Practice

(Word Count: 2,839)

It's been a year since Harry got his memories back and he hadn't made much progress. Sure, he's been following along with the mental practices in the books he's read, like the whole walking through a house and linking certain things you want to remember to objects you pass as you maneuver the room. It did help structure his mind, but how was he supposed to know if he was doing anything correctly, or if these muggle techniques even applied to occlumency?

The only way to be sure was to level up to get that skill point and put it into the skill for occlumency. The class point would go to Mind Arts. Hopefully it would tell me exactly how to proceed.

This past year, Harry had been making an effort to learn telekinesis with his magic in order to gain exp. Though calling it telekinesis was a bit too much. Unfortunately, it took Harry months to even get a piece of paper to move, much less levitate. Even after a year, having a controlled and sustained movement of an object was still impossible right now. However, he could now trigger the spontaneous door slamming and objects flying across the room… or into his own face. Word to the wise, don't summon something directly towards you when you aren't good at magic. Almost broke his own nose. After that incident, Harry started practicing other simple spells like Lumos and Alohomora.

These spells would help him out in his closet, so he could see better and sneak out if needed. After a couple months he could reliably sustain a small dim light that uses 1 power for as long as he wished, or a light that uses 5 power for 15 minutes. Anything more than that, it's like the spell bursts, flashing blindingly. As for alohomora, he still couldn't get it to work on the chain latch that was on the closet door, but he could get it to work on the key lock and deadbolt on the front door. 

This past year wasn't all sunshine and rainbows though. School started up when September rolled by and it was a huge waste of time for him. Harry was 26 when he died, so attending elementary school was agonizing. Not just that, but bloody Dudley was so entitled that he pushed away any friends he could have made. So when Harry made a friend, which from Harry's perspective was basically just him babysitting a sweet little boy, Dudley punched him.

Harry, of course, defended the new friend and punched Dudley back, sending him to the ground. Both Harry and Dudley were suspended for a week, and Vernon and Petunia were called. When they got home, Vernon beat Harry black and blue for daring to punch Dudley. Harry had gotten hit for disobedience before, but this was the first truly wrathful beating he received. In a desperate need to defend himself, Harry sent any loose object in the living room flying into Vernon, but that was a mistake. Vernon was too large to be overly affected by them, and the overt display of magic sent the man into a frenzy.

Harry had ended up with several bruised ribs, a black eye, and a broken arm that day. Petunia ended up having to take him to the hospital, where she gave the excuse that he "fell down the stairs." Harry debated calling them out on the lie, but Mrs. Figg was currently his only hope of connecting to the magical world before Hogwarts. So instead, he confirmed it.

It sucked, but the Dursleys will get what's coming to them eventually.

After that, Harry's life at the Dursley's took a turn for the worse. Where they were apathetic before, now they found any and all reason to punish him. The punishments were crueler too, it wasn't just extra chores or missed dinner, it was a belt. Harry now had several scars down his back from the belt buckle. On holidays like Halloween and Christmas, where before he watched on the sidelines but could still eat the feasts Petunia would make, he was instead sent into the cupboard for the entire day without food.

As a result, Harry took any opportunity he could to stay away from the house and doubled down on practicing magic, and the mind. He would practice all throughout the night, and use school to just sleep. He did get into a lot of trouble for that, but Harry didn't care.

His constant practice of magic helped him improve his Stats as well.

Power: 20 -> 26, [2], [5]

Control: 3 -> 4

Focus: 7 -> 9

Now finally, nearly a full year since he regained his memories, he gained a level. With that, he gained 10 stat points, 1 class point, and 1 skill point. His status page changed.

[Name: Harry James Potter

Level: 1 0.00%

Stats: [+10]

Power: 26, [2], [5]

Control: 4

Focus: 9

Classes: None. [+1]

Skills: None. [+1]

Perks: Potter Family Magic, A Mother's Love, Horcrux, Parselmouth.]

He could now select the plus button on his screen and could now assign the points. With the stat points he split it 5-5 to control and focus. As for power, he still couldn't do anything that required 17 power right off the bat.

