Fun Fact: This chapter was supposed to be fused with last chapter, but I felt that C24 could have been left on its own. Beware slightly OOC Snape, OOC Riku being weird about FF magic, and well… Ron watching things progress. (Yes Ron redemption is a GO!)
Chapter 25: Mind Diving and Healing Magic
First day back at school and Riku found himself dodging Umbridge's attempts to corner and question him on the reason behind his and the Weasley Clan's early departure. It was expected, but it was annoying.
Second day back and lessons began again, and Riku was again successful at dodging the woman for most of the day.
Evening came around and Riku made his excuses as he left to fulfil his end of his deal. Not that he needed them. Most of Gryffindor had gotten used to Riku sneaking out for extra practice at this point it felt normal. The only one who noticed the teasing smirk on his face when he left was Hermione, and surprisingly, Ron.
"So..." Riku hummed as he took a seat in Snape's office. "How are we doing this?"
The man scowled, "The wolf and Black were right about the method I shall be testing your barriers with. We do not have time for you to take the safe route of meditation, so I shall be forcing my way in via Legilimency and you are to defend."
Riku smirked. After what he saw in his mind during the Ritual of Awakening, as well as the repeated attempts to possess him in the past, Riku was confident that his mental barriers would hold. Now to see if Snape would realise that.
Almost immediately after Severus mentioned he would be forcing his way into Potter's memories via Legilimency, the boy's surface thoughts were immediately silenced.
The thing about Legilimency was that once it was learned, one could passively use it to read the surface thoughts of people. Digging deeper to attack one's mind or memories required the actual casting of the spell.
Severus' eyes narrowed. The boy was quick to slam down on his thoughts. Which was surprising, since he knew Potter's mental barriers had been as empty and useless as air only a year ago. Perhaps it was related to the changes?
"I do have to ask though, Professor, why does Dumbledore want me to learn Occlumency anyways?" Potter asked. "You didn't really explain the need for it..."
'Does Potter not know that he has a mental connection to the Dark Lord?' Severus scowled, remembering one of the reasons Dumbledore had given him to tell Potter if he ever asked. It was a reason, but not the real reason Dumbledore has him teaching Potter Occlumency.
"Unless… this is about that mental connection I had with Voldemort," Potter said casually.
"I see you are aware of that glaring hole in your defences," Severus grit his teeth in annoyance at the boy's nonchalance, but he was wary. The way the boy had worded that reply was… odd. "And do avoid saying the Dark Lord's name. While Dumbledore and some other fools may feel secure saying his name, some of us aren't so lucky."
Potter said nothing in response, which further frustrated Severus. He wouldn't get anything else out of the boy this way. They may as well proceed with the lesson. Taking out his wand Severus glared at the boy as he instructed, "Stand up and take out your wand, Potter. You may use your wand to attempt to disarm me, or defend yourself in any other way you can think of."
Potter had the gal to not obey, but simply stood at ready. Severus muttered, "Confident brat aren't you. Very well then. I'll attempt to break into your mind, and we'll see how well you are able to resist. Brace yourself… Now…Legilimens!"
Severus had expected to easily push through the layer of defence that protected the boy's surface thoughts the moment he cast the spell. Only… he froze when he felt the boy's defences let him in. What was that boy thinking?! However, that train of thought was halted by the lack of blurred images and echoed voices that normally accompanied entering one's mind, and the fact that there were no echoes of the boy's own mind voicing his thoughts.
Instead, Severus was greeted by and empty void of black… then a wave of purple tinted darkness and blue tinted light forcing him out almost immediately… and the barest glimpse of Potter waving at him as he was kicked out.
Severus gasped as he opened his eyes, head pounding from being forcefully ejected from the boy's mind.
"Well Professor?" The boy sounded innocent, as if he hadn't been the one to kick him out.
Severus glared at the teen, and he could see the smug glint in his eyes. He could only growl and mutter, "Passable. But you lowered your defences and let me in too far."
"But you found nothing, didn't you," Potter hummed, "Which means I succeeded in keeping you out of my memories."
Severus stared. The boy had expected him to find nothing. "You lowered those barriers on purpose."
"I guess I did," Potter smirked as he headed towards the door. "Well. I believe I've proven to you my barriers are strong enough. I don't need the lessons, and thus we won't have to deal with each other more than we already have to."
With that, Potter left the room and Severus was left to ponder at what he was supposed to inform both his 'masters' regarding his attempt to glean information from the brat's mind.
Later that night he would return to his abode at Spinner's End and curse as he began to realise that things were moving forward quickly, even without information regarding Potter.
"'Mass breakout from Azkaban. Ministry fears Black is 'rallying point' for old Death Eaters.'," Hermione read aloud the headlines, disbelief and exasperation audible.
