Chapter 4
Okay here is Chapter 4. I was planning on this being the chapter where I introduce Hermione and Professor McGonagall, however I decided to do that next chapter. I will introduce the occlumency and magic core systems I will be using in this chapter so this is another info dump chapter. The occlumency system is one I first saw in "Taking on the Magical World" by Abdirah101 on Webnovel. Next chapter will be Diagon Alley and the last for the week. I will TRY to release on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Sundays will be my off day and Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays will be for chapter planning. I will take longer breaks at the end of each arc to plan the next one. I do plan on Sirius getting out of Azkaban early and his name be cleared since he is my favorite character, but Harry will still live with the Dursleys because of the Bond of Blood that strengthens his mother's protection on him.
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Chapter 4
Ichigo gets up and heads down stairs for breakfast. Lupa is sitting there eating bacon and sausage.
"You got back pretty late last night. Did you run into any trouble?"
"Not much. The most troublesome was the fatty who didn't want to give up his second bedroom or do any chores. Seriously that room should have been Harry's from the start. Luckily his parents knew they had no choice and agreed to take him to counseling in order to keep me from breaking his arm."
Ichigo grabs some food for himself and sits down.
"You threatened to break his arm?"
"Twice. The first time when he tried to hit me and the second when he started to throw a tantrum over losing his second bedroom. To be fair the second time I also gave him a choice of a broken arm or counseling. I was going to tell him he could live like his parents forced Harry to for the past decade instead of counseling, but I knew he wouldn't fit through the door to the cupboard under the stairs and that his parents would still treat him the same."
"Haaah. Seriuosly? Could you have gone without making threats?"
"They pissed me off. The fact that they treated Harry the way they did is illegal and they should be in prison right now. Enough about that, let's talk about today. Yesterday you mentioned you wanted to teach me something while I was waiting to go over and meet Harry. What is it?"
"I'm going to teach you about magic cores and occlumency."
"Okay, why those?"
"Because you may need to explain why people start their training at 11 and why even pure-blood children have to wait to Harry. As for occlumency, it is a very useful skill and is one of the best to possess. Now finish up and then we ill begin."
Lupa gets up and puts her plate in the sink. Ichigo had to clean the dishes after eating since he finished last as per the rules of the house. He sat on the floor across from Lupa in the living room and paid attention. He knew better than to interrupt and that he should hold his questions till the end.
"First is magic cores. Magic cores have five stages of maturity. Everyone goes through at least two of the stages and most Hogwarts graduates reach the third before leaving.
"The first stage is the wave stage. At this stage ones magic energy exists in a form similar to that of a sound wave. It is there and has it's own frequency, but it can't be used consciously. It is heavily affected by a the persons emotions.
"The second is the fog stage. A person reaches this stage naturally when they turn eleven. This is the reason why people start their magical education at eleven. At this stage it a person can control their magic and cast spells. O.W.L. level witches and wizards are at this level as well.
"The third is the fog level. At this stage a person can start to cast powerful spells like the Patronus. This stage is very similar to the fog stage except that the energy is denser and takes on a form. This for is usually the same the person's Patronus or animagus form. This is the level of N.E.W.T. level witches and wizards and the average Hogwarts graduate.
"The fourth is the liquid stage. At this stage the magic energy become liquid and flows with ease. Spells can be cast with much greater efficiency and speed. This is the level of a master
"The final level is the crystal stage. At this stage the energy condenses and crystallizes. The crystals shape is determined by the person while it is forming and has an image in the center. This image is a clear version of the form ones core took at the cloud stage. At this stage spells become far more powerful due to the use of condensed and concentrated energy. This is the level of a grand master like Dumbledore."
Lupa stops to let Ichigo ask questions.
"So how does one progress through the stages?"
Lupa takes a book out of her size-reducing bag and puts it on the table
"The fog and cloud stages are reached naturally, but the liquid and crystal stages need a training technique. This book will teach you that. It is called 'The Core Nurturing Manual' and it is the result of centuries of research conducted by Lycaon and I. You must only share this with your mate and children."
