12 January 1991, Hogwarts
Alas, Harry wasn't going to even try to attempt doing something like this anytime soon. He was going to get started with the anti-Legilimency before committing to anything like this without any research.
It took two days and a pointed letter from Professor Snape until Harry Potter exited his common room. And for all the potion master's scolding, Harry wouldn't have had it any other way. After all, Harry wanted to get the most done before classes started again.
Well, before he knew it, classes were back, and school resumed as usual. Harry had spent the rest of the holidays practically reading every single book on the mind arts. It was far more extensive than he had thought, especially since its theory was aimed at fully licensed healers, that have studied for years after graduating from Hogwarts.
Funnily enough, the easy part was the spells, especially the malicious ones. The obliviation charm can be mastered by any idiot with a wand, but you could spend years studying the disciplines dealing with the fragile intricacies of the mind, and you would only scratch the surface. Mind curses were disturbingly easy to cast. There was one to cause gradual dementia on the target, which acts like a worm, eating away the mind unless it is countered somehow.
As for Occlumency and Legilimency, they stood places apart. Legilimency was a spell but one that can only be mastered by a decent Occlumens that was somewhat understanding of mind magics. You could easily accidentally broadcast your own thoughts in the spell, giving your target a slice of your memories while trying to get one of his.
As for Occlumency, it was a discipline of mastery over the mind. It wasn't meant to repress emotions or feelings, it didn't give you a photographic memory, and it certainly didn't give you perfect recall of every little detail like a pensive. Oh, the practices involved would guarantee that the user is disciplined and has enough self-control, but it's not the magic but the exercises that guarantee this, and even then, they weren't foolproof. Voldemort was known as a master of Occlumency, and he wasn't exactly the picture of mental or emotional stability.
Still, Harry started to do the advised exercises and focus on a mental image every night to clear his mind. It was very hard and not that rewarding in the short term. No wonder Harry Potter from the stories was miserable at it. He was a hormonal teenager, angry at the world, that was clamouring for action. Sitting still for an hour a day to clear his mind wasn't really a thing he would look forward to, and that's not to mention Snape breaking into his private moments one after one.
Thankfully, that wasn't happening to him, even if the method Snape used was technically viable, especially considering his counterpart's situation. The purpose was to get him to familiarize himself with his own mind enough that he would be able to feel every intrusion. It wasn't enough for him to stop broadcasting his thoughts, since Voldemort was already inside his mind because of the Horcrux. It was a bootlegged still of deep Occlumency meant to recognize mind altering spells and potions and stop them. And the boy was forced to do it without even mastering the basics since that would take too long.
Still, with his magic circuits stabilizing after the ritual, Harry didn't need to do the ritual bath every day, leaving him with a couple of hours of free time that he was going to use to do these exercises.
However, for all Harry was excited to have all the time in the world to learn a new field of magic, he had missed his friends. He waited for them at the platform on the day they returned, one day before classes started. He was immediately enveloped by a hug from Daphne and Tracy, who seemed to have loved their presents. Blaise was slightly more subdued in showing his gratitude, but he was wearing the pin Harry had given him.
With classes starting, things started to stabilize into a certain routine. Harry simply did his Occlumency exercises in the morning, then went with his friends to class, went to the library after it was over for a couple of hours after classes, and then returned to the dormitory to hang out with them, do his homework, or practice his spell work.
Normalcy had returned to the school of magic. At least in theory.
Although, for some reason, Neville Longbottom seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time in the history section of the library looking for Nicholas Flamel. It was extremely amusing from the outside since if he asked any upper year, he would have probably had an answer. Alas, he seemed to be stuck in the wrong part of the history section in a vain effort to be secretive in his quest to find out what is hidden in the forbidden corridor, and he was too stubborn to ask anyone about it.
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