Spinning Clocks
"You ready?" Harry raised an eyebrow at an oddly fidgety Elanor. "We'll have to leave soon to get there on time, I think."
Looking at Harry, Elanor couldn't help but think back on the last couple of weeks she had spent getting to know her newfound friend, and his odd home life. In a way, she'd become a part of this little family of a proud owl, a vain snake, and an odd boy who seemed to be different to any other wizard she'd ever met. He didn't even act like he had magic at times, often foregoing its use in favour of manual methods. At least at first, he had been using magic every day. Though he had said he had liked piquing her interest in the different things he could do. He also said he had disliked using magic like a simple tool, when it was so much more than that.
'Why use magic to do everyday mundane things, when you can put on a show and have fun?' He had said with a little grin, before conjuring a rainbow coloured Rottweiler that oinked. That had made her laugh herself silly.
But what she had enjoyed the most was learning so many new and wonderful things. Even her work with Occlumency had been intriguing she thought, remembering back when he had explained just how truly brilliant it could be.
/
"No Elanor." Harry frowned. "Occlumency is not that simple. What you seem to be forgetting is that the Mind Arts are far more complex than simply the ability to block mind reading, or to read minds."
"But the book mentioned defences. Why can't I imagine some sort of wall or something?" Elanor grumbled at him.
"The mind is not a simple thing." Harry replied, as though it was all he needed to say.
It wasn't.
"I know that!" Elanor exclaimed. "I just don't get how I actually defend my mind!"
"You're looking at defence from the wrong angle." Harry took pity on her frustration, opting this time to push her in the right direction. "Why, exactly would you want a wall?"
"To stop people getting in, Harry." Elanor sighed in annoyance.
"You miss the point." Harry shook his head exasperated. "You cannot just simply imagine a wall, blocking all intruders, or even some sort of guardian, like a dragon for example."
Holding out a hand to stop her from asking more questions, he continued. "Legilmens can only delve into a person's mind by looking them in the eye and performing it, either non-verbally without a wand or with the incantation. Legilmens is the spell, by the way. It's why they call those that are skilled with it, Legilmens."
"The only way to stop this is either by avoiding the spell entirely, or avoiding eye-contact." He pointed out.
"If you are about to ask how you are supposed to defend when you are unable to do this, the answer is simple, but in practice difficult." Harry again forestalled her questions with a raised hand. "The most basic form of Occlumency is to clear your mind, to make it blank and empty, so that a Legilmens cannot perceive your emotions and thoughts."
"So by doing these meditation exercises, I am practicing making my mind empty of thoughts and feelings?" Elanor spoke up in slight comprehension. "So I can't just think of something like a wall?"
"Actually, you can." Harry smirked slightly at Elanor's indignant expression.
"But you just said-" she spluttered.
"I only said it wasn't as simple as that." Harry chuckled. "The point of meditation is to get you in touch with your own mind, as intimately and closely as possible."
"A Legilmens will easily be able to tell you are occluding, if you are simply hiding your thoughts and feelings. At which point, they may become more aggressive, determined to break the veil over your thoughts." Harry continued. "At that point, it becomes a struggle between your willpower and theirs. The stronger their intent and desire, the more difficult it is to defend. This is true for the Occlumens as well, as the stronger your intent to defend, the harder your mind is to break into."
"Try to understand that this battle is all taking place in the mind, for lack of a better explanation." Harry added.
"If you are fully cognizant of your own thoughts and feelings, you can show a Legilmens exactly what you want them to see, and nothing more."
"So I could show them a wall if I really wanted to, but that would show them I am occluding?" Elanor frowned questioningly.
"They would probably try to break down the wall, yes. If they are able to overcome your will, that is." Harry replied. "The mind is complicated and imagining a wall won't actually protect you as well as you think it might. You could imagine a kitten of all things and still overpower a Legilmen's will."
"The real cunning of an Occlumens is to make the Legilmens think that they are seeing what they expect to see." Harry smirked. "Advanced Occlumency is the art of showing a Legilmens only the thoughts, emotions and memories that complement what they want to see. What you are actually doing is suppressing your real thoughts, emotions and memories."
"A master can show incredibly detailed memories that are not even real, thoughts that they are not truly thinking, and any emotions that they desire associated with such things. And they do this by making even the best master of Legilmency believe that they are not even an Occlumens!" Harry grinned. "That's what defence really means. The art of deception, in other words."
