both were standing perfectly at ease. As soon as the silence settled into the room, the both of them took it as their cue to begin.

Draco's first spell tore through the air and frightening speed, even for and experienced dueller, and was followed by another not half a second after. Harry sidestepped the first as the second collided with his shield charm. Draco was muttering a complex spell under his breath which he released not a second too soon to dodge Harry's counterattack. The wards around the pair bowed and sprang back as the spell hit it. Harry caught a quick look at their audience, Hermione had the look of a deer in the headlights while Luna watched them both impassively.

Black fire rushed from Draco's wand, a strange variant of the fiendfyre curse, Harry recognised, with only one possible counter. The shape, fittingly, transformed itself into a giant hissing dragon. Harry was still casting the counter as the beast sent a stream of the black stuff his way. He wandlessly summoned a giant ball of water to surround him, splitting his mind into two separate parts to accomplish it.

The tail of the black dragon had released itself from tip of Draco's wand, leaving the blonde free to cast other spells, meaning that Harry's opponent had also split his mind into two separate parts.

A giant, near blinding, white eagle erupted from Harry's wand and immediately engaged with the dragon in a terrifyingly fast and agile dance. Harry released his protective layer of water, letting it splash to the floor around him whilst simultaneously letting his eagle disengage from his wand. He smiled wryly at the similarity between this and his first challenge in last year's tournament. Harry's mind was already in two parts, he let one half control his eagle while he focused the other into protecting himself and battling the other boy.

Two spells, one from each dueller met each other and exploded in mid-air. Harry dodged as the dragon's tail swooped past him, leaving the bottom of his cloak slightly singed from the heat. Luckily the fire hadn't actually caught, or Harry would have lost in that moment.

He transfigured the water around him into glass, sharp tipped and deadly, and sent it all in Draco's direction. He savoured the look of surprise on Draco's face as he then transfigured about half of the glass into a sandstorm.

The dragon above the pair faltered, disfiguring momentarily and almost going out before it started to flare back to life. The eagle took the opportunity those small seconds allowed it to envelope the black fire completely. Quickly increasing the amount of flames it was producing, starving the nebulous black fire completely of oxygen, smothering it.

Spells shot at Harry through the settling sand, one struck the ground around him, turning it unbearably hot. The soles of Harry's shoes sizzled and within a second, Harry's body was drenched in sweat. With a flick, he turned the floor around him to ice. The eagle relinquished its hold on the now dead black fire, shooing away the sand from around Draco's form.

Harry's eyes widened in surprise, Draco wasn't there. Harry cursed as his eagle started shrieking loudly, he spotted Draco high above him sitting on… was that a broom? He had surrounded Harry's eagle in a thick shell of magic that disallowed the passage of air. Bravo Draco, he silently thought to himself. Draco's mind was obviously in one part, to be able to control such a high level of tricky magic.

The fire was already going out, so Harry let it go quickly and put himself back into one mind. Using the vital seconds when Draco was preoccupied with his magic shell to summon Draco's broom out from under him, shooting of a disarming spell shortly afterwards.

He caught Draco's wand deftly and grinned as the blonde stopped in front of him looking a little surprised and out of breath. He offered Draco back his wand, "Well fought."

Harry heard Luna clapping delightedly as Draco matched his grin and took back his wand, "Indeed."

Both were breathing heavily from the amount of magical power consumed as well as the mental strain of splitting their minds for such a long time.

It was trick he had discovered not too long ago. The first time he had done it, it was without a thought, separating his mind into two areas for Rasp and Voldemort.

He had startled himself so much when he had realised what he had done that his mind had automatically congealed itself into one piece. It had taken a day or two to convince himself that it wasn't impossible, even with the fact that he had done it before. It had taken him a little while longer, and much difficulty, to repeat the process, finding he could control two pieces of magic simultaneously, one with each part of his brain.

Of course, he had told Draco and Luna immediately.

They walked back over and gratefully settled into their chairs. Harry sighed deeply as the cushions accepted his body once again, last of the adrenaline leaving his system. He sniffed in distaste, smelling burnt leather from the soles of his shoes.

"You burnt my shoes," he mock accused Draco, "and my robe."

Draco snorted softly, "At least a glass knife didn't cut your face," turning so Harry could see the small cut on the youth's left cheekbone, "People will be asking me for days!"

