LANDSLIDE, james potter [2]

Chapter Thirty-Three

Harry was having a pretty bad time at Hogwarts nowadays. Professor Umbridge was Headmistress now, for one. She hated his guts and he hated her just as much back. Dumbledore's Army had been found out because of a girl named Marietta telling on them. Snape was making his life miserable as usual, and now he was supposed to spend an evening practicing Occlumency with him? He wished Lyra could sneak into Hogwarts to teach him instead. 

"You're late, Potter," Snape sneered as Harry entered his office. He had just been removing some particularly important memories from his head and putting it in his penesive so that Harry wouldn't be able to see them if he accidentally ended up breaking through his defenses. "Have you been practicing?"

"Yes," Harry lied, not very convincingly, as he refused to meet his teacher's eye. 

"Well, we'll find out soon, won't we? Wand out, Potter." Snape wasn't one for wasting anybody's time and he didn't want to spend more time with the boy than he needed to. "On the count of three then. One... two..."

He didn't reach three, as the door to his office suddenly opened, and a stressed-looking Draco Malfoy ran in, looking like he was in quite the rush. "Professor Snape, sir! Oh... sorry."

The blond boy was quite surprised at seeing Harry and Snape together, and also very confused. Snape didn't seem bothered by the interruption. "It's all right, Draco. Potter is here for a little Remedial Potions."

"I didn't know," Draco answered, and he looked like Christmas had come early that year. He grinned widely, and Harry quickly knew that the whole school would know about this before the day was over.

Harry had the sudden urge to punch him in the face. He just stood there, leering over him as if to remind him how much better he was than him. Snape just wanted to know why he was barging in. "Well, Draco, what is it?"

"It's Professor Umbridge, sir. She needs your help." Draco seemed much better behaved when talking to his teacher. "They've found Montague, sir. He's turned up jammed inside a toilet on the fourth floor."

Snape was quite confused at this. He knew Montague had disappeared suddenly a while ago, but he wondered how he could have gotten into a toilet. "How did he get in there?"

Draco shrugged. "I don't know, sir, he's a bit confused..."

"Very well, very well," Snape muttered to himself, trying to figure out what to do about this situation. He turned to Harry quite sharply. "Potter, we shall resume this lesson tomorrow evening instead."

He turned around dramatically, his robe flowing behind him as he left the office. Draco turned to Harry for a moment, grinning to himself as he mouted Remedial Potions? before following his Head of House out of the room. 

Harry mentally imagined the day he could hex his arch-enemy into oblivion without any consequences. That would be the best day of his life, he was quite sure of that. He shook his head before preparing to leave.

But as he headed towards the door he watched as silvery light danced around the edge of the door. He frowned as he looked at it, feeling it was quite familiar. Then he remembered that he had seen something similar in his dream the other night about the Department of Mysteries. 

He turned around and looked at the pensieve where Snape had been storing his memories. They were specific things he hadn't wanted Harry to see on the off chance that he would break through his defenses. He wondered what he didn't want him to see. 

He quickly wondered if there were some secrets the Order of the Phoenix didn't want him to know. Maybe it was some information about the Department of Mysteries that he had desperately sought out.