12 12. Departure

As soon as Adam entered the room, He was greeted with a bear hug. Hermione was worried about him so she had not left the room. For her, pure-blood families were all bad. Lucius had created this impression on her, she still could not completely remove it.

"Adam, are you okay?" Hermione asked. Adam felt strange warmth in his heart when he looked at her worried face. He smiled at her and replied, "It was just a meeting, Hermione. I did not go there to fight with her, did I?"

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief after looking at him from top to bottom several times to see if he was okay. Then she saw Adam holding something in his hand, she asked curiously "What's that?"

"I brought back something for your lunch. I know you always forget to have your lunch so I picked it up in the restaurant where we went to have our meeting." Adam said as he gave the lunch he brought back to Hermione, He continued, "You turn around, go there and eat it. I will change my clothes."

Hermione was not that shy after spending so much time with Adam for the past week. She didn't care about Adam changing his clothes as long as he did not do it in front of her. She nodded and turned around to go to other side of the room. She opened her lunch and started to eat after asking, "Tell me. Why did she ask you to meet her alone? What did she want from you?"

Adam roughly told her about his meeting with Sophie Greengrass while changing his clothes. He told her about the restaurant and gathering of wizards and mages. He told her everything including blood curse. He only avoided the things about his transaction with Sophie as he was under the unbreakable vow. He even told her about the occlumency book while keeping the other book as a secret before he checks what is written in it.

Hermione had already finished her lunch by the time Adam told her all the details about his meeting. She was shocked at first after hearing about the blood curse but she immediately calmed down which surprised Adam. He didn't know why but he felt like he was looking at the older version of Hermione in this 11 year old Hermione.

Adam had already received the book about occlumency and legilimency, now he had to learn it before going to the Hogwarts so that Snape and Dumbledore would not be able to have a free place to roam inside his head with their legilimency skills. Adam planned their next magic practise so that they can give some time to practise occlumency everyday. Legilimency was not as important as occlumency for them right now.

Adam wanted to teach occlumency to Hermione too so that Dumbledore or others could not get any kind of information about him from her. Another reason for teaching her occlumency was that he could learn these magical spells quickly when he learned them with Hermione.

Adam and Hermione practised occlumency together everyday. First basic step of the occlumency was to empty their minds so that legilimens could not read what was going on in their minds. It looked like an easy step but for Adam and Hermione who did not have any kind of guidance could not understand if they had emptied their minds properly. It was easier to learn this step if someone could use legilimency on them so that they would know about their current progress. But they didn't have this privilege so Adam could only try his own ways to empty his mind.

Most effective way that he found to calm and empty his mind was Meditation. Adam and Hermione would meditate everyday before and after their magical practise which would help them calm their mind and stop them from having any kind of distracting thoughts. After doing this everyday for a week, both of them felt very calm during their magic practise. They could feel their magic flowing smoothly without any obstruction. They could see there casting speed getting faster as they felt closer to their magical powers. Adam could be sure that they were now able to cast magic spells atleast 50% faster than normal First-year students who had learned to cast magic spells. He was sure that their speed of casting would get even faster if they continue to do this everyday.

During this time Adam would take Hermione to stroll in the Diagon Alley. They would visit different shops everyday and see if there was something that they needed. sometimes they would buy things that they liked, while other times they just visited all kinds of shops just for fun.

Soon two weeks had passed since Adam had received the occlumency book. Adam and Hermione, both of them could now control their thoughts properly and empty their minds when necessary. They could now feel a strange energy enveloping their brain when they practised next part of the occlumency, which was to create a barrier surrounding their mind/(brain). It was very strange energy, completely different from their magical powers that they used everyday. Both of them knew that this was the energy mentioned in the second part of the occlumency but they didn't know what kind of energy this was.

On this day, Adam finally saw some letters starting to appear on the empty page that he was seeing everyday in the book. Adam didn't know what kind of page this was so he had regarded it as a partition between second and third part of the occlumency as it was located between these two parts. But today, both Adam and Hermione could finally see some words appearing on it when they were about to read the third part of the occlumency- 'suppressing thoughts, facial expressions (Feelings) and memories.'

Adam and Hermione read the words that appeared on the page.

