Chapter 51 - 51- Different kinds of Occlumency

Daphne's POV

Daphne was happy to go back to school for all kinds of reasons.

Firstly, this summer her father started instructing her on their family's unique magic, which was a special kind of Occlumency.

Flashback

They just returned home from the train when her father took her to his study room, closed the door and started talking.

"Daphne, you just finished your first year and as one of the top students and as for why you are only one of and not top student, we will talk about that later." Her father while a warm man usually, had a cold face on him which meant for Daphne one thing- this is serious. For now, we will talk about a magic every self respecting wizard and witch must know, occlumency.

Occlumency, or as it most known as 'the mind defense art' it's a way to protect your mind from an invasion from an outer source, wither by Legilimency- art of mind invasion.

This art, takes years to get truly proficient with, and if someone tells you he mastered it he is either an idiot or a liar, as it isn't an art you can master- you can always get better.

Any questions?"

"If it's such an amazing and important art, why don't we learn it at school?"

"Excellent question," her father said with a hint of his special smile he had when he was in what she called 'serious mode' and she asked the right question "it was in fact the ministry who took the subject out of curriculum about 400 as with it legilimency became a useless tool for aurors, as everyone who studied Occlumency can prevent their darkest secret from being found out. It wasn't until 94 years later when a side affect of Occlumency was found out. A muggleborn woman by the name of Gabriel Jones fell in love with the minister and as he didn't return the affection she gave him a love potion that was considered mild at the time and was used to be a way to make man get interest in you, but the minister became obsessed with her in a way that resembled an unsuccessful Amortentia, which is illegal to use love potion for its potency. It was then when everyone understood the side affects of Occlumency, it gives the user of the art resistance for mind altering potions and spells, but by that time it was already too late, the ministry made sure to destroy every copy of Occlumency teaching book and the art became something that is being taught from parents to children.

But as parents taught their children the art became from a generalized art where most defenses are the same into a family art, where every family has its own way to use it, which also made it much better art as the attacker of the mind can't expect the same defense in every mind."

End flashback

After that Daphne didn't have a very fun summer as she spent most of the summer having headach from her father breaking her defenses and entering into her mind as part training in her family's art of Occlumency - 'fire in a winter storm'. According to her father, her great grandfather had a Japanese muggle disease which made him call all the spells and magical arts he created with embarrassing names, something called Chūnibyō. But as he was the person who created the art and so many other family Magics which she would learn in another time, he got the honor to make the name. She would have to study the disease and make sure she doesn't get it as apparently between the ages of 12-15 it is highly contagious.

Secondly, as much as she hated to admit it, she missed her research group, especially Tracy as she became her best friend.

And lastly, her sister went into stage two of the blood curse in which she started having white hair, and while it can be hidden with a changed color hair, seeing it everyday made her became much more motivated to find a cure and she wanted to get everyone she can think of to join her group. Starting from Peverell.

Harry's POV

Harry just returned from his morning workout when Greengrass approached him.

"Hey, Peverell, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure, is it urgent or can you let me take a shower and talk on the way for breakfast?"

"Take a shower"

Harry saw Luna walking toward the exit of the common room, so he told her he needs to talk to his classmate on the way to breakfast alone and asked if she could save him a spot, took a quick shower, put his school robes on, and met Greengrass outside the common room.

"So, how can I help one of the two leaders of our Slytherin year?"

"You see...." Greengrass bit her lower lip as if she wasn't sure how to start, and he probably would have been blushing and fl.u.s.tered, which was probably her intention, if he was a normal child, but as he wasn't and he had better things to do with his time, like being with his new friend and studying he just said

"Drop the act and let's cut to the chase. What do you want?" In a second her hesitant look changed into a cold one, a look that he used to think that everyone who Occlude had to have before he learned Occlumency by himself, from the book and from Snape, a look that gave him a feeling this was the missing piece for perfecting his Occlumency. Until now, Harry learned three different kinds of mind protecting.

There was the Occlumency which he created as a child which was focused on defense by means of offense and defense with his Star Wars style of muggle technology.

the books style was focusing on mind traps like the painful memories he put in front of his mind to make the attacker wanting to escape.

As for Snape's type of Occlumency which he learned from dumbledore himself, it is a deception and shields style as it lets you creat a false state of mind and memories that you use to deceive not just the opponent, but also yourself. It is a style which is perfect for spies and potioneers as not only anyone who read your mind believe whatever they see after they pass the weak shields you put in front and let you shield your important memories in the back of your mind without anyone noticing it also let you have better grasp on your emotions.

Each of those styles has an upside and a downside, and as they all begin with clean your mind, and he became pretty good with the first two before Snape explained to him the history of the art of Occlumency, as of now he was only capable to combine the first two and switch them with the third one, he was trying to combine the three of them but was missing something and right now, when he saw the look in Greengrass eyes, he felt she had what he needed, something that instantly made him very interested with her wish to talk to him.

"I want you to join my study group, you are the only Slytherin in our year who didn't join my group apart from Parkinson, Malfoy and his goons, as it would let you have friends."

Now, Harry was really intrigued.

If it was a year ago that she tried to recruit him he would have thought she was trying to take full control of their year, and if it was before the tests he would have thought they needed help studying, but as it took a year for her to even approach him, coupled with the fact that her group got to be 5 out of the 10 best grades in their school year in both theoretical and practical (he, Hermione, Neville, Padma Patil and Sue Li were the other five in theoretical while Hermione, Lisa Turpin, Dean Thomas, Draco Malfoy and Susan bones were in practical).

So he had one question to ask "and what exactly do you study?"

After that she told him about her sister and the blood curse research they were doing and Harry knew his chance to get her Occlumency technique was here, now he just needed a bait.

"Not that I'm not feeling my heart reaching out to you, or that this curse isn't interesting to me with the way it interact with a persons DNA which I have only thought of doing with transfigurations, but I have too much things to study myself, and I am not seeing any benefit in doing research with you, I am forced to decline, maybe in a few more years when I have more time." As he said the last word they reached the Slytherin table and went sitting with Luna leaving Daphne shocked.

Daphne's POV

Daphne was inside her mind throughout breakfast, she wasn't thinking about the fact Peverell refused to join her group even if it was his chance to have friends, or about the fact he wasn't even a little bit fl.u.s.tered when he looked at her with her winning kicked puppy look on.

No, the only thing that was on her mind was that he had an idea about the way the blood curse worked, and that she had to get his help no matter what!