Time for school. Harry learned that the people in the black robes that he had defeated were Death eaters or followers of Voldemort. Everyone had high emotions for a week or so, even from Neville who had been very upset at Harry’s apparent death. Everyone was very happy to see that he was still alive which Harry liked.
But after a while things settled back to a somewhat more normal state. According to the ministry, the people who had been Azkaban had been with polyjuiced imposters when they went there. After that none of the guards noticed their changed appearance or claims by the prisoners that they were innocent. It was another whole thing that was making Minister Fudge look bad. The Aurors found the kidnapping group's main base and retrieved Harry’s things alongside his wand again. They still couldn’t find the Dursley residence through all the wards that Dumbledore had layered on them.
Mind Harry went to a more relaxed state and had begun the project of properly organizing all of Harry’s memories so the most important were well protected and guarded by enough Coatls to mount a defense if his mind was attacked again. Harry’s grades from final exams came in and they were excellent of course. Neville did decently as well.
Nothing else of note happened besides going shopping for school supplies at Diagon Alley. Aurors stood around guarding them from the shadows, but they just tried to ignore them and went on with their day. They went back home and that day ended peacefully.
Harry reconnected with his friends on the train as they made their way to school. They were interested in what had happened, and Harry told them a slightly modified version events. Hermione gave him a piercing look and he nodded slightly to her in response. He would tell her the full story later. He knew he should feel guilty for killing those people, but he couldn’t manage to do it. They had come after and trapped him not once but twice, with seemingly no intention of stopping. They were hardly innocent.
The great feast went well, and Harry went to bed full from all of the food. The next day he brought Hermione down to the chamber and explained everything that had really happened. She was a little disgusted when he described how he had bitten one of the wizards in half in his other form. But she got over it once Harry explained his thought process. He promised her that he only did it because he had to and she believed him, and that was that.
The new Defense against the Dark Arts professor was an old Auror known as Alastor Moody or Mad-eye Moody as Ron helpfully supplied as they were eating. Mad-eye only showed up towards the end of the feast. He was grizzled and covered in scars all over his body. He had a peg leg and an enchanted eye that whirled around to focus on various parts of the room as he sat at the Professors table. When he walked he used a large gnarled staff that clicked on the floor as he moved. He had a silver flask at his hip that he drank out of exclusively. Apparently he was so paranoid that he wouldn’t drink out of anything else.
Harry had touched the scars on his chest briefly after Ron had told them that. If the man had survived that many scars, then maybe he was right. Harry stared at his cup in consideration for a few seconds before shrugging and acting as he had before and drinking from it. He would wait until he was poisoned at least a few times before he got nearly that paranoid about what he ate or drank.
— — —
Harry walked into the Defense against the Dark Arts classroom and instantly noticed a strange distortion in air in the corner of the room. Suspicious he drew his wand and was about to cast a spell before a man appeared and became visible. The man's enchanted eye jumped from student even as his other one remained fixed firmly on Harry. Everyone jumped at the reveal, startled by the man’s sudden appearance out of nowhere.
“Good instincts, Potter,” Professor Moody barked.
“Remember children, CONSTANT VIGILINCE!” He suddenly shouted and everyone but Harry flinched. The professor continued, “You must be aware of your surroundings at all times. If you had been looking closely like Mr. Potter than perhaps you might have seen me through my disillusionment charm. I could have cursed the rest of you lot a thousand ways before you even know that I was there.”
Everyone looked to each other, seeming a little skeptical.
“Potter! How did you see me?” Professor Moody asked.
“I noticed the distortions in the air,” Harry said, “It looked like a mirage on the road on a hot summer day a little. It was in a humanoid outline so I thought it might be an invisible person.”
“Hmmmm. Good eyes, Potter. But I suppose you more than others would know the value of CONSTANT VIGILANCE!”
Neville flinched and nearly spilled his books on the floor, but Hermione stopped them with a subtle flick of her hand. She wasn’t being obvious with her wandless magic, but now they were older she didn’t try to actively hide it as much anymore.
“Now, today I’m going to be starting you with a practical lesson,” Moody said, “What do you lot know about the three unforgivable curses? What are they?”
Hermione raised her hand quickly, “Yes? Ms. Granger is it?” Moody answered.
“The controlling curse, Imperio,” She answered quickly as if she might be cut off, “The torture curse, Crucio, and the killing curse, Avada Kedavra.”
