A/N: I am really glad for the reviews. It's so good to see so many people commenting on my work in a positive fashion. A few points regarding the plot…
1. Harry and Hermione will get together (Soon). There will not be lot of angst in this fic.
2. I don't really like Ron. So he will not play a major role in this fic, either on the good side or on the bad side. He will become a peripheral character
3. Umbridge, well, difficult. Don't know what to do with her, to be honest. Plot ideas welcome
4. Haven't yet decided if Dumbledore is a good guy or bad. Can make arguments for both. Though in this fic, I may go for him as a good guy.
5. Snape - See Point 2.
Finally, few of the ideas about Occlumency and Legilimency are inspired by my other favorite series, Septimus Heap and Eragon. Needless to say, I don't own Harry Potter series, Septimus Heap series or Inheritance Circle. I am not making any profit out of this work. With that over with, let's get to the story.
Chapter 4: Occlumency and Plans
Sirius had lent then two books about Occlumency.
One book was titled "The mind and its Secrets", it was a heavy book. Easily as big as a dictionary. Harry and Hermione as soon as they got the books, went through the index. It contained a lot of theories about how the brain functioned, what exactly goes on in your brain when you remember something etc… etc…, with the last section titled Occlumency in Practice. Hermione wanted to read the full book immediately. But Harry was reluctant, he wanted to start at the last section.
"We can always read this book once we get to know how to practice Occlumency" said Harry.
"But Harry, in my experience, knowing how things work will make it easier for us to master the subject" told Hermione.
"You are right, Hermione. But now we do not have the time to go through this book and learn practical Occlumency at the same time. How about this? We will try to learn Occlumency, but if we get any doubts or if we get stuck on a single step for a long time we will come back to the theory." offered Harry.
"I don't like doing that Harry. Let's see the other book Sirius has given us before coming to a decision" told Hermione.
The second book was titled "Learn Occlumency in 10 Days". It was a thin book hardly 25-30 pages. It was looking like a well used book. As soon as she saw the title Hermione was disappointed.
"Harry, I think this book is useless. All of us know that Occlumency is a really difficult branch of magic to learn, and this book can teach you in 10 days?. I think someone might have written this book as a prank." said Hermione.
Harry was not so sure. He remembered in his other lifetime that Snape wanted to teach him in one hour a week for half term, which if counted will be less than 10 days. And also that Draco Malfoy learnt Occlumency from Bellatrix Lestrange in summer holidays. So may be it was not as difficult as people thought it would be. But he couldn't tell Hermione both of these reasons. So he tried the other tactic.
"May be you are right. But can we just go through the book? It hardly takes half an hour to read it. If after reading you think it is useless, we can start from the other book." told Harry.
Hermione agreed and started at the first chapter, which was titled Theory. It had a very good introduction.
Dear reader, I am glad that you are interested in the mind magic. There are a lot of people in recent times who think that having a wand and shouting a spell is only magic. But there are various magics that are subtle and unseen. It is said that 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic', at the same time, reader, remember that 'Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from reality.'
The best magic is the magic which is unseen and undetected. And at the foremost of such Magics is the magic of Occlumency. I know there are a lot of people who will tell you Occlumency is difficult. Pay no heed. They forget a very important point. Mastering Occlumency is difficult. It takes a lot of practice, effort and perseverance. But learning Occlumency is simple enough.
This is my practical guide to help you learn the basics of Occlumency in 10 days. All the people who try it may not have the same level of success. But if you put your best foot forward, success will be with you.
And remember, a book is a poor substitute for a proper teacher. After reading if you are having trouble following any steps find a person who knows Occlumency to explain you the steps. And any point of time if you develop a piercing headache, which persists, see a healer.
Harry learnt that there were basically 3 steps to successful Occlumency
Putting a shield on his thoughts
Making the shield undetectable
Running false thoughts across the shield, which the author described as decoy thoughts.
After reading the introduction and theory, Hermione was no longer reluctant about the book. It was then that Harry thought, had he done the same thing in his previous sixth year with the Potions book, she may have easily accepted. But past was past. Now they were ready to go to the practical section.