"I understand."
Lupa looks him in the eyes and nods.
"Now on to occlumency. Occlumency is the art of magically closing your mind to legilimency. A practitioner of occlumency is called an occlumens and a practioner of legilimency is a legilimens. There are also those who possess a natural mental defense known as "natural occlumens." For everyone else there are three types of occlumency that are taught in the wizarding world
"The easiest is to mentally recite useless information or equations. The downside to this method is that it requires a massive amount of focus and can easily be broken with a punch to the face.
"The next method is the mental image method. With this method you create a mental image of something to protect you thoughts. The downside is that you need to split off a portion of you mind to keep this defense up permanently. But this is also an advantage in that it can be used passively with practice and strengthened when needed.
"The third and most commonly taught method is to clear your mind and suppress your thoughts. This is extremely difficult and takes a large amount of practice. However, like the second method, this can be done passively. This is done by only suppressing what you want to hide. This, however, creates gaps in the information that is being searched through. True masters of this method can create false memories to fill in these gaps."
Lupa stops to let Ichigo think.
"What method are you going to teach me?"
"None of them. Instead you will train in a form of occlumency that a good friend of mine created long ago. In fact, you have already started training in it."
"What! When," Ichigo asks in shock.
"It was when you started your meditation training. Part of the training is to create a mindscape, a mental world where you can relax, your 'happy place' as muggles call it. This is where you will build your mental defences.
"For this method you divide your mind into three parts: thought, memory, and emotions. A fourth part, your subconscious, is formed naturally. You must have them take different forms. The forms are pretty standardized since most would choose similar forms anyways. Thought is a clone that repeats your thoughts constantly, memory is books, emotion is masks, and the subconscious is different for everyone since it is formed naturally.
"After forming the personas you create a mental building to place them in. After that you add to your defenses everyday. Build walls, add rooms and buildings, add creatures, and create traps. At the same time you want to separate your three main personas into even more parts so that it becomes more difficult for others to navigate your mind and find what they want. Break the books that are your memories up into smaller volumes. Divide your thoughts into several categories, each with their own body. Create a mask representing your feelings towards a specific person, place, thing, event, etc.
"With this you will also have better control over your mind."
She takes out another book and places it on the table.
"This is another book you are to only share with your mate and children. It was written by that friend of mine and describes training methods for all four types of occlumency. It is called 'Occlumency, A Complete Guide to Protecting Your Mind.'"
Ichigo picks up the book and Lupa gets up.
"I will be leaving in a week. I will check in on you and we may not see each other until your coming of age hunt during your second year at Hogwarts. I have already made the necessary arrangements with Dumbledore so that you can take the time you need to do the hunt. For now focus on training your occlumency and wait till you start school to train your core."
"Okay, mom. This seems like it will keep me busy for a while anyways."
Ichigo gets up and heads to his room. He sits down and starts to read and reread the section on the fourth type of occlumency Lupa told him about. He makes sure to memorize every single detail of the process. Three hours later he eats lunch and starts meditating. He enters his mindscape, a dense forest with a large lake. He creates an island in the center of the lake and heads there. He then creates his three personas: a clone for thoughts, books for memories, and instead of just masks he create simple black and white figures with masks to represent his emotions. He then creates a building placing his memories in one of several libraries representing the types of memories they are, his thoughts in the lounge, and his emotions in several rooms. Ichigo spent a few hours organizing everything before stopping. He then ate dinner, bathed, and went to bed.
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After the first day Ichigo didn't need as much time to train his occlumency each day. A week later, just before she left, Lupa gave him a note to give to Ollivander. The note was to get a wand that she had custom made for him along with a wand cleaning kit and holster, all of which she had paid for. He spent his time training, teaching Harry about the wizarding world, and waiting for the letter from Hogwarts to come. Finally it did come and after sending in their replies Ichigo received another letter. This one said that a woman called Professor McGonagall would meet him and Harry at a place called the Leaky Cauldron two weeks before school started to take them to Diagon Alley and get their school supplies.