' This page will be visible to you only when you will finally be able to feel your mental energy/power, which is a type of energy that you will only feel after completely learning the second part of the occlumency. Mental energy is a peculiar energy that can help you block magical spells that can harm your mind, just like how soul energy/power can help you block attacks directed to soul. This mental energy can even improve your magic control.

The barrier you formed by learning this second part of the occlumency won't keep you safe from legilimens but it would alarm you if someone tries to pass through this barrier using legilimency. It can help you by warning you so that you can empty your mind or try to think of other things to not let legilimens know your current thoughts and memories if they just look at the surface of your mind. You still don't have a way to protect yourself if someone strong tries to enter deep inside your brain. This is where the third part of the occlumency will help you. Normal occlumency can't help you against strong legilimens but my improved version of the occlumency will help you prevent them from learning your thoughts or emotions or memories by fooling them.

Original third part of the occlumency is to suppress your thoughts, feelings/emotions and your memories but this is really harmful to its user if they keep using it for a long time. Occlumency is a addictive magical art. The more you use it, the more you want to use it.

You will keep suppressing your thoughts, emotions and memories during the use of this part of the occlumency. You will keep hiding them inside yourself so that no one would notice it but it will create some flaws in your soul. Our family had been researching about the soul and its special abilities since the time of the big event so we have quite the amount of knowledge regarding the human soul. Soul is a very mysterious thing that can never be properly understood by us but we can atleast learn some little things about it. Suppressing thoughts and memories is not harmful to soul but suppressing your emotions will definitely harm your soul. Emotions that we feel are the very part of your soul. This is something I found out of my research. This thing can be wrong but suppressing emotions can bring harm to your soul is the truth. This is also the reason why I decided to make changes in existing occlumency book of our family. No one in the entire wizarding world probably knows about these consequences of using occlumency but you can notice that if someone had been using occlumency for a very long time, they would not be able to express their emotions properly. They would feel depressed because of this and soon because of all the unstable and suppressed emotions, their magic improvement will slow down or sometimes it may even regress. So I hope you will pay attention to it as the soul of little kids is really easy to be influenced. Even smallest change in the soul can bring great harm or benefits to us wizards. Special ability is also the result of changes in our soul. Even I don't try to hide my emotions anymore because of the harm that occlumency can cause to the soul, even if it's rare. Never forget, soul is the reason of our very existence. So never do something that can harm it.

This improved version of the occlumency is a reward for your help. You may think why did I give you something so important, but for me, the task you are going to do is far more important than this book. So I hope you will do everything you can to complete it. I won't disappoint you with the rewards.

Another thing, You don't have to worry about the Malfoy family right now. They are currently very busy with their own affairs that are far more important to them than handling you. But you should still try to get stronger as quickly as you can so that you won't need to live in worry about their retaliation.

I think you might be able read this letter in a month so don't blame me for not giving it to you directly. And there is also a recipe of a potion at the end of this book. You will need that potion to learn the improved version of the third part of the occlumency. Burn this page after reading it.

-Sophie '

Adam and Hermione looked silently at this letter. Both of them tried to digest this information. Both of them were happy that Lucius was not going to do anything against them right now but they didn't really care about it. Adam had the need to learn about occlumency, while Hermione wanted to understand more things about the principle behind the occlumency and the mental energy that Sophie had mentioned in this letter.

After a while, unlike Hermione who was trying to figure out whether to trust Sophie or not, Adam was immersed in his memories. He was trying to recall all the people he had seen using occlumency in the movie. He even recalled every single detail about Lucius whom he had met on the very first day of his visit to the Diagon Alley.

He felt that Sophie's words were really reasonable as he thought about Snape and Lucius. Most of the time they didn't have any emotions on their face. They always used occlumency to hide their thoughts and emotions. Maybe Snape hid his thoughts and emotions because he was double-agent stuck between the light and the darkness, while Lucius hid his thoughts and emotions because he was a death eater. But from their usual performances, it can be still seen that they used their occlumency even when they didn't need it. They were really addictive to it.

'If I really have to see if Sophie's speculation is real or not, then I must wait for the school to start. Then I can observe professor Snape.' Adam thought to himself.

Adam was not sure if Sophie's words were true or not but he still decided to believe her. He was sure that she would definitely not harm him, atleast till he can help her get the book of the blood magic.

