Harry Potter: Shadow Eminence

Chapter 9

Occlumency resembles the creation of a maze or a chamber within your mind, enabling you to hide your genuine thoughts while simultaneously projecting false ones to others. This can thwart mental invasion and assist an individual in managing their own thoughts and feelings, forming a fabricated persona.

You can conceal your authentic thoughts and feelings, fabricate false emotions, and exhibit them, akin to a voluntary form of schizophrenia, yet entirely under your own command. No one can penetrate your deceptions because they are fundamentally "true."

Simultaneously, it serves as a legitimate defensive strategy that can protect against mental assaults to a certain degree. For instance, it has protective properties against the obliviate spell, which allows it to only erase your superficial false memories. When mastered to a high degree, it can even offer some defense against powerful mental Curses!

Of course, achieving this is only possible at an advanced level. In reality, very few individuals in the world can attain this proficiency.

The reason the Unforgivable Curse is deemed unforgivable, aside from the lack of a counter-curse, is that very few people can genuinely withstand its influence.

Brian then realized why it was categorized separately in the system, rather than being grouped with other areas like Dark Arts Defense. He was also intrigued by the capabilities of the similar mental intrusion technique.

Returning to Occlumency itself, he practiced for several weeks, attempting to eliminate all emotions at any time and place, and unexpectedly made progress, which astonished Brian, who had anticipated a lengthy learning curve.

In the original narrative, Harry took a considerable amount of time to master Occlumency, with Snape, a master of the skill, instructing and training him, enduring numerous challenges before finally mastering it while burying Dobby. Perhaps he was already shutting off his heart, concealing his true self, and confronting everything with a detached indifference.

The advancement in Occlumency was encouraging, and time passed slowly, soon arriving at the eve of Halloween.

On this day in their Charms class, they learned the Levitation Charm. Professor Flitwick praised Brian loudly because he had learned the spell beforehand and used it to assist Neville during flying lessons. At the Halloween feast, before Professor Quirrell could come to inform them about the troll in the girls' bathroom, he left his seat and dashed towards the bathroom. Malfoy thought his backside was on fire.

He wanted to attempt to defeat the troll and see if he could earn some witness points.

To be honest, taking down a troll isn't overly challenging, of course, this is under the condition of being prepared in advance.

To prepare for this scenario, he discovered the recipe for the Draught of Living Death, a highly potent sleeping potion. It took him a long time to successfully brew a bottle, thanks to his father sending him potion ingredients without inquiring what he needed them for.

He poured the potion over a large piece of bloody raw beef, which he had obtained from the house-elves in the kitchen. He didn't measure the dosage but instead poured all the potion over it, a quantity that could even incapacitate a dragon.

Brian hurried to the vicinity of the girls' bathroom and detected a strong odor. The troll stood there with its back to him, and in front of the troll, Brian saw Professor Quirrell hastily fleeing.

When he saw Quirrell turn the corner and vanish, he used the Levitation Charm to send the beef in front of the troll and then dashed into the girls' bathroom, locking the door behind him.

The potion required some time to take effect, and that time was sufficient for the troll to smash a person into pulp.

A shadow does not stand beneath a perilous wall; he never takes risks.

Brian pressed his ear against the bathroom door, and outside he heard the sound of chewing.

Trolls are generally mindless; their pea-sized brains would never contemplate how strange the appearance of that piece of beef was.

The chewing ceased, and heavy footsteps echoed outside. It seemed the sleeping potion still needed a bit more time to take effect.

From one of the stalls in the girls' bathroom came the sound of quiet sobbing. Brian paused and softly called, "Hermione?"

The crying in the stall stopped, followed by a flurry of sounds.

In no time, Hermione's head popped out, her brown hair disheveled. Her eyes were red and swollen, and she looked surprised, saying, "Brian, what are you doing here? This is the girls' bathroom!" Her voice rose, her eyebrows furrowing, her expression resembling that of an angry mother.

"Shh—" Brian placed his right index finger to his lips, glanced at the door, and signaled to Hermione, "You might not believe it, but there's a troll outside!"

"Oh, that's really strange," Hermione stepped out with her arms crossed, her tone full of disbelief, "At least you should come up with a more credible excuse!"

"At least you're feeling better now, aren't you?" Brian smiled, "This is more like you."

Hermione's face turned a bit red, and with a huff, she was about to open the door to go out.

Brian stopped her, saying, "Wait, I'm not lying, there really is a troll outside."

As he spoke, he pressed his ear to the door. The footsteps outside had halted, and a loud snoring sound could be heard.

"Phew, it's all clear, we can go out now." He opened the door and saw the giant sleeping soundly outside, a huge wooden club discarded nearby.

"Oh my gosh, no, this can't be real, I mean, this is Hogwarts!" Hermione covered her mouth with both hands, her wide eyes constantly gasping in disbelief.

"We have to leave quickly, the professors are coming, and I don't want to get caught by them." Brian pulled Hermione to run away.

All the while, Hermione remained in a state of disbelief: "How could this be? Brian, this is Hogwarts…" The little witch had always believed this was the safest place in the magical world because all the books said so.

"Hermione, the wizarding world isn't peaceful, and Hogwarts isn't that safe," Brian said helplessly.

"But Dumbledore…" Hermione countered.

"You know, Dumbledore is old. You can't expect an elderly man to be flawless at all times," Brian replied.

As they spoke, they saw a chaotic crowd ahead, and they naturally separated. Hermione squeezed into the Gryffindor group of little wizards.

A "ding" sound echoed in his mind, and Brian focused his gaze.

[Modified Troll Incident, Witness Points +0]

Brian almost wanted to rub his eyes to confirm if he had missed a number or something.

At this moment, he had 1.7 witness points, and there was no extra at all.

"Okay, it's a witness, not a plot change," Brian rubbed his forehead, feeling a bit of a headache.

This meant he couldn't replace the savior and do everything well; on the contrary, he needed to engage in the plot as much as possible while ensuring the storyline proceeds in the same direction with the trio's presence.

But the issue was, his inherent identity would not permit him to be the savior's close companion; more likely, he would be closely guarded by Harry Potter.

Unless he learned the Disillusionment Charm or something, constantly following Harry around like a stalker.

But that was clearly unrealistic.

"No, maybe there are other ways," Brian thought.

He found an empty classroom and sat down, took out a piece of parchment, and neatly wrote a few words on it:

[Time, Place, Characters]

[Beginning, Process, Ending]

He fiddled with the quill at his lips, pondering what caused this failure and which of these words were the most important.

"According to previous situations, the process can be altered; this doesn't affect anything. Therefore, the requirements for time and place shouldn't be too strict."

He crossed out time, place, and process.

"In that case, the beginning also seems not too important." He crossed out the beginning.

Only characters and ending remained.

"From this result, the ending is that the troll is unconscious, which is correct," Brian analyzed, "So, the problem lies in the characters?"

The biggest issue this time might be the absence of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. They were supposed to be the witnesses of this event.

Perhaps, what the system wanted him to witness was "the Savior trio defeating a troll," not "someone defeating a giant."

"But perhaps, I can change it to 'defeating a giant with the Savior trio'; I can take a leading role from the shadows."

Brian circled "Characters" and "Ending," and the quill tapped on the paper. Then, he wrote the word "Actor" next to Characters.

Rolling up the parchment, Brian looked out at the deep lake, thinking, "If this guess is correct, I can lead these events. As long as the actors are present, I can be the director and also participate myself."

"However, this also relies on the accuracy of the guess and requires further verification."

"This way, I won't have to worry about missing those major events."

"But this is a difficult path to walk." Brian's eyes darkened, making his expression gloomy.