“Yes, that is the simple answer,” Moody said, “Those curses have many specific effects and quirks unique only to them among all other spells. Prime among these is that they can not be blocked! A Protego bubble shield charm will be useless against any of these curses. But one of the most deadly curse is not the killing curse as one would expect but the Imperius curse. The imperius curses’ ability to control others against their will was used during the last war and led to more deaths than killing curses by a large margin. Information against an enemy is power over them. And the Imperious curse allows people to access all kinds of information that they aren’t supposed to.”
There was a pause as everyone began to soak that in. Moody continued,
“With that said… With the approval of the Headmistress and the board of Governors... I have been given permission to teach you how to resist the Imperius curse. There is only one method…”
Every one leaned in captivated by Moody’s words as his voice grew softer.
“Pure Willpower!” Moody said much louder, “And the only way to practice that is to resist the curse yourselves. So I have been given permission to cast the curse on you for teaching purposes.”
There was an immediate uproar as everyone started talking to each other all at once.
“SILENCE!” Moody said thunderously, “I don’t want any of your whining and sniveling. If you are too much of a coward you can opt out. But you will be weaker for it. Enjoy experiencing it the first time when a death eater forces you to betray your friends in battle!”
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Everyone went quiet at that. Moody lifted his wand, “Now, do we have any volunteers to go first for a demonstration?”
He obviously scanned the crowd until his gaze fell on Harry who stared back at him calmly.
“Potter! How about you?” He barked, “I expect you to have a good willpower given your experiences.”
“Okay, Professor,” Harry replied as he stood and walked to the front, “But I’ll cut off your other leg if you make me do something nasty.”
Moody snorted, “Hah! Good one, Potter. Many a death eater have tried in my time. You’d have to wait in line. Now, are you ready?”
Harry nodded and Moody pointed his wand at Harry.
“Imperio!” he said firmly and something cool and relaxing washed over Harry. A bundle of fifteen or so of soul strings spread out as they sank into him and integrated with the massive web surrounding his soul. Their ends lead away from him and pointed vaguely in professor Moody’s direction. Harry frowned slightly as he considered them. It seemed very simple comparing the little amateurish braids compared to the complicated and many layered web from the natural soul strings.
“Harry, go jump on the desk,” Moody said and the strings on Harry’s soul pulsed and pressed inwards to squeeze his soul a little. He felt a small urge to go do what the professor said. But he wasn’t opposed to it normally, so he followed the professor’s orders.
“Stand on one foot,” he said and Harry did so.
“Hop off the desk,” he said calmly.
Harry stared down at the stone floor and looked back at professor Moody.
“Do I still need my foot to be raised?” Harry asked, “That seems like a bad idea, I’m not overly athletic and I might hurt myself.”
Moody’s eyes furrowed, “What? Potter are you… How are you resisting so easily?”
Harry blinked in surprise, “Was I supposed to resist it on purpose?” he asked in confusion, “I can do that if you want. I did think it was a little odd you asking me to stand on one foot.”
The class laughed and Moody frowned as he stared up at Harry who was standing up on the desk.
“Very well, Potter. You’ve got excellent willpower apparently,” Moody said, “But that was only the weakest version. I will hit you with a full power spell and we will see how far your willpower carries you then. Resist as best as you can.”
“Okay, Professor,” Harry said.
Moody pointed his wand at Harry, “Imperio!” he said firmly and Harry felt the sense of coolness and relaxation wash over him again. The foreign soul strings poking into his soul cage grew incredibly thick. Harry considered using his control over his soul to push them out and destroy the spell. But only Harry could do that and it was probably cheating in this case.
“Jump off the desk,” Moody told Harry.
The Imperius Curses soul strings pressed in hard and Harry had the urge to jump off the desk. The urge tickled at his stomach, almost as if he was mildly hungry and wanted a snack…
“No, thanks,” Harry replied casually.
“Lift your foot,” Moody said with some frustration and Harry kept his foot planted. He should really get some food after this, now he was imagining the commands as hunger pangs and it was making his lips slightly water as he thought about it.
“Well, by Merlin,” Moody said, “You are perhaps the worst demonstration for this possible. Your willpower is irritatingly high. Very well, I’ll just have to use someone else.”