Power: 26, [2], [5]

Control: 4 -> 9

Focus: 9 -> 14

When he selected the class point, a list of the different classes popped up. He didn't think about it too much and immediately put it into the Mind Arts class. After all, it's what he had been working towards these past months. With the level in Mind Arts, he gained some insight on how magic could interact with the mind, what occlumency and Legilimency were and how they worked, and even some ideas of other spells that influenced the mind like obliviate, confundo, or a cheering charm. Obliviate was like a hammer that went in, and cleared out both short-term and long-term memories, a skilled user can target specific memories. Confundo filled the mind with a fog, making the short-term memories malleable and hazy where a skilled user can use this chance to suggest ideas of what had happened recently. A cheering charm targeted the emotions and incited a happy feeling. The knowledge was all basic stuff but it provided a starting point.

The available skill menu had several different options.

[Skills:

Snake Summoning - Serpensortia - Charm

Snake Vanishing - Vipera Evanesca - Charm

Levitation - Leviosa - Charm

Summoning - Accio - Charm

Unlocking - Alohomora - Charm

Lighting - Lumos - Charm

Hair Growth - Capillus Crasso - Charm

Healing - Episkey - Charm

Occlumency

Legilimency - Legilimens - Charm

Cheering - Hilaris - Charm

Memory Erasing - Obliviate - Charm

Confusion - Confundus - Charm]

It was both more and less than what he was expecting. Harry was hoping to get a whole list of all the spells available, but realistically he was expecting only the Mind Arts related spells. The snake summoning and banishing spells likely came from his perk of parseltongue, then the levitation, unlocking, and lighting charms likely came from his practice. The Hair growth and healing came from accidental magic. The rest were from his level in Mind Arts.

Again, Harry didn't think too much about what to choose, because occlumency was his priority right now.

Upon choosing occlumency, Harry immediately learned that it was not a passive shield, or a mental landscape to construct auto turrets and monsters to defend the mind. There were three basic practices when it came to defending the mind, and all were active. 

The first was to clear your mind of everything. To not let any thought or feelings pass your mind. This way, the legilimens you're defending against will sense nothing. However, a skilled legilimens can force thoughts out of you, which is why you need the other methods.

The second was to steer the probe to the memories and thoughts that you want them to see instead of what they want. It's like someone tells you to think of an elephant and now you try not to think of an elephant. Skilled occlumens can fabricate memories to feed the probe. It requires a lot of mental discipline. Magically speaking it only requires a small bit of power, but requires a lot of focus.

The third was to mentally push back against a legilimantic probe directly and force the intruder out. No, this wasn't like in the fanfics where one "builds" a mental wall in their mindscape to prevent intrusion. It was being able to recognize when someone was inside your head and forcing them out directly. Magically speaking, it is more power centric, and requires a bit of focus.

It's best to use a combination of these techniques to tire and confuse and then push the intruder out. Because you could reroute them all you want, but until you push them out or they give up, they're going to stay in there. One good tactic was to direct them to shocking memories to disrupt the intruders concentration. 

Luckily for Harry, the mental practice of the mind palace helped to discipline his mind so it wasn't a waste of time. Say for example, the probe demands memories of the day his parents died, that memory is in a specific location in his mind palace, so Harry would have to mentally go through the house to that spot. This gives Harry a much easier time to subtly reroute to a less important spot in the mind palace, and delay the probe until he can push them out.

He read the skills description that he got.

[Occlumency: Level 1/5

The magically mental discipline of defending the mind against Legilimency and other mental effects.

Level 1: Occlumency is twice as effective at ordering and defending the mind.]

Taking a moment to practice a bit of what he learned, and now actually using magic to navigate his mind, Harry found it was 10 times easier and faster to navigate his own mental palace. It didn't help so much with memories that he hadn't bothered organizing in his mind palace, and his mental technique wasn't fool proof, but applying magic to it reinforced all of the structuring he did. Now that he knew what he was doing, he took the time to organize the rest of his memories. Also, he was actually now gaining exp from the practice, so he could now profit directly from mind practice, whereas before he couldn't.

Unfortunately for Harry though, now that he had some knowledge of Mind Arts, it revealed a flaw in his plan. Just because he had a level in occlumency, does not mean he would be able to defend against the likes of Dumbledore.

But… he couldn't sit around doing nothing but train, he wanted to make the most of his time and make a buttload of money. To do that, he needed his money from gringotts. That means, he needed Ms. Figgs to take him to the leaky cauldron. He knew that the pub was on Charing Cross Road, but as a child no muggle transport would allow him to travel alone.

