In the dead of the night, occasionally, a chilly wind whistled through the forest. After a while, everything fell silent. The winter was bitterly cold, and the entire wilderness slept soundly, covered with a thick blanket of darkness and mist. Suddenly, the silence was marred by a distant sound of boots clanking against a stony path.
The lone traveller buried his nose in his warm woollen muffler but continued a steady stride.
Out in the distance stood, tall and silent, a massive bastion. The traveller stopped a few yards from it and waited as if deliberating his next step. After a few moments, he walked steadily on. Large concrete walls surrounded the fortress. The sole entrance gate showed signs of abandonment. It creaked unpleasantly as the traveller pushed it open and made his way towards the entrance of the building. He knocked on it.
Once...twice… thrice.
There was no answer.
The man waited patiently. His face was expressionless, but his anticipation was betrayed by gleaming blue eyes behind half-moon glasses.
The large door finally opened and a strange hooded creature with an elf-like face stepped out. He shone the dim light of his ancient oil lamp into the stranger's face.
"Who are you?" The creature demanded curtly.
"Dumbledore." The man replied and held out his wand as authentication.
The prison guard stared at him for some time. Even in the faint yellow of the lamp, his eyes bore no signs of recognition or comprehension. But he let the visitor in, anyway.
"No one is here." He said just as Dumbledore made his way up the creaky staircase, "We're a prison no more."
As Dumbledore walked towards the sole occupied prison cell, he could not help but despair at the situation. The Great Prison was built by Germanic wizards to torture their opponents. At the height of their Reich their magical leader's reign of terror, the dark wizard was a force to reckon with. Little would he have known then that he would spend the rest of his life locked up in that very prison.
The door groaned open. Dumbledore held up his dimly lit lamp. Its light spread in the dingy room like the warm kiss of the spring on a cold and barren winter land. The lone occupant was a skeletal old man crouched in a corner. The Headmaster was overwhelmed with conflicting emotions. The once strapping young man, Dumbledore fell in love with, was now reduced to a helpless old prisoner.
"Albus," The voice was frail and yet unwavering. "You surprise me."
Dumbledore smiled a twinkly smile and moved to sit on the grimy prison floor, beside the man. He looked into his eyes and expressed the urgency of his arrival with a Legilimency probe, conveying what words never could.
**Break**
It had taken much deliberation, but Snape eventually decided to forgo punishing the Boy-Who-Lived, spawn of his most hated nemesis, the Slytherins should have known better than to underestimate a young pupil, regardless of disability.
Still, the headmaster had to be informed of what had transpired in the snake pit, especially with all things concerning Potter.
And tell him he did but by going one step forward, he showed him.
Mind practitioners could share memories with sight alone after all.
**Break**
Brutal, unyielding but certainly with restraint.
Dumbledore sat at his large polished oak desk in the headmaster's office and stared at a collection of parchments clutched in his hands. Harry Potter was certainly trained in muggle self-defence.
His potions master had an accord with certain unprotected members of Slytherin house, their defenceless minds lay bare to his Legilimency probes, he had been able to see all that had happened in the Slytherin common room and what he had pieced together was a boy not used to being the aggressor.
Three points in particular stood out as high emotional moments in the minds of the few students Snape had explored and shared with him. The first was shock at Mr. Potters speed, he had managed to cut the distance between himself and his aggressors in the blink of an eye. That was something to think about. The second was surprise turning slowly to fear and awe when for a very brief second, pale emerald eyes had flickered to red. No matter how many times he had paused the memory, it was as if the red hue could not be perceived by human or magical sight. And the third had been sheer terror when the first year had tortured the upperclassman into submission. One moment they had been arrogant in gait, in the other, it had been as if they'd experienced their own fears and were found lacking.
He had pondered into the night, sending discreet signals to his associates in the muggle world, Petunia had been the model guardian, treating the young ward he had placed on her doorstep with exemplary care, sparing him from the woes that plagued a young Tom Riddle's childhood at the orphanage. Interesting.
He would have to get the measure of the boy before he was confronted by his childhood love. Harry Potter would have his confidence, at the moment the boy had done nothing to warrant the opposite and should anything untoward happen to him, Gellert Grindelwald was powerful, amoral, ruthless and protective – the perfect shield and mentor for a young boy, marked as his equal, to be raised into a survivor.
He would have to keep close attention to the danger of influence posed by the Slytherin mentality, especially with Tom in the castle.
He had outgrown his misconceptions of labelling people as 'light' or 'dark,' it was a simple eat or be eaten world.
The memory swirled in the depths of his runic basin, the light blue motes reflecting in his half-moon glasses. Harry James Potter was shaping up to be a big shark in the proverbial pond, ready to eat the other small fish.
**Break**
Harry woke up on Friday of the first week of school to find himself drenched in sweat. It was a good kind of sweat though. Introspective illusions from his Sharingan were a boast to his training until he could find a place to properly let loose or be given the opportunity to venture into that so-called forbidden forest.
He swung his legs off the bed, slipped on his slippers, and padded over to the bathroom. A few minutes of rinsing off later, he brushed up, left the bathroom, and slipped on his workout clothes, the weather was perfect for him to take advantage of with the cold Scottish temperatures keeping students away from the Black lake.
