CHAPTER 19: Legilimency
The next day came and Harry woke up to a dreary, overcast sky. He walked down to breakfast alone and started eating. He looked around and saw that their were very few people in the great hall, it must've been much earlier than he had thought.
"Harry, I was planning on telling you this via owl post, but it seems that we are, at the time being, alone." Dumbledore said, taking a seat across from Harry. Harry looked intently at the old Headmaster. "I have decided you should continue to learn Occlumency, but I believe it prudent for you to also begin legilimency." Harry groaned at the thought of twice the Snape. "I will be teaching you myself, Harry."
"In that case, Professor, I think it's a great idea." Dumbledore smiled knowingly.
"I have also spoken to Professor McGonagall about your excellent transformation to capture Pettigrew, and she has agreed that your lessons need not continue." Harry nodded. "However, I've spoken with a few friends at the Ministry and they have granted you permission to begin learning how to apparate, once I deem you worthy they will allow you to take the test as well."
"How will we do that? We can't apparate inside Hogwarts." Harry asked curiously.
"Well, we will just have to find somewhere else, won't we?" Dumbledore turned to walk away.
"Wait, Professor, I never heard anything about the second raid on Malfoy Manner. What happened?"
"Nothing as of yet, Harry. It takes time for the ministry to set up and conduct these raids, it will not happen until the end of this week." Harry nodded as Dumbledore left.
Harry walked into the Defense classroom a few minutes earlier than anyone else and was surprised to see that there were no desks or chairs in the room.
"Mornin', Harry." The Scot said as he entered the room just behind the confused teen.
"Good morning, Professor McClaggan. Er-What's going on here?" McClaggan smiled.
"Dueling tournament. I'll explain when everyone else arrives."
Harry didn't have to wait long as student began to file in, looking around the room to find somewhere to sit. They saw Harry standing by the far wall and decided that was as good a place as any.
"In a few days time we will be starting a dueling tournament, I have moved all of the desks to demonstrate. Headmaster, would you please join me?" Heads turned to see Albus Dumbledore stride into the room and step gradefully onto the platform that had suddenly sprung from the gorund.
"All spells are legal with the exception of the unforgiveables and any other spells that will cause undue harm. I understand that you were showed how to duel briefly by Gilderoy Lockhart, so I will do my best to teach rectify his mistakes. First of all, you need not stand in one place and fire spells back and forth, you can go wherever you'd like, but be warned you will not be able to get outside the protective wards around the platform. Secondly, remember that offensive and defensive spells are not the only spells. You can conjure things to use or transfigure, or you can attempt to transfigure yourself. With this in mind, pay careful attention to this sample duel."
The two professors bowed to one another and started firing spell at one another. Harry felt like he would need his omnioculars to keep up with the fast pace of the duel. He was surprised to see how well McClaggan was keeping up with Dumbledore, both teachers were using an extraordinary amount of power to try to disarm or incapacitate his opponent. After quite a while of trading spells McClaggan got a spell through Dumbledore's defenses, but just before it hit, the old wizard spun and vanished, reappearing an instant later behind the Scot. Dumbledore had the tip of his wand pressed gently into the back of McClaggan's neck.
"Soumettus" He whispered, McClaggan seemed to stiffen, trying to fight the spell, but after a few moments his body went limp and his wand cluttered to the floor. "Finite Incantatem." Dumbledore whispered, allowing the defense professor to spring back to life.
"What is it with you and beating me with that spell?" The Scot asked with a smile, Dumbledore's beard twitched. The Highlander addressed the awed crowd of students. "Now you see how it is done, class dismissed."
As Harry turned to leave Dumbledore and McClaggan caught his eye. "Harry, I would like to start teaching you more about wandless magic, Dumbledore tells me you don't have class right now, so would you stay behind?"
"Er…Yea, sure Professor."
"Great, now Harry, I know you'd like to start firing offensive spells with your hand, but I'm afraid it doesn't work that way. Unless your emotions and adrenaline are running high, I doubt that you'd be able to do much of anything. You must learn how to control your power so you can use it whenever you want. In essence we are going to have to ease you away from casting spells in a conventional way; the first step is to take away the incantation." Harry nodded, he had seen Dumbledore and Voldemort duel without saying anything, but the only other person he had ever seen do this was Dolohov when he hit Hermione at the Department of Mysteries.
"Won't that reduce the power of the spell?"
"At first, yes it will. However as you learn to control yourself the power will come back. Once you have regained this power we can start working on wandless magic. However, I doubt it will take long for you to master using spells without the incantations simply because you already show an affinity for wandless magic." Harry was slightly confused but figured he'd give it a shot. "Point your wand at that chair in the corner, think just like you would when using the redactor curse, but do not say the incantation, simply yell it as loud as you can in your own head."
