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Chapter 9– Making Progress.
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With everything else taken care of, I can begin my study of magic and a whole bunch of magic on my to-do list. First of all, I must learn everything I can about Occlumency and Legilimency from that black book.
I want to be the foremost authority on the mind because it is quite a scary reality to know that every piece of unique shit out there could invade your mind. But, of course, I am now a unique piece of shit too, and I want that capability.
Plus, I need to be exceptionally proficient at all things to do with the mind so that I can go and clean up all of old Gilderoy's messes and wipe any trace of foul play in all of his victim's minds. And I need to do it before Dumbledore eventually goes and visits one of them and discovers the fraudulent behaviour, and starts plotting my downfall.
But that is only some of the magic that I need to learn. If I ever plan on leaving this little hermits lair of mine, then I need to be skilled at all sorts of magic so that I can, at the very least, defend myself from any asshole with a trigger finger out there that will use their wand without the slightest hesitation.
So I will start by going through the Hogwarts textbooks and starting at year one and slowly progressing through the books and up the years until I have finished all of them.
I have memories of going through them as Gilderoy, or at least the versions when he attended Hogwarts, but I can't trust that. They are all coloured by his perceptions and views, which are obviously very narrow-minded and single-focused.
I need to go through it all again with my much more focused brain and re-learn it all, pick up on things that old Gilderoy might have missed or even gain a new view on them. My more modern mindset may give me more insight.
Either way, I need to learn it all myself since I can't trust any of the knowledge I gained from Gilderoy since it is also biased towards him. It's because of his memories of Digby. D. Digworth that I didn't even consider the man a threat.
I found nothing to be worried about when he kept knocking on my door day after day. After all, I just remembered him as a bumbling fool, as my lackey that listened to my every order, and it was because of that I didn't see the knife poised to enter my back.
It is why I let him in even when the man threatened me outside my front door because I thought he was my stupid subordinate who could only make threats. I am not going to make the same mistake again. I have Gilderoy's knowledge, and I can use it, but I am not going to trust it, which is why I have to find everything out for myself, especially magic.
And for that reason, I have made a schedule that I can stick to and progress in everything I need to without burning myself out. So, sticking to this plan, I should learn everything I need to and be out of here as soon as possible.
08:00 - Wake up, go to the bathroom, shower, get dressed, and then have breakfast. Check on Digby, Evanesco and then Vestio.
09:00 - Do some light exercise, nothing too strenuous. Just work out the body.
10:00 - Begin reading through the Hogwarts books, and learn everything possible, even the optional classes, in case there is something to them in this universe.
12:00 - Lunch time, relax and have a break. Check on Digby.
13:00 - Either continue reading or begin practising the spells in the books.
15:00 - Quick break. Check on Digby.
15:30 - Start to read the black book, paying attention to every word. Learning all I can about Occlumency and Legilimency.
17:30 - Dinner time. Check on Digby.
18:00 - Start experimenting and using Legilimency on Digby, aiming to pry his head open and reveal his mind to me.
19:30 - Relax, and take a break.
20:00 - Start exercising, this time more strenuous—sit-ups, pull-ups, press-ups, lifting some weights I transfigured and many other exercises.
21:00 - Check on Digby, go to the bathroom and shower. Go to bed, and train Occlumency. Then, go into the mindscape and start improving it.
00:00 - Go to sleep, getting a total of eight hours for the next day to rinse and repeat.
I have made sure to check on Digby quite a lot throughout the schedule, just to keep making sure that he is secure and not up to anything. I also feed him at these times, well, more like putting the food there for him, and he can decide whether to eat it or not.
He ate it the first time I did it, and I am sure that he is going to continue. But unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have the brain capacity to realise his situation and that he won't ever leave, and eating is just going to prolong his miserable existence even further.
I will also use the vanishing charm whenever needed and a vestio to dress him again. I don't want to end up with that giant mess he was with all the stains and those horrible smells. Also, I am going to be visiting his room multiple times a day, so I at least want it to be hospitable for me.
I also made sure to set aside time for exercise every day, starting with some light work in the morning and then a more strenuous workout later in the day. I realised that I was going to be cooped up in this place for a long time, months, and it is unhealthy to stay in one place.
Still, I am not yet strong enough to risk going out and confronting whoever else Gilderoy pissed off, So I have to keep active inside the house. Still, even so, all this time isolated without company, definitely not going to be conversing with Digby. It is not suitable for the brain, but I have thought about that already.
