Chapter 27: Chapter 27 Occlumency
"You should know we are in special circumstances!"
Filch's shrill voice echoed down the long corridor as he glared menacingly at every student present.
"Anyone who has done this better come to me right away and confess, and I might even cut them some slack and punish them according to normal school rules! But if no one admits it and I end up catching them out, I'll make them regret not finding me and admitting their mistake at this point in time!"
The students looked at each other, no one looked like they wanted to admit their mistake, and Filch's threat seemed more like an empty threat, he didn't really have any clue on how to pursue it, and eventually, by lunchtime, it just settled down.
During lunch, Jon looked at Ron with a suspicious look on his face.
"You guys couldn't have done that, could you?"
Ron immediately shook his head like a rattle.
"How is that possible, I haven't messed with that door since the last time I was punished, ask Neville if you don't believe me, he's been with us all morning, he would have stopped us for sure if we had tried."
Neville nodded.
"We did stay in the common room the whole morning, you on the other hand, what were you doing this morning?"
Jon didn't conceal too much about this, he would have to go to Slughorn's office every night afterwards, and sooner or later Neville, who shared the same dormitory with him, would find out.
"Professor Slughorn wants to teach me something privately, and he asked me to make a trip to his office every evening over the next number of days."
A sympathetic look crossed Ron's and Justin's faces at his words.
"Then aren't you going to have a lot less time to spare after class."
Lavender rolled her eyes at both of them.
"Well, do you think everyone would think like you guys."
Neville, on the other hand, patted Jon's shoulder with a happy look on his face.
"It's a good thing for you, Professor Slughorn is well respected in the wizarding community, both before and even now, and he's the only one on this wagon who isn't wanted by the Ministry of Magic, so you'll certainly learn a lot from him."
Jon, however, became somewhat curious about this.
"Why is Professor Slughorn the only one who isn't wanted?"
Before Neville could voice, Ron jumped ahead and said in a hushed voice.
"Because he was the head of Slytherin House before and has held that position even longer than Dumbledore served as Headmaster of Hogwarts, and almost all the Pureblood officials in the Ministry of Magic now were once his students and were under his care during their school years. There are rumours going around that even that man himself was a former-favoured pupil of Professor Slughorn, so if the Professor hadn't been with us and had gone to the other side he would surely have gained a higher level of authority and fame, and now that he has become our Professor, the Ministry of Magic has not been vocal about it, as if they didn't know about it at all, and I have heard from the adults that this must have been done under that man's will as well. "
Jon pondered on Ron's words.
He certainly didn't think that Voldemort was reminiscing about old feelings by treating Slughorn like this, for the man whose nature was more suited to being the Dark Lord rather than just having the title Dark Lord, feelings and such were complete rubbish just like the so-called ideals, the only thing he really cared about is power and dictatorship.
Jon felt that the main reason why Slughorn managed to stay on Dumbledore's side without Voldemort pressuring him too hard was that he had the secret of Voldemort's immortality in his hands.
Jon didn't know whether this secret had been told to Dumbledore by Slughorn right now, and Voldemort certainly didn't know either, so he was expressing to his former Head that he had left some leeway and hoped that the fat walrus will be smart enough to not say certain things while he was allowed to do some things.
Of course, all this speculation assumes that Voldemort's arrangement of the Horcruxes is still the same as the original with no changes whatsoever.
The whole situation in the wizarding world is in shambles right now, so who knows what is going on with those Horcruxes.
He didn't think too much about these things that were out of his reach, for the time being, all he could do now was just keep his feet on the ground and strengthen his self-protection ability first.
The attack had left the students on the wagon shaken for the rest of the day, but there had been no further follow-up.
Indeed, it might be just as Dumbledore had said, the Aurors who had attacked Hogwarts had only accidentally spotted the wagon during a patrol and had been taken care of by the professors before the Ministry's support could arrive.
The tension on the wagon remained high for a week after the attack, but it slowly dissipated as time went on, and the school returned to its normal academic life.
And in the third week of charms class, Jon finally learnt the first spell in his life - the levitation charm.
This is the first spell almost every wizard will learn after being introduced to magic. It is not very difficult to cast, and its effect is a simple but practical one, as it simply has the effect of making heavy objects lighter and lighter in weight.
Just as Slughorn had said, Jon's magical talent is truly remarkable, and in the charms' classroom he was the first of the five new students to successfully cast a levitation charm; even Neville, who already had some experience in casting spells, had not succeeded in making the feathers on his desk levitate in his first try.
For this reason, Flitwick, whose leg injury had completely healed, was pleased enough to exempt Jon from his charms class homework.
And it was also on the same day that Slughorn began to give Jon the official start of his lessons.
"The study of Occlumency has nothing to do with what I'm going to teach you later."
A stone basin lay on Slughorn's desk, which looked ancient and could well be called an antique.
"The main point of learning this magic is for you to protect what I will teach you afterwards, along with the existence of this ring. There are many things in the wizarding world that can allow one to read people's memories, like potions, spells, and there are even some people who are born with the ability to read minds, and Occlumency is certainly the best protection against all of these things."
Jon naturally knew the effects of Occlumency, and even if Slughorn didn't offer to teach him now, he personally would find other means to learn this magic afterwards.
The memories of his past life in his head are vital, and if they are not protected, it would be akin to leaving the memories in his head nakedly open to others in this dangerous world of magic.
But what concerned Jon now was how Slughorn would teach him.
If it was going to be an outright forced invasion into his memories like the original Snape had done to teach Harry the Occlumency, as a way to speed up the training process of Occlumency, then there was no way Jon would be able to accept it.
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