Harry laughed, "Just heal it, numbskull. I'm going to have to replace these," he said mournfully, ankle crossed over knee, inspecting the damage to his shoes.

"How can you be joking?!" said Hermione, voice breaking, "You both could have died!"

Here, both Harry and Draco burst out laughing, still on some emotional high. Harry could hear Luna though, through the sound of their peals.

"Don't worry so much Hermione, they've been like this for a few months now. They know what the other can handle. Didn't you see? The only spells that actually hit were 'accio' and 'expelliarmus' in the end."

Harry and Draco had both calmed down, Hermione was looking at the both of them incredulously, "Well, that certainly goes way above what we've been taught in defence."

Harry quirked and eyebrow, "Luna's just as good, though much less flashy," here he shot Draco a meaningful look, the blonde shrugged in return, "we've been improving steadily over the past year, started by Draco's tutelage."

"Hermione," started Luna, restoring the attention to herself, "You do not have to say yes, but we would like to give you the opportunity to learn with us."

"A few questions first," she said, shock gone from her face. Harry was glad, the Hermione he wanted was back. She was looking his way for affirmation.

"Go ahead," he nodded.

"Firstly, are you all on You-Know-Who's side?"

Harry blinked, surprised and a little bit disappointed. "Collectively," he began with certainty, "we are not on anybody's 'side'. Individually, well… we all have our own goals in mind."

There was still distrust in Hermione's eyes, "Personally, at this point in time. No, I am not." The tension in Hermione's face relieved somewhat.

"Right now, I am neutral. Though I greatly dislike Dumbledore," this was said by Luna, face completely blank, though some emotion seeped into her voice. Hermione's lips turned down slightly.

In the back of his mind, he wondered if Draco was going to be completely honest as Hermione turned to face him.

"I am. And I am proud of it," he said in a clear voice, looking her directly in the eye.

The trio already knew each other quite well, so their official stances didn't take Harry by surprise, though he could see confusion in Hermione's. He sought to remedy this, "We do not try and force our beliefs onto each other. If you were to turn around and say you supported our current government, apart from the fact that you would dislike us enough to not be here, we would still welcome you."

Hermione seemed to accept that, "I was firmly on Dumbledore's side, but recently I've started to see a more malevolent side to him. Now I'm not so sure," she let that sink in for a second, "Second, what are you all fighting for?"

"Dumbledore," the three of them said altogether, surprising Harry and by the look on her face, Hermione too.

"Specifically him, dead," cleared up Luna. Harry was glad that she was the one to have said it. She had had the most contact with Hermione so far, Hermione was bound to trust her a little bit more.

"Why?" she queried, looking straight at Luna.

"It was probably going to be your last question anyway. Shall we tell you how we became the people we are today, as well as friends?" Asked Harry.

Hermione was shaking, "Probably for the best."

The story was told in about two hours, understanding passed her face when Harry mentioned how he had manipulated her into giving the golden trio hints about the Chamber of Secrets, for the most part though, she looked incredulous and a bit unbalanced.

To her credit though, she never interrupted or questioned any of them throughout their tales.

"You want to kill our headmaster?" she queried Harry, her look slightly disapproving.

If Harry was any other person, he would have fidgeted, as it was he simply looked at her calmly, "Not exactly. We simply want him out of the picture." He thought it best not to tell her that offing Dumbledore was something he actually intended to do, he hadn't lied exactly, they did all want him out of the way.

Hermione took a breath the collect herself, "I – so what exactly do you hope to achieve by doing that?"

Luna answered for Harry, "Hermione, I've already highlighted the growing problems in our world, repression and corruption being at the forefront of it all."

"Corruption of the light government," Draco chimed in, looking slightly irritated. Hermione's face morphed into a slight scowl.

Harry decided to cut in, "What Draco and Luna are both trying to say is that the balance between all magic, dark and light included, is currently far too off kilter. It can't be difficult for you to see that the whole world is built on balance. Everything that exists has its opposite. Day and night, life and death and," here he have her a serious look, "light and dark."

Hermione nodded in uneasy acceptance, "You're saying that we have too much light magic in the world, but why is that even a problem? If things are really how you say, then surely the world start producing wizards with dark magic instead of light?"