It is why I dedicated the last three hours of the day before bed, from nine till twelve to building my mindscape. I dedicated it to working on my Occlumency and building up my mindscape. It is really peaceful just to work and let the creative juices flow, creating a world inside my mind, just letting go and not worrying about anything. This will completely refresh my mind and relax it before slipping out of my mind and going to sleep.
I am really thankful for my magical fridge. I don't know how it works or where Gilderoy got it from because even he does not know, he just got really drunk one day, and all he can remember is walking into a shop and buying some odds and ends, including the fridge.
When he woke up, he discovered how magical it was. When you put an item of food in, it will be forever preserved at the same stage, and when you take it out and eat it when you return to the fridge, it will be restocked. If it weren't for this fridge, then I would have to wander out.
Of course, I do not stick by this schedule on Sunday because that is a resupply day. So, after my exercise on Sunday, I will shower and check in on Digby. After that, it is time to go shopping using the floo.
When I first used the floo, I was in the high of the moment, just having come to this universe, and I wanted to see Gilderoy's family for some stupid reason, and I went on my instinct to The Leaky Cauldron. When I came out and stumbled, I quickly took in my surroundings and saw that I was in a very public place, I promptly pulled the hood of my robe on, and I went straight out. Luckily, no one saw me.
Once, I was on Charing Cross Road, I called a taxi and went to Gilderoy's parent's house, and when we pulled up, and the taxi driver asked for payment, I instinctively used the Confundus charm on him. Gilderoy seemed to have a lot of experience with the charm and used it heavily. I did the same thing when going back to the Leaky Cauldron and went straight to the floo with my hood on and used my latent memories to go home.
After that, while I was learning about Occlumency, I had to also go out for food and supplies like toilet paper and other such things. I didn't want to go out with anybody recognising me, so I would go out at night when there was hardly anybody still out and only a few drunks in the Leaky Cauldron.
The first time I went out on this errand, I ventured out into Diagon Alley, following a drunk wizard, and I memorised the password for the brick wall. I only saw a little of the alley since it was dark and there, and there was only a lamp every few meters, but I went to Gringotts.
There was no one around, so I simply talked to a Goblin teller and showed my face. I had previously gathered all the money I could find in Gilderoy's house lying about the place, and I had the goblin exchange it to muggle money. It was around £3000. With that done, I went to a twenty-four-seven supermarket near Charing Cross Road that was pretty empty, bought everything I needed, and then snuck back.
I have done this every week, and no one has recognised me. It has been working smoothly, which is why every Sunday at nine, I will go shopping, and I will return two hours later at eleven and then do my work on my mindscape and go to bed at two in the morning. Then I will wake up at ten, miss my morning workout, quickly have breakfast, shower, check on Digby, and start learning from the Hogwarts books.
With everything done and sorted, I have a schedule to stick to. I can just follow it to the point, and I will be a grand wizard in no time.
Easy Peasy.
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Well, it was not relatively as easy as I was imagining. Today was my first day sticking to the schedule, and it was going well. First, I learnt the wand lighting charm and even experimented a little, moving the light around the room, changing the colour, making it bigger and smaller, and dimmer and brighter. And then, I also learned the softening charm, which is definitely essential. If I ever take a significant fall, softening the ground underneath me would save my life, so I am taking extra measures with this one.
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But later in the day, when I read through the black book and my other mind art books and then went to practice Legilimency on Digby, it was not working for some reason. I know that for wandless Legilimency, you need eye contact, but when using the wand, you just need to point and cast the spell, and I had figured that I had learnt enough earlier and done enough research that I at least should get some reaction, but nothing happened, the spell did not affect him.
Well, I suppose this just means that I will have to try harder.
I will get this down, if not today, then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, sometime this week, and if not this week, then sometime this millennium. The point is I will do it. That is not in doubt.
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I figured it out, and it is not that I was doing it wrong but the fact that I was casting it on Digby, who was resisting it. He fought the Legilimency, he appears to have some training in Occlumency, and Digworth was able to resist my spell. I don't know if he is good at Occlumency or if he managed to block me out because I was a newbie. As soon as I cast the spell, it was immediately repelled, I guess I should have been more secretive about what I was doing, but it is okay. In fact, this is better, as with Digby being able to resist it will make my efforts that much harder and, in the end, more fruitful.
