3

The next day my first actual school day began and with it came endless boredom, so instead of paying attention to the lessons I shifted my focus to Legilimency. As I am already rather proficient with the emotional part, I thought it would be the perfect time to take it up a notch.

So I sat in my chair waiting for Mr. Cruson to look directly at me. Once he did so I instantly forced myself into his head, which was so much easier than I thought. There was nothing hindering me. Now inside his head I could see myself and the classroom from his perspective. It was kind of weird to see me stare at myself, apart from that everything was a little bit blurry. 'He might need glasses.' I concluded.

Even stranger than this new point of view that I was in was what I saw when I turned around. As I turned the room became blurrier and darker until it eventually turned to complete darkness.

There was nothing.

Turning back I could observe something else. There seemed to be flashes of pictures kind of overlapping with the classroom, but not really. They were images that matched what he would say immediatly afterwards. For example there appeared a picture of the letters A B and C and he would start to talk about the alphabet. 'His surface thoughts', I asssumed.

Abruptly getting thrown out of his mind, as he shifted his gaze from me to someone else, I couldn't stop a smirk from forming on my face. The next time he looked over to me I obviously entered his mind again, but this time I walked up to the flashing images. There I experimented what I could and could not do.

I could shortly stop any pictures from appearing, which made Mr. Cruson stare blankly into the classroom.

I could change his surface thoughts. It was tricky and required my full concentration, because firstly, there wasn't a lot of time between the emergence and vanishing of them and secondly I was not proficient enough. I could also not cause big differences. If we take the alphabet example again, I could change an A into another letter, but I could not forcefully switch topics yet.

But what I could do was suggest a new thought. For that I had to conjure a concept and hope his mind would accept it, otherwise it would just vanish.

Although I had no way of knowing if I was a strong Legilimens for my age it didn't discourage me from practicing.

I kept at it for the whole day invading his mind every time he looked my way, or I would have if Mr Cruson didn't get a massive headache from it. I naturally could feel it throught Legilimency and I could even hear it once I was inside his mind, it was like an unending drum-beat that got louder everytime I reentered.

Apart from getting a taste of the full potential Legilimency had, I also talked with Hermoine or more like she talked to me and I listened. She told me all the interesting facts she found while preparing for this school year. Which included historical figures and when they could read and write for example.

I pretended to be just as thrilled as she was about this useless knowledge, while manipulating her feelings like yesterday, but barely weaker. I wanted to condition her over the four years before Hogwarts, in order for her to automatically get a mood booster whenever she sees me without actually using any Legilimency. That way Hermoine would always come to me when she needs some advice or help. Opening up to me with all her secrets and insecurities.

I also did a quick dive into her mind to get a better grasp on the differences between a muggle and a wizard's mind. Strictly to observe and not to do anything else, yet. Therefore, I did not stay too long.

It was fascinating to say the least. Compared to a muggle she actually had a real mindscape. In it stood a house, presumably her family house. It was an old two story building and the closer I went the blurrier it became, like a memory which you can vaguely recall.

Facing away from it, the surroundings became murkier and more neboulous, until the same darkness as in Mr. Cruson's mind reigned supreme.

Switching my attention back to the house I began to circle it, looking for anything different compared to a normal house. The outside looked normal, apart from the blurriness, but when I looked through a window I saw something strange. There were a myriad of books floating around. Hundreds levitating.

Through another window I could see myself attentively listening with the classroom in the background. There were also some empty rooms and a second floor in which I did not look into.

Deciding I had seen enough and promising myself to thoroughly look into another wizard's mind in the future, I left hers.

After school my mother picked me up again. She got a part time job as assistant at the government. She basically works while I am at school and picks me up once she is finished.

In the afternoon on some days I still go to the local library to memorize the rest of the building. I have around half already perfectly replicated. The ground floor was filled with empty shelves, which were ready to be filled with memories in the form of books. Once the building is finished I could start with studying and organizing my own memories.

Apart from that I joined the local taekwondo studio, which on the one hand gives me the means to defend myself physically and on the other hand helps strengthen my body.

My magic capacity steadily increased as well as my controll over it. I don't need to use emotions anymore to move anything in my room. Occasionally I like to listen to the love story of my mother and father, just to feel her emotions. Her unending love was frankly addictive. By the way the range by which I could pick up emotions also increased. So now I can feel my mom's feelings in her bedroom, when I focus on this ability. Unfortunately a side effect of this was that on some nights I could feel so much sadness from her that I just couldn't ignore it. So on those particularly nights I would knock on her room and pretend to have nightmares from the incident two years ago. Then she would concern herself with me, cuddling me until we both fell asleep. In the meantime I would manipulate her feelings to get her out of her depressed thoughts, a win-win situation for both of us.

I know I said I wouldn't use legilimency on her, but I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I hadn't helped her.

----

In the next two years I got even better at legilimency. I learned to keep my conciousness from entering the other persons mind. So I could move my body now, while doing it. I got faster and caused less damage, which means I stopped causing headaches, or instead I coud do more damage intentionally. It also got easier to stay longer in somebody else's consciousness. Unfortunately I I can't seem to do it without eye contact.

