Chapter 80 : First Move Among Us

Now Orion finds himself in a dilemma, why suddenly Hermione know about Occulemency, is this something related to Nick? 

Nor in the books or in the movies was the concept of Occulumency mentioned this early in the plot, and considering just how big of a book nerd Hermione was and even she didn't know about this excellent method to retain and arrange knowledge, it safe to say that there was no direct way for the students to access this knowledge.

Then the only reason why Hermione knew about Occulumency was that someone told her, and who else that someone could be besides Nick Iron, who suddenly out of the blue started to show interest in Hermione.

Now he was starting to get worried for Hermione. Nick himself knows Legilemency and it's safe to say that he has Occulumency as well, as a wizard would learn how to save his own mind before going around poking in others. 

[But things are not adding up, if this person who told me about mind arts to Hermione was Nick, then why not just outright teach her? He obviously knows how to.] Merlin asked with confusion in his tone.

'Yeah, but there is a possibility that he never intended to teach this to Hermione, possibly he just mentioned this to her and now she is trying to find out about this on her own,' Orion thought.

[Possibly, and there is only one way to find out] Merlin said, pointing at Orion that this is the right time to use his own Legilemency and see what's going on in her head.

"Do you understand ?" Hermione asked as she explained the concept of Occumency to Orion.

"Ah yes, that sounds brilliant, would you mind if I too learn alongside you? I wouldn't mind superhuman memorization skills," Orion smiled.

"It's not memorization you know, in fact, we humans never forget what we see and feel in our life, we just can't recall the information on time, Occulemncy is about arranging your mind to easily access that knowledge and memories while also protecting them from a Legillement attack," Hermione explains in her Hermione-like fashion. 

Orion has to say that there is just a different charm about this girl.

"If you say so Ms Granger, but now I am curious. How do you know about something like this? Although not as studious as you, I too have dipped my toes in this place quite a bit and never came across this mind art. How did you learn about that," Orion asked as he needed Hermione to think about the topic before her thoughts resurfaced, only then could Orion enter into her mind to know what really happened.

Orion was just about to enter her mind but she broke eye contact, something usually people do when they are uncomfortable talking about something.

Orion though just became more determined and again lifted his charm restaining spell, drawing Hermione's attention. This time making sure that she can't break eye contact even if she wants to. 

[Let's go memory surfing] 

----

-10 days ago in Hermione's Memories- 

Orion finds himself again in the library but the picture is blurry. A usual scenario when going through someone's memories. 

'Is this girl spending all her time in the library ?' Orion's sweat dropped.

He looked around to find Hermione sitting on the exact same bench like it was patent for her. And just like earlier, a boy was sitting in front of her. But this boy was not himself but Nick Iron.

"Come on tell me already, what do you mean by perfect memory," Hermione asked with clear irritation on her face.

This was the first time seeing her and Nick react. 

"Oh, so finally Ms Granger doesn't know something, I wouldn't have believed it if it was not happening in front of my eyes," Nick said with a smirk.

[You can't see everything with just eye contact, that needs a full-on legillemency attack. Get what you wanted and get out of her head as soon as possible, otherwise she will start feeling the headache and same with you] Merlin said.

'Yeah, got it,' Orion didn't give much attention to Merlin and kept on watching their interaction.

-----

-Present, Library- 

Orion came out with a slight jolt, trying to process all the information he got within the span of a few seconds but it was worth it. 

"Hey you are not listening to me again," Hermione pouted and that looked pretty cute, Orion had to agree.

He found out that it was Nick who told her about Occulemency but that was just that, he never mentioned how to practice it. But Orion has his own guess. 

The way Nick was talking to Hermione almost sounded like he knew her well. Purposefully giving out only enough information to hook Hermione's attention but not outright teaching her. Like knowing Hermione's character well that she will search for this, herself.

[Yes, there are two outcomes here.

One, he is bunking on Hermione to go after this information herself and not find shit on her own, and then him coming to the rescue of her and offering her to teach the technique] Melrin added.

'Or, he wants Hermione to learn this technique for some reason. Like he wants Hermione to be able to protect her mind from something. Most likely he will provide this 'something' to her after making sure that her mind is protected.' Orion thought.

[Correct, but it can be both. Maybe he wants her favour and tells her about the mind arts, knowing fully well that the girl will want this magic and look for it later on and that is why he purposefully mentions it. And again knowing that there is no information about this in Hogwarts where students can get it, he will lastly offer to teach her, gaining that favour while also telling her that something,] Merlin just agrees and says.

"Will you help me find out about it ?" Hermione looked hopeful at this. 

'I very well teach her. If this comes from Nick then it might be more problem to fix later. If there is no way to stop her from learning then I might as well as play along with her.' Orion thought.

[Good Idea, this way you will be involved personally and see what's really going on, but also find an excuse to have mental shields. While your mental shields are strong enough that even attacks from the likes of Dumbledore are not enough to break them, it comes with the cost of exposing your other memories. This right here gives you an opportunity to tell others that you are learning mind arts. After this you can put a weak barrier on your unimportant memories, not good enough for a full-fledged legilemency attack but enough to block any casual mind robbing by just eye contact.] Merlin added and Orion couldn't help but nod at this. 

"Of course, I will help, but I don't think that we will learn much in the library. We better ask professors to know more about this mind arts," Orion said, started making his own move in this game of chess.

[Among Us! We decided to call the game Among Us] Merlin said and Orion just rolled his eyes.

xxx

Poor Orion got distracted again from learning about Vampires. 

I wanted to add more conversations but didn't get time. I will try to put more interactions with other characters as much as possible from now on.

Why do you think, should we teach this to Hermione? What is that something which Nick want to say to Hermione. ?

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