He flicked his wand and Harry felt all the soul strings but one snake backwards and away from him. Perhaps Moody had messed up the command? Harry used his control of his natural soul strings to squeeze and uproot the invader from him. It floated alone for a few seconds as Moody’s face twisted into shock for a moment before he returned to a more neutral expression. Then the lone soul string began getting dragged away into the distance towards Moody and away from Harry.
“Mr. Finnigan, how about you?” Moody said ignoring him mistakenly leaving a soul string behind as Harry went back to his seat.
Harry was surprised to see that everyone else in the class could barely resist even the weakest version of Moody’s imperius curse. The other students in the class were giving the same jealous and annoyed looks as always at Harry for how he had resisted it so easily. It was probably because he had such a large soul. The foreign soul strings had to press much harder to make a dent on the overall shape of his soul. So even without using his own control of himself Harry was probably still cheating at least a little bit.
Moody didn’t appear to like it though, in the following days he never asked Harry any questions in class. He pretended like Harry wasn’t even there most of the time, but Harry thought he was still a good teacher. Not as good as Lupin had been, but close.
Quirrell had been horrible and also tried to kill him, so he didn’t even really count. So Moody didn't really have much competition though. Nothing unexpected happened in Harry’s other classes either. At least now he could send both Body Harry and Mind Harry to work on improving his mindspace while he was listening to his lectures.
It was unfortunate, but these lectures were unsurprisingly mostly things that were in the textbooks. So Harry already knew it all. But hanging out in the mindspace with the both of his consciousnesses was fun. Even if Body Harry had to pay a little bit attention to record everything for later and to pretend like he was actively listening.
— — —
“So, Salazar that was how my mindscape is right now. Even now my Mental Harry is organizing my memories so my secrets are more protected,” Harry finished as the painting stared at him thoughtfully with a hand on his chin.
“Hmmmmm. I suppose with such memories and perfect recall your mindscape would be large.” Salazar said, “I’ve never heard this split body phenomena you speak of, but it sounds useful. One of the main constraints of Occlumency is the long periods of time spent meditating on it and improving yourself. I see you will have no problems with that. But it is troubling with your inability to use traditional defenses.”
Salazar started pacing inside his painting as he kept speaking, “If you are drained of magic then your constructs will do nothing. Your false mind ploy likely only worked because your other self in the mindscape was there to actively work to conceal your hidden memories and release them to you at the proper time. Even then whoever did it was sloppy and clearly caught off guard by the sheer scale of what you describe to check your mind too closely. Your technique is unique but easily countered if given some time and attention. A barrage of lighter probes could easily scour or extract the outer layers of your mind. And given the complexity of navigation it is uncertain what they would access each time. They could simply repeat this process over and over until they find something they consider useful. If they strike and retreat fast enough then your weak constructs wouldn’t be able to properly respond.”
Harry nodded, “So what should I do to counter it? I can’t create a traditional shield, and Mental Harry saw that I didn’t notice the intrusion until one of the Coatls spotted the probe and attacked. The Coatls were destroyed easily by the wizard who was altering my mind before it could alert the larger swarm.”
“An interesting problem…” Salazar said as he closed his eyes and started flicking them from side to side as if reading something.
“Hmmmm. No, too magically exhausting… There, no still too much… Ah, here's something,” he said before opening his eyes.
“You have a large swarm of weak constructs, but what you need is power,” Salazar said, “Something large to block off an intruding probe’s exits as it is swarmed by the Coatls. A heavy hitter to truly fight the battles rather than as a detection system. I will give you a modified encoding for a construct. It is far less efficient in mental space than the Coatls as you call them, but the construct can be larger, stronger, and most importantly you can link multiple together to support a single construct. With the available room in your mindspace you can devote much of it to this construct and make it so overwhelming that intruders will be shredded before they can escape. Every probe your constructs destroy rather than let escape, the more you can damage your attacker.”
Harry picked up the diagram and looked at it for a long moment. In the mindscape, Mind Harry froze in his organization of the memories for a ten full seconds before bursting into motion. Mental Harry immediately allocated half of the remaining clear space of the empty city for this construct.
He shifted all of the memories to the absolute center of that city and pushed the Coatl spawners to the surface of the city. Surrounding these core secrets would be seven massive sections that would be dedicated to spawning the larger constructs Salazar described.
Mind Harry immediately started carving. The space was so large that it would take days for him to finish even the first one. But then he would finally have a defender that might be able to fend off a real attack like the one that wiped his memories over the summer. He would wait for the first one to finish construction before deciding what its final appearance would be.