Elanor blinked, speechless at the moment as she processed the explanation. "That's… incredible." She finally spoke up in slight amazement.
"Yeah, it really is." Harry replied. "If you ever need help with working on your Occlumency, a Legilmens you can trust to test you is always advisable. For now, work on understanding yourself. Meditate every night, examine your own memories. Never lie to yourself, because you need to fully understand who you are underneath everything."
"Yeah. Thanks Harry." Elanor smiled slightly. "I understand what I need to be doing now."
"Anytime."
/
"Yeah, just nervous about this year." Elanor eventually replied to Harry who had seemed concerned with her contemplative silence. "Just thinking back on what I've done this summer."
"Ah, I see." Harry smiled. "It's been interesting."
"Interesting, he says!" Elanor scoffed in good humour. "Some of the stuff I've learnt from you is easily more than just interesting. I feel like I've learnt some things that aren't even supposed to be possible!" she exclaimed.
"Well, blame the ministry for that one." Harry rolled his eyes, before taking hold of Elanor's trunk. "There's so much more out there than anyone ever really understands. Shame they restrict so much material."
"It's why wizards like Dumbledore, or even the Dark Lord were so powerful." Harry added. "Obviously, being prodigies, they sought to learn far more than they were ever taught. Whether it was good or bad, it was still magic beyond most people's comprehension that they were delving into."
"The way I look at it, the only limit is the mind. What you think isn't possible, you will never achieve." Harry murmured.
"Yeah, I remember you explaining about that." Elanor remarked.
/
"Why do you make silent casting look so damn easy?" Elanor spoke up, watching Harry cook dinner with small gestures of his wand to prepare the food. "And for that matter, you don't even seem to use any real wand motions."
Pausing a moment to ponder her question, he flicked his wand, sending a pile of freshly cut vegetables into a pan of simmering stew.
"Well, it is easy." Harry turned to look at her sitting in a chair with the Occlumency book opened in front of her.
"No it's not!" Elanor exclaimed. "How can you say that, when I find it so difficult?" she sighed despondently.
"You remember what I said about Mind Magics?" Harry frowned, settling into a chair while the stew was cooking.
"Something about it being part of every other magic, or whatever it was." Elanor prompted, shutting her book.
"Well, basically yes." Harry replied slowly. "The mind is the key to magic, I believe."
"The key to magic?"
"Yep. What do you think incantations and wand movements do?" Harry prompted her for her thoughts.
"You say the incantation along with performing the wand movements to do whatever the incantation is supposed to do." Elanor frowned. "It makes the magic do things."
"But how do you know what the incantation does?" Harry asked.
"It's written down in our textbooks. This incantation with these wand movements does this, and so on." Elanor sighed. "But from what I've read of silent casting, you think the incantation instead of saying it. Why is that so much harder?"
"Well it's obvious if you think about it carefully. You know what the incantation with the right wand movements will do, but as soon as you begin thinking of the incantation, you have to split your focus between what the magic will do, and the spell." Harry replied.
"So because we're focusing on not saying the spell, we're not focusing enough on performing it?" Elanor asked curiously.
"Yes. And have you ever wondered why mispronunciations affect your spellwork?" Harry asked with a small grin.
"Um. No?" Elanor blinked, brown eyes clouding slightly in confusion.
"It's because subconsciously you know you're saying it wrong, so you won't be able to perform the spell." Harry replied. "Or it does something entirely different, like blow up in your face." He added with a grin.
"Haven't you ever wondered why one incantation does something, while another does something else?" Harry engaged her once more.
"Because they're different." She replied dully.
"How?" Harry grinned even wider now, causing Elanor to look at him warily.
"They have different names and wand motions." Elanor responded carefully. "Isn't it obvious?"
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Harry incanted with a smirk, pointing his wand at a cup by the sink.
To Elanor's utter amazement and disbelief, the cup came soaring into his hand. "Wha-How?" she cried out. "That's not a Levitation Charm!"
"Did-wha-Was that a summoning charm!?" she continued hysterically.
"Right in one!" Harry grinned exorbitantly cheerfully.
"But that's…" Elanor began feverishly before Harry cut across teasingly.
"Not possible?"
