9 The Final Stage of Occlumency

It had been a few weeks since Pansy's birthday and the results couldn't have been any more favourable for the Parkinsons. The Greengrass family seemed closer than ever, the Ollivanders agreed to their deal, the Malfoys while not directly but still agreed to support them, and even the Abbott and the Nott family didn't oppose them.

Connections were being built and shadow politics were being played as the children enjoyed their childhood.

Some of them at least.

"hne… Daphne!"

The heiresses enjoyed the day with a tea party.

"Oh, pardon me."

Pansy's shout brought Daphne back from her thoughts.

"You seem to be lost in thoughts a lot these days…" The Parkinson's heiress pouted as her friend didn't seem attentive to their talks.

"I apologise but I just remembered something my father told me and that had me engaged in my thoughts for a while."

Truth to be told, she wasn't lost in thought but was dozing off with her eyes open. The past few days have been rough for her.

The Greengrass family loved both their daughters but the lord of the Greengrass accepted nothing but excellence and as his daughter turned seven, he decided to teach her about politics and ethics. The lady of the Greengrass was against it but in the pureblood household, no one went against the lord of the house.

The amount of information being presented to the young girl was too much for her, it was a burden yet she could do nothing about it.

It was her father that made her go through all that and she couldn't say anything to him. At times, it infuriated her at how little the heiresses had a say in familial matters, especially when a lord made a decision.

Giving the girls a smile, Daphne asked. "So, what were you talking about again?"

Pansy pouted which made Daphne look at the girl to her left, a surprising addition to the talk.

"She was telling us about the ones that couldn't make it to the party but mostly everything was about the heir of the Malfoys." The one that answered with a sweet smile was the most surprising addition to the group.

"Ah, I see." Daphne smiled. "Thank you, Hannah."

Hannah Abbott.

After the party, Lord Greengrass saw Ian talking to Hannah which made him interested. And this made him ask his daughter to befriend the Abbott heiress, and as someone with no say in such matters, Daphne agreed.

She didn't enjoy building relationships in this way but slowly she was getting used to it. And she wouldn't say it aloud, but she enjoyed the company of Hannah.

"Being with you, Pansy… We know about Draco more than any of the other friends we have."

Daphne's little comment made Hannah chuckle while Pansy blushed.

"S-Shut up!"

"Language." Daphne replied with a small smile, marking it as a victory in her book.

"Draco gifted me an amazing pendant… see!" She proudly showed them the expensive platinum olive tree pendant she wore.

Daphne didn't react much, and neither did Hannah but both gave the girl a smile. Hannah and Daphne knew how easy it was for their families to afford such a gift and they were more than sure that the gift was picked by Draco's parents and not by him.

However, they knew better than to say this.

"That's beautiful." Daphne said as she tried to divert the topic. She was growing bored of talking about Draco. "However, Hannah said that you were also talking about the ones that didn't attend the party. Who were they?"

"Ah." Pansy remembered. "It was the twins of the Weasly as well as their youngest and the heir of the Nott."

Daphne rolled her eyes at the Weasly name. She knew well enough why they didn't come, it was because they were the only family that was directly against their families. She wasn't knowledgeable about the reasons but their families hated one another.

However, the other family surprised her.

"Why didn't the Nott family visit?" Daphne questioned but neither of the two girls had an accurate answer.

"Father said that they were out of town but I don't know anything other than that." Pansy said.

"The heir is Theodore Nott, right?" Hannah asked and Daphne nodded.

"I have met him once and he is… kind of cold." Daphne frowned as she remembered her prior encounter with the Nott heir.

"Oh… then he is totally different from Ian."

Now, this name caught the attention of the two girls.

"Ho~?" Pansy looked at Hannah.

"Ian?" Daphne repeated. "The Ollivander heir?"

"Yes." Hannah answered. "I met him at the party… and he seemed like a nice and kind guy. Two years older than us but he wasn't rude and was very friendly."

Hannah's revelation made Daphne quite interested.

