Chapter 8: Chapter 8— Training Arc Begins
~Fun Fact: Did you know that the purchasing power of Wizarding currency is incredibly inconsistent throughout the series. In the Chamber of Secrets, Mrs Weasley is able to purchase supplies for all five of her school age children for one Galleon and "A very small pile of silver Sickles", but in the Half-Blood Prince a copy of Advanced Potion-Making alone costs 9 Galleons.
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It had been around 3 weeks after my birthday and I was sitting in the living room at around 4 pm when I heard the familiar sound of keys in the keyhole. I walked cautiously down the corridor, wondering who it could be.
'Dad doesn't come home from work on Wednesdays until six.....' I thought while slowly approaching the door.
Just as I neared the door, it opened as I was greeted with the familiar faces of my father and Harry, who seemed to be carrying a backpack.
'Aha, my plan was a success!'
"Guess who's coming to live with us?" Dad asked teasingly, as he moved from the door to take his shoes off.
"Hmm.... I wonder." I said jokingly, failing to conceal my smile.
"It's me!" Said Harry, positively giddy with happiness.
"Well, come on in!" I said cheerfully. "Lemme show you to your room!" while leading Harry up the stairs.
Turns out, dad managed to scare the Dursleys into letting Harry live with us from Wednesdays to Sundays. They would then pick him up from school on Monday afternoons. Hell, he even scared them into feeding him properly!
"O-oh, I was wondering if we could share a room..." Harry trailed off, seeming to take a great interest in the grey coloured walls.
"That's awesome!" I said happily. "Then we can practice our Magic a lot more often"
*****
An hour later, mum and dad had moved the spare bed to my room as I found Harry and myself already practising Wandless Magic. After a while had passed, I turned around to look at Harry.
"Harry, I believe this is as far as we can go on our own." I said sagely.
"W-Wait, you mean we're telling your parents?" He asked surprised.
"Yup, it's time we upped our training now that you're here a lot more often."
"Okay, if you think it's a good idea."
Not too long afterwards, we all found ourselves in the living room as Harry and I began fidgeting nervously.
"Little Yan and Harry, why do you two look like you've seen a ghost?" Dad asked curiously.
I swallowed nervously. "S-See daddy, I have something to tell you b-but don't be mad at me."
"We won't be dear" Mum said soothingly "What's wrong?"
"Me and Harry know about magic and we've practised everything we can. Can you teach us some more?"
Now, normally if a child were to say anything like that, their parents would brush them off and say magic wasn't real. But I knew full well that my parents were aware that magic was real— they were a Wizard and Witch for God's sake. And even if I didn't, their current faces were confirmation enough.
"H-How did you know little Yan?!" Dad asked, completely shocked.
'Oh lord, here comes the most unbelievable part of my explanation' I thought.
"I remember one time when I was very little, me and mummy were in the kitchen and she took out a stick. When she waved it around, the dishes cleaned themselves and the knives started cutting carrots." I explained nervously. "And look! Me and Harry can do magic too!"
I signalled to Harry to begin levitating the newspaper on the table as I levitated the empty cup next to it. It took a while for the shock to wear off from my parents but once it did, it was replaced with joy as my parents embraced both me and Harry saying how proud they were of us. Dad said he couldn't take us to Diagon Alley due to complications, which I knew to be mainly due to Harry's fame, but that he'd bring us some useful books that he'd used in the past.
*****
A few weeks later, Harry and I were once again in my room, as we systematically went through the books dad had bought us. He had bought the majority of the first year's curriculum, barring 'Hogwarts a History' as well as two new books. They were:
-Occlumency and Legilimency, The Arts of the Mind, by Sigmund Freud.
-The Ultimate Duelling Compendium, by Arcturus Duran.
I had taken it upon myself to transcribe each and every book into a format Harry would be able to understand. The topmost priority being the book on Occlumency as it would protect Harry's mind against our favourite people, Albus 'For the Greater Good' Dumbledore and his pet Snape. Once I had finished my transcribing, we threw ourselves into studying and applying with reckless abandon. For the next few weeks, Harry and I would regularly play a game of who could blank their mind the fastest through meditation/
Through our little game, we also found out I had a great talent for Occlumency, whereas Harry's lay in Legilimency. 'Probably due to the snake bastard-shard in his head.' I thought.
