The twins had set a tray of desserts next to the pizza on the table at the Granger's residence when no one was looking. Neville was the first one to grab and eat a canary crème, and immediately changed into a bird. Ginny immediately turned on Fred and George, who were laughing hysterically. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!?!" she shouted, "CHANGE HIM BACK!!!"

"Well, little sister," said Fred, "You seem to really care..."

"What happens to Neville," said George. "Is it possible..."

"That you're both lovebirds?" finished Fred with a grin.

Ginny's face was red as she faced them, "If I could only use magic here..."

"Relax, Ginny," said George.

"Neville will be changing back..." said Fred.

"any second now," said George as with a pop the canary was replaced by Neville, who now looked terrified.

His face was red and he looked down at the floor as he muttered, "I-I guess I should've eaten the pizza first."

Everyone laughed at this statement, but Ginny kept watching Neville after that. He was very quiet and had been very nervous about eating. They played some muggle video games, which Ron in particular had loved after Harry had shown him how to play, although he claimed quidditch and wizard's chess were still better. Neville didn't really get into the games because he kept glancing at the twins as though afraid they would do something else to him. When it came time for Ginny to portkey home, after she had Neville, Ron, and the twins holding her necklace, she called out the command to go to Grimmauld Place instead of the Burrow. Before anyone could react, she had bat-bogey hexed both Fred and George, and shouted, "That was for what you did to Neville!"

While the twins were fighting mucus bats, Neville said, "Ginny, you shouldn't have done that. Now you'll be in trouble with the ministry for underage magic."

Ginny grinned, "No I won't. Magic can't be detected here."

Neville looked shocked, "Whose house is this?"

Ginny's ears went pink. She didn't want to give away any secrets. "A friend of Harry's. That's all I can tell you. You can floo home from the fireplace." Neville flooed home, and Ginny released Fred and George from her hex. Before they could retaliate, she'd pulled out her portkey and had them grab on.

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The next morning, which was a Saturday, Harry and Hermione arrived at Grimmauld Place at 7:45 a.m. for their first occlumency lesson. Hermione said, "Do you think we should get the trunk out of the attic for Professor Lupin?"

"I suppose so," said Harry, and so they walked hand-in-hand toward the attic and released the charms protecting it.

Hermione levitated the painting out of the way and asked, "Should we put this in the trunk?"

Harry chuckled, "No. We know what it does, and we have the cure. I may even want to use it on someone as a joke sometime. Maybe Filch."

Hermione shook her head, "What? You can't be serious! Maybe I should give it to Professor Dumbledore!"

"Sirius isn't concerned about it, so giving it to Dumbledore would be stealing!"

"So would taking it to Hogwarts," replied Hermione.

Harry chuckled, "Not if I got Sirius' permission."

Hermione paled, knowing that the marauder would definitely approve of her boyfriend's planned prank.

"Permission for what?" asked Ginny, who had just arrived. "What are you doing with that painting?"

Harry said, "Permission to take this painting to Hogwarts and leave it somewhere for Filch to find it."

Ginny burst out laughing. "As long as I'm not the first person he sees!"

"It's not funny," claimed Hermione, although it was obvious that she was trying very hard to stop herself from laughing.

"Come on," said Harry, "Imagine him chasing McGonagall."

"Or Malfoy?" suggested a giggling Ginny.

At that point Hermione lost control and started laughing heartily. After a couple minutes, she said, "Harry, you'd better levitate the trunk to the living room, and I'm putting the painting back in the attic. Then we need to start our lesson."

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They had studied the first chapter on occlumency for about an hour, and were silently trying to clear their minds and put up mental shields. Hermione suddenly yelled in frustration, "This is impossible! How can you know if you're doing this right without a Legilimens to test you?"

"Maybe we should try learning legilimency first," suggested Harry.

"But that'll take months," said Hermione, "and there'll be know way to know how well we're doing until we can actually read someone's thoughts. We could waste months doing it wrong and not even know it!"

At that moment, they heard a knock on the door to the house. Harry walked up and opened it. He smiled and shook the hand of the man who stood before him. "It's good to see you, Professor Lupin!"

Remus walked inside and said, "It's good to see you, too, Harry," and then looked around and added, "You too, Hermione and Ginny. But as I'm no longer your teacher, you can all just call me Remus." After the girls had greeted Lupin, he said, "Sirius said he'd tell you why I'm here."

"Yes," said Hermione, "The trunk is right over there." Hermione pointed toward the trunk.