"Uh. Right. It's you. Shoulda remembered." Elanor blinked, looking at Harry oddly.
"Intent, Elanor. Intent." He smirked smugly. "I wanted to summon the cup, nothing more."
Elanor relinquished the need to smack the smug grin off his face, instead silently encouraging Harry to continue explaining.
"No matter how I wave my wand, or even what I say, all I wanted was to summon that cup into my hand." Harry explained. "My intent was to summon that cup, with that incantation."
"You would normally expect that nothing would happen, because you know that it's a Levitating Charm, but I expected that it would summon the cup." Harry added. "My desire to summon that cup overwrote everything I know about that incantation. It was not even necessary."
"So why doesn't everyone learn how to do this?" Elanor remarked dryly.
"Ah, because it's extremely dangerous, I suppose." Harry frowned. "You really have to know what you're doing if you're going to mess around like that. Even I think that what I just did was incredibly reckless, but it was to prove a point."
"Are you trying to hurt yourself or something?" Elanor hissed. "Why did you do something like that anyway?"
"I'm naturally reckless." Harry shrugged glibly.
"That's no excuse!" Elanor berated him slightly. "I don't want to see you getting hurt just to prove something to me or whatever the hell it was you were trying to do!" her voiced raised into a remonstrating shout.
"Sorry Ellie." He blinked rapidly, taken aback by her outburst. "I don't mean anything by it."
"Ellie?" Elanor curiously asked at the sudden nickname.
"Easier than saying Elanor every time, and besides friends need a nickname, or a shortened one between them at least. I could call you Ella, but that sounds way to close to Bella for me, it would get confusing." Harry explained smoothly.
"I… like it I guess." Elanor's eyes watered slightly, before she blinked and narrowed her eyes at Harry. "But don't think you're getting away with being stupid!" she rebuked him.
"Alright, alright." He raised his hands pleadingly. "I find that far too dangerous to play around with anyway."
"Good." She remarked stiffly. "You can carry on explaining again, without the stupid antics now."
"Uhm sure." Harry grinned wryly.
"So start explaining!" Elanor spoke up, prodding him in the shoulder.
"Well, the whole point of learning incantations and wand motions is to engrave it into your memory. Eventually it becomes hard-wired into your mind. The better your memory, the larger your spell repertoire." He began, absently rubbing his shoulder. "It's a form of control, developed hundreds of years ago, enabling people to have control over what their magic does."
"It's better than having your magic do whatever you wish it to do, or you may inadvertently do something disastrous." Harry pointed out. "But what I mean by intent is working with your magic on the fly. You could, with a strong enough will and desire, perform feats of magic that match nothing you've ever read in books, because you are the one enforcing your will on your magic."
"Again, it comes back to the basics of Occlumency, where you get in touch with your own mind intimately." Harry added.
"Still not sure what you mean, but you're saying that intent is what makes silent casting easier?" Elanor frowned.
"Yes and no." Harry replied, struggling to contain his grin at Elanor planting her head on the table with an irritated groan.
"You can want to block a spell, but it doesn't mean that you know how to block a spell." Harry continued. "What are you blocking it with? What does your shield look like? Is that shield strong enough?"
"If you know the answer to all those three questions, and the answer is yes, you will cast a powerful shield capable of blocking that spell, either physical or magical, depending on what you decided in the moment." Harry added. "People pull off random acts of magic all the time in response to stressful and dangerous situations though. You may never perform that particular piece of magic again. In fact, you may not even be consciously aware of what you were thinking at that moment, other than 'Help, I need a shield' or 'I don't want to be hit'"
"You're losing me very quickly." Elanor looked at him bemused.
"What I just explained was the act of performing powerful magic under mortal peril." Harry sighed. "Actually consciously attempting to recreate such feats could destroy you."
"However, take the Shield Charm, Protego." Harry continued ignoring Elanor's slightly queasy look. "You know what that charm is, the incantation, wand motions and everything. You have practiced it thoroughly, so that you can cast it with no hesitation."
"So when you find yourself in danger and need to block a spell, you automatically attempt to use it." Harry input. "That shield will form, because you know it will form. Maybe you don't have time to say the incantation or perform the wand movements, but you are already reacting to the situation, so the shield will form. However, it is easily possible that your reactions were not quick enough, so you get hit before you even think of shielding."