"That's where repression comes into play. You see, currently the wizarding world sees 'dark' and thinks 'evil'. Our own government actively represses families who practice dark magic, and even though a few of the more notable ones have survived they still endure the stigma of being 'evil' to the rest of the world. It is common knowledge that strong emotion enhances dark magic, less common is the fact that it doesn't matter what kind of emotion. It's true that it is easier to summon up feelings of anger and hatred, especially in a battle situation, so that's what ignorant people tend to believe feeds dark magic. It simply isn't true!" Harry let the flare of injustice die down before continuing, "If you want an example that you can have no doubt over, think of the Patronus Charm. Believe it or not, it is actually a dark spell. It's power completely depends on the witch or wizard's state of mind. The stronger the feeling of happiness, the stronger the spell. Do you not agree?"

Hermione was shaken, "But – dark magic spells are used to cause pain, suffering!"

Harry sighed, "The dark wizards of this past century or two are bitter beyond imagining, so yes, they've invented a spell or two to allow them to vent. Their magic, the very core of who they are, has been outlawed. If it were the other way round, would you not be pissed off if your wand was broken because you were caught using a little bit of light magic? Its besides the point, can you honestly really say you can't think of a light charm or curse that could kill or hurt another person?"

Hermione's mouth snapped shut, Harry took this as his cue to continue, "All we really want is for the world to be in balance, outlawing some spells would be essential to ensure peace but not whole branches of magic. We think that people should feel safe, no matter what type of magic calls them. We think more of the old world traditions should also be reintroduced and practiced regularly," he smiled apologetically at what he was about to say, "We don't want to be overrun by muggles."

'That's what I wanted, in the early days.' Voldemort's voice was soft, with a hint of sorrow.

Harry watched Hermione carefully, she still seemed to be processing the barrage of information she had just received, 'What changed?'

'I met the people who rule our world,' Voldemort's presence suddenly receded, leaving Harry very curious about what the dark lord had meant.

"I think I agree with you," said Hermione quietly.

Harry saw Draco arch an eyebrow, "Think?" he repeated quietly, Harry discreetly shot Draco a small glare.

"No, I do agree with you. This is your culture, thinking on it, no type of magic should be considered wrong. It is only a tool after all."

Harry allowed himself a small sigh of relief and Luna beamed at Hermione while Draco continued to hold her eye.

Draco eventually broke his stoic face and smirked, "Well, I'm glad that's settled."

"Now, this is probably what I'm most intrigued about," Harry cocked his head to one side as she spoke, "how did both control two spells at once?"

Luna glanced at Draco, "We should probably let Harry explain this." The other blonde nodded in agreement.

Harry groaned inwardly, his voice was already sore from talking so much already. He wasn't this used to speaking.

"The basic principle is splitting your mind into two parts. Before you say anything, I can ensure you it is possible. It's easier to do if you're a skilled legilimens and occlumens, but not impossible otherwise. You've just got to firmly believe your mind is split in two. Theoretically, it should be possible to split your mind into more parts, but none of us have achieved this quite yet. You give each piece of your mind access to some of your magic, the parts are able to act independently of one another but information can be transmitted between them, for this reason your spells won't be as strong as they are normally."

Harry stopped when he saw Hermione's dazed expression and smiled in apology, "It's a difficult thing to get your head around. I'll leave it at that for now. Don't worry, we'll start you off with basic duelling."

Hermione nodded, coming back to her senses and Harry peeked at the clock on the wall.

"Damn," he said, standing up quickly, "I'm late for tea with Dumbledore. The bastard."

Draco and Luna gave him sympathetic expressions whilst Hermione looked at him oddly.

"Well, must be off!" he said brightly, before nearly sprinting out of the room and towards Dumbledore's office.

He cast a quick tempus as he approached the stone gargoyle, three minutes late. It didn't really matter, he had never been particularly punctual before. He knocked on the door after another minute.

"Enter."

He was surprised to find Snape standing uncomfortably besides a chair in front of Dumbledore's desk. The headmaster looked perfectly at ease, the potions professor had yet to acknowledge Harry's entrance. Dumbledore smiled happily upon seeing Harry, "Come in, come in. Have a seat and help yourself to tea."

