Harry stared at the book for a few minutes, thinking through and trying to decide what he should do with it. ‘It might be dangerous to open but at the same time, the title is rather alluring’ thought Harry, ‘I wonder what it means by ‘The Mind Unveiled’?’

Trepidation clouded his mind as he tried his best to decide on the best course of action.

‘Urgh, let’s just open it!’ thought Harry, ‘What’s the worst that could happen’

Unable to take it any longer, Harry opened the ornate cover of the book onto the first page. A page filled with beautifully flowing cursive writing met his eyes, writing that was easy to read and extremely pleasing to the eye.

Before he could start reading though, he suddenly thought of something. ‘I can’t just stand here and read, I need some place I can be comfortable’ thought Harry, ‘I’m sure this would be a long read’

Harry pondered for a few minutes before he realised, ‘I don’t have to go anywhere special, aren’t I in the Room of Requirement anyway. Might as well use that’

He happily picked the book up and walked out of the Room of Hidden Things, closing the door behind him which caused the door to melt away, replaced with a wall.

Concentrating once more, much like he did when he summoned the Room of Hidden Things, he thought hard as he paced in front of the wall, ‘I need a safe and comfortable room to read this book’

After pacing a few times, Harry opened his eyes to find another door in front of him. He quickly opened the door and walked in, to find an amazing sight.

The room wasn’t particularly large, though it was still almost as large as one of their classrooms but what caught his eye wasn’t the size of the room. Instead what caught his eye was the wall right opposite the door.

The wall looked more like a mountain-side than it did the wall of a room. A small waterfall flowed down from near the ceiling on that rocky wall, flowing down to the floor, making a stream that flowed through the room, draining into a crack in the ground a little ways away.

The room was lit up with a cool bluish light but Harry couldn’t find any particular light source, he did however notice that the ceiling was made from crystals that seemed to refract light.

There was a plush sofa set up next to the stream with a footstool in front of it. A side table sat next to the sofa, presumably to place his book on if he ever required it.

Harry couldn’t help but sigh in amazement at just how serene the room was. It was indeed an extremely comfortable location to relax and read a book, not that Harry was a voracious reader but he was seriously contemplating reading more just to spend more time in this room.

‘Now that I have the perfect place, let’s see what this book is all about’ thought Harry, his excitement increasing since he had already managed to open the book without anything untoward happening.

Harry sunk into the sofa, putting his feet up on the footstool, he placed the book on his lap as he opened the book once more. He started reading the introduction to the book, something he might have skipped had it been any other book but he was extremely curious as to what the book was actually about.

The introduction read -

The mind is one of the most powerful faculties possessed by any creature. Whether they be humans, goblins, elves or even trolls.

Many believe that mental abilities can only be possessed by beings capable of intelligent thought - or possessing sapience if you will, sapient creatures, some might call them. However, these claims can be easily refuted by readily available facts of creatures in our daily life.

Take the Boggart as an example. A creature that could not be considered to possess an iota of sapience, has the capability to use an ability that we have termed, phobia manipulation.

It is capable of discovering the deepest fears of any creature it is faced with, whether the victim themselves are aware of the fear or not. They are then capable of morphing into the fear, no matter what it might be.

After countless hours of research, it has been discovered that it requires an extremely high level of mental development to be capable of phobia manipulation. Hence it is simple to conclude that sapience is not required in order for mental abilities to develop.

However, while it is possible for non-sapient creatures to posses abilities requiring extremely high levels of mental development, it has also been shown that it is usually the sapient creatures who have the ability to develop these mental abilities from scratch.

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The simplest example of such abilities is the magic termed as Legilimency and Occlumency. Commonly known as the ability to attack mentally and defend mentally, respectively.

These magic can be considered the bare basics of mental development and the stepping stone required to unlock the mind further. Research has shown that in depth study and considerable proficiency in both Legilimency and Occlumency are capable of unlocking no more than one percent of the potential of an average mind.

This book is the culmination of the research conducted by a select group of extremely gifted witches and wizards over the course of dozens of years.

While the book can enable someone reading it to unlock a major chunk of the potential of their mind but be warned, this book is not for the faint of heart or for ones with a dearth of determination.

After reading this far, Harry sighed. ‘So Legilimency and Occlumency are just the bare basics when it comes to mental abilites?’

He couldn’t help but feel amazed. He had been feeling rather accomplished with his current skills in Legilimency and Occlumency, even though they were skills he had absorbed from Voldemort but he was still happy about possessing it.

