First Occlumency Lesson

Hermione was looking at everything with fascination, which was how he reacted the first time he used a time turner.

It was a surreal experience after all.

After all, time had been called the ultimate equalizer since time immemorial. To know that you had the power to change such a fundamental part of your life would be shocking to anyone.

Just like when people realize that they can use magic and bend the laws of physics, gravity and many other things to their will.

After the novelty of the experience wore off, Harry took out the Bottomless Purse and kept his eyes on Hermione, who was looking intently at his actions. And just like a magician would take out stuff from inside his hat, he took out a large bed sheet from the purse and was rewarded satisfactorily when Hermione's eyes being widened at the sight.

"I believe you've already seen the use of Extension Charm?" he asked with a grin, amused at the surprised expression of the cute little girl.

If she had bought a trunk from Diagon Alley then there was no way that she would have missed the use of the Extension charm.

But seeing the charm used on a trunk and then seeing the same charm being used on a small purse were two different things.

She looked affronted at his grin and quickly reined in her expression before crossing her arms and sticking out her tongue at him in a childish manner which only made him want to hug the adorable little girl even more.

So that's exactly what he did and got a surprised squeal in return as he picked her up and spun her around a few times.

"Put me down." She said with mock anger and punched him playfully in the shoulders while he kept grinning like a fool at her "Never" her replied and spun her around playfully a few more times before he started to feel a bit faint, which led to both of them falling down on the bedsheet and laughing uncontrollably for some time.

"I'm glad I met you Hermione." He said after they stopped laughing. "Life was so much cold and boring without you."

He himself was surprised by his own honest admission as he had not put any thought in those words as they had come from deep within his heart itself.

"I'm glad to have met you as well Harry." She said with a kind gaze before leaning in and kissing him in the cheek.

He smiled at her and then leaned in and hugged her once again, realizing that he had found something incredibly important in his life that he had not realized was missing all his life.

They spend some more time playing with each other like children even though deep down he knew that he was not a child. But he allowed himself to feel and act like one for this one time when he felt happiness and warmth that he'd not felt in his entire life. As Harry at least.

He never remembered anyone from his past life. The presence of any family member, friends or lover was totally absent from his mind and he had always wondered if someone had removed those memories intentionally from his mind or if he was just a reclusive person in his past life as well.

He had tried not to think too much about such things over the last four years but he had been thinking about it more and more ever since he joined Hogwarts.

So despite having a past life and despite being an older person, Hermione was probably the first person to ever befriend him and he planned to not forget that fact anytime soon.

After they stopped playing, Hermione was finally able to divert her attention from him and started asking questions about Extension charms and the things he carried inside that purse and at that moment he realized what gift he would be giving her at her birthday.

A moleskin pouch like the one that she used in the movie would go a long way to serve her. Maybe he would make the pouch himself. Yes, that ought to show his sincerity properly compared to if he simply bought a pouch like that and then gifted it to her as he was quite wealthy in his own right and he could buy and gift such artifacts by the dozen.

"So you have books on charms and transfiguration in the purse?" she asked excitedly and he smiled at her excitement before nodding his head.

"I have. But I won't be teaching you about them today. Instead, I'll be teaching you something far more important. Something that'll serve you better in the long run."

At her inquisitive expression he continued "Occulumency."

"Occulumency? What's that? And if it's so damn important then how come I never heard of something like that before." She asked, not realizing that she was coming off as a bit rude.

He would have to talk with her about this sometime in the future. But not for now.

So he spent the next ten minutes explaining to her the meaning behind the terms Legilimency and Occulumency and a few more things about mind arts.

And by the end of his explanation, to say the she was thoroughly shocked would have been an understatement.

"So you're saying that Professor Snape and Headmaster Dumbledore could read my mind whenever they want just by looking at me in the eyes?" she asked with a horrified expression and he realized that for someone who prided herself on her knowledge, it must have come as a huge shock that some could simply get inside her mind and pluck the knowledge right out of her brain.

And even though the truth was a bit different then that, he was not going to correct her if that little bit of misunderstanding made her more willing to learn the art of Occlumency.

After all, now that he was going to spend a bit more time with her, he would eventually let her in on some of his more important secrets and so, it would be important that she learnt the mind art to an extent where she would at least be able to tell when someone is subtly trying to enter her mind.

"So you're saying that you can't teach me this because?" she asked with her hands crossed and he held the urge to sigh.

"Because you're too young right now and me using legilimency on you could harm it to a large extent. It is one of the reasons why this thing is not taught to young people. The other being that it takes time to learn and does not show any substantial result and not many people are capable to maintaining the drive to learn it over a long period of time."

"Then how did you learn it?" she asked petulantly and he realized that she was simply being jealous of him once again for the simple fact that he knew something that she did not.

The girl was adorable but she really needed to let loose sometimes and stop being jealous of everyone who was better than her.

"Because I've been learning it for some time now." He explained "Before I even came to Hogwarts, I knew that I would be breaking a lot of rules and would need to know and learn everything that would help me protect my secrets."

He then showed her the time turner for demonstration "This thing. It's just one of the many secrets that I have. And some of them are far more dangerous than this. So before you're able to protect your mind, I'll not be able to tell you those secrets." He said, recalling all his knowledge about the Basilisk, Horcruxes, Voldemort, etc.

Of course, he never planned to tell her that he was a transmigrator.

Mostly because he himself wanted to forget that bit of information.

He wanted to forget that he had unintentionally hijacked the body of the original Harry and probably killed his soul in the process.

He wanted to forget that he came from some other time line and didn't truly belong in this world.

Oh no. He would be taking that bit of information to the grave with him no matter what.

"But once you create a good occlumency shields, I'll tell you more about my secrets and believe me when I say that those secrets will be worth it." He explained and could see the determination in her eyes as she decided to learn the mind art.

"But until then, make sure to not make eye contact with the Headmaster or Professor Snape alright."

"Alright." She said with a determined expression and then he started her first Occlumency lessons.

Fair to say, Hermione's occlumency sessions with him were far more peaceful and beneficial then the ones that Snape gave to the original Harry Potter in which the potion master simply ordered him to clear his mind before brutally attacking him with his strongest legilimency attacks.