"Oh, I saw a few documentaries on creatures of the deepest parts of the ocean, and I started combining aspects of several into one big monster. There's bits of a giant squid, anglerfish, some giant isopod, jellyfish stingers, and a few other animals mashed together. Oh, and when I need to it can also provide a very soothing light show," Hermione said proudly. She was showing quite a bit of restraint not describing each individual animal in detail.
"That's very good. Mr. Weasley, you've got a lot of catching up to do." Moody began. "Now, how have you been practicing?"
"We meditate and work on organizing our minds, and then Harry and I test each other through Legilimency. We help with Neville as well," Hermione answered.
"So you've never practiced it during classes?" Moody asked. They all shook their heads. "Or while flying your brooms?" Harry and Hermione shook their heads again in mild embarrassment. "You need to keep your defences up all the time! That means mental defences as well as your wands!"
"Now, we're going to have a quick little duel right now. If you can't keep me from reading your thoughts in the middle of a fight, you'll have no chance of even hitting me. Potter, you're first."
For the next several hours, all the way until lunch, they strained to keep their mental shields up continuously as Moody always seemed to hobble an inch out of the path of their spells every time, while tossing several of his own back at them. Luna seemed to be the only one who had any chance of hitting the professor, being completely unpredictable to him. Unfortunately, there was still no way for her to win as her spells were relatively weak, easily being absorbed or deflected by Moody's shield. Ron, of course, didn't have a chance as Moody walked closer and closer to him while dodging every spell until he got close enough to rap Ron on the head with his cane.
"Here's what you need to practice for next week. Keep your occlumency up every moment you're awake. Don't wait for someone to intrude before you throw up your defences. Hopefully by next week you'll be used to it, and we can begin on the offensive."
The next two weeks were extremely tiring, to put it lightly. They practiced keeping their mindscapes up continuously, sorting memories as soon as they gained them, all Sunday long. By midday Harry and Hermione were peaked, but right when they sat down for lunch, they could feel Moody suddenly hammer them with a legilimency probe from the staff table. He certainly wasn't going easy on them. Harry and Hermione realized it was much more difficult for them to keep their defences up than Neville, mostly because theirs were far more complex. Harry thought of simplifying it again, but Hermione insisted they keep practicing with the defences they had, hoping it would get easier with more practice. She was right, since on Monday they could last at least past lunch, and by Friday they could hold it until dinner.
Out of curiosity, Hermione asked Luna if she would allow her to perform legilimency to find out what Moody was talking about. She came out of it completely baffled, wondering if it was possible for them to emulate it. Harry had to perform legilimency on Luna himself because Hermione couldn't quite describe what she saw, and he was equally confused. They realized manipulating their own memories was a lot of work, and to have them mashed together as bizarrely as Luna did would take a lot of effort for them. Luna, however, seemed to organize her mind this way naturally.
Ron decided to drop the extra lessons after the next Saturday, deciding that given the amount of catching up he needed to do with Occlumency, combined with the loss of a day of sleeping in, was too much. Luna, however, had gladly joined them the following week. Moody taught Neville and Luna the basics of Legilimency, while Harry and Hermione attempted to figure out which spells each one was going to cast before they cast it using some surface scanning. Holding up their own shields while attacking each other's, on top of physically moving and magically casting spells, tired them out completely in less than two hours. Moody was rather disappointed but managed to squeeze another half-hour of duelling out of them after some rest. For the rest of the week, they had to constantly hit each other with Legilimency as well as keeping up their shields, once again nearly tiring them out by lunch. They also offered to help Neville and Luna with their Legilimency skills each evening, using an empty classroom to practice since Luna couldn't enter the Gryffindor common room.
The third Saturday, the last weekend before the Triwizard's Choosing of Champions, was the worst one yet. Moody certainly wasn't kidding when he said his training was going to be hard- this time they had to chase each other through the woods while, keeping aware of their constantly-changing environment while keeping track of their opponent and keeping their mental shields up. Once again, Moody surprised them all with the mobility he had, and they were all beginning to suspect that his false leg was probably less of a handicap and more of an enhancement for him, much like his eye. None of them lasted until lunch, after which Harry and Hermione were both leaning on each other for support. The two of them wandered up to the Room of Requirement to take an afternoon nap, feeling it would give them more comfortable beds and far greater privacy.
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