The Anger.

He watched as her aura faded away and the crockery and cutlery stopped vibrating. Her eyes also lost their soft glow and they return to their normal blue.

He watched as the magic finally ebbed away and she gave a soft, sagging sigh.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"That's - exhausting," she replied.

"Yeah, you'll sleep well, tonight; I assume," he said.

"I only did that for a few moments," she said. "You did it for a lot longer than that, this evening. You must be much more exhausted."

With a little shrug, he said, "I've also been practicing it a lot." "What led you to start learning to do that?" she asked.

"Reading that Magical Theory book by Adalbert Waffling," he replied. "It speaks about how you expend magic when you cast. It also said you need to wait for your magic to - refill - else you risk collapse from magical exhaustion."

Nodding, she said, "I remember that part."

Continuing he said, "I then thought to myself: if you can expend magical energy by choice, why can't you also pull it into yourself using the same principles; instead of waiting for your magic to refill on it's own."

Thoughtfully, she said, "That means you can draw magic from the ambient magic about us when you need it. You don't have to wait for it."

"Yes," he said. "However, I've also found that, at the moment, it's quite exhausting to do. I'm hoping that, as we get older and with more practice, it's something we can do all the time; when we want to."

"Magic is like a muscle; it needs to be exercised," she mused.

"Precisely," he replied with a smile. If expelling magic is like a muscle, why can't drawing magic in be the same, just in reverse?"

She nodded back in understanding. "Then I shall just have to practice, won't I?" she said with a grin.

As it was getting late, Harry escorted her down into the dungeons to the entrance to the Slytherin common room before using the secret passage to quickly get up to the seventh floor.

From there it was a quick trip to the Ravenclaw tower. He hadn't realised how late it was getting as his housemates had already returned. Most of them were already in bed and asleep, or quickly approaching that point. The few older years in the common room only glanced up at him as he entered. No one said a word that he was actually arriving back in the common room after curfew.

A couple of days later, on the Saturday morning of the 2nd of November, he received an owl from Sirius. Sirius wanted to know about his 'tantrum' in the Great Hall on the night of the Halloween Feast.

Sirius wasn't accusing him of anything. Nor did his letter say Harry had actually done anything wrong. He just wanted to hear from Harry what had happened.

When Harry sighed after reading the letter at the breakfast table, Neville asked, "What's wrong?"

"Sirius wants to know what happened on the night of the Halloween feast," he replied. "He and the Greengrasses now know what happened."

"He's not accusing you of anything, is he?" asked Susan.

"No," he replied. "It's more like - he wants to know what happened and is going to the source, namely me, to get the true details."

"What are you going to tell him?" asked Neville.

Shaking his head, Harry replied, "It's easier if I just show him."

He reached into his robes and withdrew a small empty stoppered phial. He held it in his left hand while he flicked the stopper out with his thumb. Drawing his wand, he then focussed on his memories and brought the entire memory to the fore part of his mind. A press of the tip of his wand to his temple and he was shortly drawing the copy of the memory out.

Holding the memory dangling over the now unstoppered phial he let it slide in, before restoppering it. He then cast an Unbreakable Charm on it before setting it aside.

Anyone bring any parchment and ink?" he asked.

"I have some," replied Hermione, bringing her ever-present bookbag around and onto her lap.

She quickly pulled forth the required material before dropping her bookbag to once more sit snugly at her hip. And offered the stationery to Harry.

Harry quickly wrote off a response before wrapping the phial within the parchment.

After having earlier dropped off that morning's copy of the Daily Prophet and winging away again, Hedwig returned to land in front of him. Harry quickly tied the small bundle to Hedwig's harness before softly kissing the owl on her beak.

She gave a couple of huffs and, once again, took wing. She was out through the high ceiling in a few seconds, on her way to Greengrass Estate.

"Honestly, Harry," said Hermione, after a while. "It doesn't hurt to put pen to paper quill to parchment, I mean - and actually write what happened."

Harry grinned and said, "Napoleon Bonaparte once said, 'A picture is worth a thousand words'. Harry Potter adds the addendum, 'But, a memory is worth ten thousand'."