From the next day, Adam and Hermione started their work to prepare the 'Dreaming potion' required for practising the improved version of the third part of occlumency. This improved version was to create fake thoughts, emotions and memories in your mind. Unlike the advanced occlumency of creating a layer of fake thoughts and memories above the real thoughts and memories to hide them, this improved version of occlumency was to actually experience the fake scene as if it was a reality so you can throughly fool someone.

Both Adam and Hermione felt that this would be a really difficult part in occlumency but when they completely read this improved version, they found out that this was actually quite easy if you can manage to improve your imagination and awareness by using this 'Dreaming potion'.

This Dreaming potion's effect was really simple. It helped the drinker to have dreams about the things that they thought before sleeping, which meant that drinker of this potion could see whatever he wants in his dream, including the fun things that he can think of. Adam had to admit that this potion that Sophie created was really ingenious.

But the purpose of using this potion to practise this improved version of the occlumency was not just to see whatever you want in your dreams but rather try to wake up in your dreams and control your actions inside the dream. In short, Increase your awareness while you are in your dreams so that you won't mistake your fake memories with your real ones when you use this part of the occlumency to stop a legilimens.

Second step of this practise was to control your dream when you wake up in your dreams. You have to make your dreams as much realistic as possible so that the legilimens that enter your mind won't think that these are your fake memories or thoughts. You have to learn to make changes in your dreams as you please. Simple meaning- increase your imagination.

Third and the most difficult part of this practise was to create these types of dreams on the spot while you are awake without any potions as you won't have time to use them when you are facing a legilimens. You have to be fast with your imagination so that you can quickly create a realistic scene to fool a powerful legilimens. They won't find out that you are showing them fake things as you have already REALLY experienced these things in your dreams just like a reality.

When they can't find a fake layer that is normally created to hide the real memories in occlumency, they will think that they are seeing your real memories, while you actually are just showing them a dream that you have created inside your mind. These dreams are like the real memories even to the user of this improved occlumency so you have to have enough awareness to differentiate between your real memories and these fake realistic dreams that you created to fool the legilimens. Otherwise you might just get confused with your own memories, without knowing which ones are your real memories and which ones are the dreams that you experienced with your imagination.

Think the process of this improved part of the occlumency as a living, experiencing and creating real memories inside the dream world that you create. Except for the last step which could be quite difficult without enough imagination and quite dangerous without enough awareness, this improved version of occlumency was really better than the normal occlumency which were not really fullproof.

Adam and Hermione practised diligently for the rest of the days. They drank Dreaming potion every night before sleeping to continue their practise in occlumency while still practising their magical spells in the day time. They had already read all the books from their First-year curriculum and with their good memory, both of them had nearly remembered all of the small details in the books. They still avoided the most of the magic spells that were supposed to be learned in the class as to not get bored when they are taught in the class.

Both of them still did not manage to completely learn the third part of the occlumency but they were not discouraged as it was really very hard to learn compared to the first and second part that they had learned in just two weeks. Adam felt that these two parts would be enough to handle Snape and Dumbledore as long as he doesn't attract their attention. It's not like they were going to walk around the corridors and snoop into every student's mind.

Two days before their departure to Hogwarts, Adam and Hermione decided to spend the rest of their time with their parents so they took a break from their usual practise and decided not to use any kind of magic for these two days as they were not going to go to the Leaky Cauldron.

Both of them had also decided to meet outside the King's cross station at 10:15AM on the day of their departure so that they can find themselves a compartment to sit while meeting their new classmates. Adam knew Hermione's house was close to his house as they often went back home in the taxi but he still decided to go separately to the station after two days as he didn't actually want to face the senior Grangers.

Adam spent his entire day with his parents while bonding with his new white owl that he had bought on his last visit to the Diagon Alley. Somehow he also convinced Hermione to not to buy another owl and use his owl if she wanted to send letters to her parents. He was sure that he wouldn't be needing his owl that much as he had no one to send the letters to, except for his parents.

The night before his departure, Adam checked his system window. He had seen his status window everyday for past 30 days to see if there was something new and good in it. But to his disappointment, there was not much change in it, except for the new tasks that were added on the day of his meeting with Sophie.

Name: Adam

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Age: 11

Magic Status: Active

Level: 9

Special points: 530,870

Gold: 83,790

Tasks:

1.Continue exploring the Diagon Alley till the day you reach Hogwarts. Number of places visited: 28.

Reward: 1000 special points and 50 gold per shop.

