章節 388: Legilimency Practice
It had barely been a day since school had started again, and already the rumours were spreading like wildfire. Scraps of weeks-old newspapers were being passed around as proof that the rumours were real, that Oleandra was a bloodthirsty Witch who revelled in the blood of her enemies.
As a result, she was now being shunned by the vast majority of the student body, including her fellow Slytherins, most of whom had already heard from their parents about Oleandra openly defying the Dark Lord's will and murdering his men…
Oleandra had already grown numb to this sort of silent treatment from her peers due to everything that had happened to her family this year, but to be treated as some kind of a murderer… it was much worse than everything she had lived through so far. Even though she had never killed anyone human, the stares couldn't help but make her feel like it was somehow all her fault those people had died… even though really, Malfoy was to blame for letting the Dusk Elf into their world.
The morbid fascination with which she was being scrutinized, albeit from a distance, was making it difficult for Oleandra to shake the omnipresent eyes observing her every move to get to her meeting place with Harry for his Occlumency lessons. She had promised Dumbledore to keep the fact that she was tutoring Harry a secret from her fellow students, and she wouldn't be able to uphold her bargain with him if she was being tailed…
In the end, she had to enlist Tracey's help to walk around the Slytherin common room masquerading as her using the reversed Perthro rune's power, while Oleandra used its normal form to thin her presence, until her existence had become completely unnoticeable.
A prerequisite for Oleandra's Presence Diminishing Spell to succeed at making her psychologically invisible was that no hostile parties had to be actively searching for her, or be aware of her exact location at any given time. But by having Tracey walking around the common room wearing her face, Oleandra was guaranteeing that nobody would be looking out for the real her!
And so, with six o'clock rapidly approaching, Oleandra discreetly slipped out of the Slytherin common room, and she set off for their agreed meeting place. It had to be a secluded location where nobody would walk in on them, so they had agreed on the Room of Requirement. It was sort of risky, seeing as how all the members of R.C. (temp) knew how to enter it, but they could think of no better place to train.
"Heya, Hero!" Oleandra greeted Harry, immediately noticing his good mood as she entered the room. "Well, aren't we in high spirits?"
"Oh, hello," Harry greeted her back. "Er— yeah, I just asked out Cho for Valentine's Day, and she said yes."
"Just be careful of Diggory," Oleandra said conspiratorially. "He's not the greatest fan of us Triwizard champs, especially the ones going out with his ex-girlfriend."
It suddenly occurred to Oleandra that she and Harry would have a hard time explaining this little secret meeting of theirs to their love interests. And of all people, Oleandra had asked Tracey to cover for her while she went to meet a boy in secret…
"Right, then," Oleandra continued, clearing her throat. "Shall we get started?"
Harry was already aware of the rudiments of Legilimency and Occlumency in general; he had asked Hermione to enlighten him on the subject after Oleandra had read his mind during their duel.
"Wait, before we get started," Harry blurted out. "Have you been having— you know— weirdly vivid dreams, lately? Like, turning into a snake and biting Mr. Weasley, for example?"
When Oleandra had heard of what had happened to Mr. Weasley, she had immediately made the connection to the weird dream she'd had two days before the start of the holidays, but she'd kept it to herself. And when Dumbledore had asked her to teach Harry Occlumency…
"Yes," Oleandra confirmed. "I suppose it's why Dumbledore is so eager for you to learn Occlumency— to stop you from having any more of these dreams."
"But why?" Harry argued. "Look, I'm not exactly overjoyed at the idea of entering Voldemort's head, but isn't it more useful for our side to know what he's thinking? I wouldn't have been able to help save Mr. Weasley, if I hadn't had that dream…"
Oleandra shrugged.
"The magic of the mind is a two-way street, and Voldemort's better at it than you are," she said. "You wouldn't want to get possessed, would you?"
Harry shook his head after a moment of hesitation.
"Right, then," Oleandra continued. "We'll start with the easiest way block a mental probe; try picturing something, anything, and whatever happens, don't let go of that mental image. Nod when you're ready to begin."
Harry looked pensive for a moment, and then he nodded.
"Here goes nothing, then," said Oleandra cheerfully. "Oh, and by the way, whatever you do, try not to think about anything embarrassing… Legilimens!"
Deep inside Oleandra's mind palace, the wretched thing stirred. It had been lying there quietly, hiding, biding its time until the girl opened her mind again, waiting for its chance to escape the suppression of the stars' harsh light.
Meanwhile, Oleandra was being submerged by the sea of feelings and impressions within Harry's inner world. Harry's current thoughts were on display at the forefront of his mind, but Legilimency was more than just mind reading. If she wished to, Oleandra could dive in deeper through the layered sea.
Oleandra had enough experience with Legilimency to navigate away from more personal things; such as Harry going to the bathroom and doing unspeakable things to himself, but since she had specifically told him to avoid thinking about anything embarrassing, of course all Harry could think of now were his most embarrassing moments, which bubbled up through the sea of feelings for her viewing pleasure.
Finally, Oleandra ended her spell; Harry had completely failed at his first attempt at blocking her out, so there was no point in continuing.
"You did that on purpose!" Harry sputtered. "You made me lose my concentration!"
"Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo," Oleandra chortled. "That was funny— did you really live in a cupboard when you were a child? And I thought I had it bad…"
"I got a real room a bit later," said Harry distractedly.
Harry was used to speaking to snakes, so he failed to notice that Oleandra had perfectly understood the boa constrictor from his visit to the zoo, so long ago. As for Oleandra, she assumed it was weird Legilimency quirk that allowed her to obtain Harry's interpretation of the snake's words…
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