Chapter 2 was titled: Day 1 and 2
The first step in applying Occlumency is to start from an undisturbed mind set. Not only for Occlumency, an undisturbed mindset is useful in many magics. The first two days we will practice getting on to an undisturbed mindset. The first step in doing that is clearing your mind.
Once your mind is clear, focus on an emotion. Various people have various emotions by which they can go to an undisturbed mindset. Many people use boredom, contentment and love. But in theory it is possible to use any emotion as long as that is the only thing you are thinking. It is generally advised to avoid negative emotions such as anger, hate etc...
An undisturbed mindset doesn't mean that there are no thoughts in your brain. It just means that the thoughts are not disturbing you. As such using an all encompassing emotion will reduce stray thoughts and lets you concentrate on the theme of the emotion. Use that emotion to fill your mind.
It was here that Harry and Hermione started having trouble. The first step to start is clearing the mind. And both of them did not know how to do that. Hermione took this opportunity to go through the other book, hoping that Clearing the mind can be learnt from the other book. But unfortunately it was not present in that book either.
Hermione decided to talk to Sirius about going through any other book he has, leaving Harry free. Harry decided to think about some things and plan, before going for dinner.
Harry started thinking about what all he has to accomplish and more importantly, who are his friends, and who are not. There were a lot of things and because he couldn't discuss it with anyone it was more difficult to form a concrete plan.
He knew right at this moment Kreacher was visiting either Bellatrix Lestrange or Narcissa Malfoy, plotting the death of Sirius. He decided to leave that without changing anything there. Better to know what the enemy is up to he thought. But then he thought of Kreacher, how devoted he was to the Black family, thinking about the locket he couldn't destroy. So he decided to force the destruction of the locket.
Harry knew that the locket could be opened by him by talking in Parseltongue. He also knew that he could use the Chamber of secrets to get the Basilisk fang and stab the soul fragment. Harry started to plan on how to make Kreacher reveal the details of the locket, so that he can destroy it. As long as he makes sure, no one other than him knows it is a Horcrux, it will be fine. As a side effect of that, the disastrous trip to the cave can be avoided.
About Umbridge, Harry was at a loss on how to handle it. He would like nothing more than to get rid of Umbridge from Hogwarts few months early. But how it can be done without letting people know about the knowledge he has was a challenge. One thing which he knew was that, Blood Quills were illegal. But with him being painted as an insane nutter there wasn't much hope for complaining and getting it resolved by the ministry. He had to do it in some cunning and roundabout way.
Dumbledore was an enigma. He had lots of power and at least on the outside, working for the good of everyone and against Voldemort. But if Harry objectively started looking at all the decisions taken by Dumbledore, he came out as a manipulative person, who moves people around to get the things he wants. But Harry decided to let Dumbledore be, he was too big to take down at the present time and more than that, if Dumbledore can destroy one Horcrux, all the better.
Thinking about Horcruxes, it seemed very difficult to get the Horcrux in Bellatrix's vault. Last time they were seriously dumb and lucky. Now that Harry knew the protections in place, it seemed like a daunting task.
All said and done, it was time for Dinner. At the dinner table already Hermione and Sirius were present. Hermione with her nose in a book and Sirius in a jolly mood, teasing Hermione. As soon as Harry came, Hermione stopped reading and motioned for him to sit next to her. Harry took that seat. Then Mrs. Weasley called all her four Children to dinner. All of them came. It looked like they were testing some of the twins products. Ron's hair was fluorescent green and Ginny's nose had become larger. Hermione struggled to hold in her laughter. Harry had no such problems, he started guffawing out loud.
"Look at the both of you" said Harry.
"You both will undo that this instant" shouted Mrs. Weasley.
"What makes you think that we are responsible for it?" smirked Fred.
"Do it. Or else " threatened Mrs. Weasley.
"OK. OK. Spoil our fun" grumbled the twins and gave both Ron and Ginny some other candy which made both of them look normal.
