Over the coming days, Harry continued trying to make contact with his soul. Every attempt after the first one had the same result, Harry undergoing the same pain if he tried touching it.

Early on, he asked Dumbledore why he encountered the pain. In response, he got a smile and was informed that everyone had those defense which varied on the strength of one's natural occlumency.

Harry was currently on attempt #7 and was expecting another failure. He easily reached his soul once more and reaching out to touch it again when he stopped himself.

The soul defense (as Harry called the protections around his soul) was a part of him. It was inside him and his mind as a part of his natural occlumency. So it was under his jurisdiction.

Natural occlumency in Magical Britain was very misunderstood. People took it as meaning that people were just naturally talented at occlumency with no real work needed for them. While some of that was true, the majority was false. Natural occlumency simply provided the foundations for one to create occlumency barriers. Someone who was a natural could withstand minor attacks like a probe with no training, but when faced with a full assault on their mind, they'd lose quickly. Most natural occlumens train their mind so that the natural barriers are reinforced. To do this, one needed to control every shield in their mind, even the natural ones.

And Harry had that control. Dumbledore made it a priority to teach Harry to control every shield he had. He believed that you should never rely on natural talent as "hard work beats natural talent every time."

So Harry had the control over his shields. And if he counted the soul defense as part of his shields, then he controlled it. Harry was doubtful on whether he could control something that he just learned the existence of, however, he had no better options.

He calmed his mind and lowered every shield in there. It left him wide open to any kind of legilimency attack but he was pretty sure that no one would be assaulting his mind at that very second.

Once Harry sensed that his barriers were done, he reached out and touched his soul. And instead of feeling excruciating pain, he felt the complete oppsosite.

Harry can remember his happiest memory with ease. After all, it's the one which initially fueled his Patronus. It was the day he mastered his animagus transformation. He turned from a human into a complete amarok and looked at Albus.

His surrogate father's eyes were beaming with untold amounts of pride. Of course, Albus never told Harry that he was proud. He just congratulated the boy on his transformation. However, Harry knew that he was proud of Harry.

The feeling that he got now, it mirrored that. Harry felt just like he did when he saw the pride in Dumbledore. He felt a sense of euphoria, like he was on top of the world and nothing could ever bring him down.

Then, Harry saw a barrage of images from his life. He saw Dumbledore taking him away. He saw the incident regarding his mastered transformation. He saw himself training with Dumbledore by his side. He saw the first time he met Neville.

But, the less desirable memories appeared. He saw his parents forgetting to cook him food. He saw the day when his parents forgot it was his birthday. He saw the day when Noah took credit for his magic. He saw them discussing sending him away to his relatives.

Finally, after the slideshow of memories ceased and Harry was left in a white room. Around the room were paintings. Upon further examination, Harry discovered that they depicted some scene in his life, many of them he just witnessed. After exploring the room for a bit, he found that the paintings were the only things interesting regarding the room. Harry then left his mind and returned to reality.

Striding towards his desk, Harry began his next journal entry "On Day 7, I made considerable progress in my exploration regarding the soul. I found that I could remove the soul defense as it is part of my own defenses. After removing the defense, I made contact with my soul and was not overcome with pain. Instead, I experienced a sense of happiness before watching my memories. Afterwards, I found myself in a room filled with paintings. Each painting showed a moment of my life which had some importance. Now that contact has been successfully made, I will look into the magic that I can now wield."

Comfortable with his work so far, he decided to work in the library. It wasn't as amazing as their library back home but it would make do. Harry wanted to see if they had any books on soul magic or souls in general before he asked Albus for the books.

He speed-walked into the library and asked the librarian, Madam Pince, whether they had any books. She informed him that they had a few books, mostly for older students who needed to reference it in Divination.

Grabbing a few texts, he sat himself down at a table and began reading. Harry zoned out everyone else until he heard a voice telling him "Hi Harry."

"Hey Padma" Harry smiled at the Indian girl until he saw her visibly downtrodden demeanor. His smile quickly turned into a concerned frown "You okay?"

"Our DADA class is pointless" Padma growled "Professor Umbridge refuses to let us practice any magic. According to her, we should run and contact the authorities if we ever are in danger."

Harry grimaced "That's tough."

"I tried to convince my parents to spring for a tutor but they wouldn't go for it. They claim that Dumbledore wouldn't hire a teacher who's that bad" Padma added, sighing sadly.

After looking around to see if anyone was hiding, Harry lowered his voice and said "He didn't really want to. Dumbledore was forced by the Ministry since he couldn't find a teacher. Until Umbridge does something which results in her termination, she's here to stay."

"Can you help me study then?" Padma asked "You're not under her control."

Harry grinned "Sure. Can I see your textbook?"

As Padma gave her friend the textbook, their table was stumbled upon by Harry's younger brother "Harry!"

"Shhhhhh" Madam Pince told the boys, shooting them a deadly glare.

Noah's face briefly turned worried until it settled. He was about to say something then noticed that his brother had company "Oh. Um, you're Parvati's sister right? Padma? I'm Noah, Harry's brother."

If Padma was surprised about this reveal, she didn't show it. Noah didn't pay any attention to her reaction as he continued "I wasn't interrupting anything, right?"

"No" Harry shook his head "What's up?"

"I was wondering if you could help me out with my Charms. It's a 12-inch essay explaining how Colovaria can change the color of an object" Noah explained.

"Read over your textbook. There should be something in there regarding that. If you're still stuck, then we'll talk some more" Harry told his brother. He got a nod in response and was about to leave when Hermione joined their group "Why aren't you working on your Charms essay?"

"I was-" Noah began before Hermione cut him off "Do you need help again? Of course you do. Come with me, I'll help you with it."

She then left, taking Noah with her. Before he was taken away, the boy sent them a grateful glance.

"You're Noah's brother?" Padma asked in shock.

"Yeah" Harry said. He had nothing more on the matter until he noticed that Padma was waiting for him to continue "I was raised elsewhere since Noah needed special training due to his special status."

"Oh" Padma said, surprised at what the Potters had done to one of their own. She had more questions, but managed to curb his curious nature as she felt like it may be rude to ask.

The rest of their study session was spent discussing Defense and Padma's classes. The topic of Harry's home life was never brought up.

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