15 Learning the Laws!
AN: '''Things inside the triple apostrophe are written inside a book or a diary'''
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{29th June 1993}
{13th Branton, Cheshire, London}
{9:23 AM}
'''Your mind is a very complex organ, what we magicals refer to as your Mind is the place where your thoughts, your memories, your very essence lives. Throughout the early years, many people believed that your soul and mind to be one and the same thing, you see being hit by the then newly invented killing curse proved this hypothesis because as soon as your soul was severed from your body, your conscious thoughts, your memories disappeared, your mind couldn't be invaded, your thoughts disappeared and your memories couldn't be read by Legilimency anymore.'''
'''I would not go into detail about how or when or by whom these various experiments were performed, but it's a safe bet to say that you could probably find them in the Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts book, if you own one. But, the conflict arose among the scholars when it was found out that when your brain was dead, you also lose your memories and your thoughts, and by some miracle if your body survives and you are alive then you would be in a coma. A dispute arose when someone pointed out that one's soul must be in the head then, but that fact was conflicted by the Homenum Revelio spell as it clearly points out the location of one's soul to be in one's abdomen.'''
'''So which one of these theories is true? Turns out it wasn't until dementors were discovered and the aftermath they left before they were tamed gave the real answer. A dementor sucks a person's soul out from their body yet somehow the person survives the ordeal. There are many theories as to why that happens but that isn't what this is about, the thing was that when the soul was gone, the victim lost any and all thought processes, but the memories that the victim experienced were still there, his body functioned like he was still alive but he was actually gone.'''
'''This gave rise to the magical branch which was later dubbed as Occlumency, the process of sharpening and controlling your mind, dubbed as the conscious magical link between your memories and your soul, you could resist the invasion of a natural Legilimus. The geniuses who were able to retain any information they ever come across, turned out to be natural Occlumus.'''
'''While the history of discovery of the most important Magical branch, today is shrouded in misery. It is a safe bet that Occlumency is the most rudimentary branch of your Magical education, without it magic wouldn't have been what it is today, there wouldn't be a spell to cook your favorite food because no genius {Natural Occlumus} would have ever spent his precious time to invent a spell to cook a dish. While I have some accolades in the Mind arts, my teacher described it in a perfect way, "Occlumency is primal, it is sharpened by the fear of being exposed and discovered to hide behind fake platitudes." Throughout the years Occlumency has advanced by speeds beyond imagination as everyone finally found a way to hide their ugly natures behind fake smiles. While the rest is unknown, and by the time you are reading my forays there would probably be more progress made in the field, but let me simplify for you the 5 Tiers of Occlumency and how I became the master of my own Mind...'''
'Wow,' I thought as I read the introduction of the book 'A Mental Mastery: Intricacies of The Mind- by Alexios I Komnenos'.
'This is much more detailed than I ever thought possible...' I flipped to the front page again and looked at the date, 'This book came out in the 1100s, it is almost 800+ yrs old.'
I carefully turned the book to the first chapter and read the title.
'''Emptying your mind'''
'I guess Snape read this book.'
I continued reading the book memorizing every word and pondering over the basics of the Mind arts and practicing as I familiarised myself with actively controlling my mind.
'So before people began to call Occlumency by its now given name, it was just a set of precautionary steps one would take when faced with a natural Legilimus. Now it is called tier 1 Occlumency, and to do that you need to stop your thoughts and focus on nothing, or maybe just one particular thing within 5 seconds. Anyone who can do that can stop your surface thoughts to be read by a Legilimus, and help you out long enough to stop looking in your opponent's eyes and break the mental intrusion.'
I finished reading the first chapter and was mulling over what I have read as I looked around the room. This room was supposed to be the second bedroom but I transfigured the bed into this temporary desk and chair. I guess I need to do some shopping but I wasn't in the mood for it and thus decided to rest for today and start actually understanding this world. Occlumency naturally became the first stop as whatever magic it is, it was directly interfering with my choices and memories, or maybe not my memories but rather Blaise's memories.
'God dammit I need to stop regarding myself and Blaise as two different persons... and I need to stop saying God and start saying Merlin and other British slang words... it's a good thing 'Fuck' is a universal curse word. No time to rest, let's continue till I have read about Tier 3 Occlumency. That's what I am at now, need to figure out how to improve.'
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{29th June 1993}
{13th Branton, Cheshire, London}
{1:23 PM}
I closed the book and took out a simple notebook that I found in the house before, opening it I started writing down my version of the three tiers of Occlumency that I have read about.
'''...The first tier stipulates the condition that the user is able to control his mind and force exert basic control over his thoughts, maybe corresponding to willpower? The second tier focuses on detecting mental intrusions of other people and it is considered mastered if someone can find any intrusion and clear his mind within 5 seconds of the intrusion started. At its level, you could be sure that you wouldn't have to worry about mental intrusion's unless you are captured and your mental capacity is compromised.'''
After writing these two points I looked back to the book remembering the words written in it,
'''...After mastering Tier 2 is where everyone discovered another thing, after mastering every tier after the first one, new realms of controlling your mind were unlocked. It was stipulated that after tier 2 was mastered, you would gain enough mental control to change and manipulate your emotions at will thus advancing magic by leaps and bounds. These skills you unlocked by mastering Occlumency tiers were coined as Subskills and the very first one help tremendously with the study of esoteric magic.'''
'Esoteric magic...' I wondered, 'To use emotions to form intent and drive your mana to use several ancient spells that were originally unavailable. It's no wonder the author said that Occlumency was the foundation of today's magical world, but as soon as it was banned and restricted, the magical world's progress has grounded to a halt in recent time...'
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AN: So how did you guys find this chapter. Were the explanations too long? not much actions? I wanted to build a stronger magical foundation for the story and the background of the magical world, so when Blaise does explore the world outside of England in the future, it wouldn't seem hollow!
Anyway, tell me if it is too boring? And I'll think about adjusting my explanations a little bit so that they are a little shorter and more concise!!
AN: LOL I posted by mistake while I was adjusting the timer for the 5 or so chapters that I have written in advance!! At least the order wasn't damaged! Anyway to an early chapter I guess!
