Hariett Potter, Chapter 3: Mind Tricks

I'm sorry this chapter isn't very good, but I promise the next one will be more interesting. And if you're confused at the end, good. You should be, that's the whole point. Please review and don't judge this chapter too harshly; I already know it sucks. Thanks. 

Once the trapdoor closed behind them, it seemed that everyone's last bit of sanity escaped them. Before their eyes, there wasn't a classroom as they had expected. In fact, there wasn't anything man-made at all. All around them was the sky and the stars (despite the fact that it was midday), and they seemed to be standing on nothing but thin air. The black sky extended as far as they could see. Even below them there were no buildings or land of any kind. Nothing but the occasional twinkle of a bright star.

"What's going on here!"

"W-where's Hogwarts?"

"Is this a trick by You-Know-Who?"

Immediate silence settled upon the group. Neville whispered, frightened, "H…He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"

Everyone glanced at each other with terrified looks on their faces. They could feel the panic rising inside them, the immense fear. But then they heard a voice out of nowhere.

"Now now, children, let's not make such hasty assumptions," it said. "Your mind could be playing tricks on you…or someone could be playing tricks on your mind."

The sky abruptly dissolved into a normal classroom. The students glanced around and saw Rin sitting on top of her desk in the front. She smiled.

"There are many tales of the power of a psychic," she explained, "but I find few of them to be straightforward; or even true, for that matter. For this reason, you may need some clarifying on what this ability really is. What you experienced a moment ago was a distortion of the mind, a power often used by psychics. We need only to access your memories and withdraw an image—in this case, the night sky—that we see fit for the occasion, then feed it into the visual part of your mind. It is a very simple trick. That was your first little lesson for today.

"You may be wondering how to do it yourself, but I'm afraid that will have to wait. For now, you will have to make do with long and boring lessons and demonstrations. I'll try to get through them as fast as possible so we can get to the interesting stuff. Now everyone take a seat."

They sat down in a daze. Rin continued. "There are three basic things you can do to people as a good psychic; you can control people's five senses, you can control what people do, and you can control what people think. There are also, of course the basic telepathy powers; mind reading and the like. Though it may sound like we can do absolutely anything we want and completely control people, I am sorry to say that that is not the case. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to complete just a simple task, and if someone has the will or psychic ability, they can defend themselves sufficiently. There are more psychics in the world than you would think; some don't even know they have the power. Therefore, you will be surprised by how many people can evade your control.

"Well, I don't want to bore you with lectures all day, so I will demonstrate a couple things…" Rin paused for a moment. "Why so nervous, Harry?" she asked suddenly. Everyone turned to him, but didn't find that he seemed at all nervous. Rin chuckled. "Well, at least you're good at something."

Now everyone was completely and utterly baffled. Here she had just sent them through some delusion of their minds, then confused them with talk of mind control and telepathy, and now she had made two comments that made no sense whatsoever.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop being so damn confusing," Rin decided. "…You know, why don't we skip all the other boring stuff and get right to the part where you actually learn something? Does everyone agree on that?" Everyone in the room nodded. "Alright, let's get started. I want everyone to pair up with their worst enemy." Rin waited until the class had carried out her odd request. When the scraping of chairs against the floor and the arguments over who Malfoy's worst enemy was (it seemed he had many) had ceased, she continued.

"You will start with the easiest thing; reading thoughts. Even this is a very difficult task to accomplish. I guarantee that you will not get it on your first twenty tries. In fact, you may never be able to do this. Some just don't have psychic powers. But almost everyone has some abilities, no matter how few.

"The reason you are paired with your enemy is because hate is an easy emotion to detect. Thoughts of hate can be read easier than others. Your partner will think about how much they hate you, and try to think it as strongly as possible, and you will focus all your energy on what they are thinking. It is a hard concept to grasp at first, but you'll get it eventually. Just think of exactly what they are thinking, try to hear it in your mind as if they are saying it to you. Give it a shot."

Though no one was quite sure how to do it, or what they were even trying to do in the first place, they all made their best attempts to read each other's minds. Harry and Draco faced each other and glared at one another, thinking about how much they hated the other, until they got so fired up that they drew wands. Rin immediately intervened.

"Now now, don't get angry just thinking about each other," she commanded, waving her hand and thereby disarming them. Their wands settled on her desk, and she decided, "I'll keep them there for now. Please get back to work, and if you can't handle each other then pair up with someone you hate a little less."

They grumbled and continued their work of glaring at one another, but class was soon interrupted again. Everyone turned when a yell came from across the room saying, "I've got it! You're thinking…about how much you hate me!"

Giggles filled the classroom. Rin sighed. "Nice try, Ron Weasley." Suddenly her clock chimed. "Would you look at that; it's time to go already. I'd like to congratulate you all on the fact that you're about 1/100 done with mastering the simplest form of telepathy that exists. Just practice a couple hundred times every day for the next seventeen years, and you should be on your way to being a full-fledged psychic." Everyone drooped, and Rin laughed. "Okay, so that was an exaggeration. It does take commitment and practice though, so I want you all to work on this in your free time. You won't be getting many homework assignments in this class, for there's really none that I can give you. But I want to see some progress next time you come into class; I will read each and every one of your minds to make sure that you practiced. Got it?" Everyone nodded. "See ya later!" She waved her hand again and Harry's and Draco's wands flew to their hands. "Oh, Harry, I want to see you after class," Rin added before he left.

The trapdoor swung open and the students filed out. When it was only her and Harry left, Rin addressed him. "It really doesn't matter, you know."

Harry gulped rather obviously. "W-what are you talking about?"

She suddenly grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and put her face two inches from him. "Listen, Harry. I can read your mind. I know what you're thinking. I know your secrets. You cannot hide it from me, so stop trying. I think you should stop lying to everyone else, too." She released him and he stumbled backwards. "I want to be perfectly clear on this. I do not want you showing up to my next class unless you show up as who you really are. Is that understood?"

Harry stared wide-eyed at her, then fled from the room without giving any acknowledgement to what she had said. Rin sighed and sat down. She didn't think he'd be in class for a while.