"But let's say you know more than one shield charm. Scuto, the Tower Shield Charm is a good example." Harry added, as Elanor propped up her head with her hands, elbows resting on the table, avidly following along. "Having learnt Protego and understanding what levels and types of spells it can block, you begin learning the Tower Shield Charm. This shield blocks physical force, such as flying debris, but not magical. Protego can block magical spells, but not physical force."
"So your mind has eventually ingrained both spells into your subconscious. You practice them so often, that it is second nature to cast it silently and with barely any wand motions, if any at all." Harry smiled slightly at Elanor's interest. "So you find yourself in the same dangerous situation, except there is debris flying at you from an explosion of some sort. You know two shield charms, inside and out. Subconsciously, your brain tells you to cast Scuto. A spell comes flying at you immediately after. Without thinking, you raise a Protego."
"This is the reason you learn incantations and the wand motions for spells." Harry added. "You are basically wiring your brain to perform such actions, rather than relying on random acts of magic, or attempting to do silly things like train yourself to cast a shield every time you say 'Shield'. If you're unlucky, every time someone else even mentions the word shield, you'll raise one in reflex."
"And I still haven't gotten to the point of intent." Harry sighed slightly.
"Well, it's still nice to know why we learn spells the way we do." Elanor pointed out. "We never get told why, just that it is that way."
"I suppose that's true." Harry ran a hand through his messy black hair for a moment before speaking up again. "You wanted to understand what I mean by intent though."
"I suppose I got you side-tracked." Elanor murmured. "Hey wait! That was all you!" she continued in surprise.
"Ehehehe. I suppose so." Harry grinned slightly apologetically. "Sorry Ellie."
"Anyway!" Harry clapped his hands together loudly, causing Elanor to jump slightly.
"Intent is what enables us to actually perform our spells. Sometimes it makes a spell stronger, or sometimes it only allows us to cast it." Harry began. "A summoning charm for example is one of those spells that requires a desire to have the object that you are trying to summon. You are telling yourself that you want something, but if you don't really want it, the spell will not work, or barely move the object."
"So desire is important to performing it?" Elanor queried quietly.
"Yep. I could try it until I'm blue in the face, if I don't really want something, I won't get it." Harry replied. "Simple enough yes?"
"If you don't intend to get it, you won't." Elanor nodded. "I get that."
"Also, if the object happens to be something you can't see, it becomes more difficult." Harry added.
"Because you have to think very carefully about what you're summoning." Elanor input. "If it's something you own, it's far easier, but still harder than when you can see it."
Harry nodded along at her explanation. "Right in one. It's also fair to point out that passing knowledge of an item is also applicable, but you need to know that there is such an object. You might not know everything about it, but your desire to have it allows you to summon it."
"Of course, you might summon more than you intend to." Harry added with a thoughtful look.
"Moving on though, some spells can be performed with a combination of intent and emotion." Harry started. "Casting a severing charm, Diffindo, for example requires only the intent to cut something, usually paper."
"To cast it on a person also requires the intent to cut." Harry added carefully. "Before you ask, if you don't intend them harm, it will not do much damage, except perhaps breaking a bit of skin. The nature of the spell is to cut, regardless of the target. There is a reason the books tell you to use it with caution."
"But where things get different, is with the emotions you feel." Harry continued. "If the person you cast a Diffindo at is someone who hurt you, made you angry or something, you would feel angry at them, perhaps angry enough to want to hurt them."
"At which point you might throw out a severing charm which is capable of taking off limbs or at least causing large cuts." Harry ended with a grim look, causing Elanor to shudder. "But of course, hitting someone in the throat with even a weak one out of anger could kill them."
"There is a lot of magic out there that can be used for simple purposes, but are easily twisted by a person's intent." Harry sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, before shaking his head and looking at Elanor firmly. "Master your mind, lest your emotions hold you hostage."
"It's why the Dark Arts are so volatile. The lure of power, the desire to control, to warp and twist, to cause pain, to revel in the enjoyment of it, they can ruin you." Harry murmured. "It's why the Dark Lord and his followers seemed so terrifying and inhuman."
"Is it any wonder that Dark magic is feared?" Harry queried rhetorically to the air. "Of course, almost all magic can be twisted to suit the user's purpose. The fire-making spell can be used to burn people, the Memory Charm can make people practically vegetables, The Reductor curse can disintegrate people and the Freezing Spell can turn people into popsicles and so on."
