Sometimes, when Maddie was lying awake late at night, she would wonder if anyone out there could read her mind. She wondered what they saw, and if it was any different from what she saw of theirs. When asked about this ability, Maddie would twiddle her thumbs and mutter about corridors. Lots, and lots of corridors. Memories playing in windows and behind doors, with thoughts sprawling in the spaces where cobwebs usually grow. The paths inside the human mind wove and twisted around and upside down, sometimes linking back on themselves like a Moebius. It was the job of the legilimens to navigate them.
Unlike other abilities, such as parseltongue or the second sight, legilimency can be taught to and learned by any witch or wizard. There's even a simple incantation that unlocks the door to someone's brain, like a key. For some, though, even that is unnecessary. For Madeline Vu, the incantation was a set of training wheels that she rode until she could pop into and out of someone's mind at will. And, sometimes, without even that.
A few times she had stumbled into someone's head without even meaning to. Occasionally, she is pleasantly surprised at the memories and the emotions of the person she's infiltrated. More often, however, she finds things she wishes to have never seen.
As a little girl, around 11 or 12, she entered the mind of a middle aged man she'd seen sitting on a bench in her favorite park. She swung from a tire nearly a hundred feet behind him as she explored the labyrinth between his ears.
She saw a round, squishy woman in an apron. A baby. Lots, and lots of trees. Somewhere along the way, she found a towering birthday cake. In the distance, voices sang. Maddie saw his wedding, and his children, and even the ring he had bought his wife for their 20th anniversary. She smiled to herself. Did daddy ever give my mom a ring like that?
Scrape. "Owwwwwww," Maddie whined. She'd fallen off the swing and landed in the gravel beneath it. The small girl pulled herself up, picking tiny rocks out of her elbows and knees, before running towards the bench.
Behind it, a weed poked out of a crack in the blacktop. A bunch of fluffy dandelions sprouted out of the top and swayed in the breeze. The man sneezed, causing Maddie to jump. She slowly bent over to pluck a single dandelion out of the mass in the crack.
"Here," she murmured. The odd-eyed child stuck her hand out, dandelion clutched in a small fist. The man cocked his head to the side.
"Take it, and make a wish," she instructed him.
"Where are your parents?" the man asked.
Maddie scoffed. Instead of answering, she dropped the dandelion on his lap. The man only seemed to become more confused.
"Bring your wife some flowers, too." The little girl curtsied. Before the man could ask what she could have possibly mean, Maddie had turned and sprinted down the street to her grandma's apartment.
What a strange child, the man thought as he walked home with a bouquet of flowers for his wife.
Maddie was a strange child indeed. She was small and willowy and possessed a strange mismatched gaze. She was uncomfortable making eye contact with anyone. Her classmates had teased her in school, and so she was scarred. When speaking with anyone she would keep her gaze on the floor and twist her short, ebony hair. She was a beautiful little girl, but...with a few extra parts.
When her classmates began to develop, she lagged far behind them. She remained small, and flat, and soon became convinced that something was wrong with her. Boys poked her and asked her if she'd left her breasts at home. Like any sixth grade girl, she was distraught. Even when people couldn't say it to her face, she was always compelled to hear it.
Madeline got her first boyfriend at 15. He was tall and dreamy, and 16. He had a car and a job. He had a sly smile and big, calloused hands. She gave herself to him anxiously over the summer.
He drove them out to a lake and parked off the road. He had a blanket in his backseat. Maddie could hardly breath. The windows were foggy, and he was sloppy. Maddie was terrified of what he might think of her if she didn't. She was terrified about what he might know about her if she did.
His lips pressed into her shoulder. Maddie's eyes snapped shut. Suddenly, she was inside of his mind. She could feel what he felt, and hear everything he thought. Other girls paraded around in his memories. Naked, and curvy, and beautiful. I'm not like any of them.
What the hell is that? Oh my god, what is that? Maddie gasped for breath. Suddenly, she was ripped out of his head.
"What the hell?" he demanded. "You told me you were a girl!"
"I-I-I am?" Maddie whimpered. She pulled her legs to her chest self consciously. "Wh-wh-what's wrong?"
"You're not a girl!" he snapped. "Y-youve got a... you've got a-"
"I-I am a girl,"she tried, again, to sound like she wasn't crushed. "I-I'm a little different, but.."
You're disgusting. "I can't do this. I'm gonna go home."
Maddie swallowed. The lump in her throat sank into the bottom of her gut. All of the butterflies in her stomach had shriveled and died. Her relationship had ended, her dignity had been shredded, and every sliver of self confidence she had ever felt had been shredded all in a matter of moments.
She wished she had never learned how to read minds.