That night, Harry told his godfather about the prank he and Ginny had pulled on Ron. Sirius got a kick out of the story, though he called Harry an amateur. "You're going to have to do much better than that if you want to earn yourself a place among the marauders," he had told Harry. He laughed along with his godfather, although the comment did get him thinking about something. He resolved to talk to Ginny about it when the time came.
The two had another animagus training session the next day. Harry tried changing tactics this time. Instead of having her just try to change one of her body parts into its feline counterpart, he had her perform simple spells with her wand. He told her to concentrate extra hard when she did it, to try to feel the magic within her at work. He performed some spells of his own and tried to describe the feeling that he wanted her to detect. After several attempts, she started to see what he was talking about.
She wanted to jump right back to trying to change her hand into a paw, but Harry stopped her. "Stick with one thing at a time, Gin," he told her. "Right now you know how the magic feels for a levitation charm, so try to duplicate that without your wand." And so their training took a bit of a detour. They were no longer really practicing the animagus transformation. He was teaching her wandless magic.
She struggled with that as well. She was unable to levitate anything that day, but she was close. She was attempting to lift a quill off of Harry's desk in his office. The quill never fully left the desk, but it did move around a bit and the end of it lifted off the desk before falling back down. It wasn't the results they were hoping for, but it was progress. And for the first time since they started the training, they both felt that they had finally accomplished something. They were one step closer to the end result.
Harry finished grading the DADA essays by early Sunday morning, though he didn't manage to get them to the professor until Monday morning. Ron was more or less back to his old self by Sunday. He still grumbled a bit when people brought up the incident, but he was able to laugh about it a bit now as well. He had no idea who the culprit was. He was half convinced that the twins had found some way to get him despite the fact that they were no longer in Hogwarts. Harry and Ginny were both fine letting him believe whatever he wanted.
The two met again on Tuesday before lunch and picked up where they left off. This time Ginny was able to lift the quill completely off the desk by about an inch or two. She managed to hold it there for several second before it dropped back down. It still wasn't that much, but both were absolutely thrilled at the progress.
That Thursday, Harry received another note from the Headmaster, nearly identical to the one from the week before. He learned from Hermione that Skittles encourage you to taste the rainbow. When Harry entered the office that evening, the tension was thick, and the greetings were strained.
The Headmaster began, "I must apologize, Harry. I often forget what it is like to be young. I should not have presumed to tell you that you could trust Professor Snape when you have no basis upon which to place that trust. I have my own reasons for trusting him, but I should not expect that to be enough for you. I'm afraid I did not realize just how strained your relationship was with him."
"I have been telling you that for years, Professor," Harry stated as calmly as he could. "You just didn't want to believe it."
"I'm afraid you are correct yet again," he sighed tiredly. "I like to give others the benefit of the doubt, and I am reluctant to think ill of anyone whom I respect, despite the evidence available. I wanted to believe that you were exaggerating Professor Snape's crimes against you, as he so often does with you. I am sorry for not taking you seriously."
Harry was a bit taken aback at this candid apology but quickly recovered to respond. "I forgive you. And I'm sorry for what I did last week, but it was the only way I could think of to make you see…."
"No apology is necessary, Harry," Dumbledore interrupted. "It was not a pleasant experience but one that I needed to see. I must say that I am surprised that you wanted to resume your lessons with Professor Snape after last year."
Harry smiled at his Headmaster's indirect way of asking a question. "Yes, well I had planned on doing some private studying on the subject over the summer. I knew that Professor Snape would not hold back in testing my progress, and I wasn't disappointed. He assaulted my mind with everything he had, often struggling to remain standing afterwards. And it took all of my concentration to keep my barriers up. Voldemort will be just as vicious should he ever try to break into my mind, and I intend to be prepared."
Dumbledore chuckled appreciatively. "I must say I am impressed with your foresight. I'm sure you didn't mind the fact that you were showing Professor Snape up at the time either."
"An added benefit," Harry agreed jovially.
"Indeed," he replied, eyes twinkling full force once again. "Now that we have that business behind us, I was wondering if I might test your Occlumency once again… without any distractions this time."
Harry grinned back at him, "Very well."
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