Chương 7: Chapter 06
"Are you ready?" Eileen asked.
Taking a deep breath, I gave her a nod. It was time for my first occlumency lesson.
"Well then, let's get started."
"Occlumency is an ancient field of magic that is used to protect one's mind against legilimency. There are no wand waving or flashy things involved in it and it requires discipline and order." She explained with a solemn look on her face.
"Severus, I must ask you to show patience while learning this art. Its requirements are high but the return is low...initially at least so you must not be discouraged if you don't get it easily."
"Yes, mother."
"Alright then, today I am just going to teach you or atleast make you understand the basics of Occlumency. Is that clear?"
I gave her a nod.
"Right, so the first thing you can do if a legilimens is trying to read your thoughts is to not give them any. Of course, this won't stop a legilimens as he can just break into your mind but doing so would mean exposing himself. He would have to keep eye contact to initiate the spell and if he is not extremely advanced,he will have to use a wand."
"So for today's lesson, you will have to learn to clear your mind, to make it blank and empty. It might sound easy but you will soon learn that it is not as simple as it seems. Even a single stray thought will reveal your intentions so make sure there is nothing in your mind."
"Don't focus on anything and...just let go." She finished and gestured to me to give it a try.
I did as she instructed and closed my eyes. It didn't take long before I felt a serene feeling wash over me and sure enough my mind was blank and empty as she put it.
Opening my eyes I said, "Done."
She raised an eyebrow at that, "Are you sure about that?"
I nodded.
"Well let me see if you are telling the truth. There is no way you could have cleared your mind so quickly.." she said and then looked me in the eye.
Her expression quickly turned into a shocked one. "Y-you….actually did it….b-but how?!"
Well I only did as well because this was something I already knew. Being in the void with no way of sleeping, this had been something I had come up with or more like learnt in the void.
I would clear my mind when my thoughts became too pessimistic and it kind of worked. I could not keep it up forever but it did buy me time.
"Tell me Severus, how did you do this?" she asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.
I just shrugged, "I dunno...I just followed what you said I guess?"
She let out an exasperated sigh, "Haah...it seems you are gifted in this field. I would have thought you were a perfect occlumens had I not seen the lack of barriers around your mind."
"What's a perfect occlumens?" I was curious to know what it was.
"Well do you know what a perfect legilimens is?" she asked. "Oh..you probably don't but there are some individuals who are born with the ability to use it. Kind of like an innate talent."
"A perfect legilimens can read minds passively and while they can be stopped by occlumency, a trained one can easily penetrate the barrier. Similarly, a perfect occlumens is one who has in short extremely high resistance to legilimency and is usually born with a barrier around their mind."
I was fascinated by this tidbit, I recalled a character who could have been a perfect legilimens. Queenie Goldstein did fit the bill. I wondered if there were any perfect occlumens.
Eileen continued, " But these people are very rare. You hardly see one in a century and even if there are more, nobody can tell especially for an occlumens as people don't go around digging into other's mind."
"I thought you were one but you aren't as I could read your memories if I wanted to."
My lessons went smoothly after that. She didn't teach me more and asked me to keep working on clearing my mind. She gave me an old dusty book about Occlumency and asked me to go through it.
Overall occlumency was a success.
.....
Staring at the familiar dingy old pub, a wave of nostalgia hit Eileen.
'It hasn't changed at all…'
It had been years since she last came here but nothing had changed. The rusty sign still hung with the words 'Leaky Cauldron' written on it. It still had the same welcoming vibe and she felt her mood get better just by seeing it.
A part of her still had trouble believing the fact that she could use magic again. Being under that man had made her feel like using magic was a sin but now she felt joy each time she used it.
Nothing she ever did would amount to the gratefulness she felt for her son. She didn't have anything to repay him other than be the best mother she could be for his sake. She was glad he had accepted her.
She didn't know what she would have done if he hadn't. Now that they both were free to do as they pleased, they had to face reality. Tobias had used up pretty much all of their savings and had even used up hers as well.
The money they had wouldn't last for long and Eileen being the adult had to provide for both of them. It had been nearly a month since the incident and they were already almost out of money.
She regretted spending money so haphazardly and even bought Severus along with her. Worse yet, she had spent most of her money on those pretty dresses she had seen in the tele.
She had always dreamt of wearing them but she knew that even if she had gotten them, things would only be worse if Tobias noticed it so she had kept mum.
But all things said, she just couldn't help herself. It had been too long since she had some time for herself and Severus was to blame too, he had spent quite a bit on food and...shampoos.
'Is he at that age already?' she thought. The boys at Hogwarts hadn't cared about their personal appearance until third year except some snobby purebloods who smeared makeup like pigs.
But she remembered Severus telling her with a serious tone, "It's for a future investment. My future self will thank me if he ever decides to keep long hair."
She couldn't help but chuckle at this. Seeing him with a serious expression talking about investment had been funny. He always seemed so mature for his age but a nine year old kid talking like that would make anyone smile.
With a smile still on her face, she walked into the pub. It was still as she remembered. Dark and shabby, with a bar and tables shrouded by shadows.
Now she understood why the Muggleborns she knew used to call the wizarding community out of date. She had been living in the muggle world for quite a while now and coming back to this pub made her feel like she was in a different era.
There were some old women seated at the corner with their dark robes and pointy hats, a man was smoking a long pipe and the entirety of the pub was filled with such individuals. She felt out of touch with the place, the only thing common she had with these people were the robes she was wearing.