"Why are you telling me all this?" Elanor asked him nervously.
"Because it is important." Harry replied. "Intent is extremely important. Do you want to set something alight, or do you want to make it burn?" Harry voiced darkly. "Do you want to remove an obstacle, or blow apart an enemy?"
"There is an extremely important distinction between what a spell is supposed to be used for, and what you intend to do with it." Harry ended.
"So I need to be in control?" Elanor inquired. "Do what I intend to do and nothing more?"
"It's easier said than done Ellie." Harry sighed. "Just understand that intent is the key to magic. Train yourself in such a way that you only ever do what you intend to do, otherwise you may do something you regret."
"That was more serious than I thought it would be." Elanor voiced quietly.
"Yeah, well you don't want to become a Dark Lady now I hope?" Harry inquired with a small grin.
"Oh shut up."
/
"Well come on, your Dark Lady is waiting to leave." Elanor smirked at Harry teasingly.
"I'm already regretting ever mentioning that to you Ellie." Harry sighed in vexation.
"Don't be daft, think of the perks of being a Dark Lady's best friend." Elanor giggled. "Actually now that I think about it, are there any perks?"
"None that come to mind." Harry remarked dryly, shutting the front door behind them. "If I was a masochist maybe I'd enjoy it." He added slickly, causing Elanor to stifle a giggle.
"Guess my brain's not wired that way hm?" he remarked casually.
"I couldn't imagine you being a Dark Lord, I suppose." Elanor frowned, as they walked down the street together. "You seem far too nice for that." She thought to herself though, that Harry would be a devastating Dark Lord if he ever felt inclined to be. Though, she didn't think he was all that good either, he seemed fairly neutral on the topic of magic. Hidden under that pleasant veneer though, was a dark streak that had been unearthed for a few scant moments during their conversations. It was a slightly frightening thought, having heard his knowledge of dark magic, seemingly as though he understood it intimately. Reading about it just wouldn't give him the same level of understanding as he appeared to have.
At least she was certain that he would treat it like he did his Legilmency. Use only under certain circumstances if he ever actually allowed himself the option. She fully understood that even he might want to make someone hurt sometimes, heck, even she had those thoughts occasionally. He seemed to place a lot of importance on thinking before acting, but he had admitted he was prone to bouts of recklessness at times.
"If you say so." Harry responded softly. "Just remember, I am capable of hurting people if I want to."
"So is everyone." Elanor replied quickly. "Everyone can choose to cause pain and suffering if they ever wanted to. Even me, I have to admit."
"True." Harry replied, before they settled into a companionable silence while walking towards Kings Cross Station.
/
"Where is Bella by the way?" Elanor looked at Harry who was walking on her right side, by the edge of the pavement. "I haven't seen her today."
"With me, actually." Harry remarked with a raised eyebrow. "I confined her to a magical tattoo of sorts."
"A magical tattoo?" Elanor inquired.
"Yep. I'll show you the tattoo later, but I can call her out if I need her." Harry replied. "It's like a special kind of stasis, but she can still unconsciously perceive basic things like danger, and will come out in that case."
"And Hedwig?" Elanor asked curiously.
"I sent her on ahead." Harry smiled tenderly. "She's a very smart owl, so she'll be there soon enough. Probably stake a claim on the best spot in the Owlery, and I pity the other owls who dare to contradict her." He mock shuddered.
"She does seem to be a very proud one." Elanor added thoughtfully.
"Yeah, she's got a lot to be proud of." Harry replied. "I don't know fully how she does it, but she always finds me wherever I am, even through wards that are supposed to ward owls away."
"Wouldn't trade her for any other owl in the world." Harry smiled brightly. "Reminds me that I'd forgotten to tell you that if ever needed to owl someone, Hedwig would be happy to go. I don't use her as often as she would like me to."
"If I ever need to, I guess." Elanor replied sighing glumly.
"Ah, I'm sure you'll have to use her at some point." Harry shrugged. "Hey, she'll probably even visit you from time to time."
"So long as she doesn't steal my bacon, that's alright." Elanor firmly declared.
"Don't worry about that. For some reason she'll only take bacon away from me." Harry pouted slightly.
