Chapter 32: Trust
We continued to sit around the common room reading and doing our own thing since we had a break in between classes. I was reading about protego but couldn't figure out how to pull it off. Hermione and I found the book about it in the library the other day but after trying it in our private classroom and failing, I decided to come back to the book to see if I missed anything.
I nudged Hermione on the arm with my elbow and showed her the book. "What do you think we are doing wrong, I didn't miss any of the information," I said genuinely puzzled. She looked away from her book and looked at mine before thinking, "maybe the book isn't telling us the full story. It is not in the DADA books and the ones we did find don't work, maybe it's meant to hinder us from being able to use it until later years?" she analysed.
I thought about it and concluded that what she said was probably correct. As to the reason for hindering our progress? Well, it could be many reasons, reasons I don't know, nor do they matter at root. The solution is simple, all we have to do is find a person who knows the protego spells and have them teach us. Coming to this conclusion I shared it with Hermione who agreed.
"It is probably the most direct route to getting what we need," she said before frowning, "but who is going to teach us? If they are not letting us know it in the first year it has to be for a reason," she said in contemplation.
[kid! Are you some kind of idiot? What the hell have I been teaching you? Use Legilimency and read the memories of one of the students who knows the protego spells,] he said disappointedly. I facepalmed silently which startled Hermione.
"what's wrong with you?!" she jumped slightly from my actions.
"Relax, I found our solution and it's much-much simpler," I said with a grin. She looked intrigued and calmed down so she could listen. "I have been learning Legilimency lately," I said in a hushed voice as I looked around. Hermione looked at me with a puzzled expression. I realised she didn't know what that was.
"Legilimency is the practice of using magic to enter another person's mind, read their memories, plant false images into their head and manipulate their memory. It is Considered as invading peoples' privacy and is therefore heavily restricted by the ministry of magic," I paused to let her digest this.
She looked shocked as her expression changed to one of vigilance and wariness towards me. I sighed since I knew this would happen. "Did you do anything to my mind?" she asked seriously, her brows knitted together so tightly they almost formed a jumper. I shook my head before explaining.
"Even If I tried you would have noticed, I am not so proficient at it as of yet. Plus, you are my only friend here, if I wanted to use it on you why would I make it more difficult by introducing you to occlumency?" I asked truthfully. She bowed her head in thought as her hand caressed her jaw. That was a tell-tale sign she was contemplating something seriously.
She lifted her head back up at me and looked straight into my eyes. "Thomas Knight, if you value our friendship, be truthful and tell me if you have ever used Legilimency on me before. I will fully believe you until I find out otherwise. the better I get at Occlumency the easier it will be to find out if you're lying later," she said seriously with a grim expression.
I was shocked that she would question me this much, but I understood her concern. It would be a complete and utter breach of trust and friendship to manipulate someone like that. 'Drak, is there a way to transmit my memories to her?' I asked in my head.
[sure, I can help you with that, just hold her hand and I'll do the rest.] he said simply.
"Hermione, give me your hand," I said without context while stretching out my hand. She looked at it and then at me before placing her hand in mine. I shared with her all the memories and the emotions I felt at that time while I was at Hogwarts with her. The first time meeting her, our classes, me lecturing her and so on. There were obviously some memories not included but the important ones were.
I let go after a while when all the memories were transmitted and silently sat there waiting for her to digest the information. She lifted her head and looked at me with a smile before punching me in the ribs as hard as she could. I was tough but shit that hurt. I looked at her in confusion.
"So, you were planning to get back at me for the pumpkin incident huh?" she said with a devilish smile. I looked at her in disbelief, "that is what you got from all of this? Are you kidding me?" I said genuinely indignant. She laughed so hard she grabbed her sides.
Between tears she spoke, "I can't… believe how resentful… you were about that you little… baby" she said as she continued to laugh with tears in her eyes. I was about to get up and leave when I got pulled down again. "What do you want now? Go on, keep laugh-" I was cut off by Hermione who covered my mouth with her hand.
"Shut it dummy, I understand you didn't use Legilimency on me, so I'm thankful for that. I'm sorry I didn't trust you more it's just that the knowledge that you could have manipulated me scared me a lot, so I had to make sure," she said with an apologetic smile. I sighed and readjusted my position on the couch. "Fine, so now you know I didn't do anything to you ok. Back to the point, I can use this skill to read the memories of the students who know the spell and find out what we are doing wrong," I concluded.
Hermione looked hesitant, "how proficient at it are you? Can you do it without anyone finding out or are we going to have to do it some other way?" she asked. She had a point, if we were caught, we would be in deep shit, the student would just report that I was doing something with his/her memories and there is a large chance that it would be linked to Legilimency.
I thought about it before shaking my head. "I'm not proficient enough to do it without them knowing. But I have a way around it." I said with a smile.
"We knock out a student, drag them into our classroom, I read his memories and then we dump him somewhere," I said before getting punched in the arm again.
"What a stupid Idea Tom, let's forget about Legilimency for now and try to find a person who can teach us." Said Hermione while shaking her head.
I sighed and threw away the thought before thinking.
"Do you have any more idea's?" she asked.
"No idea" I sighed dejectedly; Hermione wasn't much better since she didn't say anything either. "We will have to put it off until we find an answer," she said before getting up. "Come on, we have classes and then the feast in the great hall later.
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