30 Mind Arts

One day, at the end of August, Draco was sitting together with Abraxas peacefully having breakfast and checking his mail in between taking bites of his pancakes. His grandfather was leisurely reading la Gazette du Sorcier, Daily Prophet's French equivalent, while sipping his tea. Suddenly, the old man's eyes flashed as, with the corner of his eye, he saw a Black crest on one of the letters addressed to his grandson. Without hesitation, he threw the newspaper aside and grabbed the envelope.

"You are corresponding with Arcturus? What does that bast- I mean, what does that pompous man want?" Abraxas almost cursed but remembered to hold himself back in front of a child. His fingers, which were tightly holding the letter, smoked – it could be seen, how badly the Malfoy Patriarch wanted to burn the letter (and how much willpower it took for him to hold back).

Draco quirked an eyebrow at the over-excessive reaction and took the envelope back. Its edges were singed a bit, but it was otherwise unharmed.

"He invited me to spend the summer at the Black manor before, but I refused since I knew that you would invite me to France." Draco opened the letter and casually glanced over its contents. "It seems like he wants to extend his invitation to the Black estate again. After all, he knows that I will be coming back to Britain soon."

Abraxas almost exploded, "What does he want from MY grandson?! He didn't know how to take care of his own grandsons and now he wants to steal you from me?" He abruptly stood up, almost making the chair, on which he had been sitting, fall down. With a determined look on his face Abraxas closed in on Draco and, placing his arms on the boy's shoulders and staring straight into his eyes, the old man seriously said:

"Boy, you either choose me or him! Let me tell you, I am clearly a better option. That man is up to no good – he can't manage his own family, yet he told me that I was quick-tempered and would bring my family to doom. Ha! Now look who's laughing," Abraxas laughed like a model villain when he thought about the Black Patriarch's misfortune in not having a younger generation to continue the line.

Draco had a strange expression on his face. Clearly, you are really quick-tempered, yet you took offense when the other man told you the truth?

Besides, in the original series, the Malfoy family was really almost brought to its knees by Voldemort, the Second war and its aftermath. Though the Black family was even worse-off.

It seems that something else may have happened between the two Patriarchs of Noble and Ancient families. However, it couldn't have been too bad, since they still married off their families' children to each other. Draco wouldn't even be surprised if, after being called quick-tempered, Abraxas got his revenge on Arcturus and the conflict escalated.

The blond boy schooled his expression and nodded seriously. "Grandfather, you are the best. I won't exchange you for anyone else!" He promised monotonously.

Abraxas was extremely satisfied, feeling like he one-upped his rival once again. The old man didn't notice or didn't care to see his grandchild's cracking expression.

---

After the summer ended and Draco went back to Britain, he resumed the usual lessons once again. After two years of learning Occlumency by storing his memories in the mindscape and carefully creating various barriers and protections, it was finally time to start testing them and getting used to fighting off foreign invasion.

During his lessons, Draco not only had to store this life's memories but also the thirty years of his last life. Understandably, those memories took longer time to hide and protect, since there were more of them and they were much more important. Because of this issue, despite his supposed talent in Mind Arts, Draco was only considered average by his teacher. Other children his age, who took the same lessons, also started testing their protections around the same time – more talented kids started this part of the learning process even earlier.

Draco's parents were a bit worried about their child's slow progress in Occlumency. After all, his core clearly showed that he had talent, yet why was he so slow? They theorized that the boy should find Legilimency much easier to grasp. At least, they hoped so. Otherwise, wouldn't their son be a magical dunce? It was one thing to have intelligence, but controlling magic was a completely different matter.

Draco wasn't worried about what his parents were thinking. After all, Abraxas trained him in magic two summers in a row and even he said that the child was talented. So, Draco was completely sure that he would be the best at Hogwarts – with his adult mind and above-average control in magic, he would have to spent his entire school year sleeping in order to be a 'dunce'.

"Let's start," said his teacher as soon as the blond boy got comfortable in his seat. Draco nodded and concentrated on his defenses. "Legilimens!"

Draco felt the foreign force slam into his mind. He was completely unprepared for the ferociousness of the attack, having thought that his tutor would be gentler the first time. The blond quickly discarded the stray thoughts and concentrated on maintaining the barriers and repelling the attack.

Having an expert in Mind Arts trying to forcefully enter your mind was not a pleasant experience. Draco felt as though an elephant kept slamming on his shields, however, it didn't last long. When the force finally accepted that the protections were strong enough, it ceased the attempts to enter.

The boy's tutor severed the connection and nodded with a satisfied smile, "Good, you can withstand the hard attacks. I won't test the limits of your barriers as I don't want to strain your mind too much."

Draco nodded. He knew all of this already. Learning Occlumency was best over a long time and with careful guidance. Although quick mental attacks could provoke the magic to start unconsciously defending the mind, it could also cause side-effects, such as being left vulnerable in short-term and straining the mind too much, making it hard to concentrate.

"Now try detecting the soft approach. Many skilled legilimens like to passively read surface thoughts and emotions of other people. Even skilled occlumens may have a hard time defending from such attacks," the tutor didn't forget to remind. "Ready? Legilimens!"

This time Draco only felt a soft fluctuation in the air, as though the wind was passing by and carefully caressing his face. When he concentrated on his barriers though, he 'saw' a foreign presence gliding beside his barriers, where stray thoughts were lingering.

For normal people, it was very hard to contain their thoughts in a limited 'space' that was protected. Some of their feelings still escaped. The mind was very broad and only a small part of it could be protected initially. Only when the witch or wizard practised Occlumency for a long time, usually decades, could they think within the barriers or even try to expand them to such state, where they encompassed the whole mind.

Draco found it very hard to defend against such soft attack. He felt as though whenever he tried to push it back, it slid through, like water through fingers. He thought for a bit and made his barrier a bit more flexible and sticky, like a jelly.

This time he could successfully capture and repel the foreign presence. It wasn't because the barrier was made with a different substance. Rather, it was because he was mentally convinced that it would work and it did. The soft attack was usually just another witch's or wizard's conviction that they could get in and get out of the mind quickly, flexibly and without detection. The defense was, thus, quite similar – it needed mental strength and conviction.

When the attack suddenly changed from soft and gentle one to a hard and fast one, Draco didn't panic as he expected it to happen and quickly transformed his barrier into hard and unyielding one once again. However, some of the foreign force still managed to get past him. The tutor didn't try to see the child's memories and severed the connection directly.

"Not bad, however, you still need to practice more. You have to be convinced that the barrier you created will repel various forces – dragons, giants, wind and water, poison and dust. The attacker may shape their attack however they want in order to make you waiver and think of the real world's limitations, thus limiting your magic and protection. However, in mind – everything is possible."

Draco also knew that his tutor's words weren't false. For wizards, who didn't learn science and didn't know about supposed limitations, it would have been a lot easier to believe that a metal wall wouldn't get water, dust, wind or anything else past it. However, Draco knew that in reality, something would still get through and this made it hard for him to be absolutely sure of his own mind's protections.

Seeing the boy's accepting expression, Draco's tutor didn't continue the lecture and moved on to another topic:

"You have made a lot of progress and I am very satisfied with this aspect of our lessons. In our following classes, we will dedicate some time to practising repelling various types of attacks and the remaining time will be spent learning Legilimency. After all, to best understand how to defend, it is important to know, how to attack."

Finally, the most interesting aspect of Mind Arts – mind reading! Draco imagined surpassing Dumbledore, Severus and Voldemort in his use of Legilimency and being able to read their minds without detection. How good would that be?