Sailing wind

That Monday they opened up the Mental Arts classroom, it was snowing. Luckily they could conjure it with Impervius and Druid Magic. I don't know what we would have done without the magic of the Forest, Sev thought.

Jack arrived with Ariel in absolute silence. This time the boy waited patiently for Sev to ward the clearing before embracing him and didn't overwhelm him with questions. Jack has already explained everything to him and he obeys.

"Ugh, Sev… how much trouble I have given you…"

Poor boy... What did Jack say to make him draw that conclusion? He questioned Jack with a look.

"We were just explaining to him that Dumbledore can't find out about the magic, and he alone has been feeling guilty in case he could have been caught escaping around the castle," Jack replied.

"Ariel, honey, it wasn't your fault, it was mine, for not realizing the danger we were running and notifying you earlier," Sev said.

"No, Sev… you just wanted me to feel the magic…" Ariel said.

He's almost crying… "Come on, hold me tight and calm down, we have little time and a lot to do."

As the boy took a deep breath to control himself, Sev asked Jack, still hugging Ariel. "Have you explained to him what we are going to do today?"

"Yes, of course," the older boy replied.

"Brilliant. Come on, Ariel, sit on the ground and make yourself comfortable while I get everything ready." Sev undid the spells warding the Pensieve and the books and placed the large ceramic bowl in the center of the circle the three of them formed. "Look, Ariel, the first thing I'm going to teach you is how to wand out the secrets you hold from your mind so Jack can't read them, okay?"

"Okay, Sev."

"First I'm going to do it, you have to think about the memory while you place the tip on your temple. The thought will come out in the form of a silver Patronus-like substance and float and swirl around the wand. Then you take it to the container and place it there. I'll do it for you to see." Jack must be suspecting I've done it before, but I'm sure he won't tell me nothing. Besides, everything is explained in the Occlumency book. "I'm going there." Sev focused on the distant happy memory of his Patronus, the one of the afternoon with Lily on the Cokeworth riverbank, extracted it from his brain and placed it in the Pensieve just as he had just explained. "Have you seen how I did it?"

"Yes, Sev," Ariel answered.

Jack hasn't missed a beat either.Very good, two birds with one stone.And I can let Ariel look at it, it's all explained in the Occlumency book, so we do it like a game and he relaxes a bit. "Do you want to look at the memory I extracted?"

"Can I?" the boy asked.

"Yes, you just have to put your face inside," Sev replied. "You're going to feel like you're falling headfirst through the air, but don't panic, you'll land on your feet. The people you see next to you will not see you, and you can move through the space around you if you want."

"Brilliant! And it's not a secret of yours?"

"Yes, but I already told you."

"Oh…"

"Come on, do it," Sev said.

Ariel leaned over the Pensieve and inserted his face into it. Meanwhile, Jack and Sev looked at each other, smiling silently, so as not to disturb him. Jack gave him a thumbs up, nodding. Ten minutes later, when they were starting to get impatient, Ariel sat up. "Wow, Sev… how cool…"

"Did you like it?" Sev asked.

"A lot…"

He's dying to talk about it, but he's not going to, because Jack is here. "You can talk about what you have seen, although Jack is with us, there is confidence."

"Really…? Do you allow me…?"

"Of course."

"It was the memory of your Patronus, right?" Ariel asked.

"Yeah…"

"How pretty Lily was when she was little... and you did magic together... with your hands, like now."

"Yeah…"

"And what a beautiful day it was…" the boy continued. "It was very cool in the shade of the trees."

Sev was about to cry. "Yeah…"

"And you did not bathe in the river?"

"No, Ariel, it was contaminated."

"It's true, it was very dirty," Ariel agreed. "Come on, don't be sad, Sev. Soon you both can always be together again…"

He hugged him and Sev cried, but he fought to control himself. There is a lot to do and time is running out. When he looked up, Jack was looking away, also very sad. Ugh, he's remembering Lauren and thinking about how he's never going to be able to be with her again.Surely the memory of his Patronus is with her. "Jack, everything is sailing smoothly, trust me." Speaking in code with Lauren's words.

