Kapitel 47: The Second Attack

The atmosphere over Hogwarts was oppressive for the following weeks. The classes were muted from their usual noise and teachers were patrolling the castle grounds relentlessly. Whatever attacked Noris still hadn't been found, and the students were starting to get uneasy.

Filch has been inconsolable, often going to the Nursery wing and seeing his cat lying on the bed. I can't say I don't understand. If it was Meowser I'd be in a similar state. The castle has become noticeably dirtier, as Filch hadn't been cleaning as much. You can make out clearly where the twins had executed their pranks, though those too have also been toned down once the twins noticed.

My own daily schedule hadn't changed that much, in between going to classes, and reading up on spell theories, I had been researching prophecies. The one I made earlier had stoked my curiosity. How come I can see the future? Or, how come I sometimes have severe bouts of déjà vu, as if I know how the story is going to end.

Not all is that bland though, my adventures around Hogwarts never stopped. Did you know there was a room that chairs were not allowed in or they would get flung out the door at rather violent speeds. Or a room that amplified your voice so much it could be considered a sonic attack.

I hadn't been slacking on my meditation throughout this entire process, and was earning a little tan because of it. There hadn't been much change however, and my control over my magic remained basically the same as it was before coming to Hogwarts.

Maybe I had hit a limit?

Like usual, it went into Dororthy. I am already thanking my past self for upgrading it. It has now become a detailed record of the life I have lived so far. Maybe in the future it will be put in a museum like some of the wizards of old in the library.

Lamenting this in the library, I come across a book that was very niche. A book that I had been searching for quite some time now, and hadn't been able to read until now.

"Occlumency," I whispered.

So many times, I have been told I need it, but I can't learn it the normal way. Reaching out to the book, I grab it and retreat to one of the more secluded parts of the library. Turning the first few pages proved difficult, as my impulsive urge to skip to the middle and jump right in almost dominated my mindset.

"Baby steps…" I whispered again, as if to reassure myself.

The introductory paragraphs of the book reiterated the need for occlumency in all wizards, as if it was the building blocks of future potential, and in a sense it really was. The benefits that came with practicing Occlumency were significant, with the only drawback being the immense amount of time required to cultivate yourself to a level in which you would be considered proficient.

The book listed the benefits as if to draw you in, increased memory capacity and better memory retention. In some cases there was a noticeable improvement in thought capacity, and the book speculated that the Ravenclaw Diadem used the concept of Occlumency to significantly improve the wearers thoughts.

Turning the next page, it finally stopped trying to entice the reader and got into it. It came down to building the foundation that would directly dictate any future potential. It was the concept on which your entire mind-palace would be based around.

The worst part was there was no examples in the book, and it directly addressed this.

"No influence?" The reason really didn't make sense to me, if you wanted a strong mind why not follow one that has proven to work?

However, it also seems that people's mind-palaces and their fundamental element is also a very heavily regarded secret.

It was no matter as I already knew what I wanted my concept to be.

Computers!

That's right. When I first started reading the book and it described the higher memory capacity, my mind quickly went to the computers I had read in the Nest at home. My instincts told me this would be the most beneficial concept I could use to build my mindscape.

"Attack!" I heard a scream whilst reading, and I quickly put the book into my robes out of reflex.

Before I could make out what was happening, panic had spread throughout the library. I heard Dumbledore's voice shortly afterwards.

"Everyone to the Great Hall at once," His voice boomed throughout Hogwarts but did little to calm the panic most people were feeling.

I made my way out of the library and used one of the secret passages I had found to get to the Great Hall faster. It spat me out close to the door and I made my towards the Great Hall. Luna sat in the normal spot, and I let out a sigh of relief as I sat next to her.

The students quickly shuffled in, taking seats and staring at Dumbledore. There was an angst that was palpable throughout the crowd, as we all watched Dumbledore's actions. Soon, he stood up and the hall immediately went silent.

"My dear students," He started, sounding aged.

"As you might have heard, there was another attack. One of the first years, Colin Creevery, was the victim."

There was a collective series of gasps within the Great Hall, even if they didn't know the person affected. The fact was a student was attacked in Hogwarts and caused panic. The great hall almost immediately burst out into hurried chat, about whether they would be next or not.

"Quiet!" His voice boomed, instantly dampening the hall.

"Rest assured," He paused and gave a reassuring look towards the students. "We are investigating and will put a stop to it soon."