Apart from my experiments with Legilimency, everything else was progressing fine. I had furthered my knowledge of magic, having started with the first year of transfiguration, and I can change a toothpick into a needle. I, of course, experimented and managed to make a tiny little trident, but that resulted in the handle getting thinner to make the extra two prongs.
I guess there is some rule there, something along with the lines of conservation of mass like you can't transfigure things bigger because there is not enough to transfigure or something. I'm sure I will learn about it as my studies become more in-depth.
As for my mindscape, it is coming along very nicely. I have started to add more depth, adding creatures and animals all over the place, including inside the lake. I have also begun to build a town and am making multiple houses. So it is not too dissimilar to building in creative in Minecraft, except I have all those building mods because I can make whatever the hell I want, and if I don't like it, then I can delete it and start again. It really is relaxing.
But I have not forgotten that there need to be some defences as well, which is why I have made some ferocious animals, and multiple sharks and piranha are wandering around the lake. I have also been experimenting with other defences.
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Legilimency became much easier after I figured out what my problem was because after I knew that Digby was using Occlumency, I just searched my books for the answer to my problem. While the regular books commented on trying to subtly break in or brute-forcing it, I could not do either of these things. Digby would see me enter the room and know that I was practising again and employ his Occlumency.
If I brute force it, there is a significant chance that I could break his mind, and he would end up brain-dead, and some brain-dead idiot wouldn't be helpful for my training. Thankfully where the other books had failed, the black book had come through and provided the answers I needed. The solutions provided in that book were many. Whoever made it was undoubtedly thorough and did a lot of research and experiments.
The method I chose was the safest but also the most tiring. First, I had to cast my Legilimency on Digby and then maintain it, constantly trying to break through into his mind without being too forceful. But it would certainly take some effort for him to resist it, keeping this up for an hour or so, he eventually messed up, a gap in his defences, and I was straight into his mind.
Since then, I have found it more accessible and easier to enter his mind. I don't even need the method anymore since I can get through now within seconds of my casting the spell, knowing easily where to find cracks, which points to try, and overall just a lot more experienced with the magic as well as knowing how much power to use.
Digby no longer resists my Legilimency probes, and I can freely search his mind. But with this advancement, he seems to have known that he can no longer keep me out and has prioritised hiding specific memories and hiding them from me. So Digby is letting me freely access everything else except, I notice, his memories revolving around his time as a Death Eater. No matter, this will just prove to assist me more in my training, certainly a good whetstone for me to sharpen my blade against.
I have progressed onto second-year Hogwarts books, and it is going brilliantly. For every spell I use, I think out all the things that may be possible with the magic and then try it out one by one. This way, I am not just learning, but I am becoming intricately familiar with the spells and learning their limitations as well as their advantages.
The fire-starting spell, for instance, is usually just used to lamp the fireplace or a campfire. Well, I experimented with it and found a way to use it to set multiple things on fire at once, but it doesn't really sound that useful. Still, what if I had transfigured gasoline all over the floor and then lit certain parts on fire, starting a big fire and trapping someone within the fire? Even minor spells can be useful.
My mindscape has made significant advancements. I have even started to add people to the town. I have made a bakery, and I have placed a woman inside along with a daughter. I have given them personalities and everything, well, the base of a character. I have made it so that they will learn but only specific things.
They will learn one field they are interested in, and they will choose a hobby, a sport, a weapon to wield, and other stuff like that. So learning, but at a fixed rate and specific thing, all the NPC will know this kind of stuff and live their own lives, loving this world, and if someone ever intrudes and messes around, then they will take up arms and everyone will be fit and know how to use a weapon.
I will make a whole town like this, and it will be magnificent.
I really feel like a god.
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Once more, consulting the black book seemed to solve all my problems. I would really like to meet the author that did such in-depth research on the mind and how to fully control it- On second thought, I would maybe skip that meeting. Now that I think about it, the author must have been a scary person indeed. But, so far, every question I have, every problem I encounter, and every bump in the road I come across is solved by the black book. The answers are in there.
I have finally uncovered all of the memories within Digby's mind. I have completely unfettered access to his mind. But while I have located all those memories he was desperately trying to keep from me, I have discovered that some of the memories appear to have been edited and not by him. Instead, someone else seems to have edited the memories within his mind. A master of Legilimency that has altered and changed the memories to suit their whims, most likely Lord Voldemort, I will once again consult the book on how to uncover the actual memories if that is even possible.