Jack looked at him, with a flash of understanding. He has understood me. He's aware of Potions' row through Anthony, he knows she tried to get close to me.Now I just need him not to get jealous, but I don't think so, he's above that and he knows that I have Lily, he just saw me cry for her.

Sev swirled the memory again with his wand and inserted it back into his temple. He spoke to Ariel, "Have you noticed how I did it now?"

"Yeah," the boy replied.

"Okay, so it's your turn. Extract all the secrets that you don't want Jack to know and deposite them in the Pensieve."

The boy started to do it, it took more than twenty minutes. Ugh... How he must have suffered in his childhood, he doesn't want his friends to know anything, and he also wants to hide his encounters with his mother from them, so they don't know who she is. Jack and Sev waited in silence so as not to distract him, smiling sadly at each other.

When he finished, Sev asked him, "You already have it?"

"I think so."

"Do you no longer remember anything you have extracted?"

"I don't."

"Okay. Now Jack is going to read you, I already taught him yesterday. I'll explain how you have to occlude. Choose an immediate thought, for example, my own image, or Jack's, or some object in the clearing, whatever you like."

"The book of Occlumency?" Ariel took it in his hands.

"Good idea. Stare at it, so that it's what's on your mind right now and it's easy for Jack to search for it."

"Okay."

"And then you have to create a secret place in your mind," Sev explained. "You can imagine it as the basement of a house, a locked chest, a wall behind which there are things that cannot be seen, a cave, a hole under the ground, or the bottom of a deep lake. Anywhere to hide things, whatever you like or find it easier."

"I like the bottom of the lake, like through the window at home."

He has chosen the same mental image as me.I think all of us Slys would, hence our talent for Occlumency. "All right. So now, at the same time that you look at the book, you have to hide it at the bottom of your mental lake."

"Okay," Ariel said.

"When you have it let me know."

"That's it."

Wow... I tell you, he has talent. "Read him, Jack," Sev muttered.

Jack pointed his wand at Ariel's head, closed his eyes in concentration, and muttered, "Legeremens." Three minutes passed like this. Jack came out of Ariel's mind.

"What have you seen, Jack?" Sev asked.

"Immediate and recent. Everything that he has been thinking since we left the castle until right now."

"Wow… your first time. Amazing… And the book?"

"No sign," Jack replied. "His empty hands."

"Buaaah, indeed that this is smooth sailing…"

Jack smiled. He does understand… Sev thought.

"Ariel, you've done great," Sev said. "Since Jack can also read recent thoughts, now do the same, hide in your mental lake something you thought on your way from the castle, okay?"

"Okay," the boy replied.

Jack again read.

"Any difference?" Sev asked.

"Yeah," the older boy answered. "The path to the clearing, its image, and everything about you have completely disappeared."

"Wow, Ariel… you are a wonder," Sev said. "In addition, you know very well what you should hide without the need for us to tell you."

The boy smiled wickedly. He's like me…

"That's it," said Sev. "He already knows how to occlude."

"I have a feeling that he already knew," said Jack.

Surely, keeping secrets all his life.

"Now we need to learn to read in depth, to make sure that he also hides his less recent thoughts. He's got an incredible head start on us in half an hour," Sev said, and to the boy, "Outstanding in Occlumency, Ariel."

"Good!" the boy exclaimed.

"Now you know, keep in your mental lake everything that cannot be known."

"The tenth instruction, Ariel," Jack said.

"Okay."

The tenth?Is there a ninth? Sev thought. "Come on, collect your memories and reintroduce them into your head," he said, and to Jack, "What time is it?"

"Almost seven," the older boy replied.

"Ugh… we have less than half an hour left." I could offer to learn myself now.It would be the most logical thing to do, to hide the fact that I don't know, because I run more risk than Jack, and besides, I only have to pretend that I extract the thoughts, it will cost me much less, but it seems to me a waste of time, I already know how to occlude very well. "Do you think it would take you a long time to extract your secrets to me?" Sev asked Jack. "You know I only deepen to recent ones."

"Ugh… surely…" Jack replied.

