I had wanted to get better at Occlumency but Eileen had already taught as much as she could.

 

So it was upto me to help myself. I had Eileen buy me a book about Occlumency which was hard to get commonly. Fortunately Flourish and Blotts took orders for books if you are a pureblood which I was now.

 

I ordered a book about Occlumency written by a French author and it had been translated into English. Opening it up, I was not too disappointed by its contents. The book had ample information about the mind arts although it was more of a general knowledge book than an occlumency one.

 

It stated that Legillimecy and Occlumency are classified as mind arts but mind arts as a whole fell under the Mind magic category.

 

Basically it meant that the Mind arts were a subcategory within Mind magic. As for mind magic, it consisted of all magic that affected the mind. For example, the obliviate charm or the false memory charm fell under this. In fact even potions like the love potion were considered Mind magic.

 

I was totally surprised by her revelation. It broadened my horizons completely and I felt stupid for not thinking of this earlier.

 

Coming back to the mind arts, it seemed that while both legilimency and Occlumency were related, one didn’t have to be adept at both.

 

Of course, I wanted to be a master at both but I didn’t have anyone to test legilimency on and I wasn’t even sure if I was any good at it.

 

So I focused more on the occlumency part. Occlumency was the art of protecting one’s mind from magical penetration, the most common form being Legilimency.Those who practised this were called Occlumens.

 

The most immediate functions of Occlumency were that it prevented anyone from accessing your thoughts, feelings, memories or even influencing them.

 

The book briefly stated that it could enable the practitioner to resist the Imperius curse and even less briefly that it gave resistance to Veritaserum. Also Occlumency was classified into ‘levels’ based on the user’s skill.

 

A novice level Occlumens could clear their head making it harder for a legilimens to read their thoughts. The legilimens would have to just spend a bit more time, this time depended on their skill level.

 

Next was the intermediate Occlumens. In this stage, the occlumens could detect their mind being invaded and could push the intruder back. This wouldn’t deter a legilimens who could enter the mind undetected.

 

Then there was the advanced level where the Occlumens could do what the intermediate could and could counterattack or trap the legilimens if the latter’s mind was weaker.

 

And the last level was the Master level, same as the previous one, the occlumens could do what the other levels could and could also create fake memories. The legilimens might be fooled by it which may prove fatal.

 

The book didn’t state that learning Occlumency gave any extra benefits so my theory of me being able to process things faster because of the void or reincarnation gained just a little more credibility.

 

The other use I could think of for it though was that it also prevented one from being possessed.

 

Seeing the explanation written in the book, I could understand why this branch of magic was difficult to learn. Part of the reason why it was so was because for it to work, a person must completely empty themselves of emotion. 

 

Humans are beings of emotions though so letting go of them was not an easy task. One also had to start early as it required dedication and a kid’s mind learned quicker. That and they have better imagination than adults which also helped.

 

An occlumens needs to make their mind blank and empty. This was what Eileen had asked me to do a year ago but she had put it off since then.

 

This was something I had already mastered in the void. I could clear my head within a matter of seconds. I just needed to reduce this time further and I would be set.

 

More advanced users could suppress their thoughts,emotions and memories completely and then above that some could even change them to a degree.

 

Again I could somewhat do half of that already. Suppressing thoughts and emotions were what kept me sane in the void after all. As for memories, I had two sets of them now and while I could look through them with relative ease, I couldn’t change them.

 

The book then went on about the requirements which were willpower and a high degree of mental and emotional discipline.

 

Then it also talked about legilimency. It defined it as the act of magically navigating through a person's mind in order to reveal their thoughts, feelings and memories, as well as correctly interpreting them. A witch or wizard that used this particular branch of magic was called a Legilimens.

 

The process to learn legilimency was a slightly different one. It actually required the use of a spell to enter the target’s mind. Though skilled practitioners could do this wandlessly and chantlessly.

 

The things a legilimens could do were many and it ranged from being able to detect lies to being able to access the target’s thoughts, emotions and memories. Of course, this was if the target was not adept at Occlumency. 

 

A highly skilled Legilimens could plant false memories and visions inside a person’s head and while eye contact made it easier to perform legilimency,it was not really necessary.

 

This information gave me a broader understanding of the mind arts. It seemed Legilimency was more powerful than I had anticipated. I had thought that Voldemort sending Harry visions had been due to his bond with him but it turned out, he did it with legilimency.

 

Legilimency was also classified like occlumency with novice legilimens being able to read surface thoughts only and required eye contact with the target to retain accuracy. 

 

An intermediate Legilimens could read surface thoughts and even look through memories but they didn’t have any attack power so any occlumens who were in the intermediate stage could push back. The only way the legilimens could stand a chance was to enter the mind undetected.