"The other advantages a memory has," said Susan, "is that Harry is not as likely to provide a false memory, so they'll know it's true; they may see things that even Harry missed; and the memory will include those things Harry didn't think as important enough to write about, but actually are," said Susan.

When everyone looked at her, she blushed and said, "My aunt told me why memories are so important in trials and debriefings of after action reports. They make a lot of use of such at the DMLE."

Daphne had her own letter. Changing the subject, she looked to Hermione, and said, "My mother said I was to, once again, impress upon you her thanks for the documents you sent her from the British Registrar Office. The more she delves into the information, facts and figures your parents have provided her through you, the more she's able to find to support your assertions regarding the birth-rates in Muggleborns."

Hermione blushed, ducked her head and said, "It was nothing. It only took my parents to write a letter, pay a small fee and wait for the results through the mail."

Smiling, Daphne said, "It may only have been a small act, but it's impact has apparently been astounding on her research. She would also like permission to visit with your parents to thank them personally for their assistance." "I..." stuttered Hermione. "I'll - ask them."

Smiling, Daphne said, "Thank you, Hermione."

"Well," said Harry, trying to save Hermione further embarrassment, "who wants to go up to the Come and Go Room. Daphne asked me to teach her something a couple of evenings ago; and, I thought the rest of you might like to learn, too."

He was met with six grins.

Harry asked the room to configure itself into the multi-House common room they found when he first showed them the room. It became their meeting place when they wanted to spend time together away from the talking-suppressing library, and away from the other students.

The room allowed them to openly talk amongst themselves, even laugh at some of the stories they told one another. With the addition of the bookcases, it also allowed them access to books to do homework. Through unspoken agreement, the room was their secret. They never told anyone else about it, lest others take it for themselves and deny them time in it. That may be greed on their part, but everyone else had the same opportunities as Harry to find the room on their own.

Once they were all seated, Harry asked, "Alright, how is everyone's Occlumency?"

The general consensus was that they were all fine - for their age group. All except Hermione.

"How are you doing, Hermione?" he asked.

"I understand the concept well enough," she replied a little depressed. "But I've no idea if I'm doing things right."

"How well does it match that book I loaned you, 'Occlumency for Beginners'?" he asked.

"I think I'm on par for when I have to start setting up my mind traps," she said.

"Then, how's your meditation?" he asked. "Oh, that I can do quite easily now," she replied a lot happier.

"Okay, good," replied Harry, before turning to the wider audience. "Everyone else is alright with meditating?"

Besides Daphne, he received four nods in response.

"Excellent," said Harry. "Daphne asked me to teach her something she saw me do. So, I did."

Turning to her, he said, "Why don't you tell them about it and demonstrate for them?"

"Thank you," she said back. Turning to the others she asked, "I suppose you all noticed how Harry's magic was palpable and swirling around him when he entered the Great Hall on the night of the feast?"

She received five nods in response.

"Well, I managed to catch up to Harry after he left and we talked for a while," she said. "I wanted to know if he had made his magic flare like that on purpose. Well, he did. So, I then asked him to show me how he did it. And he did that, too."

Daphne sat still for a few moments before her magic began to build around herself. It wasn't long before everyone felt the same electrical feeling on their skin, with hairs standing up on arms. A few of the girls found their hair starting to stand up as if from static electricity.

"Oh, wow!" said Hermione, rubbing her arms.

"Sweet Merlin!" whispered Neville. "That's amazing!"

Hannah softly said, "Your eyes are practically glowing!"

Daphne gently eased the magic back away and sighed.

Gathering herself, she said, "Harry taught me in only a few minutes. He's a really good teacher." She grinned at him and squeezed his hand while he blushed.

"But, why?" asked Hermione. "I know it looks impressive. But, what's the purpose?"

"Part of the purpose, Hermione," she replied. "Is that it'll make you look very powerful, magically. So, if someone starts getting uppity - with you. You can make them back off in a lot of cases just by flaring your magic like that. It makes people believe you're a lot more powerful than you actually are."

"I'll say," said Tracey, looking quite stunned at her best friend. "It looks quite scary. I'd definitely not want to face off against someone that can do that."

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