2.Learn different types of magic. (permanent task)

Reward: Minimum 1000 special points and 100 gold per spell. (Rewards vary according to difficulty of the spell. Learning spells before entering hogwarts will give ten times the reward.)

3.Read books about magical mysteries. (permanent task)

Reward: Special points and gold according to difficulty and information level of books.

4.Help Daphne Greengrass with her mission.

Reward: Gold according to the amount of help provided and the difficulties face during the mission.

5.Get Book of the Blood magic.

Reward: 20,000 Gold.

6.Complete the trial left behind by the one of the founders of the Hogwarts, Rowena Ravenclaw.

Reward: 45,000 Gold.

Shop: ☆ Apparition, 40000 Gold. (Warning: Maximum distance traveled with current magical level is 50KM. Trying to exceed this limit may cause Splinching. Frequent Apparition may cause headache, depletion of mental strength and strain on human soul that may lead to long term soul problems.)

☆ Sectumsempra Curse, 5000 Gold.

☆ Snake summons spell, 2000 Gold.

Adam used to feel that he had so much Gold when he just had 7000 gold after the duel against Draco but now he didn't even feel like that after having 83,790 Gold. He knew that this gold was really important to him as he won't be getting ten times the reward for learning new magic spells when he arrives at the Hogwarts. Even though he could get much more gold from the those tasks, he knew that they won't be so easy considering the amount of gold they rewarded him with.

Adam had learned 25 spells, most of which were easy and also limited use spells like household magic. Most of these spells provided him with 1,000 Gold while some of the slightly difficult ones provided him with 2,000 Gold. Occlumency was the only one that provided him with 20,000 Gold (Including 10 times reward from his task.). He still didn't complete all parts of the occlumency so he was sure he would get more in the future.

He had read all the books of his First-year curriculum with few additional books about history of magic. But rewards for these books were not that great. He also got some rewards from exploring the Diagon Alley.

All of this had brought him to more than 83,000 Gold which would probably be finished instantly if he just bought Apparition spell and some rare potion ingredients from his system shop. He was happy to have 83,790 Gold but he was also sad to have ONLY 83,790 Gold.

Adam had opened his system map in the leaky cauldron just to see that the level 10 secret space had not yet disappeared. He wanted to enter this secret space but he was just level 9 and he didn't know if there was any big change after entering level 10 so he decided to wait until Christmas to enter this space. He was even thinking about taking Hermione to this space after learning some combat spells in Hogwarts. He already guessed that this secret space was probably in a place where not many people lived so it was still not yet discovered, so he didn't worry about it being cleared by someone else. In fact, even if it was cleared by someone else, he would not care about it as he knew that he would be able to enter more and more secret spaces as his magic level grows.

The next day, Adam got up early in the morning and had a breakfast with his parents. George and Olivia, both of them were emotional as their son was going to go away from them for the first time but they still smiled at him and kept maintaining this smile so that Adam wouldn't notice their sadness.

At 10:15 AM, Adam arrived at King's cross station on time but Hermione was still earlier than him. She waved excitedly at him and ran over to him. It was her first meeting with Adam's parents so she was still polite for a while. After Introducing each other's family and talking for a few minutes, Adam decided to enter the platform 9 and 3/4 with Hermione.

Adam and Hermione arrived in front of the brick wall between platforms 9 and 10, Hermione looked nervous as she asked,

"Do we enter from here? We will not crash into the wall right?"

"Just run straight through it and you will arrive on the platform 9 and 3/4. Trust me."

Before entering the platform, Adam hugged his parents as he felt emotional about leaving them. He had been used to their company in this world so it was kind of hard for him to leave without having few tears in his eyes. Hermione did the same and hugged her parents but she cried when she hugged her mother. It was probably her first time going away from her parents. She ran through the wall right after Adam entered the wall.

Adam and Hermione's parents looked at each other but did not enter the platform. They kept staring sadly at the brick wall for a few seconds before turning back and leaving the place. On the other side of the wall, Hermione looked at the wall as well, hoping to see her parents one more time but they did not enter the platform.

Adam waited for a minute before asking Hermione to leave with him to find a compartment in the train. Both of them looked around curiously as they pushed their luggage trolley towards the train. They could see many little wizards and their parents which made Hermione even sadder but She did not cry this time. She looked determined as she entered the train, followed by Adam.