Occlumency

When they returned to Courtroom One after lunch, Harry saw the room had undergone significant changes.

The raised dais where the tribunal had been seated earlier was no much larger than before and there was a heavy chair halfway between it and the tables he and Umbridge had sat at. In the room, there appeared to be about twenty witches or wizards, besides Madame Bones and Miss Glendowling the court scribe.

Once Madame Bones saw them, she called the hearing to order and nine of the older witches and wizards joined her on the dais.

"Given that a member of the Wizengamot is on trial here today along with Professor Snape, there will be more members to the tribunal." Mr Boet told Harry as they took their seats at the table on the right. "It is supposed to give the appearance of impartiality."

Harry snorted in disbelief at that statement. "And the chair?"

"You will sit in it when giving you testimony."

Madame Bones again went through the identification and confirmation of the participants for the record, and then instructed the court scribe to read the charges.

"Professor Severus Augustus Snape is charged with repeated assault and mind rape upon the person of Mr. Harry James Potter during his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. These assaults occurred from January to May in 1996 and were done under the guise of teaching Mr. Potter Occlumency."

The court scribe paused briefly as she saw the name on the next charge. "Headmaster Albus Percival Brian Wulfric Dumbledore is charged as an accessory to the crimes of Professor Severus Augustus Snape for failing to properly supervise the Occlumency lesson that he forced Mr. Potter to have with Professor Snape, even though he was well aware of Professor's Snape's dislike for Mr. Potter."

Harry looked down at the table in front of him until he could get his face schooled back into an expressionless mask. He felt like laughing at their choice of words. 'Dislike' was not quite the word he would have chosen. It sounded too polite. 'Loathed' or 'despised' were closer to the mark in Harry's opinion, but then again the loathing was mutual.

"Mr. Boet, since your client is the one bringing the charges, you may begin." Madame Bones told him.

"Thank you, Madame Bones." Mr. Boet stood and called, "Mr. Talisin Nighbert, would you please take the witness seat?"

An ancient balding wizard who looked even older than Dumbledore came up and sat in the heavy wooden chair.

"Please tell us you occupation and current place of employment, Mr. Nighbert?" Mr. Boet requested.

"I am a Master Occlumens." Mr. Nighbert told them. "For the past twenty years, I have been training Unspeakables in the arts of Occlumency and Legilmency."

"Mr Nighbert, I would like to place a hypothetical student before you. This student must be trained quickly so that he/she can protect their thoughts from a dark wizard, but has had no training in the mind arts. How would you begin to teach this student?" Mr. Boet wanted to know.

Nighbert was silent for several minutes before he answered. "Even though there seems to be some urgency in teaching this student, they would need a solid grounding before they can begin to master Occlumency. I would give him or her basic books on meditation and Occlumency so that he/she is able to understand the goals of the lessons.

At the same time I would start teaching this student how to meditate and calm their thoughts. If a student can't learn to calm their minds then they will fail at Occlumency. It is not something everyone is capable of learning because it requires a great deal of focus, at least at first. Once a student is able to keep their minds calm, I would start teaching them how to protect their thoughts."

"And how do you teach them to do this?" Boet inquired.

"The techniques I use will vary from student to student." Nighbert told the assembled group. "Those with poor visualizations skills, I would teach how to build layered mental shields similar to domes. For those who are very good at visualization, I teach them how to hide what they don't want found, how to set traps or deflect Legilimens probes away from those thoughts. Once they have mastered that aspect of Occlumency, then I teach them to drive the invading mind out."

"Would there ever be a time when you would, oh say," Mr Boet paused as if looking for the right words, "stand a student of yours in the middle of the room on their first lesson and just say 'clear your mind' before repeatedly firing the Legilimens curse at them?"

"Of course not!" Nighbert seemed shocked at the very idea. "That wouldn't teach anyone how to protect their minds. In fact that would have the opposite effect on the student. Repeated exposure to the Legilimens Curse, without knowing how to rebuild the barriers in your mind could easily erode what natural barriers the mind does have, making it easier for someone to get in. It would also prove very painful for the person on the receiving end of the curse."

"Could permanent damage be done?" Madame Bones wanted to know.

"I don't know." Nighbert told her honestly. "It's not exactly something you would want to experiment with, just to find out. Knowing what I know about how the curse works, I know that the brain will react as if injured if repeatedly exposed to the Legilimens Curse. The person on the receiving end of the curse will at the very least experience very severe migraine headaches."

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