Sitting across her reading a copy of the Prophet, Neville looked understandably angry as he glared at the deranged face of Bellatrix Lestrange. Even with Luna's assurance that his parents were on the road to recovery, he still harboured a hatred for the woman who landed them in St Mungo's in the first place.
In fact, most of the hall was in a grim mood, harsh whispers among the students echoing as they discussed the news and speculated what was true and false. In particular, among the members of their secret club, many of them were realising the severity of the situation and finally understanding that the possibility of Potter being right was very high. Mass break outs did not simply happen on a whim, and as much as the Minister tried to deny that the Dark Lord was back and turn the blame on Black, It was increasingly obvious that war was on the horizon.
The only ones who didn't seem affected by the news was Snape, who was mysteriously missing from the head table, Dumbledore, who was understandably unphased by the news, and unnervingly enough… Umbridge, who had vanished from the head table immediately after the news broke, an ominous smile on her face as she left.
The bad news didn't stop piling up that day however. Hagrid ending up on probation was mostly expected after the two confrontational lessons Umbridge had attended. Kagerou was understandably upset for his large friend and voiced his anger by attacking the Acromantula nest again, the dying shrieks of the spiders echoing from the forest in the following lessons and causing students to flinch whenever they approached.
The death of a Ministry employee was but a blip to many of them, Ron's mutters about seeing the man as well as his position as an Unspeakable mostly going unheard to all but Riku and Hermione… Hermione still acting as the exasperated go between for the pair.
(The only good news about that day was the lack of Umbridge OR Snape, both having remained missing for the rest of it.)
The reason for Umbridge's disappearance became apparent with the new decree, much to the annoyance of everyone. This surprisingly included Snape, who had returned and visibly groaned in front of his Snakes when he found the decree on the notice board, tearing it down himself and tossing it into the open flame Slytherin had taken to feeding with the decrees.
(Riku snorted when Xion recounted to him the bizarre occurrence when they met. It was one thing when students hated Umbridge. It becomes something else entirely when even the most disliked teacher in the school openly found Umbridge's attempts annoying and followed his student's actions. Professor Snape may have had a bad reputation and an attitude that reflected it, but he was slowly becoming more bearable in the students' eyes in comparison to Umbridge.)
Their first meeting back was… perhaps an eye opener for many of the students of their little club. Over the break many, including Ron had followed Harry's advice and tried to find ways Light and Dark spells could be used in the opposite manner, and had been suitably mollified when they found that certain basic charms which had very little combat usage could, in theory, be turned lethal in certain ways.
Wingardium Leviosa. A basic levitation spell. With enough power, one could potentially levitate a heavy enough object to knock someone unconscious (or leave them with a severe head wound) or levitate a multitude of sharp objects and let them fall on their target.
Lumos Maxima. An extremely powerful variant of the basic Lumos, but when cast at close range one could use it to blind their enemies.
Avis. Relatively harmless summoning spell, but when combined with Oppungo… In fact, almost any animal summoning spell could be turned lethal with the use of Oppungo.
Then there was the minor surprise from Harry and Hermione when one of the older Muggleborns suggesting the use of the Killing Curse as a means of helping a terminally ill patient die a peaceful and painless death.
There were many more suggestions and speculations on the various spells brought up, the older students taking the time to explain the effects of the spells as taught and the effects they could achieve if they didn't stay within the restriction. It was… oddly satisfying to realise that what Harry said was true. Magic was magic. How one used it depended on its user.
Immediately after their discussion, the Moogle from their Care of Magical Creatures lesson joined them, much to the students surprise and horror, wondering if the creature would tell on them. Then again…
"Harry! Why didn't you tell me that Kagerou was joining us?!" Hermione exclaimed in exasperation.
The critter had ended up being cuddled by Lovegood of all people, unphased by the affection they were getting while Harry replied, "Well, how else am I supposed to teach them White and Black magic? It's not like I have the instruction scrolls available."
"What scrolls?" Hermione scowled, "Didn't you learn those spells from someone? Can't you just teach us without scrolls?!"
"It's not like we had someone to teach us the spells Hermione," Harry muttered, "We typically got them from the Moogles or as gifts."
"Then how do you intend to teach them?!" she cried.
"By giving them the scrolls and having them figure it out themselves, of course," Harry deadpanned, Hermione throwing her hands up in frustration as the conversation circled back to the beginning.
Most of the room was looking amused at the back and forth at this point, barely hiding their snickers, while Ron shook his head in dismay. It tended to be like this. Hermione would have a lesson plan based on whatever Harry said at the end of the previous lesson. Then the next lesson, all would go according to plan, until Harry springs a change that he never informs Hermione about, and the two would bicker while Malfoy and Davis took over in managing them. Tonight was no different.