The question though was what to do after speaking to the goblins? Harry could reasonably guess that the Potter Family owns at least one house in their assets. So he really wanted to move out of the depressing environment of the Dursley's. The problem was that there was no way he would be allowed to live on his own.

Should he try to speak to a lawyer about getting a trial for Sirius? The Tonks could technically be considered family. Harry was sure they could lend a hand. But then again, would providing his own memories be enough to acquit him? Probably not. He needed the rat, and making this stink would only send Pettigrew into hiding.

So would he just have to live with the Dursley's until Hogwarts after all?

That sounded really unpleasant. Then again, he did need to have someone to practice Legilimency on, and he wouldn't feel too guilty if he accidentally messed up Vernon's mind.

Maybe he should wait until he has at least another level under his belt? After all, it wouldn't be as easy as it is in the fanfics to fly over to a prison to experiment with Legilimency. … Okay, Harry will stay until he gets the hang of mind reading. 

~~ ITW, H ~~

And so, another year had passed of Harry grinding out his magic, making it nearly two years since he regained his memories. It's official, he was depressed. Constantly facing hostility from the Dursleys, plus the 5 years of neglect before that, really took a toll on him. There were more beatings from both Vernon and Petunia now. Though Harry would never take it lying down, and he would always fight back, it made the punishments a lot worse. A part of him wanted to stop resisting, but a bigger part refused to give Vernon the satisfaction. Which made each incident a huge fight that ended up with Harry locked in the cupboard bruised and bleeding more often than not. 

Dudley still tried to bully at school, and for the most part Harry just ignored the kid. It was when Dudley tried to push and hit someone where Harry would hit him back. And each time, Harry would end up with a beating from good ol' Vernon. These caused the biggest rows they had, as well as Harry refusing to do any more unreasonable chores, when Vernon found him practicing magic in the backyard, and when Petunia caught him sleeping on the couch in the living room. Aunt Marge and her dog were downright murderous when they came over. She tried to sic her dog on him and Harry just punted the thing. After that row, whenever Aunt Marge came over, Harry was locked in the cupboard. Obviously, he would just unlock the door and leave.

Even though he was depressed, his mental practices helped and he refused to give up out of spite and still practiced all that he did before, with the added practice of mind reading. Though it took him about 7 months of trying to figure out that it would require far more control and focus than he has right now to try and read someone's mind. He would likely need a wand to pull it off at first. The next several months were spent grinding the more reliable magics he had. With the increase in Control and Focus, Harry was finally able to make some of the lighter objects float as he pleased. Anything heavier though took too much Power and it still went out of control and flew off or dropped. The biggest thing he was able to levitate with any sense of control was a book. With the unlocking charm, he finally managed to unlock the latch on his cupboard door. 

[Name: Harry James Potter

Level: 2 0.001%

Stats: 

Power: 26 -> 34 [3], [5]

Control: 9 -> 11 -> 16

Focus: 14 -> 16 -> 21

Classes: Mind Arts 2

Skills: Occlumency 1, [+1]

Perks: Potter Family Magic, A Mother's Love, Horcrux, Parselmouth.]

The same deal as last time, the class point went into Mind Arts, which revealed more spells, like the memory extraction charm, the mind shield charm, the Notice-Me-Not charm, and the Notice-Me charms. The memory extraction charm was used to pull a copy of a memory out for others to view in a pensieve. The mind shield charm raised an invisible barrier that was most efficient at blocking mind related spells. The Notice-Me-Not and the Notice-Me charms worked a little bit differently because it doesn't target someone's mind directly, but were cast on a target. That target then redirects the attention of everyone nearby either to or away from it. It also gave some more insight on how the mind can influence your magic, specifically how it can influence emotions. At this level, it can only raise or smother existing emotions.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like Harry could use the skill point he had. The fact of the matter was that most spells were built around wands and you needed a wand to properly use them. Without one, the spell would be horribly inefficient to the point of the Control and Focus costs would be near 100. The options he had, including Legilimency, seemed to require a wand to practice, and Harry didn't want to spend a skill point on the basic charms that he could use. It takes too long to get a single level for him to be wasteful on what spells to get perks on. He had to curate his skills list carefully.

So in the end, Harry chose to save the point until either he unlocked another option that was worthwhile, or save for 2 points to get the next level of occlumency.

Now that he had gotten a second level, Harry had enough of the Dursleys. He may not be completely protected from legilimency, but he refused to spend any more time with the Dursleys. It was time to make contact with the Wizarding world.