"So how come you both eat that candy, knowing it is from Fred and George?" asked Hermione to Ron and Ginny.
"Lost a bet." mumbled Ron.
"Oh.. I have to hear this. What was the bet about?" asked Harry.
"Later Harry. Not in range of Mom's ears" whispered Fred.
By that time Mrs. Weasley served dinner. For some time the only sound was the one of so many people enjoying their dinner. Once everyone has had their fill, conversation slowly returned.
"So how did your Occlumency practice go?" asked Ginny.
"Well, not as well as we expected" answered Harry.
"We did understand the theory, it seems simple enough. But going to the practice part, we have no clue what to do. Sirius here gave two books, I even asked for more, I went through all of them and don't know where to start" complained Hermione.
"Hermione, if only you told me what specifically you were looking for, I would be of more help. Not everything is to be shared with only Harry you know" teased Sirius.
"What do you mean? Anyway, not like its a secret. All the books mention Clearing your mind is the first step to practicing Occlumency. So we were searching about that" told Hermione
"What about it?" asked Fred.
"We want to learn how to clear our mind" told Harry.
"Do you mean you don't know? How do you cast a spell without clearing your mind?" asked George.
"I just cast a spell. Are you telling me all of you know how to clear your minds?" asked Harry.
"Yes Harry. All of us know. I mean everyone does. Its the first thing thought to kids so that the instances of Accidental magic comes down. I was taught by my Dad and Mom when I was about seven years old" answered Ginny.
Now a lot of things started making sense for Harry. Why Snape never tried even to tell him how to clear his mind. Because everyone in the wizarding world thought it was basic knowledge. Its like how in the muggle world, they don't teach you to use power switches. You learn it from a very young age, so no one thinks instructions on it was necessary. But Hermione was horrified.
"Not just clearing the mind, there may be many small things like that which Harry and I would have missed, because I am muggle-born and Harry is muggle raised." said Hermione.
"You didn't attend orientation classes? Asked Sirius.
"There were no orientation classes as far as I am aware" told Harry.
"Every muggle-born student will have orientation classes in the first week of the first year. It has always been like that" told Sirius.
Harry thought that something was fishy here and decide to talk to Dean Thomas as soon as he went back to Hogwarts. If he was suspicious, he would have thought someone was intentionally withholding information from him. And he was suspicious, and he knew that someone was Dumbledore. It made some morbid sort of sense, if Harry was to die, then he need not be very good at things. So no need to teach him much. Somehow he couldn't understand Dumbledore's motivations behind it.
Dumbledore wouldn't have done that, so that Harry could die and Dumbledore could be the Hero. Dumbledore already was a Hero. And Dumbledore died before Harry. But when Dumbledore planned this, he didn't know he would die, was the opposing thought. Harry decided to leave this alone for the time being and concentrate on learning how to clear his mind.
"Anyway what's done is done. Who wants to teach us how to clear our mind?" asked Harry.
"I will do it. Mind you, you will already be doing it at some level, otherwise both of you wouldn't be able to cast spells, so it's more of drawing your attention to it" answered Ron.
"Our Idiot Brother -" started Fred.
"who didn't know his best friends -" continued George
"didn't attend orientation, will teach them" completed Fred.
Ron was Red in the face, without replying to them, just kept glaring at both of them. Harry came to his rescue.
"Drop it guys. He was also in first year with us. He knew only as much as we did" said Harry.
"Much lesser" whispered Hermione. Only Harry was able to hear it and they both dissolved into laughter. No one else understood what brought on the spontaneous laughter. And the dinner table dispersed.
Immediately after Dinner the trio assembled in Ron and Harry's room to learn how to clear their mind.
"Clearing the mind is very simple. It basically means concentrate only on what you want to do. Not on anything else" told Ron.
"I don't understand mate. What do you mean?" asked Harry.
"OK Harry, think you have to cast a spell. Even better, remember the first task of triwizard competition. You did the summoning charm right? What was your thought then?" asked Ron.
"Not getting eaten by the Dragon" answered Harry truthfully.