Everything about Lauren and maybe years of what he's been thinking about me.Well, then I'll take the opportunity to hide.I only have to pretend to extract it, it will take ten minutes, it is credible, because I already told him all my hardships the other day. "Okay, so I'll do it and you read me, so you can practice reading a little more and we'll take advantage of the time."

Sev extracted, for safety, everything related to Lauren and Remus' secret, and for discretion, the intimate with Lily. "That's it, try to read me in the eye," he said. "Perhaps you will also succeed, and that way you will learn to read without a wand."

"Okay," Jack agreed.

They did it. This time Jack took longer than with Ariel, about five minutes. Sev only occluded the immediate ones regarding what he thought of Jack's reading and Lily's recent memories, since the rest of what was compromised had already been extracted. (He's going even deeper than with Ariel. He's going to learn very quickly.)

When Jack finished Sev asked him, "What have you seen?"

"Everything you've thought since you left class this afternoon," his friend answered.

"Brilliant. On the third time and without closing your eyes you have already managed to go back more than an hour. It's going to go very well for you. Have you seen anything about Lily?"

"I haven't."

"Perfect, that's what I occluded. We have Outstanding all three."

"Sailing wind, Prince," Jack smiled at him.

He already knows everything.He is the next one to learn to occlude. "All right. I think the next step should be for you to learn to occlude," Sev said. "So, if you'd like, tomorrow you'll come with Deborah or Anthony, whoever you have the fewest secrets, so you don't waste too much time extracting your thoughts."

He's thinking about it.He already has fewer secrets with me than with them, and I've put him in a bind, I'm going to get him out. "If you prefer, it's just you and me," Sev continued. "Think about it, I'll wait for you here like today."

"And I can't come?" Ariel asked.

"If the Commander agrees, you can keep us company, but you have to let us work in peace," Sev replied. "He has to learn to read you more deeply, to make sure you occlude well." That way if he brings Ariel, it gives him an alibi before the others.

"Sure, Sev," said the boy. "You are the Mental Arts Master. You rule."

Jack and Sev laughed. "It's the ninth instruction," Jack told him.

"I understand…"

"Well, Prince, then we'll meet like this," Jack continued. "We left now to be able to stop by the house and not be in a hurry for dinner. Is it better that we enter the castle through the passage?"

"I think it is," Sev answered. "It would be strange for you to return for a walk with the snowfall and at night, but make sure that no one sees you leaving it. At this time there will be people in the dungeons corridors."

"Of course. See you tomorrow Prince."

"See you tomorrow, Commander."

They hugged. Also with Ariel. "See you soon, Sev."

He has not told me 'See you tomorrow'. He's going to settle even if he doesn't see me.

"See you soon, Ariel."

Sev regained his memories, collected the books and the Pensieve, warded them and returned to the castle through the main gate. It is not strange for me that I go out at night and snowing.It is a great advantage that they know you are eccentric, they leave you alone.I should have been Rave.

As soon as he sat down to eat dinner, Lauren projected to him, "All in order.How about this afternoon?"

Booah... Today she hasn't waited, she's anxious to know, she must be counting down the hours until we meet. He looked at her. "Sailing wind."

She quickly looked away with a suppressed laugh, and so did he. Ugh... at this rate they are going to catch us, we have to learn to contain ourselves, Sev thought.

He listened to her mental voice, "Tell me about it tonight, don't look at me again."

Okay, she's realized too.

Sev took advantage of the hours after dinner to continue studying, but this time in the Common Room, since he had to pretend that he was reading allies to communicate to Jack the next day the news that Lauren gave him. When his roommates retired, he did so shortly after, so they could see him go to bed too. When everyone was sleeping he went down to the empty Room.

"Today it's your turn to start," was Lauren's greeting.

Merlin, I've had her on tenterhooks for forty-eight hours, howmean.I'm not going to play mysterious, I'm going to tell her everything. He related everything that had happened since Saturday regarding Jack, including their coded conversations about her. I'm afraid she'll be angry, but I haven't revealed any secrets about her family.

She waited for him to finish before speaking, "Merlin… I knew you would understand each other, but I didn't expect it to that point and so soon.You are extraordinary, both of you, you complement each other perfectly.How happy I am for him, he finally has a true friend, who supports and encourages him without having to discover his secrets."