On the other side of the room, Malfoy snorted in his sleep and turned over.
Ever since his takedown of the upperclassmen, Slytherin house in its entirety was giving him a wide berth, his dominating impression cementing an aura of uncertainty and cautious behaviour from the snakes.
It didn't hurt that at regular intervals he had taken to fuelling their doubt with his Sharingan, the last thing he wanted was attention enough to cause distractions.
Harry finished pulling on his trainers, and, with one last glance at the Malfoy heir, left the Slytherin first year's dorms.
**Break**
After exercising, showering properly, changing, and strolling down to breakfast, Harry sat in the middle of the Slytherin table and ploughed through a large stack of eggs, bacon, potatoes, and assorted vegetables. He finished off his pile of organic fuel and muscle building material with a bowl of mixed oats, fruit, nuts and seeds — something he'd never seen at breakfast before, but which tasted quite nice.
All around him, empty chairs loudly proclaimed his status as an outsider, neither wanted nor needed. The people nearest him occasionally shot dirty looks and glares, mixed with trepidation, to which he responded by ignoring them.
A crack at his side denoted the arrival of a Hogwarts house-elf. "Headmaster Dumbledore would like to see you after breakfast has concluded." With its message said, it left as quick as it came.
Students close to him broke out into hush whispers, Dumbledore's name was like a shot of adrenaline for most people, Harry had noticed. In Slytherin house, it was a name that inspired fear and anger. For the rest of the wizarding world, it aroused focus and admiration. Dumbledore was a real-life larger-than-life figure, but he managed to keep any of that from showing when addressing the school.
From his peripheral he noticed Snape getting up to escort him. I wonder what he wants.
**Break**
Harry sat across from the headmaster lost in thought as the words washed over him, his previous assumption that the so-called Dark Lord was only just alive had been an accurate analysis.
"Voldemort is still alive?"
Dumbledore sat in the small throne behind his desk in the headmaster's office. His many trinkets blipped and bobbed and occasionally one would let out a little hiss of steam or plop of dripping water. He took a moment to centre himself before he spoke, "in a manner of speaking, yes."
Murky eyes surveyed the wizened man, there was more that was being kept from him, subtle but the tell was there, nonetheless.
"Before I can divulge more Harry, I would like to make a formal request for you learn the branch of magic most archaically referred to as Occlumency."
Even the word sounded foreign, magic was surely the diametric opposite of chakra, both sources of power were capable of extraordinary things but varied utterly in scope. "What is Occlumency, headmaster?"
"Occlumency is the defence of the mind against external magical penetration. An obscure branch of magic, it is the art of protecting one's mind from being read by a Legilimens. It clouds, or rather occludes, the mind so one cannot easily read thoughts, memories, or emotions."
Harry's mind raced with the speed of his once former intelligence as a ninja. Similar to clan Yamanaka's mind related techniques… No, this magic could be different to the chakra variant, it would be very dangerous if his mind was read, especially if his chakra defences did nothing to repel the intrusion.
He managed to suffuse the right amount of trepidation in his voice, "people can read my mind…? Can you?"
"I have never actively scanned you, or any other students, nor would I do so without permission. Active scans fall in the category of any other sort of magical assault, so those are illegal. Though I would avoid the active scans anyway, regardless of legality."
"Because they're an invasion of privacy?"
Dumbledore looked at him over his half-moon glasses and smiled a grandfatherly smile, "children are rather horrible at lying, and their secrets are rarely worth the effort of invading the privacy of their minds."
"Are there any practical reasons for not reading someone's mind?"
"There is also the risk involved. It is not uncommon for people to have instinctual defences that will detect the attack, which puts the caster in a great deal of possible physical and legal trouble. Even worse, the connection can flow both ways, and the attacked person may end up reading some of the thoughts of the caster. When you have the passive form of Legilimency being completely legal, and the active form capable of leading to legal trouble or being reflected back, it is just not worth performing the active scans on unwilling people… There is the misconception that studying Occlumency bestows shields, that is not the case. If someone wants to break into someone else's mind, they can. A witch's and wizard's capabilities can merely influence what happens from there. Adepts can clear their minds in an instant so that the intruder doesn't learn anything. Experts can feed false information. Masters can trap unsuspecting Legilimens and turn the spell back on the caster. Finally, wizards and witches who are considered Occlumens aren't blank masks. Becoming adept at Occlumency means one has a greater understanding of one's own mind; they're simply more self-aware."
"How is this magic taught?"
The headmaster smiled gently, "Occlumency and Legilimency cannot be taught through books, only practice and experimentation, because everyone's mind is unique. There is no one way to clear your mind or enter someone else's. If you are amendable, I have hired a tutor to teach you Occlumency and the magics surrounding the internal manipulations of one's mind."
Harry nodded, the benefits outweighed the costs, it was essential he preserved his ninja status and the Uchiha bloodline.
A faint outline behind the headmaster waivered, seemingly coalescing into shape, heightening the danger that Harry seemed to feel emanating from the man.
If the headmaster reminded him of Hiruzen Sarutobi than this man reminded him of…
"May I introduce your Occlumency instructor, Gellert Grindelwald."
Danzo Shimura.
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