"Good." She nodded her head mocking him slightly, causing Harry to grimace. Though he felt it was at least a good thing she was more open to bantering with him than she was at first. He just knew he was good at getting under people's skin.
"Though…" Elanor began before trailing off, as they headed towards the dividing wall between Platforms Nine and Ten, having entered Kings Cross a few moments ago.
"What?" Harry turned his head towards her curiously.
"I can't believe I'd forgotten to ask you about this." Elanor shook her head slightly at her oversight. "Well, do you remember me telling you about that ponce Lockhart from my second year?"
"The ponce, yep." Harry nodded along. "Worst teacher ever you said? Couldn't even use a wand right?"
"That's the one." Elanor agreed. "Well, he ran a stupid duelling club, to help teach us to defend ourselves from that monster or whatever it was."
"Doesn't sound like much use to me." Harry murmured.
"He wasn't, no." Elanor agreed. "But Snape seemed to know what he was doing, and floored him with a disarming charm. That got a round of laughs of course."
"Your point?" Harry sighed, as they drew closer to the barrier, causing Elanor to stop for a moment.
"I was just wondering, considering you know so much about several obscure bits of magic, whether you knew how to duel." Elanor voiced carefully.
"Somewhat yes." Harry responded oddly. "It depends what you mean by duelling."
"Well, how to defend yourself for one." Elanor pointed out. "I want to learn how to defend myself better."
At this, Harry scowled slightly. "I wonder why." He muttered vehemently.
"Don't do that." Elanor nudged him. "I don't care about them."
"Still, people shouldn't treat others like that." Harry pointed out. "I'd rather you not need to defend yourself."
"And I'd like to know how to, even if I don't need to." She returned firmly.
"Fine, I can teach you how to defend yourself." Harry acquiesced to her. "Magical combat is what I'm best at, actually."
"Really?" Elanor blinked curiously.
"Yep. I'm pretty sure if you wanted to, I could teach you to beat anyone with First Year spells." Harry replied. "At the very least, I'll let you practice against me. Experience is important too."
"Good." Elanor smiled brightly. "I would enjoy that."
"If you say so." He replied with a smirk. "You might regret it."
"I doubt it." She responded dangerously sweetly. "I know you would rather I still talk to you, than not."
"You wouldn't." Harry mock gasped.
"I would." Elanor nodded firmly.
"We'll talk about this more on the train, in private." Harry pointed out. "Besides, we should go through the barrier now."
"Alright. Meet you on the other side!" she exclaimed, before turning and dashing through with a lilting chuckle, leaving Harry shaking his head wryly.
"I'm the one with her trunk…" he grumbled. "Bothersome girl."
And with that, he strolled through the barrier in search of Dark Lady Ellie.
AN 15.08.2014
Simple enough chapter. I wrote a fair bit on the basics of magic in this chapter, but now that those parts are out of the way, you'll be seeing less in detail explanations. I decided to do the explanations through character interactions so as to not dump it out as background info. Though there will be occasional titbits here and there, there won't be hoards of texts devoted to the 'science behind magic' and stuff like that. I did not go with the fan version of Occlumency, because I feel it's too fanciful and detracts from what HP magic really is. Some versions are stupid, like somehow giving you perfect recall, backup memories, password keys and random crap like animal guardians that attack intruders(Like what the hell is that meant to be for?). This is traditional Occlumency, because it suits the universe I'm writing anyway.
I also added the intent part, and the explanation on training the mind thing, for more logically inclined readers out there, while keeping it simple enough for readers who just want to see the magic, as it were. However, I did intentionally make it sound slightly confusing at first – keep in mind its one character teaching another – in this case Elanor plays the part of the audience too. That's you guys.
It gives us a great building block for so much more complex and wonderful magic later on. I won't even need to have in-universe explanations for certain spells and so on now, you should be able to quickly understand how and why a spell works if I happen to use one, amongst other things. I even laid out a small explanation as to why Dumbledore and Voldemort seem to use magic on an entirely different level to any other with magic. More on that in future chapters though.
Next chapter will be the train ride, sorting, and the first night and beginning of lessons. We will finally be introducing a bunch of other characters, and seeing Hogwarts of this universe as I see it.
Slow beginning is over with, and I laid the groundwork for far more later on the story. Be happy!
Until next time!