There were also other areas of Magic that we excelled in. For me it was Transfiguration and Charms. Whereas for Harry, it was Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions, surprisingly.
'Lets see if we can stun Snape into silence this time around' I thought while looking at Harry engrossed in my transcribed version of 'Magical Drafts and Potions, by Arsenius Jigger'.
Re-focusing myself, I opened the book on the Mind Arts and was met by the author's note:
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To whom it may concern,
The techniques and defences mentioned in this book start off at an extremely basic level but can be upgraded by the user however they see fit. Once these basics are mastered, the readers of this book will be able to shape their minds as they please. Before attempting any of the information written here, readers should familiarise themselves with their minds through meditation in order for any of the information to be effective.
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After reading the book, I summarised the information I read in a notebook that I could review when needed. I found that learning Occlumency and Legilimency was not as easy to learn as displayed in Fanfiction, but it was not impossible either. It consisted of:
- Starting with meditation; you must clear your mind of your thoughts and emotions so that there are no thoughts for Legilimens' to read. There are different ways to begin meditation; one is to begin with a thought and leave it there. Another is to focus on your breathing or to visualise your thoughts being discarded into something like a fire. This will at the very least stop basic glances of your surface thoughts since they're not there and Legilimens' will instead encounter a void or blank mind.
- The next step is to learn to notice when someone is in your mind. An exercise to train this would be getting someone to attack your mind and finding out whether or not you can repel them from it or even notice that they're there.
- When your mind is attacked, Legilimens can see your memories and how they're interlinked through similarity. Memories work through recalling something that has links to another memory. Therefore intruders can make you think of something in order to trigger their desired memory to appear.
- In terms of defence, you can recall a memory or invent one, and make it so that your attacker enters the memory. In order to do this, readers must first familiarise themselves with their memories through meditiation. The 'inventing false memories' part is difficult because most invented memories lack detail; however this can be circumvented through using parts of different memories. Almost like cutting and pasting different features from different memories in order to create a realistic and believable reality.
- The final step is creating your mindscape. In essence, your Mindscape is an imaginary realm that represents your mind and lets you perceive your mind. As everyone's mind works differently, the way each person's Mindscape looks like and is perceived is therefore different as well.
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After summarising everything that I had read, I decided to compile any useful tips I found for future use.
- The meditation and blanking of the mind could take around a month or longer; a month is just an average. This timeframe is only for achieving 'blankness' in five or so minutes; which would be enough for moving on to the second stage. The ideal time for achieving this 'blankness' would be instant, however 2-3 seconds is fine.
- Noticing intruders is dependent on the skill of the person intruding into your mind. Repelling an intruder is far easier than blanking your mind however you must notice them there in the first place which is quite difficult. (Harry will have an easier time learning Legilimency since he is a child and is more perceptive to emotions. He'll have a harder time learning Occlumency since there is no tangible effect and may therefore find it boring.)
- Obliviation: Destroy links between the memories. Normally, recalling involves following the links, however since the links aren't there anymore, there won't be any recall. Occlumens will be able to realise that they have been obliviated due to the cut links; once the links are cut the memory will be freely flowing around the mind meaning you must find it and by searching through all your memories to find where the connection has been lost. Once it is found, the mind will begin reforming new links over time.
- The owner of a Mindscape has absolute control over it. It's not defined by any law of physics or nature but instead the imagination of the Occlumens. Your subconscious can influence your mindscape. Your mindscape is only restricted by your beliefs and imagination i.e. two parallel lines can't cross each other but in your mind you could make it so they do. Your own mindscape can drive you insane however it is more likely to "edit" yourself and your worldview instead e.g. making you more eccentric.
By the time we get to Hogwarts, I theorised that we would at the very least be able to view our memories if not be able to create convincing false memories.
'Damn this is gonna be quite the long process,huh?' I thought, sitting down on the floor and breathing in deeply through my nose..
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