Here's the next chapter. Please read and review thanks love Hannah x
Vernon came home from work angrier then Petunia had seen him in a while. Why the hell was his workplace full of such smarmy assholes only out to anger him or indeed make a fool of him. He stormed into kitchen throwing his briefcase into the corner of the room where he then spotted Harry cooking himself some dinner upon turning around.
"Boy! Here I have a gift for you. Some smart arse at work thought I would need it although I have no idea why. I guess he was lucky I didn't punch his face in. Might not be so damn lucky tomorrow. I don't know who the fuck he thinks he is or where the fuck he thinks he gets off giving me fucking books. I'm going out to the pub for a stiff drink and when I come back I think I'll have a long well deserved soak!" he said angrily sliding a book across the table to Harry who read the title his eyebrows raising in surprise. Meditation and how to succeed at life by Anthony Goldman.
"Ugh thank you Vernon. I will be sure to read everything in this book" he said shocked at his uncles sudden bout of kindness.
"Burn it for all I care just get it the fuck away from me!" he snapped and left. While he ate his dinner of a delicious Mediterranean pasta bake he opened the book and began to read it.
Welcome to Meditation and how to succeed at life. In this book I will teach you why meditation is most important for success at life. In life we will encounter many situations which will cause us much stress. Our objective is to look at the situation from a calmer prospective so we can best see how to deal with it. Meditation helps us to do just this. Do we get angry at the person who has caused us such stress? Do we kill them with kindness? How do we present ourselves to the world? Just how do people see you or more importantly how do you see yourself? Now then lets try an exercise.
Close your eyes breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. Keep doing this until you feel like you have found your centre. The point of meditation is not to clear your mind but it is to be mindful of all the thoughts which come and go and let them merely glide past you inside your head. Imagine your brain as an object to which you relate inside which you store your thoughts and ideas. How does it look? Is it friendly? Is it opposing? Is it neat and tidy or is it a hot mess?
Imagine for a crazy moment that somehow magic existed and someone could look inside your head what would they see? Would they see your thoughts you would rather they did not or would those thoughts remain hidden? Now as we all know magic is not real but these thoughts are very real indeed. How we feel when experiencing thoughts can be very much written all over our faces. What type of mind do you have? Is it peaceful and serene or is it crazy like a traffic jam in the morning? Do you have a good memory or is your memory poor? Meditation will help you to control your inner and outer emotions and to mask your face where necessary…..
Harry continued reading on for a while and was amazed at how much he could already tell this book was going to help him out. Now he was delighted his uncle had given it to him. After he'd washed up he went upstairs and touched on the side of his trunk being transported into it's bedroom where he continued to read the book. In actuality he found it so interesting he simply couldn't put it down. Eight hours later mentally and physically exhausted he had finished reading the large book. He fell asleep as he began to dream. Already his mind was calmer. It was nowhere near where it needed to be but was at least calmer.
When he awoke he realised he truly had been tired as he'd slept for twenty four hours however he truly had needed the sleep so he wasn't complaining. Now that his mind was calmer he found that he could at least look at it and see what it did look like. He could see it was scattered everywhere almost like a bomb had gone off in his head. Images were scattered everywhere and there was no order to his mind. You could see everything if you only looked and this wasn't good enough or nearly good enough. The book had said he should pick something he liked to organise his mind. Initially he thought of a library but then realised that this seriously wasn't him. He did actually seriously enjoy cooking although when he was younger he'd been forced to do it. It had become therapeutic for him and always helped to calm his mind somewhat.
He started to picture a kitchen which was elaborate and made of various cabinets. He had focused a lot of his attention on a double door pantry which was lined along the inside of the door with shelves for spice bottles to go. He had decided to place his everyday memories in there. It would be the most easily accessed. Then he thought about the images he didn't wish people to see and there were some. Where could he put those? What would be a good place in a kitchen to store some memories you didn't wish someone to see. He thought about something that would most alarm someone if they saw it and then it came to him. Imagining a washing machine in the corner by the sink he forced all of his memories in there and made it spin like it was on an aggressive spin cycle. As he watched those memories spin for a while he looked on the kitchen table where the rest of his messy memories were and thought it would take him ages to sort through them. I guess this is the payback for having an unorganised mind. Who knows with this my grades may even improve he thought smiling to himself as he decided to leave it for now.
No one in the magical world would understand how a washing machine worked and would be too afraid to access those memories should they try. He however firmly believed that this was not enough. He wished to put some memories somewhere you'd just never think to look such as in the lining of some curtains. He'd need to think about that. No one would ever think to look there and this is what would make it so impressive. Yes he was almost sure by now that Hermione had a mindscape of her own probably decked out like a library complete with her own restricted section. He wasn't wrong she did however she had naturally done this her whole life. She would never know it was actually called Occlumency the very thing the order was currently discussing.
"Severus I think you and I both know that Harry getting these dreams is only the start of the madness to come. I think once school resumes it is imperative that he learns about Occlumency from you. You are a master at it after all. What do you say will you help him?" Dumbledore asked everyone waited for Snape's reply.
"Yes Headmaster I will help him if he does the exercises I assign him and doesn't complain or give me cheek for no good reason. Me being there is not a reason either before anyone thinks to say otherwise!" he said as everyone gasped.
"Yes alright well Severus tread lightly ok because we don't truly know what will be in that boys head. Actually it could be anything so just prepare. He's a teenage boy so I imagine there might even be some things of a slightly scandalous nature in there. I was young once. I can appreciate the beauty of a woman's body you know!" he said as everyone there but Snape chuckled. He fumed internally. He sure hoped he didn't see anything like that in there. Days had since past and Harry had spent all of his time working on his mindscape. His pile of messy memories was a lot less then it has been. He had placed them everywhere. In some paintings and lining of curtains. He had even managed to get a radio which sat on the windowsill to flash with the flash of a camera while his voice would call out reducto. It was designed to scare anyone who would try to look into his mind without permission.
Thinking of how frightening Neville had found Professor Snape gave him an idea. He had created Snape in his mindscape who would move from the ingredients cabinet to the stove whilst complaining about dunderheads being the bane of his life. If you got too close to him he would smack you across the head with a frying pan. Then he would appear to spit vitriol and insults at everyone about how they strutted around the place like arrogant pillocks like they owned it. If anyone had attempted to go near the washing machine it would now spark and drawers at either side of it would open and start firing kitchen knives at the person who was trying to intrude. In the end it had taken him weeks but he was done at long last and was so proud. He then continued with his homework shocked at how much more he now retained. It would be a very different Harry which returned to school in a few weeks.