I have progressed onto fourth-year spells, and I am finding everything much easier than I thought it would be, especially since I was in the body of Gilderoy Lockhart. How can someone be so bad at everything? I had thought to myself that it must not be his fault and that his talent wasn't so good. I was wrong, and it was his fault. There was nothing wrong with his talent because I am making ample use of it now. The guy was just an idiot, plain and simple.
My mindscape was progressing nicely, I had added more detail and even more buildings to it, and I had added a lot more people as well, countless people that were now roaming about the town. After all, I already had a template, and I just had to copy and paste and then alter some details for each one.
I had built many buildings and the corresponding people to go into them, and I had created a library, a hospital, a school, a market place and many more. Ultimately I was going for the fantasy medieval town vibe since if anyone ever does get into my head, then they would probably question the cyberpunk or even modern themes. Best to just go old school. I might even add a few dragons.
Surprisingly the one part of my day I was doing just to maintain my health, I had also progressed in. I was finding the exercises a little too easy after all these weeks, so I transfigured some weights to strap to my arms and legs, not much, just a bit, and I put them on when working out. I also transfigured some heavier weights to use since my old ones weren't giving me much strain anymore. Doing some Rock Lee type of exercising should surely make my workouts more fulfilling.
Overall I am happy with the progress I am making. Sticking to this schedule was a good idea.
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This one took a lot longer than I had expected. After the ease with which I was knocking down all the problems I came across with the help of the black book, I fully expected to be done with my current situation very soon.
The answer to my question was actually in the book as well, but even if I had the answer, it doesn't mean much unless I could perform it, which is very difficult to do so when going up against the work of one of the premier Legilimens in the world and one of the powerful wizards alive, even if he is a shade in Albania right now, at least I think he is in Albania, I am not too sure.
Even after knowing what to do, I continuously failed. I went over that book repeatedly, roving over it for any tiny bit of information I may have missed, and continually trying to unlock the memory, but it never worked. It took some time, but I eventually figured out that this method was performed on a muggle who had some trauma and repressed their memories.
So, of course, it would not work for me. My target had his memories altered by another wizard, after all. The book did not cover this plight at all, it had similar questions, but they were not the same. This was something I had to find the solution to on my own, so when I snuck out on my weekly Sunday shop, I also bought some physiology books and books on the brain's anatomy to help my research.
After many nights roving over my books and theorising and experimenting, I finally managed to uncover the memories. Well, I didn't, Digby did, but I gave him the little nudge that he needed. But, basically, I could not reveal the truth of the memory because I didn't know what it was. I knew it was there, but I didn't know what it was, and to unlock it, I needed to have a glimpse underneath the alteration.
But while I did not know what was underneath, Digby's brain did. So somewhere in his subconscious, the truth was there, and all I had to do was make him realise that. To do so, I inspected the memories closely, and in each one, I found something that was odd, something that should not happen and that Digby would find strange. So I amplified that in his mind and made him pay attention to it, which made the whole thing unravel to show the truth since he pulled at that little thread I revealed to him.
After a lot of attempts and many nights roving through the books I had, I had finally managed to completely recover the memories and reveal what was before hidden from me. They were all memories that were hidden by Voldemort because Digby had accidentally seen things that Tom Riddle did not want him to see, such as him handing over a few different items to his most loyal subjects, the Horcruxes. I did uncover a lot of other memories as well, but there was nothing of fundamental importance, just things like Digby learning of an attack and Tom. Still, the fact remains that I was able to unravel the work of someone as powerful as Tom Riddle Jr. I am making progress.
I have also progressed onto seventh-year spells at this point. I was moving along very nicely and was well experienced with a lot of my magic at this point, my favourite being the disillusionment charm which helped me every Sunday. The charm grants camouflage. When a wizard uses it on themselves, they must twirl their wand around themselves as though they were wrapping themselves in rope. If, however, they are using it on an external target, they must merely tap on the mark with their wand.
This then produces a sensation that a raw egg has been cracked onto the person's head as the charm travels down them, granting them invisibility. I have learnt that the more experienced you are with the spell, the more transparent you become and the more opaque the effect. For example, I applied the spell to an ordinary book, which turned completely invisible. I will definitely be practising this more in the future.
It won't be long until I can leave this house with my head held high, no longer cowering in the shadows and fearing for my life. But that doesn't mean I will stop practising. It just means I am heading out to get some real-world experience and have some fun after being cooped up here for so long.
Look out, world, here I come... Soon.