Harry approached the desk in a carefree manner, it was quite difficult considering how guarded he was really feeling, sat down and helped himself to the warm brew.

"I have told Professor Snape here exactly what transpired between you and Voldemort," he began, as soon as he mentioned the dark lord's name, the man appeared in his mind.

'Back again so soon?' Harry jibed.

'I have a feeling this will be interesting, hush now Evans.'

"The professor has kindly agreed to help train you in the art of occlumency, or mind shielding. To help stop any unwanted intruders in your head."

Harry froze for an imperceptibly short amount of time before putting down his cup and turning to look at Snape. The man gave him a quick sideways glance but otherwise remained still.

Voldemort chuckled, 'If only he knew how futile his efforts were.'

Harry couldn't help but agree with him on that. But still, he had a role to play.

"Why can't you do it sir?" he said, looking between the two men with a somewhat frightened expression.

"As you told me, Voldemort has forbidden us from having any eye contact. Such a thing is key when instructing someone in occlumency."

Harry formed his mouth into an 'o' of sudden understanding, "Do you think it will help?"

Dumbledore nodded and smiled soothingly, it looked like Harry had no choice, "Then I will try my hardest," he said earnestly. Inside, he was frantically thinking of ways he could deceive the potions master or get out of it altogether.

He was dismissed soon after, getting a time and a location to meet Snape for the first of their sessions, he managed to calm himself into a fitful sleep that night. The only positive thought in his head was that Voldemort would be assaulting Azkaban tomorrow.

When he awoke the next morning, he was determined that he was going to join in.

x ~ x ~ x

Harry nearly jumped out of his seat, startled by something that had struck him on the tip of his nose. He was surprised to see both Draco and Luna staring at him from the opposite side of their table in the three broomsticks.

Harry blinked at the both of them and Draco turned to face Luna, "Can you see any wrackspurts whizzing around his head?"

Luna smiled agreeably and started sway slightly in her seat, "Quite a few! No wonder he can't function properly!"

Harry scowled at the pair as they teased him, he was also a bit annoyed with himself for being so distracted. He couldn't put a finger on it. He noticed that his mug of butterbeer was largely untouched compared to his friends' nearly empty ones.

'What's wrong, hatchling?' Rasp must have sensed his discontent.

'I'm not quite sure. I feel.. strange.'

Draco cocked his head in Harry's direction, waiting for a reply.

Harry sighed, in truth, he knew what was bothering him. Cedric had walked in just as the barmaid had served them their drinks, he had the strangest urge to talk to the hufflepuff. He had the even stranger urge to try and make things 'right' between them. An idea was starting to form in his head, he didn't like it one bit.

"I think something's been done to me," he started slowly, managing to make his glance at Cedric turn into a quick sweep of the room. The hufflepuff was sitting in easy view of all three of them, and Luna narrowed her eyes when she noticed the other boy sitting a few tables over. Harry felt the familiar touch of a notice-me-not charm settle over their table as Luna wordlessly cast it.

"Diggory, again?"

Draco's eyes widened and Harry had the good grace to look embarrassed, "I don't know why, I feel as if I should to talk to him. Perhaps I went a little too far in the contract."

"You are one of the biggest idiots I've ever come across. You know that was the right thing to do, why on earth would you want to change it?!" Draco hissed angrily.

Harry felt his anger flare up, "I made him sign a contract that could kill him."

"He was under Dumbledore's orders to spy on you," the blonde boy spat back.

"I know!" Harry sighed, confused beyond measure. He noticed a guilty look flash by Luna's eyes. She looked away quickly, but Harry noticed the pained expression across her face.

"Then why would you –"

Harry put his hand up for silence, placing his head in both hands. Maybe the horrible little idea he had been silently forming was right.

"I think," he stopped, making sure that the others would let him get the rest of the sentence out, "that I've been placed under some sort of compulsion."

Luna started to nod before another look of pain crossed her features.

'By whom? Tell me hatchling, I'll kill whomever has the audacity to do this to you!'

"What?" Draco stuttered.

Harry ignored both of them, more focused on Luna who gave him a pained smile, the girl spoke before Harry could ask if she was alright, "Perhaps I need to ask Dobby to speak to Rasp on my behalf."

Harry creased his forehead, giving Luna a curious look. Then all the pieces fell into place, "Dumbledore!"