"While those two hash things out, I guess we may as well explain the spell we'll be learning today," Davis sighed, before taking the sealed scroll handed to her by the Moogle and showing it to the students, "What I have here is a Spell Scroll. Specifically a Spell Scroll that teaches Cure, a Tier 1 Healing Spell, classified as White Magic. It's the least dangerous to learn and is the most useful beginner spell for anyone."
"As for what Spell Scrolls are," Malfoy said as he took over the explanation, "They are scrolls that, when opened for the first time, will automatically teach your body how to cast the spell. However, that does not mean you are able to cast it immediately."
"What does that even mean?" Neville asked in confusion.
"What he means," Harry called out, "Is that you need to practice casting said spell to the point it becomes instinctive!"
"Harry that process is complicated and time wasting !Who the hell came up with that spell system anyways?!" Hermione protested.
Kagerou was the one who answered this time, "We… don't know, kupo? The origins of the spell system has been lost for a long time, and while there has been different methods of learning spells in the past none of them are accessible, kupopo."
Hermione gave a cry of frustration and snatched the Cure scroll from Davis' hand before storming off to a corner. Davis simply shook her head, "Anyways. I'm going to demonstrate how Cure looks like if you've succeeded in casting it."
Raising her hand towards Malfoy, a green glow covered her hands as she muttered, "Cure!"
The flash of green light that accompanied the spell caused everyone to take a cautious step back. Then…
"Wait… why am I smelling herbs?" Neville blinked in surprise. The room turned to look at what happened to Malfoy and were surprised to find that nothing had changed… outside of the green glow having settled over the teen and the scent of herbs suddenly appearing.
"That's it?" Cho Chang asked in confusion. "A green glow and the smell of herbs?"
Malfoy shrugged, "Well, if you want to give yourself a superficial wound to actually test its effects, go ahead. But honestly, those two are the main indicators that you've casted the spell correctly."
"A warning though, Cure is the weakest in the category of Healing spells. There are stronger versions of the spell that have stronger effects, some capable of healing even lethal wounds," Harry explained. "But those do require you to have learned Cure. So hop to it! Malfoy and I already paid Kagerou, so just grab a scroll and group up for practice!"
'That was it?' Ron wondered in confusion as he approached the Moogle for a scroll before joining his brothers in a corner of the room. Sitting down, he broke the seal of the scroll and shivered as what he assumed was a wave of magic went through him, Fred and George (or was it George and Fred?) reacting similarly.
Then, he took a look at the instructions… and scowled.
Raise your hand towards the wound or intended person, visualise the wound healing, and focus your magic to heal.
That… told them nothing!
"By the way, some of you will take a much longer time learning the spell. Aptitude for healing and all that~" Harry grinned as people began protesting about the vague instructions.
Ron was starting to think Harry really enjoyed their suffering. He also wondered where Harry picked up this mean streak… unless he was always like this and hid it well.
Roxas chuckled as the students began grumbling about the instructions, "Throwing them head first into it without any explanation. Just like how we learned."
"Better a healing spell than a damaging one," Riku murmured. While he may have looked amused, his eyes told a different story, "They'll be grateful for this when it saves their lives. That and undead are an enemy to expect from a Dark Lord's arsenal."
"Do you intend on informing them of that little titbit?" Xion asked, watching Neville focus on casting the spell and was successful with channelling the magic first, the green glow visible from his hands before abruptly dying out.
"Hopefully I won't have to," Riku muttered. "Because it would actually mean that war has begun."
"In any case, it may take them a while to master the spell. Should we have a second spell for them to focus on?" Naminé asked, Kagerou having left to observe the students as they practiced.
"Well. I did say we would start on the Patronus soon. Maybe we can alternate between the two?" Riku began contemplating. "That being said I wonder if Cure works on Dementors… maybe I should get a Boggart to test it out on…"
On the whole Light VS Dark spells being used for things OTHER than their actual use, I only picked out a small few because… well, there would have been way too may spells to cover. Levitation spell was an obvious choice and so was Lumos. Avis and Oppungo were both demonstrated in canon. And I am not the only one who realised the insta-death spell had other uses. Heck I remember quite clearly another fic used the same example I'm using right now.
Off the top of my head, Sectumsempra can be used in amputations, or even cutting down large immovable objects. Imperio, as hated as it is in universe could be used to bring in the criminals before they could cause more trouble and them release them from it during trail (AKA this is in all technicality Hitoshi Shinsou's ability you can't tell me it isn't!).
There are many examples of harmless turned lethal spells that technically don't fit into the duelling category like Protego or Expelliarmus. (Heck Protego can turn lethal if you are able to inverse the shield on your enemies and they'll be bouncing spells back at themselves at close range.)
Outside of that little issue that I personally found annoying, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Next chapter is yet another Observers Chapter, which I will release… in about a week or two. So look forward to that! As always, leave a review before you go!
Kiri Kaitou Clover