'I am glad I decided to wear my old robes, I would have stood out too much if I wore any muggle clothing.'
"Ay..how may I help you, Miss?" A voice called out to her.
Eileen turned towards the source and found a tall,bald man. It was the landlord Tom if she recalled correctly.
"Um...I was just looking to get to Diagon Alley…"
"Ah..come along then, it's at the back." he said beckoning her to follow him.
She did as told and walked with him. He took her to a courtyard behind the pub.
"Here we are," he said once they were faced with a wall. " I take it this is not your first time here?"
"No..I have come here several times but it has been some time since my last visit." Eileen replied.
"I see...do you need help accessing the wall? You will need to pay a small fee for that though.."
Eileen jogged her memory trying to recall how she had opened the wall and fortunately enough, she remembered it.
"That won't be necessary, I know how to open the wall." She replied.
"Very well, call me if you can't get it open." he said and left the way he came.
She pulled her wand out and tapped the bricked wall in the sequence she remembered. It turned out to be the right one as the wall parted to reveal the crowded cobblestone streets of Diagon alley.
Taking a deep breath, she moved forward.
….
[POV change]
Eileen had left for diagon alley leaving me to tend the house. She had finally decided to go get her name back and maybe get a job somewhere.
Tobias had also left a debt for us and the debtors had come to collect. They were the typical goon lackeys who threatened people but they were dealt with easily, a quick obliviate with a confundus was enough for them.
Seeing as how more people might come, Eileen set up a muggle repelling barrier. The muggle repelling charm worked...like a charm and people just ignore the well kept house in the desolate street or remember something urgent and leave.
It kind of worked like a weaker fidelius charm with half the functions. It did the trick though and no more thugs came looking for trouble.
My magic studies were coming along decently with Eileen teaching me potion theory in the morning to Occlumency sessions in the evening.
I had not made much progress in occlumency as she wanted to teach me slowly. I had gotten to the point where I could clear my mind as soon I felt a probe.
She did say she would teach how to defend and set up barriers soon so I was excited for that.
As for potions, it was only theory so I had not made much progress in that either.She just had me memorize the potion recipes and formulas which was not a hard task with my enhanced memory.
This was something I had noticed. My memory had become sharper and it was easier to comprehend things too. I couldn't explain it so I attributed it to either Severus' brain power being more than mine or it was a side effect of my time in the void.
Coming back to potions, Eileen also had me get used to cutting and slicing things so that when I got the ingredients, I would waste them.
Last but not the least, I had started studying Science again. While I didn't know if I could incorporate it in magic, I had to give it a try. I had to study for this though as I had never been a good student before.
The subjects I was focusing on more were chemistry and mathematics. Chemistry because it had connections with Potion making and Alchemy, both highly advanced fields and Maths on the other hand had some relations with Runes and arithmancy.
I had just about read the basics this month and planned on slowly expanding upon it. I wanted to start languages as well especially latin since it was the language the spells were in but there was no duolingo to help and I couldn't find any books that taught latin either.
I decided to put it off till I found a tutor for it or any other means to learn it.
Reading the subject books though was still an unpleasant experience. I didn't feel any of the excitement I felt when I studied the magical subjects but I forced myself to push through.
Funny how dying changes a man. If it had been me before death, even if I had been transmigrated I would have probably slacked off. My procrastination skills were too high but they had been reset after my time in the void, something which I was thankful for.
Eileen was a bit surprised by me asking for muggle books as Severus had never shown interest in them but was more than happy to help and got me some second hand books from a sale.
Speaking of second hand books, I would most probably be using Eileen's books for my time at Hogwarts. The new books were expensive and while the latest editions had minor improvements, they also omitted things.
This was most likely the Ministry's attempt to restrict knowledge given to the common populace or maybe some elaborate scheme of the Purebloods I didn't know. But according to Eileen, the Ministry had been removing things from the wizard books after Dumbledore's duel with Grindelwald.
I could guess why they did it. They didn't want people to grow as strong as those two. It didn't stop Voldemort though and his followers were purebloods who had access to all the knowledge they wanted so in a way this backfired and weakened the Ministry.
I didn't fret too much since the Hogwarts library would have everything I needed and more or so I hoped.
I don't know if the Room of Requirements worked the way it did as portrayed in certain fanfics but I hoped for it to work that way. It would make things much easier for me.
If not I just had to be the teacher's favorite and since Slughorn still taught at Hogwarts, I had hopes of pulling it off. I just had to not act shady like Tom.
…
It was afternoon by the time I left for the park.
I started my jog towards it. I made it somewhat of a habit of mine to give my body some exercise.
I didn't know if having a strong physical body had any effect on my magic but it didn't hurt to stay fit.
I wanted to try other exercises but didn't because I wasn't sure if it was good for my young body.
I missed the times when I could just google things I wanted to know about. The lack of means to access information was frustrating but I couldn't do anything about it.
So I just did the bare minimum to keep my body fit and healthy. By the time I started feeling out of breath I had already reached the park.
The park was surprisingly not empty like usual. What greeted me was the sight of a familiar redhead crying under the tree. She looked about my age and had distinct green eyes. Who else could it be but Lily Evans.
It seemed that the time had finally come to meet my first significant canon character. I had not anticipated this happening so soon but it was nothing troubling, I just had to adapt a little.
Wiping the sweat of my brow, I approached her.
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