"Good," said Lupin, "I understand that you've been doing some studying here."

"Yes, Prof, I mean Remus," said Harry, unsure of exactly what Sirius had told Lupin. "It's good to have a place we can practice magic."

"Yes, I'd imagine so. If you need any help with anything, just let me know."

"Actually," said Hermione, "You may be able to help. Do you know legilimency and occlumency?"

Remus' eyebrows raised. "Er, yes. You're studying that?"

"Yes," said Harry. "Let's just say that we don't want anyone to be able to read our minds."

"You do realize that I'd have to read your minds to teach you?" asked Lupin.

"Er," said Hermione, "I know that it's necessary. That's why we need an instructor to help us. Without someone trying to read our minds, we'll have no idea if we're doing it properly. I think we can trust you." Harry and Ginny both nodded. "Will you agree to keep anything you may learn in the strictest of confidence?"

"Of course," said Lupin, sincerely.

"Then can you teach us? Our plan is to study it every Saturday from eight to ten, but if another time would be more convenient for you, I'm sure we can come up with times that'll work."

Lupin smiled, "That time will work fine, except when my furry little problem comes up, and then no time will work. Fortunately, that won't be for three weeks. Hopefully by then you'll be able to practice one week without me. We should be done by the end of the summer. What else have you been learning?"

"Dueling, Animagus training, charming brooms to fly..." said Harry.

"Here's our schedule," said Hermione, pulling a paper out of her pocket.

"Very good," said Lupin as he read, "Wordless, wandless? Anyone can learn nonverbal spell-casting if they can concentrate, but very few people learn wandless magic."

"Everyone does wandless accidental magic before they even get their Hogwarts letter. I personally did quite a number on my Aunt Marge last summer when she got me mad by talking about my parents. All we want to learn is how to control it. I think the ministry wants us dependant on wands so that they can threaten to snap ours. I for one will do whatever I have to so that I'm not dependant on a wand that can be easily dropped in a duel," said Harry.

"With wandless magic mastered," said Hermione, "no one will be able to disarm us."

"Why magical travel?" asked Lupin. "I know that's where charming brooms comes in."

Hermione answered, "So that we can escape if we need to. Try and capture me."

Remus got up and went toward Hermione while she muttered something under her breath. Before he reached her chair, she had disappeared. Remus looked amazed. "She can't apparate already, can she?"

"Not yet," said Harry, "but we'll learn that. Hermione's wearing a necklace that she made into a two way voice activated portkey. She went home, but she'll be back any second."

"What do you think?" asked Hermione, as she arrived back in the room.

"Very useful," said Remus. "I hadn't thought of that, but it can be useful to know those skills. I should tell you in advance that the wards of Hogwarts don't allow portkeys not made by Professor Dumbledore and a few select people to work within the castle walls, so don't try using them while you're there. What's this magical potential?"

"We're studying a book on unlocking magical potential that talks about magical exercises we can do to fully utilize the magic within us so that our spells can be more powerful," said Hermione.

"I've heard of that," said Lupin, "but I've never known anybody that tried it. Let me know how that goes."

"Of course," said Harry.

Lupin sighed, "I know your schedule said to study occlumency from eight to ten, but would you mind studying it for two hours starting now?"

"That's fine with me," said Ginny. Harry and Hermione nodded. Since they didn't have karate class that day, they weren't in a hurry.

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After two hours of Lupin weakly assaulting their minds (one at a time) and gradually increasing the power of his attacks as they learned to resist his mind probing, they all had slight headaches. Lupin said, "You've all done very well. I'll meet you here next week at eight."

"Actually," said Harry, "Maybe we should duel first on Saturdays, and have the occlumency lessons from ten to eleven if that's alright with everybody."

Everybody, including Lupin, nodded. "I certainly understand not wanting to duel after an occlumency lesson. By the way, don't forget to clear your minds every night. It'll help. Do you mind if I observe your dueling practice?"

"Not at all, Pr-Remus," said Hermione, "Any suggestions you might have would be appreciated."

"So you know, we try to simulate an attack, not a formal duel," said Harry. "If a leftover Death Eater were to attack me in Hogsmeade, I doubt he'd bow and count to three before the attack begins."

"Very wise," said Lupin, and he followed them into the dueling room.

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They managed to do alright, despite their slight headaches, mainly because they'd been doing a lot of dueling for the past few days. After Remus watched their duels and gave them some compliments and advice, he left with the trunk of dark objects.

When Remus was gone, Harry said, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starving. Hermione, are you ready to go home?"