About a year ago I accidentally stumbled upon something amazing. It was just a normal evening. I wanted to empty the rest of my magic like normally, but I accidentally pulled it back inside of my body. With it entering me there was a rush of information coming along. It was everything in a specific radius aroung me. From that day onward instead of emptying it all at once and leaving it at that I instead pulled as much as I could back, followed by expelling all of it again, until nothing returned any more. Over the year the range increased from a few centimeter to one meter. One meter if I spent all my reserves, but if I restrict the radius to somehting shorter I could keep it up longer.

I finished building the replica library in my head, and with the now freed up time I started to extend my Legilimency training outside of the school. Normally I would go to the park and dive into anyones head who just so happened to cross my path.

Initially it was just some snippets, a piano lesson about a song here, a mathematical formula there. But with time I collected all kinds of memories and knowledge. I learned how to play a multitude of instruments, how to play all kinds of sports, how to cook different recipes and a lot more. You know, muggle activities.

Unfortunately I have not yet come accross an actual wizard. It could also be fortunate that I have not yet met one, because if he or she finds out that I am a natural Legilimens, there is a high possibility I would get to know the ministry of magic and its mind-magic-branch. The films didn't really pay a lot of attention to the normal way of learning and using mind magic, but I am most certain there is something lika a register for Legilimens. I couldn't imagine the ministry left mind magic unsurveilled.

Anyway, in these two years I kept manipulating Hermione, but now I only occasionally gave her a small boost on especially bad days, like the day before a test. Unluckily for her the other kids neither cared about their grades as much, nor appreciated her bossy attitude.

I know shocking.

Nevertheless, there were some girls sitting next to her, suffering through her attitude, just so they could copy her test answers. All in all I would say I successfully befriended Hermoine.

When it came to my grades, I wasn't worried. I had full control over every teacher to the point I could make them write my tests and homeworks. It goes without saying that I got full marks in every subject.

----

Another 2 years and a little bit later

It was a normal summer morning. Lucas had finished his elementary school and he was waiting for something special.

His mother went to collect the mail like usual, but there was one additional letter that seemed rather unusual. It was his Hogwarts acceptance letter. After Sophia saw who the recipient of the letter was, she called out to Lucas, "Sweety, you got a letter." As soon as Lucas heard her yell his name he sprinted towards her and in his excitement ripped the letter out of her hand. Totally ignorant why her son was so ecstatic, she just smiled and watched him rip the envelope apart. Upon reading the title 'HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY' he jumped in joy screaming "YES." Sophia could feel her heart warming up with love and happyness, yet she was also a little puzzled at his reaction. So after Lucas calmed down from his frisking she walked to him and started to read the letter as well. "School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?" she said aloud.

At the same time as she started, they heard a knock from the still open door. After turning their heads they both saw a giant of a man standing there, his face down to his chin hidden by the doorframe, but they could see his long, wild and unkempt hair resting on his shoulders and his beard reaching his chest. He was none other than Rubeus Hagrid the groundskeeper of Hogwarts. He ducked and stepped trough the door. Afterwards he fished out some cards from his coat and began reading aloud, "Good morning, my name is Hagrid and I come on the behest of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am here to answer all your questions and inform you about what you need to do to be ready for your first year."

Subsequently Sophia led Hagrid towards the kitchen table to discuss what this all meant. Lucas on the other hand had a different question on his mind 'Shouldn't he be fetching Harry? Did he originally collect the other kids as well? Why couldn't the movies be more informative?' Leaving his train of thought, because he would find out eventually anyway, he concentrated more on this perfect opportunity.

The perfect opportunity to use Legilimency on an adult Wizard. He would be a good test subject, because he is too dimwitted to recognise the signs of Legilimency. Making up his mind Lucas sat next to his mother, opposite of Hagrid, and looked into Hagrids eyes.

As soon as he willed to invade the half giants mind he was standing before a giant wooden fence with an equally big wooden door. Even tough Hagrid never trained in Occlumency, it would seem like every Wizard still had some form of defence. Lucas walked up to the door and tried to simply push it open, but it wouldn't budge. The moment he used more force than you would normally to open a door, Hagrid instinctively switched his attention in the real world from Sophia to Lucas. He immediatly let go of the door and left his Mindspace.

"Is something the matter?" asked Sophia.

"Oh nothing, just an itch" answered Hagrid, while scratching the backside of his head. "Where was I?", he turned back to Sophia, resuming their conversation.

Not perturbed by this setback Lucas swiftly went back inside Hagrid's head. Now instead of opening the door he turned his attention to the wooden fence. He walked up to one of the poles and began climbing it. Hagrid did not seem to react to this. After reaching the top Lucas jumped down. Now he could see the surface thoughts of Hagrid swirling around as the half giant proceeded to talk to his mother. Fearing to leave any trace behind, he did not dare approach closer, much less venture deeper into his mind away from the surface thoughts. Turning around he refocused on the Fence but instead of climbind up he looked at the gaps between the poles. They were too large to fit through as he was now, but if he could make himself smaller he surely would fit.

As he thought about being smaller, his surroundings seemed to grow. The fence grew large enough for him to fit though. Once he was on the other side again he simply thought about being back to his normal height and he grew back to his original height. Finished with his experients for now, Lucas stopped using Legilimency and started earnestly listening to Hagrid.

They went over his shopping list for the first year and when thy would go together to Diagon Ally. They would all go next week after Lucas' 11th birthday. Hagrid stayed a little longer, because Sophia invited the friendly half giant to eat with them.