The next morning feeling much cleaner, if just a little bit barmy; he got out some fresh parchment and his self-inking quill, and wrote to his friends to tell them the good news.

Ron and Ginny,

I get sprung on the 21st. See you at the place.

Harry

Short and to the point, and secure enough not to get him in trouble with the Order. Next he had a much harder letter to write.

Dear Hermione,

I cannot thank you enough for the books! And I had just been thinking the same thing about Hedwig. She really is a smart bird.

You were right, I learned more in the first couple pages of the Occlumency book than I learned all year from tall, dark and greasy. I have come to some rather startling conclusions about our dear Headmaster as well. Fawkes delivered a letter last night letting me know I get out for good behavior on the 21st so I will see you then. Before he left I asked him what he thought was going on with the old coot. He seemed to tell me "He was great once".

Yes I know; I'm talking to birds. Well, it's not the talking TO birds that is disconcerting; it's having them talk back and feeling like I understand them. I don't know if I should be telling you that, because honestly I think its cabin fever. After all I have spent the last five summers talking to Hedwig, it's only natural that she can talk back after all this time right? WRONG. I might be going nutters but I can honestly say I heard Fawkes' reply.

Oh well, I am sure you will research and see if there is some sort of avian mind speech that is similar to Parseltongue or if I am just stir crazy. I miss all of you, especially you. I know, and I can admit now, that it is not my fault. Sirius should not have been careless while fighting Bellatrix. Dumbledore should not have kept him locked up in a place he hated almost as much as Azkaban. I should not have learned Occlumency from the Batty Batman of Hoggy Hogwarts.

But none of that changes the fact that my heart literally stopped when you were hit with that curse. You have my sincere regret that you were harmed following my lead.

So, I plan to study for the next week and then I hope you, Ron and I can all get Occlumency learned quickly. I have something I need to share with you, that Fumbledore told me not thirty minutes after watching Sirius fall through the veil. I cannot tell you in a letter, and I will not tell you until you can protect the information. If you see Ron before I do please impress upon him the importance of learning to shield his mind or I won't be able to tell him.

hope the rest of your vacation goes well. I was wondering though, why anyone would be able to see your scar at the beach, you could always wear a once piece instead of a two-piece bathing costume.

Oh well, thoughts to ponder another time. I look forward to seeing you soon, and I think I might even have my summer homework done by then!

Love you back,

Harry

He had read over both books to take up time the rest of that week. His meditation exercises progressed rather well and he found that, not surprisingly, he was doing rather well at Occlumency without Snape as a teacher. He hoped that over the rest of the summer he, Ron, and Hermione could work on it together and come September first he could show Snape how bad a teacher he was. He figured that if he was doing everything correctly, he probably had already repaired the damage caused by his "remedial potions" lessons and was well on his way to passable shields.

He was just settling down to do his nightly meditation and saw Hedwig return from hunting.

"Hey girl" he grinned. "Good haul tonight?"

His Bird Whispering skills or his dementia had improved as well once he put conscious effort into it. She responded that it had indeed been a good night for hunting; she enjoyed a frog and two field mice. After delivering his letter to Hermione and the youngest Weasleys.

"That's good girl, I'm glad you had fun. Thank you again for being such a fine mail carrier and such a pretty girl." She fluffed herself up at his words and began grooming her silky white feathers for best effect.

"You know girl, if I can keep this up I get to tell Snape that I am a better teacher than he is! I'm not trying to give myself a big head, but if I taught the DA half as well as I am learning this stuff, I bet they all did well on their OWLs. I might have even passed my Potions OWL without him breathing down my neck and destroying the potions I turn in." He finished. She gave him a quick look that said something along the lines of "I hope I am there to see that."

Laughing lightly he began the breathing techniques outlined in the Wandless book. He found that they both required a similar meditative state, and the exercises in the Occlumency book just didn't work as well or as fast for him. He began consciously trying to clear his thoughts.

… remembering that the French Riviera was a topless beach after he sent the letter… filed away under Patronus Memories. Suppressing a grin at the image he continued.

… finished his potions homework, Hermione would be so proud… filed under School Work.

… Bird Whispering… after careful consideration he had decided to place it under the Special Skills category instead of the Reasons I think I am going crazy.

… preparing to leave tomorrow for headquarters… That one was giving him a hard time, he could not decide whether to file it under Happy thoughts, or Angry thoughts, or Depression. He knew it was going to be hard staying at his Godfathers House; however his Occlumency was helping him deal with his grief. He made the conscious decision to save most of his memories of Sirius under Happy Memories and remember him fondly, not feel sorry for himself that his shot at knowing his Parents friend and the chance of leaving the Dursley's forever was gone.