"No you dumbo. I got what Ron is trying to tell" answered Hermione.
"What? You know what I was thinking better than me?" asked Harry.
"Harry, don't think about the first task as a whole. Think about the summoning charm. What was your thought then? I bet it was 'I want my broom to come here' nothing else in your brain" told Hermione.
Harry just nodded.
"That's what clearing the mind is all about. Just holding one thought in your brain, till you think only of that. Think about it, we do it all the time, only not realizing that we are doing it" beamed Hermione
"If it's so easy why it was not told in any book?" asked Harry.
"Just because it is very easy and obvious. Its very difficult to explain an obvious thing in a book" answered Hermione.
"Don't think it is so easy mate. It is incredibly difficult if you want to clear your mind for a duration which is longer than 1 or 2 seconds. For most of the spells one or two seconds is sufficient. But for advanced spells you have to do it for a longer duration." told Ron.
Harry realized that Ron was right. This was the reason he struggled to get the Patronus charm, he had to concentrate for a long duration on a good memory and he kept getting distracted.
"You are right Ron" told Harry. And Hermione just nodded.
"My lucky day, Hermione is agreeing that I am right" joked Ron.
The three friends spent some time talking about general things. And Harry and Hermione decided to meet up early morning the next day to start their Occlumency practice.
The next day they started Occlumency practice in earnest. Like Ron predicted both Harry and Hermione kept getting distracted, not able to clear their mind. Then Harry got seriously angry with himself and was able to clear his mind for about 5 mins. He told this to Hermione and she was happy. She asked him to go ahead and start focusing on an emotion.
Harry already had a head start because of his previous lifetime. He know the emotion he will have success with was love. He cleared his mind and started thinking about different people who had shown him love in various ways. His parents, by sacrificing their lives. Hermione and Ron by staying with him who lived in a cave just to be close to him. Dobby the devoted house-elf who died for him in the previous lifetime, and things like that.
Harry did not realize that he was able to hold the emotion for a complete two hours without breaking concentration. Then a sound pulled him out of the zone. It was Ron.
"Mate, Breakfast is ready. Mom is calling you" he told.
Harry and Hermione started going down. Hermione told him that, it was great he was able to progress so much the first time itself. But Hermione did not yet get a clear grasp on clearing her mind.
"I thought you would be jealous that I am learning something faster than you" told Harry.
"No Harry. I am not jealous. I am happy, you need this more than me. And according to me if you apply yourself in classes like you are applying yourself now, then you can learn all subjects faster. You have that capability. You are just lazy" she told in a mild tone.
"I will work hard Hermione. I promise" said Harry.
After that day, by using the book, Harry was able to learn Occlumency. No one had tested his shields. But going by the effects described in the book, he had completed the first two steps successfully. Hermione was still perfecting her shield. Harry had created a shield and made it undetectable. He went through the last chapter of the book.
Chapter 6: Day 10
Dear Reader, if you have followed all that I have told you, by now you have created a mental shield and made it invisible. Although the more skilled Legilimens can still detect it. You will get better at it by practice.
Now coming to the Decoy thoughts, if a person looks into your mind and sees that there are no thoughts, it is completely blank, immediately they will suspect a shield and try to break it down. Believe me it will be painful. The decoy thoughts are there to help in this case. You create some thoughts which will be seen by the person who enters your mind.
There are unlimited number of thoughts you can create. And nothing is wrong, but remember, the more outlandish your thoughts are, the more easy it will be for the Legilimens to detect you have a shield and these are decoy thoughts. So the suggestion is to create thoughts that are mundane or situational. Mundane as in reading a newspaper article or some interesting Quidditch stats. Or one more way is to have a situational thoughts. If the person who is entering your mind is in position of authority, creating a thought about the amount of respect or awe you have for them will most likely stop them from probing deeper, as that is the thought which is expected at such time.
Harry now started working on creating a set of Decoy thoughts. Sitting in the Common room and lazing around, doing a boring essay, flying on his firebot were some of the thoughts which he tried to project above his shield. He didn't know how successful he was. But he felt great.