Harry stared at the chair intently, he pursed his lips and pictured himself yelling "REDUCTO." A jet of light shot out of Harry's wand and struck the chair, the chair was blown apart, but rather large chunks of it were left.
"Excellent, Harry! You're closer than I thought. By the start of the dueling tournament you should have this down to perfection."
Harry walked out of the Defense classroom that night trying to muster his remaining strength to get through his occlumency and legilimency training. He walked up to the gargoyle statues outside Dumbeldore's office, but the jumped aside at the sight of him. Harry ascended the spiral staircase and knocked on the gold griffin knockers.
"Come in." Harry entered the room and Dumbledore smiled at him. "Now Harry, I just changed my password to something you could not possibly have guessed, so would you please tell me how you keep getting into my office?"
"You mean you didn't tell the statues to let me in? I haven't used a password all year, I know you told me that it was Voldemort but the gargoyles always got out of my way before I could say it." Dumbledore looked at him with interest.
"This is an interesting development." He said simply. "Now Harry, I think we should begin with Legilimency, it will aide you with creating a picture to finish your occlumency." Harry nodded. "Did Professor Snape ever explain to you the theory of legilimency?"
"He said that it was like peeling back layers of the mind or something."
"Yes, that is part of it. An accomplished Legilimens can put their thoughts so far back in their brain that nobody can reach them, he can then place a picture of his choosing in the outer layers. A legilimens must peel back these layers. He must be able to sort through the visions in each layer and make sense of it all." Dumbledore paused. "Perhaps I should clarify. This is not like peeling the layers of an onion, you cannot simply strip a layer off of the brain. The trick to legilimency is to find or create cracks in the mind's defenses and slip through them. On the other hand an occlumens must strengthen them. Do you understand so far?" Harry nodded. "Good. Now in the beginning, you will need a wand and an incantation to perform legilimency because you will not be able to form a strong enough link to the subject. After some time you will learn how to do this and you will be able to do this simply by looking through their eyes. Are you ready to try?"
"Yes, sir." Harry said lifting his wand. Dumbledore put his hand up.
"I assume you know the incantation, but please give me a minute to think of something for you to see. I don't want to make it too difficult on you just yet. You need to take small steps."
"Why don't you think of your duel with Professor McClaggan?" Harry suggested. "I wouldn't mind seeing a replay of that." Dumbledore smiled.
"Legilimens!" Harry saw flashes of the duel go by his eyes, he tried to make sense of it, but the images were just coming too fast. He wished they would just slow down. As soon as he thought this, the images slowed down, Harry was no longer looking at single images, but a movie like sequence playing at normal speed. Suddenly the movie changed, but Dumbledore and McClaggan were still dueling. They were in a forest, Harry could see Dumbledore's eyes blazing.
"You cannot win, Prince!" McClaggan laughed at the old man.
"Yes I can, Albus. I've been told how powerful you are, but I've also learned how merciless you are. I would never lose to you, let alone join you."
He flung a curse at Dumbledore, who waited until the last second before spinning and disappearing, only to reappear behind the Scot. "Go ahead, finish it." McClaggan hissed.
"Soumettus." Albus whispered. Harry suddenly realized what McClaggan was talking about after the demonstration duel. Dumbledore picked up the wand and woke McClaggan up.
"What the- Why didn't you kill me?" The Scot asked, looking at Dumbledore with shock on his face.
"Because Grindelwald is dead, I don't want to kill anymore, and if you agree with this than their will be no need."
Suddenly Harry felt a push with such force that he flew off his feet and landed against the wall of Dumbledore's office. He shook his head and looked up at Dumbledore, who had a look mixed with pride and confusion.
"How did you do that?" Dumbledore asked.
"Do what?"
"First you slowed the images down more than I would have expected, it took me a long time to learn to do that. But more importantly, how did you break through to find that memory?"
"I guess you had been thinking of it in connection with the duel? Maybe you just relaxed your defenses a bit too much." Harry suggested.
"Perhaps…But it was an amazing job nonetheless, Harry. That was an incredible first try."
"In all honesty, Professor, I've done it once before. I did it on Professor Snape last year during one of the lessons." Dumbledore smiled.
"It is still an impressive feat, especially considering you were able to do anything against Professor Snape without any training at all. I believe you will be able to use legilimency without a wand very soon, but not tonight."
"Could you explain that memory to me, Professor?" Harry asked, not really expecting any answer.
"I believe that is a matter to discuss with Professor McClaggan."