The pained expression immediately left Luna's face, Draco still looked confused however, "Excuse me, what?"

It was Harry's turn to look guilty, despite his words to Sirius, he had yet to tell Draco that he knew of his meetings with Dumbledore.

"Please hear me out," he said, a note of urgency in his voice, "I know that you've been summoned to Dumbledore's office a few times now, I know some of what's taken place, I can guess why you didn't tell anybody."

Draco looked a bit shocked, obviously not expecting the conversation to turn to rapidly, "I – well. If you already know about it then there's no point in keeping it a secret. I just didn't want you to worry. But I'll fill in the gaps later, just tell me what's going on!"

"Dumbledore put Harry under a compulsion charm to tell him to trust Cedric!" the words rushed out of Luna's mouth so quickly that Harry was surprised he could understand her at all. She sighed in relief and leant back into her chair.

Draco's eyes bugged, Harry had little trouble accepting her words, he had already assumed something of the sort, "How long have you known?"

Luna looked up, looking mournful, "I was for you and Cedric in the beginning, but then again, you were acting so unlike yourself around him I started to wonder. That's why I told you to break it off, your behaviour confirmed my suspicions, but every time I tried to tell you about it I just couldn't. I'd change the subject before I'd even spoken. I tried to get you to come to your own conclusions with the sylph joke, but you took it the wrong way. I'm sorry. I couldn't think of a way to help you sooner."

"Surely you would have noticed something messing with your mind?" Draco asked while Harry took a long drink of his lukewarm butterbeer.

"That's the trick with compulsion charms, whilst they're in effect they're difficult to notice because you're too busy following along with the compulsion," Harry supplied dejectedly, still coming to terms with the implications. He hadn't noticed Dumbledore casting a charm on him, ever.

"It's incredibly subtle, I wouldn't be surprised if Harry couldn't sense it whenever he entered his mindscape, and even though I know it's there, I can't detect a sliver of foreign magic on Harry," they all took a moment to appreciate exactly what Dumbledore was capable of.

"How do I throw it off?" he asked with an air of futility, the weakness of such a charm was that, once it was known to the victim, the victim should be able to see the influence within his mind and cut it out. Harry was already standing within his chamber of secrets. Everything looked normal.

Draco and Luna looked at him, already knowing the answer, but not saying anything because they knew Harry would have done away with the spell by now.

"I can't regress into a twelve year old girl every time I see Diggory!" he said angrily, balling his hand into a fist around his wand.

"I don't know, Harry," said Luna softly, "You'll just have to try and manage it as best you can."

Harry finished his drink and scowled at the bottom of the mug. Dumbledore. Just thinking of the man caused his magic to rush suddenly around his body, he managed to contain it within his body just before it managed to have an effect on the environment around him. The man dared to mess with his mind? Harry would make sure everything the man had slaved over was destroyed, set alight and stamped into the ground.

'What a lovely emotion,' Harry could imagine Voldemort's smirk. Strangely, the image managed to calm him somewhat.

'Let me come with you to Azkaban, I need to vent,' Harry was disappointed when he didn't get a reply.

"I think I'm just going to head back to the castle, I need some time to think," he stood up and noted the worried looks Draco and Luna shared with each other. He tried to give them a reassuring smile when they looked at him, they probably wouldn't buy it; they knew him too well.

He passed by Cedric without a glance and began the cold walk back to Hogwarts. He shivered and cast a heating charm on his robes, smiling as Rasp hissed his thanks.

'You are attacking tonight, aren't you?' he asked Voldemort, hoping that he would get an answer.

'I'll answer your questions later, little Evans, I'm in a meeting right now,' came the quick reply.

'You weren't three minutes ago,' he quipped.

Slight irritation and amusement flitted through Harry's mind, 'The meeting has just started, I can't stop every few sentences just to reply to you. Later.'

Harry sighed and trudged on, longing for the familiar walls of the castle. He was by the gates when he heard a familiar hoot. He looked up and stuck out his arm, smiling as his snowy owl landed on him.

"Hello, girl," he greeted, fishing out an owl treat from his pocket. She attacked them with gusto, hooting softly in approval. He felt Rasp brave the cold as he stuck his head out of Harry's robe.

