NOVEL NEXT Chapter 42: Legilimency II
After Julius' first quidditch game at Hogwarts had passed, though he'd only been a spectator this time, the next days passed quite peacefully, besides a certain excitement between quidditch fans, which mostly manifested in the form of wild speculation about this and that, which players would make the biggest impact and which house would win against which, as well as the usual grumbling about "unfair" rulings by Professor Hooch as well as the "shitty" rules, particularly in regards to seekers, not that Julius didn't agree with most of the latter.
The only particularly interesting thing that happened during these day was how Habol asked Julius if he could maybe help him with the improvement of his occlumency shields after he would be able to do so, to which Julius happily agreed since it would give him the perfect training partner.
After all, while he would get better and better with his legilimency so would Habol's mental shields grow, which would in turn motivate him to grow stronger again.
Of course the sunday before Julius' first lesson was a very nice one and pretty warm and sunny for late autumn in Scotland, which got most of the students to spend their time outside, some doing homework due for monday but most just fooling around.
The three friends spent the day reading and practising a few useful charms they didn't know yet as well as in Julius' case the transfiguration of his steel ball while Rachel seemed to enjoy the sun even more now that it became rarer that she got a chance to do so, her scales sparkling beautifully in the sunlight, only for Julius to see.
...
The monday of course started as any monday did, students sleepily walking to the great hall to eat and not even the teachers being any better of.
Snape seemed ready to skin some students alive and only Dumbledore seemed to be as lively as always despite his old age.
Even the weather seemed to hate monday mornings; it had been raining for the whole morning.
Of all of the students in the castle, Julius was probably one of the few to feel a bit of excitement for what the day would bring, though only due to his first legilimency lesson being this afternoon, after school.
Despite the atmosphere the three used the chance to plan another trip to the restricted section, as all three of them had finished reading the books they'd taken and they didn't really want to waste too much time which they could also use studying the next ones.
After classes had ended for the day Julius visited Professor Crown in her office for his first lesson.
Despite his excitement a feeling of unease and nervousness also started to affect him, he didn't even have his most loyal companion, Rachel, with him since he had left her behind for once; there was something inside of him that just didn't want her there.
Trying his best to shake his hesitant thoughts off, Julius waited in front of the Professor's office for a moment and took a few deep breaths before knocking and quickly entering as the door swung open on its own.
When he entered the room Professor Crown was apparently correcting some papers from her older students and only signaled Julius to sit down on one of the two chairs in front of her desk where he waited a few minutes before she finished whatever she was doing, stood up and came around the desk to sit down in the other chair while turning it so the two were turned towards each other.
Then she began their first lesson.
"Legilimency," the Professor began in her usual gruff tone, "is a powerful and delicate magic, not to be taken lightly. It requires discipline, control, and above all, respect for the minds of others - or at least that is what my teacher told me in my first lesson, the last part seems a bit nonsensical to me, considering every use of this art is one of the most serious desecrations of another's most private space a wizard or witch can commit."
She motioned towards the tome Julius held in his hands, he had decided to bring the book with him just in case she wanted to use it for the first lesson.
"The principles are laid out here, but true mastery comes from within," she continued, her gaze penetrating. "To understand another's thoughts, you must first understand your own, though no two people's thought processes are alike."
With a flick of her wand, the room was filled with ethereal images, somehow visualising what seemed to be different thought processes, starting from the same point, only to end in entirely different manners, proving her incredible mastery of the art of illusions just as much as her experience when it came to the mind arts.
"Legilimency is about perception," Professor Crown explained, her voice commanding attention. "It's about seeing beyond the surface, delving into the depths of the human mind."
Julius listened intently, his curiosity piqued by the mysteries of Legilimency, making him almost completely forget his doubts from earlier.
As his mentor guided him through the intricacies of the art, he felt a sense of awe and reverence for the power he was about to wield, realising how fortunate he was for his mind to be save behind his family's magic.
"Close your eyes," the Professor instructed firmly. "Focus on your breath, on the rhythm of your heartbeat. Clear your mind of distractions, of doubts and fears. And just for a moment try to analyse your own thought process as well as the emotions you are currently feeling."
"Open your eyes and look into mine now," she continued after a while, "now try to search for mine by reaching out like you did just now, only this time you can't search inside of you, but inside of my mind, you can imagine it as if it were right behind my eyes."
"Remember," Auror Crown's voice echoed through the plain office, "legilimency is not a weapon, but a tool. It's about understanding and connection. It's a bit as if you were stretching out some sort of mental feelers, wisps of your own consciousness, towards someone else, at least at this level."
Letting himself be guided by the words of his teacher Julius felt as if he somehow slipped out of his own body and was suddenly in the body in front of him, it was as if he was in a huge church of sorts and he could hear a preacher repeating one sentence in latin again and again, then it was over and he was in his own body again.
...
His first lesson ended with that and even though it had felt like ten minutes afterwards it turned out Julius had needed almost two hours for his first "success" though he had of course not truly been reading the Professor's mind but witnessed a fragment of a memory she set out as a decoy and put on repeat, he was supposed to try and be able to see in the memory in the next lesson.
But for now he would need to get ready for his second visit to the restricted section together with his friends.
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And that was another chapter, I tried out a "new" style with the speech during his lesson, let me know if it's better or worse that way if you have an opinion on that, I would love to know if I should try and continue like that.
Thanks for reading and have a nice day :)