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Two weeks before the start of the new school year passed unnoticed.

I was suffering from nightmares and tried to forget them with physical training. Sometimes I immersed myself in old textbooks on DADA and other books.

Occlumency turned out to be quite exciting but horribly boring, monotonous, and complicated science. It takes extraordinary intelligence, endurance, and self-control to master this discipline - the same for legilimency. I haven't touched the latter yet, and there are several reasons for this. There are no experimental subjects, nowhere to practice. The mechanism by which the supervision of improper use of magic is carried out is still unknown. Most likely, it's some kind of area enchantment. It is too problematic to register every magic wand but to put a spell on the area in which the Muggle-born lives is possible. It will be necessary to find out the details. How many times do I tell myself this?

Regarding Occlumency. There is absolutely nothing here connected with some kind of shields and so on. It is just control over your own consciousness and subconsciousness - the ability to structure your memories, knowledge, sensations, emotions. Control is the key to success. The mind is not an open book. It cannot be simply read by opening it to the desired page. Just as the Legiliment must interpret what he saw in someone else's mind, the Occlument needs to show what he wants to divert the agile mind of Legiliment aside from the important.

For success in occlumency, you need to train memory, attentiveness, be able to look at yourself and your thoughts as if from the outside, with an open mind. If you suddenly start to remember something for no reason when talking with a person - he is digging in your head! There are many different exercises, meditations, and more to achieve the proper level of control. But perhaps the most important skill in Occlumency is "not thinking about the white monkey." Do not think about the obvious. Literally, deceive yourself.

Reading this book made various magic tricks emerge from my nightmares. Among them, you could find several ways to close your consciousness, but all of them, to some extent, turned against me. Loss of empathic sensitivity to others, burning out my own emotions, loss of any of the feelings, in general, that is still a lobotomy. But quickly and efficiently. But I don't want to follow this path - it's better to work on yourself properly than to rush and remain mentally disabled. Therefore, I studied the book, performed various mental exercises, improved mindfulness, learned to hide my consciousness behind a "mask." Mental homunculus, which, when needed, would jump out like a devil from the box, taking on the legiliment. And then I will slip the necessary memories, emotions, and sensations.

The first of September, as always happens, came suddenly. Just waking up one day, I realized that it was time to collect things.

The Knights gave me a lift to the train station. Having said goodbye to them, I once again rolled the cart with only one chest. The pirate, like last year, will live with the Knights and bring me assignments from the regular school.

On platform nine and three quarters, I immediately took out my wand and shrunk the chest into my pocket. Today I was in black again. Interestingly enough, dreams gradually fade away. Not in terms of quantity, but in terms of influence on me. Almost imperceptibly, but the rotten mood slowly fades into the background.

On the train, I walked through the carriages and found Hermione in one of the compartments.

"Hi," I waved my hand.

"Hi," the girl smiled at me, looking up from the book. "Have you already read those textbooks that we bought?"

I pulled out the smaller chest, returned it to its original size, shoved it under the seat, and sat down opposite Hermione.

"Yeah. Good books. High quality. We will need to buy them for each year."

"Of course," the girl nodded. "Good academic text. A minimum of assumptions, a maximum of facts. Capaciously and accurately."

"Exactly."

"I'm looking forward to the opportunity to practice," Hermione smiled wistfully and went back to reading.

I decided to follow her example and took out a book on enchantments. The train started, and we drove on in silence. Surprisingly, none of the students were particularly eager to get into our compartment. Students passed by looked in, but not finding something important for themselves, left. This was repeated over and over again and even became somewhat annoying.

We got some visitors once again. Neville and Seamus.

"Hi guys," Neville nodded and asked, embarrassed, "Have you seen Harry and Ron?

"Hi, Neville," I nodded, distracted from my book. "No, we haven't. At least me."

Hermione shook her head.

"Weird. Where could they go?" Neville said thoughtfully.

"I bet they again found some adventures for themselves," smiled Seamus.

I remembered that this year we will have the Malfoy's house-elf, the seventh Weasley under the influence of the Horcrux, basilisk, petrification, and other crap. How to keep myself and Hermione safe? It's worth thinking about. I have a mirror, but this is not an option. Pictures of radical methods of solving the problem with the help of various spells and rituals with a fatal outcome for both the seventh and the basilisk were spinning in my head. Hmmm. And why haven't I bothered with this question before? Damn.