She cares less about her being found out than about our well-being. "Lauren, don't tell me if you don't want to. Why did you finish?"

"It was very difficult for us to meet, the other one subjected him to close surveillance, every time he disappeared to be with me she questioned him. She once followed him and caught us together, luckily we weren't in a compromising situation and we pretended that I was trying to flirt with him, you know, it was believable, with my fame. It was at the end of last year, with a few days to spare before the holidays, when we were going to have to cut off all contact. He couldn't run away anymore, we were able to say goodbye because I risked going into his bedroom one night, we spent the time crying."

"Wow... And when you come back in September?"

"In June I decided not to commit him to anything, he was having a terrible time," she replied. "And during the two months of separation, I thought that the best thing was to leave him alone and wait for him be the one who would look for me at the return if he wanted."

And at the return she sat with me in Potions, Anthony told him about it and Jack didn't even try anymore, thinking that she had changed him for me, like I did when I saw Lily sit with Remus. "And then I got in the way."

"It was not you who did it, it was me who sat with you."

"Apparently opting for the evil side," Sev said.

"That is."

She gave up Jack to rescue me, even though she knew right away that I wasn't going to pay attention to her. "Merlin, Lauren, don't you ever think about yourself? About what you want?"

"I always do, it was my best option at that time," Lauren answered. "You see how well everything is turning out, sailing wind. Now he knows, if he loves me he will wait. He hasn't seen me with anyone else since either."

"Sure. Tomorrow I will start teaching him how to occlude."

"Thank you, Severus.Now you are also taking a riskfor me, we are already on par." They shared a sad smile. "It's my turn, I've read allies," Lauren continued. "I'm sorry to give you bad news in exchange for good ones. People are terrified of you."

Sev rested his elbow on the table and his head in his hand, covering his eyes.

"You apparently went away from Lily, Severus.That was your big mistake, both for her own safety and for their opinion of you."

He looked at her again. "I know, you are not the first to tell me nor will you be the last.Thank you for your delicacy in not having reproached me until now."

"And not only that. The fact that you no longer hang out with the snakes of our year is not helping to reduce your bad reputation, quite the contrary."

"And so?" he asked, puzzled.

"Well, you are doing your thing, which added to the fact that you are the best wizard in the House by far, makes them think that you are far above the other malefics and you will have a high position in the ranks, as it would be if you had not changed sides."

"All backwards."

"It would have been like that anyway," she added. "Doesn't it surprise you that your corner of the Common Room is always free?"

"It's true."

"Since when do you sit here alone?"

"Since the beginning of last year," Sev replied. "When Malfoy graduated I stopped associating with others as much."

"And since then they consider you his successor within the school. Everyone, good and bad, no one dares to invade your space."

"Booah…"

"Don't worry, it's not bad news," Lauren said. "They fear and respect you, you have dominated the bad guys, they leave you alone for a reason."

"Sure."

"And about the good ones, not all is lost. There are many willing to join an organized command as I already expected, and also Raves, as I told you."

"Have you read Raves too?" he asked, amazed.

"Yes, of course, I have them behind me in the Great Hall. And their opinion of you, of all the fifth-year students with whom we have met in class today and of whom I have been passing through the corridors."

"What a job, Lauren."

"It doesn't matter, it was worth it," Lauren reassured him.

"Why?"

"Because although they are afraid of you, they also admire you. You are very, very famous at school Severus, everyone I've read knows you."

"Whoaah…" Sev exclaimed.

"And you know what that means, don't you?"

"Tell me," with expectation.

"This is just my assumptions, because I cannot read about events that have not yet happened, but I am sure that as soon as you uncover yourselves and it is known that you are on the side of the good guys…" she said.

"What?"

She smiled at him, wickedly.

"Tell me!" he insisted.

"That it will be historic, a revolution. All those who want to fight, which are many, with the exception of the Gryffs, of course, are going to side with you immediately, precisely because you are there."

Sev's eyes widened.