 

As for advanced legilimens, they could not only read memories but also break the barriers around an occlumens mind. 

 

And lastly a master Legilimens could plant suggestions, visions and false memories inside their targets head.

 

I closed the book after looking through it, although it didn’t teach me Occlumency, I had a better understanding of it than before.

 

Over the few weeks, I tried making a mind palace. I didn’t know if it actually helped in Occlumency but since it was used for memory enhancement so I hoped it would prove useful in Occlumency as well since it dealt with memories and information associated with them.

 

First, I visualized a complex place, I needed something I was comfortable with so I chose a large library. It was easy to visualize and then I added memories to the books.

 

There were a lot of books in them, more than the memories I had at the very least so I filled them all in a random manner and kept the important ones hidden in secret places. I couldn’t make fake memories yet so I just kept a loop of my time in the void in some books. 

 

They wouldn’t do much but they were quite long so they should buy me some time.

 

It was a rudimentary palace at best but for now it did the job. I could expand upon it as I progressed in my studies. 

 

I needed someone to use legilimens on me to actually make progress in my occlumency but I couldn’t think of anyone I would trust with my memories. Maybe they won’t see my previous life memories but I didn’t want to take the chance.

 

The only other option I had was hoping that the Room of Requirements would be able to help me but I wasn’t sure if it would work that way.

 

I asked Eileen if she knew a solution and she did have one. She suggested hiring a teacher to teach me under a contract binding them to never reveal what they saw in my head and a few other clauses.

 

Apparently this was how the noble houses taught their children mind arts if they didn’t have anyone proficient in the house.

 

But we couldn’t employ this idea for the foreseeable future because they charged a lot of money for their teachings. Eileen inquired and it came upto 2000 galleons a year and since most people didn’t learn it in one year with the average being 4-5 years this was an astronomical amount. 

 

No wonder only the Noble families attempted it. Though most didn’t need to as if the head of the houses had learnt it when they were young, they could just teach the heirs themselves.

 

I realised that the money we were making was not enough. I decided to use more of my quick money making ideas. I also had to read up on wizarding law about importing Muggle things to sell and also see if there would be any repercussions if I was caught investing in the Muggle world.

 

…..

[Aberforth Pov]

 

Aberforth Dumbledore was not sure about his decision to teach the boy. He didn’t really need the money as he made enough to get by but he had been stuck in the same place for a long time and he had a desire to travel. But travelling was expensive so he wanted to make some extra money.

 

He could ask his brother of course who would be elated to give him money but he didn’t want to rely on him ever again.

 

While he had agreed to teach the boy after seeing the look on his face, he wasn’t sure how he was going to teach him.

 

After all it was not like he was a teacher with experience in teaching. As much his brother wanted him to continue his studies, he couldn’t bear to leave his sister unattended after the incident and thus he had dropped out.

 

He had failed to protect her when she was attacked by those muggle boys in the village. The attack had damaged her permanently and his father had cursed those boys leading to his arrest.

 

His father, a good man, was sentenced to azkaban because he didn’t want his daughter to be locked up at St.Mungo’s permanently.

 

After seeing all this happen, he had been determined to protect his sister. He began training seriously and while he was pretty good at magic for his age, he couldn’t hold a candle to the brilliance of Albus, his genius brother.

 

Still he suppressed his jealousy and kept working hard but tragedy struck again. In his seventh year just when his exams were nearing. He received the news that his sister had lost control of her magic and killed their mother.

 

He couldn’t take it any longer and dropped out to take care of Arianna. He had trusted Albus to take care of her but he had become neglectful as he was lost in his pursuit for glory with that detestable friend of his,Grindelwald.

 

When he heard of their delusional plans of enslaving muggles, he couldn’t sit by and watch any longer so he confronted Albus who came to his senses. This however enraged Grindelwald and a fight broke out in which his dear sister became a casualty.

 

Regardless to say his relationship with Albus was strained.

 

Coming back to the boy, he had heard all about him from his mother Eileen. He felt enraged when he heard she had suffered at the hands of her husband. He was also concerned about the boy but it seemed that boy had a stronger mind than he had anticipated.

 

When he heard his reason for wanting to learn from him, he felt that it resonated within him. Whereas he had failed to protect his loved ones, the boy had succeeded. 

 

He didn’t want the boy to be in the same situation as him and so he agreed to teach him. While he wasn’t sure if the boy would even learn much from him, he would do his best to impart his skills which were not low after all even being in the shadow of Albus Dumbledore was no small feat either.

---

[A/N: A short chapter. I had to edit it. Initially, I had planned for Eileen to teach Severus Occlumency but it made her a bit too op so I removed that.]