He looked around again.

"Please follow your house prefects to your dorm rooms, any actions otherwise will not be tolerated." He said in a stern voice, which was unlike his usual character.

We all got up and marched towards the Ravenclaw Common Room. The knocker didn't ask a question and instead let us in immediately before locking us in. It responded to no one who wanted to leave and threatened to call a professor once annoyed enough by one of the ones who dare try.

There was here say on who was the victim this time, whether it was Harry Potter or one of his friends, as they already had a reputation of being a danger magnet. Luna seemed unaffected and retreated to her room without saying anything. The commotion in the common room didn't die down until people had verified that all the little eagles were accounted for. It was an unusual sense of unification in an otherwise isolated house.

In fact, even my room mates were accounted for, all huddling together and talking amongst themselves. One turned to look at me, then went back to the group. Thinking about it, I hadn't seen them in quite some time. I tried to approach them, but they quickly made themselves scarce.

'Oh well'

The good thing about the Ravenclaw Common room, is their own Library. You could call it a home away from home for most of the students here. The familiar smell of aged books and ink served to calm most of the students down, as they slowly retreated to their own rooms.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the time for me to be relaxing. I finally had gotten a book on Occlumency, I can't wait for tomorrow to come. There as a heightened sense of urgency in my recent actions. The gravity of what happened with my parents is starting to set in, and I need to distract myself from it with knowledge.

I retreated to a far corner of the Ravenclaw library and situated myself. Sat in a dark corner, I recalled the contents of the book, and the first steps one needs to take.

Essentially, you need to probe the outer limits of your mind, in a slow and controlled manner. You need to get a full feeling of your current mind, the boundaries and its limitations. How can you build a foundation without knowing the quality of the soil?

The probe needs to come from the central point of 'yourself' and can not be anywhere else. This proved difficult, as you need to be able to find your center first. The book breezes past through this section, as if the author didn't expect people to get stuck on this step, which is reasonable. The most center point of your mind is yourself, the voice that talks to you in your head, trying to comprehend reality and explain it to you. In some cases, it is your interface with the outside world. Some people filter reality to make it more bearable to cope with.

The book seems to expect everyone has this central point, which is delaying progress. I need to think about it from another point of view, perhaps my own point of view.

What if, I didn't need to do this step? The point of finding this central point is to have a starting point to start probing, but it feels unnecessary. I narrowed my eyes with resolve, and began trying to probe my mindspace.

Conceptually, it was rather simple. I simply imagined a door, right in front of me. Some would call it maladaptive daydreaming but Its rather fun once you can use it for your own entertainment. Walking up to it, I knocked.

A dull thudding ran out within my mind, resembling the knocks I just did. Strangely, there was no delayed echo like I had expected. It was eerily silent.

[Thud, Thud]

I heard my knocks again, but it was too clear to be an echo. Instead, it sounds like the door knocked back. Before I could react, its doorknob started to move, and clicked open effortlessly.

"Come in," A weirdly familiar voice sounded out.

A silhouette of a man peered his head around the corner of the doorframe.

"Ah!" I let out a gasp.

"That's right," It acknowledged. I have seen him a few times now. "Come in,"

Before I could ask anything else, he had repeated himself to come in… to my own mind.

It was a strange, and somewhat interesting feeling, being invited to peer into your own mind.

I walked forwards, slowly feeling myself turn immaterial. Passing through the door, it felt as if my connection to the outside world had been cut off, or maybe muffled.

The room I entered was somewhat messy, though vaguely familiar. The man pointed towards a seat in the middle of the room.

"Sit," he said, but offered no explanation. I appraised the seat, which looked no different from one of the dining table seats from the Nest. Seeing this, I sat.

The man turns around, another seat appearing in front of him, and he sits directly in front of me. As he sat, his figure slowly became more defined. Bit by bit, defining features appeared. Black eyes, slightly rugged face, black hair.

"So, you can finally see me?" He asked.

He was slowly gaining more detail. The clothes he wore were minimalistic in nature, a simple T-shirt and black pants. All things considered, a remarkably normal person.

"Who are you?" I had to ask. This person was living in my mind, as if a separate part of me. The person seemed hesitant to answer.

"I need to clarify something with you," I nodded. "You can actually see me, right?"

I nodded again, which made the man release a heavy sigh.

He looked at me in pity, before continuing.

"Where to start…" He trailed off.