"What I told you, a true leader, you are going to beat Dumbledore by the hand," Lauren continued. "The Slys, who will be the majority, and the Raves, who aren't exactly submissive to authority either, are going to be more loyal to you than to him, you're going to have him in your hands. You won't be his second, you both are going to be on par."

"What a responsibility, Lauren. I'm sixteen years old, I'm studying, I don't feel up to it."

"He will make it easy for you to be capable. In fact, I don't think he'll eliminate you all anymore even if he finds out about the magic. He must have been reading about you as well as I have since he saw you make the first move, maybe since long before, since you stood out and was with the bad guys and Lily at the same time, he must know how famous you are and the pull you'll have when it all comes out, and he can't waste it."

"Oh…"

"So don't worry about the Guard and your girl, even if you don't ask him directly, he's going to protect you all, I think he's already doing it," she went on. "It's very strange that you're always in the Forest and Hagrid hasn't bothered you at all."

"Yeah. Well, it's not that bad news."

"Well, don't claim victory, let's say you're on trial. Let's see if you all are able to really generate that spark that will cause the fire. There are only six of you, two of them children, and the rest are not exactly popular, they have formed a very closed group for years. Jack could be, he has the personality and the talent, but he has to open up more to people and make himself known. Encourage him to do it."

"Of course," Sev agreed.

"As for him, I think he can win over two students from his year with whom he has had a relationship, precisely because they are a couple and the other one was not jealous of them."

"Who are they?"

"I am not telling you their names," Lauren replied. "They are future fighters and good ones, ready to join, but for that very reason they consider you a mortal enemy."

"Sure."

"Has Jack read this afternoon?"

"Yeah," he replied.

"And how did it go?"

"Great."

"He already had the innate talent," she said.

"I think so."

"Well, you simply propose that he strengthen ties with the good warriors of his year, they are all taking the Defense NEWT. I'm sure he's already thought about them, but he's going to have to read them and win them over, perhaps risking telling them about you. He'll know if they'd keep the secret even if they don't join, that's impossible to tell by reading, you know, hypotheses about unaccomplished facts. If it works out, you'd be eight, six older and good fighters. And maybe the two of them would attract more lookalikes."

"Sure," Sev said.

"And there are also two other people who, at least, would make a difference."

"Can you tell me who they are?"

"Can't you guess?" Lauren asked.

"No."

"Severus, I'm treating you between cotton, you have to ginger up a bit, you should also learn to understand people to know how to deal with Dumbledore without reading him, it's very easy…" She waited. "Let's see... a clue, who can be aware that you are related to the Guard? What's your favourite subject?"

"Oh…! Eckhart and Helliwell."

"Of course… our year-mates. They've been watching you sit down and help Anthony in Arithmancy for two months and they're already suspicious about the Guard, because they also sit with them in the Great Hall and see them missing. And the three of them have been friends since they were little, they are the only good ones in fifth grade, apart from us, of course, but at the moment we don't count. Don't you realize they always sit together in class?"

"Yeah," he replied.

"Anthony has confidence in them. In Arithmancy they didn't sit together because Anthony didn't want to be next to you."

"Yeah... I already realized that."

"Well, both of you move to the front row and now that Anthony has improved let him help them too and you'll end up winning them over, because you already have them almost in your pocket," Lauren continued. "And they surely won't tell on you if they haven't already done so."

"Sure."

"They might not join a squad and they are very lazy in Defense, but if Anthony explains your situation to them they will take your side, they have also seen you with Lily all these years and they will understand, I'm sure they will support you. You would already be four of fifth-year to make a team."

"But they would take a risk," Sev said.

"Perhaps they will assume it, with the two sixth-years you would be at least ten. Of them you can tell them that you have read them, you see them every day in class."

"Wow, Lauren, what would I do without you?"

"Your favorite phrase. And what about the boy?" she asked.

"He has learned to occlude in ten minutes."

"Wow… I knew it."

"Now we need to learn to read more deeply" he said. "Jack has already gone back over an hour in three attempts and with his eyes open."

"Sailing wind," she winked at him. "Well, if there is no more news, today we'll dedicated to delving into reading and also start without looking at each other and from a distance."

"Perfect."