For the most part it had worked, and so he decided rather than think of the event as going back to an empty house, or seeing Dumbledore again, he would use it as an opportunity to feel closer to Sirius, and be happy that his friends would be there. Plus he was escaping the Dursleys.

… escaping the Dursley's again… Happy Thoughts.

Soon his mind was perfectly blank, he allowed his conscious to wander around on its own as the book had said, though by this point he was not thinking to let himself wander, it was becoming habit.

Eventually he reached what he had earlier determined was his center. In his mind it was a candy store. He never got much candy growing up unless he filched it from Dudley's enormous stash. His thoughts were arranged by taste and color; he got the idea from the book which said your labeling scheme should make as little sense to other people as possible. Reds were for Love, Hate, or Anger. Green for jealousy, Envy and such. Yellows for mellows, and so on. He added flavors to separate certain memories. Love tasted sweet, hate was spicy or cinnamon and Anger would be bitter. Similar ideas for the other "candy emotions". Then he had his special stash, the best parts of his life and the memories that fueled his Patronus he made a copy of and made them extra sweet. They had their own section of the store with a huge Stag display in front.

The Wandless book had mentioned seeking out the source of his magic in a metaphorical setting. Normally this might show up as a pool or fountain of magic. However Harry had yet to find anything so subtle. He had come to determine that, either he was doing it wrong, or his pool of magic was much larger than that described in the book.

In his non-meditative time he began to supplement himself with positive thoughts. Trying to instill the whole "Belief in Himself" that the book kept on about. His latest daydream was that the area he walked through to get to his "Candy Store" which he called a mindscape for lack of a better word. ALL represented his magic in some way. Rather than a fountain or pool, it seemed that he pulled magic from his entire being. Or so that was the theory he was trying to reinforce. Honestly if he was nutters enough to call himself a Bird Whisperer he might as well go the next step and think he had super magic.

So going off that theory, he went back outside the store and thought about the shield he had erected. At the moment he had placed what looked like a Force Field around the store keyed only to him. The problem was that a Force Field was not real, unless you counted magical wards. But he didn't know enough about Science Fiction, or real wards to make this shield workable.

Thinking back to "believing in himself" he thought that for the moment, if he was not able to defend himself outright, he should try something more subtle. So, focusing on his massive pool of magic, he set about creating more storefronts across from and on either side of the street from his Candy Store. There was an ice cream store, an arcade, and a Public Library amongst other things.

"If I were going to organize my thoughts, I think I might put them in books." He said to no one in particular. So he imagined the library filled with books, and labeled them all sorts of emotions and categories. The names he would give the different bins of candy in his shop, if he had been silly enough to label his memories. He made sure to dedicate an entire section of the library to books labeled things like Angst, Dursleys, Plans for Voldemort, Plans for Dumbledore, Plans for Snape, Anger, Hate, and so forth. He decided to have a bit of fun and made an entire section on little known magical animals he had heard Luna talk about. And another dedicated to dark arts. Then thinking again about school and books. He backed out of the Library, deciding it was thoroughly confusing inside. He then went into the candy store to the back and thought hard for a moment.

An outline appeared in the wall, which then swung open to allow him access to a personal library. He then sat himself down, figuratively of course, and began the process of putting everything he had ever learned into books by subject and year. It was a demanding process but eventually he was done. Everything suddenly seemed much clearer. He didn't have to think about what he had learned it just appeared at the speed of thought. He wondered idly if this is what the Headmaster meant when he spoke of "A highly organized mind" in his first year at Hogwarts.

Thoroughly tired out mentally, he walked out of the room and turned to watch as the door resealed itself and disappeared. There was no real magic involved, and even if there was, it was all his magic and so left no residue for someone to notice it was there. Proud of himself, he strolled out of the shop and down the main street through town. He paused at the end of the road and turned.

He imagined an Adamantium dome surrounding the town. Adamantium was not real as far as he knew, but this was his delusion and so he could have whatever he wanted. The main point being he knew the properties of Adamantium, mainly that it was indestructible and the hardest known metal.

As an afterthought he recast his Force Field over top of the dome and imagined it was somehow linked electronically to his brain. And would warn him if someone attempted to get past it, even if it couldn't keep that person out.

Nodding to himself, he decided that was probably as good as it would get. He willed himself to wake up and turned to look at the clock. "Wow! It's only been 3 hours?" he exclaimed. Apparently time moved differently in his head. "Then again, it's possible I haven't really done anything in there, and I am just as crazy as I sound talking to myself. Huh Hedwig? Hedwig?"

He looked over to find that she was gone again and sighed out loud. "Great, now I am a super magical, Bird Whispering nutter who talks to himself, what next? ACK! I'm doing it again!" And with that he set his alarm and went to bed before he answered himself. That would be awkward.