"Probably at the start," I responded.

A dry smile was let out on their face.

"Sure, you can think of me as a guardian angel," It started. "A long time ago, your parents made a deal with me that I was to protect you from certain things."

"My parents?"

"Yes…" He looked at me again with pity. "Your parents found me when you were at a very young age. Perhaps, too young."

"What do you mean?" I asked before he moved onto the next topic.

"Hmm," His eyes squinted at me. "I won't tell you now, for your own good."

Before I could open my mouth, he continued.

"Right, we had a deal. I was to protect you from the shadows and they would be there in person. Your mother ended up 'sealing' me with a mutated Fidelus charm and some ancient magic they were researching at the time. To be honest, I wasn't privy to what they were doing either."

I opened my mouth again.

"The reason why you never knew they were wizards, was partially my fault." As if the figure read my mind.

"Until that Hogwarts letter came, they weren't going to tell you. They honestly thought you were a squib. You can thank some paid off nurse for that one," He seemed agitated thinking about it.

"What do you mean?" I asked, finally getting a word in.

"You really know nothing about your family… I guess, your mother came from a relatively noble household, both in the wizard and muggle world. You could even call them wealthy but like every family, there some caveats. Your father, though a great man, wasn't a noble.

The result was your Mother being exiled from the Douglas family for marrying your Dad. This was also during a turbulent period in the magic world, so they ran. I'm sure you remember your childhood house."

I nodded.

"Yes, that was where they chose to 'settle down' and try and live a normal life. Protected by a Fidelus charm on the house they lived in relative peace and had you. But no one can resist the temptation of magic."

I nodded again.

"Your mother wanted to make amends with her family, and invited her sister over to see if it was possible. You might remember the end result, but it didn't go down well. Shortly after, there were multiple attempts to find them."

"Why?" I asked in a dry tone.

"Well…" He seemed pensive. "Her sister simply told the world she had you earlier than you were born."

"What?" This confused me.

"Do you know about Harry Potter?" He suddenly asked.

"Vaguely," I answered honestly.

"Yes, the chosen one, among his many titles. I can't tell you why, but being born around the same time as him made you a massive target."

He looked at me directly.

"To be honest, you still are a target."

"… What?" I was too confused to understand what he meant.

"Look, your parents being attacked wasn't a spur of the moment thing. And to be honest, the fact you can see me isn't a good thing."

My eyes widened.

"Did they..?"

He nodded.

"Your mother, used a mutated Fidelus charm on me for multiple things. One of which was my identity towards you. There are more things that are still active, that I can't tell you about."

"This whole conversation borders on those limits, and for good reason." He stared at me again. "For now, you can call me Jarvis or something."

"Something?"

"No, not actually something, but like, think of something." He seemed used to my antics.

"Jarivs? Like from the iron man comics?" I asked again.

"Oh right, I forgot you knew about those." He was slightly surprised. "Anyways, our time together is finishing up, I know there is so much you want to ask but theres only so much I can say."

I resigned to the situation for now.

"Jarvis, who are you?" I asked the one question on my mind this whole time.

"…" He seemed pensive, debating whether to really say. He opened his mouth, and tried to voice his words but quickly scrunched his face.

I saw his figure become unstable for half a second, before he closed his mouth.

"… Too soon, huh?" he looked up at the void above us.

"Come tomorrow, at the same time." He looked back at me.

I nodded, and everything started fading away before my eyes.

When I came too, I was face down in the Ravenclaw Library with books surrounding me on all sides.

I moved slightly, and knocked them all down around me, some hitting me. My head pounded, as I pushed myself up and made my way towards the dorms. The moon had clearly risen to the midway point, and there was no one left in the common room.

Making my way towards my bed, I noticed all my room mates are again missing. Not bothering, I flopped onto my bed and landed on Dororthy.

Getting a dash of déjà vu, I started to process what Jarvis had told me today. Before passing out from exhaustion.

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Hello. Long time no see. I have started writing again. A lot has happened in my life, some better some worse. For awhile I was working 7 days a week until I started facing health problems. I use this book to escape, so when things get better for me, chapters stop being made. This was the wrong approach to writing a book, and I have started writing on a consistent basis. I decided to go to work an hour early and work on my book in my 'down time'. Lets see how long this lasts.

Thank you for sticking around. I am not sure how well received this chapter will be because I info dumped abit.

Thanks.