"Well Harry, it looks like you and I have an interesting journey ahead of us. I've always found that the best place to begin learning of this magnitude is with Occlumency, as it orders information in your mind into a very cohesive system and keeps stray thoughts and emotions under control for the most part."
"I agree with Dumbledore, Harry. You have great potential, and it will take all your life to complete that journey. Or in this case, all of both your lives. Just remember one thing. Don't be too manipulative of your former friends. Let things progress naturally, and you should be fine." Croaker bade them farewell and walked out of Dumbledore's office.
Harry was in shock from what Croaker had seen in him. His hidden abilities were more vast than he had ever realized, and he intended to find and conquer all of them.
"Well Harry, I'll admit I haven't been this excited in a long time, but if you don't want to begin straight away I'll understand."
Harry realized that this Dumbledore had no idea what a sore spot Occlumency was for him. He quickly explained that he had tried to learn it in the past from Professor Snape, and that it had failed.
"Don't worry, Harry. I'll be teaching you myself. I don't think Professor Snape would be too understanding of a request to teach such an advanced skill to someone your age. However, I would like you to detail what methods he used in the past, relatively speaking, to teach you and where you stand with the skill now.
Harry described his sessions with Snape and his insistence that he must learn to clear his mind.
"I see," said Dumbledore, a troubled expression coming over him. "Well, I'll have to admit he isn't the best choice to teach a subject like that. He's too forceful a teacher, expected too much of you without providing necessary details. However, we will begin with a much easier approach. Come with me, Harry, we are going for a walk. I'm going to teach you the art of meditation."
Dumbledore led him to a clearing in the forbidden forest, which Harry had never seen before. It was simply an open space surrounded by a circle of trees, as if it had been landscaped, although Harry could somehow sense that it had grown this way naturally.
"What is this place," Harry asked, still a bit unnerved by his own voice.
Dumbledore shrugged, "This is simply a place of peace. We will begin studying Occlumency here."
Dumbledore walked to the center of the circle and sat down, crossing his legs and tucking his long beard into his robes. Harry followed suit, although feeling a little foolish sitting there when the Headmaster had his eyes closed and didn't acknowledge him at all. A few minutes passed with Harry looking around at the forest with trepidation. He knew that literally anything could come out of its depths and decide they would be a tasty snack or a nice pincushion. He was about to break the silence and question Dumbledore when he spoke.
"There is something I have discovered throughout my years of teaching, Harry. And that something is that most types of people learn more easily and quickly when they have a pressing need. Harry didn't like the sound of that, and asked what he meant.
"What I mean to say, Harry, is that if you are not able to clear your mind and control your amotions to atain peace in the next few minutes, then the Lethifold in this clearing will find you and eat you. That's how they sense us, through our emotions."
Harry turned white. He should have known how hazardous being Dumbledore's apprentice would be, but he was still a little shocked.
"Jesus." said Harry. "This isn't the time for prayer, Harry." said Dumbledore. "I will give you some tips, but panicking will only excite the creature, so calm yourself. Separate yourself from the physical world."
'Oh, that's easy when your life is in immediate danger!'
"Don't think. Merely let your consiousness stream past you. Observe. Don't assume.
Harry thought back to Voldemort's final moments. And realized that was the peace Dumbledore was talking about. At that point, he had lost everything. His friends, his family. Even his hatred. He'd no longer held the desire to kill in his heart. He realized that everyone was a potential Voldemort. Even himself. And after he'd run the elder wizard through with a spear he'd crafted from pure light, he forgave him, and said a few words over his body, asking whatever higher powers, to send him to a place where his shattered soul could be healed.
He seized that feeling, and let his recent emotions of akwardness, eagerness, and excitement fade, and he let his worries for his new future fade away with them and all thought of the lethifold nearby, leaving himself in a void of pure light. Suddenly Dumbledore appeared in the void.
"Good. I knew you could do it. Now we can begin. First of all, you'll need to meditate at least for five minutes every day, preferably in the morning and at night before sleep. That said, now that you've reached this point, you must of realized that this can't be all there is to Occlumency, as you can't go about your everyday life in this state. This is simply the beginning. A clean slate, so to speak. You'll have to form an interface with your mind to go any further. Personally I use a system of sweets to store my memories, so the interface is a large candy store, but that may be too confusing for you. I suggest you think of a place that you feel safe, and that can be used as a cohesive storage area. My Candy Store I admit is a bit obscure, but that is part of my protections over my mind, and you can work to form a less accessive system later on. Beginners usually use a library. At this point you are only bound by your own imagination. Harry thought for a while, and realized the perfect strategy, something that almost no wizard would come up with. A room full of computers appeared on desks with a chairs all around. Dumbledore looked puzzled, then shocked, and then amused.
