บท 48: Occlumency
"You ate apple pie last night before you…" Harry shuddered and a look of revulsion crossed his face "And then you kissed Percy Weasley goodbye." He made a retching sound at that while Penelope swatted his shoulders playfully and Hermione giggled from the sidelines.
"There is nothing wrong with Percy Weasley. And I'm his girlfriend." She said and crossed her arms "What? You don't approve?" she asked playfully but there a hint of seriousness behind those words and Harry knew that whatever he said next would mean a great deal for her so he chose his words carefully.
"I personally don't know the bloke so I can't really say. But he is suffering from Hermioneflu."
"Hey!" Hermione shouted from the sidelines and was promptly ignored.
"Hermioneflu?" Penelope asked with mirth in her eyes.
"Yes. When people suffer from Hermioneflu, they tend to fall in the state of blindly worshipping authority figures and the rules created by them like it was the word of the god."
"He's not that bad." Penelope protested weakly and crumbled instantly when Harry gave her a pointed stare.
She knew that her boyfriend had the habit of blindly worshiping authority or as Harry said, he was suffering from Hermioneflu.
But that didn't mean it was that bad, right?
"So you don't approve?" she asked, a little hurt by his words for some reason.
"He's your boyfriend and I think that you should not let my approval or disapproval come in between your relationship." He said slowly, as if walking on top of a minefield "But personally, I think you can do better."
Penelope slumped her shoulders at that.
She knew that Harry had not said more because of the respect he held for her otherwise he might have mentioned other shortcomings of Percy Weasley, the main one being his stuck up attitude and the fact that he always thinks that he's in the right.
She'll have to think about her relationship some more before she took it to the next level. If she ever took it to the next level because now she was not as sure of it as she once was.
"But that's not the main problem here." Harry said and brought her attention back to the topic. "The problem is that I was able to bypass your basic occlumency shields without you ever knowing. And if a novice like me could do it. Then someone experienced like Dumbledore or Snape could easily do it as well."
Penelope shuddered at the thought of Snape reading her mind before she controlled herself and let out a sigh.
"I need more practice." She admitted.
"That you do." He said and asked her to sit with Hermione who was patiently waiting for Harry to probe her shields and check for any sign of weaknesses.
As it turned out, Hermione had created enough shields that even Harry was not able to bypass her shields without her knowing about it.
Penelope felt a bit jealous at that even though she had long admitted that Hermione was just a better witch than her and that she learned things at a much faster rate than anyone she knew.
Except for Harry of course. There was no competition for him, which was both a blessing and a curse.
After praising Hermione for a bit he send the younger girl to her and they both sat in silence before she took up her wand and pointed it at Hermione.
"Legilimens."
Harry had told both of them that they were girl so they should feel comfortable with probing each other's minds.
He told them that this was another way of fortifying one's mind.
If a person is repeatedly attacked by a legilimen, then his mind and magic start forming its own occlumency shields in defense.
And that was exactly what she was doing right now.
After a few legilimency probes that were just hard enough to put a lot of strain on Hermione's occlumency shields, she broke the eye contact and lowered her wand.
Hermione looked a bit tired and Penelope could already tell that they both will be having mild headaches this night.
They always did after their occlumency lessons.
But it was necessary. Or so Harry had told them and she believed in him.
Hermione calmed her breathing before she raised her wand and pointed it at her head and said "Legilimens."
----------
After spending so much time together, Hermione felt that she that she understood Harry pretty well.
He was the kind of person that was fiercely devoted to his goals and would do anything (as long as she didn't stop him) in order to achieve his goals.
And as it so happened, his goals right now were to understand as much about magic as there was to understand.
And to become the greatest wizard the world had ever seen.
Hermione did not doubt his words and from what she'd seen so far, she even believed that he would be able to achieve his goals.
That was why she was not surprised when she found that their study room had been converted into…
A room that was three times larger than the original one.
She knew that Harry was learning the Undetectable Extension Charm (another illegal thing) and he must have performed it in this room but wasn't that a bit reckless.
What if anyone else came here.
Then she realized that she was worrying over nothing and that he must have cast a number of charms so that other students and teachers would ignore this room, if they ever even entered this abandoned corridor in the first place.
Then she stepped in the room and was in for another surprise as the floor sunk in a few inches as if she was stepping on a cushion and she realized that that was was exactly was it was.
He had either trasfigured the whole floor into a cushion or he had cast a cushioning charm on it. Both of which were highly taxing.
But then again, he had told her that he was three times more magically powerful than any wizard of their age so maybe it was not that hard for him as it was for her and the others.
Wait, could the others of their age even cast this charm.
Of course not. It was a third year charm. How foolish of her.
Then she touched the walls and realized that Harry had turned it into a cushion as well.
He really did go overboard with his craziness this time didn't he.
She found him sitting at the corner with a usual runic tools carving something in his robes.
And beside him lying on the ground was… the dismantled form of what looked like dozens of broomsticks.
She felt a pang of hurt as she found his Nimbus 2000 among the dismantled group.
She had some fond memories of that broom and to see it lying discarded like that made her angry for some reason.
So she walked up to him with angrily, or as angrily as you could in a floor that sink a few inches every time you take a step and stood in front of him with her arms crossed in her chest and waited for him to see her.
He didn't.
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