~Greetings, White Wing.~

Hedwig hooted and bobbed her head in response before looking again to Harry, sticking out her leg.

He blinked when he noticed the letter attached, who on earth would send him a letter?

Harry Potter,

Detention, upon your return from Hogsmeade.

Prof. Severus Snape

Harry stopped midstride, looking down dumbstruck at the parchment in his hand. He gathered himself quickly and soothed Hedwig, apologising for stopping so suddenly. What had he done to the old bat now?

He scrunched up the note and lit it on fire, throwing it to one side and continuing to the castle in a fouler mood. As they drew near to the owlery, Hedwig nipped him on the ear affectionately and took flight.

As he passed through the doors he cancelled the heating charm and quickly made his way down to Professor Snape's office. He knocked loudly on the door three times and walked in before Snape had the time to say 'enter'.

"Why do I have a detention, sir?" he said in a gentler voice than his demeanour suggested.

Snape was studying him, eyes so black that Harry wondered where his pupils were, "Sit down, Mr. Potter."

Harry was mildly surprised that no points had been taken from him, even more surprised that the man hadn't given him a scolding. The tone of Snape's voice told him that he wasn't here for a detention. He sat.

The next two minutes were spent in an uncomfortable silence. Each doing their best to glimpse behind the other's mask.

Snape broke the silence first, "When my master gave me my orders, I admit, I was a little surprised."

Harry narrowed his eyes, this could end badly. The question was whether Snape was on Voldemort's side, or Dumbledore's?

"Your master being whom, exactly?"

"For the time being," Snape replied, tapping his left forearm gently. They regarded each other again for another minute.

Harry wasn't in the best of moods for games, but this was a side of Snape he hadn't seen before. In lessons, Harry was always on the receiving end of the professor's sneers and jibes. The only exception, so far, to Snape's behaviour had been when Harry had been desperate for potions to heal Draco. For some reason, Harry felt that this meeting was a significant one. He absently wondered if this was another of Dumbledore's compulsions. How he hated not knowing which thoughts were his own.

"Prove it."

Snape blinked, obviously not expecting a response. He slowly pulled up his left sleeve to reveal the twisting image of the dark mark on his skin.

Harry raised an eyebrow, "That is not proof of your allegiance, just proof that you have been marked."

Snape growled, "My orders were to inform you of the plan for this evening, since my lord thought you might want to join in. But indeed, why should you trust me? I could just be feeding you information on Dumbledore's behalf!"

Harry felt Rasp stir at the harshness of the other's voice, he mentally told him to stay hidden and that yes, he was in no danger.

He thought on Snape's words, maintaining eye contact with those black orbs. Surely, if Dumbledore knew something about the breakout plans, he would have done something about it? He could have smacked himself on the head when he realised that he had one easy way to determine whether Snape was telling the truth or not.

'Did you tell Snape to talk to me?'

'Why do I get the feeling that you are giving the poor fellow a hard time?'

'He's a double agent, is it so hard to imagine that lies are more natural to him than the truth?'

'Listen to him, little Evans, is all I can say. I haven't the time to tell you all that will happen.' The dark lord was gone in an instant.

He was still looking into Snape's eyes, there would be no harm in just listening to what he had to say. "I'm listening."

Snape was good at briefing Harry to Voldemort's plans, each point was succinct and concise, Harry believed it was from being a potions master – all those ingredient lists and processes.

Basically, Harry would tag along in the guise of a death eater, as part of the small team being led by Snape himself. Once inside, he had the freedom to wander round, whilst staying out of sight of the other death eaters, to locate and spring Sirius free. Snape would give him a spare wand so that Sirius could apparate himself someplace safe. Harry would then regroup with Snape and they would return to Hogwarts together.

"Once we breach the walls, we will be able to take down the anti-apparition wards. The dementors have been courted to our side, so we have nothing to fear from them, do you understand?" Snape finished.

Harry sighed in an irritated fashion, "Can we go now, then?"

Snape sighed wearily, "I suppose so."

A/N So, after all that build-up ... ... there is a little more buildup :P .. kidding! The next chapter should introduce some good old fashion action. Hope you enjoyed, review if you enjoyed or what to point something out. Constructive criticism is always appreciated and suggestions will always be considered :)

apisci