"Yes, that would effectively stump most legilimens." Harry sat down at the first computer, delegating it as 'fun', and shoving all his quidditch and other related memories into that computer. He then set up a password and hid the password in some instruction manuels found in the desk. He also added a hand scanner to prevent access to the information by anyone other than himself. He proceeded to the other terminals sifting other information into them and setting up similar passwords. He also created a hidden terminal in the wall that required a patronus to open. This terminal held his more important memories. Ones that would be dangerous in the wrong hands.
Dumbledore also instructed him how to creat systems for filtering active and ongoing memories into these secure systems and how a legilimens would ride into their other memories through that system and how to conteract it.
"I find the best means of counteracting such an infiltration is diversion. If you create a false memory that seems more valueable and dangle it before them, as it were, they may be distracted enough to lose the trail. Also the trail can be made very difficult to follow, with lots of bouncing around to unrelated and distracting areas, and if you so choose, filtering through memories of great pain and suffering. It took Harry some time but he was confident he could prevent this after some time, although his sense of time was diminished in here.
"Now we can also prevent the legilimens from ever reaching this area of your mind, the inner sanctum, as it is called, by creating other layers. Your storage room can be protected by a wall, either physical or magical that only you can get through, and only by using your blood or thumbprint or a password or some other identifying means. Above that most occlumens keep a layer of false memories which they can use to manipulate a legilimens and above that another wall with lesser security. Somewhwere in between you can set up a trap that will shunt the legilimens into an area where they will be revealed and will have to either leave or face you on your terms. After studying a recently aquired artifact, I devised a room where the attacker would be forced to see many aspects of themselves that they may not wish to see.
There is one other flaw in your plan, Harry. Electronics don't fare well under the pressure of magic. You will need a backup system or your memories could be damaged. Harry then showed Dumbledore his backup system. A group of snitches that one would have to chase through an endless forest and that couldn't be captured safely without the proper disabling charm. Harry began to realize that further backups might be necessary and determined to work out even more harsh scenarios later on. The more layers that guarded his memories the better. The downside was that he had to create an easy way to access things for his own needs and daily use through a hidden backdoor that could if discovered render the rest of the shields useless. He communicated this to Dumbledore and he assured Harry that in order for an outsider to use this he would have to either bend the very fabric of space and time or remove Harry's soul from his body, which would defeat the purpose anyway. Greatly relieved, Harry gently pushed Dumbledore out of his mind and they were back in the clearing.
"Is there really a lethifold here?" Harry asked tentatively. "What do you think, Harry?" asked Dumbledore, eyes twinkling with magic and amusement.
"I think you tricked me." Harry said, amused. "Thank you."
"Your welcome. I assure you it won't be the last time." Dumbledore chuckled.
With that they headed back up to the castle and Harry began to realise he'd never really known Dumbledore as they laughed and joked together like two old men as Albus told him stories from his apprenticeship under Nicholas, and he slowly gained new hope for the future now that he was in a better place.
Once they were back in the Headmaster's office they drew up a schedule for the first month of the summer. Albus wanted first and foremost after starting him up on Occlumency, to get Harry started with Runes and Arithmancy, along with Magical Theory, things he would need to know in order to progress to Alchemy, something it seemed he could have great talent with. So his mornings would be filled with that, followed by his animagus training afterwards, which, Harry knew, was going to take him a long time to master, but it would be worth it as no one that young should be able to do it.
Harry also let Dumbledore know that in his time Fred and George had started their own shop and had taken after their father in studying muggle science as the war progressed, although they took it a bit more seriously, and had started to attempt applications of physics to explain magic and how it works, and why electronics seemed to fail around it. He revealed to Dumbledore that they had made a little progress in the area, able to use muggle recording devices in magical areas, although nothing as intense as Hogwarts ambient magical noise. Dumbledore was fascinated and resolved to help Harry in this new branch of magic, and was highly impressed with the Weasley twins genius. They were to spend the evenings working on this after they got their hands on copies of as much muggle research and theory as they could.