Then, on the very last day of the holidays, as he knew it would happen, Snape came to visit him to talk about his lessons. Mrs. Weasley informed him that Professor Snape was waiting in the kitchen and Harry went to meet him there.
He pushed open the kitchen door a minute or two later to find Sirius and Snape both seated at the long kitchen table, glaring in opposite directions. The silence between them was heavy with mutual dislike. A letter lay open on the table in front of Sirius.
"Hello," said Harry to announce his presence.
Snape looked around at him, his face framed between curtains of greasy black hair. "Sit down, Potter."
"You know," said Sirius loudly, leaning back on his rear chair legs and speaking to the ceiling, "I think I'd prefer it if you didn't give orders here, Snape. It's my house, you see."
An ugly flush suffused Snape's pallid face. Harry sat down in a chair beside Sirius, facing Snape across the table.
"I was supposed to see you alone, Potter," said Snape, the familiar sneer curling his mouth, "but Black —"
"I'm his godfather," said Sirius, louder than ever.
"It's OK Sirius, he is my Professor. I will talk to him and let you know what is happening" told Harry calmly.
"Are you sure?" asked Sirius.
"I am." told Harry. And Sirius left the kitchen.
"That was unexpected, Potter" said Snape.
Harry decided not to raise to the bait and answered "You wanted to see me Professor"
"The headmaster has sent me to tell you, Potter, that it is his wish for you to study Occlumency this term." said Snape
"It is OK Professor, I have already started learning it." answered Harry.
"How?" asked Snape.
"Hermione and I got some books from Sirius and started practicing." answered truthfully.
"You foolish boy, you can't learn an subtle art like Occlumency with a book" sneered Snape.
This was the opportunity Harry was waiting for. "Why don't you test me sir?" he asked.
"I will. Call Miss. Granger and Black also, so that they can understand how useless it is to learn such things by book" said Snape.
Harry was confident on the outside, as according to the book he had learnt and he had practiced it day and night. But he was very tensed also. He knew how skilled Snape was, he hoped even if Snape breaches his defense, having Sirius there will not let him look too deep into memories.
Harry pulled Hermione and Sirius to the kitchen. Snape was there waiting.
"Black, as per your God son's request I am going to test his Occlumency shields. I will tell out loud whatever I see in his mind, so that, there is no doubt for anyone in this room that, additional classes are required" told Snape in a silky voice.
Sirius looked at Harry and Harry nodded.
"I accept Snape. But I warn you, no need to dig into embarrassing memories." said Sirius loudly.
"Whenever you are ready Potter" said Snape.
Harry took a few moments to become calm, put a shield, make it invisible and have a decoy thought of writing an essay in the common room, looked at Snape and nodded.
"Legilimens", Snape casted the spell and started talking.
"Potter I can see that you are thinking about writing an essay, I expected it from Miss Granger, not from you. Let me go a bit deeper. Wait a second, this is not a real memory, it's a decoy thought" and broke the connection.
"Well, Potter, Miracles do happen. Looks like you have learnt something on your own. I couldn't even detect that you had a shield." told Snape.
Harry was very Happy. "How did you know it was a decoy thought professor?" asked Harry.
Snape was about to give a rude reply, thought better of it and then told, "Think Potter, is it possible that if it's a common room, it is empty and you are the only person there and you are doing homework? And all the portraits were not present. I was able to catch it because I know the common room atmosphere, other people might have missed. But take care to have your decoy thoughts as close to reality as possible" said Snape.
"Yes Professor, Thank you." answered Harry.
"I will tell the Headmaster that your shield is sufficient and I need not spend extra hours teaching you. But be aware Potter, I will be testing your shields now and then. Practice and you will not have any problem with me" said Snape and left his black traveling cloak billowing behind him.
As soon as Snape left, Hermione hugged Harry hard and told "See Harry, I told you it was possible". Harry felt more happy about Hermione's embrace compared to learning Occlumency.
A/N: That's it from me today. Next Chapter, talk with Kreacher and possibly destruction of one Horcrux.