Now however, he was suddenly told that the skills he was so proud of were just basics. Shaking his head, Harry turned the page.

The next page only contained two short paragraphs but they were written much larger than the previous page and were written in red, clearly issuing a warning.

It read -

This book will, without fail, put the reader through many trials. Failing any of them could lead to serious repercussions or even death.

Do not read this if you do not have at least an advanced understanding of Legilimency and Occlumency as the book will definitely test the reader from the very first chapter. You have been warned.

Harry felt dumbfounded. ‘An advanced understanding of Legilimency and Occlumency just to open the first chapter?’ thought Harry, his mouth agape, ‘Is this book serious?’

Though he did have some doubts but he couldn’t help but take the warning seriously. It did go as far as to say that he would die if he didn’t take this seriously.

Harry closed his eyes as he ruminated. ‘The book is definitely dangerous, much more than I initially thought it might be’ thought Harry, ‘However, the warning said that the book would put the reader through trials. Doesn’t that mean that if we can overcome those trials, we might actually get our hands on powerful abilities?’

Harry was sorely tempted by that possibility. ‘The introduction said that the book could help unlock the potential of someone’s mind as long as we could withstand the trials. So, if I can get through this, then the Legilimency and Occlumency that people are proud of might just be children’s tricks in front of me’

Harry used Occlumency, shoring up his defences, ‘If it had been the me from my past life, even after the lessons with Snape, I might have stood no chance to even read the introduction, let alone the first chapter’ thought Harry ruefully, ‘However, I’m different now. I can definitely withstand this. No matter what!’

Feeling confident, Harry turned the page. The moment he did, however, he felt as if he had been thrust head-first into a sea.

He could feel a swirling mass of various things but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what he was feeling from the sea enveloping him, which caused him to feel a little frustrated.

Wishing to remedy that, Harry started reading the chapter, ‘Chapter 1 - Emotion Awareness’

As he made his way through the chapter, he learnt that the feeling enveloping him at the moment was a mass of various kinds of emotions. Legilimency was capable of sensing emotions but at a very rudimentary level.

‘Now that I think about it, I do feel like I could vaguely feel some of the feelings of people around me’ thought Harry, thinking back, ‘Sort of why I decided not to make up with Ron. The amount of jealousy he exuded was ridiculous’

The trial that Harry would have to go through in order to be able to move onto the next chapter would be to sense all the emotions present in the sea-like feeling enveloping him.

Before Harry could start with sensing those emotions, based on the instructions from the book, he noticed another warning at the end of the chapter.

‘Being able perceive the emotions of those around you may not always be a boon. Many a mighty wizard and witch have lost their capability to trust another being simply due to their being able to perceive emotions.

Use with extreme caution and only in situations that are required as it may cause irreparable damage to a user’s psyche’

Harry couldn’t help but shudder at that warning. While it wouldn’t be fatal but he could just imagine how horrible it would be to find out that the person closest to you, actually hated you.

In fact, he, himself, had gone through a situation where his perception of Ron’s feelings had led him to drop any ideas of making up with him. When, in his previous life, he would have definitely tried to make up, given enough time.

‘Urgh, things just have a way of being complicated’ thought Harry with a groan. ‘I should really think about where and when to use these powers, they seem to have their own repercussions’

Harry then settled down to try and pass the trial. Following the book’s instructions, he was, almost immediately, able to perceive happiness from the sea enveloping him.

Smiling at that, Harry continued, passing the entire night before he was finally able to pass the first trial.

Harry heaved a heavy sigh as he slumped into the sofa. “Those emotions were no joke” said Harry, with a grimace as he recalled everything he had felt.

‘Every emotion I perceived, was an emotion I was forced to feel’ thought Harry, ‘Happiness or sadness were still fine but who the hell thought that homicidal intent would be a good idea to throw in there?’

Harry placed the book on the side table, as he reeled his own emotions in. His mind finally settling down after the practical tug-of-war played by the insane number of emotions he had to spend the entire night feeling.

“If that was just the first ability and the first trial, I can’t even imagine what the others would be like” Harry shook his head as he looked at his watch, only to jump up in alarm.

“Oh my god!” he exclaimed, “It’s already eight thirty! I’m going to be late for class if I don’t get the hell out of here soon!”

Harry rushed, as best he could without appearing abnormal, back to his bedroom. He stuffed Animus into his trunk, making sure it couldn’t be found easily, grabbing his bag and the books he needed, he rushed to his first class. Making it with around ten minutes to spare.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Harry walked into the classroom.