"Why don't you tell us more about him, Hannah?" Daphne asked which made Hannah pause before nodding.

"Oh… okay."

Daphne smiled knowing that this person might be useful given his position and kind personality.

Her father did say that kind people were easily fooled. And maybe, she could get him as her underling?

But as she thought of that, her eyes went wide.

'Am I being influenced by my father's ideals?'

…

<Occlumency: The Art of Protecting the Mind>

<Quest: Learn and master the first stages of Occlumency>

<Progress: 65%>

<Reward: A Scale of the Leviathan>

Ian had progressed a lot within the past few days. Being successful in creating two additional layers of the shield, he knew that he could move onto the next stage.

The 'Faux Memory Layer' stage.

<Reward: Instruction Manual to Merlin's Pendant of Occlumency>

Ian's eyes went wide at the reward. He was flabbergasted to see such a precious item as a reward for stage three of the quest, which made him wonder how valuable the Leviathan scale was.

'Just what can the scale be used for?' He wondered. 'And again… it's an instruction manual and not the pendant itself.'

He remembered Merlin saying in a previous note that the rewards will either be recipes or instructions for creating items or the location of relics.

Even for the scale of the Leviathan, it was going to be a location, which meant he had to go out and recover the scale on his own.

He figured even Merlin couldn't conjure relics out of thin air, given the man had died ages ago.

`The most difficult stage of Occlumency is creating a faux memory layer. Putting one artificial layer of memory over the actual one requires a lot of practice and precision. But if one is able to master this technique, they can master an entire section of Occlumency.`

A part of Occlumency, not the entirety of it. Ian knew that Occlumency was a vast topic and it would take forever for a wizard to 'master' the art. But for now, he wasn't looking to master it, he just wanted to be good enough to keep his mind safe.

`The first step to creating a faux shield is to forge a memory that is fake but believable. If a memory is unbelievable, the technique will never work.`

It was true. Even if you saw the memory, you will never believe it if it was something totally bogus.

`Once a believable memory is forged, you use the same method as before. Layering the mind with a shield, but this time a shield that is formed of those memories.`

'That's… complex.' He frowned.

`Memories are malleable. Forming a memory layer over the mind might be tough but if the magic user is careful enough, they can form the layer.`

This was difficult but still far better than the methods described in the other books which involved clearing the mind than filling it up with the false memories. At first, this sounds easy when you realise that slipping one real memory inside the false ones will make the entire faux layer crumble down… Ian decided to go with Merlin's technique.

'You can do it, Ian.' He comforted himself.

Now, he wondered what type of memory he could form. He had to think of something that was easily believable.

But sadly he couldn't think of anything interesting and ended up using the previous day's events as the memory for the faux layer.

The events did happen but in the past and hence they were believable. The first step was to make a memory that could convince himself and the one he chose did convince him.

`Weave the memories into a cover —a coating— with magic.`

Imbuing magic into memories was difficult as a memory was not something physical. However, it was still easier than imbuing the heart with magic, which he had heard of.

Memories were like clouds, easily temperable and if you were too rough with them, they would distort and vanish.

So, he was careful.

Slowly and steadily he tried to make the cold magic threads weave into the memories, building something solid.

But he failed.

The memory cloud distorted and vanished which annoyed him greatly. But keeping his cool, he reforged it.

Only for it to get distorted again.

This seemed to be the biggest hurdle so far for Ian.

Merlin's techniques helped him complete the shielding layer in less than 2 hours but this was taking a while, quite a long time to be honest.

Another try.

And another fail.

This progress continued till he started to grow more and more frustrated.

But then… then a miracle happened.

He was able to weave the first few threads.

It was an ecstatic feeling. The feeling of forging the memories was something extraordinary for him.

Sadly the thread broke again but he knew it was possible for him to weave a memory. And this belief also prevented him from quitting the training.

'Let's try once again. And maybe… I might succeed.'

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[A/N: Next chapter in an hour or two... Maybe three.]

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