Once they had decided on that, Harry told Dumbledore it had been a very long day and asked where he could sleep. Dumbledore gave him the password for Gryffindor tower and sent him on his way. Harry, having walked the path from the office to his dorm many times, was desperately trying to integrate everything he'd experienced today. He couldn't believe how easily he'd been tricked by Dumbledore, and it stung, as he remembered how many times Voldemort had manipulated him the same way. He was grateful to finally be behind a solid wall build through occlumency, where he felt more secure in himself than he ever remembered feeling, but it bothered him deeply that the headmaster, though well-meaning, had no problem manipulating countless innocent people because he felt 'he knew best'. "I'm sure Tom Riddle felt the same way about other people," he muttered angrily. "In fact in a lot of ways he learned from the best. You." He would have to devise a way to subtly but unshakably get back at Dumbledore and prove this point to him once and for all, which he wasn't sure was possible, knowing how old the man was, and how deeply entrenched his inner thought processes must be. 'No, what am I thinking'. He sighed. 'I know I can't shake his beliefs.' 'I'll have to just live with it, and avoid it if I can. This last time was harmless enough. But I'm not sure I'll be able to find a better teacher for alchemy, legilimency, or transfiguration for that matter. He was a very intelligent man, after all, and in many ways much smarter than Harry himself, something his light element should change eventually, but that would take time.
"sigh, that doesn't mean I can't help it along though..." he said to himself, and a portrait off to his left said "That's right lad, optomism is the only way to go!"
He smiled, mostly to himself, and decided to detour to the library before going to bed.
Despite his fatigue his curiosity after Croaker had given him a list of potential abilities he could learn was keeping him awake on pure adrenaline, and probably a little magic too, he thought. He decided to raid the shelves for books on runes, arithmancy, and magical beasts. Croaker had not been able to be specific about what his animagus form was but he did say that Harry should pursue it as it was some type of magical creature. He knew that personality was the best way to try and determine animagus forms. He decided he'd work on that first as he wanted to re-evaluate himself now anyway.Then it hit him, as if a musty book had fallen off the shelf behind him and knocked him senseless. When he had re-entered his eleven year old self his scar had returned to its state as a horcrux! A repository for a peice of Voldemort's dark soul! As such his animagus form would be reflective of that. Also, he'd have to find a way to reinforce his occlumency against Voldemort, as he would have his own backdoor through the scar on his forehead. His only other option was to remove the spirit now with his light, something which would greatly fatigue him and leave him unable to get around much for a week or so, if last time was any indicator. And this time he also had to take into account his age and physical body and magical corebeing weaker. Then again the longer Voldemort's soul stayed the more it would inhibit his own core's growth and development. He decided to gather up his books and go up to the hospital wing so he'd be able to get assistance if he needed it. Once he got there and got settled in he used his elemental ability to percieve if the matron was here. He sensed her in a back room, probably doing inventory, he thought.
Not wanting to warn her until it was too late, he focused his light element, which Voldemort's broken soul wouldn't be able to resist, and pushed as hard as he could. What he couldn't see, with his eyes closed in concentration, was that he was releasing a blinding light from all the orifices on his body and a glowing silver white aura surrounded him. What he also couldn't see was his scar starting to sizzle, and bubble a bit, as it fought back. In his mind, a confrontation was taking place.
The piece of Voldemort's soul inside Harry was fighting tooth and nail to remain in this world. It battered at Harry's occlumency shields, which held thanks to his brilliant idea about using muggle concepts to lock his mind away. Concepts Tom didn't bother to know or understand.
Harry pinned down Voldemort's spirit with chains of solid light and prepared a final attack to obliterate it and erase his signature from his own body and soul. In the end the man begged, as death was the only thing he truly feared. But Harry was numb to such a thing, after seeing his friends all die before him. He remembered Croaker's parting shot about manipulating them in this new life. He never had any ideas about doing such a thing. In fact he wanted to avoid them altogether, preventing them from getting tangled up in the treacherous and deadly spider web that was his life. He'd protect them this time no matter what the cost. He pushed these thoughts and images at Voldemort, and the feelings tied into them were all it took to destroy him, along with a hefty dose ofhis own magic.
Madame Pomfrey found him slumped over one of the hospital beds a minute later, having come out to see what had caused the surge of magic. Albus Dumbledore soon arrived as well. Only to find Harry in a deep coma.